The 1970's Stratocaster

The 1970's are generally considered to be the darkest days of Fender guitars. Depending on your political views and tastes in music and fashion, you may deem the 70's a decade worth forgetting entirely. I however am not so quick to write them off... for example, the Dead were playing arguably the best music of their careers and countless other bands managed to get their rock on during the decade before disco took hold.

As for the oft maligned 70's CBS-era Stratocaster, I happen to love them. I'm well aware that many were boat anchors, unpopular design elements were being introduced, and the general quality of Fender guitars was down, but man oh man, do I love those big headstocks. Of course there are many who consider that to be an example of said undesirable 70's design elements. 

As far as the three bolt neck, when you had a guitar with a neck that actually fit the pocket correctly they worked great. I guess it's the esthetics of the instruments that I like from that era, and big headstock is a big part of that. It was also a time when many players were experimenting with hot-rodding their Strats to get bigger bolder sounds that could compete with the Les Paul. With that said, many of the 70's Strats got routed for humbuckers, and later had Floyd Rose tremolos installed. Perhaps players were just trying to make the best of the 70's. 

One of the first Strats I ever put together looked like the one above. I used a '75 neck that someone had converted to a four bolt and paired it with a Mexican Strat body. I don't remember what I had it loaded with for pickups but the tone of that guitar was incredible. On the down side, it was one of the worst playing instruments I have ever owned, it literally hurt to play it. I could never get the thing set up and intonated correctly, and as a result it was always going out of tune and the action was terrible. I played it for a couple of years before parting it back out and selling it.

My next big headstock adventure was this guitar... a Warmoth neck (with late 60's/early 70's decal) paired with a Highway 1 body. I used Fralin Blues Specials with a Dimarzio DP223 (36th anniversary PAF) in the bridge. I never liked the Fralins, they lacked personality and always seemed sterile to me. The bridge pickup I loved however and sold me on both Dimarzios and the H/S/S strat configuration. The neck featured a thin profile and a compound radius and I never warmed up to it either. I ended up trading this guitar for a Les Paul Special. I had attempted to sell it locally on Craig's list with no luck and then a month or so later a guy contacted me regarding a trade. I checked out the LP and we traded straight across... I think we both feel like we got the better end of the deal. 

Being unhappy with the Warmoth neck, I decided to try a Fender HWY 1 neck... Fender used the same necks for the American Special also. It has jumbo frets was I wasn't sure I'd like but it just so happens I did like them. The guitar pictured above has GFS 70's pickups in it... they weren't great but better than ceramic single coils. The body was from a Mexican Blacktop Strat which features a pool rout. They're inexpensive bodies on ebay and fit the bill as far a project bodies go. 

Not being able to leave well enough alone, I found a loaded American Standard Strat body on ebay for cheap and so I installed the neck on that body. I loved the Charcoal Frost finish but did not care for the American Standard pickups. This was before Fender changed over to the Fat 50's which are amazing pickups. 

I picked up another American Special/HWY 1 neck (in rosewood this time) and wired up what was the most challenging project to date. I paired two Fender Tex-Mex single coils (the best bargain pickup I've found) with a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge. I also added two mini toggles; one was to turn the neck pickup on so that it could be used in conjunction with only the bridge or so all three pickups could be used at once, and the other toggle was to split the bridge pickup so it could be used in single coil mode. IMO, this is the holy grail of Strat wiring setups... all your bases are covers. If I were to have a "signature model" this wiring setup would be the one I'd use... although I'd probably pass on (or move) the "neck on" toggle as it gets in the way of using the volume to do swells with your pinky. The perfect Strat was beginning to emerge.

After spying this MJT body on ebay I knew what had to be done. I sold the Candy Aplle Red body and pulled the trigger on this one. The plastic all needed to be aged and so I got busy with that. I had never aged a black guard and wasn't sure exactly how to go about it. It made sense that there wouldn't be much wear under the strings and so I only made a few light passes with a Scotch Brite pad and focused on the rest of the guard. I nicked a little of the lower bout and yellowed some of the edges with my trusty ochre Sharpie so that the sandwiched white layer looked a little less white. 

I also gave the other white parts the Sharpie treatment so they'd match the level of aging on the body and pickguard. 

I used a Callaham Vintage/Narrow bridge and for a finishing touch, added some Fender locking tuners and put some pearl buttons on them. 

There's nothing very 70's about this guitar, perhaps the large headstock and general vibe but there aren't actually any vintage parts on it. This is the electric guitar I generally always gig with these days.

I ended up selling the loaded Charcoal Frost American Standard body and kept the neck. I never played it because I was beginning to loath the tone of the pickups. I still wanted a maple board Strat and decided to build one in keeping with the look of a mid 70's Strat. I've always liked the black and white plastic scheme that they used briefly and so this is what came about. It's the exact same electronics setup as the sunburst one minus the neck-on toggle. I used a Fender American Special ash body, complete with thick poly finish (an undesirable but accurate 70's detail), and loaded it with another Callaham Vintage/Narrow bridge. Because of the jumbo frets, it really helps to get the strings away from the edge of the fretboard and this particular model of bridge does exactly that. I also happen to believe a lot of the hype about using high quality bridges on a Strat... my Callaham bridge equipped Strats are both articulate and have amazing sustain.

This guitar is my backup stage guitar when I'm playing the sunburst one. They're both set up exactly alike (with 10s), feature the same basic neck, and have essentially the same electronics. The only difference being that the sunburst one is an alder body and rosewood board, and this one has an ash body and maple board. Tonally they are quite similar, though as you might guess, the ash/maple combination is a little brighter. 

I should have known that as soon as I tried to recreate a 70's Strat I'd actually end up with one. Actually it's an '81, and quite likely one of the last of the big headstock Strats made at the Fullerton plant. This was a CraigsList score that I drove about an hour to grab. The guitar is essentially new... it shows absolutely no wear, finish checking on the headstock (they were still using a nitro overspray), scratches on the plastic, or oxidation on the hardware... it's a true time capsule guitar, complete with hang tags, strap, tremolo arm and unopened springs, hell, even the silica pack is still in the case, and even the case is in mint condition. 

By this point in history, Fender had gone away from the chunky necks and were using a slimmer, more modern feeling shape. The nut width also seems a bit more narrow to me, perhaps an "A" instead of a "B". I have not touched a single screw on it and likely will not. I know these guitars are not the most collectible in the world but I do think it's a fine specimen. Interestingly, there looks to be a little overspray at the 12th fret... like a little nitro finish ended up on there somehow. It would certainly be in keeping with the lack of attention to detail that was plaguing Fender at this time in history, as would the less than cozy neck pocket. 

I do play it occasionally and it has an amazing tone and feel about it despite having the funky cast trem and block and other "70's maladies". It just makes me nervous to play it too much for fear the first scratch or ding will be the one I put in it. 

Say what you will about the big headstock era but I'd imagine there were plenty of guitars to come out of Fullerton during the 70's that weren't the dogs we all hear about. With anything done by hand, there is always a margin of error. My suspicion is however, that QC might have been a little tighter during 50's and 60's and fewer of these duds might have made it to market. 

Long Live the 70's