Fender Stratosonic By MR77 on Feb 20, 2009 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I got this guitar as a gift from my father he bought off a struggling musician. I had been looking for a Strat for a long time that I could afford and offered a great tone and a Made in USA certification, and when I first looked at this guitar I thought only two of those would be fulfilled because of the single P90 instead of the stypicle SSS setup found on a strat. Once I got home and plugged it in however I realized how wrong I was.

The P90 on this guitar is easily the hottest pickup I have ever played. The coils inside are wrapped tight enough to get you that twangy strat sound with the right amp settings or the low crunchy sound typically associated with P90s. The only real problem sound wise with this guitar is a slight buzz, but that isn't a big deal as it is not noticeable when playing and goes away once you move away from the amp about ten feet so it shouldn't affect you at gigs. The pickguard combined with the classic sunburst give it a hot vintage look which the black headstock helps to finalize. Overall this guitar is Fender USA quality at under a thousand dollars and had I found this before getting it is a present it likely would have been a purchase.