Re: Is the Standard Strat any good,for a beginner?

: My first guitar was fender standard strat. Not only is a good beginers guitar, but also works well for those with a few years of experience. The quality is much better that a squire, which is also made by fender, is not to steep in price. Whether you want to buy a strat or tele is personal choice, i prefer a strat.

I Perfer the strat, better controls, more comfortable to play because it has more contored surfaces and more flexible pickups.

And for god sakes BUY THE AMERICAN STRAT, it is simply not worth saaving a couple hundered to go with a mexican "Tacocaster" or a "Japcaster" = ) the tone of the american strat justifies its price plus its a better value in the long run.

I personally own a Blackie, That used to belong to Eric Clapton. Best dang guitar i have ever played, beter than most production claptons and it has an all maple neck.

Heres the differences in the fretboards, they all have their own pros and cons.

Maple. Solid, one piece, truss is put in though the back of the neck, this maakes for a more solid sound. the maple neck has less midrange and more trebble, it has a more nasaly sound. The downside is that the maple neck has a clearcoat many dont like and the finish wears and that makes wear marks that you will either love because it adds charater or hate because it looks dirty, my personal choice because it brings out the single coil sound the best and is solid as a rock.

Rosewood. Truss is put in behind the fretboard on this guitar like any other guitar, which changes not only the harmonic properties, but also the notes sound looser and warmer with alot more mid. Erics fret trick does not work on the rosewood fretboard or the ebony fretboard. Also, for some reason, the guitar feels less "solid" with the rosewood fretboard.

Ebony Yes there are Strats out there with ebony fretboards,
* the old strat ultra has an ebony fretboard
* The old jeff beck model before they sadly axed the lace sensors on every guitar but the Buddy Guy Signature series.

It sounds alot like the maple fretboard but even tighter, with slightly midrange and more sustain. But for the beginer, dont even worry about the ebony fretboard unless you have 1200-1600 bux lying around = )

The nice thing about the strat is once you have a decent one, you'll always have it, they are rugid as hell and you could have em for decades and never hate em. I HIGHLY recommend going on EBAY and looking for a strat delux or strat ultra, throw a wilkinson locking brige on that and you have one hell of a package for 600-750 and ALOT more bang for the buck. Those Lace Sensors are worth it along with the stability of locking tuners and a better finish

at any rate good luck to ya

Cartaya