50% of it is also how the guitar feels. If you can’t get comfortable on the guitar, you’re not going to flow with it. It’s going to sound worse in your head.
Any good guitar player can get a decent sound from any guitar. However, they will prefer certain guitars because those guitars allow the player to achieve his best potential.
@@gpf32 yes I agree but he’s acting as if you need a custom shop fender to get the basic neck tone that any Strat copy in the universe does perfectly fine
"The strat sound" is also position 2 on a 5-position switch, so I don't know what this guy is on about. The switch is the magic. It's why Steve Vai put one on the Ibanez GEM/777/Pia. That's what gives you the "quack". Saying you were never happy with your neck tone... Has nothing to do with a strat. Dude just needed to find a guitar he liked and a pedal setup for it.
@@KevinJDildonik the pre Steve Vai ibanez models still had a 5 way. Idk if I’ve ever seen a ibanez without a 5 way but I’m not well versed in ibanez guitars. But I absolutely love the tones that come out of the 2 and 4 positions.
@@ursafan40 - Interesting. Although i love that telly tone and i've never owned one, i can still kind of relate to what you're saying. Maybe just break out the telly for your Waylon Jennings covers...lol.
nah, you get better as you practice nothing to do with gear. some players like jimi just has a playing style that fits well with that strat sound while others like jimmy page has a style that fits better with a les paul.
@@gtrdaveg have you watched the entire video? Cus I did, and yeah, he did say he was a “stray guy” after all, after finding this one Strat at NAMM someday at some booth… After playing “hundreds of Strats”.
I don’t think it’s just Strats. Guitars are very personal and sometimes you just don’t bond with a particular one. The guitar needs to feel like it’s an extension of you the player. Otherwise it’s just a bit of wood and wire. Nice sounding Strat you have.
The Strat I bought was the 2nd one I played. I was sure, but chose to try a dozen more just in case. None felt or sounded as good so....... Went back for #2 Been love ever since
Hendrix went through dozens of strat’s and guitars in general, he still played them like they were an extension of him. A guitar is just wood and wires, it’s a tool. The only personal part is the set up or mods.
@@gordianknot6867 everyone isn't Hendrix!! People feel differently about things than others, that's what makes us unique. If he wasn't Hendrix but walked down the street dressed like he did people would've talked about the way he dressed but I happened to love his wardrobe. We're not all the same and all guitar players don't feel the same way about our gear. In fact you'll find most of us love our instruments like parents love their children and we have deep connections with them. That's why it's so painful when someone steals a guitar from a player. It's not just a tool or something that we play, it becomes part of our heart and soul. A guitarist that feels so indifferently about their guitar is a rare bird indeed.
@@nuthinbutlove I agree we’re not all Hendrix but we dont have to be, to not overly romanticise or be overly particular. Anything can have sentimental value, including your father or grandfathers work tools. I wouldn’t say I feel indifferently about guitar’s I buy or use and dont refute their sentimental value but picking a guitar isn’t like picking a magical harry potter wand.
Everyone is a Strat guy at one point or another, just depends on the repertoire and the sound and mood you are trying to strike. Same thing with Les Pauls.
@@Viper-dz2kwJust wait, it will happen😅 And I am also more of a Fender guy on balance, especially Teles. But I am on my newest quest to find some combination of Les Paul Standard, '61 SG, or LP Special, whichever breaks my account first.
@@randrothify Same. I grew up on so much Hendrix, Gilmore and Mark Knoffler that that sound is forever burned into my soul as the sound of a guitar. I still like a Gibson for some heavy power chords or super clean dark jazz sounds though.
@@nathanjasper512Yes, me as well. I also am into a lot of the 80s and 90s blues guys that used Strats and had an aggressive trebly attack. Ronnie Earl is one of my favorites. To me the single coil guitars have a more expressive sound because they have more nuance and dynamic ranges while many humbucker guitars get buried in the mids and pretty much seem like one-trick ponies. But they do that one trick very well😅.
I have one too that I bought for 200 bucks many many years ago… but after many hours of work, a fiesta red refin and a bunch of things that make it mine it’s a beast. Go ‘73 staggered pole pickups!
@@woofcity6307 Mine already had the pickups and pots replaced sometime in the 80s or 90s, so I just gutted it, built a super quality vintage style wiring harness and dropped some Kinman pickups in it. Someone had also put those low Gibson “fret less wonder” frets in it 😂 so I refretted it with Dunlop medium jumbos. 70s Fenders are notorious for being lower quality than the pre CBS Fenders, but you can still find some EXCELLENT early 70s Fenders. Even with that goofy three bolt neck plate, I’ve never had any issues with the neck. My roommate has a mid sixties strat and I actually prefer mine to his.
