Short answer is: HSS Strat. That humbucker in the bridge solves many problems mentioned here. Long answer: 1. Humbucker in the bridge. I never really liked single in the bridge. With humucker you get more mids, more body and more output from the bridge position. Go for lower to medium output humbucker, so you do not have problems balancing output with the neck pickup. Event the single coil sized humbuckers from Dimarzio or SD do the job, but full Humbuckers sound better and look more cool if you ask me 😁 Strat like that sounds really close to, let's say, Gibson SG. Not as thick as Les Paul, but not far away from that gibsony sound, too. 2. Connect your second tone control just to the bridge pickup. Then, when you get enough brightness in the neck pickup position, if the bridge position is too bright, adjust accordingly until you get the fullness and definition from both pickups. 3. If you then find that the neck pickup has way less output and you generally play with a lot of distortion most kf thr time, you can think about a single coil with a bit more output.or even a single-sized humbucker in the neck position. They do sound great when properly adjusted and added bonus is noiseless experience. 4. If you think that you are missing some quack and delicate sounds in the bridge positiion, make the humbucker splittable or make it split in the beidge + middle position. This way you are just one position away going from angry rock guitar sounds in the bridge to the most iconic strat quack in the second position. 5. If you need even more balance, especially in the 2nd and 4th position, and you want those sounds in alive context without losing so much output, introduce always-on subtle compression. Until I did that, my 2nd and 4th losition, while tonally the most beautiful, were pretty much always burried in the mix. Compressor srted that out for good! Good luck aith these mods, I hope update video is coming.
My strat which I bought new in 88 eventually has morphed into Seymour Duncan JB humbucker, original strat pup in the middle, custom wound P90 specially made for me in the neck, Very usable, can play a full gig on one guitar. But do I love it? No. It's a working tool. As a Strat, my Mexi classic player 57 in fiesta red sounds much better than the USA strat ever did when it was SSS.
So as someone who is a diehard strat player these days - Check pickup outputs are outputting into your IRs / amp in a similar way. It might sound obvious, but if your neck pickup is at 5.6k (or around there for classic strat tones) and then your humbucker guitars are sitting at 12k, fundamentally you are getting a pretty different signal outputting to the amp. Low output pickups are more sensitive to variances in volume, so when you turn up for live playing all the small things you do where you might not hit a hammer on quite as hard suddenly become very noticeable. Basically what you are ‘missing’ and is throwing you off is natural compression from the amp responding to higher pickup outputs, and you are used to the ‘feel’ of a denser magnetic field. You can either grab a set of higher output single coils (and ruin your classic strat tone somewhat but actually have a more consistent live gig) or do what everyone has been doing for decades: put some transparent clean boost klon sorta thing in your chain and leave it on. The whole point of that is to bring the output more in line with a set of humbuckers and compensate for less output from the guitar in the first place. Simply turning up your amp, or other things like that generally don’t work as it’s a problem that has to be mitigated before the signal reaches the amp in the first place!
I've spent time as a les paul guy, a bit of time as a tele guy, I use strats in the studio and have fun on them . . . but they're such a different instrument than the others. It seems like tele guys, 335 guys, lp guys etc. are all comfortable on each others' guitars but not strats; whereas strat players aren't comfortable on anything but a strat. They are a beautiful, necessary pain, if you ask me.
The reason is that the strat is the prettiest and most ergonomic guitar of them all so strat players dont really need anything else.....also thats the one of the reasons why the strat is the most copied guitar on the planet...far more than Lps,Teles or 335s.....its basically why cheat with others when you have the best wife so to speak.....
Years ago I swore I would never own a Stratocaster.Then one day my Friend Big Billy Kerner found one he thought was wonderful.It was a Mexican Strat.But it just sang !!! every note was music not sound.later on I had the chance to buy it.I still have it to this vert day.However I put together one from Warmoth parts, body and neck filled it with Seymour Duncan pick ups and the very best electronics including an Alembic strat-o-blaster. Best Guitar I ever owned and one I play the most. Yet there is a time and place for all the others and I am so glad to have them.Cheers.
@@TomCPlus1 Strats along with most electric guitars exist for quite a few decades now so we have quite an excellent sample size that we can derive results and reasons from....The strat is the most copied electric guitar...thats not an opinion....or that its the most ergonomic and comfortable....the subjective opinion is that its the prettiest...
I had a a/b box at the start of my pedalboard, one side for my LP and the other for my Strat. I had a 10 band eq for a mid boost and bass roll off and a micro-amp for a clean boost. Since I was using just one amp, this evened out the signal and tone differences between the guitars; worked great
Totally get your point. At home it’s a vintage style Strat all the way but live I cannot use it for the reasons you cite. My live solution has been a Suhr HSS Strat for 8 years which has a great neck pickup (lots of cut/not bassy) & in combination with the bridge hum bucker covers all the sounds I need from funky cleans to delay/modulated ambience to rock leads. Last few gigs I’ve done it all on the Suhr & not even picked up my fixed bridge humbucker no 2 guitar.
I think it helps quite a but to play through a compressor and add a slight delay when I play the Strat live. It really helps add body and sustain to the clean tones. The ES 355 with P90s is pure gold and my go to most of the time but there’s a nice spot for Strats in many, many tunes.
This sort of issue was really solved for me when Manson built me a guitar… I really can’t do without a trem these days and theirs are amazing plus the coil split on the humbuckers is super sounding.. and i rely alot on the sustainiac meck pick up They’re in your part of the country! Give em a bell…or ill have a word… Interestingly I played sax this past weekend in a wedding band in Devon! 😮
I think the problem you're experiencing is to do with pickup output. What you're describing in this video sounds like a preference geared towards having more overall output from the pickup itself, hence your preference for the 335 and Tele. Traditionally, Strat pickups are weaker than Tele pickups. It's not just the body construction and more physical wood that contributes to a Tele tone, but also that the pickups in a Tele are wound louder than a Strat pickup as standard across many pickup manufacturers. To put it in comparison, standard LOW output Tele pickups are what would be considered MEDIUM output in Strat pickup designs. In fact, a Tele pickup typically has enough output to even match LOW output PAF style Humbuckers, which is probably why some say a Tele can do a good Humbucker-ish tone if you roll off the tone because the output is quite comparable to a classic clear-sounding Humbucker. I suspect this might also be why some players like 11s for tonal reasons; it's not so much the tone, but rather the extra physical volume being picked up by the weaker Strat pickups that appeals to them, giving them that sense that it's a more powerful stronger sound. That's my amateur guitar thoughts anyway.
Exactly! Personally, it's when I play anything but my Strat that I feel weird live ;). But I hate the neck pickup position, I really do. It really is NOT my sound. I live in positions 2 (bridge-middle) 95% of the time and position 4 the rest of the time. When I got the '76 Strat that is still my number 1 around 1984 (used of course), it came with a 3 way switch and I soon discovered the "in-between" "2" position so my first mod was to have a 5 way switch put into it. Then the tuners went (replaced by Gotohs back then)... but that's another discussion entirely ;) I was never a purist(still am not to this day) But that was the tone I had in my head. Strat on position 2 into a Boss CS-2 comp into my JC-120 ;) That was the tone of the age ;) Now the amps and effects have changed but positions 2 and 4 on my Strat remain...
@@StephaneBergeronPixelyzed i replaced mine's bridge with a hot rails single humbucker, installed coil split to not lose the 4th position entirely. I really hated how the stock sounds. I play in Turkey. We play all kinds of stuff from jazz standards to pink floyd, pop to arabesque here. Strat is really a work horse. So versatile. Responds to pedals really well since it's quite a dynamic guitar. But i had my fair share of struggle when i was still figuring out some certain adjustments in tone. Before unlocking that the tones sounded so stiff and weak. But in a course of year i made my transition from high output les paul to low output strat gradually. Now its the only guitar i want to play in gigs. Also i always thought that les pauls were bulky so they must be sturdier. But boy, strats really can take a hit while we on the road etc. I check the intonation every 10 days and in 2 years i only adjusted it 3 times i believe and they were all some small touches. Probably wouldn't be noticed by my stage mates at all!
@@lazymoon2392 Sounds good! To get HSS I would probably get a new Strat. My pickups are not stock either. I replaced the originals with EMGs in the 80s (another staple of that era) and those stayed until about 3 years ago. I replaced them with Tonerider Pure Vintage (passive) and my Strat has never sounded better. Returning to passive pickups was a revelation. I put Toneriders in my Tele as well.
@@lazymoon2392 Yeah but you have to take into account that my Strat was less than 10 years old when I bought it and started modding it. It was not considered a classic at that time. It was my workhorse instrument. It also already had quite a bit of wear when I got it. Last, mid 70s Strats were never considered special or collectible although I love mine. It was made in USA and has the 70s large headstock. I truly love it and it's special to me but it sounds and plays way better now than it did in the 80s ;)
Strats just take a ton of set up to get in to the sweet spot. Stuff like the neck angle in the pocket being slightly concave, getting the right balance of the right number and tension on the trem springs, getting the pickup height and pitch just so etc. Even things like the neck relief make the difference between a "tight and bright" feeling strat and one that's full and open sounding and slick up the neck. Its a lot of work and time and effort to dial one in and most people haven't a clue. To do all of that .. then find you just want "more" umpf from your bridge pickup can be a bit of a bummer. I had all these frustrations with my strat but worked through them all over a year or so. Unfortunately, eventually, the pressed steel bridge saddle adjustment screws rusted up completely and I put a set of fancy expensive after market replacements on and it KILLED the guitar completely. About a month later I went out and bought a Baja tele on a whim and with the (very stratty) twisted tele neck and ballsy broadcaster bridge it quickly became #1 Its just had a re-fret and 17 years later I still never play my strat. :)
This was a fun topic. 8:05 I had to laugh at myself when I realized the solution for wanting something between the bridge and neck pickup was, in fact, the middle pickup. Not a sound I use at home, but sometimes it just works live!
I'm in a two guitar pop cover band. I typically (not always) play a strat. Our other guitar player uses a guitar with humbuckers. Having those different tones is a plus in that our tones complement each other but...my strat needs to be gained up with more mids or clean and louder in order to cut through.
Same here, but when you're playing together the way they complement each other is good, one never sonically covers the other. Fully agree. Sold my Les Paul to the humbucker guy....
I think I share the same sentiments with you here. Reason why Im bringin g my 335 and a tele on tour. Strat stays home. -trem gives me bending sadness - trem gives me tuning instability and anxiety - scale length with presence of trem makes me super anxious 335 and tele - set bridge - no tuning problems - bends are predictable Love my strat just not live yet at my beginner level playing. Love the content brother!!
This is where I have to say I love my Suhr. The V60LP pickups still have the vintage strat tone, but they work incredibly well in a live setting and in a mix. The bridge SSV sounds good, but I tend to like something thicker in the bridge and will probably try a thornbucker II or woodbucker. I run the bass on my amps live extremely close to zero. Ditto with reverb. The band and the room make up for them. I'm the opposite of many folks where I always thought I was a tele guy but always go back to a strat. There's also the Suhr SCII system, which is a lifesaver. The Ilicht system is very similar to the SCII and can be placed in most single coil-type guitars if you don't want to go with noiseless pups.
@PhilthyCasual@PhilthyCasual The ML Standard (now called the V63+) and the V60LP are the two pickups the folks at Suhr recommended to me the most if you want a bridge single coil that handles gain well.
It's crazy how you put into words the same process I was going through this gigging summer. Started in a new cover band. Played either my custom made tele or custom made Strat (which is a HSS). It honestly didn't work in the mix, also because I am the only guitarist. Working in a music store, I got my hands on the Epiphone Shinichi Ubukata ES355. Just blown away by the quality and by the specs for the price. (Not all of them turn out good, we did also get some of them, that weren't good fabricated) Since then, this is my main live instrument, and it does the work perfectly every weekend.In a Cover Set Up, a Humbucker ist just necessary. At home, I love the expressions of Single Coils a lot more, but live is a different world. Amazing work John!
I feel that way too. The Telecaster supports you better, even if it is quieter the sound cuts through the mix well. The Telecaster is the trumpet of guitars. I really like the Strat sound, but live I always feel like I have to constantly play licks and double stops to get a full sound. With the Tele the sound is easy, I play calmer and more relaxed
To my ears, In the gig mix recording the 335 sounded muddy, and the Strat sounded clear and distinct. I far preferred the Strat. I have a single Bridge Humbucker in Strat, in part because balancing volumes between Pickups was more trouble than it was worth. I can easily dial in Preset-Snapshots so my Strat has the right tone and volume.
I just saw Eric Johnson live: during his first set (of new material) he mostly played a Les Paul and it was also muddy. Second set was all Strats and everything was crystal clear, also cut through and sounded 100% better
On the occasion I've played in a one-guitar band, I had no problem with a Strat, but when there was more than one guitar, it was a challenge to eq both guitars. It's more about the instruments in your band, or if you're playing with more than one band, you have to really work the eq balanced. A higher pickups guitar will always feel easy to work with.
I have had a similar problem. I was in a 2-guitar band for 18 months and we had several issues with getting the levels right. He used a very bare-bones (but highly effective) setup: Player Series Tele + Katana 50 MK II. I used a pedalboard; Katana 50 MK II and either an Epiphone SG (Special Satin Vintage E1) or an Indonesian Telecaster FMT HH. When I used the SG I struggled to be heard, particularly when using my favourite pedal (UM-300). When I used my Tele however I had to keep the volume on the guitar at 1 or I drowned Sam out.
I too could not get a strat to work live, for the same reasons. I now use a Tom Anderson Telecaster Strat hybrid (tele bridge pickup, strat middle and neck, push-pull on the front pickup to get the tele middle sound, and dummy coils on all pickups for noise cancellation with a switch to add the second coil for high gain sounds). Works for pretty much every gig.
To me some of the best Strat performances are in trios or mixes where there is a lot of space for the delicate nature of the sound to stand out. The more crowded mixes the strat seems to struggle more
Just a thought. I played weddings for years and I always wanted a strat to hand for the stratty stuff but I always found exactly what you said about clean sounds they kind of lack authority. But sometimes a Gibson can be a little too round for some things. I played a 72 thinline tele for years with two wide range humbuckers taht I found did a fantastic job of between both sounds. Twangy but round on the back and full but spanky on the front. No trem though. Also the one I have is from Japan in the nineties and the wide range humbuckers on the squiers and Mex fenders just don’t sound the same now.
I relate to this experience deeply😩 My first strat was a real struggle as the strings felt extra slinky even when I used 11’s. I was always overplaying the strings live. And I struggled with achieving the fatter clean tone that I wanted for jazz and funk gigs that I was playing. I have a PRS Fiore now that I love that has a lot more tension on the strings that makes my right hand feel way more comfortable (still using 11 gauge strings). And I kick on a mid boost eq in my helix for thicker (PAF-like) clean tones for the neck and middle pickup.
My Strat has the Tonepotentiometers as followed assigned: -Middle Potentiometer as global Tonecontrol -the other one is only to the Bridge-PU assigned So I am able to control the „harshness“ of the Bridge-PU and get all PUs well matched together. By the way. A EQ Pedal in Front of the Amp can help to match the Sound between different Styles of Guitars.
@@alec554 No! It’s a '63 Strat built by a Luthier under the Name of „Thorndal“ here in Bavaria (Germany). 3 well balanced Singlecoil PUs, selected 250K Log Potentiometers (Mastervolume with a Treble Bleed) and a 5 Way Switch. Master Volume, Master Tone and a additional separate Tone only for the Bridge PU.
I totally get what you are saying with the difference between studio and live with a Strat. I don't think I have ever played a Tele live even though I own several. And I find my Gibsons: Les Paul, ES-335, SG, etc. are all more predictable in both environments. Another good show. Keep up the great work!
I love my pretend Strat... The Ibanez AP10. Humbucker in the Bridge, Single coil in the Middle/Neck. The output difference between the HB and the SC is massive and I love it. I can dial back the Output on the HB w/Volume or Pickup select for a completely different tone, volume and output level... I have a lot of guitars and the HB (Bridge), SC (Neck/Middle) combo is unbeatable for me.
In the 90s I modded my USA Vintage '62 re-issue Strat, that I purchased in 1989, with a master tone control across all PUPs and also the other tone control is a neck blend pot. So I mainly play on the bridge PUP and blend in some neck to taste. I love this arrangement, particularly being able to engage both the neck and bridge PUPs simultaneously. Having said all of that, over the last two years my Revstar Pro P90 has almost exclusively been my main gigging guitar. Still love my Strat but the Revstar tone is where I am currently at. I also like the 22nd fret!!
As others have said, it sounds like you're talking about pickup output. On My Zoom G3n (haha, yes in amongst all this talk of FM9, Tonemasters, HX * and the like), each of my patch names reference the guitar they were made for. Re the bass response differences, i am a great fan of the PTB circuit, let's you cut the bass directly on the guitar. Don't forget pickup heights too.
