The Watering Hole

Been gassing for a Strat (S/S/S) for a while now, never owned one and the urge only grew after a buddy sold my Marshall head for me to a friend of his - those extra funds sure made the browsing/sampling around town even easier. I ended up buying this today at Guitar Center of all places!

I tried every Strat they had in the $700-$1,300 range that appealed to me, no concern with where they were made, new, used, etc, because that seems to be all over the place these days. I just lined up all my choices on stands like a little train and then started comparing, slowly eliminating the scrubs. The final/best 3 guitars ended up being a used G&L Legacy > a used American Standard > and a new Highway One (not bad at all). I didn't bother trying the Road Worn series (they don't do anything for me, the bland finishes look like wallpaper, too synthetic or something). I also didn't bother with the awesome artist stuff like the EJ, SRV, Ying, etc, I mean why bother if I can't cover it. I'm sure they're great though.

Anyway, this one sang and played the best of the three, just edging out the used Standard (which was pretty beat up but sounded great). It's a '92 US model (Alder, Alnico PUP'S, etc, supposedly still made in the old Fender factory) Legacy, not the "Tribute" knock off. The previous owner must've been a collector because this damn thing has simply not been played much! The fretwork (stellar) has zero wear, ZERO. There is also not so much as a nick or scratch anywhere on the body. Even some of the screws on the pickguard still had pieces of the scratch protection plastic around them that I had to remove! It is like new!  :) 








Paid $700 + tax for the guitar and case. May be a bit much, dunno, I do feel like I bought a new US made Strat that happened to sound better than the guitars that actually said "Strat" on the headstock that I sampled...it definitely had a superior build quality over them anyway, besides the tone. I'm comfy with the purchase.  ;)

It sure is purdy!  (And it looks like the herd has accepted it! ;D ) Enjoy.  :)

Nice, good luck with it

Thanks!

I wouldn't call that a "herd"...more like a small litter.

Kabala — Dec 07, 2009
I wouldn't call that a "herd"...more like a small litter.

I like it!  That's just the kind of attitude that got me all of my excessive gear!  ;)

looks nice!

bonus pts for secret stooges!! :)

Thanks! The sunlight shines against that wall actually, perfect for taking naturally lit shots, I just figured the boys could use some more exposure as well.  ;)

Running into a hassle today with it, wan't to make a minor truss rod adjustment and for the life of me, of the fuckin' 100 allen wrenches I have, not one fits properly....my luck, will have to buy a set tomorrow.  

No surprise that the G&L won out.  I've really liked the few that I've played.  They have "the" feel.  

Congrats Derek!!  I love darkburst Strats & Teles!  SWEET!

Thanks again! I finally found an allen wrench and tweaked that neck and setup a bit, got it playing like a charm.

These pickups are GREAT, all 5 positions are knocking me out with the variations of the tone! Fun guitar to play.


Now the quest is on to finish my simple "clean setup." The Splawn is a high gain machine and even though the clean channel on these newer ones is vastly superior to the earlier models (they added a fourth preamp stage, greater headroom), its still an EL34 amp. I'm searching for something to give me sweet cleans on the cheap, doesn't have to be a gig level amp, and I sure don't play a lot of clean stuff anyway, just need something that gives nice "recorded" results.

There is a Fender Princeton Reverb II in a local "vintage" shop in uhh, 'decent' shape but I'm weary of a 25 year old amp that looks like its been on the road most of its life, Fender or not, I mean I didn't exactly have a great experience with that little POS SS Fender combo I bought earlier this year for a practice amp, had to return it, damn thing nearly caught fire, lol. The Marshall I had was the same vintage as this but it looked like a studio use amp, it was in pristine condition and it turned out a great experience, never had a hint of trouble/weirdness with it.

http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/amps/prii/PRII_hub.html  < the local shop is asking $550 for one of these. Don't know shit about Fender amps, who was our resident Fender junkie, Lance? Anyone have an idea? I haven't played through it yet, tempting though. Course there are PLENTY of nice alternatives in the new world I suppose. Local GC has a Blues Jr (Tweed, w/ Jensen sprk) for the same price...

may sound like a flippant response, but...

use your normal gain on the amp and turn down the volume on the guitar till it's clean.

I know, sounds like a smartass remark - was cringing as I was typing ;) ... but I don't mean it that way at all.

try it out before you shop around for clean amps, saves money... sounds cool on both flexi and bogner here.

it's not JC-100 or SRV... but it's a nice clean. ymmv though!

