In planning for my next Strat project, and I'm not sure what direction to go in. I've got two Strats that give me vintage tones in spades. Is there another dimension that can be achieved with a Strat?

I notice that most pickup manufacturers have quite a few selections for creating or only slightly augmenting the traditional, vintage Strat single coil tones. Yet, when I look at recent offerings from Fender in the Strat line, there seems to be quite a few Strats that go in a different direction (HSS, HH, etc.). I know my Am Deluxe Strat (SCNs + HB) doesn't seem to engineered to be vintage-oriented tone-wise. So, my question is "Is there a recognized "new" Strat sound or is the Strat kind of a one-trick pony?

One of my favourite sounds to ever come from a strat is andy fairweather low playing a HH strat with roger waters live. He plays the middle solo on money with it and the sound is unreal.

As you've been experiencing, there's really only three: "Vintage", "Vintage on Steroids" and "Anything and Everything Else". The easiest of the three is the "Anything and Everything Else" genre where P-90s, full sized HBs, etc. literally make a given Strat sound like anything but. This is, unless of course, one is trying to make his or her "Anything and Everything Else" sound like a Strat which to me, is somewhat purpose defeating. Keep in mind though (and at the risk of citing cliches), all tone is subjective.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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Well I for one wouldn't call the Strat a " one trick pony ". After being a Les Paul player for years I have recently come back over to the " dark side ", buying 6 Strats in the past year. I feel I can cox more tones out of a decent Strat than any Les Paul I have ever owned.

Would the SD SSL-2/6/3 combo and DM Area 67/58/61 be considered "Vintage" or "Vintage on Steroids"?

In these categories, where would you categorize a 2006 HSS Am Deluxe (SCNs + HB)? Just trying to see where the tone boundaries are...

The neck pickup of the Duncan combo would purely be "V"; the other two would be "V on S" as they possess aggrandized power and frequency response yet still in conformance with an intrinsic "V" tonality. The DiMarzios arguably would be both: They emulate pure vintage tonality but by being HB, they take it up a notch from purely "V" single coils.

With your above HSS example, to me, SCNs do not sound like vintage Strat pickups at all and as previously stated, neither does nor would a full sized HB. Consequently, both are in the realm of "Anything and Everything Else".

Once again, this is merely IMO...

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I'm not sure that I understand what you're asking, but how about some "lipsticks" ?



...a different kind of vintage sound

Consider these pickup options:

1) P-90 pickups
2) "Lipstick" pickups
3) low output humbuckers in an HH or just H configuration
4) put in the Tele 2 pickup configuration

those would give you different dimensions.

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My other guitar is a Strat.

something else came to me

use the Firebird-type mini humbuckers, either HH or HHH ...

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My other guitar is a Strat.

I agree 100%
..if there ever was a one trick pony in my stable,it's my Les Paul.

I could never call a Strat a "one trick pony" as they have a very broad spectrum of tones, that's why I only use Strats in the SSS configuration.Some may call me a snob but I see myself as being a purist but I could never bring myself to play an HSS Strat or one in any other setup other than the classic SSS.I have 4 Strats and each one is SSS but then again each has it's own distinct tonal fingerprint yet is unmistakeably a Strat.If I want a humbucker sound I'll use one of my Les Pauls or my Guild S-100 but my Strats will stay on being SSS as I love the classic Strat tone and I leave all other tones to other brands and/or models.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

By "one-trick pony", I was referring to the Strat as being pretty much singularly identified with the vintage Strat sound, as opposed to a more modern or "fatter" sound. With 3 single coils, I can attest to the ability to get more than a single tone out of a vintage-equipped Strat. Martian's recommendation of the SD SSL-2/SSL-6/SSL-3 pickup combination is, to my ears, true to the vintage Strat sound but there's quite a range of vintage tones to be had from that combo.

Indeed!

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So, if we consider that a Strat might be equipped to sound like something other than the vintage Strat we all know and love, how close can you get a Strat to sound like another "signature" sound? For example (purists, forgive me), can a Strat be configured to sound like a Gibson Les Paul Standard? Can it be configured to produce Rickenbacker-like chime?

So far, I've been amazed at the difference pickups make, although my experience here is pretty limited. It seems though, that with the right pickup selections (and, as importantly, amp type and settings), you should be able to get pretty close to those other "signature" sounds. With electric guitars, it seems like pickups are a big percentage of the type of sound you're gonna get out of it...

Electronically speaking, one can indeed mimic virtually any guitar's 'signature sound' with the right preamp/EQ/amplifier. Aside from this, one can only mimic certain but not all 'signature sounds' of a different guitar based on the predetermined tonality of the pickup(s). The key here is active electronics vs. passive electronics.

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