Superstrat

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The Ibanez JEM is a recogniseable example of a super strat, showing some of the features mentioned in the comparison table.
The Ibanez JEM is a recogniseable example of a super strat, showing some of the features mentioned in the comparison table.

Superstrat, or Super Strat, is a name for a design of electric guitars that resembles a Stratocaster but with modifications that set it clearly apart from a Stratocaster to cater to a different playing style. Hence, Superstrats are not considered Strat copies. Note that "Superstrat" does not refer to high-end Stratocasters.

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[edit] History

With an emerging revolution of heavy metal music in early 1980s, the guitar industry found itself in need of more advanced guitars, both in terms of looks (more aggressive designs) and playability (ease of playing and fatter tone that sounds good with hi-gain amplification). A whole new generation of guitar virtuosos emerged that employed super-fast and ultra-complex techniques that demanded thinner and more versatile guitar necks and stable bridges. The answers from the industry were super strats: buffed up custom versions of the original Stratocaster design. Due to huge marketing success, most companies started manufacturing super strats in mass production.

The first super strats were made by Grover Jackson in 1982[citation needed] as custom shop guitars that later became a separate Jackson Guitars series. Jackson Soloist is known as the first mass production super strat, officially produced since August 28, 1984.

[edit] Definition

Generally, all super strats are loosely based on the Fender Stratocaster design, hence the name. However, super strats contain several significant modifications to the original, causing it to be different from the original Stratocaster. Note that "super strat" is a subjective concept of adapting Stratocaster to be more suited for certain genres of music, and are not necessarily higher-end Stratocasters. An example of a super strat series that is not a higher-end Stratocaster is the Fender Showmaster series.

However, there are higher-end Stratocaster series designed with similar improvements, with the overall disadvantage being just higher cost and no loss to sound quality or sonic range. These supersede the "standard" Stratocasters and can qualify both as super strats and higher-end Stratocasters. An example of such a series is the Fender Stratocaster American Deluxe series.

Furthermore, the definition of a Stratocaster bearing any of the below characteristics of a super strat does not necessarily make it a super strat. As there is no formal definition for a super strat, that categorisation is still largely left to popular opinion.

[edit] Comparison

Stratocaster Super strat Advantages Disadvantages
Body shape Original May be slender; May have thinner and deeper cutaways, producing pointier ends; May be arch-topped More appealing to hard rock and metal players; Gives easier access to higher frets Less wood under the bridge absorbs more sustain from the strings; Tone may lose its richness
Number of frets 21 (vintage) or 22 (standard) 22, 24 or more Extended note pitch range — full two octaves per string Loss of certain sonic qualities of neck pickup;
Neck joint Bolt-on Neck-thru, set-in or modified bolt-on Longer sustain Difficult to mass-produce; performing some techniques like artificial harmonics is harder
Neck joint heel Rectangular metal plate Slim and smooth Better top fret access Complicates mass production
Bridge Synchronised tremolo A Floyd Rose double-locking, Wilkinsons or other improved tremolo systems; May also have lower-friction nuts and/or locking machine heads Greater tuning stability; Extended tremolo range Less traditional sonic palette; More complicated mechanism that increases the difficulty of guitar mantainance
Neck Relatively thick C-shaped neck and round fingerboard (low radius) Thinner neck and flatter fingerboard (high radius) Comfortable playing of shredding leads Different feel of the guitar neck will not appeal to Stratocaster or acoustic players
Pickups 3 single-coils 2 or 1 humbuckers with sometimes 2 or 1 single-coils; Overwinding done to increase output Fatter and less humming sound, more applicable for hi-gain amplification used in rock and metal music Loss of definition and chiming "vintage" tone unless the pickup was designed such that such tone could be preserved (for example, Ibanez's True-Duo system); Greater magnetic pull on the strings reduces sustain
Pickguard Present May be absent More sustain, as there are less plastic parts that dampen the sound; Also unnecessary as shredding techniques used in rock and metal music should not scrape against the guitar body No scratch protection

[edit] Notable models

Almost every guitar company that produced electric guitars in 1980s manufactured some models that could be designated as a superstrat. There are several notable models that are unique in some way:

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