5 Reasons NOT To Buy a Stratocaster 

What's going to solve all your troubles, instead of trying to convert the Strat into a Gibson, just play a Gibson.

Don't listen to him. Buy a Strat!

Try the YJM fury bridge pickup. Best “single coil” heavy bridge pickup I’ve ever used.

Same thing happened with my Strat trem. Brought it back to my set up guy and he told me to go home and use it and retune it five times a day for a week and it will stop going out of tune. And he was right... You have to use it, not sure why but he was right.

The strings are most likely are binding up at the nut. Install a Roller Bridge and a roller nut. That will make the guitar stay in tune when using the tremolo.

Great video! The Stratocaster was first sold in 1954 (I think). Back then it was advanced technology. Today, not so much. That's why there are hundreds of aftermarket parts to create the guitar you like. Noiseless pickups, tremolos that work, Gibson scale necks..but we have to build what we want.

I didn't like the trem on a Strat either. What do you think about the Vegatrem system? Would it be a good upgrade for the Strat or the Tele?

I bought an American strat in 1989 for about $1100. Just traded it in for an American Ultra Strat. I got $800 for my old Strat which I thought was awesome. I played a ton of gigs with that guitar I put a Seymour Duncan double coil that was the same size as the single coil bridge pickup. Awesome. I never had noise problems with the middle and neck pickup. I love the controls on a strat. The volume knob is right by my finger and you can put the pickups in and out of phase. I wired the bottom tone pot to the double coil and when I turned it down it became a single coil. I made a hard tail out of it and put graphite rollers on the bridge. It sold where I traded it in , in about a week. My new Strat is a S S H, humbucker at the bridge. The single coils are noiseless. The volume pot is push push to make the humbucker single coil for a traditional Strat sound. It has locking tuners that make it a breeze to change strings and compound radius rosewood fretboard. It took a while to tweak the action but I now have it exactly how I want it. I’m using a hybrid set of strings. 9 to 46. I may change the humbucker to a Seymour Duncan in the future. Love this guitar and I love Strats.

Have you heard of the American Ultra Strat? Noiseless pickups, locking tuners, compound radius neck profile, rolled edges- I couldn't be happier with mine. Plays great, sounds great.

Haha, thanks for the conclusion, I thought you actually hate the strats, watched the video to the end because I love my Fender Strats (particularly the Fender Yngwie Malmsteen signature scalloped neck and the Master built Custom Shop). They are awesome guitars, the coolest guitars you will have. They don't have "hum" or noise because the pickups are "noiseless", The original Strat sound without the hum. The controls are also amazing, you can choose the tone for each song better, and this is the only guitar where you can do the "Volume swell" trick that you will not be able to do on other models (you may, but it's very hard, won't work well on my Ibanez, ESP and Gibson's). As for the trem, you can replace the stock bridge with a "2 point trem" or block rollers. With that said, Fender Strat is simple the best, and it rules!.🤘 Cheers!💯

I use humbucker in bridge, Floyd Rose and can keep it in tune . Not a fan of the three knobs and find I accidentally hit the volume knob and turn it down when I don’t want to. So I use two knobs, volume with a master tone and have them further away.

About the tone controles, the original configuration is even worse. The middle one is for the neck pu, the one most down is for the middle pu, while the bridge pu needs rolling down on treble frequencies the most. Easy to fix, but I cannot understand Fender took so long to understand this flaw in their stock Strat models. Still, I have three Strats and a few alike ones.

I have 3 strats and all stay in tune with a careful set up. In the 80s I had one with a floyd rose that was a bit of a pain to deal with but worked well. That's probably the only one that will return to zero consistently with dive bombs. There rest are best for vibrato. I currently own a strat plus from 95 with a 2 point, a hipshot tremsetter and an LSR roller nut- it is great. I built 2 recently, one with a Vega trem that is flawless and one with a Wilkinson 6 point vintage saddle type with an extended length stainless arm. Both run through a carefully cut graphtech nuts and all float and perform perfectly. All have staggered locking tuners and no tree. They're all wired differently to suit, and produce an unparalleled variety of tones. Still the greatest guitar ever designed.

Man your content is so good for how many subscribers you have. You deserve so much more.

