The BIG Problem All Strats Have.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 20 січ 2023
- ►► Get My Free Rock Guitar Course - robertbakerguitar.com/p/rgcb
►Guitar Lesson Pack: goo.gl/eNE5cc
► Check Out My Second Channel / @tonequest1535
►Sweetwater Affiliate- imp.i114863.net/v7xMA
►Thomann Affiliate - www.thomannmusic.com/?offid=1...
►►My Studio Gear:
Hosa GTR-210 : imp.i114863.net/xWV9k
Furman M-8x: imp.i114863.net/QoZOY
Focusrite 18i20: imp.i114863.net/rZknG
Twonotes Cab M: imp.i114863.net/A9xoR
Eventide H9 Max: imp.i114863.net/VEzyR
Live 6 HX effects: imp.i114863.net/ZOndR
PRS CE 24: imp.i114863.net/o7Wzb
Friedman Vintage T: imp.i114863.net/zEZam
Friedman Cali: imp.i114863.net/EmraX
Friedman Vintage S : imp.i114863.net/3n6Pv
Orange Rockerverb 50: imp.i114863.net/dQNoQ
Two Notes Torpedo Live: imp.i114863.net/K1aea
Revv Amps D20: imp.i114863.net/PXJy6
Revv Amps G20: imp.i114863.net/xWVkk
Friedman BE 50 Deluxe: imp.i114863.net/LVAXO
Fender Esquire : imp.i114863.net/OgDBG
Danelectro 12 string: imp.i114863.net/DP9Kq
Yamaha HS7 monitors: imp.i114863.net/9R4gQ
JBL Monitors: imp.i114863.net/72RaO
My Studio Desk : imp.i114863.net/DP9yq
My Computer : imp.i114863.net/jkxea
►GEAR LIST: www.amazon.com/shop/rguitar
►RECORDING GEAR:
Lighting: amzn.to/3qjpRUM
Vocal mic: amzn.to/3tVheBH
Camera: amzn.to/3am1joy
Lens: amzn.to/3tUIFvy
The links above are affiliate links, where I earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you click the link and purchase an item. You are not obligated to do so, but it does help support the channel!
►FOLLOW ME
/ robertbakerguitar
►Find My Music HERE - urlzs.com/H88hx
►Business Inquiries
support@robertbakerguitar.com
What do you think is the most Straty sounding riff of al time?
The most Straty sounding riff? "Texas Flood" by SRV. Cheers....
Where the streets have no name.
Probably little wing, or cliffs of dover
Little Wing.
"Man on the silver mountain" by Richie Blackmore's Rainbow
The biggest problem my Stratocaster has is that I’m the one who’s playing it.
Same here.
Yep, likewise.
Know that feeling.
Right there with ya
😂😂😂
To me the biggest problem strats have is the position of the volume pot next to the bridge pickup. Always had issues with that.
Yes. This is just one of the reasons why my Stratocaster is a backup guitar. My Les Paul is my main guitar.
Totally agree. Yes you can get used to it eventually but I don't like them enough to do that.
It's supposed to be close so that you can mess with the settings fast. And if it bugs you so much. Get some tape lol. No guitar is perfect but this complaint aint strong lol.
Yeah that’s a feature. Not a bug.
My only electric guitar for over 20 years was a 1983 Westone Concord III. I had to learn to make it sound like whatever. It wasn't until I had a Strat, a Tele and a LP that I realized that I sounded like a Westone Concord III player. What a great guitar!
Westones and Electras are some of the best guitars of their era and are a serious bargain. Just don't tell anyone!
@@praketingrichraft6181 It's odd because back then I viewed the Westone/Electra brands as cheap. 30 years later and my opinion has completely changed about these Japanese made models. Fantastic guitars that were underrated by folks like me. I guess that's what kept the price down..?
1983 Winston Concord III, tyvm. 😎
I had a Westone Bass for a while but it got sold...no matter, I didn't play bass. The bass was held for a debt by the owner, and he never came back, drugs are a harsh mistress.
The Japanese typically don't make super cheap terrible instruments. Even the really generic Silvertone lookalikes, where of the same or better quality(Tiesco types). I'd wager it has to do with their philosophy of your sould is represented in your work. Do poorly, you must have a troubled soul, do grand, and you have the soul of a leader/champion/legend. They echo this sentiment across many different business practices and traditions. It produces a generally high quality product regardless of pricepoint, because if everyone does generally great at what they do, when somebody doesnt do this, they are quickly found out to be inferior and chastised out of business... basically.
I feel that a HSS Strat is the most versatile guitar you can have!
I had an hss strat and it did everything well. I just felt like I was being disloyal by having a humbucker bridge 🤷🏻♂️ but EVH thought differently!
I own an HM Strat from 89, and it solve all the problems 😅
real strats dont have humbuckers
Every now and then I consider getting an HSS strat but I don’t like the way it looks. It’s almost blasphemous when I see one. Haha but sound wise I know it would be a really versatile guitar. One day I’ll get over the aesthetics and get it.
@@spaceman8839 I feel you, I love a SSS!
This is so crazy, because when you hear hendrix playing gibsons, he plays it with double stops and everything else you would see on a strat (which were his signatures of course). The same applies to someone like Page; most of his mid-late albums with the zeppelin you can't tell what kind of guitar he is playing.
That's because it doesn't matter what kind of guitar it is.
@@MikeDCWeld bingo, I can sound great on a Les Paul part, with a Jazzmaster or Tele, SG, Strat, its all the sane just adjust a bit and boom. Sound is back to that ring!
Partially because 67 Vs had T Top pickups, which sound closer to a single coil (brighter, lower output) than PAFs, which, depending on settings & style, can get quite single coil esque themselves.
Greg Koch's Fluence Classic demo is him on a Les Paul, great example of this.
Best "Tele" I ever heard was from Cracker, and that's a black LP Standard.
While the PAF can cover Fender territory, you aren't getting the thick tones Gibson is known for from trad strat or tele pickups.
@@rocketpigrecords3719maybe the fenders can’t sound like Gibsons but the red special can sound like both a fender and a Gibson, most versatile guitar ever made.
@@itslikethesamebutdifferent8020 I'd have to try it, but I get where you're coming from.
I oftentimes try to forget that Guitar Fetish has a drop in strat pickguard with their Burns approximations and on/off phase switches.
I need a goofball Strat like I need a hole in the head!
If you ever get to play with an EMG SA or T set with the SPC, do eet. It's a weird sort of thing depending how you set that knob, but in a less than metal situation it brings enough girth to pass as a humbucker. I own a Tele with SA-SA-T, really nice for leads & does the noiseless single bit well.
I've been a humbucker person for decades. Had strats before but they always seemed to thin for me. Lately, I've been working with bands that require more clean tones and am gravitating to strats more. It's less about influential players and more about it gives me a different vibe which I need. I approach the guitar as what sound to I need for a particular song. One of my biggest influences is Brian May so I'm more about what you play than which guitar you play it on. As a side note, try playing AC/DC on a strat. Actually sounds really good, especially the earlier tunes. It's all rock and roll.
Iv'e had a japanese squier strat since the early 90's that has a humbucker bridge pickup, so I'm not familiar with playing a strat with all single pickups.
Maybe try out tri-sonics! They're the perfect halfway house between single coil and humbuckers, do great clean tone, but thicker and warmer than a single.
And virtually no one uses them apart from Brian May for some reason! 🤷♀️🤦♀️
How about HSS strats
"As a side note, try playing AC/DC on a strat." It does work suprisingly well, especially if it has a good bridge pickup.
I have an SG and a MIM Strat. If I dial in my Angus tone with the SG and play the intro and lead stuff from "You Shook Me All Night Long", and then plug in the Strat and play the same, it sounds really good with either guitar, and I can strategically do some slight vibrato with the whammy on the Strat when the chordal parts ring out an it sounds pretty darn cool...
@@AndriiVozniak I've had those as well but I always had an issue with the volume drop between positions 1 and 2. I find it easier just to have single coil and humbucker guitars.
My biggest problem with the strat is I don’t have one yet.
This 100% resonates with me. I am inspired to play completely different ideas on a tele. A strat is my home base.. It's almost all muscle memory for me now.
Nice video! I like how you make any guitar you are talking about sound like a great guitar. It's funny how I think about the full rich tones of an LP as more of a lead guitar, and the more mellow tones of a strat as a rhythm guitar. Both ways are great, and there's no wrong answer!
