- Qua,
Qua?, Squier Strats are popular by professional players. The thin wood they use for the neck creates a "tinnier" sound than a standard American Stratocaster would make.
Jeff Healey is a blind guitarist who uses Squier. They simply put very expensive pickups in there. Listening to Jeff Healey then switching to SRV is night and day. I think you guys listen to too many shredders.
Yes, I don't like many blues players very much beyond their granted skills of expression, and I've already outlined why. Their music simply doesn't do it for me musically. Zakk Wylde also does nothing for me, because he simply shreds on the same pentatonics and blues scales. Note that it's called music, not musical expression. Most "soul" in playing is varying pitch inaccuracy, hence a human voice sounds soulful and a player who uses wide vibrato and bends is more soulful than a shredder. Pianos are never fully in tune, and neither are 12 string guitars, which gives them their signature sound.
I'm not a big Vai fan, just wanted to use that one as an example.
It is true that when using lots of gain, the tone of the guitar itself becomes far less important, so I can see how you'd come to that misguided conclusion about my tastes. I myself use a $500 PRS singlecut that has a funamentally purer jazzier clean tone than every LP I've tried. The fact that most of us are trying to point out is vintage gear is pricey and sought after simply because it's ballyhooed. Hotrocker's claim of getting his Ibanez or Jackson to sound indistinguishable from an old LP is a little tough because of different scale lengths (which you called radii) wood combos etc, but I know I could get my cheap PRS and Fender Blues Jr pretty damn close, as I've played 70s LPs through the same rig and actually preferred the PRS.
I will also say that yes, my strat is new, however I went and tried EVERY SINGLE strat in the store before coming back to it. Strats are famous for their individual variation, and before you go blanketing SRV's guitar as good because it's vintage, maybe you'll take note of that. Believe me when I tell you I pay the dearest attention to every component, knob and gain stage of my rig, and I've realized that much of the mojo pieces are people listening for something they want to believe is important. I'm not disputing the performance of tube amps vs solid state, or high quality woods vs low quality, simply vintage vs modern gear with no other variables taken into account.