Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

[CTN]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

In my experience, put a nice versatile humbucker in the bridge position, and some nice singles to go with it, and with some tone knob tweaking, yes it can play anything.

Jazz, blues, rock, alternative, metal, pop, country, prog, whatever. It can do it all.

IMO, Strats sound the best for really technical fusion/prog. They just have this smooth bite to them that balances perfectly with all the other instruments in a band but is still able to leap out to the front of the mix.

 

[saladin]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

I think the biggest problem people have with Strats is that they try one out with the amp set for their humbucker guitars.

Mistake #1 - the preamp and tone controls need to be optimized for single coils. This is why I personally don't like H-S-S Strats, you have to comprimise on the settings to work for both types of pickups and it doesn't sound as good as it should.

Mistake #2 - Don't think for a minute that those stock pickups in your USA/MIJ/MIM Strat are gonna sound good, they don't. Try a Strat with a good set of pickups and you will be surprised.

I used to use high gain buckers in my guitars but then noticed I liked the clarity of lower powered buckers better.

I then pulled out the lower powered buckers and returned my Strat to a S-S-S set up with a set of SSL-1's.

I found that I could do anything (including down tuned chunky palm mutes and have clarity in the chords that will never happen with humbuckers).

 

[Jessie's ghost]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Bingo! We have seen this said in so many posts here. There's so many variables I don't expect a PU to sound the same in any two guitars.

I'm a big fan of saying this, but I have a JB in the bridge of two Jacksons and an Ibanez, and they don't sound anything alike among the three.

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

lmfao, I'm the 'ALL NECK PUP'S SOUND CLOSE ENOUGH' troll

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

+1. Absolutely. I grew up loving Gibsons thru Marshalls, and am still passionate about it. It's my destiny, but that's me, not necessarily anyone else. I also have endless respect for Hendrix, but don't play as much of his music; if I did, I have a Strat. We're influenced by our heroes. Most of mine are Brits. Look, I'm not going to buy anyone a guitar, so you might as well get what you want.

And for anyone who's uncomfortable with anything I've said, hey, it's just my opinions, and they're no more impotant than any of yours. I love to razz people and see how firm they are in their beliefs. I respect anyone who disagrees with me and isn't fazed by what I say; and I expect them to razz me back. Then it gets fun. Hey, nobody's right, nobody's wrong. In fact, I have more respect for a guy with a Strat, good player with good tones, than a hack with an LP. You don't have to agree with me to have my respect; you have my respect if you're secure in what you believe in and what you do, and aren't be rattled by people who question and probe. Those are the kind of people I like to be around. :friday:

Like people here haven't made fun of my Epi's? Come on. Geez, the ribbing I've taken...

It's all good pal.....Let the razzin begin! Lol....I grew up listening to and loving mostly the british players also...funny that just about all of my early favorites were Gibson players....Jimmy Page(post tele),Beck,clapton,Peter Green,Mick Taylor,Bloomfield,Iommi...The 2 early strat guys that sold me on the strat though,were Hendrix and Blackmore...Funny that early on Blackmore played a 335 with Deep Purple until he got bit by the Hendrix bug...Same thing goes for the Marshall tone which is what my basic overdriven/gainier stuff is based around...The very blues sides of my playing are really all about the BF Fender tones though...Alot of the original blues players also had just as much as an influence on me,but this came later,so I guess I kinda went backwards with the blues.... ;o)

To me...it really doesn't matter what anyone plays...If the music is good and it makes a statement,then it's all good in my book....

 

[Quencho092]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

A Strat with a humbucker cutout for the neck would be a waste of an opportunity for some great single-coil sounds, at least for me. I've already got half a dozen guitars that do "neck humbucker" better.

I only have 1 guitar and I play jazz. SSS didn't feel right at all, but the strat feels and plays exactly how I want it so I swapped up with excellent results for me, and it does 'neck humbucker' better than the LP customs I tried extensively.

