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Stratocaster
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Superstrat
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Advantages of superstrat
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Disadvantages of superstrat
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| Body shape
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Original
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May be slender and smaller than a standard Strat; May have thinner and deeper cutaways, producing pointier ends; May be arch-topped
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More appealing to hard rock and metal players; Gives easier access to higher frets
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Less wood under the bridge absorbs more sustain from the strings; Tone may lose its richness
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| Headstock
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Traditional Fender "dogleg" design using string trees
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Usually angled with a radical "hockey stick" (pointy/drooped) shape. Dogleg designs may feature a string retainer bar instead of string trees
(Some early superstrats feature more Fender-like headstocks.)
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Appearance, more sustain and purer tone on models without locking nut due to increased string angle
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Larger heavier headstock can upset balance of the guitar. Shape may be vulnerable to breakage. Strings may bind in the nut on non-locking models.
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| Tonewood
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Alder or Ash
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Mahogany, Basswood, Alder, Korina, Koa, Ash, Poplar
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Alternate woods chosen for good tone when playing overdriven; better sustain. Basswood is a light weight wood with "a nice, growley, warm tone with good mids. A favorite tone wood for shredders in the 80s since its defined sound cuts through a mix well."[1]
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Mahogany is heavier; Basswood has a limited dynamic range and is relatively soft and easily damaged cosmetically. Both are not as bright or clean compared to alder.
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| Neck
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Relatively thin C-shaped neck and round fingerboard (7.25-or-9.5-inch or 184-or-241-millimeter radius)
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Even thinner neck and flatter fingerboard (12-inch or 305-millimeter or flatter radius). Fretboard may be scalloped.
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Faster and comfortable playing of shredding leads and tapping
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Playing with the thumb hooked over the top of the neck can be more difficult on a thinner neck. Playing chords can be more difficult on a flatter fingerboard. Lower neck mass alters tone and sustain. Thinner necks are more prone to warping and breakage. Larger frets and scalloped fretboards make it more difficult to avoid unintended pitch-shifting (see Finger vibrato) when fretting.
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| Number of frets
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21 (vintage) or 22 (standard)
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Typically production models feature 22 and 24 frets, with 27 frets being increasingly common; some custom superstrats (EC-36, Maestro, Uli Jon Roth's Sky Guitar) feature 36 frets
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Extended note pitch range – on 24-fret necks, full two octaves per string.
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The harmonic content of the Strat neck pickup tone depends on it being placed directly beneath the 3rd overtone of the open strings, which is the location of the 24th fret. The original Strat neck pickup tone is therefore lost. With a 24-fret neck, the neck pickup is about 2 cm (0.787 in) closer to the bridge. It therefore samples more high overtones and has a brighter sound than the standard position. The more frets are available, the more the pickup has to move, which may lead to situations where the "neck" pickup is actually in the middle position.
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| Neck joint
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Bolt-on
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Neck-thru, set-in or modified bolt-on
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Longer sustain; able to reach upper frets easier
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Difficult to mass-produce; more expensive; more complicated to repair if broken
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| Neck joint heel
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Rectangular metal plate
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Contoured to be slim and smooth, or use of AANJ (all access neck joint) higher fret access joint for bolt-on models
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Better top fret access
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Complicates mass production and modification
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| String
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6
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6, but also increasingly reaching to 7, 8 or 9
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Wider range toward the bass-end leads and tapping
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difficult; longer scale maybe required to keep it in an acceptable tune. Playing chords can be more difficult. Will require better construction due to additional strings.
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| Bridge
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Vintage-design non-locking 6 or 2 point tremolo, hardtail bridge
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Floyd Rose, Kahler, Schaller or Edge double-locking, Fender Deluxe Locking assembly, Wilkinson or other tremolo systems; May also have Floyd Rose locking and lower-friction nuts (LSR/Wilkinson Roller) and/or locking machine heads
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Greater tuning stability; Extended tremolo range
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Less traditional sonic palette; More complicated mechanism that increases the difficulty of guitar maintenance. Locking nut can weaken headstock joint.
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| Pickups
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3 single-coils (Hot bridge humbucker on some models)
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Humbucker in the bridge for fat lead tones. Some models have only one pickup, some have single-coils in the neck and middle positions for traditional Stratocaster tones. Newer layout designs may have an HS, HH, HSH or HHH layout. Overwinding done to increase output; active pickups on some models.
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Fatter sound more applicable for hi-gain amplification used in rock and metal music; Less hum than with traditional all single coil pickup arrangement.
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Overwinding causes loss of definition and chiming "vintage" tone; Greater magnetic pull of ceramic magnets on the strings reduces sustain; Active circuitry requires an external 9V (or 18V) power supply from one or two batteries.
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| Controls
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3 knobs – Volume/Tone/Tone, 5 way blade switch
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Various; usually simplified knobs Volume/Tone or just 1 Volume. Pickup switching may be enhanced with coil splitting and phase options.
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Less "tone suckage" from wiring and circuitry components; simplified operation. Enhanced pickup switching allows a wide variety of hum-cancelling pickup combinations, especially with HSH and HHH configurations.
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Less control of tone without using effects. Possibly more complicated pickup switching.
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| Pickguard
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Present (may be absent on certain higher-end models)
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May be absent, with pickups mounted directly to the guitar body
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More sustain, as the pickups are not mounted on a flexible plastic support; Also unnecessary as picking techniques used in rock and metal music should not scrape against the guitar body.
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No scratch protection; different routing of the guitar may also lead to difficulty of maintenance. Reduced ability for modification with different controls and pickup configurations.
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