Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

[LReese]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

For myself - I'm almost in Lew's camp. Old skool almost all the way (back and forth on the bridge tone control - 2 slightly different tastes).

I can see the utility with the SSL-5, though. I'd probably have it on a push/pull and with a superswitch to auto select the tapped option in the #2 position. I wound up with one recently, would have gone in my Jackson if it had a 5 way.

 

[soulforger]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Have you considered the Eric Clapton setup? He settled on the Vintage Noiseless pups with active mid-boost and TBX tone control for the very sounds you mention. Great vintage single coil tone and the mid-boost circuit fattens up the tone for playing things he originally played on a Les Paul, SG, or 335. One good thing about this setup is that you can easily try it out before doing the mods on your own guitar, just about every Fender dealer will have a Clapton Signature Strat on hand to demo...of course, you can put these electronics with any set of pickups, the Vintage Noiseless sound great to me but...

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Have you considered the Eric Clapton setup? He settled on the Vintage Noiseless pups with active mid-boost and TBX tone control for the very sounds you mention. Great vintage single coil tone and the mid-boost circuit fattens up the tone for playing things he originally played on a Les Paul, SG, or 335. One good thing about this setup is that you can easily try it out before doing the mods on your own guitar, just about every Fender dealer will have a Clapton Signature Strat on hand to demo...of course, you can put these electronics with any set of pickups, the Vintage Noiseless sound great to me but...

I use my AF1 Klon Klone in much the same way. And when I play out with it one of the questions I get is: "Do you have a preamp in that Strat?"

 

[Jocelyn]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

I have used SSL1s with great results. Crank up your amp, use a nice gain pedal. And you have very versatile set up.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Regular Stratocasters are plenty versatile, if you know how to play them and know how to operate an amp to its full potential. Just K.I.S.S. and go with the regular single coils. My two cents.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

The important thing for versatility is a humbucker that splits well. IMHO the Strat-size little Demon does that.

Neck-wise it's tricky.

 

[hermetico]

Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

I myself use a strato as my #1 and, I love classic tones but, also versatility so, what I did is my own mod (Hermetico's Stratosphear 9B), which basically works as follows:

1. A "Mode selector" was designed under the push/push of Volume pot to change the 5 pickups combinations from "standard" to "alternative".
2. A "bridge-bypass" switch under the push/push of Tone1 pot (which controls just the neck tone).
3. A "bridge-hot" switch under the push/push of Tone2 pot (assigned to bridge pickup) which selects the hotter tap of the taped bridge pickup.

When every push/push is down, I just have standard classic loved strato sounds.

When the Mode selector is up (alternative mode), the 5 positions of the blade switch are as follows (1= Neck... 5=bridge, in standard mode)

1. Neck in series with Bridge (out-of-phase) => This results in the typical Peter Green's tone (think on Fletwood Mac and, very specially "Black Magic Woman").
2. Neck in series with Middle => This results in a virtual neck humbucker, solid, dark, powerful
3. Neck in series with Middle in parallel with Middle in series with Bridge (out-of-phase) => this results in a very accoustic-like, piezo-like sound, really open but not weak
4. Neck in series with Bridge in parallel with Middle in series with Bridge => This is like the middle position of an LP, but a tad stronger and treblier.
5. Neck in series with Bridge => this results in a virtual bridge humbucker, solid, more open than position 2, powerful.

Additionally to this, the "bridge-hot" switch allows me to choose between a typical strato bridge pickup or a hotter bridge (and that gives more power to previous combos).

Finally, the "bridge-bypass" allows me to directly route the bridge pickup (standard or hot) to the jack, bypassing volume and tones, which gives a clear bump in output (like if you stepped over a +3dB booster pedal) and adds some high-end to the sound.
This overwrites any selection in the 5-way also and, when switched off, any selection you had will come back. Nice for soloing and come back to previous sound.

And, the guitar looks like any stock strato. No additional holes.

So... I can go from piezzo-alike to hi-gain with ease.