Super Strats or a look at guitar evolution

One of the things I love about my job is how many guitar I get to see, study and fix. And talking to clients, you get a better understanding of how people's taste and choices when it comes to the guitars they like is always evolving.

Yamaha Blues Saraceno before the Setup

The 1980s Super guitar was about being seen from 5 miles away (less than that and you end up blind by a flash of red, yellow, pink, green or all the above). Necks were slimed down, fretboards became flatter, and single coils were replaced with passive higher output humbuckers or active systems. All in the name of confort and tone.

59 Les Paul - notice the wear on the edge of the fretboard.

However times change and so does taste, and guitarists started looking at the beginning of the electric guitar, the iconic models. What some years ago was old, boring and obsolete, was now the holly grail, the 1959 Les Paul, the early strats and teles.

There was something about the way they felt and sounded that people loved and looked for, helped by a very retro feel that started to overtake the music industry.

In this this day and age both the vintage and the 1980s super guitar is sought after and loved.

And a lot of builders and brands focus on building something new, taking the best parts of both worlds.

I find this truly fascinating, when you take the things you like on several guitars and build another one joining them all in one instrument.

James Tyler and John Suhr are two examples of builders that updated the strat and tele design with some modern conforts and new finishes.

The first time I played a James Tyler guitar I noticed there was something about the neck that made it incredibly comfortable and it wasn't just the shape and size, something about the way your fretting hand felt was incredibly pleasing and just made you want to play.

James Tyler Mongoose - detail of the heavily rounded fretboard

Took me a while to figure out that the fretboard edges were rolled, instead of being squared off and sharp they are rounded, allowing your fingers to wrap around the fretboard perfectly. Just like you would find on an old instrument that has been played a lot. It's simple and it makes a huge difference on your playing.

Surh Standard is thinner and more contoured than your average Strat.

John Suhr alters the shape of a strat in order to make more comfortable and uses custom wirings to shape the sound of the pickups and how their potentiometers work.

We started to look at tone in a different way, nowadays you have a huge selection of pickups not just for higher and lower outputs. You can have a humbucker that sounds like a vintage single coil, just without the hum.

Noticing the things you like in a guitar and how they influence the sound can help a lot when modifying a guitar or ordering a custom build one, but we will leave that for another post.

Photo sources:

Musicradar.com

Rocketmusic.net

Burstserial.com

post em Português 

Samick Acoustic Electric

Since many guitar players start playing on an acoustic I saw as fitting that my first posted work would be about one.

This is an acoustic electric by Samick that came to the shop, with quite a few years under her "belt" (ladies and gentleman presenting this blog's first pun).

As far as damage goes the truss rod needed some adjusting, some tuners were too loose and didn't held tuning others too tight and you almost couldn't turn them.

Frets were dirty and showing signs of wear, and the fretboard was full of grime and completely dried up and the action was too high.

Fortunately the truss rod was fine despite being a bit stiff at first, but after adjusting it worked perfectly.

The tuners needed some repair work but by the end of the setup every single one of them turned smoothly and evenly. Neck was straight and tuners were fixed. Moving on to the frets and the fretboard.

To give you a better idea of how high the action was before and after the setup I used euros coins (1 euro to be precise).

Lowering the action makes the guitar become more comfortable to play, it's easier on your fretting hand and that can help make the notes sound cleaner, and bending strings requires less effort because you are reducing the tension on the strings, which makes it easier on not only you but also the guitar neck and the top (in the case of acoustic instruments).

There are no exact measures for the action, I adjust them according to how the client wants it. It all boils down to a question of taste, technique, comfort and the sound you are looking for.

 

Frets were cleaned and micro polished. I like to leave the frets as smooth as possible, so you don't feel any friction from the fret when you bend or slide.

The fretboard was cleaned and conditioned, and i was surprised to see a quite beautiful grain and color underneath all the grime.

The biggest surprise about this guitar to me was the electric part. It's a passive system by Shadow with a piezo per string, a volume and tone pot. The pickup worked really well in this guitar, the amplified sound is natural and full, none of the thin, harsh highs you get with some piezo pickups. 

The tone pot works well too, never gets muddy and if used carefully can't be quite useful to get rid of excessive highs. 

In this picture you can see the pickup and the wear and tear of the saddles (before I got to work on them).

post em Português 

Jay Guitar Blogging

This is the Jay Guitar Meddling blog, a guitar repair and mod Shop.

This blog was created to share the work I do and the instruments that come through these doors, and also anything else (about guitars, of course) that i find interesting; fun trivia, profiles on rare and unusual guitars, tips on buying second-hand instruments, and so on.

Hope you find it interesting and useful.

 Jay

 post em Português