I think that fender should make a 22 fret standard strat!

Hey Thanks. And good timing to. I have it all taken apart right now. I am replacing the neck with a Warmoth Maple with Abalone Crosses and locking tuners, and I may change the pickups, keeping with the EMG's, but going with 2, but I will go with the mid boost on your suggustion. I am always looking to add that lil extra to push me to 11.

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A strat can be used for metal and modded to be great for metal, but their stock design does not lend itself nearly as well for metal imho. The guitars shine on clean channels to classic rock/dirty blues type tones. To me, the single coil will sound ok for metal, but its never gonna be great. To me a great metal guitar sounds weak and thin clean and starts to get better as gain is cranked up. Kinda the other end of the gain spectrum of what a strat is designed for imho. However, a strat could be made to get the best of both worlds with a hot HB pickup in the bridge.

However, to me, the best metal guitars do not have bolt on necks, they are neck thru. The pickups are screwed to the body and not the pickguard. The neck profile is flatter and thinner. A floyd or kahler is almost a neccesity.

Single coils just have too much noise to deal with high gain well. Also, they give a fatter warmer tone, which gets muddy under high gain. when you add high gain, you get overtones big time, so the original signal being thin is a blessing in disguise for a metal p/u. Look at reviews of the EMG 81, its great for metal but just ok to below average for anything else. BTW, I love the 81 in the bridge with high gain, its articulate, you still hear each note well. But that is the only way it really shines. Clean it can be sterile, thin, over treble and harsh. This is why I prefer the Alnico loaded 85 for the neck pu in my metal guitars. At least I can get a fatter livelier clean and blues lead sound with the 85 in the neck.

I bought the strat because its all the things my metal guitars lack. Great clean to dirty blues sounds. I wouldn't have even considered it for metal, because I believe that other companies products like ESP, Ibanez, and Jackson will be better suited for metal than Fender.

However, you can mod a strat to be a real good metal guitar if that's the route you want to go.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

If its a Strat you want, you could always look out for a superstrat and get something from the Jackson JS/Dinky series. I think one of their JS models has a double-locking trem even. Jackson is part of Fender's family of brands, so technically you're buying a Fender...

Of course, if its Fender you want, and you have at least $700-$800 to blow, then the Highway 1 Strats with the HSS pickup config are great too.

I wouldnt go 2 HB's with the mid. If i had to i'd have the 81 in the neck and the 85 in the bridge. The 81's got less power but is brighter than the 85. so set your amp gain to suit the 85 then with the boost on the 81 in the neck should retain some clarity.

That boost will take you well past 11 mate.

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No no and no

black top strat should be perfect

This was my Heavy metal..oops.. I meant to say Hard Rock, different generation
Don't forget the amp is half of the equation.
You must be able to max out the amp for that distortion, a natural amp distortion will allow you to control the notes rather then a cacophony of white noise which in musical terms is useless. If needed I would add a gain pedal, not a distortion pedal, distortion is achieved by overdriving the circuits..
Michael Schenker, EVH, Ritchie Blackmore, Malmsteen and many more, rely mostly on their amps providing the distortion coupled with hot Pups.



Was traded for a CS 56 NOS

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53mag, that was a super sexy strat....
bet it sounded great..

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

... for heavy metal. Yes, I suppose so.

For me, heavy metal is in the amplifier one uses ...

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Ironically, at the time ( last year) it did not suit me at all, that guitar came with a chrome pickguard and black plastic knobs, I swapped to a Tortoise and black metal knobs, as well as the salamander decal was changed to a Black Widow ( Spyder skiwear logo).
I never could get those pick ups to sound like what I envisioned, that was thru a Black & Tan Hot Rod Deluxe, a Champ 600 or a 62 Magnatone. For me they were just full on, but nothing else.
As I'm rebuilding 3 strats at the moment, One will look sort of similar, but I would get another second hand black standard and customise it to my needs.

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "