mikes videos are just him giving himself affirmation to buy guitars and gear

“Without Mayer Simping” Lmao, as if he wasn’t thinking about the Black1 the entire time lol

I would say one of the most iconic is John frusciante's strat and Jimmy page's les paul

I need to get Mike to talk to my wife every time she's asking why I want a new guitar

I’ve had the AVII for almost a year now… hands down my favorite strat I’ve ever played and I absolutely love the neck radius, the nitro, the slab rosewood, and those clay dots! The pickups are perfect for the sound I want which…lines up with your taste as well. Glad you got to play one Mike! Hope you keep it! I hope to watch it “Relic” with time. lol

the most iconic guitar for me is the frankenstrat. the player, the story and the music

A few years ago I bought a 1965 Gibson Melody Maker for cheap- (I modified it with a Burstbucker 3). That old wood has an amazing feel and sound- plays as loud as an acoustic

The Stratocaster is the most iconic shape. Not because of any songs or artists, but because most people who don't play guitar recognize it as an "electric guitar" before anything else.

2024 is the best year for the Strato, there have never been so many to choose from , beginer to cork sniffing collector are all catered for now. As for me there is Rosewood fretboard, maple fretboard and non trem. As long as the hardware is decent and the strings are not too light you will have an instrument that was never available to 70s 80s teenagers for less than 250 pounds(1980) . No excuse now, get one and play music with it preferably with a Friend who plays bass guitar or drums or any instrument...and sing songs.

Producing some really good stuff, really enjoy the storyteller style of video with some great nuggets of info…keep on keeping on!

Love your channel mike....good stuff buddy!!

Great video as always, Mike! Thanks and have a fantastic day too!

Bro respect man your account been popping off this past year

.nitro takes longer to cure than poly, and time is money in a manufacturing setting, thats why nitro is a premium feature and why it costs so much

woah, so cool!! great vid mike

I appreciate your appreciation of guitar history, the history of players, and all things guitar nerdiness. The electric guitar has such a cool history, evolution, and guitar legends 😊

Crazy you did this video I picked up the same vintage ii strat and have been playing it damn near everyday. I love it.

the goat posted

Your recorded guitars are sounding much better now :) , they used to be flat and quiet smooshed back into video audio, but this sounds very good!!!

The greatest Strat era? NOW! With hindsight being 20/20 vision, the lessons learned the past 70 years by Fender luthiers and musicians are being applied to current production. This, along with the great strides Squier has made in affordable quality, gives guitarists an embarrassment of riches in model selection. I just can't get over the stellar affordability, playability, fit and finish, and tone characterizing my Squier 40th Anniversary Strat - had for about 1/5 the cost of functionally equivalent Fender models. Musicians I know who started guitar 4 decades ago are downright envious of the options available to us beginning more recently. Now is indeed the greatest era of Stratocasters, and of musical gear in general.

I’m a huge Frusciante fan and love classic strats. The American Vintage is great but pretty pricey. I built my own as close as I could get and I love it. I even made a little video about it. Great video!

I can't help but be drawn to the 50's Strats. After hearing many comparison videos and of course the content from the era I feel that a Ventura 50's style or even a 50's Classic Vibe would be perfect for me. They are bright and crisp and handle clean as the era required but can also be cranked up and distorted if need be. I love Maple fretboards and kind of chunky necks (sometimes). Thanks to Leonidas for being a genius. You sound great on both BTW.

My first strat was an am pro ii...and although I love it for a lot of things....I find most of the time I pick up my road worn with the 59 pickups, or the 61 vintage ii...the pickups are definitely different. I love the bell like sound of the pickups, especially the neck and especially if I'm running into a fender deluxe amp. And they're just phenomenal with fuzz

I’m bouta purchase a sire s7 hss in Champaign gold because of your vid on sire. So exited 😁

That arrangement of old love was JUICY

Cool comparison video on how the Vintage strats are unique. My take is the more rounded radius, the Nitro finish and the vintage pickups are the top reason that separates it from the modern ones. I have lots of Fender strats and have played many (Deluxe, American Vintage, Player Plus, American Pro, etc.) have modded them with Alnico V, dual rails, Wilkinsons, etc. What really boils down in the end is preference and depending on what tunes/genre you are playing. If you want to play cool 60s, 70s and 80s hits, I'll definitely use the Am Vintage, If I will play the modern style and tunes, definitely go to the Player Plus or Pro. etc. But If I want some unique and different feel, and you will be playing fast shreddy stuff, nothing beats the Fender Yngwie Malmsteen "scalloped" strat. It's the best hands down. 🔥 I could also say it's the most vintage because the 17th century players are scalloping their lutes before the guitar.😉 Cheers.

I think it's all a matter of perception...I watched a video, I'm not even sure what famous guitar player it was, but the conversation he was having was about how Eddie Van Halen had come over to his place just to hang out, and his guitar and gear was there, and they were talking about their ideas, and Eddie was talking about what one of his was, and then he said something like "here, can I show you?", and the other guitar player was like "sure, here's my guitar"...and he said that Eddie was playing through his amp, using his guitar, and it was like the whole rig disappeared from being his rig to Van Halen's rig...it sounded just like Van Halen and nothing like him. I think it may have been Steve Vai, but not absolutely certain. Me, should I ever get a vintage guitar, it will be a real one, it'll be a made in California Fender, because I was born in California, it'll be either a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, an Esquire, or a Jazz Master, and will have a neck date of 7/61, the month and year I was born, and hopefully the stock electronics...all the rest doesn't matter that much, as long as it plays good. Thanks for the video. Hope you and yours are doing great!

I've had just the opposite impression with fenders....i played a custom shop 62 strat, a AVRI 57 tele and an 1996 american standard strat. Hands down the modern strat. For me, all the innovations make perfect sense.

I get this. Ok, I’m an unapologetic Strat Nerd, & I’m 72. We’re all influenced by our heroes. I wanted a Fiesta red Strat like the one Hank Marvin played in The Young Ones film, with a Rosewood neck, yes, Hank did play a rosewood neck. I wanted a ‘58 like “Brownie”Clapton played on Layla. I wanted an Olympic White Strat like Hendrix played upside down. It wasn’t long for me to realise I could never afford any of the originals. Many Strats later, I now have a ‘61 Vintage 2 in Fiesta Red, a 1982 Fullerton Made ‘57 2 tone Sunburst Vintage 1, & a 2012 Olympic White ‘62 Vintage 1. All are different. I also have a Strat Pro 2, again, totally different. I’ve bonded with them all. Get what inspires you, the best you can afford & play it. I’ve offloaded all my guitars except these 4 & a Resonator for slide playing old time blues. These days I’m straight into 1 amp & no pedals. Simple.

I got the fiesta red one and I love it!

lol i got an american vintage tele from 2014 yesterday in fiesta red. the nitro finish definetly has its charme

Gotta buy a lottery ticket, it's the only way i'll get an actual Buddy Holly era Stratocaster. oh yeah, that video "The Shadows - Apache (1960) 4K" - gotta get an early Jazzmaster too. That whole video could be a Fender ad.

A three-color sunburst used to be yellow, red and black. Now the center color is just a muddy orange.

The best Strats are a blend of all the years and what makes you the most comfortable to play. Nitro finishes tend to be more resonate due to thin application of the finish. I would think the move from the original 7.25 radius to larger came from people getting boards re-fretted after heavy play and the fact that bigger frets in a 7.25 guitar didn't work well past the 12th fret. Most of your favorite old school strat players like SRV probably had the neck worked on so much it ended up a 12 in radius. Thicker necks like the pre CBS guitars always feel better to me. I think the best post CBS idea was the move to enamel wire vs formvar and the pole magnet change. To me, these pickups are clearer and hotter. Its takes less turns on an enamel pickup to increase the resistance. My favorite Strat in my collection is a 57 AVRI with a re-radius 9.5 board with jumbo frets and late 60s early 70s enamel wire pickups. Vintage style frets are a little harder to play. Keep trying stuff out, you are learning a lot! You are starting to gravitate towards the better equipment. The golden era of equipment is the 50s and 60s and good reason why there hasn't been a dramatic variation since.

I really hope the “decades and decades and decades” was a reference to the grapist wkyk skit

I love all strats. My favorite is my new mim player top

I love 90s strats and some cool squire guitars or G&L strats or Tele

I had a Silver Sky for a while, and I’ve been wondering lately how this compares in terms of feel and build quality.

Fender just published a coffee table 70th Anniversary book on Strat history. Loads of great info and pix. It even has my, gasp, Acoustasonic Stratocaster, pictured near the end. And, hey, there’s really something to be said about an all modern hybrid Strat. Well … it takes an open mind. Thanks for the review. I am tantalized.

great video bro

Best regard Mike ! 👋

I love the sound of the Stratocaster. I think, IMO, Eddie VH was truly innovative during his time here on this little planet, and really did a WHOLE lot of things to get a guitar that he wanted. SRV..Jimi..and my all time favorite Strat player..Jeff Beck..They all got great tones and sounds out of a guitar. I think a guitar, whether vintage, or modern, just has to suit you as a player. But I do have a couple of old guitars made in USA, and the materials and components available back then...just sounded GOOD! It's all fun to try stuff and learn!

