How do you guys use your Strats to mimic the sounds of other guitars? I remember a long time ago I watched a special on the Fender Strat and one of the musicians interviewed said you could use a Strat to sound like les Paul, a 355, a tele, etc, just by playing with the tones and volume. Anyone do this?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

I can't match the sound of my Les Paul with my Strats.

It may have to incorporate your amp levels/eq's as well. Start with extremes. Extreme bright to extreme dull, and work your way in, toward your sound.

I guess.

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-Kc
"Payin' dues."

Yes the Strat is arguably the most versatile guitar ever, but take that musician's interview with a grain of salt. It sounds like he was exaggerating a bit. You can get close to making a Strat sound like very different style guitars, but not without some serious pickup changes and/or signal processing first! For example, there is no way you can coax a hot humbucker sound from a typical Strat's stock single coils.

A Strat with it's tone knob rolled down won't sound like a Les Paul. It will just sounds like....well, a Strat with it's tone knob rolled down.

If you want a Strat that can "do it all", try one with a humbucker in the bridge pickup position and put a coil tap switch on it for single coil type sounds.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

As a matter of fact I do. I make my Strat sound like an electric volin. Cool effect if you know how to do it right... Only need the proper timing and use of a pick and volume pot....

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Yeah, I know that trick, it's fun to play.


I've tried rolling the tone knob back to get more of a BB King type tone but it just doesn't sound right. Is there a certain pickup selection I should be using?

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Use the middle or neck pickups to get close. But you'll never get the exact BB King tone from a Strat. No way.
You would be better of with something along the lines of:
Or any other semi-hollow guitar with humbuckers will get you much closer than with a Strat.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

hey vodoo,

with my highway one, 59 bassman, blues driver level to 9 oclock, gain 3 oclock,
tone to 3 oclock, and ts 808 level 12 oclock gain 12 oclock, and tone more less 3 oclock. settings are off the top of my head.
bassman channels jumped, volumes moreless at 4-5
hwy 1 volume at 8-10 (very loud)
tone knobs both at 1, switch in position 4(middle and humbucker)
i get a pretty close sound to a les paul type of tone.( creamy)
the tone knobs are key in producing those tones in my setup.

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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

A classic example of the violin technique is on the Allman Brothers live at Fillmore East album...the opening lines of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"....done on a Les Paul.

I'm not trying to nail his tone, just trying to learn how to manipulate the guitar I have.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

How about Gallaghers use on "A Million Miles Away" from Irish Tour. Simply beautiful.

Bonamassa is a big fan of this trick too.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Gotcha. Well even though a Strat has just one volume and two tone controls we can keep fiddling with them for hours, can't we?

By the way, what kind of amp are you using? Any effects? An amp contributes hugely to tone and is the other half of the equation when chasing down a certain sound. Some amps color the tone so much that it's hard to dial in a variety of sounds no matter what guitar you are using.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

Eric Clapton wanted his signature model having the best of both worlds: the fatness and crunch of his Gibsons and the crisp single-coil sound of a classic Strat. Fender's response was the Elite 12dB active mid-boost (MDX) circuit designed by Jim Demeter and John Carruthers, which makes the single-coils to sound like humbuckers. Clapton liked the boost (he called it a "compressor") but wanted more of that, prompting the R&D team to replace the Elite pickups with Gold Lace Sensor pickups and a new preamp with 25dB of gain with the midrange frequency tweaked approximately at around 500 Hz.

The VG Strat is capable to emulate all these guitars. Unfortunately, this guitar is no longer made.

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By putting it in its case and picking up the Gibson or Gretsch!