Category Archives: Instruments

2005 Fender American Stratocaster Hard Tail (review)

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2005 Strat HardTail A couple of weekends ago I was out to lunch with my friend Erik and decided to visit the Cedar Rapids Music-Go-Round to see if they had anything interesting in stock. Over lunch we were discussing the amazing finds that he and our friend Andrew had in that store.

Admittedly Music-Go-Round can be pretty hit-and-miss when it comes to really great finds at a good price. Quite a bit of their stock caters to the beginner or low-budget musicians– the guy who really wants a Gibson Les Paul, but only has the funds for the LTD version of it (a good version for the price, BTW). When we got there they had quite a few Fenders hanging on the wall– a couple of Mexicans– but they had two American Stratocasters as well. One was a 2001 Hot Rod Red with tremolo and rosewood fretboard and the other was the 2005 black and white Hard Tail with maple neck that I ended up purchasing.

The salesman plugged me into a used Fender Blues Junior Combo Amp to try the guitars out. A good choice as the Blues Jr is partially tube and would be fairly well-matched to the classic Strat sound. After playing both guitars and conferring with Erik and calling Andrew on his cell I settled on the Hard Tail for a couple of reasons– one is that I really didn’t want a tremolo even though I could choose to block it (like Eric Clapton!) and the other is that I really like the feel of a maple neck.

The guitar was in immaculate shape and came with all of its swing tags and paperwork as well as the standard-issue plastic case for $549. This guitar lists for $1327.99, but you can get a new one for around $950 at online retailers. So, I feel like I got a pretty good deal.

60th Anniversary Badge

Even though this guitar has a 2005 serial number (starting with “Z5”) it was sold as a 2006 model and has the Fender 60th Anniversary badge on the back of the headstock which is pretty cool. Another unique aspect of this guitar is that Fender discontinued the American Hard Tail in 2006. No new Hard Tails in ’07. I contacted Fender to confirm this as I see that most of the online retailers are still selling them even though the online catalog at fender.com doesn’t list it as current product. According to Fender the only way to get a Hard Tail guitar would be to order the Fender Robert Cray Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar which is Mexican or to order the Eric Clapton Signature Strat, which has a blocked tremolo. Custom Shop Showmaster guitars come with Hard Tail as well.

This American Stratocaster is one of the post-2000 configurations. According to The Stratocaster Chronicles by Tom Wheeler, in the Summer of 2000 Fender discontinued the “American Standard” which had been in existence for 13 years and replaced it with the current “American Series.” The American Series was a new start to the Stratocaster line pulling together a set of features from the entire history of the Strat to that point making arguably the best Strat yet.

These features included the unanimously-agreed-superior pre-CBS 4-bolt neck, the Micro Tilt adjustment, the advanced shielding from the Standard, the 5-way pickup selector switch that dated back to 1977, “no-load” tone control which at “10” kills the tone pot on the middle pickup making for a vintage Strat tone, “Delta Tone” pickups where the middle pickup is wired in reverse of the other two providing a humbucking effect on certain switch settings, a single string tree on the head adding to tuning stability and improving tone, “rolled” neck edges which adds to the pleasant neck feel, non-veneered “original contour” body based on the 1950’s Strats, staggered pickup polepieces like the 1950’s Strats, and routing to provide the ability to add humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions. This final change eliminated the contraversial “swimming pool” routing where the area behind the pickguard was just a big hole to accomodate different pickup configurations.

Over the 53 years of the Stratocaster’s existence it has been subject to constant change– some of it good, some of it not good. In the American Series we see the benefits of a company looking back on the history of its products to pull a feature set together that I think ultimately makes an instrument that both honors its past, innovates and– most importantly– is great to play.

>pp 246-250, “Chapter 9: The New Millennium,”The Stratocaster Chronicles: Celebrating 50 Years of the Fender Strat, Tom Wheeler, 2004

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation

All Fender product names in this article are trademarks of Fender.

Check out the Fender Hard Tail Stratocasters at reverb.com!

Where’s my Fender Frontline Catalog???

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I’ve been collecting the catalog for Fender’s line of guitars and amps for a couple of years now. They are a slick full-color affair and are to date the only way to keep up with the frequent changes to the Fender line and I find them essential when doing research on the products. Since January I’ve been visiting my local guitar stores that carry Fender and asking when the 2007 Frontline catalog is supposed to come out. No one knew! First it was supposed to come out after the February NAMM show, and then people weren’t sure.

I contacted Fender about this and found out that the catalog you could pick up in-store will now be replaced with a mailed catalog to be called “Frontline In Home” and the first one will be mailed in May. There will be an illustrated price list called “Frontline In Store” for the dealers. There will also be some “Frontline” branded online things to come at fender.com that sound really interesting if they accomplish.

To make sure that you get your catalog, click here and fill out your information.

