Anyone else play their Strats more than their Les Pauls?

[Gusmc01]

Sheepishly raising my hand.

Yeah, I do. Mainly because my LP's are so pretty I don't want to bugger them up. I noodle around on my teles and strats all the time. LPs are reserved for special occasions.

 

[Joeallev972]

Long-story short, my Les Paul Custom has been gathering dust lately as I continue to play my Strat-style guitars.

I know Strats are known for their shimmery cleans and their punchy neck pickups but as someone who's main influences are Randy Rhoads, Matthias Jabs, Michael Schenker, Slash, Gary Richrath, and Eddie Van Halen (to name a few), heavy is the name of the game for me.

I now am a firm believer that neck humbucker tone is way too wooly and mushy for my taste and that noiseless single coils in the neck are the way to go, clean or overdriven. The best neck humbuckers sound like good single coils IMO anyways.

I've also noticed that humbuckers in Strats, while not as thick and chewy as they are in Les Pauls, have this percussive quality that I've found I really like. I'd say the tone is most similar in the bridge position to a Flying V. Bridge humbuckers get rid of that thin, single coil wide-open bridge pickup tone on Strats that I never liked as well along with the buzzing issues.

I am primarily a basement jammer playing along to my favorite tracks but also play in a casual cover band, playing the occasional open mic, and I am surprised at how much I am enjoying my non-Les-Paul guitars. When I first brought my EVH and Jackson to band practice, my drummer commented both times that they sounded better in the mix than my Les Paul. While that wasn't the best thing to hear, and while I don’t agree entirely, I have been finding that I play better on these Strat-style guitars than my Les Paul when I listen back to our practice recordings and that definitely makes me sound better.

While I did cut my teeth on a Squier Strat in my early years of playing, I couldn't dump that guitar fast enough and have been a Les Paul enthusiast since 2007, gradually making my way to my dream guitar: the Les Paul Custom.

However, I have found that while nothing beats the roar of a good Les Paul, and while cheap plastics and bolt on necks leave much to be desired in the area of substantiality, I have found myself enjoying the feel of these Strat-style guitars much more as of late and, as a result, playing better on them as well, which has done tons for my motivation. Besides the weight, I've found it easier for me to tremolo pick and all-in-all pick more dynamically on a Strat - I think it has something to do with the bridge angle and the way my arm comes down off the contour on the body. It makes me play better, even if the tone isn’t better, although it is in the ballpark. To me, that’s a decent trade off because at the end of the day, playing better is always the end-goal.

Anyone else?

And here's a pic just for kicks:

View attachment 600136

Seems to do the Les Paul thing alright!

I absolutely play Strats more than my Les Pauls but not because I like them more than LP. Primarily they get played in gigs as to LP's at home where they wont get beat up or mishandled by a tech or whatever the scenario. I also use a 1991 RG770 for stage if the song is heavy and a Strat with single coils cant push the power. I didn't buy them to use daily and some of you will disagree that they should be played but these are getting handed down one day and id like them to be near perfect when and if that happens. They still see back 40 bonfire parties on our land but nothing to where they'd be subject to stranger danger lol. Have a 2yo and a 3yo that will be fighting one day for these, might as well make it worth the wait. There's a couple more not pictured. SG,R8,LP Custom.

 

[Pappadō]

I love my LP and my strat - However as of late - My strat rarely gets any time as it has become a buzzy nuisance and I do not have the extra coin to get it all dolled up

 

[DBDM]

Nothing wrong with Strats. If you play it more, rock on.

One thing I CAN tell you is that I have a personality type where I love to try different things. "different" and new are exciting to me. I love new foods, driving new cars, etc. I do get a "grass is greener" mentailty when playing guitars (exception is my marriage. One woman is plenty for me). "Wow, this Moderne (made that up) is the GREATEST guitar I have ever played, I am putting down my LP." Then when the new wears off I am right back to my old friend. I am a LP player who occasionally plays others (tools in a very big box in my case). I have a Strat. It is a fine guitar. I love it for one specific purpose. When I want to play, in my house, on my sofa, and I do not want to sit forward but lean back. Seems to "fit" better in that one spot. Other than that I don't really play it very much. Again though, nothing wrong with a Strat (or a Tele--I have one of those, too).

