Stratocasters: Just way too many!! - Page 3

~j~ · #31 10-04-2002, 11:15 AM

from what I read on www.edromanguitars.com , he said you should go for something else... he talks about a line of custom guitars called pearlcasters and what he says makes sense to me.... I liked the strats I've had before, two mexican and one american, but it's true they cut corners in manufacturing that you may regret if you prefer well-made instruments....

~j~ · #32 10-04-2002, 11:18 AM

actually, one more thing... since leo fender had to leave, G&L started doing the same cost-cutting on their guitars as Fender so for all intents and purposes they are IDENTICAL

IDENTICAL

510picker · #33 10-04-2002, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ~j~
actually, one more thing... since leo fender had to leave, G&L started doing the same cost-cutting on their guitars as Fender so for all intents and purposes they are IDENTICAL

IDENTICAL

Are NOT! (told ya I'd start a fight)

mojo · #34 10-04-2002, 01:07 PM

Hi ~j~

I'm a little confused about your post. What are you referring to when you talk about cost cutting? I don't know if you've ever seen or played a G&L, to me there's no comparison to a Fender.....even a custom shop. What I look for in an instrument is playability and tone, quality of materials and hardware, build quality, and fit-n-finish. Then I look at the cost vs what you're getting, and what else is available for the same money. G&Ls tone is top shelf. I've found their guitars to be more versatile in tone than any Fender, you can nail almost anything, usually with just one guitar. They use alnicos and G&Ls own MFDs. Their materials are also top shelf and some of their finishes are the most beautiful I've ever seen on any guitar. I'll also put the build quality and fit-n-finish of my 3-maria's up against any Fender Custom Shop Tele, and win.

I don't expect you to take my word for it. Do yourself a favor and go to www.glguitars.com and www.guitarsbyleo.com and do some reading. Post on the guitarsbyleo forum and ask some questions, you have nothing to lose. Most of all, get out and play some G&Ls through amps you like and see what you think. If you're going to plop down this kind of money, I would hope you shop around and do some research.

As far as Ed Roman goes, there isn't enough time or space here to explain him to you. All I'm gonna say is he is way off and is speaking for other reasons other than the instruments themselves, if you read his site carefully it displays that very well.
If you want to talk more, or have questions, we can talk here or you can e-mail me. Take care and happy hunting.

mojo

ps - I knew nothing about G&Ls and was looking for strats/teles, saw a G&L, asked what it was, did some research, and the rest is history.............good luck

510picker · #35 10-04-2002, 01:55 PM

Uh oh, I told ya

Let's not even get started on Ed Roman on this board. It was bad enough on the guitarsbyleo board.

franchelB · #36 10-04-2002, 04:14 PM

If I was to consider having a Strat, I would opt for a Strat with a hardtail bridge...changing strings would be a heck of a lot easier. To me, it doesn't matter where the guitar is made...a guitar student of mine has an Fender/Squier "Affinity" Strat that feels just as good as the American line. Call it luck?
About Ed Roman...IMHO, the man "shoots from the hip"...like him or not! I think he's brutally honest; and I respect Ed for that.
All in all...(just like a rose)...
A Strat is a Strat is a Strat!
Carvin even has a kit that one can build by themselves...without much use of tools or soldering!

stratokatsu · #37 10-04-2002, 07:34 PM

Lawdy... I can't believe Steve314 hasn't already jumped in here. He has a 90 American Strat he says he'll take to his grave and he was a big fan of G&L's when he had an ASAT, but I never heard him talk about the Strat styles too much. Where's the guy when you need him? A buddy of Steve's and mine has a G&L Fullerton model and thinks it's the best thing since sliced Stratocasters.

I've had a Mexican Std that I did some mods on and thought it was great value for money. I have 2 American Strats now, a 1994, 40th anniversary model in brown sunburst and a 2001 American Deluxe in transparent teal with the maple fingerboard and vintage noiseless pups. Both are very different from each other in tone and I love them both.

Tomorrow I'm looking at another Mexican Std Strat, because I have a desire to build a fat Strat out of it, but more to play around and experiment with than to be serious with, so the Mexican platform would be enough for me.

