My TOP 10 STRATOCASTER Tones Ever 

people dont give frusciante enough credit as a guitarist his tones are unmatched and unreplicated

The Edge’s tone on “Where the Streets Have No Name” absolutely must be given a nod at least!

The fact that Mark Knopfler’s tone isn’t on here is criminal. When I think of a strat I immediately either think of SRV or Mark Knopfler

Other great Strat players/tones I always think of - Billy Corgan (Cherub Rock/I Am One fuzz, Today/1979 clean) - George Harrison (Nowhere Man solo/My Sweet Lord slide) - Eric Clapton (Wonderful Tonight solo) - Billie Joe Armstrong (Basket Case (also yes I know it’s a Strat copy he uses but it still sounds great)) - Tom DeLonge (Dammit/What’s My Age Again? clean/First Date) - Billy Gibbons (La Grange clean) - Ritchie Blackmore (Highway Star/Burn) - Dave Murray (Number of the Beast/The Trooper) - The Edge (Where the Streets Have No Name delay) - Mark Knopfler (Sultans of Swing riff/solo) - Robin Trower (Bridge of Sighs Uni-Vibe) - Ed King (Sweet Home Alabama riff)

Stevie Ray Vaughan made a Strat sound better than anybody else. Eric Johnson had a great tone as well.

Mark knopfler for me, the tone he dialed in on the strat for songs like money for nothing and sultans of swing was beautiful, also telegraph road is a masterpiece!

Enjoyed everything you've done here! This takes me back to Hendrix' In The West album. When he kicks in the Wa peddle and blows out that screaming treble lead in Johnny Be Good. One of my all time favorites throughout the years.

Taking a subject like this on is bound to leave out someone’s favorite player, an iconic tone or an important performance. One of my favorite Strat tones is “Daydream” by Robin Trower. I’ve been a fan of his playing for decades and I was fortunate enough to see him live in 1985. Of course, you can’t go wrong with anyone else you’ve mentioned here, all are legendary examples. Other players such as Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler and others created singular, iconic tones too, perhaps a part two is in order?

Nice tones and playing! Clapton Journeyman-era or Layla, Robert Cray and Mark Knopfler are some of my other favourites!

I got to hear Eric Johnson live at the Cleveland house of blues. A phone or camera recording doesn’t do justice for how amazing his dirty and clean tone sounds. It is so beefy and warm on the low end while still retaining the bright and chimey sound strats are known for. That applies for both of his tones.

Robin Trower, Jeff beck, blackmore, Kotzen all have killer tone definitely worth the mention

Omg I was trying to find the perfect pedal to get to replicates david gilmours sound thank u so much

Sultans of Swing Live from Alchemy is the greatest strat tone I’ve heard in my life. Maybe my favorite guitar tone ever. There’s just something about those crystal cleans, the ticks from the finger picking, the very slight overdrive and the larger than life auditorium echo/reverb that just can’t be matched. But all great picks and great video!

I've had that hendrix tone in my head for two years now, and I couldn't remeber where I had heard a certain part of it. You just played it. THANK YOU!

My favorite tone is the tone Mark Knopfler used on Sultans of Swing. Another interesting tone was by Pete Townshend: the headstock of a Strat being rammed thru the feeding back speaker.

All great tones! Hope you’re feeling better dude. 🤙

I enjoyed this. Nice concept, taking inspiration but doing your own thing with it.

Fantastic video 🎉

Awesome tones🎧😮‍💨🔥 You have more pedals than the tour de france 🙌👌

I’d love to see more guitars (Les Paul, Tele, etc) have videos like this about them!

Everybody likes different guitarists and styles. I think Ritchie Blackmore will always be the biggest influence on my guitar tastes through a Strat. Then it's gotta be David Gilmour and Mark Knopfler. There's so many greats. R.I.P. Jeff Beck. A series of videos like this gives you a chance to share some of your favorites. Could actually do dozens of them, depending on the brand or specific models of guitars. Lots of great content there for sure.

One of my favorite Strat tones was Hughie Thomasson of the Outlaws. Snarly with a unique twangyness (all technical terms) that I've not quite heard from any other player. I believe the extra twang came from him picking closer to the bridge. "There Goes Another Love Song" and "Green Grass and High Tides" are great examples.

Love the voodoo tones Tyler, and the Hendrix clean, but they're all great in some way. 👍❤️

Richie blackmores strat sound is iconic especially on live albums like made in japan

Robin Trower on Bridge of Sighs is the greatest guitar tone I have ever heard period !!!

Yeess more tone videos 🔥🔥

I love the KWS tone

Love that "Gilmour" bridge tone! Well done.

Holy crap dude! I've walked around Nashville plenty and I could totally see the beer bottle thing happening.

