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Im bored. Lets talk about Fender electric guitars


Branden

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Hey everyone. Just wanted to get some thoughts. In terms of tone, the Fender Stratocaster is by far my favorite guitar. How can you beat those classic guitar tones of SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, David Gimour etc... But in terms of playability... I FVCKING HATE FACTORY FENDERS!!! Does anyone else find the 7.25" and 9.25" fretboards unplayable? Especially for setting low action and string bending. Also the narrow string spacing drives me nuts. And the control layout is also irritating. With the volume knob horribly close to your picking hand. And don't even get me started on the tremolos. Terrible design. But such a great looking, great sounding classic guitar. I have long wanted to get me a nice American Fender Stratocaster, but can not find one that plays well. I like 16" fretboard radius, wide string spacing, jumbo or larger frets, but Fender offers none of these options on their factory models. And the only guitars that come standard with these specs are heavy metal/shred guitars. Which is cool because I play in that style and love heavy metal, but you can't get those classic tones with them. The closest I have found that Fender offers as a factory model is the American Special Strats. They have the jumbo frets, but still the narrow string spacing and 9.25" fretboard radius. Anyone else share my opinions here?

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If you like the sound of a Fender, but don't like the various options they come with, build a Warmoth. Get a Strat (with the same sound), but a wider neck (1-11/16, 1-3/4, etc.), flatter fretboard (up to 20 inch?), upgraded vibrato (Wilkinson, Floyd), moved controls, etc.

 

Sure, you'll have to assemble it yourself, but hey if that gets you what you want.

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Branden wrote:

 

 

Hey everyone. Just wanted to get some thoughts. In terms of tone, the Fender Stratocaster is by far my favorite guitar. How can you beat those classic guitar tones of SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, David Gimour etc... But in terms of playability... I FVCKING HATE FACTORY FENDERS!!! Does anyone else find the 7.25" and 9.25" fretboards unplayable? Especially for setting low action and string bending.

 

Seeing as you quote him, all of DGs are either 7.25 or 9.5 radius

 

 

 

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Both the SRV and the Eric Johnson Strats have 12" radii fretboards.  They also have fairly fat necks, which seem counterproductive to shred-type playing. 

I'd say buy an American Standard and order a Warmoth/USACG/Mighty Mite neck to your specs.  And hang onto the original neck just in case you want to sell it one day.

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Alecto wrote:

 

 

Both the SRV and the Eric Johnson Strats have 12" radii fretboards.  They also have fairly fat necks, which seem counterproductive to shred-type playing. 

 

I'd say buy an American Standard and order a Warmoth/USACG/Mighty Mite neck to your specs.  And hang onto the original neck just in case you want to sell it one day.

 

Good points although the EJ strat doesn't have a fat neck, medium at best.  SRV's only gets fat when you get around the 12th fret too.

Personally, I wouldn't even bother buy an American strat and changing the neck, you can buy any decent body, even a MIM and spec it out to what you want and save some cash.  However, in saying that, I admit to not buying thinking what I can get for it, I buy to keep. 

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I have 3 fenders. They're all stock and I think they're great. They're also all American. I also played a ton of Fenders to find the right ones for me. Including having unfortunately bought an MIM which definitely was not right for me. I played a bunch of American ones too that just weren't good enough.

 

I haven't any reason to mod the ones I have. They're great just as they are.

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Probably sounds strange, as I've had plenty of opportunities, but I've never played a MIA guitar or bass, so for me ignorance is bliss, haha.   (I just have this weird thing about playing other people

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