Fred cover with Holdsworth's old 68 Plexi.

[Strat78]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDsBBxo4duY
And this for the VH fans:
https://youtu.be/2nUDHm3r-pU

[shakti]

Very impressive! I love that phase of Holdsworth's playing, but I can't at all play like that. His style is o unique, you really have to devote a lot of time to unlock how he is phrasing and fingering to be able to do it, and it certainly looks like you've done your homework!

Tell us more about the amp; is this the actual amp he used in the 70s, or merely one he has been known to use at some point? Specs? Got any photos?

[Strat78]

Thanks shakti, oh yeah, it was an effort thats for sure! Honestly Holdsworth is way over my head, but with a little hard work I can ape it to a point. I like this era of Holdsworth because there was some dirt to his tone. I'm sure Allan cringes when he hears his playing from back then. He was actually within the blues scale allot of the time which he now avoids like the plague.
The amp belongs to StarGuitar, who bought it from Allan's manager last year. My quota for uploads has been reached so here is the link to a thread pertaining to this amp with pics:
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=43768

[shakti]

Well, colour me mightily impressed! I'll be using your video as a tutorial for my own feeble efforts, that's for sure.

I agree about his tone - it was just raw and meaty and grinding yet very fluid and sweet around that time, so I really like it. Interestingly I think he used a 50w, but always got better results with my own 12x clone than the 1987 clone I had.
What was the plate voltage in this amp? And negative feedback is 47k at the speaker jack?

[JimiJames]

Good tune, me likey that one. Great job, man & that ain't easy.
As well as a chance to hear that amp going through a refurb ... and what an amp to play through. Score StatGuitar !
Interesting 10 series. Still work in progress I would imagine. How different is it from a 12 ? feel?

It takes me a Liftime to work on Holdsworth
Always great seeing both AH & TW doing their fusion thing. Really like Bruford & Bozzio with Allan in U.K.
His work with Jean Luc Ponte' was really good and the Johansson Brothers project was over-the-top ! (One of the Brother's now rumored to be playing for Blackmore's European comeback ! - He's loosing the lute and back to the wang bar) Nothjing like that Holdsworthian whammy though. That's a whole 'nother technique, man.
I play around with Letters of Marque. Those diminished/augmented/min7b5 chords he uses in chord melody have always captured my attention. He's really dirty in Heavey Machinery (with the Johannson's) and the chops are new & improve re-visited ones from the Tempest days. Lots'a fury !

Is that a Maestro Phaser I hear ?

(Remove the "s" in https:// which represents "secure"
You want to see & use this secure address when conduction tran$action$.)

Jimmie

[Strat78]

Love "Enigmatic Oceans" in fact I stole that last lick from the end of Part II and put it at the end of Fred. Here is a clip of a cover i did way back of "Hells Bells" from One of A Kind. It took a month just to program the drums and learn the bass and keyboard lines never mind the guitar parts:
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=5537697
The guitar was made from a slab of mango wood.

[Strat78]

That was a 75 MXR Phase 45. No clean channel switching, everything done with the volume and tone knobs on the guitar into a blazing Plexi. Jimmi, Stars amp has the classic 12xxx caps and resistors. I think the correct spec for "Feels Good To Me" would be more of a 69 spec, perhaps a 1987 50w? Who knows, I had the amp down to 60v on the variac with a 6-band to get some sustain back in the picture, oh and two tubes pulled just to get the volume down further without surrendering to an attenuator. Though the tone was thinned out a bit by this setup despite jumping the channels, it still kind of did the trick. I'm tempted to do a clip with all four tubes with the amp dimmed through an attenuator minus the variac, but I think StarGuitar needs his amp back already. Did you recognize your amp in the background?

[Star*Guitar]

Phil,

Sure Im eager to get my amp back, but I want you to leave no stone unturned too! Make the clips my friend !