Absolutely a Free Flyte bridge, made by Schaller in Germany. At the time these came out I was working as a Guitar tech in a large local music store in Florida and we were an authorized Fender repair shop. These were wonderful guitars made in the twilight years of Fender's Fullerton factory under engineer Dan Smith. Of course as you are discovering, an absolute nightmare to set up. The dummy coil you correctly identified is one of the better features of this guitar -- humbucker-type hum canceling made this guitar one of the quietest Strat's ever made with a very "tight" sound. The tone controls are hard to understand because they just odd. You begin by setting them both in the center, which is supposed to give you a normal Strat sound. They are detented in the middle of their so you can find the center easily. turning them up or down from the center does different things in each direction AND different things on each knob. Turning the middle knob (TBX) down from the center acts as a normal tone control while working up from the center boosted presence/brightness. Turning the bottom knob (MDX) down, boosts some lower frequencies while turning up boosts some higher frequencies. Fender boasted that this provided tonal options from Country bright to Funk to Jazz and could also supposedly emulate a humbucker. Or, so they claimed. As for adjusting the tremolo tension, remove the pick guard, the dummy coil and bridge pickup and you'll gain access to the end of the tremolo springs and the spring claw. You then remove the springs and finally you can then move the claw within a very limited adjustment range tighten or loosen up the tremolo a little. None of this is for the faint of heart.... Anyway, this will probably revive nightmares from long ago. lol BTW, there was also a Telecaster model with a similar type of setup, although I never actually physically saw one except at a Summer NAMM show in Chicago in '82 or '83 For me, I bought a '82 Stratocaster Standard (aka by collectors as a Dan Smith Model) in two-tone Cherry Sunburst -- best Strat I've ever owned. Havde a good one Ryan, I love your videos and a Surf music guy.
Thanks for the info! I have a question: is the dummy coil connected directly to the pickups, or does it go through the circuit, as a way to cancel the hum without changing drastically some aspects of each pickup (like inductance, resistance, capacitance)? It's one thing I don't like about using dummy coils is how much it affects the pickup.
@@joseislanio8910 Hello Jose' As I recall, the wiring for all of the pickups is like a standard strat. Positive lead from the pickups go to the push-button, pickup selector switches. The negative lead go to ground on the back of a pot. From there they go into the pre-amp circuit board. The dummy coil goes directly into the pre-amp, since it is not switched. Can't tell you much about that pre-amp board as I've never seen a schematic for it. But your concern about the dummy coil changing the sound shouldn't be an issue in this case. Tell you why, the pickups themselves are low impedance, active pickups. The on-board pre-amp amplifies and shapes the sound by design. In simple terms, the pre-amp design compensates for any tone loss by the inclusion of a dummy coil
@@reggiewallace260 What an excellent post. Thanks so much for sharing! Maybe Ryan can make a short little vid demonstrating the tone controls with this newfound knowledge 🥺 That trem…. No thanks lol Makes me shudder thinking about trying to fine tune, put it back together, then dive back in to adjust again… you poor soul.
Actually, only the TBX control has the center detente. The MDX control just gradually dials in the dummy coil through the preamp which is where the added midrange and boost comes from.
@@harleyhexxe9806 Perhaps my memory was a bit off on the detente on the MDX control after 40 years. But I think you may be over-simplifying the way it works. The manual from this instrument, taken from Fender's website says "The MDX Control gives a variable boost of up to 6db in a specially selected frequency range. When using this control you can get a remarkably accurate simulation of even the hottest humbucking pickps." So we know that this isn't just 'dialing in the dummy coil' since this would not produce a 6db boost in selected frequencies. Perhaps it causes some combination of mixing in the dummy coil AND boost of some of the lower frequencies, or perhaps not. It is a mysterious as the entire guitar was.
I have one of these. 2nd owner since 1985. Over the years replaced the pickups with EMGs, removed the locking nut, and last year the button array finally died. Thankfully you can order a WD pickguard cut for a 5 way. This guitar is the best strat I've ever played. Pure magic. I'm glad reading the comments that the Elites are finally getting some love.
I own one of these, and it's the best advanced Stratocaster that was ever made. Mine also has the FTLN on the headstock. The Tremolo adjustment is done with an allen wrench from the top of the bridge. This guitar is only designed for .008s .009s and .010s. You have to move the claw to the correct position for each gauge. The bridge is meant to be decked since most players were doing that in the early 80s. The controls are: Volume, TBX, and MDX. If you have any questions about this guitar, just ask. I've owned one since 1984. I think your claw in that guitar may be set for .010-.042 and that's why you can't relieve the tension with the "Top-just" screw. To adjust the tension for the correct gauge of strings, you need to remove the bridge pickup and dummy coil to access the claw. There are three pairs of holes in the claw plate, and two screws that hold it down. The pair of holes closest to the neck is where you mount it with the screws for .008 gauge sets of strings. The pair of holes closest to the bridge are the ones for .010 gauge sets. The middle pair is for .009s. After that is set up for the correct gauge of strings, then you tune it up and adjust the tension from the top of the bridge by loosening the screw until the back of the bridge starts to come off the body, then tighten it so the bridge just comes to rest on the body without slamming into it.
If I'm not mistaken, this has the System II bridge. There seems to be conflicting information about whether the Elite came with a System II or a Free Flyte bridge. From pictures pulled up in a search, the one seen here matched the System II look (unless the picture was mismarked). I have a mid 80's Squier with the System I bridge. I love it....... and hate it at the same time. LOL!
