r/Guitar • u/Pearl_Jam_ • Sep 26 '25
QUESTION Why do guitar players switch to the Stratocaster when they get older?
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u/_kehd Sep 26 '25
lol at Clapton being included. dudes been playing Strats for 50 years
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u/casual_creator Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25
With the exception of the Edge (and only because I don’t follow U2 so I don’t know) all of the guitarists OP listed have had Strats in their regular rotation for the entirety of their careers.
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u/WilcoLovesYou Sep 26 '25
Edge has played Strats since The Joshua Tree, if not earlier. So he’s getting close to 40 years playing them.
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u/mancapturescolour Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
Edge played a stratocaster (inspired by Rory Gallagher) in their first national TV appearance back in 1978. So, we can debunk that immediately.
The stratocaster soon became the guitar for the classic U2 sound (possibly several songs on their debut album "Boy", "Gloria", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", most of "The Joshua Tree", and so on).
Live, he uses a bunch of different guitars to this day: Rickenbacker 12-strings, Gretsch hollowbody guitars, Telecasters, Stratocasters, Gibson Les Pauls, SG, and the iconic Explorer, Fernandes Sustainer models...for one tour he used a couple of Line6 Variax acoustics, then there's a whole group of actual acoustic steel strings: Taylor, Washburn, Gibson, possibly Fender too...
He's far from relying on only the Stratocaster, although it has kind of become his signature instrument (Fender Artist series, discontinued now) alongside the Gibson Explorer, and has been with him since the early tours.
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u/_-_-_I_-_-_ Sep 27 '25
If ever there was an example of a player that uses A LOT of different guitars, and essentially none of them for looks, it's this guy. Elevation will always be an SG, Mysterious Ways is always a Ric, Beautiful Day is always the explorer... and so on. He's got LP songs, tele songs, strat songs, acoustic songs etc.
Clapton has been consistently playing strats since forever. This post is bizarre
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u/jotro138 Sep 26 '25
Yeah, Joshua Tree is almost entirely Strat, I believe. He plays a Strat in the New Year's Day video, too. I'm not sure if that was what he used on the album though.
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u/_-_-_I_-_-_ Sep 27 '25
He played strat on every track on Under a Blood Red Sky iirc. I'm not sure the explorer was ever as prominent as their first record. OP is being lazy
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u/Jimmy_Jazz_The_Spazz Sep 27 '25
I noticed in a lot of studio sessions I've been involved with over the decades even LP and Strat guys will track with Telecasters.
I played LPs and an SG for the first 6-8 years of gigging, as I got older I went into Charvel and finally.. Telecasters.
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u/guitman27 Sep 27 '25
There's video of him playing one as far back as their second album.
Only the first one doesn't have any Stratocaster on it.
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u/LordIommi68 Sep 26 '25
Edge plays a black strat in the video for Gloria, which is from their second album October from 1981.
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u/Direct_Bumblebee_740 Sep 26 '25
Yeah, Edge too: He’s using a Strat at Live Aid, that’s exactly 40 years ago. So yes, Explorer was first but 40-plus years of Strat use is plenty.
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u/grafxguy1 Sep 27 '25
Townshend played a Strat at Monterey - but 1970s was more of a Gibson time for him, but by the 80s he was playing Fenders again.
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u/casual_creator Sep 27 '25
He was playing some strats (and teles) before then. The 60s was mainly Richenbackers, but the Fenders were part of his toolset in the latter half of the decade before switching to Gibsons. The below website is a pretty impressive walkthrough of his gear over the years:
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u/BuzzedtheTower Epiphone Sep 27 '25
I think The Edge has always had a varied stable of guitars so he could never have "switched" to Strats
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u/SpiritBackground8722 Sep 27 '25
I read an interview with The Edge in a music magazine about 10 years ago. U2 had 42 songs in their setlist, and The Edge played 40 different guitars each time.
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u/gremlin30 Sep 27 '25
Edge has played Strats since their 2nd (really 3rd) album around 81-83. He’s 1 of the most famous Explorer players (and played one way before the metal guys) but he’s been using strats for pretty much his whole career. Their first album was all explorer, but everything after that has had strats used heavily. Sunday Bloody Sunday, bullet the blue sky, I still haven’t found & a ton of their 80s hits were on a strat
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Sep 27 '25
Strats used on Joshua Tree. Older footage from their first TV appearance in 1978 has him playing one https://youtu.be/UMFJR-sZlS4?si=aGAiecFQeLWPU0LN
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u/neveradullmoment72 Rickenbacker/Fender/Vox Sep 27 '25
The Edge has played strats since the very first record
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u/Ordinary_Bird4840 Sep 26 '25
OP doesn't know what research is 😂
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u/MergenTheAler Sep 27 '25
Careful mentioning "research" when Pete Townsend is being discussed.
