Plastic Strat Nuts - Why, Fender, why?

[Bloozcat]

Most guitar manufacturers who use what's considered to be good quality parts, use CTS pots (Fender and Gibson), CGE pots (Gibson), and maybe Alpha pots. For switches and jacks, most use Switchcraft and/or CRL.

The CTS pots are normally just the stock pots that have a +/- 20% variance. I've never really seen a problem in the build quality of these, but if you get a pot(s) that are at the bottom end of that 20% (200k), it'll have a definite adverse affect on the tone of the guitar.

A company could certainly spec a better CTS pot +/- 10% if they wanted to, but that runs up the cost of the guitar. Or they could have pots made to their specs for an even greater cost to the consumer. Companies like RS Guitar Works who do this, provide custom parts for a price. People seem perfectly willing to shell out the money for replacement parts like this after buying the guitar, but complain if the cost of the guitar reflects the use of these parts in the original construction.

As it's always been, it's the luck of the draw in which parts are in the guitar you buy. That's why playing before you buy is important. Remember that even the guitars from the golden age (30-40 years ago), had their fair share of turkeys that didn't sound very good. We tend to only remember the great ones from that era.

[Jipes***]

Bloozcat thanks a lot for this very detailled explanation and great insights on guitar pots :

[Danzego]

To oldguy: Dude, don't let my experience freak you out. It hasn't freaked ME out. That first MIM was just the tool marks that was the problem. Other than that, I thought it was sweet.

The Am Std. is also very nice and was set up perfectly (or, if anything, the action was a hair lower than I would like) as far as I can tell. It's just that weird issue with what must be the nut allowing the strings to vibrate at the headstock to the point where they're sounding when playing an open B or G and giving a slight but noticeable ring (a metallic sound). But I'm not letting that one little issue steer me from any other Fenders. I'll just make sure I get one that works!

Go try a few out and see what you think. Just remember, Fenders are generally strung like crap (at least in my limited experience), so don't expect them to stay in tune very well without changing strings and, well, I too find their setups to be very inconsistent. But then I'm sure unless you get the one in a hundred that just happens to be setup in your fashion, you're going to change it anyway.

[Bloozcat]

Bloozcat thanks a lot for this very detailled explanation and great insights on guitar pots :

De rien, mon ami...or... Bitte schon, mein Freund, (if you prefer).

The next time you're out at your favorite drinking establishment Jipes, how about having a nice stein of Kronenbourg for me. It's my favorite beer, and darn hard to find locally here...:

[Plank_Spanker]

As it's always been, it's the luck of the draw in which parts are in the guitar you buy. That's why playing before you buy is important. Remember that even the guitars from the golden age (30-40 years ago), had their fair share of turkeys that didn't sound very good. We tend to only remember the great ones from that era.

For sooth......................................

The True Word has been spoken! :

[Jipes***]

De rien, mon ami...or... Bitte schon, mein Freund, (if you prefer).

The next time you're out at your favorite drinking establishment Jipes, how about having a nice stein of Kronenbourg for me. It's my favorite beer, and darn hard to find locally here...:

To be honest we don't have any real good local beer, the original one from Alsace have close down. Kronenbourg is the very last one I will surely have a drink thinking of you !