1996 to 1999 Fender Lone Star Stratocaster Guitar Review

Como estas?

A while back I wrote about one of my original issue Fender Lone Star Stratocasters (I’ve had a few), and thought that maybe I should fill in some of the blanks about the history of these guitars.

In 1996 (Fender’s 50th anniversary), Fender issued a handful of special edition Stratocasters with features not found on their American Standard guitars. Among them were the Roadhouse, Big Apple and Lone Star Models.

The Lone Star Stratocaster was an American Standard Stratocaster with an upgraded electronics package that included a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker at the bride and two Texas Special single coil pickups.

They were available in a light Sunburst or Olympic White with a tortoise shell pickguard, and Black, Candy Apple Red, Shoreline Gold or Teal Green Metallic with a white pearloid guard.

These guitars were only available with tremolo (no hardtails) and sealed chrome tuners. Necks had maple or rosewood fretboards with 22 frets pressed into them.

My only real beef with these guitars is that they have really bulky bodies, quite unlike the profile of the original Stratocasters. By the way, all of the ones I have seen have swimming pool routes in the bodies. Some folks sniff at them, but I do not really think they change the tone that much.

The tone is typical HSS with a pretty good growl from the bridge pickup, and clean highs from the two single coils. So, the Lone Star Stratocasters are very good for rock and blues, but they do not sound like a Stratocaster. A lot of these have been changed into the SSS configuration just for this reason.

In July of 2000, the Lone Star Stratocasters morphed into the American Series Fat Strat Texas Special, with the same pickups and other improvements that the American Standard Series guitars received.

Then, in July of 2003 Fender discontinued the Texas Special and introduced the American Series Stratocaster HSS. They changed the pickups to Fender Tex-Mex single coils and a Fender Diamondback humbucker, and installed S-1 switching.

Finally, in December of 2007, they announced the American Standard Stratocaster HSS, which kept the Tex-Mex and Diamondback, but lost the S-1 switching. They also got the upgrades that the American Standard Stratocasters got, including the rolled fretboards and the heavy bridges with bent saddles.

It should be noted that there is once again a Lone Star Stratocaster in the Fender line-up. This one is made in Mexico and has same pickups and features as the original for a lot less money ($899.99 MSRP) than the American Standard Stratocaster that has a list price of $1569.99. Check one out!

Mahalo!