Whats the best riff and/or solo ever played on a Stratocaster

[hawkeye2u]

Saw a similar thread on the LP forum, thought it could be fun to hear what U guys like in your Strats

Clapton Have You Ever Loved A Woman (Derek & The Dominoes Live)
Hendrix Little Wing & Closing song at Woodstock
Sky High (Swedish Band) Hallin & Tumblin (avail on WinMx) great player
Just to name a few

[sliding-tom]

Guess, everybody has their favourite, here's just two that instantly popped up:
Layla and the intro to "Sweet Home Alabama". And don't you think "Alabama" is simple cause it's just a V-IV-I change! That sucker is pretty complex!

[cooltone]

Hendrix's "Hey Joe"
Knopfler on "Sultans of Swing"
Robin Trower's live version of "Daydream"
Blackmore's solo on "Highway Star"
Clapton's main riff on "The Core"
SRV "Couldn't Stand the Weather"

[photoweborama]

Well for me.. it's the ones done in the Jam Zone on Strats!
They are my heroes!

[Gravity Jim]

I'm with cooltone on "Highway Star." As a youngster, that scarred me for life.

I really like "Cliffs Of Dover" as an example of what a Strat can do... "Reeling In The Years" (if you want to call that monster Elliot Randall plays a Strat)... G. Harrison's slide playing...

[NeoFauve]

Chris Rea's slide solo on "Julia."
I've only heard it once on the radio. I borrowed the CD from the library. Never tried to learn it. It's a soaring, singing beaut. Rea's a total mistery to me. This tune ought to be a slide benchmark of some sort.:yay

"Big Log" by Robert Plant. I think the guitar player was Robbie Blunt. ?? Textbook clean Strat sound, a simple, whistlable tune. I like it. Though it was the height of 80's mutant Strta culture. So it may not have been a pure Strat. But the sound is there.:yay

"Skateaway"- Dire Straits
The crying fills are nice, but I love that (switch position 2) stuttering doong-dikka-dikka-doong groove during the verses. :yay

[Cogs]

I think a copy of "Lenny" by Stevie Ray Vaughan should be given away w/every Stratocaster purchase to show what tones the guitar is capable of. That song is like a Strat encyclopedia.

[tenebrae]

I think a copy of "Lenny" by Stevie Ray Vaughan should be given away w/every Stratocaster purchase to show what tones the guitar is capable of. That song is like a Strat encyclopedia.

Well said! It certainly runs the gamut of what a Strat is capable of in tasteful hands.

Tenebrae

[Johnny64]

"Big Log" by Robert Plant. I think the guitar player was Robbie Blunt. ?? Textbook clean Strat sound, a simple, whistlable tune. I like it. Though it was the height of 80's mutant Strta culture. So it may not have been a pure Strat. But the sound is there.:yay

I'll say it was. He recorded it in the studio corridor,with an amp at either end,and seven mics placed inbetween.

[Super Champ]

I personally like "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" by Hendrix

[NeoFauve]

I'll say it was. He recorded it in the studio corridor,with an amp at either end,and seven mics placed inbetween.

I need to get a corridor.

All the money spent to design a proper recording environment, and all the racks of snazzy delay crap people used back then and they just stick his amps in the hallway. :lol I love it!

[fezz parka]

There are too many but:

"Words Of Love" and "That'll Be The Day"- Buddy Holly.

My Fave solo is probably "Sultans Of Swing"...

[NeoFauve]

Was "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia played on a Strat?

I've seen old footage of them where Mickey's playing a strat.
But everything I found online showed him w/LP's.
There's some cool playing on that tune.

[Cogs]

I heard Anson Funderburgh play that one night on TV. Biting tone! Perfect Strat sound & the best bridge sound I think I'ver heard!

[fezz parka]

"Love Is Strange" was a three pickup Les Paul Custom.:yay

[NeoFauve]

An LP w/3 p'ups desperately wants to be a Strat.

[fezz parka]

An LP w/3 p'ups desperately wants to be a Strat.

:hee

[NeoFauve]

I heard Anson Funderburgh play that one night on TV. Biting tone! Perfect Strat sound & the best bridge sound I think I'ver heard!

Was that on Night Music back in the late 80's? Wee hours on NBC?

[tonemonkey]

The first post, in fact the first song in the first post has it nailed for me.

Have you ever loved a woman is why I play full stop.

Seems fitting that I mention this song, the reason I play as my 1000th post on a guitar forum!

[dez]

Where Were You - Jeff Beck

[pc]

Too many to name, but a lot of my faves have already been mentioned. So I'll add one--"Tore Down House" by Scott Henderson. A masterwork of Strat (albeit Suhr) soloing and comping. :yay

[crazy fingers]

machine gun - you know who....