The pots and switches make think of G&L’s bass and treble roll off pots. You can also select bridge and neck pups or all by using the push pull on the volume pot. I wonder which came first?
I put a TBX into my 2000 Powerhouse Strat since its actives lacked sparkle, I'm also familiar with it from 90s American Standards. What does the MDX do? Is that simply the control for the boost circuit?
I have an '83 Elite II P-Bass in Emerald green that I kinda had to rebuild. I can tell you the schematic is crazy. The Elite's all do 20 things of which 3 are useful but cool none the less. Awesome video!
I saw the prototype of this guy back in the 90s in the sound room at Fender HQ back when my dad worked there. I got to hold Clapton's original Blackie the same day.
@@handle433 I was twelve years old and it was thirty years ago. I didn't know the difference between heavy and light guitars and good resonance at the time. I wouldn't start playing for another 8 years.
I worked at the brand new Guitar Center location across the street from the original and these new Fenders were just one more delight in my mind that I could buy a vintage Strat on the cheap. If anything it did the opposite. Old amps and effects on the other hand were ripe for the picking. I bought a Vox Pathfinder and a tweed 50's Champ for a hundred bucks each. Then one day I asked a shop if they had any old amps I could buy to learn from. They brought out three Fender chassis without their cabinets and asked, "uh' 75 bucks okay?". I got a brownface Bassman (with the Presence control), a Bear modded '65 Bassman, and a '71 Silver face Twin Reverb. The only thing wrong was the Output transformer was blown on the brown face. I memorized all three of those amps wiring and the mods on the '65 Bassman. Then in '91 I got Aspen Pittman's first edition of the Groove Tubes amp book that has every vintage amp schematic in it. I no longer had to remember anything. lol
The Ty Tabor Special! These guitars are responsible for one of the greatest and most mysterious/debated tones in rock history (along with a Lab Series amp,..and an incredible player, of course). Another thing about these guitars is that while not that big names used the actual guitars, quite a few big names used these pickups back in the 80s. Even Clapton.
@@michaelr.4878 I love King's X! I was thinking about that amazing tone he got when I saw this video pop up. There are interviews where he talks about why he quit using the Strat Elite/ Lab Series amp set up, I guess it was because they were both extremely microphonic/ sensitive to interference. It was a great sound regardless. I saw King's X in 2022, and while all of their sounds have evolved over time, you still know who it is when you hear it.
the necks on those 80's Fenders are where it's at. I have a coupla modern ones that are close, but when I play my buddy's 85 strat, it's just night and day.
That dual pot tone control is Fender's TBX tone control which made it over to the American Standard series. The other tone pot is the active MDX mid-boost; the pickups themselves are passive. Eric Clapton was a fan of these guitars which was the inspiration for his signature model by which time Fender moved on from the dummy coil to Lace Sensors (apparently, an updated version was planned which would have used EMG pickups, exotic woods, and I think neck-throu construction). The Bi-Flex truss rod and redesigned string trees (EZ Glyder) also made it over to the Standard Stratocaster (made-in-USA) and the later American Standard. Fender kind of brought this concept back during the mid-2000's (?) with the made-in-Mexico Deluxe Powerhouse Strat; similar electronics to the Elite but in a more traditional Stratocaster form.
I remember when this and the 2 knob standard, which I own, came out. I was upset that I could not afford the Elite. I had no idea that it is active with a load of circuitry. Jesus knows that the Elite would not have lasted for me. My Standard, which I named 'Agnetha,' is still going strong. Thank you for the Elite review.
That guitar is so cool! I found a manual for it here - you were right about the spring tension screw for the bridge. There's a diagram on page 8. I'll reply to my own comment with a link to the manual I found.
That could be because it's getting harder to find an Elite in original condition that hasn't had the guts ripped out of it and replaced with something else. Unfortunately, that's happened a lot.
Trust me when I say, "your in WAY over your head my friend". When properly set up, these guitars are among THE MOST amazing sounding and playing instruments ever made. They are however not for everyone. I bought mine (a 1983 Gold Walnut Elite) in March or April of 1983 I think ? I'll say one other thing....I own lots of nice guitars as I've been playing about 60 years now. However the Elite Strat. has been in it's case over 10 years now. Watching your video motivated me to get it out. Oh My God...playing it now is like going from a Voltswagon Bug to a Formula 1 !!!
Honestly, even with all it's "quirkiness" that really is a beautiful guitar. It really was ahead of it's time, and more advanced than anything else at the time. Truthfully it paved the way for many things that were invented later on - TBX tone system, active preamp and booster, and I believe that bridge was on a rail with a combination roller system.
Thanks for reviewing this rarity, whiich I haven't encountered since I tried one in a store in the 80s. I remember the look, feel and sound was well above average and very high tech at the time. It had a tidy, hi-fi sound, what we might generically call "digital" today but digital tech hadn't migrated to guitar gear yet. Clearly not "vintage" but the overall build quality was comparable to what we've seen in custom shop models over the past several years and I believe in a blind test it would deliver a sound that many strat lovers idealize and look for.
@@60CycleHumcast Haha, yes you're right and I'm showing my age. I meant vintage in the sense of those seminal 50s and 60s models that we still love and emulate. Still, I don't remember a better time to buy the variety of excellent, consistant, and reasonably priced guitars that we can today. Wouldn't it be great if we could buy and use vintage style cars at a price and quality relative with today's guitars, like a reissue 57 Chevy for $25k! Please keep the great videos coming.
