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Why Strats have no equal:


fretmonster

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Every one of these guys would sound fine on any other guitar. You can glorify the Strat all you want but the only thing I see in these videos are good guitarists who could sound great on any decent instrument, and the only inspiration I get is to practice hard to get to their level. Strats still suck in my book.

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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool

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Every one of these guys would sound fine on any other guitar. You can glorify the Strat all you want but the only thing I see in these videos are good guitarists who could sound great on any decent instrument, and the only inspiration I get is to practice hard to get to their level. Strats still suck in my book.

 

Ass hurt much?
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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool

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Every one of these guys would sound fine on any other guitar. You can glorify the Strat all you want but the only thing I see in these videos are good guitarists who could sound great on any decent instrument, and the only inspiration I get is to practice hard to get to their level. Strats still suck in my book.

 

C'mon HIC, you know you secretly want some springs and and a trem block - nature's original reverb baby.poke.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by fretmonster View Post
C'mon HIC, you know you secretly want some springs and and a trem block - nature's own reverb baby.poke.gif
Eh I do not like fulcrum based bridges. I think they sound bad and handle poorly. I much, much prefer a stationary bridge with a vibrato tailpiece, like a Bigsby.

Fulcrum bridges are mechanically pretty great, though, and you can't argue with the range they get. I just wish they had a more musical dive and behaved better for unison bends.
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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool

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the only thing I see in these videos are good guitarists who could sound great on any decent instrument, and the only inspiration I get is to practice hard to get to their level.

 

Agreed, and I play a strat. Not because I really like them much, or I'd choose to buy one but it was my 1st guitar and I haven't needed a different guitar since. Seriously, that fucker has stayed.
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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool View Post
Eh I do not like fulcrum based bridges. I think they sound bad and handle poorly. I much, much prefer a stationary bridge with a vibrato tailpiece, like a Bigsby.

Fulcrum bridges are mechanically pretty great, though, and you can't argue with the range they get. I just wish they had a more musical dive and behaved better for unison bends.
I think you're completely missing the point (not to pick on you), which is the sound you get with a "floating" Strat Trem - pretty special and unique among electrics IMO. Gives you some added flavor (jangly fullness) and with the added percussiveness, makes the Strat the ideal do everything rhythm/lead machine. You get a F.R. if you want to go crazy on the whammy.
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Quote Originally Posted by PrawnHeed View Post
Agree with HIC. Hendrix also used SGs and Vs extensively. Trower played Gretsch and Gibson guitars in Procul Harem ....

Who knows what guitars were used in studio recordings.


Not the same at all IMO. I know it's a different feel he's going for in the solo setting but it loses a lot of the magic of the original for me. I mean every electric guitar has something that it does well (did I mention I have eight electrics - four bolt, four set-neck, SS hum and P90). What sets the Strat appart from everything else for me is how many things it does well. My 90's MIMs are my least expensive axes and the ones I always go for first.

A few years ago I was at a Blues show by the great Magic Slim and the Teardrops. I was with a buddy and we'd made a point of seeing Magic Slim every time he came through town because he's one of the last of the great tradition of original Chicago Blues. I loved his sound and this particular night he showed up with a Les Paul instead of his signature Jazzmaster. All I can say is worst show ever. Slim didn't miss a beat or a lick with his crab finger picking technique but it just didn't have the same bite - just way too fat and round.
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Quote Originally Posted by fretmonster View Post


Not the same at all IMO. I know it's a different feel he's going for in the solo setting but it loses a lot of the magic of the original for me. I mean every electric guitar has something that it does well (did I mention I have eight electrics - four bolt, four set-neck, SS hum and P90). What sets the Strat appart from everything else for me is how many things it does well. My 90's MIMs are my least expensive axes and the ones I always go for first.

A few years ago I was at a Blues show by the great Magic Slim and the Teardrops. I was with a buddy and we'd made a point of seeing Magic Slim every time he came through town because he's one of the last of the great tradition of original Chicago Blues. I loved his sound and this particular night he showed up with a Les Paul instead of his signature Jazzmaster. All I can say is worst show ever. Slim didn't miss a beat or a lick with his crab finger picking technique but it just didn't have the same bite - just way too fat and round.
I'm not sure what this has to do with my point - Trower played Gretsch and Gibson solid bodies.

Marshall Crenshaw is not a benchmark for me at all.
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Quote Originally Posted by fretmonster View Post
I think you're completely missing the point (not to pick on you), which is the sound you get with a "floating" Strat Trem - pretty special and unique among electrics IMO. Gives you some added flavor (jangly fullness) and with the added percussiveness, makes the Strat the ideal do everything rhythm/lead machine. You get a F.R. if you want to go crazy on the whammy.
People say that there's a sound, but I think it's more of a feel, because I certainly can't tell from listening to anyone that their trem is floating or decked. I think Teles do everything you said better than Strats do, they're just uglier and don't have contours so they're not as popular, but then again, you can get your Tele made to whatever design you want.

