What is a superstrat? (NGD)

ICBM

LionAquaLooper said:

I'm tempted by the SSS version of these. I've had HSS strats before and I hate the fact that the tone gets significantly muddier and darker when you switch from the Single to HB pickup and with just one tone knob you can't then make the singles darker to balance it out. 

You can if you wire it like the classic modded vintage Strat, with the tone control only on the single coils and not on the humbucker.

Yorkie

They might have done something about compensating for that on this model, because the humbucker on its own does sound very bright, while the combined modes sound OK. Can’t wait to lift the pickguard, but it won’t be soon because these weeks are busy and I need to protect my practice time. 

Offset

Philly_Q said:

To be honest, I think anything with a Floyd Rose is cool.  I've had one guitar with a Floyd and I didn't like it at all.  I didn't like setting it up or changing strings, I didn't like the feel.  I'll probably never buy another guitar with a Floyd.  But they look fantastically cool.

...and for that reason alone, everyone should own one :-)

Agree with everything else you said mind you!

Philly_Q

Offset said:

Philly_Q said:

To be honest, I think anything with a Floyd Rose is cool.  I've had one guitar with a Floyd and I didn't like it at all.  I didn't like setting it up or changing strings, I didn't like the feel.  I'll probably never buy another guitar with a Floyd.  But they look fantastically cool.

...and for that reason alone, everyone should own one :-)

Agree with everything else you said mind you!

Aaaah.... maybe one day I'll get something with a Floyd.  But then I'll get pissed off with the string changing and regret it.

I do have intentions (...I have a lot of intentions) of one day putting together some kind of superstrat (whether it meets the defined criteria or not) with Warmoth parts, and going the whole hog with stainless frets etc.  But unlike commercially available superstrats it will have a Fat Neck.  Maybe it'll have a Floyd, more likely a Gotoh 510.

Offset

Apologies for repeat post but I consider both on the right to be superstrats (albeit in Tele shape).

hollywoodrox

My beautiful Superstrat

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

However maybe the HM Strat is the exception that proves the rule? It looks like a Superstrat to me. And some of the signature models too e.g. Richie Sambora etc.

Those still definitely count because they have enough other modern features to override being made by Fender .

Oh I see, I misunderstood and thought you meant that no Fender could be a Superstrat! I get what you mean now. Agreed  

Kebabkid

Offset said:

Apologies for repeat post but I consider both on the right to be superstrats (albeit in Tele shape).

I love that Hohner and that Parker, too

Kebabkid

For me, I first heard the term when Strats were being moded, specifically when people started putting a humbucker into the bridge position of a Strat with SSH being the classic superstrat. The addition of a HB singularly in the neck or both neck and bridge also rings true of a Superstrat and so we have SSH or HH or HSH now. Some might even put a P90 in the neck.

The addition of a Kahler or Floyd Rose also constituted Superstrat and as has been said, EVH did not start off with one.

Over the years, I still think of the new trems that have come out i.e. more traditional in design with improvements e.g. Wilkinson and used in conjunction with locking tuners and you still can do all the Floyd etc stuff. Still Superstrat in my book.

I consider my Rob Williams to be a Superstrat - SSH (2 x Tyler JTS5500 & 1 x SD JB Trembucker), automatic tap on position 4 between middle pickup and HB. Wilkinson Trem, locking tuners, Blower/Switcheroo Switch to take me from any position straight to the bridge humbucker in series.
Swamp Ash body, quilted top, birdseye maple fingerboard.

Yorkie

That’s just a superstrat, ain’t it?

ICBM

Yes, I would add a flame/quilted maple top as another of the qualifiers. Like the others, it doesn't suffice on its own - I once briefly had a flame-top but otherwise standard Fender CS Strat (also with a bridge+neck switch, although I don't think that counts) which was definitely not a superstrat. Interestingly I think flame tops are hideous on a *Strat* - I hated that guitar, I took it in a trade and sold it as soon as I could - but fine on superstrats. There's no logic .

Yorkie

Pretty wood calls for no plastics. Fact.  

Dave_Mc

Yorkie said:

That’s just a superstrat, ain’t it?

The headband and wristband are another thing that can make it a Superstrat. Also spandex.

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Interestingly I think flame tops are hideous on a *Strat* but fine on superstrats. There's no logic .

Yep, agreed. I'm not someone who hates fancy figured tops- I love them on the right guitar. But they just look "wrong" (to me) on certain guitars- Teles, SGs, Strats etc.. But other guitars look "wrong" without them!

Yorkie

Dave_Mc said:

Yorkie said:

That’s just a superstrat, ain’t it?

The headband and wristband are another thing that can make it a Superstrat. Also spandex.

The thing about that guitar is it was supposedly built to Knopfler’s “exacting specs” on a napkin, but it just looks like yet another superstrat. Knopfler is on record saying he doesn’t like fancy tops, he never used the floating tremolo, and he still had to use regular strats live because, let’s face it, that thing never sounded properly stratty. 

Yet absolutely nobody ever refers to that guitar as a superstrat.  

Jon

ICBM

Yorkie said:

Yet absolutely nobody ever refers to that guitar as a superstrat.

I would, and I think a lot of other people would. It has pretty much all the definitive features.

Yorkie

ICBM said:

Yorkie said:

Yet absolutely nobody ever refers to that guitar as a superstrat.

I would, and I think a lot of other people would. It has pretty much all the definitive features.

They would if you asked them whether they thought that thing was a superstrat. But have a look online. The mythology surrounding it clearly avoids the denomination for some reason. 

ICBM

Yorkie said:

They would if you asked them whether they thought that thing was a superstrat. But have a look online. The mythology surrounding it clearly avoids the denomination for some reason. 

Odd… I’ve always thought they were. A friend had Pensa-Suhr #27 back in 1989, it was the first guitar with a Floyd I had to set up, quite baffling at first with no previous experience! It had an amazing ‘cosmos’ finish, maybe that helped with the impression - but definitely a superstrat, anyway.

Yorkie

ICBM said:

Yorkie said:

They would if you asked them whether they thought that thing was a superstrat. But have a look online. The mythology surrounding it clearly avoids the denomination for some reason. 

Odd… I’ve always thought they were. A friend had Pensa-Suhr #27 back in 1989, it was the first guitar with a Floyd I had to set up, quite baffling at first with no previous experience! It had an amazing ‘cosmos’ finish, maybe that helped with the impression - but definitely a superstrat, anyway.

There's no discussion. Even with all the different criteria people have expressed in this thread, I'm sure we'd all agree that that guitar is a superstrat. 

My suspicion is that Knopfler didn't really have as much input as Rudy Pensa claimed. It's almost as if John Suhr had a nearly built superstrat in the workshop at the time, and Pensa only consulted Knopfler on the colour of the pickup covers and the knobs... 

Jon

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Yorkie said:

Yet absolutely nobody ever refers to that guitar as a superstrat.

I would, and I think a lot of other people would. It has pretty much all the definitive features.

Yeah me too, though I admit I haven't really looked up any of the discussion online that @Yorkie is talking about.