Lets look at our guitars thread
Discussion
speak to me about strats .
I never gelled with fenders before,always found the neck just felt wrong in my hands .But I am acquiring some new guitar things amps etc and do feel the need for a single coil guitar .Can anyone explain the various necks on a strat to me ? I usually play prs and in the past gibsons and those are the sort of necks I am comfortable with.
I never gelled with fenders before,always found the neck just felt wrong in my hands .But I am acquiring some new guitar things amps etc and do feel the need for a single coil guitar .Can anyone explain the various necks on a strat to me ? I usually play prs and in the past gibsons and those are the sort of necks I am comfortable with.
Necks on '60s Strats tend to be slimmer and the reissues reflect that. On the other hand I have a '54 reissue Strat and the neck is like a baseball bat! I don't mind this though; rather reminds me of the '59 reissue Les Paul I used to have.
I seem to get used to various necks quite quite quickly, so perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask about this!
If you're into distortion though, steer clear of single-coils, they sound horrible. (IMO of course, others may find it just the sound they're looking for.)
I seem to get used to various necks quite quite quickly, so perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask about this!
If you're into distortion though, steer clear of single-coils, they sound horrible. (IMO of course, others may find it just the sound they're looking for.)
franki68 said:
speak to me about strats .
I never gelled with fenders before,always found the neck just felt wrong in my hands .But I am acquiring some new guitar things amps etc and do feel the need for a single coil guitar .Can anyone explain the various necks on a strat to me ? I usually play prs and in the past gibsons and those are the sort of necks I am comfortable with.
The older Jeff Beck Strat necks are like wielding a Baseball bat...I never gelled with fenders before,always found the neck just felt wrong in my hands .But I am acquiring some new guitar things amps etc and do feel the need for a single coil guitar .Can anyone explain the various necks on a strat to me ? I usually play prs and in the past gibsons and those are the sort of necks I am comfortable with.
Hopefully going to have some seven string goodness joining me at the end of the month - might be able to get a small family photo as half of my gear is spread out all over the place right now!
I've got an 80's Japanese Strat with a 'vintage' 7.5" radius neck, which feels really comfortable although does need a slightly higher action than later ones with a flatter radius. More recent Strats have 9.5" radius necks, which are obviously flatter and make bending slightly easier, with some higher end Strats having compound radius necks, getting flatter towards the bridge.
I have a PRS 245 SE as well, which has a very wide, flat neck, so there may be some adjustment to be made and you might find the Strat difficult to love at first, but it's worth sticking with.
I love the distorted sound of my Strat, although I have swapped out to a set of Seymour Duncan SSL-1 / SSL-5's. It cuts through really well in a band setting and to me is much more versatile than the PRS, which doesn't do the cleans nearly as well.
Having said that, have you considered a Tele? You may find that's the sweet spot for you.
I have a PRS 245 SE as well, which has a very wide, flat neck, so there may be some adjustment to be made and you might find the Strat difficult to love at first, but it's worth sticking with.
I love the distorted sound of my Strat, although I have swapped out to a set of Seymour Duncan SSL-1 / SSL-5's. It cuts through really well in a band setting and to me is much more versatile than the PRS, which doesn't do the cleans nearly as well.
Having said that, have you considered a Tele? You may find that's the sweet spot for you.
smn159 said:
I've got an 80's Japanese Strat with a 'vintage' 7.5" radius neck, which feels really comfortable although does need a slightly higher action than later ones with a flatter radius.
Me too...had mine since 1982, only recently fitted Bareknuckle Apaches to it, I think it sounds good through my Marshall Mini Jubilee head/cab, but obviously needs different eq settings to my humbucker guitars.For the OP, you can get Fenders with 12" radius fingerboards which is pretty much what most Gibsons have, though the string spacing may still be slightly different depending on model. Then the possibilities of thicker or slimmer necks to add to the choices.
Oddly I can accept the difference between my Les Paul Studio (slim taper neck) and my Fenders (which are all 7.25" radius/vintage frets), but I can't get on with Fenders with >7.25" radius and bigger than vintage frets. That's more my limitation through mostly playing the '82 Strat over the last 30+ years though.
I'd also second the idea of trying a Telecaster: A late arrival to my collection, but now I have two, one with single coils and the other posted further back modified for twin humbuckers. I particularly liked the single coil one played through my old Orange Tiny Terror head/cab with some gain applied, but the clean stuff sounds amazing into my new Fender '64 Custom Deluxe reverb.
