Strat’s Life
MORE THAN 30 OF THE WORLD’S TOP STRATOCASTER PLAYERS JOIN US TO SHARE THEIR LOVE OF LEO’S DOUBLE-CUT MASTERPIECE
Hank Marvin What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“Going back to my school years, hearing the intro and solo of The Crickets’ That’llBeTheDay on a jukebox was a revelation, and motivated me to try to copy this ‘new to us’ American style of rock ’n’ roll guitar. As regards my own playing, I thought TheThemeFromTheDeer Hunter(Cavatina) was special as it’s a beautiful composition written by Stanley Myers, and also my performance was recorded in one take, except for one note where there was an odd distortion. I dropped in and replaced the note.
“A couple of other recordings that I like for di erent reasons are Hot Rox, which I wrote with my son Ben; it was fun for me to go nuts and play an extended blues-rock solo. And also Ain’tNoSunshine arranged for me by Mark Griths, which gave me an opportunity to play a jazzy, bluesinuenced solo. Very satisfying.”
What’s your best tip for getting great tones out of a Strat?
“Because I use the vibrato bar and most of the time have it held in my right hand, I was forced to pick nearer the ngerboard, rather than the bridge. This produces a slightly sweeter tone. I would also not have too much top on the amp. In fact, the early AC30s – it’s their 65th anniversary this year! – did not have a top boost function and then, when they added it, I discovered that if not used with restraint it would cause Bruce [Welch] to howl in pain – or perhaps he was just singing?”
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“From late 1958 to early ’59 I was playing an Antoria, which had a neck designed and constructed by Fred Flintstone, who thought he was making a club. To put me out of my misery Cli [Richard] bought me my rst Strat in spring 1959. It was red with a bird’s eye maple neck and ngerboard, and gold-plated hardware. It looked out of this world. A guitar from Mars. It unfortunately had very heavy strings, something like 13 or 14 to 56, impossible to bend a string, other than the second string up a half-step, but I was saved by the vibrato bar, which enabled me to pull the second string up a whole tone. But it had to be set up to enable that. At that time, the only nger vibrato I was aware of was the classical one, which doesn’t work too well on heavy steel strings. Wanting to make the guitar ‘sing’ more, I found using the vibrato bar achieved that. I also used it to dip the pitch and sometimes to give the strings a wild shake as on the intro to The Shadows’ hit ManOfMystery. I certainly would not have been able to develop that on any other guitar available in those days.”
Rosewood or maple?
“I prefer a bird’s eye maple ngerboard. I always thought it looked better. How shallow is that? But importantly I like the feel under my ngers.”
Strats look coolest in what nish?
“A red Strat is historically associated with me, although I have had and performed with both white and black Strats.”
You’ve never been a stickler for playing vintage Strats, but do you own any?
“The Strats I’ve used since 1989 have been my Custom Shop Signature models, which are based on a 1958 red one that I used through the 80s. That ’58 is the only vintage Strat I own.”
“Cliff [Richard] bought me my first Strat in 1959. It was red with gold-plated hardware. It looked out of this world”
HANK MARVIN
Brett Garsed What amp/pedal combination sounds best with a Strat?
“I really like using fuzz tones with mine as it’ll fatten up the back pickup. If you can get that kind of sound with pedals it allows a Strat to do what it does naturally, so you can have the best of all worlds tonally.”
Who do you regard as the greatest Strat player of all time?
“This is an impossible question to answer, but the rst person that came to mind for me was Rory Gallagher.”
Girl In Red Why do you play a Strat? What does it do for you that other guitars don’t?
“The Strat was my rst ever electric guitar, so for me it’s the epitome of what the electric guitar is. And now I use it because it’s iconic and I love the sound.”
Who do you regard as the greatest Strat player of all time?
“The most iconic Strat player will always be Jimi Hendrix. Not only was he a really cool guitarist, but I really connect the imagery and essence of Stratocasters to Jimi Hendrix and the 60s era of art and music.”
Allen Hinds What’s your best tip for getting great tone from a Strat?
“How many times have I gone into a store, seen a beautiful Strat and when I pick it up, it immediately turns me o due to an improper setup? And by a ‘setup’ I mean several things: neck pitch, truss rod, fret continuity, each individual saddle’s height, pickup height, bridge screw adjustment, intonation. When all this is right, your hands have a much better chance of ultimate expression, feel and tone.”
What is the ultimate Strat there’s ever been?
