Stev Skye Sonic Blue ’56 Fender Stratocaster
Dec 7, 2009 Guitar & Gear, Stëv Skye
Stev and yours truly (holySmith!) got together to talk about guitar equipment at his place the other night. We each poured a GUINNESS and cracked open a brand new package of Vienna Finger cookies while we talked – and yes, GUINNESS and Vienna Fingers go exceptionally well together, FYI.
To start, he gave me a rundown of his current pedal board which we’ll cover in another post soon. The star of this post, however, is the newest addition to the Stev Skye guitar collection – another ’56 Strat from the Fender Custom Shop. This one’s a pale blue beauty that we’ll call “Sonic Blue” given it’s classic Fender color and she sounds every bit as good as she looks.
Stev Skye Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster Guitar
As a side note, Stev has been amassing an insane amount of new gear, which has three significant implications:
- Stev’s studio will now be the ultimate power in the music making universe.
- We’ll have loads of new gear to write about here on the fan site.
- His purchases are more than likely enough to bring an end the nation-wide economic crisis we’ve been mired in since 2007! Hooray global-scale economic recovery!
So there we were. Stev started firing up the new Two Rock amp (again, more on that in another post) and getting his pedals ready to rock. It was like Yoda sitting there with Luke Skywalker, ready to impart his knowledge and show him the ways of the Force.
“Much to learn, you still have,” Stev says to me. “Fenders are the most temperamental guitars. But they are the most toneful to play. They have the most character.”
“All of my Strats are ‘56 Strats,” he continued, pointing to the darker blue “Skye Strat” that was resting comfortably on the couch. [That’d be the Strat pictured in the website header images, BTW. –Ed.]
He drew the new Sonic Blue from the case, plugged it in and continued, “It’s a really thin body,” showing me the back of the guitar. Flipping it back to the ready-position, he twanged a string and said, “I have the strings set higher than a normal Fender – for that ‘snap’. (He snaps the strings.) You hear that?”
“Yep, I hear it.”
He does it again, for effect.
“This guitar has a compound radius – nine-and-a-half-inches at the nut to 12-inches at the heel.”
“Impressive,” I say, not really knowing what the F he was talking about.
“Most impressive,” he says. Then he explained that the compound radius basically gives him more versatility when playing a variety of styles, particularly when he goes into those screaming uber-fast solos.
“OK, here’s a question,” I say. “Let’s pretend I am standing in the music store – say at the Guitar Center here in Phoenix since they seem to have the widest selection of guitars at the most competitive prices, not to mention a friendly, knowledgeable staff [First plug’s free, GC! – Ed.] – and I am looking at a wall of Fender Stratocasters. . .What is the difference between the $100 Strat, the $500 Strat, the Gilmour Black Strat for $4k and the $17,000 Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat? What’s the difference between any of those and yours, for example?”
“A good question,” Stev says. “One thing is the quality of the wood that’s used to make the neck and the body. Mine, for example, is made from super-lightweight swamp ash wood for the body [as opposed to ‘swamp ass’ just so we’re clear –Ed.]. It’s a single-piece body like the original Fenders from the Fifties. The neck on this one is a one-piece rock maple – which is an especially hard wood – and it’s quarter-sawn,” he says, then he jams for a minute to demonstrate the sweet, sweet tones.
“The big difference in the price range of the guitars is due to a number of factors,” The Stev continued, “but mostly because the higher-end guitars are handmade. Also, after you play these for a long time, you come to understand that the marriage between the body and neck is SO important. Those are major factors in the tone and the overall sound, and that impacts the price tags.”
“Makes perfect sense to me,” I say. “I guess if you just look at them and you don’t actually play them to compare, you’d never really know. All you can really see is the difference in paint colors.”
“Oh, and the paint is actually another factor,” Stev says. “I have a nitrocellulose finish on all my guitars – ‘nitro’ for short – it’s a thin lacquer that breathes and ages well.”
He scoots over closer to me, laying the Strat across his lap and says, “my nut is made from bone. It’s all-natural.”
“Seriously dude? I love you like a brother and all, but I’m not here to talk about your boner and your nuts.” I say.
“No, dude. The ‘nut’ (pointing to the white piece at the top of the neck) is this white piece up here. It’s made of bone and that gives a much more natural sound. Some are made from plastic and other stuff, but bone sounds the best. And they’re pretty expensive.”
“Boney nuts ain’t cheap,” I concur, relieved that we had not, in fact, descended to Creepyville with that last exchange.
“On the neck here, you see these fret wires?” he asks, pointing to the fretted neck. “I use Dunlop 6000 fret wires, which are sometimes referred to as ‘railroad ties’. They’re higher up off the neck which makes them more difficult to play, but they give you a much better tone.”
He twangs and snaps and bends a few notes to illustrate what he means.
“Then you have all the different components and electronics – all of which can be customized or upgraded to some degree, like these pickups. These are handmade pickups, similar to fat ‘50s pickups – these aren’t Fat ‘50s exactly, but similar in terms of how they sound. They are overwound to make them hotter for the ‘50s tone.
“Really, the key things are finding a guitar with good wood, a good marriage between the neck and body, and good craftsmanship. It’s hard to find a good one. You can play a hundred Strats and maybe find one that’s a good one, at least for me.”
Stev Skye Sonic Blue Strat
“Interesting, indeed. So what about the strings?”
“Nine-gauge strings are standard on most guitars. I used to use 11-gauge strings, but I dropped down to 10-guage both to save my fingers during consecutive days of long rehearsals and to get more of that ‘snap’.”
He snaps the strings for effect again. “You hear that?”
“Yep, I hear it.”
He does it again for effect.
“Jimi (Hendrix) used 10-gauge and Stevie Ray (Vaughan) used 13-gauge in the studio, but lower gauge strings when he played live.”
“And speaking of, I tune to E-flat. It’s easier on the fingers especially when you’re playing six or more hours a day. Jimi and SRV tuned to E-flat for the same reasons,” he explained.
After making a comment about how this was starting to feel more like an Inside the Actors Studio interview than an excuse to hang out, talk shop and drink GUINNESS, I switch the conversation over to his guitar influences and the creative side of things. . .
Which we’ll continue in another post! Stay tuned!
Tags: '56 Fender Stratocaster, '56 Strat, Fender Stratocaster, Guitar Center, holysmith!, Jimi Hendrix, stev skye, Stevie Ray Vaughan