I'm with you, I may just have to hang up my Heavy Metal edition mint green Danelectro with inverted stock for that one

YES

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

I agree that Gibson seems to cover the spectrum of HM and Rock, but you might want to check out the Clapton Strat or a HWY 1 Strat with the Hum bucker in the Bridge. I own a Clapton Strat and it is the most versatile guitar I own. I can get normal Strat tones, or Very Heavy sounds. I own a HW1 too, and it has some pretty hot pickups. Both guitars have great sustain and tone. The Clapton’s strength are pickups (lace sensors which are almost noiseless). The HWY 1 has hot pickups and big fat frets, which are great for sustain. Don't forget you can also buy a Strat and customize it. Fenders were always made to be personalized. Make your own personal monster and have fun. I've made 2 home made guitars and I love them.

I hope this helps.

Paris

If you really want that Clapton strat to utterly annihilate everything in its path, put a dimarzio fs1 or 2 in the bridge position then turn your midboost up full.

It's a stupidly thick sound.

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No no and no

But then it wouldn't really be a "Clapton Strat" anymore would it? After spending the ridiculous amount of coin necessary to procure such a guitar, I'm not sure changing stuff is a good idea (though it could always be changed back).

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Of course it's a good idea.

The bridge pickup on clapton guitars is particularly useless in my experience. The mid boost doesnt do anything for it either.
Mine currently sports a FS2 in the bridge, a SCN in the middle and a Vintage noiseless in the neck. Can get a good sound out of every position.
The bridge position is used on the Tush cover on our myspace page.

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No no and no

Ceri check out the post in the Mike Eldred room -Building an artist Signature from Scratch. G uess Shreddin was not a player of extraordinary magnitude.lol

Niki could not agree more about the DiMarzio Fast Tracks as I have had them in my 62 reissue Tele for ages and they can really bring it.

I know most guys are content with Strats and Teles that are made today, but persobally I would love to see something new built from the ground up with humbuckers that was like nothing we have ever seen just from the perspective of someone that loves guitars..

Sometimes I do not think that people realize how significant SRV was for not just the Blues but for Fender as the music was totally revived and there were great bills with Stevie, Clapton, Raiit, Cray, Guy, BB, Albert, Jimmy V, Gary Moore, Albert Collins, and many others that kept the Strats and Teles selling off the shelf and not have to worry what the Hair Bands and Shredders were playing. Musically it was a great time that kind of dissolved with the death of SRV.

So a lot of popular models that were developed by other companies with major in put on the design by the artist and are hit guitars today like the EBMM EVH, Peavey Wolfgang, Jackson Rhoades, Ibanez Jem, Dean Dimebag, and a host of others did not come from Fender as they still had all time greats playing there classics. Gibson can thank Slash personally for making it cool to play a Les Paul with the young crowd again.

The only difference is that you have the slick Super Strats made from a Generation of players a good decade and more younger than Fender Though I have let it be known I am not a big fan of John Mayers playing , instead of the Black One what if Fender would of let him create his own guitar. From a business standpoint it may have been a smarted move. After all this is still a business.