This demonstrates it exactly! I was looking up my favourite Bassist (Jack Bruce) 3 years after his death and came across this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k54r_ANt8oFor the first song, how much better would that sound on an ES-335? Yet the second fits the Stratocaster perfectly.
If I don't have a Stratocaster I'm instantly jonesin' for one, but they do piss me off sometimes. P90 SGs seem to be the sweet spot at the moment for me, as they could have handled both of those tunes.
Has anyone found some pickups for a Strat that manages both? Closest I got was G&L's alnicos, but the bridge was only good for Yardbirds etc and needed a swap.
Comments
The Seymour Duncan custom shop produces a single coil sized replacement pickup that is supposed to sound like a P90 on full output and like a Stratocaster single coil when tapped. Opinions vary on how successfully it achieves its aim.
Some of the UK-based pickup builders on this board offer pickups that are designed to bridge this particular sonic gap. Modesty may forbid some of them from ruthlessly plugging their products in this thread.
My own anecdotal experience is that I get the fattest vintage-style Stratocaster sounds from the example with the biggest neck. (A stock 2013 AVRI '65 model.) I generally play through an overdriven valve amplifier and roll down the guitar's volume control to clean things up. It helps to use the tone controls a little.
I'm slowly coming round to the idea of strats after many years of playing Gibsons only. The scale length is working in my favour now my band seems to have settled on d/drop c as our tuning. Used mine at last week's practice and really liked it - comfy and sounds good with a bridge humbucker. Going back to the SG this week I was a bit annoyed (again) with the "to the left" feeling and less than ideal volume knob placement. Much prefer the neck and tone of a Gibson though. Once again leading me to believe that a PRS is the guitar for me, it's a good compromise !
I didn't grow up with Strats, so it ALWAYS gets in the way. I still really like the one I have though
The best/most consistently pleasurable sound I've ever had was a Strat > Keeley Mod BD-2 > JCM. It was the most 'Bassman' sounding JCM 900 you've ever heard. Some gimp stole the BD-2 and half of my other stuff though. I then bought another BD-2 Keeley but it didn't sound the same