Since all is do anymore is bedroom playing, I take this approach to all my guitars. I’m playing other people’s songs so I grab a guitar that gives me that sound. I’ll be strat’ing it up and start to play a metal riff, then I set it down and grab my explorer. That said I do keep my strat in E flat so by default I use it for songs that require I do. Not always strat songs, but I can usually get what I want out of it.
Good video Robert. I only have a strat copy and use it for fun by learning jazz and fingerstyle music. I should be more of a semi hollow/humbucker but like the comfort of the strat
There’s different tones from different years or decades of Strats too. If you watch channels that have access to vintage gear, a 57 strat sounds amazing, but if you go to 56 or 58 you’re like, “what happened that made 57 sound like THAT?!”
There’s a busker in the NYC subway with what looks like a 70s Strat in natural. His tone sounds like bells, and in the big echo-y space you can hear him before you see him, and so “bells” tone “oh, it’s that guy again. Cool.”
Very true, it seams we all have that approach to play a Strat like a Strat lol. I do try to play my Les Paul like a straty sound in the middle position at times lol. A lot of the songs from Jeff Becks album Blow by Blow was done on his Les Paul and it does sound like Fender. Just food for thought. Old PAF pickups can do that.
Huge problem I have with strats is the volume knob placement.
The only problem that I have with the Strat is that the tone is in the fingers of Jimi, Eric, and you, just not me…
I completely agree. When I pick up a strat (Ive avoided them for years, but recently got a 2019 MIM), I rarely pick up the pick and go straight into Knopfler-like stuff.
The volume knob being where it is has always bothered me, palm muting is so strange on a strat.
I LOVE the 9” radius of the neck, its so comfortable, it blew me away.
That sounds like it should be played with a firebird. It definitely has a Scott Holiday vibe about it
When I plug in a strat, it’s cause I want to hear the strattiest strat tone I’ve ever stratted in my whole strattin life 😂😂🤘🏻
I would like to know why I am not not allowed to register for a guitar? It says that I have been blocked by the website owner can you contact to let me know what's going on maybe send me an email and tell me why
I totally get what you mean. I have a James Tyler Variax that is built similar to a Les Paul, and whenever I have it emulating the sound of a Strat or Tele, it feels very odd because my hands can tell they aren't playing a Fender style neck.
Using different guitars to play differently isn’t a bad thing, just part of the experience on the road to discovery to what Jeff Beck figured out. Whether he played his Tely, LP, or Strat or even a Gretsch, he always managed to get a wide array of tones, sometimes difficult to figure out which one he was really playing in the studio, and yet always sounded like who else . . . Jeff Beck. TONE ultimately comes more from the hands than the instrument.
Same with Gilmour really, he is identified as a Strat player but he could be playing anything and he'd still sound like David Gilmour.
Feel comes from the hands not tone.
Totally agree, I saw SRV playing many guitars when we would have Blues jams at the old Charley’s Guitar shop here in Dallas, well before he was famous, and it all sounded like Stevie! That is what separates these wonderful players. Me, no matter what I played, it all sounded like crap 😂
I never play those Hendrix Dounle Stop licks, just because when your at your local music store it’s all hear.
Peter Townsend is one of the best at making sure you have no idea that must of the recordings by the Who are done on a Fiesta Red Strat ( all the later ones anyways, and all the one that count )
Where I grew up (far away from the west), strats were used by Nu-Metal, punk, and hardcore local bands. I only knew Hendrix because he was the poster guy of the instrument that I was saving up for to be like the local bands. When I got it, I even used it in Trivium cover songs after my punk and hardcore ventures. I didn’t even know you “had to” play strats like an old uncle till I moved to North America 😂
Great creative advice here!
Hey, so is that the Giveaway AVII? Or did you like that ‘59 so much that you picked yourself up one?
THe Les Paul Giveaway? Or if you are refering to the Strat this one was mine that Fender sent me. We already gave a new one ( just like mine) away :)
@@RobertBakerGuitar yeah the AVII giveaway. Well dang, that’s a real endorsement, you had already bought one before the AVII giveaway.
The problem I have with my Strat is everyone that plays it, wants it.
I bought it in 1998. Had it set up by a good friend of mine who is a local blues guitarists. I don't gig with it anymore because of that problem.
