better pickguard
better pickguard
A better pickguard? What's the difference between a deluxe pickguard and a normal one?
I have to throw this in here... but i bought a Squier Deluxe Strat recently and its way better than any Fender strat ive played or owned. Considering i paid just about £200 i would say that is a damn good bargain.
If you dont mind not having the badge then i would recommend going for the Squier any day.
I mean other than paying a fortune for something like a deluxe or an artist series that is.
better pickguard
A better pickguard? What's the difference between a deluxe pickguard and a normal one?
The best Strat designs are those made before 1981 or so. This has been proven by authoritative sources.* :P
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*radio talk show hosts.
The best Strat designs are those made before 1981 or so. This has been proven by authoritative sources.* :P
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*radio talk show hosts.
I'm glad you put that bit in. I thought you were brutally dismissing approximately 50% of Strat history at a single stroke. :wink:
It is interesting, though, that for most of those first 27 years you could basically buy "A Stratocaster" with maybe a choice of maple or rosewood board, maybe a hardtail bridge..... there were no signature models, no reissues, no import models, no Custom Shop (as far as I know).
Whereas now there must be, I don't know, 100 or more different Strat models on the market?
But on the woods, alder is a bit warmer and has a softer sort of quacky attack, ash has a chimier tone and is generally brighter and tighter.
Remember at all times however that the neck is the biggest part of the sound. Especially with lazy bolt ons and trems.
Each time I had the chance to compare an ash strat to an alder one I found the alder more rounder for an overall warmer tone, whereas the ash was more percussive, cutting and maybe more middier.Me thinks you've just described the wood tonal qualities.
Maybe their variability is part of their appeal go into a shop with a decent wall of strats try enough and there will be one you like? Not only do they make dozens of variations but there is a lot of variation within them it seems.
I was gonna go on a Strat slagging spree but then thought better of it; I've had Strats and always enjoyed playing them and it's true that the Strat is really the basic DNA for the modern electric guitar but, there's always a but, you can talk about bridges, necks, fingerboards, bodies, pot values and everything else but I've never encountered a guitar, and I see more of them in a year than most of you will see in a lifetime, that is so variable. I have a late '60's totally original Strat in the workshop right now; alder body, rosewood fingerboard and it is incredibly bright, almost thin sounding. The owner has just paid a fortune for it and wants to know why it sounds like that. There's no such thing as a "Definitive Strat"
I was gonna go on a Strat slagging spree but then thought better of it; I've had Strats and always enjoyed playing them and it's true that the Strat is really the basic DNA for the modern electric guitar but, there's always a but, you can talk about bridges, necks, fingerboards, bodies, pot values and everything else but I've never encountered a guitar, and I see more of them in a year than most of you will see in a lifetime, that is so variable. I have a late '60's totally original Strat in the workshop right now; alder body, rosewood fingerboard and it is incredibly bright, almost thin sounding. The owner has just paid a fortune for it and wants to know why it sounds like that. There's no such thing as a "Definitive Strat"
+1 on that
My occaisional gripe is ones whose pickup polepieces induce string buzz when set anywhere close to the strings
Not wild about body end truss rod adjusters from a tech's viewpoint
Best strat I ever played was an '84 Squier JV series made in Japan - was pure magic!
I was gonna go on a Strat slagging spree but then thought better of it; I've had Strats and always enjoyed playing them and it's true that the Strat is really the basic DNA for the modern electric guitar but, there's always a but, you can talk about bridges, necks, fingerboards, bodies, pot values and everything else but I've never encountered a guitar, and I see more of them in a year than most of you will see in a lifetime, that is so variable. I have a late '60's totally original Strat in the workshop right now; alder body, rosewood fingerboard and it is incredibly bright, almost thin sounding. The owner has just paid a fortune for it and wants to know why it sounds like that. There's no such thing as a "Definitive Strat"
I have a late '60's totally original Strat in the workshop right now; alder body, rosewood fingerboard and it is incredibly bright, almost thin sounding. The owner has just paid a fortune for it and wants to know why it sounds like that. There's no such thing as a "Definitive Strat"
I have a late '60's totally original Strat in the workshop right now; alder body, rosewood fingerboard and it is incredibly bright, almost thin sounding. The owner has just paid a fortune for it and wants to know why it sounds like that. There's no such thing as a "Definitive Strat"
Don't tell me he's the type of guy who bought into the hype that a strat's tone and playability simply become "more magical" with age?
I have a late '60's totally original Strat in the workshop right now; alder body, rosewood fingerboard and it is incredibly bright, almost thin sounding. The owner has just paid a fortune for it and wants to know why it sounds like that. There's no such thing as a "Definitive Strat"My first Strat was a 67 and it sounded thin too, especially at the side of a firend's 66. I traded it in on a LP 55 Special (which I then traded for a 71 LP Custom - sadly I should have kept both of those guitars). I think the early CBS years produced some of the most variable Fenders. I have played some really nice ones and some dogs.