This actually looks like it’d pretty sick, especially the active pickups and button selectors. May have to find out how to get that to work on the guitar I’m building.
You reckon that's weird. I just bought an Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III. Onboard tuner, Shadow piezo pickup built in to the body end of the neck after the final fret, the volume and tone controls for the Shadow pickup on the 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 of the body, two output jacks for stereo enjoyment, a chambered light weight body with a belly relief, two Probucker pickups that can be in and out of phased, and a satin finish paint on the back of the neck, and a stunning flame maple top. This thing plays and sounds better than some Gibson's that are two or three times the price. I love it.
I liked the tones, very twangy. I think they should bring it back in a limited release. Also, Josh would absolutely build a pedal out of that circuit board. 😺😸
The MDX control has already been built as a pedal. The circuitry was modified to give the midrange boost without a dummy coil and was installed in the original EC model Strat with Lace Sensor pickups. Now, you can get that in a pedal kit too.
@@sassycat mine was already blown trying (and failing) to find the op-amp chips, inductors and capacitors. not convinced that is actually controlling the tone at all.
Sounds a lot like my 90s Powerhouse strat, with active 12db boost. I haven't opened it up in a long time, but I think it has a similar circuit board and dummy coil. One of the tone knobs activates the battery/boost.
I had a chance to play a sample of this at my local store last month. It’s…not what I expected. I’m glad they tried some new things. Obviously, it didn’t work out.
Thanks, great video. First step diagnosis on actives systems is to change the battery. Elite and Contemporary Strats from the 80s are quality instruments. Tell Steve to get in touch if he is interested in a System 2 trem, it's a hens teeth kind of thing, I might have one for sale if the price is right :)
I have a 1980’s mij with a Kahler and Seymour Duncan live wires, which were brand new back then. Bought it used already modded. It sounds very similar. The clarity of active pickups makes things different. And yep - batteries can change everything in an active setup. You could charge a few hundred dollars for a couple sprays of that deoxidizer.
First time looking under the hood on one of these, but what I remember from playing one of them back in the day is that it weighed as much as an engine block. Oh and it was red, so very red.
despite not being born in the 80s, instead the early 2000s (not that id change it for the world) i know for a fact, designs, redesigns, and things like that were amazingly wild
My second-greatest gear regret is seeing a red one of these on the wall of my college town's tiny downtown guitar shop in the 90s and not moving heaven and earth to come up with the $400 to purchase it. Especially since I was and remain a MASSIVE Ty Tabor/King's X fan. It was a player, too...unlike some of that era's Fenders.
But how are you going to fix surf music? But seriously, though I couldn't find the webpage, there is a company that makes various hum-cancelling solutions for strats with coils in the plate the covers the springs (and other places) plus a little circuit board with some dip switches to adjust. I assume that is what the dummy coil is doing in its way?
@@joeyskar God I hope that was a rhetorical question because I have no idea. I assume everything just works, and it's not like the dummy coil can cancel out the string signal.
@@christopheranderson2100 it turns two single coils on at once putting both pickups in parallel signal essentially cancelling the hum that you get from just using one single coil. By putting a dummy coil in the mix for positions 1,3, and 5 you are getting the same effect in theory cancelling the 60 cycle hum that you'd normally get without it.
@@joeyskar That's what I would expect. Doesn't answer your question of what happens in 2 & 4 though. Since my original comment I bought a guitar with 2 humbuckers, and the middle position just sounds half-way between. I swapped the neck pickup for a single coil, and middle position was terrible. So I feel that the dummy coil would be suffer in a similar way if you were using it on a HSS or somesuch.
Normally with a 9 volt battery I do the toung test and the better it is the more I can feel it. If it is dead nothing If it has a charge you can feel it!! Love you all and have a blessed day!!!!
I watched Dave of Dave's World of Fun Stuff work on one on his channel years ago. He literally had to do what the some of the others who commented have said yo have to do. He removed the pickguard, unscrewed and removed all the pickups, and adjusted the spring claw end to the right holes based on what his re-printed internet PDF of the original manual said was right for the string gauge (9's) his client wanted to change to. All while cursing up a storm and bashing on Fender for having invented the design. Why did they do put an access panel on the back?!? Jeeza!
I own a '00 MiM Deluxe Powerhouse Strat with a factory active 12dB mid-boost. It has both the dummy coil and the metal screwholes. It ALSO has scratchy pots and a slightly "off" tonal color. A little darker and punchier even with the boost turned off. I replaced the tone pot with the double-stacked "Treble-Bass eXpander" (TBX) control to give it more sparkle on the top-end when I need it. I think the Elite was equipped with that control from the factory. You noticed the detente at 5 on the middle? That's the transition from a standard tone to the TBX.
12:31 main feature of a dummy coil is there are no magnet(s), which is why it does not pick up info from the strings. The reason you can still hear hum is that for achieving optimal tone w a dummy coil the coil is often intentionally mismatched with the primary / audible / magnetized single coil. An exact match will completely hum-cancel but sound un-jangley / less stratty. That said I’m not loving the pickups regardless
i worked at a retail music store in the 80s we stocked these. but the coolest thing during that time period maybe a bit later is the fender performer guitars mij. check out the performer bass guitar too if you can find one.
I remember John Ham's (brother of Peter Ham from Badfinger) music shop here in Swansea had a few of these Elite guitars in , I'd guess 1984 ish. I'm sure he had a Telecaster variant too.
