Once again, I find myself working a fifty hour weeks in a job I have little love for the summer. Why you might ask? Well, that comes down to my fanatical quest for great tone, and my addiction to expensive equipment. For the last for years I've been slowly building my dream rig, and I feel that I'm nearing it's completion, and my perfect tone.
The first matter to address are some modifications I feel I need to carry out on my two Strats. The first Strat is a 1991 Hank Marvin signiture model (maple fretboard, alder I think, but quite possibly basswood) made by Fender Japan, which was an absolutely beautiful guitar until it was butchered. I had a luthier refret the guitar a few years ago, specifically asking for rounded, jumbo frets and for the neck laquer not to be touched. He decided I wanted small, square frets with terrible fretwork (I've cut myself on these frets, not kidding) and the neck to be relaquered (without ever stripping the original laquer, mind) in a thick, sticky horrible laquer. I'm having luthier whose work I've been impressed by strip the laquer, relaquer with a thin nitro finish, refret twith the frets I wanted and install some parts (including a new bridge) from Callaham Guitars.
I also want to take out the Duncan Hotrails I have installed in the guitar. I've very complicated and versatile switching system in this guitar, but I don't really need (or want) all that versatility anymore. I'm looking to install some pickups with a much more classic sound wih great cleans and
classic strat blues/rock lead tones. I came across the Kinman Hank Marvin set, and I'm thinking this is a marragie that might make sense, but if you've any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
My second Strat is a 2002 USA Standard, which I quite like. The two post bridge is awful (it's machined so badly that it's impossible to set it flush against the body to maximise resonance), so I've been thinking about installing a Gotoh 520 TS FE1 bridge (does anybody know if this is a straight retrofit?), aving the neck laquer stripped and sealed with tung oil and having it refretted (the medium jumbos are ok, but I like big frets...)
The only thing I really hate about this guitar are the stock pickups, which are well, ****e. SO these need to be replaced too. Now I'm still looking fora vintage styled tone with the properties I described about, but I'd like it to be noticeably different from the Marvin Strat. Here I've been looking mainly at the Fralin pickups and the Suhr pickups, and using a Suhr backplate to cancel the hum (which requires that the middle pickup not be reverse wound or reverse polarity to the neck and bridge). I'm thinking either the Fralin Real 54s or a set of Suhr Fletcher-Landaus, but I'm still not entirely sure. Again, your input would be hugely appreciated.
We then come to effects. When I was buying my Cornford Hellcat (beautiful amp, sooo responsive) last year I sold all the effects I had (multifx and some Boss rubbish, nothing I'll miss), so for the last year I've been playing completely naked (you guys have filthy minds...) except for the amps reverb and my B.K. Butler Tube Driver.
I'm looking to add some pedals into my rig to give some different flavours. Specifically, delay, chorus, overdrive(s), fuzz and if I can find the right one, wah. While I know quite a bit about tone, I know bugger all about effects, so please help here.
For chorus, I've been looking mainly at the TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/Flanger and the Fulltone ChoralFlange. The only real requirement is that it sound very organic and natural.
For delay, I'm pretty sure that I'll get an EHX Deluxe Memory Man and a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo, and use the two of them in that order.
For ODs, I've been looking at the Jetter Gain Stages, specifally Red and Blue. I'd like something that gives a Dumble-ish tone, but I'll consider any pedals you guys recommend. I use ODs more to "colour" the tone instead of to add gain, since I usually just roll up the volume knob for that.
The fuzz I've been looking at is the AnalogMan NKT-275 Sundial (lowgain). I'm looking for a nice, smooth fuzz that cleans up well and is very responsie to playing.
Then there's wah. I like wah, I just hate every wah I've tried, which is the entire Crybaby range, both Voxes and the Morleys. The Teese RMCs look promising, as does the Budda BudWah. Think classic, this won't be used for very high gain applications.
Well, I lied above. I do know one thing about pedals, which is why I didn't use them before. Signal degradation, noise and power issues. I think that if I'm going to invest this much on great effects, I really should also invest in some kind of bypass switching system for them. Then I found out about the GigRig Pro-14, and I must say, this seems like it could solve alot of problems for using multiple effects.
As some of you know, I have a "do it right" as opposed to "do it cheap" attitude (which you might have guess by the above information) so don't be too worried about price. What I would like you guys to consider though is that there is no possible way that I can try before I buy where I live, it's just not possible.
In order of importance my purchases will be
1. Smaller amp (decided), Strat modifications.
2. Chorus, Delay, ODs and Fuzz.
3. Wah, switching system.
My favourite tones would include David Gilmour,
Scott Henderson, Carl Verheyen and of course, Eric Johnson.
