Okay, here are my last suggestions to add to the confusion:
One of the main differences in how I play a Strat is the use of my thumb to fret some of the chords that require a little more stretch. Next time you play one that feels a little chunky, work your thumb a little more, it may feel more comfortable while you’re getting used to it.
Do some research into the type of neck that feels best to you on both Fender’s site, and on replacement neck websites. For instance, Fender offers necks that they call Soft-V with a radius of 7.5" that are easy to bolt on to most Strat bodies. This would allow you to check out a bunch of MIMs with the idea that if the neck wasn’t perfect for you, a perfect replacement can be had to be popped in for about $200 to help you build a tailor made Strat reasonably. The trick is to be familiar with what the different necks feel like and equate that to their measurements. You’ll also find lots of necks available online from other swappers that are in very good condition inexpensively. Many guitar techs remove the neck from the body for fretwork, so don’t worry too much about the process. At the very worst, necks that do not fit perfectly generally only need a very small shim placed in the pocket to get it perfect and stable.
IMHO, Strats were originally designed as the perfect box of parts thrown together to make a great, affordable guitar that you can customize to make it your own. Since you mentioned you would keep it, you don’t have to worry about resale, and you could build a beautiful instrument however you wanted it for the cost of an American Strat.
Bob, I totally get what you mean here. However, I just never bring my thumb over the top. When I first learned, it was all classical for many years, and it is just drummed into you that the thumb never ever gets much above the midpoint of the back of the neck. I just can’t do it, it’s way too ingrained in my muscle memory. I am fully aware that many, many great rock guitarists use the thumb over the top, but it would require a wholesale revision in how I play, and that ain’t happening. I do get it above that midline a lot when I’m playing electric, particularly when doing bends and so on, but I’m really not much of a lead player so those occasions are comparatively rare.
Re: a 7.5" radius neck, that would be even worse, no? The girth increases as fretboard radius decreases. So a 7.5" neck would feel even fatter to my hand than a 9.5". Granted, a 10" is not that big a change, but just about every review of the EBMM Cutlass I’ve seen makes a point of how nicely thin the neck feels in the hand at its 10" radius.
I have in fact gone ahead and ordered a Cutlass from Sam Ash and will take my time during their no-questions-asked, 45-day return period to thoroughly check it out. If I end up having to send it back, so be it… the restocking fee will be a lot less than the gas I would have to buy to travel halfway across Texas to play one!
Yes Jonathan, and on that note…
Something happened last night that I never imagined would happen…
During my last session with The Detective I decided to show him my old Mudslinger tune… loaded the project and it now went into Cubase 8, of course… “such a long time ago”…
It totally sounded like crap and I certainly hope it was something in the conversion process that did it…
(Images of my forum friends nodding and saying 'it sounded like crap, that is right.)
Anyway - I decided to redo the tune, but I had a hard time playing it on the LP and in the end I gave up and took out the old Ibanez Gio. On which I suddenly could play it. It is hotter than the Gibson and has really thin strings.
So hence, I found I needed the Ibanez. No ifs and buts about it…
As to the radius, sort of yes and no, as the radius of a 7.5" circle is smaller to start with, and the soft vee shaping fits down into the hand deeper, not wider. The point is you can find a shape you like, and have it shaved to fit your hand. Music Man makes great guitars, and players remark about the feel of the neck, so you may be on to something there too.
Right-- deeper, not wider. It’s the depth that is the issue, so I’m definitely not inclined to get an axe that has an even deeper feel than the ones I already don’t care for and then try to mod it into submission… would much rather find something that I like without having to do that. I’m in no hurry-- if I have to mail-order several guitars before I find the one that fits, that’s cool by me!
OK-- I took delivery early this afternoon on an Ernie Ball Music Man Cutlass. Played it for about five hours, and the first impression is stellar.
I was sort of expecting that my initial reaction to the neck would be similar to how I felt about the G&L that I played recently, which has a 9.5" radius fretboard. The Cutlass has 10". But it feels so nice and natural in my hand, I was instantly at home with it, to my surprise. Very much in line with all of the reviews I’ve read and watched. It also comes with stainless steel frets, which should pretty much never wear out. They feel super smooth, almost a mirror finish on them. Bends are a breeze.
Playability is fantastic. Smooth, fast action, perfectly set up right out of the box. Fit and finish are superb. Not a single blemish or rough spot, neck perfectly seated and aligned. And Bob @StylesBitchley, this neck allows my thumb to get right up to the top edge without making my muscle-memory rebel against it, so that I can fret in a way that’s conducive to playing rock and blues stuff. No fight in there at all thus far. Still am not going to fret the E string with my thumb, that’s a bridge I’m sure I’ll never cross. But I can get my hand into the right posture for sure.
It is equipped with Schaller locking tuners, and the 4/2 configuration of the headstock machines means that every string is a straight pull, no angles and without that little clippy thing that Strats have. Ostensibly this should promote the guitar staying in tune.
Here are some photos, and then a handful of short clips I dashed off with a variety of amp sim and pickup selection settings. I’m going to play the crap out of this guitar all week before I make up my mind for sure, but there will need to be some egregious shortcomings to overcome the great first impression. Two things I will be paying close attention to are how well it stays in tune in general, and how well it stays in tune after using the tremolo arm. I have zero experience with a whammy so I will need to push and prod at that at some length.
Now for some sounds. A major feature of this guitar for me is the “active circuit” that eliminates the hum of typical single-coils. Purists will insist that there’s no way to get the “real” tone with such a configuration; all I know is it sounds absolutely like the real deal to me. (The little black panel on the back is where the 9V battery goes to drive the active circuit. Battery life is about 500 hours of continuous playing.)
First some clean sounds. Here’s the middle pickup using the Scuffham “Fenderlicious” preset.
Here are the in-between positions (with signature Strat “quack”) using the GTR “Edgy clean” preset. First half is the position between neck and middle p/u, second half between middle and bridge.
Here’s some effects-y sounds. This is on the neck pickup with the CLA guitar sim using the “Late Night” preset.
Here’s a bit of grit using the Scuffham Steely Ray Blues preset. First the mid pickup, then bridge, then neck.
Here’s something crunchier, using the Scuffham Duke’s Blues preset and the bridge pickup. (bonus dive bomb at the end!)
Finally, here’s a highly f/x’d sound using the middle pickup and Scuffham’s House Burning preset.
I will report back again later in the week after giving it the full workout. I have 45 days to return it…
Wooh Dave… sounding very cool!!! And so glad you included pics, that’s a sexy wee beast and loverly tones coming through. Looking forward to hearing more!
:beerbang:
Nice! Now that you have some tones kickin, don’t forget to play try throwing that Voxengo at the end of your chain! Also, an LA-3A -> LA-2A, or an 1176->LA2A can sound really cool on the stuff you just played
When you said you have the CLA guitars, are you talking about this?
This plugin is the most not intuitive plugin ever created. lol.
If this is what you have, there’s a few tricks with this you may want to keep in mind. First of all, if you have the Scuffham set, always leave the re-amp knob off. This thing offers you nothing that Scuffham doesn’t do better.
Next, some people don’t know this, but in order to completely deactivate a fader (say delay, or pitch), you have to turn the light off AND move the slider to zero. These aren’t faders, where bottom is 0 db, and top is +12 or something. Here’s how this works. Say Treble is set on ‘bite’. The slider when set at zero (in the middle) is adding bite. That is the ‘default’ eq curve that Chris Lord Alge chose. Now normally you’d drag it down to lessen the amount of ‘bite’, but you’re not lowering it, you’re just chaining the EQ curve. I hope that makes some sense.
This plugin is meant to be used on GROUP BUSSES. So to get a CLA sound, run it after your scuffham rig. Then…
-If you have multiple tracks a Scuffham clean tracks, group your clean guitars into a CLA bus, and set the CLA on that bus to ‘clean’.
-If you have multiple crunch tracks, group them together and dump CLA on that bus.
-Then do the same thing with your leads
Etc…
Also remember, that CLA built this plugin for HIMSELF. So if you’re not familiar with his mixing techniques, this plugin might not make a lot of sense without it.
