Nice collections Tim and Rolland! I do love that 70s 3 tone sunburst Tim.
When I grew up in the 70s, Strats had big headstocks and black pgs. Anything else was old and rubbish! People moan about the quality or shape of them these days (in the same way as they do about the 71-73 Mustangs!) but if you get a good one they're great. I have two 79 Strats and love them. And in my opinion their sound is far superior than any Custom shop you can get today.
There are some really good 70s Strats but the Strats of that era mostly did earn their bad reputation.
I´ve owned about 7 or 8 Strats from the 70s and played at least 20 more. Only 3 or 4 of them were killers, most were just below average and a great deal of them really sucked.
No body contours, sloppy neck pockets, uncomfortable necks, bad fret jobs and mostly heavy as a boat anchor.
Same with the 1980 "THE STRAT" I used to own. That thing sucked so bad I couldn´t even sell it for a long time. I eventually did sell it for the price of a new Korean Squier back then. Now they sell for crazy amounts, no matter how good (or bad) they are.
My 73 is a very good one, not because it´s mine but it´s the only 70s Strat that was worth keeping in the end. It was also the only good one I ever owned.
My friend has a 79 natural one that is ok but not really good and a 77 that features all of the above problems.
Mostly it has no sustain whatsoever. Although it sounds pretty good when you try it alone, it dies in a band context.
You really need to fight it and the result is not worth the effort. You hear a "pling" and then the sound drowns in the context.
It´s really pretty though, white with maple neck and the big headstock, I almost bought it from him. In the end I´m just glad I didn´t.
Bottom line is, yeah, if you get a good one they can be really good (as you know with yours) but don´t count on it. I think that they are really overrated so they bring some cash on the vintage market.
The 50 s and 60s ones are just the opposite.
There are dogs too but they are scarce and even the dogs tend to be better than most other guitars.
I´ve only played two that were average.
Now the good ones.... those are heavenly. :angel:
