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1moreguitar, I went through exactly that experience. I come from a background of years of humbucker guitars, so my first Tele was a revelation and love at first twang. Especially for clean tones which I am exploring at the moment. It is so responsive, it is rewarding to dig in, everything you want to do on the Tele just jumps out. It Chimes in spades - absolutely glorious, never had a guitaring experience like it.
So I thought maybe I should give a strat a go to, people say it sounds different but hey its almost identical to the Tele, it will be different yet have all the qualities I love about the Tele...
WRONG!
It was different alright, but gone was the brilliant chime and sheen of the Tele, gone was the thick sugary tone, and gone was the touch responsiveness. Ask me to describe the Strat during that first week, and the best word I could give you would be 'bland'. I wondered if I had a bad strat or if it was strats in general - having tried it in the shop against other strats (and loved it when it was on its own and not played next to my Tele) I was pretty sure it was at least a good sounding strat, maybe great.
However - the guitar has grown on me. The thing for me is that I found I had to learn to appreciate it on its own terms and by its own standards, not judge it using the rules of a Telecaster. My first impressions were right - it is a terrible Telecaster! But I have been discovering it is a great Strat and what that means, over time, and now I love playing it, I also pick it up in preference to the Tele depending on my mood and the song. Clapton is said to have called the Strat more 'compressed' than a Tele - I don't think it sounds like it has a compressor on, but it seems to have a lot less dynamics and the individual notes are less stocatto for me , making it a more lyrical (and forgiving) instrument to play.
I recommend playing it a lot for a month and listening out for what the guitar can do, instead of judging it by what it can't do. You may find you end up loving the differences.
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