Elantric's Bio

Started by Elantric, January 24, 2008, 01:53:00 PM

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Hurricane

8)
It's a different world when mega bucks can and does turn anyone into something
they would never be . Unlimited indulgence has it's caveats .

Anyone who's been around the super rich super stars who's not one can see it fast ,
see how really wild people can get when unlimited $'s meet unlimited substances ,
drugs being one of the most life changing elements to factor in to one's life when
used liberally/daily .

It's a wild world


EZ :

HR

Elantric

#101
Quotehttps://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?posts/26546827/

Seems low, his Broadcaster brought $325K and that was considered low.
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Fender/2004-SRV-Number-One-Stratocaster-Electric-Guitar-113834980.gc?cntry=us

Quote84Bravo said: ↑
I had the pleasure of holding the real one @1985. Well worn, light.


I had the pleasure setting up the real one right before SRV & Double Trouble recorded demos at Jackson Brown's LA (Los Angeles) studio when I worked at Valley Arts 80-86

It was just another day at the shop I'd been working at Valley Arts two years I had met Jimmie Vaughan and the Thunderbirds through Steve Fryette who worked part time in Amp repair


Thats me on the right

I recall asking a coworker "who's the guy in the Hendrix hat "?
when out of SRV's mouth

" I'm here to see Steve about my guitar.

and since Steve Fryette was out that day , I was the only VA employee named Steve in the room. At the time I was not familiar with his music , only knew it was Texas Blues and he tuned to Eb
And had a list of custom string gauges we wanted.

I did use the self locking 1/2 wrap restring technique on the stock kluson tuning pegs on his 61 strat. ( i own a 61 Strat as well ) as this aids tuning stability during whammy bar use by shortening the non speaking string length

And yes , I used a Conn Strobotuner to set the intonation /adjust the action a bit, 1st a slight polish up the frets
And a couple swipes of dry Ivory Soap across the Nut to aid lubrication prior to installing the strings

-a few other details below



Later I heard from his brother Jimmie that SRV was very happy with my work
He got a record deal soon after .


Quote from: gweeterman1, post: 26548889, member: 18731So did he really use 13's and high action or? Big neck or med c?
Just curious,
Thanks for your time
C
It basically was in same condition as seen in the 1982 Montreux video

At the time I could see it was an early 60's  slab rosewood board Strat , with a re fret with medium frets at that time   , and closer to 9.5 radius ( a popular mod to prevent fret out on extreme string bends that occurs on most  7.5" radius fretboards)   medium C neck around 0.85" thick at 1st fret, not too narrow nut a bit wider than 1 5/8" wide , worn finish sunburst  ( ridden hard and put away wet)  SRV in reflective stick on letters on upper cutaway , a body route for extended unrestricted drop down with left handed steel block tremolo and custom hand bent arm and a wood patch to  hide the hole in body where original right hand trem arm was.

The pickups seemed to be stock except a 5 way switch  had been installed and a black pickguard . Staggered height magnet pole piece pickups( No reverse wind/reverse polarity middle PU )

I never had his pickguard off the guitar, But its possible he may have had a mod that Christopher Cross informed me about ( he was prior owner of this same guitar)
. make the lower Tone pot for bridge & Middle PU and mod the 5 way switch using dremel to modify the switch contacts which removes the Tone pots from the circuit in switch positions 2 & 4
Then set the guitar tone pots on "7" - but set the amps with more treble
Net result is those clapton tones at position 2 & 4 with no tone pots in the circuit  jump out and remain bright and dont sound dull ( as is typical on stock strats )


But I recall I installed 11-58 strings  ( but might have been 13-60. Ernie Ball is what we had in the maple custom gauge  box , he did have a list of what specific gauges he wanted ) tuned half step  down and I did cut short pieces of Heat shrink for each string  to prevent string breakage as they emerge from the top bridge plate  , and I left the Nut height and bridge height  alone as was his preference. The action was a bit on the high side, which provides room to bend stretch  B string at 13th fret under the G string as fingernail / finger can push the G string up out of the way .


And yes he kept a supply of super glue for his finger tips - inside the guitar case


In 1982 It was the height of LA new wave KROQ,music scene (oingo boingo, missing persons,  Berlin, Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones, Duran Duran)  or Van Halen wannabes doing the Hollywood Pay to Play scene and full page ads in local BAM magazine - and not much in between except for John Hiatt at Madame Wongs every week  I admit I thought to myself at the time ( guy wants to make a career playing Albert King Blues these days - good luck with that . . )


So I wished him luck and " say hello to Jimmie"  as  he picked up his guitar the following day.


Flash forward to August 1990 I had gone to college, changed careers ( could not continue at $6/hr wage ) and was in Dallas for Mil/ Aero radiation effects engineering gig the week he died and he was due to sit in with the Fabulous Thunderbirds with his  brother that weekend at a festival in a local park .

To say he was  focused and skilled and sadly missed is an understatement



https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/srvs-strat-50k-at-gc.1947244/page-2

Elantric

#102
Meanwhile, back in 1978 

My old band Rocket 88

"High Altitude Love"



Steve Conrad, Bruce Bossert, Jeff Nadeau
Here's a site with  MP3 recordings  of that band at a live gig in Flagstaff , AZ from 1979:

http://www.lovedrums.com/audio/Rocket88/


Elantric

#103
Back in 1980 i was working on Steve Bartek's guitars (Strawberry Alarm Clock, Oingo Boingo, he worked as  Danny Elfman's orchestrator and now composes many TV shows as well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bartek
Oingo Boingo toured with XTC and The Police on a few world tours in the late '70's  / early 80's -   


Hurricane

8)
Sat in one night with The Strawberry Alarm Clock - [ Slim Jim ] from
The Stray Cats was the drummer that evening .
They are quite a talented lot . They cover The Blues very well .

Nice pic thanks for sharing .

EZ :

HR


Elantric

#105
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2296156583995809&set=a.1657531974524943&type=3&theater



At 2019 Winter NAMM  - Shirley and I met up with my idol - Don Wilson of The Ventures at the Wilson Bros Guitars Booth


https://www.facebook.com/TheVenturesMovie/



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plexified

Thank You ,
                  That is an amazing piece of history and documentation. You SIR are 'THE' American Treasure occasinally spoken of in actual " AMERICA " . God Bless You my FRIEND !!!