[tubaman5150]

Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb"
Eric Johnson "Manhatten"
Dick Dale "Misirlou"

[mmcquain]

Another vote for "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Little Wing" intros... showing the Strat sound at its finest!

[Fripperton]

Trower's Bridge of Sighs.

[FenderBoy]

Boz Scaggs - "It All Went Down The Drain".

[Cogs]

Was that on Night Music back in the late 80's? Wee hours on NBC?

I think that was it. Hosted by David Sanborn? What was the one hosted by Joolz Holland?

[refin]

I'll say it was. He recorded it in the studio corridor,with an amp at either end,and seven mics placed inbetween.

I think he actually used a vintage '50s strat on that tune.
And still another vote for Sweet Home Alabama---in fact,the whole "Second Helping" album. Ed King (who played with Strawberry Alarm Clock in the '60s---"Incense and Peppermints") is a killer original player,and used a '70s strat alot.His tone and playing on Second Helping was stupid good---Working For MCA,The Ballad Of Curtis Lowe (what a slide part...sigh...),the amp vibrato on I Need You.The solo in Sweet Home is textbook big boy stuff.

The first Dire Straits album (In The Gallery...wow)
Wishbone Ash--"There's The Rub" album (Laurie Wisefield)
Deep Purple---"Lazy" (Heck,the whole Machine Head album..."Pictures of Home")
The guy who played in Pablo Cruise was a great player---"Place In The Sun" and others.
There's that Jimi guy..........
George Harrison and John Lennon---both playing their matching blue strats on "Nowhere Man",doing the solo in unison.This has to be another thing the Beatles did before anyone,putting the switch in what we now call position 4,mid and rear pups together.A great match,strat,AC-30,compression,complete with a harmonic for the last note.
Some may disagree,but Clapton on the new Cream Reunion DVD.Yeh,I wanted a Les Paul,SG,335,Firebird,ect.,but the tone he gets through the reissue tweed Twins is great.Not THE classic Cream tone,but darn close in places,and fat.
Not a fan of the style or player,but Yngwie shows how a strat can get sweet and sustainy.He DOES get a great shred tone without carving up his guitar and dropping plutonium enriched 'buckers in it.
Don't forget some old Dave Mason (anyone here that old?)--he played a Firebird,but also a strat and sounded great.
Bonnie Raitt--slide!!!!
Mr. Beck
Paul Kossoff on some early Free albums.
Gee....I could go on forever.All the good obvious ones have been mentioned,hopefully I threw in some new ones.

[sliding-tom]

Refin, agreed on the Beatles' great tones, but the in-between-position had been figured out before by Buddy Guy (listen to his Chess recordings late 50s/early 60s - it's all there). I remeber reading an interview where he said, he found this by accident.
Another great intro: Aretha Franklin's version of "The Weight" - intro played by a certain Mr. Duane Allman - slide on Strat!

[hawkeye2u]

Keep it goin' boys
Just great to hear that people are still listening to the older stuff, great players
And yes I do remember Dave Mason!

[brianf]

Any live Rory Gallager CD. Just full of great Solo's.

brianf

[driver75]

How about Skunk Baxter on My Old School by Steely Dan? I think he plays a Clear Lucite Strat. Anyways I always thought his Solos were great on that one. As for a Riff its hard to beat Smoke on the Water for its Simplicity and for being instantly recognised. That riff launched a million Garage Bands.

[Ironhandjohn]

" Riviera Paradise" live on the Austin City Limits DVD.....


" Comfortably Numb" from the Pulse CD.....



I realize that David Gilmour's later tone is so heavily processed it isn't exactly a clear example of Strat-tone, but it's recognizable even underneath all the effects...

[songsmith1950]

Desert Rose, Eric Johnson. Covers so much ground.

Gotta agree with Comfortably Numb as well, though they are EMG's I believe and not stock strat pups.

Sultans of Swing, of course.

Watchtower by Eric Clapton on the Cream Reunion DVD. Actually a lot of that music is awesome.

Am happy this same bunch has a Les Paul and a Fender hangout. I love them both, each in their own way.

If I had to take either the Strat or the Paul or the Tele I would have to take the Tele I guess.

But on another day. . . . . . .

Songsmith

[birdy]

"La Grange" - ZZ Top


:nelson

[rdnzl]

Frank Zappa.

Watermelon in Easter Hay

[jim in texas]

I've always liked the intro to "Red House", "Castles Made of Sand" and damn near anything else he did.

I like the solo on Nowhere Man, too.

[Super Champ]

1983...A Merman I should Be

[Offshore Angler]

fezz had it summed up in post 12.

And funny, no early EVH mentioned anywhere but SRV all over the place!

[Offshore Angler]

Or "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"!

Dang, you guys are asleep at the switch.