I’ve got an all black 79, that I adore. Ppl who knock the 70s cbs era strats, I don’t think have played that many. Mine has a U shaped neck, and idk, I just like how it feels and sounds. I’ve put Seymour Duncan’s in it, but I think I might replace them with the originals again, haven’t decided yet. I remember seeing my color guitar in a bunch of old U2 videos and sting played one in a video. They seemed popular when they came out. I think they sound awesome. Plus, I love the big headstock, kinda wish they didn’t use it on everything nowadays. Made the 70s strats seem more unique.
That makes sense. I love the feel of my Les Paul more than my other guitars. I realized the 2008 LPs have an asymmetrical neck which I now learned I gravite to!
And prior to his necks video I would have said that maple neck is playing a pretty drastic part of the sound. But i think that he has proven now that there really is logic to it. I knew in as a kid in the 80s that the maple neck made a difference to the sound. But yeah that pickup has a lot to do with it. I put the Gilmour EMGs on my American and it was a mistake. I need to replace them with something better and warmer, and not active.
@@lorenmorgan1931 Maple necks are varnished. They produce a different attack, but the tone is the same. People confuse the snappier attack for a tonal difference.
I love the strat sound but I hate the endless fighting with the volume knob all the time as I'm always putting volume down by accident. That is why I'm a tele guy 😂
@@thagrtcornholi0588I love the sound of a Strat until I realize it lacks the one sound that every single TWO pickup guitar has - neck/bridge. For me personally, the middle pickup by itself is completely useless, flat, dull, uninspiring. I have a Nash S63 and it's a killer S-style guitar, but I'm probably going to put a super switch in it to get neck/bridge. It will truly be a guitar to rule them all with that option.
@@maxpeck4154 Have you looked into the Freeway switch option? Darrel Braun has a good video on that product. I was thinking of getting a Strat and if I had done so, I was going to do that mod.
I like a Strat that sounds like Hendrix but plays like a modern strat. Just your basic ash maple strat, 9.5-10 radius, locking tuners, and standard American pups. Perfect.
How you set the tremolo on a Strat will have a noticable difference in tone, mostly in the pick attack. I'll usually set it flush against the body. Originally I floated it (as are at least 80% of them Strats that I work on), but I dropped it when a band I was in worked in a couple songs in drop-d. I only had the one Strat at the time, so I had to set it so I could tune down to D and back up to E without knocking everything else out. I immediately noticed a much more pronounced and faster attack. This wasn't something I wanted, so I had to lower the Treble side of the pickup to compensate.* I'll also point out that while this comesto the surprise of even seasoned players: the tone control does serve a purpose. And nowhere more than on a Strat. It's kind of a personal achievement when I can get someone to actually try it, because they NEVER go back to not using ii. I know why no one uses it, it's the same reason for everyone who's tried to: they buy their first guitar and use it for while with the tone control dimed. When they try the control they discover it has 3 settings: open and good; a little warmer; unusable mud. Part of that is that you want to dial everything else in too, but most of it is because for whatever reason, people perceive a drop in treble translates into a drop in clarity, but that isn't necessarily true. This is this most noticeable when it comes to OD pedals. People always confuse "bright" with "transparent," they're not the same. There was a video here where he played one guitar through three or four ODs; same riff, same amp. Everyone picked the brightest one, but his dry signal was super dark. There was more presence, but it's not transparent or it would be dark too. If you want to experiment with the tone control, you don't want to start at 10 then roll it down. You want to start with it all the way down and work your way up. All the way down will give it that muffled, 'pillow over the face' sound. Play the B or high E string, fret it anywhere between the third and seventh fret, let the note ring while you turn it up. You'll hit a point pretty early in (usually below 2) where the muffled sound will open up and start to ring; that's where you want to start from as you add treble back in. You'll recognize that point when it rings immediately, it's not a subtle shift. That's your starting point, see how it sounds at the lower registers and work the control up. You can dial everything else in around a lower guitar vol and tone setting. If you like your tone with it at 10, then turn it down to 8-9 and dial in the rest of your rig as if it's 10; I recommend doing the same with the guitar volume as well. That way ou'll always have little more horsepower under they hood if you need it; treble and volume. *I know adjusting pickup height is another thing that a lot of players just don't do. With humbuckers you can get away with it. Single coils really need to be often adjusted. This is actually where everyone should start.
