Tag: stratocaster

Don’t Say We’re Over!

Slow rocksong, lovesick, broken heart. Male vocals. Heavy guitars. Don’t Say We’re Over. The new single by the Solid Rock Blues Band has been released today on SoundCloud and BandCamp.

Free streaming at BandCamp as well as on SoundCloud. If you’d like to download it, you can buy the single at BandCamp.
It’s yours  for only USD $0.79

The single was recorded at our home-studio and written and performed by Rudy using a Digitech Trio for Drums & Bass, Gretsch Electromatic, Harley Benton Telecaster and Fender Starcaster Stratocaster, so yeah you guessed it: lot’s of guitar on this track! There’s clearly heavy blues influence but it sure ain’t your standard 12-bar blues song. It’s more a slow rock or perhaps blues rock song.

VIDEO

ABOUT THE RECORDING

Details about the recording, for those interested:

  • Drums, Bass: Digitech Trio
  • Gretsch Electromatic & Stratocaster effects: Mooer effects pedal (review)
  • Telecaster: JoYo “American” sound (Fender Amp simulation)
  • DAW: Ardour
  • Interface: Behringer UMC404HD
  • Vocal mic: MXL770

Want to read more about the studio? Just check out the Studio-page.

 

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DIY Guitar Upgrade: stratocaster mini humbucker (from China)

Upgrading your guitar, especially a stratocaster, telecaster or les paul model, isn’t too difficult. You can buy complete kits for it, or just put in some new pickups yourself. A few years ago I build a stratocaster from material left over from other guitar kits. I “painted” it by mixing ink and water and rub it into the wood. After that I sprayed clear lacquer over the body and put oil on the neck.

For some years I hardly played on it. It is a nice guitar and it plays very well, it has, for example, a very low action, I already had a stratocaster (Fender Starcaster) though. Some time ago I bought a “mini humbucker” from Geek (or eBay, I’m not sure). Anyway, I spend almost nothing on it. To see if it was any good, I put it into my DIY stratocaster.

Here’s the now upgraded and finished guitar. I love how it looks and how it plays. Even though the mini humbucker or ‘hotrod’ doesn’t turn out that good. Combined with the middle pickup it does give a nice ‘growl’ especially if you use some overdrive or distortion on your amp.

PICTURES

VIDEO

In the video below you can hear how the guitar sounds now. I played it over my Fame (Fender copy) amp, with a touch of reverb on it and I go trough all the positions with the selector.

 

 

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Sing me a Song (free download)

Today I’ve recorded “Sing Me A Song”, a free song available on SoundCloud (and Audiomack also soon) in my studio. It’s less than two minutes(!) and the full lyrics are included at soundcloud. I’ve posted a short demo of it before. Including a video.

The song was recorded using Ardour Studio (here’s a video about the small and low budget studio I operate) and for the acoustic guitar I’ve used my Washburn guitar. For recording this great acoustic guitar I’ve used a (very) cheap Chinese pickup I’ve bought some time ago (video/demo). I also added a condenser mic in front of it, so it’s got two sound sources in the recording giving it more depth and ‘space’.

For drums and bass I’ve used my Digitech Trio pedal and finaclly the electric guitar is my Fender “Starcaster” Stratocaster on rhythm and lead guitar. For this guitar I used the JoYo “American” pedal. A superb pedal that works very nice with Fender guitars but also with my Gretsch of course.

Finally I recorded the vocals using my BM-800 mic. One of the best condenser mic’s you can get for the money, paid less than $20 dollar for it!

 

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