Eric Clapton Strat

[B3Guy]

Hey! I played an EC Strat at GC the other day, and I really liked its sound palate. I've since done some reading on it, and it aparently has an active mid boost circuit. Does anyone know how these work? Is it digital, or what?

 

[Cagey]

No reason for it to be digital; it's just a very simple narrow-band amplifier. Takes a 9 volt battery. Tone pot sets its level.

So simple, a caveman could do it! <grin>​

 

[B3Guy]

Schweet! I guess it mightn't be super complicated . . . it just looked awful modern and computer-esque in all the pictures.

 

[Watershed]

It's really not too bad of an installation.
The biggest issue will be getting the circuit board to fit inside the body.
The EC signature body has a special route for the circuit board, I made my own with a router.
I have heard of others getting it to fit in the existing route of a standard strat.
Perhaps it is possible, but it will be tight with the 9v battery.
You also have to get a TBX tone control in there.

Also, it will boost the output of the guitar considerably.
I'm using it in conjunction with a set of DiMarzio Virtual Vintage (Heavy Blues, Blues and Solo) pickups, and frankly, I think it's too much output.
It would be a better match with a low output single coil, like the Lace Gold's that it was designed for.

Just my experience,
James

 

[Panthur]

I used to have Lace Sensor Hot Golds in my strat with the clapton boost kit. Had to route a small bit out for the battery to fit (in fact, I just used a dremel), the sound was pretty sweet. The cool thing is the ability to go from clean sounds to killer drive without any pedals or anything. It was a sweet setup.

 

[B3Guy]

The current EC uses Fender Vintage Noiseless PUPs, not Lace, and I've played both. the VNs sound better. Does anyone have any suggestions for non-noiseless PUPs that would work well output-wise to replace the Fender VNs? IF I'm going to build a Warmoth, why would I put run-of-the-mill fender pups in it?  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

The Fender Vintage Noiseless are pretty widely favored, from what I've read. The Lace sensors are getting to be so fragmented it's difficult to tell what's what with those. The "Area" series from DiMarzio is highly rated, and I can vouch for those. Seymour Duncan makes a similar series that's highly rated. Kinmans get rave reviews, as do Bill Lawrence's noiseless single coils. Long story short, it's getting tougher and tougher to justify using any kind of standard single coil pickup. The pros vs. cons are getting to be pretty unbalanced to the con side. The stacked coil pickups are all sounding awfully good. About the only good thing about old-fashioned single coil pickups is you can get a set of three out of China for the price of a case of beer.

 

[lafromla1]

My EC Strat sounds great with the VN's.  :icon_thumright: