Why does the Road Worn Stratocaster still exist?
I think it's safe to say that the trend of "relic" Strats is officially over, because whenever you mention "relic" these days, players get pretty disgusted by it, as in, "Oh, another one of those fake-old things. Yeah, whatever."
And yet, Fender still churns out Road Worn Strats.
Are players really still buying these things?
The difference between 250K and 500K pots in electric guitars
I got a request to write this one.
With volume and tone controls on your guitar, the two most-used potentiometer types are 250K and 500K. While there are 1 meg pots out there, the vast majority of electrics use either 250 or 500.
Yes, it is typical you will find 250K pots used on nearly all traditional Strat 3-single-coil "SSS" configurations and 500K pots used on nearly all 2-humbucker "HH" configurations.
First, I wanted to make something really clear up front. 500K is not an "upgrade" from 250K. Not at all. Some players see the bigger number and think a 500 is "better". Wrong. There is nothing better or worse between a 250 and a 500.
The K for a pot is a resistance value, and in plain English, the higher the resistance value, the more treble response you will hear, as in a "brighter" sound.
As to why that is, it basically all comes down to how much a pot will "bleed."
With a 250K pot, a good amount of the high frequencies are actually diverted to the ground wire(s) and that's the "bleed" part. Whatever is bled to ground doesn't make its way to the pickups and therefore results in a sound with less treble response, i.e. a "warmer" sound.
With a 500K pot, there is much less bleed because the pot doesn't allow nearly as much of the higher frequencies to be diverted to ground, resulting in more treble response, i.e. a "brighter" sound.
Is there a HUGE difference in the sound you get depending on whether you use 250K or 500K pots?
I wouldn't say there's a huge difference in the sound you get, but it is noticeable.
With the SSS Strat pickup configuration, 250K pots are normally used. If you swapped those out with 500K pots, there will be more treble response, and for some that may be desirable - however - if it's a standard Strat wiring setup where the bridge pickup is not connected to a tone control, then oh yes, that bridge pickup will "screech" something awful and/or sound "shrill" if wired to a 500K volume control pot.
Conversely, if you took out the 500K pots from a Les Paul and put in 250K pots, the loss of treble "on top" can make the guitar sound "muddy."
The general rule of thumb for which pots to use is...
For single-coil, which includes Strat-style and P90, use 250K.
For dual-coil (humbucker) where you need extra treble response, use 500K.
"I have a guitar with humbuckers in it, and it sounds 'too bright' no matter where I set the tone knob"
Some humbuckers have a high treble response to the point where no matter what the tone knob is set to, there's just too much treble present and it bothers the player (you).
In that instance, switching from 500K to 250K may set a "ceiling" for the treble that better agrees to your ears.
Remember however that switching from 500K to 250K or vice versa is not going to guarantee you a sound you will like.
But it is cheap enough to try out a different potentiometer resistance. Pots are really cheap whether 250K or 500K and easy to wire in, so it doesn't cost a lot of money to try it out.
Even if after you bought the pots and the sound you get after wiring them in wasn't quite what you had in mind, that's fine because then at that point you've got spare parts to build/rebuild another guitar with, so nothing is really lost. (Good spare parts are good to have!)
How to avoid getting bored when practicing guitar
Boredom is something that happens to every guitar player at some point. You've played everything you can possibly think of, become disinterested, put the guitar down and go do something else.
This is totally normal.
I don't play guitar every day. In fact, there are times I'll go almost a whole week without playing at all. Then I'll pick it back up again, play for a while, then for a few more days or weeks and then put the guitar down for a week again.
Again, totally normal, at least for me.
I find I have a really hard time believing anyone who says "I play guitar every day" because there are times when you just need to step away from the instrument and take a break if for no other reason than to let the skin on your fret hand's fingertips grow back. Even though I've been playing for a long time, yeah, my fingertips get wrecked sometimes I need to take a break so they can heal up. And even if I switched to half-round or flatwound strings, my fingertips would still get wrecked just from the constant indentations put into the fingertips from pressing down strings on the frets. No matter how soft one's touch is on the strings, indentations on the fingertips happen and that's just the way it is.
Anyway, this article isn't about combating guitar player fatigue but rather guitar player boredom.
Here are four ways to combat the boredom.
1. Take a break
You don't have to play every day. It's just like I said above, there are times where I personally won't play a single note for an entire week. I'm not saying that will work for you, but it works for me.
