Strat Instead of Tele?

[Lobomov]

Just a silly quick question .. A quick opinion, nothing too serious


I enjoy having my Tele strung with thinner strings, so I also have the option of doing (pedal) bends and behind the nut shenanigans.


So I've been on the lookout for another Tele to set up with thicker strings or even flats. Sadly enough I've seen no Tele for sale at a realistic price the last six months (I'm have no intention of buying new)

Now a 65 avri Strat has appeared at a decent price as has caught my eye. Normally I wouldn't be too thrilled with a 7.25" radius, but given a jazz set up with thick strings, it doesn't matter all that much and as I remember the '65 avri does actually sound good.


I don't see many of you guys playing Strats, but you're all very fond of your Teles


So what do you say, get the Strat or continue being patient waiting for a Tele?

[marcwhy]

Hi,
If you like the strat and it's a good price ... buy it!

[why not?!]

[christianm77]

Strats don’t have the neck pickup sound like a tele. The tele is compressed and even. Even single coil. So a tele can go jazz box to twang machine....

Strats don’t do this. if you want a strat sound, buy strat, because that’s what strats do. They can’t do anything else. But if that’s you want nothing else does it .

[christianm77]

Nir Felder uses a Mexican strat, cheapo one. He leans into that sound.

[patshep]

My strat doesn't get great jazz tones, but i have a superstrat style Ibanez with humbuckers that works great...
a strat with a single coil sized humbucker will work, for jazz, rock, anything, but you lose that funk neck pickup sound

[citizenk74]

Strats don’t have the neck pickup sound like a tele. The tele is compressed and even. Even single coil. So a tele can go jazz box to twang machine....

Strats don’t do this. if you want a strat sound, buy strat, because that’s what strats do. They can’t do anything else. But if that’s you want nothing else does it .

Very true. But a listen to some of Ry Cooder's work reveals a jazzy tone of its own, equally glorious. The Strat's superb ergonomics is a plus, in addition, also, to boot.

Flats on a Strat with a rosewood board is simply scrumptious. I reverse the pickups on mine so that the shortest magnets are under the E and A rather than the B and high E, a trick I got from Jerry Donahue, IIRC. Works for me.

[MarkRhodes]

Jens Larsen talks here about getting a jazz tone out of a Stratocaster.

I had a Strat for years and sometimes miss it. Christian is right: it's not a Tele and won't ever be one. But Strats do a lot of great things, esp for R&B, soul, blues, and hybrids of those (plus rock of course).

Thaddeus Hogarth (Berklee faculty) plays a Strat. I think he started doing this when he was in a band with a lot of horns. He needed something that would cut through when he soloed.

This is an instructional bit but you can hear a Strat tone that cuts a fairly wide path.

The Tone Power of the Stratocaster – Berklee Online Take Note

[christianm77]

I might add that I’m a bit skeptical about the idea of a ‘jazz tone’ - but the strat doesn’t easily provide the stereotype idea of a jazz tone.

otoh a danelectro...

[Thumpalumpacus]

I've heard great jazz tones from Strats. They're pretty damned versatile, too.

[grahambop]

[patshep]

weird, all these examples of strat tone, while they play fine, the tone is not good in any of them to me
i'll take good playing over good tone usually

[Tal_175]

I was gonna suggest this video myself. Noiseless pickups seem to get jazz tones very well. Lorne Lofsky's soft touch is also helping to keep the twang in check.

[Tal_175]

Noiseless do have an extra coil .. but I'm looking at an '65 avri and not an deluxe/elite/whatever version

True but the pickup issue isn't tied to a strat being deluxe/elite etc. It's a simple customization option.

[Stringswinger]

I had a couple of 62RI Strats that sounded great with flats for jazz. Every bit as good as the 52RE Teles did.

[Esport]

I’ve had two MIM Strats, an American Strat and a franken-Strat over the years and while they were all great for funk/r&b, I wouldn’t trade my cheap CV Squier Tele for all four of em. Middle position on the Tele gets into the soul/funk territory enough for me and the jazz tone on the Tele is great.

But, there’s really something special, for me, about position 2 on a well-sorted Strat, so I see how I might like to have another one one day...just not in place of the Telecaster.

[man-argentina]

Sure. Try it. Im not a Stratocaster fanatic really, but I have to admit that I envy how easy you can reach higher frets. Those things are pretty comfortable to play.

[Peter C]

I've done all kinds of things to my Strat in order to get it closer to an archtop sound for sneaky night-time recording. Never going to happen.

Get another Tele.

