I Played (almost) Every Stratocaster To Find The BEST One

foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Electric Guitar World few guitar designs have been as influential as important as copied and as loved as the Fender Stratocaster and today Fender itself makes lots of different versions of its Flagship model well today's video we're going to take a look at five different levels of Fender Stratocaster starting from the most basic the most inexpensive all the way up to the most custom and the most expensive foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] ER all of the strats that I'm going to be playing and talking about in today's video are available via the affiliate links in the description box Down Below on sweetwater.com and we're also giving a guitar away this is the American Vintage 2 the brand new Strat that just came out from Fender and we're giving one away the giveaway details are in the description box down below a quick note about giveaways I will not be responding to anyone in the comments letting them know they've won I will not be on Telegram and I will not ask for any money from anyone if you see anything like that they are scammers please report them if you have a comments section down below also while you're down there be sure to check out my brand new video course the Bare Bones guitar Theory mini course this is a one hour course designed to get you up to speed on the basics of guitar Theory knowledge help fill in some holes fill in some gaps in your knowledge whether you're starting from a complete beginner or you've been playing for years you can check out more about the course in the description box below as well when with all that out of the way let's take a look at these five strats [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] okay so first up we have the Squire classic Vibe 60s Strat now this guitar punches well above its weight class it's got a NATO body Indian Laurel fretboard alnaco pickups I mean everything a good Strat needs is here and at 419 dollars is actually pretty hard to beat they've even included a bone nut which I was actually really surprised to see at this price point usually you're getting some kind of plastic or some kind of synthetic bone material and this is something that I actually look for and something I swap out on basically all of my guitars when they don't come with a bone nut foreign [Music] [Music] out that we're actually playing through my brand new signature Port City amp called the Grandville I'll have more information on this amp coming very soon we're going to release a limited number of them but all the sounds today you're hearing is uh the strats through my pedal board and into the Granville and it's miked up in the other room and I'm super happy with this amp it's unbelievable so overall the fit and finish on The Squire is pretty good I mean it's made in Indonesia but the Fret ends feel nice there's no fret Sprout it does need a little bit of attention paid to the fretwork the Frets don't feel super smooth they're a little gritty especially here and the uh the higher registers I mean you can hear that like the that's just the string against the Fret and you can totally feel that and another thing is the quality of the electronics like this five-way switch is pretty bad and if I own this guitar this would probably be one of the first things that I swapped even if I kept the pickup stock there's just no real difference in the detents and it's actually kind of hard to land on the right position especially up here in like the middle position the fourth position and the fifth position like it's just real loose and soupy so a new Switch new pots and I think this guitar would be good to go the great thing about Squires is they're really good jumping off points the foundation of a great guitar is here with the addition of a few upgrades pickups Electronics you could have a really really great Strat for well under a thousand dollars [Music] [Applause] okay so here we have the fender player series Stratocaster now this is the made in Mexico Strat and a few weeks ago I actually made a video with my friend Ben Calhoun over at righteous guitars where we took an HSS version of this guitar and absolutely through the kitchen sink at it we upgraded the pickups the electronics we did a crowning level on the Frets we uh rolled the fretboard ends in an attempt to try and Custom Shop the cheapest Strat now this is the most affordable Strat that says fender on headstock it comes in at 849 dollars and for that money you're getting alnaco 5 pickups which I think are an upgrade over the squires you're getting better Electronics overall I mean this is more kind of standard Fender quality in terms of the switch and the pots you're also getting the two point tremolo system which I think is a bit of an upgrade over the traditional vintage style six point trim they are a little bit easier to set up they stay in tune a little better and they're a little smoother when it comes to actually modulating the tremolo [Music] now you're not getting a bone nut you're getting a synthetic Tusk nut which is something I would upgrade and you're also getting an alder body which is more a traditional Strat style construction although it is with a polyurethane finish but for 849 dollars it's a strat it says fender on the headstock it looks like a strap it sounds like a strat it plays like a strap foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] okay so now we're looking at the Fender American professional 2 and this is another step up in terms of price we're coming in at 16.99 and this is I think the most modern Strat in our comparison today so for that jump in price you're getting actually quite a bit for your money pickups are the brand new v-mod 2 pickups that were designed by Tim Shaw and these are the brightest and most articulate strap pickups at least in this comparison they are really really present there's a lot of detail a lot of clarity especially in the neck position [Music] thank you [Music] you're also going to get a push push pot on this bottom tone control here and what this is doing is allowing you to bring in the neck pickup with any of the combinations so for example I can go from just the bridge pickup and bring in the neck along with it [Applause] so it's a neat little mod uh not something that I'm particularly fond of but this is actually a pretty common mod that you can do with just about any strap instead of having a push push pot here you could swap that out for a switch pot and have it be a blend control for the neck position so if you like that kind of thing you can do it to your strap you're also getting an upgraded tremolo Bridge system with a cold rolled steel uh Block in