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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:24 am
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Owning a Lace Sensor Clapton Strat myself, I'm curious how much going from passive to active makes a difference.

Somestimes when I'm playing, I'll turn the tone knob to 5 and turn the MRB all the way down to get more of a Strat Plus sound out my Clapton Strat. I find the Lace Sensors don't have the same kind of response and dynamics as the pups on my '75 Strat.


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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 12:20 pm
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John Page responded with another tidbit. He has memory of the purpose of the mode switch being intended as a backup if the battery failed during a performance. He also supplied me with the name Paul 'Gogon' and thinks this person is with G&L. I've contacted them in that regard. As for the others you mention, well have to check on them one by one for their present status.

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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 2:14 pm
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ZZDoc wrote:
John Page responded with another tidbit. He has memory of the purpose of the mode switch being intended as a backup if the battery failed during a performance. He also supplied me with the name Paul 'Gogon' and thinks this person is with G&L. I've contacted them in that regard. As for the others you mention, well have to check on them one by one for their present status.


Yes, Paul Gagon is with G&L now; he's the guy who has developed the alnico versions of the ASAT Classic pickups and their P-90 pickup (they have a regular P-90 now; I'm not referring to Leo's large MFD - as far as I know the P-90 is only available as the neck pickup in the ASAT Classic Bluesboy 90 and the Fallout, plus it has been on a couple of limited run ASATs).


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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:14 pm
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John C wrote:
Yes, Paul Gagon is with G&L now....
I
Thank you, John. I put in a call to Chris Robosan at G&L. His voice mail asked to direct inquiries to their repair deparment via email. I did so, stating the question and asked would he be so kind to direct it to Paul Gagon if still employed there. Let's see what happens.

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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 2:38 am
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Prior joining the G&L roster Paul worked for Jackson/Charvel, developing pickups and active circuitry for a handful of select US-made guitars and basses.

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I was very fortunate to have met Grover Jackson around 1984. We quickly hit it off and became close friends. When my time at Fender had come to a close, it only took one phone call to my buddy Grover Jackson and I was set. Next stop, Charvel/Jackson and the ride of my life. Working with Grover at Charvel/Jackson was like strapping myself onto a rocket. Everything was moving at high speed. At any given time, some amazing guitar player would just show up to hang out at the shop and talk about guitars, amps, pickups, effects, whatever. Next thing I know, I’m designing and building a guitar switching pedal for Steve Vai, next it’s an effects rack switching bank for Vinnie Vincent, then up to San Francisco to hand deliver a custom tube guitar preamp to Neal Schon of Journey. One of the highlights of this type of crazy, high speed, life style was finding myself in a hotel room with Jeff Beck and his manager showing Jeff a new guitar-to-midi converter that we were developing under the Charvel name. I remember thinking to myself……I’m hanging out in Jeff Beck's hotel room…….how on earth did I ever get here?

There were many projects to be undertaken at Jackson. First up, design a line of guitar and bass pickups. Since I had just spent 5 years at Fender R&D working on pickup design, I had a good background to work with. That experience, coupled with tearing apart every single pickup that was on the market at the time to extract their specs, gave me a pretty good place to start. My goal was not to design what I thought was the best sounding pickup but to design what the arena of rock stars that regularly marched through the Jackson plant wanted. The needs of all these heavy metal gunslingers varied quite a bit, so we decided to make several pickup models that would cover 90% of what they wanted. I regularly carried two briefcases with me that each contained around 30 humbucking pickups. One briefcase held pickups that used alnico magnets and the other briefcase held pickups that used ceramic magnets. These pickups varied in their magnet wire gauge and number of turns. I can’t even begin to tell you how many hundreds of hours I spend soldering in pickup after pickup in countless artists' guitars to find that “Magical One."

After Grover and I had defined what our line of pickups would be, we hit the road and visited our Charvel/Jackson dealers all along the west coast from Seattle Washington to San Diego California. We conducted clinics we called “Jackson Pickups…..what you should know.” These clinics allowed music store owners to bring in their customers so they could ask us questions about how pickups work and why they sound the way they do. During this adventure, I realized just how little most players really understood about the most important part of an instrument's sound: the pickups.

The next project was a line of guitar electronics that included buffer/preamps with pickup loading controls, treble/bass boosters, and mid-boosters. These, along with the new line of pickups, were all placed under the banner of Jackson Electronics. We also made active direct boxes, signal distribution systems, tube preamps, and a 150 watt rack-mount power amp. A few of these items never went into large scale production, but they were all important to the learning process of the company just the same.

Towards the end of the eighties Charvel/Jackson merged with IMC of Texas. This merger gave me the additional assignment of developing a line of both tube and solid state amplifiers. I started by designing 50 and 100 watt tube heads that were based on early Marshall amps.These amps marketed under the banner of Jackson Amps. The solid state line of amplifiers covered the range from a 200 watt bass head, 120 watt channel switching guitar amp, and went all the way down to a tiny little 5 watt screamer. The solid state line carried the name of Charvel. Charvel amp launch at NAMM; I believe this was in '87.

By the end of 1990 it was looking like my time at Jackson was coming to a close. IMC had already pushed Grover out of the organization and since I was not willing to move my family to Texas, I was released as well.


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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 5:23 am
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chromeface wrote:
[b]Prior joining the G&L roster Paul worked for Jackson/Charvel, developing pickups and active circuitry for a handful of select US-made guitars and basses.

Sounds like a timeline consistent with Mike Eldred's tenure there making necks. Hopefully Gagon will respond. :|

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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 5:47 am
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Quote:
I’m hanging out in Jeff Beck's hotel room…….how on earth did I ever get here?


Image :D

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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2015 5:51 am
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Miami Mike wrote:
Quote:
I’m hanging out in Jeff Beck's hotel room…….how on earth did I ever get here?


Image :D

BACK STORY :?: :?: :?:

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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:37 pm
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Miami Mike wrote:
Quote:
I’m hanging out in Jeff Beck's hotel room…….how on earth did I ever get here?


Image :D


The neck pickup is a bit larger and taller than the middle & bridge pickups, the guitar appears to be heavily customized IMO.

Never seen Jeff playing a Strat with three humbuckers before. :roll:


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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:48 pm
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Interesting trivia the existence of Jackson amplification. :o

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Fender has no plans to make those amps.


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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 5:27 am
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chromeface wrote:
Image :D

Never seen Jeff playing a Strat with three humbuckers before. :roll:[/quote]


It might be THE OTHER GUY'S guitar, brought to be signed. :idea: :idea: :idea: :shock:

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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:27 am
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Is he tall? He looks tiny.


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Post subject: Re: Phase 1 Eric Clapton Stratocaster
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:09 pm
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paris wrote:
Is he tall? He looks tiny.

I saw him last year with ZZ Top, he is much smaller in stature than I was expecting. This is from sound check, you can see how he compares to the vocalist. Sorry Doc, this has nothing to do with a Phase 1 Clapton.
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