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Fender Strat-Overhyped?


JME

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Im a tele man these days but I do still own a Pacifica which is basically a strat. I used to thing that strats were much better to play (i think the body countour at the back had a lot to do with it) but the tele I have now (USA Deluxe) had a countour at the back and the feel and sound of the tele just suits me more.

Strats are still quality though.

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Did you mean you wish it had 24 frets??

not really, 24 frets are all well and good, but they just piss me off, plus i never use them when i do have them, at least with the 22nd you can get that bend in there to get up to the second octave or whatever, its the only thing i miss from it, no matter how much i try i always either get a really dodgy sound from the 21->24 bend or snap the string.

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I play a Mexican Deluxe Strat and love it. Nice feel' date=' tone and really sings when the volume's turned up. Alright, to begin with it sounded weedy but then I strapped some Seymour Duncans into it and brought it to life.

Sounds excellent through my Marshall AVT150H and through Captain Tom's Laneys(whatever they are). You maybe just haven't found the right one for you.

Bailz.[/quote']

I have the same, Mexican Deluxe, with humbucker. I was thinking of ramming some Duncans in. Now tell me what ones you put in to give me some ideas. I was thinking JB at the bridge for starters?

Is it worth doing that, in your experience, than buying an American outright?

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not really' date=' 24 frets are all well and good, but they just piss me off, plus i never use them when i do have them, at least with the 22nd you can get that bend in there to get up to the second octave or whatever, its the only thing i miss from it, no matter how much i try i always either get a really dodgy sound from the 21->24 bend or snap the string.[/quote']

Hmm! thats odd, my Warlock has 22 frets and i wish it had 24!! I'll swap necks wid ya hahaha!

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We've got an old <10years or more I should think> Japanese Squier in the house and it is SO comfortable to play. The neck looks like it's been on the road for about 30 years. However it *does* sound shit but that's more to do with it being a squier than any design flaw.

I recently played a creamy coloured Highway 1 in RnB's and it sounded fantastic. Position 4 with the middle and neck on together is sublime! Certainly in future I think I will be wanting a strat to compliment my other guitars.

Plus you only have to look at a lot of guitars today to see they are mearly improvements on the Stratocaster design and don't offer much that is entirely original. So perhaps not the best guitar money can buy but certainly a good quality instrument...a lot more character than an Ibanez that's for sure!

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Guest DustyDeviada
How come everyone is like "yeah' date=' my strat is great, but only since I put in new pickups/bridge/tuners/whatever"........

[/quote']

My Strat is stock (apart from Schaller strap locks).

Can't beat a strat for clean tones in my opinion.

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Guest Bailz
How come everyone is like "yeah' date=' my strat is great, but only since I put in new pickups/bridge/tuners/whatever"........

The same people who are proclaiming it to be such a great guitar.

If you have to do all that shit to it - then it ain't so great is it?

[/quote']

Pickups don't make a guitar. It's the wood that the guitar is made from. If Fender built a guitar with MDF and compared it with one made of Ash or Alder (and the rest of the design was exactly the same) the one made of Ash or Alder would nail the MDF one.

The point is that stock guitars are made to be all rounders - usable for any kind of music (mid output pickups for example). Guitarists then get their own 'sound' by changing the pickups to either higher or lower outputs.

For example,

My Ibanez cost(350) to buy and do up (Seymour Duncan '59). My Strat cost around 1000 to buy and do up(SD Hot rail, 1/4 pounder and a Cool Rail). My point is that upgrading pickups/bridge or tuners doesn't mean it's a bad guitar. The strat sounds better on the bridge pickup than the Ibanez. Why is this? Because it's a better and more expensive guitar(proven by the fact they've both had exactly the same done to them)!

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Guest DustyDeviada

I think the fact that Strats are so easily moddable (is that a word?) is one of their strong points. You can change just about anything on it yourself armed only with a screwdriver and a soldering iron. Don't like the pups? Change them yourself. New tuners, new neck even? No problem.

That's not to say that Fender don't make great guitars. As I said, my 2003 Knopfler Strat is the business and I won't be messing with it. I recently sold an 88 Telecaster that was a beauty too, although somebody had swapped the white scratchplate for a mother of pearl one when I bought it.

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Fenders are so easy to "hot rod" I mean with a Gibson you can't change the neck and the pickups are much more of a hassle. Warmoth do a universal pick routs for strat bodies. When you want to change pick ups all you need is a different scratch plate rather than having to rout the body...meaning if it took your fancy you could completely reconfigure the guitar in a matter of minutes if you had different set ups attached to seperate scratch plates.

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I have the same' date=' Mexican Deluxe, with humbucker. I was thinking of ramming some Duncans in. Now tell me what ones you put in to give me some ideas. I was thinking JB at the bridge for starters?[/quote']

Be careful when considering a JB. Read the harmony-central reviews on it, you'll notice a trend that everyone seems to think that they sound good in guitars made of dense woods like mahogany but thin in guitars with lighter woods, like basswood or alder. I can tell you from my own observations that this is pretty true.

Also, get a 'trembucker' (the ones sized for fender string spacing) if you do go for an SD

On strat stock pickups - Texas Specials are amazing pickups!

Its perfectly normal for people to put their preffered pickup into their own guitar anyway. Fender make great guitars, Dimarzio make great pickups, why not marry them like Sambora did? Its just the done thing. Even a californian strats pickups are brilliant for THAT type of tone. The strat being the amazingly versatile guitar that it is, chuck in some other pickups and you're still going to get a great tone, probably better suited to what you're playing too.

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I'm going to get my 79 strat cleaned out and set up with 11 guage strings, it's a bloody state- the nut is prob the original 26 y/o part and every string has worn right down to the fret but it still sounds absolutely amazing, which is an indication of how good it must sound when not wrecked. Its interesting to read about how the late 70's and most of the 80's fender made poor guitars, yet i havent played a guitar that sounds nicer than my 79, although i have never played any of the pre CBS strats mind you- but then who has ?

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Still can't compare a gibson les paul cranked up through a marshall.

Well, I've been playing a '74 Strat since it was new. It's bone-stock with only the sweat and beer of a bunch of shitty roadhouses as a modification. I'd stack it up against anything! And through a marshall, stand back!

But, I agree with you- a les paul/marshall is a killer tone! But hey, when you cut right down to it, they're just wood and wire and a little electricity. It's your hands and your soul that are the important parts.....

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