MichaelW
Well-known member
Well, some of you have been following my latest parts caster build of my Candy Apple Red strat...that has turned into a bit of a saga in and of itself.
Between, getting a bad set of pickups to dealing some fairly advanced fret leveling issues, I think it's finally done and sounds and plays pretty fantastic.
I'm pretty particular about how my guitars play and sound. I don't care so much what's on the headstock or what they cost, but they gotta play right.
Some might even call me obsessive......and I won't deny that...hahah.
The Lollar '64 set which I wound up with is one of their most popular best selling sets and I can see why. Patterned after an early 60's wind, it's slightly hotter than the "Lollar Vintage Blonde" set I have my sunburst strat. Slightly fatter sounding and a bit more pronounced in the mids that really is evident with some gain. Yet still retains that chime and sparkle when played clean with plenty of "quack" in the positions 2 & 4. The bridge pickup is the Lollar Special, which is an overwound bridge that has an almost P90-ish attack.
First Half of the Video
I'm just running through some clean sounds in all the positions.
It begins with my my basic clean, with just my always on General Tso compressor and light but of reverb with my Gravitation Reverb.
I'm running through my UAD Apollo into a Friedman Buxom Betty Amp Model set fairly clean with a 1x12 Friedman Cab IR.
Then turning on my Tourbus (Deluxe Memory Man) it's got a slight bit of modulation on, you can hear how lovely this analog delay sounds in chording.
Then I turn on my second delay the MBP AquaBaby. This is my basic dual delay sound, although it's a bit wetter than I typically run it in this demo.
The second delay adds a bit of distortion to the repeats, this is BBD biasing issue I'm having with the AquaBaby that I haven't quite figured out.
But that's another story for another day hahah.
Then finally I'm kicking on the Chauffeur (Schnobels Daily Driver) which is quickly becoming my favorite low gain drive.
So basically, just noodling showing off the various pickup position sounds.
I have the Bridge pickup on it's own dedicated tone knob and you can see my playing a bit with it wide open but then also rolling it off to where I typically have it, around 6 or 7.
One last tidbit, the middle pickup completely bypasses the tone stack and has a steel plate on it. Jury's still out on how much difference the plate makes but it has definitely increased the output of the pickup, allowing me to keep it bit lower than the other two pickups and give me more room for picking. As you can see, on Strats my hand naturally falls around where the middle pickup is and I tend to pick over the middle pickup a lot.
Second Half of the Video
I'm playing over a backing track. Well, I hesitate to say "playing" it's just more noodling but with higher gain over a backing track in a mix.
I looked in my back tracks folder and found this track for a Jeff Beck tune. I don't remember where I grabbed it from but it worked for the demo.
*Note I'm not trying to play or sound like Jeff Beck, NOBODY can sound or copy Jeff Beck, his playing is one of the most unique and distinctive.
But he was a HUGE inspiration to me as a teenager when I first heard Blow by Blow and Wired, it really influenced my playing approach. Mostly in just approaching playing with a sense of freedom and ""go for it" attitude.
The signal chain for the second half of the video is the same as above with the addition of my Modus Operandi Boost (still my favorite boost pedal)
and I'm stacking the Mystery Meat overdrive on top of the Chauffeur. These two stack really well and I'm really digging the Mystery Meat as a medium gain drive.
Lower gain sounds is just backing off the volume on the guitar.
In this clip, I'm trying to work through all the higher gain pickup positions I tend to use, Neck, Middle, and Bridge individually, so there's a lot more switching and volume knob fiddling that I would typically do, but again running through some of the different sounds on the guitar pickup positions. (probably should have been paying more attention to my playing hahahah).
But anyway, brings some closure to my Red Strat project. I'm still getting used to it but I'm starting to get more comfortable with it and loving how it sounds and plays now.
Between, getting a bad set of pickups to dealing some fairly advanced fret leveling issues, I think it's finally done and sounds and plays pretty fantastic.
I'm pretty particular about how my guitars play and sound. I don't care so much what's on the headstock or what they cost, but they gotta play right.
Some might even call me obsessive......and I won't deny that...hahah.
The Lollar '64 set which I wound up with is one of their most popular best selling sets and I can see why. Patterned after an early 60's wind, it's slightly hotter than the "Lollar Vintage Blonde" set I have my sunburst strat. Slightly fatter sounding and a bit more pronounced in the mids that really is evident with some gain. Yet still retains that chime and sparkle when played clean with plenty of "quack" in the positions 2 & 4. The bridge pickup is the Lollar Special, which is an overwound bridge that has an almost P90-ish attack.
First Half of the Video
I'm just running through some clean sounds in all the positions.
It begins with my my basic clean, with just my always on General Tso compressor and light but of reverb with my Gravitation Reverb.
I'm running through my UAD Apollo into a Friedman Buxom Betty Amp Model set fairly clean with a 1x12 Friedman Cab IR.
Then turning on my Tourbus (Deluxe Memory Man) it's got a slight bit of modulation on, you can hear how lovely this analog delay sounds in chording.
Then I turn on my second delay the MBP AquaBaby. This is my basic dual delay sound, although it's a bit wetter than I typically run it in this demo.
The second delay adds a bit of distortion to the repeats, this is BBD biasing issue I'm having with the AquaBaby that I haven't quite figured out.
But that's another story for another day hahah.
Then finally I'm kicking on the Chauffeur (Schnobels Daily Driver) which is quickly becoming my favorite low gain drive.
So basically, just noodling showing off the various pickup position sounds.
I have the Bridge pickup on it's own dedicated tone knob and you can see my playing a bit with it wide open but then also rolling it off to where I typically have it, around 6 or 7.
One last tidbit, the middle pickup completely bypasses the tone stack and has a steel plate on it. Jury's still out on how much difference the plate makes but it has definitely increased the output of the pickup, allowing me to keep it bit lower than the other two pickups and give me more room for picking. As you can see, on Strats my hand naturally falls around where the middle pickup is and I tend to pick over the middle pickup a lot.
Second Half of the Video
I'm playing over a backing track. Well, I hesitate to say "playing" it's just more noodling but with higher gain over a backing track in a mix.
I looked in my back tracks folder and found this track for a Jeff Beck tune. I don't remember where I grabbed it from but it worked for the demo.
*Note I'm not trying to play or sound like Jeff Beck, NOBODY can sound or copy Jeff Beck, his playing is one of the most unique and distinctive.
But he was a HUGE inspiration to me as a teenager when I first heard Blow by Blow and Wired, it really influenced my playing approach. Mostly in just approaching playing with a sense of freedom and ""go for it" attitude.
The signal chain for the second half of the video is the same as above with the addition of my Modus Operandi Boost (still my favorite boost pedal)
and I'm stacking the Mystery Meat overdrive on top of the Chauffeur. These two stack really well and I'm really digging the Mystery Meat as a medium gain drive.
Lower gain sounds is just backing off the volume on the guitar.
In this clip, I'm trying to work through all the higher gain pickup positions I tend to use, Neck, Middle, and Bridge individually, so there's a lot more switching and volume knob fiddling that I would typically do, but again running through some of the different sounds on the guitar pickup positions. (probably should have been paying more attention to my playing hahahah).
But anyway, brings some closure to my Red Strat project. I'm still getting used to it but I'm starting to get more comfortable with it and loving how it sounds and plays now.
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