Perhaps when the day comes that I actually own tons of guitars I will come to the revelation that they always sound worlds apart regardless of having the same pickups if I happen to do that. I still stand by my experience however limited, and my experiment doesn't somehow count for nothing because people disagree with it.

Fine tuning tone is more for the artists' pleasure, NOT the audience because they cant tell the difference. You can drive down the same curvy mountainside road and get to your destination in a BMW, a Benz, a muscle car or a motorcycle, the people you're meeting up with won't notice what you came riding in unless they saw your car......they just know that you got there.

I also have no brand loyalty, and I'm completely open to other instruments sounding better than what I own. I just don't hear this Les Paul Sound, to me that phrase has more to do with a tonal trend that people associate with the guitar because of the famous artists who used LP+Marshall in the 60's playing the same style of blues licks and riffs. When I pick up these guitars, they all clearly sound like ME with subtle differences, and my decisions are based on whatever the hell works well for me. No ******ry intended, I'm sorry if my beliefs rattled you guys so much.

All I'm trying to say is yes, you can play anything with any guitar and most people will guess wrong based on their knowledge of 'historic tone cues' that probably have more to do with the amp than the guitar. There are exceptions, but I never said that there weren't any, IME bridge pickups sound more variegated than neck pickups by nature of the tonal textures. (tele bridge vs strat vs LP, less in common tonally than tele neck vs strat neck vs LP) I can bet money that you guys won't be able to hear a 24.75'' neck from guitar to guitar, or name which brand a guitar is just by hearing it. Those facts go to show that we're all describing a very elusive gray area of tone for our own pleasure as artists, and we inquire and discuss each others' tastes and experiences to make more educated purchase decisions which is great, but certainly SUBJECTIVE. I trust opinions here because you guys have great tones that I've heard about in discussions and listened to in clips.

How many tunes did jimmy page do on a tele, how many on an LP, and most of the people I know can't tell which songs have which just by hearing them, unless they looked things up or were told otherwise.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

How many tunes did jimmy page do on a tele, how many on an LP, and most of the people I know can't tell which songs have which just by hearing them, unless they looked things up or were told otherwise?

I have to say again....People leave the amp,effects,eq,and recording techniques out of these equations...It's not just the guitar alone that gets the tone... ;o)

 

[Jessie's ghost]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

I only have 1 guitar and I play jazz. SSS didn't feel right at all, but the strat feels and plays exactly how I want it so I swapped up with excellent results for me, and it does 'neck humbucker' better than the LP customs I tried extensively.

You wisely chose to set up your Strat in a way that suits your tastes. Humbucker neck and .013's? Sure. I, on the other hand, am not putting 13's on a Strat. No way, not in standard tuning, not with the way I bend. I know Stevie Ray would bend those heavy strings like crazy, but I'll let you in on a little secret: He's not the one playing my guitars. I haven't had the strength in my hands since I quit my job wringing chickens' necks on that ranch in Texas.

For some reason, I don't find that my 24.75" scale guitars with 10-46 strings sound the same as my 25.5" scale guitars with 9-42's. For that matter, my Superstrats with the same pickups don't sound the same as each other. Take one with a 24-fret neck, and the neck 'bucker sound is even further off from a Les Paul. This is with many different amps, at many different gain levels from clean to "all of it", with different musical styles and approaches in playing. Not everyone plays jazz through a clean amp, and I think a lot of the character of a guitar or pickup comes out when you play dirty and play in different genres.

It's fine to take a seldom-traveled path to get where you want. It's fun to post clips and have people guess which guitar is being played. But I think there's a little more to be done before we decide that all guitars pretty much sound the same.

It would be awesome if more of us posted blind listening challenges:

"Which one's the Les Paul, and which one's the SG?"
"Strat or Tele?"
"Hollowbody jazz box, Gibson 339, or Epi Dot?"
"Jackson Warrior, Ibanez RG, or PRS 10-Top?"
"1963 Strat, 1990 Squier, or 2011 Custom Shop?"
"Gretch White Falcon, Telecaster, or Derrig LP?"

