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I'm a 335/archtop player mostly so I'm not much of a Strat player but I need to setup the one I have for fly gigs where I need a modern, convincing jazz tone. I know it can be done on Teles, so I plan to block the vibrato system and work on the position of the upper strap button for better handling (the way it is it sits so darn close to the body). I'd rather keep the pickups original - so I'd like to find out: has anyone actual stage experience with a compact boost/eq pedal of some sort that can fatten up the neck pickup enough for a decent jazz tone? Anything else to think of? Thanks a lot, guys!
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02-18-2022 12:54 PM
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I used my 95 American Standard Strat as a jazz guitar for several years with a blocked Trem, TI flatwound 12's and a Duncan 59 Humbucker in the neck position. It sounded great for jazz. I have since gone back to an unblocked trem, the stock pickup and roundwound 10's. The new setup works fine for jazz if I push the volume on the amp, roll back the volume and tone on the guitar and play with a light touch. The old setup was better for jazz, but made my Strat a one trick pony. The stock/normal setup is passable for jazz and let's me have a rock/blues tool should I need one.
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Chris Crocco uses a standard sort of strat, with heavier strings; although he has some tremolo sort of thing here, he typically does not use pedals -- just a strat!
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Originally Posted by Willy57
Were I setting up my new Strat for jazz, I would a) block the trem; b) put on 0.011s or 0.012s flatwounds (as they would have been on the guitar in 1954); c) lower the pickups nearly flush with the pickguard, and d) pretty much call it good. Actually, b) is probably sufficient, but....
As to pedals, I run a Wampler Belle in front of my Hammertone Special, as an always-on pre-amp/light OD.
Good luck!
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I could have lived happily without hearing a minute and a half of Crocco practicing scales.
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Yup, that's what I do with my Strat as well. I have a Joyo American Sound pedal that I sometimes use to boost the mids a bit, depending on the amp. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
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If I were to use a pedal for that, it'd be a Boss Ge-7 eq. Cheap and it works. Don't underestimate the pick though! Instead of changing things on the guitar, try a mellower pick, something heavier and with beveled edges. Perhaps with a bit more bass on the amp, it's enough.
Here's my strat, all standard, 10 gouge normal round strings, using a 1.5 mm d Andrea pro plec pick. Most of the tone is coming from the pick, if I use a fender medium or heavy it's back to normal electric sound! It's enough and I've gigged that setup. Still prefer a tele for that though!
I really like Chris Crocco's playing, he's quite an underrated player..Chris Crocco uses a standard sort of strat, with heavier strings; although he has some tremolo sort of thing here, he typically does not use pedals -- just a strat!Last edited by Alter; 02-18-2022 at 07:39 PM.
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Will Brahm seems to have no problem with a Strat. He might answer a comment.
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My first suggestion would be to avoid using a Blackface amp. A set of flatwounds, tone on neck pup rolled down, not off maybe between 4 and 6, and a D'Andrea Pro Plec pick.
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My experience with my Strat-ish guitar is similar. Turn up the amp, turn down the guitar volume, roll off the tone about half. Bass up on the amp, treble down (about 5 and 0 respectively with Fender amps). Pick soft whether fingerstyle or with a (darker sounding with very little pick noise) pick. I use .011 nickel roundwounds, don't really like flatwounds on anything.
I love the ergonomics of the Strat and as I get older I find it much more comfortable than my Teles. Tone is more reliable on gigs than with my archtop, which seems more sensitive to the room's characteristics. No feedback, easier to transport. Also, jazz guitar tone is not just L-5 or ES-175 ya know? We don't have to sound like that. The Strat neck pickup can sound big and full, more towards the CC/P90 end rather than the PAF end. 95% of the audience doesn't think twice about what guitar you're playing- they're just hearing what you play.
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It appears from other videos shot at the same time that he was using a Strymon Iridium pedal for this, and "Tone Specific" "1965" pickups. Originally Posted by burchyk
BTW, Since I don't pay that much attention apparently, this was the first time I've heard of Will Brahm. Wow.
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If your pickups are hum cancelling in positions 2 and 4 an easy, reversible mod is to wire those positions in series, in effect turning the coils into a humbucker. That will thicken the sound some.
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An eq will get you there. It's a simple and easy solution. Even the lil $20 Behringer works well. People seem to like the Boss 7 band. I had the Boss 10 band and thought it was really nice. I'm just using a full blown 31 band rack eq right now tho haha.
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The Joyo American Sound is a dandy device for a smooth, warm tone for jazz or whatever. Buttery! Originally Posted by John A.
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What works for me-
nylon pick/ Jazz3 red or little stubby 2mm
10-46 round wound- but not always fresh and new. I think the spankiness on the high strings goes with age. I actually regard that as a plus in my case. I want clean but mellowed attack.
amp volume up, strat volume about 7. I have a treble bleed so turning down does not change my tone much.
position 2- neck & mid
tones both at about 5.
trem is ‘stiff’ with a 4th spring and set low.
getting the B string and top E balanced without being tinny is I think the hardest part of using a stray for Jazz. Pickup height and pole adjustment play into this tuning.
regards
EMike
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This is actually my setting from last night -
If that helps at all.
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As for pedals- it’s not quite a fly rig but it’s backpack-able
the least used on this board is the analog delay. Tuner is as much a kill switch if anything. I’ll normally run either the tumnus or the pure boost. Tumnus settings are pretty mild there.
the sans amp is ‘sometimes’ swapped for a tech21 blonde but I really like the eq capability of the Para-driver, especially for the strat. Looking at those sans amp settings I was probably running into the return of a SS power amp- in this case an AER last I used it.