Keep up the good work. I've been watching you for a long time, when i have time to watch KZfaq.

What is the name of the song he started plaing at 6:50 ?

In my opinion the most "Iconic" electric guitar of all time is the Jackson Concorde that Randy Rhoads designed with Grover Jackson. Up until then most custom shop guitars were built based off of existing Gibson or Fender body designs. Randy's asymmetrical V could not be mistaken for any other guitar at the time it was built.

What sets most Strats apart the most, the neck or pickups, or both :)

I need a video testing the G&L Comanche

I just got my first electric guitar a player strat plus top… I love it

I'm pretty sure John Frusciante put Duncan SSL-1s in his vintage Strat. Look it up. Great videos. Love the channel.

For a brief second towards the end of the video you mentioned Japanese Strats. Now that would be an interesting avenue to go down. The late 70's to mid 80's Japanese Strats really were something else. I'm thinking Squier JV, Tokai, Greco etc etc. Lots of great guitars to research, just a idea.

I love strats and strat style guitars and the reason is because of familiarity. The strat is just a great design. Yes, I mod them with humbuckers, but I like strats as a mod platform. They get the job done.

more and more, im glad i built my first strat. I learned alllll of this just buying random stuff on amazon. My neck was baseball bat thiiiiic lol. 8 in radius. People complain a LOT about fretboard radius. IMO.

I have strats the one that make a difference is that the pick ups make it sounds different, also thanks for sharing this videos.

Very cool video. The hammer got me I was saying "nooooo"!

Mayer simping 😹😹😹 rock on brother 🤘🏽🔥🔊

When Strat players wise up, they start playing G&L guitars. Leo said that G&L were the best guitars that he ever built

It is a nitro finish, but it is a nitro over poly finish so it won't age like a real vintage strat. The nitro finish will fade and then you'll basicly have a standard poly finish... Sad but true

Isn't the silver sky supposed to be an idealized 60s strat type guitar?

Top 3 most iconic for sure are Strat, Les Paul & 335 or argueably SG. Also the Squier Classic vibe 60's has a extremely accurate neck profile and in my poinion is a steal at the pricepoint as well as being one of the few electrics I regret trading.

The old cliche term - PRE-CBS…. Nitro finish, flat lam rosewood or truly no lam maple fretboard. The necks vary by who the operator was who shaped it because they were hand shaped rather than cnc milled/carved You ever look into production engineer, John Carruthers? And his involvement with both Fender and Gibson factories? It would make a great story. I was acquainted with him when his shop was in Sta Monica. Bought a load of figured wood and a couple of power equipment pieces after I dissolved my guitar biz. THAT dude is a scientist!

What’s so odd to me is idk if I went down a different avenue and instead of diving into vintage to look for that Mojo I’m looking into super strats of different brands like schecter for more aggressiveness I guess there’s 2 avenues leaving the modern Strats into super ultra modern to vintage

whats the riff at 6:50?

Mike, would you do a video on the blues movie crossroads and Steve Vai using the Telecaster to achieve it. Please...😢

I just recently bought the American Vintage II 54 Strat

You have the best one.

I scored a 1972 Strat for fairly cheap and have not put it down since! It’s best to shit, the neck has barely any finish left, and the pickups sound great too. I think a few things that really give it that appeal are the age of the wood as well as the pickup measurements. The thing sounds pretty damn close to an acoustic guitar unplugged! And the pickups read around 5.2-5.6 compared to some modern Strats going as high as 7.2 ohms. I always thought that’s how SRV got some of his sound, because the slightly lighter wound pickups allow for that kind of touch sensitivity at high volumes!

Nice video Mike! You should tell them about our podcast

Jimi Hendrix’s strat is the most iconic to me

Next Stop: Get a Custom Shop Strat. You won't regret it.

The wonderful rabbit hole of Strats. You can get lost in the details of just the modern era from the original ("vintage"?) American Standards to the American Series to the American Standard (2.0) to the American Pro and now American Pro II. You can add the MIM Player Series in there now since they are closer to a USA Strat vs. the old Standard model.

