Strat vs "Strat"

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've heard the differences between MiA & MiM Strats discussed ad infinitum online and in magazines, but I'm not a Strat guy. They never feel right in my hands. OTOH, I have handled "Strat"-like guitars from other makers like G&L, Godin and some luthiers that felt better in my hands, and would be more likely purchases for my own personal use.

 

If, however, I were trying to recommend a "Strat" to someone else- realizing, of course, that they may have a different opinion on feel- where do these other brands compare to Fender originals?

 

IOW, how would you rank "Strats" from Godin, G&L and other brands in comparison to MiA or MiM Fenders in terms of overall quality or value for money?

 

(Pick your faves to rave about...)

 

To be clear: I'm not asking about subjective things like feel, I'm wondering about objective criteria. Build quality. Fit & finish. Quality of materials & electronics.

[Bluesape]

Strats are magical. That's why so many top players use them, mostly as main axes. The ones we all fell in love with are from an era long before CNC's, lasers, computer design, PLEK's, etc. I've always thought of Strats as the Corvettes of the guitar world: beautiful, fast, great sounding, highly coveted, while still mostly affordable; but with room for improvement. The high end stuff, like Ferarris, Lambo's, Rufs, Fiskers, etc., can all provide a slightly elevated experience for a much higher price. The same is true of Andersons, Suhrs, Sadowskis, and others. I love my Blades, Godins, ESP, and Warmoth, which all benefit from technology that didn't exist when my Strat and Tele were made, but I've never considered parting with either Fender. They have a certain....something....that the others don't, along with being the most indestuctible guitars ever made.

 

As for MIA vs MIM, I don't feel the price disparity warrants not having the real deal, at least not with new instruments. A savvy shopper can find real bargins on used imported Strats, but for the same outlay I really feel that a used Godin is a superior product.

[Strategery]

Hi Danny,

 

Well, I'm one of the biggest Stratocaster fans you'll ever run into.

Been playing since '74, have had 3 great Les Pauls, SG's, Explorer, an Ibanez, Telecaster and probably 5 or 6 Strats with everything American made except the Ibanez.

 

I loved the Les Pauls but they never felt right and didn't have the versatility I wanted.

*NOT STARTING A GIBSON - FENDER WAR.

They were just heavy on my shoulder after 5 & 6 set nights.

 

The Ibanez just didn't have an identity to me.

Same with the Explorer and the SG was like Les Paul lite.

*JUST MY OPINION ONLY!!!!

 

Now I will never talk down a G&L...but you have to think about the "L" and who designed it.

 

There is just something about an American made Strat with it's trademark sound, the balance of the body and the way the neck pushes back when you play with just the right amount and how the neck feels.

Of course....you can get different radius' on your neck and fret thicknesses as well.

I love the lighter weight of the Strat and of course the COUNTOURED back makes it so comfortable to play.

I really like having the 3 pickup configuration with so many sounds at your selection.

 

What I am doing is changing out the pickups.

I have some great HAND WOUND pickups on both of my Strats.

I have a rosewood neck-w-Ash body Strat that I have some Lollar Vintage Blackface pickups on it that is friggin' unbelievable!

I also have another Ash Strat with maple neck and Van Zandt BLUES pickups on that is super sweet in sound.

Both of these, IMHO, can not be improved upon and only get better with years.

 

A new purchase I have made is a Fender Telecaster Deluxe.

I like everything about this guitar....but it has a totally different personality.

The pickups are great, so is the neck and the heel is contoured which I really like.

Fender also borrowed the rear CONTOUR of the Strat and put it on the Tele.

That is really nice because the back of a Tele is like that of a Les Paul normally.

 

To answer your question more specifically...IMO...if you want a Strat....

GET THE REAL THANG!

Then....make it YOURS.

 

Go to a BIG music store....then get them to show you the different NECKS and play them.

You will find what you like but do get AMERICAN made.

 

But to be honest....I'm not a big fan of some of their pickups.

They're good to be sure...but there are some BADASS pickups out there that aren't that expensive...in the grand scheme of things.

It can turn that really nice sounding Strat into a TONE MONSTER, one that you will keep for the rest of your life.

Just make sure that what you buy...is a nice canvas to build upon, like type of wood, your preferred neck, tuners, etc...

 

The fun part is finding that right one.

 

Best of luck.

