MITCH DALTON
The studio guitarist’s guide to happiness and personal fulfilment, as related by our resident session ace. This month: Stratatouille.
Now, here’s a paradox for you: I gorra lorra geetars but I’m not a collector. With a very few exceptions, my instruments have been acquired simply to assist with the messy business of carving a crust from Life’s Great Bakery. While it’s undeniable that almost any iteration of guitar, be it acoustic or electric, is aesthetically pleasing, I’ve never viewed my instrument as neck candy (ahem), hung ‘em on walls or endlessly debated the merits of Lake Placid Blue versus Salmon Pink (or Fiesta Red as it's more correctly termed by Fender).
Which segues neatly into this year’s significant anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster (it's the old girl's 70th, would you believe?) - and my relationship with said model. I’ve owned a fair few because this guitar exemplifies the very epitome of versatility that gladdens a professional guitarist’s heart, if you can find it.
First off, Practicality. It was serendipitous that the release of the Fender Squier range coincided with the offer to participate in the original West End production of Chess, a three-year stint as it turned out. It was the late eighties and I was whizzing around London’s still numerous studios by day and scrambling into my evening performances of the show.
The idea of leaving an instrument permanently in the pit was instantly appealing. The main criterion was to acquire a relatively inexpensive item that wouldn’t break my heart should it succumb to third party, fire or theft, if you will. I’d always enjoyed a warm and loving interaction with CBS Fender and its predecessor, Arbiter UK, and to my considerable pleasure, I emerged from the latter’s West Hendon warehouse, with one of the first Squier Strats to find its way to these shores. I had parted with eighty-five of your finest British Pounds and fled before anyone at a higher pay grade saw fit to intervene.
Next stop, my regular guitar wizard, Bill Puplett. He added extra insulation around the electrics, fitted three EMG active pickups and performed a setup. Result: a noise-free guitar that sounded great, played greater, and let me sleep at nights. Er, greatest. For years after I used it whenever airline travel was involved. Its Hiscox LiteFlite case has been flung into more holds than a session musician’s diary and emerged unscathed every time. Needless to say, try that with your precious Collings or D’Angelico just once and prepare yourself for heartbreak, neck break and bank break.
I had the action raised a while back and now employ it for bottleneck guitar stylings. I’m unreliably informed that these early examples are now sought after, and starting to gain monetary value. It’s a funny old world, innit?
Next: Sound And Playability. I purchased an Eric Clapton model Stratocaster shortly after their introduction, mainly because of the C shaped neck and maple fingerboard. The original Lace Sensor pickups and the active circuitry were fairly quickly abandoned and I reverted to more conventional Strat single-coils in the middle and neck positions, plus a minihumbucker which fitted the space vacated by the bridge pickup. For ages I wouldn’t leave home without it. Aside from the usual classic tones, you can even roll off some top from the neck item and fake an acceptable jazz guitar sound. Who knew?
Lastly, but not leastly: Nostalgia! I own a somewhat abused and third-hand 1962 Strat, purchased from a chap in Hastings for embarrassingly little dosh at the outset of my so-called career. The neck, with its rosewood fingerboard, all three pickups and the circuitry are original but I had the body attended to by the Fender Custom Shop, probably unwisely from an investment point of view. But back then, who knew? Nevertheless, if you happen to walk past the case it plays Apache automatically, like a pianola.
These days it lives in my studio with only occasional forays into the Stratosphere. The last time was to play Theme For Young Lovers at Shadowmania, Bruce Welch’s annual Shadows tribute weekend. It's the band's 65th anniversary this year, too, and that of the Vox AC30 inspired by Hank Marvin. SHAZAM indeed!
"I PARTED WITH EIGHTYFIVE OF YOUR FINEST BRITISH POUNDS AND FLED BEFORE ANYONE AT A HIGHER PAYGRADE INTERVENED"