“There are a couple for me. One of the best years was ’56: the soft V-shaped neck, super comfy, and that old two-tone lovely nitrocellulose look. A friend has one and it has to be one of the most resonant Strats ever – last of the ash bodies, so the weight is perfect. My next favourite might be a ’60 slab-’board for the aesthetic of the nish. The dark, dark oxblood red is dierent from the later re-engine reds… and the slab ’board is great. But I think the ’64s were the best neck shape: girth without being overly fat.”
Eric Johnson What’s your best tip for getting great tone from a Strat?
“One of the things I like to do is to put the tone control on the bridge pickup and roll it o a bit. Also, I put the bridge pickup quite close to the strings to make it a little stronger.”
Richie Kotzen What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“Ritchie Blackmore’s intro to the song Woman FromTokyo is one of the greatest-sounding rock ’n’ roll guitar intros played on a Strat. It is relatively clean with just enough gain to give it power and attitude [and] he sits in time with the drums. This is something a lot of fans take for granted, but it is a very important component in how and why performances ’sound’ as they do.”
Rebecca Lovell, Larkin Poe What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“[Stevie Ray Vaughan’s] LiveAtTheElMocambo is probably one of the most inspirational exhibitions of a Stratocaster from where I sit. Also, we played Doheny Blues Festival in California ve or six years ago and watching Jimmie Vaughan play his Strat on stage was like raising hair on the back of the neck. When you see somebody playing with that authority, that is a connective moment where you understand the instrument’s power.”
What’s your best tip for getting great tone out of a Strat?
“It’s all in the right hand – and that’s coming from someone who started out as an acoustic player. It’s taken me a long time to understand the appropriate amount of force to use on a Strat. Because watching a player like Stevie play, you begin to understand how much violence the guitar can actually take [laughs]. You can draw a lot of dynamics out of your instrument if you’re willing to muscle in but also lighten up. I’ve broken thousands of strings on my blessed guitar… poor thing [laughs].”
What amp/pedal combination sounds best with a Strat?
“On a track called BadSpell I used a Fender Deluxe with a Royal Jelly by Beetronics. It’s like a really overblown fuzz pedal that gives a kiss of an octave sound to it. It’s got a little bit of a slap on it and sounds really sick.”
“I really connect the imagery and essence of Stratocasters to Jimi Hendrix and the 60s era of art and music” GIRL IN RED
Steve Lukather
What Strat moment on a recording inspires you the most?
“This is tough to answer. I suppose Jimi was my
rst ‘Wow, I love that sound!’ moment. Doesn’t hurt if you are Jimi… Je Beck’s WhereWere You, all of SRV’s stu, David Gilmour… Mike Landau knows how to make a Strat sing. Eric Johnson. Man, it’s hard to answer completely.”
What’s your best tip for getting great tone from a Strat?
“Be a great player [laughs]. A great amp… Marshall and Fender amps come to mind. I suppose a Dumble, but I had a very early 1980 Dumble Overdrive Special I bought for 1,000 bucks. But for me, it was hardly a magic amp. Only thing magic was the 2,000 per cent I made when I sold it! It really is the players that use them.”
Yngwie Malmsteen
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“When I was seven or eight years old, I bought a ‘Strat’, but it wasn’t a Fender; it was a bogus copy. But it was exact, you know? And the
rst thing I noticed was that I hated the pickups. So I went to the music store and they sold me something called a Fat Strat pickup, which was still a single coil, and it sounded way better.
“That was the one and only thing I found with Strats that I don’t like: the pickups. I think they’re awful. But that’s just me. Because you’ll hear Hendrix and you hear all these other guys, and they sound great with them. I mean, my playing style is… dierent because it’s not only the blues, it’s more linear and I just play a very dierent style than most guitar players do. Other than that, man, fuck, the Strat is amazing.”
Which is the coolest Strat headstock?
“I like them all. But I always kind of gravitated to a big headstock because it just looks really cool. And secondly, if you don’t know this, now you shall: on a solidbody electric guitar, like Telecaster or Stratocaster, the sound resonates not really from the body but from the headstock. If you take the body of the guitar and hold it against the wall, you get nothing. But if you put the headstock against the wall, the whole wall vibrates the sound from the Stratocaster, like from the volume of the guitar. Basically, the resonance is from the headstock. So the bigger headstock would have more volume.”
Strats look coolest in what nish?
