Post by ekforum on Nov 27, 2009 14:59:14 GMT -5
Strats
My love for the Stratocaster has been a SLOW, ongoing affair. No two are the same (you could say that about any guitar)...but Stratocasters are just NOT consistent like Gibsons are. Every little mistake just JUMPS out at you. Unforgiving.
I was a Gibson player for many years. Then switched to the Strat only because I didn't want to get "lost" in the band's sound. THEN came "SWEET HOME ALABAMA." NO WAY can that song be written or played on a Gibson.
Must be Divine Providence that led me to that Stratocaster. Now I love them. And I used to HATE maple neck Strats...they're harder to play than rosewood boards. Now maple neck Strats are all I play...I have quite a few. I always keep 3 or 4 in the living room just for fooling around on when I walk through the house. "A Stratocaster in every room" will be my campaign slogan.
Q - You've talked before about the reason for the switch (to sound different from the other Gibson's) but was this ALL your idea and you just did it? Or were there discussions with the band about it? Tell us more, inquiring minds want to know!
One day I just had an urge to trade my '72 Les Paul for a new Strat. I have NO IDEA WHY I DID IT. Talk about Divine Providence. I was LED to do it. I still had the SG...and I really didn't like the Les Paul.
Q - So, there was no discussion with the rest of the band? What was everybody's reaction when you showed up with the Strat?
To them it was just another guitar. No big deal. But they probably loved it because they were always LOUDER with their stinkin' Gibsons.
Q - Ed how many tremolo springs do you use?
I've always used 3 or 4 springs, depending on the guitar.
The ALABAMA Strat is a sunburst '73 with a rosewood board.
I don't know how I EVER got any music to come out of that '73 Strat. The '66 I had was ok. I had a bunch of Strats in the early 70s but never had one I could actually PLAY. I tinkered. I was REAL lucky.
And now I can't play ANYTHING ELSE.
But the '73 is still a bad guitar. And when I say bad, I don't mean good. It WILL HOLD YOU BACK. Oddly enough...that guitar has paid my rent for over 30 years. WEIRD.
You can't play FREEBIRD on a vintage Strat. Can anyone here guess WHY?
Too few frets....
Wow...first guess! You need that ONE EXTRA FRET for the build-up
(About the Strat SHA was written on) It's a real lousy guitar...seriously. Made during that period of Fender's history when quality was way down. The neck's always felt funny (it's straight), it's heavy...but it does sound ok. I didn't use it that much. Only played it on ALABAMA and MISS. KID. Allen used it a couple of times.
If you also want to hear somebody struggling with a Strat, listen to CALL ME THE BREEZE. By this time (Feb. '73) I had left the '72 Strat at home and had bought a '66 (or '67) Strat at a pawnshop for $150. It was an ok guitar...certainly better than the '72. But as time went on, I acquired different necks and I was constantly tweaking the '66, exchanging necks, trying different setups, different string gauges, etc.
On the day I had to record my parts on CALL ME THE BREEZE, I had done some serious tweaking. Can't remember what I did. But during that recording I COULD NOT keep the guitar in tune. Just listen to it! On the bend going into Billy's piano solo, the high e string was so flat I had to really BEND it to get it UP THERE. Just about all those guitar parts on that song are out of tune. And, besides that, I had tweaked the guitar so badly that it felt exTREMELY uncomfortable.
Compare it to my solo on WORKIN FOR MCA (which, I think, was recorded before BREEZE). Same guitar, but it felt more comfortable. PRE-TWEAK.
Sometimes, I think it has a lot to do with how you wake up in the morning. Even these days, a guitar will feel far better on some days than on others. But back then I was SO unfamiliar with playing a Fender guitar, I didn't know how to change it to make it right...to make it feel more like my SG. (Impossible.)
Of course, now I know. I should've had bigger frets installed. I'm telling you...I was a DUMB kid. Ugly, too.
I HATED the Stratocaster. Then trying to find one that felt good (after years of Gibson guitars) was a challenge. Never did find one in the 70s. In the 80s, I traded two loved guitars for a '57 black Strat, which I still have and wished I'd had it years earlier. Since then I've acquired quite a few that feel like home. But it took a LONG TIME.
Playing a Stratocaster, for some reason, requires you to be more careful. It's a very unforgiving instrument...it seems to point out your technique flaws in a way other guitars don't. Maybe that's one reason I can't STAND to listen to anything I've recorded. Sounds labored to me. The Strat takes a long time to sink yourself into ... but now I can't play anything else. I still play my old Les Pauls once in a while and I always take my PRS on the road,...but the Stratocaster is the best. It took me nearly 20 years to fully appreciate it. If it hadn't been for Leo Fender, I may have been a bum on the street. Literally.