The Dan Smith era was a weird time… i had a two knob lefty Strat from the same era, that top load trem was garbage, but the neck was great, and pickups were nice
Noiseless pickups, the Clapton mid-boost mod and a superswitch is plenty advanced tech for any Fender strat IMO. Pair those electronics with an LSR roller nut, strap locks, a 2-point tremolo, staged locking tuners, a compound fretboard radius, assymetric neck profile, stainless steel frets and the American ultra body contours and you have yourself a guitar as advanced as is reasonable
"The Wiggle Stick" thats the first time ive heard it called that, as well as the best name. i was introduced to a tremolo bar under the name "Whammy Bar" which was fun, then i discovered later into playing guitar that it was officially called a "Tremolo Bar" which wasnt as fun in my opinion. but "Wiggle Stick" is by far the most fun and cool name ive heard it be called. might call it that fromnow on
I love all these weird 70s & 80s oddities. Most weren't well received at the time, though a few have become "cult classics" over the years. The real issue with the guitars of the time was more of a QC issue than anything. If you managed to get a good one then they're still great guitars and they've got these quirky differences that can really standout and be "unique" On the pickups on these ones, the active circuitry was really more about trying to limit the noise from the single coils (hence the "dummy" coil etc.). It adds some compression which the hum from the pickups is below the threshold to activate in order to suppress it. That's kind of why it works though as it results in a kind of "hi-fi" pre-recorded and compressed sound such as you'd hear on any album. Adding in the TBX active tone circuit to boost the highs then helps add back in some of the top end you lose with the compression
That Trem looks like they took a vintage trem and bred it with a Kahler. My Uncle had a Peavey Falcon that had a similar looking trem made by Kahler from what I can remember.
It was nice that you wanted to clean up the body and around the cut-out for the electronics but you used a paper towel to do it. You should have used a microfiber towel which are also used for cleaning the paint on cars. They don't scratch the finish like paper towels do.
When this started with the statement of this being one of the strangest strats made, I thought "it doesn't look all that different than any other strat." Then, the pickguard came off and I though "my god, that's insanely over complicated."
Absolutely a Free Flyte bridge, made by Schaller in Germany. At the time these came out I was working as a Guitar tech in a large local music store in Florida and we were an authorized Fender repair shop. These were wonderful guitars made in the twilight years of Fender's Fullerton factory under engineer Dan Smith. Of course as you are discovering, an absolute nightmare to set up.
The dummy coil you correctly identified is one of the better features of this guitar -- humbucker-type hum canceling made this guitar one of the quietest Strat's ever made with a very "tight" sound.
The tone controls are hard to understand because they just odd. You begin by setting them both in the center, which is supposed to give you a normal Strat sound. They are detented in the middle of their so you can find the center easily. turning them up or down from the center does different things in each direction AND different things on each knob.
Turning the middle knob (TBX) down from the center acts as a normal tone control while working up from the center boosted presence/brightness.
Turning the bottom knob (MDX) down, boosts some lower frequencies while turning up boosts some higher frequencies. Fender boasted that this provided tonal options from Country bright to Funk to Jazz and could also supposedly emulate a humbucker. Or, so they claimed.
As for adjusting the tremolo tension, remove the pick guard, the dummy coil and bridge pickup and you'll gain access to the end of the tremolo springs and the spring claw. You then remove the springs and finally you can then move the claw within a very limited adjustment range tighten or loosen up the tremolo a little.
None of this is for the faint of heart....
Anyway, this will probably revive nightmares from long ago. lol
BTW, there was also a Telecaster model with a similar type of setup, although I never actually physically saw one except at a Summer NAMM show in Chicago in '82 or '83
For me, I bought a '82 Stratocaster Standard (aka by collectors as a Dan Smith Model) in two-tone Cherry Sunburst -- best Strat I've ever owned.
Havde a good one Ryan, I love your videos and a Surf music guy.
Thanks for the info!
I have a question: is the dummy coil connected directly to the pickups, or does it go through the circuit, as a way to cancel the hum without changing drastically some aspects of each pickup (like inductance, resistance, capacitance)? It's one thing I don't like about using dummy coils is how much it affects the pickup.
@@joseislanio8910
Hello Jose'
As I recall, the wiring for all of the pickups is like a standard strat. Positive lead from the pickups go to the push-button, pickup selector switches. The negative lead go to ground on the back of a pot.
From there they go into the pre-amp circuit board.
The dummy coil goes directly into the pre-amp, since it is not switched. Can't tell you much about that pre-amp board as I've never seen a schematic for it.
But your concern about the dummy coil changing the sound shouldn't be an issue in this case. Tell you why, the pickups themselves are low impedance, active pickups. The on-board pre-amp amplifies and shapes the sound by design. In simple terms, the pre-amp design compensates for any tone loss by the inclusion of a dummy coil
@@reggiewallace260 What an excellent post. Thanks so much for sharing! Maybe Ryan can make a short little vid demonstrating the tone controls with this newfound knowledge 🥺
That trem….
No thanks lol
Makes me shudder thinking about trying to fine tune, put it back together, then dive back in to adjust again… you poor soul.
Actually, only the TBX control has the center detente. The MDX control just gradually dials in the dummy coil through the preamp which is where the added midrange and boost comes from.
@@harleyhexxe9806 Perhaps my memory was a bit off on the detente on the MDX control after 40 years. But I think you may be over-simplifying the way it works. The manual from this instrument, taken from Fender's website says "The MDX Control gives a variable boost of up to 6db in a specially selected frequency range. When using this control you can get a remarkably accurate simulation of even the hottest humbucking pickps."
So we know that this isn't just 'dialing in the dummy coil' since this would not produce a 6db boost in selected frequencies. Perhaps it causes some combination of mixing in the dummy coil AND boost of some of the lower frequencies, or perhaps not. It is a mysterious as the entire guitar was.
I'm on studio monitors for all these shows, and that is one of the best sounding SSS Strats I have ever heard! That should be one happy owner.
I don't like the sound at all.
I have one of these. 2nd owner since 1985. Over the years replaced the pickups with EMGs, removed the locking nut, and last year the button array finally died. Thankfully you can order a WD pickguard cut for a 5 way. This guitar is the best strat I've ever played. Pure magic. I'm glad reading the comments that the Elites are finally getting some love.
@Willis_S it's too bad you weren't able to keep the buttons, it's such a unique feature for a strat
@@soundsofstabbing3627 He shoulda done triple toggles to retain the original functionality.
I own one of these, and it's the best advanced Stratocaster that was ever made. Mine also has the FTLN on the headstock.
The Tremolo adjustment is done with an allen wrench from the top of the bridge. This guitar is only designed for .008s .009s and .010s. You have to move the claw to the correct position for each gauge. The bridge is meant to be decked since most players were doing that in the early 80s.
The controls are: Volume, TBX, and MDX.
If you have any questions about this guitar, just ask. I've owned one since 1984.
I think your claw in that guitar may be set for .010-.042 and that's why you can't relieve the tension with the "Top-just" screw. To adjust the tension for the correct gauge of strings, you need to remove the bridge pickup and dummy coil to access the claw. There are three pairs of holes in the claw plate, and two screws that hold it down. The pair of holes closest to the neck is where you mount it with the screws for .008 gauge sets of strings. The pair of holes closest to the bridge are the ones for .010 gauge sets. The middle pair is for .009s. After that is set up for the correct gauge of strings, then you tune it up and adjust the tension from the top of the bridge by loosening the screw until the back of the bridge starts to come off the body, then tighten it so the bridge just comes to rest on the body without slamming into it.
If I'm not mistaken, this has the System II bridge. There seems to be conflicting information about whether the Elite came with a System II or a Free Flyte bridge. From pictures pulled up in a search, the one seen here matched the System II look (unless the picture was mismarked).
I have a mid 80's Squier with the System I bridge. I love it....... and hate it at the same time. LOL!
@@kmabru No Sir! This is the Free-Flyte Tremolo Bridge. I believe the System II was the locking trem on the Japanese Contemporary models.
Great info.
The pots and switches make think of G&L’s bass and treble roll off pots. You can also select bridge and neck pups or all by using the push pull on the volume pot. I wonder which came first?
I put a TBX into my 2000 Powerhouse Strat since its actives lacked sparkle, I'm also familiar with it from 90s American Standards. What does the MDX do? Is that simply the control for the boost circuit?
I have an '83 Elite II P-Bass in Emerald green that I kinda had to rebuild. I can tell you the schematic is crazy. The Elite's all do 20 things of which 3 are useful but cool none the less. Awesome video!
wow , there's a what now? * googles it so fast you hear the vaccum snap shut where my hands were before i read that *
I saw the prototype of this guy back in the 90s in the sound room at Fender HQ back when my dad worked there. I got to hold Clapton's original Blackie the same day.
@@tjzambonischwartz what was Blackie like? Heavy or light? Good resonance?
@@handle433 I was twelve years old and it was thirty years ago. I didn't know the difference between heavy and light guitars and good resonance at the time. I wouldn't start playing for another 8 years.
I worked at the brand new Guitar Center location across the street from the original and these new Fenders were just one more delight in my mind that I could buy a vintage Strat on the cheap. If anything it did the opposite. Old amps and effects on the other hand were ripe for the picking. I bought a Vox Pathfinder and a tweed 50's Champ for a hundred bucks each. Then one day I asked a shop if they had any old amps I could buy to learn from. They brought out three Fender chassis without their cabinets and asked, "uh' 75 bucks okay?". I got a brownface Bassman (with the Presence control), a Bear modded '65 Bassman, and a '71 Silver face Twin Reverb. The only thing wrong was the Output transformer was blown on the brown face. I memorized all three of those amps wiring and the mods on the '65 Bassman. Then in '91 I got Aspen Pittman's first edition of the Groove Tubes amp book that has every vintage amp schematic in it. I no longer had to remember anything. lol
The Ty Tabor Special! These guitars are responsible for one of the greatest and most mysterious/debated tones in rock history (along with a Lab Series amp,..and an incredible player, of course). Another thing about these guitars is that while not that big names used the actual guitars, quite a few big names used these pickups back in the 80s. Even Clapton.
@@michaelr.4878 I love King's X! I was thinking about that amazing tone he got when I saw this video pop up. There are interviews where he talks about why he quit using the Strat Elite/ Lab Series amp set up, I guess it was because they were both extremely microphonic/ sensitive to interference. It was a great sound regardless. I saw King's X in 2022, and while all of their sounds have evolved over time, you still know who it is when you hear it.
Certainly the most interesting Strat I've never seen before. Absolutely intriguing.
Great video many thanks
This was the first of your videos that I ever watched and it was a blast. Cant wait to see more thanks my friend. I am now hooked.
You should check out the most recent podcast. There's a section in there where Ryan and Steve end up talking about raccoons. I almost died laughing.
the necks on those 80's Fenders are where it's at. I have a coupla modern ones that are close, but when I play my buddy's 85 strat, it's just night and day.
