Pick up wiring

[David Martin]

David, "nothing" surprises me anymore regarding guitarsound diffrentces.....
I have two slabboard strats from 1960 just a couple of months apart and they sound so diffrent...it must be the color the high bell like sounding one is F red and the warm/dark sounding one is a D Blue one the later is just 100 gram heavier and has slightly fatter neck...
Your 40th anniversary Marvin is one of a very early or pre series made, Hank and Bruce just both had two so maybe the one you own was number 5 that was made...maybe the specs are a little different from the later series? Bodiewood etc is maybe closer to wards the more valuable Legend then the later series?
I bought two 40th AHM no 61 and 62 and I gave 61 to a friend,but both sounded more to wards a strat comparing my real Marvin......
Later I bought a GB made Marvin in greenburts just for the color and the correct neckpocket and I was pleasantly surprised how well build it was comparing with the 40th and surten the original 65....
The sound of the greenburst was nearly the same as the 65 only louder.
I understand your wish to own an original,but David it isn't the holly grail either...I think I handle between 25 and 50 original Marvins... at one time 7 in one room they all differ..... bodies where smaller and larger,scrolls,scratsplate ...the lot.
Buildquality was not special.....
3999 GBP ouch I paid 720 GBP in 88 for mine.....
Most are raving about the Apache Burns as top notch,but sorry I don't fancy one...also the Shadows Custom...is not on my list....
I could buy them in a jiffy if I want, but something is holding me back... call me oldfasioned or so but a Marvin should be white or greenburst and a rosewoodboard neck etc....
The 50th Shadstrat you bought, well you know my collection and again something is holding me back on that also...not the price but mostly the one that always must be obeyed ....the power inside said " you have already 9 red guitars"
Not really ...I played Apache (acoustically) on the original 34346 and direct after arriving home I grabbed my aug 58 f red and it didn't feel any diffrent...
I don't know if you listen to my Happy Birthday soundfile (more than 200 downloads, not one comment)you can hear the old girl on the left channel and soundwise it's in the same ballpark....IMHO

Over to you David

Yep... I'll go with you on all of that Rob... and the ones that aren't on your list for the same reasons - with the exception of the CRS '59. I don't think - as a players' guitar - it's better than my 50th Anniversary Masterbuilt Strat in two tone sunburst. They are both on a par though slightly different tone wise. The big plus for me is The Shads connection which encapsulates all the memories I have of my early days playing, plus the fact that it's an exact replica of 34346, AND it's a a great guitar to play... and I was lucky enough to have Hank, Brian, and Bruce sign the backplate in Nottingham at the start of the tour. So it's very special for me, and when I can't play any more, that's the one I'll keep...

(As to value, the 40th Anniversary Hank Signature Strat was £5000 ten years ago, was not Masterbuilt, and generally speaking, was not well made. You need to be very careful buying one. CRS '59 is also £5000 ... so given ten years' price rises, Oasis are giving us very much better value than The Flying Pig all those years ago...)

I too have played one or two original Marvins and wasn't exactly blown away, but if the right one came along, I could always sell a guitar or two to fund it...

Very best wishes

D

[ernie1958]

Sorry Ernie, but 36-24-36 is a middle pickup tune... no mods on Hank's early Strats.

Are you sure about that David...what you say also came into mind so I tried that and found out it wasn't the sound I heard on 36-24-36.
After engaging the bridge/neck pickup combo I was like:"now there you have it!" Unless my ears are deceiving me,then I'll have to disagree
with you Dave.Or maybe Hank played this tune on a Jazzmaster? I know Bruce played one for quite a while....

Cheers,
Ernie

[David Martin]

Yes... I'm sure...

[b rankin]

have got fender strat plus with gold lace sensor pu. is it worth changing the wiring so i could have neck & bridge pickups at once?

thanks

[David Martin]

Only if you want a sound similar to a Tele mid position...

[b rankin]

just wanted to get that modern hank sound/tone

[cockroach]

Interesting- I have found that there is a very similar tone when comparing the "neck + bridge" setting with just using the middle pickup alone.

To make them as close as possible, you need to do some amp tone control tweaking- when using just the middle pickup use lots of bass and treble and little or no middle on the amp, or when using both front+ rear pickups add middle to the amp settings.

When playing Buddy Holly stuff, I think he also used that sound often- but as David said, Strats in Buddy's era and Hank's early period only had the 3 settings available- one pickup at a time- allegedly because Leo Fender didn't like the sound of two pickups combined together- although Leo did say that they used 3 position switches because that's all that was available from suppliers back then..and Fender Strats didn't get 5 position switches fitted until the mid-late '70's

I agree about the need for a very versatile guitar with a large tone range- especially for live work or studio playing when you have a wide ranging repertoire of styles to cover.

About 10 years ago, I had a Godin LGX- which not only had two coil tappable humbuckers with 10 setting or tone options from a 5 way switch and push/pull tone control, but also an acoustic piezo bridge pickup with a graphic EQ setup- you could go from acoustic rhythm to electric solo sound with a flick of a switch...

Very difficult and fiddly to operate on stage when singing and playing lead/rhythm though- after getting what I thought was my ideal all around guitar, I was a bit disappointed and disillusioned- I just use a simple Squier Tele nowadays and get the tone from my hands.....

[Bluesnote]

Interesting what you said about the not fitting of five-ways til later. I had a my first Strat early seventies with a three-way fitted and was quite happy with that til another guitarist showed me how to balance the switch in between the first and second or the second and third position to get this, what I thought at the time amazing new sound out the guitar. Troube was, if you were'nt careful it could jump off this position when you were playing and competely change your tone mid song. It was'nt long after that that they came fitted as standard with five- ways.

[cockroach]

Yes, I remember hearing somewhere about that balancing trick with the switch back in the '60's- I first tried it on an old Strat in a music shop in about 1967 or so- and I could then get those thin hollow sounds which Jimi Hendrix got on his first LP (I think one of the songs with that sound was "Wait 'til Tomorrow") and which similar tone Mark Knpfler used about 10 or 12 years later- and since then everybody uses it with the 5 way switches. It was novel at first, but it''s a bit done to death now...

Like a lot of sounds that become trendy, then get flogged to death- the distortion effects for example- everything has been "fuzzed up" and "dirty" for 40 odd years now- difficult to get an amp with a good clean natural sound from the 'clean" channel nowadays...of course, when the Shads were big- around 1960-63, everyone playing guitar HAD to have a tape-echo unit and preferably a Fender of some sort with a vibrato arm....and a clean sound!!

Mind you, a lot of us would have killed back in the mid-late '60's, to have the gear commonly available these days- press a button and instantly sound like Clapton etc...it very hard for the average low-paid lad to get those sounds back then- Gibson Les Pauls and Marshalls were out of the price range then too....

[Bluesnote]

Yeah I remember thinking it a great idea to get rid of the old AC 30 to get one of those new fancy non-valve transistorised 100 watt marshalls distortion channel at the click of a footswitch to get myself up to date in the equipment world. Bye bye clean sound forever, I got the shock of my life when I realised what I'd done. The Vox just could'nt cope with the volume levels of the time so I thought it a great idea to up the decibles, what a crap decision that was I've never had that clean sound since. I sometimes think of getting an AC 30 again but they are so costly now, and it'd probably never leave my room, and really they are meant for gigging and not to be used in a small room at notch one or two volume.