It seems that Fender created a way better guitar than they planned to. Maple fretboard with medium Jumbo frets is still the magic combination. That is something most people were worried about. On top of a great sound, the playability of Fender Highway 1 didnвЂ™t suffer compared to the more expensive American Strats. They have been purposely overwound and the results are what every Strat fan dreams about. Whole frequency range is quite dynamic, and you can hear the saturation in every segment of the frequency scale.ДЄlnico III single coils are hot output pups. The range of the Alnico III pickups is borderline unbelievable. Quality control aside, the tone this guitar produces is just incredible. Even though these instances were rare, thatвЂ™s the type of stuff that just doesnвЂ™t happen to Fender. Some guitars would arrive with the bridge off axis, while others had similar issues with different components. Quality control applied to Fender Highway 1 completely surprised loyal Fender fans. So far so good, right? There is one catch, though. Electronics were completely redesigned, featuring Alnico III single coil pickups which were much hotter than usual.

Hardware came in form of a steel Vintage Style Synchronized Tremolo bridge on one side and a great set of tuners on the other. The neck was the standard maple design with rosewood or maple fretboards and 22 medium Jumbo frets. The finish, however was different.ДЇender used satin lacquer instead of their usual choices for this particular model. We are talking alder body and the good old Strat shape. The body of the guitar is pretty much the same thing you can find on any American Stratocaster. That was pretty odd considering this guitar cost only a fraction of the price. The guitar didnвЂ™t step outside of the established Stratocaster framework, but it did bring some solutions many found to be better than what can be found on regular American Fenders. With Fender Highway 1, this changed for a while. When it comes to American made Stratocasters, you need to be prepared to drop a generous amount of money for a good one. But was that really the case? LetвЂ™s find out together It appeared so since the price was kind of in that area. The release of this guitar raised quite a few eyebrows in the community.Д¬ould they have seriously made an affordable Strat that sounded close to the high end ones? But those canвЂ™t even compare to the original.ДЇender has been making attempts to produce an affordable Stratocaster. Fender tried to alleviate this problem in part by making Squier Stratocaster models. Even the Mexican Strats, which are considered to be lower quality than those made in U.S, can be decently expensive. Strats generally cost a decent amount of money. Almost every guitar player, despite the genre of music they play, would absolutely love to have one of these. That has been the case for a long time now. I can't fault the highway ones - that guitar served me faithfully from 2003 to 2013.Fender Stratocaster is among the most desired guitars in the world. the sunburst finish and single ply white guard looked a whole lot like the new late 50s AV reissue tele! The paint is super thin and wears easily (sitting in a guitar stand for a couple of days was enough to completely strip the paint at the contact points) and the original pickups weren't all that great.Д«ut I swapped out the original p/ups for a set of Fender nocasters and the results were amazing - I had a '52 AVRI Tele briefly last year, but as much as I loved the look of it that upgraded highway one was better than it in every way (except looks - it was the sunburst one).

I sold it a while ago to fund another purchase (I decided that I only needed one tele and I prefer my old AVRI Custom Tele). I had a Highway One telecaster from the first run/series (with old style spaghetti logo and brass saddle bridge).

Fender highway one stratocaster neck