Fender american standard or special strat?

[pzac]

Hi i would like to get some opinions whether would u choose the american standard or special strat? And would u choose a maple or rosewood neck?

 

[zesn]

I A/B-ed the American Standard and American Special Tele.
The Standard does have that little more to offer, if you're willing to pay about S$200 more.
So it's up to you to choose. Go down and try.
You're the one buying the guitar, so you choose your neck wood as to what you like.

I got the American Special Tele with the one piece maple neck anyway.

 

[chungmun77]

Hi pzac,

I faced the same problem when buying my Tele. I plonked for the Am Std as it had better pickups and better grade wood. As a result, I didn't have to do any modifications to it. Pay and Play! The Special sounded good too, but overall the Standard appealed more. Besides, it came with a nice Fender molded SKB hardcase. Maple or rosewood, depends on what you're after. Generally maple is brighter than rosewood, in terms of sound and looks. It will get "relic-ed" easier also.

You might also want to consider G&L S-500 or the Legacy series. These are evolution of the Strats and designed by Leo Fender himself after he sold the company to CBS. Really good quality guitars. I'm a big fan!

Good luck, happy hunting!

 

[subversion]

American Special appraisal: Click to read

 

[relinquish69]

I plonked for the Am Std as it had better pickups and better grade wood.

This statement I would have to disagree. American Standard is loaded it's own set of American Standard pickups (unless it's the HSS versions which comes with different pickups altogether) while the American Special is loaded 3 Texas Special pickups. I would not say which is better, just that one is an overwound pickup while the other is a regular kind. They are different.

Now in terms of better grade wood, how do you gauge better wood? They are both made in the Corona factory ADAIK. I've tried the 2 guitars before and they don't sound too far off from each other using the same amp settings. The feel was different. Most probabaly because the American Special had bigger frets.

In terms of resale value, it would definitely be easier to sell an American Standard compared to an American Special only because the American Standard has made a name for itself since it's introduction 24 years ago & not many people are familiar with the American Special since it was only introduced not too long ago.

To TS: Try both guitars to see which you prefer. I personally prefer the American Standard only because I like the pickups and the medium jumbo frets. The American Special comes with Maple neck only option so take note of that.

 

[CaboWabo]

Go for the special more value for money

 

[chungmun77]

http://instrumentmakers.net/LLcom/tonewoods/tonewoods.html

This is some information on how wood is graded, which might explain the difference in prices between guitars. In the case of Am Std vs Am Spc, I hope the price difference isn't just because of the SKB hardcase...

 

[Ized]

I prefer the texas specials to the stock pickups on the American standard, they sound a bit bland to me....

However, I'd still get an AM standard any day. Why? Simply put, better made quality. Yes both guitars are made in the Carona factory but the difference is the AM special has MIM parts that are simply assembled in the factory but its made in mexico. Plus, I've checked the quality of the AM special necks and while they arent anything great to shout about, they werent exactly flawless either. The Standard and Deluxe models have much better made necks.

 

[mvplover]

I would get the AM Standard Plus i love how it sound with HSS config ...
Better quality on the sound, material etc.

 

[pzac]

@chungmun77: thanks for the heads up for the G&L brand, never noticed the brand till u mention it.

Thanks everyone for their comments anw! And after much consideration, i should be getting the american standard SSS, but i'll try the maple neck one just for a feel for it, because i'm more used to playin on a rosewood afterall. Looking forward to my first strat!

 

[relinquish69]

try the HSS and the SSS cos both of them are using different pickups. I liked the HSS version more but that is personal preference.