“I have a hilarious story for you. When I was a kid, I used to do a lot of gigging, and it was not like in America, where you could play in Top 40 bands, you know? I had a band with a real guitar player, believe it or not, and his father was a well-o guy who had his own company. So his father was like, ‘You kids can play here every weekend, as long as you play one ABBA song and one Beatles song.’ I was 12 or 13 years old and we got paid. One day, somebody
lmed the show on one of these [Kodak] Super 8 cameras. I was wearing black and I was playing a black Strat. And what I saw in the picture in the
lm was… it looked like I was just playing a fucking pickguard. All I saw was the pickguard. I said, ‘Fuck it.’ I went home, took the guitar apart and painted the guitar white. From then on, I said, ‘I need the lighter-coloured guitars.’”
DeWayne ‘Blackbyrd’ McKnight, P-Funk
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“While I was in one of my favourite music stores in midtown LA called Grants School Of Music, I looked behind the counter and saw a guitar that looked exactly like a sunburst Strat with a maple neck but no Fender logo on it. I asked Mrs Grant if it was for sale. She said yes; it was $68. I begged my parents to buy it for me to no avail. As my 18th birthday was coming up, my brother oered to buy the guitar for me. I thought it was a copy, but at one point I took the neck o the guitar to
nd a date: it was 9-58. I showed the guitar to an expert and he con
rmed it was a 1958 sunburst Fender Stratocaster. I still have the body of the guitar – and the rest is a horror story, which I won’t go into.”
What’s your best tip for getting great tone from a Strat?
“I’ve been told that I am a heavyhanded player, so I need the action at a level to compensate for that. I
rst set my strings to 5/64th-inch o the frets across all the strings, measuring from the bottom of the strings. My favourite tech told me that this is the lowest measurement to get a good tone for the way I play. If my hands and my guitar have a great relationship, gear and anything else is a plus.”
Tom Morello
Who do you regard as the greatest Strat player of all time?
“Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Je Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Andy Gill of Gang Of Four and Brother Wayne Kramer of the mighty MC5 have all wielded the Strat in inspirational ways – and my ‘Soul Power’ Strat allowed me to unlock a new era of sound and fury in Audioslave.”
Simon Neil
Why do you play a Strat? What does it do for you that other guitars don’t?
“I don’t think I’d have ever come to write music in the way that I do without the Stratocaster. It’s so percussive, so dynamic, it makes you play in a dierent way. My very
rst one was gifted to me by my bandmate’s dad, and I recorded our
rst three records on that Stratocaster. It’s the most expressive guitar I’ve ever played – there’s a reason I’m still playing it now!”
“I’d [never] write music in the way I do without the Strat. It’s so dynamic, it makes you play in a different way” SIMON NEIL
Oz Noy
Who do you regard as the greatest Strat player of all time?
“Jimi Hendrix: he started it all and opened the doors for everybody. Je Beck took the instrument to the next level, pushing the envelope further than anyone so far. Stevie Ray Vaughan took Hendrix, Clapton, Albert King & BB King and made it into his own personal style with the most glorious tone ever imagined. Eric Johnson, the most original rock player since Hendrix and Beck, invented his new vocabulary of blues-rock and beyond.”
Carlos O’Connell, Fontaines DC
What amp/pedal combination sounds best with a Strat?
“Best drive would be anything that chokes, anything with good sag in it. Fender Blender is a classic e ect that takes the dynamic in a Strat so well. Right now, I’m using a 636P by Soundgas based on the preamp from the old Grampian spring tanks. The choke on it makes the Strat top-end sound so fuzzy and really brings out the low-end that’s so perfectly balanced on the Strat, making it feel like the cones in the amp are about to blow up.”
Who do you regard as the greatest Strat player of all time?
“The obvious answer is Hendrix. But Frusciante has to be the most exciting and sensitive Strat player in modern music.”
Ari O’Neal
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“I got my rst Strat when I was in college from a pawn shop. I wanted something that sounded more diverse and versatile, and the Strat does that for me. I have been playing it ever since! There’s an undeniable power to it; when I play, there is no fear and I’m transported to a di erent state of being.”
Joe Perry
What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“Anything Je Beck did in the last 30 years since he put down his Les Paul and was exclusively a Strat guy. I saw him play at the Boston Tea Party touring behind the rst album, and they did a song from their new upcoming album [ BeckOla], and he switched to a Strat for that; it was JailhouseRock. He used the Strat and the vibrato as part of his vocabulary. He used that [vibrato] in a musical way – way more than anybody else that I’ve ever heard. Je was heads, hands and feet above everybody else when it came to using everything a Strat had to o er.”
What amp/pedal combination sounds best with a Strat?
“To start with, I would take an old Klon pedal and put it into a small Fender. Then I would probably put a compressor on it somewhere; I have a Carl Martin [Compressor Limiter], and Universal Audio has a really good one called the 1176 [Studio Compressor]. I would go for that before I go for more overdrive.”
