Stratocasters guitars look dorky?

While we're on the subject, do you ever start screwing around with your bridge? I did once on an old Fender Bullet in a feeble attempt to remove a flat spot from the G string. Never figured it out and it drove me nuts trying to get it back where I thought maybe it should be. Raising and lowering these pieces is good for what, exactly?

BTW, Guitarist, moving the saddles forward and backward adjusts the intonation, up and down adjusts the string height (in conjunction with neck curvature).

Damn straight, Martin.

http://www.music-44.com/W/hires/REHBK010CD.jpg

This one looks damn cool:

ihttp://members.tripod.com/~arf_she_said/fzguitars/jimistrat.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/~arf_she_said/fzguitars/jimistrat.jpg

The two guitars that I use most are a Tele and a Rick 12 string. The more I think about it the more I wish I had the option of a third pickup and a five way selector (a tremolo bar would be nice also). Strats get a bad rap, but they sound great, are easy to play (unlike my rick 12) and about $500 - $1000 cheaper than a Les Paul. I'd like to get a nice strat as my next guitar.

xpost
That pic above may be the "Hendrix burned strat" that FZ had.

However, I just went over to Guitar Center and I'll be damned if the Strats seemed to have really fat necks today. They didn't feel at all like the ones I'd played in the past! What gives?

Also, yes, that is the burnt Hendrix/FZ guitar. They should just sell them pre-burned.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/nitsuh/Picture042.jpg

ZAPPA GEETAR ALBUMS: Speaking of Zappa guitar albums, I just downloaded "Non Foods" and "Wanna Buy Some Acid" off Limewire. Both are pristine double-cd collections and could be packaged and sold by Rykodisc as is. Non Foods is 2 cds of GREAT solos that FZ recorded for Guitar Player Magazine Records. Wanna Buy Some Acid is just a great fucking bootleg, I guess. Check out Non Foods if you like the SUAPYG and Guitar albums. I actually prefer Non Foods in some ways.

ZAPPA'S GEETARS COMPARED: Interesting to note- Zappa tended toward Stratocasters in the 80s. I prefer the tonal variety he had at that period, despite the fact that his playing wasn't always as good as it was in the 70s when he was using mostly Gibsons. It seems there is much less subtlety in Gibsons and they don't sound as good played sloppily, either.

I replaced a ton of the hardware and switched out the pickguard for a perloid "Mother of Toilet Seat" job which looks a lot nicer than the stock flat white. It has American Fender tuners and the pickups were taken from a beaten '74 Strat I rescued at a garage sale. (It was actually in a basket containing half of a broken neck with no truss rod and about 3/4 of the pickguard with all the electronics. I dated it from the neck fragment which indicated that it was a few months younger than I am.)

I don't really like black guitars in general, but I went to a big bullshit music store and played every Roland Ready they had in stock to find the one that really deserved to make it through quality control off the line, and it happened to be black.

I still don't like that it's black so much, but it was originally just gonna be something to dick around with guitar-to-MIDI and with a Roland VG-8 for fun. As it turns out, all the mods (especially the relic pickups) has turned it into my favorite "regular" guitar too.

My Strat only has two knobs for the standard guitar mode though: volume and tone. The third knob belongs to the hexaphonic pickup circuit and acts as the volume for the extra 13 pin output on the edge of the guitar.

So yeah. Yay for Strats.

i kinda hate strats. some of these reasons are more petty/subjective than others.

the bodies always feel like too big and flat for me. tonally, they play it safe- all three (or five) positions on the strat all still have a very 'middle pickup' sound- the Telecaster, for instance, has a wooly, deep, almost humbuckery rhythm pickup and a shrill treble pickup- much more of a distinction, much more useful, heftier, cooler looking guitar. you can look cool with a strat, maybe, but you definitely never look LAME with a tele.

because they've been so mercilessly copied, most shitty guitars i've played have been strat copies- most strat copies are shitty. even fenders own strat copies, cause i mean - thats what they are, suck. there's probably 100 shitty made in china/korea/mexico strats or strat copies for every decent american made one. not to dismiss the idea of good imported ones, the early japanese ones are amazing. they've also creeped up (and creeped out) the price of the american ones you know- they've made imports the norm across the board. and don't get me started on their new convention of naming things YEARS. you know, having a '62 strat' and a '65 twin' used to actually mean something.

**While we're on the subject, do you ever start screwing around with your bridge?I did once on an old Fender Bullet**

Me too, and considered smashing the fucker to pieces more than once during the process. It was one of those 'not through the body' bridges that's impossible to set-up right. I count the day last August when I sold that guitar for £240 as one of the greatest days of my life.

Strats - I don't really covet one, but I wouldn't mind a GOOD one - a decent vintage one, or a top-of-the range American one. Maybe a fat strat? I haven't played a really good one, but I have had a go on a few that made me feel less than enthusiastic.

b.mulvey is totally on-the-money about the pickups on some strats/teles - there isn't that much variation in the pickup positions, at least the middle 3. I prefer the clearer distinction between the tele pickups - both lovely, lovely sounds and both totally different. And cool-looking? hell, yes.