I put this board together during lockdown and we were using Jamulus a lot.
cheers!
EM
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Wow, a lot of interesting aspects and hints here - thanks a lot for all that input! I'll try out a lot of these and will have to focus on my touch for sure, even with .012 pure nickel roundwounds.
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Dear all, I started tinkering today with what I have on hand. I get fine results with an Express Para EQ here at home, but in the past I often found that eq-ing gives varying results in live settings, sometimes rendering it almost useless.
Then I changed the vibrato setup from four springs to five springs with tightened claw screws. That made less of a difference than I had hoped, BUT dampening the springs with a large piece of felt actually helped quite a bit - who would've thought! I guess the way I play I'll have to look into blocking with a piece of wood (thowing out the springs altogether, but still reversible) and possibly looking into some midboost pedals.
Thanx again!
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Every place we play has different acoustic properties, killing some frequencies and enhancing others. It's a challenge, but something like the Empress gives you a good shot at compensating for it. When I play in a really acoustically quiet room, I find that it's the warmth and bass that tend to go away. Originally Posted by Willy57
You can leave the springs and wedge the trem. Do a G****e image search for "Stratocaster trem block" for ideas. Maybe put in a 5th spring. Damping the springs like you did will kill their tendency to reverberate (pet peeve that reveals me to be as pedantic as I really am: Dampening vs. Damping - What's the difference? | Ask Difference).Then I changed the vibrato setup from four springs to five springs with tightened claw screws. That made less of a difference than I had hoped, BUT dampening the springs with a large piece of felt actually helped quite a bit - who would've thought! I guess the way I play I'll have to look into blocking with a piece of wood (thowing out the springs altogether, but still reversible) and possibly looking into some midboost pedals.
In the Empress you already have a midboost pedal...
Good luck. This conversation has made me dig out my Tech21 Para Driver DI to try with the bright, thin amp provided at my band's rehearsal space- even the treble roll all the way off on the amps, the sound is so bright it hurts my teeth. Going to try that Tuesday.
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A couple of useful mods I made to an American Deluxe that should also work with other models.
1) Add the following network across the volume pot between the pin that connects to the switch and ground.
This then appears across any selected pickup and tunes the resonance of a single pickup down to the typical p90 range. It also makes the response less dependent on volume setting when used with a typical 10ft lead.
The tone control works smoothly as before but the immediate drop in the high treble peak when the volume is turned down a little from max is no longer as extreme.
2) Add a shaped piece of 0.9mm copper over the pole pieces for the top two strings. This acts as a low pass filter on the magnetic signal from those strings and takes the edge off their sound, leaving the rest as before. I call this pole shading.
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Wow, that "pole shading" looks much better than the aluminum foil I've seen on Jonathan Kreisberg's ES-175 in photos.
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Thanks for that input, I'll look forward to wiring up that schematic since I've used shunt resitors with good results on some of my guitars. That pole shading looks cool also!
I had some pedals in the mail today that are able to do some sort of mid boost. Some of them were mentioned here, like the Joyo American. That one enables to dial in a nicely rounded tone but lacks a tad transparency IMO - you might get buried fast on stage.
The One Control Purple Humper pimps up those single coils nicely, but is eq-ed a bit above the 'jazz-realm'.
The TC Spark Booster is a cool, versatile booster with bass & treble controls and switchable mid charakter. The Fat Mode thickens the Strat nicely.
My personal winner is the Vahlbruch Mid Boost. If it is similar or identical to the Demeter MB-2B or the (supposedly Demeter engineered) Fender/Clapton and Tyler on-board units I have no idea, but it not only warmes up the neck pickup nicely, it also rounds out the treble and the biting attack of the Strat very effectively. In a way it is silly to turn a Fender into a Gibson of course, but this pedal does this very effectively while staying transparent I thougt. The result felt much nicer that the tone I managed to get with my Express EQ (although that is a thoroughly decent piece of gear), possibly due to the discrete construction that they claim. I'll see how far it takes me live.
Thanks again for the input, and PEACE
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Experimenting with the Tech21 Para Driver DI and my Strat, I found that it does an excellent job of fattening and warming up the sound as well as rounding off the treble. I got this years ago to try to tame an excessively bright floating pickup on an archtop and was never satisfied with it in that context. However, with the Strat it is really useful. I have it set to roll the highs off slightly and a mid boost around 500 Hz with the blend knob at 100%. Bass is flat. The drive is at 10 o'clock. It kind of approaches the Charlie Christian P90 spectrum of sound rather than a typical Stratocaster sounded (the neck pick up in this guitar is a Bill 'n' Becky Lawrence L-280, a fantastic pickup).
I am running this into an Acoustic Image Clarus 2r and Raezer's Edge 12" cab, which is not exactly the warmest sounding combination I have ever heard. The controls are flat. Very PA-ish. It works well with my archtop but has always been too bright and clear- almost clinical- with the Strat and Telecasters. With the Para Driver, the sound is still very transparent but much thicker and with a little bit of hair on it if I dig into a note or a chord. I think this would work really well on stage as it would be very audible through the rest of the band.
Thanks to this thread for inspiring me to give this a try!Last edited by Cunamara; 02-27-2022 at 03:38 AM.
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