[Jimmy Mack]

This vs. that ---that vs. this
I love Strats, and I love Teles, but I never had a jazz feel for my Strats. And I say this after comparing them side by side. The Strats have had a more metallic sound (and as a result, in feel). I never put flats on a Strat or a Tele - I never saw the sense in that for my ears. They are more rock and blues machines for me. BUT....when I play my Tele with round wounds, I get a whole different vibe from my Strat, and that vibe can easily be applied to playing jazz, twangy if I want, but its also deep and resonant.

If you want the jazzier tone, wait for a Tele. If you want variety, buy the Strat. You can always unload the Strat if not happy, no?

[Cunamara]

I have a Strat which sounds great for jazz; I also have two Teles. In all three cases I have the same pickup in the neck: the Bill Lawrence (Wilde) L280.

Noisefree Strat – Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups

Tonally it is, like the ad says, maybe a little closer to a "P90 lite" than it is to a Strat pickup. It doesn't have that glassiness, which I don't care for anyway. It is a stacked humbucker which I like better than side-by-side humbuckers- the little bit of phase cancellation that PAF style pickups have isn't as noticeable. The L280 doesn't have the P90 growl as such, it's more bell-like. It's also very responsive to touch, knob adjustments and the underlying sound of the instrument.

Replacing one pickup is much easier to reverse if you want to sell the guitar later on.

[neatomic]

the guy who wrote the book on jazz guitar..2 volumes actually! haha

the great mickey baker




a well set up strat can do just about anything...

sink that neck pup into the body and roll back the guitar knobs



cheers

[Cunamara]

Also-

And there is a video of an organ trio on YouTube where the guitarist is playing a Strat; from the looks of it this was taped back in the 60s. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the organ player or the guitarist but somebody else here will know what clip I'm referring to. Looks like a Strat, sounds like an L5 and he's using the bridge pick up!

[grahambop]

Possibly Jimmy Smith (Jazz 625) with Quentin Warren on guitar?

[rpjazzguitar]

I have a Strat.

Here's why. I went to a jam. Other guitarist played an Eric Johnson model Strat into a Victoria amp. Sounded brilliant.

I plugged my D'Angelico 2009 EXDC in his amp and it sounded exactly like me. I concluded it was the guitar. At that moment, I loved his tone and hated mine.

So, I got a Strat and used it for awhile. Long enough to conclude I prefer a 12" radius and a thicker sound in the upper register without adding distortion. I tried it with a Lil 59 HB in the neck position. This didn't quite give the Gibson jazz tone, but it did stop the Strat from doing what it did best.

Next jam, the same guy showed up with a 335 and sounded just as good. He's also brought a Tele and a gypsy jazz guitar of some kind. He always sounds good.

More recently, I usually bring (well, back before covid) a Comins GCS-1 to gigs, but at home, I tend to play a Yamaha Stat copy, the Pacifica 012, which now has the Lil 59 in the neck position.

I'd express the moral of the story this way: At a wine tasting, don't spend too much energy worrying about the glass.

[pauln]

I taught myself how to play jazz on a Telecaster, but all the jazz I've performed (and continued to learn) for the last 30+ years has been on my Stratocaster.

You can make a Strat approach the sound and tone of an L5 if you can do these things:

Set the guitar tone controls wide open and shape the tone with the amp by maxing the mids and putting the amp's treble and bass tones all the way down.

Use the neck pickup and turn the volume on the guitar just slightly down enough to knock off any steely metallic tone (which is going to be strongest out of the B string up around the 10-12th fret area, so test there).

Use the 2nd input (-6dB) on the amp, try to use an amp with 12 inch speakers, and place the amp on the floor, not a stand.

Turn the amp up a little louder than you think you need, hold your pick kind of loosely, and play light and easy... you don't want any twang or snap or other over excitement. Don't pluck the strings - just push the pick against the string until it lets go of the pick, letting it release by rolling off the string. The release between the pick and string is where at least half of the jazz tone comes on a Strat; the rest is the other details.

This may take a while to develop because the traditional jazz tone is descended from fat tight strings played rather firmly on an electrified acoustic jazz box, which naturally absorbs and otherwise modifies the attack and sustain profile. To mimic that sound and tone you really have to back off on a solid body and let a mid range sounding amp carry the level and tone.

[Jx30510]

One of the best jazz sound I've managed to have is with a Jimmie Vaughan Strat, Tex Mex neck pickup. But that's the smokey sound I hear in my head. Just listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Chitlin Con Carne" interpretation, that's the sound.
Just a man and his guitar, whatever it is