Of course, that delicate finish tends to scratch easily, but the upside is that you get an instrument that should age beautifully–– kind of like a nice bottle of wine. In my experience people who’ve never played a Strat with a true nitrocellulose finish tend to underestimate its effect on tone and sustain, but to my ears a nitro-finished guitar sounds richer, with more sonic subtleties, and with just a little more oomph. Nice, nice finish… OK, it’s not for everyone, and it certainly brings a unique look to the Highway One, but if you’re at all enamored of a satin finish, and if you’ve been looking to get into a guitar that doesn’t look like it’s been dipped in a vat of gooey varnish, well, this one’s a no-brainer. The guitar’s Satin Nitrocellulose Lacquer Finish (no poly here!) comes in Honey Blonde (shown,) Flat Black, Wine Transparent, Daphne Blue, and 3-Color Sunburst.

H/S/H pickup routing and a deluxe gig bag.3-ply parchment pickguard, fat ‘70s-style headstock, and original body shape.

Vintage style synchronized tremolo and Fender/Ping Standard tuners.

Master volume knob and 5-way pickup switching.

Greasebucket Tone Circuit on bridge & neck pickups.

A trio of Hot singlecoil Strat pickups w/Alnico 3 magnets.

Rosewood or Maple fretboard w/22 jumbo frets (9.5” radius).

While the Highway One Stratocaster will undoubtedly be a perfect fit for many guitar players, especially those prone to high-gain mayhem (these pickups sounds phenomenal with a little overdrive,) I’m not afraid to tell you that the three guitars I played for this review weren’t particularly comfortable in the neck department. The guitar does sport some nice amenities––including a set of suped-up “hot” singlecoil pickups (reverse wound/reverse polarity in the middle position,) a satin nitro lacquer finish, and Fender’s Greasebucket Tone Circuit––though to my mind there are some downsides to the design as well. Introduced in July of 2006, the upgraded Highway One Stratocaster is Fender’s least expensive American Made Strat, and as such has been highly touted as the obvious answer for those guitar players longing for American Made quality at a reasonable price.

Fender highway one stratocaster 2002