Ex madness?

[AcornHouse]

On this evening's Troglys he is reviewing a purchase by one of his viewers of an offering by a former Guild owner. A new 70th anniversary offering by Fender.
From the outside it's somewhat attractive with a kaleidoscopic "amethyst" finish.
But under the hood, YIKES!
In an effort to offer every possible configuration and switching options they've loaded it with enough tiny colored wires to keep a soldering junky busy for weeks. Just the pickguard assembly weighs a pound and a half.

All I see is eventual wiring failure.

 

[Stuball48]

On this evening's Troglys he is reviewing a purchase by one of his viewers of an offering by a former Guild owner. A new 70th anniversary offering by Fender.
From the outside it's somewhat attractive with a kaleidoscopic "amethyst" finish.
But under the hood, YIKES!
In an effort to offer every possible configuration and switching options they've loaded it with enough tiny colored wires to keep a soldering junky busy for weeks. Just the pickguard assembly weighs a pound and a half.

All I see is eventual wiring failure.

Would scare me away from it!!

 

[SFIV1967]

And that is a $2,500 Made in California guitar!

70th Anniversary Ultra Stratocaster® HSS | Electric Guitars

70th Anniversary Ultra Stratocaster® HSS, Maple Fingerboard, Amethyst

www.fender.com

So they call that humbucker "Ultra Quadra Tap™ Humbucker", eigth wires plus shielding coming out of it!







Ralf

 

[AcornHouse]

And that is a $2,500 Made in California guitar!

70th Anniversary Ultra Stratocaster® HSS | Electric Guitars

70th Anniversary Ultra Stratocaster® HSS, Maple Fingerboard, Amethyst

www.fender.com

So they call that humbucker "Ultra Quadra Tap™ Humbucker", eigth wires plus shielding coming out of it!







Ralf

Exactly. That's a lot of money for spaghetti.

 

[GGJaguar]

Because there aren't enough variants of Stratocasters in the world...

 

[C.W.Wolf]

And that is a $2,500 Made in California guitar!

70th Anniversary Ultra Stratocaster® HSS | Electric Guitars

70th Anniversary Ultra Stratocaster® HSS, Maple Fingerboard, Amethyst

www.fender.com

So they call that humbucker "Ultra Quadra Tap™ Humbucker", eigth wires plus shielding coming out of it!




Ralf, I remember our electronics teacher at the VOTEC back in the 70s teaching us the resistor color code. If you added 2 more terminals GRY and WHT you would have the full acronym. I am not sure if I can post it here though. Bad Boys....but Violet gives willingly.

 

[Guildedagain]

Where's the ECU?

Because there aren't enough variants of Stratocasters in the world...

Right?

 

[chazmo]

Where's the ECU?



Right?

If you press the right button, I'm sure wheels pop out and it becomes a drone.

 

[GAD]

Guitarists: Why don’t guitar companies innovate?

Also guitarists: Anything new is terrible.

As for the wiring, that looks like most of the ‘80s Guild electrics I’ve opened. How many guitarists actually open up their guitars? I’d imagine very few, and the “gut shots” common on the Internet were not a thing before the Internet. Fender designs to lower warranty claims across millions of instruments and so “good enough” is good enough under the covers.

Would I build it that way? No, but I’m not worried about manufacturings costs, profits, and warranty claims.

 

[Guildedagain]

"Give the people what they want?"

Well, not so much actually. They always want something else.

Leo designed the Strat a certain way, there's no tone control on the bridge pickup, and you can't run the neck and bridge together.

So everybody and his cousin, first thing they want to change it that, inventing wiring schemes as needed.

I can't stand amps with too many knobs, I only need a few knobs to make music, and by same token I don't need a bewildering array of tones from any guitar, just a few good ones, or just one good one.

I've had literally a truckload of old Strats, and every single one I returned to Leo's circuit. He caved and added the 5 way in '77, that's as good as it got for me.

I practically know the schematic by heart, same every time.

And a Strat sells best when left alone, nobody wants your mods just on principle.

My early 80's Fullerton AVRI Strat.

This is what He wanted ;[]

 

[tonepoet]

Leo designed the Strat a certain way, there's no tone control on the bridge pickup, and you can't run the neck and bridge together.

I have 2 Strats and these were my exact complaints about Leo's design. As you stated, "there's no tone control on the bridge pickup, and you can't run the neck and bridge together."

I remedied this, back in the 1990s by making the 2nd TONE control a Master Tone control and the 1st TONE knob a BLENDER to allow me dial in the bridge and neck pickups together.

The VOLUME control I disconnected on both my Strats to remedy my third complaint about Leo's design, which is having the VOLUME control knob so damn close to the bridge, which interferes with palm muting the strings.

I know to some Fender owners it is sacrilege to speak ill of Leo's design, but... personally, I would ditch the top mounted input jack for side mounted jack so that you could reconfigure the three knob setup. Or if the top mounted jack is kept in place, eliminate the knob next to the bridge and then with the other two, make one a BLENDER and the other a MASTER TONE. For me, a VOLUME control isn't necessary, as I just use it full ON at all times.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Leo designed the Strat a certain way, there's no tone control on the bridge pickup, and you can't run the neck and bridge together.