Joe Perry from Aerosmith said that the Strat is a good studio guitar and the Les Paul is a better live guitar. It is because the spectrum of frequencies they cover. In studio you can add several layers of guitars, while live you need to fill the space with one guitar
I get it now, I get the tele, i feel enlightened and elevated by it. There is freedom within its restrictions and simple design, only two pickups, no whammy stick, no frills. Just guitar. A Strat is played by so many guitar hero’s, in playing the Strat I find myself emulating someone else’s sound other than my own voice. Playin the tele has helped me find my own voice again, before the internet courses and inspiration from my hero’s. Strat sound is more thin and quacky, where as a tele is thicker and has a twang to it, it has more bite. The middle position is genius on a tele, it perfectly blends the neck and middle giving you a quick, responsive, bright, pickup for funk and rhythm yet still retains the weight from the neck pickup. The bridge pickup is a dream too, it’s soooo bright and cuts through anything you throw on it. It’s almost to the point of a shrill , piercing sound. The beauty of it though is that you can throw as many effects as you want on top of the tele bridge and it will STILL retain its clarity, where as a Strat quickly gets muddied the more effects that I layer on since it’s a thinner sound. Everyone always says a Strat neck pickup > a tele neck, but low key I’m digging the tele neck more right now. It’s got a darker and thicker sound vs the Strat, it’s almost humbucker-esque but more clarity ofc since it’s a single coil. Tele is just so versatile, can be used in any genre
This is the way. I never thought I’d be a tele guy, now I can’t live without it. Tele is just awesome to me. Simple, sturdy, ALWAYS in tune regardless if I’m in a dingy bar or sweating outside in the humidity with the sun beating on it. It cuts through perfectly but also cleans up for mellow things or to give the singer some space. We play all types of different things and it works every single time. It’s elevated my playing and listening skills. I don’t feel like I fight with it, it just breathes with me. If I need more oomph, it’s always there. I feel like I enjoy gigs rather than worrying if I’m in tune or which of five pickup settings to choose. One, two or three and that’s it. It’s just beautiful in its simplicity.
Have you ever tried Strat with pickups connected like this: Neck and middle pup connected in series, and those two pups are then paralleled with bridge pickup (giving around 4 kohm DC resistance) With some amps it gives amazing clean sound because those N and M in series for some strange reason don't kill the highs of the paralleled bridge pup but instead bring humbucker kind of warmth and bottom to the sound.
Fun fact: On “Cliffs of Dover”, Eric Johnson just played a Strat for the opening solo, before the rest of the band came in. Then he played the ES-335 for the rest of the record with the full mix, likely because it cut through easier… You guys are on to something
Maybe this is well known to many but I did not know this, I assumed the whole track was on a Strat. Time to give it a listen with this in mind, thanks for sharing
I think, searching long and wide for a Strat that is very balanced in all pickup positions can go along way, and live the middle pickup is severely underrated. I’ve spent nearly entire gigs on the middle pickup alone, just because it cut through and felt right. I’m at the point now, where I love all the different guitars for what they bring to the table live, sometimes it’s a Strat, sometimes it’s a telecaster, sometimes it’s a 335 and now it also may be an LP. All depends on the gig and how I feel day of. The one thing I do find is that I will have to dial in all my gain staging, etc. for whatever my main Guitar is going to be. Switching from a Strat to NLP for instance can be problematic, even if you use something to gain up the lower output pickups on a Strat for instance. Sometimes I will do one set on one, and the other set on the other to mitigate any of these issues, and adjust gain stages slightly between the sets
I think it is totally fine to be Tele guy live and a Strat in the studio, in the end its about YOU being as comfortable in each of those situations as you can be, that is what makes you play at YOUR best. A mate of mine is a well known muso here in South Africa, I'm not a professional myself, I only play at home, and he mainly plays a LP Custom live but prefers a Tele in studio or jamming at home. I have a Gibson P94 pickup in my Strat bridge (P90 in a humbucker size), then only 1 seymore duncan Stk s7 hot stack noiseless single coil (well as single as a hot stack noisesless can be) in the neck, no middle pickup and they run through 1 volume 1 tone, both 500k pots, with a 0.22uf cap on the tone and a 3 way switch. This setup works so beautiful for me, amazing cleans either neck or middle bit fuller in the middle postion (neck and bridge together), gives you lovely diversity and the P90 in the bridge for distortion, wow man. It may not be for everyone but to me that is the perfect strat. I also have a ES355 copy and a real Gibson Les Paul Studio 1995 model (no weight relief), I love the semi hollow and the LP neck feels and plays great but I will take my strat over anything else.
This is a very thought provoking video. I _want_ to use my Strats live but every time I do a quick rig check before leaving home for a performance, nothing matches the active Fishman in my Strandberg Boden Prog. Maybe, as various people have stated, it's simply I'm dialed in on my Kemper Player for the Strandy more than the Strats. For guitarists playing live with various guitars, using modelers like a Kemper, do you have different rigs for each?
I think what you might be looking for is a bend circuit with a bit hotter pickups. Then, your knobs will get you everywhere you want to be. I am partial to Lollar Specials with a blend circuit. It fills out your tone in almost any setting. This is all assuming the amp will also give it to you. But, at least in this configuration, the guitar will not be something to fight. All of the opportunity will be at your fingertips.
I've used my Strat in 2-guitar cover bands for years and love it. It has Suhr pickups and. delta-tone pot for the second tone control that is wired to the bridge pickup. Second guitar is an HSS Strat type. It's a bit more flexible than the SSS but of course the bridge SC sound isn't the same.
I bought a strat and swapped out the pickups to match your lollar blondes. BUT, I instead used a Red Devil (PAF-voiced super single) pickup in the bridge AND used Lollar's pickup blend circuit. Now my neck's lows are tamed by the bridge pickup and the bridge's pickup can be played aggressively without issue. Would love to see you try this!
Very much agree with live playing and string feel. With more energy going on when live the softer strings on a Strat are harder for me to control with picking. Especially since my main playing is a solo gig with an acoustic guitar and I use pretty heavy strings on that. I lean more towards using a Tele live. Lately been thinking about going with my LP style guitar with heavier strings.
Wonder how a guitar like the PRS McCarty 594 would work live. Teles are great. Plus, awesome tuning stability. Such a classic workhorse. Nothing wrong with that!!
Love my 594. It is my favorite guitar that I own. I love the baseball bat neck and the extra slinky feel to the strings. I know exactly how much I need to bend. And the wide range of EQ between the pickups helps me sound full live.
Hi John You should checkout some of the pictures of Eric Johnson's pick ups. He seems to almost bury the bass side of his pickups? Maybe something to try?
Thanks for the video and thoughts. As an almost exclusive Strat player, my two cents would be: 1) yes, agree that neck to bridge pick-up tonal range can be challenging. I’ve found that taking the neck pick-up out of the tone circuit helps brighten it and balance that out a bit; 2) I find that my entire live rig is tuned to making a Strat sound “full” and doesn’t really play all that nicely with other guitars, esp humbuckers (sounds way too dark as you might expect?); 3) my “go to” gigging Strat is actually a hardtail with a somewhat PAF-voiced bridge pick-up (the S90 I think, made by Eternal Guitars) to cover the harder rock sounds. In that sense, i also find that a traditional Strat is hard to make work in a live situation for a diverse set list and that I lean towards a Tele-like Strat ;)
Too funny. I am in a 2 guitar rock cover band and love my P90 and HB guitars with JTM45 BUT sometimes play my strat live to get a different sound from the lead player. All about context. FYI I am mostly rhythm guitar. Loved your piece today thanks!
I am a 50/50 strat and tele guy. Strats needs something that digital modelers can't give you: headroom! Not wedge or frfr headroom but amp goodness and real good eq. Also using heavier strings helps.
Yes, I agree with you. All the great strat players were using cranked amps with loads of headroom and that is when the sensitivity of the weaker pickups comes into its own.
I have much of the same experience. For my (admittedly rare) live events I use only Telecasters. They are so easy to deal with, and always sound great. At home I play the others: a Les Paul, an old Ric, a Strat.. All wonderful guitars in their own right.
I found I couldn't get a good clean *and* dirty sound from a strat with a single channel amp. If the clean sounded good, the dirty was too bright and harsh. If I got a good dirty sound the clean didn't sound good. I ended up going for a good clean amp sound, but used a distortion pedal with a good 3 band eq for the dirty sound, so I could mellow out the bright and harsh sound. With humbuckers I can usually get both a useable clean and dirty sound from a single channel amp. The pedal solution also worked well for jams. Just set up for a good clean sound first, then set the pedal up for the dirty sound, using it's tone controls to counter-balance the clean tone amp settings.
I recently bought a nice classic vibe 70s strat, having played super strats, LPs and teles in a live situation. I love the neck sound and the hotrail bridge, but more than anything, I just find neck position is really strange in relation to playing my others and I find it less comfortable to play and end up with the strap short in order to play some songs at high register.
I’ve definitely taken this journey. All of my favorite guitarists are strat guys. Gilmour, EJ, etc. But live, i much prefer a Tele. The Tele feels like it is built for the abuse. It also feels like it cuts better with dynamic play. Here’s my challenge to you: Tele body with 2 P90s. That might give you more of a sweet spot. If I’m the only guitarist, 335 copy with a coil split is my move.
