School me on Strats

pauly said:
Hi Chewie,

(just based on my experience)
Also, look at Telecasters.
I have an american strat and tele, and I just cannot like the Strat - I know I should - I know everyone does, but it shits me to tears! When I play it I invariably mess with the volume pot accidentally, and I just don't enjoy playing it - I don't like how it feels, nor how it sounds. It's setup perfectly I might add! The Telecaster, on the other hand... well I can pick that up and lose hours.

Thanks
Pauly
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TBH I think the American Std series whilst being good fundamentally are some of the most boring and uninspiring Strats and tele ever made. Custom Shop vintage with big frets and flatter fingerboards are far more like old school Fenders made useable.
 
The intro level US one is a good place to go at your stated price and swap the garbage bridge down the line.
 
Andy Eagle said:
TBH I think the American Std series whilst being good fundamentally are some of the most boring and uninspiring Strats and tele ever made. Custom Shop vintage with big frets and flatter fingerboards are far more like old school Fenders made useable.
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To each his own. It’s great to have choices! We’re all inspired by different things, and often one player’s perfect guitar is the next’s albatross. I’ve been around long enough to remember when players said original 50s and 60s Strats and Les Pauls were boring. Eventually, I realized a decent playing guitar that stays in tune is never boring or uninspiring... that part was me, the player.
 
My first good guitar was a '78 Natural Stratocaster.
But I managed to screw it up with the advent of Floyds and humbucker equipped strats.
I installed a Rockinger - because a Floyd was too expensive - and SD Invaders - the highest output humbuckers I could find.
And of course a custom paint job ith stripes and all :D
After playing several different superstrats from Charvel , Hamer, Jackson and finally Kramer - which I regarded to be the best by far - I got into hand build instruments.
I had Chris Larkin build me a guitar and after getting my hands on a Warmoth catalog, I ordered a Custom Strat.
It had the Floyd but with single coils.
I tried different combinations and settled on Kinmans.
But the Strat felt so comfortable - probably because I started of on one - that I decided I needed another one.
But I wasn't very confident about the Fender quality.
I had owned a '77 Strat which I sold because it was way to heavy and the quality just wasn't that good.
So I bought a G&L Legacy Special.
I still own it.
Very good but I wasn't so fond of the blade pups.
Later on I got another Warmoth.
I used to have a preference for maple necks but the last Warmoth has a unfinished rosewood neck with an ebony fretboard and plays like a dream.
The I got my hands on a 35th anniversary strat.
Mainly as an investment because, according to the Blue Book, these were going up in value.
But I'm never going to sell it.
Besides being a real looker with the quilted maple body and birdseye maple neck, it plays like a dream.
I just swapped the pups for a Kinman The Scoop set and it sounds just like Blackmore's.
So my faith in Fender was restored ;)
I had, just to experiment with, some '90's American strats and they all were great.
My latest is a Mahogany Strat which I bought to put piëzo's in.
It has a HSS configuration but I really like how it plays and the locking tuners along with the roller nut keep it well in tune.
The 35th ann. strat also stays in tune very well with locking tuners and a graphite nut.
I really like the 2-post trems and with the little spring inserted in the whole for the trem bar, it stays wiggle free.
I can do some big dives and warbles and it works better than on the G&L trem.
I can't do any warbles with the G&L.
In a nutshell, besides the versatile superstrats with the Floyds, HSS or HSH configurations, the Sratt has a place of it's own with a very defined sound and feel.
For a good and affordable Strat, I would look at the 90's American Strats preferably a Plus or Deluxe model.
 
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Every Fender Strat I’ve owned turned into a partscaster with new parts, necks, frets, bridge. To me the strat represents a modular design where each part is easily replaced. I’d start with finding a good deal on a used USA or MiM and go from there.
 
It's also, IMHO, a very ergonomic design.
Much more than a Tele or especially a LP.
As I mentioned in my previous post, when I got a Strat again, it was like putting on my favourite jeans again.
Very comfortable.
 