The "Hendrix clean tone" is best achieved, in my "experience", by using a Fuzz Face type pedal (I use a Fulltone '69, among others) with a strat and ROLLING THE GUITAR VOLUME WAY DOWN. As the fuzz "cleans up" it leaves that slight hair and beautiful glassy clarity. It's the "Little Wing" sound and it was a revelation to me when I finally discovered it. It is one of my favorite clean tones to use, since. Then roll volume up for more gain for solos, and all the way up for fuzz tone

fantastic tones

I have my first strat delivering soon!!! Thanks for uploading this video I'm really excited to mess with these tones:D

Hope you're doing good Tyler sorry about the beer attack, maybe it'll leave a cool scar

You aRe HeLLA i love this video everything you play is Absolutely Stellar i love your choice of lead guitar style runs and chords all of the riffs and phrases it's all wAyy Thank You sO' much Music iS WiN \¡¡/

Amazing vid :)

I just absolutely love taking strats and tales and just cranking the distortion to the max and it sounds 🔥🔥🔥

Gilmour's is my favorite, but you could do a whole video like this on just his different tones.

Great Job Man.........I was very impressed with the Fruciante's berserker Mode........didn't know he could do that!!!!......I got to check that out. I however want to point out that In my Humble opinion the Voodoo Tone has to come from real speakers Moving Air, again just my opinion, I got a Marshall Vintage Modern and I swear that to my ears to you have to get those Power Tubes going, those speakers Shaking.......your attack has to be agressive. I can't get that on the console. Again just my two cents. Great Video again.

Several good mentions here, indeed! I'd like to add Terje Rypdal to the list. Mesmerizing tone - and feel...

LOVEEEE the Frusciante strat tone. the edge of breakup on his vintage Marshall amps are so perfect to my ears for that dirty clean tone. then adding a DS-2 and a fuzz like Bif Muff for the Live at Slane Castle is my ultimate tone goal. I also like the John Mayer clean tones, but not as much as Fru. The Jimi clean is awesome too, but for me playing, i like a little cleaner/less OD. Obvi that Jimi fuzz sound is just iconicccc.

Rory Gallagher (VOX AC30 and a rangemaster treble booster) powerful, raw and dynamic tone

My favorite electric guitar intro and one of my favorite guitar tones ever is the guitar tone for Lights by Journey. Strat neck pickup into a compressor and echoplex into a cranked marshall with greenbacks. It is so good.

One tone that I would say is a really cool Strat tone and underrated is the tone on Life in the Fast Lane by the eagles. That delay and just the good ol fashioned drive on that is just awesome

Daaaaaaaamn!.....that SRV tone was puuuuurfect!

Honestly, I love all these tones for all their own reasons. So many tones for so many different styles, parts, nuances.. yeah.

I have to say, watching your hands almost effortlessly operate the tremolo bar and the pickup selector while playing those Hendrix solos is something that not only boggles my mind, but also makes me want to understand more about why you are doing it. Obviously it's a tone thing, but to dig deeper, it makes me wonder why you're doing it.

Great video! I have a tele, but all my favorite players are or were on strats. I plan on getting one with I hit the one year mark on guitar,

I bought a Fender mim Jimi Hendrix stratocaster just to get that fantastic tone he had. The guitar produces the tone pretty damn well not to mention the amazing playability.

Strat clean sounds and neck pickup are wonders for me 😎

Hank Marvin (from the Shadows) has the best strat tone, and nothing could ever change my mind!!!

Thank you for covering the SRV Riviera Paradise thing. He did that glassy bell tone better than most. Left out anything by Dire Straits…the 4 position strat tone is synonymous with their music.

Idk if it’s been said but the Strat tone in Blue on Black by Kenny Wayne Shepherd was always one of my favorite Strat tones.

Yeah I just love the Bridge God sound and I think it is close to some other great rock tones without major adjustments. The EJ clean is the best clean ever.

All the Hendrix tones were my favs. He was a wizard with the Strat!

Ritchie Blackmore should've been on the list as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, one of the most inspiring guitarists and has many great guitar riffs

EXCELLENT.

My 5 favorite Strat tones are as listed: Pickup switch position #1 Pickup switch position #2 Pickup switch position #3 Pickup switch position #4 Pickup switch position #5

Stevie’s strat sound was so perfect. I don’t know how to describe it. But it’s great

Hendrixs tones on cry of love are some of my favorites. From the Storm and Angel have some of the best tones ive ever heard. Freedom is great too. Love everything else he made but cry of love is the besy

I agree the strat tone is my favorite too!

Great list; thanks... I'd add Robert Cray (Right Next Door).