As far as EVH goes, strikes me that he did about everything he could to turn his Strat into a Gibson. Would have been shockingly more simple for him to have just played an SG? Jeff Beck and SD did the same thing with a Tele (called Tele-Gib. I have one of those, too). Even George Harrison and his Rosewood tele? Could have just played an SG. But, today we always forget that it was not that simple for those guys. Clapton went to 4 stores in Nashville and bought 5 guitars and a whole box of "parts" to assemble Blackie and Brownie. The Beatles had very little access to American Guitars while in England. We did not have Reverb and Ebay in the late 70s when EVH was tinkering. They had to invent their sounds. We can just easily find one that meets our needs! Anyone who has researched rock can tell you the stories. Guys like Clapton and EVH went to EVERY guitar store in every town where they stopped. They trolled endlessly for the sound...because they could not easily buy it.

 

[cortland1977]

I don't feel like a strat is a substitute for a les paul in any sense. They are completely different guitars and each have their own purpose. good pickups aren't wooly even on a les paul. or if they are wooly then usually all you have to do is take your volume down a bit from the 10 most people leave it on or adjust your pickup height

 

[DBDM]

Have a 2yo and a 3yo that will be fighting one day for these, might as well make it worth the wait. There's a couple more not pictured. SG,R8,LP Custom.

3 kinds of guitar buyers--players, collectors, and speculators. Nothing (at all, zero) wrong with being a collector and nothing wrong with having guitars that you collect (to give to your kids) AND having guitars you play and gig. If we dont have players we have no music. If we dont have collectors, we are at the whim of the designs of the day for future generations to purchase. "No collectors" means future generations have no instruments to discover and re-discover. Speculators irritate most of us, but they serve a purpose as well. Someone has to buy the guitars that collectors collect in order to get them in the hands of future players. Less important today as with previous generations with Reverb and Ebay but they still serve the purpose--it just looks different.

 

[bikerdude2]

Yes. I have a recently acquired pair of super strats… no comparison when it comes to accessing the upper frets and playability compared to a LP. So they have been getting more play time.

 

[Guitar gods]

Definitely prefer my les Paul's. But I do play my strats too.

 

[Six6String6]

I really love the sound of my Strat, very different to my 3 Les Pauls's. And on occasion I will even play it.

So I guess that's a "no" for me. They are both different and the Strat does have its time and place in my recordings and in my day to day noodling. No regrets owning one and I think every guitarist should have at least one of each. You are not complete without a Strat to go with your several LP's.

 

[Red Beard]

Depends on what music im playing
I tend to like my strats for blues and funky stuff and Les pauls for heavyer crunchy’r stuff
Ya cant play golf with one club
Ive owned more strats in my career then LP’s but i think thats the music ive play more then which i like better
Right now i own 2 LP’s 3 strats

 

[Village Idiot]

No thanks. You can keep the bolt on neck and rather shoddy overall build

 

[amsalem]

It all start with ergonomics, and the ergonomics of the body of a Stratocaster is the BEST one ever made to this day.
As simple is that.

Les Pauls and pretty much every Gibson / Gibson style guitar are far behind, ergonomics wise.

 

[LeonC]

Funny you should ask. My short answer is...sometimes.

I started guitar playing on a strat back in 1971. The first guitar I bought was a used mid-60s strat. Inspired mostly by Hendrix, getting a strat was a dream come true. That's all I played for several years. But I loved the idea of getting a Les Paul and other guitars some day as well. I was a huge fan of the Allman Brothers, Clapton, Beck and other well-known players who help enlighten early rock n rollers to the qualities of the Les Paul. But I was always most comfortable on strat.

That eventually started to change after I got my first good Les Paul, a '68 Custom...and then another...a '68 Standard (gold top). I began playing these more and more. And within a couple years, I was playing them more than my strat.

