Help me buy a Strat!!!

[PaulHurley]

Cheers for all the tips guys! I'm going to try out as many Strats as I can before making a choice.

By the way, has anyone ever played a Billy Corgan signature Strat? Looks and sounds good from all the reviews I've seen.

[Bingefeller]

If you want a Strat with a trem then the Jeff Beck Strat is excellent. I had one and really liked it and never had any problems when using the trem. I think, although am not 100% certain, that the pickups are a little hotter than normal Strat pickups.

[dindude]

If you want a Strat with a trem then the Jeff Beck Strat is excellent. I had one and really liked it and never had any problems when using the trem. I think, although am not 100% certain, that the pickups are a little hotter than normal Strat pickups.

SShhhh, you'll have the 6-point-police all over you!

[PaulHurley]

If you want a Strat with a trem then the Jeff Beck Strat is excellent. I had one and really liked it and never had any problems when using the trem. I think, although am not 100% certain, that the pickups are a little hotter than normal Strat pickups.

Being a huge Jeff Beck fan, that was a Strat I originally had in mind.

I have never tried one though. Isn't the neck very thick? How playable is it?

[dindude]

Also a huge Beck fan (although I don't use the trem nearly as much as he), but two things put me off the Beck signature when I tried it - didn't care much for the ceramic noisless pups or the poly finish. The neck on the newer ones (post lace sensor) are quite managable and very nice.

When I was in the market for a similar Strat I bought one of these:
http://www.musicradar.com/gear/guita...ocaster-217932

It just had the right combo of vintage and modern features for me, and sounds amazing. You will get one s/h within your budget if you can find one, or Guitar Guitar still has a few NOS knocking around if you push your budget a little (makes sure it's a 2009/2010 - after this the Custome Deluxe got a Urethane finish, heal sculpting, different pups and went a little "too" modern for my tatses). 3 years on and I don't regret it one bit, lovely Strat.

[Sir Axeman]

Being a huge Jeff Beck fan, that was a Strat I originally had in mind.

I have never tried one though. Isn't the neck very thick? How playable is it?

Necks on JB Strats aint baseball bat types anymore...Fender learned that keeping it huge was keeping sales down..so they changed it and thus the guitars future sales!

If I was you and had that kind of money to splurge I'd look no further than a mint but used USA Deluxe with the compound radius board. Nice!

[Bingefeller]

Necks on JB Strats aint baseball bat types anymore...Fender learned that keeping it huge was keeping sales down..so they changed it and thus the guitars future sales!

If I was you and had that kind of money to splurge I'd look no further than a mint but used USA Deluxe with the compound radius board. Nice!

This basically. The neck is normal, I think it's a C shape.

I agree with the suggestion regarding the USA deluxe, I had a tele deluxe, with the compound radius neck, and it was fantastic.

[crunchman]

If I was you and had that kind of money to splurge I'd look no further than a mint but used USA Deluxe with the compound radius board. Nice!

Make sure you compare the tone to a vintage style Strat with a 6 screw trem and real single coils before you buy though.

[DrBob]

If you want a real Fender then there is a huge range. Here are a few things to bear in mind.

Generally, the vintage style bridge with 6 screws is perceived to have better tone, definitely I would say that the best soundng Strats I've played have had the vintage style bridge. The modern style one might have slightly better tuning stability if you use the trem a lot, although the vintage one never bothered Jimi.

Given quite how hard he used to hammer the thing I can't help but feel if you'd presented Jimi with the choice of a two point tremolo & slippery nut allied to a set of Sperzels or indeed a Floyd that he'd have jumped at the chance to use them for the performance enhancement they do offer.

Whilst I do agree that a carefully set up vintage style strat trem can work well and give good tuning stability I'd argue that it's a lot easier to equal if not exceed that level of stability with a more modern system.

That said, there is the issue of impact on sound to consider. Mind you I suppose the flipside of the "It never bothered Jimi" argument is that Jeff Beck doesn't seem too concerned about the impact the 2 point trem has on his tone.

[dindude]

Given quite how hard he used to hammer the thing I can't help but feel if you'd presented Jimi with the choice of a two point tremolo & slippery nut allied to a set of Sperzels or indeed a Floyd that he'd have jumped at the chance to use them for the performance enhancement they do offer.

Whilst I do agree that a carefully set up vintage style strat trem can work well and give good tuning stability I'd argue that it's a lot easier to equal if not exceed that level of stability with a more modern system.

That said, there is the issue of impact on sound to consider. Mind you I suppose the flipside of the "It never bothered Jimi" argument is that Jeff Beck doesn't seem too concerned about the impact the 2 point trem has on his tone.

The best compromise I've found is have the two-point trem with vintage style saddles - looks more pleasing to the eye to me, and has a marginal effect on tone, not better or worse than the block saddles, just slightly different.
I also can't help but think Jimi wouldn't have given two-poos about the tonal difference of a two point trem when placed into a cranked Marshall and Fuzz Face.