Floating Bridges

kakerlak · May 24, 2016

Walter Broes said:
The bridge pickup sitting closer to the neck is a Mike Lewis thing, he did that to the Electromatic Gretsch guitars too. (I'm a little suprised too, because Mike's a strat guy, so he obiously likes thinner and twangy)

I blame that entirely on the SRV craze of the mid-late '90s. Totally disregard all the bright, percussive Fender sounds of so many classic recordings from Buddy Holly, Otis Rush, BB King, Gatemouth Brown, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, The Beach Boys, heck, even Gibson stuff from the likes of Chuck Berry. It's all gone "fat," to the point that a lot of hack guitarists are befuddled by a nice cutting bridge tone. These are guys that don't know to leave the bass knob under "3" at all times on BF Fenders.

Walter Broes · May 24, 2016

Otis Rush, now there's a cool strat tone!

Strange though, huh? I actually like SRV. Strongly dislike the imitators/wannabes.

Cool Fender tones aplenty in the 50's and 60's. How's about René Hall on those Ritchie Valens and Chan Romero records, or that Mickey Baker "the Wildest Guitar!" record!?

kakerlak · May 24, 2016

Walter Broes said:
Otis Rush, now there's a cool strat tone!

Strange though, huh? I actually like SRV. Strongly dislike the imitators/wannabes.

Cool Fender tones aplenty in the 50's and 60's. How's about René Hall on those Ritchie Valens and Chan Romero records, or that Mickey Baker "the Wildest Guitar!" record!?

Yep, that too! When I think of the quintessential strat sound, I think of the solo in It's So Easy to Fall in Love.

parker_knoll · May 25, 2016

Walter Broes said:
Cool Fender tones aplenty in the 50's and 60's. How's about René Hall on those Ritchie Valens and Chan Romero records, or that Mickey Baker "the Wildest Guitar!" record!?

Beautiful record. It's a Jazzmaster on the cover.

Walter Broes · May 25, 2016

pretty sure that's what he's playing on the record too

kakerlak · May 25, 2016

parker_knoll said:
Beautiful record. It's a Jazzmaster on the cover.

Sometimes I think the Jazzmaster is the most "Fender"-sounding Fender of all.

Guildadelphia · May 25, 2016

If it was up to me, I'd prefer the bridge pu location on the NS X175's to conform to vintage spec's and be closer to the bridge itself; primarilly because I prefer the bigger tonal difference between the two pu's.
I have been able to compensate by keeping the bridge pu tone pot dimed and the neck pu tone pot a bit lower, but that's more of a relative fix. Volume balance between the pu's has actually not been the problem I thought it might be; with some adjustment of the pole pieces and by simply turning down the neck pu volume a hair.

kakerlak · May 25, 2016

Guildadelphia said:
If it was up to me, I'd prefer the bridge pu location on the NS X175's to conform to vintage spec's and be closer to the bridge itself; primarilly because I prefer the bigger tonal difference between the two pu's.
I have been able to compensate by keeping the bridge pu tone pot dimed and the neck pu tone pot a bit lower, but that's more of a relative fix. Volume balance between the pu's has actually not been the problem I thought it might be; with some adjustment of the pole pieces and by simply turning down the neck pu volume a hair.

If it was me, I think I'd do exactly what Walter has done and slide it as far south as it will go w/o exposing anything underneath. The mismatched pickguard notch would bug me, but, then again, Walter's figuring on swapping that out and, on a black guitar, it's less noticeable, anyway. I'm with you, though, I like a big tonal range and the middle position usually sounds more interesting when combining two such pickups. It's part of the reason I never liked SG specials (or later double-cut LP Specials) -- there's just not a lot of positional difference b/w the two pickups. Also, I really like a super bright, biting, brittle treble pickup sound on all my guitars.

Weren't we talking about floating bridges? I think this is all my fault, lol.

parker_knoll · May 25, 2016

yeah, one of the things i like about the Ric 330 is the huge gap between the pickups, leading to three really different tones

kakerlak · May 25, 2016

parker_knoll said:
yeah, one of the things i like about the Ric 330 is the huge gap between the pickups, leading to three really different tones

Part of why this oddball one-off sounds so cool, too:

parker_knoll · May 25, 2016

that looks a bit like a Guild ST

Quantum Strummer · May 25, 2016

kakerlak said:
Sometimes I think the Jazzmaster is the most "Fender"-sounding Fender of all.

I'd give the nod to this. A good 'un has bite, clarity and warmth.

I've played with guitarists fixated on low end. "Dude, we have a bass player for that."

-Dave-

Quantum Strummer · May 25, 2016

kakerlak said:
…I like a big tonal range and the middle position usually sounds more interesting when combining two such pickups. It's part of the reason I never liked SG specials (or later double-cut LP Specials) -- there's just not a lot of positional difference b/w the two pickups. Also, I really like a super bright, biting, brittle treble pickup sound on all my guitars.

Yep. My P-90 SG is a Jr. I can get a quieter, darker, more nasal alternate sound from it by rolling off vol & tone to ~6. That and flat out are all I need from a P-90.

With most dual pickup guitars I live in that "both on" zone. Even my Strat does neck + bridge (instead of neck + middle).

-Dave-

jcwu · May 25, 2016

Quantum Strummer said:
I've played with guitarists fixated on low end. "Dude, we have a bass player for that."

As a guitarist, I'm trying to get over the fixation with big bottom, and learning to work in the niche that the guitar is supposed to fill. This is what happens when you have bedroom wankers who play along to a stereo system instead of with a real band - you don't have someone there to provide the bottom, so you get used to doing it yourself.

kakerlak · May 25, 2016

parker_knoll said:
that looks a bit like a Guild ST

I suppose it does! Neat guitar -- sort of medium depth. It's a carved mahogany top, pretty thin at the sides, but about 1" thick even-depth slab in the middle to just outside the bridge posts. Lots of little custom touches, some really slick, others a little crude. It has a long, sort of ropey/bouncy resonance to it that sounds really unique (and good!). I'd like to find a tailpiece that looks a little more complementary, but not sure what would look better. It had a pointy-ended ES-175 style one on it when I first got it that looked worse! Very tempting to put a B-7 on it, but I think I need one with a long hinge-plate, which doesn't exist, plus I'm not sure how that would affect the way it vibrates.

Quantum Strummer · May 25, 2016

jcwu said:
As a guitarist, I'm trying to get over the fixation with big bottom, and learning to work in the niche that the guitar is supposed to fill. This is what happens when you have bedroom wankers who play along to a stereo system instead of with a real band…

To be fair, I have a "home" guitar sound that's darker and bigger on the bottom than my "play with others" sound. I enjoy taking up all the space.

Knowing how (and why) to adjust to the situation is something that just comes with experience.

-Dave-

The Retro Rocker · May 29, 2016

Walter Broes said:
You could do that of course, but the little screws don't really bother me :

OOOOOH!!! I want one JUST LIKE THAT!!!!

parker_knoll · May 30, 2016

Walter Broes said:
pretty sure that's what he's playing on the record too

Walter, just tried to send you an email through the site

Walter Broes · May 31, 2016

hmm..that didn't seem to have worked? Try walter.broes AT telenet.be

Walter Broes · May 31, 2016

The Retro Rocker said:
OOOOOH!!! I want one JUST LIKE THAT!!!!

Buy me that 1963 F-47 that's on Ebay now, and I'll send it to you!

Floating Bridges

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