the bottom which some people say gives you more sustained better tone overall still synthetic nut on this and a polyurethane finish but if you're looking for a super modern Strat something that's going to play well has a nice flat fretboard radius contoured heel which is also a nice touch if you are playing up high you don't have the edge of the the heel block sticking into your hand this I think is for the modern player who wants a strap rat someone who's not necessarily the most interested in the Vintage appointments also because these pickups are so articulate I think they do work particularly well for like uh more of the ambient style you know more modern guitar sounds [Music] because there is so much information coming from the pickup so much High information and presence I think it actually works really well with big Washi ambient sounds so it's also worth noting that this comes with the best case of all the strats foreign okay so here we have the all-new American Vintage reissue 2. so this is the guitar that Fender just released I believe last week basically you've got 61 specs here we've got the Vintage seven and a quarter fretboard radius we've got vintage inspired early 60s pickups we have the Vintage tremolo Bridge with a bone nut we also have nitrocellulose finish on the body and the neck we've got a maple neck rosewood fretboard Alder body I mean it really is as close to an early 60s Strat but by modern day standards there are a few differences now this is 2100 bucks 2099 and I think we can double check on this but if you look at what this would have cost in the early 1960s adjusted for inflation I think it was around the same price give or take a few hundred dollars uh back in the early 1960s which is kind of interesting this guitar needed to set up it came directly from Fender and it needed a truss rod adjustment now now modern strats have the trust Rod adjustment up here just past the nut but because this is a vintage style instrument they put the truss rod adjustment where it was so it's vintage correct but it's down here at the heel which means if you want to adjust the truss rod on this guitar the neck has to come off of the body it's not that big of a deal you just pull the four screws out of the neck plate here pop the neck off but it is an extra step and it is somewhat time consuming and if you have a guitar with a neck that moves a lot it's kind of a pain but with that said this thing sounds like an old Strat [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] ER is calling the 59 time machine series heavy Relic so it has Fender's heaviest relicing job a very thin nitrocellulose finish and basically no finish on the back of the neck which I really really love it feels super worn in the fretboard edges are rolled the Fret ends are nice and soft and round again if you want to know more about that watch the video I did at righteous a few weeks ago where we tried to Custom Shop the player Series this guitar retails at 4000 350 dollars and for that you're getting things like the heavy Relic the thin Nitro finish uh generally Fender's best wood selection goes to the custom shop so this is an alder body obviously a maple neck you're getting the hand wound fat 50s style pickups with vintage style wiring really high-end pots really solid switch the traditional six-point vintage style tremolo system with a pretty big sustain Block in the back and if you're after the Super vintage Strat sound I mean this is as close as you're gonna get without going and actually spending money on a real vintage Strat [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] so let's talk about who each one of these strats is for and which one I would buy if I was in the market today coming in at the fifth spot my least favorite of the five is the player Series Strat now traditionally I love Mexican fenders I have a venterra series uh telecustom that I absolutely love but the player series I feel like leaves a little bit to be desired for me and maybe it's just this particular guitar that I got but of all the five strats this one is the least resonant uh it's the least inspiring to play it just feels sort of dead you'll know what I'm talking about if you felt a guitar like this before it almost feels like a sponge it feels like everything I'm putting into the guitar is sort of being absorbed by it and not giving me much back and so for that reason and for the price 800 plus dollars the player series makes the fifth spot now coming in at the number four spot might surprise some of you because I am a huge fan of budget guitars budget guitars that are really really good and budget guitars that punch way above their weight class I love it when companies like squire or Epiphone build really great guitars that are accessible with that said though the Squire classic Vibe is number four for me now the classic Vibe looks great I love the finish I love the Amber neck tint it's got the looks but it really lacks in the quality of the components like I said earlier this switch is awful so that would need to get replaced and while you're in there you would also want to replace the pots the wiring and probably the pickups in fact I would probably just gut the entire pick guard and drop a new pick card in with all new uh components but it's the things that are harder to upgrade than the electronics that put it in the fourth position for me these frets feel terrible they feel really bad it feels like you're playing Wooden Frets now that can be alleviated with a crown and level but at the end of the day they just don't feel great and to me that's a huge part of how I connect with a guitar also this has the thinnest neck of all the strats that I played and that is subjective but I like a thick neck I like a big baseball bat neck so if you're into the thin neck the small neck thing this is going to fit you really really well but it just doesn't work for me at 400 though in order to get this guitar playing and sounding like I think it should or to its full potential you're gonna need to drop another few hundred dollars into it and if you're buying a guitar like this you're probably already on a budget and it may not make sense to drop 418 plus dollars on the guitar itself and then turn around and spend another few hundred dollars in pickups and switches and electronics and a fret job and rolling the fingerboard edges and addressing the Fret ends so it's a budget guitar that just kind of misses some key points for me and that's why lights in the fourth position okay in third place I've got the American professional two this is a really great Strat and I think this one strikes a nice balance between price and build quality and features this is ideal for the more modern players someone