Emotive Ballad - Improvisation

Initially I just wanted to swap the bridge full size humbucker on my H-S-S Stratocaster (James Tyler Variax JTV 69) for a more beefier Rhytmn and leadsound. The new bridge pup is a Seymour Duncan JB-TB4.

Pretty well known for 80s rock style music. The bridge pup can be considered as a high output pickup (16,4 kohms).

But the story then just started. I wasn't able to balance the remaining Neck and middle pickup volume wise with the new bridge humbucker (not really surprising just by considering the specs).

So I swapped the remaining neck and middle pickup too and installed two Kinman AVn69 pups: hum cancelled, surprisingly very dynamical, glassy and close to the traditional Strat sound. They clean up very nicely with the volume knob. The pickups can be adjusted pretty close to the strings without negative sound effects.

Although it is somehow an adventure to swap existing pickups with after market pickups, new pickups can be a big sound improvement for existing guitars. Therefore it is worthwhile to deal with that before buying a new guitar.

Did an improvisation with the new pups on a nice playback (jamtrackcentral.com) I have discovered during my research for new pickups. Played also a bit with fingers in the second part.

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=12560369&q=hi&newref=1

Glad to hear some feedback.

Love it Dude..

Originally Posted by: compart1Love it Dude..

Hi compart1, it gives me pleasure that you like it!

Unfortunately I am afraid my pickup swapping adventure game isn't really over.

What ever I have tried with the height adjustment of the middle pickup, I cannot bring position 2 to a good Strat quack / belling ringing tone. Didn't split the coils of the bridge humbucker so far. The former humbucker showed good position 2 Strat like sound without single coil splitting. Probably I will try another bridge fullsize humbucker (eventually a Suhr Doug Aldrich bridge pup with F-spacing).

Thanks.

Tastey...enjoyed that a lot. Thanks

Wow, this is really cool! Some really nice jazzy fusion stuff going on there that starts rockin' toward the end. Very tastefully done - wow.

The backing track is really cool...I have to check out that website.

Out of curiosity, how long have you been playing?

Just checked out other stuff you have posted up on soundclick. Some nice playing on Hotel California and Carry on My Wayward Son.

Where did you get the tracks without the guitar parts? When I started listening to Hotel California, I was shocked when Don Henley's voice kicked in with the vocals :-).

Hi, thanks for the kind feedback !

I played Bass guitar in the 70s/80s on a semiprofessional level. Guitar was always a second instrument to me, but on a very basic level. End of the 80s I sold all of my equipment. My head/heart for music was somehow gone ... I thought :-)

But I started to make music again 3-4 years ago. I found some retro musicians and I seriously started playing guitar in a Band.

Guitatricks was one of my tools to develop and progress therefore. And I still feel myself at a very early stage.

My intension for the pickup swap was that I get more rock beefiness when needed on my Stratocaster-like guitar. A good full size humbucker in the bridge can do that. But - as mentioned - the challenge is to find an appropriate pickuck configuration which fits tonally and is volume balanced.

I can recommend the the following website for guitar backing tracks:

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/

It is free of charge website. There are a lot of playbacks. Typically more from the same song. You can choose sometimes the instruments as well. Not all are good. But for practicing purposes and free of charge this is an awesome treasure box.

Apart of that there are several high quality website where you can buy tasty playbacks. Just google. You will find them.

BTW: For the recording of "Hotel California" I have choosen a free of charge guitar playback fromguitabackingtracks.com.

Thanks dudes