Academy Of Tone

Fascination Vintage: Exploring the Magic of Vintage Instruments
Why are replicas of vintage instruments so popular? What makes vintage guitars special? Can a new guitar truly capture the sound of a vintage one? Do these guitars enhance your playing experience? And what qualities can we transfer from vintage to modern instruments?
Join us in Episode 213 as Thomas explores these questions and more. In a thrilling blindfold test, Thomas will play several guitars while the livestream viewers guess which guitar is being played.
We'll compare the guitars using two sound profiles: a clean, edge-of-breakup sound, and a Plexi overdriven sound. But before the audience makes their judgments, Thomas will showcase the unique qualities of vintage Strats that modern reissues can't replicate.
Key Aspects of Vintage vs Reissue:
• Pickup Magnetization: How vintage pickups differ.
• Electronics: Potentiometer values, capacitor types, and values.
• Wood Aging: The impact of old wood on sound and modern methods like freezing or roasting wood.
• Paint Jobs: How a heavily used guitar's paint can affect vibration differently than new lacquer.
Thomas will share his personal criteria and preferences for Strats, demonstrating with different models what’s important to him. He'll compare three Strats with identical specs across different price ranges:
• His affordable signature model by Vintage for €619
• The €2,990 BluGuitar 61 Masterbuilt
• His priceless original '61, valued at ten times that price
Thomas will explain the modifications he’s made to his '61 Strats to achieve his ideal sound.
Thomas’ Special Specs for All His Strats:
• Treble bleed: 180-270 pF
• Bukka Switch: Reducing hum and harshness
• No tone control on the bridge pickup
• Brighter neck pickup due to higher resistance value of the tone pot
• Middle pot for the middle pickup
• Tone caps: 22nF for middle, 100nF for neck pickup
For those who are interested in buying a vintage guitar, Thomas has some...
Vintage Market Insights:
• Current trends in the vintage market
• Differences between player and collector grade vintage guitars
• Comparison between vintage guitars and new remakes
Don’t miss this deep dive into the world of vintage vs reissue guitars!
#podcast #bluguitar #no1guitarcenter #vintageguitar
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Get your AMP1 MERCURY EDITION and IRIDIUM EDITION
with 3 YEARS WARRANTY and FREE SHIPPING (within EU):
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[@BluGuitar]

I hope you enjoyed this rather nerdy episode with ten Strats…😅 8 of them try to do exactly the same thing like my main guitar, but I found - when you listen closely - there are no 2 identical Strats… maybe not even on the planet… So what I could learn from that is: I have a few parameters that are more critical to me as these are “my thing” - these make me feel like it’s my kind of Strat tone. As long as I can find them, I’m home, and can do my thing. And that’s independent from the price range. When I can connect to the instrument I get lost in my playing and in music… And that is what people hear more then if it’s my original vintage fender from 1961. On the other side there’s a higher level of subtle things that form a more complex tonal “personality” which can rather be found in well played vintage instruments… As long as you can really get something from that, real vintage instruments are worth considering. I hope you can identify these important tonal qualities that are important for your style and hopefully find these in an instrument. Your instrument is your partner! You should feel home with it and connect to it… Then there’s music… Enjoy 😊 Cheers, Thomas

[@Luftporsche]

Der Samstag bei Session hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Du hast eine schöne informative Veranstaltung gemacht. Gerne wieder.

[@BluGuitar]

Sehr gerne 👍 freut mich wenn alle was mitnehmen können…!

[@robertdonosobuchner3129]

Moin. Super Video! Die blaue Stratocaster klingt super. Meine Stratocaster Gitarren habe ich unterschiedlich modifiziert und habe versucht die positiven Eigenschaften der jeweiligen Gitarre zu verstärken. Unterschiedliche Saiten, Tremoloblock, Saitenreiter...demnächst dann die Potis und Kondensatoren... Ich nutze diese Gitarren für unterschiedliche Musikstücke und Stilrichtungen. Die Gitarren haben ihren eigenen Charakter.