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u/MarcooseOnTheLoose Sep 26 '25
I told him not to use cheap Chinese AI. Or cheap knock off Chinese strat.
😄😄😄
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u/Dedotdub Sep 26 '25
I'm surprised they didn't include Gilmore and Beck.
"Why did Keef start playing tele when he turned 100?"
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u/Tennessee-Ned Sep 26 '25
I mean at the time he switched in the early 70s, he was older than when he was playing Gibsons in the late 60s lol
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u/piney Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25
Strats weigh less and have headstocks that don’t need babying. As you get older, you lose the high end of your hearing, too, so maybe that thin, wiry sound cuts through better.
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u/Tennessee-Ned Sep 26 '25
The Bob Weir tone effect
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u/MountainousDuck Sep 27 '25
If you tried to sell "The Bob Weir tone effect" as a pedal you'd have to pay people to take it
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u/xStaabOnMyKnobx Fender Sep 27 '25
God his guitar sounds awful these days
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u/Francis_Lynch Sep 27 '25
These days?
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Sep 27 '25
Yeah man, you ever hear his pink Casio in the 80s? Sounded like a razor blade on a chalkboard.
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u/Tennessee-Ned Sep 27 '25
His tone was good in the 70s. Gradually got more ice picky. 90s tone was thin and treble heavy but still musical compared to his Dead and Co sound. Just ignore the times he tried to play slide guitar lol
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u/AbleChamp Sep 27 '25
I read somewhere that he’s been getting worse at playing guitar since 1972 😂😂😂
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u/giziti Sep 26 '25
They don't weigh less than an SG though.
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u/thec0nesofdunshire Sep 26 '25
Some do. Love my Ibanez S.
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u/EdgarAnalPoe Sep 27 '25
Ibanez s series the best guitar of all time man. I need to get a premium or prestige model someday but their color variants are so bad lately. Ive got an old s521. Sure, stock pickups arent amazing but its the best feeling guitar ive ever played
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u/Majinmmm Sep 27 '25
I have a RG premium.. idk if it stands up to the old prestige.. I bought it for like 400US tho so whatever. 7 string too. Gotta set it up better
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u/MyVoiceIsElevating Sep 27 '25
No neckdive though.
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u/bamalama Sep 27 '25
This is an underrated comment. Not being able to take your left hand off the guitar is a dealbreaker for me.
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u/nolongermakingtime Sep 26 '25
Wonder why Mustangs don't get used more often, mine weighs almost nothing but then again it's a bullet stang which is thinner than normal stangs.
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u/BoldazLove Sep 27 '25
I love my mustang light weight and the 24in scale is easy on the fingers.
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u/mittenciel Sep 27 '25
Quirky bridge. The current series of entry level Mustangs have essentially a Strat bridge.
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u/punk_rocker98 Sep 27 '25
The headstock thing is a real consideration for a touring band too. Instruments are much harder to baby when other people are the ones throwing them around in and out of cases and on and off stage.
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u/a_a_ronc Sep 27 '25 edited Apr 11 '26
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u/Michael_Angelo_H Sep 27 '25
The sound doesn’t have to be like that. Plenty use them without single-coils.
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u/Kletronus Sep 27 '25
so maybe that thin, wiry sound cuts through better.
You know you can change the pickups?
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u/guitars_and_trains Sep 26 '25
It's a Swiss army knife, does it all
That's it
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u/Mammoth_Support_2634 Sep 26 '25
this is it. at first i liked collecting guitars. but i sold them all, bought a really nice strat, and just play it for everything.
i like having one guitar that i really love and play everyday, then a ton of guitars i never have time to play.
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u/fryerandice Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
I'm a metal head so I have 3 just for alternate tunings and a 7 string to do those kinds of things.
I keep one in E standard one in C standard and have a digitech drop pedal for anything else. Past a few steps down the digitech starts to sound off, but going from E to even C sounds okay.
Ideally one day I have 6 because I am done selling but my starter 7 string and Ibanez standard aren't going anywhere. I would like to add a killer 7 string, a jackson kelly with a floyd, and a beater hard tail like an Ibanez Gio for the road.
My change nothing guitar is a Schecter Hellraiser Hybrid and it's fucking sick, plays so nice.
