Strats

[_tom_]

I have been interested in the Billy Corgan sig one for ages, as there are hardly any hardtail strats. I'm not really a fan of normal strat trems, and end up blocking em off anyway. The Tom Delonge one looks awesome as well.

[WezV]

the billy corgan one works for me too, either colour works well

[indysmith]

Played a Road Worn 50's strat the other day and nearly walked out the shop with it (although that would have been STUPID considering my financial situation :P ) It was a lot of fun to play.

[TheIronBeast]

The Road Worn strats are awesome! I very nearly bought one in February. I played loads of strats in store and in the end I walked out with an Fender American Vintage 70's strat. Very bueatiful guitar to play.

[MDV]

The pole peice height on those pickups is weird.

Whys it like that?

[Andrew W]

The pole peice height on those pickups is weird.

Whys it like that?

It gets each pole piece the "correct" (in Mr. L Fender's opinion) distance from the string.  You don't necessarily want all the strings to be the same distance from the pickup.  It's the same on a lot of BKP pickups - like my Apaches for instance:

[MDV]

Well, I imagined that it would be someones idea of correct height, but why those heights?

I thought Tim just staggered poles with the same radius as the FB?

[Philly Q]

The vintage stagger took account of (a) the radius and (b) the fact that players were still using wound G strings back in the '50s, so (apparently) there was a volume difference between the wound and plain strings, especially the G and B.

[MDV]

Cheers philly.

[Prawnik]

You are welcome to your opinion.

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. 

[AndyR]

Interesting old thread here... developed a bit over the last few days. :lol:

I'll put my hand up and say I'm one of the folk that buys into "vintage".

Not real vintage, mind - I don't think any guitar is worth those sorts of prices to me. And this includes custom shop re-issue prices. If you all saved up to get me Rory Gallagher's actual strat for christmas, I'd be very happy, but I personally wouldn't fork out for one of the CS copies (or, at the moment, any of their products).

But I still buy into the "vintage" thing - here's my reasoning/motivation:

1. I'm buying into a dream - my perception of "rocknroll", "rock", "pop" from when I was growing up musically. For me, that happens to be late 60s and early to mid 70s music (with all their roots and influences thrown in). This kinda means I'm restricted to lusting after the "big few" (Fender, Gibson, Rick, Gretsch, etc), and also that almost all later brands/stuff leaves me cold. OK, it makes me a bit of a Luddite, but who cares? :D

2. I personally get on well with 7.25" radius on fingerboards. I like flatter ones as well, but a good 7.25 is a complete joy for me – you can get it as low as I need it to go, it don't choke, I can bend like a b@stard on it, it sings, it chords, it blah, blah.. etc

3. I have to admit like the old folded metal saddles. I've no idea whether they sound better or not, I'm not even sure I care. They just look better to me (more "righteous" – fitting my dream), and they feel better under my hand (it wouldn't feel like a strat to me if there wasn't a danger of ripping my hand open - this is from my experience of gigging years back – er, a strangely misguided "rocknroll" theory of "No pain, no gain..." :lol:).

4. I also like a 6 screw floating trem, I don't want the 2 screw "look" even though I set a 6 screw up as 2 pivot "plus support". I don't use the trem on #1 by the way, I've got 5 springs in her and the thing is down flat, but I don't want it blocked, it doesn't need it, it won't budge. And I don't think I'd ever want a hardtail – a) I like the extra jangle/noise, b) when I do want a trem (eg if I get another strat as good as this) I can set it floating again if I want – and this one is really cooperative and stable tuning-wise...

5. On strats specifically, I like the smaller headstock. I kinda want "Fender" on it, but I gigged very happily with the early 80s "Squier Stratocaster" logo, a kind of hybrid old/modern look at the time...

6. Tuners: I love the slotted tuner design with the little oval buttons, I have no tuning problems with them and I love their tidiness. Anything else conflicts visually with my dream, and I've never found a need for locking or any other innovations. Also I can restring strats/teles with the "vintage" tuners much faster than my other guitars – and they're usually ready to use immediately without too much "stretching time", not true for me on other types.

7. I loathe the extra fret on new Fenders – I cannot tell you why, I just don't like the look.

I'm sure there's more – but I'll stop listing them here...

I know it matters for some, but, for me, this doesn't mean a guitar has to be "vintage accurate" just for the sake of it. I don't care whether it is or not, I like specific features such as those above. For example, I couldn't give a monkey's about nitro or whatever, or the exact profile of the neck.

I hear what folks say about consistency of build quality across a brand being a good thing that modern stuff is giving us – but as far as I can see, the "good" is that we've all got a better chance of picking a sweet one, it doesn't guarantee an individual guitar is gonna be the one (Might be wrong about this though, haven't thought about it a lot...). Also it seems the "vintage reissue" brands are benefitting from this improvement as well?

Basically it seems that there are "good ones" and "bad ones" across all price brackets and years. Hopefully, above the £2-3K mark, a "bad one" is actually "adequate" compared to a cheapy? I dunno, not really tried them, but I can't help feeling that £2-3K for what I find to be an "adequate" one would p1ss me off a bit...

I always play the thing, and try all the others available that day, if I can. If the thing looks good, feels good, rings out in the way I want it to, speaks to me, satisfies all or most of my preferences, and isn't out of my comfortable price bracket, then I want it.

My favourites at the moment are Fender Japan "re-issues" – for what I want/need, I cannot beat 'em at that price. If I was going more expensive, I'd be talking to someone like Jonathan (for example, just cos I've met him and liked the work his guys have done for me) to make me "my" guitar that's another dream, I'm not even sure what it is yet, or how important it is to me, but I know it's slightly different than my main "middle-aged rocknroll" dream :lol:

So, concerning "vintage": I know they're doing it to me to make bucks, but I'm more than happy if marketing types come up with products I can afford that:

a) give me the features I want on my guitars
b) let me feel/pretend that I'm fulfilling my dream in some way.

Sorry it ended up as one of my essays! :D

[Prawnik]

I would not say that "older" = "better" automatically, but there are some things I prefer about the older guitars that I rarely find in newer ones, and it isn't exactly "mojo".

Newer guitars built with modern electronics and production techniques tend to sound uniform to my ears, both in the sense that identical models sound similar to me and a given guitar will sound pretty much the same all up and down the neck.

Newer guitars remind me of McDonald's; you go to a MickeyD in Tokyo or Pretoria or even in darkest Sussex and the BigMac you get from one is pretty much indistinguishable from any other BigMac from any other MickeyD. That's fine if that is what you like or if you need a bland, neutral, inoffensive modern sound, easy to play and easy on the ears, where most of the color is determined by the amp and effects, something you can just pick up off the rack, play it, and put it back.

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.

[AndyR]

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...

[Philly Q]

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

[AndyR]

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

Yeah, I kept thinking "Philly's the opposite to this..." all through writing it :lol:

Actually, I lost a sentence when I was trimming - it was one of the things I wanted to highlight - it is all personal choice for every one of us... and I kinda suspect it all depends on what dream(s) each of us is trying to buy into :D