well hello friends and welcome to
0:55
ask Zack today I'm going to tell the
0:58
far-fetched Tale of how my Strat here
1:03
that Brad Paisley Built Me ended up
1:05
getting Borrowed by JD Simo to use with
1:10
Chris Isaac to play at the Ryman here in
1:14
Nashville Tennessee and of course you
1:16
know got to play uh he got to play
1:18
Wicked Game on uh on my Brad Paisley
1:22
built Strat so today I'm going to tell
1:26
the story first about uh JD and Chris
1:30
Isaac and then I'll go into the
1:32
specifics of this Brad Paisley built uh
1:36
and finished and Relic Stratocaster that
1:40
he built for me so this is going to be a
1:42
fun one first off I need to thank all of
1:46
my patreon members because they are what
1:49
keeps this show going and I'm truly
1:51
grateful to them secondly I just wanted
1:55
to let you know that every ask Zack
1:57
episode has also been turned into a
1:59
podcast so if you're driving to Granny's
2:02
house and don't have anything else to do
2:03
and want to catch up on some past
2:06
episodes well check them out and they're
2:08
everywhere you know they're on Apple and
2:11
Spotify and everywhere else you'd want
2:13
to listen to a
2:15
podcast all right let's dive
2:18
in so now I'm going to tell the full
2:20
story of the Strat later but uh I had
2:22
just gotten this and you know Brad and I
2:26
were still kind of tweaking some stuff
2:28
he was still kind of doing some aging
2:30
stuff and I was doing some uh you know
2:33
getting it set up the way I wanted to I
2:35
was learning things about uh oh kind of
2:39
like the Eric Johnson method of kind of
2:41
winding up the low E and A strings and
2:46
sometimes using the string tree for
2:48
certain strings like the high e but not
2:50
for the B and just different things
2:52
trying to keep the floating tremolo uh
2:55
in tune and again I know there's a lot
2:58
of people that responded to my to float
3:00
or not to float uh video about how they
3:04
like to deck it but still use the
3:05
tremolo I have no problem with that
3:07
that's just has never worked for me
3:09
there's a lot of guitar players I love
3:11
that use that but I've never been able
3:13
to make it work and also to me one of
3:15
the greatest things about the
3:18
tremolo on the Strat is the fact that it
3:21
can go up and down and have such a
3:22
smooth waiver so all right so let's get
3:27
back into the story I see I get
3:28
sidetracked I go Down the Rabbit Trail
3:31
so I had just seen JD earlier that day
3:35
at Glazer instruments and I think I was
3:39
aging some screws or something like that
3:41
I can't remember exactly what I was
3:43
doing but uh you know I saw JD and you
3:46
know and and saw Joe Glazer and Nick and
3:49
all the guys Aaron Parker and a lot of
3:51
the other wonderful cats down at Glazer
3:55
instruments Adam also another another
3:58
favorite uh and you know we uh you know
4:02
we were just kind of hanging out and
4:04
then I left went back home it was on a
4:06
Friday and I was catching up on emails
4:09
doing you know variety of different work
4:11
and all of a sudden I get a call from JD
4:13
and JD says hey can I borrow your
4:18
Strat and first there's kind of
4:21
a sorry to say this but it was kind of a
4:23
what the hell moment I was like you know
4:26
I just got this thing and I've been
4:27
tweaking on it and so then he says
4:30
I just got a call from Chris Isaac's
4:33
management that uh they're wanting me to
4:35
play with him at the Ryman that his uh
4:38
regular longtime guitar since the mid90s
4:41
hersel yeitz was uh under the weather
4:44
and he was not going to be able to make
4:46
the gig at the Ryman on Monday but they
4:49
didn't want to cancel the show so JD had
4:52
played on a Christmas album for Chris uh
4:56
recently and I maybe had done some other
4:59
sessions for Chris Isaac
5:02
and so that's why he got the
5:05
call so and the reason that JD wanted to
5:08
borrow this Strat was one he had already
5:09
checked it out and knew that it was a
5:11
really good Strat it's a amazing Strat
5:14
actually uh you know without getting too
5:17
over the top about it but uh he said I
5:21
don't own a strat right now that uh that
5:23
has a tremolo bar you know the only
5:25
Strat that he had is a Glazer made Strat
5:27
from the early 80s that uh that's a hard
5:30
tail and he said you know of course I've
5:32
got to play Wicked Game I've got to play
5:34
it on a strat and uh he said can I
5:37
borrow it I said sure So we uh so you
5:41
know we were both busy and so he said
5:43
can you bring it over and I said well
5:45
can we just meet up at you know a gas
5:47
station cuz that's always that's what
5:48
you do you meet up at a gas station and
5:50
pass off a strat that's what we did we
5:52
met at the uh at a gas station in
5:54
Franklin Tennessee and you know I handed
5:57
off this Strat in a gig bag
6:00
and uh you know I told him you know a
6:03
little bit you know about he said what
6:04
strings you putting on it I said I put
6:06
you know nyxl daros uh you know 10
6:09
through 46 and I told him about the
6:11
trick you know I was doing with you know
6:13
so that he you know cuz I knew he was
6:14
going to probably want to change strings
6:16
even though I just put a a fresh set on
6:18
there so uh so he had to uh butt bust
6:22
his butt as it were learning uh I think
6:25
roughly 30 tunes and uh that was from
6:28
Friday evening at 5:30 to 3:00 the next
6:33
day on Saturday that's when the
6:35
rehearsal was
6:38
and I know JD and I know that he really
6:41
busted his rear end and he learned all
6:43
the tunes and uh he told a really funny
6:47
story and uh I'm not going to use the
6:50
exploitive but uh he said that uh you
6:53
know they were going through the songs
6:56
and uh and Chris Isaac told him he said
6:58
I'm still waiting for you to f up and of
7:00
course he didn't use that he used the
7:01
real word but uh anyway uh JD very much
7:06
impressed uh Chris and the rest of the
7:09
band and he did an amazing job and he
7:12
even surprised them by learning some of
7:15
their kind of choreographed dance moves
7:17
he uh he found you know video of a
7:21
recent concert and he saw you know when
7:24
the band would do certain moves and
7:26
things like that on certain songs and uh
7:30
and so he surprised them he didn't do it
7:32
in rehearsal he did it at the show at
7:34
the Rhyman and uh he completely bowled
7:37
over Chris and the rest of the band
7:40
so on Sunday he uh he texted me and he
7:43
said hey if you'd like tickets for the
7:45
show and I was kind of hoping I didn't
7:47
want to ask but I was hoping he would
7:48
offer you know tickets to the show since
7:51
I was uh letting him borrow my my brand
7:54
new to me
7:56
Stratocaster and so my wife Amy and I we
7:59
went went to the uh to the show on
8:00
Monday night at the Ryman and I have to
8:04
say
8:05
that I I enjoyed Chris Isaac but was not
8:09
a big Chris Isaac fan and I was only
8:11
familiar with probably four of his Tunes
8:14
my wife Amy was only familiar with
8:16
Wicked Game she didn't know the rest of
8:18
them but I have to tell you that is one
8:20
of the best shows I've ever seen Chris
8:22
Isaac he's 67 years old he still sings
8:26
Like a Bird um you know in the best kind
8:29
of ation of that and he is quite the
8:33
Entertainer I mean he is a great great
8:36
great
8:37
charismatic uh Entertainer and he really
8:39
had the audience in the palm of his hand
8:42
he did such a great job um you he comes
8:46
out in a uh you know manuell you know
8:49
kind of nudie suit I mean real classy uh
8:52
you know black but with a lot of bling
8:53
on it and uh and then later on he came
8:56
out on in The Encore with this outfit
8:59
that was all made of mirrors and it must
9:02
have weighed 100 pounds but uh Chris
9:05
sang wonderfully his band has been with
9:08
him for golly I think I think closing in
9:11
on 30 or 40 years um and JD you know to
9:17
the to someone that didn't know everyone
9:19
thought that JD was his current guitar
9:22
player and uh and that just goes to show
9:24
how much work that JD put into it in uh
9:28
in really
9:29
fitting in and he told me he said uh he
9:33
said I just thought about what John
9:36
Jorgenson would do if he was going to
9:37
play with Chris Isaac which meant he was
9:40
going to dress the part he was going to
9:41
learn everything backwards and forwards
9:43
he was going to learn dance he was going
9:45
to fit in he was going to you know be a
9:47
chameleon and just go right into it and
9:50
which is exactly what he did and he
9:52
killed it on every solo that he played
9:55
of course it was really fun seeing him
9:57
he used this about 30% 30 to 40% of the
10:00
time he also used his danocaster Telly
10:03
that's wonderful and he used an es5 and
10:07
he used his old uh 62 uh red 335 that he
10:11
calls red and he used his uh and which
10:15
I'm using one today also he used his
10:17
headstrong uh Lil King you know with a
10:20
12 in it and uh that's what he played
10:22
through and he had a second one as a
10:24
backup the the the bigger one that well
10:26
it's it's the same size but it has six
10:28
l6s in it and it's a kind of a brown
10:30
color but he just used his uh his black
10:34
one and he had his usual little pedal
10:36
board that had like a uh think it has
10:39
like a Nobles and uh you know a couple
10:43
other stomp boxes on there and uh yeah
10:46
he did a fantastic job and it was it was
10:50
a real hoot and uh you know of course we