SOOO disappointed that you didn’t include Billy Corgan’s sonic wall of sound from the early Smashing Pumpkins days (Siamese Dream / Melancholy era). Not only super fun to play around with, but also super unique. You knew what band it was as soon as you heard the guitar…

Chris Rea got some awesome tones with his Strat e.g. Stainsby Girls, It’s All Gone, and many more.

Very Cool......Delivery

Henry Garza (Los Lonely Boys) has some great strat tones, severely underrated

You're a great man

Bold as love has been my favorite guitar tone since I was a kid, before I ever even thought of picking up a guitar

Can I have a few of those strats? They sound great. (And you have to teach me how to play that great love you)

The drawback to all those great Strat tones is the ever present and ever AWESOME hum....

Hey, you finished a list!!

Show your fender stuff more !!!! Fuckin love ya man! hope your noggin gets better . Cheers from Canada

I love the Revv pedals. They're so damn good

Top 3 for me: 1) Keith Scott - Summer of '69 2) Neil Schon - Lights 3) Lincoln Brewster...literally everything Strat related

What was that first EJ assending riff at 6:18? That was amazing and I would love to know so I can learn

Hendrix defined the strat tone, Billy Corgan and Frusciante had an awesome strat tone too

I always felt that Roland Orzabal's strat tone was very underrated. The usual suspects are so for good reason.

That’s gonna be a BADASS Scar!

That David Gilmour "Comfortably Numb" solo sounded a little off to me. Missing some swirl, like a flanger or low speed leslie speaker. Really liked how you saved the best (Jimi Hendrix) for last.

Clapton on the Layla album, Journeyman era, and I really think he has had many other great Strat tones as well. Some have effects and some are straight into an amp. Live shows from 1986-87 had tones I really think are cool.

Mark Knopfler’s strat sound should be here

Tyler, you keep practicing like that your going to be big. Ha! just kidding. I wish I could know what you forgot. Killer sounds. Great job.

Nice list. I'm kind of partial to the SRV tones.

Lowell George for me! Although not a true Strat tone, seeing as he liked to have Tele bridge pickups, in place of the stock bridge pups. But to me that's some of the best tone to be put to tape.

Awesome. Edge U2???

Great stuff. Strats and Teles are about the only two guitars that are instantly identifiable running clean straight into the amp (to my ears, anyway). LPs, SGs, Jags, JMs, etc. are all GREAT guitars, but I don’t think their tones are as immediately identifiable (to me) if I took a blindfolded tone test.

Ruban Nelson has got to have my favorite tone, especially in the song "American Guilt."

Black heaven the song by earthless is definitely my favorite. It’s so fucking gnarly. Isaiah is the man

The Hendrix tones were pretty close but to my ear the rest of the tones were a bit brighter. The SRV tone definitely felt brighter though it was well in the vein of Stevie’s tone.

For me, it has to be Jeff Beck's Strat sound. One note, and you just knew!

Jimi's wonderful tone at Berkeley is my favourite. Joe Bonamassa in his earlier days had great tone on a strat too. Mark Knopfler on Alchemy, Gilmour at PULSE, Jimi at Fillmore East and Woodstock, Gary Moore Emerals Aisles 1984, Hank Marvin Apache. To name a few. Favourite neck pickup sound Joe Bonamassa on the video (here on RU-vid) Miles of music playing the song The Storm (so good).

Hank Marvin, George Harrison (Nowhere man solo), Hendrix (Little wing), Blackmore (Made in Japan), Richard Thompson, Mark Knopfler, Gilmour (different tones in Shine on you crazy diamond).

One of my favorite modern day strat players is Brian Murray of Dogs in a Pile! If you haven’t checked dogs out you’re missing out!

Before having watched the video yet, here are some of my picks for some of the best or most iconic strat tones: SRV (duh) Buddy Guy's tone with his iconic polka dot strat Eric Johnson tone Cliffs of Dover for example The clean tone on Smashing Pumpkins' Tonight Tonight🎉 The tones Ritchie Blackmore achieved with Deep Purple, like on Strange Kind of Woman Jimi Hendrix clean tone like on Wind Cries Mary or Sandcastles Made of Sand Hank Marvin clean tones with the Shadows John Fruscisnte's RHCP strat tones

What about slow dancing in a burning room??? Best clean strat tone imo

We Want Moore - Live album by Gary Moore from around 1984 . Heard that and was hooked on Strats ever since. (Although like the Tele quite a bit too)

Andy Timmons- Electric Gypsy comes to mind!

nothing beats yngwie’s tone on Marching out

You should seriously talk more about bizarre and experimental guitar , specifically Cosey Fanni Tutti of Throbbing Gristle, highly recommend

You might have a badass scar now tbh. You become more of a rockstar everyday I swear

"Get Lucky". Thanks Tyler.