 

Randy

[Winston Psmith]

Morning, Dannyalcatraz - I'm with you on the Fender Strats. Always been a Gibson/Hamer kind of guy, myself, but I got to work selling a lot of other guitar lines, so I was able to try some of those other 'Strat'-style guitars.

 

The G&L's are really nice guitars, and it's worth bearing in mind that G&L was Leo Fender's last guitar company - G&L's guitars are much closer to Leo's design concepts (at least his most recent ones) than many of the oddball models Fender has been pushing over the last few years. The overseas-made Tribute series are on a par with some of the better-made MIM Fenders - nothing great, but nice enough guitars. The U.S.-made G&L's compare favorably with pretty much anything coming out of Fender, IMHO, at least. Nice finishes, good fit to the parts, very good hardware, and a variety of of options designed to appeal to - how should I put this - more mature, experienced players. Guitars for grown-ups, let's say.

 

The Godins are really a cut above anything else in their price range. North American made, with Canadian hardwoods, just to start with. The Godin Session (their most Strat-like model) sells for about what a nicer MIM Strat would sell for, and it's just MORE guitar for the money, period. Really nice workmanship, quality materials, made by our friends up in Canada - it's hard to go wrong with one of these.

 

The only other Strat-like guitars I got to really investigate were some of the newer Jackson guitars. Yes, I know, they're holdovers from the 80's Super-Strat shred guitar world, but they're still out there. Most of the current Jacksons are relatively inexpensive MIA models (Indonesia seems to be one country of origin), with lightweight woods, and decent hardware,for their price point. The one appealing feature of the Jackson guitars is the compound radius necks - these are fast necks, and fun to play. The only U.S.-made model I've seen recently is the $1000 model with the Sustainiac pickup in it, Jackson's take on the Fernandes Sustainer. Sadly, I wasn't impressed with the Sustainiac's performance, even with a fresh battery driving it. I get more drive from my E-bow.

 

Based on my admittedly limited experience, if I were looking for a Strat-style guitar for Country or Blues-Rock, I'd probably be drawn to the G&L's, for style and tone. For a somewhat more versatile sound and feel, I'm currently drawn to the Godins - again, there's really nothing that compares, at their price point.

 

It wouldn't really be fair to leave out any mention of Fender models, in this discussion. Of all the Strats that came through the store, my favorites were almost at opposite ends of the Squier-to-Fender arc, and price lines. On the Squier end, the Classic Vibe guitars compare favorably with most of the Fender guitars - if they said Fender on the headstock, instead of Squier, they'd practically sell themselves. On the other end of the line, the much-maligned Road Worn Strats were some of the nicest playing and sounding Strats any of us working, teaching or hanging out in the store, had ever picked up. I can't tell you how many times I saw some other player, shaking their head, and saying "It's a really nice guitar, why do this to it?" Close your eyes and just play the thing, and you'll get the idea - you still probably won't want to pay $800-1000 for it, though.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks, all, for the responses so far...and those that may follow!

[Caevan O’Shite]

The thing with Strats, whether they're US-made or not, brand-new, used, or vintage, is that you have to try a number of them and find which one seems to suit you best- taking into consideration the set-up (particularly the current state of the neck's relief due to weather), and the age, gauge and type of strings that are on each given Strat...

 

A bad set-up, or a set-up that's just not right for you, and/or old, dull strings can make any guitar give a bad impression.

 

Climate can make the fretboard wood shrink enough to overtly expose fret-ends along the side, and that can make a guitar feel terrible, or even injure your hand. A good shop will either spot this ahead of time, or listen to a potential customer, and fix it by filing the fret-ends on the side of the fretboard.

 

 

Set-up and strings taken into account, a Strat's feel and tonal character can be extremely affected by various combinations of different necks, fretboard-woods and radii, frets, neck-woods, body-woods, pickups, and electronics.

 

You can cut to the chase more quickly of you already know what some of your preferences are- such as maple vs rosewood fretboards, fretboard radius, vintage vs modern pickups, and select several Strats to try accordingly.

 

Body mass/density/weight plays a part. If you "play the amp" old-school and get harmonic overtones, sustain, and feedback from volume and standing in the right spots relative to the speakers, a lighter body will serve you well. If you need extra chunk, bite and sustain from the guit-go, a denser, heavier body might bring it.

 

 

All of the above also applies to Squire and non-Fender Strat copies and guitars of Strat-influenced design.

