clapton strat - spec, advice / thoughts needed.

darcym

I'm filling a bit of a childhood box tick, as a child I always wanted a Clapton strat, he was just great to me and he had the grey and 7up green strats that where just "it" they looked cool, he looked cool, he played cool.

I'm putting together a Clapton strat in 7up green got the body and neck, which looks great, sorting the scratch plate, two question I have for your opinion and review.

1.) the pickups - do I go a.) classic lace sensor of that time period b.) the current clapton noisless c.) something different - am I authentic (keep in mind this is parts build so will never be %100 authentic) I do I take some artistic license 

2.) the tone boost - I've had the tone boost circuit on another strat before (clapton strat) and once I learnt to use it eg: set the tone at 5 not 10 ! found it quite good fun, but that was about it "quite good fun" - how much do you feel this is a part of a clapton strat and the clapton sound of the period ? - I'm not even %100 sure the lace sensor period had the treble boost on it ? do I put it in - or leave it out (the battery under the pickguard can be annoying.

andy_k

I have all the bits you want, attached to an 'aged' Blackie body in the classifieds mate.

Funkfingers

The raison d’etre of the Clapton Stratocaster circuit is to have control over amplifier overdrive saturation from the guitar without recourse to channel switching or pedals.

All versions of the EC signature Stratocaster have had the active mid booster. The TBX Tone control does not actually boost treble per se. 

My experience with Lace Sensor Gold pickups is that they can sound “Stratty” with overdrive but are rarely convincing clean. 

Since EC has the boost applied to some degree most of the time, it might be worthwhile to try Silver Sensors and no onboard boost electronics.

Artistic license, please. Be yourself.

jeztone2

I’ve always wanted a Clapton Strat. Tried a few. But god those awful frets. I just wished Fender would do one with big frets. 

ICBM

The mid-boost is critical to the Clapton sound of the period. If you don't insist on having it in the guitar as EC did, a decent EQ pedal will give you the sound without need a battery onboard. Bear in mind that if you did want to fit it onboard, you would need to rout the body since the board won't fit in the control cavity.

Also bear in mind that the way Fender fitted the TBX control to passive guitars is dire! It works fine in active models, which is what it was designed for - it was never intended to be used with passive ones, and totally sucks the tone at the centre position and below. Luckily, fixing this is easy - just snip the 82K resistor off. The only problem with doing that is that it makes the "treble boost" between 5 and 10 less dramatic... because of course, a passive control can't actually boost anything. It's really just a complete bodge on any of the non-active models and in fact, best just replaced with a standard or no-load tone pot.

Hurling_Fruitmig

I’d forgotten the 7-Up green Strat. I blame my 80s introduction to Clapton for my irrational desire for a grey one.

darcym

Hurling_Fruitmig said:

I’d forgotten the 7-Up green Strat. I blame my 80s introduction to Clapton for my irrational desire for a grey one.

the grey and the green one where 'it' for me as a young kid, I remember going to buy my first electric guitar with my parents, a Fenix stratocaster (amazing guitar for the money) I got it in a bright red (don't know the colour names, certainly wasn't a fender colour, it came in dazzling white or bright red, I think there was a blue on available to order but never in stock) and I loved playing it (every hour of every day) i still remember the niggle and desire I had, it wasn't the Clapton grey one with the white pickup covers (which where actually lace sensors - I just didn't know at the time), the grey strat had such an impact on me as a child, then when I saw the green one which came out a lot less often, it was like the unicorn, it was unobtanium, the grey one was a desire, a goal, the green one was a fantasy to get excited by when you saw it.

If I didn't already have two variations of grey strat, I'd have probably built my Clapton strat grey as it was the one that inspired me and excited me as a child, but if you're going to shoot for the childhood fantasy, why not shoot for the unicorn, so I went with the 7up green. (plus green is by good fortune my favourite colour)

Headphones

I suggest the key observation is that Clapton - certainly then - didn't sound like a Strat!

If you want the look that's straightforward - and you're pretty much there.

I'd put the mid boost circuit in a pedal, it makes life easier and the guitar a more straightforward build.

Any good quality pups I'd suggest (and if you're not aiming stratty any noiseless gets you there), the tone from then (beyond the fingers) is really about the amp and how it's driven by the boost.

Funkfingers

ICBM said:

Bear in mind that, if you did want to fit it onboard, you would need to rout the body since the board won't fit in the control cavity.

It will if you round off one of the corners of the PCB plastic. (Photographs by request.) This is not to say that I recommend this modification. 

The EMG-SPC and the ol’ Seymour Duncan Prototype EQ - as used by Frank Zappa - are far more compact.

Fez

I agree with @ICBM ; about the tbx tone control, I took it off the one strat I have that came with it when I swapped out the fender humbucker for a Seymour Duncan full shred. I would be inclined to go with Lace sensors or something from oil city .

Funkfingers

Erm, conventional passive single coils + active mid boost = loadsanoise.

darcym

Guys, these comments have been really really helpful, I'm going to use an EQ pedal and keep the tone circuit out, keep the guitar simple.

I'm toying with pickup ideas at the moment, I'm interested in the comments that Clapton at that time didn't sound like a strat, I really think it did, I suspect a little part of that is the visual, you know it's a strat so you listen for a strat, but I don't think it sounded like anything else, so I'd love to hear more on that, and I'd love to hear some ideas on pickups.

I've got a set of slow hands from bareknuckles in another guitar, so I could get another set of them or get something different for that guitar and swap the slow hands. 

Love to hear your ideas and thank you for the great comments and opinions. 

Funkfingers

I would actually begin at the amplifier.

With a cranked boutique "tweed" amplifier, the degree of overdrive saturation is governed by a combination of playing dynamics and all three of the guitar's controls. This approach takes the place of channel switching and/or pedals. 

darcym

Funkfingers said:

I would actually begin at the amplifier.

With a cranked boutique "tweed" amplifier, the degree of overdrive saturation is governed by a combination of playing dynamics and all three of the guitar's controls. This approach takes the place of channel switching and/or pedals. 

got 2 nice tweeds available to me, and a 3rd on request, although I have to admit I didn't think the tweeds where his thing at that point and they have come into operation in later life.