Today I have with me two Strat style guitars. And although they might look similar, it could be confusing as to what’s the difference and which is meant for you. My name is Keegan Morice. I am the product specialist here at ProCraft. And today we’re going to take a look at some of these Strat style guitars. And uh we’ll talk about the differences and what they do. And I’ll tell you that the differences are subtle, but that’s what makes it unique. That’s what gives you the sound that you’re looking for and that’s what we’re going to try and sort out today to see uh what’s best for you. So, let’s start off with the ST20. That’s by Stridum. Uh now, this guitar is something that you would call a budget guitar or a budget friendly guitar. Uh what I mean by that is it’s going to come in at an entry- level price point at around 11,700 rupees. And if you’re someone just buying your first guitar, uh you might be apprehensive about the price. And this guitar is going to solve your problems. But just because it’s budget friendly does not mean you’re not getting good quality out of it. You’re still going to get some really good specifications. So to start off with the body itself, this is going to be a standard Strat style body. They’ve still kept the bevels on here. So you’re still getting that quality finish. At the same time, this is a base wood body, a nice dense wood to give you good sound. The pickups on here are going to be your standard ceramic style pickups, but these are really high output and they’re really quality and have clear tones in them. Uh the functions are again fairly straightforward. You have one volume knob that’s going to control the overall output. You have this tone knob that’s going to control the neck pickup. This stone knob controls the middle pickup. your standard fiveway switch, which lets you transition between pickups, and that is a huge part of the sound of the guitar itself. Now, this is an HSS style Strat, which means you’re going to get a humbucker on the bridge. The tone pods are actually fairly smooth and linear. Again, they’ve stuck to the Strat design with a six-point trim system. So, moving on to the neck itself. Now, in this guitar, you’re going to get a maple neck as well as a maple fingerboard. These necks are really stable. And the frets themselves, they’ve got standard nickel frets. They’re not going to be jumbo frets. Uh just a standard size on there. The neck is slightly [Music] flatter. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Music] Uh the tuning heads feel really smooth. They can they don’t feel like uh there’s any kind of resistance or it’s struggling. Uh and that’s important cuz you want tuning stability that starts from here. So, if you feel the knobs are really smooth, it means you’ve got good tuning stability. You’ve actually got a nice solid block here as a saddle. So, again, this means that your string is not going to move around in there. Uh, and it’s not going to cause any scratchy sound. Uh especially when you’re bending [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] So that’s the ST20 for now. Uh now speaking about budget guitars, you might think, okay, so if I’m getting everything in this budget, why spend more? I’ll tell you why. So now we have the ST62, which is a slightly upgraded variant in terms of price. And why is that so? It’s because it’s also got specs upgraded on here. Just lifting it up, this guitar feels slightly heavier, but just to start off again, this is a Strat style. You get the exact same body shape with the bevels here. It’s got a basswood body again. Now, what’s interesting is the pickups in here. These are still ceramic pickups. They’re not Alnikos, but they’re up for higher quality. They’ve got uh a higher output, and not just higher, but a much more creamier, much more defined sound. So, as you go into like recordings or you’re playing live and you’re playing through certain amps, playing through certain modules, you want your overtones to really uh ring out and these upgraded quality of pickups do that for you. Now, moving on to the actual tone controls. It’s similar to the ST20 uh cuz they’re both Strat styles essentially. So, compared to that, you’re going to get a similar quality of pots. This also comes with a humbucker, so you’re going to get those heavy overdriven sounds. Now, the difference is the tremolo system here. Now, this comes with a twopoint trimm system, which you normally see on super strats. Uh, so they’ve kind of upgraded uh to the twopoint trim as opposed to the sixpoint. They actually sit slightly above the surface. They’re not uh the knife edge is over the surface. And what that does is it gives you a little flexibility in terms of modulation. With this, you can actually get it in both. So, you’re going down a pitch and when you’re going up a pitch, it really helps in getting those nice end tail end modulations. Now, the actual saddles on here are slightly different. These are like more solid chunky blocks. And that’s actually a huge thing to note because your vibrating string is going to sit from your nut to your saddle. So, you want to have a nice stable mass on here so that the string vibration actually carries through the body and you get that sustain. Heat. Heat. [Music] So, talking about the neck now, here’s where the major difference occurs. While that guitar, while the ST20 had a just a normal maple neck and fingerboard, this one actually comes with like a roasted maple neck and it’s got a rose accea fingerboard which is similar to rosewood, not exactly the same. Now, while the feel itself is not going to uh impact the sound as much, what it does impact is your playability. the way your uh neck feels in your fingers when you’re like bending or you’re just ftting a note. You know, playabilities is as important as the technical specs on this guitar. And this is the SD62, which is like the upgraded variant of the SD20. Now, as you see can see as we’re going higher up, we’re getting a little more detailing on here, which brings me to the E100 by Hex. So, this is the E00 by Hex. Uh just to start off, this is on clearance right now, so you can get it for a really reasonable price. Uh this guitar is originally priced higher than both of these two. It’s over the 20,000 rupee mark. And uh now these are all Strats. So the question is why? So let’s start off with the body itself. The body itself is actually slightly bigger than the Strat uh than your standard Strat. It feels heavier and also this is a mahogany body. The ST20 and the ST62 come with basewood bodies. So you’re getting slightly better wood quality on here. So moving on to the pickups. U we’ve got these Alniko 5 single coils on here. Now what is uh the importance of Alco 5s is these are highgrade output pickups which means they give a good amount of output. The humbucker itself is a ceramic humbucker but it’s also a high quality output. Now, since this is uh configured as an HSS rat, you’re going to probably