TRASH OR TREASURE
BLUE BOOK PUBLICATIONS
Hot-Rodded Fender Guitars
Instead of answering a specific question for eighties, Fender introduced two new lines
“Trash or Treasure” this month, I decided of guitars, called the HM (Heavy Metal)
to support Premier Guitar’s hot rod theme and the HRR (no literal translation, but the
by researching and evaluating some hot- catalog indicates H stands for “history,”
rodded guitars. In particular, I looked into and my best guess is the Rs stand for
the history of Fender’s Hot Rodded line of “Floyd Rose” and “Hot Rodded”). These
guitars that they have been producing since new, hot-rodded Strats featured a DiMarzio
the late eighties. The term hot-rodded is humbucker with coil tapping abilities in the
most often used by car enthusiasts, and bridge position. After the initial release,
refers to making cars more powerful or Fender took notice that players wanted
“souping them up.” In the guitar industry, more “beefed-up” pickups in their guitars,
hot-rodding a guitar often implies giving and more Strats became available with new,
the guitar more power, typically by altering hot-rodded pickup configurations. Fender
or changing the pickups. offered the Japanese-built HRR ‘50s Strat
(maple fingerboard) and the HRR ‘60s Strat
(rosewood fingerboard) until 1995. In 1993,
Fender introduced the Richie Sambora
Signature Stratocaster that featured a
DiMarzio humbucker pickup as well.
position, and the ’ 52 Tele has a Seymour
Duncan Vintage mini-humbucker pickup in
the neck position. These guitars can be purchased new for around $1650 a piece.
Fender released their
Stratocaster guitar in 1954,
and for the first thirty years
of production, the guitar
received very minor changes
in pickup configuration.
The Strat, in all traditional
applications, features three
single coil pickups that have
helped shaped the sound of
several notable artists, including
Eric Clapton, Yngwie Malmsteen
and Jeff Beck. Besides the
Thinline Telecaster, Fender never
really dabbled with humbucker
pickups. As the metal and hair
bands of the eighties began to
dominate the music scene, it
was evident that Fender was
going to have to change their
guitars simply to keep up. ESP,
Jackson, and Charvel
were building
pointy guitars with
extremely high
output pickups—
something Fender
had really never
experimented with.
These hot-rodded Fender guitars continue
to command steady market values. In excellent condition, the Japanese-built HRR
models are valued between $400 and $500,
the Hot Rodded Series from the late 1990s
are valued between $700 and $900, and
the Floyd Rose Strats are valued between
$1000 and $1200. Most of these values are
about 75 percent of their original MSRP,
which is a pretty decent return for a five- to
fifteen-year-old guitar.
In 1996, Fender introduced the Lone Star
Strat, which would become the first guitar in the Hot Rodded Series that was
announced in 1998. Although this type of
guitar had been offered by Fender since
the late eighties, this was the first series
actually bearing the Hot Rodded name. The
Lone Star Strat featured two Texas Special
single coils and one Seymour Duncan
Pearly Gates Plus humbucker pickup.
Other models introduced in 1998 were the
Roadhouse Strat (three Texas Special single
coil pickups), and the Big Apple Strat (two
Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus humbucker pickups). All three models retailed
for around $1200. These guitars were
produced through 2000, and in 2001 the
American Strat Texas Special models were
introduced. The Lone Star, Roadhouse, and
Big Apple were basically all renamed the
American Strat Texas Special, American
Fat Strat Texas Special, and the American
Double Fat Strat, respectively.
There is no question that players want
options when it comes to guitars. Hot-rodding a guitar is certainly an easy way to
expand a player’s tone and sound, which
has made it a very popular option. Fender,
along with several other manufacturers,
continues to experiment with pickup configurations, manufacturers, and layouts.
2007 Fender ’ 57
Stratocaster Vintage Hot
Rod in Candy Apple Red
finish, courtesy FMIC
After the sale of
Fender from
CBS to the
group headed
by the late Bill
Schultz, man-
agement began
to restructure
Fender to make
it profitable
again. In the late
Fender continued to offer the popular
combination of a Floyd Rose tremolo and
a humbucker bridge pickup Strat until the
early 2000s. Fender has also produced
several Mexican-built and Japanese-built
Stratocasters with hot-rodded pickup configurations. In 2007, Fender announced
three new American Vintage Reissue models with hot-rodded pickup configurations.
The ’ 57 Strat has a DiMarzio Tone Zone
pickup in the bridge position, the ’ 62 Strat
has a reverse-wound pickup in the middle
1996 Fender catalog displaying the
Fender Lone Star Stratocasters
Zachary R. Fjestad
Zachary is the author of the Blue Book of Acoustic
Guitars, Blue Book of Electric Guitars, and the Blue
Book of Guitar Amplifiers.
Questions can be submitted to:
Blue Book Publications
Attn: Guitar Trash or Treasure
8009 34th Ave. S. Ste #175
Minneapolis, MN 55425
800-877-4867
bluebookinc.com
guitars@bluebookinc.com