I could say the same thing about a Les Paul or an SG, perhaps even more so because of their association with southern and hard rock. If anything, a Strat‘s baseline clean tone makes it better as a pedal platform to modify its tone and therefore the way you approach playing it.
The biggest problem a Strat has is that it’s not a Les Paul.
I play all my guitars the same. Occasionally I'll get a little spanky on my strat, but it's been so heavily customized it may as well be equipped with buckers.
Lots of people start playing on a cheap strat style because it's common not because they choose single coils lol. When the player realizes the huge sound of high gain and humbuckers they then want an RG or Les Paul and then that is where this concept of different guitars notion of different tones started.
This is a beautiful mental lesson! Thank you!
Great! I haven't ever thought this way and totally agree with you.
This holds true to most guitars that we pick up. More so with strat, teles, les pauls, and 335 style guitars. I don't think it's necessarily a strat problem as much as an influence problem lol
I had an American Deluxe HSS Strat when I was in high school. It was my dream guitar. I was so excited to take it home, and I just never bonded with it. I kept turning down the volume while playing, and turns out I would have preferred a hardtail strat. Some years later I got an Epiphone Les Paul that I liked far more and sold my strat.
You're absolutely right, and it's exactly the reason why I tend not to use strats for my original music. Even though I love the sound of my two strats, I find that using a guitar that just sounds "different" is best if you don't want to sound too derivative soundwise. Finding my own sound was part of the journey.
Not mine, mine has had a hot rails wired parallel in the neck, and a dimarzio low output single space humbucker in the bridge for a loooong while. It’s only a strat shaped object now
Could a base plate on the bridge pickup and you can use it for Rock
Love the strat sound. I wish I could play them but the middle single coil and the knob gets in the way. By the meantime I will keep enjoying the music of you great strat players.
I LOVE a Strat neck clean. I get that sound now from my Les Paul & Knaggs. It was hard at first because a Strat tone invokes on vision & seeing something completely different throws you off. I had to “look” with my ears instead of my eyes.
This has really got me thinking about how I play (even just did a response video - won't share the link here though lol). I just play, I don't tend to adjust for the type of guitar - maybe I should though!?
When I play my strat, I play on the bridge pup and roll the tone knob and play mainly hard rock and metal riffs.
My biggest problem with my Stratocaster is the Roller Nut. The bearings on the unwound strings are not holding the strings. They sit on the shaft between the bearings. Can this be fixed? Should I just find a better designed nut? As for playing a guitar for a particular sound, I usually stick with my Les Paul for just about everything. I even use the Les Paul for songs that are normally played on an acoustic. The volume knob placement on a Stratocaster also sucks. The best Strat I ever owned was a 1988 Hamer Chaparral Custom. The other guitar player in the band has 2 Fender Stratocaster Custom Shop reissues, and they are not too bad. The best Stratocaster pickups I've played were the 50's style Noiseless. I've got my Stratocaster wired up with the Seymour Duncan Everything but the Kitchen Sink. I've been playing since 1976, and I've learned that we play a gig with the guitar we have and not the guitar we wish we had.
I totally agree, being the only guitarist in a cover band I have on stage my tele, strat, Les Paul, SG, 335, PRS… because I want to recreate the sound, tone, and look of the original artist. I am a Texas Guitarist and a Strat guy! And you totally hit it! I started to think about it, even when I am practicing at home, I will always jam and do my noodling on my strat, but oh we are adding The Rover by LZ, instead of just continuing with my strat, I will grab my LP, and my mental model of playing completely changes, that heavier feel, flatter fret board, I just attack it differently. Great observation, don’t know if this old dog can break this habit, but thank you for being insightful, I really enjoy your channel.
I’ve never gotten on with them, I really hate where the volume knob is
My problem with a Strat is the volume knob is too close to the bridge.
Also, I keep hitting the middle pickup with my pick...drives me nuts.
I love playing my Strats, both of mine have humbuckers in the bridge, but I mainly use the neck pickup.
I have licks and/or tunes that I write that just don't sound the same on a strat vs. my Les Paul's. I'm sure everyone does, right?
The big problem with Strats is the volume knob way too close to the strings.