2. Play more riffs and less solos
There are way too many players that do nothing but solo, solo, solo and solo some more whenever they sit and practice. And that gets boring REAL quick.
Riffs are easier to play and easier to learn. For example, in just one hour you could probably learn the riffs to play at least 5 songs if not more. But to get just one solo from a song learned perfectly, that will take up the whole hour if not longer. And when you're working on the same thing for a solid hour straight and get frustrated, you get bored.
3. Figure out how to do the same thing anywhere on the neck
Chances are there's one type of "mini-solo," which is just a simple note progression, that you know how to do really well. Maybe a harmonic, maybe a hammer-on/off, maybe a trill sound, whatever. But you probably always play it on the same part of the neck using the same notes.
Take that one thing you know well and try it in different places. Try it 3 frets higher or lower. Try it high on the neck. Try it low on the neck. Try it everywhere.
And when you find there's a certain part of the neck where you can't make it work, there's your new challenge. Make it work. Find alternatives. They're there if you look.
Some of the best chords I've ever come up with were from trying them on different parts of the neck where they "didn't work," so I had to come up with something else that sounded mostly like where it was before, creating a whole new-sounding chord. I've had the same thing happen with little progressions and soloing as well.
4. "Reverse" a riff
Take any song you like, learn the riff, then play it "backwards." If the riff is E, A, B, play it as B, A, E.
Many guitar players over the years have come up with their best riffs by "stealing" from popular songs they like and then reversing the way it's played. Doesn't work for solos very well, but works great for chords.
Less soloing is the most important
For whatever reason there are so many players that say to themselves "I must be good at soloing and I must learn how to do it."
Why?
Who said you had to be a great soloist? Who said you had to solo at all? If it annoys you to sit and learn soloing, here's an idea: DON'T DO IT.
I can't for the life of me understand why any guitar player would play anything that he or she considers annoying to play - especially when you basically have nothing to show for it but wrecked fingertips.
Why do you play guitar? Because it's fun. When you play stuff that's annoying to play, that's not fun. Avoid the un-fun stuff altogether. And if that means not soloing, then like I said, don't do it. Write riffs instead.
Getting a metal sound out of a Stratocaster the easy way
I've posted videos about this before, but it was time to get a written version down of how to do this.
There have been many who have wondered how I get a Strat single-coil pickup to "sound metal" when I want, even without tone control on the bridge pickup position (which is how the most Strat guitars are wired).
Okay, this is in fact really easy to do as long as you understand the nature of how a Stratocaster single-coil pickup works.
You've got this Strat, be it Fender or Squier, and by design there is no tone control for the bridge pickup (Leo Fender himself designed it that way; it's tradition). You throw some distortion at the guitar and end up with this twangy, ear-piercing tone that sounds just plain awful.
The key to getting a Strat single-coil to "sound metal" is to:
- Decrease the treble
- "Scoop" the mids
- Boost the lows
- Kill the buzz
- Use compression (optional)
Here are a few ways to go about doing this. I'll mark each one with a word in [brackets] to tell you what applies to what.
1. EQ control on the amp [treble, mid, bass]
Plug in your Strat, use the bridge position pickup, turn up to 10, activate distortion pedal (I specifically recommend the DigiTech Grunge for a Strat, arguably the best metal pedal for Strat single-coils), then go to your amp and turn the treble control all the way down.
After that, turn the bass control up to the point just before it starts to "boom". You'll know it when you hear it.
Then - if you have the option - turn your midrange down to about 3. Turning down your midrange EQ control is called "scooping a mid". The lower you turn that control down, the more you're scooping.
The treble control is the most important part. If when turned down it "muds" too much, slowly bring up the treble just enough to get some definition, but not too much or else the twang of that single-coil will come back and start sounding crappy again.
2. EQ control on the distortion pedal [treble, bass]
Just like on the amp, turn that treble control all the way down, and then turn the bass up enough to where the bottom end is heard but isn't "booming" to avoid a "muddy" sound.
I strongly recommend the DigiTech Grunge pedal for Strat metal tones as its high distortion works very well with single-coil Strat pickups. You may hate the pedal at first, but watch (or should I say hear) the magic that happens when you turn that treble or "HI" control down and turn up the bass "LO" control.
Other distortion pedals can work, but for whatever reason the Grunge really makes a difference when you want to get that thick, distorted metal tone. Grunge is so good that most of the time you don't even have to turn up the distortion level past a 3/4 turn, even for the low-output Strat bridge pickup.
3. Noise gate [killing the buzz]
Unless you have a hum-canceling single-coil in your Strat, which you probably don't, you'll need a noise gate or you'll be buzzing all over the place in a bad way.
Get the BOSS NS-2 for that. Not cheap, but absolutely worth having. Believe me when I say you can use the NS-2 for every single electric guitar you own; everyone needs a gate to kill buzzing noise even for guitars with humbuckers in them.
4. "Squash" the tone [using compression]
This is basically "the big secret" to making a Strat single-coil get that thick, heavy metal tone. When you use compression, your palm mutes on the thicker strings will get "chunk" like you wouldn't believe on a single-coil (or for humbuckers).
There are many thousands of guitar players who own a BOSS CS-3 because it is probably the best compressor pedal that exists. Is it the most expensive? Fortunately, no it isn't. The CS-3 is just designed right and does exactly what you expect of it.
Every metal player should own a CS-3 regardless of what guitar is being used and regardless of whether a single-coil or humbucker is used, because when you want the "chunk," the compressor delivers it.
One of the best things about having a compressor pedal for metal is simply the reason you can turn your distortion level way down and still get monster amounts of chunk from your palm mutes. Having the distortion level down means far less buzzy noise and better control over your sound.
Here's another advantage: You can get monster chunk with compression even playing quietly. No need to crank your amp to 11 when the compressor is engaged.
"Distortion, distortion, distortion" never works on its own
Beginner metal players make the mistake of just piling on ridiculous amounts of distortion, thinking at some point if you use enough of it, it will magically make a Strat single-coil or any other guitar "sound metal".
Wrong.
A lot of what metal tone is made of involves a very "squared off" sound where the distortion is evenly spread, the treble is held down, the mids are usually scooped quite a bit, and the bass is turned up. That in concert with compression to even all that out, and a noise gate to kill the noise is a very good winning combination to get that metal tone you've been dreaming of.
In other words, distortion alone is not metal tone, but rather the starting point of it.
Final notes
Even though this is written primarily for Strat players, those of you out there with humbuckers can use the same knowledge to "beef up" your metal tone as well.
If from reading this you've said to yourself, "So... I don't need a better amp for that metal tone?" That's partially correct. If you already have an amp in good working order that can blast out some good volume but it's just your tone that's the problem, getting a bigger, louder amp won't magically get you that metal tone you want. In fact, getting a bigger, louder amp will just take your existing crappy tone and make it even louder.
To address the tone issue, you need to pay attention to the EQ on both the amp and the distortion pedal, and optionally add in compression and a gate for extra chunk and to kill the noise.
I will admit that some amps just can't do metal very well, but it's usually only the little crappy practice amps that suffer from that because they just can't push air to get that good bass response (there's only so much air a small speaker can push).
As long as you have an amp that can really belt out the volume without mudding out, it can do metal. My Fender Frontman 212R can do metal all day long. It's one of the beefier combo amps out there and can blast out volume like nobody's business - even enough to keep up with a 100-watt 4x12 half-stack easily.
The only time you'll really have any issue is when using tube-type amps. Tube-type, as most players are aware, only sound good when the tubes are really hot from high-output volume. Yeah, that's cool and all that, but it really limits your range for when your metal tone "sounds right". If your tube-type only sounds good between volume 8 to 10, that's not much room to work with.
Solid-state will sound the same at volume setting 2 as it does at 9, and the speakers will "crackle" a whole lot less. If you're a metal player that appreciates consistency of sound no matter what volume you play at, which is what most metal players want since you can accommodate any playing environment (at home, a club, a house party, whatever,) you want solid-state.
Yeah, it's true you can get a lot more volume with a lot less watts when you use tubes; I know this. But I also know a tube-type sounds totally different at 3 than it does at 7. Solid-state doesn't do that and keeps things much more consistent. With tube-type there is a good amount of "amp tuning" involved, and that can get really annoying real quick.
You're probably used to listening to metal music with headphones or ear buds, so take this into consideration: If you want that same kind of sound control from your guitar on loudspeakers, solid-state will serve you far better than tubes ever will.
And remember, Dimebag Darrell used solid-state, so if you need a famous metal example of a guy who used that technology to get the tone he did, there you go.