Oh yeah, note the bridge saddles. Not the cheezy "Fender - Fender" cr@p that Fender tries to pass off as "vintage" nowadays.
Oh yeah, note the bridge saddles. Not the cheezy "Fender - Fender" cr@p that Fender tries to pass off as "vintage" nowadays.
Even though that picture is bigger than a football pitch, I'm afraid I still can't read what it says on the saddles.
But I'm very much in favour of hardtail Strats! :D
Oh yeah, note the bridge saddles. Not the cheezy "Fender - Fender" cr@p that Fender tries to pass off as "vintage" nowadays.
Even though that picture is bigger than a football pitch, I'm afraid I still can't read what it says on the saddles.
But I'm very much in favour of hardtail Strats! :D
Sorry about the photo size.
The saddles are lightly aged but read: "Fender - Pat. Pending"
For legal reasons, Fender cannot or will not use this on saddles, although this logo would be correct for a vintage-style saddle. Somewhere I read one of Fender's '56 Strats is the exception, but I do not know whether that would be true.
I know this is an extremely non-tonehound-ish thing to say, but I hate vintage-style bent-metal saddles.
The height adjustment screws are always too tall and feel really irritating under my hand. I replace them with Graph Tech ones (String Savers, Tusq or Ferraglide, don't really mind which).
I know this is an extremely non-tonehound-ish thing to say, but I hate vintage-style bent-metal saddles.
The height adjustment screws are always too tall and feel really irritating under my hand. I replace them with Graph Tech ones (String Savers, Tusq or Ferraglide, don't really mind which).
i hate fender-style saddles too! i think they're one of the most irritating features in what i regard as a cheap guitar design incidentally turned out much better than the project itself... do the string savers have shorter screws?
There are 3 lengths for the real Fender bent saddles. Usually the 2 shorter ones work best to avoid proud screws. I have both the otiginals and graph tech (and some brass ones too). I prefrer the sound of the bent metal ones, I find the graph techs a bit too bright. Avoid the cast 70's saddles like the plague though.i hate fender-style saddles too! i think they're one of the most irritating features in what i regard as a cheap guitar design incidentally turned out much better than the project itself... do the string savers have shorter screws?
Yes, they're all the same height, not taller on the middle four saddles like Fender ones. And because the saddles are solid blocks rather than bent metal strips, there's enough thread to hold the screw even if the saddle is set quite high.
And as an added bonus, the screws are stainless, so they don't get rusty.
I prefrer the sound of the bent metal ones, I find the graph techs a bit too bright. Avoid the cast 70's saddles like the plague though.
When they vintage stuff they do everything cos' that's what folks want and I am sure some of it is necessary to get the authentic sound, but I am not sure that it all is what do you think would make the ideal strat hybred - mix of vintage and modern parts.
When they vintage stuff they do everything cos' that's what folks want and I am sure some of it is necessary to get the authentic sound, but I am not sure that it all is what do you think would make the ideal strat hybred - mix of vintage and modern parts.
Let's get this quite clear; "when they vintage stuff" they (whoever "they" are; and I'm not just talking about Fender) are making making a marketing decision to hit the the pockets of all the people who believe the mythology but can't afford to buy a vintage guitar. Lot's of vintage guitars are in point of fact cr@p. Modern construction techniques, hardware and electronics are on the whole much better than the fifties stuff as long as you stay away from the gear with the 25pence pots and 50pence pickups. I'm over sixty and have over a lifetime of playing in good, bad and indifferent bands with all sorts of gear can tell you quite unequivocally that gear today is better than it has ever been.
Who are they again? Are we talking about FMIC? or who?
When they vintage stuff they do everything cos' that's what folks want and I am sure some of it is necessary to get the authentic sound, but I am not sure that it all is what do you think would make the ideal strat hybred - mix of vintage and modern parts.
Let's get this quite clear; "when they vintage stuff" they (whoever "they" are; and I'm not just talking about Fender) are making making a marketing decision to hit the the pockets of all the people who believe the mythology but can't afford to buy a vintage guitar. Lot's of vintage guitars are in point of fact cr@p. Modern construction techniques, hardware and electronics are on the whole much better than the fifties stuff as long as you stay away from the gear with the 25pence pots and 50pence pickups. I'm over sixty and have over a lifetime of playing in good, bad and indifferent bands with all sorts of gear can tell you quite unequivocally that gear today is better than it has ever been.Who are they again? Are we talking about FMIC? or who?