 

 

And nothing beats a Hello Kitty graphic for flat-out rockin' it mean.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have seen that, and it is true.

[Larryz]

The Strat is one of the best designed guitars in the world...that's why there are so many copies out there that are all wanna-be's and why so many pros are playing the real thing...for me it's made in the USA and it's a Deluxe...I have my blinders on when it comes to buying Strats...I also found the LP just too heavy after playing it in a Country Rock band for 3 years (still loved that LP Deluxe) and I tried the new chambered body LP model which is a lot lighter, but didn't care for it...Sold both of my Teles and I definately preferred the standard US made over the MIM Nashville...I find myself playing my Taylors almost exculsively and my Strats are getting left in their cases these days...

 

Tastes change over the years but if I had to recommend a Strat, I would 1st check out your price range? MIM is a good way to go on a tight budget, then the American Standard, then the American Deluxe (I sold my Custom Shop Clapton as it's just to expensive to take out of the house)...IMHO.

[Caevan O’Shite]

When it comes to Strats, you can probably find one that will make you happy, but it will STILL probably NOT please EVERYONE...

 

http://www.peterstonebrown.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/dylansmithsoniancenterforfolklifeculturalheritage.jpg

 

Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival

[picker]

The best non-Fender strat type guitar I ever played was a Reverend Avenger GT. it had Kent Armstrong P/ups, and like all that first batch of Revs, it was semi-hollow. That sucker had a tone that ate most of the Fenders I'd heard alive in one very small bite. The neck felt full in my hand but not obnoxiously so. It played wonderfully. It is only one of the many guitars that "got away" from me. I really miss it, too. Most of the time, I like strats in the hands of everybody but me. I was never able to make them sound like everybody I wanted to sound like, except for that Reverend. Pretty magical guitar. There was one other strat that I liked from the git-go, a 1964 sunburst I saw at a vintage guitar show in Independance, Mo. a long time ago.that made me a believer in the whole vintage thing. I didn't have the money to buy it, but I still remember the sound and feel of it.

[russclan]

I've owned a couple of "real" strats in the past, and they played and sounded pretty good. The last one was a reissue ('62 I think - not a "relic" or "road worn" or whatever the hell they call it when they beat the hell out of it and then charge you more $$) and was the best of them. Also built a couple myself, which I felt played and sounded even better.

 

My current "strat" is an Anderson Classic, which I think trumps them all...but the price tag will put a dent in the bank account.

 

If I were in the market today, I'd head straight to the G & L dealer. Just my opinion, of course, but those feel and sound better than any modern Fender does. No matter where I've seen them, they seem to be very consistent...not so with the Fenders.

 

Bottom line is, you gotta try a bunch out and see what grabs you.

[desertbluesman]

I have a Strat Clone with Fender Noiseless pickups in it. Before owning this guitar, I was never a fan of Fender guitars, in fact even after owning this one I was still not a fan until one day I started using my Blues Driver as a boost pedal. Now I get the idea and even though I have had a myriad of Strats and Telecasters in the past it took me years to understand how to get what I wanted from it. For rhythm/chords I do not use the boost for leads I use it.

 

Disclaimer, I always was a humbucking fan until I put the boost onto my Strat Clone for leads, Now I am also a Strat fan.

[Bluesape]

I was hooked on the sonic possibilities I heard from Jimi(I now know they weren't all just from Strats). AFAIK, Jimi never owned/played a vintage Strat, and given his unfortunate penchant for destroying gear, that's just as well.

[p90jr]

A strat is like a 1930s Ford coup: it's a platform to build your own hotrod out of...

 

Find a nice neck, a resonate, light body and add the other parts you like.

 

The younger dudes I know here are building killer vintage looking strats, with already painted (and relic'ed, unfortunately) bodies and parts from eBay. It's like a competition between them, who can put the best ones together for the lowest $.

[Perkunas]

The hotrod analogy is a good one.

I have all the usual suspects in my arsenal but for the desert island guitar it would be a strat. I have MIM and a USA Ultra. I reach for both as they are chalk and cheese yet both give me something magic.

Now to cut to the chase. I have played, literally, hundreds if not thousands of guitars. (I managed a music shop at one stage and had my production office at a music shop at another time.)

 

Whether it be a Fender or Fernandez the first consideration for a Strat buyer is the feel. There are strats that are awful and ones that are magic. Brands do not enter this part of the argument.