You sound amazing whatever guitar in your hands mate. All the guitarists tend to think too much about those tiny perceptions. I have to admit I play live like a donkey too. Nerves, pressure, volume, in ears. Etc
Try an EQ pedal. Set it so that it sounds the same on and off. Turn it on and up the volume (gain) till you get a little more output. If you want a fuller tone, up the mids and lows till you hear in the monitors what you are looking for.
The Tele’s a versatile instrument. In a larger band setup, with bass, drums, keyboards, a second guitarist and maybe a horn section, a Strat will cut through the mix. However, with a three man band a LP/humbuckers fill out the sound more imo.
Sounds like you’re going direct into the PA from the Axe FX. With humbuckers, your tone will have more girth going direct, but if you’re miking your cab. I think you’ll have tone (and volume control) for days. I almost always prefer the tone of a strat when miked, but that’s not always practical. You could try a strat with humbuckers and a coil tap or active pickups. That’s what I use live. I still prefer my single coils when playing at home though. Great topic!
I recently got a strat wired with a blender pot, allowing you to add the bridge or neck in with the other positions. Kinda has a tele middle position vibe. I haven't gigged it yet, however. Still working on those tones in the meantime.
I played one guitar for 10 years - an 89 seafoam green strat plus with lace sensors. I get it. I got several more only to sell them all. I transitioned to teles and haven’t owned another strat in many years. Consider a Gretsch with dearmonds. They have a unique voice, no noise and many come with a decent trem for subtle vibrato work. The Julian Lage model is just an upscale version. You don’t have to spend 8k.
Always used a strat live, then I switched from amp to the iridium. I’ve recently switched to a Les Paul with HP90’s and it brings the thickness in the feel I miss from a real amp
09:01 you've hit the nail on the head- you're definitely not playing like a donkey, but playing live is entirely different. Especially for a function band pub gig or outside stage in the street. The expressive nature of your solo playing in the studio would definitely be hard to realise with a band at a pub gig, so the beauty of the Strat tones may best suit your studio (or bedroom) playing, or a live solo show or clinic.
I realised most of my favorite strat players tend to play in one guitar bands, or atleast bands where the lead guitarist is also the frontman and main focus.
I've used Strats for live rock gigs for years. It's all about dealing with that bridge pick up. If it's got a tone knob you can dial the glass out a bit. Check out Rory Gallagher to see what can be done
I’ve found that the eq on my strat needs to be brighter when I play live in order to cut through the mix.. also, you tend to have to fight all the other instruments and parts that are pouring into the mids and low mids.
To me the cleans are fine, especially when the monitoring situation is good, but lately I’ve been feeling disappointed with the high gain sounds, using a regular strat with normal singles. I’ve just finished putting together a “HSS” pickguard where I used a bridge humbucker and two fender vintage noiseless pickups in middle and neck, which are technically humbuckers in single appearance. Although labeled “vintage”, these pickups are much hotter than normal singles. They do lose a bit in the tone department, but playing live these little nuances tend to get diluted, what matters is what works.
Sounds wonderful what you are playing at home.and just a thought but perhaps there are too many playing in the same frequency range live. Many times you see Bass players playing high up the neck where I find in recordings at home playing lower in the " money " notes places gives the guitar more room to breath.But your playing is exceptional I loved it.
Hola John, en un documental sobre Paco de Lucía, decía que en casa practicaba con guitarras "más suaves", con menos tensión en las cuerdas. Pero luego, en el escenario, necesitó más tensión para sonar como quería y usó guitarras más duras. Jugó más duro por los nervios y la responsabilidad. Tal vez con un calibre más alto en las Stratocaster te sentiste más cómodo en el escenario. En casa juegas de maravilla.
So many people use strats live.. it’s just preference at end of the day. I love the sound of a Les Paul.. but in my hands, single coil always fits better.
I too find that I pick much harder live than at home, which is a problem for me. It messes up the bloom of the note and always sounds too harsh. I think it’s down to monitoring in my case, we do a sound check and it’s fine, but as soon as we strike up the first song in the set, the drummer is 20% louder and I can’t hear myself. I’ve taken to using a volume pedal with a min setting for sound check and a max setting for the gig proper, which helps a bit
If you enjoy the 335 live stick with it and for when you want strat tones use 3 Sigma "Strato" IRs. I used to use them with my ES335 dot and they're pretty convincing live - led to the weirdest question ever, "Why does your 335 sound like a Strat?". Try it, only a tenner, nothing to lose!
I have a strat with an onboard MIDBOOST... Definitely helps thicken up those higher strings!!! I have it engaged on 2 or 3 max... It gets in kind of a 335 territory. It's much more "methenian"... Also, the middle pickup + mid-boost is heavenly... It's a Fender Juanes signature strat. Don't ask me about Juanes, I bought that one based on specs.
Sounds like you need to either deck your bridge, get a bassier/beefier bridge pickup (i recommend a dimarzio fs-1), raise your action a tiny bit, or maybe go up a guage of strings.(9.5's maybee).
As someone who grew up playing a strat I have to say I enjoy teles and 335s live much more (as a rule) I can’t play with the finesse required for a strat under typical ‘gig’ conditions. Ironically though as I do a lot of theatre I am on a strat (usually NOT mine) a LOT of the time. Given the choice I will usually opt Tele/335. Strats are less of a problem in the studio though. 🤷♂️
Maybe adopt one of your Strats for live playing or build a new 'workhorse' live guitar? Someone below mentioned adding humbuckers. Perhaps also fit a more stable trem like a Vegatrem or even a Floyd Rose and/or add a tremsetter? Could also add a locking or LSR/roller nut? The Clapton mid boost is a nice add on too but you need noiseless single coils for one of those like Kinman, Lace sensors or Fender noiseless. Playing at the gigs sounded great! However realise that if you (one) doesn't get that sound that you hear in your head it can be disappointing.
Part of the issue about the strat’s “thin” sound I think is the difference in what you’re playing live vs in your studio. Couldn’t that be largely fixed by right choice of more aggressive boost and overdrive pedals? Either an ODR-1 or Tube Screamer, into a Bluesbreaker? Or the two sides of a Browne Protein?
I love to sound of a strat, but can't stand always hitting that switch when I'm singing and playing funk rhythm, lol. Also the tele tends to have a little more mids and less treble, because the neck pickup is wound with 43 gauge wire (instead of 42) and the cover tends to knock off a little treble (or a lot if its a brass cover) the tele bridge pickup is bigger than the strat pickup and has a baseplate which also adds output and bass
Haha, thats is exactly my relation to strats. Most comfy guitar to play with, nice sounds in isolation or on records. In live situations - where is my tele.. as the strat suddenly is lost in a mix and/or stage sound…
I am a Strat guy through and through. Gigged them for years until I got a PRS SC245. That one was the thinnest sounding humbucking guitar I’d ever had. It was single coil like. I realized that I needed mids live that the Strat wasn’t giving. So, I’m with you, but I’m still a Strat guy lol😂
Dial the preset in to be nice and balanced the way you want on the neck pu and then dial the tone knob down to like 5 or 6 on the bridge. Should make the pickups more balanced with each other.
Short answer is: HSS Strat. That humbucker in the bridge solves many problems mentioned here. Long answer:
1. Humbucker in the bridge. I never really liked single in the bridge. With humucker you get more mids, more body and more output from the bridge position. Go for lower to medium output humbucker, so you do not have problems balancing output with the neck pickup. Event the single coil sized humbuckers from Dimarzio or SD do the job, but full Humbuckers sound better and look more cool if you ask me 😁 Strat like that sounds really close to, let's say, Gibson SG. Not as thick as Les Paul, but not far away from that gibsony sound, too.
2. Connect your second tone control just to the bridge pickup. Then, when you get enough brightness in the neck pickup position, if the bridge position is too bright, adjust accordingly until you get the fullness and definition from both pickups.
3. If you then find that the neck pickup has way less output and you generally play with a lot of distortion most kf thr time, you can think about a single coil with a bit more output.or even a single-sized humbucker in the neck position. They do sound great when properly adjusted and added bonus is noiseless experience.
4. If you think that you are missing some quack and delicate sounds in the bridge positiion, make the humbucker splittable or make it split in the beidge + middle position. This way you are just one position away going from angry rock guitar sounds in the bridge to the most iconic strat quack in the second position.
5. If you need even more balance, especially in the 2nd and 4th position, and you want those sounds in alive context without losing so much output, introduce always-on subtle compression. Until I did that, my 2nd and 4th losition, while tonally the most beautiful, were pretty much always burried in the mix. Compressor srted that out for good!
Good luck aith these mods, I hope update video is coming.
