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previous: Kevin I'm looking for opinions regarding ... -- 10/26/2004 4:06 PM

Re: Strat-Style Design Opinion

10/26/2004 8:03 PM
Joshua Pardes	Re: Strat-Style Design Opinion Uh oh, I think that you just opened a can of worms on this subject, lol. Some die hards will tell you that they can hear a difference, but in all honesty, there are so many other factors going into the tone and sustain of a guitar that one would be hard pressed to hear the few extra ounces of wood in a strat. The majority of swimming pool route guitars are cheapo's so the wood quality is poor and the hardware sucks. Even if you have good pups in one of those if the wood has not been properly dried and the neck joint is sloppy, they will be held back from ever sounding good. On the other hand, G&L makes almost all of their guitars with a swimming pool route. I personally own a legacy with this route and it sounds very good to me. Compared to an american strat I used to own, it is clearly a superior instrument in all aspects including tone and sustain. Technically speaking the more mass an instrument has (to a certain degree), the better it is going to sustain so one could say that individual pickup routing is the best. On the contrary though, there is really not much extra wood taken out, especially compared to fender's new universal route. Hum-Sin-Hum. I personally like the freedom to be able to slap some humbuckers or P90's in my legacy without going for the router. The bridge saddles, and trem block account for much more sustain. The problem lies with how the bridge physically connects to the body. On new guitars it makes contact via 2 metal inserts! That is why a guitar with a Bigsby trem will sustain almost as well as a set bridge. Get die cast steal, brass, or titanium saddles and a solid steal block. If you want even more sustain, buy a block from calaham. Want more? Block the trem to the body. I find the subject kind of ammusing personally when the trem bridge is the biggest sustain killer on guitars. (So long as the neck joint is tight and accurate). Oh yeah, get a fatfinger from Groove Tubes too. It might sound like BS but they really work, specially on bolt on geetars. Cheers, Josh

10/26/2004 8:03 PM

Joshua Pardes

Re: Strat-Style Design Opinion

Uh oh, I think that you just opened a can of worms on this subject, lol. Some die hards will tell you that they can hear a difference, but in all honesty, there are so many other factors going into the tone and sustain of a guitar that one would be hard pressed to hear the few extra ounces of wood in a strat.

The majority of swimming pool route guitars are cheapo's so the wood quality is poor and the hardware sucks. Even if you have good pups in one of those if the wood has not been properly dried and the neck joint is sloppy, they will be held back from ever sounding good.

On the other hand, G&L makes almost all of their guitars with a swimming pool route. I personally own a legacy with this route and it sounds very good to me. Compared to an american strat I used to own, it is clearly a superior instrument in all aspects including tone and sustain.

Technically speaking the more mass an instrument has (to a certain degree), the better it is going to sustain so one could say that individual pickup routing is the best. On the contrary though, there is really not much extra wood taken out, especially compared to fender's new universal route. Hum-Sin-Hum. I personally like the freedom to be able to slap some humbuckers or P90's in my legacy without going for the router. The bridge saddles, and trem block account for much more sustain. The problem lies with how the bridge physically connects to the body. On new guitars it makes contact via 2 metal inserts! That is why a guitar with a Bigsby trem will sustain almost as well as a set bridge. Get die cast steal, brass, or titanium saddles and a solid steal block. If you want even more sustain, buy a block from calaham. Want more? Block the trem to the body.

I find the subject kind of ammusing personally when the trem bridge is the biggest sustain killer on guitars. (So long as the neck joint is tight and accurate). Oh yeah, get a fatfinger from Groove Tubes too. It might sound like BS but they really work, specially on bolt on geetars.

Cheers,

Josh

Replies:

Artie Hey Josh; Basically, I agree with e... -- 10/26/2004 9:23 PM