@@ninjamonkey1LOL it’s actually good advice. TL;DR: roll tone all the way down and slowly dial up to taste, not up-to-down, and leave some headroom on tone and volume in case you need it. Bright and transparent are distinct qualities of tone, not synonymous. Also, adjust single coil pickup height as needed, which may be regularly.
I've played for close to 30 years. Pretty accomplished guitar player and I love strats because they're lightweight and there's nothing like the sound of that neck pickup. It gives you such a bluesy tone.
I love my Strat. I'm more adventurous on it, and it's just like breathing. I sometimes have to warm to my Les Paul to get comfortable with it. I find it easy to dig into a Tele though. I'm clearly a Fender bloke. My LP sound is gorgeous at times, it smells divine and looks beautiful, but my Strat is better-looking, sounds better to me, and fits like a glove. It's a partnership.
Ça serait intéressant que chaque interviewé puisse nous jouer même un truc à chaque interview,je trouverais ça top. Sinon c'est toujours un plaisir de regarder tes vidéos❤
@RhettShull I have been watching a few of your great videos. The reason you don't hear that perfect strat tone may be because your touch is a bit light. All those guys, including Robin Trower, Robin Ford, SRV, Hendrix, John Mayer, Terry Kath, Prince, Buddy Guy, ...hit the strings with the right hand pretty hard! That's where the pop is.
Some strats sound more like strats than others. Funny thing is the guitar I’ve played that sounded the most like a Strat wasn’t even a fender. It was a Schecter Nick Johnston traditional HSS. I ended up buying one and now it’s my favorite guitar even though I’m not a Strat guy.
The strat sound comes from your guitar, your amp and pedals, but mostly from your hands and fingers. It is the way you play, the way you touch the strings, your approach, your feel when playing. I can even make any guitar sound strat-ish.
Part of Hendrix's tone was attributed to his strings being upside down on a right handed guitar. The staggered pole pieces are at different heights to the strings they're meant to be farther/nearer to. And he didn't change the height of the pickups themselves. They were still high on the treble side and still lower on the bass side of the guitar. Everything reversed to original design.
Give Ronnie Earl a serious listen. That guy is Mr Blues incarnate, and he produces one of THE most beautiful clean to pushed Strat tones one could ever want.
I second that. His dynamics and light touch are phenomenal! Somehow his tone is remarkably clean, fat, and trebly all at the same time. And loud as heck with that cranked Super Reverb.
I have had many Strats over the years and finally found “the one” in 2015. Like you the feel and tone was right even though it’s the same design and manufacture as all the red rest
I had a similar experience when I found my Silver Sky Se. I bought it to be able to have a single coil for some variety and never expected it to become my main.
Have yall not heard Tim Henson talk about “Mojo”. Thats when a specific guitar speaks to you and makes a connection with you and naturally comes to you and makes you want to play it. This guy couldn’t play comfortably on a strat until he found this one because this one had mojo. Keep in mind this was said by TIM FREAKING HENSON. Leave this guy alone he found an instrument that fitted him and was exactly what he wanted and felt right to him. That’s a good thing.
The Strat tone I hear in my head is always the next set of pickups, or a change in resistors or pots, or a mod, treble bleed, etc… or a new amp/pedal… It’s the one guitar that has me tone chasing constantly. Like I’m not getting rid of my Jazzmaster or Tele or Les Paul Standard or modding them. Strats always have me tone chasing.
You just described my experience with Strats (and named two of the three artists I often cite when I talk about how they sound on a Strat... instead of John Mayer, I often reference Clapton or Eric Johnson)... but I still haven't found a Strat that does it for me. I think the alder bodies ruin it for me. I just can't take how my playing sounds with that brash alder sound. I recently bought a second Musicman Sabre in Honeysuckle finish this time. That one (with its African mahogany body and the baked maple neck) is my 'strat.' It's strat enough for me, without all the stuff I dislike about Strats.
I’m the same way with the Les Paul, I idolize a bunch of players that utilize it, and I love the tone, but when I play one it’s just not there.. just gotta find “the one” 😅
I was going to say pretty much this. I like the body style, but not the neck. There are other brands out there that make single cut guitars that I prefer over an LP.