[@BluGuitar]

Sehr cool!

[@lone-wolf-1]

So mache ich das auch: passend zur jeweiligen Gitarre ihre guten Eigenschaften noch fördern/verstärken mit dem Umbau/Austausch von Teilen. Wenn man versucht einen spezifischen Klang anzustreben, der weit abweicht von ihrem eigenen Ton/Timbre, dann bleibt von den guten Eigenschaften wenig übrig und man verstärkt nur was sie mittelmäßig oder schlecht kann. Zum Schluss ist sie bloß verschlechtbessert. 😊

[@robertdonosobuchner3129]

@@lone-wolf-1 Ich habe eine Stratocaster Pro die vom Holz her einfach dunkler klingt als eine baugleiche. Sie haben beide einen transparenten Klang, die eine besitzt einfach etwas mehr tiefere Frequenzen. Daher habe ich mir überlegt bei dieser Gitarre einen Tremoloblock aus Bronze einzubauen und diese dann auf Standard D oder drop C zu stimmen. Das ist dann mein "Bariton light"... Bin auf das Ergebnis sehr gespannt. Zeichnung für den Tremoloblock ist schon fertig. Jetzt geht es ans Werkeln. Vorher werde ich aber noch Aufnahmen im original Zustand machen...

[@lone-wolf-1]

@@robertdonosobuchner3129 Oh ja, Bronze unterstützt die Bässe als trem-Block. 👍 Stahl betont mehr die Höhen.

[@jutukka]

Ich stimme zu.

[@helgaharrietringelstein]

Hard working Thomas in #213 💪 😀. How many times did you change the guitars to test the ears of your Nerd community, I think probably around 30 times. What always sounds best to me is what comes through my ears straight to my soul 😌.

[@BluGuitar]

That’s true!!!!

[@davidr2673]

This was a great episode Thomas 👍 Blind tests are always great fun, but how about a test for the guys in that chat that is Mercury vs Iridium vs Real Amp (and maybe, vs Amp X)? We know that you can get these things sounding very close 😉

[@BluGuitar]

I’ll do that eventually…. ;-) Should do it more…!!! Check here 0:43 kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZm7eYqXht-Un9Esi=-Ilbvf42GgGIPnPm kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIScpYl8r5athZosi=kT5xze34fqz2Cul2

[@thomasstump6933]

And😍 thxs again for that nerdy stuff

[@kennethlinton4432]

Well your reissue Blu "Strat" is certainly much cleaner! Your AMP1 is fantastic and so light.

[@BluGuitar]

😊thanks 😊

[@jutukka]

I am sorry but this video was so enjoyable and relaxing that I fell asleep many times like a baby even when I tried to watch it very intensively. 😅 But as far as I remember that metallic blue (?) Strat with some visible dings sounded very clear and sharp and I liked it very much. Surprising to me because it was rosewood fingerboard neck, not maple neck, wasn't it. What was the secret? Newer strings? Different body material? Tight neck pocket? Perfectly adjusted bridge screws?

[@BluGuitar]

I believe it is the body neck combination that gives a similar resonance. The rest was optimized setup: string hight, pickups hight -> my conclusion: the wood needs to provide the foundation, the rest is manageable Greetings, Thomas

[@jutukka]

@@BluGuitar Materials are important. I just this week purchased a hardened steel trem block (Allparts BP-0486-000) for my 80's Japanese ST-62 Fender Stratocaster which had a zinc block and the trem bar thread felt loose. When I today removed the original zinc block, the steel spring I had put under trem bar to make that trem bar fit tight had eaten itself out of the side of the trem block and disappeared! 😁 So there was an extra hole on the side of that trem block! The new steel block surprisingly fit perfectly and all dimensions and threads were identical. Steel block both feels and sounds absolutely fantastic compared to the old zinc block. All holes are perfect. Zinc block weight was only 230g, steel 290g. (That 36 year old guitar is quite nice work except the body material (basswood) is quite soft even if it is quite heavy and original frets were very small sized and of soft material.) My advice is, avoid basswood as body material. Ash is much better.

