Looking for Stratocaster advice...

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Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Unpainted 2x4 - Adding lacquer to a neck doesn't improve the sound, it changes it, makes it more nasal. I like the sound of an unfinished neck better, was the main reason I chose Affinity.

The body is thinner/lighter. - True. The thickness of my Affinities are indeed 1/8" thinner than standard 1 3/4". Bullet bodies are super lightweight wood, definite compromise. However my Affinities are Alder, same as the Gilmour strat.

The fretwork on the Affinities/Bullets out of the box is a lot worse. - Production Fenders don't have any fretwork other than setting the frets in the neck. 1 of my Affinities has perfect frets, the other required a level as many guitars do. I did it myself, I didn't pay for a set up.

The hardware is zinc - Is zinc inferior sound wise to other metals?

The neck is not as carefully shaped. - Feels great to me.

The neck pocket fit. - I've never owned a guitar or bass where the neck joint prevented me from getting the proper neck angle and bow.

The quality of the routing. - I didn't notice any imperfections in the routing whatsoever. Certainly nothing that concealed by the pickguard would affect sound.

Great guitars to play around with - End result is a guitar with a quality of sound that is equal to anything else.

 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Sorry, Affinities have always been the epitome of "cheap guitar" to me, and are still too much money for me at $100 . They can sound good as anything can with enough effort, but since 2001 or so I've been unable to see past the neck's sharp fretboard/uneven thickness feel, off build quality, and poor fretwork I've encountered on every one I've handled... I used to think people who "didn't like Strats" must only have played Affinities. Even with the body wood the same, the differences in quality/drying etc. can be made evident. I don't know whether that can account for any of the Affinity's lesser qualities in my eyes, because there are so many other points of divergence. The difference in craftsmanship is night and day, even between an Affinity/Bullet and the next step or so up in the Squier line. They're not all created equal of course; which is even more of a reason to dissuade a person (or maybe "the sort of person") asking a guitar forum which one they want to buy. Vast inconsitency. My dad has one at his airplane hangar; my hands bleed whenever I play it.

(Zinc... The trem block and saddle materials make a huge difference. Replaceable, yeah. But add that cost to replacing the pots, jack, pickups, setup, etc...)

If you're happy, keep playing it :) I have a $50 guitar that of late is one of my most played, but I wouldn't recommend that to anyone either (much worse than an Affinity.)
 
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Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Clint....just out of interest, how many unfinished necks have you added finish to and done high quality (professional studio type) recordings to.

I can guarantee that in the time taken to process either finish addition or removal you will have NO idea of the guitar's original sound. Finish stripping for most cheap guitars is sanding based as chemical ones prove generally ineffective. There is a possibility of much more than just the finish coming off....so that has to be taken into account. And additionally cheap guitars will have poly, not lacquer (The affinity has polyurethane). I doubt you'd notice any tonal change for lacquer - it being very thin.

Plus any tonal change will be dependent on the individual wood piece.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

No, I didn't do anything like that - coating a neck myself or removing the finish. My preference is only from comparing guitars with finished and unfinished necks. I owned an Am std Strat with a maple neck so the whole neck was coated, and I've compared that to my affinities with no finish at all. I like the unfinished way better. I also owned an Am std P bass with a rosewood board, so all of the neck except the fretboard was coated. I compared that to my affinity p bass with steve harris pickup - completely unfinished neck with rosewood fretboard, I like that better. Other guitars I have with coated necks: mustang, jaguar, lp, 335. They can sound good to me, but the unfinished necks on my 2 affinity strats, strat mini, and affinity p bass just sound way better to me - more natural. You can hear the brilliance of the guitar and pickup better instead of having it masked with nasal cowboy tone.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

The type of finish or lack therof on a guitar doesn't really mean anything the sound, if any. Unfinished necks just feel better cause they aren't sticky. That's why people love Charvel So Cal/ San Dimas neck.

The myth that guitars with nitro finish sounds 'better' than those with poly probably because most of them are from the 70s, 60s, when poly finish wasn't available. So, it's not because of the finish, but because of aged wood.

But personally I think the whole type-of-finish debate is bullshyte. You spend money on expensive gear but when recording, your sound gets recorded with 70 bucks SHure SM 57 and freeware plugins.

