What's AndyR been doing?

[AndyR]

Not a lot really

I've been lurking, watching all this amazing stuff going on, never finding time to catch up with everything, or even a tiny fraction, and feeling totally inadequate...

Then when I popped in for a lurk just now, I found Geir and Bluesberry had bumped two of mine (many thanx guys!) - made me feel really good. And then I suddenly understood why I was feeling inadequate - I can't live up to my own expectations at the moment 

I think with those two songs, I pushed the MBR about as far as I can - and it was a bit exhausting doing them. And it wasn't what I intended to do with the little box either - I was going to use it for simple multitrack demo ideas... 

I've abandoned at least two new songs in the last few months because I hit problems - they're pretty much blues-based songs, and if I still had a band they'd be easy to capture, but doing blues stuff on yer own, from scratch, is kinda difficult to pull off. No worries on those though, they're in the "bank", as it were.

So I started thinking about what got me started, and I was listening to the Beatles a lot, and the Bee Gees, and I finally did something I've been meaning to do for years - I started recording the second song I wrote, back in August, er, 1978... (I'd play number one to someone if they were sat here and they asked to hear it, but I ain't recording it!!!). I've got the guide vocal and a guide guitar down, and I've got tracks with various improvised harmonies as reference, but not much else on it so far... played it to the missus and she's going "YESS!"

Anyway, with the sudden insight earlier into what was getting me down - I know what I've got to do. Pluck up courage to finish something a little more raw than those other tunes from earlier this year - this one will probably be it - and then just post the bluddy thing! Then I won't have If we should sing together and Sooner or Later hanging over me (funnily enough, I can't even remember what the latter sounds like...)

I've been seriously tempted by the BR1600 several times, so I think I'm gonna try and spend a few months using the MBR for what I got it for in the first place - a good little songwriting and rough demo tool. If I get moving again, I'm allowed to contemplate the BR1600...

Meanwhile...

New Guitar

Geir was joking I was buying a bass... nope, "Rory Gallagher -itis" has struck big time instead. I've been listening to him non-stop, reading Gerry McAvoy's biography, etc, etc... and buying a new "old" strat...

Since the pics were taken, I've replaced the nut, the EB string tree has moved to where it ought to be, and I've had to add a GD tree as well. The Tex Mex pickups have gone into my other strat (where they sound GREAT!!) and the other strat's Bare Knuckles "Irish Tours" have moved in here - and they sound better than they did in the old strat...

Wow, wow, wow... I'm love 

[Bluesberry]

Thats a beaut Andy, what year is this?  Rory hu? I kinda got out of my last Rory phase ( I've been on a bit of a Prog-rock jag lately), but seeing and reading this is going to put me back into Rory land.  Time to pull out my strat tonight.  There is nothing like new gear to motivate you.

[AndyR]

Just been listening to your Okey-Dokey blues - the other strat with the Tex Mex's can do that tone now

Er, I forgot to say what this new one is didn't I? It's um... dated 19th June 2009 under the scratchplate

It's one of the Roadworns. I tried a 50s tele when they came out. It was a gorgeous player, but I've already got too many teles (and bought another since)... I've wanted a sunburst rosewood 60s type strat for ages, I've tried the Classic players or whatever, and they didn't quite do it...

After playing the tele earlier in the year, I knew that when I finally laid my hands on one of these I'd better know a) how I felt about the relic-side, b) how much I was prepared to pay...

I got to try one a couple of weeks ago - and it is KILLER. I played it for at least half an hour, it knew it minutes, but I had to get over the relicking... and then the shop owner came over with a deal that was better than I was expecting him to manage...

The minute I got it home, stood in front of a mirror, I realised the relicking doesn't matter to me at all - just looks "right" when I'm playing it...

[OsCKilO]

Welcome back Andy!!!!!!

[launched]

Hey Andrew - Glad to see you are still kicking around.

Those tech tips you gave us have worked wonders - Maybe you should team up with Hoop and write a weekly column! 

Anyway, great to hear from you.

Mark

[Davo]

Welcome back and NICE strat!  Thats the exact one Id get!

