HH Strat Players?

thegummy

EricTheWeary said:

Jimmy Herring.

Holy shit this is amazing!

BBBlues

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or play an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

ICBM

thegummy said:

Wow I didn't know that. I've always kind of half wished he used a humbucker guitar, would love to hear it. Was it with Deep Purple or later?

Deep Purple. I think it was for the Burn tour.

From what I’ve read he had major problems with hum on the Strat, so I would guess it was for practical rather than tone reasons. The pickups look like Bill Lawrences, which are quite bright for humbuckers.

Roger Glover also earlier had his Rick bass modded with two Fender Jazz pickups - which are hum cancelling when both are on together - I think for the same reason.

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

thegummy said:

Wow I didn't know that. I've always kind of half wished he used a humbucker guitar, would love to hear it. Was it with Deep Purple or later?

Deep Purple. I think it was for the Burn tour.

From what I’ve read he had major problems with hum on the Strat, so I would guess it was for practical rather than tone reasons. The pickups look like Bill Lawrences, which are quite bright for humbuckers.

Roger Glover also earlier had his Rick bass modded with two Fender Jazz pickups - which are hum cancelling when both are on together - I think for the same reason.

Ritchie’s session work was mostly on his 1961 ES335 and you’ll see it on clips of early Purple. Apparently it’s the guitar on Hush. The strat seems to have been for practical reasons because his 335 would feedback at the volume levels DP were achieving. 

Flanging_Fred

Me!

l’m famous at The Plough AND The White Hart!

guitars4you

Eric Bell had 2 humbuckers  on his Strat - albeit HSH format

ICBM

BBBlues said:

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or plan an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

Simple... feel of the Strat, sound of the Gibson. You don’t only have rigid choices.

Or actually, somewhere in between with sound, since a humbucker Strat doesn’t sound quite like a Les Paul.

You might also want that sound with a Strat trem, which works very differently from a Bigsby.

EricTheWeary

https://i.imgur.com/AhyXj89.jpg

Andy Fairweather Lowe used this slightly oddball HH strat a bit. 

thegummy

BBBlues said:

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or play an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

The reason I'm considering one is because I bought a Gibson but apart from the sound I find it very hard to like anything about it.

It won't sound exactly like a LP but will sound a lot more like one than an SSS Strat

dindude

  BBBlues said

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or play an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

Still has a certain fidelity and articulation that a Gibson doesn't - just check out Landau's sound for that. May also want a trem, prefer the scale length, and prefer a comfortable shape which is an iconic 20th Century classic, want a guitar that stays in tune and one where the headstock doesn't fall off. You may want a guitar that doesn't weigh a tonne and isn't an ergonomic mess. etc. etc.

Apart from that, yeah, what's the point

DrJazzTap

I've always wanted a strat with a humbucker in. It's an itch I've never scratched. 

thegummy

DrJazzTap said:

I've always wanted a strat with a humbucker in. It's an itch I've never scratched. 

I've ordered an HH pickguard from Amazon Prime, going to transplant the Bare Knuckles into my Strat for a trial period and see how much I like it.

The Strat I like as a potential permanent HH is pretty expensive though, might need to save for a while lol.

BBBlues

dindude said:

  BBBlues said

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or play an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

Still has a certain fidelity and articulation that a Gibson doesn't - just check out Landau's sound for that. May also want a trem, prefer the scale length, and prefer a comfortable shape which is an iconic 20th Century classic, want a guitar that stays in tune and one where the headstock doesn't fall off. You may want a guitar that doesn't weigh a tonne and isn't an ergonomic mess. etc. etc.

Apart from that, yeah, what's the point

ok I'll ignore the silly headstock falling off point but...
 
- scale length fair point
- neck shape, hmm ok but there are loads of other HH options
- use of trem and stay in tune is pretty much an oxymoron
- 20th century classic : it's simply not if you butcher it with HH pickups
- weight and ergo: ok, a PRS then

My point is why mod a strat to the position where it's not a strat - 100s of other HH options on the market. 

thegummy

BBBlues said:

dindude said:

  BBBlues said

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or play an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

Still has a certain fidelity and articulation that a Gibson doesn't - just check out Landau's sound for that. May also want a trem, prefer the scale length, and prefer a comfortable shape which is an iconic 20th Century classic, want a guitar that stays in tune and one where the headstock doesn't fall off. You may want a guitar that doesn't weigh a tonne and isn't an ergonomic mess. etc. etc.

