Ed's Music Articles | The best cheap guitars with a Stratocaster Body

The best cheap guitars with a Stratocaster Body

If you love the playability of a guitar with a Stratocaster body then you will know that nothing else will do, this article aims to provide a few cheap alternatives which may just meet your needs. Many famous guitarists are renowned for their love of the Stratocaster; Eddie Van Halen liked the playability of these guitars so much he actually installed the pickups usually found in a Les Paul onto an electric with a Stratocaster body. The Fender Stratocaster is widely regarded as being the most playable guitar around, that’s why there a so many copies of it. The following paragraphs will attempt to suggest a few models which may meet your limited budgets and yet still provide that great playability which a Stratocaster guitar body can provide.

If you’re a beginner looking for your first instrument and are determined that it should have a Stratocaster body, then you should definitely check out the Cruzer electric guitar pack. Guitar packs are great for beginners because they can provide you with all the equipment you need to get started in one box, the Cruzer pack even lets you customize the pack to meet your needs. This pack comes with a Crafter ST200 electric guitar which is available in a variety of different colours, it comes with 2 single coil and 1 humbucking pickups which makes the instrument very versatile. Of course its Stratocaster body makes it a simple joy to play and cannot be matched on playability, this starter pack will set you back around £80 ($120) and allows you to pick and choose between a variety of different pieces of equipment from guitar cases to amps.

Those of you who already have the basic equipment and are looking for a slightly better quality guitar with a Stratocaster body may prefer the Squier Bullet Strat, this guitar retails for around £100 ($140) and would be perfect for any beginner to learn the ropes with. The Squier bullet is designed to be both practical and affordable, this guitar is based on the Fender Stratocaster and uses 3 single coil pickups to achieve its sound. This model also comes with a tremolo bar attached to the bridge to allow the player to give their notes some serious vibrato. This guitar pretty much replicates the exact Stratocaster body dimensions, meaning you won’t be able to get much closer to the real thing in regards to playability, although readers should bear in mind that it is a budget instrument and will not be able to produce the same tone quality as an original Stratocaster.

Finally, if you’ve got a bit more money to spend you may find the Squier Affinity HSS electric guitar more to your liking, much like the others, this instrument does have the superb playability which comes with the Stratocaster guitar body but it has a far better tone than the aforementioned models. This guitar uses two single coil and one humbucking pickup, this combined with the alder body allow this guitar produce a great variety of tones which are of a higher quality than the cheaper models mentioned above. This guitar retails at £150 ($250), but the extra cost is well worth it, it allows the manufacturer to invest in the better quality alder woods to use in the body which produces a far better tone than basswood.

So there you have it, if you want a budget guitar with a Fender Stratocaster body then the models mentioned in this article will be perfect for your needs, guitarists will be able to enjoy the same superb playability on these models as they would do on a real Fender Stratocaster. Once again I should point out that whilst these guitars do have the same Stratocaster body dimensions, they will not produce the same quality tone.

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