Another great video Nicky, I just recorded a pass the other day with Justin O’s tip. Funny enough combined with your tip on fuzz 😆. On my 335 I rolled the bridge tone all the way dark with Justin’s in between sound and turned a fuzz on with a slight chorus sprinkle for a shoegazer solo “riff”. Was through a VOX ac15…. Was a really cool synthy kind of sound. I have an interesting idea, although many have done it, how about a video on the 3 main amp flavors, Fender/VOX/Marshall. I’m sure you’d bring something new to that table. 🤷♂️. Thanks again brother! PS. That shell pink strat looks and sounds fantastic. -Dave
@@dave_d_i_a_lDave you rock man. Appreciate the comment/kind words and thank you for sharing that! I’ll have to give that one a shot with the fuzz. The three primary amp color video would be a good one…I’d try to find a way to do my own spin on it or bring something new to the table.
@@NickyV thx for the shout back. I’ve seen several videos on what all those amps offer, but I haven’t seen a video showing their actual application. That would be cool, showing this is where I would use a VOX sound or here I would used more of a scooped Fender sound….
I’ll leave another comment too, because you really have helped me to think a little differently. Being self taught I have obsessed over being the best improviser I can be, and obsessed over being as musical of an improviser that I can be. And the result of that is that I have blinders on a lot of times about basic EQ stuff. I have perfect pitch hearing too, and dude the just cracking the tone a bit on the gibson bridge thing- I hear a big difference down in the hotsaucey area, it makes it less nails on a chalkboard screamy and makes it way more musical and emotional sounding. It’s a big difference to me. On my Firebird bridge tho it’s more like tone knob on 5.5 lol, but with LP/SG 8.5 makes a big difference to me. It goes from being offensive to musical and passionate but still intense.
some of that screeching is from the action being too low. You get tons of unmusical tones from the strings fretting out. When you lower the tone knob, you cut out the super-high frequencies present in the fretting-out from low action
I guess my cheat on the strat bridge pickup is 2 fold: I use Lollar pick ups and out the gate that has fixed a lot of strat pick up issues for me. The second thing is the right tube amp. But that bottom tone knob does the trick for giving it even more range. That's why it has its own tone knob. On the amp point, I remember when I finally got a boutique tube amp and how ALIVE every one of the 5 positions became! It was a revelation! And also, it made the tone changes more audible and musical as well. It's like 80-85% of your tone (the amp) and it will change your life if you pick a winner.
I would agree with that percentage. I feel like the majority of sound/tone/whatever we call it is coming from the amp and the guitar is there to inspire the player.
@@NickyV Thanks for your work, Nicky! It only took me 30 years or so but I finally realized the "electric guitar" instrument is more than just that dang guitar. The amp itself, originally a tube based amp, is part of the instrument too, along with the speakers and cabinet that houses them. And turns out those are more responsible for what we associate with the sound and tone, harmonic content, etc. of said "electric guitar" instrument than even the guitar and its pickups. I used to make the mistake of spending all the money on the guitar and the amp and speakers were more of an afterthought, almost like a necessary evil. lol. These days it's reversed, I've spent the money on the amp, I'll take a cheap guitar with good bones and put my own favorite pickups in them and away I go. Took a lot more care in selecting the speakers I run too.
Killer straightforward advice. I knew the gibson trick, but the strat bridge thing helped me a lot with 2 guitars. I hated the bridge pickup on strats too, they always sounded too bright while also being weaksauce. And I hated the bridge pickup on my ‘66 Coronado II by itself, though the neck pickup on that is level 99 cheat code stuff. Actually I had never thought to do the gibson trick on my coronado II, and that also worked for it. Thanks man. I always used Aunt Ruby my coronado for neck pickup only stuff, and I can see using the bridge once in a while now too. Idk why but I’ve always sorta felt like on a thin/bright bridge pickup that the tone knob was taking even more sauce away. We guitar players can put on some weird self imposed blind spots on ourselves. Another you mentioned was not being afraid to zero out knobs on amps- that sorta gets a PRRI or DRRI into an almost marshally/champ kind of area
Self Imposed Blinders needs to be its own video. That’s pure gold man and so incredibly true. It’s wild how we get set in our ways and then complain about sounding the same haha. Really appreciate you and your kindness
With all 2 strats 1st thing I do is have 3 on off switches installed as soon as I buy them-being doing this since 1979...gives me HEAPS of pickup combinations. All 3 pickups on virtually reproduces Mark Knofflers sound on Sultans. I also like the bridge and neck pickup on together.
@@NickyV Well my 1st Strat only had a 3 position switch and I thought only 3 positions plus in be-tweens? Madness! I immediately thought 3 on and off switches would be way better than the dull only 3 position switch and I a s SO RIGHT. Did that with my 2 strats AND my Gibson SG 3 pickup-never looked back-all have the 3 on and off switches taken from Fender Jazzmaster. parts U can buy Looks VERY neat.. One wld think there would be HEAPS of this configuration on U Tube but I can't even find one and i am no genius!
Thanks for the very helpful tips on using the pickup controls. I discovered the middle position with the neck pickup rolled back a long time ago searching for the Dickey Betts sound. For me it remains a go to setting for lead on any 2 hum buck guitar. I am working on using the tone knob more across the board so this video was very helpful!
This is great stuff- Thanks for taking the time to do these. I’ve seen some country Tele players reverse the control plate so selector switch is in rear-then tone then volume front. Do you have any thoughts on this? I find myself on the knobs quite a bit and it would be nice to get there w pinky. Thanks again!
