That Quack?

[roger bayliss]

I too found setup was important to get a quacky sound going. However I also think holding the pick so there is not too much pick showing helps and at times bouncing the string off your thumb especially on the bass end. The string height needs to be highish but still able to drive the strings onto the fretboard under heavier picking. The pickups need a litle bit of slant up towards the treble side.

[dyker124]

Hi 51 Relic,

Thanks for your reply. For guitar set-up please see my reply to Dave Robinson above. I have tried all sorts of plectrum techniques to no avail. I have just tried some of the POD settings that you advise, and I think that your onto something. The speaker cab makes a lot of difference. With the default speaker setting and the bass and middle control on the POD set to 50% and the treble high it sounds far too bassy, but when I select another speaker set-up it becomes a lot more acceptable. When I have the POD connected to the input of my amplifier with all controls on the amplfier set to 50% (neutral) and the POD set to the default AC15 settings, the sound is quite mellow. If instead I connect the POD straight to my digital recorder and monitor the sound through headphones, the sound is about the same. A decent sound is arrived at by setting the POD bass very low, and the middle and treble set to about three quarters. When connected to the amplifier, I have the POD output set to 'Combo Front'. As I said earlier I think the answer lies somewhere in the combination of the settings.

Thanks again
Roger

[dyker124]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for your reply. I'll see what I can do with the pick. I'm a little unauthodox in so much as I hold the pick between my thumb and second finger (not first finger). I always have from when I started playing in the late 50's. I don't know if that will make any difference. I'll also look at pickup height.

Regards
Roger

[noelford]

Interestingly, over Christmas, I replaced all the hardware on my 1988 American Vintage '57 reissue with a Fender gold set. When the guitar was reassembled and roughly set up, I gave it a quick try and was amazed at the difference in the sound due, no doubt, to the change in set-up. I normally use this guitar for non-Shads instrumentals and switch to my Masterbuilt for classic Shads, but I'm now considering not doing any more to the set-up as the sound is so good as it is. Like Dave, I also use a Bose system, with a Pod X3 Pro providing a Vox AC15 modelled tone.

I also agree that a huge factor in the tone is the attack of the pick.

Cheers

Noel

[dyker124]

Hi Noel,

Thanks for your reply. I agree with you that the set-up of the guitar, string size, plectrum technique, all play a major part in creating 'the sound'. I just haven't got there yet for the more lively punchier numbers. I am more than happy with my sound for the more slower melodious ones.

Thanks again
Roger

[dyker124]

Hi All,

I may have been misleading some of you in the sound that I am after. A member on another forum thought that is was the 'bark' that I was looking for, not the 'quack'. I think that he is correct. Please play the YouTube link below by a very accomplished player that I have found, which shows the type of sound that I am looking for. It shows the guitar played on the neck pickup, but I have heard the bitey sound on the middle and bridge pickups too.

http://youtu.be/30TJnNJdJkg

Kind regards
Roger

[noelford]

Roger, I may be completely wrong but I have always thought of the bark and the quack as being the same thing but on different PUs. Hit the string hard using Bridge PU for quack or neck PU for bark.

[dyker124]

Hi Noel,

The popular belief from the replies I have received over two forums seem to suggest that the 'quack' is what results from the selection of two pickups. Either middle and neck, or middle and bridge. The sound is something to do with the mix of the two pickup outputs when the strings are hit hard. The 'bark' is the sweet sounding barky tone that was commom in the early sixties numbers, and is the result of striking the strings (heavy gauge 12's or 13's) hard with the correct amout of added EQ. It does not seem to matter much as to which pickup is used (please hear the sound from the YouTube clip in my previous post).

Kind regards
Roger

[noelford]

Roger, I wouldn't agree at all with the quack being the second and fourth selector switch positions. Wouldn't I be right in thinking those PU selections would not be available on the early Strats? They're certainly not on my Custom Shop Masterbuilt '56 NOS, which has just the three selector switch positions, and that quacks pretty nicely on the bridge PU!

Cheers

Noel

[dyker124]

Noel, you are correct in that the early sixties (and before) Strats had a 3 position pickup switch. I have also heard from some forumites that some players also used to wedge their 3 position switch into a mid-pickup position the get a particular sound. I'm not saying that it produced the 'quack' because I do not know, but it could have been. As mentioned in my above post, I think the sound that I am looking for is what seems to generally accepted as the 'bark'. It's that sweet trebly sound with lots of bite without the 'ice-picks' on the high notes, and the lower notes seeming to lack bass. It's difficult to describe, what is the perception of one players 'quack' is another players 'bark'.