I have 3 Strats, and used one exclusively onstage for about a decade. They're comfortable to play, make a lot of different sounds, and the trem is OK once it's dialed in. Strats do everything OK, and that's the problem. The Strat has been the go-to guitar for 70 years and the look (and to an extent the sound) has become somewhat generic. Hard to put into words, but Telecasters, Les Pauls and various Gretsch models seem to have more distinct personalities and bring out more aspects of who the player is. I've had a lot of fun playing country on a LP Standard '60s the past few years.

Les Pauls are for weak boys. Real men play Strats. (lol jk)

8:00 i am using the 86's Japan Heavy Metal Strat with Floyd rose trem and lock. It stay in tune in normal use, but pain in the butt changing strings.

Personal preference, I like the strat length scale, I don’t like gibson length scale, the customization you can do with strats is awesome

I use the trem bar and it never goes out of tune the solution is clean and lube the nut and i used weatherstrip tape behing the nut. It's a tape that takes up the gap between the headstock and string and it keeps the strings from moving. A Floyd Rose is a better trem system because it's more percise and gives you more control. My tune knobs bottom controls the bridge and the top one control the neck The middle out of faze contrl must use both knobs at same setting or it wont sound right.

Hey AJ. Enjoyed hearing you perspective. I guess I am sort of a "strat guy". I've owned way too many over the years, and I still own 3 of them. Anyway, it is definitely possible to set up a floating trem to stay in tune. I float all of my strat bridges without any tuning stability issues, including my vintage style strats with vintage (non-locking) tuners, string trees, and 6 screw bridges. I'm surprised to hear that your guitar guy couldn't set it up to stay in tune. Is the knife edge worn out on the 2-point trem? If the knife edge gets worn out and dull, it will never stay in tune.

I have a 2005 American Deluxe Strat. The good stuff first. I love the way the neck feels in my hand. I prefer thinner necks and the profile feels great. The weight is good and it rings like a bell acoustically. Now, the bad. The volume knob position irritated the crap out of me due to where my hand rests. I was always hitting that knob when I strummed. It came with the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups. The neck wasn’t horrible, but the bridge was an ice pick. I have never liked the in between positions on a Strat, so they were just useless positions I had to try to miss when switching pickups. My solutions. I am a humbucker guy who never had much use for single coils anyway, so I ditched them in favor of a Duncan Pearly Gates and Pearly Gates+ pickups and a new wiring harness with the appropriate pots and caps for humbuckers. A treble bleed mod and a 3-way switch and the now she sounds amazing and switching pickups is simple. The pickguard was swapped for one with humbucker routes and the top volume knob hole eliminated to get that knob out of my way. I wired it for single volume and single tone pots. She came with locking tuners and the modern-style bridge with two pivot points. I lube the nut with pencil lead. I have never had any tuning issues out of her. That said, I am not trying to do dive bombs on her, either. I have guitars with 25 1/2”, 25”, 24 3/4” and 24.594” scales. I, personally, do not have any issues switching between them. The only time I an issue with a scale length was one guitar that had a 24” scale that I tried. I had issues fretting cleanly on the upper frets because my finger tips are larger and the fret spacing was so small.

I watched a video from an Italian luthier named Fradua.. he has hands down made the best video on how to set up a floating trem.. it's like gotta be 10 yrs ago but it's still out there I'm sure. Ever since I watched it.. I've not ever had another problem setting up a floating trem. Even works on budget trems. Worth the watch to anyone interested in keeping a floating trem in tune without any type of locking mechanism 🤘

Clint Black’s brother Kevin Black had the same complaint about Strat pickups sounding thin but he wanted to keep it looking like an SSS Strat. We replaced all of his pickups with Duncan Lil ‘59’s and he said his Strat is now his number one guitar for studio and stage. He said replacing those pickups turned his Strat into a beast that sounds fabulous on clean, light crunch and full distortion. We even tested it through a number of solid state amps to make sure it wasn’t the amps and it sounded great through every amp.

