Dan and Mick have posted a video all about Dan’s new Fender Custom Shop Telecaster 52 Reissue, and how it compares to the Custom Shop 63 Reissue that he’s been using on That Pedal Show for the last couple of years.
This video is full of surprises: side by side, the 52 reissue doesn’t sound anything like they (or I) expected. It’s nowhere near as bright or sharp as a modern maple-boarded Tele would be, and of course it doesn’t rock like Dan’s red Tele famously does – yet it still has its own thing going on.
Even if you’re not into Fender Teles, it’s still worth watching just to watch them geeking out over gear, and trying to learn licks off each other. There’s an important lesson there: it’s no different to the last time you and your mates did exactly the same thing.
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Ariel and Danish Pete are back with another Guitar Paradiso. This episode, they’re looking at reliced Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster.
This one quickly turns into a wide-ranging discussion about the whole concept of relicing Fender guitars, how different guitar finishes do (and don’t) wear over time, and why a reliced guitar might be a good choice.
Both Ariel and Pete are hugely experienced touring musicians, and it’s great to hear them sharing their experiences and personal preferences. Along the way, Pete digs out several of his personal Strats to help demonstrate the points he’s making, including guitars that he’s toured all round the world.
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Before you order that new PRS Silver Sky, you might want to check out these custom-order Fender Stratocasters from Andertons:
These Strats are the sister models to the Telecasters that Andertons recently had made. They feature a 59 neck carve – based on guitars made by the late John English – rosewood fingerboards and ash bodies. Pickups are Custom Shop 69, reverse-wound Custom Shop 65, and a Texas Special for the Bridge. The end result should be a Strat that you won’t find anywhere else.
Tone-wise, there’s a certain something that they seem to share with the original run of Telecasters from the earlier video. There’s a clarity and definition that even survives what YouTube does to video audio tracks. I suspect that, in person, these’ll exhibit that 3D sound quality that marks out the very best-sounding guitars.
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Paul Davids (and … er … Paul Davids) is back with a video comparing his first rig to his current rig.
We don’t learn how old his Squier is, so please don’t refer to this when trying to decide whether or not to buy a brand new Squier today! These kinds of videos are meant to be a bit of fun 🙂
Hopefully Paul will post a follow up where we hear both guitars into the Tone King.
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Today, we have a different kind of demo from Peach Guitars. They’ve done a shootout between John Mayer’s current rig – PRS Silver Sky and JMOD amp – and his old, pre-PRS rig – Fender 63 Stratocaster and a Two-Rock amp.
The PRS Silver Sky continues to be the most talked about guitar of 2018. I still can’t figure why it’s generated the reaction that it has – including my own reaction.
The more I hear it though, the more I’m interested in trying one for myself. To my ears, it sounds like a lot has gone into tuning it to be a great guitar for completely clean tones. That’s where I used to live before moving onto Les Pauls. I’d love to find the right guitar to go back to that style one day.
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Pete Thorn has posted his demo of Fender’s 2018 Pedal range. If you want to hear what they sound like together in a mix, this is the demo for you.
Rather than go through every single tone the pedals offer, he breaks down a complete song, showing what he used for each part – and letting us hear them soloed out.
I love the tones Pete gets from the Santa Ana Overdrive in this video. I’ve already got the Pugilist, and it sounds great with a Tele. The Santa Ana with humbuckers … that’s a sound that I do have a need for. Not too long until pay day 🙂
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Not to be outdone by Anderton’s PRS Silver Sky video today, Thomann have shot a shootout video comparing a real Fender Strat against two of its competitors – Suhr (who used to work for Fender) Classic Pro and the new PRS Silver Sky.
It’s wonderfully click-bait-y – but do we learn anything from this video? I’m not sure that we do.
I didn’t hear much difference between the three – and nowhere near the amount of difference that I was expecting. The extra low end we heard the PRS Silver Sky do on the Andertons video isn’t there, and neither is the high-end from the Suhr’s stainless steel frets. I played a Suhr Classic Pro about a month ago, and in person that extra high-end is far from subtle.
So yeah, I’m surprised, and I’m not sure what to make of it.
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Earlier today, I had the opportunity to play the new Fender Santa Ana Overdrive for myself. AStrings’ recent demo had left me unsure what this pedal actually was, so I thought I’d go and find out for myself.
And I’m glad that I did.
I ran the Santa Ana into the vibrato channel of a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue (DRRI). I went for that amp partly because it’s the clean tone that I’m into right now, and partly because I know that particular DRRI is a very sweet-sounding amp. (If only I had the space for it, it would have come home with me a long time ago!)
For guitars, I used two very different beasts: a single-cut PRS 594, and a certain green Fender Special Telecaster. I’m not sure how I managed to leave the store without the Telecaster …
I haven’t come across another drive pedal that sounds quite like the Santa Ana Overdrive does. To my ears, it does offer something different.
I really liked how it sounded through the DRRI. Roll back the treble and presence a bit, wind up the drive and mids, and there’s a really sweet creamy lead tone there. Roll back the volume on the guitar, and you’re in ZZ-Top-ish Texas tones for rhythm.
There’s a softness to the initial attack that I particularly liked. Along with the pedal’s natural compression, it certainly made me sound a lot more fluid than I really am! I really enjoyed how it tamed the natural spikiness of the Tele’s bridge pickup. I had a hard job handing the Tele back after that 🙂
You can hear an example of what I mean in the jam at the end of this video:
The jam starts just after the 32 minute mark. The tone that Danish Pete gets out his Les Paul is very similar to what I was getting myself today.
Also, check out the earlier jam around the 25 minute mark. Very impressed with how well the Pugulist Distortion pedal worked over the top of the Santa Ana Overdrive in that.
Other thoughts …
The light-up knobs aren’t a gimmick. Even in a well-lit shop, I found they made it quicker to see how the pedal was dialled in. I wonder if we’ll see them catch on with other brands.
The two voices were different, but not drastically so. A bit like how a Tweed is different to a Deluxe, I guess. One was a bit more in your face than the other. Both were very usable.
The boost/extra drive circuit doesn’t change the tone at all. It’s just either a volume gain or increased saturation. I’m not sure that I’d make any use of it personally. I’m more inclined to either ride the volume knob of my guitar, or kick on a second pedal to change the tone.
It’s an interesting pedal, and I’m sure I’ll be picking one up at some point.
We’ve already seen AStrings demo the new Fender pedals, and now it’s the turn of Andertons. Watch the Captain and Danish Pete give you their thoughts on them here:
They’ve got all six pedals out, running them into a Victory V40 Deluxe and a Hot Rod Deluxe v4. These two amps sound very different to the Bassbreaker that AStrings used in their demos, so even if you watched all the excellent AStrings demos, the Andertons’ video offers a different look at these new pedals.
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This popped up in my Twitter feed of all places this morning. Fender has posted a video interview with Stan Cotey, who heads up the new pedal team inside Fender.
There’s a couple of things in the interview that really caught my attention.
These new Fender pedals aren’t clones of existing circuits; they’re all designed from scratch. That makes me even more interested in trying out the Santa Ana Overdrive for myself now.
Stan also talks about there being more pedals in the pipeline. I wonder what we’ll see next from them?
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