You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

[stratguy23]

I recently saw Yngwie Malmsteen play. (His playing is still amazing in 2017.) For the last song of his set, he played a cheapo Strat, which he then proceeded to destroy.

What struck me was how much effort it took to destroy the Strat.

He repeatedly tossed it into the air about 30 feet and let it crash on the ground. It took about 5 of these throws before the Strat lost its headstock. Its neck remained attached. He then had to take the Strat and club it against a monitor for some time in order to separate the neck from the body.

I think such behavior is wasteful and cliched in this day and age. But it did inadvertently serve as a testimonial to the strength of the 4 bolt neck heel.

A Gibson would have turned into toothpicks after one 30 foot fall!

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

Strats aren't strong. Yngwie is weak. Pete Townshend can take apart a Strat in 7, 6, 4 even 2 hits.

 

[Silver]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

I just don't get it. Why would a crowd cheer at someone smashing a guitar?

Not that I think guitars are sacred, or that any unwanted guitar should be donated to the needy (people can do what they like with this own stuff)... but I just don't see the appeal.

 

[2ndhandband]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

It's amazing how much fender got right the first time. It's impossible to improve very much on a strat. A contoured heel, 22 frets, a two post bridge... Aside from those things what's going to make a strat better? It's damn near perfect as it is.

Its always been my opinion that a Les Paul is a flawed design, and fender spanked Gibson in the 50s because they had the better guitar. If a couple of British guys hadn't started playing Les pauls in the middle 60s mostly cus they were cheap used I wonder sometimes if the company would have survived the decade...

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

SRV could slam a Strat around the stage and then pick it up and still play it

If you think about the woods used, Maple and Ash are used to make baseball bats. Lots of Strat use these woods...

 

[Coma]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

It's amazing how much fender got right the first time. It's impossible to improve very much on a strat. A contoured heel, 22 frets, a two post bridge... Aside from those things what's going to make a strat better? It's damn near perfect as it is.

'Cept for the way it sounds :nana:

 

[Mincer]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

I agree about the perfection that is the Strat design. Although I don't know if he designed it that way for strength...my thought is that he designed it for easy part replacement and easy assembly. He had a few good ideas (and a few bad ones, too).

 

[Pontiac Jack]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

John Hiatt got it right...
https://youtu.be/l04pABsrXrs

Cheers,PJ

 

[Mr. B]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

Why not play that cheap strat for one song and then hand it to some kid in the crowd? That would impress me more than just breaking stuff on stage.

 

[LLL]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

I just don't get it. Why would a crowd cheer at someone smashing a guitar?

Not that I think guitars are sacred, or that any unwanted guitar should be donated to the needy (people can do what they like with this own stuff)... but I just don't see the appeal.

Smashing guitars is a rock & roll tradition.

Once upon a time back in my day (and before), excess was considered entertainment.

 

[LLL]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

Leo Fender is a god.

Highly recommended reading if you're curious about the Fender story; by Leo's right-hand man:

https://www.amazon.com/Fender-Inside-Story-Forrest-White/dp/0879303093

 

[LLL]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

It's amazing how much fender got right the first time. It's impossible to improve very much on a strat. A contoured heel, 22 frets, a two post bridge... Aside from those things what's going to make a strat better? It's damn near perfect as it is.

Its always been my opinion that a Les Paul is a flawed design, and fender spanked Gibson in the 50s because they had the better guitar. If a couple of British guys hadn't started playing Les pauls in the middle 60s mostly cus they were cheap used I wonder sometimes if the company would have survived the decade...

Well said.

But gimme a 6-holer any day.

And yes, for as pretty as they are, the Les Paul is a flawed design. But it does have "that" tone.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

I just don't get it. Why would a crowd cheer at someone smashing a guitar?

... but I just don't see the appeal.

They didn't pay for it and don't any sense of it having value. Like Pete Townshend said, "You just do something 'big' on the stage and a thousand geezers go 'Ahhhh!' "

 

[orpheo]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

The issues with the Les Paul are easily fixed. The issues with a strat are now easily fixed too.

LP: headstock angle less steep (not as many runout of wood fiber, stiffer headstock, stronger neck), better heel is easily done too. In other words, a PRS singlecut of Nik Huber Orca comes to mind.

Strat: staggered tuners.

Too bad a strat is so damned ugly

 

[Dusty.Rhoads]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

Well said.

But gimme a 6-holer any day.

And yes, for as pretty as they are, the Les Paul is a flawed design. But it does have "that" tone.

What is flawed about the design of a Les Paul?

 

[AlexR]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

^ In no part of the design brief did 'abuse by careless owners' come into it - it was a guitar designed around jazz and refined venues after all.

And as they had Les Paul roadtesting its playability all up and down the neck, at no time did they consider that poorly skilled and lazy players might find the upper fret access issues impossible to overcome.



You see the most affected people whinging about it even today.

 

[LLL]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

What is flawed about the design of a Les Paul?

weight, upper fret access, steep headstock angle (common neck break area), nut slot string binding due to the "splayed" out strings

 

[oilpit]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

What is flawed about the design of a Les Paul?

How much time do you have? lol

Jokes aside, I am a Les Paul player, they are absolutely my favorite guitar ever and I will always prefer them to every single other electric guitar style out there. But I do not play it for its functionality, and frankly, nobody does.

The flaws in the Les Paul are what make it so perfect, what make it sound so good and why people put up with it. Think of all the other single cut guitars you can get, PRS and ESP are the first that jump to mind but there are dozens I'm sure.
All of these alternatives fixed the flaws, but they lost what made the Les Paul so amazing, they don't sound quite the same and they don't feel quite the same, they are much better on paper, but when you actually play one they lose the magic that makes the Les Paul the Les Paul.

Sorry I tend to get a bit romantic about Les Pauls....


EDIT: For the record I am not trashing other singlecut alternatives at all, just saying they are different.

 

[NeedForPower]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

weight, upper fret access, steep headstock angle (common neck break area), nut slot string binding due to the "splayed" out strings

Wow, sounds seriously messed up. Gotta wonder how Michael Bloomfield, Mark Knopfler, Joe Bonnassama and like that would should with a decent guitar, huh?

 

[AlexR]

Re: You gotta hand it to Leo Fender

Wow, sounds seriously messed up. Gotta wonder how Michael Bloomfield, Mark Knopfler, Joe Bonnassama and like that would should with a decent guitar, huh?

They're good players......you'll find no excuses coming from them