all of the sudden i love strats

[marqueemoon]

^Niiiiiice.

My Strat is definitely a product of its time. Gold hardware? Yep. Black hardware too? Sure, why not? Koa? Uh huh. Ebony board? Of course. At least it doesn't have a Floyd.



While I'm not much of a Strat person myself some of my favorite recorded guitars sounds are Strat. Television, Big Star, The Smiths, The Soft Boys, etc...

[kosmonautmayhem]

I did!

Incredible. What's the story?

[BoringPostcards]

I like plain looking Strats the best. 1 ply guards and solid colours like black, fiesta red and sonic blue. Early 50s style, I guess.
I have never owned any above MIM level. I like them fine, just not really into the look, since it is copied into oblivion.
My first guitar was a Telecaster, so I gravitate towards them, when not playing an offset or non Fender.
Nicest strat I ever played was a Sonic Blue with gold guard from the mid 50s. My uncle in Victoria owns it. I don't get to the west coast often, so I have only played it a few times.

[Jaguar018]

MJT finally got the body I ordered, so it's 'in production' now. Once it's finished, I have all the other parts ready and will have a pro assemble it all. PSYCHED.

Before switching to offsets I played Strats full time, my main one had Lace Sensor pickups before I swapped them out years later. The reason that I swapped them out was in an attempt to get some of those cliché STRAT TONEZ. Never really worked though. I guess maybe to someone else's ears you can hear all those sounds, but to my ears it just sounded like me playing the guitar. Same thing happened with a Tele.

With Les Pauls I can sorta hear 'their' sound.

[JVG]

But offsets are so popular now that they're a little passé, so the really hip contrarians are checking out strats again and going, "oh crap, these are great!" Or, at least, I am.

I see this happening as well. In recent years there’s certainly been a fair bit of anti-strat sentiment due to what they are perceived to represent, rather than what they are. In another 10 years, the next generation of cool kids may well be frowning upon Jazzmasters for the same reason. I’ll be watching with curiosity!

[Nevets]

Just got this one the other week. A standard off the shelf MIM but I am loving it and every time I sit down with it the riffs and melodies just pour out.

[BoringPostcards]

Just got this one the other week. A standard off the shelf MIM but I am loving it and every time I sit down with it the riffs and melodies just pour out.

Gorgeous!

[Larry Mal]

But offsets are so popular now that they're a little passé, so the really hip contrarians are checking out strats again and going, "oh crap, these are great!" Or, at least, I am.

I see this happening as well. In recent years there’s certainly been a fair bit of anti-strat sentiment due to what they are perceived to represent, rather than what they are. In another 10 years, the next generation of cool kids may well be frowning upon Jazzmasters for the same reason. I’ll be watching with curiosity!

Yep. My buddy recently got a Charvel and he started raving at me about how he was tired of playing guitars because he thought they had some hipster cachet to them, so now he has the decidedly uncool brand of Charvel in response.

Looks like a great guitar though.

I told him I was thinking about getting a decidedly uncool ES-175.

But anyway I've already been through all that, I used to think Strats were lame and pedestrian and Robert Cray played one and shit. Actually that's a pretty good song, let me say Buddy Guy, who I was forced to listen to by Baby Boomers so many times I can't even believe it.

"You like guitar, Larry? I have Buddy Guy's new album on gold CD for maximum fidelity. I'll put it on."

But after the trauma of being forced to listen to way past the expiration date Buddy Guy by Baby Boomers wore off I could finally see that Stratocasters were actually great guitars all around.

They sound great and are incredibly versatile.

[Jaguar018]

I told him I was thinking about getting a decidedly uncool ES-175.

Yes!

[countertext]

But anyway I've already been through all that, I used to think Strats were lame and pedestrian and Robert Cray played one and shit. Actually that's a pretty good song,

Reasons I bought my first Strat in 1988:
1) Hendrix
2) Robert Cray
3) Fast Eddie and maybe a guy from the Fixx, I don’t remember etc

Right after I got mine, a bunch of Strat playing old blues guys signed on with Michelob for some reason, like all of them made TV ads and shit. I tried to erase the Strat blues influence from my memory after that. Now I look back, though, I still dig that one Cray album.

Edit to add:
Secret Separation
Hmm, come to think of it, I still want a Steinberger bass, too. So many dark secrets in my past.

[Larry Mal]

But anyway I've already been through all that, I used to think Strats were lame and pedestrian and Robert Cray played one and shit. Actually that's a pretty good song,

Reasons I bought my first Strat in 1988:
1) Hendrix
2) Robert Cray
3) Fast Eddie and maybe a guy from the Fixx, I don’t remember etc

See, I've like never been a big fan of Hendrix, really. I have heard all the albums and all that. Honestly, I'm kind of new to Strats and haven't always given a lot of thought to the "Strat sound" and that's kind of new to me also.

I guess I always thought this was a Strat, it's the most Fender sounding thing I've ever heard.

I came across this some years ago, it's a great example of what a Strat can do, as well as one of the most amazing performances I can imagine.

That being said, though, I'm an unabashed Deep Purple fan and that's probably where I first encountered a whole lot of Strat stuff as a kid.

And maybe those awful advertisements killed Michelob, which is sad, because Michelob is actually a wonderful beer and I'm not talking about the walking abortion that is Michelob Ultra.

[countertext]

Yeah, that Belew solo is pretty unbelievable.

I got into Hendrix when I was about 12, so I don’t have any reasonable perspective on him any more. His stuff kinda exists outside of other music for me, and while I can hear how unrefined a lot of his work is now, especially all the live stuff his family has cashed in on over the years, the good parts of him still seem transcendent, and that’s etched into my neurons at this point.

I ended up playing a Les Paul Special as my main guitar for 15 years, so I guess I wasn’t even a Strat guy for a long time.

[Flurko]

Yeah, that Belew solo is pretty unbelievable.

Seconded.
I must have seen this video more than ten years ago, it's one of the few truly exhilarating guitar solos and a huge factor in my love of the electric guitar as a noise making instrument. I still have no idea how he makes it sound like that, before all the fancy electronics he became known for in King Crimson and afterwards. That's part of the magic !

[terminalvertigo]

Incredible. What's the story?

'64 Strat, flamed neck with factory gold hardware. old refin and changes saddles

[sookwinder]

I loves strats … always have … but after 50 years of listening I still don't really enjoy Hendrix.
My guitarist thinks his slow stuff is amazing.
I just don't gravitate to the sound he sets up.
Ignoring the playing skill, one first has to enjoy the sound and tonality, that is totally missing when ever I hear Hendrix play a strat for me.