Playing quietly again...

[Lewguitar]

Did a session a couple of nights ago. I was asked to overdub some guitar on three songs that a keyboard playing, singer/songwriter had recorded with my old bassplayer. Cools songs! Kind of a bluesy/gospel "Rainy Night In Georgia" sort of thang.

I brought my silverface Princeton Reverb that Bruce modded into a mini Vox/Marshall and in which I had installed a NOS Weber C10NQ for the speaker.

I plugged in my '57 style homebrew Strat with the Duncan Antiquities, the engineer put a SM-57 right in the middle of the speaker and I moved it more towards the edge of the speaker cone when he wasn't looking, cranked that amp all the way up to 3 1/2, and went at it.

So easy to get a cool tone with this amp and the Antiquities. I was able to get cool sounding r&b chord tones and soulful double-stop slurs right out of the gate.

Then they had me overdub a bunch of solos and for that I switched to the bridge and middle combined tone using my middle Ant Surfer and bridge Ant Texas Hot Custom and got a cool bark and growl for the solos.

I just love the Antiquity Surfer/Surfer/Texas Hot combo Strat pickups...and my "Bruce-toned" Princeton Reverb amp.

So easy to get a great tone.

Only snag I ran into was hum. In this studio I could not use the neck, middle or bridge pickup by itself. I had to use either the neck/middle or bridge/middle humcancelling positions. This guy has a noisy studio with ground loops I think.

Sounded good though. Did my best Steve Cropper imitation for the rhythm tracks and my best T-Bone Walker imitation for the solos. It was fun!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Playing quietly again...

Very cool! ...all the way to three and a half huh! Any chance you'll be able to post these finished tracks when they get done??? Did you end up using the modded Silver Face or the modded Blackface??

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Playing quietly again...

too bad those gospel / R&B types don't know the glory of a cranked full stack. :smokin:

It's really hard to beat a good Strat single coil tho. Ever since I got the vintage ones working properly, i've been favoring them to the CustomCustom in the bridge...they're bigger and fatter-sounding, both clean and with overdrive...I'm gonna switch the humbucker to a Phat Cat and see if I like that better, before going back to an S/S/S pickguard...

Now that I'm so used to the sound of my vintage single coils, i'm probably doomed to use Antiquities in all future Strats for the rest of my life...

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Playing quietly again...

Very cool! ...all the way to three and a half huh! Any chance you'll be able to post these finished tracks when they get done??? Did you end up using the modded Silver Face or the modded Blackface??

Modded silverface. Bruce is still screwing around with my blackface Princeton Reverb. Why don't you bug him about it for me Christian? :cop: He takes forever sometimes when it's MY amp!

 

[JumpMarine]

Re: Playing quietly again...

So when can I post the new tunes?:naughty:

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Playing quietly again...

Now that I'm so used to the sound of my vintage single coils, i'm probably doomed to use Antiquities in all future Strats for the rest of my life...

That's it! Soon as I tried the Ant Surfer neck and middle pickups I found the tone I was looking for - the tone of the best sounding Strat I ever played: my step brother Bob's real '62 Strat. I liked it even better than my own real '63.

Since putting Ant Surfers neck and middle and Ant Texas Hot Custom Bridge pickups in my homebrew '57 Strat and my MIJ 80-something Strat I've been 100% satisfied with my Strat tone.

I never play my '63. I've thought about putting Antiquity pickups in it just so I'd play it more!

For this gig though, I would have welcomed the Classic Stack Plus set - this guy has a very hummy studio for single coils.

Lew

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Playing quietly again...

I actually do need to drop Bruce a line...I'll see what I can do! I want to see how he's coming along with the V-Lux tweaks.

I really want to hear these Mission modded PR's...I still think a PR is gonna be my newxt amp...I said that once before but ended up with that 62 Deluxe but this time Im gonna go for it I think...

On the Single Coil issue, I actually am in love wiht the tone of the plain old SSL-1's I recently dropped in my Strat...a pair of those and a SSL-5 Custom in the bridge and it's great...nice and chimey and the bridge has just enough balls to sound great alone but it's not so hot it sounds "off" with the middle pickup...truth is I put in a tapped version and have yet to tap it!

I was hung up on Alnico II strat pickups for a long time but the more I play Strats I want to get that extra top end glass...

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Playing quietly again...

I actually do need to drop Bruce a line...I'll see what I can do! I want to see how he's coming along with the V-Lux tweaks.

I really want to hear these Mission modded PR's...I still think a PR is gonna be my newxt amp...I said that once before but ended up with that 62 Deluxe but this time Im gonna go for it I think...

On the Single Coil issue, I actually am in love wiht the tone of the plain old SSL-1's I recently dropped in my Strat...a pair of those and a SSL-5 Custom in the bridge and it's great...nice and chimey and the bridge has just enough balls to sound great alone but it's not so hot it sounds "off" with the middle pickup...truth is I put in a tapped version and have yet to tap it!

I was hung up on Alnico II strat pickups for a long time but the more I play Strats I want to get that extra top end glass...

The better you get as a player, the more you learn to shape and produce a good tone with the coordination of your two hands. When you get that together, then you can use alnico 5 SSL-1's and Surfers and the like and get a cool tone with the glass on top. When I was a beginner I started off on a Fender and grew to hate it! My tone was so sharp and thin! I especially hated Telecasters - they just brought out the worst defects in my technique.

All I wanted was a Gibson with humbuckers because it made me sound better and fattened up my tone.

Well - after forty five years of playing I've sold off all of my Gibsons and Hamers and all I play are my Strats or my Tele.

But at first, it's hard to get a good tone on a single coil.

I agree about the SSL-1: I like them too. It's very similar to the Ant Surfer. But the Surfer does have more complexity and texture...and more bark.

I'm pretty much sold on the Antiquitys. Wasn't it you who told me Seymour and MJ use the same gauge wire and all on the Antiquitys, but that the wire is somehow "better" in some way?

As for the PR, it and my DR's are the best amps I've ever owned and if I lost all of my old tweeds and what not but was able to hang on to my PR's and DR's I'd be fine.

I love built in Fender spring reverb. The circuit adds gain even if the reverb is on zero. I keep it low (about 2 or 2 1/2) but I like it!

Lew

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Playing quietly again...

So when can I post the new tunes?:naughty:

We do have some new tunes. And a terrific new bass player who's become a permanent member. I dunno if I'll send you these other cuts though...I'd rather send you the stuff Sherrie and I are doing. We've got a bunch of new stuff.

Thanks for asking!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Playing quietly again...

Not sure about the wire used on the Ants...Im prett sure they use "standard" vintage spec size wire but if it's different from say an SSL-1 or APS-1 I don't know...

Ya know on the reverb bit my 2 favorite amps don't have built in verb (my Mission Super and my brown Deluxe) and even my little Ampeg Jet doesn't have it and most of the time I never miss it but every once in a while I do wish I they had it...