This part will be hard, but it would be super-cool if we could try to minimize the differences between the guitars. I know sometimes the point is to try to make one guitar sound like another by putting different this or that on it, but I think the idea is to listen to the differences in the guitars, not all the other stuff. So, same string gauges (more or less), pickups in the same ballpark, similar setups. Don't put light strings on your Les Paul and split the bridge pickup, then play it against the Invader in your Telecaster that's set up with 10-60 and tuned down so low that its wallet chain is dragging on the floor.

Anybody up for it?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

A lot of what is being alluded to in this thread is our preconceived notions of how particular makes and models of electric guitar (supposedly) ought to sound.

Earlier this year, whilst doodling about in Apple Logic, I chanced upon an Amp Simulator setting that reminded me of Neil Young on the Buffalo Springfield recording, "Out Of My Mind". The original performance was probably a Gretsch hollowbody. I was playing a PRS SE solidbody with a TV Jones Filter'Tron clone.

Anybody got any theories on this one?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

my early favorites were Gibson players....Jimmy Page(post tele), Beck, Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Bloomfield, Iommi...The 2 early strat guys that sold me on the strat though, were Hendrix and Blackmore...Funny that early on Blackmore played a 335 with Deep Purple until he got bit by the Hendrix bug.

What a list of players! And a few more Brits: Danny Kirwin (Fleetwood Mac), Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown), Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), Mick Abrahams (Tull and Bloodwyn Pig), Martin Barre (Tull), Robin Trower (Procol Harum), and Luther Grosvenor (Spooky Tooth).

My favorite Deep Purple album is Machine Head, especially the song Lazy (wow!), and I think Blackmore used a 335 for most or all of the album. Of course, Ritchie is a pretty small guy to be playing a big 335, maybe that was a factor why he switched.

 

[Jessie's ghost]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

A lot of what is being alluded to in this thread is our preconceived notions of how particular makes and models of electric guitar (supposedly) ought to sound.

Earlier this year, whilst doodling about in Apple Logic, I chanced upon an Amp Simulator setting that reminded me of Neil Young on the Buffalo Springfield recording, "Out Of My Mind". The original performance was probably a Gretsch hollowbody. I was playing a PRS SE solidbody with a TV Jones Filter'Tron clone.

Anybody got any theories on this one?

I'm gonna fly my nerd flag here for a second: Anybody else ever encounter the notion of probability clouds for electron states in physics? I think it's something like that.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

I only have 1 guitar and I play jazz...Perhaps when the day comes that I actually own tons of guitars I will come to the revelation that they always sound worlds apart regardless of having the same pickups if I happen to do that.

I used to be a 'one guitar' guy too in my younger years, but as I've built up a collection, all with upgraded PU's, I can attest to the fact that there is a lot of variety in how PU's interact with wood. It's just not as simple as buying a PU and getting a guaranteed sound. That's frustrating to most guys, as they have no idea what to do about it. To me, dialing in my tones is part of the enjoyment. I take a used guitar that sounds mediocre and is hard to play, and a few hours later it's totally different, and I'm wailing on it. I like that feeling of accomplishment. I understand the Gibson side of the equation, the PU's, mags, and wiring, and have no idea what goes on in a Fender, nor do I want to know. I'll leave that to others.

The question isn't "Can you play everything on your guitar"; it should be "Can you play everything you want to play on your guitar?" Fat lot of good it does me to have a guitar that's ideal for chicken pickin' or death metal. If you're bragging about your guitar because it can do both of those well, you're not impressing me at all. Anyone or anything that tries to do a lot of things, ends up doing many of them poorly; you can spread yourself, or your gear, too thin. You're much better off having several guitars that excel at a few things, than trying to cover too many bases with one. "Can a Strat do everything?" Well, you tell me what 'everything' is, and I'll tell you if it even matters.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

What a list of players! And a few more Brits: Danny Kirwin (Fleetwood Mac), Kim Simmonds (Savoy Brown), Alvin Lee (Ten Years After), Mick Abrahams (Tull and Bloodwyn Pig), Martin Barre (Tull), Robin Trower (Procol Harum), and Luther Grosvenor (Spooky Tooth).

