Fender Hwy One Stratocaster

The Strat that has been my main go-to for nearly 10 years is my Hwy 1 Strat in 3-color burst.  You know how you always seem to grab the same guitar or two in the end?  This is one of those for me.

I got it back in 2010.  Prior to that time, I had played primarily acoustic, and didn't play it all that well (I only had 1 electric at that time).  I was really good at cowboy chords, and could play some bluegrass-y, sort of country-ish leads, but that was it.  I had decided a couple of years before that I wanted to learn to play the blues.  I had picked up a couple of book/cd combos, and worked my way through them, but was having trouble finding my way outside of their canned solos for some reason. 

The end of 2009, I found myself laid off from work.  While I was sitting at the house looking for work one day, I came across an internet teacher that seemed pretty good.  So I bought his course (more on this in another post later).   He was actually making sense to me, and I was progressing through his coursework.  I had decided that, once I finished the course, I was going to reward myself for sticking with it and buy myself a nice Stratocaster.  It was several months later, and I was about half way through the course (and actually back to work by this time), and had already showed Mrs Snarf the guitar I had picked out.  She walked in from work one day, nice little bonus in hand, and announced to me that I needed to go ahead and order the guitar that I had picked out.  So I did.

Since then, no  matter what other guitars I may pick up for  a while, they always end up back in the closet, and the Hwy 1 stays out on the stand.  I've talked off and on about upgrading her a bit, swapping the pups for a good set of Zexcoils or putting some locking tuners on her.  Somehow, though, she always makes me happy just like she is, and has remained bone stock.  And, yes, she's a her, and her name is Cali because she's the first MIA Strat I got.

When I got her, she was the entry level MIA Strat Fender made.  Rumor has it that she's half MIM, but, I actually asked someone at Fender once, and they assured me that she was made in the factory in Corona.  Not that it matters...I'm of the opinion that if it plays easily and sounds good, it can be made where ever it came from and I'll be happy with it.  Regardless, just like any guitar, after I got her, I gave her a good setup, and she played as well as any guitar I have picked up.

As a Hwy One, it has the Greasebucket tone control.  I can't say that I'm unhappy with it.  According what Fender used to advertise, it rolls off the highs without adding any lows.  Ummmm...a tone control pot can't add any lows.  It reduces the highs which accentuates the lows.  But it doesn't add them.  To my ear, it just cuts some of the lows with the highs.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.  It sounds good to me.  I have heard of people that got Hwy Ones and immediately changed that circuit.  I'm not sure why.

The pups are a bit hotter than any other Strat that I've got.  Again, not a bad thing.  It just gives it a different voice.  And a nice one at that.  In one of my other Strats, I've got a set of CS 69s dropped in that I really like.  I never really understood "that glassy Strat sound" until I heard those.  The pups in the Hwy One aren't super glassy.  Don't get me wrong; they still sound like a Strat, but they've actually got more growl and drive a lot quicker than the 69s.  Iv'e also been told that I'm a but odd because I seldom use the neck pickup which some of my buddies tell me is the only way that God intended a Strat to be played.  I prefer a bit more of that Robert Cray-ish treble, and almost always have it in position 2 for that bridge/middle sound.  That's the one that makes me happy.  I've also got it set with 5 springs to keep the bridge flush on the body.

It's nothing short of a great guitar, and a total player.  Mine has more bumps and bruises on it than my other electrics, but that's because it's the one that I play more than any single other electric.  When I got this one it was because I wanted a MIA Strat, and this was the cheapest on the block by about $350.  In retrospect, imho, these guitars were total sleepers.  Or maybe I just got an outstanding example of one.

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