Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Mpcoluv said:
Unfortunately for me, the only time I have played SSL-1 were in a dead stick of wood.
I had a G&L Legacy that was just a terrible piece of wood. No pickups I tried made it a great guitar.
No pickups will fix a dead piece of wood.
Click to expand...

So, if we are to understand you correctly, you are saying that your wood is dead! A terrible piece of wood...

A real dead stick.....
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

c'mon guys, you're not being fair!

i bought a '62 american vintage RI strat this afternoon, just like this..

4505.jpg


at least i know what to do if i get bored of the sound :fest6:
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Wow... just goes to show you how good Duncan's off-the-shelf stuff really is!
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Evan Skopp said:
In the April 2009 edition of Vintage Guitar (page. 122) John (Red Hot Chile Peppers) is asked:

Have you kept the original pickups in your Strats?

Here's his reply:

I would like to, but they do eventually need to be changed. On my '55, I bought it with an expert who insisted we open it up to see if the pickups were original. He and the people at the store all thought that they were original. Then years later, we found out that they were Seymour Duncan Vintage Strat pickups. They are so similar to the original that it's hard to tell the difference in sound. I had my '62, which has the original pickups, and then I had the '55 with the Duncans, and the sound was very similar. The differences had more to do with the guitars than the pickups. Eventually, I had to get Duncans in the '62 as well.

:thanks:
Click to expand...



Can these pickups also be the 1st Antiquity 50's series? I ask because my SSL-1 pickups sound nothing like John's tone.
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Nice thread resurrection!

I have a new SSL-1 for my 79 Greco strat that I haven't installed yet, I like the stock excel single coils, how much better could the SSL-1 be?

John Frusciante's recommendation is good enough for me to get off my butt and fit it in the neck position.
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Jesusm said:
Can these pickups also be the 1st Antiquity 50's series? I ask because my SSL-1 pickups sound nothing like John's tone.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum.

With respect to you (and with reference to the quoted interview content), your guitar is unlikely to be the same as JF's original vintage Fender pieces.

It has always seemed to me that, compared to the majority of original old Fender pickups, SD SSL-1s are slightly overwound. I see this as a good thing. SSL-1s make a Stratocaster sound the way that the majority of players would wish - as distinct from the way that a good many of them actually come across.

For approximately five years, I have owned a Fender American Vintage Re-Issue model '62 style Stratocaster. Its stock '57/62 pickups authentically capture the essence of the old guitars. That is, authentically thin. I wanted a fuller and more complex sound. This is why I installed Antiquity II "Surfer" pickups in the neck and middle positions plus something hotter in the bridge position.

Leo designed the Stratocaster to sound pleasant with what we now consider Medium gauge strings. Throw on a set of 009-042 and things begin to sound weedy.

As an example, check out the recordings of UK instrumental group, The Shadows. On the original Fifties and Sixties records, lead guitarist, Hank B. Marvin performs on big strings including a wound G. In the Seventies, for the purposes of a compilation album, many of the old hits were rerecorded using the band's Seventies equipment. The sound of the lead guitar is noticeably different. Marvin does not have to fight the skinny strings so much. This affects the tone.
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Hmmm. April issue, yet posted in February. I know magazines have a lead time, and have worked in a top-name magazine printing facility, but I've never seen a magazine printed 2 months ahead of time.

Paid endorser. :P
j/k
:beerchug:
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

DrNewcenstein said:
Hmmm. April issue, yet posted in February. I know magazines have a lead time, and have worked in a top-name magazine printing facility, but I've never seen a magazine printed 2 months ahead of time.

Paid endorser. :P
j/k
:beerchug:
Click to expand...

Glad I was not the only one who noticed that!
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Funkfingers said:
Welcome to the forum.

With respect to you (and with reference to the quoted interview content), your guitar is unlikely to be the same as JF's original vintage Fender pieces.

It has always seemed to me that, compared to the majority of original old Fender pickups, SD SSL-1s are slightly overwound. I see this as a good thing. SSL-1s make a Stratocaster sound the way that the majority of players would wish - as distinct from the way that a good many of them actually come across.

For approximately five years, I have owned a Fender American Vintage Re-Issue model '62 style Stratocaster. Its stock '57/62 pickups authentically capture the essence of the old guitars. That is, authentically thin. I wanted a fuller and more complex sound. This is why I installed Antiquity II "Surfer" pickups in the neck and middle positions plus something hotter in the bridge position.

Leo designed the Stratocaster to sound pleasant with what we now consider Medium gauge strings. Throw on a set of 009-042 and things begin to sound weedy.

As an example, check out the recordings of UK instrumental group, The Shadows. On the original Fifties and Sixties records, lead guitarist, Hank B. Marvin performs on big strings including a wound G. In the Seventies, for the purposes of a compilation album, many of the old hits were rerecorded using the band's Seventies equipment. The sound of the lead guitar is noticeably different. Marvin does not have to fight the skinny strings so much. This affects the tone.
Click to expand...


I didn't say it should sound exactly like JF tone. I said it sounds nothing like his tone. It should at least sound in the ball park of his tone since most of a electric guitar's tone comes from the pickups. I've been trying to find out what year did the SSL and Antiquity 1 and 2 pickups come out. I have found nothing so far. Anybody else know when?
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Jesusm said:
I didn't say it should sound exactly like JF tone. I said it sounds nothing like his tone. It should at least sound in the ball park of his tone since most of a electric guitar's tone comes from the pickups. I've been trying to find out what year did the SSL and Antiquity 1 and 2 pickups come out. I have found nothing so far. Anybody else know when?
Click to expand...

Dude, just cause you used the same exact yams in your Mom's old recipe, doesn't mean it's going to taste just like she used to make. Countless other things besides pickupa can be contributing to why you aren't hearing what you want to be hearing in your tone. What is your current setup? Guitar, amp, pedals, etc.

Here's a timeline. Ssl-1 was introduced in 76.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/seymour-w-duncan/history-of-seymour-duncan-products/
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Falloffthebonetone said:
Glad I was not the only one who noticed that!
Click to expand...

DrNewcenstein said:
Hmmm. April issue, yet posted in February. I know magazines have a lead time, and have worked in a top-name magazine printing facility, but I've never seen a magazine printed 2 months ahead of time.

Paid endorser. :P
j/k
:beerchug:
Click to expand...

Falloffthebonetone said:
Dude, just cause you used the same exact yams in your Mom's old recipe, doesn't mean it's going to taste just like she used to make. Countless other things besides pickupa can be contributing to why you aren't hearing what you want to be hearing in your tone. What is your current setup? Guitar, amp, pedals, etc.

Here's a timeline. Ssl-1 was introduced in 76.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/seymour-w-duncan/history-of-seymour-duncan-products/
Click to expand...

I have a 2011 MIM Stratocaster with a maple neck and orange drop .47 cap, Fender Blues Jr, Fender Super Champ XD and a 15 watt Vox Valvetronic. I believe it might be my pickup height. Anybody had a pickup height that got close to JF tone? Thanks for the link. Any luck on the other 2 pickup release dates?
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Are you going by live tone or CD tone? Even with live tone, there's some processing (compression, etc) in the chain that will influence the tone, not to mention player tone.

Two people swapping the same guitar back and forth are not guaranteed to get the same tone. See SRV and Jimmy V on Family Style.
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

DrNewcenstein said:
Are you going by live tone or CD tone? Even with live tone, there's some processing (compression, etc) in the chain that will influence the tone, not to mention player tone.

Two people swapping the same guitar back and forth are not guaranteed to get the same tone. See SRV and Jimmy V on Family Style.
Click to expand...

I'm going for his live sound. It's strange because I'm not even getting a "vintage" sound out of my SSL-1 CA 50's set.
 
Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I'm amazed you aren't getting a "vintage" sound out of SSL-1s. They are the slightly overwound vintage Strat pickup baseline. Fender's recommended pickup heights are:

PICKUPS
Set too high, pickups can cause myriad inexplicable phenomena. Depress all the strings at the last fret. Using a 6" (150 mm) ruler, measure the distance from the bottom of the first and sixth strings to the top of the pole piece. A good rule of thumb is that the distance should be greatest at the sixth-string neck pickup position, and closest at the first-string bridge pickup position. Follow the measurement guidelines in the chart below as starting points. The distance will vary according to the amount of magnetic pull from the pickup.

Code: 
[COLOR="#000000"]
                     Bass Side	Treble Side
Texas Specials	        8/64" (3.2 mm)	6/64" (2.4 mm)
Vintage style	        6/64" (2.4 mm)	5/64" (2 mm)
Noiseless™ Series	8/64" (3.2 mm)	6/64" (2.4 mm)
Standard Single-Coil	5/64" (2 mm)	4/64" (1.6 mm)
Click to expand...
[/color]

Your SSL-1s should fall in the "vintage" spec. How far off of these measurements are you?

That being said, even when they are a little off you should be close. Keep in mind the core of his live tone is a couple of 200W Marshall Majors. That's a big gap between his amps and yours. Are you getting close to like "Scar Tissue", "Under the Bridge" and "Soul to Squeeze"? Other than a little compression on Soul, those are pretty much just clean Strat tones that the SSL-1s should be serving up in spades.
 
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Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

PFDarkside said:
I'm amazed you aren't getting a "vintage" sound out of SSL-1s. They are the slightly overwound vintage Strat pickup baseline. Fender's recommended pickup heights are:

[/color]

Your SSL-1s should fall in the "vintage" spec. How far off of these measurements are you?

That being said, even when they are a little off you should be close. Keep in mind the core of his live tone is a couple of 200W Marshall Majors. That's a big gap between his amps and yours. Are you getting close to like "Scar Tissue", "Under the Bridge" and "Soul to Squeeze"? Other than a little compression on Soul, those are pretty much just clean Strat tones that the SSL-1s should be serving up in spades.
Click to expand...

I tried the vintage pickup height Fender recommends and others in this list and still nothing close. I wanted at least a kinda dry, raw sound with some sparkle to it but sad to say they sound very plain jane. Nothing to them. That's why I came here to try to see what I'm doing wrong. I wish I had the Scar Tissue or Under the Bridge sound or close to it.
 
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Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

That's a nice comment ofcourse, but it doesn't hide the fact Frusciante's a very mediocre and sloppy player.
 
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