who's not interested in the vintage style uh the Vintage aesthetic or the Vintage features or lack thereof this is for someone who's looking for an easy to use Easy to maintain Strat that's going to sound great it's going to be reliable and it has some really nice modern features the pickups are going to give you more of that articulation more that modern sound you've also got little details that are nice for instance like the whammy bar doesn't thread into the bridge it pops into the bridge and that may not seem like a big deal except for every time you put your guitar in and out of its hard case you have to take the whammy bar out and sometimes with the vintage style strats it can be difficult to get the tremolo arm to thread into the bridge whereas this one just pops right in which is a really nice touch you've also got that S1 switch here the push push pot in the tone control which is great if you're into that kind of thing but this makes third place for me because I'm not into that kind of thing I don't particularly like the more modern guitar sound but this is a truly great guitar this would be a great guitar for someone who is a working musician either full-time or part-time and you need a strat because you need to be able to cover that Strat sound in your stable of guitars don't discount the case that it comes with too if you are one of those players someone who's working it's got a road ready case I would fly with this guitar in that case and feel totally fine about it alright so now we're down to the top two of these five strats and I have to admit this was actually somewhat difficult for me all five of these guitars are great and I don't think you could really go wrong with any of them whether you're after the player series The Squire or the American Pro 2. I think those are three different buyers in three different price brackets who are looking for three completely different things but the last two the American Vintage reissue and custom shop kind of overlap a little bit with that said though and spot number two is the American Vintage reissue I think Fender really knocked it out of the park with these new avri twos they're really good out of the box this does everything I want a strat to do and again because I'm after more of that vintage style strap thing it does it it really just drinks this particular guitar resonates I mean you can feel the body vibrating where literally that player series and even the squire there's almost no vibration happening anywhere in the body but this guitar has a few drawbacks for me that put it in the second spot instead of the first spot one is the Finish yes it's nitrocellulose which I like I like the feel of nitrocellulose I like the way it's going to age and wear in over time you're going to actually be able to develop some character on this guitar it's going to become more of your guitar as you play it and collect dings and scratches and dents from gigs and all that stuff which doesn't happen as much with a polyurethane finish but this is a pretty thick Nitro finish you can tell there's a lot a lot of paint and grain filler on this guitar especially on the back of the neck I would immediately take a Scotch Brite pad and wear the back of this neck down to kind of smooth it out because right now it's pretty pretty sticky and the other big drawback are the Frets so when I got this guitar I noticed two things one the Fret work itself left a little bit to be desired the Fret ends need a little bit of work and the fret wire itself is a little thin a little small for my taste now again that is true to early 61 spec but it's just a drawback for me if I was shopping between these guitars that would be a drawback other than that though I love the pickups I love the look this is a really great guitar but for me in the first spot is the 59 custom shop this is a particularly good example of a strat much like I said in the Les Paul video I've played a lot of strats in my day this is sort of a staple guitar for the style of music that I play and this particular one is very very good now we're looking at a significant price increase between this and the American Vintage reissue but when you actually get this guitar in your hands and you play it I think you can tell where the extra money is going first of all the neck feels absolutely amazing the fingerboard edges are rolled the Fret work is impeccable it's got a much thicker taller fret wire which I really like the back of the neck is already worn down this guitar feels broken in it feels warm it feels ready to play it feels like it's been played for 50 60 years already also the Relic job and the Finish itself this is a much thinner Nitro finish and again because it's Relic to me it feels worn in it feels approachable and it feels vintage I think this is a particularly good Strat and if I was in a guitar store and I picked up both of these even including the price difference I would be inclined to spend the extra money on the custom shop for no other reason than the feel and the playability and that's something that I think gets lost in these YouTube videos and these comparisons in these shootouts yes these all sound very very close to each other when you're watching on a screen on a laptop especially on your phone but even with headphones they all sound like strats they all do the Strat thing what it really comes down to is the feel what do you connect most with as a player what ticks all your boxes so with that said I'd like to know which of these five straps was your favorite in the comments section down below which one would you buy if you were in the market huge thanks as always to Sweetwater for sponsoring today's video and Defender for uh sending out these guitars on such short notice so I could film with them don't forget we're going to be giving away an American Vintage 2 via the giveaway Link in the description box down below so check that out while you're down there don't forget to check out my brand new video course the Bare Bones guitar Theory course this is a one hour course that's designed to get you up to speed on the Bare Bones guitar theory that I think every guitar player should know no matter your style or what you're into that's going to do it for today's five levels of video let me know what you'd like to see next in this five levels of series what guitars are you interested in comparing I'd love to know let me know in the comment section down below my name is retro thank you so much for watching and as always remember there is no plan B

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 400,364

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Id: -EojbjRPON4

Length: 26min 30sec (1590 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2022