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Post subject: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 5:07 pm
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Even though Tom Scholz always played an old 1968 Gibson Les Paul w/ a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge, and (back in Boston's heyday) Barry Goudreau always played a Gibson SG, I wonder if anyone has tried to play Boston tunes on a Strat.

Here's my attempt at playing "Party" from their 2nd album (Don't Look Back). Sorry if the guitar & amp overpowers the CD on the stereo a little bit (I had the stereo speaker right near my left ear and didn't quite balance out the two sounds :oops: )



I was using that 65 watt Frontman on the gain channel, but had my tone knob on the Strat backed off a little, so it wouldn't be so harsh.


Last edited by ButchA on Sun Aug 16, 2015 5:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 5:33 pm
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OK, but let's not dismiss that Tom Scholtz was one of the wiz kids at polaroid. regardless of using a gold Les Paul I remember most importantly was the fact he designed engineered and built his own effects loops / boxes and all.

That being said .... cool

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 5:56 pm
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Yeah, you're rockin', Butch, great rendition! And yes, Boston was certainly a great band.

As for playing a Boston song on that nice looking Strat, it sounded good, and that is all that matters, IMO. Great music is great music, and in the hands of a good player, any differences in guitars vanish into the music. The guitar just becomes a matter of the player's preference.

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:13 pm
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Thanks... I was trying to emulate that classic "Boston tone" on a Strat.

Tom Scholz is a genius with electronics and engineering and things like that. He was responsible for the "Rockman" portable guitar headphone amp from back in the day. But then on the downside, he is notoriously anal and an extreme perfectionist... I mean, 8 YEARS to make an album? Seriously?!?

But the guitar tone and musicianship that they had back then. Wow! 8)


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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 11:12 pm
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My advice is to not try to mimic the sound 100% - then you might as well put on a record and mime to it.

Play it with your sound, your instruments, and dare to sound different.
Gary Pihl doesn't try to sound like Barry Goudreau, and is better for it.


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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 1:03 am
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spacewolf wrote:
Yeah, you're rockin', Butch, great rendition! And yes, Boston was certainly a great band.

As for playing a Boston song on that nice looking Strat, it sounded good, and that is all that matters, IMO. Great music is great music, and in the hands of a good player, any differences in guitars vanish into the music. The guitar just becomes a matter of the player's preference.


+1 on all counts......an outstanding job, sir.

Semper Fi!

8)

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:24 am
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ButchA wrote:
Thanks... I was trying to emulate that classic "Boston tone" on a Strat.

Tom Scholz is a genius with electronics and engineering and things like that. He was responsible for the "Rockman" portable guitar headphone amp from back in the day. But then on the downside, he is notoriously anal and an extreme perfectionist... I mean, 8 YEARS to make an album? Seriously?!?

But the guitar tone and musicianship that they had back then. Wow! 8)


Perhaps you may want to consider that playing music, recording his band and all was quite secondary to his passion of engineering, computer science and electronics. Bear in mind Scholtz was still employed at the time and that would take precedence especially in light of budgets and developmental and release timelines..

I have never met the man but I wouldn't call him anal. He is in the same mode as Steve Jobs was, Bill Gates or any inventor scientist engineer at those levels. They are type A personality with an extreme creative side and everything else takes a second seat to the defining project at hand....
BTW.... when Boston ( the album was released ) it was all analog and for some of us that recall those times ( and may still use analog in addition to digital ) editing and piecing literally bits and pieces took an enormous amount of time. If you go back and listen to the original recording, it is a multilayered sound of tracks being bounced, combined, rebounced and then combined and recorded, downloaded ( or I should say recorded ) onto one track then the whole process begins again.
The amount of times dictated by the final desired result.

8 years was really not that unusual, many other bands took years in creating and releasing recordings... All the more when Scholtz actually had a day job, which most bands don't...

Just a different view of it back then but YMMV ... :wink:

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:17 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
spacewolf wrote:
Yeah, you're rockin', Butch, great rendition! And yes, Boston was certainly a great band.

As for playing a Boston song on that nice looking Strat, it sounded good, and that is all that matters, IMO. Great music is great music, and in the hands of a good player, any differences in guitars vanish into the music. The guitar just becomes a matter of the player's preference.



+1 on all counts......an outstanding job, sir.

Semper Fi!

8)

Arjay


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ButchA wrote:
Thanks... I was trying to emulate that classic "Boston tone" on a Strat.

I don't think you will ever truly get LP tone out of a Strat, or vise versa. That is kind of like saying you are going to get Jimi Hendrix's tone with a LP - probably not happening, but could still sound great anyway. As you demonstrated, the guitar comes second, the player comes first.

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 8:27 pm
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"Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?"

You just did Butch ! and it sounds great Bro !

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Post subject: Re: Anyone play Boston tunes on a Strat?
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:53 am
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spacewolf wrote:
I don't think you will ever truly get LP tone out of a Strat, or vise versa. That is kind of like saying you are going to get Jimi Hendrix's tone with a LP - probably not happening, but could still sound great anyway. As you demonstrated, the guitar comes second, the player comes first.

I agree and disagree with that statement.

Yes, a Strat lends itself to Strat Tones, but what is a "Strat Tone"?
Buddy Holly? Hendrix? Stevie Ray Vaughan? Jimmie Vaughan? Ronnie Wood? Mark Knopler? Otis Rush?Robert Cray? Eric Clapton? Buddy Guy? Those guys all play/played (mostly) stock Stratocasters, yet they had their own distinct sound and tone (and yes, I realize amps and effects would change this as well, but several of these guys use few or no effects...)

Likewise, what's a Les Paul Tone? Billy Gibbons? Slash? (early) Freddie King? LES PAUL HIMSELF?

..listen to Bill Kirchen's long (live) rendition of "Hot Rod Lincoln"...by changing his playing technique, he effectively cops the tone of Strats, Les Pauls, SGs, 335/3455/355, hollow bodies, Mosrites and a dozen other types of guitars, all on a Telecaster.

I saw the guy in the house band at Billy Bob's Texas playing Tele-style classic country (with lots of Chicken Pickin') on a Jackson Soloist...and it sounded like Brent Mason and all those Nashville cats...on a heavy metal/shredder guitar!

I mostly play a (modded) Telecaster or a modded Stratocaster, but on a lot of our studio recordings, I used the drummer's cheap Epiphone Junior with a single P-90 in the bridge position...and guitarists will tell me how much they love my "Strat sound"!

As I stated earlier, guitars lend themselves to certain sounds and styles, but playing technique is more important...Buddy Guy on a Strat sounds suspiciously similar to Buddy Guy on a Guild or Buddy Guy on a Wide-Range Humbucker-loaded Telecaster with the big 70's Strat headstock (all of which I've seen him play live).

The same could be said of Billy Gibbons, with the wide variety of instruments he has played over the years.

The guitars had different qualities that made the overall sound a bit brighter or spankier or darker or thicker or sparklier or fatter or thinner, but the guitarist was the one that made it sound like the stereotypical "Insert Brand and Model Here".

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