Guitar FAQ

  1. What guitars do you play?

    My main guitar is a Don Grosh Retro-S. This is a strat style guitar made by one of the premier builders in the US today. The body is Swamp Ash, the neck is Brazilian Rosewood. Pickups are Lindy Fralin Blues Specials. The Bridge saddles are from GraphTech. The frets are jumbo frets, but are not Dunlop brand fretwire.

    My backup is a mexican made strat with Texas Specials in it. Standard rosewood neck, and jumbo frets (in bad need of a fret job… )

  2. What strings do you use and what gauges are they?

    My current strings are GHS Boomers. The gauges are 11 15 18 26 36 46. However, I’m not entirely happy with them and am evaluating replacements. I’m looking for something along the lines of 12 16 19 38 48 58. When I find a set I like, I’ll post the details here.

  3. How does wood affect a guitar’s tone?

    All I know is that Grosh Retro-S is made from swamp ash guitar has a noticeable dip in the midrange frequency response, giving the guitar a less muddy sounding low end. Adding to that, the Brazilian rosewood neck is harder than Indian rosewood, which creates a much more sparkly, bright tone.

    Generally, the harder the wood, the brighter the tone. Softer woods have a more mellow, soft tone. I’m not an expert in this area, but I will say that I’ll probably always play a guitar with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard from now on. It’s that good.

  4. On your mexican strat, have you changed electronic and if yes, what?
    excuse my english (i’m french).

    Philippe

    There is no need to apologize for your English here. All are welcome. The Mexican strat has a replacement pickguard and a set of Fender Texas special pickups. It originally came with a humbucker in the bridge.

  5. Hello,I just bought a 62 reissue Hot Rod Strat,and recently had it set up with my favorite gauge strings 11″s(EB).Through my Fender Amp it sounds good,but when I play without the amp it has a couple areas on the fretboard that kind of buzz, and it”s driving me crazy.Is that normal and have you ever heard of this before.Your input would be greatly appreciated.Thanks

    Unfortunately this is pretty common. There’s a lot of factors that contribute to buzzing strings. The first and most obvious is string height. While it won’t fix everything, having your action set high as Stevie did will eliminate much string buzz, and will improve your ability to bend strings easily at the same time.

    The other big factor is the truss rod. If the truss rod is not allowing enough bend in the neck (towards the guitar ) the strings will also buzz as well. I suggest getting the guitar looked at by a guitar tech to see if they can fix it. I don’t know near enough about truss rod adjustments to suggest doing this yourself. From what I read, if you do this wrong you can permanently damage the guitar.

    The last factor that contributes to buzzing is uneven fret height. On cheaper guitars this can be due to poor manufacturing, but even on expensive guitars, it’s possible to have a fret that’s not seated correctly. Or especially with this style of music that involves a lot of bending, it very common for some frets to get worn down faster than others. So in some cases it may mean getting some frets replaced.

  6. I am looking at the Fender Classic Players Series 60 strat. Have you tried this guitar for blues or heard anything about it? Its either this or an older American Standard Strat in the 600 to 700$ range. My current guitar is a Reverend Flatroc, nice guitar but does not have the strat blues tone I am looking for.

    That guitar will probably sound great! But with all non-custom shop strats, you’ll eventually want to replace the pickups to get a better tone.

  7. A little more about the neck on your guitar please: Is it a 12″ radius neck and how wide at the nut?
    If so, how important do you think an srv jumbo neck is to the sound you get?
    Thanks!

    I have no idea what size the neck is on my guitar. I don’t think the neck affects the tone much, other than it’s effect on your ability to get good pressure on the strings. The size of the neck has more to do the size of your hands, so I’d opt for something that feels comfortable.

  8. What do you think about the fender champion 600? Is it going to be good enough to get a nice fender tube sound?

    The Champion 600 is a cool little amp, no doubt about it. And it will give you decent tone. The problem lies in the fact that it’s only a 6 inch speaker. When you get the amp cranked at all, it will no doubt start to sound a little paper-ish. A speaker that small just can’t give the growl necessary for good tone. But for a practice amp, it would probably be fine.

