Question for guitarists: What's up with old dudes who have two dozen strats but no other guitars?

You’ll have to become an old dude to find out

don't know man
I love Teles

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Nice little jam. Teles have the "classic" sound.
He also dialed in the eq for that video. Each amp has its own sound and if you really want to get an amazing tone you gotta adjust the eq

I'm a guitarist and i dont care about the name if I find a guitar that plays good and its a new name thats a secret right there

About secrets any one find out any cool shit about guitars that not everyone would know

No offense but I can't even tell with a cellphone. I would need to hear it from a good head set or speakers

Really whats worked for you with EQ

Sometimes it’s just a color choice

Groovy

My first ex has a 66 gold lame Strat, and a Tele from Jan of 1952. He also has a couple of Martins.
I don't know any old dudes with only strats. Not sure it's a phenomenon.

I'm an old dude and I have 1 strat, 2 epies SG and Les paul, 1 ibanez, peavey T-60, 1 Yamaha, 1 alvarez.

None of which I'm very good at, I have extra time on my hands now I should pick them up again.

If you play in a band or are a serious student.

You need multiple guitars. Usually of he same type.

One is your main instrument.

Two is you back-up.

Three is in the shop waiting of parts.


On stratocasters:


Not all Stratocasters are the same. Some have EMG's




Some have lace sensors:



Some come with a floyd rose

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Some come with a scalloped fretboard,
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And over the years they have come with a variety of neck shapes.

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A stratocaster is a type of guitar like a dog is a type of animal.

The simple fact is that much of the classic guitar work was done on strats. Good guitarists of old liked them a lot.

Way more options than what you described... tone woods, neck profiles, bridge setups, etc...

I’m not a collector but have owned tons.

My explanation:

Strats are best for clean or light crunch tones, LP-style guitars are best for heavy distortion. If you play all kinds of styles you'll want all kinds of guitars, but if you only play softer stuff you'll only need strats.

I personally only have one strat and one LP-style electric, the rest of my guitars are acoustics and a dobro. Out of all these the LP clone is the one I use the least. I could live without it, but I keep it around just in case!

Humbuckerphobia is Real!!!

Old dude with about 20 guitars and all the recording goodies too.

I think there are two answers to this....

1.) Some guys find a particular guitar they love and keep buying it.

2.0 Fanboy worship shit. The ones that make me lmao are the Gibson fanboys. The least innovative, most overpriced, stuck in the 60s, worse QC on the planet, broken headstock luthiers dream of manufacturers!

Oh...and to the pipe dreamers going on about tone woods...that debate is settled, you're fucking wrong!! Same goes for speaker cabs.

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One more observation...Stratocasters are designed more like Minivans...designed to be pretty good at a bunch of different things. If you look at an guitar like an EVH EBMM or his signature Peavey Wolfgang (not the fender shit, that's post sell out for money) that guitar is like a Lamborghini...Its designed to do one thing really fucking well.

I have a couple of minivans in my collection...but most are lambos.

My b ooma dad has a dozen of the same guitars. I have no idea why. I know he likes to make sure his bank is zeroed out each month, in ancient -American fashion.

I chased Strats like that for a while until I got my Jeff Beck Sig. strat. It’s perfect and I don’t think about another one unless it has a really unique sparkle finish or something.

While what you say is correct about the type of tones they create. This has todo with 3 things, the pickups, the controls in the guitar (pots and caps) and the Amplifier...thats it. The shape, and wood have Waaaaaaay less to do with it.

I posted a video above...but look up Jim Lill's YouTube channel. He's a Nashville session guy who did a ton of experiments to prove or disprove tone woods.

Also, to see the same experiments with speaker cabinets, see specter sound studios YouTube channel. He got killer tones out of a cab made of partial board.

True that. Some people have a religious faith in single coils.

Meanwhile, my strat has "noiseless single coils" from Mojotone. They're actually drop-in replacement humbuckers, but engineered to look like single coils and to have the same frequency response as vintage single coils.

Not all "noiseless single coils" are any good, but these particular ones get 95 % of the sparkly single-coil tone, without any of the hum. A worthy tradeoff IMO.



Pretty wood is prettier than ugly wood. And light wood is lighter to lug around than heavy wood.

That's about all the difference wood choice makes for an electric. Maybe there's a 1 % difference in tone, but it's completely swamped by other factors and not worth worrying about.

No argument there.

The strat has a couple of design quirks that define its sound. One is the lower output pickups that are brighter than the typical humbucker, giving a "chimey" quality. Another is the weirdly angled bridge pickup that sits very close to the bridge for the high E. This gives the bridge pickup a "funky" character you won't find on any other guitars. Finally there's a middle pickup that alone or with one of the others give a sort of "quacky" tone.

The telecaster has that same funky bridge pickup, but lacks the middle pickup. Using it with the other pickup produces a sound not available on the strat, and that's really the only thing that makes the tele special.

Anything with a fat humbucker in bridge position gives you the basic high-gain tone you need for harder music. It doesn't matter if it's an LP clone or a Superstrat or anything else, as long as you have this bridge pickup and it's a good one you're ready to go for heavy distortion.

I honestly think the above sums up 90 % of what anyone needs to know about guitar tone. The rest is just minor differences, and different form factors giving different feels when you play the guitar.

I wish I still had my T-60, that thing was built like a tank.
I bet it's still in tune somewhere

I had a Peavey T-15. Gave it away in college.

Stupid move.

everyone knows that the best guitars are made from the shit you find in your shed

Strat control placement is obnoxious.

Short scales and offsets are where it's at.

Agreed. Now if they called it "resonating wood" or "sustain wood" that would be a much more accurate representation of the facts than this pie in the sky "tone wood" shit. It makes great marketing and creates a lot of suckers though.

The greats all sound exactly like themselves no matter what guitar they are playing. Watch Pete Thorn on YT play his $150 acoustic.