Interesting. I never hear of any guitar other than BMGs with trisonics. How does it sound? Does it move you towards a BM sound, or kind of fatter, like a P-90?
@@davidwalker41 I also have a Burns Red Special … the two are totally different. Mainly, a Strat is wired Parallel and the Red Special is wired in Series. My Strat sounds HiFi compared to a standard Strat that has that bit of quack. Tri-Sonic pickups are fatter than standard single coils, so it takes some cutting and finagling to get them to fit. I’ve got these pickups in 3, soon to be 4 guitars. I’m currently building a custom Yamaha SGV Flying Samurai with Tri-Sonics.
Weirdly, I love the sound of strats I just don’t like how they feel in my hands. I’ve played dozens and still haven’t found “the one.” I love how my tele feels tho!
I started out in 1972. I was 10 years old. I am left handed but no lefty guitar like Hendrix. I tried for a year to play left handed but my right hand wasn't in sync to my left hand and it was depressing to practice because it never got better. I quit guitar for 20 years. My friend had a guitar, a LP copy, I asked him if I could try playing it and he let me pluck on it a bit. That time I tried right handed and in a few minutes I was strumming out a few chords. I quit again because I had no guitar. 20 years after that I bought a cheap acoustic and learned some chords right handed. That was 12 years ago. Now I own a Gibson Centennial LP, a quilt top LP from the same year, a EC30 Blues King Electro from the same year, a 1989 Fender Strat, a 1992 Fender Tele, and a 2018 PRS A60E acoustic. All of them I played before I bought them because tone matters, feel matters, otherwise there is no magic...
I’ve owned so many Strats. I sold every one of them until I found the one I have now. It feels different, sounds different, and it’s the only one that when I play it “sounds like me” but with a Strat tone. Still haven’t found another. The guitar has a soul.
im a sg guy but like you said im amazed at the other players tone with strats. whatever you got in your hands i can’t seem to find. what year ? pots? volume ect. been trying to find that 1
Happy that Rhett found his perfect/fave strat but personally, I don’t think there’s “a perfect strat” that would fall magically into your hands. Applies to all guitars ofc but especially the strat because it was created to be so versatile. You’ll have to work for it, try out different pickups/configurations, bridges, tuners, NECK?! (fretboard, radius, scale length all that jazz), the list goes on. There is no one stop shop for the ✨perfect strat✨that’s for everyone. All strats will sound the same or very similar at the EOTD, but the personal feel of one is something you’ll have to work for and develop over time. One man’s custom shop might be another’s Indo Squier, AND vice versa 😂 That’s the beauty of the chase, I guess. Much respect to Rhett and all players 🫡
Strats are a bit more difficult, in a couple respects, to play well. BUT, over time, you will seek a different sound, a different feel, something that responds in kind to differences in how YOU play. That is one part of the Strat mystique. There’s more. Strats are a performance guitar, on several levels, not least of which is their sturdy, modifiable, nearly indestructible design. They also have a versatile, identifiable, robust sound, playability, feature set, that makes them ideal for finding a unique sound, style, approach. I started on, with Les Pauls, great guitars. Easy to play, fast, subtle, responsive. Then one day, cruising the music store, I saw a Strat. Just for kicks I picked it up. It was a bit harder to play in some regards, but had an interactive feel, sound that was thoroughly unlike what I was used to. The 2 and 4 positions on the pick up selector were a revelation. The vibrato bridge became indispensable. Strats may not be for everyone, but they’ve more than proved their value over time.
I totally get what your saying but it was opposite kind of gor me. I grew up playing on strats and felt like nothing else worked for me until i found the right Les paul. The shorter scale length threw me off at first but now i love both strats and LP's fairly equally. Moral of the story is keep searching, keep playing different guitars until you find the right one. Same goes for acoustics imo. Rock on!!!🎸🎶
its all about the hands and the brain. I could never make a strat sound like a strat because that’s not what’s in my hands and brain. the guitar is only the tool
I'm finding this a little confusing. You're playing a maple neck Strat saying basically the Strat sound you expect to hear. And you also have a video where you put three different necks on the same Strat body, and make the determination that the Rosewood neck is "the Strat sound" that you expect to hear. So, is it a moving target or what?
