TIME FOR MORE “KEEPIN’ IT REAL”

Even-StevenSteve Soest and Stevie Ray Vaughan… Double(neck) Trouble? (Hah)

TIME FOR MORE “KEEPIN’ IT REAL”

It’s been a while since we’ve had a post like this..or any new post at all for that matter. Time gets away from all of us, especially me lately…

So it’s beyond time and way over due for a Steve Soest Post. Time For More “Keepin’ It Real” has been waiting in the wings.

Yes, it’s time for some sound advice from Steve Soest on how to keep that guitar in tip top shape and playin’ like it should. So be sure to write in to Steve here at: [email protected] for some great free advice – (or we’ll have to raise the price…and who wants to pay double free?)

EXPERT GUITAR MAN STEVE SOEST does this out of the goodness of his heart. There aren’t too many guys out there with this much guitar knowledge who share their love of guitars like this…for free…making the world a better place, one guitar at a time. For goodness sakes, Stevie Ray Vaughan used to come to Steve…Steve has always been THEE GUITAR GUY!

How many guitar doctors will give you this kind of guitar advice for free? All you have to do is write in with your questions and Steve will advise. You don’t even have to pay an insurance premium here, a deductible, nor even pay for an office visit. Steve prescribes just the right amount of medicine for your individual guitar situation!!!

Steve-MustangI mean really??? How many guys do you know that can drive around town with this many black guard Teles at once?  Only one I know of.

TIME FOR SOME QUESTIONS

Steve, I have a mid nineties Strat from Japan and want to put some cool looking old style Fender tuners on it with the roundish oval style part you turn. The tuners that are original on it now say Fender on the round part of the tuner on the backside and are flat on the sides of the part you turn to tune it with (locking tuners maybe?).

Do you know if the Fender vintage style replacement tuners will fit this guitar? I don’t see any screws on the back holding the tuners on it so I guess I have to drill new holes into the headstock for the vintage style tuners. I want to find out if they would fit first because I don’t wanna drill holes in it and screw it all up with extra holes there if they won’t fit this. Its 1995 or 96 Fender Japanese Strat guitar cuz the guitar is pretty nice.

Thanx, Pete Waterton

Hello Pete,

And thanks for your question! The Old Kluson-style tuners do lend a nice vintage vibe to a Fender guitar. Gotoh (Japan) makes a very nice replica as well as other Asian manufacturers. It sounds like your Strat came with a diecast-type tuner that has a hex nut and washer on the face of the headstock and a couple of locating pins on the backside that fit into some tiny holes on the back of the headstock.

Those tuners  generally require a larger mounting hole in the headstock, and you’ll need to get some reduction bushings/ferrules to fit the outside diameter of the larger hole, and also the diameter of the smaller tuner post of the new Kluson-style tuners. Allparts (Texas),  WD (Florida), and Stewart-MacDonald (Ohio) all sell the tuners and the reduction bushings online via mail order. Good luck with your project!    –  Steve Soest

 

Steve, Why do they call the finish on the old Fender, Magnatone, etc. lapsteels “Mother of Toilet Seat”?  Lon Moore – Idaho Falls

Hey Lon, – Thanks for asking! Back in the Post World War II era, thin sheets of pearloid patterned celluloid plastic were used on many bathroom accessories (toilet seats, laundry hampers, tissue boxes, etc.) The material was shrunk around a solid wood shape using heat and sometimes acetone fumes. It was easier and cheaper than prepping and applying a lacquer finish and provided an attractive ready-to-go surface that didn’t have to be sanded and polished.Fender actually had a large drum of acetone outside of  their old building on Santa Fe Street in Fullerton and the workers would apply and shrink the material there!

When the generation of Baby Boomers came of age and started to unearth these little musical gems in the early 1970’s,  the covering reminded them of the bathrooms in their childhood homes…”Mother-of-Pearl” already was in use for organic shell material, so the term “Mother-of-Toilet Seat” was lovingly coined.  –  Steve Soest

 

Steve, Is there a pedal made today for the Vincent Bell’s underwater effect?
Gail McGuckin

Hi Gail,

Great question. Thanks! The only thing I’ve seen that came close to that is the old Fender Dimension IV unit. It was a free standing box as well as part of the Fender Super Showman solid state amp.

With the thousands of pedals out there these days , someone MUST make one. Let’s put this one out to the pedal geeks out there!  – Steve Soest

Keep the questions coming! Send them to: [email protected]

A huge THANK YOU to Steve Soest for taking time out of his busy schedule for us!

FORGOT YOUR MEDICINE? TIME FOR A DOSE OF KEEPIN’ IT REAL BY STEVE SOEST

FORGOT YOUR MEDICINE? TIME FOR A DOSE OF KEEPIN’ IT REAL BY STEVE SOEST

That’s right, the GOOD DOCTOR is in!Even-Steven

…and I thought I was busy. Steve Soest is playing gigs all over Southern Californiafixing EVERYBODY’S GUITARS, living life large, and he still has time for us here at Jackaboutguitars.com  What a great guy!