Fender Baritone Jaguars and the Bass VI

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In early December I picked up a new guitar from Bob’s Guitars in Cedar Falls. It is a Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom (025-9400-300). This is the second Fender Baritone I’ve owned. I traded a Jaguar Baritone Special HH (025-9300-306) that I also purchased from Bob’s in 2005 on it.

The current Fender Jaguar Baritone models are descendants of the legendary Bass VI that Fender manufactured from 1961-1975. A unique guitar, the Bass VI was inspired by the Danelectro 6-string bass introduced in 1956. Tuned E-e, the Bass VI bridged the gap between an electric bass and an electric guitar. The Bass VI was used notably by Robert Smith of the Cure and Jack Bruce of Cream. Since Cream was the prototype for a Power Trio, Bruce had to play the dual role of rhythm guitar and bass to Clapton’s lead guitar. I became interested in the Bass VI through some interviews I read with Doug McCombs from Tortoise where he talks about the Bass VI and how its distinctive tone impacts his playing. McComb’s side project Brokeback is influenced by and is a showcase of the Bass VI. A bass player myself, I was interested in an intstrument that would allow me to play six-string while taking advantage of my bass background. My bass style is influenced heavily by New Order’s Peter Hook who tended to use the upper registers of the bass for melody. I believe that Hook also played a Bass VI from time-to-time. So, I felt that a Bass VI-style guitar would be up my alley.

I started looking into getting a Bass VI last year, and was disappointed in how much it would cost to get an original vintage Bass VI. Most of them are going for upwards of $3000. In 1995 Fender introduced a 1962 Bass VI reissue. These reissues are going for as much as the originals on eBay. Due to the scarcity of these guitars– they never really took off originally, and I’m sure the 1995 reissues were also not very popular– some Bass VI fans got organized on the Internet and started a campaign to get Fender to bring the VI back.

The petition was successful. In 2004 and 2005 Fender introduced the two Jaguar Baritones currently in production– the Custom and the HH. Further, in 2006 they announced that a 1962 Bass VI reissue would be available from Custom Shop as a Limited Edition available only until 12/31.

In Spring of 2005 I started looking into the new Jaguar-based baritones. I did some calling around and it turned out that Bob’s in Cedar Falls was one of the few stores in the area carrying one. West Music in Cedar Rapids said that they didn’t carry one because they were “speculative” guitars– which I assumed to mean that Fender wasn’t sure if they were going to continue production of these. The model that Bob’s had was the black and chrome HH edition– “HH” means dual humbucking pickups. I visited the store and tried it out with a friend and bought it. I really liked the way it looked and played and it matched my black and white American Precision Bass. The Baritone Custom came in a more traditional sunburst color scheme with a tortoise pickguard.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough information available about the Jaguar Baritones when I bought the HH. I had assumed incorrectly that the two Baritones were different only in pickup configuration and color. The Baritone Special HH has a 27″ scale versus the Baritone Custom’s 28.5″ scale. The Special HH tunes to B-B (B, E, A, D, F#, B) whereas the Baritone Custom can be tuned in standard E-E (E, A, D, G, B, E)– just like the Bass VI. The Bass VI has a 30″ scale which allows it to be tuned an octave below a standard guitar. The Baritone Custom uses the same gauge strings as the Bass VI as well. Compare this to a standard Jaguar’s scale of 24″.

My remedial 6-string skills don’t include being able to transpose chords to accomodate the B-B tuning– although all of the chords I know “work.” I could have capoed the guitar for E, too. It wasn’t until this year when I was looking through the Fender catalog that I noticed that Fender had re-named the Baritone Custom as a “Bass VI Custom” and moved the guitar to the bass section. The Bass VI Custom has the same model number as the Baritone Custom did (025-9400-300). This was a smart move on Fender’s part as it drives the point home about the Custom’s Bass VI heritage as well as clear up any confusion about the product. The guitar was debatably incorrectly called a Baritone anyway as it wasn’t tuned to B-B.

When I went to Bob’s in December, they had the Custom with the original “Baritone Custom” labeling instead of the new “Bass VI Custom” labeling. This was only a minor disappointment, really, as the guitar is identical in every other respect. One of the complaints about the original Bass VI was that the tremelo made the guitar knock out of tune easily, so Fender addressed that in this guitar with a fixed bridge. The Baritone HH also has a fixed bridge. I was surprised how much difference the inch and a half makes in playability and tone between the HH and the Custom! While the HH was definately has a low-end growl to it– which is helped a lot with the humbucker pickups– the Custom sounds more like a bass. The string gauge contributes to that as well. The longer neck is a bit disorienting if you are expecting a regular guitar. One of the guys from Bob’s commented on that right away when he was tuning the guitar up for me.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this guitar. It is a bit like braving new territory for me as a guitarist. I’m spending a lot of time figuring out what sounds the best. Like a bass, the Custom sounds best single note playing like surf or western sounding. A lot of barre or power chords sound good in the upper registers of the guitar. I need to figure out what I’m going to do amp-wise. I can tell right now that reverb is a necessity.

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