Strat set for Funk

[Crazy_Joe]

Hi guys,

Just wondered what you would recommend for my strat if i wanted to play funk ala David Williams or some RHCP.

I love the sound of the little subtle popping lines David Williams plays that you can hear in the background of Michael Jackson tunes. I think Steve Lukather might have done some too but i'm not that clued up on it to be honest. I also like the funkier side of RHCP, tunes like Aeroplane, Give it Away etc.

But yeah funk set, what would you recommend. I should probably also say it's a cheap and cheerful Vintage V6 Icon not a proper Fender so it's not made of Alder. It's a good guitar i would recommend them if people are on a budget (which i was at the time) but i'm thinking of buying a "real" American strat soon so i might swap them out.

[gordiji]

i reckon pretty much any strat set will do funk.IT's may not be the first to come to mind , but mine funk very well.
here's a clip using position 1 & 2(out of phase) on usa strat.gotta love Nile.

[gwEm]

i reckon pretty much any strat set will do funk.IT's may not be the first to come to mind , but mine funk very well.
here's a clip using position 1 & 2(out of phase) on usa strat.gotta love Nile.

i was going to suggest 'mothers milk' but then came to the same conclusion as you. even my sinner can get funky. i think your right a funk comes from the player mainly.

question is - do you have the funk crazy_joe? :)

[Telerocker]

IT's sure can funk, I'd say very good with a good tubeamp. But Apaches will funk too, as will Mother's Milks. In this case I would say Apaches or MM's. The Apaches have some magic to them, several players stated on this forum.

[AndyR]

Yep, I reckon all will funk in one way or the other. But for me a lot depends on the guitar itself - how much snap is available in the first place.

Out of the sets I've got, I'd say that BKPs help me funk in this order: Apaches > ITs > Sultans.

But, like I say, I reckon the guitar has a lot to do with it as well. I still suspect that out of my three sets the Apaches would improve the funk abilities of any of the three guitars. They have a natural spanky rawness in the mids that means you don't have to dig in to get that tone, which in turn means (to me) that you can be slightly more graceful in what you play but maintain the snap...

And when you do dig in.... ooooo-oooh! (shiver) :lol:

[38thBeatle]

To me, funk is all about feel and to a certain extent, the guitar is secondary and therefore I would concur with my esteemed forum brothers and say that any clean strat tone would crack it.

[Crazy_Joe]

I agree 38th. It's mostly down to your playing and getting into "the pocket".

But these Vintage V6 pickups are not the best, they feel a bit more high powered than a standard Fender set. I was thinking Apaches just because they seem pretty versatile and can cover most things. A few of you have said Apaches so i might go ahead and get them.

Cheers for the clip by the way that was brilliant!

[Joshuabug]

Hi guys,

I love the sound of the little subtle popping lines David Williams plays that you can hear in the background of Michael Jackson tunes.

Hey man , I believe I can help you with this one. David Williams actually used an Ibanez replica with Humbuckers on tracks like Billy Jean, Seymour Duncan I believe, the trick was that he pluged directly into the mixing board with a DI. Now if you want to get a funky sound there are a few things that are a must. It's very important to have low oputput pickups, 165 maximum and around 6k resistance, if you go higher than that your clean channel will start to break and the pure clean tone will go to hell. I recorded with many amps and found that solid state amps are better for this purposes, such as the Roland Jc 120, really nice , clean glassy tone. Another important thing is potenciometers and strings, keep them at 0.10 maximum for that extra sparkle and 250k potenciometer to keep it warm and not too Bright. A compressor works great for the right hand too. Now down to pickup recommendations, Jamiroquai uses Kinmann Pickups, other use Dimarzio Virtual Vintage, and others Shur, as long as the output is low and the resistance in the 5-6 k area, it should do the job.
Please check out this video of mine, I played with 2 Dimarzio Paf Pro humbuckers on a funky track of my band through a fender bassman (tubes) I hade to keep it very low for it not to break but it did the job, allthough I would not use it again for this kind of songs. let me know if you like the sound, this is not as brigth as a strat but still sounds very funky in a different warmer way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBJsPnGMlKw

[Nolly]

As has been said, more or less any out of the range will do the job, rolling the volume control back will thin out even the hottest/fattest of the bunch to an acceptably funky tone :)
However, I concur that the Apaches would be an excellent choice - like the Mules from the humbucker range they are incredibly versatile and suited to almost any application.