Pickup / Fingerboard wood question for SoloEtte / John Stowell Track
moobinsikau
but before ordering I would need your help:
On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbVqJFLXgl4
Johns Stowell is playing a Soloette (some sort of Dragonfly or an
earlier model ?) but not with the standard EMG pickus. Has anybody an
idea what pickup he could be using for this track "I wish" ? Just have
a look and listen. Thats exactly the sound I would be like to get.
Second question: The Dragonfly is available with Ebony or Bloodwood
fingerborad/Neck. Which one is more benficial to the sound as
demonstrated on the Stowell track ?
I very much would appreciate your valuable expertise - and thak you
for everybody who recommended SoloEtte as a Traveller Guitar in the
first place.
sut
Hi!
John played in germany a week ago and I had the pleasure to jam with
him.
What an inspiration the guy is !
I played on his Soloette and of course we talked also a lot about
guitars( he loved my Sadowsky semi hollow) His SoloEtte has an
DiMarzio pickup and a piezo in the bridge.
He uses very little from the piezo. The DiMarzio has a lot of output.
He did'nt mention the name of the pickup but I am sure The tone knob
is rolled down quite a bit.
The neck of his guitar is made from graphite.I think the fingerboard
too( not sure though) . The graphite neck though is not available
anymore because the luthier stopped collaborating with the company
that made the neck. But IMO a wooden neck will sound very similar.
I have never seen a guitar with an action that low, too. Since not
very long John uses a set of Thomastik flat wounds gauge 10(!!!).
This guitar seems to be more than just a traveller guitar. It plays
and sounds really great.
hope this helps
Chris
TD
Funny you should ask that. My answer is "I don't know", but I sat in
with John several months back here in NYC and that guitar you speak
about spooked me to death. Looked like something out of the movie, The
Fly. The complete antithesis of John who is a sweetheart and very
creative player.
-TD
Marc Why
will sound like that on any setup. Check out his videos playing solo
with the Soloway -- a very different instrument than the Soloette! --
and he sounds like John. Not that the instruments don't bring their
individual qualities, I believe they do, but John just sounds like
John to me (which is brilliant) on this video.
If the original poster is needing a travel guitar, I think the
Soloette is a great option (although a bit expensive). If you want to
sound more like John . . . .. . well ...
Enjoy the guitar,
Marc
Jim Soloway
with him on both some recording and an instrument:
First, his guitars are almost unplayable but anyone but him. He uses
light strings, very low action and no relief in the neck. He gets
away with this because his touch is absurdly light. My touch is very
light and I found that it buzzed like crazy when I played it. When
someone with a more natural touch plays it, it will just sound like a
sitar.
Second, because his touch is so light, he produces very little natural
volume from the instrument. He compensates for that by using very hot
pickups. When we built that guitar for him, he went through a
succession of pickup, each hotter than the one before. I believe he
ended up with a DiMarzio Air Zone. In most hands, those pickups are
way too hot. They'll overdrive the pre-amp and kill the clean
headroom. So my suggestion is that unless you're prepared to play
with an equally light touch, don't bother using his pickups and pick
something capable of responding to your own playing with a lot clarity
and brightness. Which pickups those are will depend on how you play
but there are lots of candidates.
Marc Why
Marc
moobinsikau
Thank you Jim for this info !
I have contacted John directly as well and he answered me back telling
me about the Airzone. What a nice guy. Unfortunately his SoloEtte is a
custom model with an RMC Piezo in addition which I most porbaly would
not be able to acquire from Wright Guitars.
But I do have a very light touch, too. From what I read on the net an
Airzone might just be what I need (maybe even for my Sadowsky Semi
Hollow) at least an Airzone might just fit btter than an EMG for the
SoloEttte. I do use 10" gauge Sadowsky Alloy 52 on the SH and
D'Addario 10" on my Godin. Action is set to something 1.3mm treble
side and the Godin does not "sitar" yet (cannot be attested to the
Sadowsky though - needs maybe a nice litte bit of Pleking). The
SoloEtte is really needed for travel (in the first place) but this
seems to be a real versatile guitar. WIll get in touch with them soon.