[AndyR]

Thanks folks

And yeah, it is a gorgeous strat. It won't be for everyone, some won't find the bigger frets to their liking, obviously some will have big issues over the relic-stuff (I've read SO much about this since the begining of the year - now I've actually got a "deliberately" aged guitar, and aged to a template at that, I've discovered it really is a case of "what's all the fuss and love/hate argument about?!!", when such a guitar's in your hands, and it's a "player" for you, you either accept what it looks like or you don't  ).

But I kinda knew when the range came out that this model "might just be the sunburst I've been waiting for"... if that's how you feel Davo, be very careful before you try one!! 

Funnily enough it's woken up my love for my other strat, which was never far away anyway, and freed it to be the strat it wants to be - more chimey, bubbly. I want two types: the chimey/bubbly "traditional strat", but most of the time I want the slightly woodier, harder, aggressive strat. My Fiesta Red Fender Japan 62 was struggling to do "both", especially with the higher powered Irish Tour pickups in - it was sounding a little too "thick". The Roadworn takes those pickups and gives me the sound in my head - the Tex Mex pickups are almost as powerful but less "thick", so the Fiesta Red loves them. By just swapping the two sets last weekend, both guitars ended up more versatile... Result! 

Only one drawback - and you might want to consider this Davo - you know there's a remake of Fame out? And on the posters there's a bloke playing a strat? Er... a week or so after getting mine, I realised the strat on that poster is this model...

I've got a guitar out of Fame - AGGGGH!!! 

[Davo]

Fame eh?   I am a reluctant Strat man-I always dug the obscure models-Jazzmasters, Toronado's, even a Jag-stang.
But Strats do what needs to be done.  They stay in tune, feel good, they dont break, and they sound GREAT. 
I know what you mean about getting all the famous strat tones outta one strat-its too varied to do it all.   As of now I have  a 50th anniversary Strat (Strat 50th, not Fender 50th) which was an odd model made for 04 only-but it has custom shop 54 pups in it and it does  wonderful vintage strat tone. Think classic surf songs.  For the other end, I have a G&L Tribute S500 which has very hi-fi sounding pups-but rolling back the bass and treble helps.

Looking at those pics is not helping my strat gas!  I love the tuners.  How was it set up out of the box? 
When I got my strat-I had issues with the string tree-I put an extra saddle spring under the tree and it cleared up the binding I was getting.

Cant wait to hear some clips of that thing.

[AndyR]

She was set with 10s with the trem active. Pretty low action. Not bad, but there was audible (not through an amp) rattle on the open D string because the nut slot was too wide. It was livable with until I tried to, er, fix it!!

I use 11s and like a higher action. I replaced the nut with a pre-cut TUSQ - that was a big improvement on open string tones actually. After that I had to add another string tree for the G/D because the G resonated behind the nut just a tad too much. Most teles/strats do to some extent, but this was audible through an amp.

When I put the heavier strings on (a couple of weeks back) I flattened the  trem, don't really use them. I didn't bother with the truss-rod, it put a slight relief on with the heavier strings, which I like... but the bluddy thing straightened out again after a few days!!

Last night night I loosened the truss just less than a quarter, let's see what it's doing tonight...

It could probably do with a pro set-up (fret-levelling etc) but it plays fine, I'd even gig it happily, so I'm going to hang fire on that for a while because with my heavier strings and highish action, I wear into frets.

The Mexican Fenders seem to go faster for me (I refretted a Baja quite quickly), so we need to see how it goes. What I'm planning is bash it hard for a few months then take it to my luthier man and we'll do what we did with the Baja - balance up the cost of possibly frequent fret-dresses (these frets'll take quite a few), or go for a refret with dunlops immediately. Whichever way it goes, it'll be "pro-set-up-and-bone-nut-etc" time at that point.

The tuners are cute aren't they? I understand they're "Pings", so cheap and cheerful, but they're doing the job fine

[Geir]

Ahh you guys shut up !!!

I've managed to keep GAS away for a while, but now, I think I'm getting SAS !!!!