I like some of the points in this video, ive blocked my strats trem system and i have a humbucker in the bridge and for the scale length issue i keep my strat in Eb tuning and use it for that kind of tuning only, it makes bending and vibrato way easier but once i use it in E standard the difference is night and day. I feel like strats belong in Eb lol. I love my les paul but i find the comfort ability of the strat just speaks to me more, an HH hardtailed strat may not be what some people think of as a strat but thats how i like it.

Strata are for professionals, absolutely.

Try a Charvel So Cal Style 1 HH HT -- 6 pack of sound wiring, string thru body hard tail, compound radius fretboard, 1.6875 nut width, jumbo frets. They come with my some flavor of Seymour Duncan humbuckers. My 2018 came with a JB and a '59. Current models have a TB-6 and SH-6N Distortions. Strat body contours and Strat-style headstock (since they are a Fender company). It's the best Strat I've played. It shreds, rips, and twangs based on pickup splits, combos, and positions.

About the trem: Its very difficult to get them to stay in tune when being aggressive with it; however, its not hard to make it work for light vibrato. A well cut nut will help trem-endously, however, even if its not fantastic you can make it work like this: Deck the trem so its not floating and add enough tension to the springs that it doesnt lift when bending (gives you essentially hardtail performance), now every time you change strings you want to lube (I use sil-glyde brake grease, it works great but try whatever you have; pencil lead is not very effective) the saddles, the nut & string tree. Once strings are stretched you might have to re-lube depending on how much the strings moved. This should have the trem stay really well in tune for light work, as well as greatly improving general tuning stability by eliminating any binding at the nut and trees.

If you only use a single sound/tone for your “style” then you won’t be interested in the tonal versatility/complexity of a strat. It sounds like you have an issue with noisy power, might be worth getting that checked. Single coils aren’t ‘noisy’, what they are is highly susceptible to EMF interference (like AC hum from dirty power if they have bad shielding). My strat (Fender 2 point bridge) whammy returns to tune every time. BTW, try replacing your super high gain distortion tone with a velcro style fuzz into a clean amp when playing ‘Glycerine’.

I am with you on the SSH. But I love the sound of the neck and the neck/mid settings. Having a humbucker in the bridge makes all the difference though. And I prefer noiseless single coils on my strats.

I’m with you, my friend I love the Les Pauls and the Tellis definitely struts have their places, but they were guitar. You got work to love.

My favorite Strat I own is the henrik danhage from Charvel. Humbucker bridge single coil noiseless in the neck, one volume knob, with a Floyd rose. Strat feel simplified

The reason I got my Fender FMT Custom Shop Telecaster is because it has single coil options, which quells the need in me to get a stratocaster since the single coils on the humbuckers sound fantastic. Although, the new noiseless pickup technology in these newer Strats is tempting. Maybe in 10 years when I can get a used one for a price that won't break the bank

+1 for the bush’s glycerine intro !

I found that I like the Strat sound sometimes but I don't like the traditional shapes too much, so I did get a few Strat sounding guitars but with some twists in the shapes. I have a Bacchus HSS Strat which has a thinner body and a Charvel CX from the 90s which is basically a Jackson Dinky body with Strat pickups, both also have super flat fretboards and super thin necks that are close enough to my main Ibanez guitars. I also like to combine HSS with more contemporary shapes, One of my mains is an original Ibanez S from the early 90s with HSS, and I plan on getting an Ibanez AZ HSS to compliment my HH AZ :)

I always use a hush pedal by rock - tron regardless of the guitar I play . No noise issues when I play my strat. One thing I did to one of my strats is I wired the middle knob as a master tone , and put a no load pot in place of the 2nd tone and wired it up to a 5 way double pole switch so I could blend in the neck pickup with the bridge. I really like the versatility it gives me. Oh I also put a 61 tele neck on it. I like the smaller radius on the tele neck.

I have a Gibson Les Paul Standard, an sg special with p90’s, Ibanez rgg550 , numerous superstrats, and basses, and 3 acoustic guitars., my go to, is my 2013 American standard Stratocaster., the bridge pickup is a non issue, as I love the strat tones with the neck and middle positions, I have a Seymour Duncan jb jr. ready to go, but I just use a decent preamp, an ISP Theta preamp pedal (the red one) and the strat’s tone controls, if I want high gain with the strat. Also, the fender trem stays in tune just fine for me, using it for tremolo effect.., if I want to dive, maybe the rg’s will get some play time. Killer strat you have there man, looks like a keeper. EDIT - tuning issues could be from the nut.., or the trem springs, angle, etc, everything needs to be dialed in, and if there’s even a little string binding at the nut, there’s the tuning issue.

