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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Ah, OK - I think I was getting confused with Jim Marshall then!
I haven't looked further, but that's a heck of a difference - anyone able to verify one or other?
As a company they are certainly better at building guitars than Gibson currently is and despite the fact that a custom shop Tele or Strat is clearly less in materials and labour than a a historic reissue Lester, 9/10 times they will actually do what they say on the tin. It may well be harder to get that sort of consistency with traditional designs but at the prices charged it is kind of expected.
Strats and Teles can´t really venture into 335 land and come out that well either. What they are is just good tools to get certain jobs done. You see them a lot more nowadays because lower stage volume and better lighting/wireing in venues doesn´t require and EMG loaded guitar and ear plugs. But if you like gain, humbuckers are still better.
Single coil pick ups prone to noise in certain conditions:
When the Strat was designed in 1954, players were still playing clean and plugged straight into an amp. So to be fair to Leo the 60 cycle hum issue only became more prominent much later on when players started cranking amps for distortion, using external distortions eg fuzz boxes, and playing in venues where there was strip lighting. Leo & his team designed the Strat to meet the needs of the day and couldn't reasonably have foreseen how music and playing styles would change so dramatically.
Original 3 way selector which evolved into the 5 way:
The 5-way selector was borne by serendipity in that the 'in-between' sounds now referred to as positions 2 & 4 were never intended by design but found entirely accidentally by players and were due to the unique switch & wiring chosen by Leo - in other words his switch/wiring design had unintended 'future proofing' and was ahead of its time!
Neck pocket creates a heel which hinders upper access:
With regards to upper body access, players of the day mostly didn't really tend to use the whole neck - Buddy Holly strumming open chords and arpegios using open chords by Ritchie Valence are prime examples as to how many guitarists played originally. String gauges tended to be much thicker than is typically used today, which limited lead guitar techniques as we know them today. Only as music changed, encouraged by the flexibilities and tones of the Strat, and the advent of distortion & feedback, did more guitarists begin to venture higher up the neck.
Screw mounting of tremolo assembly to body (makes setting up harder but conversely contributes to that stratiness sound):
Although setting up is more fiddly by today's standards, in its day the Strat trem was a superb design and, properly set-up, stayed in tune remarkably well. A prime example is Hank Marvin.
I'd add a further 'flaw' to the list, relating to the original fixed pole pick-ups, and that's the 'double-toning' you can get with old Strats in particular. This is only really noticeable with distortion on the 'bass' strings as you play up the neck, but again using the Strat with distortion and playing higher up the neck didn't come til much later.
I think the point here, and which I'm sure is not in dispute by anyone, is that the underlying Strat design was so brilliant, aside from a few modern tweaks, some 63 years later on for all intents & purposes the Strat remains virtually unchanged. Of course the same can be said of the Telecaster - but in terms of sheer world-wide sales, popularity and iconic status, nothing comes remotely close to the Stratocaster and its near-perfect design.
If you're a Strat player and haven't yet seen this vid, it's well worth watching:
Don't forget, he had no references really. This was green field to a large extent.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Why the Strat and Tele were never fitted with proper shielding, I don't know. The Tele isn't too bad with all its metal parts, but even with the 60s-style pickguard underlayer the Strat is very poorly shielded.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Yes, but there were a lot of motor-driven gadgets and neon lighting in venues which were not noise-suppressed compared to modern ones, so actually the noise environment might have been worse than today. Add the complete lack of earthing in the US and it was a real problem - it was one of the major complaints about the Jazzmaster, which has very noisy pickups if you're not using the middle position.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.