Are stratocasters the most 'needy' guitars in terms of pedals?

HamishR said:
I think you're right. Mind you, I think ALL guitars sound best in a lower gain setting! When you crank the dirt the white noise starts to overpower the actual guitar sound. Then you may as well be playing a Squier (no disrespect to Squiers).
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Many Squiers don't sound bad at all.

I just worked on a friend's 1991 US Tele and it sounds horrible. Muddy neck pickup, harsh bridge pickup. His 2013 Squier Strat otoh sounds like a Strat.

My 2022 Squier Jazzmaster sounds great and just like a Jazzmaster should.
 
That's why I said no disrespect to Squier. My point was that you might as well be playing a good but inexpensive guitar if you're going to smother single coils in loads of dirt. Any subtle differences between models will be obscured.

I have quite a passionate dislike of those Fender USA models with the cast saddles and plastic bobbin pickups.
 
Laundryroom David said:
It really depends on the pickups and what sound appeals to you. My main guitar for 30+ years has been one Strat or another.

I’m a big fan of Fender’s’57/‘62 pickups. I rarely use the neck pickup. I wire mine for tone control on the bridge pickup. A dimed fuzz face with the tone rolled back to 4 or 5 on the bridge pup is pretty magnificent. YMMV.
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YES to the 57/62s! They sound exactly like I imagine a Strat should, but the trade off is there’s not a lot of push. My other Strat is a stock EJ Signature. The pickups are slightly hotter but still firmly in the “vintage output” category.

I primarily use the neck pickup however, and my Tone controls are wired for Neck and Bridge, which leaves the Middle unencumbered in the 3 position.

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Regarding Strats in general: Let it be a Strat. The instrument has a softness to it that I really enjoy, whereas the Tele has the single coil sound with more punch and a tighter attack. I wouldn’t use either to approximate the other.

ps. My pedalboard has been static for nearly 4 years. I build pedals because I want to, not because I’m unhappy with my sound!
 
I've been told the neck on my strat feels like a 60s. I've never played a 60's so I don't know. I do know the blue, silver and especially the red lace pickups in my strat plus deluxe do EVERYthing I need them to and then some. The gold lace ones I used to have in my old regular one were a little lacking in the nuts department and always had me wishing for a bridge humbucker.
 
I played rhythm guitar on a Strat for years into a Twin Reverb, the only effects I used much were mild overdrive, reverb, chorus and delay. I did have several overdrives I could stack and at least a Rat or a Muff on standby.
 
coltonius said:
YES to the 57/62s! They sound exactly like I imagine a Strat should, but the trade off is there’s not a lot of push. My other Strat is a stock EJ Signature. The pickups are slightly hotter but still firmly in the “vintage output” category.

I primarily use the neck pickup however, and my Tone controls are wired for Neck and Bridge, which leaves the Middle unencumbered in the 3 position.

___
Regarding Strats in general: Let it be a Strat. The instrument has a softness to it that I really enjoy, whereas the Tele has the single coil sound with more punch and a tighter attack. I wouldn’t use either to approximate the other.

ps. My pedalboard has been static for nearly 4 years. I build pedals because I want to, not because I’m unhappy with my sound!
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I read this and got excited that LD was back 🙁
 
Vicious C said:
I second that! He made me realize how blessed I am to have such a large work space, that my wife and I both use! Maybe we can start a go fund me for LRDave
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Yeah, my wife was cool about prioritizing workspace for me when we bought our place. Then she urged me to quit my horrendous day job so i could do a few classes at the American School of Lutherie before we had kids. Amazing woman.
 
KR Sound said:
Sorry. You quoted LaundryroomDavid who’s been gone for a while since he lost his workspace. Then I noticed it was from last fall.

Anyway, will those 57/62s be a significant improvement over the Alnicos in my Classic Vibe Strat?
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Ah, I didn’t realize the situation.

I don’t know what the Classic Vibe pickups sound like, but the 57/62s are also Alnico 5. Based on what I’m reading, I imagine it’s a game of inches.
 
I don't think about the Strat as the most "needy" in terms of pedals, but rather the most "accepting" in terms of pedals. It's kind of like my Jazz bass -- I can't quite get that P-Bass sound out of it, but I can get the Jazz to sound a lot more like a P-Bass than I can ever get a P-Bass to sound like a Jazz. The Strat is kind of the same thing -- with the right pedals, i can get a Stat to scream like a Les Paul, but I can never get a Les paul to sound like a Strat.
 
My main problem is that I like switching from strat to Tele to a humbucker Les Paul or P90 Les Paul. The challenge is mainly switching from single coil strat to humbucker Les Paul. It's only possible to have one setting right on the amp imo. It's about the volume but also the tone difference. My first solution was a Klon which I used like a boost, now I use a aion cirrus (Ibanez STL9) with a slight mid boost. My goal now is to use the Maleficient and a compressor to compensate the switching.
 
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