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Stratstroker wrote:I have been down the road of CS54 pickups, heavy strings, EFTP and Vox heritage AC15 in the search for "that" or "those sounds" and have got reasonably close. But after belatedly listening to DM's soundfiles I have to say that these are the best I have heard. It's all there - the twang on the bass strings and the "quack" on the treble strings, and that quack has to my ears always been the missing piece of the puzzle,
(the chords in Kon-Tiki are absolutely superb). I won't accept arguments from those who can't or won't hear it that it must be a failure of their sound reproduction system because, and let's face it, when you hear an early Shads recording it is instantly recognisable as the sound we are all after whether you hear it being played in a disco, on the most sophisticated hi-fi system or on a cheap car radio or CD player. We anoraks know after just a few notes that we are listening to the original and not a sound-alike clone regardless of what it is being played on! But please note that I am not saying that recording techniques/equipment etc. do not make a difference, just that if the sound is there in the first place it will not be totally lost during the recording and reproduction process. I hope that makes sense!

I would dearly love one of these and would sacrifice all my 5 guitars to own one but at £5000 it will have to remain a (peace!)pipe-dream. I cannot wait to hear some more soundfiles once DM and the other lucky owners have really put it through it's paces!

Al.

David Martin wrote:And thanks to Dave Robinson, here are the sound files.

Bear in mind these are tiny files so as not to occupy much space... if you want higher fidelity, I've opened up an online storage account... let me know how these sound on your system... Please right click the titles and download rather than stream from the site...

Backing tracks generated by the late Roberto Pistolesi from original Shadows recordings.

KonTiki.wma

Sleepwalk.wma

Wonderful Land.wma

(Subsequent edit: Please bear in mind that these recordings were made the morning following collecting the guitar... no set up, no rehearsals just straight in. Each track has a single drop in - fluffs on Wonderful Land and Sleepwalk, and the first note on KonTiki... there are no clicks to lead into these tracks. Three days later and I've now had a chance to set up my own gear to play the sounds, and this guitar is clearly the real deal... and going back to the sound files again, sure enough they aren't perfect, but I think they demonstrate clearly that CRS'59 has the sound qualities of 34346 in addition to all those other associations that come with it. And it's really good to play. In summary, I'm very pleased I got it, and I hope to share it with one or two folks at Shads clubs as time permits, when members will be able to play it too...)