Affordable Strat Shootout | Which Is The Best? | Thomann

Let us know in the comments below what you think of these impressive affordable S-style guitars.
Squier Strat, Yamaha Pacifica, Harley Benton, Larry Carlton and Cort.
Which one is the winner?

Our other Strat comparison videos:

Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
0:24 The guitars
1:01 1st shootout | Clean
4:12 The guitar setup
5:16 2nd shootout | Overdriven
8:11 My impressions

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[deeberdave]

Thanks Kris great content! This is the price range a lot of players live in, and these guitars are the ones they shop! I'm fortunate to own many S type guitars Squiers, MIM, USA, even Custom Shop, but one of the guitars I go to often is a blond classic vibe exactly like the one in you vid. The only difference is I put on all gold hardware Mary Kaye style. I love that guitar, a real workhorse! Thanks again Kris for a great review!

[LookieChannel]

Love comparisons, great job there! I liked each for different value.

[c]

Great comparison. For me it´s a massive win for Cort...

[elevenAD]

Loved the Sire! Very unique tone, the pick ups remind me of the Old Carvin pick ups that had the double pole pieces!

[VanPerszing]

Squier for the sound and looks. Need to add one of those to my collection, thr white one looks awesome with that gloss neck too. Nice vid, thanks

[RomulusIova]

Happy New Year Kris! A helpful demo for beginners and not only, for people who are interested to buy their first guitar . Cheers guys 😊!

[forddriver]

The Sire is the clear winner in my opinion, proving a well balanced guitar is as capable as another worth three times. Thanks for the upload.

[jiritichy]

The sound only compares the electronics.But that is very easy and relatively cheap to change. It also depends on the type of strings you use and the distance of the pickups from the what is the most important in my opinion is the neck construction....namely the position of the frets....After adjusting the length of each string to correct length, open the phone guitar tuner app and now go from one fret to next and watch how well tuned or off the sound is....Chech every fret sound and every string. Only then you know if you are buying a guitar or piece of junk!

[julianmclean]

Superb comparison, well done Sir!; all had slightly different sound profiles however for the money they ask? ; you couldn't

[AndrewAHayes]

The HB and the Squier had that classic strat thin sound but the Larry Carlton had some meaty tones and that is the one I preffered, if I was going for that classic strat tone though I would go for the HB or the Squier.

[FalconBass]

The Sire sounds so dark, like the tone is rolled off... But the sound of the Cort and Squier is great! Thanks for the comparisson!

[JohnJones]

With a little tweaking of the tone knob(s), every one of these can sound like the others.

[yetimatzenightcat]

Ich hätt's nicht gedacht, eigentlich bin ich Harley Bentoner aber die Squier hat sie alle abgezogen 💥👏👏👏👏🔥

[fraenkiboii]

I think the Squier sound most like a ... Strat ... surprise :D Also, I put lots of thought into a name for the Mayer lick that you rephrased very elegantly, Kris. I call it "Slow dancing with a flying broom". Thanks for the vid ... oh and happy new year!

[melexdy]

The Pacifica sounds mid scooped,
The sire too dark.
Squire sounds fendery
The cort sounds good and I can attest that with a decent setup will sound and play great. Had one for years

[dougsmith]

Carlton, Pacifica & Squire in that order. That Carlton sound made my eyes open every time. The Pacifica the same just a little less rounded and the Squire, a classic sound. I would gladly take any of the guitars displayed but given a choice there they are.

[gianfranco.barbiani]

Awasome vid as always Kris! Here in South America (Argentina at least) a very common affordable s-style guitar is the chinese brand "SX Guitars" . Would you guys try to get one and do a review or comparisson with other cheaps guitars? there are no good reviews on Youtube about it. Thank you VER MUCH in advance. Chau!

[alessiograziani]

I own a Squier CV70 and the only downside of these guitars is setup, it is completely random. It depends if you're lucky or not. Mine had a terrible nut and also the neck was not setup properly. But after a good setup from a luthier and an upgrdae to the wiring, it is very very good!!!

[Just-Michael]

I'm curious to know if all of the guitars had the same setup, like the action and the distance from the pickups to the strings, and what model of speaker are in the cabinet that was used?

Edit: I see the Harley Benton cab has Vintage 30's in it (of course). I wonder which year those are from, as they've changed over the years. And I don't see the PRS cabinet listed on the Thomann website so I'm interested in what's inside that one.

[treyevans]

CV for classic Strat sound/feel. The sire has a nice voice.