Strats: Difference between revisions
From Allan Holdsworth Information Center
Created page with "==Any Key In The U.K. (Unknown publication 1978)== What guitar are you using with U.K.? Basically I’m using a '''Strat'''. It’s got DiMarzio PAF pickups now. Before..." |
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To aid him in this search for his own musical identity Allan had already bought himself a '''Strat''', which became his first proper guitar. After that he bought an SG Standard, and kept it until he moved down to London at the invitation of sax-player Ray Warleigh, who had come across Allan in a Mecca band working in Sunderland. "About six months passed, still doing the Mecca gig, until I couldn’t stand it any more, and I called him and asked if his offer still stood. And he said yes. So that’s when I moved to London, and just a few months after that I joined Tempest." | To aid him in this search for his own musical identity Allan had already bought himself a '''Strat''', which became his first proper guitar. After that he bought an SG Standard, and kept it until he moved down to London at the invitation of sax-player Ray Warleigh, who had come across Allan in a Mecca band working in Sunderland. "About six months passed, still doing the Mecca gig, until I couldn’t stand it any more, and I called him and asked if his offer still stood. And he said yes. So that’s when I moved to London, and just a few months after that I joined Tempest." | ||
His playing style, nevertheless, is hard to pin down in words. It veers from almost heavy metal in the chords to light and ethereal in the solos, interspersed with runs so lightning fast he makes John McLaughlin look like a sleepwalker. But he can do that, and, knowing he can do it, doesn’t feel constrained to | His playing style, nevertheless, is hard to pin down in words. It veers from almost heavy metal in the chords to light and ethereal in the solos, interspersed with runs so lightning fast he makes John McLaughlin look like a sleepwalker. But he can do that, and, knowing he can do it, doesn’t feel constrained to demonstrate the ability at every opportunity, whether it’s appropriate or not. So what is it that makes him different from the legions of other jazz-rock guitarists? Again, hard to say. But a lot of it has to do with his use of the tremolo arm on his customized Fender '''Strat'''. | ||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (Beat Instrumental 1979)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Beat Instrumental 1979)]]== | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitar Player 1980)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitar Player 1980)]]== | ||
Allan’s second guitar was a Hofner f-hole acoustic, which he played through a 15-watt amp. In a year’s time he progressed beyond that guitar’s capabilities and talked his parents into buying him a Fender ''' | Allan’s second guitar was a Hofner f-hole acoustic, which he played through a 15-watt amp. In a year’s time he progressed beyond that guitar’s capabilities and talked his parents into buying him a Fender '''Stratocaster'''. Within six months he sold the '''Strat''' and bought a cherry Gibson SG Standard, which he later replaced with a SG custom played through a Vox AC-30. | ||
==[[Holdsworth & Co. A New Side Of Allan’s Music. (Guitar 1980)]]== | ==[[Holdsworth & Co. A New Side Of Allan’s Music. (Guitar 1980)]]== | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (International Musician 1981)]]== | ||
ALAN: As far as guitars go I prefer the Fender tone and characteristics but I don’t like weedy, metallic sounding pickups. I think Leo Fender is a genius but I like PAF pickups. I’m trying one of his new G&L guitars at the moment and they’re very hot. The guitar I’m using is a 1970’s Fender ''' | ALAN: As far as guitars go I prefer the Fender tone and characteristics but I don’t like weedy, metallic sounding pickups. I think Leo Fender is a genius but I like PAF pickups. I’m trying one of his new G&L guitars at the moment and they’re very hot. The guitar I’m using is a 1970’s Fender '''Stratocaster''' that’s been modified. I enjoy experimenting with modular guitars and I do all of my own electronics. The neck of the '''Strat''' I had custom built because I like wide necks, but unfortunately it still wasn’t wide enough at the top when I got it back so I had it bound to give it extra width. The neck has an ebony fingerboard. | ||
The pickups are DiMarzio. They’ve just sent me a pair with black tops because I complained that the cream tops didn’t match the whole scratchplate too well. Those people are very good to me. The pickups were especially wound and I’m going to put them in another ''' | The pickups are DiMarzio. They’ve just sent me a pair with black tops because I complained that the cream tops didn’t match the whole scratchplate too well. Those people are very good to me. The pickups were especially wound and I’m going to put them in another '''Stratocaster''' eventually. | ||
How have you modified your '''Strat'''? | How have you modified your '''Strat'''? | ||