I did the reverse plate for a few years but for some reason gravitated back to the standard configuration. Probably because I need the tone knob more than the volume knob and didn’t want the pickup selector next to it.
Thos is the first video of yours I've seen, I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a Strat fan and a fan of guys like SRV, Gilmour, Knopfler and others, I've always been a knob twiddler. Too many players just set it and forget it, and it robs them of dynamics and subtleties. Good video, nice playing.
Thanks! There’s a trick to angling the springs in the back to make them stay in tune and when I pull the bar all the way up the G strings goes a whole step and the B string goes a half step. Learned it from Carl Verheyen at the Musicians Institute. Basically it balances the string tension. The pickups are whatever stock 60s custom shop pickups came with it. They are very un-stratty sounding strat pickups haha
Thanks for this. I play a Tele thru a mesa boogie head & cabinet. I turned the bass knob way back several weeks ago from a previous video. Helped. Our lead singer likes the dirty sound, not full on overdrive. I’ll mess around with this info.
Great advice!! I use the tone knob roll off (Justin trick) with the middle position all the time! I tried it one day beacuse my bridge was too bright. Great trick!!
When I was starting out I was guilty as well. When I started playing teles I got hip to the knobs. When I started recording I got more dialed in on pulling as much out of them as I could
@@NickyVKind of embarrassing that I went almost 50 years not really knowing about the knobs. In addition to the wide variance of vibes available with the tone and volume knobs, I recently discovered that I can run one overdrive, (prince of tone), gain fairly high and with the volume knob I can go from clean to filthy and everything in between using picking dynamics and the V knob without needing 7 "gain staging pedals" to mess with!!! Cheers!
Fantastic stuff! My own approach to the Strat bridge pickup was always to--think of it as/make it at least as useful as--the bridge position on a Tele. Yes, this may mean a bit of a compromise here or there on your other Strat sounds, but if/when you go for (or find yourself) on the bridge pu with the vol & tones maxed, you won't be bumming out. Seems obvious, but if you tame/shape the highs and dial in some throat for the bridge position (so that when flat out, it gets your attention without being unacceptable) then the rest are going to sound great too. Also, I can't recall seeing 335 like that, with LP-style crown inlays...? Gotta research it now! 😉😄
Useful information! I like the tip for rolling off the tone just a bit to counter the shrill notes way up on the neck. Do you leave the tone on 8 all the time or just roll it down when you move up the neck?
Really like your channel. I like the way it's broken up it bite size and usable pieces. A comment and a wish. The comment isn't meant as a criticism, but it may be relevant to your intended audience. I've noticed you use a lot of jazz influenced examples. I'm thinking of your Pentatonic Substation video. Incredibly informative since it was totally new to me. But I felt I could have processed it better if the examples were blues, country, or rock. I love jazz, but playing it is a bridge too far at my level. My wish list is basically about using your method to explore pedals and a few tricks. In one video you mentioned the Blue Sky. But delay and compression would be great. And gain staging. For example I've been experimenting with where to put the compression pedal in the chain. Thanks again. *** I re-watched your video where you talked about setting Delay and Reverb a little higher, then mixing it lower. That was immediately a game changer for me. I'd forgotten you don't use a compressor.
All good man :) I’ll try to work some more country and blues into the examples…what I grew up playing. This video had a little everything haha, rock to counterpoint. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts and the kind words! Gain staging would be a good topic to cover
Thanks for the tips, I have a G&L ASAT with humbucker in the neck position. The tone sweep on the guitar is really wide, and it almost seems intuitive to ride the tone knob.
Good video and good playing. Getting the knobs on a amp would be helpful. It might be really simple, but for we 'low volume level players' its sometimes difficult to get a good tone. Cheers!
I actually did a video a few weeks back on dialing in an amp. To get the edge of breakup thing I have in this video at lower volume you could just put a subtle low to medium gain overdrive in front of your amp. Not quite the same as a cranked amp but gets it in the ballpark :)
Great video. I've been playing badly for 20yrs...did not know some of this stuff. Just tone all the way down on p-90 neck for Slash/Gilmour and tone all the way up on tele bridge for Albert Collins/Roy Buchanan. Now with this video, I can showcase my crappy playing in even more different shades of tones, lol...shades of crappiness...great!!!
I like to have the tone knob option for the bridge pickup on a Strat. For certain things I like the wide open tone of that pickup but sometimes it's too harsh. Dialing it back to around 7 removes some of the excessive treble and rounds it out making it way more musical and usable for certain things especially when playing Rock stuff with overdrive where you want a thicker tone..
Nice job. Subscribed. That strat has its thing going on, nails the radio country sound with the setup you're running. I'm guessing you've got things dialed in for tracking tones by the sound of it. An idea for a future video might be how to tweak things for live versus studio. Good luck and success with the channel. 👍
Thanks man! Appreciate the kind words. Might have to do a video on that. This Strat kind of has its own thing going for sure. Its a very un-straty strat haha
@@NickyV- More trying to get a better handle on what it has going on. Those pickups and the Archer really seem to do something different, with a big shift when you switch to great sounding cleans.
Thanks for the info! Do you have any recommendations on studio monitors for my office that is about 10x12 for enjoying playing guitar through when I need to be a hint quieter than my tube amps? Which ones do you use?
Strat is whatever stock custom shops came in it, Throbaks in the 335 wound to my buddies specs, Tele has DiMarzio Area Ts (hot T in the bridge). Appreciate you checking the video out man!