 

                                                              Woops! Two Steve’s…

I’ll have to send him out one of these new extremely way cool Jackaboutguitars.com tee shirts when they become available in the very near future!  They’ll look something like this:

Jag Shirt240-3This is only a mock up.  Of course the real shirts will look way much cooler than anyone can even begin to imagine or anticipate!!!

Prices aren’t set in stone yet but the way it’s looking I’m guessing they’ll probably be somewhere around $25 which will include shipping within the continental U.S. and for any of you other readers in the other 102 countries where we have been seen, we’ll have to calculate that extra shipping cost (sorry  Paul M., Eric C., Jeff B., Jimmy P., Peter F., and Pete T.) (Besides, if you guys mentioned here request a shirt, I may just send ’em with no extra shipping charge if you promise to give ’em plenty of exposure.)

As we get this all figured out (depending on demand and feedback –  please drop us a line at [email protected] and if there’s enough response, we’ll probably put up an order form in the right hand column to make it easy to get one of these cool tee-shirts that boast a logo design by the same artist who designed the famous AC/DC logo, my talented brother, Gerry Huerta.

Continue reading FORGOT YOUR MEDICINE? TIME FOR A DOSE OF KEEPIN’ IT REAL BY STEVE SOEST

“KEEPIN’ IT REAL” by STEVE SOEST

FORGOT YOUR MEDICINE? TIME FOR A DOSE OF KEEPIN’ IT REAL BY STEVE SOEST

That’s right, the GOOD DOCTOR is in!Even-Steven

…and I thought I was busy. Steve Soest is playing gigs all over Southern California, fixing EVERYBODY’S GUITARS, living life large, and he still has time for us here at Jackaboutguitars.com What a great guy!

 

Woops! Two Steve’s…

I’ll have to send him out one of these new extremely way cool Jackaboutguitars.com tee shirts when they become available in the very near future! They’ll look something like this:

Jag Shirt240This is only a mock up. Of course the real shirts will look way much cooler than anyone can even begin to imagine or anticipate!!!

Prices aren’t set in stone yet but the way it’s looking I’m guessing they’ll probably be somewhere around $25 which will include shipping within the continental U.S. and for any of you other readers in the other 102 countries where we have been seen, we’ll have to calculate that extra shipping cost (sorry Paul M., Eric C., Jeff B., Jimmy P., Peter F., and Pete T.) (Besides, if you guys mentioned here request a shirt, I may just send ’em with no extra shipping charge if you promise to give ’em plenty of exposure.)

As we get this all figured out (depending on demand and feedback – please drop us a line at [email protected] and if there’s enough response, we’ll probably put up an order form in the right hand column to make it easy to get one of these cool tee-shirts that boast a logo design by the same artist who designed the famous AC/DC logo, my talented brother, Gerry Huerta.

Now for some Keepin” It Real.

FORGOT YOUR MEDICINE? TIME FOR A DOSE OF KEEPIN’ IT REAL BY STEVE SOEST

Yep, It’s time for a public service announcement: Forgot your medicine? Time for a dose of Keepin’ It Real by Steve Soest. This will fix you right up for whatever’s ailin’ you and your guitar.

Here’s some questions…

Steve, I’m lookin to get a bass amp and thought you’d be able to give a heads up on a good new amp for club work. what would you recommend as far as used amps? thanks, Billy Metz

Thanks for the question, Billy. Times are good for small club –sized bass amps! Without getting into specific models, all the major manufacturers now offer smaller combo (amp and speaker in single cabinet) amps with plenty of power and loaded with features (EQ, XLR line out, compression, etc.).

Players no longer need to have monster stacks on stage to carry the fat bottom end. These amps are quite versatile, since most larger venues will have a sound system capable of reproducing great bass tones, all you have to do is line out into the mixing board, and use your amp as a stage monitor! Pack up your bass and head over to your local retailer and try out as many as you can to see what suits you personally. Good luck, Steve Soest

 

Steve, I have a Fender Stratocaster. What would you say is the way to set up the tension springs in the back? Some people cross ‘em over instead of keeping them in a straight line. How many springs do you recommend that I use to help keep the guitar in tune when I use the whammy bar? Thanx. Jim Johnson

Hello Jim – I get asked this question a lot in my repair business. The answer is based on your playing style and your preferred string gauge. My first question to you would be, “How are you going to use your tremolo/vibrato in your playing style? Are you into Jeff Beck, dive bombing, pulling up, flutters, etc.? Will you use it minimally, maybe just a little wiggle at the end of a phrase?

Or, will you NEVER use it, preferring to avoid tuning problems relating to constant pitch changes and the resulting friction?……. Next, I’ll ask you what gauge strings you’ll be using. When the Strat was designed back in the early 1950s, a standard string set was a .012” through a .054”, with a wound 3rd (G) string. As written history tells us, the bridge/vibrato system on the guitar was the most difficult feature on the model to design for suitable performance, and the design was developed to work with the available string sets.

If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, and want to try a “scientific” experiment, set up your guitar with a .012” string set, float the bridge slightly in the back with all five springs, and guess what?