I think what the Strat has on any other guitar is that it's popular, so there are more Strat players than any others, and it's affordable, and Fender almost pretty much allows the entire copy market, so it's all over the place. I don't think it's necessarily more versatile than any other kind of common guitar. In fact, I think the three-pickup design is quite limiting since the 5-way forces the guitar to sound a certain way and I'm not a huge fan of it and I don't think it works in a lot of contexts. Basically, I really don't think the Strat is as versatile as everyone says it is. I think it actually jangles very poorly compared to any two-pickup guitar, for instance. Probably the main reason I end up ditching it.
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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool View Post
People say that there's a sound, but I think it's more of a feel, because I certainly can't tell from listening to anyone that their trem is floating or decked. I think Teles do everything you said better than Strats do, they're just uglier and don't have contours so they're not as popular, but then again, you can get your Tele made to whatever design you want.

I think what the Strat has on any other guitar is that it's popular, so there are more Strat players than any others, and it's affordable, and Fender almost pretty much allows the entire copy market, so it's all over the place. I don't think it's necessarily more versatile than any other kind of common guitar. In fact, I think the three-pickup design is quite limiting since the 5-way forces the guitar to sound a certain way and I'm not a huge fan of it and I don't think it works in a lot of contexts. Basically, I really don't think the Strat is as versatile as everyone says it is. I think it actually jangles very poorly compared to any two-pickup guitar, for instance. Probably the main reason I end up ditching it.
Well I do have a Tele and an offset (60's vintage Harmony H19). You are certainly right in thinking that there are certain things they do better than Strats - particularly if it's a totally clean chordal tone you're going for. But I don't think you're being completely objective or giving the Strat nearly enough credit for its versatility. Your experience with one Strat is not the be-all, end-all book. And I would add that your evaluation of why the Strat is "so popular" is purely anecdotal. Not that it doesn't have some credence in a particular context (they are omnipresent) - I guess what I'm trying to say is that for me it (the Strat lexicon) definitely does work in a lot of contexts.

Plenty of room for diverse opinions in this old world. No hard feelings, I just likes my Strats, goin to bed, big day tomorrow.wave.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by honeyiscool View Post
People say that there's a sound, but I think it's more of a feel, because I certainly can't tell from listening to anyone that their trem is floating or decked. I think Teles do everything you said better than Strats do, they're just uglier and don't have contours so they're not as popular, but then again, you can get your Tele made to whatever design you want.

I think what the Strat has on any other guitar is that it's popular, so there are more Strat players than any others, and it's affordable, and Fender almost pretty much allows the entire copy market, so it's all over the place. I don't think it's necessarily more versatile than any other kind of common guitar. In fact, I think the three-pickup design is quite limiting since the 5-way forces the guitar to sound a certain way and I'm not a huge fan of it and I don't think it works in a lot of contexts. Basically, I really don't think the Strat is as versatile as everyone says it is. I think it actually jangles very poorly compared to any two-pickup guitar, for instance. Probably the main reason I end up ditching it.
That's not the right way to compare though. The comparison would be a strat with a trem...floating or not....to a hard tail. Personally I think it does make a difference.

I agree that a strat is no more or less "versatile" than any other guitars..there are plenty of things the standard SSS strats DON'T do well.

But I totally disagree that a tele can do everything a strat does. No way. Not even close. The five way most certainly does make the strat "sound a certain way" and those sounds are not achieved by any other kind of guitar. You may not be a big fan of those tones....but many of us are.....and no tele is going to give them to us.
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Stock Teles certainly don't get quack sounds so a Tele doesn't do everything a Strat does (although maybe a Nashville Tele does, but that's complicating the issue).

But he was putting it in a more general context, that Strats are ideal do everything lead/rhythm/jangle machine, because I feel that at those things, Tele has a much simpler and straightforward palette of tones. With your standard Tele, the bridge pickup gets sizzling lead sounds whether clean or dirty (Stairway to Heaven, much?), the neck pickup is a little muddy but is great for blending into the mix, and then the middle position is that bright, forward, clean sound that no stock Strat in the world will ever give you. That's why I think Tele is a better basic rhythm guitar, if by rhythm we actually mean chords. That basic single coil N+B sound that even a P90 Les Paul has, you know, plenty of warmth to go with brightness, that sound is nowhere on a stock Strat, though Strat fans will swear that the middle pickup does it. Yeah, no it doesn't. Not even close. And outside of a few genres, where you want the guitar to be really in your face, I personally think that N+B sound is way more versatile than the B+M sound. It's not as distinctive, sure, but whatever.

