Are Fender Strats good for metal? (simple answer)

I may get some hate for this, but Stratocasters are probably one of the worst choices for metal, unless of course you're buying Jim Root's signature guitar. Even then, that guitar is not made like a typical Fender Stratocaster. Most Fender Strats have three single coil pickups, which are almost always more subtle and bluesy than humbuckers, and aren't made to handle a ton of gain.

Their tone is not percussive or saturated, and they don't tend to mix well with high levels of distortion. Instead, think bluesy overdrive and "breakup" instead of heavy power chords and searing highs. 

There are plenty of far better options.

Read more: Best Electric Guitars for Metal

You can take my word for it or we can get into some more detailed reasoning below.

Watch the Article (bullet points only)

Single Coil pickups

For the typical Stratocaster, the biggest barrier of entry into the metal arena is the single coil pickup configuration. This involves three rail-style pickups placed at the bridge, middle, and neck positions. While this gives you a five-way pickup selector, it doesn't make your guitar particularly heavy in its tone.

Tone profile of single coils

Single coil pickups are far less aggressive, especially from a rhythm perspective, instead tuned for lead and blues styles. Their tone can be described as more "sweet" and "brisk" putting a lot of emphasis on your right hand picking dynamics.

While that can be really good in a lot of musical contexts, metal is far more aggressive and gain-focused.

Noise issues with single coil pickups

Historically, single coil pickups have had a lot of issues with noise and hum. Humbuckers were originally designed to deal with that issue by reducing noise. Today we have alternatives like the Fender Noiseless pickup series, but at high gain levels (distortion) you're almost certain to still have noise issues.

HSS and HH Pickup Configurations

There are several brands of Fender Stratocasters that employ a dual humbucker configuration, or a humbucker at the bridge position with two single coils. These configurations are abbreviated as follows:

• HH
• HSS

The more humbuckers you have, the heavier your guitar will sound, which means you might be able to get away with a Strat with two humbuckers. However, those are less common and are still not going to be voiced as a true metal guitar.

Tonewood and Body

Most Stratocasters are made from Alder tonewood while the more metal-friendly guitars are usually Mahogany. And while Alder does produce a decent amount of natural low end, Mahogany is known for the punch and percussive edge that is so important in metal. A lot of the guitars more typically used for metal will also have a separate top piece, usually made of Maple with the Mahogany body.

So the metal recipe is the following:

• Maple top
• Mahogany body

Maple has a bit of a dampening effect that makes the notes decay quicker. Again, this is helpful for metal sounds that might have sustain, but also need to be more specific and punctuated. 

Conclusion

It's not that a Stratocaster could never handle a metal tone. Jim Root has sort of disproved that. But there are vastly better options if metal is your goal. Check out the roundups I linked to earlier or just browse around your preferred retailer. PRS, Gibson, Schecter, ESP LTD, and Ibanez are all good brands to look at if metal if your primary goal.

If you have questions about finding a great metal guitar, hit us up in the comments section below and we'll help out.

Thanks for reading our stuff.

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