I agree that I play or at least approach playing differently on my strat compared to my les Paul or my Ibanez guitars but something I do is taking the strat for example and playing an Iron Maiden tune or some other tune that isn’t normally what I would play with THAT guitar. Spend a little time dialing in the amp to try to get the sound I want and then little by little the strat is working for something more than I normally use it for. Incidentally, I thought for sure the biggest problem you would say are the razor sharp saddle screws shredding the palm of your hand as you play. Lol
Great idea, thank you. And great riffs, great playing philosophy idea.
I always try unsuccessfully to rip off Chris Buck when playing a strat. That man tears it up no matter what he plays though.
No... but there are things each guitar does that others cannot.
I'm not attempting to sound like any of my guitar favorites... and maybe thats where musicians should be doing as well. It's cool to collect riffs from famous guitarists but THOSE famous guitarists are famous because they sound like themselves, and perhaps thats what we all should be doing.
You can do very much with the tone knobs on a strat, the problem for me is volume knob and pinky related.
Interesting ideas 💡 thanks. I liked your riff and it seemed to come out of left field. 😮
what do you use in your hair?????? please!!!!
Ha i honestly uuse nothing
@@RobertBakerGuitar that is the best advice anyone has ever given me. thank you
The only problem strats have (and Jags) is that bloody volume knob in the way!
One thing I do is intentionally play riffs I would normally play another guitar. I'll play a high gain rhythm thing on a strat I would normally pick up an LP for. Not expecting anything good, but just to "see how it sounds" and many times I'm surprised because it breaks all the preconceived notions. "this sounds kinda cool" Or I'll try and play something clean and jangly on an LP, or I'll play something country-esque on a strat. I (try to) see the guitar a as tool, paintbrushes. Trying doing a whole painting with this brush, or this brush.
I tend to not have this problem because all of the Strats(2) I currently own are HSS. I feel slapping a humbucker in the bridge solves the problem essentially. I can still get all my Strat sounds with the 5 way switch and then get the beefy growl from a humbucker when I need it.
Do what I did. Repurpose one of the tone pots as a middle pickup volume. On my Bitsocaster, 0 is full volume out of phase & 10 is full volume in phase. so I can make a humbucking pair with either neck or bridge. 5 is off at which point I have a Tele. In-between sounds can even edge towards Gretch territory and of coursre I can have all 3 pickups on at once. Much more versatile, with every classic strat sound available except middle only - and I could probably make that happen by using one of the unused settings on the 5 way switch; currently 1 = Bridge, 2-4 = Both & 5 = Neck
Ritchie Blackmore has hard riffs with Deep Purple and Rainbow. Usually strats don't sound good in heavy rock but his does.
I have my Stratocaster wired up with 3 single space humbuckers. I can have the finger board and bridge together and get that Blackmore tone.
Good point Robert. I'm a Tele & Les Paul guy. I have a strat, but before playing it I listen to players such as Richard Lloyd, Robert Quine, Vernon Reid & Ivan Julian to get out of that expected "strat tone" mindset. The mentioned New York players style was unconventional, unpredictable & cutting edge. Hope this is a good option-think outside the Strat to stay "fresh..." Thank you...
The biggest problem with a Strat for me is the placement of the volume knob. I can't seem to stop hitting it and turning it down.
i love metal so i would normally play with full gain, no middle, full treble, full bass and play metallica or something
My biggest problem with any guitar is just trying to play anything!
Would you play only Iron Maiden on a strat if you wanted to play Metal then? I do struggle not to play just Melodic Metalcore on a drop tuned V or LP too though. PS. That riff sounded more like a 90's Buttrock piece played on something like a 60's Hofner, a P90 LPJ or a Mustang or something.
You said a very wise idea:
every guitar inspires the player to play differently.
It is so true !
Sometimes just the neck or the colour lead me to different tones.
However, I think it is good to experiment “unusual” tones with your Strat …
This will lead to new inspiration for sure
👍🏻
A buddy let me play his Stratocaster, and even my 5150 could NOT get it to distort at all. It was clearly a clean with distortion running on the side. It did not work for my metal playing.
Later that day, I played with that buddy's reggae band, and that Stratocaster was PERFECT. It sounded like reggae. It played like reggae. It was a beautiful friendship.
Something else I tried was using a fuzz pedal with my wifes strat at the bridge position, was really surprised how good it sounded.
The problem is the bridge pickup sounds terrible for most things except surf and the volume knob is waaaay too close unless you have baby hands. Thankfully there are mods and variants that have addressed this.