A STRAT GUITAR MUST BE HUNTED IN THE WILD.

 

Once one has found the body and neck that fits like a glove then the next consideration is build and wood tone. A Greg Bennet Samick might even be the one. The electronics are so easy to swap out...hence the hotrod analogy. (The Pick ups in my MIM are rubbish...sound quite good but NOISY. Seymour and co can fix that.)

 

The consideration here is how much of the price is involved with body and feel and how much for electronics. Boutique strats usually come with high quality components thus boosting the price.

Long story short...get out into the wild, play the strat unplugged...when one says I'm yours, check out the woodwork...then plug it in. The ultra cost 6 times my MIM yet even then it needed a JB bridge pup to make it roar.

 

Cheers

[CEB]

The beauty of the Fender guitar is that Fender never did have many quality control standards. You can pretty much find one to suit most people because they are all different.

[Bluesape]

The concept is sheer brilliance. It was originally conceived to replace the Tele, as some players grumbled over the Tele's Spartan features and lack of ergonomics. Thankfully, the Tele was never retired from the lineup, as it is a totally different axe with its own bag of tricks.

 

The Strat template has inspired more designs, some god-awful and some extraordinary; than any other guitar in history. Some have exceeded the original in terms of fit, finish, precision, and hardware. My Blades have the detailed craftsmanship of a Rolex, but they don't come cheap. Fender is too global and corporate to sweat the details on each piece, so they put out truckloads of perfectly adequate guitars with the occasional great one sneaking in.

[Bartholomew]

Had a chance to pick up an almost new G&L strat for $350 almost new - and passed.

 

Nice furniture, exceptional finish, tinny sound, was about 12 pounds and didn't feel like a strat - I had an original 1963 so maybe just got spoiled at a young age.

[Terrell]

IMO - If you are buying a Strat because you are buying the brand and mystique, get the Real thing. That's a MiA.

 

On the other hand, I bought a used Mexican Strat because I knew I was going to hot rod it and I could pick it up for $125. It's a full Strat without the pedigree, a perfect hot rod donor. You change out the cheap parts with hot rod parts, and you have a player!

 

If you're buying a player, I say play them all, fall in love and then buy it. I love me a good used Music Man or G&L. Those are built to play!

[skipclone 1]

I was take it or leave it with the lot of them, until I got a `69 custom shop reissue on extended loan from a friend (got a pic if you wanna see). It`s on `Polaris Station` on my soundclick page but not the best recording. Anyway the other one that changed my mind was one of the `master built` series, which I locked myself in a booth with and played till my fingers were tired. Both sounded great, build quality was spot on and very comfortable to play. I have played others that I tried to like and just couldn`t. I`m not trying to say that only the premium lines are worthwhile, but as others have said you have to kiss a lotta frogs if you want a bargain.

[Winston Psmith]

Skipclone makes a point that keeps coming up in this thread, and I think it's relevant to the overall question of how do you choose one model, or one guitar over another - the feel factor. I don't care what a guitar says on the headstock, or the price tag, if I pick it up and don't like the way it feels. It's not just about the brand, or the model, or even the country of origin, its the individual guitar.

 

Yes, we can make some generalizations about, say, U.S.-made Fenders vs. some of the cheaper copies, or the relative quality of one maker over another, but in the end, it's the guitar that convinces us, or it should be. I can't see buying a guitar I wouldn't want to play, because it was 'my brand'.

 

FWIW, the only Strat-style guitar I currently own is a red Squier Mini, I got for $25 - it was small, cheap, and a LOT of fun to play, and it's my favorite beater electric guitar, right now. It played and sounded better than many of the full-sized Squier Strat models - for the price, I couldn't pass it up.

[Bluesape]

I agree ya can find a generic Strattish thingy, and it may play and look great, but the ones ya can get cheap will likely need hardware and electronic upgrades to make tone monsters out of them. Ya can still sink close to a grand into a knock-off if you're fussy enough on the pups, pots, tuners, bridge, and frets ya want, or ya can spec exactly what ya want: woods, frets, radius, all pups and hardware from a specialty house like Warmouth. Better yet, talk to a guy like our own Boggs about a special S type project, and be deleriously happy with a one-off that will be your own unique axe.

[skipclone 1]

Well let`s just take a walk on the thin ice side-times being what they are, some people want to show some brand loyalty even if looked at objectively it`s more money or more trouble.

