Why I fall in and out of love with the Strat...

SchnozzSchnozz Frets: 1926
This demonstrates it exactly! I was looking up my favourite Bassist (Jack Bruce) 3 years after his death and came across this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k54r_ANt8o

For the first song, how much better would that sound on an ES-335? Yet the second fits the Stratocaster perfectly.

If I don't have a Stratocaster I'm instantly jonesin' for one, but they do piss me off sometimes. P90 SGs seem to be the sweet spot at the moment for me, as they could have handled both of those tunes.

Has anyone found some pickups for a Strat that manages both? Closest I got was G&L's alnicos, but the bridge was only good for Yardbirds etc and needed a swap.
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Comments

  • FunkfingersFunkfingers Frets: 14324
    edited November 2017
    I find that it helps to adjust my playing technique - particularly string attack - to suit each guitar. If an amp is set up for "dig in" crunch with a Stratocaster, it may be desirable to play more lightly on a P90-equiped Gibson. 

    The Seymour Duncan custom shop produces a single coil sized replacement pickup that is supposed to sound like a P90 on full output and like a Stratocaster single coil when tapped. Opinions vary on how successfully it achieves its aim.

    Some of the UK-based pickup builders on this board offer pickups that are designed to bridge this particular sonic gap. Modesty may forbid some of them from ruthlessly plugging their products in this thread.

    My own anecdotal experience is that I get the fattest vintage-style Stratocaster sounds from the example with the biggest neck. (A stock 2013 AVRI '65 model.) I generally play through an overdriven valve amplifier and roll down the guitar's volume control to clean things up. It helps to use the tone controls a little.
    Be seeing you.
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  • DominicDominic Frets: 16013
    Ancho Pablano.
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    Strats are my favourite sound for guitars overall. Kind of weird that I haven't really used anything stratty for the past year and a half. 
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  • TTBZTTBZ Frets: 2873
    edited November 2017
    Schnozz said:
    Has anyone found some pickups for a Strat that manages both? Closest I got was G&L's alnicos, but the bridge was only good for Yardbirds etc and needed a swap.
    Good splittable humbuckers or P90s. Won't get the authentic strat sound though but for me that's a good thing. 

    I'm slowly coming round to the idea of strats after many years of playing Gibsons only. The scale length is working in my favour now my band seems to have settled on d/drop c as our tuning. Used mine at last week's practice and really liked it - comfy and sounds good with a bridge humbucker. Going back to the SG this week I was a bit annoyed (again) with the "to the left" feeling and less than ideal volume knob placement. Much prefer the neck and tone of a Gibson though. Once again leading me to believe that a PRS is the guitar for me, it's a good compromise !
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  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7350
    The location of the switch.

    I didn't grow up with Strats, so it ALWAYS gets in the way. I still really like the one I have though
    Red ones are better. 
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  • ricorico Frets: 1220
    I went through a phase of gassing hard for a strat then buying one, not bonding with it, selling it then repeating the process. I'm currently on a partscaster with a GSP neck and Fender custom shop pickups. It plays nicely but the middle pickup gets in the way for stuff i'm used to playing with my Tele or LP. 
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  • I think the strat sounds great, but a 335 would be more obvious on the second song to me! That creamy neck pick up tone.
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  • I've had at least three Strats and moved them on fairly soon after. I think I like the idea of playing one more than the act of doing so. I love it when SRV, Jeff Healey and Dave Gilmour play them but when  I do, they sound thin and weedy, the switch is in the wrong place and the middle pickup gets in the way.
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  • I have a Strat, love the light weight and the comfortable feel to hold but it can be trickiest guitar to dial in tone wise and it's the fussiest with different pedal and amps. Strat's are pretty scooped sounding with traditional pickups and I find that the neck pickups can sound like they have too much low end and the bridge pickup not enough. Using boost or OD to add back some mid range helps a lot but sometimes I still find it tricky to get a tone that works well for both the neck and the bridge at the same time, it can be done but needs dialling and a tone control on bridge pickup is essential.


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  • I love my MIJ Strat, it's the nicest one I've owned out of the three I've had. On all three though I found the tone dial doesn't do anything on the neck pickup. You'd think that Fender would have figured that out on the lefty models by now.

    The best/most consistently pleasurable sound I've ever had was a Strat > Keeley Mod BD-2 > JCM. It was the most 'Bassman' sounding JCM 900 you've ever heard. Some gimp stole the BD-2 and half of my other stuff though. I then bought another BD-2 Keeley but it didn't sound the same  :/
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  • I've had at least three Strats and moved them on fairly soon after. I think I like the idea of playing one more than the act of doing so. I love it when SRV, Jeff Healey and Dave Gilmour play them but when  I do, they sound thin and weedy, the switch is in the wrong place and the middle pickup gets in the way.
    the middle pickup position is a reason i dont play strats as im forever hitting it with my pick. the tele suits me much better. isnt buddy guy's singing in the video just incredible
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  • I love strats, I've owned 4 of them but tellingly I've sold all 4 of them, trouble is it's hard to think of a sound that's not already been produced on them a million times before by better guitarists. I think that's why offsets have become popular as people try and get away from that classic strat sound into something less hackneyed and more original.

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