That dual pot tone control is Fender's TBX tone control which made it over to the American Standard series. The other tone pot is the active MDX mid-boost; the pickups themselves are passive.
Eric Clapton was a fan of these guitars which was the inspiration for his signature model by which time Fender moved on from the dummy coil to Lace Sensors (apparently, an updated version was planned which would have used EMG pickups, exotic woods, and I think neck-throu construction). The Bi-Flex truss rod and redesigned string trees (EZ Glyder) also made it over to the Standard Stratocaster (made-in-USA) and the later American Standard.
Fender kind of brought this concept back during the mid-2000's (?) with the made-in-Mexico Deluxe Powerhouse Strat; similar electronics to the Elite but in a more traditional Stratocaster form.
I knew it looked familiar to my Powerhouse Strat.😊
Wikipedia says it’s the TBX treble/bass expander and MDX midrange booster tone controls. They tried to wedge a 3 band active eq into two knobs.
So it's kind of like the David Gilmour EMG Strat pickups?
I remember when this and the 2 knob standard, which I own, came out. I was upset that I could not afford the Elite. I had no idea that it is active with a load of circuitry. Jesus knows that the Elite would not have lasted for me. My Standard, which I named 'Agnetha,' is still going strong. Thank you for the Elite review.
That guitar is so cool!
I found a manual for it here - you were right about the spring tension screw for the bridge. There's a diagram on page 8.
I'll reply to my own comment with a link to the manual I found.
Looks like the link is not there. I'm not sure but I imagine it was removed because it was a link. It's easy to find, though.
Reading this comment just three elite players looking at each other
That could be because it's getting harder to find an Elite in original condition that hasn't had the guts ripped out of it and replaced with something else. Unfortunately, that's happened a lot.
I am old enough to have played one of these new in 1981. IMHO, the best sounding Strat to date.
@@vincentpritchett1231 They didn't hit the market until 1983 though, but I get you 🤣
Very nice strat. 80's and early 90's strats were some of the best modern era Fenders.
Only person I ever saw play one was Ty Tabor from King's X. He rehoused the preamp and continued using it even after he stopped playing the Elite.
@benbellomy9274 on the Pseudo Echo funky town video the guitarist plays one
I did not know about the re housing! Good stuff.
I've seen pictures of this model over the years but never knew how cool and unusual of a beast it was. Thanks for sharing Ryan!
Trust me when I say, "your in WAY over your head my friend". When properly set up, these guitars are among THE MOST amazing sounding and playing instruments ever made. They are however not for everyone. I bought mine (a 1983 Gold Walnut Elite) in March or April of 1983 I think ? I'll say one other thing....I own lots of nice guitars as I've been playing about 60 years now. However the Elite Strat. has been in it's case over 10 years now. Watching your video motivated me to get it out. Oh My God...playing it now is like going from a Voltswagon Bug to a Formula 1 !!!
Wow that is clean and a beautiful finish with the maple neck, mine is a candy apple red with rosewood and still works ❤😂
There is not just something strange about this strat. It is unique. It is something that needs a professional restoration. I like it. 🤟😎
Crazy guitar, great video (as per), and AMAZING funky elevator music for the fast forwarded parts! 10/10
Honestly, even with all it's "quirkiness" that really is a beautiful guitar. It really was ahead of it's time, and more advanced than anything else at the time. Truthfully it paved the way for many things that were invented later on - TBX tone system, active preamp and booster, and I believe that bridge was on a rail with a combination roller system.
Thanks for reviewing this rarity, whiich I haven't encountered since I tried one in a store in the 80s. I remember the look, feel and sound was well above average and very high tech at the time. It had a tidy, hi-fi sound, what we might generically call "digital" today but digital tech hadn't migrated to guitar gear yet. Clearly not "vintage" but the overall build quality was comparable to what we've seen in custom shop models over the past several years and I believe in a blind test it would deliver a sound that many strat lovers idealize and look for.
its 40 years old, that's squarely vintage as far as guitars go.
@@60CycleHumcast Haha, yes you're right and I'm showing my age. I meant vintage in the sense of those seminal 50s and 60s models that we still love and emulate. Still, I don't remember a better time to buy the variety of excellent, consistant, and reasonably priced guitars that we can today. Wouldn't it be great if we could buy and use vintage style cars at a price and quality relative with today's guitars, like a reissue 57 Chevy for $25k! Please keep the great videos coming.
@@malcolmkendall1547 As someone born in the 70's, I would love it if all cars had wings again. That's crazy 50's American design school was intense.
Do more videos like this! This was awesome. Get old unique unknown guitars and break em down, and set em up. Great stuff.
I have wanted one of these for ages
What a bizarro robo Strat. This is a good video.
Great video and good to see inside one of these Strats
This actually looks like it’d pretty sick, especially the active pickups and button selectors. May have to find out how to get that to work on the guitar I’m building.
Honestly out of every strat i have ever touched, these are the only ones i don't hate.
My guitar teacher had one. It was awesome. I'd love to find one.
I didn't know 80s Strats came with an on-board ZVex Fuzz Factory. That was really cool, I wish mine did that.
You reckon that's weird. I just bought an Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III. Onboard tuner, Shadow piezo pickup built in to the body end of the neck after the final fret, the volume and tone controls for the Shadow pickup on the 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 of the body, two output jacks for stereo enjoyment, a chambered light weight body with a belly relief, two Probucker pickups that can be in and out of phased, and a satin finish paint on the back of the neck, and a stunning flame maple top. This thing plays and sounds better than some Gibson's that are two or three times the price. I love it.