NICKY V, make a video lesson about using the tone knobs for TRICKS you can do using overdrive pedals or compressor pedal by using the guitars tone knobs. Also try to include which rock guitar players use the tone knobs on the guitar to do TRICKS with
I’m honestly not sure on who uses what. Would have to do some research for that one. The Clapton “Woman Tone” trick is pretty iconic but already covered quite a bit
@@NickyV Santana also rolls down the tone control on his PRS listen to all the Santana albums using his gibson SG P90 rolls back the volume knob often with the tone knobs rolled down
Great video for real world application! Thanks! Stealing that Les Paul trick. I always find mine has an unwanted top end that sounds great live but not necessarily in studio Have you considered a super switch in your strat like Scott Henderson? Keeps your 2 and 4 positions untouched and lets you leave your bridge/neck tone at a position you like. Game changer for me!
I haven’t messed with the super switch but switch but studied with Scott at the musicians institute. Absolute freak. Appreciate you checking the video out man
That’s a good idea. Might have to do one on the GE-7 and how I use it tracking then talk about compensating for pickups and capturing the spirit of another guitar with EQ if you don’t have the right guitar with you.
Good morning (Sat morning 10/12/2024 at 9:15 AM in rural NW TN) Nicky V., so cool to drink my morning coffee and watch a new video. Thanks for the invite to your studio and running through some amazing guitar details, so very interesting. I'm still a weekend guitar enthusiast, limited experience with only major and minor chords and pluck around, and I really appreciate the Nicky V. hang outs to listen to a professional breakdown from Nicky V. My ears aren't tuned in to hear all of the differences, but your explanation today is absolutely amazing to me. Love your presentation style. All that in less than 20 mins, very nice. Oh, only you can get away with the funky looking Nicky V. guitars too - pink special Fender, black Gibson repainted funky paint job, and then the light blue TELE, just shows that it doesn't matter what it looks like if the sound is off the charts amazing. You have created your own style. Cool - thanks for the video. Around the 15 min mark it almost sounds like an acoustic or nylon string guitar sound a little.
Man I love this comment. Appreciate you hanging out and you can thank my wife for a lot of this. When I started the channel she said “just make it feel like they are hanging out with you in the same room”. She’s a smart cookie. Appreciate the kind words and the Easter egg guitars for the win haha
@@NickyV I've watched thousands of TH-cam videos, and none quite capture this relaxed and real close kind of feeling that you're getting (you're only talking to me, right? ha ha). Even doing super technical geeky guitar stuff, it isn't boring. There is a good flow - and thanks to your wife. I've been married since 2001 and only by God's grace have we survived - through some tough, tough times - and we now have 4 kids, 4 dogs, and 3 cats (down from 7 - yikes), and 10 chickens :) Remember, your wife is always right, and you'll be fine. Argue til you're blue in the face and you'll have a cold night on the couch (again) - at least make up and appreciate all she does every day.
@@NickyV Hope we can meet and hang out sometime. I know you are super busy. Happy 2 yrs, keep on going - you are blessed to have a loving and caring wife. We waited 5 yrs (long honeymoon), then we had our first child, our son who is now 18. We have 4 kids, but also had 4 miscarriages. Wife and family life is absolute best. We had fun our first 5 yrs, but honestly, after we started having kids, we never talk about or look at the pics from when it was just my wfie and I. now we have four kids, of which 3 are boys, 8, 10, 13 (daughter), and 18. Bye for now - have a great week.
@@vfam5860that’s fantastic man. We have our first on the way this coming January. Very excited. Thank you for sharing and take care man, if you are ever around shoot me a message through my site or instagram.
I still don't like Strats: to me they're sort of "here's your standard guitar, with standard pickups", but that trick with the bridge pickup is a revelation. It's always sounded so brittle, and just by cutting the high frequency, it sounds like a proper treble pickup. Thanks!
My comment is on a little bit different subject. I watch numerous videos and they will have very awesome sounding gain and turn their volume down to seven and it cleans it up almost to where you don’t hear the distortion. I’ve tried numerous compressors. How do you get this to where there is no loss of volume just clean up?
Man I honestly don’t know on that one. If you turn the volume down, you are going to lose some volume but gain some clarity which might be perceived as louder. Sorry I don’t have a more insightful take on that one.
@@NickyV thank you for your input. Maybe it’s more of the digital stuff that keeps it consistent. Which I’m not a big fan of thank you for your time.👍🏻
You need to be running hot and loud to get the most from this in my experience. Depends on the amp and your guitar wiring as well. Dial things up with more gain / drive than you need, so that just rolling off the volume a hair has you where you want to live. Normally this will give you a decent range of clean-ish to drive to control from the pot, with a little extra on tap when you want to run things wide open. YMMV. Hope this helps 👍
Ya man, it’s a 2009(ish) custom shop I got from Wildwood when I was in highschool. 9.5 radius, 60s, with a large C neck. Might have the Brazilian right before they got busted…not sure on that one. It’s a very un-straty strat and seems to blend in a mix better than other strats I’ve had.
@@NickyV it's a keeper... Gorgeous all around. Do you happen to know the name of the colour? Great content and great playing mate. If I can make a wish, for content, I would ask for a selfish topic : how to play as a frontman, with no sideman guitarist. I'm working on becoming an act as a singer /songwriter with bass and drums. Any tips on how to play full, interesting but simple enough to be able to sing at the same time. Would be a fantastic topic, that I haven't seen anyone cover.
@@andersestesI don’t sing so probably don’t have the best insight on the frontman guitar thing. Mayer would be the best example I know of. Hendrix was the master with what I call ‘middle guitar’ that kind of guitar that lives around the 5th fret haha. Mixing lead and rhythm with licks built into the chords
I have a set of Kinmans in my other strat I use live and love them! For the tele, I ended up putting in some Dimarzio Area Ts and absolutely love them...tried all of the main go-to session guy pickups and the Area Hot T Bridge was the frontrunner by a mile for me.
