U2 & Guitar Gear: Q & A

Originally posted by markp91:I'm not a guitar expert, but technically he isn't unplugged...he's plugged in, right?

[/ small detail that doesn't really matter ]

Originally posted by anstratdubh1979:What is this picture from? I don't remember seeing this before... cool picture.

Originally posted by WojBhoy:[..]
I wonder if they'd ever play it live on the next tour, assuming they have dates around the Xmas period...I dunno why, but I can see it acting as a segue into Streets lol...

Originally posted by Alex:[..]

Sorry, but I'd guess Mr. Page either fell for some kind of self- induced voodoo mojo placebo effect or the pickup covers from the good old days of rock and roll were made of inferior metal.

Keep in mind that guitar players and HiFi fanatics believe in almost anything that's said to improve the sound. There's a gazillion topics about overpriced sound gizmos and electronical wizardry that no one really needs.

I saw Page and Plant live on the Clarksdale tour, and though I hate to say so - the guitar sounded awful. In fact everything sounded awful, and all that was audible consisted of an overloud bass drum, screaming vocals and a mumbling layer of sound mud.

Alex

Originally posted by thechicken:
Maybe we can find a blindfol test on this issue...that would be interesting.

Originally posted by Alex:Right now I'm collecting parts to assemble another strat. When it's finished it's supposed to have a different sound character than the one I already own.

The one I have (transblue): Highway1 rosewood neck with jumbo frets, light ash body, 2-point tremolo
The one I'm gonna assemble (honey blonde): Squier Deluxe maple neck, basswood body, 2-point tremolo

I own a set of Robert Cray pickups (same as Texas specials). Two of them are right now installed in neck and mid position of my blue strat, accompanied by a SD Little59. But I also like the raw over- the top- wound modern power rock pickups of the current Highway strats. Since an ash body scoops mids while basswood pronounces it - what set would you suggest to put in which guitar? The highway pickups are very mid- pronounced while the Texas specials can get a little ear- piercing with lots of gain.

I'm also thinking about giving the Texas pickups an extra switch for a mid- and bridge- in series- sound. Has anyone of you ever tried that? And does it sound more humbucker- like? In theory, it should sound like a widely oversized humbucker.

Thanks for answering

Alex

Originally posted by Alex:Right now I'm collecting parts to assemble another strat. When it's finished it's supposed to have a different sound character than the one I already own.

The one I have (transblue): Highway1 rosewood neck with jumbo frets, light ash body, 2-point tremolo
The one I'm gonna assemble (honey blonde): Squier Deluxe maple neck, basswood body, 2-point tremolo

I own a set of Robert Cray pickups (same as Texas specials). Two of them are right now installed in neck and mid position of my blue strat, accompanied by a SD Little59. But I also like the raw over- the top- wound modern power rock pickups of the current Highway strats. Since an ash body scoops mids while basswood pronounces it - what set would you suggest to put in which guitar? The highway pickups are very mid- pronounced while the Texas specials can get a little ear- piercing with lots of gain.

I'm also thinking about giving the Texas pickups an extra switch for a mid- and bridge- in series- sound. Has anyone of you ever tried that? And does it sound more humbucker- like? In theory, it should sound like a widely oversized humbucker.

Thanks for answering

Alex

Originally posted by Alex:Technically speaking, if I wire together two normal single coils the single hums double up. But most strats use RW/RP middle pickups which are reversely wound and reversely polarized. Now if I wire a normal single coil together with an RW/RP one the two single hums nullify each other, no matter if in parallel (strat switch positions 2 and 4) or in series (that's how they invented humbuckers). But of course I must be careful not to wire anything out-of-phase which would result in a thin and useless sound. Thankfully there are a lot of guitar wiring diagrams on the internet. A series / parallel switch is often labeled as "useful", and the Fender American Deluxe strat has even got a stock switch for this. I just can't get any decent sound files and I'm curious if it could serve as a substitute for a "real" humbucker. If not I might just wire one of the strats SSH.

I posted it before: There's no wizardry in assembling a strat, it's almost like assembling IKEA furniture plus a little soldering. The trickiest part is the setup. But I really love doing all that stuff myself. If I bought a preassembled strat I'd most likely want to change pickups, pickguard, etc., so I'd have to deassembe and reassemble it anyway. On a partsocaster I can choose the parts I want to have right from the beginning; a preassembled strat has got most likely the wrong colour, the wrong pickups, etc.

Originally posted by anstratdubh1979:Nope. There are not Christmas dates. I think the REDWIRE video was for REDWIRE and not meant so much as a U2 song or U2 rendering of a Greg Lake song.

Originally posted by WojBhoy:On an unrelated note, any tips on getting feedback? I mean, Beautiful Day - how does Edge get that big whine before kicking into the chords for the chorus? And he does something similar on Vertigo, but I've never been able to work out how one a) gets feedback and b) controls it in that way.

Originally posted by Alex:The other kind of feedback is the harmonic feedback which is desired in a lot of settings. You just take a solid- body electric guitar, play a note, turn up amp volume and distortion and move the axe close to the amp. By carefully turning the guitar's volume knob up or down you can keep some control.