I've always some back to strats and really enjoyed them, but eventually I became more of a Les Paul guy. When I'd get a new strat of some variety, I'd wind up playing it more for a while...but then drift back to one of my Les Pauls. And that pattern has continued over the last 20 years.

Just a few months ago, I bought a '58 custom shop relic Stratocaster from a buddy and was knocked out with it. It's probably the best strat I've ever played or owned with respect to overall tone, neck comfort, tuning stability and a few other characteristics. I'd been playing it pretty much exclusively since I got it. All the gigs, jam sessions, rehearsals and everything I've done in the last few months involved that strat.

Then I decided I'd take my '54 Oxblood "benchmark" series reissue with me to a rehearsal. Playing it again, I was reminded of all the things that I've come to prefer about a good Les Paul. E.g.,

• It still tunes up better than any strat, even my current #1 which is better this way than any strat I've ever played or owned. There's no "strat-itis" or weird artifacts/overtones on the low E string.
• It still plays better. With it's 12" radius and tall frets, I can bend the E or B strings a major 3rd w/o buzzing or fretting out. You just can't do that on a strat with a 7.25" or even a 9" radius.
• It still sustains better. My god...I'd forgotten what it was like to not have a note on my E string fade as I bent it over the B string pole piece!! With its staggered vintage-style pickups, my '58 Strat RI just doesn't perform as well for this kind of thing.

The only area in which the strat can't be beat is ergonomics. And of course, if you want a real strat sound, you gotta have one. I still love this strat, it plays great and it sounds great and it looks great...but man, when it comes to overall performance, it sure ain't no Les Paul!

 

[vintageguitarz]

Old school Fender purists would say a 2-point trem with chinesium saddles doesn't qualify as a real Strat either.

My personal opinion is that Leo got it right the first time but if making music is your goal, it doesn't matter how you get there.

AMEN!!

 

[Playslikegirl]

Long-story short, my Les Paul Custom has been gathering dust lately as I continue to play my Strat-style guitars.

I know Strats are known for their shimmery cleans and their punchy neck pickups but as someone who's main influences are Randy Rhoads, Matthias Jabs, Michael Schenker, Slash, Gary Richrath, and Eddie Van Halen (to name a few), heavy is the name of the game for me.

I now am a firm believer that neck humbucker tone is way too wooly and mushy for my taste and that noiseless single coils in the neck are the way to go, clean or overdriven. The best neck humbuckers sound like good single coils IMO anyways.

I've also noticed that humbuckers in Strats, while not as thick and chewy as they are in Les Pauls, have this percussive quality that I've found I really like. I'd say the tone is most similar in the bridge position to a Flying V. Bridge humbuckers get rid of that thin, single coil wide-open bridge pickup tone on Strats that I never liked as well along with the buzzing issues.

I am primarily a basement jammer playing along to my favorite tracks but also play in a casual cover band, playing the occasional open mic, and I am surprised at how much I am enjoying my non-Les-Paul guitars. When I first brought my EVH and Jackson to band practice, my drummer commented both times that they sounded better in the mix than my Les Paul. While that wasn't the best thing to hear, and while I don’t agree entirely, I have been finding that I play better on these Strat-style guitars than my Les Paul when I listen back to our practice recordings and that definitely makes me sound better.

While I did cut my teeth on a Squier Strat in my early years of playing, I couldn't dump that guitar fast enough and have been a Les Paul enthusiast since 2007, gradually making my way to my dream guitar: the Les Paul Custom.

However, I have found that while nothing beats the roar of a good Les Paul, and while cheap plastics and bolt on necks leave much to be desired in the area of substantiality, I have found myself enjoying the feel of these Strat-style guitars much more as of late and, as a result, playing better on them as well, which has done tons for my motivation. Besides the weight, I've found it easier for me to tremolo pick and all-in-all pick more dynamically on a Strat - I think it has something to do with the bridge angle and the way my arm comes down off the contour on the body. It makes me play better, even if the tone isn’t better, although it is in the ballpark. To me, that’s a decent trade off because at the end of the day, playing better is always the end-goal.