Love the 80s Fender knobs! My Dad has two 80s HM Strats with Kahler trem and flat 24 fret board... awesome guitars.
Those are 25" scale and come with a TBX control.
I liked the tones, very twangy. I think they should bring it back in a limited release. Also, Josh would absolutely build a pedal out of that circuit board. 😺😸
The MDX control has already been built as a pedal. The circuitry was modified to give the midrange boost without a dummy coil and was installed in the original EC model Strat with Lace Sensor pickups. Now, you can get that in a pedal kit too.
.. or build a pedal INTO that circuit board.
@@christopheranderson2100 mind. blown. 🤯
@@sassycat mine was already blown trying (and failing) to find the op-amp chips, inductors and capacitors. not convinced that is actually controlling the tone at all.
Sounds a lot like my 90s Powerhouse strat, with active 12db boost. I haven't opened it up in a long time, but I think it has a similar circuit board and dummy coil. One of the tone knobs activates the battery/boost.
Good thing I saw where the mics were setup. I wouldn’t have known which rig you were playing through haha
It’s the two Princetons!
DeoxIT is amazing
I need those deoxit tampons for output/input jacks
I love that stuff.
I had a chance to play a sample of this at my local store last month. It’s…not what I expected. I’m glad they tried some new things. Obviously, it didn’t work out.
It sounds really good!!!
Thanks, great video. First step diagnosis on actives systems is to change the battery. Elite and Contemporary Strats from the 80s are quality instruments. Tell Steve to get in touch if he is interested in a System 2 trem, it's a hens teeth kind of thing, I might have one for sale if the price is right :)
The Ty Tabor Strat!
I have a 1980’s mij with a Kahler and Seymour Duncan live wires, which were brand new back then. Bought it used already modded. It sounds very similar. The clarity of active pickups makes things different. And yep - batteries can change everything in an active setup. You could charge a few hundred dollars for a couple sprays of that deoxidizer.
First time looking under the hood on one of these, but what I remember from playing one of them back in the day is that it weighed as much as an engine block. Oh and it was red, so very red.
This has some Jeff Beck vibes for sure.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENRY!
despite not being born in the 80s, instead the early 2000s (not that id change it for the world) i know for a fact, designs, redesigns, and things like that were amazingly wild
Aloha. I had a Black Walnut with gold hardware. Heavy but I loved it.
It was nice to hear you say 60 Cycle Hum again. I kinda missed that.
Sounds like this could be come future classics/collectibles, if they’re not already
Cool guitar of an era. What an absolute nightmare under that pickguard, and I do know how to work on tube amps 😂
My second-greatest gear regret is seeing a red one of these on the wall of my college town's tiny downtown guitar shop in the 90s and not moving heaven and earth to come up with the $400 to purchase it. Especially since I was and remain a MASSIVE Ty Tabor/King's X fan. It was a player, too...unlike some of that era's Fenders.
I had one back in the late 80's/early 90's. Dog of a trem but dand it sounded fantastic. Wish i didn't let it go.
Sounds great. Up your alley
I wasn’t around when these came out but I was there when the VG Strat was their most hyped guitar of the 2000’s. 😂
I'm putting my VG Strat up for sale, I don't need it anymore.
The pickup selection noise is unacceptable. Fun video. Thanks for your personal lab rat experimentation.
Brilliant! Love it!
I've never thought about putting a dummy coil in a strat to "fix" the 60 cycle hum but that's a super cool idea.
But how are you going to fix surf music? But seriously, though I couldn't find the webpage, there is a company that makes various hum-cancelling solutions for strats with coils in the plate the covers the springs (and other places) plus a little circuit board with some dip switches to adjust. I assume that is what the dummy coil is doing in its way?
@@christopheranderson2100What happens when a Strat is in positions 2 and 4?
@@joeyskar God I hope that was a rhetorical question because I have no idea. I assume everything just works, and it's not like the dummy coil can cancel out the string signal.
@@christopheranderson2100 it turns two single coils on at once putting both pickups in parallel signal essentially cancelling the hum that you get from just using one single coil. By putting a dummy coil in the mix for positions 1,3, and 5 you are getting the same effect in theory cancelling the 60 cycle hum that you'd normally get without it.
@@joeyskar That's what I would expect. Doesn't answer your question of what happens in 2 & 4 though. Since my original comment I bought a guitar with 2 humbuckers, and the middle position just sounds half-way between. I swapped the neck pickup for a single coil, and middle position was terrible. So I feel that the dummy coil would be suffer in a similar way if you were using it on a HSS or somesuch.
Normally with a 9 volt battery I do the toung test and the better it is the more I can feel it. If it is dead nothing If it has a charge you can feel it!! Love you all and have a blessed day!!!!
I watched Dave of Dave's World of Fun Stuff work on one on his channel years ago. He literally had to do what the some of the others who commented have said yo have to do. He removed the pickguard, unscrewed and removed all the pickups, and adjusted the spring claw end to the right holes based on what his re-printed internet PDF of the original manual said was right for the string gauge (9's) his client wanted to change to. All while cursing up a storm and bashing on Fender for having invented the design. Why did they do put an access panel on the back?!? Jeeza!
If that finish was common I would Hate it but since its rare i LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!
