Stratocasters

[DonP]

SUCK!

LOL! I bet that gets GT's goat

Seriously, my question is what group of parts is the most popular for a regular three single coil stratocaster?

Rosewood or Maple?

Body color?

Pickguard?

Fixed or floating bridge?

I'm just curious as to what group / combination of parts is most popular.

I'm a fanboy of Dave Murray, so I'm attracted to black body, white pickguard and maple fretboard. I guess this is a "Blackie" as well (Clapton).

[markD]

i have many strats over the years with differing specs, but the spec set i prefer is as follows....

body color is irrelevant to me. i HATE black, yet my number strat and favorite guitar is a black 1962 strat.

now, the neck is important. the thicker the better, and it needs to have a nice, thick rosewood fretboard. i DO have a maple board strat, and it is cool, but rosewood is where it's at for me.

pickguard - hmmm, standard white, mint, tortoise or shell is fine.

i have my strats set up where the vintage 6 screw bridge has some "float". in order for the trem to work right, it has to have some angle off the body.

with the pickups, i want to have 3 medium wound, TRUE single coils, without the reverse wound/reverse polarity in the middle position. i do not care about hum-cancelling. if i grab a strat, i expect there to be noise and that is a part of the "tone".

[Musician78]

My Strat is white with a maple board. Bridge is against the body so I can lower the pitch but not raise. I set it up that way in hopes of alleviating any tuning issues. Is seems to have worked as it doesn't lose its tuning... but I really never use the bar.

[Grandturk]

SUCK!

LOL! I be that get's GT's goat

I could see how someone who lives in OH could draw such terrible conclusions.



I'm going to say the two most "common" strats (when people think "Stratocaster") would be 2 color sunbursts with maple neck and an Olympic White with a rosewood fretboard. Someone who grew up in the 70's might even say the natural/big headstock version is also a very prominant example of the Strat.

Let me first and foremost say - when it comes to guitars - I like the Strat body shape, the 25.5" scale length the tremolo (whammy). That's where it all starts for me. Just this weekend I took out my SG and played another one at Manny's and I just couldn't get it going on that shortie Gibbo scale. Probably the same reason I never got on with my Fusion.

Those are the important things for me: body shape, trem of some sort and Fender scale.

After that - I like black and white guitars - just kind of happened that way for me. My first Les Paul copy was black and my first Strat was white. Then a black SG. A red Kramer, but that one didn't last. And so on. I just find black and white to be the right colors for me.

That's not to say that there aren't some cool custom color strats - I like seafoam and surf greens, that light blue color, fiesta red is cool, and I love the 2-color sunburst. I tend to like maple necks on 2 color bursts and black and white. Rosewood on custom colors looks more "right" to me simply because there were a lot more custom color rosewood board strats made than maples.

I don't like hardtails, and in order of preference I'll take Floyd and then vintage 6-hole with the new Fender two point trem a far distant third. I think strat single coils in the bridge are just fine without the tone pot connected and people who do this mod and roll down the tone either aren't a very good player or just think they're not and want to roll off the spike. But you need that spike - that's what makes it sound like a Strat.

Leo designed the 6-hole trem to float - so by God - they should be set up to float. If you knock it out of tune - 80% of time its the nut - have it set up correctly and you'll be fine.

Oh - I like big frets and I cannot lie - those vintage style Frets I just deny. Gimmie 21 big ol' jumbo frets and I'm happy.

[Chief_CrazyTalk]

My first strat was a MIM CP50s strat and I was blown away by how well it nailed all the classic, traditional strat tones. I chose it out of the bunch because at the price it had everything I liked: Maple board, two-tone sunburst, and a more palatable to me 9.5" radius with medium frets.

The Fender 57 set that came with the guitar sounded great in every switch position.

I never bothered with the trem because every time I touched it, it went wildly out of tune. I didn't like the arm. either, so I left it off.

I don't do short-scale either. Besides the feel, it sounds like something is missing sonically. The old SG I used to have sounded dead acoustically compared to the Model 4 it replaced.

Strats are cool. I had to let that one go but hope to get another one someday.

[DonP]

Cool. Some good info.

I'd have to say I don't like the 70's large headstock. I was in GC last night and to me it just looks big and awkward, But didn't Blackmore have a large headstock strat?

Interesting that your guys like the maple with sunburst. When I go into GC, I see so many 60's Strats with a rosewood board that it looks more natural to me. I picked up a MIM Strat that looks just like these.

I agree with all of you about the vintage frets. I have a maple neck indigo blue/purple strat with white guard bought new in 98 and never use it because of the frets.

Finally, I have some sort of MIM 50s Classic, maple fretboard with black body, and black MOTO pickguard, black pickups (Texas Specials), but white knobs. I bought it a GC. I'm wondering is someone was trying to copy someone elses look with this color scheme?

