Silhouette Special: can it be a great Strat?

[Ripper]

I'd like to see a couple a moves, however, like to a bigger body (ala 25th), wider nut on a med C neck, a thin urethane finish, on either a fundamental Silo Special or AL platform. Make that in tobacco sunburst, please.

Hey Bruce, long time no talk . Slight OT here - go try out a 25th. You will love it.

 

[ZeRaskolnikoff]

I just noticed that somebody said that Silo, b/c of the smaller body can't give you enough lows and mids to reproduce Strat' sound... Well, I think depends on many other factors, besides the size of the body. I have a Silo Special SSS and that guys has A LOT of sound. And believe it or not, it has A LOT of mids and lows )) That thing has a voice and the feeling you get in your left hand (unless you're a lefty) is very Les Paul-ish ))

every guitar is different... you can get a US Strat that will sound absolutelly dull and the body shape/size won't help... You can get a MM and put some good CS Fender pups on it and that will give an excellent Strat )

Silo gives you the Instrument, e.g. great wood and craftsmenship... The rest is up to you )

 

[Lance Romance]

Glad to see this thread revived. I've done some mods on my IRW-necked AL which have definitely made it a better strat than a Silo Special (see my earlier posts). While I like the stock pickups and Silent Circuit, I recently built a second pickguard with Suhr Fletcher-Landau pickups and their Backplate Silent Singlecoil System. It is now of of the finest strat-style guitars I've ever owned/played...which brings me back around to Brian's original question (hi Brian!). I've had extensive playing time with both guitars in various configurations, and still think the Albert Lee does sound the more "classic" of the two, with or without the stock pickups. The Silhouette Special, particularily in HSS, is the most versatile workingman's strat. As a vehicle for hot-rodding the Albert is still the better bet.
A quick aside on the Suhr electronics: The three pickups and the BPSSC noise reduction system was somewhat pricey, but that was forgotten the instant I plugged this system in. I had only ten minutes to tune the system before racing off straight to a New Years' gig in the worst singlecoil noise nightmare room we play. During soundcheck I could still hear some noise, but the rest of the night the guitar was substantially quieter than the stock electronics. Noiseless singlecoils with Tone. No negative artifacts. No humbuckers. Speaking of Tone, these are the juiciest singles I've heard. They're apparently patterned after Landau's '62, and sound as fat as my old '62, but with better detail and just full of harmonics. Some of the best money I've ever spent in 44 years in the music biz...Eric

 

[Headstock]

Lance - which of the FL's did you go with ? Standard or Classic?

 

[beej]

I've had the FL standards before as well, they are excellent.

 

[Lance Romance]

Standards in mine also, but I want to experiment with Classics in the neck and middle. Strat-style guitars are just made for hotrodding.

 

[threeminutesboy]

any chance we can see a pic of your modded AL?

wont change that much from the original one, but I like to see RW neck AL

 

[D.K.]

Just to back up that point on a standard silo - how could a guitar like this not have a great strat tone as well ?

 

[robelinda2]

Its really all in the hands.

 

[D.K.]

Count me in on that, Rob.