I have to admit. I did get a few nuggets out of this because I have been. Playing around with my volume and tone knobs for a couple of months now and I have noticed some differences.I have a list paul a strat and a tele And yeah they are all different
I heard a guy say he only uses his LP in the middle position with all the knobs adjusted to 5. Then dialed the sound he wanted on the amp. Any changes after that for tone was pure knob controls. Any tips or thoughts on that? Any tips for live tones?
@boioth. Without all the details, just one aspect of someone's setup is almost meaningless. I'm sure some great tones can be had with the volume set to five on a guitar but what amp? How is it set? Are there pedals involved and which ones and how are they set? What kind of sounds are we even talking about ??? Clean? Slightly overdriven ? Very diistorted? ect... ect... Have you ever played a powerful amp cranked and rolled the volume on the guitar down? It's totally different having your guitar on five into an amp that is full up as opposed to an amp with it's volume that is low.
@@boiothername8032 Still not much to go on at all here but from what you said it sounds like we are talking about high gain tones like metal maybe ??? If the amp has tons of gain and you are making use of it then less signal from the guitar might allow for a tighter less messy distortion tone. Like i said earlier though there are just too many unknown factors to really sort this out. Some players just leave the guitar's controls full open all the time and get everything from the amp, channel switching, and or pedals. Other players find working the controls on the guitar to be useful whether that is to set them somewhere less than 10 and leave them or to change them on the fly to get different sounds. Gain staging just has so many possibilities, what works great for one player somebody else might think is the worst idea ever.
Guitar, Pedalboard, 65 Bassman head in the room, isolated cabinet with a Celestion Creamback in the other room with a Royer 121 on it, SSL 500 series EQ, Nieve Preamp, Interface, Logic
What would you guys like me to cover next?
Another great video Nicky, I just recorded a pass the other day with Justin O’s tip. Funny enough combined with your tip on fuzz 😆. On my 335 I rolled the bridge tone all the way dark with Justin’s in between sound and turned a fuzz on with a slight chorus sprinkle for a shoegazer solo “riff”. Was through a VOX ac15…. Was a really cool synthy kind of sound. I have an interesting idea, although many have done it, how about a video on the 3 main amp flavors, Fender/VOX/Marshall. I’m sure you’d bring something new to that table. 🤷♂️. Thanks again brother! PS. That shell pink strat looks and sounds fantastic.
-Dave
@@dave_d_i_a_lDave you rock man. Appreciate the comment/kind words and thank you for sharing that! I’ll have to give that one a shot with the fuzz. The three primary amp color video would be a good one…I’d try to find a way to do my own spin on it or bring something new to the table.
@@NickyV I’d agree with the amp video. Actually been kicking around buying a new one. So any insight on them would be appreciated.
@@NickyV thx for the shout back. I’ve seen several videos on what all those amps offer, but I haven’t seen a video showing their actual application. That would be cool, showing this is where I would use a VOX sound or here I would used more of a scooped Fender sound….
@@rondawnshelton5713right on man…I usually tell people Fender, Plexi, Vox in that order. Might have to work one up
This is great stuff! Totally with you on the 4 knob Gibson layout. There's so much to be found in the volume and tone knobs.
I’ll leave another comment too, because you really have helped me to think a little differently. Being self taught I have obsessed over being the best improviser I can be, and obsessed over being as musical of an improviser that I can be. And the result of that is that I have blinders on a lot of times about basic EQ stuff. I have perfect pitch hearing too, and dude the just cracking the tone a bit on the gibson bridge thing- I hear a big difference down in the hotsaucey area, it makes it less nails on a chalkboard screamy and makes it way more musical and emotional sounding. It’s a big difference to me.
On my Firebird bridge tho it’s more like tone knob on 5.5 lol, but with LP/SG 8.5 makes a big difference to me. It goes from being offensive to musical and passionate but still intense.
This is fantastic man. It’s wild how those subtle changes can be so significant in context.
some of that screeching is from the action being too low. You get tons of unmusical tones from the strings fretting out. When you lower the tone knob, you cut out the super-high frequencies present in the fretting-out from low action
I guess my cheat on the strat bridge pickup is 2 fold: I use Lollar pick ups and out the gate that has fixed a lot of strat pick up issues for me. The second thing is the right tube amp. But that bottom tone knob does the trick for giving it even more range. That's why it has its own tone knob.
On the amp point, I remember when I finally got a boutique tube amp and how ALIVE every one of the 5 positions became! It was a revelation! And also, it made the tone changes more audible and musical as well. It's like 80-85% of your tone (the amp) and it will change your life if you pick a winner.
I would agree with that percentage. I feel like the majority of sound/tone/whatever we call it is coming from the amp and the guitar is there to inspire the player.
@@NickyV Thanks for your work, Nicky! It only took me 30 years or so but I finally realized the "electric guitar" instrument is more than just that dang guitar. The amp itself, originally a tube based amp, is part of the instrument too, along with the speakers and cabinet that houses them. And turns out those are more responsible for what we associate with the sound and tone, harmonic content, etc. of said "electric guitar" instrument than even the guitar and its pickups. I used to make the mistake of spending all the money on the guitar and the amp and speakers were more of an afterthought, almost like a necessary evil. lol. These days it's reversed, I've spent the money on the amp, I'll take a cheap guitar with good bones and put my own favorite pickups in them and away I go. Took a lot more care in selecting the speakers I run too.
Killer straightforward advice. I knew the gibson trick, but the strat bridge thing helped me a lot with 2 guitars.