I picked up a set of Tex Mex pickups that I was thinking of putting in my blue strat, and for the sunburst, a set of three SSL-1's for that "just like a 60's" strat tone. Good idea?

When you guys play stuff on your vintage strats, what type of stuff do you play? I know markD you are into blues, but any other ideas? Do you guys play beach boys stuff or something? Trying to think of what is done hard rock on a Strat, and I can only think of Blackmore and Yngwie.

[Musician78]

I still play metal or prog on my Strat.

[Grandturk]

But didn't Blackmore have a large headstock strat?.

Sure did. And Jimi. And Trower. And Uli. And Yngwie. And technically Jake E Lee - but it was shaved down. And Dave Murray. And on and on. They made them with big heads for 15+ years.

I picked up a set of Tex Mex pickups that I was thinking of putting in my blue strat, and for the sunburst, a set of three SSL-1's for that "just like a 60's" strat tone. Good idea?

When you guys play stuff on your vintage strats, what type of stuff do you play? I know markD you are into blues, but any other ideas? Do you guys play beach boys stuff or something? Trying to think of what is done hard rock on a Strat, and I can only think of Blackmore and Yngwie.

I like Texas Specials, Custom Shop 54's and Custom Shop 59's. The Dimarzio Blue Velvet is also a badass single coil. Never been keen on Duncan's singles - normal, stacked or otherwise.

Lots of stuff in the rock to hard rock genre was recorded with a Strat. Its tough to hear it - after studio magic and the whole band comes in - but that don't mean it ain't there. Anything with a lot of distortion, however, is going to be a humbucker making that noise - especially old stuff - because you couldn't get an amp to overdrive as much with singles. Check out Wicked World by Sabbath - the only early Sabbath tune Tony Iommi recorded with his Strat. Achilles by Manowar has some distorted in-between strat sounds going on, too. Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Trower. Lotsa heavy strat tunes. Dave from Monster Magnet uses a strat on a lot of his recordings. When Pearl Jam was hard rock - lotsa strats there.

[Hellbat]

I remember reading an interview or watching a vid interview with Yngwie where he mentioned that he finds the larger headstock gives better sustain and natural resonance than the smaller headstock. It actually makes sense to me. Once it made logical (even if it is actually bullshit ) sense to me, I actually started to prefer the look of it. Wierd.

[DonP]

Well, you guys remember fatheads? They were brass sustain plates that matched the headstock to increase the headstock mass.

[markD]

donP, i use my strat for blues, rock, fusion and surf (think 'the ventures' or dick dale).

i remember fatheads and fat fingers. they both help a lot.

[toejam]

Always loved the look of Strats, just don't care much for their trems or single coil pups, so that's why I got me a teal green metallic Double Fat Strat Hardtail back in '01. This used to be known as the Big Apple Strat, but then they added staggered tuners, took away a string tree, and took away the bright white pups/knobs/switch tip in favor of parchment (off-white). It's got Duncan pups (Pearly Gates Plus and '59) with a super five-way switch (full bridge humbucker, inner coils of bridge and neck, both humbuckers, top coil of neck, full neck humbucker). I just wish they would have used a flatter radius, at least 12" instead of the 9.5" so I wouldn't fret out as much, but it's still better than the vintage 7.25" radius.


I did own a blue ash MIM Deluxe Players Strat a couple years ago, and the three singles were Vintage Noiseless which sounded pretty good, I just wish they were Hot Noiseless instead. The 12" radius on that one... except it was missing a fret! The push button to add the neck pup on with the bridge or have all three pups on at the same time was pretty neat. Mine also had a black pickguard instead of the standard red tortoise.

[Grim]

SUCK!

LOL! I bet that gets GT's goat

Seriously, my question is what group of parts is the most popular for a regular three single coil stratocaster?

Rosewood or Maple?

Body color?

Pickguard?

Fixed or floating bridge?

I'm just curious as to what group / combination of parts is most popular.

I'm a fanboy of Dave Murray, so I'm attracted to black body, white pickguard and maple fretboard. I guess this is a "Blackie" as well (Clapton).

Mine's tobacco burst with white PG/Pups and maple neck with abalone dots. Kicks ass!

my 79 is Wine transparent, black PG and pups (H/S/S configuration) with a rosewood board and of course, oversized headstock.

[gtrcollectr]

This is my number 1.......Its a parts strat that I built and refinished.
This was quite a few years ago when I first threw it together. It has some bumps and scratches and the nitro has mellowed quite a bit. Its really looking cool these days.

[warlok]

I have an '06 black with maple MIM (bigger frets) with the small HS. I just can't get used to the large one. Looks to me like something from a disney cartoon or something. I put stainless saddles, pearloid PG, and have a set of dimarzio stacked singles for if I ever get off my lazy ass to install. I bought it for the blackie/Murray look and gave it some stuff I like and now I'm the coolest, badass-est guitarist... in my house.. lol