What can 'do Strat' that isn't a Strat?

barnstorm

The Duesenberg Paloma is another one.

tone1

ICBM said:

thegummy said:

The first "adult" guitar I got was an SE Custom 24 and at the time I loved the coil splits cause I could only compare them to the full humbuckers. I actually liked the outer coils in the middle position though.

But when I got a Strat I couldn't then go back to the coil splits, they just seemed like poor imitations of the Strat pickups.

With the extra resistors PRS fit in the DGT, it’s closer - but it will still never be the same if you know what a real Strat pickup sounds like. The Stag Mag/Brassknuckle type pickups are very close though... but you then lose the true Gibson-type humbucker sound.

I have a PRS DGT and a Custom Shop Strat, and although the DGT is bloody brilliant, it isn’t a Strat with all its clarity and punch.... the splits on the DGT are the best I’ve heard though...

stimpsonslostson

Snags said:

+1 to @JohnPerry's suggesting of the Reverend Jetstream 390. And mine's even been withdrawn from sale so it's not like I'm plugging it.

It's not a Strat, but it can do a passable imitation, and also cover much broader ground. The bass contour thing gives it a lot of flexibility.

I had a 390 & couldn’t get a tone I liked out of it. It was VERY mid heavy. 

Lovely guitar in every other way though. 

If you’re after something a bit different how about an Ibanez FRM100. The pickups are noise cancelling singles and are very stratty when clean, but sound amazing with gain. 

https://bentleymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FRM100_TR.png

DrJazzTap

The DGT's humbucker split sounds are close as I've heard for emulating a strat style guitar with humbuckers.

slacker

I used a strat as my sole guitar for 7 years, bought others and sold it. I didn't have one for 10 years. Lat year iTrader a guitar because the music I was doing needed 'that' sound.

Someone mention the tone control on the bridge pickup. This unlocks the strat for me and makes it much more versatile,

Imho have a main guitar and a mex strat with decent pickups and a tone mod.

monquixote

stimpsonslostson said:

Snags said:

+1 to @JohnPerry's suggesting of the Reverend Jetstream 390. And mine's even been withdrawn from sale so it's not like I'm plugging it.

It's not a Strat, but it can do a passable imitation, and also cover much broader ground. The bass contour thing gives it a lot of flexibility.

I had a 390 & couldn’t get a tone I liked out of it. It was VERY mid heavy. 

Lovely guitar in every other way though. 

If you’re after something a bit different how about an Ibanez FRM100. The pickups are noise cancelling singles and are very stratty when clean, but sound amazing with gain. 

https://bentleymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FRM100_TR.png

That was going to be my suggestion.

I weirdly really like them.

stimpsonslostson

monquixote said:

stimpsonslostson said:

Snags said:

+1 to @JohnPerry's suggesting of the Reverend Jetstream 390. And mine's even been withdrawn from sale so it's not like I'm plugging it.

It's not a Strat, but it can do a passable imitation, and also cover much broader ground. The bass contour thing gives it a lot of flexibility.

I had a 390 & couldn’t get a tone I liked out of it. It was VERY mid heavy. 

Lovely guitar in every other way though. 

If you’re after something a bit different how about an Ibanez FRM100. The pickups are noise cancelling singles and are very stratty when clean, but sound amazing with gain. 

https://bentleymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FRM100_TR.png

That was going to be my suggestion.

I weirdly really like them.

Me too. I had one a couple of years ago but sold it for the wrong reasons & would love another. 

I won one on eBay a couple of months ago, but the seller cancelled the sale as he didn't get as much as he wanted, relisted, I won again, cancelled again... Haven't seen another recently. 

It's worth mentioning the neck is CHUNKY, not your typical ibanez at all. 

Dominic

RaymondLin said:

PRS Brent Mason, 305?

5 way switch, volume, tone, 3 single coils, maple neck, 25.5 scale, trem.  The biggest difference is the thickness of the body and a set neck.

Yes ,I have a Brent Mason........people are unaware that it is better than a DGT.It does the Strat perfectly ,much better than a DGT and sounds even chunkier on the full hum bucker mode than the DGT
Incredible all-rounder

JamieWakeham

Funkfingers said:

ICBM has neatly encapsulated the compromises. The pickup types and positioning are key to the overall effect.

I have to wonder, did Leo know that he was doing something a little bit magic when he spaced the middle pickup in the Strat like this?  GIven that the switching was only three-way at first, I have to guess not.

ICBM

JamieWakeham said:

I have to wonder, did Leo know that he was doing something a little bit magic when he spaced the middle pickup in the Strat like this?  GIven that the switching was only three-way at first, I have to guess not.

No. For exactly that reason... the in-between sounds are entirely unintended and a happy accident.

The spacing was decided purely visually, I would guess - in those days guitar design really hadn't been analysed to the nth degree like it is now. It's actually remarkable how perfect the Strat is - and I don't think it's purely familiarity because we're used to it - if you had to design a three-pickup electric guitar that's suitable for mass production from a clean sheet now, you probably wouldn't end up with something very different.

BRISTOL86

Thanks all, loads of really interesting responses.

I think I need to stop with the idea of having one do-all guitar and resign myself that I need many  

Now who's going to talk to my wife about it.....

ICBM

BRISTOL86 said:

I think I need to stop with the idea of having one do-all guitar and resign myself that I need many  

Now who's going to talk to my wife about it.....

I think it depends on whether you want exact sounds or just good ones. I'm actually happy with just two electric guitars - a sort-of Strat with mini-humbuckers in the bridge and neck, and a Rickenbacker. (OK, I have two Rickenbackers, but one was for sale before this plague thing happened!)