Dose locking tuners not help with going out of tune?

My Strat (American Pro II) the middle tone knob affects both the neck and middle pickups, the bottom knob affects only the bridge pickup.

I play metal on a strat with a single coil in the bridge. I use the exact same amp settings as with my LPs. Has a little less gain but that's what OD/Boost pedals are for. But how, you may ask? There is a TONE knob for the bridge pickup......use it! Gets rid of all the shrillness when you just dial it down a few notches. Yes, still noisy as all real single coils are but very usable. I own both Strats and LPS and love them both.

For the tuning stability issue, I have a Reverend guitar with a Wilkinson trem. Might be an expensive upgrade but they’re much better than other trems

As a long-time player (40 years) I'll add two more. 21 frets suck. Sure, they make a few options with 22 but most have 21. Also, if you want to buy (or can afford to buy) a Strat from before the '80s then you have no options. The other problem is the fretboard radius. 7.25" is standard but they do make some "modern" models with a 9.5" radius. Pretty comfortable for playing chords but pure sh*t for bending. Of course both of these things are subjective and there are plenty of people who love a vintage Strat but if you've played modern guitars most of your life these things can be an adjustment... or just make you crazy.

Les Paul guy here as well. I echo the same issues you mentioned. I would add, Strats are way more comfortable to play since they have the comfort carves and are a hell of a lot lighter than most pauls. My strat is a single humbucker hardtail. Absolutely love it and is a great les Paul alternative for me.

I never use floating trem, I set it flush to the body, then I tune but just a bit lower than the desired pitch and will dive bomb the trem and check the pitch of the string, it should go a little sharper than before but shopuld still be below the desired pitch, if still below the desired tuning, I will tighten string a tad more and then dive bomb the trem again until I get the note to the desired pitch, I do this on all six strings, repeated dive bombing and tuning until all are in tune, then it should never go out of tune, maybe aggressive bending will lower the pitch of the string that was bent but moving the trem will bring it all in perfect tune again.

H-S-S is my favorite, but I'm an 80's heavy metal child. The 2 point tremolo is better than 6 saddle IMHO. The nut is usually the cause of bad tremolo tuning stability in my experience, but it'll never be a perfect system. A lot of people don't like noiseless single coils because they can't quite get them to chime. If you want the 25.5 scale length to feel more slinky, try going down a gauge in strings.

The trem problem can be fixed just like the G string on the LPs....use lubrication in the nut slots. You can also block the trem or deck it so it only goes down. Just tighten the springs so it always goes back to zero.

I have a tele with a Gibson conversion neck. It now has that easy string bending feature that Gibsons have, but I have the sound of the tele that I love.

I just traded my Strat for a Les Paul 😅

My personal gripe with Strats is the volume knob being so darn close to the bridge pickup. My hand always runs into the knob when striking chords. I mean, it's literally one centimetre below the bridge PU. Always makes me wonder why they put it that close. Maybe to be able to reach it faster? But to me, that's just annoying.

As a fellow les Paul/ telecaster guy..I agree with everything you said.

ive owned 3 strats and the one i own now is the best guitar ive ever owned. its a hardtail string through body so its has more wood which i think gives the bridge a unique tone. it also has great tuning stability.

I got a lace sensor single coil strat, shit fuckin rocks

Two things you need to fix the original strat tremolo system are: first, you need a 2-support tremolo instead of 6... Than, you may use a tremsetter! That helped my strat, that may also cure yours...

As a strat guy, i love your honest and brutal review 👍

Graph Tech bridge saddles, nut, and string trees. Gave my Strat amazing tone and stays in tune no matter how much I mash the whammy bar.