I guess IMM people are getting the message that I'm a tele-fan by now, but you know my love for these beasts grows stronger every time I pick up mine. Maybe it's just that for the stuff I play - 60's beat/freakbeat, brit-punk and postpunk and a touch of classic rock, I don't think it can be beaten.

Any thoughts on Fat Strats?

I meant ...the pickups on some strats.

It's a bit silly really, but that sort of lingers in my brain, plus, all my favourite guitarists played gibsons - steves howe/hillage/hackett, robert fripp. or I guess danny fishelshcer (telecaster) randy california (danelectro, looking at the pictures in the spirit CDs I have)

As a strat-related aside, I listened to the radio last night, and it was some folk awards ceremony thing. They gave the lifetime achievement award to richard thompson (a pretty good pro-strat argt in his own right) - they actually got mark knopfler to present the award to him! We had to larf @ that...

maybe if he sold cell phones or owned a deli.

yer MBA'ers? lawyers? it's going to be a PRS. they should come with wall-hangers.

http://www.dreamstrat.com/images/dtmo102a.jpg
http://www.dreamstrat.com/images/prs48272.jpg

http://www.infinityguitars.com/Jetguitars/jet_tmb200.jpg
http://www.infinityguitars.com/Jetguitars/jettwins.jpg
http://www.infinityguitars.com/Jetguitars/purplejet.jpg

beautiful in a way, but can you imagine standing in front of a crowd playing raw rock?

That thread was my inspiration! Reading it way back when, it dawned on me that there was nothing mystical about "guitar setup" that couldn't be conquered with a decent set of Allen keys.

Then I discovered the G&L dual-fulcrum tremolo bridge.

Aw come-on Norm, you MUST have one of these in yr gig bag somehwhere?

I did, but I wrote "according" not "accrding".

Are you complaining because I didn't link you to Ed's extremely poorly scripted heavy-loading website where you can find the same guitars I found elsewhere? Fine, then here: http://www.edromanguitars.com

Check out his rant on G&L, where he renounces them forever because he just assumed that he could swap G&L and Fender necks and decided it was a tragic design flaw when that turned out to be dead wrong. (d00d, Leo made sure you couldn't - you can't even swap trem bars).

Sorry I sentenced you to a G&L bridge adjustment, man...they are more than a little difficult. Fantastic guitars though.

Here's that set-up thing, if anyone needs it:
Public service announcement: how to set up your own guitar/bass and not pay for others to do it...

What little he said is not idiotic in the slightest:

"Upon taking the G&L apart I discovered that G&L was no longer routing their guitars in the original way.

In fact they were using the same horribly unacceptable swimming pool route that Fender used throughout the 80's and 90's. Upon trying to make the necks interchange I discovered, the G&L neck was totally different from the Fender that we were intending to use the neck on. Up until that time I had thought that G&L guitars were the same as Fenders.

For these reasons I hereby rescind any positive recommendations I have made regarding G&L instruments. I hereby will no longer recommend the G&L product to my customers. And I will buy back any G&L guitar that was purchased from me within a two year period for full price paid.

When I first discovered these facts I put a new recommendation on my G&L pages. I was recommending Pearlcaster guitars to any and all of my customers. If you are looking for a G&L Bass I suggest you look at the Low-Rider Basses instead. The G&L Models are heavy, clunky and hard to play. They sound decent but that headstock is ugly and the Instrument is unwieldy. Even when I was recommending G&L Guitars I never liked the basses."

He has very strict requirements and that is why I like to read what he has to say. I think he is correct in the assessment that Gibsons and Fenders are way overpriced.

Ha! Now he tells me. I can always take it to a tech if I just can't stand it no more, meanwhile it's a great learning experience. And a great opportunity to add to my vast collection of tiny, easily misplaced allen keys!

It's a Tribute, btw, so a little less status-y than the parent brand more or less fell into my lap at 200 bucks used on Craigslist. Needed a lot of TLC (grungiest, gunkiest fretboard EVER, among other things) but a few hours with a rag, some Murphy's, a philips-head, etc and some new strings (I swear the old ones had spanish moss hanging off 'em) and it's turning into a beauty.

I've always been on the strat=dorky side (prolly a function of age, these things go in cycles), much preferring Lesters, Juniors (P90 phroar yay "Din Of Ecstasy"), and Teles. But this may turn out to be the best 200 bucks I've ever spent.

RE: Fender being overpriced - I have no idea why anyone would think this, given that you can buy an American Fender Highway One for a little over $600. Actually, I think the whole concept of guitars being "over-priced" is sort of flawed. If enough people are willing to pay a given amount, then the price isn't too high. Economics is Economics, after all.

xpost

But let's take another look...

