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Post subject: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 8:37 am
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Friends, I could use your help here.

For some reasons I‘m gonna have to take my red Strat on a couple of road trips and it doesn’t have a delta tone system, i.e. no tone control for the bridge pickup. I don’t have any problems with my other strat, with the delta tone on 8 and using a Proco RAT.

Last night I rehearsed with the band and it sounded thin and shrill through the Marshall stack we are using at the studio.

Well, I have a BOSS CS3 and will give it another try. I often read people saying they use compressors to beef up single coils and I myself never liked the results.

What settings do you recommend to thicken the bridge sound and adding some sustain?


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 9:55 am
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A compressor does nothing to "beef up" single coils.
It simply squeezes the existing signal into a narrower dynamic range.
It functions in ways that have nothing to do with what you want.
Different universe.
What you want is some kind of tone shaping, not dynamic control.

Dynamic control may interact with some kinds of effects in a way that may seem like it's providing beef but it's not really the compression that's doing it.
It's those other effects that are doing it when they react with the compression.
That's most likely the source of the misinformation you've been given.
Someone may have misunderstood what was happening and gave you false information.

What you need is an EQ pedal.
Place it last in your pedal chain and use it for final tone shaping before going into the amp.

Or a clean boost pedal; one that accentuates the signal the way you want it to.
They're not all the same so don't just go out and buy any old clean booster.
Lots of them are quite the opposite and are little more than treble boosters.
I use the Xotic EP-Booster for the kind of duty you want.

Some OD pedals can also be of assistance.
Set the drive to zero and adjust the volume and tone to suit.
If you don't have much time to figure out which OD pedals can work for you then I suggest either the EQ or the EP.

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Last edited by BMW-KTM on Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:00 am
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Well, I’ve seen many people swear by compressors to do that, though I myself never did. I never got good results. So maybe you’re right indeed.


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:01 am
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I edited my post with a little more info.
It addresses what you just said.
See 2nd paragraph

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:06 am
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Boss EQ pedal will do exactly what you want. I used to have one and it gave nice shape to the tone.


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:08 am
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I have worked on the exact issue you're dealing with for many years.
My final solution was two-fold.
Different pickups (Fralin Steel Pole 42) and the EP-Booster.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:50 am
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My main issue is exactly not wanting to change Pickups.


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 12:51 pm
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Have you thought about adding one small piece of wire in the selector switch of that red Strat? Either connecting the bridge pickup to Tone2 together with the mid pickup, or to Tone1, so the tone works for either the neck or bridge pickup? Some even leave either the mid or neck pickup without a tone pot...


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:52 pm
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jmattis wrote:
Some even leave either the mid or neck pickup without a tone pot...

My American Special is wired this way. No tone on the middle pickup. Works well for me because I rarely use the middle by itself.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 1:54 pm
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That’s what I said, my other strat came wired like that, it’s Fender’s Delta Tone system.

This one I’m dealing with is wired the traditional way and I don’t really want to mod it...


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 2:38 pm
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Sérgio wrote:
My main issue is exactly not wanting to change Pickups.

Then I'd say the EQ pedal is your best bet.
Remember to place it last in your signal chain before going into the amp.
Most pedals and particularly OD/Dist pedals will colour your EQ.
Placing it last will let you correct for that.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 4:29 pm
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Sérgio wrote:
This one I’m dealing with is wired the traditional way and I don’t really want to mod it...


Why not?

:?
It's not like you own the Mona Lisa and have decided to paint a mustache on her. It's a garden-variety Strat, a bread-and-butter model that'll never be worth more than you paid for it.

:mrgreen:
Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 5:19 pm
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Yup... and Fender has wired Strats all 3 ways from the factory.
No tone on the bridge is most common, but some are also jumpered to wire in the bridge with the neck.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:50 pm
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Over the years Fender developed a mid-boost circuit which fattens up single-coils.

Image

The intent of the TBX/MDX circuitry was to achieve a humbucker tone while maintaining single-coil clarity. Eric Clapton called it a "compressor".


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:54 pm
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Sérgio wrote:
That’s what I said, my other strat came wired like that, it’s Fender’s Delta Tone system.

This one I’m dealing with is wired the traditional way and I don’t really want to mod it...

The Delta Tone does have the tone wired for the bridge pickup, but actually the 'great invention' with the DT was to use a no-load tone pot and a higher output bridge pickup. If you play with the tone on 8, the no-load pot is exactly similar to a regular pot.
(BTW, there are plenty of Strat models without a DT but with tone control on the bridge pickup.)

And on the modding, it's really not a biggie; a fully reversible installment of less than an inch of wire.
But it's your rig, if you prefer the comp/EQ way then go for it.
And: none of the choices may result in the 'beefier' you're looking for, if the actual difference between the two Strats is the bridge pickup...


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