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

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

verbotenco said:
People buy expensive guitars for personal satisfaction and image, not tone, and sadly a lot of people don't realize this.
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Totally agree with this. But put a seth lover in a strat and WTF IT SOUNDS THE SAME AS THAT LP?!?!? :friday:
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

A hum in a Strat sounds like a Les Paul??? Are you kidding me?

verbotenco said:
I agree with you man. Basically one can play just about any music on any electric guitar. Many factors affect the ultimate tone of guitar, including amp, effect, environment, pickup, even cables. Accordingly if you aim for tone, there is no reason to pay ****load of cash for a hi end guitar because in the end the guitar isn't the sole dominating factor. Guitar players and consumers for that matter are victims of marketing techniques called branding and public image manipulation. For example, the cost of a Gibson LP is four times that of Epiphone LP but the tonal gap isn't that wide. People buy expensive guitars for personal satisfaction and image, not tone, and sadly a lot of people don't realize this.
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Are you the 99%? :rolleyes:

You guys make me laugh.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Yes: you can play any style of music on a Strat and get just about any sound - if you're Eric Johnson.

If you're Eric Clapton (a bonafide guitar genius in my book) you certainly can't get the tones you got playing a Les Paul or an SG.

And neither can Eric Johnson to be honest. He gets his best Clapton tones when he's playing his ES-335 - not his Strat.
 
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.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Gypsyblue said:
Yes: you can play any style of music on a Strat and get just about any sound - if you're Eric Johnson.

If you're Eric Clapton (a bonafide guitar genius in my book) you certainly can't get the tones you got playing a Les Paul or an SG.

And neither can Eric Johnson to be honest. He gets his best Clapton tones when he's playing his ES-335 - not his Strat.
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+1. Clapton can still play some really good stuff, but his tones with his Strats have never equalled his Bluesbreaker/Cream days.

These periodic 'Strats are perfect and can do it all' threads'; I don't see guys with other guitars making such bombastic claims, and God knows they can play a lot of genres on their guitars, and do them well. Seems like some of the Strat guys (and maybe only a small percentage of them) are trying to convince the world of something, maybe convince themselves of something. Enough of the boasting, geez. We can do some things with our guitars that a Strat would have difficulty with (like the 'Les Paul sound'), and yet we don't feel compelled to puff our chests out and pronouce our superiority for all types of music. Strats were designed by a non-musician to be cheap to produce, and they horrified luthiers at the time. It's hardly the pinnacle of guitar development. Yes, some of the world's best music has been done with Strats, but for everyone one of those, there's a thousand guys that torture audiences with a nails-on-a-chalkboard tone. I can assure you, from deaces of listening to live and recorded music, that try as they may, the average player cannot 'play everything on a Strat.' Not that anyone's going to sit and listen to anyways. Every guitar design has it's virutes and shortcomings. What's 'good' is based on opinion and taste. There's no universal standard. None of our opinions count more than anyone else's. God bless you for owning a Strat, and it doesn't mean we're tone-deaf heathens if we have no desire to.

As much as I love LP's, 335's, and SG's, I'm not going to start a thread telling they world they can do everything. Nor am I going to run away in tears and lock myself in my room if anyone makes fun of those guitars. Laugh at them, I don't care. I play Epiphones; not like I'm going to be sensitive. Hey, play what you want, and expect some ribbing form time to time from the boys. No one's above that. It's all in good fun.
 
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Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Quencho092 said:
If you play a strat and lp with the same pickups into the same amp, you will have trouble differentiating the guitars blindfolded...When all things are equal except for the guitar, and you run identical neck pickups, there is almost no difference.

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.
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Well, that's a grey area, because the quintessential Strat is SSS. Put in a couple HB's, Gibson innovations, and it will sound more like a Gibson. No sh!t. How many Les Pauls have Fender single coils? How many Strats have an HB or two?

A more accurate comparison is a SSS Strat and an LP Std with PAF's, like they were when they were developed. Over the years, Fender's taken other manufacturers specs; like HB's, set necks, rosewood fretboards, mahogany bodies, flame maple tops, semi hollow bodies, etc and yeah, anyone's surprised that they're going to sound less Fenderish? That happens when you 'borrow' so heavily. Gibson hasn't imitated Fender to nearly that degree, so they've preserved their sound. To say that 'Strats can do everything' is misleading, because at some point along the way they've managed to copy just about everything else their competitors have done.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

I could play everything with a strat and about 3 loaded pickguards! lol
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Quencho092 said:
Totally agree with this. But put a seth lover in a strat and WTF IT SOUNDS THE SAME AS THAT LP?!?!? :friday:
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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.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

formula73 said:
A hum in a Strat sounds like a Les Paul??? Are you kidding me?