....and thanks for everybody for adressing my question. What a helpful
and knowlegeable group this is here !
I wish everybody much joy with their music !
Mike
Tim McNamara
<3d0953dc-8c70-4a32...@g1g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
Jim Soloway <j...@jimsoloway.com> wrote:
There is some very excellent advice in here, which is to use the guitar,
pickups, amp, etc. that works for *you* and not what works for someone
else- however famous and great they are.
Ditto playing approaches (key center, chord-scale, etc.).
Ditto picking approaches ("Benson" picking, Travis picking, classical
style, alternate picking, economy picking, sweep picking, yikes).
You can be inspired to try something, certainly, and if it works for you
that's great. But don't tie yourself in knots trying to make something
work for you just because A. Famous Guitarist uses it. Way too many of
us get caught up in trying to be our heroes and it takes along time to
unlearn that stuff when we finally become ourselves.
moobinsikau
> In article
> <3d0953dc-8c70-4a32-a971-d5789d655...@g1g2000pra.googlegroups.com>,
>
> - Zitierten Text anzeigen -
Thanks for your comments.
I am very well aware of that. I would never try to sound or play like
someone else - even if I do not play well. This does not mean however
that I will not admire somebody or learn from someone. But I play the
way I like myself and what I like. I definitely like songs of Pierre
Bensusan which I adopt for the electric guitar for example. I like the
Pat Metheny sound. And Ton van Bergeyk or Leonardo Amuedo (very nice
sound). And of course I am looking around and discover things I like
or dont like. I am very interested to learn about those. But "Benson"
picking ? In this case I do not even need to know what that is. And I
am playing guitar for appr. 40 years (some longer breaks included).
richar...@hotmail.com
You probably have all of the information to your question but here are it is anyway. John uses a DiMarzio Air Zone in the neck and an RMC Piezo. With a blend knob, he uses about 80-85% of neck and 15% of the RMC Piezo. His guitar has a graphite neck from Moses which aren't available anymore unfortunately. His strings are Thomastik kf-110 flatwounds. Hope this helps.
paul s
> Here a few thoughts about John's sound/playing based on having worked with him on both some recording and an instrument:First, his guitars are almost unplayable but anyone but him. He uses light strings, very low action and no relief in the neck. He gets away with this because his touch is absurdly light. My touch is very light and I found that it buzzed like crazy when I played it. When someone with a more natural touch plays it, it will just sound like a sitar.Second, because his touch is so light, he produces very little natural volume from the instrument. He compensates for that by using very hot pickups. When we built that guitar for him, he went through a succession of pickup, each hotter than the one before. I believe he ended up with a DiMarzio Air Zone. In most hands, those pickups are way too hot. They'll overdrive the pre-amp and kill the clean headroom. So my suggestion is that unless you're prepared to play with an equally light touch, don't bother using his pickups and pick something capable of responding to your own playing with a lot clarity and brightness. Which pickups those are will depend on how you play but there are lots of candidates.
--------
Yep. I bought a guitar from John and was surprised by the low action, light strings, etc. This was a Cort Steinberger-style guitar. The bridge pickup had been removed and the neck pickup was replaced with a Bartolini (active). I think the strings on it when I got it were 09's. I liked it, but never got 100% comfortable with it, I have a heavier touch.
Paul S
RS
wrote:
>John Stowell Soloette:
> His guitar has a graphite neck from Moses which aren't available
> anymore unfortunately.
way--no flex, no danger of warping, no loss of vibration (great
sustain). But I found graphite to be acoustically inert in a bad
way-- rather hard-sounding with clinical bass and ping-y sounding high
end. By contrast though, I love Travis Bean guitars with solid
aluminum necks (well, actually channeled, under the fretboard).
wereoawl
news:b156acee-3d46-413d...@googlegroups.com...