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why not play both and choose what you like best? Personally if i only had one solidbody it would be a strat (although i like teles more
). But regarding strings, i feel solidbodies do their thing with lighter strings, 10s or 11s. It s worth to try it, i think it works better for most music styles than having a strat with 12s or 13s..
I 'd look for a used mexican fender strat, if possible find a store with many and choose the best available
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01-05-2018 07:22 AM
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Back to pickup choice: to me, the whole charm of a strat or a tele are its wonderful single coils (vintage/traditional voiced if you please). Put a humbucker in there, and the magic is gone (for me, of course). Also, I don’t see why if you have to play it with gain you have to go humbucker. Have a cigar, La Grange, Stairway to Heaven, Comfortably Numb, In Repair, etc etc etc… so many great overdriven single coil sounds – the best ones to my ears. So do yourself a favor and at least try out a couple of traditionally-made strats and teles.
As for strings. You want to be able to bend those strings a bit, right? Pure nickel 11s are a good choice to me. .10s might also work well for you. I don’t think there is any real advantage to playing a solidbody with .13s!
Happy quest!
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While I agree with what you've said here, SRV might disagree with that...lol
Originally Posted by radiofm74
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True. He’s the only one I’ve ever heard tell of that played such massive strings in modern times. And not coincidentally, he tuned 1/2 down. Originally Posted by Brian B
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And had to superglue his finger tips back together after gigs...lol Originally Posted by radiofm74
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I think your first tele should be a tele... The standard pickup setup (no humbucker). The 50s classic vibe tele has a great value to price ratio. Imo, mine plays better than the American Standards I've tried.
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For solid bodies I have a Strat with Fender 57/62 reissue pickups and a PRS Artist II with humbuckers. Pretty much conjures up all the blues and rock tones I know. At least I thought they did. Now that I have the 175 it’s as if the world of ‘50s rock is now available.
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Are you going to jazz on this guitar?
If so, then a nice tele is going to make more sense.
I'd go for an American standard.
Personally, when it comes to strats vs teles, I'm one of each kinda guy . . .
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FWIW, I have a Strat, a Tele, and a Jazzmaster. They are all partscasters with high quality parts. I have never liked the stock Strat tremolo because of the spongy feel, so it is a hardtail. The Jazzmaster is a 12 string, and the Tele only has a neck humbucker. I love all three. They play very similar to each other but they also sound very different from each other as well.
The best part of the OP's dilemma is that Fender type guitars are easy to find to try out unlike a lot of the archtops that people ask about. Go shopping!
P.S. I haven't given up on a tremolo guitar. I just haven't figured out what I should do yet. It's not a priority though.
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FWIW I used to play on 11s. I kind of enjoyed bragging to other players how I was so tough to be able to pull off massive bends with strings that thick. However, I've since grown up and I find I can be more musically expressive with less effort on 9s. "NINES!?! Thats weak sauce!" Maybe, but they are so easy to play, and I can go for hours with little to no discomfort.
Oh and the cork sniffers will tell me my tone suffers from running too thin of a string. I can hardly tell the difference to be honest.
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I would definitely recommend at least trying 11s on whichever solid body you get. I think most rock players use 10s. Originally Posted by NSJ
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I switched from .010 to .011 a few years ago, and can't imagine going back. .009s would feel like air to me.
I've met a few metal guys that like .008s. Of course, these are the same guys complaining that their Triple Rectifiers don't have enough gain.
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I have done two Warmoth Strats with Wilkinson tremolos and I find them vastly superior to the Fender tremolo units. They operate smoothly and they stay in tune really well. I can recommend them! Originally Posted by lammie200
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when I play rock, I use 10s on 25.5 guitars and 11s on 24-3/4 ... that appears to be comfy Originally Posted by Boston Joe
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Hmmm, I wonder if there was ever a rock guitar player who played a Stratocaster, maybe a white one through, say, a Marshall stack. Inconceivable! Originally Posted by Lobomov
John
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I have been thinking about going that route. I actually built a Steinberger copy for comfort and to see how I would like a tremolo, but practically any Fender type is more comfortable and the tremolo unit with the tuners is not that friendly for just tuning the guitar. It is hard to get leverage on the knobs to tune it to the standard tuning. Originally Posted by Frank67
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Do it! I don’t think I’ll buy another Fender guitar. I know that what I am getting from Warmoth is better and tweaked to my taste - and costs less than half of a Fender custom shop or even less if you buy a bit budget conscious (‘screamin’ deals at Warmoth). I have one Fender Strat and it is quite alright ... but when it comes down to it, I like my Warmoth Strats better.
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I like teles, but for pop and rock, I think I'd have to go strat. I'd very possibly change the pickups though, or get an SSH or HSH version. I have a partscaster strat I built that has a red-silver-blue Lace Sensor set, and that is a great, versatile guitar. There aren't that many different sounding pickups available to fit in the tele pickup slots, and a lot of variations made to fit strat pickup slots. Hate to say it, but strats are more comfortable to use also. A classic tele is a great guitar, with distinctive tones, and I know the neck pickup can do jazz with the tone rolled back a bit, but I never quite understand the claims to superior versatility beyond that, to be honest. Just my tuppence worth though, and each to his or her own.
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I've never had a Strat, in fact never even really played one before...they are iconic guitars, though, and there are some sounds you can only get with a Strat with springs (and a tremolo)--Jimi, SRV, Knopfler.
I have a Tele and can't disagree that they are Swiss-Army knife guitars. If you want to play jazz on your solid body, I think Tele is the way to go.
I will throw this out there, though, that one of my idols in the past was Adrian Belew, who does things to guitars not really humanly possible, and he was the world's biggest Strat guy, but now he has gone full-bore Parker Fly. Loves the ergonomics and sound.
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Lone voice apparently for the Strat here. I don't know about "swiss army knife" guitars. A Strat with three single coils (humbuckers on a Strat always says "cheap" to me) is a Strat. Don't get it because you can fake a Gibson ES175 on it. Get it because it is Strat. First guitar I ever owned. First guitar I tried to make. If I'm plugging in, it is still the guitar I reach for (although to be fair, I don't go pure electric guitar much anymore.)
They sound great, play great, are very comfortable, and are hard rocking. Bridge/mid for that Strat sound is unique. Tele doesn't sound like that. ES-335 isn't that.
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BTW, getting a neck-bridge Tele tone from a strat is not a difficult mod.
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As a "Swiss army knife" solidbody a Line6 Variax is probably hard to beat.
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I hate the sound of the Strat bridge pickup. I have a 'bucker in mine because it's an actual usable sound. I prefer the neck/mid sound to the mid/bridge sound. Now, I've seen guys play jazz on strats even with very unorthodox tones. I saw an old guy play with an extremely bright, wiry tone, and he made it work. No idea how. Originally Posted by rlrhett
I don't think Teles are so versitile because they have a huge range of sounds; but rather because the sounds they do make are usable in almost every genre of music.
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Yeah, call me old fashioned, but I just can't bring myself to consider a guitar with software. Originally Posted by Fidelcaster
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To each his own, I guess. I tend to use the other sounds more, but I like the sound of my Strat's bridge pickup -- with the tone rolled off a bit and an overdriven sound, it's pretty fat. Mine also has the "tbx" tone control and I can get the bridge to sound very much like a Tele with it. Originally Posted by Boston Joe
I have nothing against Tele; I just don't happen to have one. But I do think the prevailing sentiment especially here) that Tele's are good for jazz and Strats are not is off. They both can work.
John
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