Are you the 99%? :rolleyes:

You guys make me laugh.
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99% what? Like that claim by motorists that 99% of bikers are law-abiding citizens? Really I don't know what you are insinuating.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Quencho092 said:
put a seth lover in a strat and WTF IT SOUNDS THE SAME AS THAT LP?
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No, a Strat with HB's doesn't sound the same as an LP with HB's. Because an SG, which has a lot more in common with LP's, never quite gets there either. The EQ is shifted upwards on an SG; not as much low end and sustain. I always try to get my SG's to have that classic rich, full, heavy LP sound, but I never succeed. Certainly Strats, with ash bodies, maple necks and fretboards, bolt-on necks, vibrato bars, and PU's mounted in a big sheet of plastic, aren't going to duplicate the warmth and power of an LP. Sure, they can get somewhat close, but it still ain't the 'Les Paul sound.' All of these guitars will sound good, but they each have their own take on tone. Pick the one(s) you like, but don't try to convince us that it's the best for everything. Don't let your enthusiasm and loyalty get you carried away and saying ridiculous things.
 
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Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

+1. Clapton can still play some really good stuff, but his tones with his Strats have never equalled his Bluesbreaker/Cream days.
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Rick....I agree,but Clapton stopped using Marshalls(The other huge equation in his tone) and was using clean Fender tweed stuff,Music Man Amps,Soldanos for a short period and now back to tweed Fenders again...The tone most of us love and grew up with,was Gibsons through Marshalls...Hard to beat that tone....At times I do like some of the tones he gets with the EC strat and the tweed amps also...We seem to leave the amp out of the equation and it's very equally important.

When I play any of my strats,I don't want the LP/SG sound...If I want those sounds,I Play those guitars...That's why I own many guitars and it's fortunate that I do...The only other guitars I'd like to own,would be a Ric and a Gretsch... ;o)
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Ratherdashing makes a Stratocaster sound heavy as lead on the latest Coloured Animal album.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

grey said:
I went to a small gig downtown,few days ago.There were four ambitious kids ,trying to play some really complicated progressive stuff...Some lack of synchronization,some unfortunate sound effects but generally a pretty decent performance.
What really pinched me was the guitarist's axe,a Strat Deluxe MIA HSS...Shock #1:Progressive with a Strat?
The second and deadly shock was that guitar's sound.We're all familiar with the squeaky,woody,bluesy sound of a Strat,right?Well that thing yielded a fat,deep,almost Hi-Fi sound with straight reference to Steve Vai or something!And as you can figure no super equipment was available...absolutely stunning.

So..is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?


P.S.Strat owners threads would be very interesting...
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I think its possible, but in many cases not feasible. When I gig I usually bring two guitars. A Humbucker equipped guitar & a Single coil guitar. Usually the single coil is a Strat but occasionally a Tele.

It really depends on what you are trying to cover. If you are going to play Hendrix well you need a Strat... If you are going to do Gary Moore(he used a lot of guitars) you would do better with a Humbucker!

I for one would never consider putting a Humbucker in a Strat. It just doesn't work for me. IMHO you loose to much "quack" when you do this & that's the reason why I like the Strats in the first place. Nothing wrong with putting a HB in a Strat it just doesn't work for me.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

ImmortalSix said:
Ratherdashing makes a Stratocaster sound heavy as lead on the latest Coloured Animal album.
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And alot of folks still don't think that most of our tone or alot of it,comes from our hands and how we approach the guitar...
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

Quencho092 said:
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.
Click to expand...

IME a strat with humbuckers still sounds like a strat, obviously not the same as a SSS strat but it still has the characteristics and eq curve of a strat. a les paul with singles would probably still sound like a les paul moreso then a strat. basically my point is the same pickups in different guitars dont sound the same and pickups alone dont determine the tone. I have 3 phat cats with the same mags in 3 guitars (strat, sg and a jazz box) and they dont sound anything alike.
 
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Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

jake_xms3_punk said:
IME a strat with humbuckers still sounds like a strat, obviously not the same as a SSS strat but it still has the characteristics and eq curve of a strat. a les paul with singles would probably still sound like a les paul moreso then a strat. basically my point is the same pickups in different guitars dont sound the same and pickups alone dont determine the tone. I have 3 phat cats with the same mags in 3 guitars (strat, sg and a jazz box) and they dont sound anything alike.
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I agree....Good post.:beerchug:
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

jake_xms3_punk said:
I have 3 phat cats with the same mags in 3 guitars (strat, sg and a jazz box) and they dont sound anything alike.
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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.
 
Re: Is it true?Can you play everything with a Strat?

STRATDELUXER97 said:
The tone most of us love and grew up with,was Gibsons through Marshalls...Hard to beat that tone....We seem to leave the amp out of the equation and it's very equally important.

When I play any of my strats,I don't want the LP/SG sound...If I want those sounds,I Play those guitars.
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+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...
 
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