Added: 4 years ago
From: AlecStansfieldMusic
Views: 47,295
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  • you can love it, great tone, beautiful natural color...fantastic guitar

  • I first saw this video about 4 yrs ago, I can't tell you how many times I've watched it over and over again. It never gets old, absolutely love his style!!!

  • It is a standard USA strat made in 1979.

  • wich model is it?

  • Thanks very much Alec! I'll give it a try! Much appreciated!!! Thanks John.

  • Hi Alec really love your style! Im new to this, what scales would you say I should practise for blues? I'd really appreciate your opinion if you could find the time? Thanks John.

  • @j200ist Hi John, I never practiced scales and wouldn't recommend it. Try this: 1) Find some riff or melody that you love. 2) Listen to it enough times until you know the sequence of notes in your head. 3) Find the notes on the guitar neck. 4) Play the riff over and over again - as slow as you like but "in time" and without making ANY mistakes. (It really doesn't matter how slow). 5) Gradually increase your speed as you repeat until your fingers "know where to go". Works for me. Good luck. Alec

  • Inspiring blues. Great playing! Definitely different-sounding, and its great. I like the santana-esque beat behind it.

  • i like

  • The perfect strat. A natural finish showing the grain, and the beautiful maple neck to boot! Awesome playing. I bit of santanna with some David Gilmour maybe? Sounds awesome.

  • love your tone

    

  • Very nice! I dig your style and tone very much. I love the natural wood guitar too. Thumbs up bro!.

  • very sexy blues. love the look of ur guitar. maple? and loving ur style n tone.

    a real strat man eh? =D

  • @dreamboy314 Thanks for commenting. The strat has a maple neck but the body is ash (I think!). Alec

  • Absolutely sick man!!! Love your tone!!! Check my blues solo out bro if u wouldn't mine!!! Keep jammin!!! :)

  • what kind of amp are you using? the beginning had a real clean sound. check out some of my videos and leave feedback.

  • @bsquare31 The amp is an Engl Screamer, 50 Watt valve amp. Made in Germany. Best amp i ever had. Thanks for commenting, Alec

  • Wow really cool playing. The strat's sound is really perfect

  • @huschow Thanks for that! When I bought it in 2001 I thought it was going to be my dream guitar - but for the first two years it had a lot of problems and although I tried it at a couple of gigs, it sounded baaaad and I couldn't effectively use it live. Eventually I re-wired it and screened the internal electrics with aluminium foil, fitted new (Bare Knuckle) pickups and now I'm really happy with it. The neck needs a re-fret and maybe a re-lacquer too - but it plays just fine! Alec

  • This is a great jam! Thanks for sharing!

  • vvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeerrrrr­ryyyy gıooooooooohjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj­jjjjjj

  • Love that sweep @0:34 :)

  • very nice playing ! what kind of disto do you use ?

  • @ketamine50 Hi, thanks for commenting. I only use the distortion provided by the amplifier - a 50 watt Engl Screamer valve amp. No pedals, just straight in. I've used various pedals over many years, but in my experience you just can't beat the clarity and responsiveness of plugging straight into a good quality valve amp (with a high quality short cable) - especially when playing live. Radio systems, long cables, tuners, pedals (even good ones) always seem to make the tone somehow "flatter". Alec

  • Sampled this for a HipHop Beat! :)

  • @Wize12k8 I'd love to hear the result! Alec

  • @AlecStansfieldMusic I'll post it up just for you :)

  • @Wize12k8 Great stuff! I think that is the first time any of my music has been sampled for another track. Impressed. Alec

  • Gotta love ur tone :)

  • coooolllllll♥

  • you really know how a strat must sound,and playet,

    verry good,love it

    from belgium,

  • getting a SRV type vibe especially when you come back to that E chord with the whammy, also some BB in that fast vibrato, only santana thing is that hammer on you come back to but yea defs more stevie and bb to me

  • SUCH A NICE STRAT

  • Very Nice, your playing is relaxed, natural, slick, and fluent, not forced or contrived

  • @COMMUNISTPHILOSOPHY That's a very nice comment - fluency has always been a top priority for me - but people don't often name it as an ambition. So thanks. Alec

  • Nice looking Strat. I have the same Strat, a 75. Looks exactly the same only mine has a little more wear and tear. Your bridge saddles look like the newer style, it's hard to see but they don't look like the 70's style saddles. Everything else looks perfect. Sounds great.

  • killer tone

  • Very Santana, very nice!

  • Wow... Sick playing... that guitar is one of the sweetest i have seen... what kinda amp are u using...??  Sweet tone...!!

  • @brucenunn37 Thanks for your comment. The amp is an Engl Screamer 50W valve (tube) amp. Alec

  • what kind of strat is that cuz i been looking every where for a natural finish one but all the music stores dont have ne and theres like 6 guitarcenter size stores near me

  • @phootang It's a standard USA strat made in the mid 1970's. I picked it up second hand in a London shop in Feb 2000, rewired it and fitted better pickups. I don't know why natural finish should be rare - but I've not seen many around either. It's suprisingly heavy compared to modern strats, which helps to give it great sustain. Alec

  • @AlecStansfieldMusic ya i can find them online but i dont like buying online cuz i wanna try them out first cuz ive played different guitars that came in a natural finish i like them better then ones with the normal paint and gloss on cuz i think my skin doesnt react good to the gloss they use so i always have to wear an arm band when i play a gig

  • 70's strats rule! just got one off of ebay for 1000 bucks. great tone btw

  • Nice stuff, thank you for sharing.

  • man u just blew my mind your tone is so badass its like santana and hendrix i wanna play just like you

  • @guy11boyyahooo Cheers mate!! Alec

  • awesome

  • hi, good playin'. I have a request :)

    could you do a closeup on a lick from 1:20-1:24?

    i've been tryin this for long time but...

    sorry for my bad eng

  • @emdclapton Hi, thanks for the comment. You caught me at a good time. I have uploaded a short clip in answer to your request.

    Alec

  • Hello , I was just wondering if this is the Mexican made 70sstrat and also, did you swap out anything ? Like the bridge or the pickups ??

  • @seanchristiandavid No, it's a US made 70's strat with bare knuckle "mothers milk" pickups. Everything else is original as far as I know.

  • sounds very Santana-ish. Nice.

  • love it :)

  • What chord is that at 00:14?

  • @ttam024 I'm not very good at naming chords. I think it is a D minor 7th. The notes are D (5th fret on 5th string), A (7th fret on 4th string), C, (5th fret on 3rd string), F (6th fret on 2nd string), A (5th fret on 1st string). Next chord is same but slid up two frets but with an added 7th on the top string (bar on 7th fret and little finger at the 10th fret). Hope this helps - let me know. Alec

  • @AlecStansfieldMusic Much Appreciated Alec..Thanks.

  • is this the classic player or the american vintage? nice vid

  • I really enjoy your videos.

    I also have a 70 strat but I cant't play it as smoothly as you but I'll keep trying.

    I apreciate that you are an older player like me and still enjoy making guitar music. Especially Gorgia on my mind you do that song prowd.

    Keep up the great work and best to you.

    Dr Who 3

  • @bsss5hp Thanks for your support! I hope to stick some more vids up soon. Alec

  • Hey dude ill but that strat off you!

  • fucking great! I like it very much. thx for posting

  • nice dude

    i´ve the same strat =D

    can u tell me the name of the song´?

  • @P4Sii Thanks for your comment. I guess you don't think much of the name "Strat blues" - but that was the first name that came to my mind when I recorded this improvisation. Perhaps words are not my greatest strength - so if you can think of a better name please let me know!

  • damn! nice! I wish i could do this shit, I can do much complicated stuff, but your timing has such feel and emotion, very untouchable

  • @mylespaul777 Thanks for your comment!

