Any Strat experts on the forum?

[Flat Fifth Fury]

Strat junkies are to me a strange lot. They get all googly eyed about them and yet they are painfully simple instruments. "Yes" they say "but just look at this Daphnie Blue strat with the birdseye maple "C" neck ... " blah-blah-blah. Worse they spend $3,000 on a custon Strat that is still a Strat just put together well with good pickups. I don't get it at all.

The single coils of a Strat are great for chimy cleans, no doubt but to me single are the worst thing for an articulate overdrive tone. Yngwie's gain tone is far from "crushing" or precice sounding - it's fuzzy and soft but that's ok, for him. I have a Jackson strat that I got just for recording clean tones. It plays great since it has a Jackson neck and the Wilkinson trem is pretty good for not being a Floyd but it won't ever take the place of my Jackson Archtop Soloist for articulate and powerful gain tones.

That said, there is little difference between a $500 mexican strat and a $1,000 USA strat besides the finish and a bit better hardware on the US. I say get a good sounding Mexi-strat and expect to put good sounding pickups in it. Listen to the sound of the body not the pickups as the cheap Fender pickups are crap. If the guitar has a nice acoustic sound then the body and neck are good sounding and good pickups will bring that out - good pickups in a bad sounding body sounds bad.

 

[EtherForBreakfast]

Thanks for the insight, people.

Kev - great strat!, but im not after yet another floyd equipped axe. "fat strat".

Burny - i have heard nothing but good things about jap stuff, the 80's stuff... apparently some say they are better qual than the usa at that time. some blurb i read even mentioned that "squire" at that time frame was because fender was upset about the qual of the jap stuff, hurting their usa sales, so they made them call em squires to detract attention!? dunno how much is true there..

flat fifth, i respect your opinion, homie... sure enough i'm also a jackson lover... SLATQH will be my next major purchase, but i require an honest to goodness strat in an s/s/s config in all its hummy buzzy glory glory. funny you mention daphne blue as I happen to favor that color, though in my hands it will most likely end up being a natural finish after I remove all semblance of paint.

 

[~BURNY~]

Yes, JV series squier are becoming more and more sought after.
Here's a brief digest of 80's Jap guitars history:
http://www.guitargai.com/html_folder/gai_history.html
As an owner of a wonderful Burny (Fernandes LP), I'm probably biased but any guitars from that era I've tried since was a true piece of art (Tokai, Greco, Fender Japan, Burny, orville by gibson...).

 

[EtherForBreakfast]

Burny - that link was gold. Great read. I used to have a TOKAI when I started out!

I'm not jaded enough yet to bash on squires. Check this one out. Some comedy in there... Apparently, this dude needs to buy a wedding cake, and his wife in the kitchen is worth more than the strat in his hands. =)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7424614735&fromMakeTrack=true

 

[~BURNY~]

Well, It's not a JV ( the serial prefix) but I heard E series are good too... I don't know. Too bad, it can't cook! You can try to send an email asking for details about this one to the jap sellers, they are always helpful people.
http://www.guitarsjapan.com/contactpage.html
http://www.katanaguitars.com/main/top.html
http://www.bluzey.com/contactus.htm

 

[Mr. Brokenamp]

Yep I agree with Burny the Japanese strats from the 80's are really good. The necks seem stable on them too.
I think the mid 80's they started putting the swimming pool route a universal pickup route in other words and I think that sucks out a lot of tone cuz a whole lotta wood is missing. Early 80's strats the bodies are shaped kinda funny 70's ones can be heavy and bulky. A 90's American model with out a swimming pool route is good choice.

 

[guitarguru777]

Go for a 80's Jap (JV series or fujigen preferably). They are awesome. You can buy it on ebay directly from japan. The sellers are absolutely trustworthy (mijsixstring katana, japan old guitars or hisashi for example) and the shipping via EMS is incredibly fast.
'nuff said.

+1

Some of their best work ever.

 

[Dushan S]

Yes, JV series squier are becoming more and more sought after.
Here's a brief digest of 80's Jap guitars history:
http://www.guitargai.com/html_folder/gai_history.html
As an owner of a wonderful Burny (Fernandes LP), I'm probably biased but any guitars from that era I've tried since was a true piece of art (Tokai, Greco, Fender Japan, Burny, orville by gibson...).

I have had 2 of JV's, but sold one of them later... Those JV's sound better to me then most USA standards I have tried.
Had one Japan Fender too, but it was more like a Charvel or something, 80's guitar, black hadstock and neck, no pickguard, Floyd Rose clone and just one humbucker, but again, ok guitar, very well built.

 

[J the TyranT]

Cant stand Fn strats...

If I was buying that kinda shit, I'd get one of the ESP made ones, anyways =P

So, there you go.

J

 

[Kazrog]

Eric Johnson kills it on a single-coil-Strat. It can be done. I defy ANY of you to match his tone.

 

[J the TyranT]

Also, I hate Eric Johnson.

He lives in Austin... he's an asshole.

J

 

[Lopes]

Eric Johnson kills it on a single-coil-Strat. It can be done. I defy ANY of you to match his tone.

Doesn't he use stacked humbuckers like Yngwie? The HS-2's I thought, and he fucking rips, but he's kind of boring to watch because he's like a statue.

 

[Kazrog]

Also, I hate Eric Johnson.

He lives in Austin... he's an asshole.

J

Strange, I've heard nothing but "he's the nicest guy on the planet" about him.

Also his guitars are defintely equipped with single-coils:

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0117702803

 

[kev]

All single coils for eric, and he is obsessed with tone so far as guitar cables and beyond

 

[J the TyranT]

Ok, how about this. He's a good guy to his fans and the general public... he's a demon to work with.. ultra picky, blah blah.

That's all Ive got, sans details.

J

 

[LydonB]

Any person who takes pride in their work should be picky, shouldn't they?

 

[Razorjack]

Ok, how about this. He's a good guy to his fans and the general public... he's a demon to work with.. ultra picky, blah blah.

That's all Ive got, sans details.

J

Is there a professional musician who isn't picky? At the end of every session (engineering/producing/playing) I want to kill someone, usually the guitarist aswell.

 

[Kazrog]

Ok, how about this. He's a good guy to his fans and the general public... he's a demon to work with.. ultra picky, blah blah.

That's all Ive got, sans details.

J

Well I know from some good sources a few stories about him. About how they blindfold-tested him, he could distinguish the sonic differences between cables, batteries, etc. with 100% accuracy, even when they tried to trick him. The guy is a genius both musically and electronically.

Be a hater all you want, he could school any of us.

 

[Torsis]

I certainly wouldn't mind snagging an an EJ Strat.
Those appear to be a killer Strat-lovers guit.