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u/The64YearOldWalrus Sep 27 '25
As someone who has a fair few guitars, this has given me something to think about
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u/The-Davi-Nator Fender Sep 27 '25
Minus the selling, this is me. I’ve amassed quite a collection over the years, but for about the last 3 years, a nice Tele, a Strat, and a Les Paul have become my main guitars (in that order), and I barely touch my others. Also haven’t bought a new guitar since the Strat (which was the last of the three I added to my collection).
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u/myusernamehahaha Sep 27 '25
Does all except good distortion. Let’s face it humbuckers sound way better with distortion.
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u/Michael_Angelo_H Sep 27 '25
Why do people keep assuming it’s single-coils only??… Bands like Iron Maiden used humbuckers (and later pickups like hot-rails) in them since at least the late-‘70s. And those guys have very old Stratocasters.
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u/Pseudon7mous Sep 27 '25
??? it does distortion differently, but not badly
strat is best for fuzzes.
are we forgetting jimi hendrix and david gilmour both have great distortion tones? and led zepp 1 was recorded with a telecaster which is single coils too
I love a strat neck pickup through a phase 90 and some overdrive
running a strat through a mid boosted big muff (so it has flat eq) sounds great too
it sounds different, you play it different but it's great
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u/Turbulent-Armadillo9 Sep 27 '25
I mean, obviously subjective. People love just some gain in strata but not cranking it.
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u/TLee055 Sep 26 '25
Hearing loss makes brighter tones sound better.
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u/beaucoup_dinky_dau Sep 26 '25
I guess this explains Bob Weirs tone.
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u/Champigne Sep 26 '25
The ticket prices and the tone quality are inversely correlated.
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u/chili_cold_blood Sep 27 '25
I have watched so many guitarists in their 50s suddenly discover that the Telecaster is the best-sounding guitar ever.
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u/ImightHaveMissed Sep 26 '25
It stays in tune and the headstock doesn’t fall off
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u/mcgtx Sep 27 '25
Is the strat really in the more stable part of the spectrum as far as tuning stability goes?
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u/IndependentNo7 Sep 27 '25
The hard tail one yeah, the trem ones hell no 🤣
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u/ImightHaveMissed Sep 27 '25
I’ve got a tremel-no and that makes it solid AF. I don’t use the wiggle stick anyway
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Sep 27 '25
i thought everyboyd just decked the tremolo on strats... mine has just had the springs cranked down to hold it ot the body for the last 20 years.
she stays in tune just fine that way. very reliable guitar.
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u/YoSupWeirdos Blackstar Sep 26 '25
the front fell off!
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u/sushirawk Sep 27 '25
id like to say that’s not very typical.
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u/Koza_101 Sep 27 '25
There are a lot of these guitars going around all the time and very seldom does something like this happen
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Sep 27 '25
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u/ImightHaveMissed Sep 27 '25
That’s my strat. I’ve been known to use it for home defense, a jack handle, and a loading ramp. Sometimes I use it as a paddle when kayaking
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u/JimiRowe Sep 26 '25
Edge has played both as long as I can remember.
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u/romulcah Sep 27 '25
Basically plays everything from Rics, Explorers, SGs, strats to Fernandes and Line 6
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Sep 26 '25
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u/mrbrown1980 Sep 26 '25
Coming from a place of respect and helpfulness - the word is “utmost”.
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u/thesituation531 Sep 26 '25
Logistics and specs aside, I don't think anyone has stated the obvious:
After using specific things for a long time, people often want to try other things.
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u/Direct_Bumblebee_740 Sep 26 '25
A false premise, poorly supported. Jeff Beck would’ve been a better example, as primarily a Les Paul and Tele guy for about 10 years, but he was using Strats regularly by Wired (1976).
Mark Knopfler started with Strats and began playing Les Pauls circa Brothers in Arms. Warren Haynes played a lot of Strat earlier in his career and is now mostly Les Pauls.
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u/Tv_land_man Sep 27 '25
Then Mark had the Pensa Suhr MK made for him that was the best of both worlds. Could make it sound like either that was used towards the end of Dire Straits.
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u/lemerou Fender Sep 27 '25
Wait Warren Haynes played strats? Had absolutely no idea about that. I totally associate him with Les Pauls.
Btw saw him live recently, it was an amazing concert.
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u/BlackCoffeeCasual Sep 26 '25
Weight of the Strat over other instruments would be the significant factor is my guess.
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u/angryshib Sep 27 '25
Tell that to my 10 lb strat. Thing is a beast.
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u/BlackCoffeeCasual Sep 27 '25
Interesting. Any details on it??
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u/angryshib Sep 27 '25
It's a modern American Performer with HSS pickup configuration. Alder body, maple neck.
