Very nicely done! After considering myself a “Strat guy” since about the mid-eighties, it wasn’t until about five or six years ago that I discovered that the middle pickup by itself is actually a useable sound! I had been a 2 and 4 position player quite heavily. We live. We learn! Great sounds and advice in this vid! And seriously MONSTER playing! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! Middle pickup is a surprisingly great sound, it took me a long time to get used to it! Thanks for sharing your insight 😀
your choice to keep the drive under control so the Strat characteristic could shine through was a good one! That's something I'm going to be thinking about from now on -- thanks!
It’s always refreshing to hear an accomplished player get the most out of a strat, and utilize all 5 pickup selector settings. I’ve gotten so tired of hearing strat players trying to sound only like SRV or John Mayer. (That big, swaggering Texas blues Stratocaster tone is, by now, such a cliche and is totally played out; I swear - probably 50% of strat players would never even notice if their pickup selector became permanently stuck on positions #1 & #2.). The strat is WAY more versatile than that!
Fantastic sound and language on a Strat. For me the most dangerous guitar in history in terms of personality. It’s difficult to get away from the the classic sounds, Hendrix, Gilmour, Knopfler, SRV just to name a few… Love your sound
I listened to your “Winter Song” this morning on my bike ride. It was the first tune on Spotify’s Jazz Mix. I liked it very much! Just thought I’d let you know; and your picture is on the Jazz Mix.
Fantastic playing and tones! Definitely love hearing this guitar on the channel! My favorites were definitely the neck and also the neck and middle positions! Both cleans and with overdrive sounded amazing!
@@beneunson that would be great to see a similar video with a guitar with 2 P90s. Just finished a Squier project with a Fender Noventa design. I love those pups.
Really tasty playing. I totally agree with your EQ suggestion to tame the treble spike and thicken up the midrange, though I go about it a little differently, by substantially cutting the bass on the amp, but not the treble. I usually use the tone knobs for that. One additional factor that might play into the dynamics might be the springs attached to the Tremolo bridge. I think that contributes to the openness of the sound; you can hear tonal differences if you play a hardtail version. A little less airy, but a little more sustain.
I think you just solved a problem ive had for years and its totally unintentional. Your volume knob is pulled off. Then it hit me... thats intentional ! I for years had to constantly adjust my volume for accidentally rolling it down. Thank you for unintentionally fixing me.
All great sounds, hard to pick one. It took me about 15 years of Strat playing to figure out on my own this very important tip about strats, which is to remove high end. For a long time I had this really thin, piercing sound. It's essential to tame that high end and push the mids a bit.
I really enjoyed your classic Strat tones here - do you have any video where you talk about pickup heights and balancing them to get those great 2 and 4 sounds? Sounds amazing
I use such a different setup I think it's worth mentioning. Back in the day a lot of people were using the DiMarzio FS-1 pickups (Gilmour, Knopfler etc.) Every time I would comment on someone's strat sound they would say "Oh, that's the pickups, they're DiMarzios." Even Joey Ramone used a FS-1 in the lead position of his Mosrite surf guitar(sacrilege.) And very often they used a trick Gilmour is famous for which is to have the middle pickup on it's own volume knob to bring it in wherever you want (or a switch to just turn it on) With the blend knob and just a three way switch you can get every combination of sounds and any balance of that middle pickup with the others. I also have this on a Nashville Telecaster so you have that Tele bridge but the middle strat FS-1 can be blended in as well. Strat's go out of tune faster than Tele's but unless you're good with a Bigsby (not cheap) or some stomp box tuning bender you won't have the whammy bar on the Tele. All this being said and I prefer my Rickenbacker to any other guitar. They are from outer space. With an Vox AC30 (or simulator) of course. They also have stock 3 pickup models. I pick a guitar sound based on the needs of the song. Nothing more. In the case of The Smiths the Strat and Tele sound good. The Rickenbacker sounds spectacular, but all will get the job done.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I love Rickenbackers as well, they are beautiful guitars. Very interesting to know about the DiMarzio FS-1 pickups too. Thanks for watching! 🎸
@@beneunson No problem. The FS-1 is a 70's designed pickup with more mids and gain than a typical stock strat pickup. No idea how they would sound next to a modern Seymour Duncan. For example if I was going for a Hendrix type sound I would not use the FS-1's. That being said I use an active EQ and I can pull some tricks with that.
