Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everyone.

Okay, been getting back into playing electric again after a long hiatus. Always loved both strats and LP's, but I've usually leaned more on the LP because I know how to make them sound like I want them to. Unfortunately, I've never been able to quite nail down that punchy, hollow sound from a strat like I've always heard in my head.
Enter this video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BjvG6kHhBM

I'm asking you all to listen past the inherent "brightness" of the sound in the clip. What I'm after is that punch, that hollow, ringing sound... and that slight compression as the gain is turned up. *THAT'S* what I'm hearing in my head and I just can't seem to get out of my old "Tex-Mex" stratocaster.

Having virtually no experience with strats compared to Les Pauls, I've got a few questions.
1) Body wood. Can anyone venture a guess as to whether this type of sound comes from Alder or is it Swamp Ash?
2) Is the slight compression I hear at the peak volumes a function of the pickups, a limiting device, the active electronics, or the PA system?
3) It sounds like the tone control is non existant for the pickups-- like each pickup has the sound of the bridge pickup-- it doesn't suffer like the other 2 pickups with tone controls seem to.


Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts? It's driving me NUTS because I can't replicate what I'm hearing in my head now that I know it can be achieved.

John

I strongly suspect that what you are appreciating is part of the way a tube rectified amp works.
In a tube rectified amp, the power supply voltage drops momentarily when the amplifier draws more current, causing a momentary drop in power output, resulting in a slight compression envelope at the beginning of the note, and producing that "pop" or what I believe you are calling that punch and hollow sound.
A tube rectified amp sounds COMPLETELY different than a silicone diode, or solid state rectified amp.
Also, that compression you get as the gain is turned up is caused by power tube distortion, which sounds completely different from that preamp gain, or any distortion pedal out there including tube screamers or tube anything in pedal form, really.
Put together, the effect on tone can be quite staggering.
Being a bluesman from the sixties, I'm guessing Clapton has an old Twin Reverb, or similar repro, or an amp based on that design.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Hey John buddy - don't know here beyond the obvious that Clapton is well, you know...., Clapton among other names that he has been called that were spray painted on London building walls... But I wanted to bump this thread for you just the same.

John, what amp are you plugged into?

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Aoibeann

Try Googling Clapton's strat or going to the Fender website. I'm not enough of a fan to know what kind of pickups he's using but IIRC he's got a mid boost circuit.

Thanks for the replies. I suspected the tube amp issue, but I actually play vintage Fender amps and that type of compression starts with increasing the volume, but his guitar sounds more like a humbucker at the higher volumes and higher midboost. I wonder if these Vintage Noiseless pickups are *technically* humbuckers (i.e., can they have a dummy coil?). I really suspect that's what I'm hearing-- extremely dense body wood, bone nut, vintage noiseless pickups, and midboost... but I *really* think that what I'm heraing comes from an extremely bright body wood. Gotta figure out if that's alder or ash.

kind of confused here. do you mean your guitar doesn't vary with changing the pickup selector switch?
strats are wired, from what i remember, is 1 vol, 1 tone for fretboard pup, 1 tone for mid pup.
total rainbow of tone possibilities there.
you should hear major differences.
that's why i like the strat.
when you say "compression", what do you mean? to me it is when all the notes sound the same volume, safe.
with tube amps, they are very dynamic, meaning play hard, gets out of control sometimes, like an errant too loud note.
you might have some stacked hot humbuckers in there, that sound like humbuckers, which to me aren't very hi-fi.
try some vintage style strat pups, with around a 7kohm range.
stew mac sells emg passive ones, s2 or something?
my pup of choice.
good luck tone monkey.
alan