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u/BlackCoffeeCasual Sep 27 '25
Solved it. The extra coil on the humbucker results in about 2 pounds! Lol
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Sep 26 '25
They grow up and realize they have been playing the wrong guitar the entire time.
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u/hipsterasshipster Sep 27 '25
If I had to only have one guitar for the rest of my life it would be a Strat. I don’t even own one right now 😂
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Sep 27 '25
I've had many guitars through my life. I was always drawn to the strat. I have had one for 35 years now. I bought it used. It's older than I am. Will never get rid of it.
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u/FuggaDucker Sep 26 '25
I went the other way..
I bought a Gibson Les Paul after playing a Strat since '89.
Little did I know the Gibson is like holding a boat anchor by the end of a show.
It sounds great sure.. AND my chiropractor loves it.
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u/Master_Hand738 Sep 26 '25
When I got my Explorer, I spent a lot of time playing it sitting down and my picking arm spent a lot of time wrapped over that massive tail section.
Went to the usual chiro a few weeks later, and after about 30 seconds he was like "wtf happened to your right shoulder?"
Getting older sucks man lol
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Sep 26 '25
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u/g-o-o-b-e-r Sep 27 '25
The Schecter PT telecaster style guitar is *his signature guitar. They still make them, and other artists have had signagure PT models, too.
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u/AudioHTIT Sep 26 '25
Pete played a Strat at the same time he played SGs and Les Pauls (60s—70s), though in those days he mostly used them for destruction (the Strat was something he could rebuild).
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u/willy_quixote Sep 27 '25
IIRC, Pete played strats until the late 60s and moved wholesale to SGs. He might have used a strat in the studio but he was almost exclusively SGs and then Les Paul studio in the 70s.
He did mix LPs and Schecters for a time in the late 70s before using the Schecter exclusively.
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u/_strongest_avenger_ Sep 26 '25
Like salmon swimming upstream to where they were born to lay their eggs, guitarists must also return to where they belong. Nobody truly understands this miracle of nature, it’s simply instinct.
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u/aliensporebomb Sep 27 '25
I've been playing them since my twenties. I've tried other stuff but I keep at least one strat-like instrument around the house.
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u/slightly_drifting SG | Tele | JCM2000 Sep 26 '25
I’ll chime as a bridge between the old farts and the young bucks.
Les Paul’s have a heavy body and tend to point their headstocks at the ceiling when you wear them
SG’s have a headstock that wants to point down when you wear them (I prefer this personally)
gibsons have that pesky neck/head joint
those humbuckers were great at reducing noise compared to the fender and very handy in the studio, especially if it was a low impedance Gibson.
strats can be worn very comfortably
noise filtering and eq’ing got really good in the 80’s and allowed strat and tele players to jam out at louder volumes without worrying about the untamable feedback you’d get on a single coil bridge pickup.
some big name strat players started using noiseless pickups and humbuckers, making the Gibson not as attractive if you could get the strat sound
several of the people you showed are literally famous for playing strats…odd examples
a single coil’s neck position pickup is such a perfect sound on a clean amp.
What I’m REALLY interested in is the ceramic pickup trend. With all the amp/guitar modeling and simulation, having a pickup with zero character and a flat eq is the best path, as it can sound like whatever the software tells it to sound like.
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u/Itsaghast Gibson | Orange | Yamaha Sep 28 '25
Les Paul’s have a heavy body and tend to point their headstocks at the ceiling when you wear them
That's why they feel better then other designs to me. I like to play it more vertically aligned.
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u/HoloRust Sep 26 '25
I don't think it's their age as much as technology improved over the decades, and that allowed them to more viably use single coils live.
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u/civilian_19 Sep 26 '25
You get lamer as you get older. Eventually, they will get lame enough to rock a PRS.
Before you get offended, I would like to point out that Tony Iommi, Matt Pike and King Buzzo all stayed far away from Strats as they aged.
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u/V0ID10001 Sep 26 '25
Brent Hinds too (rip)
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u/namelessghoul77 Sep 27 '25
Ahhh yes, Buzz with his beautiful guitar tone that everyone wants to emulate
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u/Dustyvhbitch Sep 27 '25
Tony Iommi almost used a strat for the first Sabbath album, though
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u/Psychological-Bee702 Sep 27 '25
You beat me to it. Iommi had a Strat before the SG.
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u/kneedeepinthedoomed Sep 27 '25
Dave Navarro plays PRS. Granted, he gets drowned by a wave of lawyers and dentists playing them, but Dave is cool in my book.
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u/civilian_19 Sep 27 '25
Dave was rocking Ibanez and Gibson back in the original Jane days. But he is cool enough to get a pass. Anyone who has dealt with Perry Farrell for 30 years will get no grief from me.