I love the Stratocaster. I love the beautiful sound of the Stratocaster. The Stratocaster is for me the Perfect Guitar Ben Eunson. I'm a fan of the Stratocaster and a fan of its sound, even more so of the beautiful Stratocaster sound you get. Thank you very much for this video. I just like hearing a Stratocaster sound with a little more gain. Perhaps a more classic distortion like the Sonic Distortion SD-9 or the RAT II by Pro Co. Sounds more based on Scott Henderson or Michael Landau. Thanks again for this beautiful video.
All the channels focus on the Strat. settings! I've yet to see one where they show what the AMP is set at, for the different sounds on those settings!!
What are your amp settings for clean tones in this vid!? They sound absolutely amazing. Your previous review on this amp has convinced me to purchase it!
strat neck and mid pickup is very difficult to get from humbuckers specially in clean tone.. so its imperative for anyone to own strats.. its the only reason i have a strat. otherwise i always preferred humbuckers..
Great tones and wonderful playing! 1. Your strat is totally gorgeous. What is it? I've just bought a fender MIM 50s roadworn in same color as yours. Love that look. 2. Have you removed the volume knob purpously? To avoid adjusting it unintentionally? First video I've watched of yours, subscribing and looking forward to diving in to your archive.
Thank you so much for watching and subscribing! I really appreciate it. This strat is a 57 reissue from 1982 and saw a few owners before me. Volume knob just needed to be replaced here, I've since replaced it. Thanks again!
The old strats only had three select positions and five tremelo springs, my humble view is that the two extra positions were not needed and putting on three springs was a step backwards, id like to hear your comments on string thickness, e g a new guitat comes from the shop with thin strings, whatever i do, plugging into a vox with reverb and a digital delay i simply cannot obtain that belting, full kurt frohberg sound, old hank once said tje old strats had ,.cables,, on them, the secret it seems make sure your ,,g ,,string is wound.
I’m a Gibson guy with a Telecaster. I need a strat it the volume nob always gets in the way of my right hand on a strat. I don’t like picking up that high towards the neck. I feel like the strings are more floppy there and more stiff by the bridge. Maybe I just need to play one more.
Strat can be a little different to get used to coming from a Gibson, both are great choices, but the Strat has some sounds that are fantastic to have at your disposal. Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this video. Beautiful sounds. One question, are we hearing a stereo sound or a mono? And what about the effects you're using? Reverb? Delay? Chorus? Many thanks? Naturally, if we connect a Strato directly to an amp the sound we get is much different from this one. Thanks
This time it´s the middle pickup for clean solo. The between sounds are too Knopfler-like, not my fav. The drivesounds between neck and middle are so scratching, also middle, nearly hurting. Middle and bridge is biting nicely, and the bridge only is mostly singin´.
I have a Strat and am just starting with overdrive. Using delay, I can get beautiful clean tones out of my Blackstar 15W amp. I'd like to get a nice smooth singing overdrive tone, as you do. Since I want to keep the volume down, I bought a Boss Blues Driver, hoping this would work. It gives distortion similar to what is already built into my amp. This sounds harsh and ugly to me, a heavy metal sound that I hate. Can you recommend a magic pedal that works with a small amp like mine that gives a smooth, singing tone at low volume? Is this possible? Or do I need a big amp like in your video with a fair amount of volume? (I will add some delay too.) Thanks
Great question! I actually have my amp head on very low volume (volume knob between 3 and 4). At this volume, it starts to break a up a little and I'm also running the Tech 21 Oxford pedal, a pre-amp pedal with a smooth overdrive - you can hear this pedal on the "Overdrive" examples. I hope that's helpful! 😀
Thanks.This helps a lot. I'll try to get the Tech 31 Oxford pedal. It might be hard in the USA. You didn't mention the model of the pre-amp, but I'll choose what seems like a good one, unless you feel like telling me that too!.@@beneunson
@@Ben777-x No worries! The amp head is the Laney LA-Studio (I talk about it more here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-52sL9Z6z-Xs.html) and the Tech 21 Oxford was made by Tech 21 in NYC, but I suspect they no longer make this pedal...it shows up on Reverb.com every now and again. They have some similar preamp-type pedals in their "SansAmp" range which might work as well.
Sounds more like a banjo than an electric guitar. Chicken pickin sounds or ice pick sounds.. I really hate that bridge pick up setting. However, each to his own. It's a great platform for pedals. Also, might be better to play it through a Fender amp, like the little twin reverbs, always tube amps......better decay on the notes.
You didn't adjust your volume or tone knobs once and your saying all of the big terms like dynamic ect. ect. Not saying anything about how to integrate even more "range"from use of differing settings w/ volume and tone knobs not to mention no talk of pickup height was really upsetting. Put a f'n volume knob back on.