not into stratocasters?

[Superlizard]

I'm not biased either...  :laughing7:

 

[tallman]

I see an interesting trend- people that don't like strats seem to still like teles.  I personally fit this description.  Any thoughts?

By the way, I think the best Warmoth body platform is the thinline tele.  Just look at how few options are really out there when it comes to production thinlines.  Any thoughts on the most valuable W body shape?

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

I simply LOVE stratocasters. If I wasn't looking for an alternate metal/shred/blues guitar, I would have built one. I like the way that the fret access is just right for 22 frets and the feel of the body. I also like that with Three singlecoils (Or a HB bridge) that these guitars can do pretty much anything. 

 

[Shandrazar]

I've found that a strat is the most uncomfortable guitar in the world to play sitting down w/o a strap.

Really?  I'd think that honor would belong to something like a V.  I've never had any problem with my strat, and I do most of my playing sitting. 

 

[kboman]

I like to think a good single-coil loaded Strat with distortion/gain has a certain "crang" to it that you just don't get with other guitars.

Best description of that sound I have ever read. I'm just not very interested in that sound, personally

 

[m4rk0]

I've found that a strat is the most uncomfortable guitar in the world to play sitting down w/o a strap.

Really?  I'd think that honor would belong to something like a V.  I've never had any problem with my strat, and I do most of my playing sitting. 

I also think that the shape is one of the best things of the strat! it's comfortable, and I really miss the contours when using other guitars!

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I dont know what it is.  I suppose you're right about the V. I just never play them so I didn't think about it.

For electric gutiar I'm definately a stand-up-and-play-it-with-a-strap kind of person.  But on the odd times when im writing or intensely practicing while sitting down. my arms get sore and my back gets all tense when I'm doing it with a strat. And I dont seem to have that problem with a LP or a Tele.

 

[stubhead]

WHAT SUCKS ABOUT STRATS, sort-of in order:

A) The volume knob scrapes the skin off my little finger when I crank speedily for a while;
B) With "real" vintage Strat bridge dimensions, the strings fall off the edge of the neck - one, or the other, or both (!)
C) Cheap crap bent-metal Kluson tuners are an abomination;
D) Cheap crap bent-metal bridge pieces are almost an abomination;
E) No tone control for the lead pickup? Lead pickups are where you need a tone control, doofmeister....
F) On a real "vintage" Strat, the little-bitty frets are worthless & disgusting.
G) Etc.

Obviously the shape's OK, and everything else can be fixed.... but by the time you fix all of them, it's hardly a Strat, huh. Thnak Dog! Like the world needs... another Strat! :cool01:
Did you know that the Strat has three pickups because Leo Fender got a great deal on a boxcar full of three-way switches for the steel guitars, then they started using a different switch so he all these switches to use up... he may have been a 'genius' but he was sure in the right place at the right time too. Thnak Dog!

 

[Superlizard]

C) Cheap crap bent-metal Kluson tuners are an abomination;

I love the vintage tuners... at least, the ones they make today.

D) Cheap crap bent-metal bridge pieces are almost an abomination;

Those bent saddles contribute to a good Strat tone.  It's those cast-block (a la American Std Strat) shaped ones
made of zinc and/or other cheap pot metal that suck tone.  Leo definitely got those vintage saddles right.

E) No tone control for the lead pickup? Lead pickups are where you need a tone control, doofmeister....

True - and an easy & common "move that one wire from there to here" mod.

F) On a real "vintage" Strat, the little-bitty frets are worthless & disgusting.

Absolutely.

Let's not also forget the vintage radius of 7.5" or thereabouts (IIRC) - great for strumming chords, horrible for bends in the upper registers (bends fret out).

Thank God we have companies like Warmoth where we can take those defects and alter them according to our own stylings...

 

[dbw]

Did you know that the Strat has three pickups because Leo Fender got a great deal on a boxcar full of three-way switches for the steel guitars, then they started using a different switch so he all these switches to use up... he may have been a 'genius' but he was sure in the right place at the right time too. Thnak Dog!

This story makes no sense.  If he had extra 3-ways he could have put them on Telecasters.  3 pickups was definitely a design decision, not an accident.

 

[stubhead]

Did you know that the Strat has three pickups because Leo Fender got a great deal on a boxcar full of three-way switches for the steel guitars, then they started using a different switch so he all these switches to use up... he may have been a 'genius' but he was sure in the right place at the right time too. Thnak Dog!

This story makes no sense.  If he had extra 3-ways he could have put them on Telecasters.  3 pickups was definitely a design decision, not an accident.

Read:

"50 Years of Fender: Half a Century of the Greatest Electric Guitars" by Tony Bacon
"Guitar Legends: The Evolution of the Guitar from Fender to G & L" by George Fullerton
"Fender: The Inside Story" by Forrest White

It doesn't have to make sense to you, it just has to be true... I'm glad there was a Stratocaster, all three of the Warmoths I play most often have Stratocaster design influences, and I'm happy to move on. I like my Toyota Celica better than my old Volkswagon Bug, too. :toothy12: I tend to agree with you about the bridge pieces, but it seems to me to be a balance thing - the heavy brass bridge saddles of the seventies worked great - on heavy baseplates, on 12-lb. hippie sandwich guitars... getting all the parts to work together. I'm not at all sure that the bent-metal pieces the Fender just started putting on the heavy American Standard series will work right with those thick bases. But, I'd have to build about four different guitars and record them and swap out pieces and all to really know anything, and I just don't care that much... :sad1:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

In "The Fender Book" by Paul Bacon and Tony Day, it says the Strat had three pickups just to be different.  Most of the other guitars had 2 but his would have 3.

 

[T.L.]

Looks wise, they're not the most exciting but there's something to be said for tradition.

All right, this comes up now and again in various discussions, so let's poke at it with more determination this time: exactly what is it than can be said for tradition, in the context of the strat? I'm genuinely curious and I don't mean that question to sound aggressive.

good question. why do you have to go with the vintage-correct-flow, whilst there are endless options for a great-strattone without the stratproblems? I don't mind the trem, but I do mind the control layout; I love the les paul layout, but thats not doable on a strat; just move those pots out of my way, and its a whole lot better.

All you need is ONE frickin' knob...

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

I've found that a strat is the most uncomfortable guitar in the world to play sitting down w/o a strap.
Just my 2 cents.  The reason i like LP's more than strats, is only because I like archtops and angled necks.. thats about it.

For 7 years, my only electric guitar was a strat, and I thought it was the meanest looking guitar in the world.  basically... TEHO & YMMV

Thats funny, I think strats are really comfortable, so are LP's and Archtops.

 

[Wana_make_a_guitar]

The extra effort it takes to play the longer scale forces me to be more aggressive.

I didn;t know that before I got the strat scale on my soloist, but now I do and the only thing I have trouble with is arpeggios below the 10th fret ( Sweeps ).

 

[Szar]

I was never into strats. If I had to pick a fender body, it'd be the Tele. Singlecuts FTW!  :icon_thumright:

 

[T.L.]

I was never into strats. If I had to pick a fender body, it'd be the Tele. Singlecuts FTW!  :icon_thumright:

Teles look good, but for some reason, I always found them uncomfortable to play...

 

[Szar]

Whats uncomfortable about them? Or do you not know? Just awkward for you?  :-\

 

[T.L.]

Whats uncomfortable about them? Or do you not know? Just awkward for you?  :-\

'Just awkward. The feel, the balance, etc...