I don't think Leo liked the idea of using any two pickups together. The original Strat' selectors were three position, with the additional stops for middle with either neck or bridge being added later, due to demand from guitarists. Before that you had to put the switch in between positions to do this.

 

[Guildedagain]

I have 2 Strats and these were my exact complaints about Leo's design. As you stated, "there's no tone control on the bridge pickup, and you can't run the neck and bridge together."

I remedied this, back in the 1990s by making the 2nd TONE control a Master Tone control and the 1st TONE knob a BLENDER to allow me dial in the bridge and neck pickups together.

The VOLUME control I disconnected on both my Strats to remedy my third complaint about Leo's design, which is having the VOLUME control knob so damn close to the bridge, which interferes with palm muting the strings.

I know to some Fender owners it is sacrilege to speak ill of Leo's design, but... personally, I would ditch the top mounted input jack for side mounted jack so that you could reconfigure the three knob setup. Or if the top mounted jack is kept in place, eliminate the knob next to the bridge and then with the other two, make one a BLENDER and the other a MASTER TONE. For me, a VOLUME control isn't necessary, as I just use it full ON at all times.

I can barely play well enough to honor his design, changing anything about would be presumptuous, to even think of it heresy as well a superfluous as the roster of recordings on stock Strats is Startling ;[]

Dark Side of the Moon, stock '69 Strat.

Sultans of Swing, stock Strat.

Shadows.

Hendrix.

It goes on and on.


I'm so against modding the circuit that just lightly reading about your mods just screams dumpster fire to me, I don;t need any of that, in fact proud of it, like a real purist.

 

[GAD]

Yeah and those stock Strats usually had matchbooks jammed into the switch to get that “in-between” sound.

 

[Guildedagain]

I'm not a huge fan of the in between sounds, too many choices.

 

[GAD]

I'm not a huge fan of the in between sounds, too many choices.

The only use I have for a Strat is the position 2/4 sounds.

 

[AcornHouse]

Leo was always interested in improving his designs, finding what needing tweaking. In both amps and guitars. The trem system in my '93 G&L Legacy is rock solid tuning-wise, able to pitch up or down. Something his original design couldn't.
As a radio repairman originally, he always believed in serviceability.
This Ultra Spaghettini model looks like it was designed by the marketing department.

 

[Midnight Toker]

I see no problem w/ added versatility in a guitar's design. When Fender came out w/ the strat w/ the 3 way selector, bands were still recording live in the studio. Then 4 tracks became 8, 8 became 16, 16 became 32, etc. It's not uncommon for working guitarists on stage to have to mimic on one guitar/amp what was done in a studio on 5-6 different guitars. A good friend of mine is Nils Lofgren's tech. He has to tend to upwards of 30 guitars per show when on the road w/ Bruce. Some being swopped mid song! It's insane. Even Jimmy Page by the early 80's had push/pull pots put in his priceless 59 burst to get more variety out of it. And the last thing that would ever enter my mind with any guitar is resale. It should be 100% about playing the thing. Car collectors that never drive their cars leave them stock. Race car drivers on the other hand will modify anything to get more out of the car. Comes down to the mentality of if you're a collector...or a player. Nothing wrong with either, and I respect those that want everything kept stock, but in no way can I find any logic in frowning upon those that do modify what they have to suit their musical needs. Necessity is the mother of invention, and the overwhelming majority of modern guitar designs are based on user mods of the past. The entire business of custom shop/signature series guitars are there for a reason. To provide what a stock guitar off the rack can't.

And I agree w/ GAD, my strat basically lives in the 2/4 selector positions.

 

[tonepoet]

I'm not a huge fan of the in between sounds, too many choices

The only use I have for a Strat is the position 2/4 sounds.

This a great example of "to each his own" or "different strokes for different folks" or "whatever floats your boat".

Some folks use only "in-between" sounds on a Strat and some never use "in-between" sounds.

I have a foot in both camps, as I generally don't use positions 2 or 4 but for rhythm guitar, my favorite tone is to be in position 1 (neck pickup) and use my "Blender" control to bring in some of the brightness of the bridge pickup. For clean rhythm guitar on a Strat, I like that tone better than any of the stock positions. But, again, to each, his or her own tone.

 

[tonepoet]

I'm so against modding the circuit that just lightly reading about your mods just screams dumpster fire to me, I don;t need any of that, in fact proud of it, like a real purist.

But the thing is that all those stock sounds are still there on my Strats. I can have all of the 5 stock switch position tones. But if I select positions 1 and 2 (neck or neck/middle) I have the ability with the blender control to dial in as much of the brightness of the bridge pickup that I want. And if I am in position 4 and 5 (middle/bridge or bridge) I can dial in as much of the warmth of the neck pickup as I want. And, BTW, if you're just blending in a little, you don't get the "quack" of a straight-up "in between" tone.

So all 5 stock "purist" tones are there with the Blender off. But I find the Blender to widen the variety of tones available. And as I say in post #19 above, I have found my favorite Strat clean rhythm tone to be the neck pickup with a bit of brightness of the bridge blended in without the "quack" of it being pure "in between" tone.