L
Lewguitar
Guest
Re: The Ultimate Stratocaster Tone!
Part VI:
I love the APS-2/Twangbanger tone. The APS-2 is thicker, chunkier and fuller than the Surfers...smoother and less glassy bright too. But the APS-2 has plenty of highs and also gets a very nice Mark Knopfler tone in the #2 and #4 switch positions.
The Twangbanger does have a little more bite than I prefer, and seems to dominate a little more when it's combined with the middle APS-2. So the #4 tone is very good but not quite the equal of the Surfer's or Fralin's #4 position.
The Antiquity I Texas Hots are also alnico 2, like the APS-2, but to my ears have more complexity, more personality and more of a plucky vowel like tonality.
They're Antiquitys...more complexity, more texture and more personality is what Antiquitys are all about, IMO. That's what you get for the extra money.
The Ant I Texas Hots actually sound alot like SRV's recorded tone on his rockers! Smooth treble and plucky, chewy mids...they're not ice picky or brittle at all. I'm thinking of tunes like Pride and Joy.
They don't get quite the same super clean chime he gets when he's playing Little Wing, Tin Pan Alley, Riviera Paradise, etc. tho. For that tone the Surfers are better: brighter and chimier.
I can see how some players might feel that the Texas Hots or APS-2's yield a more pleasing tone than the glassier sounding Surfers. The warm full tone SRV gets by tuning to E flat and using HUGE strings might be easier to get with a conventionally tuned, strung and set up Strat with the thicker sounding APS-2 or Texas Hots.
The only area the Texas Hots fall a little bit short in is in getting that glassy bright Buddy Guy tone he used in the 60's or that super clean chime used by Mark Knopfler or SRV when they're playing really quiet and clean. The Texas Hots will do that tone beautifully, but the alnico 5 Surfers and Fralins do it just a little better, IMO.
When my buddy AJ comes by, we'll compare his Fender Jimmie Vaughn Strat with the SSL-1's to all the rest. I've always felt that the SSL-1's I installed in his guitar sounded fabulous...almost equal to the Surfers and very similar to the Fralins.
Lew
Part VI:
I love the APS-2/Twangbanger tone. The APS-2 is thicker, chunkier and fuller than the Surfers...smoother and less glassy bright too. But the APS-2 has plenty of highs and also gets a very nice Mark Knopfler tone in the #2 and #4 switch positions.
The Twangbanger does have a little more bite than I prefer, and seems to dominate a little more when it's combined with the middle APS-2. So the #4 tone is very good but not quite the equal of the Surfer's or Fralin's #4 position.
The Antiquity I Texas Hots are also alnico 2, like the APS-2, but to my ears have more complexity, more personality and more of a plucky vowel like tonality.
They're Antiquitys...more complexity, more texture and more personality is what Antiquitys are all about, IMO. That's what you get for the extra money.
The Ant I Texas Hots actually sound alot like SRV's recorded tone on his rockers! Smooth treble and plucky, chewy mids...they're not ice picky or brittle at all. I'm thinking of tunes like Pride and Joy.
They don't get quite the same super clean chime he gets when he's playing Little Wing, Tin Pan Alley, Riviera Paradise, etc. tho. For that tone the Surfers are better: brighter and chimier.
I can see how some players might feel that the Texas Hots or APS-2's yield a more pleasing tone than the glassier sounding Surfers. The warm full tone SRV gets by tuning to E flat and using HUGE strings might be easier to get with a conventionally tuned, strung and set up Strat with the thicker sounding APS-2 or Texas Hots.
The only area the Texas Hots fall a little bit short in is in getting that glassy bright Buddy Guy tone he used in the 60's or that super clean chime used by Mark Knopfler or SRV when they're playing really quiet and clean. The Texas Hots will do that tone beautifully, but the alnico 5 Surfers and Fralins do it just a little better, IMO.
When my buddy AJ comes by, we'll compare his Fender Jimmie Vaughn Strat with the SSL-1's to all the rest. I've always felt that the SSL-1's I installed in his guitar sounded fabulous...almost equal to the Surfers and very similar to the Fralins.
Lew
