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GaryTheStone

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11 hours ago, GaryTheStone said:

With regards to Tom's sticker strat, does anybody know how often he switched to the Seymour Duncan Hot Rail in the neck position? Did it contribute to much of his sound back then or was it rarely used? Any info or pics would be great! Even a list of songs that you might think are using the hot rails

Thanks, Gary

my guess, from playing my own guitar, was almost never. there are a couple recordings i suspect it could be on (emo, for one). and that would have been at trombino's suggestion. because mark trombino actually knows about guitars.

live? never, to my recall. and i saw blink play dozens upon dozens of times 1995–1998. tom didn't know shit about guitars then. he doesn't even know much now.

i'd bet you dollars to donuts, he had a tech friend that recommended all that gear. and the hand cut angled position for the X2N? everyone was doing that because billy joe did it to his fernandes strat copy 'blue.' few people knew what it does to the tone (due to the change in resonance, you get bassier bass and sharper treble in the angled position). there's a video with billie joe's own touring guitar tech, and he didn't even know this. 

the best evidence for this was, when it came time to design a custom fender strat, what did tom do? he took everything off, even the fucking tone knobs! that's like saying "i don't care to learn about different guitar tones." i doubt he ever touched the pickup selector, unless by accident, on his sticker strat.

in my own playing, i use the X2N for soCal punk rock (blink, bad religion, NOFX, pennywise, all that good stuff). tone on 10.

for other bands that are sort of the like the in between zone of pop punk and emo rock (motion city soundtrack  being one example), i tend to set it to use both duncans. tone still on 10.

for bands with a thick, syrupy sound (this is like many alternative rock 90s bands i play, like weezer), i use the neck duncan only, tone down to zero. it's so thick you can stand a spoon up in it.

all of this is running through my ampeg VL 1002 with marshall cab. channel 1 i use for classic rock distortion through the X2N (bands like AC/DC). using the duncans on channel 1 gets me a dry indie rock tone (great for bands like the get up kids, promise ring, etc). channel 2 is the punk channel, completely overdriven.

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20 hours ago, daveyjones said:

my guess, from playing my own guitar, was almost never. there are a couple recordings i suspect it could be on (emo, for one). and that would have been at trombino's suggestion. because mark trombino actually knows about guitars.

live? never, to my recall. tom didn't know shit about guitars then. he doesn't even know much now.

i'd bet you dollars to donuts, he had a tech friend that recommended all that gear. and the hand cut angled position for the X2N? everyone was doing that because billy joe did it to his fernandes strat copy 'blue.' few people knew what it does to the tone (due to the change in resonance, you get bassier bass and sharper treble in the angled position). 

the best evidence for this was, when it came time to design a custom fender strat, what did tom do? he took everything off, even the fucking tone knobs! that's like saying "i don't care to learn about different guitar tones." i doubt he ever touched the pickup selector, unless by accident, on his sticker strat.

I had read in a few places that all Tom wanted was that searing punk tone. His rig at that time was as punk as it got. The only time it wasn't like that was when he screwed around with the volume knob during songs (i.e. Untitled, Ben Wah Balls).

However, with your experimenting with the amp and other pickups, it makes for an insanely versatile instrument, which is why I'm so hype to start mine when I can ;D

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I couldn't of asked for a better response! I've never delved into the early side of blink too deep, I became a fan when Enema came out (I was sixteen) & always loved Budda & Cheshire Cat to listen to but it ended there! I just bought a second hand Hotrails from eBay & a wire is broken so not sure if it's going to affect the sound much or not at all, but if the pickup is going to be mainly visual then I won't worry too much! I also play in a blink tribute band, so trying to get as close to the original sound live is something I want to try & achieve too!! 

Cheers for the info regarding tones for other bands too Davey, I'm looking forward to getting the Sticker Strat finished so I can play about with the pickups & tones (running through a Mesa duel rec & jcm900 via an ABY) 

Also, do you think the trem on Tom's Sticker Strat was blocked off as obviously trem wasn't his thing & It might of been something the tech done when the pickups were fitted?!

Either way it's something I'm definitely going to do to mine, it would just be nice to hear others opinions!

 

Also, thanks again for the stickers Davey, your a top guy!

 

P.S referring to the angled pickup, I got my first Strat in 94', I angled the humbucker too purely because Billie Joe did!! : )

I tried to upload a pic but for some reason I can't upload picture to this website?! It keeps saying file size can't be bigger than 49mb but none are? Anyone else have this issue?!

 

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On 12/23/2017 at 7:29 AM, GaryTheStone said:

I'm looking forward to getting the Sticker Strat finished so I can play about with the pickups & tones (running through a Mesa duel rec & jcm900 via an ABY) 

Also, do you think the trem on Tom's Sticker Strat was blocked off as obviously trem wasn't his thing & It might of been something the tech done when the pickups were fitted?!

What version of the guitar are you going with? I’ve seen with the others that have done it that the Dammit version is very popular. Also what version of the Dual Rec are you using? The 2 channel or 3 channel? I don’t think the trem was touched at all because things like that never phased him in the slightest. The only thing that was changed about that piece was when the saddles got swapped in ‘96. Regarding image hosting, you need to use a third party image hoster like this: http://postimages.org/

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On 12/29/2017 at 10:33 AM, ryanmfears said:

I don't think the angled pickup ACTUALLY changes anything. By angling a standard spaced pickup, you're just lining it up with the strings correctly. A Fender-spaced humbucker that's installed normally would achieve the same effect.

