Strat headstock?

[kr236rk]

Hi,

Which Fender Stratocasters had the large headstocks please, old, new and current models?

Thanks

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

The big headstock era started in the mid 1960s. Basically everything built from very late in 1965 until the early 1980's had the large headstock. After that, it's a mixed bag, with some models featuring the vintage style (smaller) headstock, while others feature the larger headstock. 

Fender has built numerous models over the years that feature the larger headstock design, and they continue to do so, even today. in fact, there's just way too many of them to really list them all for you... but basically anything that's a late 60's or a 70's era reissue, or is inspired by guitars from that era should feature a large headstock.  

 

 

[WRGKMC]

I recently bought a large headstock neck to replace the neck on my 80's Standard Strat.  It had a nice yellowed finish and had an excellent fret job using the frets which are much thinner then your normal modern style Strat frets.  Excellent price paid for it too, $35 completely flawless from what I could see. only thing that wasn't good was the plastic nut which I still need to update but I just got in a batch so that's no big deal. 

Sound wise I went from using a standard neck with the smaller headstock to the larger.  I cant say there was a huge difference in tone, but the tone was a bit broader. It had better lows and more spank on top.  I actually did a recording of it here.  The articulate tones I get from that guitar come from the modded phase switches and TX special pups in that guitar.  I use on that guitar.

 

 

 

 

 

[arcadesonfire]

Even though a non-Fender US-made strat would be so much cheaper, I just can't stand the thought of playing one that doesn't have the signature headstock. Darnit!

[kr236rk]

The larger headstock just looks like it balances the body more - not a fan of the 'slim-line' look, even though it is quite genuine.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I’ve always preferred the smaller headstock - I part because that’s what I grew up seeing my musical heroes playing more often than not. Plus, by the time I was in high school in the 70s, the pre-CBS guitars were becoming harder to get, and were definitely considered the more desirable guitars in terms of build quality, etc.