Now if by rhythm guitar, you mean riffs, the Strat does have the more versatile neck pickup that's better for single notes compared to the Tele, so I think it does have that advantage. But I feel the middle only and the bridge only positions of a Strat sort of lack the obvious flavor that I like in my pickup positions. It's why I have always gravitated toward two-pickup guitars, because they're more straightforward.

Funny enough, the sound that Strats are known for, the quack, it wasn't even supposed to be a feature of the Strat. It's something enterprising players had to discover hidden between pickup positions, it's not like the Strat was ever supposed to sound like that. Had the Tele used a different kind of a switch instead of a blade switch, the Strat probably would have inherited it and nobody would have found the quack positions. It's interesting how much of the sound of modern music is dependent on that seemingly unimportant little detail.

And yeah, people disagree about this stuff all day. I do try to be objective as possible when it comes to Strats, and I've tried enough of them, and I like some of their sounds, but I say they "suck in my book" because in my opinion, they do. I don't like playing them because they're uncomfortable and lack character "in my book." I don't say they're bad for anyone else but me, but Strat enthusiasts have some desire to convince everyone that they need Strats in their lives. The way that like... Parker owners, for instance, they don't.

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I do know what you are saying....it's like Pink Floyd and Radiohead fans who can't believe I can't {censored}ing stand either of those bands.....the idea someone couldn't like them is an alien concept in their heads that just does not compute. So they just end up thinking that I just "don't get it"....lol..as if there is something ultra clever going on that I'm missing...like I'm some kind of music listening amateur or something...lol.

But then I would suggest to you (and I think HCEG is a perfect example of a place) that there are plenty of players who are every bit as arrogant about teles. "the lie detector of guitars" and other such nonsense that makes them feel superior.

Personally I don't get that mode of thinking either way. It's just a form of closed mindedness in my books.

All I know is I LOOVE my strat...and I LOOVE my tele....and my les pauls...and my P90 SG. Each of them get tones the others are incapable of in quite the same nuanced ways.

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Well, yeah, Teles aren't polygraph machines, you're free to put ten thousand dirt pedals after the Tele if you so desire. That mode of thinking is arrogant, indeed. I love a lot of guitarists with SGs and Strats, but I hate both guitars, for me, personally, and I can name plenty of decent and silly reasons why I don't like them, just like people often rattle off lists of decent and silly reasons why they dislike the Jaguar or Mustang and expect people to understand.

 

At the end of the day, I think the Strat's reputation for versatility and the fact that they're everywhere and affordable, it's difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. For instance, Rickenbacker is one of the best brands in the business, and almost everyone I know would kill for a Rick, but they have a bit of a rep as a one trick pony. But let's say you gave out one Rick to 80 local bands of different genres, and come back in a month to see what they've done with it. Dude, they all got a Rick, so half of them will still be showing theirs off, yet most of them will still sound close to how they did before they got the Rick, because it's not like they'll all of a sudden start playing the Beatles now that they have Ricks. So you'd have Ricks playing in all kinds of genres, and you'd see how they can work in punk rock, hard rock, jazz, any context, really, because they'd be in the hands of musicians who appreciate and love those guitars and want to play the music they play using them. And what am I proving with this little thought experiment? That guitars can be versatile, but ultimately, it's musicians who are versatile, guitars are tools, tone knobs and volume knobs exist, and to any musician who is serious about making a certain guitar work in a certain context will make it happen through knobs and settings and amps. So the most common and accessible tool will the most versatile tool because it's most likely to be in the hands of musicians who use them.

 

That's all I'm saying. Mustangs don't exactly have a sterling reputation for having a thick rich tone, yet what's the guitar being played on Bitches Brew? In the hands of a master, it sounds as rich as any jazz box has ever sounded. I think any well made guitar with at least two pickups, put it in enough hands, it will prove its versatility in numerous contexts and make variety of guitar tones in all kinds of music. The Strat happens to have the good fortune of being the guitar that Jimi smashed and has become an icon that will never go away. It's a cool guitar, but hardly the best for everyone.

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Every one of these guys would sound fine on any other guitar. You can glorify the Strat all you want but the only thing I see in these videos are good guitarists who could sound great on any decent instrument, and the only inspiration I get is to practice hard to get to their level. Strats still suck in my book.

 

 

this.

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The Strat happens to have the good fortune of being the guitar that Jimi smashed and has become an icon that will never go away. It's a cool guitar, but hardly the best for everyone.

 

 

Generally things don't go away for far more substantial reasons than some one smashed one once upon a time, my son (11) has never really ecven seen any of the great 70s Strat players, and he's cycled through a ton of electrics (benefit of his Dad being a builder and addict;)) and he won't be separated from his Squier CV 50s Strat.

 

His rationale? "it just sorta feels right and I can make a lot of different sounds with it..."

 

Straight from the mouth of an unjaundiced, uninfluenced 11 year old who uses his electric to escape the rigours of Ductia and other classical guitar greats

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