In your opinion, which is the coolest Strat headstock?
“I think the bigger one [from the 70s] looks cool. There’s no denying that the guitar is a phallic-looking musical instrument. And, you know, to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, the bigger headstock does it…”
Ana Popović
What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“I’d have to go with Riviera Paradise by Stevie Ray Vaughan from the album LivefromAustin,Texas.”
What’s your best tip for getting great tone out of a Strat?
“Put the toggle switch in the second or fourth position. Combining the Alnico V pickups with a Fender cleantoned amp, such as Super Reverb or Deluxe Reverb, is as close to the heart and soul of a Fender Strat as you can get, especially if played on a maple-neck Strat.”
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“It was in ’96, I believe at a shop in my hometown of Belgrade, Serbia. I bought a secondhand CBS Strat from 1975 with a natural nish. That got me through the rst shows with my rst band.”
What amp/pedal combination sounds best with a Strat?
“In my opinion, a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV with an original Ibanez Tube Screamer [TS808]. You can even use two for an extra boost! Then add an original Boss Chorus.”
Who do you regard as the greatest Strat player of all time?
“Jimi was revolutionary; he changed the accustomed way of playing guitars in the 60s and 70s, and the Strat and Fender were never the same
“There’s an undeniable power to the Strat; when I play, there is no fear and I’m transported to a different state of being” ARI O’NEAL
after that. Stevie Ray Vaughan added sweetness to the Strat tone, and that hasn’t been heard before or after; Stevie’s uency was astonishing and new to the game. And then Je Beck went even further to broaden the musical spectrum; Je widened the sound options and modernised the approach on a Strat in the 90s.”
Strats look coolest in what nish?
“My favourite is my signature ‘Foggy’ nish, which is called Foggy Mirror Chrome. When paired with a mirror pickguard, it’s a showstopper!”
REI
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“My rst memory of playing a Stratocaster was in kindergarten in NYC. It was a Made-InJapan ’62 Stratocaster from 1986 with the iconic three-tone sunburst. The Strat screams ‘main character vibes’ and also has a wide range of tones to o er, which is great for an artist like me who has all types of genres on one setlist/album.”
Nile Rodgers
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“I got my Stratocaster in 1973 when I realised that it was what my sound was missing, and once I did… it changed my life 1,000 per cent. I have been able to write the jazz-in uenced, dance-disco funk pop songs that people have loved for decades as well as rock, country, folk and EDM collaborations thanks to my Strat.”
Philip Sayce
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“When I was in high school I worked after school and weekends in the plumbing department at Canadian Tire, making minimum wage with a goal of saving up for a 90s inexpensive black Strat with a maple neck, something that looked just like Clapton’s. Oh, how I cherished that guitar; I spent thousands of hours playing it until it was sadly stolen, just days before the high school Battle Of The Bands. That guitar denitely set me on the course to acquire my rst vintage pre-CBS Strat, ‘Mother’.”
What is the ultimate Strat there’s ever been?
“To me it’s the rosewood veneer’board 1963 Strat. Stevie Ray Vaughan is the ultimate ‘Strat Boss’, and my understanding is that he very often played veneer-’board guitars from 1962 or ’63. Pre-CBS Strats can be great for various reasons… and ’63 seems like a sweet spot. Both of my Strats, ‘Mother’ and ‘Big Daddy’, are from 1963 and I consider these 60-year-plus single-coil guitars as transcending any brand name as they are covered in my blood, sweat and tears, and millions of miles, over the last 20 years. I cherish them and feel grateful to have them in my family.”
Josh Smith
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“It was 1994 and I saved up my gig money every week to buy my Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Strat. I felt like I nally had a real guitar when I got it. I was 14 and I played the guitar almost exclusively for the next 10 years. I still have it, of course. I was playing that guitar when I opened for and met BB King; he signed the back of the headstock for me. I was playing that guitar when I met my wife. There is a sticker that says ‘I love Niki’ right next to BB’s signature. That guitar will be with me always.”
In your opinion, what is the ultimate Strat there’s ever been?
“First, the ’57 Strat, my personal dream guitar: the ‘V’ neck shape, the two-tone burst, the maple neck with the rst-year alder body. It’s the most versatile Strat ever made. Perfect. Then the ’63 Strat: the perfect rosewood-’board Strat. Sounds like Jimi, SRV and all the prototype Strat sounds I hear in my head. Those two years and you are covered with Strats forever!”
