I catched an extraordinary Strat.

Almost a year with this American Professional HH Fender Stratocaster.

First the look: it is a fine instrument, looks great. The antique olive color in the body fits in an elegant way with the aged white pickguard and control knobs, with the zebra ShawBuckers, the Rosewood fingerboard and the pre CBS style headstock with the "spagetti" Fender logo (silver not golden). Those elements build an refined instrumento in sight.

The sound: excelent! Warm, clear, shimmering in each position. The zebra ShawBuckers are excelent (acordingo to the Fender official site, built by Tim Shaw for the American Professional series). I have tasted that guitar through a Marshall JVM 410 Head and a '65 Deluxe Reverb. You can play almost any sort of music with that guitar, really. Blues, Country, Pop, Classic Rock, Classic Heavy Metal, Alternative Rock, until Stoner Metal, of course (through the orange OD1 channel of the JVM, a low tuning and a eq pedal; I have done it). Frequently, I jam Iron Maiden's The Trooper or Ozzy's Crazy Train and Mama I'm Coming Home with that guitar, and no problem. I also play N.I.B. or Ase Of Spades with the same guitar and don`t miss power. Of course, ShawBuckers are not for modern metal, definitevely. You play (not imitate) Hendrix stuff in a luscious way with that guitar. Obviously, ShawBuckers do not give the classic Strat sound; they sound vintege, classic and very sweet, because they are alnico low output humbuckers; but I swear, the rock really hot.

That guitar has a 5 position switch to get full bridge and neck pickup sound and the both together, but it can, in position 2, leave sounding the inside coils together of both pickups (the black ones) and in position 4, you get the outer coils of both pickups together (the white ones). So, positions 2 and 4 gives something like a Tele sound.

Playing experience: I play a pretty confortable and familiar instrument. The 25.5" scale lenght, 9.5" fingerboard radius, "modern deep C" neck shape, tall frets and satin finish on the back of the neck make it easy. The chunky, satin finished neck gives a vintage experience, and the tall frets helps to play precisely.

Everywhere, you have soft and friendly shapes, that ask out for long playing.

The American Professional HH Strat incorporates a real bone nut, Bi-Flex Truss Rod system and a useful hard case (almost any guitar in this price range comes with a hard case).

That guitar is a very versatil instrument, high quality made in Corona California. I haven't found any weakness in this guitar. It is great, 100% recommendable.

Three final things: 1.- it is not the only Fender Strat that I own; I also have a 1998-1999 American Deluxe Strat loaded with vintage noiseless pickups and an American Original 60' Strat, and the HH American Pro covers a wider spectrum of musical geners; 2.- I didn't like the standard tuning machines, immediately replaced them with locking ones. 3.- English is not my main language, so I'm sorry for the spelling mistakes. Thanks.