use the humbuckers as for your high gain outputs for those distorted sounds. This also comes with a twopoint trim, uh somewhat similar to the super strats. And this is again designed to be slightly floating. The saddles on here, again, a thick solid block of wood. Uh you have this bolt-on neck here with this next plate and the hex logo. And of course, being a bigger body, this does feel a little different. The positions of the pickup are slightly different again, where they’ve kept it simple in terms of just one volume and one tone. This tone is going to control all of your pickups. Volume going to control all of your pickups. The fiveway switch is just like the the other two S the Stridm Strats that we’ve tried. Now, here’s where another interesting feature is on here. It’s got stainless steel frets. Now, stainless steel is not going to wear out anytime soon, and that’s a problem that you might have with nickel frets over a couple of years, depending on how you play it. [Music] [Music] This is a maple neck and it’s slightly thinner than the other two. So maybe designed for more faster playing. And overall the build quality of the hex is really good. Uh you’ve got these nice fret finishes. You don’t really feel the frets on here. Now moving on to the headstock. Uh now you might notice that this is a slightly unconventional headstock. What’s interesting is about these that even though it’s a different style headstock, the tuning heads on here are very [Music] [Applause] [Music] smooth. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Also, another just point about headstocks, they do contribute to the actual sound because of the mass on the end of the headstock. uh versus the mass on the body that does affect your tone. So, you’re going to get a slightly different sound on these guitars. Talking about the finishes on these guitars, the Stridem has these this glossy finish on there and uh the Hex comes with a matte cell finish. It’s very subjective. Uh but it’s just important to know that that there are different finishes that come on guitars. They not only affect the aesthetics of the guitar, but there’s also a certain uh effect on the sound itself. Obviously, it’s not a dealbreaker whether it’s a matte finish or a glossy finish. Uh it’s a it’s really down to personal preference. The question is uh which one should you get? What guitar is meant for whom? So, let’s start off by just doing a comparison between ST20, which is our entry-level budget friendly guitar, and the E100, which is the higherend variant of the Strat style guitar by Hex. And, uh, what’s the difference? So, straight up straight off the bat, the body itself, uh, ST20 has got a basswood body, as the E100 has a mahogany body. The pickups on here, the ST20 just gets your standard uh ceramic style pickups. On the Hex guitar, you have Alco 5 single coils and a ceramic humbucker, which is again of a higher quality. So, you’re just getting better output. This one has a lot more simple style of operation in terms of the volume and tone. Uh the ST20 has stuck to more of a traditional Strat style. Uh, similar to the tremolo system on here, it’s a six-point trimm system, E100 has gone a little further with a super strat style, which is a twopoint trim system. And what’s important is the bodies itself, the shape. If you look, the E100 has got a much bigger body than the than your SD20. Uh, this has got stainless steel frets on here, which is uh really important for the long-term durability of the guitar. Uh these won’t wear out anytime soon. Uh with your SD20, depending on how much you play, how hard you play, and if you’re upgrading your strings to maybe 11 gauge or a 12 gauge, you will see some kind of fretware over time. Stridam has gone with a more traditional style. It’s slightly resembles original Strats. Hex has gone a completely different direction with these slightly bigger headstocks. And this was again a design choice just keeping in mind the vibrating mass of the guitars. So, now that we’ve talked about the Hex, let’s actually compare the ST20 with the ST62. Now, these are both Stridum guitars. They are both very similar in terms of construction and shape. Unlike the E100, the ST62 and the ST20 have the same body shape, same size. If you look at the same bevels, it’s pretty much the same. They’re both made of basewood. So, what’s the difference between the two? And why is one better than the other? ST62 has a slightly better quality of pickup. It’s got ceramic pickups, but they are much better uh in terms of the output, higher output with more defined sounds. The SC20 doesn’t have as much highend output. So, if you plug it into an amp, you might not get as many overtones on the ST20 as you would get on the ST62. The tremolo system, as you can see, the ST20 has stuck with a traditional sixpoint trim. Uh whereas the SD62 has gone with a twopoint trim. So the next thing that’s different is the neck itself. This one’s got a all maple uh neck and fingerboard. This has a roasted maple neck with a rose as of fingerboard. So it gives you a slightly different feel and a different touch. In terms of headstocks, uh they both have the same uh design of headstock. Now two of these guitars were made by Stridum and the E00 was by Hex. Uh, Stridum has been uh, working with us for a while now and uh, they’re really good at getting high quality products within a decent budget. So, as I mentioned up top that just because it’s a budget friendly guitar or an entry-level guitar doesn’t mean that you’re going to get uh, something that’s cheap or something that has no quality. So, it’s giving you enough to start off with your guitar and it’s going to give you some options in the future. When it comes to Hex, they’re an Indonesian brand and they are all about the uh the build quality on the guitar as well as the consistency. So, that’s something that’s really important when you’re looking at getting a guitar that maybe you’ve played one guitar and then you’re not sure if the other one is going to sound the same. Hex is really consistent with their build qualities. And also, you can look at just the design element. They’ve modified some things here and there. Now, some people may or may not like the headstock, but it has a purpose. Uh, some may or may not like the body size because it’s not a standard Strat, but again, it has a certain purpose. And that’s what we’ve discussed in all of these uh while comparing these Strats. So, you can get a clear understanding as to what guitar does what, uh, what the future holds for you in terms of whichever guitar you get, what you can do with it in the future. And uh that’s something that I hope helps answer your questions as to what Strat style guitar is best for you. Do let us know in the comments which one was your favorite. If you have any questions, if you have any doubts, do let us know and we’ll try to help you out as much as we can. [Music]
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings