Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

What in the f...I just happy peed a little. What is this is?

I don't know, I honestly just googled Tele with Strat bridge or something to that effect.

It sounds like an awesome Warmoth project though.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

 

[GilmourD]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I'm curious about that too, I am still trying to figure out how I was a troll to him

Part of the job of being a troll is calling anyone who questions them a troll.

Only because it's been asked multiple times, yes.

These aren't the trolls you're looking for. Move along.

Yes, let's move along. No more discussion of this troll, please.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Sounds like you need something like this:

Of all the guitars I hate, none more than the Tele. It looks great, feels like absolute crap. Where a Strat feels like I'm just shaking hands, the Tele feels like I'm being punched in the ribs. Love the tone, hate to be the one to get it. I even tried one with a contoured back and that actually made it worse. I can't see how anyone could make a comparison between a Les Paul body and a Tele body because of that. I mean, yeah, one cutaway as opposed to two, that's it. That top bout and the curves in the center of the body are what makes each one, and Fender did it wrong IMO.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Heh. I reckon I look nice with a Tele on.

 

[formula73]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Of all the guitars I hate, none more than the Tele. It looks great, feels like absolute crap. Where a Strat feels like I'm just shaking hands, the Tele feels like I'm being punched in the ribs. Love the tone, hate to be the one to get it. I even tried one with a contoured back and that actually made it worse. I can't see how anyone could make a comparison between a Les Paul body and a Tele body because of that. I mean, yeah, one cutaway as opposed to two, that's it. That top bout and the curves in the center of the body are what makes each one, and Fender did it wrong IMO.

So...not a fan, then?

I find them every bit as comfortable as any LP and much moreso than a Strat but then, the only time my guitar touches my ribs is like...never.

You a jazz guy?

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I generally don't drape my penis over the top edge of the guitar, but no, I'm not a Jazz guy.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Blowing the dust off this because I want to keep everything in one thread

Apparently, John was NOT using the SSLs, but Fender pickups of some kind. What I want to know is what model pickup?

Interview with John's tech Dave Lee is where I read this.

From the article. http://www.jfeffects.com.br/2016/12/jf-effects-interviews-dave-lee-guitar.html

"In Guitarist Magazine, june 2003, you said you tried to convince John to play Fender's replicas of its old models, but he liked the "life" that his old instruments had. Besides the original tuning pegs (replaced by Klusons) and straplocks (replaced by Schallers), is there any other modification that you made in the guitars? He said in a interview that he replaced his '62 Strat pickups for Seymour Duncans SSL-1 (like in his '55 Strat). Is there anything else besides that? When did that occured?

"I remember reading that and realizing John was wrong in that interview (I never told him). We were experimenting with a number of different pickups at the time. And he must've gotten confused. The actual pickups we settled on (and John never knew this) were stock, brand new, Fender Strat pickups. The same ones Fender was putting in their brand new American Fender Strats at the time (I'll bet you weren't expecting that)."

 

[jeremy]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

not that i think john is above reproach with what he said but i dont know if it trust the tech either since they are getting free stuff from fender. i dont think there is any doubt of what was in his old one, but maybe he was mistaken on the new ones the tech was working on. who knows. and honestly his tone isnt one of my favorites

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I am sure it had the SSLs in there at some point, but if they were swapped later to what?

Fender came out with several revisions in 2000, so who knows.

I only have SSL-1s in a single guitar and they don't get along. I two other sets including an unopened Cal '50's set. I want to swap the unopened set for one without an RWRP middle.

Just need to find a guitar they work in

 

[jeremy]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

i like the ssl1 fine but prefer the ssl2 flat pole version, and prefer the surfers to those, and prefer the antiquity II jag pups to those since they are similar to flat pole surfers.

 

[esandes]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Frusciante's tone is epic.

 

[gregory]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I only have SSL-1s in a single guitar and they don't get along.

What's the guitar and what is the body made out of?

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Glad we have another five-page thread on the SSL-1 ! Actually that's still cool to know about Frusciante's pickups.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I doubt most players could tell with absolute certainty whether they were playing a guitar with Surfers or SSL1’s...or with Fralin Vintage Hots. Those are my three favorite after market Strat pickups and they sound very similar.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

Glad we have another five-page thread on the SSL-1 ! Actually that's still cool to know about Frusciante's pickups.

Hopefully, this one stays on relevant topics.

What's the guitar and what is the body made out of?

Just an Ash vintage spec strat.

I have who knows how many Stratocasters with all flavors of pickups.

I doubt most players could tell with absolute certainty whether they were playing a guitar with Surfers or SSL1’s...or with Fralin Vintage Hots. Those are my three favorite after market Strat pickups and they sound very similar.

I have a Strat with Surfers and T Hots. I like both, but I have yet to try the Fralin Hots (I have some, just in the drawer).

 

[PicoRiveraTele]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

On the one hand this news doesn't surprise me, because while I never doubted you can get the "Frusciante tone" with SSL-1's by working the tone controls and whatnot, and Frusciante had techs who probably finessed his signal chain, it always seemed to me that you can more easily get that tone from a Strat set with a few hundred less winds on the bobbin, like a Fender 57/62 set. It's that classic "scooped" tone that John Mayer somehow managed to take credit for inventing.

This also reiterates the need for Seymour Duncan to have a CBS era knock off similar to the CS 69's. You can't get an authentic 5.7k Strat sound from Seymour Duncan Co. All their current offerings merely get pretty close.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

This also reiterates the need for Seymour Duncan to have a CBS era knock off similar to the CS 69's. You can't get an authentic 5.7k Strat sound from Seymour Duncan Co. All their current offerings merely get pretty close.

"Pretty close" is good enough for me. By the time my signal travels from the pickup to my pedals to my amp to the ears of the audience it sounds about the same any way. But I'm willing to bet that if you wanted to, a SSL-1 could be unwound a bit to get pretty close.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I’ve been playing for over 50 years. When those CBS Strats came out they triggered the vintage guitar market because many of us thought those weak pickups sounded like sh#t...even if Jimi did like playing shiny new Strats.

I still don’t like them and don’t get the appeal.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

We don't know for certain of course, but I believe at least one of John's guitars had the SSLs in it. Maybe they go swapped, who knows.

The Fender CS 69's I have and like, but I don't understand those who will spend $1k+ on late '60's Fender pickups, or even more baffling the '75 and later flat poles.

I have tried all manner of strat pickups and I seem to gravitate to sets that are all right around 6k and no RWRP middle

 

[PicoRiveraTele]

Re: Nice SSL-1 Comment from John Frusciante

I’ve been playing for over 50 years. When those CBS Strats came out they triggered the vintage guitar market because many of us thought those weak pickups sounded like sh#t...even if Jimi did like playing shiny new Strats.

I still don’t like them and don’t get the appeal.

That thin tone you get from an especially high resonant cut off came to be associated with 70's funk, disco and other genres that used a Strat's clean tone, and I think that era was better for it. A fatter Strat tone wouldn't have served them as well, IMO.