Well I'm not really a big Strat fan. #1 is the placement of the volume control and the tone controls use. So I did away with one tone control and put the volume in it's place, then wired the master tone to all 3 pickups using a .015 orange drop capacitor. The second thing I did was replace the bridge pickup with a Telecaster overwound bridge pickup. The third thing was to get stronger 3 springs for the trem system and install a trem block stop so it will come back in perfect tune every time. The 4th and final mod was install a 6 way switch. Now I call this one a Nashville Strat. It is by far the best Stra that I have ever played.

I hooked up the bridge pick-up to the tone control on my Strat, to dile off the high end plus a noise killer pedal. Not, a Strat guy either. But it's an easy mod if it's not done from the factory.

I adore my strat, but the guitar that stands head and shoulders over any guitar ever made is the tele, and wtf are you doing with a humbucker in the bridge of your tele ?

I'm the same way when it comes to Strats. I owned one Fender Strat back in 1990. Hendrix and his music was my main inspiration in beginning my guitar journey. The Gibson SG is my first guitar and the guitar I learned to play on. I guess it's a matter of taste, IDK, but Strats never really appealed to me. I don't know why, excuse me, while I kiss the sky.

this guy is a cool guy (no sarcasm i agree as an owner of an aerodyne HSS and a strat w custom shop texas special single coils he is right 1000%)

I've got a Dick Dale Custom shop strat, it has a volume, but no tone control. Also it's a wired 3 way switch with a toggle that combines the neck and middle pickup. Check one out, very simple layout.

Not everyone can harness the power of a sss strat... dont beat yourself up youll get there.

A lot of people have an opinions about what is or is not a strat. In my opinion I think leo, not only designed it to have an easily replaced neck. It was also designed to be moded and upgraded. I just built a new plate for mine. S/s/h with a coil split and a super vee trem with brass block also 1 volume 1 master tone. This thing is a beast now, it can do whatever I need it to. It went from my number 3 to my number 1 guitar. It is extremely useful for recording now. If you trying to make a historicaly accurate guitar or its vintage i get why you might not want to change. But pickguards can be easily changed. So why not experiment.

One of the reasons I didn't buy a Strat was because of the sheet metal string tree. I felt that the E and B strings would scrape against, and get stuck under it, thereby causing tuning problems. Is this true?

Tone knobs altogether suck. They only decrease the presence they don't boost it. Having more than one tone knob is just crap that gets in the way of my picking hand. The pickups on strats are always angled backwards too unless it's played backwards the way Hendrix did. Jake E Lee does a good job at fixing this on his signature models with angling the pickups the right way

Three additional reasons a Les Paul is superior tto a Stratocaster - the flatter 12" radius fretboard allows for a lower action without fretting out while bending strings; larger frets are easier to play and don't wear out as fast, and a wider neck width at the nut, which again makes it easier to play.

456th subscriber remember me🥳

Maybe that Fender is great but FYI... Fender isn't the only brand that makes fantastic strats... I had a Fender AP2 and it was kaka! I now rock a Tokai Goldstar Sound in a gorgeous cherry finish and mann! It's incredible; even the br pup! Fender would charge 2350.00 100% Btw... have you lubed your Les Paul nut slots with graphite yet? 😊

Strats should have always come with a Humbucker in the bridge …my ssh Strat is a freakin Swiss Army knife because of it !!

Im a les paul guy, just the tone knob gets in the way on a strat they sound good but the kob is is the way of strumming

Listen up ya'll I am a guitar guy not a strat guy not a les paul guy you guys should buy the guitars that fit you not the guitars yt tells you to buy. Every guitar is different maybe one strat with certain pickups can fit you and a different one wont. Go out and try the guitars that are out there. Guitars can be moded too so if you want it to sound like you mod it as much as youd like. Thx for reading enjoy playing❤

The hard tail strat is awesome 👌 but a float bridge sucks

I totally get what this guy is saying.. I also totally understand if you want to give me that strat.