My favorite Deep Purple album is Machine Head, especially the song Lazy (wow!), and I think Blackmore used a 335 for most or all of the album. Of course, Ritchie is a pretty small guy to be playing a big 335, maybe that was a factor why he switched.

I Listed only the Gibson guys Rick....My strat guys are another list....Lol...These days I also love Eric Johnson and Satch's stuff...Can't forget EVH's influence on us as far as tone and technique,though I'm no EVH.. ;O) Joe Bonasassa(spelling)is another monster player....

 

[Hellion]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Ya know, I can't believe these posts still pop up after all these years. Guitars (read that, "ANY appropriate guitars") can be utilized for anything. I've played Teles for metal, Strats for Jazz, Les Pauls for Country, Country Gentleman's for Rockabilly, etc, etc, etc. C'mon, guys... Your tone is in your hands and your head.

Yes, you can play everything with a Strat. You can play everything with a Tele. You can play everything with a Les Paul...

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Ya know, I can't believe these posts still pop up after all these years. Guitars (read that, "ANY appropriate guitars") can be utilized for anything. I've played Teles for metal, Strats for Jazz, Les Pauls for Country, Country Gentleman's for Rockabilly, etc, etc, etc. C'mon, guys... Your tone is in your hands and your head.

Yes, you can play everything with a Strat. You can play everything with a Tele. You can play everything with a Les Paul...

I've tryed to have at least 1 of each kind of guitar that I've always wanted and that fits my music styles....It's tough being a lefty,but I've managed to score some cool guitars over the years...My mainstays...Strat,Tele,SG,LPand a 335....Would still love a Ric and a Gretsch,but not complaining... ;o)

I Own a nice acoustic but very rarely ever play it..

 

[verbotenco]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

If you play a strat and lp with the same pickups into the same amp, you will have trouble differentiating the guitars blindfolded. I actually think that most would fail. Much of what influences our differentiation between guitars' tone is the way playability and features influence musical decisions while playing, not the tone itself. I would agree that les pauls make me want to play a certain way vs what I excel at on a strat.

Just look at my thread on that very issue, and you have most people considering the strat clip to be MORE GIBSONESQUE than the two les paul customs. When all things are equal except for the guitar, and you run identical neck pickups, there is almost no difference. One of the guitars will sound 'better', but that's just one's preference, not this impossibly objective sense of being able to tell what brand a guitar is by simply hearing it. There are a few tones that are characteristic of certain pickup combos on famous guitars, but you can still get them to sound like each other, they share tonal ground.

Hearing single coils vs humbuckers is an entirely different story- the differences in response is far greater than the difference in response amongst well setup solid body guitars with identical pickups.

Yeah right, I mean yes you are right. I listened to Steve Vai's 1990 record Passion and Warfare and those he made in 2000s, the tone isn't much different, despite his changing of gear.

And because when all things are equal but the guitar the ultimate tone won't change significantly, what is the point of buying a Gibson? Buy a Epiphone Chinese LP then, which was what I did.

 

[fortysixyou]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

I have a p-rails in my HSS American Deluxe strat, and the series humbucker has serious serious BALLS. :dance:

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Yeah right, I mean yes you are right. I listened to Steve Vai's 1990 record Passion and Warfare and those he made in 2000s, the tone isn't much different, despite his changing of gear.

And because when all things are equal but the guitar the ultimate tone won't change significantly, what is the point of buying a Gibson? Buy a Epiphone Chinese LP then, which was what I did.

Vai with the amount of effects and processing he uses is a bad yard stick for guitar tones.

