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How to be a Gear Snob:
Fender Stratocaster
The Original American Beauty
By Corralee Booth |
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She was born to Leo Fender in 1954. Hand crafted with care she
was given a revolutionary shape, revolutionary sound, and a great
'spacey new ideals' type of a name. It was perfect timing, she rock
and rolled her way into the hearts of America and helped shape rock
out of rhythm and blues. Her newest version is my topic of exploration
today as I am most fond of the New American Series Stratocastor.
The new American Strat has an extra fret making it a 22 fret instrument.
The fingerboard has hand rolled edges for smooth comfort and ease
of playing. The neck is maple but may sport a richer sounding darker
piece of rosewood on the fret board if you wish, which is always
handy for grinding out some vibrato. Jumbo frets are also handy
for vibrato and bending and basically just makes it easier to nail
your notes.
The machine heads are staggered. This causes more downward pressure
on the strings. It also forces you to string the instrument correctly
by winding each string one wrap below the next, enforcing a downward
pressure for better sustain and a neater wrap for less string breakage
and better tuning capabilities.
The body is either Alder or Ash, depending on which model you buy.
Ash is by far the best looking wood for the body. Natural, white
blonde or sunburst finishes are available , so you can see the tell
tale stripy grainy appearance of the ash wood. Not only that, but
its nice to see exactly what you are getting. All these colors I
have mentioned are an up charge because they have to choose a better
piece of wood. Hooray for better wood, gear snobs, rejoice! No knots
or mismatched chunks of wood for us thanks and we'll gladly pay
the up charge. Not to say, that a solid color will have those flaws,
but if you are a see it to believe it person, stick to the translucent
finishes.
You get one volume and 2 tone knobs on this Strat guitar. This is
where personal preference really comes into play in finding your
own sound. Volume is self explanatory, but the first tone is for
the neck pickup and the second is a no load tone for the middle
and the bridge. Tone is a high end roll off - at 1 there is less
high end and at 10 your getting the truest brightest sound out of
your pickup. It always affects the tone of the pickup unless you
have a no load pot. When you are dialing up your tone, you'll notice
that it clicks in at 10 and bypasses the pot so you're only getting
the real for real sound of those awesome alnico pickups. If warmer
and softer is what you're after maybe dial it back a bit closer
to 1.
You also have a 5 position toggle switch. When it is facing the
neck, you are using only the neck pickup (this is what I will refer
to as the first position). Its a very nice warm tone. In the second
position, you are using the neck and the middle pickup. Both of
these settings are great for a real warm sort of a rock sound and
soloing. The third position is only the middle pickup, the fourth
position is the middle pickup and the bridge pickup and the fifth
position is strictly for the bridge pickup. You'll notice that the
last two positions are great for country twang with a real bright
sound.
Our final stop on the Stratocaster tour is the bridge. There is
a 2 point synchronized trem with stainless saddles. I love these
saddles. They seem to rattle less, they don't twist around as bad
when you break a string and need to replace mid-jam or worse yet,
gig, and I have witnessed less bridge based string breakage which
I can only assume, it means less burrs seem to form on the dyecast
surface. If you are not a trem person and don't intend on using
it, by all means, go hard tail. The American series Strat is available
in a hardtail version. The theory here is that if there is more
solid contact of string and bridge to the guitar, there is more
possibility for vibration. Vibration= resonance, sustain, enhanced
aging of the wood for richer prettier tones.
Of the last 20 strats I have unboxed and sold at my store, none
had serious dead spots on the neck, or lumps, bad finishes, bad
wood, twisted necks, and all were set up okay with decent enough
intonation. They are easy to set up, do neck adjustments and restring
so upkeep is easy, and included even, is a set of strap locks, a
polishing cloth, a strap, a case, and a cable. How great is that?
The Original American Beauty gets a 20 out of 20. What an awesome
guitar.
How To Set It Up
Jimi Hendrix set his stratocaster on fire in front of a 100
watt Super lead Marshall stack. Stevie Ray Vaughn rode his stratocaster
like a surf board in front of Dumbel amps, Fender Bassmans, and
for cleaner tones, Marshall amps.
Basically, the Fender Stratocaster will sound good with most amps
because it is so versatile and that's part of the reason for its
enduring success. Its not really a hardcore, nu-metal, aggressive
sort of a guitar and it definitely sounds best with a tube amp either
clean or with an over drive rather than all-out distortion. A nice
speaker choice would be a 4X10 combo to really bring out bell like
tones and a growling midrange; perfect for punk, blues, and of course
rock and roll.
Fender makes great 4X10 combos called the Hot Rod Deville and the
'59 bassman reissue. |
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Want more Music Resources? Amanda Garrigues is a singer and
songwriter based in Gainesville, Florida. She runs her own label,
Average Sinner Records. She has contributed many great columns to
WOMANROCK.com including:
From the Couch to Carnegie Hall
Opening the Heart and Soul
How to Care for Your Voice
Being Sick on the Road
The Tour
Safety on the Road
The Art of the Music Conference
Distribution for Indies: How
to sell CD's without a Major Label
Mastering: What Is It Good For?
The Path of the Song: Deconstructing
the Songwriting Process
EQ That Guitar!
Choose Your Acoustic Wisely
In the Booth: Getting a Good
Vocal
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Corralee
Booth is a writer, musician and self proclaimed gear Goddess. She
sells and reviews gear at Guitarworks and plays bass for the Alberta
based, all girl band, Dragonfly. |
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