Strats: Difference between revisions
From Allan Holdsworth Information Center
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‘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. | ‘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. | ||
==[[Reaching For The Uncommon Chord]]== | |||
'''FENDER STRATOCASTER | |||
''' | |||
The first good guitar I had was a Fender Stratocaster. I only had it for a short period of time, but I really loved it. The Fender was a new guitar with a great sound, although I only had that first Strat for about six months. Then one day I went down to Leeds. ... | |||
'''GIBSON SG | |||
''' | |||
I used to ride the bus down there, sometimes just to look in the window of a Kitchens - a big music store. And one day I saw a Gibson SG - it was the first time I'd ever seen one in my life. I went in, and they let me take it downstairs and play it. I loved it. So I managed to exchange the Strat for the SG. I played that guitar from then through the time I joined with Tony Williams. Wonderful machines. In those days there weren't that many different guitars around. There were basically two, Fender and Gibson; both had completely different sounds. With the Gibson I had found a guitar with a voice more akin to what I was looking for. Now those two sounds have merged more with a lot of people experimenting, putting Humbuckers on Strats, etc. — which I did. I was so knocked out with this little Gibson. I then read about Orville Gibson and that man's story, and I became a big fan of his. I used to read a lot of books about violin makers and instrument makers in general. I admire innovative people like Leo Fender and Orville Gibson and those who helped develop their instruments, like Bach did with the organ. | |||
'''MODIFIED STRAT | |||
''' | |||
When I was with Tony Williams, I bought a Fender Stratocaster. It wasn't a very old one - about 1973. I took it back to England and had Dick Knight make me a neck. He did all my guitar work along with his son-in-law Gordon. It was a maple neck with an ebony fingerboard. They do absolutely marvelous work. I'd always come out of there with a grin from ear to ear. The neck was quite big - an inch and three quarters at the nut to two and a quarter at the body, and it was quite chunky; it transformed the sound of the guitar. Those were my chisel days. I started hacking guitars up like crazy – I put a couple of humbuckers on a Strat, and I really liked the way it sounded. I always thought it would sound good. I had to sell that guitar too, which was painful. I actually sold it just before we came out to the States to a guy who put the original pickups back on it. I was dumbfounded — he missed the point, but one man's meat is another man's poison ... I played that guitar from Gong through UK. | |||
'''CHARVEL STRAT | |||
''' | |||
I met Grover Jackson in England. He was given my phone number by Steve Blucher, a friend of mine at DiMarzio. Grover and I met at a pub, and we started talking to each other about guitars, and I told him about how I felt about light wood and how I had found that really light wood worked great for me. I also told him my thoughts on neck dimensions - 11/16" to 214" (I think all Charvel necks are like that now). He told me that when I came over to the States, he was going to make me a guitar. When we came to California, I didn’t have a guitar (I had a guitar, but it was just a cricket bat). Then Grover made me two really fantastic ones - the one I preferred was made from basswood. But basswood varies in weight. Up to a point, the lighter the wood, the better the guitar sounded; but if they were too light, the sound regressed. He used the new neck dimensions - the top is actually a Fender measurement, and the bottom is a Gibson measurement. We used Gibson string spacing and Seymour Duncan pickups. Seymour Duncan worked with me on numerous custom wound pickups. I played the Charvel for about two years. | |||
==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]== | ==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]== | ||
