How do you like your strats?

[se7en]

The Eric Johnson Strat has a hotter, yet still Strat-sounding, bridge pickup that holds up well to higher gain. Plus, it has a Gibson radius and frets. Still very much a Strat, but very versatile and easy-playing. You can find them used for $1200-$1400 and they hold their value there. While the looks of the rosewood version bother some, the tone and feel on those is even better IMHO than the original maple neck version.

Damn, I really need to try mine out. Got it in a trade and haven't opened the case yet

See the tonewood thread for dicussion on rosewood vs maple

Not everyone hears the difference, but I've noticed that maple is snappier and punchier with a little more high mids, while rosewood is more mellow and more scooped. It's subtle, but I can pick 'em out on recordings often times. According to John Suhr, the rosewood boards have more high end presence and low end than maple (assuming the maple board doesn't have a thick layer of lacquer - the common misconception that maple is brighter). He said maple boards have a rich upper-midrange that is often mistaken for being brighter, but rosewood has that bump in the presence and is more scooped.

 

[blackba]

It's not really a Strat unless it is S-S-S.

Just like its not really a guitar unless it has 6 strings right. So sorry to those 7, 8, and 12 string players.

I prefer HSS strats myself. The hotter humbuckers split well. I actually prefer a split Anderson H2+ to many of the strat bridge Single coils I have tried.

 

[Meathead]

According to John Suhr, the rosewood boards have more high end presence and low end than maple (assuming the maple board doesn't have a thick layer of lacquer - the common misconception that maple is brighter). He said maple boards have a rich upper-midrange that is often mistaken for being brighter, but rosewood has that bump in the presence and is more scooped.

Agreed, a rosewood fretboard is brighter and tighter sounding from my experience with many different strats.

I like a double coil in the bridge of a strat...makes it the swiss army knife of guitars. But it has to have a vintage trem (I like it with just two springs in a V, pulled down to rest on the body) and locking tuners.

 

[Chubtone]

If I didn't have a super strat guitar at all and this was my only guitar, I would go H-S-S. Since I already have several super strats, if I want a strat, I want a strat. A strat is S-S-S and don't give me any stacked or noiseless pickups either. Give me those buzzy vintage style pickups because they sound so incredible I will put up with the same noise Hendrix, Roth, Blackmore and Gary Moore put up with.

 

[Findthetone]

I just got a 2014 60th Anniversary Strat and am blown away by how fat the stock pickups. They are supposed to me slightly hotter 54 pickups so I was expecting thin sound and a search for replacements but that ain't happening. For those looking for a new Strat and want new mixed with old, this is the deal of the year. So for now, I'm in the SSS camp

 

[Badronald]

Loud. And plugged into a non-master Marshall.

 

[paulyc]

OMG that's beautiful !

 

[59Bassman]

If I didn't have a super strat guitar at all and this was my only guitar, I would go H-S-S. Since I already have several super strats, if I want a strat, I want a strat. A strat is S-S-S and don't give me any stacked or noiseless pickups either. Give me those buzzy vintage style pickups because they sound so incredible I will put up with the same noise Hendrix, Roth, Blackmore and Gary Moore put up with.

This is the same for me. For versatility, I would prefer HSS, but for a pure strat, I like a SSS setup. I also prefer alder/rosewood (or pau ferro, if I can get it). Vintage hardware, thick neck, but modern width and radius. Fender Hot Rod '62 is my ideal one at present, and I HATE oly white.

 

[59Bassman]

DUPE

 

[Meathead]

If I didn't have a super strat guitar at all and this was my only guitar, I would go H-S-S. Since I already have several super strats, if I want a strat, I want a strat. A strat is S-S-S and don't give me any stacked or noiseless pickups either. Give me those buzzy vintage style pickups because they sound so incredible I will put up with the same noise Hendrix, Roth, Blackmore and Gary Moore put up with.

This is the same for me. For versatility, I would prefer HSS, but for a pure strat, I like a SSS setup. I also prefer alder/rosewood (or pau ferro, if I can get it). Vintage hardware, thick neck, but modern width and radius. Fender Hot Rod '62 is my ideal one at present, and I HATE oly white.

I have not found a use for a bridge single coil in a strat. I would use it just to annoy everybody around if I was a meany.
It's noisy...buzzy...shrieky..feedbacky and just plain really stupid looking being on an angle like that, which just makes the high strings even thinner sounding.

 

[59Bassman]

I have not found a use for a bridge single coil in a strat. I would use it just to annoy everybody around if I was a meany.
It's noisy...buzzy...shrieky..feedbacky and just plain really stupid looking being on an angle like that, which just makes the high strings even thinner sounding.

Umm....that would be position #2 on the selector. Which unfortunately sounds a whole heck of a lot like position #1 on a HSS with a full 'bucker, or a whole heck of a lot like dog crap on a HSS with a split bucker....

Can't do a decent Robert Cray without positions 2 and 4!

 

[Sierra Voodoo]

HSS for me. For what I play (rock/metal) it gives me the most options. I don't think I could cover as wide a tonal range with the SSS configuration.

 

[311boogieman]

My first

MIM Strat. Still have her.

 

[paulyc]

I think the H-S-S covers more ground, especially if you use one of those 5 position "Mega" or "smart" switches that lets you series/parallel the 'bucker, so position 1 is series 'bucker alone and position 2 is parallel either the 'bucker by it's self or with the middle single.

 

[peterc52]

OMG that's beautiful !

Thanks!

It's a custom ordered Fender CS with a set go BKP Holy Diver/Trilogy Suits! Amazing axe

 

[IndyWS6]

"How do you like your Strats"?

I don't. A Fender Strat, that is. I never owned one and figured every guitarist needed at least one in the stable, so I bought a Robert Cray Signature model. Just don't gel with it. It gets some great clean tones (you know, like you would expect...), but it has less than 2 hours of play time on it. It's been sitting in the stand, unused, for the better part of 3 years now...

 

[Badronald]

I've used Stratocasters from the beginning. They're all I have anymore.
Stacked humbuckers and humbuckers for me at the bridge. Real singles at the neck.
A real single hasn't lasted more than a few days for me at the bridge position.

 

[mixn4him]

I prefer the HSS with a coil tap on the HB, that way the #2 position sounds pretty close and if I need that jangly strat bridge tone I can get there... The only thing I regret on my recent one is I had the whole cavity routed instead of just the bridge positon and it did change the tone of the guitar, not for the worse just different....

 

[glassjaw7]

Like others have said, it depends on what you're playing. You said blues to metal so I'd go with HSS.

I just put together a beater with the intention of playing Gilmour stuff and a bit of rock/country and I went with two Fender custom shops and a SD SSL-5 bridge pup. It's my only true single coil guitar and I wouldn't have it any other way. That SSL-5 is just amazing for the stuff I'm playing and the tone and dynamics could never be pulled off with a humbucker.

 

[Ye Black Knight]

Verily, an elegant and beauteous weapon, goodly peterc52!

Thine axe bear'eth ye scars of raging metallic conquests from days gone by! Ye head-stock reverseth'd in tribute to Hendrix, an enchanter of Rock, whose tuneful spells still bewitch us all to this day!

Forsooth, for an illustration of this axe shall be'ith saved by this knight, in mine most erotic compendium of guitar pornography!

This post now concludeth!