You can still play Sorrow.
I'm done playing Gilmour licks for today
- Thread starter James Freeman
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For the sake of nerdery/clarification; it hasn’t exactly been the same Black Strat the whole time. It’s had 6, possibly 7, different necks on it over the years, starting with the OG CBS-style headstock/maple board, sometime around ‘72 he swapped it with a ‘63 Strat neck W/ a rosewood board that was on it right up until The Wall recordings when it was swapped with a Charvel/Jackson maple board neck (Fender logo), then around The Final Cut he got another Charvel 22 fret neck that was on it until he got it back in ‘97 when he swapped it out for a spare ‘57 AVRI neck, which eventually got swapped out for the ‘57 Fullerton AVRI neck from his Cream Strat he used on the About Face/Momentary Lapse tours. There may have been 3 different AVRI necks used, or the same one was put on 2 different times as there was a brief period it did not have the ‘Original Body Contour’ decal on the headstock.
Then there’s all the pickup and hardware changes, the only thing original to the guitar as it stands now is the bridge and body.
In other words; it’s time for a new guitar, James!!!
Also noteworthy- in some discussions around 7.25” fingerboards people will cite Gilmour as a reason people shouldn’t bitch about them negatively affecting bending, but that dismisses the fact that he put bigger frets on them-
I really want to try a Fullerton AVRI, I’ve yet to even see a Gilmour sig Strat in person, which is pretty much the only chance I’d realistically have at trying that particular neck shape out. Apparently they’re slimmer than the ‘57 AVRI’s that went into production after the initial Fullterton run, which was basically a test run to see if they’d sell or not.
@Eagle, you ever play a Fullterton AVRI?
Edit- Just realized I have a pic of the neck w/out the Original Body Contour decal as it was put on the Cream Strat when they took the neck off it for the Black Strat-
Edit 2- technically, I have played his sig Strat….one of his! They had this one you could snap a pic with that came from the stock of them Fender gave him. There were 5-6 of them sold off at the auction, a couple prototypes then the production models. Can’t say I have any memory of this as it was when I first walked into Christie’s and I was still trying to contain my fecal matter.
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The neck on the black Strat when I played it was a medium c shape I handled it briefly in its final incarnation. It was not remotely exceptional. The frets are slightly bigger and the radius is still 7.25” . The truss rod was set almost dead straight and it didn’t choke with its medium high action.
Those Fullerton necks are wildly inaccurate as vintage reissues and subsequently uniquely different from other vintage style necks. Head is the wrong shape the transition in to the head is clumsy and the heels are like a stock early 80s Strat , slightly varying by sanding.
James Freeman
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Did they invent a glue strong enough to glue stuff to the ceiling yet?;
Living space is getting kind of tight... I got 4x12 in every room in the house and boxes... lots and lots of boxes in almost every cupboard.
I need to sell some stuff first.
AlbertA
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Isn't the bitching about choking out? In which case, it's the action that matters not the size of the fret.
Frets size for grip. A good set up can make 7.25” usable but the geometry is very poor. Even at a medium action the fretted note has very small next fret clearance. Bend a string and it gets worse.
The exact same action and set up with a 12” radius gives you almost double the next fret clearance at certain points on the neck with the same action.
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Sure, but a 7.25” radius with stock AVRI/vintage frets won’t feel the same as the same radius with med/jumbo frets and the general argument in favor of the vintage radius generally includes the vintage frets…….or more accurately, purposefully leaves them out of the discussion.
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Did they invent a glue strong enough to glue stuff to the ceiling yet?;
Living space is getting kind of tight... I got 4x12 in every room in the house and boxes... lots and lots of boxes in almost every cupboard.
I need to sell some stuff first.
I get that, I tripped over the 2nd multi-guitar stand in my studio last night, trying not to step on the 3rd pedalboard in there.
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My old MIJ Squier has a 7.25" radius, although I put Dunlop 6000s on it. It does pretty well with not fretting out until you push it a bit too much, especially on the high E string. Adds character though.
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Fuckin' a right, doggie!
At some point I'll get back to the Gilmour tone building, I just started moving it out of the AxeFX and into physical gear and then fell down a Plexi rabbit hole I'll be in for a while. The Strat itself has actually pulled me further away from Gilmour tones than anything due to the EMG's being far more versatile than I expected and how great this Strat is in general. When I ordered the parts for it I thought of it more as a novelty thing that I'd pick up whenever I was feeling the Gilmour bug bite, but once it was put together I was blown away by how it played and sounded and it quickly became my main player.
When you turn the two boosters off (where I keep it 90% of the time), it just sounds like a great sounding Strat.
TSJMajesty
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I can still hear how amazing that Strat sounded at RFK Stadium on the MLOR tour. 'Huge' is a great way of describing it. Gave me fuckin chills!
TSJMajesty
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When you started playing, the first thing it reminded me of was SRV's tone. Whether that's good or bad, Idk. Just what came right to my mind. Like, spot on.
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