Wanted - A Strat that's not a Strat.

[darkandrew]

I'm not someone who sticks to just one genre - I like to listen to, and play, music of many different genres ranging from growling death metal to 80's new wave. Guitar wise I have quite a few guitars but they are all equipped with humbucker pickups of one sort or another (mostly made by Bare Knuckle). Currently to play funky rythm parts (think Nile Rodgers) I use one of my ESP Eclipses - the lightest, thinnest bodied and narrowest necked one with a pair of Mule humbuckers, and get quite a good, funk tone out of the neck pickup but I'm thinking of getting something a little more authentic (ie. a Strat). But here's the problem - for me, Strats are much more about Mark Knopfler and Hank Marvin than the players I like, with the exception of Nile Rodgers of course but I'm nowhere near cool enough to play anything associated with him, and so I'm looking for alternatives that will sound and play like a Strat without necessarily being a Strat ... any ideas? 

[ezbass]

Given that the Strat is the most ubiquitous guitar on the planet, only associating it with Knopfler, Marvin and Rodgers is to undermine its usage, but each to their own POV. It seems that your requirement is a double cutaway guitar with single coil pickups in the neck and middle positions, plus another s/c or splittable hb in the bridge. Ibanez and Yamaha are good starting points and both have affordable offerings in this format. However, if money were no object, a PRS 513 would cover every base.

[darkandrew]

Thanks - what do you think of this one:

https://www.espguitars.com/products/19132-m-403ht?category_id=1963302-m-series

I have 3 Japanese built ESPs and I'm very happy with them but I haven't got any experience with their lower cost LTD range, how does it compare? I've got a couple of Korean Fenders, will it be of comparable build quality to these? Similarly, I've previously had a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 so I know what that's like, but what are the stacked single coils like? Do they give an authentic single coil tone or does the second, stacked coil give it a bit of a humbucker flavour?

Edited February 3, 2019 by darkandrew

[ezbass]

That’s a nice looking superstrat. I’ve only ever played one LTD, a Viper, but it was very good as are other Korean builds I’ve played (Fender and Gretsch).

I haven’t heard the STK-S4s, but the SD website says that they’re voiced to be be classic and chimey like normal single coils. https://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/classic-stack-plus-set?__uuid_ref=5c57375048fc8%3f__uuid_ref=5c5737504900e

[darkandrew]

16 hours ago, ezbass said:

That’s a nice looking superstrat. I’ve only ever played one LTD, a Viper, but it was very good as are other Korean builds I’ve played (Fender and Gretsch).

I haven’t heard the STK-S4s, but the SD website says that they’re voiced to be be classic and chimey like normal single coils. https://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/classic-stack-plus-set?__uuid_ref=5c57375048fc8%3f__uuid_ref=5c5737504900e

Cheers, again, just picked up an "as new" one off eBay. I'll update you when I've got it and had a play.

 

[ezbass]

Ooh, cool! NGD in the near future.

[EdwardMarlowe]

So.... are you saying you want it to *sound* but not *look* like a Strat? I was going to suggest Brandoni in N London if you wanted a non-Fender product (I have one of their P basses and it is beautiful), but they don't stock so much in the way of a superstrat. Main thing is a decent set of single coils; for me, it's not really a Strat-type once you put HBs in there.... (highly subjective, I know!). 

[darkandrew]

On 04/02/2019 at 13:52, ezbass said:

Ooh, cool! NGD in the near future.

Well not quite ... all done and paid for only to be let down by Parcel Force who for some reason couldn't deliver it to a great big Argos store for collection and instead sent it back to the sender. In the end, the whole thing fell through and the sale was refunded

Still, probably for the best though, at least it's saved me from my own GAS (well, for now anyway)

 

[ezbass]

5 hours ago, darkandrew said:

Well not quite ... all done and paid for only to be let down by Parcel Force who for some reason couldn't deliver it to a great big Argos store for collection and instead sent it back to the sender. In the end, the whole thing fell through and the sale was refunded

Still, probably for the best though, at least it's saved me from my own GAS (well, for now anyway)

 

Oh that’s ridiculous! But, as you say, silver lining.

[darkandrew]

OK, slightly different approach ... if I'm after a hard-tail Strat (that's not necessarily a Strat), primarily for the neck pickup, then do I actually want a Tele? How different do Strats and Teles sound, especially when played clean on the neck pickup?

Edited February 12, 2019 by darkandrew

[EdwardMarlowe]

IMO, owning both, not *hugely* in th neck - the bigger variation I find is in the bridge. A Tele bridge is much ballsier imo; more in yer face, whereas the Strat is quite polite and has to bed pushed harder to play angry. The real gem of the Tele for me, which cannot in any way be replicated on a Strat, is the middle position with both pups on. That's heavenly. 

[ezbass]

I’m a huge Tele fan, much meatier than a Strat in all the positions IMO. Every home should have one .

[EdwardMarlowe]

Worth noting, perhaps: Strats have a very distinctive sound, whereas when you listen to the first two Zeppelin albums, there are tracks where nobody can tell whether Page is playing a Tele or a Paul, and he can't remember. While it makes little logical sense, it took me years and actually owning a Tele to realise that the sound I thought I wanted from an LP (basically the Steve Jones NMTB sound) I can actually get far better from a Telecaster in my hands!

[FlatEric]

One of the nicest Strat Type guitars, that isn't a Strat - plays beautifully (as pretty much everything from Ibanez of that period did) and doesn't cost an arm, leg or even a kidney! Ibanez Blazer! There are several versions of this guitar, from different dates.

Get two or three - not expensive!

Cheers. : )

 

[EliasMooseblaster]

On 12/02/2019 at 13:37, EdwardMarlowe said:

IMO, owning both, not *hugely* in th neck - the bigger variation I find is in the bridge. A Tele bridge is much ballsier imo; more in yer face, whereas the Strat is quite polite and has to bed pushed harder to play angry. The real gem of the Tele for me, which cannot in any way be replicated on a Strat, is the middle position with both pups on. That's heavenly. 

A friend of mine did perform some extensive surgery on his Squier Strat to enable him to select the Neck + Bridge positions together (I couldn't swear blind, but I think he used that setting on this song). I'm inclined to agree with you about the bridge pickups, though - most Teles have a very particular "snarl" to them, which just seems to be more of a "quack" on a Strat.

[Kiwi]

Old Japanese guitars like Aria and Yamaha are worth a look.  Yamaha's SC700 or Super Session for example.  Or Aria's Pro series, all unfashionable stuff from the 80's.  

[Musicman210]

My Legacy Special is a do it all Strat. It's at home with jazz, blues, rock, metal, anything it can do it all. Gotoh pickups are great and the tone can be properly dialed in.