I hated the bridge pickup on strats too, they always sounded too bright while also being weaksauce. And I hated the bridge pickup on my ‘66 Coronado II by itself, though the neck pickup on that is level 99 cheat code stuff.
Actually I had never thought to do the gibson trick on my coronado II, and that also worked for it.
Thanks man. I always used Aunt Ruby my coronado for neck pickup only stuff, and I can see using the bridge once in a while now too.
Idk why but I’ve always sorta felt like on a thin/bright bridge pickup that the tone knob was taking even more sauce away. We guitar players can put on some weird self imposed blind spots on ourselves. Another you mentioned was not being afraid to zero out knobs on amps- that sorta gets a PRRI or DRRI into an almost marshally/champ kind of area
Self Imposed Blinders needs to be its own video. That’s pure gold man and so incredibly true. It’s wild how we get set in our ways and then complain about sounding the same haha. Really appreciate you and your kindness
Just put the Free-Way , 10 position switch on my Strat. Game changer ..I was surprised. Great channel , thank you.
I'm not familiar with those. Will have to check them out! Thanks for the kind words and checking the video out!
@@NickyV Made in the UK , available on Stewmac USA.. Fairly inexpensive. Keep up the good work Maestro !
With all 2 strats 1st thing I do is have 3 on off switches installed as soon as I buy them-being doing this since 1979...gives me HEAPS of pickup combinations. All 3 pickups on virtually reproduces Mark Knofflers sound on Sultans. I also like the bridge and neck pickup on together.
Nice man. I haven’t heard of that one yet. Sounds cool
@@NickyV Well my 1st Strat only had a 3 position switch and I thought only 3 positions plus in be-tweens? Madness! I immediately thought 3 on and off switches would be way better than the dull only 3 position switch and I a s SO RIGHT. Did that with my 2 strats AND my Gibson SG 3 pickup-never looked back-all have the 3 on and off switches taken from Fender Jazzmaster. parts U can buy Looks VERY neat.. One wld think there would be HEAPS of this configuration on U Tube but I can't even find one and i am no genius!
@@DerekEvans-j9j Thats killer. Strange that its not more popular or known. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the very helpful tips on using the pickup controls. I discovered the middle position with the neck pickup rolled back a long time ago searching for the Dickey Betts sound. For me it remains a go to setting for lead on any 2 hum buck guitar. I am working on using the tone knob more across the board so this video was very helpful!
Love hearing that. So glad you enjoyed the video!
This is great stuff- Thanks for taking the time to do these.
I’ve seen some country Tele players reverse the control plate so selector switch is in rear-then tone then volume front.
Do you have any thoughts on this? I find myself on the knobs quite a bit and it would be nice to get there w pinky.
Thanks again!
I did the reverse plate for a few years but for some reason gravitated back to the standard configuration. Probably because I need the tone knob more than the volume knob and didn’t want the pickup selector next to it.
Thos is the first video of yours I've seen, I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a Strat fan and a fan of guys like SRV, Gilmour, Knopfler and others, I've always been a knob twiddler. Too many players just set it and forget it, and it robs them of dynamics and subtleties. Good video, nice playing.
Very very true. So glad you enjoyed the video and I’ll do my best to keep them coming!
How is your strat trem set up, and what are the pickups, very nice tones and bending.
Thanks! There’s a trick to angling the springs in the back to make them stay in tune and when I pull the bar all the way up the G strings goes a whole step and the B string goes a half step. Learned it from Carl Verheyen at the Musicians Institute. Basically it balances the string tension.
The pickups are whatever stock 60s custom shop pickups came with it. They are very un-stratty sounding strat pickups haha
Thanks for this.
I play a Tele thru a mesa boogie head & cabinet. I turned the bass knob way back several weeks ago from a previous video. Helped. Our lead singer likes the dirty sound, not full on overdrive. I’ll mess around with this info.
That’s great man! Glad it’s helpful and appreciated you listening to me ramble on here
Thank you for this! I always get stuck in the 10-10-10 rut!
It’s hard not to. When I’m messing with the amp and pedals too much I’m like “oh ya, I have these twisty things right here” haha
@@NickyV yeah it’s like I can squeeze a little more out of this lol
@@jeffvickietanner9975we need knobs that go to 11
Great tips. Right hand position can also affect the sound. I tend to play rhythm closer to the neck pickup; bridge pickup for leads. YMMV.
Definitely. One of the good things that comes from starting out on acoustic
Great to see how your channel has grown Nicky. Well deserved!
Thank you so much. Everybody has been so kind and I love that people are enjoying it!
Great advice!! I use the tone knob roll off (Justin trick) with the middle position all the time! I tried it one day beacuse my bridge was too bright. Great trick!!
Nice man, amazing what cracking a few knobs can bring out of the same rig
Love these tips brother! Until recently I didn’t ever touch the knobs on the guitar 🎸 Treated them more like ON/OFF switches.
When I was starting out I was guilty as well. When I started playing teles I got hip to the knobs. When I started recording I got more dialed in on pulling as much out of them as I could
@@NickyVKind of embarrassing that I went almost 50 years not really knowing about the knobs. In addition to the wide variance of vibes available with the tone and volume knobs, I recently discovered that I can run one overdrive, (prince of tone), gain fairly high and with the volume knob I can go from clean to filthy and everything in between using picking dynamics and the V knob without needing 7 "gain staging pedals" to mess with!!! Cheers!
@@brianmiller3287This is spot on man. Crazy how we are all constantly learning and evolving musically with our approach and habits.
@@NickyVso cool of you to respond!!!
lot of questions answered, superb thank you
Killer! So glad it was helpful!
