There's just something about a Strat

HAL9000

ICBM said:

A Strat is the closest to my ideal guitar of the classic designs, but it isn’t perfect - I find the bridge pickup especially and the in-between sounds too thin and weak, the volume control is in an annoying place, and the whole guitar is just slightly too big. A humbucker in the bridge and possibly the neck, one tone control and the volume moved down away from the strings, and ideally the switch a little further down as well…

Absolutely agree re bridge pickup sounding thin, and position of the switch. I’ve got a baseplate on my bridge pickup which goes some way to adding a bit more oomph. The switch is too easy to knock and it would only need to be moved a fraction to sort it (a la Pacífica). Wouldn’t take much but I guess the purists would get all hot under the collar! I’m on the fence regarding the master volume and tone controls. I do think that two tone knobs gives that little more versatility but appreciate that Teles, Pacificas, etc work perfectly well with just the one.

There’s also a bit of me that thinks it’s the idiosyncrasies such as the badly positioned switch that give a Strat its unique character. Things that are too perfect tend to be bland.

Schnozz

I have three - One with alnico singles, one with MFDs and one with humbuckers

I like em all but I'm more of a humbucker guy.

Svartmetall

I'm working on a hopefully-interesting Strat build atm - SSH. I saw the pickguard on the estimable Axerus's site while browsing for something else, it stuck in my mind as something really different for a Strat and in the end I said fuck it and decided to make one, using a Mex Strat as the basis. I have a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for the bridge (so it'll have plenty of oomph and not sound thin vs. the neck HB, especially), and am looking at an Iron Gear Texas Loco in the middle and Tesla Shark HB in the neck; the volumes should balance out given their respective outputs, and I reckon it could be a really interesting tone machine (I'll have just the one tone control, and it'll be connected to the middle pickup so the combo positions will be variable as hell). The main issue now is working out how to set up the vertical router kit thingy I got for my Dremel, as the neck rout on this Strat is for an SC...

Dominic

ICBM said:

A Strat is the closest to my ideal guitar of the classic designs, but it isn’t perfect - I find the bridge pickup especially and the in-between sounds too thin and weak, the volume control is in an annoying place, and the whole guitar is just slightly too big. A humbucker in the bridge and possibly the neck, one tone control and the volume moved down away from the strings, and ideally the switch a little further down as well, and it’s close - my Aria RS ‘Strat’ is like that and also slightly smaller than a Fender. My PRS Swamp Ash Special is also pretty much there.

other than that .........it's fantastic

ICBM

Dominic said:

other than that .........it's fantastic

Yes - just details really, I can play Strats and have done as my main gigging guitar before now. Leo did very nearly get it dead-on right at the first attempt - when I was in a 50s-style rock’n’roll band I even purposely fitted a 3-way switch with no tone control on the bridge pickup, because that arrangement actually works perfectly if you use a thick nearly-clean sound on the amp, you want the bridge pickup to cut through for solos. I’d have another one if I need to play that sort of music again, regardless that my modern guitars will do the job just fine really.

p90fool

Voxman said:

p90fool said:

Kurtis said:

I like the bridge pickup. It's like kicking on a treble boost coming from the neck/middle. 

Yes, exactly. People play Strats quietly through master volume amps and think they sound thin, but they really sing through a loud amp. 

Here's mine through a clean amp running flat out, it's just a phone video unfortunately but in the room it sounded huge. 

Loved that - great rendition of Purple Haze, great tone & playing, and your Strat really sung!  I think the girls vocals could have come up in the mix though as I couldn't hear her!   

She's our lead singer and has a huge voice, but this isn't in our set and she doesn't know it, we just chucked it in for fun at a fundraiser.