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Jeff Fiorentino's equipment details - page 3

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Jeff Fiorentino's White & Black HSS Fender Stratocaster

All text written by: Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino

I get more emails than I can count about this guitar. It sounds really good, or so most people say. I tend to agree it does sound good. And it's not a fancy anything. In fact it's just a cheap Mexican model body made of Alder wood with some very minor mods made to it.

The end result is a 4 or 5 Hundred dollar Stratocaster that quite frankly in a side by side with my Fender American model ($1299 on sale from Musicians Friend) sounds exactly the same but I actually prefer this White one as it's configured more the way I like. The only real difference are the bridges, and I actually prefer the classic Fender bridge, I usually have more problems with the newer ones than the older style. However they are easily switched out if you prefer the newer style. It's all player preference. The necks don't feel much different either. So, why the extra money. Why is one 1299 on sale and the other is like 3 or 400 bucks. Well, labor costs is one reason and the other is primarily parts i.e. Pickups, bridge nut, tuners etc. All of which if bought separately and added to a base model don't ring up anywhere near 1299 by the way. LOL

Look, I'm a Stratocaster nut! I collect them, I play them, and I've always been a fan of them. My point is I know Stratocasters very well. Many find it odd that I of all people modified this one instead of one of the older ones or more expensive ones.

The truth is you don't have to really modify the expensive ones and if you do then you actually decrease their value in most cases. BUT!! and Fender will hate me for this. If you want a great 1000 or 3000 dollar or up Fender Strat and don't really want to spend that silly amount of money for a guitar, just buy a 300 dollar Mexican model and put some American model parts on it. You'll come out spending less in the end and have a guitar that quite frankly sounds and plays just about as good.

For god sake though if you do this get your parts from Ebay or an independent retailer. It may take more time to locate the parts you want but to be very honest with everyone buying them from the manufacturer directly is like putting all of your money in your wallet and setting it on fire in the middle of the street.

The pickups on my Strat are as listed below. I like the Tex Mex ones but I only like them in the front and middle. For the bridge I stick with one of my good old Duncan standbys. In this case the Jazz pickup. I like the smooth clean nature of it, it works nicely in a Strat. I've had a few different pickups at the bridge to experiment but this one works the best. Some re-wiring may be needed in order to get certain pickups to split into single coil. If you don't know how to do that then I'm not going to explain it to you. There are websites you can go to and books you can read to help you with wiring of guitars and pickups.

I'm a fan of the Fat Strats, HSS as they call them. I like the pickup configuration and the versatility of the guitar. I'm not a fan of uni-tasking guitars. I like guitars that can be many things. On this Strat I can do anything from smooth Jazz to Death Metal, all with a flick of a switch or tap of a footswitch.

As far as the neck. The necks on the cheaper models are actually very similar in feel to the necks on the higher end ones, which I always find amusing on some level. Sure there is a slight difference but it's still the good old Fender C shaped neck with a 9 inch radius. It's fine and perfectly comfortable for most hands and pretty fast too I might add.

All of the things mentioned on this page are just suggestions of course, and just an explanation of what I do. We do get hundreds of emails from people who don't have 1000 dollars to buy an American Fender and want to get a Stratocaster. Even the stock off the shelf Mexican ones aren't that bad, but they do vary slightly in quality so it's best to try out a few and pick your favorite one if you're going to go the baseline route.

The number 1 thing you can do to improve a Mexican model if you have one is up-grade the pickups. If you only have the money to do 1 pickup at a time, then upgrade the Bridge pickup 1st then the front pickup then the middle pickup last. But you can get good pickup prices buying them in sets of 3 all pre-wired together for you.

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The photo below is NOT Jeff's actual Strat
This photo is simply being used as a setup diagram detailing Jeff's Strat.