Honestly if you flip through any-
Guitar Magazine
Guitar Website
Guitar Dealership
Vintage Guitar Dealership
You constantly shoveled withvintage this vintage that, and on getting vintage tone, and how their '64 strat is better than anything they've ever played. Guitars are not fine wine, they do not get " 'mo tone" with age, they are tools that get better and better as newer electronics and construction techniques are developed.
That's not to say vintage guitars are rubbish, or there's anything wrong with trying to get an "old-school" feel. I'd love owning a '50-something tele or a `60 something strat, that's a piece of history, a treasure of sorts honestly. However I must admit as someone who does ALOT of gear research (I've seen something or another of most every custom guitar and boutique pedal websites out there) I find the vintage broo-haha almost annoyingly abusive to the ignorant consumer, almost as much as $500 boutique overdrive pedals :roll:
Well that's a surprise!
Sigh ----- another post trashed by the prejudices of the brootalz crowd
I personally find the assumption that people buying Fender Strats are dumb consumers or ill informed to be a bit of an arrogant assumption - are people who buy Apaches from BKP buying into a 50s mythology - are they 'dumb consumers' who should get noiseless SCNs or Kinmans instead? (after all we have moved on from simple 1940s pickup technology)
- as to technology making things better - I agree but has it moved on in the guitar world that much? CNC machines can do good things, but it was open to Fender in the 50s to make set necks for better sustain and attack - Leo Fender chose not to - it didn't/doesn't seem to bother Hendrix, Clapton, Jeff Beck, Malmsteen etc etc etc and it doesn't bother people who buy strats today - many people rather like the thin cutting sound of a strat and I am one of them :D
The other main innovation of Leo Fender was to give his prototypes to players to play in the field and to return them with comments - hence the double cutaway, the 'comfort contour', the floating trem, the lighter body and all things that we now take for granted. That is why his guitars have survived so long, in pretty much an unaltered form.
The other main innovation of Leo Fender was to give his prototypes to players to play in the field and to return them with comments - hence the double cutaway, the 'comfort contour', the floating trem, the lighter body and all things that we now take for granted. That is why his guitars have survived so long, in pretty much an unaltered form.
Didnt know that, thanks.
The pole peice height on those pickups is weird.
Whys it like that?
When they vintage stuff they do everything cos' that's what folks want and I am sure some of it is necessary to get the authentic sound, but I am not sure that it all is what do you think would make the ideal strat hybred - mix of vintage and modern parts.
Let's get this quite clear; "when they vintage stuff" they (whoever "they" are; and I'm not just talking about Fender) are making making a marketing decision to hit the the pockets of all the people who believe the mythology but can't afford to buy a vintage guitar. Lot's of vintage guitars are in point of fact cr@p. Modern construction techniques, hardware and electronics are on the whole much better than the fifties stuff as long as you stay away from the gear with the 25pence pots and 50pence pickups. I'm over sixty and have over a lifetime of playing in good, bad and indifferent bands with all sorts of gear can tell you quite unequivocally that gear today is better than it has ever been.
Not my thing. I like guitars that you sometimes have to fight to get your tone, ones that like a particular sound or type of music or amp or key signature. If you want it in "mojo" terms, I like guitars with strong personalities. If you want it in burger terms, I perfer roadside burger shacks to McDonald's, even if you do sometimes get the sh*ts.
But I still buy into the "vintage" thing - here's my reasoning/motivation:
But I still buy into the "vintage" thing - here's my reasoning/motivation:
I pretty much disagree with you on all those points - apart from point 1 about buying into a dream, although my own reference points are a bit different. And on point 4, I do prefer a 6-screw trem to a 2-point... but I much prefer a hardtail.
But you make your points well, and I'm not actually arguing with them. Very entertaining essay! :D
My favourites at the moment are Fender Japan "re-issues" – for what I want/need, I cannot beat 'em at that price.
My favourites at the moment are Fender Japan "re-issues" – for what I want/need, I cannot beat 'em at that price.
what about tokai? they make the japanese fenders now anyway, might as well cut out the middleman (and the laughable markup) if you ask me... :lol:
Not my thing. I like guitars that you sometimes have to fight to get your tone, ones that like a particular sound or type of music or amp or key signature. If you want it in "mojo" terms, I like guitars with strong personalities. If you want it in burger terms, I perfer roadside burger shacks to McDonald's, even if you do sometimes get the sh*ts.
:lol: love it...
Partly because I didn't see a Tokai "strat/tele" when I was in buying mode...
And, er, mainly because I have to admit to wanting it to say "Fender" on it :oops:
(I am the proud owner of a Tokai Love Rock though - perhaps I'm not so precious about "Gibson" :lol:)