Good lesson, did your custom shop come with the 2nd tone wired to the bridge pup instead of middle?
I like the 2nd tone shared with bridge and middle.
Unfortunately no, I had to jumper it
@@NickyV that’s my favorite strat mod.
Just love your videos. You play so well. my style of music. Keep them coming, by the way I have a Les Paul and enjoyed this video. Best Regards.
Stellar! Really appreciate the kind words
Fantastic stuff! My own approach to the Strat bridge pickup was always to--think of it as/make it at least as useful as--the bridge position on a Tele. Yes, this may mean a bit of a compromise here or there on your other Strat sounds, but if/when you go for (or find yourself) on the bridge pu with the vol & tones maxed, you won't be bumming out. Seems obvious, but if you tame/shape the highs and dial in some throat for the bridge position (so that when flat out, it gets your attention without being unacceptable) then the rest are going to sound great too. Also, I can't recall seeing 335 like that, with LP-style crown inlays...? Gotta research it now! 😉😄
Nicky, you are an amazing person. Thanks for your time.
You are too kind. So glad you enjoyed it!
Useful information! I like the tip for rolling off the tone just a bit to counter the shrill notes way up on the neck.
Do you leave the tone on 8 all the time or just roll it down when you move up the neck?
It usually just depends on the part I'm tracking. Live I'm riding it the whole gig usually.
Really like your channel. I like the way it's broken up it bite size and usable pieces. A comment and a wish. The comment isn't meant as a criticism, but it may be relevant to your intended audience. I've noticed you use a lot of jazz influenced examples. I'm thinking of your Pentatonic Substation video. Incredibly informative since it was totally new to me. But I felt I could have processed it better if the examples were blues, country, or rock. I love jazz, but playing it is a bridge too far at my level. My wish list is basically about using your method to explore pedals and a few tricks. In one video you mentioned the Blue Sky. But delay and compression would be great. And gain staging. For example I've been experimenting with where to put the compression pedal in the chain. Thanks again.
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I re-watched your video where you talked about setting Delay and Reverb a little higher, then mixing it lower. That was immediately a game changer for me. I'd forgotten you don't use a compressor.
All good man :) I’ll try to work some more country and blues into the examples…what I grew up playing. This video had a little everything haha, rock to counterpoint.
Appreciate you sharing your thoughts and the kind words! Gain staging would be a good topic to cover
Thanks for the tips, I have a G&L ASAT with humbucker in the neck position. The tone sweep on the guitar is really wide, and it almost seems intuitive to ride the tone knob.
Nice man. Appreciate you checking out the video!
Good video and good playing. Getting the knobs on a amp would be helpful. It might be really simple, but for we 'low volume level players' its sometimes difficult to get a good tone. Cheers!
I actually did a video a few weeks back on dialing in an amp. To get the edge of breakup thing I have in this video at lower volume you could just put a subtle low to medium gain overdrive in front of your amp. Not quite the same as a cranked amp but gets it in the ballpark :)
Great video. I've been playing badly for 20yrs...did not know some of this stuff. Just tone all the way down on p-90 neck for Slash/Gilmour and tone all the way up on tele bridge for Albert Collins/Roy Buchanan. Now with this video, I can showcase my crappy playing in even more different shades of tones, lol...shades of crappiness...great!!!
Hahaha this comment got me. But the fact you know Buchanan puts you ahead of most. Appreciate you checking the video out!
I like to have the tone knob option for the bridge pickup on a Strat. For certain things I like the wide open tone of that pickup but sometimes it's too harsh. Dialing it back to around 7 removes some of the excessive treble and rounds it out making it way more musical and usable for certain things especially when playing Rock stuff with overdrive where you want a thicker tone..
Absolutely, that simple wiring mod is an absolute must for me. Appreciate you checking the video out!
I like your delivery Nicky...keep it up you're good
Very kind of you, appreciate you watching!
Nice video!
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed it and appreciate you watching.
AFAIK, for most strats, the tone knob doesn't work on the bridge position unless you do the wiring mod
I think ALL standard strats are this way.
Ya the mod is kind of a must for me. Thanks for checking the video out!
I love your tone. Great video man. I am your new subscriber.
Thanks man! Much appreciated and so glad you enjoyed the video.
Nice job. Subscribed.
That strat has its thing going on, nails the radio country sound with the setup you're running.
I'm guessing you've got things dialed in for tracking tones by the sound of it. An idea for a future video might be how to tweak things for live versus studio.
Good luck and success with the channel. 👍
Thanks man! Appreciate the kind words. Might have to do a video on that. This Strat kind of has its own thing going for sure. Its a very un-straty strat haha
@@NickyV- Rock strat thing, funky cleans, etc. A lot of separation between its distinct tones.
@@NickyV- If you mentioned it I didn't catch it... doesn't happen to have an ash body by any chance does it? Or is it super light?
@@toddnearyit’s actually on the heavier side…alder. Never play live anymore really so doesn’t bother me.
@@NickyV- More trying to get a better handle on what it has going on. Those pickups and the Archer really seem to do something different, with a big shift when you switch to great sounding cleans.
The Gibson sounds amazing! Sold
Thanks!!! Appreciate you checking the video out
Great video Nicky! You are growing like crazy! Congrats! You deserve it Brother! 🎸🎸🎸🤘🤘🤘
Awe thanks man! You are the best, and the continued support is appreciated. Hope all is well on your end!
Thanks for the info! Do you have any recommendations on studio monitors for my office that is about 10x12 for enjoying playing guitar through when I need to be a hint quieter than my tube amps? Which ones do you use?
I use Yamaha HS5’s. Very happy with them for my needs :)
Great tips. What pickups are you running in those guitars?
Strat is whatever stock custom shops came in it, Throbaks in the 335 wound to my buddies specs, Tele has DiMarzio Area Ts (hot T in the bridge). Appreciate you checking the video out man!
NICKY V, make a video lesson about using the tone knobs for TRICKS you can do using overdrive pedals or compressor pedal by using the guitars tone knobs. Also try to include which rock guitar players use the tone knobs on the guitar to do TRICKS with
I’m honestly not sure on who uses what. Would have to do some research for that one. The Clapton “Woman Tone” trick is pretty iconic but already covered quite a bit
@@NickyV Slash November rain solo uses his trademark woman tone which not sure how he gets that November rain solo tone.
@@NickyV Santana also rolls down the tone control on his PRS listen to all the Santana albums using his gibson SG P90 rolls back the volume knob often with the tone knobs rolled down
@@waynegram8907one of my favorite solos of all time.
For the strat bridge, have you considered adding a bridge plate? I installed one from fralin and it really beefed up the bridge!
Super helpful! Thank you!
You got it! Thanks for watching!
Great video for real world application! Thanks! Stealing that Les Paul trick. I always find mine has an unwanted top end that sounds great live but not necessarily in studio
Have you considered a super switch in your strat like Scott Henderson? Keeps your 2 and 4 positions untouched and lets you leave your bridge/neck tone at a position you like. Game changer for me!
I haven’t messed with the super switch but switch but studied with Scott at the musicians institute. Absolute freak.
Appreciate you checking the video out man
Awesome video. Thank you.
Absolutely! So glad dig it.
Can you do a video on a parametric EQ pedal plus gain vs buying new pickups, amps and/or a new guitar?
That’s a good idea. Might have to do one on the GE-7 and how I use it tracking then talk about compensating for pickups and capturing the spirit of another guitar with EQ if you don’t have the right guitar with you.
Good morning (Sat morning 10/12/2024 at 9:15 AM in rural NW TN) Nicky V., so cool to drink my morning coffee and watch a new video. Thanks for the invite to your studio and running through some amazing guitar details, so very interesting. I'm still a weekend guitar enthusiast, limited experience with only major and minor chords and pluck around, and I really appreciate the Nicky V. hang outs to listen to a professional breakdown from Nicky V. My ears aren't tuned in to hear all of the differences, but your explanation today is absolutely amazing to me. Love your presentation style. All that in less than 20 mins, very nice. Oh, only you can get away with the funky looking Nicky V. guitars too - pink special Fender, black Gibson repainted funky paint job, and then the light blue TELE, just shows that it doesn't matter what it looks like if the sound is off the charts amazing. You have created your own style. Cool - thanks for the video. Around the 15 min mark it almost sounds like an acoustic or nylon string guitar sound a little.
Man I love this comment. Appreciate you hanging out and you can thank my wife for a lot of this. When I started the channel she said “just make it feel like they are hanging out with you in the same room”. She’s a smart cookie.
Appreciate the kind words and the Easter egg guitars for the win haha
@@NickyV I've watched thousands of TH-cam videos, and none quite capture this relaxed and real close kind of feeling that you're getting (you're only talking to me, right? ha ha). Even doing super technical geeky guitar stuff, it isn't boring. There is a good flow - and thanks to your wife. I've been married since 2001 and only by God's grace have we survived - through some tough, tough times - and we now have 4 kids, 4 dogs, and 3 cats (down from 7 - yikes), and 10 chickens :) Remember, your wife is always right, and you'll be fine. Argue til you're blue in the face and you'll have a cold night on the couch (again) - at least make up and appreciate all she does every day.
only been married two years but this is all spot on hahaha. Thank you again for the kind words and feedback.
@@NickyV Hope we can meet and hang out sometime. I know you are super busy. Happy 2 yrs, keep on going - you are blessed to have a loving and caring wife. We waited 5 yrs (long honeymoon), then we had our first child, our son who is now 18. We have 4 kids, but also had 4 miscarriages. Wife and family life is absolute best. We had fun our first 5 yrs, but honestly, after we started having kids, we never talk about or look at the pics from when it was just my wfie and I. now we have four kids, of which 3 are boys, 8, 10, 13 (daughter), and 18. Bye for now - have a great week.
@@vfam5860that’s fantastic man. We have our first on the way this coming January. Very excited. Thank you for sharing and take care man, if you are ever around shoot me a message through my site or instagram.
I still don't like Strats: to me they're sort of "here's your standard guitar, with standard pickups", but that trick with the bridge pickup is a revelation. It's always sounded so brittle, and just by cutting the high frequency, it sounds like a proper treble pickup.
Thanks!
Killer! So glad you enjoyed. The bridge pickup trick was kind of a game changer for me on strats.
Take advantage of all knobs...and buttons! Cheers Nicky!!
They put them there for a reason haha. Thanks man!
Great video❤
Thanks babe
Great video man
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks for the tips! Your 2 cents on treble bleeds?
My comment is on a little bit different subject. I watch numerous videos and they will have very awesome sounding gain and turn their volume down to seven and it cleans it up almost to where you don’t hear the distortion. I’ve tried numerous compressors. How do you get this to where there is no loss of volume just clean up?
Man I honestly don’t know on that one. If you turn the volume down, you are going to lose some volume but gain some clarity which might be perceived as louder. Sorry I don’t have a more insightful take on that one.
