Vintage Guitar - September 2017 - open - 45

strings gave the guitar a different playing
feel. Prior to 1970, the vibrato had a separate
bridge plate and inertia block. That year,
though, Fender produced a single die-cast
Mazac part to replace the two individual
steel parts. At the same time, the original
steel saddles were replaced with Mazacs.
These changes affected the manner in
which string vibration was transferred to
the body, producing a Strat that sounded
different, as well.
The '70s also saw significant changes
in pickup construction. By late '74, CBS
replaced the staggered-height polepieces
with smaller, flush poles that reacted differently - in some ways like earlier, moreprimitive pickups. Also, the company's
cessation of wax-potting and changes in
wire gauge and coating made the pickups
more microphonic and subject to feedback.
Again, these were steps backward.
Not all the electronics changes were bad.
In '77, a five-way pickup selector became
standard, allowing players to combine the
bridge and middle pickup or the bridge and
neck pickup to re-create the "out of phase"
sounds made popular by Eric Clapton.
Prior to this innovation, it was necessary
to balance the selector switch arm at what
were called "in-between" positions to
achieve this effect. Many players had older
In 1967, Fender replaced the Strat's Kluson
Deluxe tuners with the "F-stamped" type,
which are generally considered inferior.

Strats retrofitted with five-position switches,
relegating the original to the case pocket,
where many are still found today.
One aesthetic change some players found
pleasing was a black plastic pickguard introduced in '75, at first only with guitars
given the Mocha Brown finish and usually
combined with white knobs, pickup covers,
and vibrato-bar tips. Guitars made in the
later '70s sometimes have all-black plastic
parts, and the decade also saw a change in
body contours - generally rounder, with
less-dramatic curves and variations in
the back contour.
It's generally agreed the quality
of most American-made fretted
instruments from the '70s is not
as good as earlier eras; in terms of
collectibility, Strats from the era
typically command a third to
a quarter of the value of earlier examples. This scenario
contributed greatly to the
rise of vintage-instrument
stores in the last decades of the
20th century. In that light, the
quality of a Strat from the '70s
is no different from any Martin
or Gibson of the era. However,
every generation has its nostalgia,
so while Strats made in the late
'60s to mid '70s are not of pre-CBS
quality, they were in fact used to create
great music (see this month's feature on
Ritchie Blackmore and the making of
Deep Purple's Machine Head) and have
a degree of appeal among Gen X'ers and
Millennials.

The Strat's original
headstock shape and
"spaghetti" logo are
bona fide classics.

In an effort to embolden the model name for the sake of visibility/recognizability,
CBS incorporated this logo in 1969. It survived until the early 1980s.

September 2017

VINTAGE GUITAR

Vintage Guitar - September 2017 - open

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