A Real Blues Guitarslinger

ZZDoc · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:53 pm

[quote="mondo500"]On the subject of Clapton always sounding like Clapton

Interesting observations you pass along. That pedal, I believe, is by Bradshaw and gives him some real time control over effects. There are some special characteristics to amps he uses, and the EQ on those has never been made public to my knowledge.

As I said of Gilmour once...."we know the ingredients, but not the recipe".
As for the hands that do the mixing...well....your observations are short, but well to the point.

Doc :wink:

nikininja · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:06 pm

Lomitus's point is a good one. They played the instrument, they didnt rely on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNoPNC3ebYQ
Modern day bluesman with nothing but a wrecked guitar a cheapo vox modelling amp and a right foot.

ZZDoc · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:26 pm

nikininja wrote:

Lomitus's point is a good one. They played the instrument, they didnt rely on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNoPNC3ebYQ
Modern day bluesman with nothing but a wrecked guitar a cheapo vox modelling amp and a right foot.

Excellent illustration, and point well taken. I give it a second.

Doc

nikininja · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:30 pm

I stand corrected, a left foot.

lomitus · **Joined:** Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:01 pm **Posts:** 1598

mondo500 wrote:

There were no pedals... a solitary footswitch which I did not see him use at all.

That's kind of interesting. I had seen him here in Cleveland a good 10 years or so ago and he had actually had a few pedals on stage at that time. I had noticed it because just before the concert, his tech had to change the battery in his wah pedal! LOL!!! Just goes to show how even the famous folks change their setups from time to time.

This does of course bring up another interesting observation. Sound (tone) is of course a subjective thing to begin with...what sounds good to one person may suck to someone else. That said, the sound you hear at a "concert" is even more so. I don't know about other places around the world but here in Cleveland, when you are at a concert with anywhere from 30,000 to 80,000 people (or more), most of the sound you hear isn't really coming from the stage, it's coming thru the PA system...otherwise you wouldn't hear much. As such, that sound is controlled and "processed" at the mixing console by a professional sound engineer...and that engineer is going to be balancing things to create a good over-all mix for the given venue. It's really not the same sound you would hear if you were in a room with "just Clapton and his guitar and amp". While my comment above obviously holds true, in this kind of environment, it's doubly so...Clapton could be playing an $80 "Strat" with a First Act amp from Target or Walmart and he would still sound great at that concert! LOL!!! Between his playing and the people who run the sound, you probably wouldn't hear -any- difference at all. Obviously that's not the case, but it easily could be. Let's face it, Clapton can play -any- guitar he wants...and probably does. In his case before the concert he could simply have said "gee...I feel like playing the blue one tonight", LOL!!!!!! Wouldn't really matter to 99% of the people there...the only folks that really notice things like that are us other guitar players

.

mondo500 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 08, 2009 8:52 pm

zzdoc... I've never really looked into Clapton's setup; when I saw that one switch sitting there I thought that he must have consolidated everything somehow and that he'd be using it throughout the evening. From my bird's-eye view behind him, though, I could see that he didn't touch it for the whole show. The other guitarist (Doyle Bramhall II, it turns out) had a fair-sized collection of pedals that he wasn't afraid to use.

There was a man sitting behind the drum riser with a bank of assorted devices... he would have been invisible from the front. I guess it's possible that he was somehow connected with Clapton's sound. If so, I'm going down to the crossroads and getting me an effects homunculus!

Archer993 · **Joined:** Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:05 pm **Posts:** 16

mondo500 wrote:

zzdoc... I've never really looked into Clapton's setup; when I saw that one switch sitting there I thought that he must have consolidated everything somehow and that he'd be using it throughout the evening. From my bird's-eye view behind him, though, I could see that he didn't touch it for the whole show. The other guitarist (Doyle Bramhall II, it turns out) had a fair-sized collection of pedals that he wasn't afraid to use.

There was a man sitting behind the drum riser with a bank of assorted devices... he would have been invisible from the front. I guess it's possible that he was somehow connected with Clapton's sound. If so, I'm going down to the crossroads and getting me an effects homunculus!

Yes, quite possibly EC has someone make changes for him. I know I would if I we him - except a wah-wah of course.

