Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

an aluminum Strat type guitar?

I was offered to play one not too long ago and I was nervous about doing my regular thing, so i dismissed it.

A freind of mine tells me that some are really wonderful because of increased sustain etc. The downside is that they tend to be hella expensive.

Anyone played a Fender Stratocaster with an aluminum body?
Something similar perhaps?

Do tell, plz..

I was not aware they were being manufactured.
Interesting.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/msg/3197100764.html

Check it out, the body is hollow !!!

Seriously hard to keep in tune. As soon as they heat up (under the lights) or cool down, they grow or shrink.

Todd Rundgren played an Ankh-shaped one in the late 70s in Utopia, thing was never in tune.

Kramer used to make aluminum necks on some of their basses back in the late 70's. I'm told they were exceptional, never heard a complaint on tuning. They also made some guitars with alum necks, heard the same thing, but they are rare birds.

There's a Guy here in nikiski Alaska who makes. All aluminum. Guitars.

I used to own a Kramer Duke bass and it had an Aluminum neck. It had a percusssive tone to it but I loved that thing. It was a lower end version of the Steinberger basses of the 80's without the growl. It was very articulate for runs and chords, but if I needed to hit a rumble, it was more of a light gallop. Great for cutting through on stage though and easily fixable in the mix. Watch out for intonation issue though. If the frets are off, then you're screwed proper! You really have to bend the strings to keep them in or do some weird tunings. I hope that helps out. It will sound very bright and you'll get great harmonics, as well as amplified string talk. Pick glissandos to die for as well. I hear "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who just thinking about it. Actually I used it to play "The 4 Horsemen" by Metallica and do a bass gliss before the end. No complaints ever.[/img]

I played an aluminum double cutaway (Strat shape) Rogue guitar at a Guitar Center here in Seattle one time. It must have been a limited edition custom model.

The body had about 8 cutouts in it; a kind of a mesh make with extruded "T" flanges. I never amped it up to see what it's tonal characteristics in metal were like.