I have a Strat that was built for me by a friend for exactly the reason that I prefer Gibson necks to Fender ones, although a good thick Tele neck does work for me. We put a set of Klein S1 pickups on into a Fender Custom shop body and put a wider "D" profile neck on, rather than the usual "C" profile associated with Strats. I find it much more comfortable to play than any other Strat I've ever played; the wider, thicker neck feels much more familiar.
That being said, I also got hold of a Tele with three pickups in it and some interesting switching options and it plays much more how I want a guitar to play, and Strat sounds are easily coaxed out of it - leaving the Strat in a cupboard doing nothing. The Strat may well be up for sale if you were interested.
That being said, I also got hold of a Tele with three pickups in it and some interesting switching options and it plays much more how I want a guitar to play, and Strat sounds are easily coaxed out of it - leaving the Strat in a cupboard doing nothing. The Strat may well be up for sale if you were interested.
angusfaldo said:
It is a Chapman Stick - the most recent version of it. Rather than being made of wood it is made from a anodised aluminium. Mine’s a 10 string with melody tuned in 4ths and bass in 5ths (Emmett calls this raised matched reciprocal tuning). Also it has an added GK3 pickup which makes dicking about with midi and a Roland GR55 fun.
Ive been playing guitar for 40 years. None of that playing prepared me for the learning needed for this!
I love the idea of the Chapman Stick but I've found that even among owners, very few can play them convincingly. It's an instrument of it's own, like a piano - particularly idiosyncratic since the pitches on each side ascend towards the outside of the neck. I recall Stuart Hamm saying he had never been drawn to one because he didn't have the time or inclination to learn to play it to donit justice. Tony Levin's usage of it was frankly a bit embarrassing. I always thought he took it out on stage for effect only as he never played anything on it that he couldn't have played with ease on a conventional instrument. Ive been playing guitar for 40 years. None of that playing prepared me for the learning needed for this!
I dug up a few photos of my newest bass at the Gallery at Camden.
vsonix said:
Well, I just picked up this badboy (girl? Is it a badgirl?) today, it's an entry level Jackson Kelly hardtail, [...]
I'm starting to really love this guitar. Aside from the fact that it's impossible to put it down on just about any surface apart from a stand with a moving bottom piece, I'm really warming to the benefits of the body shape, turns out there's a healthy dose of function in with the form. First up, the balance on the strap is perfect for playing standing up. It's slightly body-heavy so it means the neck naturally likes to rise slightly to meet the hand. When you play sitting down you can easily get an almost classical style seating posture. Not only that but if you rest your arm on the upper rear 'fin' of the guitar it counterbalances, so that again, the neck is almost 'floating' in the right place. I'm now totally motivated to find a 'full-fat' one with the through-neck design rather than bolt-on and a Floyd. I thought I'd never want another Floyd Rose-equipped guitar since I sold my last one in 1998! But form and function aside, considering I paid beer money for this guitar, it plays so well. The PO told me they'd had it properly set up by Mansons of Exeter ages ago, and compared to the other cheap Jackson I just bought, which is essentially the same in everything apart from body shape, you can really feel the difference in the playability - if this hadn't have been done I think I wouldn't be bonding with it nearly so much as the neck on the blue one definitely has the odd high fret here and there. It had ancient, rusty strings on it when I bought it, I've ditched them and put Elixirs on and it feels like new now! I'm definitely tempted to sink a few quid into modding it, these are a few of my thoughts so far. I've already replaced the chrome knobs for black Les Paul style ones with clear perspex, and it looks way better.
1) New machine heads, preferably locking. Schaller? Or what other options are available? Existing machine heads are OK but do slip a little when doing a lot of bendy stuff.
2) Swap out plastic nut for graphite. Strings tend to snag on the nut at the machine head side due to sharp headstock angle, resulting in imprecise tuning performance although swapping the machine heads may ameliorate this anyway.
3) Remove cheap bright white position markers and replace with abalone. The bright white is just too garish.
4) Replace OEM pickups with some tappable/splittable Iron Gear (thinking something like Steam Hammers) then
5) Replace 3-way switch with 5-way for selecting split coils and maybe
6) a push-push pot for phase
7) consider a different bridge
after all this I think I should have a really good guitar on my hands!
vsonix said:
Don1 said:
Forgot to share this when I got it. It's a bit of a mess, but cleaned, oiled and restrung it's not too bad. Neck feels like a Les Paul. My wife brought it for me as something fun.
Mockingbird is a classic shape! Way back in 1988.
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