That is a great choice of a new stratocaster

I’ve got a Corey Wong signature that I love!!! I don’t even play funk. It’s a great guitar, and leans full modern.

Unpopular opinion, I think Billie Joe's "Blue" which was a Fernandes Strat (a knockoff his mom gave him) was the most iconic guitar. You can instantly tell it's Green Day and it gives off the most in-your-face punk style. However, Derrig's guitar he made for Slash is also pretty iconic.

I need a strat

Nice video, I'm very interested in the AM Vintage II strats. At this point in my life I'm really only looking for guitars that I want to keep forever or at least hold/appreciate in value. Because I want to keep them forever nitro finish is a huge selling point for me. My favorite strat is the White body rosewood fretboard.... If i could get a roadworn one I'd be very happy! I've been a huge fruscainte fan my entire life he's part of the reason I play guitar so I like sunburst too, but basic colors like white I never get sick of. My only strat is a pretty nice partscaster. I've I used a late 70's black greco body (took some steel wool to the body to flaten out the black poly) and have a mexican 12inch radius neck on it, with a set of SSL1's in it. It's a very good mix of looking and sounding vintage but feels more modern with the flater radius.... that being said if i get sick of embracing the jankiness that goes along with my partscaster and getting another strat I'm looking at the vintage II 60's or maybe the Mcreedy signature.

Yeah, and he’s cool !

For me, the most iconic player/guitar combination is Johnny Thunders with that beat-up Les Paul Jr double-cut in TV yellow. I'm kinda surprised Gibson hasn't produced a relic-ed Thunders' replica. Then again, maybe Gibson doesn't want to be associated with Thunders' destructive lifestyle and would rather go with someone more wholesome. Ergo, the Rick Beato signature Les Paul Jr. double-cut.

Carlos Santana’s PRS? I would think the SG he played at Woodstock.

I'd say one of the most iconic guitars is Kurt Cobain's custom shop mustang that he used during the In Utero tour in 1993 and 1994

You didn't mention the clay dots! I have the same axe in the same color. Its my number one. I do have a problem with the saddle for my high e string. I always have to readjust it. I can't find anything on utube or any place else for that matter on this problem. Still love it. its my third Strat.

David Gilmore is the reason I’ve always wanted a Strat. His bends are second to none.

You didn't fool anybody with that hammer. No one was thinking that you was going to smash it on the guitar, not even for a splut second.

I got a 61 cs with a two rock crs is amazing

For me the most recognizable iconic strat was SRV's #1. If that thing could talk, imagine the stories it would tell.

Jimmy pages 12 string has the most iconic look. I don't want one. But that's number 1

I would have said go for the MIM McCready. Picked one up and it’s an amazing strat.

this video should be called 'why modern guitar players are gifted strats from sweetwater'

The Vintera line (formerly the Classic Series) gives you 7.25”. I love my Classic Series 50s w/ 7.25”

Just when I thought FOMO wouldn't intensify any further, FOMO intensified yet again.

I still have my '62 reissue 'Mary Kay' Strat that was made in 1989. Paid $900 for it back then.

Wait didnt Mike get a Sire strat like 2 weeks ago?

the laquer is quite a bit thicker coated than on the original vintage from the past

This might sound silly to someone who's never compared them, but the heel-adjust rod makes a huge difference in the sound of the neck. The giant hole under the nut in a headstock-adjust rod changes the sound more than most people want to admit.

Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock strat is the most iconic stratocaster for me

The Strat w/ rg neck is the best era

Stevie and Jimmi were the best in their area. May they rest in peace.

Honestly, the best Strats are being made right now. Vintage pre cbs stats have the benefit of the old nitro formula that’s illegal due to EPA restrictions, and old growth wood that just isn’t available anymore. But anyone who’s played a number of vintage fenders knows that a lot of them aren’t great. The ones that are good are the best of the best, but there’s a lot of dog vintage fenders out there. The fact now that a guitar that was meant to be mass produced and “cheap” is now being made by boutique builders is crazy. You can literally spend what ever you want on a Strat these days. You can buy a squire or something like a nachocaster or fender masterbuilt. The latter two will have more thought and attention than any Strat being made in the 50s or 60s.

The 1978 Tokai springy sound ST series Stratocaster is what finally woke Fender up. Because of Japan as poor people got to play great guitars

Nobody: This channel: JOHN FRUSCIANTE JOHN FRUSCIANTE JOHN FRUSCIANTE

You never seem to fall into the sex appeal trap, and I appreciate the hell out of that