Anyone else?

And here's a pic just for kicks:

View attachment 600136

Seems to do the Les Paul thing alright!

Long-story short, my Les Paul Custom has been gathering dust lately as I continue to play my Strat-style guitars.

I know Strats are known for their shimmery cleans and their punchy neck pickups but as someone who's main influences are Randy Rhoads, Matthias Jabs, Michael Schenker, Slash, Gary Richrath, and Eddie Van Halen (to name a few), heavy is the name of the game for me.

I now am a firm believer that neck humbucker tone is way too wooly and mushy for my taste and that noiseless single coils in the neck are the way to go, clean or overdriven. The best neck humbuckers sound like good single coils IMO anyways.

I've also noticed that humbuckers in Strats, while not as thick and chewy as they are in Les Pauls, have this percussive quality that I've found I really like. I'd say the tone is most similar in the bridge position to a Flying V. Bridge humbuckers get rid of that thin, single coil wide-open bridge pickup tone on Strats that I never liked as well along with the buzzing issues.

I am primarily a basement jammer playing along to my favorite tracks but also play in a casual cover band, playing the occasional open mic, and I am surprised at how much I am enjoying my non-Les-Paul guitars. When I first brought my EVH and Jackson to band practice, my drummer commented both times that they sounded better in the mix than my Les Paul. While that wasn't the best thing to hear, and while I don’t agree entirely, I have been finding that I play better on these Strat-style guitars than my Les Paul when I listen back to our practice recordings and that definitely makes me sound better.

While I did cut my teeth on a Squier Strat in my early years of playing, I couldn't dump that guitar fast enough and have been a Les Paul enthusiast since 2007, gradually making my way to my dream guitar: the Les Paul Custom.

However, I have found that while nothing beats the roar of a good Les Paul, and while cheap plastics and bolt on necks leave much to be desired in the area of substantiality, I have found myself enjoying the feel of these Strat-style guitars much more as of late and, as a result, playing better on them as well, which has done tons for my motivation. Besides the weight, I've found it easier for me to tremolo pick and all-in-all pick more dynamically on a Strat - I think it has something to do with the bridge angle and the way my arm comes down off the contour on the body. It makes me play better, even if the tone isn’t better, although it is in the ballpark. To me, that’s a decent trade off because at the end of the day, playing better is always the end-goal.

Anyone else?

And here's a pic just for kicks:

View attachment 600136

Seems to do the Les Paul thing alright!

Once I got my first Gibson Les Paul Custom I sold both my Strat and Epiphone which were dust collectors. I now have 10 collector Gibson Les Paul Customs or reissues including 2 R59’s. I can never play anything else even though they are heavier. The deep sound and quality of these beautiful works of art just do it for me! Make me sound better than I am and knowing that most all of the legendary guitarists played them is special.

 

[goodguy]

Yes… Strats are more “fluid/nimble” & enjoyable for Hendrix’ish embellishments & cleans. That said, my LP has a warm/thick tone that’s equally enjoyable for rock or jazzy stuff … but I play it less than my strat. When playing with drive, the treble pu on my LP or SG are so much better than a traditional strat … which has me thinking , perhaps a Tele the best of all worlds… clean and/or warm on neck but sounds wonderful with dirt or clean on bridge too. ???

 

[Hewlett]

I have and have had several Strats and LPs, and this recently discovered is the one I usually play:

It offers me a good balance between these two worlds, helped by its active mid-boost circuit ; only I miss the 24.75" scale...

 

[frankpaush]

This is a Strat...!

is "the Strat" a strat? I guess every strat form factor + 3 pickup e.guitar can be identified as "a strat", it is just no "Fender STratocaster" ... all the rest is not a guitar player's job but one for Fender laywers ...

 

[nkd]

Depends on what tone I require, but mainly use a Les Paul.

 

[wildhawk1]

As I've gotten older I've tended to gradually reduce the amount of gain I use.

Same. As my playing improved the desire for a cleaner tone has increased.