Never having played one, I've always wanted to try a v-neck guitar. Today I got my wish and spent a pleasant half hour with a 2012 Eric Clapton Stratocaster playing through a HRD. Comparing it to my ADStrat, I really didn't feel comfortable with the v-neck. Perhaps because it's new for me or maybe it's something else but I much rather prefer the feel of the C-shape. I also didn't particularily like the look of the 1-ply pick guard. What I REALLY loved about this guitar is the sound! Sweet!!!

Did I fall in love with the sound of the Vintage Noiseless pups or was it a combination of the pups and the Active Electronics? (BTW other than what's on the spec sheet I don't know anything about Active Electronics.) Is it possible to modify a Standard Strat to get the sound of the EC Strat without major surgery? I'm thinking swapping out the stock pups of the Standard and replacing them with what's on the EC Strat.

Thanks and cheers!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

I think you can do that. You'd have to buy the noiseless pickups plus the boost circuit and then get a tech to wire them up. You'd have to find a place for the battery for the active electronics. The EC has it underneath the rear plate. I see no reason you couldn't do it but one of the good guitar tech guys should be along to give more insight.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

You really don't need to go active to get a similar sound, your Deluxe as well as your Standard are both more than capable of getting a great wooly sound similar to Clapton...

However, your HRD is not the right amp for that, I had one which I sold a couple months back,
a Blues Junior or a Champ would be much better..( not the 600 which I also have ).

Also instead of spending $200 to $400 on swapping pups which is still probably not going to give you the sound you want unless E.C. is also loaning out his body parts..

Try this...Same Equipment that you currently have..

(1) for the HRD...a change in Tubes will drastically alter your HRD to a much warmer fuzzier amp. I'm not going to describe the procedure other than I strongly suggest buying Jeffrey Falla's book " How to Hot Rod your Fender Amp " this is the way to go about altering your sound for the better. It is extensive reading and will take some time to figure out what he is talking about, but it is very understandable and is much less expensive than to start throwing money away at switching pickups and what nots.

(2) On your Standard you could go to this web site http://www.guitarnuts.com/index.php
a lot of info as to modifying the Strat's 3 pickup configuration to other possibilities than standard.
Also replacing your tone pots to TBX's will give you a broader range...Premier Magzine's 2 part tech how to should help....
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/I ... art_1.aspx
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/I ... art_2.aspx

(3) Personally I dislike active systems, OK in a studio but live with a band or a Jam it is something that can and will go dead when you least want it to. Then changing batteries is just not a 2 second affair on the Strat...
The above will change your sound radically and still stay passive with the least amount of hassle and expense..

Good Luck...Have Fun

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

That part about changing the HRD tubes caught my interest. What would you suggest swapping them for?

Thank you for the feedback and suggestions. They're very much appreciated. I took your suggestion and ordered Jeffrey Falla's book from Amazon. (When it comes to electronics I'm not the brightest light on the tree so I'm hoping it won't be too far above my head. )

What is it about he HDR that you feel won't give that EC Strat kind of sound?

Cheers!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

It's just not that kind of an amp, the HRD'd are more of a general amp, designed to appeal to a broad range of players, much more towards the Harder Rock Heavy metal style....
It is why Fender offers a Blues Junior, a Blues Deluxe, a Blues Deville and last but not least a series of Clapton signature amps...

However I truly believe that the best way to approach a Clapton sound is to get a Champ, again not the 600 ( even though I must add I love the sound of my 600, but it took over 2 years for the amp to mature...) or a small tube amp, 15 to 25 Watts max with no effects other than Reverb and Vibrato. Run your cable straight thru to the amp. The shorter the distance your signal has to travel, the less likely it will be altered by internal circuits.
A lot of Clapton's recorded sound was with small amps driven to breakup points. Not stacks of 60 to 100 wattage, that only works in Arena's and huge venues where you need to be able to pump out the mids to the back rows...And cut thru thousands of people.

I truly believe there is way too much emphasis on chasing someone's particular sound and in the process losing one's identity and possible discoveries of their own personal sound...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Thanks again, magnatone. The models currently in production and listed on the Fender website are the Blues Junior III and the Super Champ X2. I'll check these out live next chance I get.

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

It is possible to do a EC conversion on a standard strat. I've done it.

To do it exactly like the EC you have to have a TBX pot which doesn't leave you any room to put the circuit board underneath the tone and volume pots. So after lengthening the wires on the circuit board I installed the board in the tremelo spring pocket. That means no springs, but you were going to block the bridge anyway. The battery will stick up about 1/8" but the trem cover will still fit over it.

All and all it's a pain in the $@! to do. Far easier is to get a Powerhouse body already routed for the circuit board and battery and convert that to an EC. PH strats go for ridiculously cheap on eBay and have Deluxe quality necks. I really love the tone on mine.

The TBX tone pots will give you a wide spectrum to dial in that sound, in addition changing the cap from an .82 to a .220 will increase that warm fuzzy miss sound....Go to the links I posted on Premier.com for the TBX I and II articles....

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Don't confuse the TBX with the MDX, which is the mid-boost pot. The TBX is not the boost circuit, it's a detented, stacked 250k/1 Meg control which enhances your tonal palette without the use of a battery. From 0 to 5, the TBX is your standard tone control, but once you pass 5 you start to decrease the resistance, which allows more bass, treble, presence and output to flow to your amp.

There's not necessary to swap the Ultra Quiet active circuitry from a Powerhouse, it's basically the same mid-boost circuit as the EC and BG signatures, the only differences being a no-load pot instead of the TBX and a pair of resistors reducing the gain to 12dB. To unlock the full 25dB boost, you must clip the resistors. You can keep the no-load pot and the stock pickups with the internal dummy, though I strongly recommend replacing the no-load pot with a TBX or a greasebucket circuit and drop a set of Noiseless pickups.

PS: Clapton's personal guitars have the TBX replaced with a regular tone control since March 2000 as Eric found the tone too muddy.

I played through a Vibro Champ XD this afternoon and immediately understood what 53magnatone was talking about. I didn't have to think twice before bringing that little baby home.

Sidebar: Would someone please explain how to include a label when using quotes so instead of just Quote: as we have above, we would see 53magnatone wrote: It seems eveyone knows how to do this but me. Thanks!

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

Just hit the quote on the bottom right of the post you're quoting and then, if you want just a bit of the quote, mouse over the bit you want to remove turn it blue and delete it and that should work.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Success!! Thanks Gorgon!

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?