les strat
New member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2004
- Messages
- 5,194
The last USA Standard I owned was a 2001 tobacco sunburst with the 498T/490R pickups. About 11 lb with weight relief holes. It was a decent hard rock guitar, but after about a set I was done. It always sounded smothered due to the dense wood and inferior 300K pots.
I sold it to fund an R8 and never looked back.
I did play a good many 2002-2003 Standards, and I personally think they are the best USA's made since the late 60's. This was pre-chambering, pre-2 piece backs, etc, etc. Nice wood, great tops, a little more in the vintage build and lighter than most prior to that era. I lost interest when they started chambering a legendary solid body guitar. They sounded good, but not like the punch I was used to with LP's. Several I played had a maracca thing going on inside the chambers. Hope they've taken care of that problem by now.
If I were to look for a production LP, it would be 2002-2004 Standard. Or a very early Classic (which were above Standards and more expensive at the time).
I sold it to fund an R8 and never looked back.
I did play a good many 2002-2003 Standards, and I personally think they are the best USA's made since the late 60's. This was pre-chambering, pre-2 piece backs, etc, etc. Nice wood, great tops, a little more in the vintage build and lighter than most prior to that era. I lost interest when they started chambering a legendary solid body guitar. They sounded good, but not like the punch I was used to with LP's. Several I played had a maracca thing going on inside the chambers. Hope they've taken care of that problem by now.
If I were to look for a production LP, it would be 2002-2004 Standard. Or a very early Classic (which were above Standards and more expensive at the time).