Deed_Poll
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Ok this is sure to divide opinion, I can accept that objectively (if there's such a thing) I'm 100% wrong and it's a design I appreciate a great deal as an engineer.
I've just discovered that I'm really not a fan of the Strat vibrato as a player, and I will explain why while you all hide behind the sofa, gather the lynch mob or get the popcorn out of the microwave!
I always liked Strats - the look, the comfort, the simplicity of the basic Fender bolt-on flat 6-a-side headstock design, but extended with a versatile pickup and control scheme. The way every position on the guitar can cut through in any live or studio mix and sound like a guitar should.
I thought for a long time that whilst I was a Strat guy, I wasn't a vibrato guy. So I keep the thing decked, I always have.
Then I basically went on a mad love affair with offsets 10 or 15 years ago. For a long time I just left the arms in the cases, after all I'm not a trem guy and 'common knowledge' is that an offset trem is unreliable, accident prone and just not up to the theatrics like a Strat. So I leave well alone, for years.
After a time I just started putting the arm in there, and a time later than that I realise that I love everything about the offset trem. It gives me the leverage and control I need, and the distance between where you hold the arm and where it attaches to the guitar feels more like the arm is floating above the body, not getting in the way of my picking hand like on a Strat.
On top of this all the character that comes with the long string length behind the bridge (which makes the guitar sound unique even without the trem) gives the tremolo this great warped tape effect as you come back up to pitch that sounds like nothing else out there.
Recently I bought a Gibson CS Flying V reissue, fully expecting the Maestro to be awful. Everybody knows that. I even budgeted for fitting a wraparound bridge a la Firebird III / SG Special to make it an optional thing.
But it's marvellous. As soon as I got the guitar back from my luthier he had deepened the slots in the rocking ABR bridge and whilst the break angle is tiny, it has this amazing trashy, punchy character to the sound.
The arm on the Maestro is in the perfect place, and is the perfect shape. It stays where you put it and I find I can quite comfortably rest my pinkie on it without hampering my picking technique whatsoever.
So now I think I'm a trem guy, naturally I get my luthier to overhaul my beloved Strat to float the trem when the bi-annual setup comes around.
And guess what? It sucks. For me, at least. I can't use it - my point of contact with the arm is nowhere near the tip, I have no leverage and feel like I'm opening a door hinge-side first. The quality of the modulation is sterile and has no character - it sounds springy and comedic, like the pitch wheel on a keyboard.
There is none of the extra tangy metallic thing like the Maestro, nor the dimensionality of the offset unit. I can't double stop my bends any more -although to be fair, this is an issue on the Maestro too (but curiously not so much on the Jazzmaster).
So there's my 'cool story bro' autobiography. thanks for listening.
Freezeframe subtitle recaps -
The Strat has gone back to being decked and is rocking harder than ever.
The JM just had a new shim and fretwork and is great.
The Flying V is a dirty little secret, and loving it.
So are there any other Strat-trem-haters-anonymous members out there?
I've just discovered that I'm really not a fan of the Strat vibrato as a player, and I will explain why while you all hide behind the sofa, gather the lynch mob or get the popcorn out of the microwave!
I always liked Strats - the look, the comfort, the simplicity of the basic Fender bolt-on flat 6-a-side headstock design, but extended with a versatile pickup and control scheme. The way every position on the guitar can cut through in any live or studio mix and sound like a guitar should.
I thought for a long time that whilst I was a Strat guy, I wasn't a vibrato guy. So I keep the thing decked, I always have.
Then I basically went on a mad love affair with offsets 10 or 15 years ago. For a long time I just left the arms in the cases, after all I'm not a trem guy and 'common knowledge' is that an offset trem is unreliable, accident prone and just not up to the theatrics like a Strat. So I leave well alone, for years.
After a time I just started putting the arm in there, and a time later than that I realise that I love everything about the offset trem. It gives me the leverage and control I need, and the distance between where you hold the arm and where it attaches to the guitar feels more like the arm is floating above the body, not getting in the way of my picking hand like on a Strat.
On top of this all the character that comes with the long string length behind the bridge (which makes the guitar sound unique even without the trem) gives the tremolo this great warped tape effect as you come back up to pitch that sounds like nothing else out there.
Recently I bought a Gibson CS Flying V reissue, fully expecting the Maestro to be awful. Everybody knows that. I even budgeted for fitting a wraparound bridge a la Firebird III / SG Special to make it an optional thing.
But it's marvellous. As soon as I got the guitar back from my luthier he had deepened the slots in the rocking ABR bridge and whilst the break angle is tiny, it has this amazing trashy, punchy character to the sound.
The arm on the Maestro is in the perfect place, and is the perfect shape. It stays where you put it and I find I can quite comfortably rest my pinkie on it without hampering my picking technique whatsoever.
So now I think I'm a trem guy, naturally I get my luthier to overhaul my beloved Strat to float the trem when the bi-annual setup comes around.
And guess what? It sucks. For me, at least. I can't use it - my point of contact with the arm is nowhere near the tip, I have no leverage and feel like I'm opening a door hinge-side first. The quality of the modulation is sterile and has no character - it sounds springy and comedic, like the pitch wheel on a keyboard.
There is none of the extra tangy metallic thing like the Maestro, nor the dimensionality of the offset unit. I can't double stop my bends any more -although to be fair, this is an issue on the Maestro too (but curiously not so much on the Jazzmaster).
So there's my 'cool story bro' autobiography. thanks for listening.
Freezeframe subtitle recaps -
The Strat has gone back to being decked and is rocking harder than ever.
The JM just had a new shim and fretwork and is great.
The Flying V is a dirty little secret, and loving it.
So are there any other Strat-trem-haters-anonymous members out there?
