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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 1:40 am
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You can thicken up single coils with a pickup boosting pedal.

Cara offers the Fender mid-boost circuit in the form of a stomp-box called "Claptone".


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 5:26 am
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chromeface wrote:
while maintaining single-coil clarity. Eric Clapton called it a "compressor".

Which is ironic. To my ear, compression tends to muddy the tone.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:40 am
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Funny thing; some of my amps have knobs which say "Tone". These might help. :wink:

I am being a bit facetious.

Back to the old Compressor. My limited understanding - if your highs are louder than your lows it will seem to make the highs quieter and the lows louder. This might make it sound "fatter" or (more likely in my experience) muddy. EC's famed "Woman Tone" might point towards this.

Some compressors do have many cunning knobs and switches that may, or may not, achieve compression by boosting or clipping and may throw in tone shaping. So a "Compressor" by a manufacturer might do what you want but you will only find out by trying it.

It could also be that your tone issues are due to mismatched PUP heights one to another or the angle bass to treble side.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 7:32 am
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CB91710 wrote:
chromeface wrote:
while maintaining single-coil clarity. Eric Clapton called it a "compressor".

Which is ironic. To my ear, compression tends to muddy the tone.



Indeed, but that's the point. If you play a typical SSS strat through your amp and immediately switch to a humbucker-laden classic guitar like a Les Paul, you'll have the impression that it is louder and muddier. And sometimes you need that tone.


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 7:59 am
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Sérgio wrote:
CB91710 wrote:
chromeface wrote:
while maintaining single-coil clarity. Eric Clapton called it a "compressor".

Which is ironic. To my ear, compression tends to muddy the tone.



Indeed, but that's the point. If you play a typical SSS strat through your amp and immediately switch to a humbucker-laden classic guitar like a Les Paul, you'll have the impression that it is louder and muddier. And sometimes you need that tone.


If you need it to sound like a Les Paul (and have one) why aren't you playing the Les Paul?

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 9:17 am
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John Sims wrote:
Sérgio wrote:
CB91710 wrote:
chromeface wrote:
while maintaining single-coil clarity. Eric Clapton called it a "compressor".

Which is ironic. To my ear, compression tends to muddy the tone.



Indeed, but that's the point. If you play a typical SSS strat through your amp and immediately switch to a humbucker-laden classic guitar like a Les Paul, you'll have the impression that it is louder and muddier. And sometimes you need that tone.


If you need it to sound like a Les Paul (and have one) why aren't you playing the Les Paul?



I don't have a Les Paul. Nor am I a Gibson man. I do own a Gibson SG but I don't really like it.

In the band I'm in I have to cover a lot of ground, and for most of what we do I need a guitar that "sings" more, i.e. a strat. But we do get heavy every set or two, and for those songs I need something beefier.

That said, it's much simpler to give your strat some steroids with the right pedals/settings than bringing two guitars with two different pedal rigs to the stage, n'est pas?


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:16 am
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Clapton used Gibsons exclusively until late 1969 when he made the switch to the Strat.

Active electronics weren't a fashion for Fender until 1980 when Paul Gagon was hired to develop active preamps for certain high-end guitars and basses designed by the R&D team at the time.

The story about the Eric Clapton model came as Fender supplied Clapton with a couple of Elite Strats for his Behind The Sun tour. Eric was evidently trying to emulate the woman tone he had developed in the mid-1960s with his Gibsons. He liked the boost but wanted more "compression".

Image

The folks at the R&D department replaced the Low-Z pickups with Gold Lace Sensors and a new MDX circuit offering up to 25dB of gain.


Last edited by chromeface on Sat Aug 25, 2018 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 12:33 pm
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About Clapton's Woman Tone...

http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Fe ... assic.aspx

Gibson even gives away a fully detailed "how to" pointed at... stratocasters.


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Post subject: Re: Using a compressor for thickening a Strat
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 1:08 pm
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Sérgio wrote:
Gibson even gives away a fully detailed "how to" pointed at... stratocasters.


There's no secret there......merely install a hot pickup at the neck, roll the tone control all the way back, and play through a quality tube amp.

Arjay

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