Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

  1. #1
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Ever heard of José Carioca?
    Posts
    4,651

    Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    Yesterday I was jamming with the band, and I've always noticed that my 2013 Am Std Strat sounds a bit harsher and more trebly than my bandmate's 1993 Am Std.

    I did this: we swapped the strats to play the same songs so I could hear the difference (we kept the amps and pedals, just exchanged the guitars). It appears that mine does sound quite wild, the treble VERY bright and shrill, almost like a Les Paul's tone, and the bass isn't as responsive.

    I was taking a good look at the pickups and it seems that they are a bit unbalanced, the bass side of the three single coils being amost leveled with the pickguard.

    My guess is, if I adjust pickup height properly, it will be more balanced and I'll bring up the bass on it, right?

  2. #2
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    New York Finger Lakes Area
    Posts
    8,462

    Re: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    Quote Originally Posted by de Melo View Post
    Yesterday I was jamming with the band, and I've always noticed that my 2013 Am Std Strat sounds a bit harsher and more trebly than my bandmate's 1993 Am Std.

    I did this: we swapped the strats to play the same songs so I could hear the difference (we kept the amps and pedals, just exchanged the guitars). It appears that mine does sound quite wild, the treble VERY bright and shrill, almost like a Les Paul's tone, and the bass isn't as responsive.

    I was taking a good look at the pickups and it seems that they are a bit unbalanced, the bass side of the three single coils being amost leveled with the pickguard.

    My guess is, if I adjust pickup height properly, it will be more balanced and I'll bring up the bass on it, right?
    Pickup height and what strings are you using? Nickel is brighter than steel (different permeability if you're a geek).

    Wow, I never, ever, ever thought of a Les Paul tone as bright and shrill! What's up with that? A Strat will almost always be noticeably brighter with its longer scale.

    Strats are temperamental bastards. Some of them have "it" and some never will. If anybody really knew why, they'd make them all good.

    I suspect Fender does know, but figures that 99% of the guitars they sell never get out of the bedroom so it doesn't doesn't make financial sense to make guitars that are consistently great. Even Clapton needed parts from four or five different Strats to make one good one...and that was back in the days of the vintage guitars everyone covets today, LOL!
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

  3. #3
    Forum Member Don's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    11,288

    Re: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    You could try a bunch of things- strings, settings, pickups, caps, etc... and I'll be those two guitars will never sound the same. Aside from it just being the nature of wooden things, keep in mind that the construction of 1993 and 2013 Am. Std. Strats is more different than most people realize.

  4. #4
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    8,163

    Re: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    Pickup height adjustments might get you part of the way there, eq on the amp still further.

    I doubt that you have a badly made guitar or one with substandard parts.

    These days, I'm wary of telling anyone to search out the right pups. It took some pup changes for me to be happy with my AmStd Strats and Tele, but I finally found pups that sound so great in my guitars: 57/61s on my main Strat and Nocasters on my Tele.

    However, I learned this:

    If you go after a particular sound, good for you if you get it, or is it? You're married to that sound for everything, so it better be a sound you like to spread liberally.

    There are so many people buying new pups and then turning around and selling them online. Shouldn't cost a fortune if you have to go through a couple of sets until you find what you want.

    Make sure you have exhausted all EQ possibilities that might get you there.

    BTW, I listened to a recent recording of a 96 AmStd I owned back then and then one of my 2008, each with their year's AmStd pups: they sounded almost identitical.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  5. #5
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Ever heard of José Carioca?
    Posts
    4,651

    Re: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    Oh, I tried adjusting the amp/knob settings, all right.

    I just think maybe the pickups being a bit too low on the bass side was causing the guitar to have the treble louder.

    About the trebles sounding like a les paul's, maybe I don't master English language as well as I'd like to, sometimes I really find it hard to express exactly what I mean.

    The les paul's E, B and G strings sound not as bright as a Strat's but they sound kinda harsher, sourer. That's what I mean.

  6. #6
    Forum Member JDUB's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Posts
    66

    Re: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    Quote Originally Posted by de Melo View Post
    ...
    The les paul's E, B and G strings sound not as bright as a Strat's but they sound kinda harsher, sourer. That's what I mean.

    Yes, they cut through the mix better that way.
    timbre

    • : the quality given to a sound by its overtones: as
      a
      : the resonance by which the ear recognizes and identifies a voiced speech sound
      b : the quality of tone distinctive of a particular singing voice or musical instrument




    I actually have no doubt the pickup height adjustment will help. String compound and geometric set-up affect it, too. Does yours feel stiffer or looser than the other one? The feel is the hardest thing to get in a Strat set-up.

  7. #7
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Location
    Ever heard of José Carioca?
    Posts
    4,651

    Re: Boosting the bass in a Stratocaster

    Well, the strat in question feels quite looser than the other one, but it has 0.9s on it (0.10 on the other one), so part of it is indeed the string gauge.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •