The Muse I Adorn

Having fun with my old mongrel Strat tonight. I love how lush it sounds on the neck pickup. Using the neck/middle and middle/bridge positions are also quite nice, but the neck by itself clean sounds fantastic. I'm also sure it has a Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard. The grain pattern is too tight to be anything else, and it also feels and sounds like the real deal.


IMG_6730.jpg
 
Even though I absolutely love the sound of this Strat, I had to switch after about an hour and a half tonight. The neck is super thin, at about 13/16" including the frets. My big paws have a tough time with it after a while.

Here, you can see.

IMG_6743.jpg







So, I switched for something a little more in my comfort zone. I still really love this ES-335. It's a fantastic guitar.



IMG_6744.jpg
 
I have a casual jam project with a couple of old friends, one whom I've been in several bands with over the decades, and a drummer I used to play fusion with back in the 70s whom I've reconnected with in 2022. So last week we decided to do a couple of middle period King Crimson tunes. We each learned Red, Starless, and One More Red Nightmare from the recordings so we'd be ready when we got together.

Fripp always used his black LP Custom back in the day, so I decided to pull out one of mine, a '77 Greco with the Duncan Mayhem set. These are about the hottest pickups I own but they're still well-defined and their fast ceramic attack worked nicely for Fripp parts - his style is rather precise. Had to roll back the treble on my amp; the highs on these are pretty fierce. One bonus: this set is so strong, I didn't need a pedal for Robert's fuzztone melodies, just floored the neck pickup and it would sustain forever.



Hadn't played this guitar in more than two years (I have other LP Customs that I use more often). I pulled it out, restrung it with .009s to make the two-string bends in Red easier for my aging fingers, intonated it, and hooked up a short strap. Normally I wear guitars at waist level or a bit below, but Robert always has his quite high up and some of his parts are easier to do with the neck nearby.

Midway through our jam the upper strap button pulled out; I played the rest of the time sitting down, like Robert does.
Time for the old toothpick trick...

Great material, very fun to play. I love that middle-period Crimson: heavier than the original 60s lineup yet less complex than the incarnation that came along in the 80s. I saw both the Discipline and Beat tours and they were amazing shows. Really like that music but a lot of it would be hard to pull off with just one guitar. (Not to mention challenging to have three of those pieces ready in just two evenings.) The Starless/Red period is far more appropriate for a trio. And we had a blast with it.
 
Last edited:
My friend in London who has one of the HesSG guitars I built is in Boston for a short stay. He has a gig tomorrow, and I said I would loan him my Taylor and Deluxe Reverb. I've been playing with the Deluxe the past couple of nights to make sure that there are no issues. Thought that the '62 SG Special would be a good match for the amp.


IMG_6819.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top