Stratocasters: Why You Gotta Be Like That?

DrewJD82 said:
I’d love to have a few different Strats made out of the same woods just so I can compare the weights, I don’t really buy into the whole weight thing too much and my two current Strats are a good reason why, they both sound killer and definitely don’t weigh the same, but they’re also different woods. It’d be more of a curiosity than anything related to achieving ‘ma tone’.


I think the next Strat I put together will be HSS. There was a ‘79 that popped up this morning locally that was previously beat to sh*t and then put back to it’s original specs for around $1995, that would have been PERFECT for a Floyd Rose and a Humbucker! I never used to dig the CBS-era headstocks until I saw Joe Holmes playing one and I immediately fell in love with that look, especially if it’s got a Floyd and a humbucker in the bridge.

And I’d have to say the speed thing was something that really surprised me. I think because, in recent years, my only Strat experience was with a 7.25” radius and due to needing the action jacked up so high, it definitely limited my ability to play faster on it, but anything above a 10” radius I’m good to go with.
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Yeah all of mine are the newer radius. And Joe Holmes is a bad ass! Saw him with Ozzy twice back in the nineties. Great tone too!
 
Playing a Strat, and wrestling it like a Gator for a week has my hands feeling stronger and more fluid.
Last night I played the SG for the first time in over a week and it felt slinky and soft. Huh? :idk

Kind of cool, and a bit crazy, how quickly we adapt and the old struggle becomes the new delicate
balance of tension.

It also has me looking at Strats more. WTF is wrong with me? A decent week playing a Strat and
having fun, and feeling defeated, and getting back on the horse again, and now I think I need
3 or 4 of them??? :facepalm


I did send back that Ibanez AZ Prestige, so I do have some funny money at my disposal. Bad things
are gonna happen here. :LOL:
 
la szum said:
Playing a Strat, and wrestling it like a Gator for a week has my hands feeling stronger and more fluid.
Last night I played the SG for the first time in over a week and it felt slinky and soft. Huh? :idk

Kind of cool, and a bit crazy, how quickly we adapt and the old struggle becomes the new delicate
balance of tension.

It also has me looking at Strats more. WTF is wrong with me? A decent week playing a Strat and
having fun, and feeling defeated, and getting back on the horse again, and now I think I need
3 or 4 of them??? :facepalm


I did send back that Ibanez AZ Prestige, so I do have some funny money at my disposal. Bad things
are gonna happen here. :LOL:
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Hahahahaha now you‘re experiencing exactly what I was when I put that Gilmour Strat together!

And yeah, the needing to man-handle a Strat then going back to other guitars that play effortlessly is like running and jumping on my bedsheets and flying into a wall, you don’t even realize how much energy/power you’re using once you get comfortable with the Strat, then you pick up an easier playing guitar and have all the power in the world.

Going to add a little relief back into my Gilmour Strat because taking it out made the string tension a bit too much, that 1/8th of a turn is the entire difference between ‘plays like butter’ and ‘I have to fight it a bit’. If I go from that one to my sunburst Strat, that indeed plays like butter, I’m bending everything out of tune for the first ten minutes. Really think I’m going to try 11’s on the sunburst one.
 
Interesting, I'm mainly an LP guy these days but my recent strat has been a real inspiration to play lead on. Zipping around the neck, bends, etc. all feel really natural and easy on it, honestly a bit more so than the LP despite the 9.5mm vs. compound radius assymetrical neck on LP
 
reverb.com

MJT Stratocaster Red | Reverb

MJT Pine body (3 lbs 14 oz), Warmoth roasted neck/Warmoth radius, Wilkinson Bridge, Bootstrap Sun City Selects hand wound pickups, gotoh gears, CTS pots with Orange Drop cap, fully shielded, plays and sounds fantastic! I think neck is the boat carve, itâs pretty beefy. I love it. 1.687 wide. Grap...
reverb.com reverb.com

I may be getting progressively weaker. :LOL:
 
There is not much more in life that I hate, than playing a stratocaster.

I love LISTENING to someone else play positions 1, 2, and 4 on them, but I personally hate them.
 
Baba said:
There is not much more in life that I hate, than playing a stratocaster.

I love LISTENING to someone else play positions 1, 2, and 4 on them, but I personally hate them.
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I've been there. I seem to get stuck in all the usual Strat cliches and ruts. But I figure if I can
forge my way past that it will make me a better person. ;)
 
Baba said:
There is not much more in life that I hate, than playing a stratocaster.

I love LISTENING to someone else play positions 1, 2, and 4 on them, but I personally hate them.
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What is the issue for you? I have to have 12” or flatter and tall frets.
 
I’ve swapped out pick guards for people to master vol tone that removes that knob. You can drop the pick up down almost flush too. Is that enough for you to like it or is that too much compromise?
 
Eagle said:
I’ve swapped out pick guards for people to master vol tone that removes that knob. You can drop the pick up down almost flush too. Is that enough for you to like it or is that too much compromise?
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I also don’t like single coils for the rock music that I play. I did drop this into my strat:

63E5934A-D2C2-4E33-B2FA-645D90143F4E.jpeg
 
la szum said:
reverb.com

MJT Stratocaster Red | Reverb

MJT Pine body (3 lbs 14 oz), Warmoth roasted neck/Warmoth radius, Wilkinson Bridge, Bootstrap Sun City Selects hand wound pickups, gotoh gears, CTS pots with Orange Drop cap, fully shielded, plays and sounds fantastic! I think neck is the boat carve, itâs pretty beefy. I love it. 1.687 wide. Grap...
reverb.com reverb.com

I may be getting progressively weaker. :LOL:
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Can you please buy this before I do? Seriously! I’m currently shopping for a replacement (kinda) for my JEM; I need a 6-string with a Floyd and something more suited towards metal. Solar has so many different combinations of options, everything except the one thing I want!

They made it at one point, but it’s no longer on their site….except the left-handed model. How often does that happen? :rofl

images


But for that price….big neck and big frets, I’m having a hard time focusing on a metal guitar and not another Strat!
 
DrewJD82 said:
Can you please buy this before I do? Seriously! I’m currently shopping for a replacement (kinda) for my JEM; I need a 6-string with a Floyd and something more suited towards metal. Solar has so many different combinations of options, everything except the one thing I want!

They made it at one point, but it’s no longer on their site….except the left-handed model. How often does that happen? :rofl

images


But for that price….big neck and big frets, I’m having a hard time focusing on a metal guitar and not another Strat!
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I've looked at it every day this week. Ok, several times a day this week. :LOL:

I am surprised it is still there. :idk

I really can't indulge myself right now. If it was February or even late January I would have pulled
the trigger.

Have fun checking out stuff today, Drew. I am gonna be curious what you do, or don't do. :beer
 
la szum said:
I've looked at it every day this week. Ok, several times a day this week. :LOL:

I am surprised it is still there. :idk

I really can't indulge myself right now. If it was February or even late January I would have pulled
the trigger.

Have fun checking out stuff today, Drew. I am gonna be curious what you do, or don't do. :beer
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I have like 3-4 LPC’s in carts on Reverb, but I’m going to hold out before I make a decision. I just found out a guy with a big Reverb store, The Guitar Dude, is right around the corner from my house. He has a bunch of MIJ LP’s, one from all the makers, so I’m going to see if he has a legit store where I can go play them and see how they differ. I’m leaning towards Edwards the most, since they just discontinued all their Gibson-based models and they’re eventually going to skyrocket in price like the Explorers have been. You can barely even find an Edwards Explorer.

They’re cheap enough where I wouldn’t feel bad about getting 2 LPC’s and a really nice Standard.

And yeah, none of those are a 24-fret metal guitar. :rofl The LP bug bit pretty hard this week after I was doing all the reading about Norlin-era LPC’s to see how the Epiphone compares. I’m still getting one of those, for sure. I’m leaning on a white Edwards LPC to turn it into a Zakk Wylde sig. I think…I love them just aged and plain as well….and the John Sykes sigs look pretty f*cking badass, too.

jkhq9fg5k39d2wl5wwvf.jpg
 
Actually, I think the next Strat I put together will be the Holmes/Mars-vibe Strat; big headstock, humbucker in the bridge and a Floyd. I’ve already got two that do the vintage/modern Strat tones, time to cover different ground. Looking at MJT bodies now. :rofl
 
DrewJD82 said:
Actually, I think the next Strat I put together will be the Holmes/Mars-vibe Strat; big headstock, humbucker in the bridge and a Floyd. I’ve already got two that do the vintage/modern Strat tones, time to cover different ground. Looking at MJT bodies now. :rofl
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Time To Turn Attention Towards Teles :chef
 
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