Yeah considering the design dates back to the 50's, they were right on the money with the Strat in terms of comfort. The arm and belly contours and the ballance are great. The neck heel design isn't perfect, but still better fret access than a Les Paul. The switch and pot locations are sort of a love hate thing for many folks. The volume pot location is great for swells, but otherwise can get in the way. The switch location and angle just beg to get accidentally bumped when strumming. The tele location is pretty similar but the angle is different so it's less easy to bump (also 3 way vs 5 way too so each position requires more travel). That said, I hate the tight spacing between the switch and volume knob on Tele's. You gotta love that Tele bridge pickup though. Much more ballsy than the Strats bridge pickup.
 
You guys got me thinking tele's now. I'll have to go to my guitar shop and just try both and go with what feels good. I always wrote off tele's as a country guitar but seems i'm mistaken
 
Chewie5150 said:
You guys got me thinking tele's now. I'll have to go to my guitar shop and just try both and go with what feels good. I always wrote off tele's as a country guitar but seems i'm mistaken
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Definitely not just country but imho Strats are much more versatile.............Just my 40 years of playing strats and teles opinion.
 
Yeah, both are great in their own way, but I've always gravitated more towards the Strat for it's comfort, looks, and added versatility.

People often pigeon hole the Tele as a country guitar. While it's plenty popular there, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Andy Summers, Bruce Springsteen, Muddy Waters, Mike Campbell, and plenty more have all made good use of Teles outside of country. Definitely great for rock and more.
 
I was mainly a Strat man when it where control layout and trems are concerned.
I always have my pinky around the volume knob, and trem within reach.
So anything with a volume knob out of reach and no trem was a big no-no.
Until I joined a Status quo tribute band.
I'm a huge frantic Four fan and now I had to get me some tele's.
Glad I did.
I did switch the control plate around so the switch is now in the back and the volume is more within reach.
But man, how do I love these rocking machines.
Definitley a different tone but I can get just a fat a sound with the strat as with the tele. The strat just has more bite to it.
And figured, if I can get used to this - volume in the wrong place and no trem - I might get used to a LP as well ;)
 
Chewie5150 said:
You guys got me thinking tele's now. I'll have to go to my guitar shop and just try both and go with what feels good. I always wrote off tele's as a country guitar but seems i'm mistaken
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Been pretty much playing humbucker equip guitars since 1979, got my first Strat only 9 years ago my first single coil guitar; pure single coils no humbuckers involved.
And I really wonder what the hell took me so long?
Anyway the Stratocaster became my gateway to two Telecasters down the line.
The telecaster has become one of my favorite guitars, a Les Paul is still my desert island guitar since I cut my teeth with one over 40 years ago but still, a Tele is just something special.
But if you started your quest with a Stratocaster go for it, a telecaster can come later.
 
Any guitar player needs at least a Strat and a Tele in their arsenal, And the Strat is just so damn moddable. Way more then any other guitar. That makes it the ultimate Lego guitar. With its own unique sounds. I tried Les Paul's, I just hate everything about them except the sound. Tele's are cool, but despite being made from parts screwed together like the Strat its not as moddable. Most Tele's are really routed for that classic Tele pickup loadout. I tried modding one for humbuckers or humbucker sized P90's and it was a pain in the ass to do so, involving a lot of router work, different bridges and drilling new through holes as the new bridge didn't line up with the old holes. In contrast you can drop basically anything into a Strat without having to break out the router, except a Floyd Rose (except maybe the new ones, an Evertune or classic soapbar P90's.
 
Interesting, don't know them.

Any idea of cost? No prices on the site that I found. Plus shipping from Australia too...
 
Dave Merrill said:
Interesting, don't know them.

Any idea of cost? No prices on the site that I found. Plus shipping from Australia too...
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Expect shipping to be VERY expensive. If only because the taxman will slap you silly with custom duties. Which will also depend on listed value of the pickups.
 
If I were looking for my first strat I'd try to find a second hand American Standard of the last years when they came with the Fat 50s pickups
 
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