My strat which I bought new in 88 eventually has morphed into Seymour Duncan JB humbucker, original strat pup in the middle, custom wound P90 specially made for me in the neck, Very usable, can play a full gig on one guitar. But do I love it? No. It's a working tool. As a Strat, my Mexi classic player 57 in fiesta red sounds much better than the USA strat ever did when it was SSS.
I have a spark boost to acct for difference between tele and strat
You should try the middle pickup more, a very underatted setting
So as someone who is a diehard strat player these days -
Check pickup outputs are outputting into your IRs / amp in a similar way. It might sound obvious, but if your neck pickup is at 5.6k (or around there for classic strat tones) and then your humbucker guitars are sitting at 12k, fundamentally you are getting a pretty different signal outputting to the amp.
Low output pickups are more sensitive to variances in volume, so when you turn up for live playing all the small things you do where you might not hit a hammer on quite as hard suddenly become very noticeable.
Basically what you are ‘missing’ and is throwing you off is natural compression from the amp responding to higher pickup outputs, and you are used to the ‘feel’ of a denser magnetic field. You can either grab a set of higher output single coils (and ruin your classic strat tone somewhat but actually have a more consistent live gig) or do what everyone has been doing for decades: put some transparent clean boost klon sorta thing in your chain and leave it on. The whole point of that is to bring the output more in line with a set of humbuckers and compensate for less output from the guitar in the first place. Simply turning up your amp, or other things like that generally don’t work as it’s a problem that has to be mitigated before the signal reaches the amp in the first place!
I've spent time as a les paul guy, a bit of time as a tele guy, I use strats in the studio and have fun on them . . . but they're such a different instrument than the others. It seems like tele guys, 335 guys, lp guys etc. are all comfortable on each others' guitars but not strats; whereas strat players aren't comfortable on anything but a strat. They are a beautiful, necessary pain, if you ask me.
Well said 🙌
The reason is that the strat is the prettiest and most ergonomic guitar of them all so strat players dont really need anything else.....also thats the one of the reasons why the strat is the most copied guitar on the planet...far more than Lps,Teles or 335s.....its basically why cheat with others when you have the best wife so to speak.....
Years ago I swore I would never own a Stratocaster.Then one day my Friend Big Billy Kerner found one he thought was wonderful.It was a Mexican Strat.But it just sang !!! every note was music not sound.later on I had the chance to buy it.I still have it to this vert day.However I put together one from Warmoth parts, body and neck filled it with Seymour Duncan pick ups and the very best electronics including an Alembic strat-o-blaster. Best Guitar I ever owned and one I play the most. Yet there is a time and place for all the others and I am so glad to have them.Cheers.
@@Dreamdancer11 "opinion" does not equal "reason" 😎🤘🤘
@@TomCPlus1 Strats along with most electric guitars exist for quite a few decades now so we have quite an excellent sample size that we can derive results and reasons from....The strat is the most copied electric guitar...thats not an opinion....or that its the most ergonomic and comfortable....the subjective opinion is that its the prettiest...
I had a a/b box at the start of my pedalboard, one side for my LP and the other for my Strat. I had a 10 band eq for a mid boost and bass roll off and a micro-amp for a clean boost. Since I was using just one amp, this evened out the signal and tone differences between the guitars; worked great
That intro is my spirit animal. Amazing video as always
Thank you for your hard work John
Totally get your point. At home it’s a vintage style Strat all the way but live I cannot use it for the reasons you cite. My live solution has been a Suhr HSS Strat for 8 years which has a great neck pickup (lots of cut/not bassy) & in combination with the bridge hum bucker covers all the sounds I need from funky cleans to delay/modulated ambience to rock leads. Last few gigs I’ve done it all on the Suhr & not even picked up my fixed bridge humbucker no 2 guitar.
I think it helps quite a but to play through a compressor and add a slight delay when I play the Strat live. It really helps add body and sustain to the clean tones. The ES 355 with P90s is pure gold and my go to most of the time but there’s a nice spot for Strats in many, many tunes.
This sort of issue was really solved for me when Manson built me a guitar… I really can’t do without a trem these days and theirs are amazing plus the coil split on the humbuckers is super sounding.. and i rely alot on the sustainiac meck pick up
They’re in your part of the country! Give em a bell…or ill have a word…
Interestingly I played sax this past weekend in a wedding band in Devon! 😮
I think the problem you're experiencing is to do with pickup output. What you're describing in this video sounds like a preference geared towards having more overall output from the pickup itself, hence your preference for the 335 and Tele.
Traditionally, Strat pickups are weaker than Tele pickups. It's not just the body construction and more physical wood that contributes to a Tele tone, but also that the pickups in a Tele are wound louder than a Strat pickup as standard across many pickup manufacturers.
To put it in comparison, standard LOW output Tele pickups are what would be considered MEDIUM output in Strat pickup designs. In fact, a Tele pickup typically has enough output to even match LOW output PAF style Humbuckers, which is probably why some say a Tele can do a good Humbucker-ish tone if you roll off the tone because the output is quite comparable to a classic clear-sounding Humbucker.
I suspect this might also be why some players like 11s for tonal reasons; it's not so much the tone, but rather the extra physical volume being picked up by the weaker Strat pickups that appeals to them, giving them that sense that it's a more powerful stronger sound.
That's my amateur guitar thoughts anyway.
Just EQ and play louder
@@Songaholicathe OP doesn’t need your advice. The OP is diagnosing JNC’s issue.
I got a TheGigRig Three2One - this fixed all my pickup output problems
Sounds like your presets/pedals are not set up for Strat EQ and lower output in a live situation.
Exactly! Personally, it's when I play anything but my Strat that I feel weird live ;). But I hate the neck pickup position, I really do. It really is NOT my sound. I live in positions 2 (bridge-middle) 95% of the time and position 4 the rest of the time.
When I got the '76 Strat that is still my number 1 around 1984 (used of course), it came with a 3 way switch and I soon discovered the "in-between" "2" position so my first mod was to have a 5 way switch put into it. Then the tuners went (replaced by Gotohs back then)... but that's another discussion entirely ;) I was never a purist(still am not to this day)
But that was the tone I had in my head. Strat on position 2 into a Boss CS-2 comp into my JC-120 ;) That was the tone of the age ;) Now the amps and effects have changed but positions 2 and 4 on my Strat remain...
@@StephaneBergeronPixelyzed i replaced mine's bridge with a hot rails single humbucker, installed coil split to not lose the 4th position entirely. I really hated how the stock sounds. I play in Turkey. We play all kinds of stuff from jazz standards to pink floyd, pop to arabesque here. Strat is really a work horse. So versatile. Responds to pedals really well since it's quite a dynamic guitar. But i had my fair share of struggle when i was still figuring out some certain adjustments in tone. Before unlocking that the tones sounded so stiff and weak. But in a course of year i made my transition from high output les paul to low output strat gradually. Now its the only guitar i want to play in gigs. Also i always thought that les pauls were bulky so they must be sturdier. But boy, strats really can take a hit while we on the road etc. I check the intonation every 10 days and in 2 years i only adjusted it 3 times i believe and they were all some small touches. Probably wouldn't be noticed by my stage mates at all!
@@lazymoon2392 Sounds good! To get HSS I would probably get a new Strat. My pickups are not stock either. I replaced the originals with EMGs in the 80s (another staple of that era) and those stayed until about 3 years ago. I replaced them with Tonerider Pure Vintage (passive) and my Strat has never sounded better. Returning to passive pickups was a revelation. I put Toneriders in my Tele as well.
@@StephaneBergeronPixelyzed your guitars are such relics! I'd never dare to touch a single thing on them either. I was born in 1994 :)
@@lazymoon2392 Yeah but you have to take into account that my Strat was less than 10 years old when I bought it and started modding it. It was not considered a classic at that time. It was my workhorse instrument. It also already had quite a bit of wear when I got it. Last, mid 70s Strats were never considered special or collectible although I love mine. It was made in USA and has the 70s large headstock. I truly love it and it's special to me but it sounds and plays way better now than it did in the 80s ;)
Strats just take a ton of set up to get in to the sweet spot. Stuff like the neck angle in the pocket being slightly concave, getting the right balance of the right number and tension on the trem springs, getting the pickup height and pitch just so etc. Even things like the neck relief make the difference between a "tight and bright" feeling strat and one that's full and open sounding and slick up the neck. Its a lot of work and time and effort to dial one in and most people haven't a clue.
To do all of that .. then find you just want "more" umpf from your bridge pickup can be a bit of a bummer.
I had all these frustrations with my strat but worked through them all over a year or so. Unfortunately, eventually, the pressed steel bridge saddle adjustment screws rusted up completely and I put a set of fancy expensive after market replacements on and it KILLED the guitar completely.
About a month later I went out and bought a Baja tele on a whim and with the (very stratty) twisted tele neck and ballsy broadcaster bridge it quickly became #1
Its just had a re-fret and 17 years later I still never play my strat. :)
This was a fun topic. 8:05 I had to laugh at myself when I realized the solution for wanting something between the bridge and neck pickup was, in fact, the middle pickup. Not a sound I use at home, but sometimes it just works live!