I could probably be fine with just a HSS Strat, really - especially if it had slightly hotter pickups for the singles, or maybe just the neck. You can really get almost any solid electric guitar sound from that combination - not exact, but close enough that the rest is more down to how you use it than the guitar.

BRISTOL86

ICBM said:

BRISTOL86 said:

I think I need to stop with the idea of having one do-all guitar and resign myself that I need many  

Now who's going to talk to my wife about it.....

I think it depends on whether you want exact sounds or just good ones. I'm actually happy with just two electric guitars - a sort-of Strat with mini-humbuckers in the bridge and neck, and a Rickenbacker. (OK, I have two Rickenbackers, but one was for sale before this plague thing happened!)

I could probably be fine with just a HSS Strat, really - especially if it had slightly hotter pickups for the singles, or maybe just the neck. You can really get almost any solid electric guitar sound from that combination - not exact, but close enough that the rest is more down to how you use it than the guitar.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense! I think ultimately when my budget allows I'll end up with a Strat or derivative and a dual humbucker guitar for everything else rather than trying to combine them into one guitar which is possibly a compromise on both sounds.

ICBM

BRISTOL86 said:

Yeah that makes a lot of sense! I think ultimately when my budget allows I'll end up with a Strat or derivative and a dual humbucker guitar for everything else rather than trying to combine them into one guitar which is possibly a compromise on both sounds.

I think that's probably the right choice - the difference for me is that my favourite sounds are mostly in the hot-single/mini-humbucker territory anyway (Tele bridge, Rickenbacker, Les Paul Deluxe, Gretsch etc) so I don't really need the 'pure' Strat single coil or the full humbucker sounds as much, but if you do then it's a difficult circle to square with just one guitar.

thegummy

BRISTOL86 said:

Thanks all, loads of really interesting responses.

I think I need to stop with the idea of having one do-all guitar and resign myself that I need many  

Now who's going to talk to my wife about it.....

For some reason I've always kind of romanticised the idea of having one single guitar that I stick to rather than switching between guitars. A lot of famous players stick to one guitar and I just think it would be cool to have that one guitar that I go to.

But after trying out various options fairly extensively I just never found any configuration that was satisfying. I don't like coil splits so that makes it a lot less likely to work to begin with. Then with an HSS I miss having the neck humbucker to go with the bridge humbucker and with HSH I miss having the Strat neck pickup in general.

Goes without saying that with SSS I miss humbucker sounds and with HH I miss Strat sounds.

Maybe in the future I'll use a more specific set of sounds where one guitar will give me everything I need but for the mean time I run with two Strats, very similar in feel, one SSS and one HH and that covers everything I need really.

grungebob

Yeah the musicman cutlass HSS or the Sterling version depending on budget, also PRS EG again either the USA one or the SE depending on budget. 

Some of the Ibanez S series too with HSS or even the AZ series. 

Loads to choose from really. 

BRISTOL86

thegummy said:

BRISTOL86 said:

Thanks all, loads of really interesting responses.

I think I need to stop with the idea of having one do-all guitar and resign myself that I need many  

Now who's going to talk to my wife about it.....

For some reason I've always kind of romanticised the idea of having one single guitar that I stick to rather than switching between guitars. A lot of famous players stick to one guitar and I just think it would be cool to have that one guitar that I go to.

But after trying out various options fairly extensively I just never found any configuration that was satisfying. I don't like coil splits so that makes it a lot less likely to work to begin with. Then with an HSS I miss having the neck humbucker to go with the bridge humbucker and with HSH I miss having the Strat neck pickup in general.

Goes without saying that with SSS I miss humbucker sounds and with HH I miss Strat sounds.

Maybe in the future I'll use a more specific set of sounds where one guitar will give me everything I need but for the mean time I run with two Strats, very similar in feel, one SSS and one HH and that covers everything I need really.

Exactly the same here. When I first started playing, I thought "I'll have a Strat, and a Tele, and Les Paul, and a Martin, and a Taylor....etc...etc" and then I realised I'd much rather have one great electric and one great acoustic. But I don't think there's a guitar out there, certainly an electric, that really ticks all my boxes. 

TTBZ

I was like that as well. I've had just my SG for a few years and the trouble is now I want more variety everything else I try feels a bit weird and crap as I'm so used to just the SG! Which is also annoying as an SG is probably one of the least "normal" feeling guitars to play, so I'm now accustomed to something a bit awkward.

ICBM

TTBZ said:

I was like that as well. I've had just my SG for a few years and the trouble is now I want more variety everything else I try feels a bit weird and crap as I'm so used to just the SG! Which is also annoying as an SG is probably one of the least "normal" feeling guitars to play, so I'm now accustomed to something a bit awkward.

You can get almost any sound out of an SG, from clear almost single-coil neck tones to aggressive bridge tones and quite semi-acoustic in the middle. It's a shame they don't fit me physically at all, or I'd love them. A friend had a 3-pickup SG Custom which could even do quite a convincing slightly fuller Strat tone in the bridge/middle position.

TTBZ

Yeah, since I decided to embrace it for what it is and stop trying to make it sound like a Les Paul I really like mine. So comfy and light too. I do like having a P90 neck pickup in mine and might get a bridge one to match but not sure if I want to give up a bridge humbucker tone in my main guitar. The P90 just sounds so lively and "3D" compared to the bridge humbucker.

I imagine the Gary Clark Jr one with 3 x P90s would be pretty stratty?