@@NickyV thank you for your input. Maybe it’s more of the digital stuff that keeps it consistent. Which I’m not a big fan of thank you for your time.👍🏻
@@mikecyr1108you got it man. Might be a contributing factor
You need to be running hot and loud to get the most from this in my experience. Depends on the amp and your guitar wiring as well. Dial things up with more gain / drive than you need, so that just rolling off the volume a hair has you where you want to live. Normally this will give you a decent range of clean-ish to drive to control from the pot, with a little extra on tap when you want to run things wide open. YMMV. Hope this helps 👍
@@toddnearythanks for jumping in man. Love that people in the comments help eachother out.
That Strat looks fantastic! Really, really spoke to me.
Care to share what it is?
Ya man, it’s a 2009(ish) custom shop I got from Wildwood when I was in highschool. 9.5 radius, 60s, with a large C neck. Might have the Brazilian right before they got busted…not sure on that one. It’s a very un-straty strat and seems to blend in a mix better than other strats I’ve had.
@@NickyV it's a keeper... Gorgeous all around. Do you happen to know the name of the colour? Great content and great playing mate. If I can make a wish, for content, I would ask for a selfish topic : how to play as a frontman, with no sideman guitarist.
I'm working on becoming an act as a singer /songwriter with bass and drums. Any tips on how to play full, interesting but simple enough to be able to sing at the same time. Would be a fantastic topic, that I haven't seen anyone cover.
@@andersestesthanks man, it’s called Shell Pink. Fender got their paint codes from Cadillac so this one is the same as Elvis’s 50s Cadillac.
@@andersestesI don’t sing so probably don’t have the best insight on the frontman guitar thing. Mayer would be the best example I know of. Hendrix was the master with what I call ‘middle guitar’ that kind of guitar that lives around the 5th fret haha. Mixing lead and rhythm with licks built into the chords
Have you try Kinman pickups for your tele? I love mine!
I have a set of Kinmans in my other strat I use live and love them! For the tele, I ended up putting in some Dimarzio Area Ts and absolutely love them...tried all of the main go-to session guy pickups and the Area Hot T Bridge was the frontrunner by a mile for me.
I have to admit. I did get a few nuggets out of this because I have been. Playing around with my volume and tone knobs for a couple of months now and I have noticed some differences.I have a list paul a strat and a tele And yeah they are all different
Fantastic! Glad you found some of it helpful/useful. Appreciate you checking the video out
Yes that rhythm tone @ 11:34
Use it all of the time. Thanks for watching!
Looks like a GT-11 strat? Beauty
This is a 2009 I bought when I was 18 (highschool gig money haha). Spec wise it’s close to a GT-11. I had a GT-11 Tele for a while.
@@NickyVGreat content as always! Pardon my ignorance, but what is a GT-11?
@@brianmiller3287it’s a Sweetwater limited run they came out with a year or so ago. Interesting set of specs that people really seem to like.
I look forward to your videos ----- multi dimensional - thank you -
That makes my day! Appreciate you hanging on the channel
so on the tele how do think a blender pot/control would work?.... I never thought about doing that with a tele. kinda like the blender mod on a strat.
I think it would be super useful. Especially on the studio side of things
I heard a guy say he only uses his LP in the middle position with all the knobs adjusted to 5. Then dialed the sound he wanted on the amp. Any changes after that for tone was pure knob controls. Any tips or thoughts on that? Any tips for live tones?
Never heard of that but it’s super interesting. I feel like it would work and be pretty flexible.
@boioth. Without all the details, just one aspect of someone's setup is almost meaningless.
I'm sure some great tones can be had with the volume set to five on a guitar but what amp? How is it set? Are there pedals involved and which ones and how are they set?
What kind of sounds are we even talking about ??? Clean? Slightly overdriven ? Very diistorted? ect... ect...
Have you ever played a powerful amp cranked and rolled the volume on the guitar down?
It's totally different having your guitar on five into an amp that is full up as opposed to an amp with it's volume that is low.
@@7171jay that was pretty much all he gave. That and he said dialing in a ton of gain and high end helps but I could still never get it to sound good
@@boiothername8032 Still not much to go on at all here but from what you said it sounds like we are talking about high gain tones like metal maybe ???
If the amp has tons of gain and you are making use of it then less signal from the guitar might allow for a tighter less messy distortion tone.
Like i said earlier though there are just too many unknown factors to really sort this out.
Some players just leave the guitar's controls full open all the time and get everything from the amp, channel switching, and or pedals. Other players find working the controls on the guitar to be useful whether that is to set them somewhere less than 10 and leave them or to change them on the fly to get different sounds.
Gain staging just has so many possibilities, what works great for one player somebody else might think is the worst idea ever.
@@7171jay possibly
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Thanks for watching!
👍👍👍👍🕹🕹
Thanks for watching!
I'm gonna assume none of your single coil guitars have treble bleeds. Or am I wrong?
No treble bleeds on any of them
50's wiring on Gibson?
how did u record?
Guitar, Pedalboard, 65 Bassman head in the room, isolated cabinet with a Celestion Creamback in the other room with a Royer 121 on it, SSL 500 series EQ, Nieve Preamp, Interface, Logic
@@NickyV thx!
When the action is too low, you end up with a lot of screeching bends...the strings are fretting out when you bend, and the sound is not musical.
Traditional strat wiring does not have the tone wired to the bridge.
Ya you have to jump it. Think it’s a one wire move and not too involved
I thought this was going to be about sex addiction.😳 No Serial Killer.
Hahaha should have seen that one coming
@@NickyV Coming? Man this is X-rated stuff. No Serial Killer.
Very intersting !! i will try that dimarzios area t but what area t bridge is, the hot or the low output? !!! thanks for share...
Great video!!!
Thanks Cat Daddy!