Is there such a thing as "The Squier Sound?"
A really interesting phenomenon happens with guys and girls who buy Squier guitars.
It's most likely true your first Stratocaster or Telecaster was in fact a Squier brand guitar. Later on as you got a little better with the instrument, you said to yourself, "Okay, it's time to upgrade; I'm going to buy a real Fender guitar..."
...and that's exactly what you do. You save up your money and then the day finally comes when you buy your first Fender. Whether it's a China-made Modern Player, Mexican-made Standard or the expensive American-made Standard, you're just happy to finally have a "real" Strat or Tele that says "Fender" on the headstock.
At first, you're a really happy player because you "finally got that Fender." It probably took months to save up enough to get that guitar, and yeah, you got it.
Then you notice after playing it for a few weeks that the pickups sound "screechy," as in a really high treble response that you're just not used to. You tell yourself, "Well, that's probably just because I have to get used to the way this guitar sounds, and after a while the pickups will 'break in' and not screech so much..."
...except that screech never goes away. You've tried everything to fix that screech but nothing has worked. Turning the tone knob down on the guitar is annoying, turning treble levels down on pedals and your amp just makes everything "sound like mud," and you quickly discover you'll probably have to buy a new pedal just for that Fender to keep the screech down.
Then you look at that Squier you've got in the corner. By now it's got a little layer of dust on it. You put the Fender in its case or gig bag (because you always keep it oh-so clean because it's so pretty,) pick up the Squier, plug in, strum some chords, and oh-my-God it actually sounds right.
Now you're confused, and probably a little ticked off. Why in the hell does the Squier sound better than that brand-spanking-new Fender you just bought? Also, why does it play better too? Why does the fingerboard feel better to play on? And why does the body feel more comfortable? What's the deal with that?
All good questions, and I'll give you good answers.
Short answer:
You like Squier better than Fender because the way Squiers are made is what your ears like and what your hands and fingers like.
Long answer:
A lot of people don't realize that while Squiers may look almost identical to Fenders, the way they're made are totally different and have a personality all their own.
Pickups
Players who go from Squier to Fender immediately notice that the Fender's pickups to their ears are "too bright." Why? Because they're wound differently. The coil wrap pattern used on Fender pickups produces a sound that's notably brighter (meaning more treble,) which to Squier players sounds "screechy."
Cheap China-made Squier pickups have a "lower ceiling" on the treble side of things. I'm not talking about the Duncan-designed pickups, but rather the absolute dirt cheap pickups that come in certain Squier guitars like the Squier Bullet Strat. Those pickups assumedly have less coils and are most likely manufactured with even-winding instead of a scatter-wound pattern that results in less brightness.
It's probably also true those cheap-ass Squier pickups have magnets that have significantly less pull when compared to Fender pickups.
As crazy as it may be, there are some who actually prefer the tone of the cheap China-made pickups specifically because they're not super-bright like Fender pickups are.
Neck thickness
Fender and Squier guitars for the most part have the same "C" shape profile on the back and a 9.5-inch radius on the fingerboard - BUT - the Squier neck is thinner in construction.
Some who switch from Squier to Fender simply never get used to the Fender neck thickness, and more often than not simply describe the neck as "just not feeling right" no matter what adjustments are done to it - even if you have a luthier set up the guitar by hand. A luthier can't do anything concerning thickness of the neck unless you specifically instructed him to shave down the back of it (which is not recommended at all because it can easily ruin a neck since there's no turning back once you do it.)
Slim vs. Standard body profile
Most Squier guitars - at least on the Stratocaster side of things - have what's known as a slim body profile. And yes, this literally means the body on the Squier is thinner than a Fender Strat would be.
The thickness of body profile is noticeable whether playing the guitar sitting or standing, as it directly affects how far your picking hand is away from the body when playing. Granted, it's a small difference, but the point is that you'll notice it.
For example, if you switch from a Squier to a Fender, and when playing the Fender you find yourself whacking the strings "in weird places," that's the body thickness difference kicking in. Your brain is trained to play Squier slim body profiles and not standard-thickness Fender body profiles.
The thicker body profile of the Fender is something you'll either eventually get used to, or never get used to.
Fret wire size
On my Fender I purposely switched out the bent steel saddles to block saddles to get extra height adjustment.
Why? Easy answer: Jumbo frets.
My Squier Bullet has medium jumbo frets on it, meaning the fret wire is slightly smaller.
Jumbo is known as 6150 fret wire, with the width-by-height measurement being 0.103-inch x 0.045inch.
Medium jumbo is known as 6130 fret wire, with the width-by-height measurement being 0.016-inch x 0.036-inch.
In plain English: The height of jumbo frets is 9 hundredths of an inch higher than medium jumbo is.
"9 hundredths of an inch actually matters?"
Yes, absolutely.
It is totally true you "fret out" a lot less with larger fret wire, but if you're used to medium jumbo and then switch to jumbo, you have to set up your guitar totally different.
What the Squier player quickly discovers by switching over to a Fender with jumbo frets on it is that he cannot use the same string heights he did with the Squier because buzzing happens all over the place. Instead, he has to raise the strings higher - BUT - then he runs into the problem that the bent steel saddles don't offer enough height adjustment.
Now you know why I switched out to block saddles on my Fender.
Do all Fender Strats have jumbo frets?
No. Most have medium jumbo, such as the Standard and American Standard.
Fret wire size depends on model. My Modern Player Strat has bigger jumbo frets.
Fender "Classic Series" 50s, 60s and 70s all have vintage skinny frets, which is known as 6230 fret wire.
Fender American Special Stratocaster has jumbo 6150 fret wire on it.
If you want a Fender that at least feels mostly like your Squier, at least on the fingerboard, match the fret wire size to what you have now (it's most likely medium jumbo.)
Electronics
Squier guitars by default have very basic electronics in them; very rarely will you find any Squier model with any special circuits.
Fender guitars on the other hand do have special circuits in them, which when used in combination with the brighter pickups can result in a sound that Squier players don't like. At all.
The American Special has Texas Special pickups in it mated to what Fender calls a "Greasebucket Tone Circuit", which is a circuit that is described as being able to decrease treble without adding bass. In plain English, that should mean, "won't mud out when you roll down the tone control."
Sounds good, right? Well, it may not be what a Squier player likes at all for tone control sound.
The way Squier axes do tone control is that when you roll the tone down, it basically acts like an envelope filter. For example, if you use the bridge+middle pickup position, bang the strings and roll the tone knob back and forth, the sound that happens is "weeeoww weeeoww weeoww".
A Squier's quirky tone control character is part of what makes the guitar sound like what it does.
In addition, this means any tone setting that works perfect on your Squier won't work at all on a Fender with any special tone circuitry in it. If you have a specific sound you like that you get with your distortion pedal on and the tone rolled down to 3 on your Squier, you will absolutely not be able to get that same sound on the Fender using the same settings. Instead, you'll get a sound that's very different to your ears. And you may not like it.
Yes, there is such a thing as "The Squier Sound"
A lot of you out there are probably really happy to find out The Squier Sound actually exists and know why it exists...
...but this is both a good and a bad thing.
The good:
If you're a Squier player and prefer the Squier both for playing and for sound over Fender guitars, now you know why you do.
The bad:
The only way to get The Squier Sound is to use nothing but original Squier hardware.
Just about all aftermarket Strat and Tele pickups are specifically designed to sound like Fender pickups, which may be exactly what you don't want because of the super-bright "screechy" nature of them.
Yes, this literally means if you want a Squier sound, you purposely have to either buy a stock Squier guitar outright just to get those cheap Chinese pickups that have the "rat tone" you love so much. Why? Because everyone else is selling Fender-like sounding pickups.
Yes, I do describe a Squier's pickup sound as "rat tone"
"Rat tone" is a term I personally use to describe a Squier's pickup sound because it most accurately fits the tone character. Squier pickups sound "ratty" because they have an earlier treble cutoff compared to Fender pickups, "wow" when you roll volume or tone controls when stock Squier electronics are used and "blare" a bit when you add in distortion or overdrive - all of which is cool.
The ratty personality of Squier pickups is something I personally believe gives Squier Strats and Teles character that no other guitar has. Fender tone character is to my ears totally different compared to the ratty tone of a Squier. This isn't to say Fender tone character is bad, because it's not. Just different.
It's also true that more Squier players are realizing the ratty tone of those cheap-ass Squier pickups actually sounds pretty cool.
Squier rat tone isn't for everyone, but if you've got a Squier now and just love-love-love that ratty pickup sound, keep it exactly the way it is, because "upgrading" to pickups with Fender-like tone character may be something you won't like at all.