By the time the Stratocaster’s second wave of popularity came around in the late 1960s, string bending and light gauge string sets were all the rage, so players started removing some of the original 5-springs to try to get the bridge to operate properly with the newly decreased sting tension. This brings us back to you original questions…..IF you’re using .009 gauge strings……don’t do it!

IF you really have to (and you’re in standard tuning), use three springs, either straight, or angled (the whole tension thing is going to be adjusted by the spring claw in the end) and use the newer “hybrid” sets that incorporate the three treble strings from the .009 set (.009, .011, .016 ) and the three bass strings from a .010 set (wound .026, .036, .046 ). You can still bend the three plain strings, and you can enjoy less-floppy wound strings.

If you’re going to use .010 or .011 sets, use four springs (leaving the center spot on the claw and bridge block open). Keeping all this in mind, if you’re going to do the wild Jeff Beck thing, I would float the rear edge of the bridge plate about .075 “ to .080” off the surface of the body. If the second option appeals to you (slight

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KEEPIN’ IT REAL’S STEVE SOEST AND ‘ART ‘N’ SOUL’S ED HUERTA

YOU GUYS MAKE IT HAPPEN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KEEPIN’ IT REAL’S STEVE SOEST AND ‘ART ‘N’ SOUL’S ED HUERTA

Jackaboutguitars wishes Steve Soest & Ed Huerta ‘THE BEST’ all year long! Your hard work is appreciated here at Jackaboutguitars.

Happy Birthday to Keepin’ It Real’s Steve Soest and ‘Art ‘N’ Soul’s Ed Huerta.

Here are a couple of tunes hot off the press

TIME FOR ANOTHER BIT OF FAB FOUR NOSTALGIA THAT I HADN’T EVEN SEEN BEFORE

THE BEATLES AT THE LIVERPOOL EMPIRE THEATRE 07.12.1963…

TIME FOR ANOTHER BIT OF FAB FOUR NOSTALGIA THAT I HADN’T EVEN SEEN BEFORE

AND A NOTE ABOUT: THE BEATLES ROCK BONHAMS ENTERTAINMENT MEMORABILIA SALE

 

These days, especially around the holidays, it seems so difficult to get much accomplished with all of the work to be done, shopping, holiday parties, cooking & cleaning, washing, mowing the cats, milking the chickens, and especially, guitar playing going on at all hours of the night into the wee hours of the mornin’!

 

So it’s really looking like time for a little something nostalgic and kind of fun that was actually even new to me to help me take a few moments to catch my breath.

 

It’s a fun little video sent in by the infamous (or should I say famous) Bobby Fury – a man who is – and I quote “thee ‘Beatles Authority’ on this side of The Pond”, who makes the trip twice a year back to the ‘Homeland’ as ‘Fab Findings & Concerns’ beckon his consciousness.  Bobby Fury is also known here in the ‘new world’- America(“America is kind of like Britain with buttons”) as Bob Mytkowicz – see https://www.jackaboutguitars.com/gear-instruments-beatles-mytkowicz)

 

I had a pleasant conversation just yesterday evening with Mr. Fury in which ‘The Furious One’ told me of his latest escapades in the land of the Fab Four.    (You see, I have lived a secret ‘Beatle Life’ vicariously through Mr. Fury and his trips to the Motherland for many years now and hope that someday ‘The Storm’ will be able to make the trip just once before the long lasting condition of ‘worm food’ sets in for good(or in this

KEEPIN’ IT REAL by STEVE SOEST

KEEPIN’ IT REAL by STEVE SOEST is HERE!

Hopefully you have kept an eye out (or two) for the announcement of the launch of STEVE SOEST’S section of the blog called “KEEPIN IT REAL” which will have all kinds of GREAT “REAL LIFE” GUITAR INFO that YOU CAN PUT TO USE.

Well, the day has arrived!  The stars and the planets have aligned and the only thing found written in the works of Nostradamus is that he said,”Keepin’ It Real” will be VERY COOL.” Thanks, Nostry!!!

I have always thought in the back of my mind (“cheese and onions“) that if I had ever had the darkening of the horizon soaked up by the spherical bodies within my orbits (the viewing sockets of my facial melon), I could always play the blues under the moniker “Blind Lemon Jackson” or even more pertinent to the situation, “Blind Melon Jackson”, especially at the rate the hair continues to fall off the top of my noggin. Fortunately the day has arrived without me having to keep any eyes out for it. “KEEPIN’ IT REAL” IS HERE AND ALL IS GOOD.

Welcome to KEEPIN’ IT REAL. This area of the blog will deal with just that, the art of keepin’ it real like the title says in Jacktalk. Some HOW TO VIDEOS will also be a part of this section as well as resources for you to check out later.

Jackaboutguitars is extremely pleased to announce The PREMIER ISSUE by the (wait for it) “LEGENDARY STEVE SOEST” who will be fielding your questions about guitars in his new column “KEEPIN’ IT REAL” right here on Jackaboutguitars.

Your questions can be emailed to Steve via: [email protected]

Continue reading KEEPIN’ IT REAL by STEVE SOEST