I’m gonna post a link to the vocal version, which operates the same way. Might help you out if you get a sec.
@Emma: Thanks! Glad you like the looks and sounds… I sure do too.
@Jonathan: Yep, that’s the plug I have, and MANY thanks for the description of how it operates. That was all news to me. I will experiment with the type of use you outlined, that’s very helpful. And when you say “throwing that Voxengo at the end of your chain”, which Voxengo do you mean? I have a bunch of their plugs…
I have a DAW project file called “electric practice” where I have a bunch of tracks set up with the various amp sims I own, which makes it really easy to switch back and forth when I’m just nooding around like I was here. So I didn’t take more than about five seconds on any one tone, I just wanted to get a few samples for posting.
Wow that sounds real nice and it’s good looking too. My first guitar purchase was a Fender MIJ Strat (around 1986?) and I love it. I’m probably just overly influenced by the fact that the bulk of my guitar heroes were big Strat guys (Blackmore, Vaughan, Moore, Malmsteen, Johnson, Murray & Smith, etc…) but I also love the Stratocaster look. To me it’s what a guitar should look like.
Nice, Dave. Sounds like the intonation is very good. Scuffham does a great job with Strat sounds. When you get around to messing with the tremolo, make sure you lube up the nut and balance the springs properly. Almost every guitar requires some tinkering to keep the tuning solid, and 90% of it is hangups at the nut. Since you’re in the trial phase you can put a little chopstick in the slots which could easily be wiped out if needed. Looks like a winner.
I would be very interested to hear more tips about getting the trem system in shape… I’ve played a couple more hours today and when I’ve used it, it’s not in tune afterwards. The guitar came with two additional springs, which I assume are just replacements for what’s in there already in case they break.
I’m having trouble picturing how one puts a chopstick in there… could you elaborate on that??
Sorry, didn’t catch the typo. Chapstick. Chopstick would be for a Chinese axe. The nut probably is the culprit if it is going sharp. Loosen the strings and dab a little chapstick in there, then work the whammy a bit with the string still loose, then tune to pitch.
I changed the nut on my PRS SE to a teflon coated nut and can now divebomb no problem. Since you are new to the bar, you can use other tricks too, such as muting and stretching the strings that go sharp when there is a break in a passage. It becomes second nature after a while. If you keep the guitar, you can also use carbon from pencil shavings in the nut, but it will leave a black residue in there.
The extra springs are for someone who likes a lot of tension on the tremolo. The piece holding the springs at the top is called the claw. If you want to kind of block the tremolo off, you can use all the springs and tighten the screws in the claw until there is very little give when you bend strings. Play an open low E and bend your G string without sounding it and listen to how much it flattens. The extra springs minimize that. Some of that can also be avoided by resting your palm on the bridge and giving it a little downward pressure while you play, which makes me wonder about that cover. Ernie Ball is supposed to have a great tremolo so I would YouTube all the tweaks and get familiar with the setup. For true whammy gymnastics you need a Floyd Rose locking setup, but that’s a whole different animal with its’ own inconveniences.
Ahhh, chapstick, of course! Durrrr, I should have realized. But I read “a little chopstick” and was picturing some teeny piece of wood or something…! Yeah, rocket scientist, that’s me…
Thanks much for the trem info-- agreed, I’ve also read high praise of the EBMM trem system. Glad to know that tweaking is normal. Never having had one before, I won’t be urgently needing it, just wanted to have one on one of my guitars.
Another feature of this guitar is a compensated nut, so I am reluctant to mess with it unless really necessary. I’ll take your advice and watch the Youtubes and learn what I can. Worst case, I can always bring it to my FNGS and ask them to show me the ropes-- some really good techs there.
Hey folks-- after giving this Cutlass a thorough workout, I’ve decided it’s a keeper. It has a spectacular feel, sounds great, looks mahhhhvelous, is cosmetically perfect in fit & finish, and is exactly what I was looking for. Playing it, I have come up with two new originals, and that’s the real indicator… it inspires my creativity.
I’d like to thank all of those who offered constructive advice and suggestions as I did my due diligence.