My love for the Stratocaster has been a SLOW, ongoing affair. No two are the same (you could say that about any guitar)...but Stratocasters are just NOT consistent like Gibsons are. Every little mistake just JUMPS out at you. Unforgiving.
I was a Gibson player for many years. Then switched to the Strat only because I didn't want to get "lost" in the band's sound. THEN came "SWEET HOME ALABAMA." NO WAY can that song be written or played on a Gibson.
Must be Divine Providence that led me to that Stratocaster. Now I love them. And I used to HATE maple neck Strats...they're harder to play than rosewood boards. Now maple neck Strats are all I play...I have quite a few. I always keep 3 or 4 in the living room just for fooling around on when I walk through the house. "A Stratocaster in every room" will be my campaign slogan.
Q - You've talked before about the reason for the switch (to sound different from the other Gibson's) but was this ALL your idea and you just did it? Or were there discussions with the band about it? Tell us more, inquiring minds want to know!
One day I just had an urge to trade my '72 Les Paul for a new Strat. I have NO IDEA WHY I DID IT. Talk about Divine Providence. I was LED to do it. I still had the SG...and I really didn't like the Les Paul.
Q - So, there was no discussion with the rest of the band? What was everybody's reaction when you showed up with the Strat?
To them it was just another guitar. No big deal. But they probably loved it because they were always LOUDER with their stinkin' Gibsons.
Q - Ed how many tremolo springs do you use?
I've always used 3 or 4 springs, depending on the guitar.
The ALABAMA Strat is a sunburst '73 with a rosewood board.
I don't know how I EVER got any music to come out of that '73 Strat. The '66 I had was ok. I had a bunch of Strats in the early 70s but never had one I could actually PLAY. I tinkered. I was REAL lucky.
And now I can't play ANYTHING ELSE.
But the '73 is still a bad guitar. And when I say bad, I don't mean good. It WILL HOLD YOU BACK. Oddly enough...that guitar has paid my rent for over 30 years. WEIRD.
You can't play FREEBIRD on a vintage Strat. Can anyone here guess WHY?
Too few frets....
Wow...first guess! You need that ONE EXTRA FRET for the build-up
(About the Strat SHA was written on) It's a real lousy guitar...seriously. Made during that period of Fender's history when quality was way down. The neck's always felt funny (it's straight), it's heavy...but it does sound ok. I didn't use it that much. Only played it on ALABAMA and MISS. KID. Allen used it a couple of times.
If you also want to hear somebody struggling with a Strat, listen to CALL ME THE BREEZE. By this time (Feb. '73) I had left the '72 Strat at home and had bought a '66 (or '67) Strat at a pawnshop for $150. It was an ok guitar...certainly better than the '72. But as time went on, I acquired different necks and I was constantly tweaking the '66, exchanging necks, trying different setups, different string gauges, etc.
On the day I had to record my parts on CALL ME THE BREEZE, I had done some serious tweaking. Can't remember what I did. But during that recording I COULD NOT keep the guitar in tune. Just listen to it! On the bend going into Billy's piano solo, the high e string was so flat I had to really BEND it to get it UP THERE. Just about all those guitar parts on that song are out of tune. And, besides that, I had tweaked the guitar so badly that it felt exTREMELY uncomfortable.
Compare it to my solo on WORKIN FOR MCA (which, I think, was recorded before BREEZE). Same guitar, but it felt more comfortable. PRE-TWEAK.
Sometimes, I think it has a lot to do with how you wake up in the morning. Even these days, a guitar will feel far better on some days than on others. But back then I was SO unfamiliar with playing a Fender guitar, I didn't know how to change it to make it right...to make it feel more like my SG. (Impossible.)
Of course, now I know. I should've had bigger frets installed. I'm telling you...I was a DUMB kid. Ugly, too.
I HATED the Stratocaster. Then trying to find one that felt good (after years of Gibson guitars) was a challenge. Never did find one in the 70s. In the 80s, I traded two loved guitars for a '57 black Strat, which I still have and wished I'd had it years earlier. Since then I've acquired quite a few that feel like home. But it took a LONG TIME.
Playing a Stratocaster, for some reason, requires you to be more careful. It's a very unforgiving instrument...it seems to point out your technique flaws in a way other guitars don't. Maybe that's one reason I can't STAND to listen to anything I've recorded. Sounds labored to me. The Strat takes a long time to sink yourself into ... but now I can't play anything else. I still play my old Les Pauls once in a while and I always take my PRS on the road,...but the Stratocaster is the best. It took me nearly 20 years to fully appreciate it. If it hadn't been for Leo Fender, I may have been a bum on the street. Literally.