I need some help deciding between a fender strat with single colis or a fat strat with humbuckers. I want to play rock and blues for the most part, and need to know which of the 2 would give me the best all aroung sound. From what I have read on this site the single coils are going to give me a clean sound(Less distortion) which is great for blues and some rock songs and the humbucker is better suited for alternative rock and songs that require more distortion. I would also like some advice on a good amp for this combo. I have been looking at the fender with 2 12". I have a 300 - 400 dollar budget for the amp. Thank you for all your help and sorry for such a long post.
I have a MIM FatStrat that I bought about 5 years ago now, along with a Fender Blues Junior and I must say I'm very happy with this kit. And I used to gig with it.
The amp, while quite powerful for home use, is lacking the overhead needed for gigging in a rock band but from what I've read, it's plenty for blues/jazz/soft rock gig stuff.
My MIM came with stock pups and they weren't that great (read cheap) so I changed them for a DiMarzzio SuperDistortion that I had for the longuest time and 2 singles American Standard (a deal from my dealer)
I get all the recognized Strat sounds (the 2 middle positions) and get a nice hard sound from my DiMarzzio.
That's the very reason I wanted a FatStrat in the first place, to get a harder rock sound when I wanted it while retaining most of the Strat recognized sounds.
But I'm not that fussy about sound, it does what I want and sounds good, from other players that have heard it and played it.
YMMV
Yves
On the Fat Strat, the bridge is the only humbucker am I right? That bridge pickup will be great for hard rock and heavy stuff, and as for the blues, you may find for that you want the neck and middle positions anyhow. The Fat Strat will do both as far as I'm concerned. I like classic rock and play heavier stuff, but I find the neck pickup is the blues pickup on my dual humbucker guitars and my Strats I use the middle one. For my favorite stuff, the classic rock / metal it is strictly the bridge.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
just to clarify. single coils do not necessarily mean only clean tone
and humbuckers mean only dirty tone.
they both can overdrive,
Fat strats tend to have a little more flexibility, so I would suggest the guitar with the bridge humbucker. The beauty is that you can update your wiring for about $20 and install a coil split so you can effectively turn the humbucker into a single coil with the flip of a switch. So you get the single coil strat AND the humbucker in the same guitar.
-=- Steve
"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"
My first electric was a MIM Fat Strat and I think it makes a great guitar, actually, even though I've got a couple of others now, whenever I'm trying to figure out new stuff I find myself going back to the Strat, it's got a neck that's really easy to move around on. The big selling feature for me when I bought it was the humbucker at the bridge since I didn't really know when I bought it what kind of sound I wanted and that bridge pickup makes it a really versatile guitar, I agree with Dali in that respect.
Thanks for the help everyone. I think I will go with the fat strat due to the flexibility.