 

no an angled pickup changes the sound of the strings in relation to the bridge. the closer to the bridge, the more trebly the sound, the further from the bridge you get it gets more bassy

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On 30/12/2017 at 3:52 AM, Q182 said:

What version of the guitar are you going with? I’ve seen with the others that have done it that the Dammit version is very popular. Also what version of the Dual Rec are you using? The 2 channel or 3 channel? I don’t think the trem was touched at all because things like that never phased him in the slightest. The only thing that was changed about that piece was when the saddles got swapped in ‘96. Regarding image hosting, you need to use a third party image hoster like this: http://postimages.org/

I think I'm gonna go all the way with the stickers, I believe Lagwagon was the last added! I've managed to find a White Strat body with a two point trem & I'm putting the neck from my first guitar, which was a squire strat which happens to be a 94' which is a cool coincidence I think. I've got the three channel Mesa, it works really well along side the Marshall, looking forward to trying the Sticker Strat through it! I just meant do you think the trem was disabled coz the two points are a bit more lively & i could imagine it being a pain in the backside live. I just wedged a block of wood in mine which works a treat, just would be good to hear other opinions! : )

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  • 3 weeks later...

Received the body for my sticker strat today. It's a fair few years old so has naturally discolored which is pretty close to Tom's in my opinion! Just ordered some chrome flathead pivot screws for the bridge to match the original as the ones currently are black & Allen key type. Pickguard is on its way & just need to get the x2n & I'm good to go! Can't wait to start building it!IMG_20180124_135512_944.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 30/01/2018 at 7:03 PM, Andrew182 said:

Looks great! Can't wait to see the progress 

The guitars finished & been sent off to my guitar tech to be wired, have the bone nut set in & fully set up! I ended up sanding the headstock down a bit as I noticed Tom's looked slightly lighter in colour & I oiled the fretboard to darken it! I also cut & reshaped the headstock as it was originally a 70s style headstock but it was the only 22 fret neck i could get hold of, i foins most are 21! Should be getting it back next week then I can start stickering!! 20180220_123901.jpg20180220_123857.jpg20180220_123912.jpg

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16 minutes ago, GaryTheStone said:

The guitars finished & been sent off to my guitar tech to be wired, have the bone nut set in & fully set up! I ended up sanding the headstock down a bit as I noticed Tom's looked slightly lighter in colour & I oiled the fretboard to darken it! I also cut & reshaped the headstock as it was originally a 70s style headstock but it was the only 22 fret neck i could get hold of, i foins most are 21! Should be getting it back next week then I can start

Awesome! It looks really good!

Really wish I had the money and resources to make a replica of the sticker strat, I have said this before in another thread - I still think that this strat sounded and was waaay cooler than his signature strat (not saying his signature strat wasn't cool but I mean if I could choose between those two I would choose this one! );D

Anyways, looks awesome!

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7 hours ago, Andrew182 said:

Awesome! It looks really good!

Really wish I had the money and resources to make a replica of the sticker strat, I have said this before in another thread - I still think that this strat sounded and was waaay cooler than his signature strat (not saying his signature strat wasn't cool but I mean if I could choose between those two I would choose this one! );D

Anyways, looks awesome!

Cheers man. This hasn't been too pricey really, I haven't worked it out properly yet, but it was just tracking down the guitar with the two point trem in the right colour that took a while coz I didn't really wanna get into painting it, but I got this guitar for £135 & I sold the scratch plate with the pickups off of it for £70, so the body & neck only stood me £65! I could do I complete rundown for you if you wanted, it might be a lot more doable than you think!

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On 25/02/2018 at 9:44 AM, Andrew182 said:

Sure dude!

 

The body & neck I used from a hotrails deluxe, like I say stood me £65, but it all depends on if you can get hold of one secondhand & how much you pay!! I changed the bridge pivot screws to flathead fender chrome ones which cost about £15 with the inserts & I had to drill the body to fit them but you don't have to do that if you don't want too. I also cut the headstock down as it's a 70s shape. I oiled the fret board with lemon oil & then with boiled linseed oil to darken it as Tom's is quite dark on the sticker strat, oil was around £10, again, not something you have to do! The black graphtech saddles were £30 But the ones that come with the guitar are fine just depends on what look you want! The pick guard was £8 brand new from eBay, I used all genuine fender parts for the volume, tone, pickup selector & tuners, but you can keep the original tuners on, mine were £37, £8 for the knobs, £11 for the selector switch, I also used 500k cts pots for the volume & tones which were £5.50 each & a bone nut which was £4.50. Then you've got the three pickups, I got all three used for £100 from eBay, just keep an eye out for when they come up! Then you've got the price of the stickers & for me the price of getting it wired & setup as I can't do this myself! So around the £300 mark  (but £100 less if you keep the original tuners, saddles & get unbranded parts) then stickers & guitar tech. So for me total price is going to around £450. I'm picking it up next week from my guitar tech then I'll we putting the stickers on!

This is the hotrails deluxe, I think it was mentioned somewhere on a previous post, but it's the right colour & has the two point trem, you'll just have to reshape the headstock!519754000215000-00-500x500.jpg

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