I bought a Gibson Explorer 80s tribute because one: it’s the 80s tribute, two: the edge, Mattais Jabbs use explorers

I’m not sure I agree with this take that the bridge pick-up sucks. There are certain kinds of styles that demand almost a lot of treble and cut like surf and rockabilly. Just because you don’t use it doesn’t mean it’s worthless. The solution is put a tone control on it, change the pot value, or throw in a darker sounding pickup. From a strictly aesthetic perspective I don’t like the HSS configuration. These days I’m not much of a Strat player having succumbed to the lure mainly of Teles, but I respect the original intention of the design. People make a similar criticism of the Les Paul neck pickup being overly dark and woofy but you never hear anyone suggest throwing in a Strat neck pickup instead. And for good reason: it’s ridiculous. Strats should stay as nature intended with three single-coils just as Les Pauls should stick to the PAF or P90 formula to remain most true to themselves😅.

Blasphemous !!!! : b For any strat player out there : swap out your 3 fender pickups for these 3 Seymour Duncan pickups…. S7 in the Neck , Classic in the middle , and S6 in the bridge position. All 3 are stacked and cancel the hum plus bring out the best in each position. I did this to a bunch of my Strats You’ll thank me later. 👍 Trem system : swap out for a Vega Trem ( requires no routing). Its heads and tails above the strat trem. Add locking tuner pegs and enjoy Floyd Rose like bliss without having that gigantic tin bucket under your picking hand.

*5 reasons to buy a Stratocaster: 1 Buddy Holly 2 Eric Clapton 3 Dave Gilmore 4 Albert Collins 5 Nils Rodgers . . . . . .actually the list is endless!* 🤨

Yeah they are not for me either it has to be a super strat. The big problem for me is the bridge sits so far back I forget where my picking hand is sometimes when palm muting it chokes out the strings because my hand is too far forward. Yeah single coils suck. The Floyd rose trem system is superior in every way. Yes I prefer a Gibson over a Fender everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. How about Ibanez buy out Fender and put them out of their misery.

Solution for tuning stability and trem is lubrication! Lubricate the saddles, nut and string trees (a tiny bit of lub goes a long way), re-string making sure you properly lock your strings to the tuning pegs and, voila, problem solved!

You need to try the HM strat....late 80's were the better ones.

The only way I'll have a strat is with double locking Floyd Rose and humbucker pick up in the bridge.

Never seen a tele with a Bigsby before

I stretch my strings. My cheap Strat copies all stay in tune.

But in a Vega Trem and your Strat will stay in tune.

A Tele would sound worse with a distortion pedal on the bridge

Hard tail master race!

Strat is the most comfortable guitar i ever play. I will only play strat!!

Ive put a Floyd on 🙈

All of the things you think are wrong with the strat, are all the reasons why I love the strat.

You find the Strat controls confusing, so you don't like that. But you have a Jazzmaster?? OK...

Don't tell Nile Rodgers 😁

Reason #1. GO TO GUITAR WHEN THINKING OF AN ELECTRIC Reason #2. Overrated Reason #3. Metalheads don't like em much. Reason #4. It's not a mustang Reason #5. It's not a Jaguar Reason #6. It's not a Jag-stang Reason #7. It's not a cyclone Reason #8. It's not a music master Reason #9. It's not a duo sonic Reason #10. Fender strats are getting up there with prices of golden age strats Reason #11. SSS not just 2 pickups being SH (like my oranj-stang.) Reason #12. Trem. Reason #13. If you're spending $1100+ for a guitar (that isn't a Jaguar, mustang or jagstang) just buy a used Gibson Les Paul or Les Paul Junior. Reason #14. JUST DONT GET A STRAT. Get a tele if you can't find a mustang.

I think that's just your guitar that's goes out of tune cos I have a strat with a trem (not fender, Harley been) and the tuning stability is rock solid for me

OH FUCK i commented too quick the babicz bridge will fix ur trem problems

One word. LOCKING TUNERS.

Strats and les pauls are obsolete. There is nothing they can do that a high quality Ibanez RG with HSH config and an edge cant do better.

I think for the tremolo system you need locking tuners, so it stays better in tune... And yes... humbucker in the bridge is obligatory!!

I like 80's heavy metal, thats my reason not to have a strat.

10 reasons not to take any notice!😒👎🏽

I play surf music. Strat is the only option.

This is a dumb overview. Gibsons are so overrated, they're heavy, they too have problems staying in tune and how many iterations of the LP are there? Its like ALL of their solid bodys are called Les Pauls when he was just a creative tech thief from the 40's and 50's lol