How are 1980s USA Fender Strats?

[Brow]

Hey guys.

I may have a chance to buy a 1983 US Fender Strat for around £325 (they're about £699 new here) and just wondered if anyone had experience with 1980s Strats, good/bad points about them etc?

Not that I really NEED another guitar, but I really like Cream/Off white guitars (which this 1 is), and it was made in the same year I was born, which I think is a cool thing

Just wondered if anyone here has any experience with 80s US Fenders

Thanks.

Craig

[Lake Placid Blues]

It kind of depends on the exact model from those years, as Fender was on the verge of failure during those years, and quality control was ofton terrible. There's the "smith strat", the standard strat, the vintage re-issues, and the elite strat.

The so called smith strat was named because Dan Smith revised and upgraded the standard strats from the terrible 70's strats in 1981. The first smith strats in 81 and 82 were pretty good guitars.

During 83 and 84 the standard strat had a lot of corner cutting imposed by CBS, and arn't that good. You can tell these by the use of only two control knobs and the output jack relocated to the top of the sratch plate. Only a handfull of these two knob strats ever got shipped.

The Vintage 57/62 re-issues from the early 80's are usually pretty good guitars.

The Elite strats from 83 are totally different from any other official Fender strats, and likely to have a unique sound all their own. These have a top loading tremelo, without a sustain block. The pickups don't have visable pole pieces, but they are not lace sensors, or stacked coils noiseless. Noiseless operation came from a dummy coil beneath the pickguard. The pickups themselves were true single coil, but used alnico II instead of alnico V. These guitars also had three push buttons instead of five way switch. The necks of the elites also had 12" radius fretboards, with jumbo frets. These guitars could be interesting if your after something totally different , and of historical significance.

Only a few 83/84 strats were made before CBS pulled the plug on Fender in 85.

There arn't any real 85 Fenders , afaik, and the company didn't get back going under new management before late 86, early 87.

[stevie_bees]

I had a maple boarded, '89 sunburst Strat a few years ago, which I sold off to buy another guitar. It's one of those guitars I wished I'd kept.

[Mincer]

i have one of the 82 'smith' strats, simply called 'the strat'. very nice guitar that is well made, and the stock ability to have all 3 pickups on at once.

[Dr.Mavashi]

How about 1987 year?

[Lake Placid Blues]

There were some special edition versions of the smith strat during 81 and 82, and as far as I know these were usually pretty good.

The special editions were:
The Strat
The Gold Stratocaster
The Walnut Strat

I did some work on a friend's 81 smith strat. This guitar was a well made guitar.

The smith strats usually had a hot bridge pickup called the X1.

[Lake Placid Blues]

How about 1987 year?

87 is when the post CBS era began and are considered good guitars. Most 87's were 57/62 vintage re-issues, nonetheless 87 was when the American standard first came out.

The american standard differed from the vintage re-issues from the use of the two point bridge, with solid saddles, the biflex truss rod and 9 1/2" radius fretboards, and the swimming pool route.

The american standard with lace sensors and a wilkenson roller nut was called the strat plus.

[Mincer]

'the strat' was officially available in red, white or lake placid blue- each had a gold metalflake which is really subtle. they did make a few in some other colors- mine is what is called 'saphire blue' which is really bright blue. it still has the gold flake in it though. they have smaller headstocks (though not the same as the pre-cbs, they used worn out tooling!), and most had laquered maple necks. the body is usually northern ash, which is dense and heavy compared to swamp ash. these strats are less 'stratty' sounding, and can fake a P90 sound pretty well.

[Brow]

Thanks for info guys

I'll type out the ad here, just so you can see what info I actually know about the guitar:

'Fender USA STRAT Fender Strat, USA 1983, Cream body, Maple neck, upgraded pickups - fender noiseless, Gotoh machine heads, superb looks and sound'

Does this sound like it could be 1 of the 80's Re-issues?

Craig

[flank]

i had an 83' two knob strat. it was a good guitar, one of the best feeling necks i've ever played.

[Mincer]

Thanks for info guys

I'll type out the ad here, just so you can see what info I actually know about the guitar:

'Fender USA STRAT Fender Strat, USA 1983, Cream body, Maple neck, upgraded pickups - fender noiseless, Gotoh machine heads, superb looks and sound'

Does this sound like it could be 1 of the 80's Re-issues?