The problem with strats is... there are so many flavors. Even a strat doesn't sound like a strat. Start witb JUMBO frets and go from there. Pickup height is also CRUCIAL
🤙I've built a ton of parts casters in my 60+ years searching for the sound in my head. Finally found it this year with my Robin Trower custom shop! Not because of the endorsement or being a custom shop, its just a really nice combination of pickups/electronics hardware wood build quality and of course set up that feels great to play for hours
My first guitar (i inherited from my big brother) was a Strat copy by Levin. Loved it! But then some years ago I bought a sad looking guitar hanging in the shop. Just a 2015 Standard Strat MIM, black w white pick guard. Nothing fancy. But it just works so well for me. The neck always felt good, but after like 1500 hours playtime on it, it feels great. Still have the bone stock pickups in it. Again, nothing fancy, but it just does the job so well. Any genre. And it absolutely does that Strat thing! P.S I did have it set up professionally a some time ago which definitely enhanced its playability compared to factory set up. P.S.2 I have a feeling my next guitar will be a Stratocaster
Same! I never vibed with any strat or S style guitar. I used a Line 6 James Tyler Variax for when songs called for a strat. That all changed when I bought a PRS Silver Sky. Only S style I have ever felt I could play. It just has that “thing”
I love some Strats. Or rather I love some Strat music the Shadows for example but I play a Les Paul Standard and the huge issue with sound isn't the guitar. It's me and how I adjust tone and volume knobs... and the amp... because you can make anything sound like anything to a fair extent.
I had my own funny "strat" experience some time ago, the band was hanging out when a little impromptu jam session began, since I wasn't expecting to play I didn't bring my guitar and my bandmate let me borrow one of his strats with single coils. I only play humbucker exclusively and honestly wasn't digging the sound, but we all got into a creative groove and started making a new tune and the singer said let's record it because it sounded good and let me tell you, I hated the strat sound in real time while jamming, but totally dug and loved the way I sounded in the recording using a strat hahaha.
This is what I tell folks when they talk about buying a guitar by mail or sight unseen. If you pick up 10 of the same make and model of guitar built on the same day in the same factory, they will all be just a little bit different. You've gotta play a guitar in your hands before you're able to know if it's THE ONE.
I've always had problem with the location of the volume knob on a typical strat style body because I rest the heel of my hand on the bridge. I gravitate towards 1 P/U and 1 Vol. s-type guitars. My favorite is a $50 squire strat that ive played for the last 20 yrs.
Some years ago, I bought a $70 Strat copy, simply because I could not believe my eyes when I saw the price. I was playing various Strats and Squires at Guitar Center, then I saw this sunburst copy with a chunk missing of the body. When I plugged it in, the action was wrong, the frets sharp, but I can fix all that, it sounded like a strat. I figured for $70 I could not go wrong and I could fix the broken body. Instead, when I asked to buy it, they gave me a brand new one. I thought $70 was for the broken one. It wasn't. I took it home, redid the neck, and son of a gun if it doesn't sound like a strat. I still can't explain it.
I believe what we ACTUALLY want in our Strat neck pickups is a hot single coil, raised up right next to the strings. To me, that sounds like SRV and Jimi and all those guys. However, the default "Strat" setup since like the 90's is a low output neck pickup lowered to the floor. Nobody told me that in fact everyone told me the opposite until I played the right guitar as well.
A lot of good sound is in the fingers. Having said that, I find strats a bit thin - pingy and oinky. Gilmour and Hendrix slather the oinkster in effects. They often sackless compared to a Gibson or tele.
I've owned several strats over the years. I always liked the looks more than the playing aspect of them. But the one that never got away was an old American Standard. It became my keeper strat. Great playability and tone...until it got stolen. I guess I'm cursed when it comes to Fenders.
I think Fender nailed it in the 60's . . . my best Strat is a 1989 Korean (all because of the neck) that I reloaded with 1st Generation Vintage Noiseless pickups.
some people just have a playing style that fits with strats perfectly like jimi, srv etc. i dont, not bad guitars by any means i own one but i just prefer gibson (humbuckers) for the way i play, just suits me better.
I have owned briefly six or seven Stratocaster‘s I hated all of them but then I stumbled across the best Stratocaster I’ve ever played it was a USA customs guitar parts Strat with Callaham hardware and then I put in a set of fender deluxe drive higher output Strat pick ups with a 500 K volume pot and I love the guitar now - it sounds and plays beautifully
Callaham hardware is really exceptional quality. I plan to use them on my builds. Some people seem to think the saddles make it sound too bright, do you have that experience at all?
I love the sound of my Strats. I just don't really enjoy playing them, for me they are just a tool to get a sound but I would never use one outside of just getting the Strat sound.