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Having exhausted the always intriguing topic of Holdsworth’s technique - a subject, by the way, that bores him to tears - we move on hurriedly to the area of guitars and related equipment. This also induces instant boredom for our protagonist and, skipping the genealogy of his guitars (which includes a Hofner acoustic, Gibson SG Standard, Gibson SG Custom and Fender '''Strat''' in roughly that order), we jump to the latest. | Having exhausted the always intriguing topic of Holdsworth’s technique - a subject, by the way, that bores him to tears - we move on hurriedly to the area of guitars and related equipment. This also induces instant boredom for our protagonist and, skipping the genealogy of his guitars (which includes a Hofner acoustic, Gibson SG Standard, Gibson SG Custom and Fender '''Strat''' in roughly that order), we jump to the latest. | ||
"I have two working Fender '''Strat'''s and one that’s just being finished off. They’re all made from various combinations of necks and bodies which I can’t remember at the moment, although one’s made from all DiMarzio parts and pickups. I use DiMarzio PAF’s on everything, in fact they just sent me some nice black ones, because I have a white guitar and the cream-colored ones didn’t match. All my fingerboards are ebony [he has them flattened also] except for this last one which has a maple fingerboard. It’s different but I’m gettin’ used to it. I’ve been experimenting with different body woods and I’ve formed some definite theories about how they affect the sound but I want to check them out before I embarrass myself. I’m still using the same amps - [Norlin Lab Series for chording and Hartley-Thompson for soloing-the latter only available in U.K.] and the same basic effects [MXR Noise Gate/Line Driver, various volume pedals, discrete echo from the studio board]. It’s just that everything sounds so much better no w and I get so | "I have two working Fender '''Strat'''s and one that’s just being finished off. They’re all made from various combinations of necks and bodies which I can’t remember at the moment, although one’s made from all DiMarzio parts and pickups. I use DiMarzio PAF’s on everything, in fact they just sent me some nice black ones, because I have a white guitar and the cream-colored ones didn’t match. All my fingerboards are ebony [he has them flattened also] except for this last one which has a maple fingerboard. It’s different but I’m gettin’ used to it. I’ve been experimenting with different body woods and I’ve formed some definite theories about how they affect the sound but I want to check them out before I embarrass myself. I’m still using the same amps - [Norlin Lab Series for chording and Hartley-Thompson for soloing-the latter only available in U.K.] and the same basic effects [MXR Noise Gate/Line Driver, various volume pedals, discrete echo from the studio board]. It’s just that everything sounds so much better no w and I get so frustrated because I want to put some of these noises on tape." | ||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitar Player 1982)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitar Player 1982)]]== | ||
Why did you switch from ''' | Why did you switch from '''Stratocaster'''s to Charvel guitars? | ||
I was really lucky, because just before I sold my ''' | I was really lucky, because just before I sold my '''Stratocaster''', I met [Charvel Luthier/designer] Grover Jackson in London. We went out for a few beers and he was willing to listen to ideas I had about certain woods, whereas a lot of other people wouldn’t. They’d say "you can’t make a guitar from this wood or that wood." But Grover listened to everything, and made three '''Strat'''-style guitars from various woods. Also I had the necks made wider at the fingerboard end. I hate the Fender string spacing. | ||
Why’s that? | Why’s that? | ||
Fender’s overall string spacing is wider than Gibson’s, but at the same time Gibson’s necks are wider than Fender’s. It’s absolute madness. I had Grover make the necks wide at the top [near the headstock] like Gibsons, and about 2 1/4" wide at the body end of the neck. So that means there’s a good 1/8" on either side of the outer strings, which is really nice. The strings used to really fly off the edges of the ''' | Fender’s overall string spacing is wider than Gibson’s, but at the same time Gibson’s necks are wider than Fender’s. It’s absolute madness. I had Grover make the necks wide at the top [near the headstock] like Gibsons, and about 2 1/4" wide at the body end of the neck. So that means there’s a good 1/8" on either side of the outer strings, which is really nice. The strings used to really fly off the edges of the '''Stratocaster'''s. I’m really happy with the guitars Grover made. They’re the best guitars I’ve ever owned. | ||
What kinds of woods were employed in their construction? | What kinds of woods were employed in their construction? | ||
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No, actually the basswood’s the lightest. The Jelutong and the spruce are about the same, which is probably about the same as alder or something like that. The spruce one sounds stiffer, or harder. Very quick. I wanted to find a real resonant wood, and spruce is often used for the tops of acoustic guitars. I didn’t believe the normal stories that said, "the heavier the better for a solid guitar." And I’ve never believed that. Most of the old guitars I’ve ever played -- the good ones -- have been at least half the weight of their modern equivalents. If you feel the weight of an old '''Strat''' or an old Les Paul, it seems to weigh much less than a new one. The wood gives so much to the sound, just like in an acoustic guitar, whereas if the body is really heavy, it just sort of soaks the sound up, and you’re left with a string talking down to the pickup. Then you’d might as well have a concrete body or build it into the ground. I