  9. Have you ever played a srv signature strat? How did you like it?Thanks!

    I have not played one yet.

  10. I don’t know where to pose this question, so I’ll pose it here. When did you begin, for lack of a better term, “feelin’ it”? After how many years of playing did you begin to become confident in what you were doing?

    I developed most of my speed in the first 4 years of playing. During the 4th year I began to polish some things I had been rough on in the previous 3 years, but only because I refused to believe that I had “arrived”. I was open to the fact that there were things I was still doing wrong, and I still paid close attention, even though I had achieved a level of skill that many people would consider satisfactory.

    Since that time, it’s been a gradual polishing of many of the finer details of the style. These kind of things you only start to hear with time. Your ears get more and more sensitive to little things and then you can work on them.

  11. I was thinking of replacing my fender stock pickups in my US std strat with some Texas specials or spending a bit more on a fender blues junior amp to replace my line 6 spider 2 amp. Which would u recommend would give me the most bang for my buck?

    Well I own a pair of Texas Specials, and they will be better than what you have, but for my money, Lindy Fralin’s are the way to go. What you’ll notice about the Fralin’s is that they are much clearer than the Texas Specials allowing you to hear more detail in your playing. Kind of hard to describe. I had to save up for a while when I got my first set of Fralins, but it was well worth the money. However they are more expensive so you have to weigh that in your decision as well. I have used the Vintage Hots, as well as the Blues Specials.

  12. I love my Gibson, and am wondering if I can use external electronics to get the fender blues tone?

    Might be kind of tough, Gibsons are a very different beast. The kind of wood used and the pickups make it hard to emulate the scooped midrange sound of the stratocaster. However, a good eq pedal might help out. Try it side by side at a music store with a strat, and see how close you can get them.

  13. Have you ever read Cutter Brandenburg’s book about his adeventures with Stevie?….I have and it was great i would recommend it

    Never heard of it until just now! Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out.

  14. I’ve got texas specials waiting to be transplanted into a strat I have on order. I want to install the texas spacials and keep the pots and wiring from the new strat. Can I keep the stock pots, or do I need to replace them with specific pots? Is there any fancy wiring or strat type switch that you would suggest installing for more versatility??

    I’ve switched pickups several times on my mexican strat and never changed the pots. However there are some creative wiring ideas for strats that can be used. Check out the Lindy Fralin website for some schematics if you’re interested. The one I have on my Grosh guitar replaces the bottom tone knob with a knob that blends the pickups. Pretty cool effect, although I don’t used it an awful lot.

  15. hey man do u like the noiseless pickups in eric claptons guitars

    I have not tried them, but I have a feeling that you pay a price for the noise reduction in terms of “bite”

  16. Are there two different types of Texas Special Pickups?

    Not that I’m aware of. I’m not a big fan of them either way, but it’s possible that Fender has two different versions.

  17. Greetings! Firstly, I LOVE the site… best instruction I’ve had in a very long time! Now I’m wondering what you think of these innovative (and scientifically correct) strings called ZOG (Zachary Optimum Gauges). Not sure if I see any 12’s for you, but the newly compensated tension for ZOG 11’s (where the gauges and tension become progressively fatter and tighter from high E to low E) might have the tone you’re looking for. …just curious as to your opinion! I’ve been thinking about getting some of these for a while now…

    http://www.zacharyguitars.com/Strings.htm

    http://www.zacharyguitars.com/Strings_Products.htm

    Thanx!

    Have not heard of them until just now. Will check them out now that I know!

  18. Hi anthony, fantastic site! I have a 57 re-issue jap strat, stock pick ups. they sound pretty good but your tone sounds amazing. I recently tried Lollar pickups in sydney (where im from) and they floored me. I even tested them against an SRV signature and a custom shop strat! Have you heard much about them or even played them? Im after a tone like yours.

    I’ve only seen them advertised in guitar magazines, never played them yet.

Comments are closed.