Apart from that, yeah, what's the point

ok I'll ignore the silly headstock falling off point but...
 
- scale length fair point
- neck shape, hmm ok but there are loads of other HH options
- use of trem and stay in tune is pretty much an oxymoron
- 20th century classic : it's simply not if you butcher it with HH pickups
- weight and ergo: ok, a PRS then

My point is why mod a strat to the position where it's not a strat - 100s of other HH options on the market. 

It is possible to use the trem and it stay in tune if it's set up correctly. But with the Strat you can choose not to use the trem and it will stay in tune much much better than a Gibson.

What would be the benefit of getting a PRS or any other guitar if someone likes the feel of Strats?

P.S. the headstock thing is very real, I know a few people who've had to have it repaired!

stimpsonslostson

BBBlues said:

I don't know why anyone would ever want to own or play an HH strat. Surely just pick up a Gibson. 

I've tried SGs, Les Pauls etc, but find them uncomfortable for various reasons. My HH Tele partscaster is great. 

If your after a HH Strat, the blacktop one is very good. The 5 way switch has some interesting options. 

ICBM

BBBlues said:

- scale length fair point
- neck shape, hmm ok but there are loads of other HH options
- use of trem and stay in tune is pretty much an oxymoron
- 20th century classic : it's simply not if you butcher it with HH pickups
- weight and ergo: ok, a PRS then

My point is why mod a strat to the position where it's not a strat - 100s of other HH options on the market. 

You don't need to mod it... you can buy them new like that - including from Fender, so I would say that definitely does make it "a Strat".

Why does it matter if its "not a Strat" anyway? If it's the guitar that does what you want, then surely it's the right solution.

rossi

If it says Stratocaster on the headstock and Fender made it then its  a strat.Never understood the crap about purity .Its all bolloxx ..Its just  a guitar.

thegummy

rossi said:

If it says Stratocaster on the headstock and Fender made it then its  a strat.Never understood the crap about purity .Its all bolloxx ..Its just  a guitar.

I do agree.

I mean, if someone says "I prefer a Strat for that kind of lick" I'd take it to mean SSS and think it would be confusing to say that and mean otherwise but the idea of declaring "that isn't a Strat" seems silly.

Also, I'm considering an HH Strat because I really like the feel of the guitar, not because I want to play "a Strat" for any non-practical reason.

I watched a YouTube video where a guy compared a PRS SE to a Core series and the guy was knowledgeable and listed some key differences. But then he said that a big difference is that the SE "isn't a Paul Reed Smith, it's a PRS" which I found bizarre because, firstly, we all know what those initials stand for, but also because of this weird concept of something having a status that had nothing to do with it as a physical object.

When they started including Paul's signature one year it pretty much destroyed the theory anyway.

thegummy

Tonight I tried to install humbuckers on my Strat - it turns out that, due to the fairly shallow routing on the Strat, the lowest I can set the pickups would still set them millimeters from the strings.

What's the deal with this then, do Fender make specific humbuckers with legs a lot shorter than normal ones?

Do people who install non-Fender humbuckers in Strats chisel more out of the body to fit them in?

I didn't even think to measure this before doing it, I made an assumption it would fit based on it being relatively common to do this.

rossi

thegummy said:

Tonight I tried to install humbuckers on my Strat - it turns out that, due to the fairly shallow routing on the Strat, the lowest I can set the pickups would still set them millimeters from the strings.

What's the deal with this then, do Fender make specific humbuckers with legs a lot shorter than normal ones?

Do people who install non-Fender humbuckers in Strats chisel more out of the body to fit them in?

I didn't even think to measure this before doing it, I made an assumption it would fit based on it being relatively common to do this.

Are you using a Squier Affinity body  or maybe a BBBBBBullet or a cheap import the body may well be thinner than a standard strat .I have fitted buckers to an SX body and a GFS body  with complete success .They were both full depth .