Craig

the first thing is to figure out where the jack is...i am not aware of any cream 'Standard Strats' from 83, but they were finishing up the run of the earlier 'The Strat' series then, which certainly had that color. In any case, since the electronics (which made guitars from that era different than today's Fenders) had been changed. Its value would be more of a player's perspective than a vintage one, which means, if it plays good, and its cheap go for it. But any 'value' as far as a vintage Strat goes, it probably isn't there. The reissues didn't come out until 87 though.

[Dr.Mavashi]

87 is when the post CBS era began and are considered good guitars. Most 87's were 57/62 vintage re-issues.

Hmmm cool, I really like the 57s, from the ones I've seen in GC behind the lock and glass, how was the avarage quality ? what do they usually go for these days ?

[Brow]

the first thing is to figure out where the jack is...i am not aware of any cream 'Standard Strats' from 83, but they were finishing up the run of the earlier 'The Strat' series then, which certainly had that color. In any case, since the electronics (which made guitars from that era different than today's Fenders) had been changed. Its value would be more of a player's perspective than a vintage one, which means, if it plays good, and its cheap go for it. But any 'value' as far as a vintage Strat goes, it probably isn't there. The reissues didn't come out until 87 though.

Thanks for the info

I think I'm gonna phone the ad up tomorrow to get some more info on the guitar, namely, where the jack socket is placed.

If it's a Strat with the jack socket on the scratchplate and NOT on a control plate as normal, do these guitars tend to be ok or are they considered by most to be dogs?

I'm not really looking for something with vintage value as such, but it has to play and sound good or it's of no use to me

[WhoFan]

How about 1987 year?

I have an 1988 American Standard and i LOVE IT!!!!! amazing strat!!!!!

That 1983 era stuff really was hit or miss... a guy i knew had a black strat from 83 with the jack on the pickguard... i didn't like it that much mostly because of the jack. The neck was OK..

The vintage reissues from that era were GREAT!!!!

[Mincer]

Thanks for the info

I think I'm gonna phone the ad up tomorrow to get some more info on the guitar, namely, where the jack socket is placed.

If it's a Strat with the jack socket on the scratchplate and NOT on a control plate as normal, do these guitars tend to be ok or are they considered by most to be dogs?

I'm not really looking for something with vintage value as such, but it has to play and sound good or it's of no use to me

Actually, the ones that have just the 2 knobs are good guitars, but the trem design on them is pretty over-done, and generally considered the reason for the model's failure.

[Gunny47]

My friend in one of my bands just got a silver '87 American standard strat and its one of the best Ive played. Just has that killer bell strat tone, not too much noise, action to die for (it is in need of a set up though) and looks pretty sweet.

[Brow]

Actually, the ones that have just the 2 knobs are good guitars, but the trem design on them is pretty over-done, and generally considered the reason for the model's failure.

Thanks for your help mate

How does the trem differ to the 2 post modern trem or a 6 point vintage strat trem?

[Lu_B]

I think the thing is there is good and bad from all eras (some eras just have more bad ones!) The only way to tell is go try it.

[Lake Placid Blues]

You need to find out if it's a Standard, a vintage re-issue, or an Elite.

It's probably not an elite if the electronics have been modded, as they were pretty sophisicated.

Both the Elite and the Standard had 12" radius fret boards and bigger frets, so they probably play great.

The first Vintage re-issues were shipped in 1982, and they were very well done.

By 1983 Fender had gone back to alder bodies in most cases. Although Fender was struggling, and the CBS era was in it's last moments, the guitars were generally miles better than the 70's era guitars, but the quality was still spotty.

[kmcguitars]

The 80's where major transitional period for Fender. So it's hard to lump the whole decade into one blanket statement. It's fair to say the early 80's where dicey at best. When FMIC formed to buy Fender from CBS, They knew CBS was keeping the Fullerton Factory. So while they where setting up shop in Corona, They farmed out almost all Guitar production to Japan. These early MIJ guitars where excellent.(Notably the SQ & E series)from 83' to 85'. U.S. production began again in 86' in the Corona plant. The M.I.A. `E ' series from 86' on where also excellent.