I own a '00 MiM Deluxe Powerhouse Strat with a factory active 12dB mid-boost. It has both the dummy coil and the metal screwholes. It ALSO has scratchy pots and a slightly "off" tonal color. A little darker and punchier even with the boost turned off. I replaced the tone pot with the double-stacked "Treble-Bass eXpander" (TBX) control to give it more sparkle on the top-end when I need it. I think the Elite was equipped with that control from the factory. You noticed the detente at 5 on the middle? That's the transition from a standard tone to the TBX.
Oooh I want one. "Looks like" Lace pickups or like the guitar's stuff that Clapton played on the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary show. All that cool stuff.
The Fender Lace pickups were much better than these.
This was a fun watch
12:31 main feature of a dummy coil is
there are no magnet(s),
which is why it does not pick up info from the strings.
The reason you can still hear hum is that for achieving optimal tone w a dummy coil
the coil is often intentionally mismatched with the primary / audible / magnetized single coil.
An exact match will completely hum-cancel
but sound un-jangley /
less stratty.
That said I’m not loving the pickups regardless
Makes me want to pull my sunburst 83 elite out!! I have literally never tried the whammy!!
i worked at a retail music store in the 80s we stocked these. but the coolest thing during that time period maybe a bit later is the fender performer guitars mij. check out the performer bass guitar too if you can find one.
Ty Tabor from King's X had the best tone I've heard with an Elite
The "double pot" is the first use what Fender called/call the TBX control- deigned by Paul Gagon. He went on to work at G&L.
I used to work on watches. That contact spray was my best friend
I remember John Ham's (brother of Peter Ham from Badfinger) music shop here in Swansea had a few of these Elite guitars in , I'd guess 1984 ish. I'm sure he had a Telecaster variant too.
The Dan Smith era was a weird time… i had a two knob lefty Strat from the same era, that top load trem was garbage, but the neck was great, and pickups were nice
Noiseless pickups, the Clapton mid-boost mod and a superswitch is plenty advanced tech for any Fender strat IMO.
Pair those electronics with an LSR roller nut, strap locks, a 2-point tremolo, staged locking tuners, a compound fretboard radius, assymetric neck profile, stainless steel frets and the American ultra body contours and you have yourself a guitar as advanced as is reasonable
I remember playing those in my local music store in the 80's.
that's a very 80s sounding strat. sounds like the kind of thing you'd hear on robert plant's cheeserock solo records
That trem is very similar to the Floyd Rose Rail Tail I have installed on my Strat. It decks against the body, dive trem only.
Actually, the pickups are passive and there is a booster/ tone control circuit before the output jack.
Much like 80s musicman guitars of that era.
"The Wiggle Stick" thats the first time ive heard it called that, as well as the best name. i was introduced to a tremolo bar under the name "Whammy Bar" which was fun, then i discovered later into playing guitar that it was officially called a "Tremolo Bar" which wasnt as fun in my opinion. but "Wiggle Stick" is by far the most fun and cool name ive heard it be called. might call it that fromnow on
Whammy bar , wang bar, wiggle stick I’m sure there’s more names for it but those are the three I’ve always heard
Vibrato arm.
Those style of tuners ended up on SRV’s number one
Very cool strat
Late eighties, by the looks of the pickups. I bought a Westone over one of these, it was a bad time for Fender.
I love all these weird 70s & 80s oddities. Most weren't well received at the time, though a few have become "cult classics" over the years.
The real issue with the guitars of the time was more of a QC issue than anything. If you managed to get a good one then they're still great guitars and they've got these quirky differences that can really standout and be "unique"
On the pickups on these ones, the active circuitry was really more about trying to limit the noise from the single coils (hence the "dummy" coil etc.). It adds some compression which the hum from the pickups is below the threshold to activate in order to suppress it. That's kind of why it works though as it results in a kind of "hi-fi" pre-recorded and compressed sound such as you'd hear on any album.
Adding in the TBX active tone circuit to boost the highs then helps add back in some of the top end you lose with the compression
that thing is so cool i would kill for one of those
I only remember these from the ads in the three guitar magazines of the time.
Battery is for the MDX midrange boost. Also first TBX knob passive treble boost past the dentente. Dummy coil inside.
That Trem looks like they took a vintage trem and bred it with a Kahler. My Uncle had a Peavey Falcon that had a similar looking trem made by Kahler from what I can remember.
I have one of those....
This is like the Eric Clapton strat. Middle tone is tbx tone control and the second tone knob is a boost.
I have a black lefty-1983 elite with a original locking nut- with fine adjustment on nut-
I definitely prefer the Fender Strat Plus and the Fender DeLuxe Strat Plus, both with Fender Lace Sensors. They were available between 1987 and 1996.
Actually those are really awesome guitars. Saw Townshend use one in the eighties.
It was nice that you wanted to clean up the body and around the cut-out for the electronics but you used a paper towel to do it. You should have used a microfiber towel which are also used for cleaning the paint on cars. They don't scratch the finish like paper towels do.
My Black Walnut Elite was the only Fender that had a ebony fingerboard at the time.
I think it’s cool
she´s got that 80´s sound
I love these weird guitars... maybe one day you will have mine on the show to ask what I had been smoking while planning it.... I kid... or do i?
When this started with the statement of this being one of the strangest strats made, I thought "it doesn't look all that different than any other strat." Then, the pickguard came off and I though "my god, that's insanely over complicated."
6:38 - That's why it has such good toan.
Giggity
There is probably a cam and screw system under that trem. Probably like a Schaller Sure-Claw
I’ve had my elite telecaster since 83. Puts modern telecaster to shame