Lowell George stratocaster

[kplamann]

Dear all,

My beginner's electric guitar was an old Japanese 1970s big headstock strat copy in natural with a maple neck. I still have the guitar, however the original electronics and pickups are gone after many modifications. I recently thought of putting it back into shape and have it set up for slide.

Thinking of a 70ies natural maple neck strat set-up for slide immediately triggered the idea of replicating George Lowell's strat. Although he mentions having played many strats, old footage mostly shows two guitars: a strat with blonde finish and a tele bridge pickup and a natural finish strat, also with a tele pickup and the "Stratoblaster" preamp. It is the latter one I want to replicate. I am quite aware of the previous threads on the topic, but I still have a couple of questions.

- Is a 70ies white pickguard three ply or simple?
- What kind of tele pickup did he use?
- Was the "Stratoblaster" plate black, aluminium or brass? (I contacted Alembic who now sell a reissue of the Stratoblaster, albeit with a brass control plate. They can make it rectangular upon request.)
- Do you know anything about the enigmatic switching options he mentions in some interviews?

[kplamann]

[LightninMike]

http://www.musicpictures.com/zoom/7819556/

http://humblearchives.photoshelter.c...000PDYw5VoUqfM

if you look at these two pics, you can see the edge clearly..... i think the darkness is just the stage lighting causing a shadow and the guard is just plain ole' white

as far as the pickup, it seems that due to his guitars being continually stolen, he used whatever was around at the moment

the plate was brass

he preferred the simple wiring of a 5 way, the other options he didn't care for and were kinda sprung on him by a tech

[kplamann]

Thanks for the information and the photos. I since have found this picture which is supposedly one of his original guitars. Although he often mentioned in interview that he has played many guitars because most of them were stolen, youtube footage and other pictures mostly show two of them: a "blonde" one and another in natural finish which is probably this one (before the Tele volume control knob was installed).

Finally I am not too obsessed with originality - the pickguard will be three ply, I may or may not colour the rectangular preamp base plate black and the pickup will be a Harmonic Design Super 90 (a P90 in Tele bridge pickup shape).

[LightninMike]

and i need to recant the previous bit about the stratoblaster being brass.... here is a direct photo of one from roughly that era

[kplamann]

Thanks a lot. So I'll make the plate black.

Let's agree - we are not talking about a beautiful guitar ...

[LightninMike]

any instrument can be beautiful..... most are, but some have some things about them that I just don't like.... and some of those things I am vocal about

as well, the Alembic unit was adjustable for output on an internal pot.... you can really dial it back to where the unit is just working at unity level

Garcia had the same unit, and wired it with a stereo jack so it was always on when the plug was in place.... as well, his had the standard jack mounted on a brass plate..... why bring it up? cuz it all fits into what was going on at the time.... and for those in the know, it was all about bringing up a better sound.... listen to live recordings done of Little Feat in the mid 70's, some sound better than studio recordings don 25 years later..... LG was about good clean sound

[kplamann]

Well, if I were to optimize guitar aesthetics I probably wouldn't put a black preamp unit on a white pickguard guitar ... although in this case I think it is quite appropriate. I like to believe I got the guitar in 1979 - the year Lowell died - or maybe the year before. I almost immediately started to modify it and it has seen many visually challenging changes, among them pickup covers and control knobs being painted black. To turn it into a Lowell guitar with the black blaster and the Tele bridge pickup somehow fits.

Just to illustrate the absurdity of my project - the Tele pickup I have ordered exists also in a Strat version which would not have required any routing.

More seriously, I really look forward to experimenting with a guitar set-up like Lowell's. I will use heavy flatwound strings and maybe I'll try different types of compression.

You are right, he had a great clean slide sound (which I prefer to heavily overdriven slide playing like Sonny Landreth's, who otherwise is of course another great slide player).

I will need a couple of weeks to get the parts and have the routing done; I'll post a photo and maybe some sound clips when I'm done.

[LightninMike]

for the slide, make sure you go to Sears and get the appropriate Craftsman part

LG used 2 compressors..... one set to 9 o'clock and the other set to 3 o'clock..... of course, if you have a Dumble amp, that will be the icing on the cake

[Pierce]

[kplamann]

Hehe ... how does the black switch tip influence the sound?



Oh I am just a vagabond
A drifter on the run
And eloquent profanity
It rolls right off my tongue

[syrynx]

It's a darker sound.

[DOGMA Dunn]

Nice guitars.

[SPUDCASTER]

[QUOTE=LightninMike;3310101]for the slide, make sure you go to Sears and get the appropriate Craftsman part

Was that an 11/16ths or a 13/16ths deep well, I can't remember?
"She caught me in a squeeze play on the cheesy side of town"

[kplamann]

Originally Posted by LightninMike

for the slide, make sure you go to Sears and get the appropriate Craftsman part

Was that an 11/16ths or a 13/16ths deep well, I can't remember?
"She caught me in a squeeze play on the cheesy side of town"

I am pretty sure that it was 11/16. What would that be in millimeters, and how would that translate to millimetres?

Seriously, I think I do not want to copy that from Lowell as it seems to amount to a rather heavy slide, at least too heavy for my pinky finger.

All the parts for the guitar are in the mail; I will update you on that in a couple of weeks.

[LightninMike]

11/16ths...he supports the slide with his ring finger..... or just go like Duane and use your ring finger, it seemed to work well for him

[LightninMike]

ok, it's been a couple of weeks...how it going?

[LightninMike]

i found a copy of the alembic stratoblaster as it was mounted in Jerry's guitar....

[kplamann]

The special pickguard from Pickguardian and the Harmonic Design pickup have arrived. I am currently waiting for the (Strato-) Blaster from Alembic and then I will continue the project. I will keep you posted.

[Fred Garvin]

I have a George inspired strat also.

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1310024485

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1310026461