As for the pickups, I have Tex/Mex pickups in a Nashville Telecaster I rebuilt into a straight Tele. There's OK, but no great shakes. I was hoping for a little more mean tone from them and would probably prefer going back to the Bill Lawrence L-280's I had in a previous Telecaster. In other words, the Texas and Tex/Mex tones don't do much for me either.

If I had to choose one, I'd get Bill Lawrence pickups in the 2001 teal ash body.

Bill Bays · #38 10-05-2002, 02:46 PM

Rick,

I have to chime in on this one.

Don't rule out the "made in Japan" models from the 80's and 90's! Many of them (including my mid-80's '68 reissue) are of the highest quality. Mine has an ash body and a figured maple neck with maple fingerboard. I installed vintage noiseless pups, bypassed the tone controls, and it sounds and plays great. Much stronger and better in overdrive situations than my american standard with stock pickups.

The best way to buy a strat is to play a bunch of them and by the one that call's your name. Just like buying a Taylor.

Bill B

Muggy · #39 10-06-2002, 11:13 AM

G&L guitars are [email protected] played a few of them and there is no contest...at least to me.

Muggy

#40 10-06-2002, 01:00 PM

I think most die-hard electric guitarists would say the same about the array of Taylor's available. Variety in anything is not always good, but it certainly is with guitars!

Noflatpick · #41 10-06-2002, 01:25 PM

Three years ago I got a wild hair to play a solid body electric. I bought a Jeff Beck Stratocaster and a Twin Reverb amp. I liked the Beck Strat because it had a fatter neck than most electrics I played. A lot more like an acoustic neck. It also had a roller nut which made the thing stay in tune a lot longer, especially if you used the trem bar. Also a very well made instrument.

I found I wasn't cut out to be an electric player. I traded the Strat for a Yairi acoustic and gave the Twin Reverb to my son. All in all, a twenty-five hundred dollar error in judgement. Oh well...

Red · #42 10-07-2002, 09:52 AM

Mojo,

I was going to go with warmoth as well until I kept running into threads on harmony central where all of these ex-warmoth customers were raving about usacustomguitars.com People were so emphatic that I figured it must have been usa employees trying to drum up business. One guy told me to e-mail or call Tommy and that I'd understand why there was so much hype. Well I did, and found out that Tommy is the electric equivalent of Bob Taylor. I was so blown away by his passion for guitars and quickly realized why all of those long time Warmoth customers had switched over and never gone back.

I later found out that Tommy and several of his top employees had worked at Warmoth for a long time but left because they had great ideas of how they could make guitars even better but weren't given the opportunity at the old company. They decided to take the good from Warmoth and make it even better which is why they started USA Custom Guitars.

I still here a lot of good things about Warmoth and even Tommy would tell you that they make a good product so you can't go wrong either way.

mojo · #43 10-07-2002, 12:52 PM

Thanks Red,

As I said earlier, I'd never heard of usacustomguitars before I read this post. I'm glad it was posted, I went to the site and was very impressed. I'll take your advice and give them my business when I'm ready to start. Thanks again..........

mojo

mojo · #44 10-07-2002, 01:42 PM

Hey Muggy, good to see another G&L fan

Where'bouts you located in KY? I'm a little south of Louisville around Fort Knox. I pretty much travel throughout the state for my job, tomorrow I'll be in Cumberland Falls State park for a few days while doing some work in that area. Two weeks later I'll be in Ky dam state park doing some work below Paducah.

Take care Muggy.........

mojo

osubob · #45 10-11-2002, 02:45 PM

I'll chime in here...

I just bought a Frnder American Deluxe Fat Strat. It is an awesome axe. It has the noisless pickups so you don't get the hum of the regular Strats. I would take a look at it.

Oh, almost forgot. It also has the LSR roller nut. They say that its one of the most friction free nuts available. (A must have if you plan on doing any tremelo)

Good luck.

Bob

PS. I picked up a Line 6 Flextone II for it. Its a 100w 2x12 with all the amp and cabnet modeling functionality of the POD built in. Its a great setup.