Are Any Of You Bored With Stratocasters?

[ZMAN]

Let me preface this thread: No offense intended to Stratocaster lovers. This is just my opinion.

For years, I played Strats, owned a couple pre-CBS ones too. At one point, I owned five Strats, and finally looked at them and said, "This is ridiculous." Now, I own one, a '94 MIJ 60's reissue in Candy Apple Red that is my 5-string open A tuned guitar a la Keith Richards. It's now relic'd and beat up. Plays great. I still think the Strat is a beautiful looking guitar.

But I'm sick of them.

I reached a point where I was just fed up with Stratocasters. I got tired of the thin sounds they made, and mostly, I got sick of walking into any club or open mic, and seeing almost everybody playing Strats. They were everywhere, ubiquitous, a dime a dozen. The wave of SRV imitators also turned me off. I was reviewing a lot of blues discs at that point, and every week, my mailbox was inhabited with new CDs by SRV wannabes in gaucho hats, all sporting-you guessed it-Stratocasters. I also realized that I was better served playing Gibson and Gretsch guitars for the most part, because they gave me the fuller sound and full-bore crunch I wanted. Lately, I've also been playing both a Telecaster and a Jazzmaster, and find them much more to my liking.

So, have any of you become bored or disenchanted with Strats?

After accumulating 9 Strats and I am now down to 8 I can say YES I agree 100%. I go into a store now and I don't even look at them. I hardly play any of them now and I don't even have them out of their cases. I play only my Gibson HB guitars.
I thought it was a phase I was going through. It has happened in the past.
After the Crossroads DVDs hit, I was back into Strats. Those DVDs are a definite love fest for Strats.
It is funny because even one of the biggest proponents of the Strat. (Eric Clapton) uses the mid boost circuit to make it sound more like an HB. IMHO of course.
I agree with you on the thin sound as well. I like the much fuller HB sound.
We shall see how long this lasts.

[guitardan777]

I'm quite the opposite as I just got my first Fender Strat.
I love the versatility and that un mistakeable Strat sound....

I also have a Carvin Bolt, which is a fine insrument too, but its set up w/ 3 HB's so it's a different animal....

I can see if you have played Strats all you life, you'd get to a point where you'd get bored, or want to be different like you say..

But, that's why there are millions of choices out there for other types...

If you wanna be different without breaking the bank, take a serious look at Carvin, and have one custom built to your specs.....

[sunvalleylaw]

After accumulating 9 Strats and I am now down to 8 I can say YES I agree 100%. I go into a store now and I don't even look at them. I hardly play any of them now and I don't even have them out of their cases. I play only my Gibson HB guitars.
I thought it was a phase I was going through. It has happened in the past.
After the Crossroads DVDs hit, I was back into Strats. Those DVDs are a definite love fest for Strats.
It is funny because even one of the biggest proponents of the Strat. (Eric Clapton) uses the mid boost circuit to make it sound more like an HB. IMHO of course.
I agree with you on the thin sound as well. I like the much fuller HB sound.
We shall see how long this lasts.

You know, that is interesting about Clapton. I think of the strat players I like, and Clapton's strat tone is not my favorite at all. Sometimes it is better, but mostly, his tone is kinda "meh" to me. I prefer Mayer's strat tone, and when Bonamassa played strats, I loved that tone as well, and of course SRV, Knoppfler, the list goes on. Even Rivers Cuomo of Weezer plays a warmoth strat, though I think he uses one with humbuckers at least part of the time.

I do think we can go in waves. When I got my Hagstrom Viking, I went on a big wave of playing that mostly for a while. Now I go back and forth, but I still call my strat my home base or true north on the sonic compass rose.