For a variety of reasons my interest in bottleneck sliding has come alive again lately, so I decided to build this cheapo Strat-o-Slider. Already had an old and very good Fernandes neck lying around, bought a Strat body/bridge/hardware from a guy in Britain for approx $100, got a prewired pickguard with two humbuckers for $40, and that was all I needed.
Did the assembly tonight,- as always with projects like this, where you buy a little bit here and some other bits there, some additional routing was required and setting up the intonation was a tough job, but finally it was ready and I plugged it in - WOW WOW WOW!!! I can't believe how such cheap pickups can sound so good!! This one has what Eddie Van Halen once described as "the brown sound", and is very responsive and dynamic - I'm in bottleneck heaven!! :D :D :D
Here's the Strat-o-Slider:
And here's a couple of pics of the happy owner, for the occasion pretending to be a member of a Southern Rock band... :lol:
:shock: :shock:
There is a certain bluesy "emotional rawness" in bottleneck slide that's often missing in lap steel, the lap steel almost sounds too perfect or something, too 'smooth' perhaps, for this kind of stuff... I've played this thing for a couple of hours tonight and haven't had so much fun since...... since...... oh, you don't wanna know..... :lol:
Ian, can you hear me?? I need a couple of your psychedelic "The Ultimate" slides ASAP! :wink:
8)
Steinar
Bet it cost a fortune to redecorate that room to blend in with the guitar!!!
I notice from the pic you use your little finger for sliding - do you prefer this to your ring finger?
Nice work on the guitar!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I notice from the pic you use your little finger for sliding - do you prefer this to your ring finger?
Yeah, I always use my little finger for sliding, that way I can have the other three free for chord work and riffing. I used my middle finger for slide many years ago, but as soon as I got serious about it I switched to the little finger,- took a little time to get used to it but now I couldn't use anything else.
It's set up with .011 strings (that's all I had available tonight, will probably go to .012) and tuned to open-E.
I was very surprised when I read on Derek Trucks site that he use .011 strings, considering the fat tone he gets I was sure he used something heavier..
Steinar
FREEEEEE BIIIRRRRD!!!! :lol:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
down right scary guitar face there S.
I like the idea of a part 'o slide guitar.
someone handed me an old double cutaway Melody Maker. soon to become a slider.
.......The Norseman 'ROCKS' :wink: !! Got your e-mail Steinar & i'm on the case :D
Slide On!
Ian.
......many apologies for this one guy's, but Ric's posting got me thinkin'...."Sweet Home Arendal" :lol:
No problem Steinar - perfect specifications for us :wink:
Slide On!
Ian.
Really cool pics Steinar, lol - A 'Blues Rock Face' or...that last one might've been the face R. Johnson saw that night at the crossroads ;)
I LOVE that guitar - what color is it, sort of a TV Yellow?
...that last one might've been the face R. Johnson saw that night at the crossroads ;)
:lol:
I was just goofing around, the pics were taken right after I had plugged it in for the first time and realized how good it sounded.. :)
The color is great, I think it's called "butterscotch yellow" or something like that. The actual color is somewhere in between the "portrait" (no flash, results in an 'orange' hue - the wall is actually white) and the "goofies" (with flash, so it looks brighter/whiter than the actual color).
Steinar
It's been snowing non-stop since Monday, haven't had this much snow since the 50s, I have a cold with fever, so here's a little thing I recorded with the Strat-o-Slider tonight:
Steinar
I like it - really nice tone, very full sound - you did a pretty good job on the guitar!
MOOOOOOOORE.....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
That one's going into my new iPod that I'm loading up. :D
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
YES and yes....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
