[Guitar Strategy Guide] Strat and Les Paul

Hello, Conservario here.
Electric guitars can be divided into two main types.
They are the Stratocaster and Les Paul mentioned in the title.
Here are the features and specialty styles of each type.

■ Strat

Officially, it is called a Stratocaster.
It was made by a company called Fender.
The majority of guitars for beginners have this Strat-type shape because it is thin, light, and easy to play.
The sound of a guitar is more important than its appearance and playing comfort.
The sound is characterized by the configuration of three single pickups.
An electric guitar has a device called a pickup that picks up the vibration from the strings.

There are various types of pickups that affect the sound.
Single pickups have the disadvantage of picking up noise easily due to their structure.
However, the advantages and distinctive sound they produce outweigh the disadvantages.
Have you ever heard of a technique called cutting?
In other words, it's kind of fidgety...it's not so easy to pick up quickly.
Please look up “Funk Groove” on Youtube.
You will find many helpful videos there.
If you search for “funk cutting,” you will find that almost everyone is playing with a single pickup guitar.
That is how standard a combination of cutting and single pickup is.
Of course, a single pickup can be used for other techniques as well.
The sound is simple and straightforward.
If you are a good player, you will get a good sound, and if you are not a good player, you will get a poor sound.
So it is suitable for beginners to practice on.
There are pickups that sound good no matter who plays them, good or bad.
If you get used to it, it can be rather dangerous because you will not notice your roughness and will not improve your technique.
If you are a beginner or you like cutting, I recommend a Strat with a single pickup.

PLAYTECH / ST250 Maple Sunburst

■ Les Paul

This guitar was made by a company called Gibson.
Compared to the Strat, Les Paul is thicker, heavier, and harder to play.
You may be thinking, “What's so good about this guitar?”
However, the Les Paul sound revolutionized the history of rock music as much as, if not more than the Strat.
It has two humbucker pickups.
It looks like two single pickups.

This humbucker is the weak point of the single pickup, the noise is gone.
In other words, it has no disadvantages.
Rock is often played by distorting the sound of an amp.
Distorting the sound means that the noise will increase together with the distortion.
In other words, a single pickup distorts the sound of a rock band that results in a lot of noise.
However, with humbuckers, there is no noise, so there is no problem even if you distort the sound considerably.
If you search for “rock metal guitar,” you will find only guitars with humbuckers.
In this kind of genre, humbucker-equipped guitars are the norm, and single-pickup guitars are rare.
So, is a humbucker better than a single pickup guitar after all? You may feel that humbuckers are better than singles, but in fact, there is a disadvantage or a characteristic flaw.
No matter what kind of sound you make, it will be the sound of a humbucker.
It is not impossible to play crisp cutting, but humbuckers have a thicker sound, so it is hard to get a good sound out of them.
Also, the fat sound means that it is difficult to hear the rough edges of the sound.
The humbucker pickups are the ones that sound good no matter who plays them, as I mentioned in the first half of this article.
If beginners practice with humbuckers, there is a danger that they won’t improve as players.
For intermediate players and those who like rock and metal music, I recommend Les Paul with humbuckers.

PLAYTECH / LP400 Black　レスポールタイプ

■ Summary

I showed you the characteristics of Strat and Les Paul, and their strong features and styles.
The most important thing I want to convey in this column is that there are really no advantages and disadvantages.
What I mean is that both disadvantages and advantages vary depending on the person, situation, and equipment.
There are many people who play with a single pickup for a thick metal sound.
There are also many people who play funky cutting with humbuckers.
The information I have presented here is just the commonly accepted characteristics, not necessarily one correct answer.
As proof of this, I can only use the word “recommended” in this column, without saying this or this is right or wrong.
Please try to experiment with different ways of playing around with your guitar to create your own unique performance.
By the way, there are many guitars equipped with both single pickups and humbuckers.
If you are greedy and want to play every genre of music, please consider them!
Thank you for reading to the end.

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