U2 & Guitar Gear: Q & A

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.

Originally posted by Alex:Bing! Thank you.

Your question leads us to another possible reason for someone taking the covers off his pickups.

Feedback generally comes from an electric guitar that's held close to it's own amp. The more volume and distortion you use the more feedback you get.

But there are two different kinds of feedback. One is the unwanted microphonic feedback which sounds awfully squeaky and comes either from hollow- body guitars or from unwaxed or badly waxed pickups and / or pickup covers. By removing these covers you could reduce microphonic feedback. Since Jimmy Page was well known for volume and distortion this could make perfect sense for him. If you get unwanted microphonic feedback because of your guitars hollow- body you'll have no other choice than to either accept it or to reduce gain and volume.

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.

Don't try this at home... your neighbors will be thankful.

Alex