Transform Your Stratocaster with Gilmour Tones

[@lukesteverything627]

Hi Tony, you're spoiling me today. I've watched 3 of your videos and loved them all. It's my birthday, I'm incredibly old, I've a few 'Black and Tans' in me from the big lunch and I'm watching you. Perfect day!

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Hey age is relative and of little consequence except for learned knowledge over the years... :) Thanks for watching and its appreciated.

[@humblegeorge]

I have used their products and they are humble approved ! Excellent products with great parts inside. I have a Strat with 7 + 5 choices 35 sounds ! Yes I get lost most of the time but the all three pick ups is wonderful. PS Tony I made a video last night about You'r Rosewood neck.Please have a peek when you find time.Cheers dear Friend.OH great video here to be sure.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Interesting stuff HG and I'll look in to this stuff. I had never heard of that 'Feed-n-wax' stuff here in the UK - but a quick search of Amazon got this: Howard Feed N Wax FW0016 Wood Polish Feed and Conditioner, Orange OIl, Beeswax 473ml (16oz) about £16.00 (or $20)... so I bought one :) I'll include it in the guitar build :) and thanks for letting me know about that one :) - regards... tony.

[@aquilarossa5191]

I have one of these in a 1990s Les Paul, plus the Gilmour one in a Strat. One thing I noticed with the first one was how much less noisy the Obsidian harness was than the stock Gibson wiring harness. That is probably due to the PCB being better shielded and not picking up noise like a radio antenna, plus they separate the bridge ground from the pickup grounds, which might help too. P.S. It's a CTS problem, not the harness's fault, but my Fender knobs were a tight fit on the CTS shafts, so the soft metal tabs that hold the pot covers on opened up. I used a flat head screwdriver to push the tabs closed again. Another thing was the 3-way Switchcraft toggle for the Les Paul went dodgy. Not Obsidian's fault, but they posted me a replacement no questions asked. CTS and Switchcraft are not quite what they used to be it appears. I think the Strat was solderless, but the Les Paul was not. I had to extend the ground wire from the bridge. Both guitars have pickups with the flimsy four conductor wire Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio use. I tinned those wires to prevent little stray whiskers and to hold the ends together. No solder blobs though, or they will not fit into the quick connect thingy. Good lighting and your glasses on if your eyes a dodgy, because it's a bit of a fiddly job. On the Strat I put heat shrink on the four conductor wire too. A bit more shielded, plus it tidies it all up. I even twisted those wires before heat shrinking them, because sometimes that helps with noise. It seemed to work (noise on a Strat is a big problem if you use lots of gain or fuzz etc).

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Great info you posted and thanks for taking the time to do that - real experiences with the gear are always brilliant so thanks for sharing that. I'll certainly bear it all in mind when this one goes in the guitar build... and thanks for watching too!

[@rickycompton2610]

This was a very Informative video Tony,Your video’s are so in depth .Thanks Tony for all your great videos I can’t wait to see this Obsidian switch in action on the Strat you’re getting ready to build oh yeah and hear it too!

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Won't be too long hopefully. I have most everything now and finishing off a couple of videos re parts like this one really. Pickups are next then the guitar build. Thanks for watching.

[@scottamcfarland]

Great information, keep up the great content

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Thank you Scott. And thanks for watching.

[@motokev2727]

Years ago I bought a Gilmour EMG pickup assembly. He used that EMG assembly through the 80s and 90s installed in his fender '57 reissue strat. One control is a mid boost the 2nd control is a treble boost and 3rd control is volume. This product looks interesting.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Thanks for that info - I have not really researched Gilmour myself, but great info from you and thanks for that. Yes this Obsidian Wire control does look interesting - exactly why I bought it and we'll see later when the guitar build happens. Looks quality too. Thanks for watching.

[@AnimalJohn85]

At that price ill do it the ode fashioned way, at least when a component fails its less faff. Its a very tidy sloution though, especially for those who hate soldering. Just very wary of pcb options, when they break they dont do it by halves. Gonna be interesting to see/hear it in action :) Great vid as ever sir

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Yes I get it re pcb etc. but this looks reasonable to fix if it was to break... but probably should be OK. Ha we shall see - I could break it yet! :) thanks for watching

[@sparkeyjames]

Toneshaper made something very similar to that but no longer seems to be making it. At the time they were making it I wanted it for my strat but other realities got in the way. The way I have my strat set up now I have a master volume master tone and a blender pot that can blend the neck and bridge pickup in positions 1 and 5. From 1 no blend to 10 both pickups full on.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Ha I reviewed the Toneshaper years ago and you are right it changed over the years... which was a pity really - I still have that in one of the guitars :) Thanks for the info and for watching.