Point taken. It`s your wallet.

Anyway I think it`s REALLY hard to say, well leaving feel aside, this maker will give you this much quality for this much money...

That has NO relevance to anyone buying a guitar to play. I`ve played some expensive ($4,000+) guitars that basically got a `so what?`

I do think that what pricing does, is cut down the tryout time. If you pick up a premium guitar and you don`t like it, move on. Trying another one will not help, they are all the same.

Another thought, with much respect to WPsmith is, that the real question these days is, if you want a Strat for example, do you need to look at Fender, or even U.S made at all? it goes back to the brand loyalty thing-Fender HAD to come out with things like `Master Built` lines-there are Strat copy guitars out there that DESTROY anything but top of the line, individually built Fender.

 

As an aside to this, one of the nicest electrics I`ve ever played is one that I would probably never buy-a Duesenberg. I think Mike Campbell got one if his stolen recently. Totally retro, Cadillac-era fin styling but pick one up and it immediately feels like part of you. The ultimate surf-yuppie guitar.

[Winston Psmith]

@ Bluesape and Skipclone - part of my point, exactly. The Strat shape has been so widely copied that it's questionable whether something really qualifies as a "Strat" just because of the shape. I would never seriously compare the Squier Mini to any real players' guitar, but with some new after-market parts, it will still be worth every cent I will have paid for it, and the parts, too - it still won't really be a Strat, but IMHO, neither is a Squier Bullet, or an Affinity Strat.

 

@ Skipclone - again, I'm with you, to a point. I don't go back to Gibson/Epiphone out of brand loyalty, so much as personal preference - I love SG's, and even though the SG design has also been widely copied, there just aren't as many variations out there. I still try out each SG before I find one that feels and plays well, at least to me. I'd also have to say that buying an inferior guitar, just to support a brand name, will only encourage them to keep marketing inferior instruments - not in our best interests, all around.

 

Getting back to the main point of this thread, if I were looking for a good quality Strat-style guitar for myself, I'd go for a Godin, no question. IMHO, the best build quality & materials for the price point. A while back, when I was battling with my GK pup, and looking at Roland-ready guitars, the Canadian-made Godin Freeway SA beat out the Roland-ready MIM Strat in every particular, at a very similar price.

[skipclone 1]

Gotcha-I never warmed to SGs personally but plenty of people make them sound amazing.

That was my point about Fender-there were makers that forced them to get a line of guitars out there and get it right. The prices reflect it for sure, but you can get a real Fender-made Strat that kills, if you`re willing to pay.

Ya, I don`t think I`ve ever heard anything negative about Godin, ever.

[Guitarzan]

i am presently without a Strat but there is a future acquisition in the back of my mind and it will most likely be a Godin Session Plus.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I agree with the whole thing about feel, which is one of the reasons I asked about build quality, I know Fender makes good guitars....but I can honestly say only one Fender Strat ever passed through my hands that felt like it belonged there. It was pretty, too- MiM, metallic matte red with a rosewood fretboard & red-ish "tortoiseshell" pickguard & black hardware- but it still didn't quite grab me.

 

I have a couple of lutheier guitars that are obviously evolved from the Strat, but bothnare 2HB guitars w/coil splitting. Not quite the same.

 

So I've always wondered about matching the quality of the Fenders in a guitar that felt better to me.

[Bluesape]

i am presently without a Strat but there is a future acquisition in the back of my mind and it will most likely be a Godin Session Plus.

 

 

No one should be without a Strat. Love it, hate it, still the most versatile and genre friendly axe ever made.

[desertbluesman]

I never warmed to SGs personally but plenty of people make them sound amazing.

 

I have a cheapo (for a US made Gibson) 2003 Faded SG, and it is truly the very best playing instrument I have ever owned. The neck is rock solid, unlike the 67 or 68 SG I once had which needed tuning every few minutes. However the Faded is not my favorite guitar because of the pickup configuration and the switching options and the fact the controls are so far from the bridge.

 

I hear mine is a collectors item because of the ebony fingerboard with half moon inlays, which was only out for a year or so before they went to dots and rosewood. Since it is a collectors item, I don't want to alter it to suit my tastes, so it stays the way it is until I can find a collector to purchase it.

[Chad Thorne]

...I've always thought of Strats as the Corvettes of the guitar world...

In fact, both made their debut in 1953, along with Playboy magazine and, well, me...