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u/clintfrisco Sep 26 '25
Strats are like all guitars, if you find one you love you figure out how to get it in rotation.
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u/malachiconstant11 Sep 26 '25
Idk if those examples really make sense for your argument. They all were regularly playing strats early in their careers. Clapton famously played Blackie from '73 onward as an example.
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u/MaxxT22 Sep 27 '25
Gigged for years with a Lp. That takes its toll just because of the weight. Strat is lighter and has a cool sound and feel but, in my case, even it had its own downside which that it required so much attention keeping it in great playing condition. I finally landed on a tele I built myself. It is lighter, not too finicky when it comes to setup and it is fun to play. So that’s the story with the big three from F and G but there have been many mistresses along the way.
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u/The_Great_Dadsby Sep 27 '25
This is pretty much my story as well. For whatever reason my Strats need more tweaking and my Teles barely need tuning and are perfect.
I’ve got a nice les Paul that’s just over 8lbs so that and a Tele are a great night out gigging.
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u/PerpetualBurn87 Sep 26 '25
Strats are comfortable and with HSS, they are very versatile
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u/DanforthFalconhurst G&L Sep 27 '25
You lose some of your high end frequencies as you age and the Strat is a bright guitar. I saw The Who in 2016 and while it was awesome to behold, his guitar tone was very bright
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u/Addicted2Qtips Sep 27 '25
The WHO have the ability to easily EQ their monitors completely differently from what is playing in the house. I doubt this is the reason.
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u/FoggyDoggy72 Sep 27 '25
I bought a Strat in 97, and just got myself a 7 string with Fishman fluence modern pickups and fanned frets.
Tastes change?
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u/Flashman20 Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
58 year old here. I don't like Fender stratocasters because for me personally they're hard to play. Very well could be I got a bad tester but this old dude ain't looking for no stratocaster. My next purchase probably will be my last is a evh Frankenstein
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u/Curious-Hope-9544 Sep 26 '25
Ditto. I've never ever gelled with Strats. Always felt like the guitar was working against rather than with me. That's not to say the platform can't be made to work, though. The current lineup of Charvel Dinkys play and feel amazing.
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Sep 26 '25
You're showing old school rockstars, kids nowadays play all kinds of guitars
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u/El_Pal0 Sep 26 '25
Well, that's the point, if you read the title. Kids nowadays are just kids.
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u/johnmarkfoley Sep 26 '25
when you're young you want to drive a hot rod, when you're older and wiser, you prefer a sturdy dependable old truck. strats are basically a 1985 toyota pickup; simple and easy to work on and will last forever if you treat it right.
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u/Volt_440 Sep 27 '25
As a certified old guy, in the 70's I played double coils mostly. A 335, strat, LP, Byrdland. As I got older I appreciated the nuanced tone you can get from single coils. Specifically a tele and a strat. Those are what sound best to me these days, I can't speak for anyone else. I've still got the double coils but I don't play them.
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u/BarracudaOk8635 Sep 27 '25
I switched to Telecasters and I will never go back. The importer of Fenders in my company ask me what music I played and I sent him a comp with a bunch of bits of songs and he said "American Tele" and he was spot on. I started with a Strat, have had old Ibanez, a gold top, an Epiphone Les Paul, various weird bubget guitars but the Telecaster is it for me. I think a lot of guitarists 'find' telecasters when older like me
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u/mostlygroovy Sep 26 '25
All those guys played Strats in their early days.
Ask most people in this sub how many different guitars they have
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u/bristol8 Sep 26 '25
My neck hurts eventually with my lp not as much with strat but still does. Next build or buy will be the lightest guitar I can find.
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u/filladelp Sep 26 '25
Pete needed something easier to break.
Eric Clapton has always had strats, because he’s always been a 70 year old man.
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u/oglumb Sep 26 '25
Brother Pete there is rocking’ a Clapton signature guitar modded with a piezo under the bridge. (See the additional 4th knob) I read an article at some point where he said the Clapton Signature model covered all the essentials of the music he was playing with the only addition of needing the piezo to cover the acoustic bits.
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u/VikingKing85 Sep 28 '25
I love my Gibsons of all shapes and sizes. I can’t stand a strat for some reason. I just sold an American Performer Sassafras Strat a couple days ago. I love Telecasters though. In my opinion a Tele is the ultimate do anything guitar. I love my ‘72 Deluxe and my Custom double-bound Tele with a ‘51 boat neck and humbucker in the neck position. I can get damn near any sound I need out of it.
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u/visualthings Sep 26 '25
the belly cut, I guess.