ZZDoc · **Posted:** Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:08 am

[quote="mondo500"]zzdoc... The pedal may control the Leslie when he needs it. That usually comes into use only for 'Badge'.

The man behind the curtain............ may be Lee Dickson.

Doc :wink:

strat58cat · **Joined:** Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:02 pm **Posts:** 718

I've got Custom Shop Tx Spcs that I like a lot. They sound great clean with tone at 9, decent quack in the mixed settings, which are also noiseless. Tons of character. For an exceptional Texas Blues tone with gain on a blues junior around 11-11 1/2 and the fat switch in, tone knobs at 3, switch in the neck, when they get a wicked tubular tone that does have something of SRV in it. The reason I upgraded the p'ups is because I had the stock (upgrade) Highway One p'ups, which have their own decent tone, and I wanted a classic Fender tone. If I had original '57 spec pickups I probably would not have changed. You may want to consider just buying another Strat with different tone, because you may miss that '57 tone.

baliman1 · **Joined:** Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:14 am **Posts:** 459

zzdoc wrote:

The man behind the curtain............ may be Lee Dickson.

Doc :wink:

Finally found out what the Wizards name is.... after all these years !!

cwpainter · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:02 pm

snoprom8 wrote:

lomitus wrote:

Brett wrote:

Hi to all, I'm sittin' here reading the forum, taking in all the great advice and comments people have, I've been toying with the idea of modifying my '57 RI strat, and the thought occured to me, what would a real blues guitarslinger do to a stock '57? I'd like to think that Fender copied the original '57 when they made mine, (1986 in the corona factory I think)
Would that person back in '57 change pickups for hotter ones, different frets, I'm curious to know what you all think,
-thanks to all, Brett

I just want to toss a couple more thoughts out here for ya to consider.

First as has already been stated, there weren't a lot of mods back then for any guitar really. It wasn't like it is today where you can walk into a Guitar Center and buy/order hotter pickups or anything. Typically with a guitar (Fender or otherwise) you got what you got and you played it. There is another facet of this topic though that hasn't been discussed here....back then, particularly in regards to a "blues guitarist", it wasn't about the equipment, it was about the music. A lot of the "legends" today like BB King, Muddy Waters, etc., started out from -very- humble beginnings. I remember seeing an interview with BB once where he said "in the old days" they would take the wire off of a broom, string it between 2 nails and use the neck of a glass bottle as a slide (ever wonder where the term "bottle neck slide" came from?)...that's how these guys made music. These guys weren't worried about "achieving the perfect tone" like some many people are today....many of them were simply happy to even have a guitar to play! Some guys today get sooooo obsessed about tone that "playing music" comes second.

As I've said a great many times in the past now, so much of your sound comes from your fingers and your heart...not the gear you choose to play. Eric Clapton would still sound like Eric Clapton regardless of whether he was playing a Strat, a Gibson (which he has used in the past) or even a $200 instrument...he sounds like Eric Clapton because he -is- Eric Clapton. If you want to sound like Eric Clapton, you don't really need a Strat and a Marshall, you need to learn to play like Clapton...the gear is just the icing on the cake.

Hey, I'm a gear-head too and I love tinkering with my guitars as much as the next guy (probably more actually). Normally I'll be the first guy to say "if you don't like something on your guitar, change it". When it comes to blues though...real blues like you've insinuated, it's really not about the guitar or the amp or how any of it is hot rodded or modded or configured, it's about playing your heart out and expressing yourself. If you can do that on a reasonably nice guitar, so much the better but that's not the point.

I really wouldn't worry about getting "Tex/Mex" pups or their top shelf counter parts or anything else...if you are really looking to dig into the blues and you already have a nice guitar, just play dude.

Just some thoughts to consider.
Jim

VERY VERY VERY WELL SAID........I agree withyou 100%..........

Me too.. I completely agree.

Archer993 · **Joined:** Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:05 pm **Posts:** 16

Just watched the 1st 5 songs from Cream at the Royal Albert Hall gig they did a few years back. EC has a bank of pedals in front of him. Sounds outstanding. Those guys can still play - gives us old farts hope!

cvilleira · **Posted:** Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:59 pm

Handwound Vintage 50's or the Dallas Blues pickups they sell.
http://www.kleinpickups.com/p-46-vintag ... r-set.aspx

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