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the real Duke Spinner

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I see the ubiquitous, crappy NS-10s and some Westlakes...

 

I wish they would have told the cost of one of the consoles. Would have been interesting. I have a pdf of a great interview with Rupert Neve that I posted a long time ago. Really, really interesting.

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My black strat started life as an affinity series HSS that I got from a coworker for about $25.92051698_871049803520_4142645009537040384_n.thumb.jpg.4569a1ae3e22ed6f92697dcd94cd45b6.jpg

 

 

The neck was really narrow at the nut and the stock pickups/wiring weren't the best so I did some surgery.

I used the neck off of an old Korean Squier II.

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And a new anodized gold pickguard and and some Fender custom shop Texas Special pickups and Creme plastics.

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The frets needed a bit of work so I did a level/crown/polish job and they turned out pretty nice.

Here's a before pic,

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A pleasant evening running the Weller and the pickguard was loaded up and ready to go.

I wired it up with a single volume and tone with the third pot as a 250k blend between the neck and bridge.

It can almost get into Tele territory this way.

No icky plastic wire here, just the superior sounding cloth pushback wire...

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And here she is all put together.

Sounds great and plays well, not bad for a pile of parts.

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14 minutes ago, captainbeefheart said:

'Eloise' is my only guitar as of late that I play. She is a Collings Soco Deluxe and very versatile even though I mainly play Jazz it does blues and rock very well. It plays and sounds as good as it looks.

 

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That is an absolutely gorgeous take on the single cut body style.

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Everyone needs a strat in their collection!! 

 

I ended up with Seymour Duncan Alnico II pups in my American Standard with rosewood fretboard. The electronics in a Strat is very important IMHO. I almost went with the Seymour Duncan Texas Hot versions similar to the Fender pups you are using. I also installed original bumblebee tone capacitors that I have a bunch of. They are the hermetically sealed versions and test great.

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14 minutes ago, captainbeefheart said:

Everyone needs a strat in their collection!! 

 

I ended up with Seymour Duncan Alnico II pups in my American Standard with rosewood fretboard. The electronics in a Strat is very important IMHO. I almost went with the Seymour Duncan Texas Hot versions similar to the Fender pups you are using. I also installed original bumblebee tone capacitors that I have a bunch of. They are the hermetically sealed versions and test great.

The TS pickups actually came in my other strat when I got it.

I wanted it to have a more traditional sound and swapped in a Fender “American Original” ‘57/‘62 set.

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29 minutes ago, Invidiosulus said:

I wanted it to have a more traditional sound and swapped in a Fender “American Original” ‘57/‘62 set.

 

Bingo! That's why I went with the Alnico II magnet versions because that was the type used in early pups. They have a different B-H curve compared to Ferrite magnets. I am not certain if the Fender 'American Original' 57/62 set is of the same magnet type but that's what I found to be the closest to getting the vintage Strat tone.

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41 minutes ago, captainbeefheart said:

 

Bingo! That's why I went with the Alnico II magnet versions because that was the type used in early pups. They have a different B-H curve compared to Ferrite magnets. I am not certain if the Fender 'American Original' 57/62 set is of the same magnet type but that's what I found to be the closest to getting the vintage Strat tone.

Yep.
 

Formvar wire, beveled AlNiCo 5 pole pieces on the 57/62 on the left.

 

Enamel wire and unbeveled AlNiCo 5 poles on the Texas Special on the right. The TS are overwound a bit as well.

 

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22 minutes ago, Invidiosulus said:

Formvar wire, beveled AlNiCo 5 pole pieces on the 57/62 on the left.

 

Enamel wire and unbeveled AlNiCo 5 poles on the Texas Special on the right. The TS are overwound a bit as well.

 

Very nice!!

 

I think most of us want as much copper on the bobbin as possible or 'overwound' as it gets us more inductance and a hotter output. I don't think I have ever heard anyone ask for 'underwound' pups.