I'm in a two guitar pop cover band. I typically (not always) play a strat. Our other guitar player uses a guitar with humbuckers. Having those different tones is a plus in that our tones complement each other but...my strat needs to be gained up with more mids or clean and louder in order to cut through.
Same here, but when you're playing together the way they complement each other is good, one never sonically covers the other. Fully agree. Sold my Les Paul to the humbucker guy....
I think I share the same sentiments with you here.
Reason why Im bringin g my 335 and a tele on tour. Strat stays home.
-trem gives me bending sadness
- trem gives me tuning instability and anxiety
- scale length with presence of trem makes me super anxious
335 and tele
- set bridge
- no tuning problems
- bends are predictable
Love my strat just not live yet at my beginner level playing.
Love the content brother!!
This is where I have to say I love my Suhr. The V60LP pickups still have the vintage strat tone, but they work incredibly well in a live setting and in a mix. The bridge SSV sounds good, but I tend to like something thicker in the bridge and will probably try a thornbucker II or woodbucker. I run the bass on my amps live extremely close to zero. Ditto with reverb. The band and the room make up for them. I'm the opposite of many folks where I always thought I was a tele guy but always go back to a strat. There's also the Suhr SCII system, which is a lifesaver. The Ilicht system is very similar to the SCII and can be placed in most single coil-type guitars if you don't want to go with noiseless pups.
@PhilthyCasual@PhilthyCasual The ML Standard (now called the V63+) and the V60LP are the two pickups the folks at Suhr recommended to me the most if you want a bridge single coil that handles gain well.
It's crazy how you put into words the same process I was going through this gigging summer. Started in a new cover band. Played either my custom made tele or custom made Strat (which is a HSS). It honestly didn't work in the mix, also because I am the only guitarist. Working in a music store, I got my hands on the Epiphone Shinichi Ubukata ES355. Just blown away by the quality and by the specs for the price. (Not all of them turn out good, we did also get some of them, that weren't good fabricated) Since then, this is my main live instrument, and it does the work perfectly every weekend.In a Cover Set Up, a Humbucker ist just necessary. At home, I love the expressions of Single Coils a lot more, but live is a different world. Amazing work John!
I feel that way too.
The Telecaster supports you better, even if it is quieter the sound cuts through the mix well.
The Telecaster is the trumpet of guitars.
I really like the Strat sound, but live I always feel like I have to constantly play licks and double stops to get a full sound.
With the Tele the sound is easy, I play calmer and more relaxed
legitimately one of the best strats I’ve heard. (Minus the bridge pickup imbalance you mentioned)
Thanks for sharing. I have had this same exact experience. Especially in a loud/dense/large band. Nice to know it’s not just me.
To my ears, In the gig mix recording the 335 sounded muddy, and the Strat sounded clear and distinct. I far preferred the Strat.
I have a single Bridge Humbucker in Strat, in part because balancing volumes between Pickups was more trouble than it was worth. I can easily dial in Preset-Snapshots so my Strat has the right tone and volume.
I just saw Eric Johnson live: during his first set (of new material) he mostly played a Les Paul and it was also muddy. Second set was all Strats and everything was crystal clear, also cut through and sounded 100% better
On the occasion I've played in a one-guitar band, I had no problem with a Strat, but when there was more than one guitar, it was a challenge to eq both guitars. It's more about the instruments in your band, or if you're playing with more than one band, you have to really work the eq balanced. A higher pickups guitar will always feel easy to work with.
I have had a similar problem.
I was in a 2-guitar band for 18 months and we had several issues with getting the levels right. He used a very bare-bones (but highly effective) setup: Player Series Tele + Katana 50 MK II.
I used a pedalboard; Katana 50 MK II and either an Epiphone SG (Special Satin Vintage E1) or an Indonesian Telecaster FMT HH. When I used the SG I struggled to be heard, particularly when using my favourite pedal (UM-300). When I used my Tele however I had to keep the volume on the guitar at 1 or I drowned Sam out.
I too could not get a strat to work live, for the same reasons. I now use a Tom Anderson Telecaster Strat hybrid (tele bridge pickup, strat middle and neck, push-pull on the front pickup to get the tele middle sound, and dummy coils on all pickups for noise cancellation with a switch to add the second coil for high gain sounds). Works for pretty much every gig.
To me some of the best Strat performances are in trios or mixes where there is a lot of space for the delicate nature of the sound to stand out. The more crowded mixes the strat seems to struggle more
Just a thought. I played weddings for years and I always wanted a strat to hand for the stratty stuff but I always found exactly what you said about clean sounds they kind of lack authority. But sometimes a Gibson can be a little too round for some things. I played a 72 thinline tele for years with two wide range humbuckers taht I found did a fantastic job of between both sounds. Twangy but round on the back and full but spanky on the front. No trem though. Also the one I have is from Japan in the nineties and the wide range humbuckers on the squiers and Mex fenders just don’t sound the same now.
I relate to this experience deeply😩 My first strat was a real struggle as the strings felt extra slinky even when I used 11’s. I was always overplaying the strings live. And I struggled with achieving the fatter clean tone that I wanted for jazz and funk gigs that I was playing. I have a PRS Fiore now that I love that has a lot more tension on the strings that makes my right hand feel way more comfortable (still using 11 gauge strings). And I kick on a mid boost eq in my helix for thicker (PAF-like) clean tones for the neck and middle pickup.
That's why I prefer hardtail strats. I also use humbucker in the bridge to get a thicker sound
I've blocked the bridges on all my strats with hardwood (teak or oak)
My Strat has the Tonepotentiometers as followed assigned:
-Middle Potentiometer as global Tonecontrol
-the other one is only to the Bridge-PU assigned
So I am able to control the „harshness“ of the Bridge-PU and get all PUs well matched together.
By the way. A EQ Pedal in Front of the Amp can help to match the Sound between different Styles of Guitars.
Is this like a Super Strat blend mod you did? Would that achieve the same effect?
@@alec554
No! It’s a '63 Strat built by a Luthier under the Name of „Thorndal“ here in Bavaria (Germany). 3 well balanced Singlecoil PUs, selected 250K Log Potentiometers (Mastervolume with a Treble Bleed) and a 5 Way Switch.
Master Volume, Master Tone and a additional separate Tone only for the Bridge PU.
@@JK_L250 Ah my bad, I just reread your comment and realized I read it wrong!
@@alec554
😉🤘🖖
I totally get what you are saying with the difference between studio and live with a Strat. I don't think I have ever played a Tele live even though I own several. And I find my Gibsons: Les Paul, ES-335, SG, etc. are all more predictable in both environments. Another good show. Keep up the great work!
Hey John, would be possible for you to do a video showing your process to build the playing video you have in the beginning of the videos?
I love my pretend Strat... The Ibanez AP10. Humbucker in the Bridge, Single coil in the Middle/Neck. The output difference between the HB and the SC is massive and I love it. I can dial back the Output on the HB w/Volume or Pickup select for a completely different tone, volume and output level... I have a lot of guitars and the HB (Bridge), SC (Neck/Middle) combo is unbeatable for me.
In the 90s I modded my USA Vintage '62 re-issue Strat, that I purchased in 1989, with a master tone control across all PUPs and also the other tone control is a neck blend pot. So I mainly play on the bridge PUP and blend in some neck to taste. I love this arrangement, particularly being able to engage both the neck and bridge PUPs simultaneously. Having said all of that, over the last two years my Revstar Pro P90 has almost exclusively been my main gigging guitar. Still love my Strat but the Revstar tone is where I am currently at. I also like the 22nd fret!!
As others have said, it sounds like you're talking about pickup output.
On My Zoom G3n (haha, yes in amongst all this talk of FM9, Tonemasters, HX * and the like), each of my patch names reference the guitar they were made for.
Re the bass response differences, i am a great fan of the PTB circuit, let's you cut the bass directly on the guitar.
Don't forget pickup heights too.
Joe Perry from Aerosmith said that the Strat is a good studio guitar and the Les Paul is a better live guitar. It is because the spectrum of frequencies they cover. In studio you can add several layers of guitars, while live you need to fill the space with one guitar
@@franciscovicencar well, joe perry is a f-ing idiot, if he said that
I get it now,
I get the tele, i feel enlightened and elevated by it. There is freedom within its restrictions and simple design, only two pickups, no whammy stick, no frills. Just guitar.
A Strat is played by so many guitar hero’s, in playing the Strat I find myself emulating someone else’s sound other than my own voice. Playin the tele has helped me find my own voice again, before the internet courses and inspiration from my hero’s.