"Upon trying to make the necks interchange I discovered, the G&L neck was totally different from the Fender that we were intending to use the neck on. Up until that time I had thought that G&L guitars were the same as Fenders.

For these reasons I hereby rescind any positive recommendations I have made regarding G&L instruments."

Translation: I assumed wrong. I was embarassed. It must be someone else's fault.

"I hereby will no longer recommend the G&L product to my customers. And I will buy back any G&L guitar that was purchased from me within a two year period for full price paid.

When I first discovered these facts I put a new recommendation on my G&L pages. I was recommending Pearlcaster guitars to any and all of my customers."

Translation: actually, that business about the routing and the necks is just pretext anyway - buy my crappy, if-Fender-is-overpriced-then-what-do-you-call-this? house brand.

"And I will buy back any G&L guitar that was purchased from me within a two year period for full price paid."

Translation: I will buy back the pre-CNC models now that they're worth more than I sold them for.

He's entertaining from a distance. Is all I'm-a say about that.

Translation: Looks to me like you got him all wrong.

What do you all think of those Line 6 Variax things? After watching the videos, I was convinced. But, it sure does seem wrong.

i'm not sure about the specifics about the Highway 1 but they're slightly shady as to the 'made in usa'-ness, either they're mexican parts assembled here, or vice versa. the one i tried had an awful paint job, it looked like it was dipped in wax or something.

I'm a huge fan of the out-of-phase positions on the pickup switch. And I like the fact that you usually have to wrestle with a Strat to get tone and volume. I tend to put thicker gauge strings on a Strat versus my Les Paul, Danelectro or Jazzmaster. I like the volume and sustain that thicker gauge strings give you on Strats more than any other guitar.

The only thing I don't like about Strats is the huge variation in tone and EQ that you get from switching pickups. I tend to use every position but the neck pickup when playing live, because the bass response is so much louder. Lots of 2nd/4th and bridge settings. Plus Fenders really taught me the value in turning up the amp and lowering the volume on the guitar, and then raising the volume for boost and tonal effect.

Anyhow, I'm a Fender man, even though I've been sleeping with the enemy for the past three months (old goldtop Les Paul with p-94s).

Now I just have to decide what I'm going to take to SXSW.

I don't have a Strat anymore, but I don't like playing a Les Paul either. There is something about that rolled top and where the bridge is located that doesn't work well for me either. The flat top LP specials and Juniors feel pretty good and are pretty much like my SG.

Soundwise, the Strat was nice in the middle positions but the bridge-only and neck-only selections were too thin for my taste.

I find them HARDER to get a good setup on.
What if I don't like the action on two strings? ONE string?
I'm stuck filing 1-6 saddles and polishing.

Less string/body coupling, too.
What a TOM/Tail setup DOES offer that no Fender does is variable tension across the bridge, which allows you to adjust the amount of sustain(however, most people using this setup set them for the most tension you can get as they want it to sustain just by looking at it).

I prefer more adjustability to more simplicity.
if you find intimidating, don't touch it.

Personally, I never found a strat-type any harder to string than a TOM type.
In fact, I found it far easier to mess up a TOM, as if you're not careful in keeping tension on the string as you wind and also across the bridge, you end up with a string snagged on some part at the other end of the body if you're paying attention to doing a good wind.

Wangin' and a twangin, sounding so tough
Fender Stratocaster
And the kids in my corner, they can't get enough
Fender Fender Fender
Like the wind in your hair when the top is down
Like taillights headed for another town
Fender Stratocaster, well there's something about that sound.

Like gasoline in the sand
Fender Stratocaster
Like a motorcycle at a hotdog stand
Fender Fender Fender
Like the Dunkin Donuts in Mattapan
Fender Stratocaster
Like the Thrifty Drugs in Santa An'
Fender Fender Fender
Well the sound is thin and the sound is cheap
Like a tin can falling on a dead end street
Fender Stratocaster, well there's something about that sound.

(Guitar)

Well how can it sound so tough?
Fender Stratocaster
And it's made to be treated rough.
Fender Fender Fender
It's got the ancient Egyptian script
Fender Stratocaster
It's got the wang bar from the crypt.
Fender Fender Fender
Oh you should have known it right off the bat
One look and you know it would sound like that
Fender Stratocaster, well there's something about that sound.

Like gasoline in the sand
Fender Stratocaster
Like a motorcycle at a hotdog stand
Fender Fender Fender
Like the Dunkin Donuts in Mattapan
Fender Stratocaster
Like the Thrifty Drugs in Santa An'
Fender Fender Fender
Oh and the sound so thin it's barely there
Like a bitchy girl who just don't care
Fender Stratocaster, well there's something about that sound.

Like Woo Woo Ginsberg at the juke box joint
You hear the sound and you get the point.
Fender Stratocaster, well there's something about that sound.
Oh Oh Oh Alright, etc.

Also: Strats fucking rule.