SPECIAL
PAWN SHOP PRIZE: THE SMITH ERA STRATOCASTER Roger Zimish �
front of the guitar by relocating the output jack to the front of the pickguard and removing the standard chrome plated output jack that was mounted into the body, The single layer pickguard was able to be pre-assembled with a new wiring harness and mounted on the guitar with 11 screws instead of the normal 12 screws. The standard tremolo was changed to the top mounted“ Freeflyte Tremolo” that has a single knife edge pivot that goes all the way across the tremolo, so there are no base plate screws in the body. The tremolo arm is a snapin bar and the springs are top loading springs which are adjusted from the top because there is no back plate. This means there is no hole cut through the body and a routed out cavity for the springs on the back. Looking at the back of the guitar you might think it’ s a hard tail. The neck is a 12” radius with a flat fingerboard. Fender also widened the fingerboard at the One of the fun things about hanging out in a nut and made the neck a little shallower from Pawn Shop around Nashville is that you never front to back. They also added bass fret wire know what or who is going to walk through so it’ s bigger then the vintage fret wire they the door. Loans, buys, trades, and sales have used. Fender brought back the 4 bolt are all parts of the deal. During one of these neck and added their neck pitch tilt adjustment transactions a kind of rare 1983 American mechanism, which was sturdy and made it Fender Standard Stratocaster surfaced. There easier to adjust the neck. No more loosening was something different about this Strat. I the neck and having to put shims in. It also was remember seeing one or two of these back in the debut of their“ Bi-flex” truss rod. the 80’ s that only had a volume and just one tone control on it. This was back when CBS Despite all the cost cutting measures and ran Fender and Dan Smith was Director of improvements Dan Smith introduced with the Marketing for electric guitars, AKA“ The Smith new Fender Standard Stratocasters in 1983, Era”. Fender was trying to make improvements the guitars didn’ t exactly rock the world of while cutting costs to make a more affordable guitar players at the time. The Strat itself isn’ t Stratocaster. The outcome was“ one of the a bad guitar and it plays really well( if you’ re most distinctive mainstream Strat’ s ever” at not a heavy tremolo arm user). The guitar is a lower price of $ 650.00 new. This new, two worth checking out. The Guitar Buyer’ s Guide knob Standard Series Stratocaster came out in suggests a selling price between $ 1500.00 1983 and lasted only until late 1984, making and $ 2000.00, but if you do some looking this a collectible guitar to some. and negotiating you perhaps can find one to fit your budget. Fender only produced this“ Smith There are pros and cons with this line of Strat. era” Stratocaster until 1984, making them a You can see where Fender cut costs on the collectible guitar to find in 2017.
PEDAL SNAPSHOT continued from page 40
The use of this technique seemed to disappear with the advent of pedalboards and buffered pedals, and along with the technique, many of those tones as went away as well. The goal of the Proto Fuzz is to allow players to dial in all of those great‘ rolled-back’ sounds from any spot in the pedal chain at the stomp of a switch. This pedal can go from sparkly clean through overdrive to super fat fuzz and everywhere in between.
The Proto Fuzz has two identical foot-switchable‘ channels,’ each with so much power of expression, I was able to get so many usable sounds without even trying. Each channel has a‘ pregain’ control and a‘ bass roll-off’. The pregain control mimics the volume pot on your guitar, allowing you to pre-set two different gain levels and jump between them. The bass rolloff is something greatly needed in most fuzz pedals and is far more usable than a standard tone control. It allows you to make a high gain sound less muddy or fatten up your lower gain settings – it’ s also very helpful when switching between single coils and humbuckers – it’ s like having a dedicated fuzz for each guitar, but in one pedal! There’ s a master volume control as well, with plenty of output on tap if needed.
The Proto Fuzz was specifically designed for musicians to use on a wide variety of instruments, from guitars to bass to acoustic instruments, or even keys due to its open and extended range of both unfiltered highs and lows. It’ s pretty rare to find a fuzz that works on horns, strings, or even drum mixes as a studio insert.
My favorite thing about this pedal is the roll-off, chimey, shimmery cleans I was able to achieve by setting the pregain knob lower. Having a two-channel fuzz pedal with this much power and flexibility was, and is, so fun to play. I ' m looking forward to seeing this pedal come to market. Proto is taking pre-orders for the next batch of 50 pedals with a $ 100 deposit through their website: www. ProtoGuitars. com
46 Jul � Aug 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com