More Stormy Mondays - Oh My Goodness!

[AndyR]

I knew (hoped?) it would be good, but this is wow...

I got my first set of Stormy Mondays last year for a Les Paul Traditional. I'd had the guitar for a month or so and loved it. I had this hankering to try SMs, so I did.

My memory of the 57/57+ Classics in there is fading, but I seem to recall the difference with SMs wasn't huge, it was just "better". And the guitar gets better and better for me.

About a month ago I "accidentally" bought a new 61 Re-issue SG. I have loved it since the moment I opened the case - but I have been struggling with it tone/sound-wise. I've not been loving the 57 Classics in this one at all (I've been hearing rumours that they've changed the recipe recently, but haven't found anything more than hearsay so far). I've had pickups up high, down low, and all points in between. It was too bright but muffled at the same time. It sounded a bit harsh in places, and seemed more prone to delivering a "boxy" kinda tone. Don't get me wrong, it's fine, works, and in the old days I'd have happily gigged with it. But when you've got some other guitars screaming "play me", this wasn't doing itself any favours.

I already have a Faded SG with Riff Raffs in - the Riff Raffs were in my first order from BKP, January 2008, and I think I got the guitar about a year after that... I do like the sounds, but I find it's kind of a one-trick-pony in my hands - it does the "70s rock thing" well for me , but for pretty much anything else it's a bit too "hard" sounding when compared to what some of my other guitars can do. I had been considering (before I got the 61) putting the Traditional's 57/57+ pairing in there.

When I got the new 61, I realised the Riff Raffs might go well in there, acoustically it's lighter and more vibrant than the Faded. But what I REALLY wanted was another set of SMs so I could have one SG with RRs, one with SMs... If I could get the sound I was reaching for, then the existing RRs in the Faded is a really cool tool to have, let's not mess with it...

Well, I got me some more Stormy Mondays the other day. And last night I got a chance to put them in the 61.

I only got about 30-45 minutes to play and mess with heights before the missus came home, but... Holy Flip!!! On the strength of what I was experiencing last night, it's almost a completely different guitar!! I managed to hang on to the old strings while putting in the new pickups (though I will probably put new ones on this weekend - I just wanted to hear the old strings)

I cannot wait to get home to play it some more.

I don't particularly want/need "Angus Young" but it is a wondrous rock and roll guitar tone - especially on If You Want Blood - so one does tend to reach for it. And hey, if you strap on an SG and you are certain age... well there's a bunch of things you're bound to play, isn't there?

Well, on the strength of last night, if you want to do Angus Young, what you need a nice SG and Riff Raffs Stormy Mondays!! Who knew, eh?

There's something "elastic" and "springy" about his tone as I hear it on the live albums. I don't get that from the RRs myself, but the Stormies, it's right there on tap.

And also, I can hear that this guitar has got warmer as well as brighter with the SMs - it's going to be almost as versatile as my LP, it'll do mellower poppy stuff, blues, Dicky Betts and Duane Allman, Gary Rossington, etc.

I'm over the moon, and to be honest really quite relieved. I've wanted this guitar for SO long, and I was having real difficulty "feeling it" while playing. When I switched to SMs on my LP Trad it was an improvement, but there had been nothing wrong really with the 57/57+. With this SG, the Stormy Mondays have just kicked/hit the 57s right out of the ground.

[Kiichi]

Well, that I certainly did not expect. I mean, I know these are glorious, but that they may be a better Angus choice than the RR is really interesting.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Stormy Mondays always sound like great pickups, though I've never actually tried them. The Angus Young reference is surprising for sure but you repeatedly hear that SG guitars need either high or low output pickups so perhaps that means it just really hits the sweet spot in an SG. I tried an SG a year or so ago, thinking I might get one to go with my Les Paul as I love that guitar so much but I was surprisingly disappointed in it. It was nice enough to play but just didn't set my trousers alight so I gave it a miss. Perhaps better pickups would have been the answer. As I recall it was 57s in that guitar.

I'm still dithering about a bridge pickup for my Les Paul that I will like as much as I like the 498T in there but sadly I just don't see the SM doing it for me for what I want in that guitar. Maybe in a different guitar     

[AndyR]

I've been playing for a while this evening now. I've lowered the pickups slightly from where I left them last night, that's what's grabbing me at the moment.

Thinking about it, one of the reasons they might be a better "Angus choice" for me personally is because I hit quite hard and I use 11s. I don't know what Angus uses string-wise, but film I've watched seems to show he has quite a light touch - might be wrong on that, though - hard to tell, he doesn't stay still for too long!!

I was actually suspecting the Stormies might be a better fit for me based on how they've worked in my Les Paul. Added to that, apparently the Angus Signature SG has 57s in, and, for my money, the 57s seem to be closest to Stormies (out of SM, Mule, and RR).

I've also heard rumour that he uses Pearly Gates himself. Not tried them, but I understand they're AII, comparable on DC, and the actual original pickups in the Billy Gibbons Pearly Gates are surprisingly low output.


Funny what you say about "didn't set my trousers alight" - that was EXACTLY what was going on with this SG. It's lovely, looks gorgeous, feels nice, but I wasn't getting a big kick out of playing it - not a sustained one. You know, you play it for a bit and then pick another guitar up... I am now, it's going "play me, play me".

There's something else going on - obviously the strings came off to install the pups... but I tape the bridge and tailpiece so they don't go anywhere. As far as I can tell, the action hasn't moved. But I'm getting more sustain, the notes sing more, and - I've just tried it - the guitar takes slide now! It didn't before.

Btw, when I was checking out youtube clips for Stormy Monday a year or two back, the one that seemed most relevant to my way of playing, use of amplifier, etc, was... someone using them in an SG.

Always nice when I put BKPs in... Very very happy with this change 

(And there's Country Boys for a tele on the way - woohoo!)