I'm sorry epis are fine guitars but they arent gibsons if your after as you put it "the ultimage tone" why would you scrimp anywhere in the signal chain from your hands to the speakers? You will only ever sound as good as your weakest link.

If you get a tone that suits you that you dig then great but i wouldnt call it ultimate until at every point of the chain nothing can be made better not until the difference is absolutely zero. Even if its a "slight" difference.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

For some reason, I don't find that my 24.75" scale guitars with 10-46 strings sound the same as my 25.5" scale guitars with 9-42's. For that matter, my Superstrats with the same pickups don't sound the same as each other. Take one with a 24-fret neck, and the neck 'bucker sound is even further off from a Les Paul. This is with many different amps, at many different gain levels from clean to "all of it", with different musical styles and approaches in playing. Not everyone plays jazz through a clean amp, and I think a lot of the character of a guitar or pickup comes out when you play dirty and play in different genres.

It's fine to take a seldom-traveled path to get where you want. It's fun to post clips and have people guess which guitar is being played. But I think there's a little more to be done before we decide that all guitars pretty much sound the same.

It would be awesome if more of us posted blind listening challenges:

"Which one's the Les Paul, and which one's the SG?"
"Strat or Tele?"
"Hollowbody jazz box, Gibson 339, or Epi Dot?"
"Jackson Warrior, Ibanez RG, or PRS 10-Top?"
"1963 Strat, 1990 Squier, or 2011 Custom Shop?"
"Gretch White Falcon, Telecaster, or Derrig LP?"

This part will be hard, but it would be super-cool if we could try to minimize the differences between the guitars. I know sometimes the point is to try to make one guitar sound like another by putting different this or that on it, but I think the idea is to listen to the differences in the guitars, not all the other stuff. So, same string gauges (more or less), pickups in the same ballpark, similar setups. Don't put light strings on your Les Paul and split the bridge pickup, then play it against the Invader in your Telecaster that's set up with 10-60 and tuned down so low that its wallet chain is dragging on the floor.

Anybody up for it?

I could do a cool one. I have a mid 90's jackson fusion which was a dinky with a 24.75 inch scale and a DK2. Very similar guitars though the Fusion is HH and the DK2 is HSS so could only really compare bridge pickups but this could provide an interesting comparison.

Though sadly all my stuff is crated up getting ready to move from beijing to italy. But when i get moved and settled ill have to do this. I would even be willing to use the same pickup for comparisons not the same model but move the exact pickup from one guitar to the other.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

I Listed only the Gibson guys Rick....My strat guys are another list....Lol...These days I also love Eric Johnson and Satch's stuff... Joe Bonamassa is another monster player....

+1. There's a whole list of Strat players on my favorite list too. And those guys just might be able to do everything with their Strats. But they're in the upper ecehlon, and can probably do anything with any guitar, they just happen to have chosen a Strat. But this thread is about Strats and the average player, and I don't think any model of guitar in his hands is going to cover all the bases. And that's no big deal, as affordable well-made guitars are plentiful these days. Good excuse to have a bunch of them. Why would anyone want one guitar that can do everything perfectly? You're not on a desert island. Look at the deals on eBay and Craig's List. Step into the 21st century my friend...good guitars are all over the place, begging for a new home.

I play a little differently when I switch guitars, they seem to move me in a certain direction. Maybe it's the different necks and bodies, or they way they sound. Most of us here have multiple guitars. For a long time I had one guitar, but to my way of thinking now, I'd be in such a rut if I still did. I need the inspiration and excitement of something fresh to play (maybe I need to see a doctor about my limited attention span). Some guys are disciplined enough to play the same guitar everyday. I'm not. Nor is that a problem with the millions of guitars floating around the world today.

Like Hellion so wisely pointed out, the limitations are in the hands more than the instrument. There is no 'magic pill' of a guitar. It's up to you and your proficiency. Lots of different goals, lots of different ways to get there, but it's not the guitar that holds you back. It's only a tool. A quote from the first Conan movie, about swords and 'the riddle of steel': "What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"