Looks, playability, versatility, tones, endless modifications. Keep going.......

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

Way lighter than Jags, JMs, Mosrites, Hallmarks, Pauls, at least if you choose your strat carefully. Bridge much less fussy but also easily replaced by inexpensive roller saddles. If you ruin a part by modification you can easily replace it.

Steinberger USA guitars with strat styling (GM series) have different advantages: they stay in tune despite any/all vibrato use, the neck never needs adjustment regardless of string gauges or weather, lighter weight, far more compact, easy access to high frets, string set change and tuning complete in 5 minutes, no tone change with volume change, very low string action, single coils have Fender tone, humbuckers are twangy like Duane Eddy, and they have a sense of individuality common brands don't.

Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com

Last edited: Aug 16, 2020 14:05:05

Good output jack.

• Great feeling vibrato arm action. I just prefer the placement and feel over pretty much any other trem system.

• Easy to set up the bridge, saddles, claw, etc, or maybe i'm just used to setting it up so I've gotten pretty good at it.

• Multiple great tones on the pickup switch. I dig all the switch positions at different times.

• Classic timeless look without looking genre specific. I like it.

• Sonically flexible. From surf to blues to rock to punk to metal, you can find a Strat (pickups will vary obviously).

• Main reason, I don't have a Jazzmaster, Jag, or any other guitar that is would be useful for surf. Will always love the Strat though.

Last edited: Aug 16, 2020 17:30:10

I see my strat collection as a hot rod car collection. Plenty of tinkering and upgrading that can be done on these incredible instruments!

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

psychonaut wrote:

I'm really happy with the result.

You should be!! GORGEOUS!!

• Jamie
  SSS Agent #181
  Cartoons drenched in reverb!
  The Mystery Men?
  El Capitan & The Reluctant Sadists

I started on a Jazzmaster and have yet to try a strat. They seem cool though.

Last edited: Aug 17, 2020 09:36:17

Strats? They're OK....

Ivan
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Hahahaha! Well, as luck (ha!) would have it, that picture is several years old, and my current collection numbers 14! I sold the gold-sparkle Strat that's on the floor (an incredible Custom Shop guitar, but the neck was just too big for my hands), and bought a new Schecter US-made Strat in '18 and an '88-'89 MIJ/MIA-hybrid Contemporary Strat just a few months after that. But I've not purchased a Strat in two years now!!! That 12-step program has really been paying off!!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

To actually answer David's question from the subject line:

Growing up, to me the Strat was the epitome of the electric guitar. Its looks are just what the electric guitar is supposed to look like. And having grown up in the era of the guitar heroes, most of them (certainly all my favorites) played Strats - and the way those Strats looked on them, the way they hung on their bodies and really seemingly became one with their bodies, just seemed perfect to me. To me a Strat is still the most perfectly-designed object ever! It's balanced just right, all the elements are exactly right, and even something like the location of the volume knob or the pickup switch or the middle pickup, often all mentioned as big challenges for players not used to Strats, can actually become valuable features if you get used to them and know how to make use of them. (One of the reasons I stopped playing a Jazzmaster is that I really didn't like how it hung on me or looked on me, it just seemed wrong with that large lower part of the body due to the offset design.)

Then there's the sound. It can go from the most thunderous sound EVER of Dick Dale to the most delicate tone EVER of something like the Shadows' "Cozy". Its range of tones and sound is simply unmatched, given the three pickups and the extreme sensitivity to the player's touch.

Finally, speaking of the player's touch, I believe it emphasizes the player's personality and idiosyncrasies the most of any electric guitar design, ever. A Les Paul heavily imposes its own sound on the player, and most players playing a Les Paul, sound very much alike to my ears. I do believe that that's somewhat the case in surf with the offsets, too. But no two Strat players sound alike. Dick sounds NOTHING like Hank Marvin, and neither of them sound anything like Ritchie Blackmore, to mention three of my favorites, or Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc. I remember reading an interview many years ago with Blackmore where he said exactly that, I didn't come up with it. His claim was that everybody sounds the same playing a Gibson, mostly because they're pretty easy to play. But a Strat is NOT easy to play, and it requires you to wrestle with it and have your technique together to make it sound good. But when you do, it rewards you by allowing you to develop your own sound more than any other guitar.

There you go, that's my take on it! No offense intended to any lovers of those other guitars!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube