Irish Tours and Mothers Milk

[fox5150]

I've got a set of the custom '62 pickups waiting to go into my '62 ReIssue strat. They're going in this Sunday and I'll pick the guitar back up from my luthier the following weekend. I know a week is a long time to wait, but I'll be posting with my experiences just as soon as I get it back. The guitar needs a full setup and such like, hence the trip to the luthier. My post on a very similar subject line:

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18234.0

I was toying between the Apache set and the Mother's Milk set. After talking to Tim he suggested the custom '62 set. Very glad I spoke to him!

Simon

[gwEm]

i don't know if i would say the mother's milks have a 'lean' tone: the notes are well rounded and land on the ears well. the sound seems to hang in the air after a note as rung out. its ideal for emotional playing, and working really well with a rosewood board. the mids are woody and characterful, but aren't prominent. Overall the frequencies are very balanced. the neutral eq works well with an amp, since its ideal to dial in a funky tone, hank marvin sort of sound, reggae or whatever. the tone is rich enough not to need drive, but if you want edgy blues with a touch of drive then this works very well. hard rock would be a possibility, but i'm not sure i'd want to go heavier (then again, maybe with a base plate).

frankly i'm tempted by a set of mother's milks. my slowhands are great for the heavier side of things i normally play - and they clearly sound very stratty, but with fat thickness - they beg to be overdriven and made to play dramatic leads.

but the mothers milks gave the amazing typical strat tone we heard on 100s of recordings. they are balanced and mild, but with enough balls there if you need it. i never normally play clean, but i could have played clean all day on that mother's milk strat.

[AndyR]

AGGHH! Shut up gwem!! :lol:

Actually though, I've just been experimenting with my amp models. My favourites have been "set in stone" for quite some time now, but my new SG has been sounding very middy on some of them. I've just been dialling off 2 or 3 on the mids (this is a JTM45 type model) - and it's sounding much better to my ears, and... the strat is sounding heavenly :D

(Still, like you, tempted by Mother's Milks :roll:)

[Philly Q]

Actually though, I've just been experimenting with my amp models. My favourites have been "set in stone" for quite some time now, but my new SG has been sounding very middy on some of them.

You're always going to get that difference with single-coils versus humbuckers, though, aren't you?  I mess about with the preset tones on my Pod XT and some of them sound great with SCs and horrific with HBs - and vice versa.  And there are some which only work with P-90s. 

[AndyR]

Kind of, yes, I agree, and especially on the XT (I didn't know you had one!). But on my tonelab I'm getting more of the just cooking sounds I want, and I've managed to build some patches where I can plug any guitar in and get that guitar's character. Some patches just won't work for certain guitars though. It's mainly my Dano... all my BKP equiped guitars can make a reasonable fist of most of my favourite patches - the Dano is just a shrill b1tch unless I set an amp up for her specifically :lol:

But that isn't quite what I meant in this case  - I was adjusting the patch (I've saved it now, I was so impressed!) for the strat, as an experiment, and it gave me a more "woody mythical etc" tone... and then I thought "I wonder...".

So I plugged the SG in and it sounded equally heavenly. I predict the Mule'd Tokai will also benefit, the tele's might not push into overdrive as much as they did, but the MQ'd Explorer might suffer a bit through this patch now (it's the fattest/hottest guitar I have).

[Philly Q]

Kind of, yes, I agree, and especially on the XT (I didn't know you had one!).

'Fraid so.  I don't hate it as much as some seem to, it's OK really. 

Most of the time I play unplugged(!), so I've got a reasonably finely-turned ear for the acoustic differences between electric guitars.... not sure if that's a useful thing or not.  :?

[Cary]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the interest and input, its been incredibly helpful.  Its good to hear a range of different ideas, but there is definitely a theme there  - sounds like the MM and IT deliver distinct sounds and a decision will need to be made between the 2!! I am still moving between them, one week MM, one week ITs!! Its good to know about the impending 62's too as sounds like another option there -  thanks for that.

Best wishes Cary

[AndyR]

Just in case you haven't spotted this in seconds out:

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18449.0

Might swing things? :lol:

[roland_rat]

Andy  mothers milk for me have got to be the yardbirds of tele caster pickup. Absolutly superb from a woody sweet right up to a great overdriven rock tone.  I have tried  some irish tours and slowhands they are both nice but for me mothers milk just blow them away.

[AndyR]

Now that is a good reference for me - and I had indeed been wondering whether yardbirds on teles equated with mother's milks on strats.

Before I'd got the yardbirds, it wouldn't have helped me, because I was kind of expecting a thin/bright thing from them. But I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find that although I could get thin/bright if I wanted, they're complete all-rounders, very sweet but still able to rock.

Interestingly, putting it that way, for me it means that I've got the right strat pickups in Irish Tours - that's a relief :lol:

It would be nice to have a second strat with MMs, but given I have the yardbirds tele for all-rounder single-coil duties, songwriting, general guitar parts on recordings, etc... I want my strat to be like it is - slightly harder, still sweet, but more of a kick to it :)


I guess that way of looking at it might help you as well, Cary?