Thanks to Gargoyle upthread, I bought the Rocksmith game and I’m having a ball with it!
I appreciate the recommendation!
Q
Because my Takamine Jasmine doesn’t have a fret marker at #3 and it was bugging the hell out of me, I decided to check the net to see what was available and found this.
I just got the white pearl ones, but there’s a whole array with which to customize your guitar if you wish.
Just thought I’d share and if anyone needs a fret marker, I’d be happy to drop one in the mail to you.
Thanks
Q
Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) plays with 7s. No, seriously! 7s! I had peach fuzz on my chin at 13 heavier than those strings.
Yep - I totally don’t get that. It obviously works for him - I love his sound. But I would not be able to play his guitar. Heck, I was handed my friend’s guitar with 9’s on it and felt completely unable to play with the pick attack I prefer…
Awesome, glad you like it! It has some quirks and annoyances, but is otherwise a blast for getting my jam on. I’ve been liking just setting it to practice mode and free forming over songs.
Tons of new songs added for download also. Blue Oyster Cult wooooo!
Replying two months late, but having thought about this a little - it seems like Strats have two advantages against Gibsons unrelated to trems or boost: longer scale length, and three pickups and therefore Strat “quack” (evident in Clapton’s playing). These seem like sufficient reasons for someone to prefer a “hardtail” strat with a mid-boost over a Gibson.
Well, ultimately, he doesn’t have to have a reason; he can play whatever he wants. And yes, the longer neck scale and pickup layout might be the appeal. But it still seems a bit off to me.
Could it be he prefers the weight?
Sure. It could just be that the feel of a Fender’s layout is something he prefers. All I can recall him saying in interviews is that he finds he has to “fight a Strat a little harder” in a way that he prefers.
I always got the impression that he got a Les Paul because they were hot at the beginning of the British Blues explosion, was playing a few things, and then saw Hendrix play a Strat - and between Hendrix and Buddy Guy, Clapton decided that Strats were the way to go…again, he can play what he wants - I just find it interesting that he plays a Strat almost like a Gibson…
The Sienna Sunburst strat went back to the store. I never really took to that color, though the guitar felt just fine. I ordered a Candy Cola (Am Std. rosewood, SSS) strat to take its place, should be here on Tuesday. I had been leaning toward a brown sunburst, but strats look fabu in red.
I like both colors. The only thing I don’t like about them both is the jack for the 1/4 plug and the way it’s pointed. It looks to me like the bend the cord has to make is asking for a short circuit. I’d much rather it pointed away from the strings rather than toward them. Maybe I’m missing something – I usually am.
Q
Quasi - it does point away from the strings. Look at the first four pictures here of a guy playing strats. Note the cable leaving the guitar. The jack plate is angled at a 45-degrees away from the bridge, nearly flush with the body. Its actually a pretty good design, and keeps the cable end safe and the cord leaves the body cleanly.
Ha, I just dug this up! Eric Clapton Speaks – why Strats?.
Interesting - thanks. squeegee, I have nothing to add to your quest other than to wish you luck as you figure out what works for you…
Picked up the red “Candy Cola” (why do they call it that, it sounds like it should be root beer colored) Am Std. Strat, and I’m afraid its a lemon and going back. Two scratches (of the “keyed my car” clear coat variety) in the belly cut, and it frets out on the high E above fret 12 even with high action or fiddling with the next relief, obviously a high fret, which is fixable but I wouldn’t expect to need to in a new guitar. Ah well. Next!
Maybe I’ll bully GC into ordering a new one direct from Fender this time; this axe was delivered from another GC store’s stock and looked like someone else had returned it before (e.g. the tiny spring where the trem arm screws in was missing, also the scratches). I sure do like the look of a candy cola strat though and would like to try another. Also this one had the Fat 50’s Custom Shop pickups, which sounded pretty nice, although not amazingly nicer than the regular stock strat pickups, just nice.
I’ve decided I really like strats and want a great one. Not giving up the Tele though, but I’ve definitely found another girl I also want in my harem.
So you’re more of a Strat guy than a Les Paul guy?
I guess I’m both. I really like the LP I bought, too, but those ceramic pickups it comes with are just awful, so it’s hard to enjoy it as-is. I’ve decided to keep it, too, though. For now I’ve got a couple of Duncans (a Pearly bridge and a '59 neck) that I can rip out of other guitars and solder covers onto to make it sound proper, and I may leave it at that or go the Lollar or Bare Knuckle or whatever route for PAFs.
But, man, the LP is way cool to play, but the Strat is just fun. Now I just need the right one, grumble.
Guess I was looking at the wrong end. Thank you, squeegee!
Q
Why not build your own homebrew Parts-o-caster? You can dial in everything perfectly. On the Strats you’ve tried, have the pickups been hot or not, relative for Fender single coils? I’m a fan of lower-powered ones, myself.
I’ve thought about that, but I’m not pursuing it - at this moment at least - for several reasons:
-
I can’t say I know exactly what I’m looking for enough to specify it as such-and-such a nut width, neck carve, fingerboard radius, etc. I have to pick up a guitar and play it, and then live with it for a a handful of days to know if its a good fit.
-
It’s about the same or a little more expensive to build it yourself vs. just buying one from Fender. I just now priced out everything to make a Dakota red s/s/s rosewood Warmoth “strat”, everything plain vanilla, no frills: $1042.10 with shipping. A brand new American Standard from Fender is about the same, but it comes assembled.
-
you can’t take a parts-o-caster back once you assemble it, or at least it would be very difficult to do so. So cross your fingers and hope you specified everything right, because the very first time you find out if it’s the guitar of your dreams is when it’s too late to do much about it if it isn’t. well, you can do things, but it’s probably a real pain to do so. If I buy a guitar from GC, on the other hand, I get 30 days for full refund. That said, I’m obviously having trouble finding an instrument that I actually want to buy from GC, so there’s that.
-
A parts-o-caster is difficult to sell if you tire of it. If I put an Am Std Strat on Craigslist, everyone knows what it is, and has a good idea of what it’s worth in good condition. A parts-o-caster can be much more of a problem to value and sell, if only because people like a familiar name on the headstock.
Anyway, I’m not ruling out building my own. I think it would be fun. But I’m kind of interested in “canon” instruments right now, and I need to get rid of most of my mutt instruments before I breed my own.
Yeah, me too. The ones I’ve played are just the ones that come stock in strats. The “Vintage Standard” ones were in the (2011) Sienna 'caster, and the red (2012) one I have now has the “Fat 50’s” Custom Shop pickups, which still seem suitably low powered and they have a very nice, I dunno.. round, bell-like tone. But not all that different from the regular strat pickups.