So you're looking to buy your first strat and thinking to yourself which one
should I buy? they're all pretty much the same they all pretty much look the
same but there are some marked differences that you should know about
before buying your first strat it doesn't necessarily have to be a Fender
either so in this video I'll be looking at the five things you need to know
before buying your first Stratocaster or s-style guitar... Stratocaster or s-style
guitars have a different fretboard radius or different fretboard radiuses,
from seven and a quarter inch radius to twelve inch radius and they're going to
feel very different when playing they will also react differently to string
bending the radius is the arc of the fretboard and will determine how round
or flat it feels to play normally flatter fret boards play faster not
always the case but typically especially if you're starting out, the neck profile
is going to be important and there are many different profiles out there to be
aware of from C shape modern C deep C D soft V etcetera etc and choosing a neck
profile that works for you is going to help improve your playing because how
the neck feels in your hand is a personal thing so I recommend you try a
few different ones find out which feels good to you
different frets on the fingerboard are going to feel very different when you
play up and down the neck the most common type these days is medium jumbo
but you can get jumbo frets jumbo frets on this 50s Road long strat or even
super jumbo frets which will feel higher under your fingers it's important to
make sure you have frets that work for you as a player I'd say start with
medium jumbo and go from there I
couldn't count how many pickup variations there are as there are so
many it's a common mod for strat owners to swap out the pickups that aside
single coil pickups are going to sound more chimey whereas humbucker pickups
will sound fuller and have more output strats can have many different
combinations of these pickups and it's quite common for a strat to have both
types often called HSS or humbucker single coil single coil something to be
aware of depending on the type of music that you want to play but there are no
rules what sounds good to you is good
often overlooked the weight of the strat can vary a lot from six and a half pounds to
over nine pounds of white will make a difference in the way the guitar feels
for example this 50s Road one strat weighs in around seven pounds whereas
the sixties player strat it's closer to nine pounds and you certainly do feel
the difference try a few different strats for yourself to see what you're
comfortable with as I said at the beginning there are many s style guitars
out there and depending on your budget it's going to be something for everyone
from fender American or Mexican to Squire
to Suhr all the way down to Firefly and Michael Kelly specifications vary a lot
of these guitars and hopefully the tips that I've given you where help you
determine which strat you want to buy there's no right or wrong if it feels
good to you but if it plays good if it sounds good
and it is good it's as simple as that any decent guitar that's been set up
correctly should give you a great planning experience never underestimate
the importance of having a guitar properly setup and as I always say put
the guitar in your hands whenever you can to feel it and play it for yourself
you'll get a good bond with that instrument that way now I'm sure I've
missed some other important things to look out for when buying a strat so why
don't you let me know in the comments below so that everyone can read them
thanks for watching stay well my friends