A fine Strat, ahead of its time

The Strat Plus series was introduced by Fender in 1987 and was the highest-end production model Strat at that time next to its Custom Shop guitars.

I found my Strat Plus in the late 1990s in a pawn shop for around $400. It was a steal even then, and I picked it up without knowing too much about it. Mine has the big Wilkinson roller nut, which you don't see in this picture. They were produced with a Wilkinson nut until around mid-1993, when they switched to the later, more elegant LSR roller nut that you see on the American Deluxe Strats of that period. The Wilkinson nut is not quite as versatile: you're limited in the gauge of the string you can feed through it, so you won't be playing super-heavy Stevie Ray Vaughan-style strings, but the Wilkinson is a heavier nut with better sustain, I think, and more than adequate for my purposes since the tremolo is blocked on my guitar anyway (see below).

For some reason the tremolo block on my Strat Plus is hard-glued down to the body. I don't even think it's just "blocked," it's hard-fixed to the body despite having a threaded hole for the trem arm. This is very similar to what Fender did with the early 1990s Eric Clapton Signature Strats, and the specs on this guitar are so similar to the earliest Clapton Blackie Strats that I wonder if this wasn't somebody's attempt to create their own Clapton Strat to spec on a budget.

The Clapton Strats from this period had a number of key upgrades that are mirrored by my Strat Plus: One of the tone pots is replaced by a TBX tone pot that cuts both ways, taming either treble or bass. It's a really unique tone control that offers a wealth of possibilities and widens your tonal palette once you learn how to adjust the rest of your gear to compensate for it. On a guitar with triple S-S-S pickups where no coil splitting is possible, it gives you a full ability to adjust your sound between a fatter bottom end and that classic glassy Stratocaster twang without swapping instruments.

The heart of this guitar is in the pickups: like the Clapton Signature guitars of this era, they're Fender Lace Gold Sensor pickups, which i think are marginally different from the non-Fender-branded gold sensors Lace continued to produce. They're balanced, clear, and very well-rounded: they're the pickups you hear exclusively on Clapton's "24 Nights" album and they are perfect for chasing that overdriven sound. You might want something more extreme if you're really chasing heavy metal guitar with soaring harmonics, but these sound good clean, they sound good dirty, and they have basically zero hum.

These are not "high-output," but don't be fooled; output isn't everything. The design of these pickups allows for weaker magnets which dramatically reduce string pull, resulting in really great sustain, and allowing you to set the pickup height as close as you want without excess magnetism affecting string ring-out—though maybe fixing the bridge down and having the Wilkinson nut helps with that too. Even with the bass rolled off using the TBX, the pickups don't have that harsh icepick sound of some vintage Strat pickups.

I like the sound of them, I like the EMG-style look of the covers without pole pieces, and although I've played Fender Deluxes and later Clapton Signature guitars that swapped these out for the "Vintage Noiseless" pickups, these are far and away the ones I prefer for what I play. This was a really great period for Strats, and a few extra appointments like the locking tuners (I think mine are Sperzels, but a few of them had Schallers too) make this a custom-shop level guitar at a very reasonable price. Make no mistake, this is a real player's guitar, and a delight to hold in your hands and hear through almost any setup. I'd recommend one to almost anybody who plays rock or jazz or blues, whether its your only electric or a welcome addition to the collection. They honestly don't make them like this anymore: the push-pull button on the modern (2022) Player Plus Strats adds one pickup possibility these don't have, but even that doesn't really give you more versatility than the old-school TBX setup with these pickups. This is not the prettiest guitar I've ever owned, through a few hardware & appoitnment swaps have made it look good even with an odd transparent natural finish on a dark alder body. But overall the whole package is a delight. It's a guitar I probably don't play as much as I should.

Great hot rodded strat

A strat that's hot rodded right out of the box! Lace Sensor pickups (I had all gold) produce a great single coil sound with less noise than traditional/vintage design single coil pickups. Locking tuners and hipshot tremsetter work well to help stabilize tuning. Setup and adjustments were easy. TBX control was effective. Great guitar overall.

Fender Strat Plust, black

I've got this guitar, and absolutely love it. The lace sensor pickups really reduce the hum (not quite as well as a humbucker, but way better than standard single coils). it has three gold lace sensor pickups, a rosewood fingerboard and is a dream to play.

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Fantastic Guitar.

The pic is not of my Strat+. Mine is Midnight Blue, it changes colour from black to purple to dark blue to a solid blue depending on the light. It sounds and plays like a Strat should.