Meanwhile, the OP has left the building.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Clint 55 said:
No, I didn't do anything like that - coating a neck myself or removing the finish. My preference is only from comparing guitars with finished and unfinished necks. I owned an Am std Strat with a maple neck so the whole neck was coated, and I've compared that to my affinities with no finish at all. I like the unfinished way better. I also owned an Am std P bass with a rosewood board, so all of the neck except the fretboard was coated. I compared that to my affinity p bass with steve harris pickup - completely unfinished neck with rosewood fretboard, I like that better. Other guitars I have with coated necks: mustang, jaguar, lp, 335. They can sound good to me, but the unfinished necks on my 2 affinity strats, strat mini, and affinity p bass just sound way better to me - more natural. You can hear the brilliance of the guitar and pickup better instead of having it masked with nasal cowboy tone.
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False reasoning.

You have 2 different guitars there, and also 2 basses with different pickups (do your guitars have different pickups too?) And you think that all of the tonal changes are solely due to the paint and nothing else:33:

Have you removed the Affinity finish.....because I'm not seeing any Fender product with a maple neck that has no finish on it. Rosewood fretboard don't need finish of course, but the rear will have some form of coating on it from the factory surely (current ones absolutely do)
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Really? That's faulty reasoning? How the composition of a musicial instrument has an effect on its sound? No sorry that isn't faulty reasoning, that's 100% sound reasoning and common sense. I have multiple different Fender style guitars with finished necks and while I can tell the difference in sound determined by their shape and design, they all somehow share the same crisp, nasal tone. I also have 4 guitars with bare unfinished necks (my affinities with rosewood board are bare, no finish at all) and for some reason none of them have this tone! They sound organic. I've tried the same pickups in several of the guitars too. I can figure out what sound is coming from what. Same thing as being able to tell the difference between strings.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

No, its faulty reasoning that amongst the myriad of differences between the guitars you isolate 1 and think thats the cause.......you have 'wishful thinking syndrome'.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

But the difference in tone between maple and rosewood isn't wishful thinking.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Its funny watching you misconstrue what I say every time. Now you've agreed with my point....and I bet you don't even realise you've done it.

I'll put it VERY simply, so even you should be able to understand.....

With about 1 dozen variables between 2 guitars you are convinced that its only the finish responsible for the change in tone. This is poor logic. You have then gone and shot yourself down in flames by saying that there is a tonal difference maple vs rosewood (which physics says is true, even if it might not always be audible) .

Every aspect of a guitar will potentially affect tone. Until you have the exact same neck with and then without finish you CANNOT make any assumptions about tonal shift as you did.
And even then, that is only the tonal shift for that particular neck.

You would need to test about 1000 necks and bodies of every wood type used in guitar building to get enough data to start even beginning to have a scientifically credible theory.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Wouldn't that suggest that the theory is correct if the finished neck guitars are different but they all share a similar tone characteristic? Same with the unfinished neck guitars.
 
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Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

For the OP...

I'm a huge Strat fan. I love everything about them, playability, tone, feel, shape, etc.

The first step is to determine how you want the guitar to feel. Neck radius, fret size, neck shape and size, then build quality you want, then finally the aesthetics and electronics. For me, I like a modern radius (9.5"+) medium jumbo frets (up to 6105) fatter neck, 2-point trem for guitars I use the bar on, 6 screw for those I don't, stamped saddles no matter what then pickups to taste. I have 4 Strats and 3 "basically Strats" (other than he decal)

Once you determine if you want vintage or modern features, the peaks of Fender are:
Squier Classic Vibe & Vintage Modern
Fender MIM Classic 50's/60's & Classic Player's 50's/60's
Fender American Special & American Standard

2 of mine are a FSR AVRI 62 (modern radius & frets) and a Sig model based on a modernized AVRI 62. You obviously don't need to go to those lengths to get a great Strat, but they really encompass what I love about Strats.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Obsessive Compulsive said:
Go for the Black MIM Strat. I have a 2013 in flame burst, HSS. Very similar except the finish. Very comfortable to play. I like everything about it except it only has 21 frets.