Hey man, ANY input is taken seriously on my end, thanks. (=

You're right, a decent clean/normal channel, volume roll back on the guitar and watch your touch will getcha decent results, hell, Andy Sir-Tones-A Lot Timmons gets some INCREDIBLE clean tones through one of his EL34 based heads plus a Carl Martin Compressor....which they also happen to have a used one of at the same shop ironically...course HE gets a helluv a lot more mileage than us mortals, lol. I'll pick that up first I think and do some testing.

use the gain channel with volume rollback - it's beefy!

I've never liked clean channels that much and I never need one since I don't play live... so there's the grain of salt.

but... if you're looking for recorded cleans, compressing and boosting up the mic'ed signal of gain channel/guitar volume down in the mixer sounds really cool (some noise but not that bad).

and on the subject of timmons... man, I was so ticked to find out that his big beefy (almost too beefy) tone on that last album was a tube driver into a stiletto.. lol, I had all kinds of lonestar gas before I found out about that.

ironsheep — Dec 08, 2009I've never liked clean channels that much and I never need one since I don't play live... so there's the grain of salt.

...and thats a crime to your local community, really.  :)


Thanks again for the input, gonna be trying just that shorty, speaker and spare cab testing too...

I saw that youtube clip of him displaying his Stilleto chain - it was actually better then when he was earlier breaking down the Lonestar rig, lol! Betting quite a few folks started digging around town and ebay for Tube Driver pedals after watching that.

<- guilty! :)

My humble entry into the "clean" arena:  A Sovtek Mig-50 (NOT the Mig-50H).  Best cleans I've ever heard!  :)

ironsheep — Dec 08, 2009use the gain channel with volume rollback - it's beefy!

I've never liked clean channels that much and I never need one since I don't play live... so there's the grain of salt.

but... if you're looking for recorded cleans, compressing and boosting up the mic'ed signal of gain channel/guitar volume down in the mixer sounds really cool (some noise but not that bad).

and on the subject of timmons... man, I was so ticked to find out that his big beefy (almost too beefy) tone on that last album was a tube driver into a stiletto.. lol, I had all kinds of lonestar gas before I found out about that.

Actually, in the Stiletto segment of the video he did for Mesa, Andy said most of Resolution was done with a 68 Plexi and a 79 JMP.  

+ tube driver

but yeah, forgot about that.

there's some other stuff on that album that isn't accounted for in those videos - octave effect of some sort... leslie or some other trem type thing...

I was mainly just bummed about the tube driver.  ;D

Regardless of what he used on the album - he proceeded to display the tube Driver/Stiletto rig right there on vid and it nearly steals the show tonewise (to me), so punchy.

The early segments where he's playing and talking cleans on the Lonestar is also unreal tone! Its in his hands I reckon.

The only disadvantage (or difference, I suppose  :)) to using a gain channel and rolling the guitar volume back, is that not all guiltars do that very well.  It needs a good volume pot (which I assume G&L would have because they are very good guitars!) and the "right" bleed cap on the volume control (IMHO).  If you think your guitar sounds almost great in the rolled off positions, but loses too much sparkle, this is easily fixed with a bleed cap.  You can adjust the value to how much treble you want back.  Usually (and I have certainly found this to be true with all my guitars) rolling back will clean it up but also dull it a bit too much.  

If you roll the volume back and it sounds perfect, just disregard these comments.   :)

yeah, that's definitely true stuff -- I've tried bleed caps, didn't suit me but sounded fine for what they were doing. pretty neat.

and agreed, timmons will sound awesome no matter what he's doing.

evidence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe-QZTMiIws

haha.

Kabala — Dec 08, 2009
Regardless of what he used on the album - he proceeded to display the tube Driver/Stiletto rig right there on vid and it nearly steals the show tonewise (to me), so punchy.

The early segments where he's playing and talking cleans on the Lonestar is also unreal tone! Its in his hands I reckon.

The whole video is completely worthy.  I totally geek out every time I watch it.   :D

"Worthy?" Its REFERENCE!  ;) :)

Sheep, good point.  The bleed caps are there to retain the highs that you lose with you roll the volume off.  If you want to have a "sparkling clean" sound, you probably need them.  If you don't WANT that treble though, you're better off without them.  Plus, some pickups/pots don't lose as much treble as others so it may not be necessary even for those who want the sparkle clean tones.  And some amps respond differently as well and depending on how you have it set, you may have some treble boost already to cut through the distortion or whatever.  So yeah, no right or wrong.  Just see of what you have works for what you are after, and if not, experiment.  If you still can't get it right, more cowbell!"  

:D