I promised to record more demos a while back, so here they are. I chose 4 song fragments I like to illustrate the best tones one can get out of this instrument — the Fender American Vintage ’57 Stratocaster.
The first recording is my version for the introduction of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, using the clean channel with the volume high enough to just break a bit using the neck pickup — that’s one of my favorite Strat tones.
The second song is Dire Straits’ “Sultans Of Swing” solo. This one features the clean channel as its cleanest, using the neck pickup. Side note: AFAIK, the original song was recorded using a modified Fender ‘57 Stratocaster which had a 5-way pickup switch and Mark Knopfler used it in the middle+neck position. He also plays using his fingers, not a pick.
My third choice is Eric Johnson’s “S.R.V.”, which you’ve already seen before in this site. I used the vibrato channel this time with just a tiny amount of the effect, and the neck pickup again.
And the last demo is “Cliffs Of Dover”, also by Eric Johnson, which is probably my favorite song to play on the Strat (“Jessica” by the Allman Brothers Band is almost tied, despite being recorded with a Les Paul). For this one, I used a saturated amp, a Tube Screamer in front of it and the bridge pickup. The original song was recorded using a Gibson ES-335, but my favorite performances are the ones where Eric Johnson plays his 1957 Strat.
Enjoy!
* Videos recorded using a Nikon D90 with a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens. The audio was captured directly from the digital recorder and them synchronized with the video later in iMovie.