Strat V Les Paul

Hootsmon

1st things 1st I ain't much knowledgeable about Strats

I was at my Brother in laws today to check out his new birthday guitar, a nice new shiny Eric Johnson sig Strat

We were playing through a cooking crunch channel tone on the lead channel of his Express Boogie combo

Oh boy, you should hear his 2002 Les Paul in this channel..amazing punch volume and tone. Plug in the EJ Strat ( with same amp settings) and it is totally anemic by comparison ......half volume for starters. I have heard of folks gigging with a Strat and a LP and having to make adjustments to amp tone when switching guitar but this was a MASSIVE loss in volume and punch!

Is this par for the course or does the EJ guitar have mega weak pick ups or summit?

LastMantra

Set it up so the strat sounds good then try the lp? 

merciful-evans

Output shouldn't matter too much as long as you have the sound you want (and enough watts to deliver of course).

I love the sound of Fenders, even though I haven't owned one for years.

Hootsmon

LastMantra said:

Set it up so the strat sounds good then try the lp? 

the LP would probs come in then twice as loud on today's showing

Funkfingers

hootsmon said:

the LP would probs come in then twice as loud on today's showing

Exactly what make/model of pickups were in the Les Paul?

Hootsmon

2002 Burstbuckers? i guess

not_the_dj

When I take my Strat and Les Paul to a gig I use a TC Spark booster early in my chain to bring the Strat level up to match my Les Paul. 

Aside from the volume I want them to sound very different (as they should). 

Phil_aka_Pip

If you have an LP why would you need a Strat?

not_the_dj

Phil_aka_Pip said:

If you have an LP why would you need a Strat?

If you have carrots why would you need peas?

maltingsaudio

Just a thought but how close were the pickups to the strings? Could explain some of the loss of output

ICBM

hootsmon said:

1st things 1st I ain't much knowledgeable about Strats

I was at my Brother in laws today to check out his new birthday guitar, a nice new shiny Eric Johnson sig Strat

We were playing through a cooking crunch channel tone on the lead channel of his Express Boogie combo

Oh boy, you should hear his 2002 Les Paul in this channel..amazing punch volume and tone. Plug in the EJ Strat ( with same amp settings) and it is totally anemic by comparison ......half volume for starters. I have heard of folks gigging with a Strat and a LP and having to make adjustments to amp tone when switching guitar but this was a MASSIVE loss in volume and punch!

Is this par for the course or does the EJ guitar have mega weak pick ups or summit?

Strats are quite a lot quieter and thinner-sounding than Les Pauls, that's normal.

I've only played two EJ Strats as far as I know - one was really nice, and the other was the worst modern US-made Fender I can remember playing... it had all the resonance and tone of a wet cornflake box. Maybe even the worst Fender. I have no idea what was wrong with it, but if his is anything like that I can understand what you're describing - I hope it isn't.

dindude

I have the opposite problem with Gibson’s - set up my sounds so that a Strat sounds great - articulate, detailed and punchy. Plug in a Gibson and it’s compressed, mushy and one-dimensional.

It’s all about perspective - too much fucking perspective. As St Hubbins once said.

Phil_aka_Pip

dindude said:

I have the opposite problem with Gibson’s - set up my sounds so that a Strat sounds great - articulate, detailed and punchy. Plug in a Gibson and it’s compressed, mushy and one-dimensional.

It’s all about perspective - too much fucking perspective. As St Hubbins once said.

If you set up your rig for one then it won't be right for the other & vice versa.

LastMantra

hootsmon said:

LastMantra said:

Set it up so the strat sounds good then try the lp? 

the LP would probs come in then twice as loud on today's showing

Which would probably be over saturated and lifeless. 
Humbuckers are basically two single coils stuck together. 

fretmeister

I have less trouble with this, I have quite hot pickups in my strat and I like low power humbuckers in Les Paul’s.

Nothing hotter than a Pearly Gates.

But they still sound very different. 

Lestratcaster

Depends what music you're playing. I bring my Les Paul's out for rock/metalcore numbers, strats for blues/clean stuff. But both can be swapped over if dialled in right with the suitable amp.

Hootsmon

It's not the differences in tone that shocked me folks it was the massive drop in volume

Lestratcaster

Well to be fair humbuckers output a bit more power than a single coil (if the strat had a single coil). I notice if I change out guitars I have to tweak volume and EQ settings on the amp.

Lebarque

hootsmon said:

It's not the differences in tone that shocked me folks it was the massive drop in volume

Umm, yup. Les Pauls have higher output pickups than strats. No problem if you have a volume knob on yer amp.

exocet

Compared to most Humbuckers, Strat Single Coil pickups have a lower output and a higher resonant peak. The output is at its highest in the 4KHz region (annoying ice pick territory). Humbuckers peak at around 2 KHz region which is more "ear and overdrive friendly).

thegummy

hootsmon said:

It's not the differences in tone that shocked me folks it was the massive drop in volume

It's normal.

As someone pointed out, humbuckers are almost like 2 single coils together so it makes sense.

You can get Strat pickups that have as high as output as an average humbucker though, if you really wanted. Not sure it would ever sound like a normal Strat though. I think it's more common to either use a boost pedal or adjust the amp if someone is switching between the two on a gig.

I always use amp modeling and when I switch from LP to Strat I either adjust the gain on the amp or, more commonly, use a completely different amp model.