[@joeking433]

Knowing that all your electronic connections are super secure is well worth the money! If I had a dollar for every time I wired a guitar and had some kind of grounding problem I'd be a rich man! However, I do realize you can buy a decent Amazon guitar for less than the price of an Obsidian wiring harness.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Ha I bet you could - Amazon sells lots of stuff... from personal experience in what I do in the daytime often it really is not wat it looks like though. The Obsidian reminded me of the Tone Shaper from years ago and that worked pretty well too but they are all a bit expensive. This one better because of the Gilmour thing going on (we'll see later about that) but overall I do like it. Thanks for watching...

[@joeking433]

Yeah, those Obsidian electronics are really nice, I have them in several guitars! Mojotone makes one that is also good. They are a great upgrade and well worth the price!

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Thanks for the info on Mojotone - I'll look at that. And thanks for watching.

[@jimtippens]

Can't wait 2 C Build & Sound Demo. Great Video's Always. 👍😁

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

It will be on its way... next one is the pickups and why I chose the exact ones which matters really. Thanks for watching.

[@joeking433]

I think the owl shirt would be great for those guitarists that have a belly.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Ha like me :0

[@timeagan893]

Hi Tony: Sir I have some concerns about what appears to be in many ways a real upgrade to MOST players (using common modern guitar rigs) My concern is this: I am VERY partial to older "Fuzz Face" and "Tonebender" fuzzes (particularly Fuzz Faces that use NOS NKT275 germanium transistors and Tonebenders using NOS Mullard OC81d transistors (yes I am well aware of the problems associated with "heat" w/germainium trans.) NEVER THE LESS there is a delicate interplay between these impedance's. My concern is that although the "treble bleed mod" solves many players that experience high end loss while dialing back on their volume pots....However in my case this will interfere with my (admittedly specialized) vintage fuzz circuits/pedals. These pedals are so fussy and finicky that anything like buffers or even not being first in the signal path (right after the guitar itself) causes failure of the glorious sound/tone. David Gilmour himself is/was a well known Fuzz Face user but David also had Pete Cornish and other guys like Bob Bradshaw to "work around" these issues. QUESTION for TONY: Do you think this "Obsidian wiring" will throw off the balance I am use to using with older vintage fuzzes such as I have mentioned?????

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Honestly? Right now? I can't tell you - but that's simply because I have not yet built the guitar. When it is completed I will try and show a number of different tones because of that 'Gilmour' thing going on... Will I be a David Gilmour? Sadly not. I'll be a Tony McKenzie no matter what I do :). It's a very interesting question you pose but rather than me 'making something up' I prefer to try and answer that when the guitar is built. BTW I don't own either device you have so I can only show what I have here... thanks for this great question and I'm sure others would love to know the answer too. Hopefully the video later will help... maybe. Thanks for watching.

[@Barbarapape]

Plug and play or should that be plug and pray ? Having spent a lifetime soldering this is still my prefered way, but if you don't even own a soldering iron, this will save burning your fingers. It will be interesting to hear how it sounds, i have a luthier made Gilmour Strat fitted with the EMG ready assembled pickguard, but they are active pickups. Time will tell just how close Tony will get to a Gilmour Strat. As for the T shirt, all i can say is Ma he is making eyes at me.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

A I won't even be close to Gilmour tones as I honestly don't even know one tune to play of his. But I'll certainly try and create some great tones and others can tell me if they are or are not like Gilmour tones :) I am looking forward to this because of the switching (and the pickups - which you will see soon). Along with everything else on this guitar it should be very interesting for sure. Thanks for watching...

[@Barbarapape]

@@tonymckenzieofficial If you look at the pedal board that Gilmour used live in the likes of Pulse, it must have cost more than the guitar. Most multi-effects units can easily provide the Gilmour sound if that is what you desire. I have only learned the most popular parts of his hits, you coud spend a lifetime trying to copy any of the better guitar players sounds and only get sort of close. Each player has their own sound, far better to spend your time improving your own than chase the holy grail.

[@pd4165]

And then Ratty, Moley and Badger farted around on the river for several hours without actually doing anything.

[@tonymckenzieofficial]

Hey I checked your channel.. great videos. Thanks.