My Two Fender Strats Compared - Highway One vs Custom Shop!

Hey folks, I wanted to offer up a comparison between my two Fender Strats. My Highway One, which was my first ever really good guitar I've had since my early teens, and my Custom Shop '62. How do they stack up? Let's find out!

0:00 - Intro
0:13 - Quick back to back
1:13 - Strat Talk
2:25 - Today's Tones
3:07 - Background on the Highway One
8:32 - Highway One Tones
13:33 - Bridge Talk
14:17 - Background on the Custom Shop '62
17:30 - CS '62 Tones
24:00 - Concluding Thoughts...
25:36 - What are your thoughts?

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Thanks as always for the support, be sure to subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll see you in the next one!
Cheers,
Jack

[honnaconna]

‘I’m not a strat guy’... has 3 strats 😂 love it jack lad 🤟

[Ray-Angel]

I bought a 2007 Hwy1 Strat about a year ago. My main reason was it's the only model with a nitro finish that wasn't IMHO insanely overpriced. I tried several Custom Shop Starts and didn't feel they justified their price tags. I swapped out the "Atomic humbucker" and "Hot Single Coil" pickups for Custom Shop 54s and I think the guitar is better sounding since.

[tuomasm.]

I have a Highway 1 Strat '04. Never had any need for another strat, really. Brilliant playability and tone. I like the way the satin finish ages, it has a rustic feel to it, as you put it.

[mckorczas]

For me the highway one sounds more stratty.

[simonmastromatteo]

Yeah Malmsteen was an absolute brute in the early 80s. Cocky and proud, but man he was the king of the hill. Glad to have you back man, I was waiting for new content ! :) Cheers

[joeygentile]

The Highway One Strat came stock with Hot Strat Alnico- 3 pickups. HSS version had an Atomic Humbucker in the bridge. Glad to see you’re back on your YouTube channel.

[kylanmcnichols]

Would love some talk about your rhythm playing, it's next level. Glad you're putting out more videos! Specifically the kind of thing happening at 0:38.

[KRAZEEIZATION]

I love Highway One guitars, I have 2 Teles (05/07) and 2 Strats (02/04).
Produced from 2002 to 2010 with a revamp in 2006 which offered jumbo frets, that big headstock on the Strats, which carried on to the American Special and Performers.
2002 - 05 HW-1 had Classic Series A3 pups while 2006 - 10 had overwound vintage style pups that were really hot and sound terrible, bit like Tex/Mex with no metal plate under the bridge pup! I had to take them off my 2007 Tele and I put in the superior Yosemite set.
Series 1 also had acrylic paint while series 2 had nitro.
The big headstock is a dealbreaker for me.

[Jazzipad]

Thanks for the video! Personally I own for 10 years a 2005 Fender Stratocaster Highway One (first series with the classic headstock) in sunburst finish that I still like the first day. My guitar was upgraded by its former owner who put Texas Special pickups that make sound really great! It has more gain and it’s more powerful than normal standard series! I compared it with my teacher’s strat and it was so surprising. It feels great too and I don’t think I won’t sell my Strat one day because it’s my very first good electric guitar I own. If today I should buy a strat, I prefer to choose an used highway one than a new mexican made… So Highway One was a good series!

[JerryD]

Excellent demo and playing on your two beautiful Strats

[davidsisto]

Great video and and love both guitars but I just picked up a mint condition '06 HWY 1. The neck? Perfect and a bit wider at the nut than standard Strats....including my MIM and SRV model. The pots are 250k and pickups are Alnico 3 and bit hot. I've been playing for 32+ years and the value cannot be beat. Like you said, it stays in tune but extremely impressed with the tone in all pickup positions and more versatile than the SRV. It pairs really well with both my Tech 21 and Roland Blues Cube Artist and is a match made in heaven with both the SA Ventris and J.Rockett Blue Note. Medium profile, rosewood board with tight grain, resonant body and this will deliver Knopfler, Gilmour and SRV tones forever and more. One of the greatest runs by Fender imo.

[steveburroughs]

I really like the sienna burst Strats, a bit more unusual. I stuck Ancho Poblanos and a King Tone switch in one of my CS Strats, transformed it.

[seanyiscubsfan]

I’ve got a 2007 Highway One Telecaster in the honey blonde finish with a rosewood board that I picked up about 6 months and I love it. These guitars had a thin skin/satin nitro finish which isn’t a common thing on lower priced Fenders. The Highway ones are good guitars and they’re starting to go up in price on the used market. I’m lucky to have gotten my Tele for $600. I’ve come to two conclusions with regards to owning it. I should’ve picked up a telecaster years ago and I wish I knew about the Highway One series back in the day.

[milesa-c]

I also deck the bridge on my Highway 1, after putting locking tuners, new saddles and tone rider pick-ups, this is the only strat i'll ever need. I rarely have to tune it and the nitro finish (apart from looking amazing) seems to let it breathe. My guitar tech is a strat guy and he has commented a couple of times about how much he likes it . This is coming from a man who has a 1962 strat in his collection.

[AlmostGrewMyHair]

I deck my bridge too, and I still use it with the trem arm, but the springs are set so it doesn't move when bending strings so I get the hardtail-like string tension and resonance.

[theartshow]

Love my highway one HSS. The hum-bucker makes it scream real nice. Jumbo frets make it play like butter. I’ve played a lot of American standards and custom shop strats and they just don’t play as smooth. At all.

[rawkinj]

I turned my SSS Highway One into an HSS with a Burstbucker from my Epiphone. I've had it for 5 years now, it's my baby! I play more rock so the humbucker really works !!

[MrTom]

Love my Highway One Strat! I got it in red. Allowed me to get into an American made Strat for a great price.

[mig]

One of the best comparisons of a stock vs custom shop around. Well played aswell 👍

[luisralda]

Por el amor de Dios!! Que hermoso tono!
What a great tones! Thank you for this demo