Superstrats Preferences

hairmetal

Interested to know how people prefer their superstrats and importantly why? A few questions to ponder....

Bolt On or Neck Thru?
22 Frets or 24 Frets?
Floyd or Hardtail?

Discuss!

LuttiS

Thru, 24, hardtail. What's my prize?

Tenebrous

Bolt on.

Not too bothered about the number of frets.

Good Floyd/Edge > Hardtail > Getting kicked in the danglies > Budget Floyd/Edge

I had an RG550. Tuning stability was insane & it was a hell of a lot of fun to play. I couldn't live with the tiny neck anymore, sadly, so I moved it on to a friendly forumite. I hear the Joe Satriani sig models have neck profiles more similar to those on a modern Fender-style guitar, so I'm tempted to check them out next time I'm after a superstrat.

drwiddly

Bolt on
24 frets
Good quality Floyd (is it really a superstrat without a Floyd?)

lysander

I’m not bothered about bolt on or neck through as long as the neck access is good.
24 frets preferably - always annoying when you can’t play a shreddy solo that uses the 24th fret.

And anything but a Floyd, fooking hateful things, hate tuning and restringing them. 

I do like a non locking tremolo though.

thegummy

hairmetal said:

Interested to know how people prefer their superstrats and importantly why? A few questions to ponder....

Bolt On or Neck Thru?
22 Frets or 24 Frets?
Floyd or Hardtail?

Discuss!

The only part I care strongly about is 22 frets as opposed to 24.

24 frets forces the neck pickup to be moved towards the bridge to make room for the extra frets and that makes a big difference to the sound (much bigger than most things guitar geeks care about IMO). It surprises me that a lot of people aren't bothered by that. I suppose a lot of people are mainly focused on the bridge pickup anyway. For me, the main reason I like separate HH and SSS guitars (as opposed to compromising with an SSH) is the deep liquid sound of a neck pickup but that sound I love is totally diminished by the pickup placement on a 24 fret guitar. I actually got rid of my only 24 fret guitar for that sole reason.

I've never actually played a Floyd but I'd take a normal trem over hardtail purely because I have the option of using the trem bar once in a blue moon. I'm assuming people would only prefer a hardtail for tonal reasons - I'm not really interested in that kind of subtlety, I just don't buy that at that level it can make a real world difference to the music.

I suppose for that reason too, I'd take the bolt-on neck for the practical advantages, under the assumption that the tonal difference will be too subtle to care about.

P.S. I'm open to the possibility that I could be wrong about how subtle the difference hardtail/bolt-on things make to the tone, I'm basing it on only having put a small amount of time in to investigating the differences. Maybe one day I can be convinced there is enough of a difference to care.

But for the 24 fret thing I'm completely convinced I'm correct, I've done extensive comparison and blind tested myself (as geeky as that sounds, I had a 24 fret guitar and borrowed a 22 fret one and finding the truth was the difference between sticking with what I already had or selling it and buying a 22 fret one, so it wasn't academic).

not_the_dj

Needs 24 frets and a Floyd, not bothered if bolt on or set. 

lysander

I haven’t noticed a difference between 22 frets and 24 frets neck pickup sounds to be honest, I don’t doubt there is a difference but the choice of pickup will matter 10x more, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

thegummy

lysander said:

I haven’t noticed a difference between 22 frets and 24 frets neck pickup sounds to be honest, I don’t doubt there is a difference but the choice of pickup will matter 10x more, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

See I don't even think that's true for me personally.

If the pickups are opposite ends of the market then sure but, let's say you created an ABX test between any two "vintage humbuckers" on the market, I wouldn't be at all confident I could pass.

But think how huge the difference between neck and bridge pickup is (night and day) and they're only a few inches apart, maybe about 4 inches. So moving the neck pickup down even 1 inch to accommodate the extra frets and you're getting a quarter of that massive difference - putting it like that should make it hardly surprising that it sounds so different.

sweepy

22 or 24 frets, bolt on neck, a set or thru neck is NOT a Strat and a decent trem, 

lysander

I agree but even just changing the pickup height can make a massive difference to the sound as can a small turn of the volume and tone knob - so I’m not sure it’s worth worrying about given all the other variables.
Edit: not to mention moving your picking hand towards the bridge or neck will also massively change the sound 

ICBM

22 fret bolt-on, trem but preferably not Floyd.

fastonebaz

@thegummy I'd wager most people that buy a hard tail do it for ease of tuning.  I know I do. 

thegummy

fastonebaz said:

@thegummy I'd wager most people that buy a hard tail do it for ease of tuning.  I know I do. 

I used to think that would be an advantage til I found out on this forum that if you set the trem so it's decked against the body (so you can only go down in pitch with the trem arm) it's just as stable and easy to tune as a hard tail.

Defo recommend that to anyone thinking about getting a hard tail Strat if it's only for tuning stability/ease.

lysander

These days I think my favourite trems are actually the ( good ) 6 screw strat ones - works fine for a bit of light tremolo and the occasional flutter, but not as sensitive to bends and drop tuning as the knife edge ones.
And you can always set them flat if they get in the way. 

chris78

Bolt on, 22 frets, gotoh trem. Basically an eggle 96

Stevepage

I love Jackson Soloists but I'd prefer a fat neck. Which is why I'm considering building my own version. I also wonder if the Jackson PC1 is what I should be looking at

mudslide73

Bolt on, 24 frets and Floyd for me. 

Grumpyrocker

Don't care about how the neck is fixed, nor number of frets.

But I much prefer a hardtail. Really dislike trems of any variety. 

My most recent purchase is a Schecter with 24 frets, two humbuckers, bolt on neck, and a hardtail bridge with string through. It's fabulous.  Haven't been anywhere near fret 24 though.

DLM

thegummy said:
neck pickup

Wot iz neck pickup?

\m/

Bolt-on neck for easier replacement following inevitable on-stage shenanigans.

24 frets with appropriate access and I'll still bend for that high G.

Double-locking bridge fully floating. Why hobble that racehorse? Hardtail for compound bends, sure, but I gotta be able to yank my harmonics up a fifth.

Anyway, at the moment it's mostly 30 frets, actschually. :smug:

https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/9148860_f520.jpg

thegummy

DLM said:

https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/9148860_f520.jpg

Not having a synth player in the band?