More and more, I realize tone is in the hands. Give the same guitar to 2 different players and it will show.
Still, I keep wondering about Stevie´s and Hendrix´s tone...
I am trying to go from a Robert Cray-type tone to a wider, warmer tone.
I have CS 60´s pickups.
What variables should I look at?
Thanks guys!

_________________
FIGHT!

Try a set of CS '54s - - it should get you in the hunt.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I know you did not ask about Billy Gibbons, but I always thought ZZ top had pretty thick warm tone and he plays with 7's. I play with 11's but I am going down to 10's soon.

_________________
My ability to spell is in direct proportion to the amount of coffee I've had.

The late John Lee Hooker put it this way in one of his last interviews: "Don't try to sound like me, sound like you." Now how you go about eventually finding that sound is what, time, tide, money, and a serious case of G.A.S. is all about. Websites like Premier Guitar provide in-depth coverage of the rigs of many prominent players. Once you've been exposed to enough of that, you'll begin to understand the impossibility of realizing some of these tones in you home space, and it may begin to temper your frustration with a reality check. Meanwhile....time for Joe Bonamassa on Paladium....again.

Keep us posted on your quest.

Doc.

_________________
"Another day in paradise!"

Thanks Mike, Matt and Doc!
I am sticking to my CS 60s pickups for now.

I wonder if I step up to 011 gauge, will it throw my intonation off?
Will I hear a difference in tone, as when going from a 090 set to a 010 set?

I realize I can´t sound like those big rigs, sitting in my room.
I am looking to warm up my strat´s tone as I save for a tube amp.
Experimenting with my picking angle is helping.

I am shooting for a nice warm tone to study jazz, yet would never use humbuckers
as they sound just plain awful to my ears.
I want to study my jazz charts with the Riviera Paradise tone!

_________________
FIGHT!

One thing that will "warm up" your tone is picking closer to the neck.

Also, there are two things on your Strat, and at least one thing on your amp that will help you get a warmer tone; they're called "Tone Knobs." Start tweaking, turn up the bass and lower the treble...put your guitar on your neck or middle pickups for solos, not just rhythms.

11's will change quite a few things about your playing style, and not all of them good. I personally used to use 11's, but my playing improved massively when I went down to 9's--I was no longer wrestling my guitar.

...and please, please don't become a Vaughan-a-bee. That great man has suffered enough without another person ripping him off. Be yourself, that's what he did!

_________________
Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Thanks Armadillo. I follow your posts.

I have tweaked my tone knobs obsessively, with good results. My pots are generous, as they don´t open up all of a sudden. I am currently switching from neck to middle along the phrases, and it´s nice and smooth.
I am using a heavy earnie ball pick. Let me switch to a dunlop in the next few days and report on that.
I sound like myself, more than anything. I have avoided copying licks and stuff, which sort of slowed down my learning, but has payed off in a way. My actual hero would be Bill Frisell, and I´ll admit I wouldn´t mind playing like he does! When he switched from SG types to Teles I became totally hooked. Anyways, I don´t have the strength to sound like Stevie, he always seemed to me to have strong farmer´s hands.

_________________
FIGHT!

If you are migrating from 9's to 11's make sure that the nut is properly cut to accommodate the heavier strings or you'll crack it.

_________________
"Another day in paradise!"

+1

The guitar will likely require a completely new set-up as well......string height and intonation, and neck relief.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Hi Matt: wow, is that right? I thought I'd heard that Billy uses 8s, but either way it is a light set - and nobody has ever complained that he gets a light tone as a result. Nor Jimmy Page or Albert King or many other skinny string users. Fat tone and fat strings are not necessarily the same thing. I think we should choose string gauge as much for how it feels under our fingers as anything else.

As to the original question: I seem to have received a PM and have replied to it. In short: I agree with what the others have said on this thread.

Cheers - C

_________________

G'day Mate!!

This string gauge came to light in an interview with his guitar tech via a Premier Guitar video. Most, if not all of his stage guitars are built as modified 'copies' of either Gibson or Gretsch models and are chambered for weight. Most surprising was the comment that a chambered neck was also in the process. Hence we have a system which yields high energy output for low energy input which is something any student of physics would certainly appreciate.

BTW: Caught you two on a replay of the Bonamassa concert last night which reminded me that nearly a year's gone by since we sat down to dinner.

Best to the missus.

Doc

PS: Yes folks....some of us do eventually get to know each other better. Highly recommend it if you can find your way to it.

_________________
"Another day in paradise!"

A chambered neck? Good grief! Never even heard of a thing like that: be fascinated to know more. My goodness, Billy's back must be giving him awful, awful pain if he's going to those lengths to cut down the ounces pulling on his shoulder.

...When is regenerative medicine going to get round to growing us new spines, or at least new discs? I happen to know there's several Forum users would like to know the answer to that! Including this one...



Ah-ha! You'll recall we were staying at the amazing two-and-a-half floor penthouse apartment on the Upper East Side of my wife's employee's mother. Unfortunately, that employee is just about to leave (moving to NY for a spell, as it happens) so I don't know if we'll have that facility available to us next time - though I'd like to think! Still, we have other old friends on East 63rd, albeit in slightly less palatial surroundings, so we're not about to become strangers to the Big Apple.

So we'll repeat that get-together sometime, Doc!

Cheers - C

EDIT: to remove "floating" apostrophe. Ugh.

_________________

[quote="Ceri...When is regenerative medicine going to get round to growing us new spines, or at least new discs? I happen to know there's several Forum user's would like to know the answer to that! Including this one...

........The latest I've heard is that neuroscientists at Columbia University have succeeded in differentiating stem cells into brains cells. Just a matter of time, I would say....the amount of which I expect that neither you nor I will have in front of us, unfortunately. Kind of a retrospective from Tranquility Base to Kitty Hawk if you get my drift.

So we'll repeat that get-together sometime, Doc!

..........the sooner the better if I don't manage to get over there first.

_________________
"Another day in paradise!"

As a completely ignorant bystander I love this regenerative stuff: it's science fiction to me.

In July scientists at London University grew a trachea which was successfully transplanted into a patient in Barcelona. They've already done corneas and bladders and other such "easy" parts. What's next?

Obviously cancerous parts and heart disease are noble targets to aim at. But all the back pain sufferers (plenty on this Forum) are wishing they'd get to spinal discs as quick as possible. Selfish of us - and millions of osteopaths around the world are hoping it won't be soon!

I hear Keith Richards is holding out for a total body transplant. And the ultimate achievement would be a personality transplant for Liam Gallagher - but that is decades away...

Cheers - C

_________________

I have a few tips for what its worth. I get a really warm tone just picking directly above the neck pickup or the 21st fret. the attack angle affects it allot also, with practice just changing the picking location from close to the neck to close to the bridge sounds like switching pickups. also playing with your fingers gives a really warm sound. cheap change is pure nickel strings with a round core that adds to the warmth.

if you end up changing pickups again I recommend the Klein 59 set http://www.kleinpickups.com/p-154-1959- ... ckups.aspx
warmest smoothest strat pickups i have ever had.

_________________