I don't care about Squier. Regardless of its quality, it's a cheapo brand. I don't know 'bout you but it makes me feel cheap. Get the real thing.
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I'd take an 80s mij squier over any MIM guitar.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Clint 55 said:
Really? That's faulty reasoning? How the composition of a musicial instrument has an effect on its sound? No sorry that isn't faulty reasoning, that's 100% sound reasoning and common sense. I have multiple different Fender style guitars with finished necks and while I can tell the difference in sound determined by their shape and design, they all somehow share the same crisp, nasal tone. I also have 4 guitars with bare unfinished necks (my affinities with rosewood board are bare, no finish at all) and for some reason none of them have this tone!
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No. That's just the power of suggestion playing on you. In order to validate your theory, you have to do a blind test, with all variables being the same except the neck (finished/ unfinished).

But most likely that's just your positive experience with a particular guitar got carried over to another guitar with the same feature. Humans are not objective.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Obsessive Compulsive said:
That's just the power of suggestion playing on you.
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No, that's because I have an ear and a brain and I can figure out the influence on sound of each component of my guitars. (There are 6, it IS quantifiable: Pickups, strings, scale length, neck and body materials, electronics, hardware.) Why would it be that things like rosewood vs maple board, routing more wood out of the body, bolt on vs neck thru, tele bridge influencing the resonation around the pickup and making the sound snappier, etc. change the sound, but coating the entire neck in lacquer doesn't? That makes no sense at all theoretically and it isn't true in practice either. Others were even suggesting that using a bridge made out of zinc alloy rather than iron alloy will deteriorate the sound. But the entire neck being coated in brittle material that seals it and changes the way the sound resonates in it, that's dumb?
 
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Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

*Everything* makes a difference, but I don't think an Affinity has enough changes about it to make a *positive* difference :) An unpainted neck is actually a detractor for me, whatever tonal change occurs.

If OP is still paying attention, the lesson continues to be "try them," although for $400-$500 and requiring fewer immediate upgrades a used American Standard is still a lot surer bet (the price settles a lot of the doubt for me.) They're out there, I got a Deluxe for $500. Or, buy an Affinity if it makes you happy and you can't tell the difference.
 
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Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

Every piece of wood is an individual. You cannot lump them all in one, like rosewood is automatically this difference and maple is always that difference.

I'm sorry, but you've oversimplified things......when it comes to the organic part of a guitar there are no absolutes. And hence the mix of wood compounds differences.......or not.....or halfway, or a tiny faction. etc etc.

Science and scientific thinking is far more precise and analytical than you've delved into. You cannot take a 'moving goalpost' variable like wood and infer anything simply by taking 1 example and extrapolating from that.

The point I made earlier (and you ignored) is valid. You need WAY more examples than just 2....or 5.....or 500.
If you were to build a guitar cut from the very same maple and alder planks as your Am std - even the absolute next cut along - the grain and structure would be different. It would be from a slightly different part of the tree....be it closer to the bottom or top, or the outer or inner. Nature works on the tree differently depending on where it is, as does gravity. So you will have unique grain and structure.
Nowhere else in the world will there ever be the same bit of wood in your guitar repeated.....for all time. As we both know, structure influences tone. Whether it be audible or inaudible.

So how on earth you can think that you can take 2 individual guitars and ignore the effect of wood individuality is beyond me.

But I will leave you to come to your senses.......or continue your comfortable self-important fantasy as you see fit from now on. Anyone coming into the thread in time to come at least has all the info to make a balanced judgement for themselves.
 
Re: Looking for Stratocaster advice...

TripleChillin said:
1.) How bad is the hum? I'm thinking of swapping with a Mojotone loaded pickguard or maybe Dimarzio... (is this worth it)
2.) Seems like if #1 was a go; then the MIM makes more sense, otherwise anyone have a strong opinion on the Standard American stock pickups?
3.) Anyone play a Standard Deluxe Roadhouse (the white one with S1 switch and active pickups...) - seems like this is a halfway point...
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1. It is fine. I've been gigging single coils for years. Roll off your guitar volume between songs and enjoy the richness and harmonic swirl that only real singles provide.
2. Play as many strats as you can unplugged. This will sort the sheep from the goats and you can make your own decisions about which one is best. Some guitars will sing, some wont. Pickups are easily replaced, bodies and necks, not so much. If you live in the country, make it a road trip or weekend away to go to a city that has a few guitar shops and then go exploring.
3. Forget specs that you read on the net. Go to as many shops as you can and play as many strats both inside and outside your price range. Play them unplugged first, then try comparing different axes through your favourite style of amp. You will soon work out what you want using your own ears. Trick switching and stuff is mostly just a gimmick, and if you find it is more than that, electronic modifications are easy and cheap.
 
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