I don't care what Fender is paying him

Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

viewaskew2k5 said:
I just got the reunion dvd ( cream ) and it felt more like it was Eric Clapton playing with a cover band. Not Cream playing there old songs and keeping it fresh. It didnt sound right.
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Agreed. I thought it sounded like a cover band also. It was a decent Strat tone but those old Cream songs really call for a beefier tone. Or as someone else suggested, at least throw a humbucker in that Strat as a compromise.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Clapton will sound great even if he plays a first act guitar.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Clapton said he brought a Gibson to rehearsal and it just didn't work.

I think he sounds great playing the Strat...but I too like his Les Paul overdriving a Marshall better for those classic Cream solos. But every rock player who uses a Gibson or a Strat with a bridge humbucker has that Humbucker through an overdriven Marshall tone...it's become a cliche in a way, even though Clapton invented it. Lew
 
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Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

nhslim said:
Kamanda
Check out Fresh Cream or Disreali Gears, blows his latest stuff away IMO.
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I agree...but it also helps to be 25 years old instead of 60! Very few people play with the same fire at 60 and they did at 25. Clapton's doing pretty darn good...not everyone can be a Buddy Guy! (I saw Buddy last month and thought he played better than when I saw him twenty years ago!) EVH doesn't play with the same fire he used to and he's not even close to 60...

Lew
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

I know this is an old thread but I had to resurrect it just to say I relistened to the live at the Royal Albert Hall concert and there is one true gem in there. "Pressed Rat and Warthog." Eric gets a great tone on that one, Ginger Baker sings, and it has a real laid back vibe but at the sme time it's very catchy. I can't stop listening to it. I don't suppose anyone knows where I could find tab for it, or at least the chords?
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

I personally did not like the "Cream sound". Ironic because I love buckers (and SG's specifically).

Clapton's sound in the 70's ("Lay Down Sally", "Motherless Children" era) is my all-time fave. I love that greasy, swampy country thing. Have seen him plenty of times with Blackie abd his strat sounded amazing.

I think his newer tone is underrated. For one, it is actually thicker to my ears than his older tone due to the midrange boost in the Clapton Strat (great guitar IMHO). I don't find it thin or lifeless at all.

I saw him last year at MSG and thought he was great. The crowd was lame as hell (nerdy suit wearing corporate types - the smell of weed nowhere to be found - weird). But I thought his playing and tone were top notch.

I still like the 70's stuff better though. :D
 
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Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Personally I think Claptons recent tone has been quite good. The vintage-voiced amps work well with the Vintage Noiseless pickups. He's had some departure here and there, notably on "From The Cradle" and that tour where he played non-Strats, but from hearing bootlegs it still sounds like Clapton and the change in tone isn't all that dramatic.

The Lace Sensor-era takes a serious beating. But if you go back and listen to his playing during it, it's like he totally got inspired. Listen to the solo in "Bad Love." He hadn't played with that sort of fire for decades! Even if you can't handle the Soldano/Sensor sound you've got to admit he's putting more into those notes than he has in a long long time. Even go back and check out the ambient sountrack work he did for "Rush." It's inspired playing more than anything else in there.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Skarekrough said:
Personally I think Claptons recent tone has been quite good. The vintage-voiced amps work well with the Vintage Noiseless pickups. He's had some departure here and there, notably on "From The Cradle" and that tour where he played non-Strats, but from hearing bootlegs it still sounds like Clapton and the change in tone isn't all that dramatic.

The Lace Sensor-era takes a serious beating. But if you go back and listen to his playing during it, it's like he totally got inspired. Listen to the solo in "Bad Love." He hadn't played with that sort of fire for decades! Even if you can't handle the Soldano/Sensor sound you've got to admit he's putting more into those notes than he has in a long long time. Even go back and check out the ambient sountrack work he did for "Rush." It's inspired playing more than anything else in there.
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I read in an article that during the Sensor-era he wasn't really all that concerned with the guitar playing because he "didn't have to prove anything". It was more about the songwriting and the vocals, methinks.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

I like the new stuff, the strat tone is actually quite nice
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Well, Clapton has stated a few times that probably the main reason he keeps with strats is because he loves the one peice maple statocaster V necks. He has grown to love them so much that he probably can't get used to Gibson necks, or scale lengths anymore. The ergonomics of the strat, particularly on stage, are virtually perfect, most of us would agree. Moreover I recall reading a few years ago that he stated he liked the versatility of his signiture guitars, that allow him to get Fender type tones and thicker tones without changing instruments.

I think a HB in the bridge is a better solution, as on board preamps will color the sound a bit, but I think he still got good tone on the Cross Roads DVD, and during the Journeyman era, and he may simply find the look of a HB on strat not that cool?

On the Cream CD (I havn't seen the DVD) it sounds a little like a stomp box through combo amps, rather than the classic vintage Marshall Stack. That's probably a bigger deal than the guitar used IMO. They may not have played loud enough on stage it sounds to me, and that was one of the intangibles of the original Cream.

I thought he got a good tone during his Behind the Sun period, playing through JCM800 era non-master volume, four input 100's, and hardly any effects, with blacky. Sometimes it was a little too clean for solos in the overall mix, but it had an organic purity that I liked.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

:beerchug: I don't really think Clapton is loosing sleep over what we think of his tone, but I do like the Cream era. People change, though, and no matter what you think, EC can still play the hell out of his axe. To me he hasn't lost a thing, if anything he's gotten better. Both he and JB switched to strats and both have very different tones.

CoachC
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

nhslim said:
Clapton needs to get a Gibson or at least put Hummbuckers on his guitar. I have the crossroads DVD and just bought the reunion CD and the Fender single coil tone just ain't it with his style! Stevie or Jimmie Vaughn, Hendrix, Buddy Guy, John Maynard (SP), sound gret on Fenders But not Clapton.
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i liked his tone :guilty:
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

IMHO, Clapton is getting the best tone he ever has from his Strat and Fender Tweed Twin that he is using today.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Had to resurrect this thread, I got to see the Cream Reunion DVD and enjoyed it, but.......

I really think Clapton did a disservice to the music by using his modern strat tone. Not that his playing was bad, but it just sounded like the "modern" eric overlayed on the old songs, it sounded more like eric sitting in with cream and not "cream".

Clapton I think is a bit of a different kind of cat, would it really have killed him to use an SG or an LP, it just didn't sound right. I know he addressed this issue in an interview and dismissed it by saying the LP's just didn't work for him at this point, whatever that means. IMO, the strat tone he gets just does not work for most of the cream stuff.

That being said, I did enjoy the concert and it was cool to see those guys after all these years, man that is a long, long time to wait to reunite.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

I personally think he sounded great. It was of course different because he didn't have the Gibson guitars, or the humbuckers, or the Marshall stacks, but it was still Cream. And it was still very good. Clapton's current tone is still incredibly good tone. And ya gotta give him a break, he's not 25 anymore, he's 60, and still playing sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

The tone on the Cream Albert Hall 2005 is not the same as his modern strat tone, in my opinion. On those CD's his tone is much darker, thicker, and dirtier than lasts years Cross Roads Festival DVD tone. I don't think there's much to complain about on either. I'm not a critical observer though, because I like his electric tones from all of his era's; from the Yardbirds to 2005, regardless of his gear. I just wish he would leave the acoustics at home, as acoustic guitar tone bores me.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

A) Clapton is still the man. Doesn't matter what guitar he plays...

B) Jack Bruce is playing a different bass and amp setup and no one grills him over the coals for it.....

I thought the Cream Reunion DVD was just freakin awesome.
 
Re: I don't care what Fender is paying him

Baltar said:
He uses Fender Lace Sensors on his Strat. Never played any, but perhaps
that's the key !? Just an idea.

Sometimes i like his bluesy overdriven StratSound - but mainly if BB King
is playing with him - eg riding with the king album
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As of recently his Signature Strat is equipped with Fender Noiseless PUPS. The first versions of this guitar was equipped with Lace Sensors. (1987 or 88, until 2003 or 2004). IMO the lace sensors on this guitar sound a little better. I own 2 EC Strats... both with Lace sensors. I have played many of the new ones and I prefer the Lace sensors. The Vintage noiseless sound more like a Strat, but with the Preamp in the circuit I think it sound fuller with the LS pups.
 
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