I'd like to ask Duke an "Off The Wall" question if I may...

Do you think that there's a differance in the way that sucessfull blues guitarist tend to set up their guitars to get a better blues sound...? It seems to me that most of the better blues players that I have been around tend to use a higher action on their strings and that seems to help bring out more of the subtlties of the blues sound... do you concur with that assesment...? If you think that is true then it seems to me that somebody with serious knowlege about this should write a detailed article about it for the sake of ( I'm going to coin a phrase here... ) Blues Posterity.

I find that when I play a guitar with a wimpy set up that I just can't get a very bluesy sound and that bothers me. It seems to me that to get the sound I want that you have to man handle the instrument and use a lot of elbow grease.

I told you that it was going to be an "Off The wall" question, but I think that it could be an important one.

I think there is a good amount of validity to your thoughts about a higher action setup for blues guitar playing. For one thing, blues requires alot of emotional input, for example the "rake", if the action were set to low, it probably wouldn't sound strong enough or have the emotional content in the feeling of the lick. I find I tend to go for  my guitars with a slightly lower action setup when I want to play some jazzy type things, lots of jazz chords,etc., but when it comes to blues I usually grab my guitars with 11's and a slightly higher action setup. Thanks, hope my comments help! Frank Hurn

Yeah... I got Dan Earlwine's good book: "Guitar Player Repair Guide" and that covers it pretty good.

Then again, there's the famous advice given to Billy Gibbons by BB King - why make things harder for yourself. Slap on a set of 8's and have a ball!

I would think it's a matter of what works for you. So many players, myself included, have once rendered their guitar unplayable after reading about SRV's set up - and thta's no good for anyone :)

I don't think that BB King's guitar sounds nearly as good now as it did years ago. Maybe that's because of those wimpy strings he uses.

BB uses light strings now I think, but he's also well over 80 and it is inevitable to lose some of the energy as time goes on. Cut the legen some slack! I wish I can see that age and still be able to play my guitar..

Hi Tom, That's not off the wall at all. It's a good question actually that I am happy to give you my opinion on. The set up of ones instrument is a very personal thing. While some players are very fussy about their action and overall set up others may just get used an instrument the way they bought it and adapt to it. I belong to the first group. I am too fussy in my opinion actually. My struggle is, as I advance in age, finding the balance where the guitar play as comfortable as possible without giving up any sound at all. The higher the action the better the tone generally. So you are right in your assement. And for blues you generally want to have to work at least a little to get the feeling. Of course, that statement is totally subjective. Let me just say when I sit in on other peoples guitars I usually find the action too low which makes it harder not easier for me to play or get a good sound. I also need an 11 to 49 set of strings so there's a bit of tone from the strings. On jazz axes I use heavier strings on the top to be sure I get a full and fat sound. Hope that helps! Duke 

Guys, I am currently playing a strat with Fender Custom Shop '54 pickups.  Looking for ideas on other pickups for another strat I'm putting together.  The 54s are very weak single coil (but very nice for some applications) pickups.  I am a classic Chicago Blues follower.  I am looking for another set that keeps that classic sweet fat tone but with slightly more bite.  I don't know how these guys are doing it.  

Most of the pickups I find today are either heavy metal oriented or very glassy sounding (not sure what genre of music that might be).  I know the sound when I hear it.  Just not hearing it with any of the products I'm coming across. 

Any ideas?

Scott

I use different gauges on each of my guitars. My Telecaster, which I use mostly for country and 60s soul, has .9s on it. My Epiphone Sheraton, which I use for 335-type blues, has .10s. My Epiphone Swingster, which I use for rockabilly, has a Bigsby so it has .11s. And, finally, my Epiphone Broadway, which I use for swing and jump blues, has .12s since I don't need to do much whole step bending on it. Also, the action on them gets progressively higher as the string gauge gets higher. So my Broadway's action is noticeably higher than the action of my Telecaster and even the Sheraton. 

In terms of pickups, the Swingster has their own pickups, called Swingbuckers, which have series/parallel switching. That allows for straight humbucker sounds or getting something that is a more single-coil type sound. Lately, I've been seriously considering replacing the humbuckers in my Broadway with two Lollar underwound 50s' style black dogear P-90s (like an early '50s L-5). There is a tone on those records from the 40s and early 50s that is really warm but still has a sharp bite to it that I think comes from P-90s (since there were no humbuckers yet at that time).   

Hello Guys, Regarding Strat pickups, I alwaya recommend Lindy Fralin or Seymour Duncan pickups. For a fatter sound the Fralin blues specials produce a bigger sound which is nice and full sounding. As far as string gauges, whatever works for each individual is often different. You can listen to opinions to help make choices but in the end your own fingers and ears should guide you on your decision. Duke