Strat sound is more thin and quacky, where as a tele is thicker and has a twang to it, it has more bite. The middle position is genius on a tele, it perfectly blends the neck and middle giving you a quick, responsive, bright, pickup for funk and rhythm yet still retains the weight from the neck pickup. The bridge pickup is a dream too, it’s soooo bright and cuts through anything you throw on it. It’s almost to the point of a shrill , piercing sound. The beauty of it though is that you can throw as many effects as you want on top of the tele bridge and it will STILL retain its clarity, where as a Strat quickly gets muddied the more effects that I layer on since it’s a thinner sound. Everyone always says a Strat neck pickup > a tele neck, but low key I’m digging the tele neck more right now. It’s got a darker and thicker sound vs the Strat, it’s almost humbucker-esque but more clarity ofc since it’s a single coil. Tele is just so versatile, can be used in any genre
This is the way. I never thought I’d be a tele guy, now I can’t live without it. Tele is just awesome to me. Simple, sturdy, ALWAYS in tune regardless if I’m in a dingy bar or sweating outside in the humidity with the sun beating on it. It cuts through perfectly but also cleans up for mellow things or to give the singer some space. We play all types of different things and it works every single time. It’s elevated my playing and listening skills. I don’t feel like I fight with it, it just breathes with me. If I need more oomph, it’s always there. I feel like I enjoy gigs rather than worrying if I’m in tune or which of five pickup settings to choose. One, two or three and that’s it. It’s just beautiful in its simplicity.
Have you ever tried Strat with pickups connected like this: Neck and middle pup connected in series, and those two pups are then paralleled with bridge pickup (giving around 4 kohm DC resistance) With some amps it gives amazing clean sound because those N and M in series for some strange reason don't kill the highs of the paralleled bridge pup but instead bring humbucker kind of warmth and bottom to the sound.
Strats are all I use live these days. Love them
Fun fact: On “Cliffs of Dover”, Eric Johnson just played a Strat for the opening solo, before the rest of the band came in. Then he played the ES-335 for the rest of the record with the full mix, likely because it cut through easier… You guys are on to something
Maybe this is well known to many but I did not know this, I assumed the whole track was on a Strat. Time to give it a listen with this in mind, thanks for sharing
Wonderful playing, as always. I have been less comfortable with a Strat live, till I had a Strat with a maple board. It's more like a
Tele to my ear.
you need a hardtail strat with either a blender pot or some series switching trickery
I think, searching long and wide for a Strat that is very balanced in all pickup positions can go along way, and live the middle pickup is severely underrated. I’ve spent nearly entire gigs on the middle pickup alone, just because it cut through and felt right. I’m at the point now, where I love all the different guitars for what they bring to the table live, sometimes it’s a Strat, sometimes it’s a telecaster, sometimes it’s a 335 and now it also may be an LP. All depends on the gig and how I feel day of. The one thing I do find is that I will have to dial in all my gain staging, etc. for whatever my main Guitar is going to be. Switching from a Strat to NLP for instance can be problematic, even if you use something to gain up the lower output pickups on a Strat for instance. Sometimes I will do one set on one, and the other set on the other to mitigate any of these issues, and adjust gain stages slightly between the sets
I think it is totally fine to be Tele guy live and a Strat in the studio, in the end its about YOU being as comfortable in each of those situations as you can be, that is what makes you play at YOUR best. A mate of mine is a well known muso here in South Africa, I'm not a professional myself, I only play at home, and he mainly plays a LP Custom live but prefers a Tele in studio or jamming at home.
I have a Gibson P94 pickup in my Strat bridge (P90 in a humbucker size), then only 1 seymore duncan Stk s7 hot stack noiseless single coil (well as single as a hot stack noisesless can be) in the neck, no middle pickup and they run through 1 volume 1 tone, both 500k pots, with a 0.22uf cap on the tone and a 3 way switch. This setup works so beautiful for me, amazing cleans either neck or middle bit fuller in the middle postion (neck and bridge together), gives you lovely diversity and the P90 in the bridge for distortion, wow man. It may not be for everyone but to me that is the perfect strat. I also have a ES355 copy and a real Gibson Les Paul Studio 1995 model (no weight relief), I love the semi hollow and the LP neck feels and plays great but I will take my strat over anything else.
This is a very thought provoking video. I _want_ to use my Strats live but every time I do a quick rig check before leaving home for a performance, nothing matches the active Fishman in my Strandberg Boden Prog. Maybe, as various people have stated, it's simply I'm dialed in on my Kemper Player for the Strandy more than the Strats. For guitarists playing live with various guitars, using modelers like a Kemper, do you have different rigs for each?
I think what you might be looking for is a bend circuit with a bit hotter pickups. Then, your knobs will get you everywhere you want to be. I am partial to Lollar Specials with a blend circuit. It fills out your tone in almost any setting. This is all assuming the amp will also give it to you. But, at least in this configuration, the guitar will not be something to fight. All of the opportunity will be at your fingertips.
I've used my Strat in 2-guitar cover bands for years and love it. It has Suhr pickups and. delta-tone pot for the second tone control that is wired to the bridge pickup.
Second guitar is an HSS Strat type. It's a bit more flexible than the SSS but of course the bridge SC sound isn't the same.
I bought a strat and swapped out the pickups to match your lollar blondes. BUT, I instead used a Red Devil (PAF-voiced super single) pickup in the bridge AND used Lollar's pickup blend circuit. Now my neck's lows are tamed by the bridge pickup and the bridge's pickup can be played aggressively without issue. Would love to see you try this!
Very much agree with live playing and string feel. With more energy going on when live the softer strings on a Strat are harder for me to control with picking. Especially since my main playing is a solo gig with an acoustic guitar and I use pretty heavy strings on that. I lean more towards using a Tele live. Lately been thinking about going with my LP style guitar with heavier strings.
Insanely beautiful playing 😍
Wonder how a guitar like the PRS McCarty 594 would work live. Teles are great. Plus, awesome tuning stability. Such a classic workhorse. Nothing wrong with that!!
Love my 594. It is my favorite guitar that I own. I love the baseball bat neck and the extra slinky feel to the strings. I know exactly how much I need to bend. And the wide range of EQ between the pickups helps me sound full live.
Hi John You should checkout some of the pictures of Eric Johnson's pick ups. He seems to almost bury the bass side of his pickups? Maybe something to try?
Thanks for the video and thoughts. As an almost exclusive Strat player, my two cents would be: 1) yes, agree that neck to bridge pick-up tonal range can be challenging. I’ve found that taking the neck pick-up out of the tone circuit helps brighten it and balance that out a bit; 2) I find that my entire live rig is tuned to making a Strat sound “full” and doesn’t really play all that nicely with other guitars, esp humbuckers (sounds way too dark as you might expect?); 3) my “go to” gigging Strat is actually a hardtail with a somewhat PAF-voiced bridge pick-up (the S90 I think, made by Eternal Guitars) to cover the harder rock sounds. In that sense, i also find that a traditional Strat is hard to make work in a live situation for a diverse set list and that I lean towards a Tele-like Strat ;)
Too funny. I am in a 2 guitar rock cover band and love my P90 and HB guitars with JTM45 BUT sometimes play my strat live to get a different sound from the lead player. All about context. FYI I am mostly rhythm guitar. Loved your piece today thanks!
"sorry for butchering your parts and playing like a donkey" I died laughing.
I played strats for everything from 1982 after being a Gibson kid from 1976. I switched to ibanez AZ's in 2018
I am a 50/50 strat and tele guy. Strats needs something that digital modelers can't give you: headroom! Not wedge or frfr headroom but amp goodness and real good eq.
Also using heavier strings helps.
Yes, I agree with you.
All the great strat players were using cranked amps with loads of headroom and that is when the sensitivity of the weaker pickups comes into its own.
I have much of the same experience. For my (admittedly rare) live events I use only Telecasters. They are so easy to deal with, and always sound great. At home I play the others: a Les Paul, an old Ric, a Strat.. All wonderful guitars in their own right.
I found I couldn't get a good clean *and* dirty sound from a strat with a single channel amp. If the clean sounded good, the dirty was too bright and harsh. If I got a good dirty sound the clean didn't sound good. I ended up going for a good clean amp sound, but used a distortion pedal with a good 3 band eq for the dirty sound, so I could mellow out the bright and harsh sound. With humbuckers I can usually get both a useable clean and dirty sound from a single channel amp. The pedal solution also worked well for jams. Just set up for a good clean sound first, then set the pedal up for the dirty sound, using it's tone controls to counter-balance the clean tone amp settings.
I recently bought a nice classic vibe 70s strat, having played super strats, LPs and teles in a live situation. I love the neck sound and the hotrail bridge, but more than anything, I just find neck position is really strange in relation to playing my others and I find it less comfortable to play and end up with the strap short in order to play some songs at high register.
If you check out the Fletcher Munson curve, it may help explain why the bass is too much live with the Strat.