The biggest problem with Strats is the horrible volume knob placement. Leo didn't think we would palm mute and use the different techniques that we use.
Not sure Jeff Beck would agree 😊
@@nzeches Yeah, he worked around it. I'm thinking of changing the placement on mine as it drives me crazy. I already put a hose washer under it so it won't turn down by mistake.
I figured it was going to be the volume knob....in the way....
I always max it out then bury it in the body...but your concept was better
I have a Strat, ESP and a PRS. I play them all the same. I do prefer to play Buckethead songs on the ESP or the PRS because of the humbuckers, but Soothsayer sounds really nice on my Strat.
The only extended Les Paul sound I can get out of my strat is because it's an Eric Clapton strat with a built in Tube Screamer ( 26db boost ). It can give you all the Cream tones. Otherwise no matter where I start distortion wise with my other strats I eventually end up back to the strat sound. Same for Les Pauls. No matter how light I play I end up back to a heavier sound.
My biggest issue with Strats is the location of the first volume control. The way I pick, i keep gradually reducing my volume by accident
I’ve always been a humbucker player. Started with a Epiphone LP, moved into some PRS SE 24s with coil splits. I found myself the last couple years chasing that “strat” tone due to the music I gravitate towards now. But I always held off because of the exact issue you brought out in this video, that this guitar only lends itself to that style of playing. After you do research about the styles of music the Strat, and the artists who used them you start to see the true versatility of it. I ordered my first Strat recently and am going to challenge myself to play everything with it. Great content, keep it up
You're on the right track there, Robert. If I feel stagnant on any of my guitars, just plugging into an Eletro Harmonix Mel 9 and playing it like a flute or cello, or orchestra completely changes the perspective.
I think you issue could be more related to having a number of different guitars. For years I only had 1 guitar (which was a squire Strat). But I had to approach it (as you put it) differently to recreate the sounds of the tracks I was playing that weren’t originally played with a Strat. Now having several guitars (not just Strats) I now have more choice to choose that guitar I use. But. I necessarily getting stuck playing each the same way.
@RobertBakerGuitar looks like you have someone replying to your commenters pretending to be you.
yep! one of its greatest strengths is versatility. you can play any kind of music on a strat from metal and big beefy sound to light jazz...its all about how you play and your setup.
That's a beauty! My first electric was a '73 or '74 Olympic white Strat with a maple fingerboard. It was well played when I got it. I had it refretted, and I put in a 5-way switch, installed new original Fender F-stamped tuners, and a stacked Dimarzio humbucker in the bridge position. I liked it, but ended up with a goldtop Les Paul and traded the Strat and a small Peavey amp to my brother for a beater '64 Chevelle Malibu SS convertible. I still have the Les Paul. I'd like to have both the Strat and that Malibu now! Call me greedy!
Rob really intereseting perspectibe and analisys! I love strats so deeply and I play 90% with rifts/rithym, the single coils allow a very rich and wide tones. I cannot get anything near using a Les Paul with humbuckers. I love exploring new effect and tones for my strat and telecaster....best toys ever!!
Strats are cool and I've always liked the sounds of them. I've owned a few, but always end up selling them because of the volume knob placement. I know it's a small thing that could be worked around, but I prefer my Charvel DK24 HSS. I can get strat tones out of it when I need to and it feels pretty close to a traditional strat. 🤷♂️
Yep. I find I play my tele, strat and Paul all differently.
Its weird. I got a dozen guitars now. Strats, SG’s, les paul, 335, teles, ibanez RG’s. It doesnt matter what the guitar does or tones it makes. I play them all exactly the same. I stopped buying new guitars because i know I’m gonna sound like me even if i got a new shape
Stratocasters have always felt "natural" to me. Not only because of my influences, but I always find myself going back to an S-style guitar. I currently have a Suhr Classic S HSS that I ordered from Humbuckermusic last year that I adore enough to sell every other guitar I owned. Listening to guys like Jeff Beck(his influence will never be forgotten) and Nick Johnston from time to time can also help you break out of the whole "strattiness" mindset. It also sometimes helps to play the guitar through different styles of amplifiers outside of your Fender, Vox, and Marshall style amps. If you can afford to drop that type of money, do not be afraid to run your strat through some amplifiers that are known as "modern high gain monsters" such as an ENGL, Diezel, Revv, Mesa, EVH, Friedman, Rivera, Fryette, etc. You'd be AMAZED at just how good a strat sounds through some of those amplifiers, even if you're not a metal player.
