Fender Allround + SRV tone

[devreaux]

hello, this guy says that you should get a "classic 60's style fender stratocaster" to get a SRV tone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U9iBsvDUf8

i am thinking about purchasing an american standard fender.

will i get the srv tone from the american standard, plus i get a very good guitar that is also allround, or should i buy a cheap classic 60's MIM and get good SRV tone but not so much allroundness, or will i get both allroundness, AND very very nice epic SRV tone with american standard?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

The American Standards sound pretty good last I tried one (a year or two ago, I had one) but you can always change the pickups to something more vintage-sounding.

[Scooter]

SL1 is pretty good with strat tones.

[Musician78]

I have one that I built. It is an American neck and Mexi body with Vintage Noiseless Pickups and the thing sounds killer. Using my processor, I can get a pretty wide variety of sounds including some similar to SRV. I can Gilmour tones pretty dead on, which is nice.

[devreaux]

rosewood fretboard will work better for the tone that i'm looking for right? i wanna play slow emotional blues in the style of SRV's version of "little wing", but i also want to play more like shreddy blues maybe some fusion and/or like scott henderson style.

right now i own 2 jackson dinky guitars and one vester from the late 80's, the jacksons sound awesome for melodic shred and toto style solos, and the vester is more iron maiden - ish sound, maybe because it has a super distortion in it :P

[Musician78]

I honestly don't know. I don't think that I personally would hear a difference in tone... I have maple board because I think they look sick on Strats, and they look even better when they age. I don't plug directly into the amp though. Ever. So most of my tone comes from the processor. I think I could find similar tones with my Jacksons if I tried hard enough.

[Grim]

my 60th anniversary deluxe ash strat is perfect for the type of sound you are looking for. They sell it now as just the American Deluxe Ash I think, except mine has a 60th diamond on the back of the headstock...

[Grim]

Yes, this is the one I am talking about. I don't know if my pickups are the same as the ones in this one.. Mine might be cobalts... IDK

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0119300752

[gmbob22]

check out the highway one strat, or the american special

if i were to buy a strat its were my money would go

[devreaux]

i just tried:
american standard
american special
road worn 50
road worn 60
classic player

and i must say that the american standard was absolutely the best one, in both feel and tone. The number 2 was the road worn 60's, similar tone to the american standard and nice feel (neck is v-shaped)

the 2 worst ones was the american special and the classic player, dear lord.

[Soap]

Alot of times SRV played through a bass amp and the strings were big gauge strings.
A pickup won't re-create that.
Keep it simple and get a set of Texas Special pickups.

[devreaux]

the road worn actually had the tex mex pickups which should be very similar to the texas special. I googled and someone said "texas special or tex mex", the guy at the shop said that the usa std. was the strat with the best wood, atleast of the ones i tried.

anyway the "american strat" which the usa std. was equipped with sounded the best and the neck pickup really nailed the srv tone best. and of course i have not tried the texas special pups...

the guy in the video that i posted said you have 2 use vintage style pups.
maybe vintage style and a bass amp? like i said the road worn had the tex mex pups and the were awesome but not as good as the american strat pups.

maybe go even simpler and get 0.12 gauge strings and a bass amp and just buy the american std.?

[Trussrod]

Don't forget 12 or 13 gauge strings tuned to E flat--this was an important aspect of SRV's tone.

[devreaux]

Don't forget 12 or 13 gauge strings tuned to E flat--this was an important aspect of SRV's tone.

yeah thats what i said 0.12, and i always tune down to Eb

however, how about buying the american standard for sounding so good with the stock pickups and replace them with texas special? what do y'all think about that?
i mean are texas special vintage? no?

[Trussrod]

yeah thats what i said 0.12, and i always tune down to Eb

however, how about buying the american standard for sounding so good with the stock pickups and replace them with texas special? what do y'all think about that?
i mean are texas special vintage? no?

SRV had a single coil under the pickguard to act as a humbucker when he used the neck pup only. You can hear sound clips of pups on the Duncan site. I like the Duncan APS-1 and they have a reverse polarity version for the middle pup--that way the switch in the fourth position gives a bright treble sound with no hum.

As for MIM's--I don't like 21 fret guitars and you might be limited by it, too. An American Standard could be the way to go.