I’ve definitely taken this journey. All of my favorite guitarists are strat guys. Gilmour, EJ, etc. But live, i much prefer a Tele. The Tele feels like it is built for the abuse. It also feels like it cuts better with dynamic play. Here’s my challenge to you: Tele body with 2 P90s. That might give you more of a sweet spot. If I’m the only guitarist, 335 copy with a coil split is my move.
Yeah, Jimmy,SRV, Clapton had the same problem! Lol... Personally I like my Strat/Silver Sky live, but I hear what you are saying.
You sound amazing whatever guitar in your hands mate. All the guitarists tend to think too much about those tiny perceptions. I have to admit I play live like a donkey too. Nerves, pressure, volume, in ears. Etc
Been using my 70’s Strat in every band for 25 years- it just covers so much music
Try an EQ pedal. Set it so that it sounds the same on and off. Turn it on and up the volume (gain) till you get a little more output. If you want a fuller tone, up the mids and lows till you hear in the monitors what you are looking for.
I bought Cordy's patches for the Pod Go recently. They are really good, especially the Glassy Plexi
The Tele’s a versatile instrument.
In a larger band setup, with bass, drums, keyboards, a second guitarist and maybe a horn section, a Strat will cut through the mix. However, with a three man band a LP/humbuckers fill out the sound more imo.
Clean boost & beyerdynamic M88 or SM7 on the guitar cab for a wider frequency response
Sounds like you’re going direct into the PA from the Axe FX. With humbuckers, your tone will have more girth going direct, but if you’re miking your cab. I think you’ll have tone (and volume control) for days. I almost always prefer the tone of a strat when miked, but that’s not always practical. You could try a strat with humbuckers and a coil tap or active pickups. That’s what I use live. I still prefer my single coils when playing at home though. Great topic!
John please do a video on how you do that unaccompanied solo stuff at 6:42, i dream of being able to improv like that
I recently got a strat wired with a blender pot, allowing you to add the bridge or neck in with the other positions. Kinda has a tele middle position vibe. I haven't gigged it yet, however. Still working on those tones in the meantime.
You may need either a Jazzmaster or a Gibson SG with a Bigsby for even more thickness of sound. Think about P-90s crisp punch too.
I played one guitar for 10 years - an 89 seafoam green strat plus with lace sensors. I get it. I got several more only to sell them all. I transitioned to teles and haven’t owned another strat in many years. Consider a Gretsch with dearmonds. They have a unique voice, no noise and many come with a decent trem for subtle vibrato work. The Julian Lage model is just an upscale version. You don’t have to spend 8k.
Always used a strat live, then I switched from amp to the iridium. I’ve recently switched to a Les Paul with HP90’s and it brings the thickness in the feel I miss from a real amp
09:01 you've hit the nail on the head- you're definitely not playing like a donkey, but playing live is entirely different. Especially for a function band pub gig or outside stage in the street. The expressive nature of your solo playing in the studio would definitely be hard to realise with a band at a pub gig, so the beauty of the Strat tones may best suit your studio (or bedroom) playing, or a live solo show or clinic.
Consider, Fender Noiseless PUP for live gigs, on a Strat. Cheers.
I realised most of my favorite strat players tend to play in one guitar bands, or atleast bands where the lead guitarist is also the frontman and main focus.
I've used Strats for live rock gigs for years. It's all about dealing with that bridge pick up. If it's got a tone knob you can dial the glass out a bit. Check out Rory Gallagher to see what can be done
I’ve found that the eq on my strat needs to be brighter when I play live in order to cut through the mix.. also, you tend to have to fight all the other instruments and parts that are pouring into the mids and low mids.
Have you tried adjusting your pickup heights?
To me the cleans are fine, especially when the monitoring situation is good, but lately I’ve been feeling disappointed with the high gain sounds, using a regular strat with normal singles. I’ve just finished putting together a “HSS” pickguard where I used a bridge humbucker and two fender vintage noiseless pickups in middle and neck, which are technically humbuckers in single appearance. Although labeled “vintage”, these pickups are much hotter than normal singles. They do lose a bit in the tone department, but playing live these little nuances tend to get diluted, what matters is what works.
Sounds wonderful what you are playing at home.and just a thought but perhaps there are too many playing in the same frequency range live.
Many times you see Bass players playing high up the neck where I find in recordings at home playing lower in the " money " notes places gives the guitar more room to breath.But your playing is exceptional I loved it.
I’ve always struggled to get a sound I like for rock from a strat. At the end of the day a bridge humbucker delivers the goods.
Hola John, en un documental sobre Paco de Lucía, decía que en casa practicaba con guitarras "más suaves", con menos tensión en las cuerdas. Pero luego, en el escenario, necesitó más tensión para sonar como quería y usó guitarras más duras. Jugó más duro por los nervios y la responsabilidad. Tal vez con un calibre más alto en las Stratocaster te sentiste más cómodo en el escenario. En casa juegas de maravilla.
So many people use strats live.. it’s just preference at end of the day. I love the sound of a Les Paul.. but in my hands, single coil always fits better.
I too find that I pick much harder live than at home, which is a problem for me. It messes up the bloom of the note and always sounds too harsh. I think it’s down to monitoring in my case, we do a sound check and it’s fine, but as soon as we strike up the first song in the set, the drummer is 20% louder and I can’t hear myself.
I’ve taken to using a volume pedal with a min setting for sound check and a max setting for the gig proper, which helps a bit
If you enjoy the 335 live stick with it and for when you want strat tones use 3 Sigma "Strato" IRs. I used to use them with my ES335 dot and they're pretty convincing live - led to the weirdest question ever, "Why does your 335 sound like a Strat?". Try it, only a tenner, nothing to lose!
I have a strat with an onboard MIDBOOST... Definitely helps thicken up those higher strings!!!
I have it engaged on 2 or 3 max...
It gets in kind of a 335 territory.
It's much more "methenian"...
Also, the middle pickup + mid-boost is heavenly...
It's a Fender Juanes signature strat. Don't ask me about Juanes, I bought that one based on specs.
Sounds like you need to either deck your bridge, get a bassier/beefier bridge pickup (i recommend a dimarzio fs-1), raise your action a tiny bit, or maybe go up a guage of strings.(9.5's maybee).
As someone who grew up playing a strat I have to say I enjoy teles and 335s live much more (as a rule) I can’t play with the finesse required for a strat under typical ‘gig’ conditions. Ironically though as I do a lot of theatre I am on a strat (usually NOT mine) a LOT of the time. Given the choice I will usually opt Tele/335. Strats are less of a problem in the studio though. 🤷♂️
Maybe adopt one of your Strats for live playing or build a new 'workhorse' live guitar?
Someone below mentioned adding humbuckers.
Perhaps also fit a more stable trem like a Vegatrem or even a Floyd Rose and/or add a tremsetter? Could also add a locking or LSR/roller nut?
The Clapton mid boost is a nice add on too but you need noiseless single coils for one of those like Kinman, Lace sensors or Fender noiseless.
Playing at the gigs sounded great! However realise that if you (one) doesn't get that sound that you hear in your head it can be disappointing.
Part of the issue about the strat’s “thin” sound I think is the difference in what you’re playing live vs in your studio. Couldn’t that be largely fixed by right choice of more aggressive boost and overdrive pedals? Either an ODR-1 or Tube Screamer, into a Bluesbreaker? Or the two sides of a Browne Protein?
Whichever the pickups you like there's little reason to only use hardcore vintage spec guitars.
I love to sound of a strat, but can't stand always hitting that switch when I'm singing and playing funk rhythm, lol. Also the tele tends to have a little more mids and less treble, because the neck pickup is wound with 43 gauge wire (instead of 42) and the cover tends to knock off a little treble (or a lot if its a brass cover) the tele bridge pickup is bigger than the strat pickup and has a baseplate which also adds output and bass
I know you hate the vertex steel string but it helps me with fattening up strat clean tones live in fact i leave it on the whole gig.
Haha, thats is exactly my relation to strats. Most comfy guitar to play with, nice sounds in isolation or on records. In live situations - where is my tele.. as the strat suddenly is lost in a mix and/or stage sound…
I am a Strat guy through and through. Gigged them for years until I got a PRS SC245. That one was the thinnest sounding humbucking guitar I’d ever had. It was single coil like. I realized that I needed mids live that the Strat wasn’t giving. So, I’m with you, but I’m still a Strat guy lol😂
Same here! I love Strat, but I always take the tele on the last minute 😂
Maybe you should do some solo strat open mic nights.
Dial the preset in to be nice and balanced the way you want on the neck pu and then dial the tone knob down to like 5 or 6 on the bridge. Should make the pickups more balanced with each other.
I usually play my Les Paul live, which causes me to play anything but that at home. The Les Paul 'feels like work', if that makes sense.