Fender FENDER 114 4700 306 W/BAG STD HSS STRAT W/FR RW BLK  

I bought the 2007, I upgrade the neck PUP to noiseless, installed a d tuna, (I just insert a quarter temporarily when I used drop d) if I want it floating I just take it off. very good guitar. sounds like SRV on clean tone (neck PUP) and really lots of harmonics on the bridge H PUP. If you buy this guitar, you will have some more left to get a Gibson les paul studio.

I always wanted a real Fender Floyd Rose Strat. The neck and Floyd Trem on this guitar are worth the cost alone. This tremolo equals my Gotoh unit and surpasses my Schallers-very sweet! Pickups are also good enough to work with until you ever decide to upgrade. The Sunburst Finish is a beautiful three tone sunburst on a great sounding maple venered alder body. Yes, actually probably five  to six pieces of Alder are in this body from what I can see in the cavities. But it nails the classic fender Strat tone and vibe-we'll see how it ages. Bath tub route on this one with decent electronics. Also remarkable fit and finish on the Strat I received. The builder's pride seemed evident in the set-up:perfect intonation.  The Ping Floyd tremolo has no interference with the body or pickguard in its motion and floats about 1/32" of an inch when set up properly allowing you to raise as well as lower pitch.  In all, this is a well thought out Floyd based Strat and its an AUTHENTIC FENDER. It is also an excellent platform to do what we all do with Strats-customize them over time and make your own-Bravo Fender! Nicely done.

First the "Good"-1-Single piece maple neck has skunk stripe and a beautiful rosewood board. 2-Neck has micro-tilt adjustment unlike 2001 MIM strats. 2-Burst is almost a three tone burst-but better-subtle but w/deep red hues at edge of brown burst-veneer (ouch!) visible in the burst has subtle quilting. 3-Electronics are solid w/full size pots (but the 5-Way switch is like a sealed import not "open feame" CRL or Oak-Grigsby quality). 4-Parchment plastic parts look great. Now the "Not so Good": 1-Floyd Nut width is 1 5/8"-but it sits on a nut shelf that is 1 11/16" wide making the High E string a full 3/16" from the edge of the fret board. 2-Sunburst body is for show-not tone: comprised of three to four planks of Alder with a (Maple?)veneer on the front and back where the burst wood grain can be seen: the burst on the back of body is limited to the flat areas and does not go into the belly cutaway-which is pure black: This finish will wear/chip and eventually expose the veneer glued onto the alder planks in the cut-away. (I would have preferred an honest straight burst exposing the wood grain of the alder planks w/o the "Department Store Guitar" veneer.) 3-(and most serious)Guitar was assembeled-but not set up.  As delivered, the floyd pulled way up out of the body when trying to tune to pitch, which could not be done. The amount of work needed to make the guitar marginally playable will void the warranty: adjust trem in cavity, replace the nut and may have to carve the body and pickguard away from the floyd base plate. The Floyd is limited to dive bombs as it is w/no room to raise pitch as the base plate sits right on the body. Neck pitch angle is also incorrect (Major flaw)with the action still at around an 1/8" @ the 12th with the floyd sitting right on the body-chording is OK, but tough shredding on this floyd axe particularly with the strings so close to each other. 4-Back plate is not recessed into body. (Which along with the blacked out cutaway is further indication of rather cheap build in this price range.) If you are an experienced tech, handy with a dremel and like being faced with a boat-load of projects requiring some new part purchases on a brand new guitar all to render a visually stunning, but pretty mediocre, instrument then this one is for you. I'm returning to MF for an IBZ Prestige.

I own a 2006 Fender Standard HSS FR.  I chose this guitar because the neck felt very comfortable and I prefer the Floyd Rose over the standard tremolo.  I had intended to changed the pickups with active EMGs which I use in other guitars, but I really like the tone I am getting with the factory pickups and decided to leave it stock.  The pickguard was not installed centered over the bridge, so I had to file it a bit to clear to bottom edge of the Floyd Rose.  Other than that the quality is excellent.  I occasionally miss that 22nd fret, but not enough to justify swapping necks.  It's difficult to nail down my favorite guitar, but this is in the top 3 of over 20 I have owned and countless I have played.