Re: I need Strat advice


"Mark Bedingfield" <atari030@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:KFeck.17745$IK1.17729@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wog George wrote:
"Mark Bedingfield" <atari030@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:RKdck.17712$IK1.6067@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Most Strat bodies are Alder or a derivative. Ash tends to be a tad
heavier. I have 2 Alder and one Alder ply. Again, all sound and play
great. The ply is obviously heavier but still lighter than an LP;-)

Horses for courses.



My Mex is so light compared to the other two. It's hard to gauge but I'd
reckon the Ibanez Blazer body on its own weighed more than the whole Mex.
I don't actually know what any of them are made from but the suckiness
(is that a new word?) of the Mex is less likely to be because of the wood
but rather than because it was slapped together late one Friday afternoon
just before knock-off time (and it has a crap bridge (and crap pickups)).

If anyone in Brisbane is after a cheap Mex Strat, reply to this post and
we'll see what we can come up with. As mentioned above, it's a superb
instrument that deserves a place in any collection...

The bridge is easily fixed as is the pups;-) Have a look at this;

http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.yahoo.net/minmeimstupt.html

I put one of these on Strat number 2;

http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.yahoo.net/viusaststsat.html

And even that was fantastic. Tho its US spaced, not mexi. There are a few
other choices there now too. Not to mention Calaham. My Mexi 50's RI has a
US spaced bridge on it, even that isn't as good as the GFS one. Better
than a MIM standard tho.

Pups are of course about as personal as taste in women and wine;-) Some
people actually like the MIM standard pups, they are OK I guess but not
what I call exciting.

I was actually wondering why Fender wouldn't put A-grade pups in their
guitars. Then it dawned on me. 2 reasons, 1, they have a price point to
meet (why they can put Alnico's in Squiers and not MIM standards has got
me buggered) and 2, a hell of a lot of people won't be happy with them
anyway and will change them. So what's the point?



I won't bother fixing the Mex because I like the other two, and will direct
new money into Rolls Royce quality instead of a vast quantity. Thanks for
the links. Great prices!

The bridge that I bought for the Ibanez was the heavy block one and was
identical in dimensions to the brass Ibanez one that it replaced. There's a
block of wood behind the bridge block and it's been glued there for the last
25 years. I knew that the dinky little light blocks that they use these
days wouldn't be any good for me so I took the chance and bought the heavy
block on eBay. I figured that I'd be bastardising the body until the cows
came home but everything, including the positions of each screw hole, were
so spot-on. Imagine my joy...

My bridge didn't come with the arm or the screws. The Ibanez screws knew
where to go and I don't use a tremolo arm anyway, so that was fine by me.

It's an interesting point that you make about the pickups. The Mex was
actually better sounding than the Jap (mostly, least ways) although some of
that would have been due to a slightly dodgy (and now replaced) switch in
the Jap. The Jap had much more treble from the bridge pickup - immaterial
now that the Jap pups now reside in an ice-cream container (sans ice-cream,
of course).

The volume pot was the wrong taper in the Jap too. Is it the "B curve"
where the volume takes off really early? Now that I have a new pot, it
starts to roar at about 7 or 8, which is equivalent to 2 or 3 on the old
pot. I like to mess about with the volume knob while playing and the old
pot was very abrupt with high gain. It was very natural when the sound was
clean although I like to beef it up, so the new pot is much better suited.
The effect I'm seeking is much like the Blackmore "cello" sound where he
hammers on and then turns the volume up from 0. I pick the strings though,
a la Steve Morse and numerous others.

On the subject of the "cello" sound, I seem to have it down to a fine art.
I hold the pick between the first finger and thumb, leaving the rest of the
hand almost splayed and ready to do other things ie finger picking, muting
and knob twiddling (I can't reach the switch like that, so the pickup
selector switch gets an enormous sweep of the whole hand). My little finger
stops short of the last joint on the third finger so I actually use both the
little finger and third finger to operate the volume control. The pinky
actually wraps itself around the volume knob (deliberately copied from
Morse), and then it rolls off at about two thirds of full, leaving the third
finger to pretty much just pull the knob by its grippy bits up to 10.
Turning it back down to zero is truly the reverse. To watch it looks like
"0 to 10" in rewind mode.

--
George
"If I was a towel, why would I be wearing this hat and this fake
moustache" - Steven McTowelie - 19 April 2006


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