Tash Sultana
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“I was always begging my dad to get a guitar, and on my eighth birthday I was playing in my room and dad came in and said, ‘Get to the lounge!’ I thought I’d broken something, but waiting for me was a Black Squier Stratocaster.”
Why do you play a Strat? What does it do for you that other guitars don’t?
“I prefer the cutaway on the body so I can get right down and dirty on the neck. Other guitars obviously also provide that, but I’ve just landed on Strats in this era of my life. I’ve always been a big fan of Stratocaster players and their guitars. For me, the Strat is easy, it’s lighter, and I can literally beat the shit out of it on stage and it handles it well.”
“I have [written] jazz-influenced, dance-disco funk pop songs, and rock, country, folk and EDM, thanks to my Strat” NILE RODGERS
What amp/pedal combination sounds best with a Strat?
“What I’m trying to approach in my drive tone is matching my gain and sustain, as well as presence. I like that ‘metal’ squeak in the bends and for the guitar to ring out as much as possible – almost like an electrical current is crawling through the guitar.”
Shane Theriot
What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“You can’t mention a Stratocaster without mentioning Je Beck. His performance on Live AtRonnieScott’s shows what is possible with the instrument when combined with his highly skilled hands and ears. During that show he makes use of everything on the instrument – tone knobs, whammy bar and volume knobs – in a highly musical way that I don’t think other players have ever done. The song WhereWereYou o JeBeck’sGuitar Shop is such a beautiful piece of music that always inspires me.”
Andy Timmons
When did you get your rst Strat and what was it?
“I was in a Top 40 band in Miami, summer of 1984, and I only owned a Les Paul at the time, but all of pop radio was about the Nile Rogers’ clean Strat rhythm tone, so I bought a 1983 Squier Strat – it was all I could aord. I immediately put EMGs in it because that’s what Steve Lukather had in his guitars at that time. I still have that guitar and it’s truly one of my best Strats!”
What is the greatest tone made with a Strat on a record?
“NowhereMan by The Beatles, which I believe is John and George playing their matching Sonic Blue Strats, plugged into the same AC30 with massive compression and treble added at the board. I tried this for myself: two old Strats into an old AC30 – nailed the tone! Honourable mentions also go to TexasFlood by SRV and PeggySue by Buddy Holly.”
What Strat moment on a recording inspires you most?
“Eric Johnson’s entire Austin City Limits performance from 1991. That, paired with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s LiveAtTheElMocambo, are the two ultimate documents of what the Stratocaster is capable of – along with Je Beck’s EmotionAndCommotion record and the BandOfGypsys record… This is impossible [laughs]!”
Chris Turpin
What Strat moment on a recording (including live recordings) inspires you most to this day and why?
“For me it’s the intro to TheCalvaryCross by Richard and Linda Thompson. Thompson is a spellcaster. His playing style is frenetic, wild and entirely his own. The intro captures the essence of 1950s ‘Strat tone’ but somehow is oddly British. On a model of guitar that is so commonplace, probably more than any other guitar on the planet earth… you instantly know it’s him. To have such a distinctive voice and unique touch on the instrument is something I’ve always strived for.”
Jimmie Vaughan
Why do you play a Strat? What does it do for you that other guitars don’t?
“I used to ride the bus downtown and look in the music store window at the Strat for months before I had one. For me, it’s a rocket to outer space; it’s my favourite guitar!”
Carl Verheyen
What’s your best tip for getting great tone out of a Strat?
“I believe string gauge has very little to do with tone, and action height has everything to do with it. I can get SRV’s tone using a 0.009 to 0.046 set because my action is not down on the deck. Pickup height matters as well. If the pickups are too high, you lose clarity.”
In your opinion, what is the ultimate Strat there’s ever been?
“They really got it right by the time the 60s rolled around. Once on tour in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I ran into Seymour Duncan when we were both doing masterclasses at the university. He said, ‘Verheyen, you’re a Strat guy. The bestsounding three pickups in a row that I’ve heard in years is on a ’58 Strat at Voltage Guitars on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. You should own it!’ I picked it up a few days later and he was right! The neck pickup is fat and woodsy. The middle pickup is glassy with a sparkling high-end. And the bridge pickup is bright but not like an icepick in the ears. Exactly what a Strat should be!”
Rosewood or maple?
“I’ve come to believe I get more de¤nition playing with higher gain on my maple-neck guitars. Especially below C# on the 4th fret of the A string. I try to avoid a mushy low-end, so I can use the guitar’s entire range.”
“I looked in the music store window at the Strat for months before I had one. It’s a rocket to outer space” JIMMIE VAUGHAN