really like when a guitar feels as if it’s got some sort of acoustic thing going for it. | No, actually the basswood’s the lightest. The Jelutong and the spruce are about the same, which is probably about the same as alder or something like that. The spruce one sounds stiffer, or harder. Very quick. I wanted to find a real resonant wood, and spruce is often used for the tops of acoustic guitars. I didn’t believe the normal stories that said, "the heavier the better for a solid guitar." And I’ve never believed that. Most of the old guitars I’ve ever played -- the good ones -- have been at least half the weight of their modern equivalents. If you feel the weight of an old '''Strat''' or an old Les Paul, it seems to weigh much less than a new one. The wood gives so much to the sound, just like in an acoustic guitar, whereas if the body is really heavy, it just sort of soaks the sound up, and you’re left with a string talking down to the pickup. Then you’d might as well have a concrete body or build it into the ground. I really like when a guitar feels as if it’s got some sort of acoustic thing going for it. | ||
How does switching over from, say, an SG to a ''' | How does switching over from, say, an SG to a '''Stratocaster''' affect your playing? | ||
Well, I’ve always had more difficulty playing a '''Strat''' than a Gibson: The scale length is slightly longer, and originally I didn’t have flat fingerboards on my '''Strat'''s, so they just felt generally more cumbersome. Also, it seems that because the strings on the old Gibson just sort of lay on the bridge, you could have an extremely low action, and if you had string rattle it wouldn’t show up through the amp. On the Fender, though, because the bridge situation is so precise and so clean, any rattles you’ve got show up through the amps. | Well, I’ve always had more difficulty playing a '''Strat''' than a Gibson: The scale length is slightly longer, and originally I didn’t have flat fingerboards on my '''Strat'''s, so they just felt generally more cumbersome. Also, it seems that because the strings on the old Gibson just sort of lay on the bridge, you could have an extremely low action, and if you had string rattle it wouldn’t show up through the amp. On the Fender, though, because the bridge situation is so precise and so clean, any rattles you’ve got show up through the amps. | ||
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==[[Allan Holdsworth (Music UK 1983)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Music UK 1983)]]== | ||
In Allan Holdsworth’s career, which spans 15 years, he’s gone from cello guitar, to Fender ''' | In Allan Holdsworth’s career, which spans 15 years, he’s gone from cello guitar, to Fender '''Stratocaster''', to Gibson SGs, and today he plays Charvel guitars. | ||
‘When I first played the SG I fell in love with it instantly and I took the Fender which I’d bought on HP back to the shop, and traded it for the Gibson SG Standard they had. I stuck with that for a couple of years while I was a semi-pro, and then I got a job in a Mecca houseband, and that’s when I started messing about with guitars and experimenting with 335s and whatever. That was a real experimental thing, I changed the lot, different amps, different strings, different guitars. I still like trying everything and each one of these Charvel guitars I have is an experiment, but they’re getting closer and closer to what I want. All the necks are 2 ¼" wide at the top of the fretboard which is a lot wider than a Fender, and I really like that. I’ve always been anti heavy guitars, and all of these guitars are light. They’re made of spruce or Bass (as in ass) wood. Most of the older '''Strat'''s were light.’ Allan Holdsworth had, at the date of our meeting, four ''' | ‘When I first played the SG I fell in love with it instantly and I took the Fender which I’d bought on HP back to the shop, and traded it for the Gibson SG Standard they had. I stuck with that for a couple of years while I was a semi-pro, and then I got a job in a Mecca houseband, and that’s when I started messing about with guitars and experimenting with 335s and whatever. That was a real experimental thing, I changed the lot, different amps, different strings, different guitars. I still like trying everything and each one of these Charvel guitars I have is an experiment, but they’re getting closer and closer to what I want. All the necks are 2 ¼" wide at the top of the fretboard which is a lot wider than a Fender, and I really like that. I’ve always been anti heavy guitars, and all of these guitars are light. They’re made of spruce or Bass (as in ass) wood. Most of the older '''Strat'''s were light.’ Allan Holdsworth had, at the date of our meeting, four '''Stratocaster''' type Charvels which included a blonde one w ith a pair of custom wound Dimarzio humbuckers, a red one with a single custom wound Seymour Duncan humbucker, and a white one with two more custom wound Seymour Duncan humbuckers in the middle and rear positions for a certain sound Allan was after. The fourth one is blue, also with a pair of custom wound Seymour Duncan pickups. All of these guitars feature one tone and one volume control plus pickup selector and brightness switches. Another guitar of Allan’s is a Charvel prototype that looks not a million miles from an Ovation Viper, also with Seymour Duncan pickups. | ||