[@michaelabraham65]

Hallo lieber Thomas, wieder mal ein sehr lehrreich und informatives Video! Eine Frage, wann ist die Control One wieder verfügbar? Ich bin mittlerweile auch ein Besitzer deines Amp 1 Silver Edition und deiner Bluebox und bin sehr begeistert! Hätte ich schon viel früher machen sollen! Mir fehlt jetzt leider noch die Control One! Wann wird sie in etwa wieder verfügbar sein? Liebe Grüße, Michael

[@BluGuitar]

Hallo Michael, wir haben gerade eine Produktion mit 1-Control gestartet. Ich gehe davon aus dass die in ca. 6-8 Wochen bei uns im online Shop zu haben sind …

[@michaelabraham65]

@@BluGuitar prima vielen Dank für die Information und deiner Rückmeldung! Dann freue ich mich schon mal vorab darauf…😊

[@thomasstump6933]

Which Kloppmann-Set ( ST ?? ) do you use in the maple neck ?

[@BluGuitar]

ST 56

[@Gambi56]

Was für einen Backingtrack hast du da bei deiner Vorführung am Anfang im Hintergrund laufen?

[@BluGuitar]

Habe ich hier von KZbin… kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIPRoKFujJatjcksi=1UcNgUPd34_rywsf

[@Bloodyrocka49]

👍

[@Taita8744]

The first blind test is obvious, 8-6-1. The 1 is magical, I can describe it to be naturally "on breakup". The others are flatter. A suggestion to Thomas. I know you are trying to solve the vintage code to tone. can it be of any help to remove some pieces of your real 61 and see what's doing the trick? - I mean, you remove and temporarily change the bridge with the masterbuilt one, and see if the result is equal. It's equal? Well, go back to original bridge and - change the neck with the masterbuilt one, is it equal? Yes? Well then - change the saddles or the wiring or something else Maybe it's just the wood and his construction, or maybe not

[@BluGuitar]

I totally agree on your method! I’ve done things like that before. For instance with my fender PartsCaster. The results was: besides the tremolo Everything was different: Beck body pickups … But I totally agree to your method. That is how we do amps: only if every stage individually is doing the same like in your reference you get the same results. For us electronics are easier compared to wood…;-) Greetings, Thomas

[@lone-wolf-1]

I believe that on the special sounding guitars, there is a certain harmony between all parts (stiffness, resonance and weight), wich provides the last 10% of finesse and timbre.

[@thomasstump6933]

You get all of these tones out of a Strat .. e.g. just as another guy did some decades ago .kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3rcoapsj7V0htE .. not the best sound quality due to an old VHS footage .. love you guys

[@BluGuitar]

Thanks!!!!!

[@SlapMehhh]

its just chipped and aged paint

[@BluGuitar]

;-)

[@xgdgdjdhdhdhd3493]

Who cares?…. so sick …… I cannot believe that a strat player has no other problems in life ….

[@BluGuitar]

On one hand you are right! I will close that book for a while (years) now for myself and focus on other things. I just like to delve in deeper, then take a decision that I can live with for a while…

[@WolfgangSingMusic]

Nice Video 🎉 And it still proves: take three identical Strats/Guitars, and they will all sound different. But isn‘t that, what makes this so much fun? Btw: off to buy a Amp1 now 😉🫵

[@BluGuitar]

Choosing the right guitar can be a challenge, like buying your next pair of shoes to be you all time favorites… Sometimes they have to be worn in for a while as well, unless it’s a perfect fit at first sight…

[@WolfgangSingMusic]

@@BluGuitar Yeah ! True Story 🙏😉