Recommend listening to some Dizzy Mizz Lizzy - Great guitarist Tim Christensen has played strats on all the stuff (as far as I know). Setup as follows:
Fender Stratocaster, in D standard or drop C - through a Marshall JCM 800 high gain tone. If you are into rock/heavy rock it will blow your mind (no less).
Really shows of how versatile this instrument can be.
I always hit the pickup selector if im on the neck pickup.
I can totally relate! I have the same experience while I’m my studio and to make things WORSE is playing a signature series guitar having the expectation of playing that artists style of music! That’s why I sold my Ibanez Jiva! Because it made me only play like Nita Strauss lol! But I love my Fender Jeff Beck and Kenny Wayne Shepherd guitars lol
The opposite effect can also be super cool though. I just got my first Tele-style guitar today (Kiesel Retro Solo) and I find myself playing in a way that I've never played on my other guitars that have been more geared towards metal. So the guitar having a built-in "thing" can be really, and a freeing experience rather than a limiting one.
All these many years and I have never considered some of these ideas. Nice insight, Robert!
The biggest problem I have is the volume knob is to close to 1st string I hit the volume down constantly
I've found writing stuff on another instrument (i have a travel acoustic i come up with riffs on) then switching to my strat has good results. Also writing in alternate tunings than transcribing to the strat works too, it breaks me out of my 'i wish i was hendrix' box
I can see what you are saying Robert. So many times we relate the instrument with the artist mainly and with the genre we are watching and listening to. Stratocaster to Eric Clapton, Les Paul to Gary Rossington. But a telecaster is a different story. You see so many different genres played with it. Blues, rock, country. Just my take on it. 🙂
I think I'm led more by the tone I dial in than the guitar itself. But I have a Katana amp and it has the ability to make my Strat sound pretty darn close to a humbucker guitar. So I sold my Les Paul (and a few others). All I have left are my Hwy1 Strat and an Epiphone SG Classic I keep tuned in open E for playing slide.
Thinking about this, I'm immediately reminded of Yngwie J. Malmsteen & Chris Impellitteri. I don't know if I'd describe either as sounding "Stratty" unless you consider wicked vibrato, lightning speed, & neo-classical chops "stratty"?
Have to agree that the "other" predominant style is largely accepted as conventional; I think of YJM and Gary Moore in his Rock era as Strat ...but the undisputed GOAT has to be Jeff Beck and he didn't double stop, lol, he took it to Alien Space.
Don't forget Blackmore.
Love that opening little riff
This is my issue with my les paul I love the guitar but I've played my strat so much I feel like I don't know how to play my les paul when I do pick it up.
Would you consider the songs by Iron Maiden strat sounding? And like the other comments I have a very different sound that Hendrix or SRV when I pick up my strat. Let’s just say if I ever cover their songs I am in no worry of copy right infringement. Hahahaha
Also works another way - people associating Single Coil tones to mean 'Strat/Tele' and any SC, especially split HB's in very different style guitars, different scale, bridge PUp positions etc, and then being 'disappointed' instead of 'embracing' that guitars versatility - it may sound 'weak' compared to its HB when played in isolation, but in a mix, with some distortion and/or FX, the SC options sometimes sound 'better', bigger, cut through better etc which is 'more' important to me than sounding like a 'Strat' when playing something 'different'
From LeoM: I have Strats with HSS, HSH, HH, double P-90, double Z coils and double Filtertrons, in addition to my first SSS model. I just went through a lot of trouble to modify a strat to take a Charlie Christian pickup. If I am "sounding like a strat" , it is because I want to.
I'm just a recreational player but the strat I bought is HSS, just to help with the versatility. Love having the humbucker on there.
Yesss...when I play a strat I have clean tones in my head (stratty sounds)...I have the same problem with telecasters.(an single cut guitars ...humbucker guitars for riffs an singles coils for solo an vocal lines ...but strat like guitars for me always leave me listening for treble an plunky vowel sounds...
I think that applies to any sss guitar. If a strat is an hss configuration than it is as flexible as any other guitar. The problem with a strat for me is the volume knob being WAY too close to the bridge. It's almost impossible to play palm mutes on the high strings.