Worship Gear - Vol. 7

Super Strats - Born in the late '70's.  They have probably become one of the most ubiquitous forms of guitars of the last three decades.  From their beginnings in the hands of a young rock virtuoso in southern California, through the rise of the modders like Wayne Charvel and Grover Jackson, to the major manufacturers who nearly all produce one, the super strat captured the hearts and minds of many guitarists through the years.  The combination of the ergonomics and easy access to modifications of the basic Fender Stratocaster platform and the thicker more robust tones of the traditional Gibson humbucker equipped offerings create a instrument that is very versatile and very comfortable to play for extended periods.

There are a couple of schools of thought when it comes to building this type of guitar.  One is to create the most versatile guitar possible, striving to get as many tones as possible from one guitar in both Fender and Gibson styles.  The other is to focus on trying to bring the closest approximation of a Les Paul style tone from the basic strat platform.

As I count through my personal collection, five are super strats.  Three lean toward replicating as many different style tones as possible, while the other two go toward the other direction.

The formula for bringing out the most Gibson style tones from the Fender platform are fairly simple on the surface, just throw a humbucker (or two) into the neck and bridge positions and play.  However, there are a few other things that will help make the most of the platform.

First, start with a mahogany body.  To me, mahogany is the base of the Les Paul tone.  If it includes a fairly thick maple top, this will help brighten what can be a pretty thick tone.  Another would be to forego a vibrato system and set the guitar up with a fixed bridge such as a tune-o-matic style bridge.  The tune-o-matic creates a more solid join to the body at the bridge than a vibrato and also eliminates the big cavity carved out of the back of the guitar.

The second ingredient I feel is important is going to be the neck.  While the neck material, construction and mounting scheme will all have a bearing on the tone, there are a few things that will help bring the tone more into the Les Paul range.  One element of the neck that I consider crucial is the scale length.  Maintaining the scale length helps keep the warmer and somewhat woolier tones associated with short string scales.  As far as woods, I prefer all mahogany with ebony fretboards, but with a thick sounding mahogany body a maple neck will help brighten the tone and bring more overall balance to the sound.

The final element falls more into the realm of players' preference.  This is the pickups.  When it comes to finding Gibson style tones, the question is sometimes - which era tone are you after?  Many pickup manufacturers offer a wide variety of humbuckers designed to cover many sounds and genres.  Here are a few of my favorites:

DiMarzio -

• Super Distortion - This was on of the very first replacement pickups created to replace the much lower (on average) output Gibson PAF style humbuckers. The focus of this pickup is to bump the midrange response and increase the overall output to drive the front end of vintage non-master volume style amplifiers to generate overdrive without the aid of an additional pedal.
• PAF Pro - Based on a traditional PAF style pickup, this unit was developed with an emphasis on the upper midrange frequencies.  This design was developed in the 80's when there was a need to to have a clear sounding pickup with more power than the typical PAF and the midrange emphasis is helpful to cut through the dense effects processing being used at the time.     I like this as a neck pickup.  The vocal quality of the upper midrange response works well clearing up the sometimes dense, dark sound associated with the neck position.
• Air Norton - Designed to be an aired version of the Norton, it is medium in output and useful in both the neck and bridge positions.  It produces some nice harmonics and has nice, full sound that leans toward the warm side of the tonal spectrum.  I have been using this in the middle position of a three pickup guitar and when combined with either the PAF Pro I have in the neck and or the Super Distortion in the bridge position with a standard Strat style five way switch adds some harmonics and bit of phase cancellation that creates some useful tones for both rhythm and lead parts.

Seymour Duncan -

• Pearly Gates - originally created by Seymour Duncan to help replicate the tone of the famous Les Paul of the same name.  It is considered a PAF a class, vintage style humbucker.  It has a boosted upper midrange focus that translates into a more raucous and bold tone that cuts through a mix well.
• Jazz - In my opinion, one of the best neck pickups available.  The Jazz model is loosely based on an original PAF design with an increased emphasis on the upper registers to help  cut through what can be a thick and dense, almost muddy, sounding position.

I am still experimenting, but the genre of Super Strat type guitars can open a wide tonal palette for the guitarist in a worship setting.  I believe it is one that has been pigeonholed into specific musical genres over the last few years, and almost lost in the rage to find "vintage" or "boutique" tone.  However, I think everyone should venture out and find, or rediscover, it's unique and  flexible voice.

Until next time...

God Bless,
D. K. Sears
Guitarist / Technical Advisor – Landmark Baptist Worship (www.lbcohio.com)
Founder / Lead Designer / Tone Consultant – Crucible Guitar Works
(www.facebook.com/crucibleguitarworks) (Twitter:  @CrucibleGuitars)
Author - Worship Gear