Thoughts on the Stratocaster

onedaycloser · Post by **onedaycloser** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:35 am

Any points for this one?

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:50 am

It's SOOOOOO close. Even right down to the CAT logo on the hat for Blue-Collar cred.

That guitar is crazy sexy, though.

onedaycloser · Post by **onedaycloser** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 1:04 am

I'm sure I could find ALL the requirements if I dug far enough into FenderForum.com's user profiles - mostly MAWGs over there.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:17 am

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:06 am

I love when old guys' beer guts fuck up their guitar technique.

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:06 am

I never considered one when shopping for my guitar (1st). I guess I didn't know of any Strat players among the bands I listen to and I was told by friends that a Tele would be a good choice for a jangly sound on a budget. I never knew that two of my favorite guitarists, Johnny Marr and Julian Swales, played Strats.

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:22 am

hotrodperlmutter wrote:

LOL FUCKING PRICELESS!
Drummer dude's got his own umbrella

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:59 am

laterallateral wrote:Drummer dude's got his own umbrella

I guess he doesn't want to get sunburned.

xShifty · Post by **xShifty** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:15 am

Is that your band, hotrod?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 11:50 am

lelz.

Gomer · Post by **Gomer** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:05 pm

I was never crazy about the through-body tremolo contraption. This is what makes all the off-sets so appealing to me. That said, I almost always make time for strats online and in the shops. I could probably find a place in my home for something like this:

http://wildwoodguitars.com/electrics/fe ... r46607.php

PS: I'm 36 and I sometimes play in socks and sandals, so I may be a pathetic fogey already. Not sure where the lines are drawn.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:23 pm

onedaycloser wrote:

This one will be with me till the end.

nice! but it's screaming out for black pickup covers, volume and tone knobs...

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 2:29 pm

Fran wrote:then see someone like Nick Zinner and realise your just being a pratt. Its still cool as fuck and i suppose that transparacy thing comes back here too... it is only uncool if you are uncool.

not a massive fan of his music but he does make the strat look COOL as FOOK

Pacafeliz · Post by **Pacafeliz** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 3:28 pm

i love strats. i've had many of them and still have 3 or 4 of them in the house. i rarely play them nowadays, but when i do i can't put them down.
the feel great and (the right ones) sound great.
yes.

no strat hate/bashing here, ever.

Pat.

moore65 · Post by **moore65** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:03 pm

Strats (and Fenders in general) are good sitting down guitars. I never found Les Pauls and SGs to be as comfortable when sitting down. My roommate's Randy Rhodes Jackson was SUCH a pain to play yesterday when I was sitting at my computer.

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 4:18 pm

My first guitar was a strat copy, and I'd love to buy a nice one. I put together a parts strat, and even though its a bit crap I still find myself struggling to put it down.

After having an almost religious experiance with a 67' strat in sonic blue, I knew one day I would have to own a really great strat.

Sadly due to being a skint teenager that day is pretty far off.

The 67' strat was identical to this:

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:04 pm

I've a love-hate relationship with strats, but it's deep love now I've got the Squier Classic Vibe 50s one with the anemic maple neck. I had a white squier standard strat when I was at uni, but never properly bonded with it, although I loved the look (John Perry from The Only Ones was my inspiration). I had another artic white squier a few years later, but was into alternative rock then and none of those underachievers play strats. Alt rock is pretty nearly played-out now, and I've got a feeling in a few years that Jags and Jazzers might get unfashionable. Anyways... I bought a custom shop relic strat for ridiculously cheap a couple of years ago, but the thing never seemed to resonate like a good guitar should. Probably got a dud. The poncey handwound pickups someone had fitted lacked sparkle too. So that went quite quickly. The CV squier really nice, and I plan on keeping it for ever. I might play it at the Shortscale gig... or I might go for the musima as it looks cooler.

The strat shape is the most comfortable of any guitar.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:17 pm

Will wrote: The pickguard is HUGE. I know it's to mount the electronics, but that much plastic with little intervening chrome makes the guitar look cheap.

the pickguard and lack of chrome are part of the reason I bought a Burns Cobra and not a CV Squire...
well that and the tri-sonic pickups

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 6:57 pm

As a few people have already said, my issue with strats was always that my first guitar was a strat copy, and it was a bit of a lemon, plus strats are quite tricky to get playing nicely (look how many people have said that the trem is impossible to set up) so problematic for n00bs. I think they are an absolute design classic; when someone says 'electric guitar', most people will think of a strat: on the flipside, I think that it is this very ubiquity that makes the strat get tagged as uncool. After my first strat, I've had a CP 60's (which I liked, but sold because it just made me want a Jazzmaster even more) and a Tokai (which was amazing, but I couldn't justify having it and a Jazzmaster and a tele and an SG - even then, selling it wasn't an easy decision). I always enjoy playing other people's strats - to me they feel like the perfect middleground between a tele's spartan, designed-to-be-mass-produced aesthetic, and the over-the-top fussiness of a Jazz or Jag. I've never played one with a really fat neck, but suspect that if I did, I'd have to buy it... I'm really not a fan of the in-between positions, but think that a good strat pickup (those in the Tokai are a shining example of this) can be about the most beautiful, complex-sounding pickups you could ever hear. They make a guitar sound like an electrified tree, which I love.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Sat Sep 18, 2010 8:51 pm

Strats take fuzz pedals better than any other guitar I've played. Not all humbucker guitars play nice with fuzz, i love my p90 guitars but sometimes a p90 with certain fuzz pedals can be an unfocused mess. For some reason I have never played a fuzz pedal that sounded awful with a Strat and I've used a lot of fuzz pedals. They all sound good, germanium, silicon, octave things, buzzy, raspy, thin, or thick. The Stratocaster just loves fuzz pedals and that's another reason I think Strats are undeniable.