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I've been playing the Strat since the first day I started playing guitar.
I was super specific about what I wanted.
I went up to my dad.
I remember vividly,
I said, Dad, I want a black Stratocaster with a white pick guard.
And he just kind of laughed.
He called a local pawn shop, the one local pawn shop in the town I grew up in.
And they have one guitar in the back,
and it was a black Strat with a white pick guard.
And he said, all right, I guess you play guitar now.
We went out and got it.
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>> The big thing I look for in my gear is versatility.
I've never been one of those guys who likes swapping tons and
tons of different guitars.
I like the idea of having the right tool for the job and
building that connection with one instrument.
And so versatility's kind of key.
I want to be able to play that one guitar for the whole set if possible.
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So to me, what American made has always meant is that's kind of like the pinnacle
or the zenith of quality.
It's kind of like an assurance that the gear is going to be great,
that there's going to be an attention to detail, that the fit and
finish is going to be up to snuff.
And that you know when you pick it up it's just going to feel right.
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I'm really digging the Performer Strat.
Under the hood, there's a few things going on with this model that don't exist on
the Strats I've played previously.
So we're hanging out with the three single coil American Performer Strat.
One of the big features on these guitars is that they have the new Yosemite
pickups.
Basically these pickups are tuned specifically to the guitar.
There's an extra sort of life and bounce to it.
It's sort of sparkly and chimey, which is exactly what I'm looking for in a Strat.
So another key feature on this Strat is you've got this push-pull knob right here.
And what it essentially does is it activates the neck pickup when you're in
one of the other positions.
Let me demonstrate, I'll show you what I'm talking about.
So here it is, just bridge pickup, no push-pull.
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But if I activate the push-pull, now I've essentially got the bridge position and
the neck position active.
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And furthermore, if I go to the second position,
now I've got all three pickups active.
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So now we're hanging out with the HSS Strat, and
I want to show you guys one of the features.
So the DoubleTap humbucking system solves an issue that's existed where basically,
when you split the humbucking pickup it resulted in a volume dip.
Now we don't have that issue, and furthermore,
we're able to keep that Strat Quack in position, too.
And given that that's one of my favorite sounds on a Strat, I'm happy to show you
that all we need to do now is just do the push-pull activation, and
we're going to be able to maintain that Strat position 2 sound.
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So another feature on these guitars is they have Greasebucket tone circuit,
which basically lets you roll off the highs without decreasing the gain.
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Another feature of these guitars is they have new classic gear tuning machines,
which basically gives you a vintage style tuning machine but with modern precision.
And finally, one of the last features I want to mention is just the general neck
feel on these guitars.
You got a satin finish neck and the neck shape is the modern C profile.
With the frets, the jumbo frets, they're super playable.
They seem supernatural.
It's buttery and it's easy to play.
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First thing I look for is just having lots of range, lots of tonal options,
lots of capacity to play multiple styles on one instrument.
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