One of these instruments carries a Dave Storey (Kahler) tremelo (sic) which loads from the top, with no tremolo block in sight. Before he emigrated to the USA, Dave was England’s answer to Floyd Rose, and his unique tremolo system. Ah well, England’s loss, America’s gain. | One of these instruments carries a Dave Storey (Kahler) tremelo (sic) which loads from the top, with no tremolo block in sight. Before he emigrated to the USA, Dave was England’s answer to Floyd Rose, and his unique tremolo system. Ah well, England’s loss, America’s gain. | ||
‘Dick Knight was the first guy to modify a ''' | ‘Dick Knight was the first guy to modify a '''Stratocaster''' type guitar for me, but what I love about the Charvels is the neck dimensions which make it an incredibly comfortable guitar for me to play. I play the Yamaha 335 type guitar over in the corner, I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s a pretty good guitar. | ||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]== | ||
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I hear you’ve got a rather interesting new guitar, would you like to tell us something about it? | I hear you’ve got a rather interesting new guitar, would you like to tell us something about it? | ||
Well, until about a year ago I was using a Charvel guitar, very similar to a ''' | Well, until about a year ago I was using a Charvel guitar, very similar to a '''Stratocaster''', which was built for me by Graver Jackson of the Charvel manufacturing company out in California. | ||
Then, about a year ago, Ibanez said they would be interested in making a guitar to my specific design. So, we took all the things that I’d learned over the years, including the time in England, when my ‘main man’ was Dick Knight, along with his son-in-law Gordon, and they were marvellous to me. They gave me greatly reduced bills when I wasn’t working, and Dick helped me experiment with different woods. One of the things I found was that I loved the sound of light guitars. | Then, about a year ago, Ibanez said they would be interested in making a guitar to my specific design. So, we took all the things that I’d learned over the years, including the time in England, when my ‘main man’ was Dick Knight, along with his son-in-law Gordon, and they were marvellous to me. They gave me greatly reduced bills when I wasn’t working, and Dick helped me experiment with different woods. One of the things I found was that I loved the sound of light guitars. | ||
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==[[Axes Of God (Guitar World 1989)]]== | ==[[Axes Of God (Guitar World 1989)]]== | ||
One of the least constant factors in the equation has been Allan’s preference in the characteristics of the guitar itself. Since the early seventies, when he acquired his first Fender ''' | One of the least constant factors in the equation has been Allan’s preference in the characteristics of the guitar itself. Since the early seventies, when he acquired his first Fender '''Stratocaster''', he persistently sought to break the instrument down to an elemental form - moving on to the thinner Gibson SG, another chiselled '''Strat''', several hollowed-out Charvel and Ibanez solidbodies and, most recently, to the deceptively resonant, stripped down plastic Steinbergers - ultimately using MIDI as the basis for its restructure. With two SynthAxes and their corresponding analog Oberheim Matrix 12 and X5B synth modules and disk player, some Yamaha DX 7’s and an Akai S-900 sampler, Allan feels that the dream has been finally realized. "For years, I’ve been trying to get the guitar to do things it simply didn’t want to do," he explains. "I never have to fight the SynthAxe to make it respond, and, in a surprising sense, it’s really the most expressive instrument I’ve ever played through" | ||
==[[Mike Pachelli Show (video transcript 1991)]]== | ==[[Mike Pachelli Show (video transcript 1991)]]== | ||
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MP: Let’s talk about some of your instruments, basically. What was your first guitar then? | MP: Let’s talk about some of your instruments, basically. What was your first guitar then? | ||
AH: First guitar was this old, it was kind of like an old classical guitar, but it did have steel strings on it, and then after that my Dad got me an f-hole guitar which is a guitar I played a year or so - it was a Hofner, and then I put a pickup on it and I spent it my Dad who was into building amplifiers just started getting interested in amplifiers then. He built that, then I saw this guy who had this Fender ''' | AH: First guitar was this old, it was kind of like an old classical guitar, but it did have steel strings on it, and then after that my Dad got me an f-hole guitar which is a guitar I played a year or so - it was a Hofner, and then I put a pickup on it and I spent it my Dad who was into building amplifiers just started getting interested in amplifiers then. He built that, then I saw this guy who had this Fender '''Stratocaster''' which I fell in love with so I tried this Fender '''Strat''', my Dad got it – well signed for it – so I could make the payments on it. And then about 2 months later I saw, I played an SG and that was it from then on, I was completely in love with this SG. I got this SG Standard, later I traded it for an SG Custom. I basically stayed with that guitar right the way through until…Tony Williams. | ||
MP: And before getting into that you went through a period with Charvel '''Strat'''s, your chisel period, explain how that was... | MP: And before getting into that you went through a period with Charvel '''Strat'''s, your chisel period, explain how that was... | ||
