It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
One of the biggest factors I find is just having really nice fretwork, and that's something that isn't massively expensive to get done, or you could learn to do it yourself over time.
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
Oddly enough I have played a handful of CS guitars which sounded and felt truly exceptional and put clear blue water between themselves and their counterparts elsewhere in the Fender range, but they were all Telecasters!
theres no saving a guitar like that if it’s £5000 or £500
but if your guitar starts off sounding resonant and loud etc then there’s lots of things you can change.
The obvious one is the pickups, and everyone has their favs, but for me the last little percentages that cheaper guitars are usually missing is because of their crappy die cast hardware. Stick a proper bridge in there and your guitar will warm up nicely
Main difference is neck profiles and options. Factory necks always seem to be ‘modern C’. You can get a light resonant nitro body from quite a few places now, but a nice neck with a good profile seems hard to get. I think it’s easier in the US with Warmoth and USACG, but in the UK we’re limited to people selling nice bodies and the odd nitro finished Allparts or Hosco neck.
Getting a CS quality neck is the difficulty, IMO. There is no impossible to recreate mojo, but you need that non-standard, special feeling neck. Everything else you can buy.
The best Strat I've ever played was a 2005 FSR American Vintage 62 Deluxe. Basically a 62 Am Vintage reissue with modern radius & American Deluxe Electronics. This was in the days when CS Strats were a lot cheaper. So it wasn't such a big price difference between three Strats. It was up against an Eric Johnson sig & a CS Clapton. The Clapton was nicely finished & well made. But the FSR had a certain something. It just sounded and felt so much better. Even unplugged. Unfortunately, I dithered on my decision & missed buying it. Maybe there’s more consistancy the more.you pay. But there's a lot of marketing too.
As a final point. I don’t really see people gigging CS Strats that much. There's a guy I vaguely know locally who gigs one. But if I go down to my local blues dive, its usually modded American Strats, Les Paul’s, PRS & the odd Tokai.
It's easier than buying something cheaper that's not the finished article and trying to mod it to some idea you have in your head.
Buy the thing that is there now that you love and meets your requirements.
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
“Can you make a less expensive Strat feel/play/sound as good as a Custom Shop?”
Yes.
• Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Goldeneraguitars