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My recent (goldmine) discovery was the recently released upgrade version of the Fender Highway One Stratocaster with Alnico III Pickups (’70s large headstock model). When Fender started making vintage noiseless pickups, I decided it was the closest I could get to home and Hendrix without the hum. Something was always missing from the authenticity of tone with these pickups, although I have heard some players using them in a very expressive and impressive way. I moved quickly to the EMG vintage series, actively searching for a more traditional tone without the hum. Initially I tried EMG pickups, since the 60-cycle hum that accompanies any stock Strat, is unbearable to the novice Strat player. It has been one of my main axes, even though pickup configurations have changed. The model I chose, exclusively, for many years was the American Standard. In addition to a signature, recognizable tone that seems to respond well to the nuances of your attack devices, whether picking, hammering, pulling, or plucking: A piece of tonal clay waiting for your fingers to mold it into art. The Stratocaster has what it takes to cut through just about any mix, without even having to get into a volume war The right frequencies to allow you to be heard above the other 20 band members. Whether or not he planned it out in detail, Leo Fender was really onto something very, very special. There is, in my opinion, no electric guitar that has as wide of a range of tonal emotions. There is no mistaking the signature sound of a Stratocaster, even if it does not say “Fender” on the headstock. Since this time, I have come to think of electric guitars in two categories: Stratocasters and then, of course everything else, respectfully. Even if they played other guitars at some later point, the Strat was the one that established their signature sound. All of my early guitar heroes played Fender Stratocasters. I grew up listening to the guitar sounds of the ’60s and ’70s and my choice of music was anything soulful. But things only clicked when I finally made the wise move to a stock Fender Stratocaster (I guess the bulb finally went again on in my head). Subsequent guitar rigs came and went in the quest to be heard above the rest of the 10-piece juggernaut. My humbucker solos were confirmed by audience members as “dark” and “lost in the mix.” I learned then that since the range of the other instruments in the band occupied just about every frequency available that was detectable by human ears, it would be a tonal challenge to be heard. Invariably, whenever he took a solo, his tone cut through the wall of sound that was the band, and reached the audience with little or no effort. The other guitarist in the group, Peter Calo, played a Fender Strat through a Roland Jazz Chorus. I played a guitar that had humbuckers, one of the early Carvin DC200 Koa guitars, back from the early ’80s. My guitar rig at the time was a Seymour Duncan Convertible 100w head, with a Hartke 4-10-inch guitar speaker cabinet. The volume onstage was off the charts, even if we tried to tiptoe! I first discovered foam ear plugs around this time after going home after each gig with tinnitus. The instrumentation was electric bass, drums, two guitars, keyboards, alto sax, tenor sax, trombone, trumpet, and a percussionist who doubled on steel drum. This was a 10 piece band playing horn-laced groovy and funky tunes. One eye-opening revelation in the quest for tone happening to me back in the early ’90s: I was playing with a relatively popular Boston-based band called the Heavy Metal Horns.