Should every electric guitarist own a Stratocaster?
 

I consider myself first and foremost an acoustic player who has accepted that I like to own an electric for that occasional living room rock session. I recently auditioned an amazing Eastman T386 Blonde semi-hollowbody. I thought it would be an easy guitar to transition to with its acoustic size body and 1 3/4" nut. Well, I was kind of right and kind of wrong. Exit the Eastman which is replaced (actually the UPS driver picked up the Eastman and left my new Fender Robert Cray Strat on the same stop).

Admittedly, my relationship with electrics has been shall we say intermittent, but when it occurs it usually involves either a Strat or a Telecaster. I see these as two iconic electric guitars and wonder if others see the Strat as a de facto element in any electric player's arsenal. I'm zeroing in on the Strat because I see it as a more widely used guitar than the Tele although I know that there are many Telecaster lovers out there...

yes, I think so.

and, eventually it should get a telecaster as a sibling

In theory. I have a wild assortment of electric, acoustic, and bass guitars. I'm very versatile. Local scene is dead as a door nail. For many years, I've had a nice Kramer super strat with a splittable humbucker at the bridge and recently picked up an Ibanez AZ2204f, which features an interesting 9 pickup configurations. They get the job done. I have thought about adding a true SSS Strat, but probably no realistic need at this point.

Beware the Telecaster and Stratocaster Mafia for they will answer any question like you've asked with a "yes." That is confirmation bias on wheels.

I've been in this racket for fifty years and have come to the conclusion that unless you own examples of several types you are eventually going to spend a bunch of time beating your head against the wall, trying to get a sound that was achieved with one type out of another. Depend upon it.

I can't tell you how many times I've read a forum discussion that has amounted to a Ford/Chevy debate. It takes the form: "How do I get this sound (Les Paul sustain) from a Strat or how do I get this sound (Strat position two or four) from a Les Paul? You can spend gobs of money on pedals simply trying to get sounds that actually best emanate from your choice of guitar and your fingers.

There is no single solution. I typically go to a recording session with at least three guitars.

Bob

Bob: I guess I wasn't clear. I didn't mean to imply that the Strat would be one's only electric guitar, but that a Strat would be among the electrics that somebody like you who plays a lot of electric guitar would consider an important arrow in his quiver...

"sound" is in the hands, the guitar is just the brush we're painting with at the time.

and yea, I do the same, drag multiple guitars to a recording session. Usually I'm still one short.. :)

Only if you think the answer to this question is a Yes.
"Should every acoustic guitarist own a D28 ?" (Myself the answer is no, I opted for an 810 )

Personally I would like to own a 3 single coil guitar, but it is just as likely to be some other 3 SC as it is a Strat. Currently for me a G&L Comanche is as strong candidate as a Fender American Strato Ultimate

Yes, my first "good" electric guitar was a 1975 Strat. I don't have that one anymore, but have a "57 reissue" that I bought in 1989.

Please let me start by saying Telecasters are wonderful guitars. They are competent in any genre they are used in, and completely paramount in others.

That being said, I have always found that Stratocasters were a more “comfortable” guitar to play. And although I prefer maple fretboard Strats, I have an easier time still on a rosewood or ebony fretboard model.

As everything else in this world, you will find what is right for you.

Nah - get a Tele....the only electric you'll ever need.....but I am a little biased......:)

I resent this sir. I'm a "made guy" in the Stratocaster Mafia, have spend time as a Don and consigliere. And I says "it depends on what you like"...

I'm a strat guy. I don't really need anything else for what I play with an electric guitar. Every other electric guitar I've owned I was able to happily live without after I offloaded it (although I can't seem to fully let go of the perverted desire to have SOMETHING with P90s in it for those rare moments when a change of pace seems warranted). But I always have to have a strat. During the very few short times I didn't have one, I was more or less in physical withdrawal. It was hell...

But, hey, no accounting for taste and all that, some people just don't like them. I'm not sure how I got on to the same planet with these people, but they exist and they have rights too! I personally think the strat 2 & 4 positions are exactly how god intended electric guitars to sound, but he forgot to tell his prophet Leo, because it took 20 years for Fender to start including a five-way switch to make those amazing tones easily available. And yet, some people find those sounds to be an abomination. And I must find a way to respect that opinion even as I am fully horrified by it.

I just sold a PRS Silver Sky, which in some ways is the greatest strat ever made, but in other ways is not all that strat-like - it sounded too full, too throaty, too even, too balanced. All of which made it great but dadgumit, it made it sound like something other than a strat. So I'm back to my lowly Robert Cray Hardtail strat, which has been my #1 for nearly the whole time since I started playing a lot again about three years ago. I've tried a number of fancier more expensive strat-like objects, but they've all fallen by the wayside and the Cray Hardtail stands tall.

Play what you like. Life's too dang short not to, and it seems as though it's getting shorter every day... If you like strats, play 'em. If you don't, then don't.

-Ray

Absolutely important.
Probably always will be... with any luck...
Mine is a 1999 G&L S-500. Studio-ready tones right out of the box. It did need a good set-up to really come alive.https://www.in2guitar.com/images/s500bodysm.jpg
I've also got a super Strat, but I sometimes long for that alder/maple sound. I traded one of those and miss it.
You seem like a really reasonable guy. I don't think I would refer to you as a member of the "Mafia." Those are the ones who argue the superiority of those Fenders and the lack of need for any other instrument in the galaxy. It's one thing to be an aficionado like you and another thing entirely to be a hard-core fanboy convinced of the exclusivity and purity of his ax of choice. I think I'd like a Cray hard tail. I love to grab the wiggle bar and wobble chords on the straight stretches but nothing beats a hard tail in the bends. :D

Bob

I am shocked. Shocked! that the OP would suggest that only ONE STRAT is sufficient.

:)

I've never been big on Strats, although plenty of people have made it sound amazing, ie Hendrix, Knophler...

That said, I do have a Strat pickup in the neck position of my California Telecaster (It came that way) :)

Ditto.

Seriously though, pretty much every guitarist I know either owns a Stratocaster or has owned one at some point in their lifetime and as much as I love Telecasters (my Tele gets a lot of love), I think the Stratocaster is the more iconic of the two guitars. (If not the most iconic and copied electric guitar on the planet).