A 'Strat ' is a tuning fork
creating sympathetic resonances and related harmonics. All guitars do this to some extent but strats do it more because of the 2-wing design. A strat style guitar is a natural tuning fork.
Many stratocaster copies are good platforms from which one can create a professional grade guitar. However there are some things wrong with a typical 'knockoff' guitar. Firstly, many copy guitars use a thick polyurethane or epoxy base finish. A thick finish like that kills vibration. The wood can't sing because it is insulated from sound stimulus. When on stage there are multiple sound streams from the amplifiers that 'activate' the wood body and it will sing in its own frequency adding harmonic qualities to the pickups sound.
A thin lacquer finish allows the wood to respond to sound waves. This explains why musicians can control feed back by stepping in and out of the sound stream. when your building a professional grade guitar from a copy the thick polyurethane finnish has got to go.
Secondly, one thing wrong with conventional thinking about guitars is that the top strap button is located at the tip of the top wing. This deadens the top wing and it cannot 'sing' its frequency. I place the top strap button on the back where the neck attaches. It takes only a little getting used to and frees up the top wing so it will contribute its own 'resonance' the the over all harmonic character of the instrument.
Thirdly the pickups on a copy guitar can always be improved by custom handwinding. At Emily Caroline Guitars we are Very Good at this so let us do it for you. Many options are available in the pickup winding realm and the musician can obtain a unique sound, not mass produced one size fits all sound.
A thin lacquer finish allows the wood to respond to sound waves. This explains why musicians can control feed back by stepping in and out of the sound stream. when your building a professional grade guitar from a copy the thick polyurethane finnish has got to go.
Secondly, one thing wrong with conventional thinking about guitars is that the top strap button is located at the tip of the top wing. This deadens the top wing and it cannot 'sing' its frequency. I place the top strap button on the back where the neck attaches. It takes only a little getting used to and frees up the top wing so it will contribute its own 'resonance' the the over all harmonic character of the instrument.
Thirdly the pickups on a copy guitar can always be improved by custom handwinding. At Emily Caroline Guitars we are Very Good at this so let us do it for you. Many options are available in the pickup winding realm and the musician can obtain a unique sound, not mass produced one size fits all sound.
Caution !
Many of the cheaper copies use plywood bodies and plywood does not sing. A plywood body can be used on a distortion guitar but plywood will not sing sweetly and clean like solid wood. Open the guitar and see if it is solid wood. If you have a solid wood body a great guitar can be created a few dollars at a time. Custom pickups, custom finnish, professional fretwork. You can get the highest quality work at Emily Caroline Hand Crafted Guitars. See the contact page to get in touch with us.