Gunny47
New member
Played some stuff a few weeks ago. Went to guitar center on 14th street with my friend because he was buying a GT-8 (I love that thing) and I wanted to try out some stuff. So first I looked at guitars. I grabbed a 56 Closet Classic Strat in Fiesta Red and plugged into a series of amps. First I plugged into an Epiphone Valve Special and it actually had a great clean tone. I cranked it all the way up for distortion also, but I was not too big of a fan of it. Sounded sort of weak and lacked a nice low end. Im sure a tube change and a speaker change could solve this problem. The built in DSP effects werent that great, but I could see if you want just a light flange for your tone or a light chorus, it wouldnt be too bad.
I've been looking around at Strats for a while now, I was going to buy a Deluxe Players strat, but I played it one last time and wasn't absolutely in love with it so I never baught it. Then I started looking at the American Vintage and Custom Shop stuff (which is the stuff I would really want). So the Fiesta Red 56 was very nice. The finish was checked a little too much in my opinion, but the neck had that aged yellowing to it and that was done perfectly. Pickguard, hardware, everything else had that perfect amount of aging. First thing I did when I plugged in the strat was do some jazz stuff. Jazz isnt typically played with a strat, but the jazz stuff I play is mainly Miles Davis type stuff, especailly the album Bitches Brew, like that psychadelic type jazz. Fusion I guess. So its not that ultra warm, ultra clean mellow hollowbody tone, its like teles plugged into tweeds type tone. Of course, the clean sounded great, nice and chimey. Started playing some blues stuff too and that sounded great as well. I wont bore you with that much based on vintage strat tones, everyone knows about that. But it sounded pretty perfect to me. The 50s specs pickups sounded better than most 60s style strat pickups I played. Less midrange which makes them sound a little smoother, yet more bright top which makes the neck pickup PERFECT, not ever too muddy. The bridge didn't sound too treble and weak to my ears. Of course, it didn't sound as thick as the neck and the middle, but it sounded pretty good. Like the pickup on an esquire, not ultra ear-piercing if you know how to tame it, but can be smooth and twangy. Ill talk more about the pickups later.
Best thing about this guitar would definitely be the neck. VERY thick neck, the boat neck was almost as thick as the 50s neck profile on my R7 Goldtop. And not sticky at all. Looked very nice too as it was aged slightly and didn't look to white. This would be the buying point for this guitar, the neck. It made all the difference. Then I went into the soundproof room and plugged into a 2061X with the matching cab. Plugged in, volume and tone at max. Toop bright. Lowered the tone knob on the amp to aboult halfway and it was perfect. Very hendrix sounds. That amp is a totally different animal with single coils compared to humbuckers. Hums it is an all out crunch machine, but with singles it has a great warmer overdrive. Not crazy agressive. And clean sounds, amazing. Thats very Hendrix also. Started playing every hendrix song I knew and I was really having fun. This is my favorite marshall amp thats now made. Great speaker cab with the 70th anniversary celestions in it which give that greenback midrange with the bass response of a vintage 30. Best cleans of a current production Marshall. I never liked the 1974X handwired combo, and the 1959HW is just out of the question.
I then tried the 56 Closet Classic strat with my next amp, the Fender 57 Twin. This was probably the best one. Plugged into the bright channel for some very nice cleans. Bright channel gave cleans that had sort of a thin characteristic, but had some extra midrange and a very chimey. Normal channel cleans very very big and fat with plenty of dynamics involved. The thing that I love about Tweed amps is that the bright channels and normal channels are like totally different amps. On the bright channel, for distortion, the amp has a great crunch that is very thick and can do AC/DC stuff with the bridge pickup of a strat. More Marshall esq. Normal channel is warmer with a tighter bass and slightly (to me at least) less mids so it gives up smoother distortion thats great for rock leads. I cant wait to order that amp.
I've been looking around at Strats for a while now, I was going to buy a Deluxe Players strat, but I played it one last time and wasn't absolutely in love with it so I never baught it. Then I started looking at the American Vintage and Custom Shop stuff (which is the stuff I would really want). So the Fiesta Red 56 was very nice. The finish was checked a little too much in my opinion, but the neck had that aged yellowing to it and that was done perfectly. Pickguard, hardware, everything else had that perfect amount of aging. First thing I did when I plugged in the strat was do some jazz stuff. Jazz isnt typically played with a strat, but the jazz stuff I play is mainly Miles Davis type stuff, especailly the album Bitches Brew, like that psychadelic type jazz. Fusion I guess. So its not that ultra warm, ultra clean mellow hollowbody tone, its like teles plugged into tweeds type tone. Of course, the clean sounded great, nice and chimey. Started playing some blues stuff too and that sounded great as well. I wont bore you with that much based on vintage strat tones, everyone knows about that. But it sounded pretty perfect to me. The 50s specs pickups sounded better than most 60s style strat pickups I played. Less midrange which makes them sound a little smoother, yet more bright top which makes the neck pickup PERFECT, not ever too muddy. The bridge didn't sound too treble and weak to my ears. Of course, it didn't sound as thick as the neck and the middle, but it sounded pretty good. Like the pickup on an esquire, not ultra ear-piercing if you know how to tame it, but can be smooth and twangy. Ill talk more about the pickups later.
Best thing about this guitar would definitely be the neck. VERY thick neck, the boat neck was almost as thick as the 50s neck profile on my R7 Goldtop. And not sticky at all. Looked very nice too as it was aged slightly and didn't look to white. This would be the buying point for this guitar, the neck. It made all the difference. Then I went into the soundproof room and plugged into a 2061X with the matching cab. Plugged in, volume and tone at max. Toop bright. Lowered the tone knob on the amp to aboult halfway and it was perfect. Very hendrix sounds. That amp is a totally different animal with single coils compared to humbuckers. Hums it is an all out crunch machine, but with singles it has a great warmer overdrive. Not crazy agressive. And clean sounds, amazing. Thats very Hendrix also. Started playing every hendrix song I knew and I was really having fun. This is my favorite marshall amp thats now made. Great speaker cab with the 70th anniversary celestions in it which give that greenback midrange with the bass response of a vintage 30. Best cleans of a current production Marshall. I never liked the 1974X handwired combo, and the 1959HW is just out of the question.
I then tried the 56 Closet Classic strat with my next amp, the Fender 57 Twin. This was probably the best one. Plugged into the bright channel for some very nice cleans. Bright channel gave cleans that had sort of a thin characteristic, but had some extra midrange and a very chimey. Normal channel cleans very very big and fat with plenty of dynamics involved. The thing that I love about Tweed amps is that the bright channels and normal channels are like totally different amps. On the bright channel, for distortion, the amp has a great crunch that is very thick and can do AC/DC stuff with the bridge pickup of a strat. More Marshall esq. Normal channel is warmer with a tighter bass and slightly (to me at least) less mids so it gives up smoother distortion thats great for rock leads. I cant wait to order that amp.
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