  • Nice looking strat dude! Nice sound too.

  • your guitar is wonderfull !

  • shit, i thought i was good. i quit.

  • @Flerg3 I know what you mean! I stopped enjoying live gigs for a while. Either the band were so good I wanted to give up, or they weren't and I was frustrated that I wasn't up on stage playing instead. Either way, I felt down. The thing to remember is why you love playing - and that it isn't a competition!

  • Excellent! Fantastic feeling and gorgeous axe!

  • @shazaam100 Thanks for your comment.

  • I love it too! Nice work.  Very expressive and together.

  • great strat sound and good feeling

  • @alexisedme Thanks!

  • What a beautiful strat :O

    kickass playing man

  • man, im inlove with your guitar

  • I understand why you love your strat.. What a beauty :P

    Nice tone..

  • you love your strat that is for sure ; )

    I have enjoyed in your sound and play, keep on good music :)

  • You really know how to connect the heart and soul into the blues! I haven't seen any new vids lately, I hope everything is well w/ you! Keep Rockin' ! ; )

  • very beautiful blues

    its a mexican guitar?

  • Thanks. Its a USA guitar made in the 1970's

  • yes, thats why i love the strat....keep it up ;-)

  • Sweet playing man...I'm getting a Santana vibe coming through.

  • @matrags I'm feeling that santana vibe too, with a mix of pure soul, Thank you guitarists, the guitar made by guitarists, for guitarists.

  • Comment removed

  • love it !!

  • What key is this in?

  • Its in 'A' - but I can't remember if the guitar was detuned a semi-tone at the time. If I had perfect pitch I would know - but I often tune a semi-tone lower than standard.

  • hey dood you are the great player; keep it up;

    love your style you sound awesome;

  • Thanks - glad you enjoyed it.

  • dude, teach me

  • YES, the one of the few ppl who give GOOD demos and dont suck, ive been debating between this or a highway one, which one do u think is better?

  • I can't comment since this one is about 35 years old and I've never played a highway one (or any other strat for that matter!) Alec

  • If anyone out there could TAB or teach this song they would have a huge following, and a successful youtube video, as I am sure many would love to be able to play this!!! Who's up for the CHALLENGE?

  • @poptop22 Dude, I hate to be one of those guys, but learn it by watching his fingers and using your ear instead. You'll improve way faster that way. Cheers.

  • sembra santana...

  • That's very kind! Thanks,

  • @AlecStansfieldMusic

    Very good!!! excellent work...

  • one word...."PERFECT"

  • cheers for that.

  • Hey Please can you do more videos with this Strat! I love your playing.

    Thanks. :)

  • strepitoso amazing 5 * nice sound is a Fender Classic Series '70s Stratocaster ? natural maple?

  • Thanks for your comment and rating. It's USA model about 1975, natural maple wide neck.

  • wow what amp and effectts do you use? that tone is amazing.

  • Thanks. Its an Engl screamer 50w amp. Plugged straight in. No effects other than a touch of the inbuilt spring reverb. Pure valve (tube) heaven!

  • that's a gorgeous strat, man !

  • great sound...!!!

  • Liked it !

    I need some help. Can you tell me how to move the scales around the neck?

    Cause I don't get how you and so many others do it :S

    Thanks.

  • Thanks. I'd love to help but I don't really know what you mean. I try not to think in terms of scales - I try to find notes that sound about right and which are within reach. The best way I know to learn to do this is to pick ANY melody you know really well. Then try to play it note by note INCREDIBLY SLOWLY (it really doesn't matter how slowly, even if you have to stop and think hard!) but without making even one mistake. This gets you used to finding the notes you can hear in your head. Alec

  • That's exactly how I think!

    But everybody says that's better to learn scales so you can improvise much better.

    In a certain way, it helps, but sometimes I feel like we should follow the insticts that tell us to play that note. You know what I mean?

  • I don't even try to understand other people's methods. I focus on what works for me. I find a sound or riff that I like and get into a groove with it - playing it a million times until I don't have to think where my fingers go. It's a bit hard to explain, but I try to LISTEN to the sound I'm actually making and play TO that sound. Learning scales is fine, but who wants to listen to scales? First you have to love the sound you make. The rest comes with intention & time. And do the exercise above.

  • Thanks a lot.

    I hope someday I'll post a video, I want your critics :P

    Thanks again.

  • I look forward to watching it! Let me know when. Alec

  • whats scale do you use? every scale have diff. position. I suggest to learn all 5 positions then itll be smooth and easily move around and adlib ;)

  • I'll work on it, thanks ;)

  • i would like to have a strat like that but i like rosewood fret board looks n sounds good man

  • this impro is amazing! not only that, but your amp is beast! don't ever leave that amp!

  • Thanks for your comment - much appreciated. Engl amps are just fantastic and still underrated. Best amp I ever had in 45 years playing.

  • i agree...i like warren haynes ENGL he uses it aby'd to a soldano SLO-100

  • wow!!!!! Great great playin' man!! Ash and maple? How does it sound? Cheers from Italy!

  • do you have the trem on your strat in floating or dive only position?

  • Never thought about it before - its set so that it is "just" floating in the sense that it will go up a little and down a lot. I do use it - but it goes seriously out of tune if I go down very far. I'd love to have a trem I could use without having to retune!

  • I had that problem with my strat I did something that a lot of people say not to do but the guitar works better than ever. I Wet a cotton swab with a little WD-40 and rubbed it on the nut, tuners, and string trees and squeezed a little into the saddles so no matter what, the string won't catch on anything. I'd test it on a less valuable guitar first though.

  • Sounds like a good idea - I'm gonna give it a go. I'll let you know if it works.... Thanks for the tip.

  • Remeber TRY IT ON A LESS VALUABLE GUITAR FIRST you don't want to ruin such a special guitar

  • OK, its a nice guitar - but its also a plank of wood with some strings stretched across. I can't see how a bit of WD40 is going to do any damage and I don't have anything else to try it out. But thanks for the concern - I'll be careful!

  • yea your right good luck

  • WOW!!! So this is what I did... Got a 2B (very soft) pencil and rubbed it on very fine sandpaper to make a pile of grahite dust. Mixed it will a silicone spray then applied the resulting paste it to the nut and string saddles and to the new strings where they sit in the nut. Amazing result - now have a totally usable trem which I can dive 100% (til strings go slack) and still comes back dead in tune! Thanks.

  • I was getting worried that something bad had happened.

    Glad I could help.

  • is it the mim reissue or the american ?

  • It's made in the USA

  • Nice clean tone at the start. Nice playing too. Keep it up!

    Greetings, Peter

  • that was friggin awesome man. what pedals and amp are you using? you have really, really nice tone.

  • Thanks! I didn't use any pedals or effects. Just a good strat plugged straight into a good valve amp (Engl screamer) with a bit of the amp's inbuilt spring reverb. When I hit the footswitch (at 24 secs into vid) I'm just changing from the amp's clean to overdrive channel. I like the tone too - part of it sounding nice is using a (Rode NTK) condenser mic and high quality (Focusrite) preamp for the recording. Alec

  • cool man. thanks. if only i had the money for that kind of amp. haha.

  • Such a beautiful guitar. How do you like the finish on those types of necks?

  • Preferrably UN-dented! Its a high gloss lacquer and works fine - if a little worse for wear and tear!

  • ask for a nitrocellulose finish on a maple neck in my opinion it makes th next much smoother and faster

  • Great !!

  • this is what call pure blues

  • Awesome Dude!!! Please teach online!!!

  • Thanks for your appreciation.