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I have a 1994 Japanese Fender Tele 52 reissue.  A wonderful instrument, I bought it new in 1994, it was an exhibit at the Frankfurt Music Fair. The wood and build quality are very very good, the guitar sings. Only the pick ups are not really good. I have long thought about what to choose. In the end the decision was for slightly overwound Fralin pick ups. Not too much overwound because then the tone loses some timbre and belliness. Personally, I don't like it when everything becomes so mid-tone strong. Just like in the 70's when Dimarzio dominated the scene and all humbucker guitars with Dimarzios had the same tone.

For the same reason I love my Eric Clapton Lespaul Beano, a Gibson copy of his 1960 guitar with a slim neck. The PAFs are wound a little less and that's what gives this Lespaul a very transparent tone with nice highs. Loud enough this Lespaul is still.

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3 hours ago, captainbeefheart said:

'Eloise' is my only guitar as of late that I play. She is a Collings Soco Deluxe and very versatile even though I mainly play Jazz it does blues and rock very well. It plays and sounds as good as it looks.

 

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A very nice guitar, CBM. Does she have a sustain block like an ES335?

BTW she reminds me on the relatively small Guitars, Pat Martino (RIP) used to play…he is one of my all time Role models on the jazz guitar.

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1 hour ago, captainbeefheart said:

I think most of us want as much copper on the bobbin as possible or 'overwound' as it gets us more inductance and a hotter output. I don't think I have ever heard anyone ask for 'underwound' pups.

I may be that one exception. To my ear, lower impedance pickups sound more clear. I don't look for anything "underwound", but gravitate to those with impedance values close to the pickups of the 50s and 60s.

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1 hour ago, KT88 said:

I have a 1994 Japanese Fender Tele 52 reissue.  A wonderful instrument, I bought it new in 1994, it was an exhibit at the Frankfurt Music Fair. The wood and build quality are very very good, the guitar sings. Only the pick ups are not really good. I have long thought about what to choose. In the end the decision was for slightly overwound Fralin pick ups. Not too much overwound because then the tone loses some timbre and belliness. Personally, I don't like it when everything becomes so mid-tone strong. Just like in the 70's when Dimarzio dominated the scene and all humbucker guitars with Dimarzios had the same tone.

For the same reason I love my Eric Clapton Lespaul Beano, a Gibson copy of his 1960 guitar with a slim neck. The PAFs are wound a little less and that's what gives this Lespaul a very transparent tone with nice highs. Loud enough this Lespaul is still.

Try some P'ups by Dylan

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1 minute ago, the real Duke Spinner said:

PS I still run s Larry DiMwtzio Super Distortion in a 1971 LPDeluxe

My little brother has a cheap epiphone LP that I put some pretty hot Dimarzio's in before I gave it to him, an Air Norton in the neck and a Steve's Special at the bridge.

 

I went a little milder for my next humbucker setup with an Dimarzio Air Zone and a PAF Pro.

I still have those two pickups actually.

They've been in 1/2 dozen guitars at this point.

I just need to figure out where they are going next.

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The "Pink" Stratocaster

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Burgundy Mist Metallic

Upon its inception in 1959, this color (DuPont 2936-L) was also used on Buick cars under the name Lido Lavender and on Pontiac cars as Royal Amethyst. From 1965 the Burgundy Mist name was again used by GM for Buick and Oldsmobile cars, albeit with distinct paint codes (DuPont4624-LH and 5063-LH).

 

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This one is a c.2001 Fender Classic Series 60's Strat.

 

When I bought it back in 2020 the previous owner had hacked in the aforementioned Texas Special pickups.

I wanted something a little more vintage sounding and installed the (also aforementioned) Fender Original '57/'62 pickup set.

I also added the period correct aluminum shield under the pickguard - paramagnetism or something...

 

I originally wanted(still do actually) a shell pink strat but this one dropped into my lap at a very reasonable price and the color has really grown on me and is the one that gets played the most.

 

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