Some random questions for those of you with more experience

Dear All

Some questions. As an xmas present to myself I'm planning on buying a decent Wah pedal. It's not so much for using in a dynamic sense (constantly moving the wah as I play) - but if I understand things correctly, you can set these pedals (or some of them) at a certain point along their trajectory to add colour to your overall tone - have many of you done this, what are the results, and what Wah pedals have you used to do this? Can all wah pedals be fixed at certain points - or only certain models?

Also - Have any of you had experience of gold lace sensor pickups? I am thinking of buying a cheap strat and trying them out. I'm going to try to get a mid 1990s Clapton tone (he had them). How would you say they compare to MFDs and G&L Alinico's?

Obviously tone is subjective - but many of you have 'been there, done that' and I would welcome your thoughts from your direct experience.

Here is an example of Clapton's tone I like from this period. I'm fairly sure he is using gold lace sensors here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ziHZoCnyfs

btw - I know tone is more than pickups, and more to do with fingers, but hardware helps as well.......

The Wah pedal was one of my very first effects back in the day. In fact it was the only effect I used for many years. I used it for the wacka-wacka sounds as well as a tone shaper for treble boost and for that notched, mid-range boost tone. I still have that pedal. It is a Vox Crybaby made by the Thomas Organ Company, vintage 1969. I've owned several others over the years and the one I currently gig with is an RMC-6 (http://www.realmccoycustom.com/WHEELS%20OF%20FIRE.htm. Another Wah that has gotten good reviews is the Vox V846 Handwired Wah Pedal (http://www.voxamps.com/us/pedals/wahwah_v846/.

At one point, I also owned a mid-90s red Strat Plus which was equipped with the Gold Sensor pickups. It did give you that Clapton tone from the period, especially when played through a Soldano SLO-100. The nice thing about the Sensor technology is that the pickups were very quiet. I also had a 3 pickup Telecaster Deluxe Plus with had a blue lace sensor in the neck and dual red lace sensor pickups in the bridge. That was also a great sounding guitar. I eventually traded it for a Gibson 335TD.

If you're looking for a more modern tone, the gold lace sensors are good pickups. If you want something quiet, but more vintage sounding, they might not be the best choice. Of course, you're mileage may vary.

Here's a cover of a Wishbone Ash song that we did years ago. It's The King Will Come. Glen starts the song and I believe he is using a Jeff Beck strat which had lace sensor pickups. I am using my Strat Plus through a 50-watt Marshall SuperLead and a Peavey 4x12 cabinet. Glen was playing through two Fender Super Champs and a Clubman 35 with a 4x12 Marshall cabinet.
http://www.reverbnation.com/slydzone/song/3138802-the-king-will-come-wishboneash-cover?utm_campaign=opengraph&utm_content=song&utm_medium=link&utm_source=facebook

If you want to hear the Telecaster Deluxe Plus, I used that in the Led Zeppelin cover of Rock-N-Roll.

RickT

Hi Dr. B,

If you're not interested in moving the wah while you play, then a single band parametric EQ will give the same effect as a cocked wah and may offer better tweakability with respect to setting the frequency and Q for boost. I've got one of these from years back, but there must be plenty of alternatives around that do the same or better job.



Re. the Lace Gold Sensors. I have a set in my Strat Plus. They are virtually noiseless, though not vintage sounding, but they're down the vintage end of the tonal spectrum. Some people loathe them but I don't think they're that bad. Just different. By all accounts EC's Lace Sensor equipped guitars had active mid-boost electronics installed. The active electronics probably contribute as much to EC's tone as the pickups themselves.

Have any of you had experience of gold lace sensor pickups?

I can't offer anything objective on this one, but I did play with a guitarist who used Gold Sensors in his mid-90s American Delux Strat. He got very sweet tones from them.

have many of you done this, what are the results, and what Wah pedals have you used to do this? Can all wah pedals be fixed at certain points - or only certain models?

I don't currently own a wah pedal, but I do have a couple that give good fixed-wah sounds. The cheaper of the two is an MXR Ten Band EQ. I've only had it for a couple of weeks, but so far I've been impressed. In addition to regular EQ tweaking, the closeness of the ten bands lets you throw a fixed notch at one or more frequencies. It's not dramatic, and there's nothing dynamic about the sound. It will give the impression of a wah pedal frozen in time, though.

My favorite is the Moogerfooger MF-101 Lowpass Filter. It can be used as a lowpass (i.e., cutting off everything above a frequency you dial in), or you can get a fixed wah sound by adding resonance to taste. There's a separate envelope follower that can be added in for some additional color. Being a Moogerfooger, any of these parameters can be swept using an expression pedal or control voltage (an external oscillator) if you want something resembling a traditional wah pedal sound. You may be able to get a similar effect from the MF-103 12-Stage Phaser by turning the low frequency oscillator off and turning the resonance up.

Ken