  • Cheers! I have no idea if that's really a request for info - or just a way of saying hi. But cos I can be nerdy I'm gonna answer it anyhowzlike. Pentatonic would be one way of labelling it - but the true pentatonic scale uses only five notes and I suspect there might be a few more notes than five in what's played here. To be honest, I've never unstood all those different tehnical labels! And just in case it wasn't really a question - Hi JRW!

  • Great playing!

    Nice Strat too!

  • nice! 5/5

  • sweet... ^^

    love it and thats a hell of a nice guitar.

  • hello your interpretation is really beautiful .. but what song did you inspired to start playing Strat blues, santana? jimi, SRV ? Thanks.

  • Thanks for your appreciation. Jimi is my main (almost only) influence. I love Santana too but I've never owned any SRV or Santana albums or CDs. I think a couple of early 70's Roben Ford and Alan Holdsworth tracks have also made their impression. But these sounds have been rumbling around in my head for 40 years. I was just jamming on this track - I stick on a rhythm track and see what comes out. I've only ever played this one time for this vid. Glad you like it.

  • thanks for your answer. best regards.

  • True improv=pure music/pure soul! Very well done--highly enjoyable. (Ever heard Jimi's Nine to the Universe?)

  • sweet finish. :p

  • I've got your same guitar but with different pick up (i've got 3 Antiquity II)

  • I've got a 70ies reissue too... I noticed you've got a certain string buzz just like I do on the mid to higher registers that become a little more obvious when slightly distorted... I've tried everything to get rid of it until I've noticed that I couldn't, I think it's actually even a part of it's tone, coz when setup right like you it actually gives it a distinct tone that no one has... nice work mate

  • You spotted the slight buzz! - The guitar could benefit from a refret job after more than 30 years use. It doesn't bother me too much - cos like you, I consider it to be part of the overall character of the guitar. You have good ears!

  • Thanks man, it's beautiful guitar.

  • Dude...you absolutely kill this jam. That has to be one of the sweetest distortion tones I've ever heard from a strat.

    Well done

  • That's a pretty cool compliment. The knob fitted to the volume control on this guitar is labelled "tone". So its ALL tone.... Just how I like it. Thanks.

  • kinda like EVH

  • Damn! I just thought someone lost the volume knob some time in the past and just fitted the wrong replacement. Thanks for the info. Now I realise it was some kinda statement!

  • is that an original strat or a reissue???

  • Its an original strat from the 1970's with a wide and flat neck typical of that era. I have fitted updated & improved pickups and improved internal screening to reduce AC hum interference.

  • very nice indid

  • I just bought a Mexican Strat HSS. First Fender I've ever owned. The humbucker in the bridge position is a Seymour Duncan. I can't get over the fact that I waited so many years to get one. Been playing Gibsons forover 40 yrs. Have a 78 Les Paul Deluxe and an early 70's L6-S. A couple Deans and my 54 Epiphone Zepher that I've owned for over 35yrs now. Seems we have the same influances to some degree. Samba Pa Ti made the hair on my arms stand up when I was a kid. Hendrix, Clapton, Page. Amen.

  • Thanks for commenting. I sold my 74 Glibson Les Paul gold top deluxe on ebay last year. Got into Fender Tele's before the strat. Never went back to playing earlier fav's yet. But I still love the Tele. Ditto about Carlos. Enjoy your new strat.

  • nice playing, nice guitar, i like the finish without the paint, the real natural feel

  • Stratocaster - Blues

  • awesome jam. this is going to favorites...

  • so smooth

  • something like Jimi hendrix mixed with Santana. very good my man

  • great sound!!!

  • Thanks for your compliments. Robin Trower has a great tone and I used to listen to SD's "Can't buy a thrill" about 35 years ago! Can't tell you anything about chords and scales - I just can't work that way! If I can reach the note and it sounds OK to my ears then I'll use it....

  • amen to that

  • Yeah Lovely tone, I have a 70's re-issue usa strat, hey what do you use ??