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#1
04-09-2021, 12:01 PM
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Stratocaster Blues
Hi, I know I'm peppering the forum with posts right now, but I've been playing the electric a lot right now and I'm into it.
So I bought this really nice American Ultra Strat during the lockdown. Couldn't get out and play guitars like I can now, and I figured it's a classic and I couldn't really go wrong. I don't think I did go "wrong" but there are some things which bug me about the design. I keep on hitting the volume knob and the switcher when I'm playing. They seem really close to the pickups and the bridge, and I guess from playing acoustic rock I'm often palm muting the bridge, and from bluegrass I'm often playing right near the bridge. So when I go to the electric, I've not yet really found it as natural to come off the bridge and play out near the bridge pickup where I don't it the volume know. No of course a million great players have played and loved Strats, so adjusting my style obviously is something I can do and probably should do. That said, I thought I'd ask if this is a thing others have run into, did you just make the adjustment and move on, or do you prefer other designs? This combined with kind of wanting something with a heavier sound is making me wonder if I sell the Strat and get something else, or just deal with it and stop being an internet worrier. Thoughts? Suggestions? Flames? Critiques? Guitars for sale?  Thanks! 
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#2
04-09-2021, 12:12 PM
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since these exist as a product, i'd say you're not the first to run into it:
https://www.theswitchlock.com/collections/switchlock 
__________________
2021 Fender Telecaster (Player Series) 2014 Yamaha FS700 2020 Rouge RD80 - sold 2014 Epiphone Les Paul Junior - sold
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#3
04-09-2021, 12:54 PM
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Yeah, there are also posts about it on other forums. Basically the responses are "shut up and play".
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#4
04-09-2021, 01:07 PM
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The guys who Leo Fender worked most with while he was working on the Strat were "Western Swing" players. The volume knob is where it is you can you do volume "Swells" like a pedal steel player. It's also why the strat has a tremolo/vibrato (use the name you prefer
) Watch Jeff Beck play in this clip in full screen mode and watch his picking hand. Right from the start he's using the volume knob. His playing is possibly the greatest "use" of what makes a strat a strat. The volume knob position and the trem... Not saying he's the greatest strat player. No such thing obviously. I'm saying I've never seen or heard anybody have more control of a strat. Some never get comfortable with strat controls. Some even get super bothered by the middle pickup getting in the way of their picking. One thing you might try is turning up your amp and picking more gently. You may be playing it like an acoustic. Going a stretch playing lke the guitar is made of eggshells may help you "shrink" your motions and not hit the switch and knob. Just a suggestion. I did that myself when I got my Strat shaped object with lipstick pickups. You hit a lipstick pickup with your pick and it is LOUD! All just opinion.
__________________
I only play technologically cutting edge instruments. Parker Flys and National Resonators
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#5
04-09-2021, 01:13 PM
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Hang out on electric guitar forums, you'll see these same complaints a LOT. I bought my first strat in 1979 and I've been a strat guy ever since, only been without one for very brief periods, and basically when I wasn't playing anyway. They've always felt completely natural to me, but that's because I've known them longer than my wife or kids, so it's long relationship! I love 'em, practically to the exclusion of anything else. But lotsa folks take a while to warm up to them and many never do. To me, it's what an electric guitar is supposed to feel and sound like, but I'm just one opinion of millions. You're on your way to forming your own... Enjoy!
-Ray
__________________
"It's just honest human stuff that hadn't been near a dang metronome in its life" - Benmont Tench
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#6
04-09-2021, 01:17 PM
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I hear ya, Dirk. I don't play my Strats often (I'm a Les Paul / SG guy) but when I do I'll sometimes knock the pickup switch out of position when I'm playing the neck position. The volume knob doesn't bother me though.
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#7
04-09-2021, 01:51 PM
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Well I just put it up on Craigslist to see what might happen and a guy is offering me a 2020 Les Paul Standard with Suhr Aldrich pickups for my guitar and $350, which seems entirely reasonable from a cost perspective, assuming all is good with that guitar.
I think I'll head down to GC and see if I really want a Les Paul. I like the IDEA of a Les Paul, but now that I have a chance to play one... I was hoping to spend less, not more... Good posts BTW guys, and blue I'll take a look at that video. Thanks for letting me bend y'all's ears!
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#8
04-09-2021, 02:00 PM
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1) Play "smaller" or tighter - less hand and wrist movement. If you've been an acoustic guy for a while and just getting into electrics I think it's a natural occurrence. More of a problem for strummers than flatpickers. Strummers (guilty) use the power of the up and downstroke to produce volume. That's not needed on an electric. The pickups do all the heavy lifting - so let 'em.
2) If you are playing seated with no strap, try using a strap to change the angle and distance of the guitar in relation to your picking hand. If you are playing standing, try shortening or lengthening the strap for the same reason. 3) Strats might not be your bag, but a Tele might. If you like the tone of a Strat, working around the ergonomics are worth it (IMO). If the tone ain't doing it for you maybe a LP or SG are worth considering.
__________________
Roy Ibanez, Recording King, Gretsch, Martin G&L, Squier, Orange (x 2), Bugera, JBL, Soundcraft Our duo website - UPDATED 7/26/19
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#9
04-09-2021, 02:33 PM
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...fwiw I have known players through the years that could not get along with strats solely based on the position of the knobs and switch....no guitar should get in the way of your playing style and having to change your basic mechanical functions to adapt to a guitar is for many a deal breaker....it is of course possible to get all the other strat attributes with a different knob and switch location ....you just have to go custom to do it...
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...Grasshopper...high is high...low is low....but the middle...lies in between...Master Po
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#10
04-09-2021, 03:04 PM
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Quote:
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#11
04-09-2021, 03:37 PM
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Quote:
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#12
04-09-2021, 03:44 PM
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Quote:
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#13
04-09-2021, 03:44 PM
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Quote:
Speaking as an old Gretsch guy who used an '86 Fender/Squier Strat as his main gigging guitar for 25 years (with a 3-PU Yamaha SSC-500 as backup) and uses a goldtop/P-90 LP for rock gigs, the first thing you're going to notice about a LP (even before you plug in) is that it's heavy - in the 9+ lb. bracket with few exceptions, and it's not uncommon for some of the gennie '50s examples (and a few of the modern reissues) to scale in well over ten pounds on the strap  ; in addition, if you've become accustomed to the sleek feel of a typical Fender neck be prepared to make some adjustments - while Gibson does produce some models with the Clapton-approved "1960 Style #3" Slim-Taper profile (my own LP happened to be one of them) the fat " '59 Style" is by and large the order of the day...That said - and in view of your other thread - there are a couple of options:
__________________
"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased)
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#14
04-09-2021, 03:46 PM
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I also have that problem. That's why I play a Telecaster.
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#15
04-09-2021, 03:48 PM
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I've been playing electric so long that my natural playing style is very light-handed with small strokes - wrist, not forearm. A suggestion that I've never used is to jack the middle pickup down near flush with the pick guard to get it out of the way.
Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
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) with Maestro Vibrola or the authentic '61 sideways-vibrato version (slap a "Les Paul" logo trussrod cover on the latter and you'll have a dead-ringer for the $5K Custom Shop model 
)...