Super Strat

The Ibanez JEM is a recogniseable example of a Superstrat, showing some of the features mentioned in the comparison table.

Superstrat or Super Strat is a name for a design of electric guitars.

History

With an emerging revolution of heavy metal music in early 1980s, the guitar industry found itself in need of more advanced guitars, both in terms of looks (more aggressive designs) and playability (ease of playing and fatter tone that sounds good with hi-gain amplification). A whole new generation of guitar virtuosos emerged that employed super-fast and ultra-complex techniques that demanded thinner and more versatile guitar necks and stable bridges. The answers from the industry were superstrats: buffed up custom versions of the original Stratocaster design. Due to huge marketing success, most companies started manufacturing superstrats in mass production.

The first superstrats were made by Grover Jackson in 1982 as custom shop guitars that later became a separate Jackson Guitars series. Jackson Soloist is known as the first mass production superstrat, officially produced since August 28, 1984, but Edward Van Halen really made the first superstrat with his black and white charvel in the late 70s.

Generally, all superstrats are loosely based on the Fender Stratocaster design (thus the name), but share several modifications to the original.

Comparison

	Stratocaster	Superstrat	Advantages! Disadvantages
Body shape	Original	More slender with thinner and deeper cutaways, sometimes with pointy ends, generally creating a more 'aggressive' look	More appealing to hard rock and metal artists. Allows easier access to upper frets.	Matter of preference; guitarists may prefer either style. Less wood under the bridge can equate to less sustain so tone may suffer.
Number of frets	21 or 22(neck pickup in the position of second octave)	24 or more	Extended note pitch range â€" full two octaves per string	Loss of certain sonic qualities of neck pickup; performing some techniques like A.H. is harder
Neck joint	Bolt-on	Neck-thru or Modified Bolt-on	Longer sustain	More expensive, difficult to mass-produce
Neck joint heel	Rectangular metal plate	Slim and smooth	Better top fret access	More expensive, complicates mass production
Bridge	Vintage tremolo	A Floyd Rose double-locking or other improved tremolo system, usually combined with lower-friction nut and locking machine heads	Greater tuning stability, extended tremolo range	Less traditional sonic palette, more expensive, changing of strings can be complex
Neck	Relatively thick neck and round fingerboard (low radius)	Thinner neck and flatter fingerboard (high radius)	Comfortable playing of shredding leads	Preference; original neck remains popular
Pickups	3 single-coils	2 humbuckers and sometimes 1 single-coil	Fatter and less humming sound, more applicable for hi-gain amplification used in rock and metal	Loss of definition and "vintage" tone
Pickguard	Present	Usually absent	More sustain, as there are less plastic parts that dampen the sound	No scratch protection; however, shredding rarely involves strumming that might scratch guitar

Notable models

Almost every guitar company that produced electric guitars in 1980s manufactured some models that could be designated as superstrat. There are several notable models that are unique in some way:
* Jackson Soloist (1984) â€" a first superstrat design;
* Jackson Dinky â€" cheaper version of Soloist, with bolt-on neck;
* Charvel San Dimas (1984-1986);
* Fender Performer[1] (1985-1986), Fender HM Strat[2] (1988-1992), Fender Prodigy[3] (1991-1993), Fender Showmaster (1998-) â€" Fender's answers to superstrats;
* Ibanez JEM (1989), Ibanez RG series and many other Ibanez models;
* B.C. Rich Assassin;
* Yamaha Pacifica, Yamaha RGX series;
* Gibson U-2 (1989) and Gibson M-III (1991-1994) â€" the only two Gibson attempts at superstrats;
* Washburn RS, CS, WR, WG, N, X series;
* ESP M, Horizon in standard series and many signature guitar series, such as KH (Kirk Hammett), Sunburst Tiger, Kamikaze-1, Skull & Snakes (George Lynch), Jeff Hanneman, Stef Carpenter