Windmill in a Tree

Hi Leon,

thanks for having a listen.

The guitar arrived from the USA in a ā€œblockedā€ status and, impatient as always,
I recorded the verses and solo as you hear them the very same day. It seemed like hard work. :unamused:
The chorus parts are the result once I had floated the tremmy bar a few days later. Much easier!

That morning I also put pencil lead on the nut and under the trees, and polished and leaded the saddles,
and the guitar stays in tune really well. You can hear a little ā€œpingā€ in this track where the string
on delivery day grabbed the unleaded nut at the end of the first phrases of the solo. I left it there in
the recording as an artefact of the moment, and in memory of the loss of my strat virginity. :laughing:

Only the solo and end fills are middle pick up, all the rest is neck. :wink:
Even so early on for me, I too canā€™t imagine playing much away from the neck p/u.
I donā€™t think it is a limitation in either of us, just a taste thing.

I shall continue to develop bass and drums.

Thanks again.

Hi Jet, the big disadvantage of a floating block is breaking a string. Every other string goes out of tune. But I hardly ever break a string in a live performance, mainly because I hardly ever have a live performance. What I also learned is that the best guitar sound you can get is from a Telecaster type guitar. The reason for that is that I donā€™t have any tele type guitars! Enjoy your strat!

:nerd:

Mix #2, with J&D bass and panned drum kit.

https://jetcrawford.bandcamp.com/track/windmill-in-a-tree

Liked it at first, and like it even more now. Very nice work (itā€™s a labor of love, for sure).

Thanks again for your second listen,
and for noticing that the tune has indeed been a labour of love.

Love the guitar work and sound!

Like it better. Have fun with your new axe!

100% Agreed. Yes, itā€™s better ! and I like it.
Always the same story, right ? Work on it, rework on it, etcā€¦ :slight_smile:

Joe, Leon, Steph,

thanks for giving it a schpin.

Oh yes, thatā€™s great. And itā€™s instrumental! Youā€™ve got a cracking sound straight off with your new Strat and Cortez. Great tone and playing. Itā€™s funny, I assumed the solo was being played with the neck pickup. Great surrounding sounds - is it all Strat, perhaps through some clever reverby treatment, or keyboards? Thereā€™s a bit where the backing chords/ambience sort of ping-pong with the solo, very nice. How are you capturing the guitar sound?

Iā€™m with Early on the tremolo thing. Keep it floaty, a bit longer to tune but a shimmering, glassy addition to the tone whenever you want to use it.

Steve.

Steve, thanks for the listen and I appreciate your comments.

What you hear as guitar is all the Strat, and nothing else. Anything left or right that doesnā€™t sound
like a guitar is a keyboard: a few pads and warped pulses. But all the melody and the arpeggios are the guitar.

I switched to the middle p/u for the lead break as it seemed to cut through nicely
without shredding the ear drums. At the moment, I simply cannot imagine playing
anything on the bridge guy. My tinnitus is bad enough as it is.

I put an SM57 right in front of the cone. Bog simple, but it seems to work for me.

I forgot to add that, after 20 years, The Pearldivers have disbanded.
No more lyric-based songs. We have sung ourselves out. :wink:

Haha! I donā€™t believe you! I hope you know my comments were a joke about my own narrow point of view when it comes to lyrics. You have a very pleasing voice to listen to, itā€™s just that I donā€™t listen to what people sing!

i forgot to comment on this even though i`ve listened to it a few times since you put it up, wonderful as always.

Hi Leon and Jet ,dont know if youve seen or heard of a Tremsetter before ,you do have to butcher your strat a bit to fit one but personaly that didn`t bother me with the model i own but the tremsetter does work good .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAmNmjiR38Q

Hmmā€¦ guy must have been a bone surgeon before this. I never really minded if the other strings went a little off when I used the tremolo, as long as it came back, and as long as I keep my nut greased (on the guitar) the Strat tremolo is better at keeping in tune than my other guitars. Itā€™s just when a string breaks that Iā€™m out of luck because the total tension against the tremolo springs is suddenly reduced. I didnā€™t see anything in this video that showed me how a Tremsetter would compensate for that?

i wont lie to you its been ten years or more that i had it on and trust you to come up with that question ,the answer is,i cant remember ha ha ,tell you what ill google it ā€¦back again,i looked briefly and didnt see anything, but the answer will be out there, to be honest though Leon i always had a spare guitar anyway ,so i didnt care if a string broke ,but im sure something in my head is telling me that it can hold its tuning after a break.ill be back..(.2 days later im back), i detunesd the top E to simulate a break and it did not hold its tuning. ahh never mind i thought it would ,its still good for country bends though, where a normal trem is not good for country bends.

No tuning issues for me (yet) although I am not exactly doing EVH dives.
The graphite treatment seems to be doing the trick so far.
String breakage not a problem as Iā€™m not playing in a band.

Maybe I just got a lucky with a stable axe?

Ah! Beautiful! :blue_heart: