Just a little unstable! Of course, thatвЂ™s by design, thatвЂ™s how vintage pickups often respond and some people want that. That being said, when I start to push it a little bit more and dig in towards the edge of breakup, I noticed those pickups started to get a little floppy, wobbly in the top end. вЂњI had been swapping out pickups constantly for about 15 years, then I discovered the Seymour Duncan Antiquity Surf set and I absolutely loved them вЂ“ pure vintage creamy Stratocaster tone and that became my favourite clean sound. Image: Fender You have a long-standing relationship with Seymour Duncan вЂ“ this guitar is loaded with a newly designed set of your signature Clean Machine pickups. With this guitar there is no need for that.вЂќ вЂњWhen you play a guitar long enough you learn to adjust to its nuances вЂ“ to compensate even just a little bit as you learn your instrument. This neck feels faster and little more effortless no matter where my wrist positioning is. I play a bunch of weird chord shapes and stretches, doublestops, all over the fretboard. The neck on this guitar is an ultra-modern D shape and the compound fretboard radius goes from 10 to 14 inches, a little more like the Ultra, and also thereвЂ™s a contoured heel. вЂњFender has the Modern C and Modern D shapes and the Highway One feels to me like itвЂ™s in-between those two. Image: Fender Neck carve is an extremely personal choice. IвЂ™m not sure that most people will really notice but when I went out and tried every Strat I could lay my hands on within a 10-mile radius of where I live вЂ“ I found that for my style of playing and what feels comfortable to me this option just suited me better.вЂќ вЂњThe body shape is more contoured and technically itвЂ™s something like three per cent smaller than usual. Also it looks great through the transparent finish. We tried a bunch of different things вЂ“ I like the feel and the weight of alder. вЂњI wanted to pay homage to my blue Strat so we kept the Sapphire Blue nitrocellulose satin finish and the 22-fret neck with the Rosewood fingerboard like youвЂ™d see on a Highway One or an Ultra model and thatвЂ™s my preference. When we were developing this guitar Fender gave me basically a blank menu with every single spec choice possible and said, вЂWhat do you want? Fill in everything вЂ“ thereвЂ™s options for it all!вЂ™ ThatвЂ™s just incredible right? To me the Stratocaster is the most iconic electric guitar and there are so many subtle nuances in each model. I even dig the stock pickups though I might end up changing the bridge pickup to something beefier, say an Alnico V pup, and I'll eventually give the bridge it's own tone control.ДЄny other experiences with the early model highways? Keen to hear your stories.вЂњItвЂ™s true, there are so many options with the Stratocaster вЂ“ you go to the store and you see 50 of them on the wall and the average person might think theyвЂ™re all the same, just different colours.

You can see the wood grain through the very nice honey blonde finish on my model. Super cool guitar - lightweight alder body, medium jumbo frets and a comfy C profile. I assume Fender changed the specs on this model after realizing that they may have been cutting into their am std market?ДЄnyhow, I lucked into my one on an FB buy and sell forum and I snagged it for a very good price. The earlier Highways seem interesting in that they are 95% of the way towards being an Am Std strat but with different pickups and (the more desirable?) vintage tremolo.

There's a quite a few posts about these guitars in the archives but the majority seem to focus on the later period Highway's - the models with the 70s head stock and over-wound pickups.

Fender highway one stratocaster specs