10:52
got to chat some after the show and uh
10:56
yeah it was it was fantastic
10:59
so a little bit about uh you know Wicked
11:02
Game uh just because you know it's it's
11:06
such a cool part you know that you know
11:10
you
11:14
[Music]
11:20
get it's just a a really really Killer
11:24
part and that was originally you know
11:26
the guy that came up with that was uh
11:29
was Chris's original guitar player James
11:31
Calvin wiy who uh you know was with him
11:34
throughout the 80s and through the the
11:36
mid90s when hersel took over and uh
11:41
apparently uh James used a reissue
11:44
Stratocaster with a deluxe Reverb and
11:47
then in in post I think there were some
11:49
other effects added like a Roland SD
11:52
3000 and maybe some other things were
11:54
added but uh it's a really neat part I
11:57
love the fact that you you have really
12:00
great um you know tremolo bar part and
12:04
it sounds so stratty it sounds like the
12:07
net pickup to me and uh you you kind of
12:10
have this pre- Bend um you know
12:15
[Music]
12:17
the you have you know where you hit the
12:19
note you bend it down then you hit the
12:21
second note and then you release the
12:23
tremolo bar and it just uh it's a great
12:26
part of course you have all the
12:27
arpeggiated part parts and everything so
12:30
that's a beautiful beautiful iconic part
12:34
and especially in a time when uh you
12:37
know this is kind of when hair bands and
12:40
uh we're about to we're kind of you know
12:43
tailing off and you're about to get into
12:45
grunge and really there was wicked game
12:48
and the other Chris Isaac material and
12:50
he had Tom Petty and really there
12:52
weren't that many other guys that were
12:54
kind of going for what I would think of
12:57
as more Straight Ahead guitar guitar
12:59
parts um yeah more rock and roll guitar
13:02
and of course you know the Wicked Game
13:05
guitar part you know it sounds like it
13:06
could have been done by the Shadows uh
13:09
more so than the ventures uh just
13:11
because of the uh you know that sounds
13:13
like a hank B Marvin kind of uh guitar
13:16
part to me so I don't know if that was
13:17
an influence on James of course James
13:20
has passed away he had uh he had some
13:23
substance issues but uh what a great
13:26
player and uh yeah and what a great
13:28
guitar partner
13:29
all right I guess it's time to talk
13:31
about the Strat
13:33
so I uh you know I went to college with
13:38
Brad Paisley I was guitar tech for a
13:40
period of time back in the early 2000s
13:42
and then we've just maintained our our
13:44
our friendship and uh you know we just
13:47
enjoy talking about guitars and geeking
13:50
out on stuff like that and that's what
13:51
we do and you know he built a uh a
13:56
wonderful Black Guard Telecaster for me
13:58
that I'll tell that story at some other
14:01
point uh and I used that when I went to
14:04
Vegas so that's the guitar you see me
14:06
you know in the uh in the you know what
14:08
was that street talk Las veg yeah that's
14:10
the one that I have in that
14:13
episode and I'd had that for about a
14:15
month or two and all of a sudden he
14:18
asked me he said do you have a
14:21
strat I said no I don't have a strat
14:23
anymore because the last Strat I had was
14:24
a danocaster strat and I had to sell it
14:26
to get my 57 Esquire and so I hadn't had
14:29
a strat in years and he said I'm going
14:31
to build you a strat I saidwell have you
14:33
built a strat he said well not really I
14:37
said okay great and so uh he told me he
14:40
said um I have a lot of this stuff but I
14:44
need you to buy a couple things and so I
14:46
just got on reverb and and bought a a US
14:49
reissue you know bridge and and some of
14:52
the plastic and such and I had a set of
14:54
Ron Lis pickups that the 5060 set
14:59
and uh so when he provided the rest he
15:02
uh he found a body with a very striking
15:06
Ash uh figuring and he got this uh neck
15:11
and he reshaped the body so he changed
15:15
you know he made this the Contours more
15:17
severe kind of like they were in the in
15:19
the ' 50s and he also worked on the uh
15:22
you know this part of the the shaping
15:24
and he he did some reshaping on the body
15:27
he got a neck uh this is this is an
15:30
actual Fender neck uh I think it's you
15:33
know probably you know 10 or 15 years
15:36
old that uh I'm not sure if it was a
15:39
regular you know factory model or if it
15:42
was a custom shop one but it's really
15:44
big and he reshaped it to be a soft v uh
15:47
because that's kind of a favorite neck
15:49
shape for uh for both of us
15:53
and yeah and so he he did all the finish
15:57
work on this and then he did all the
15:58
relicing and so I hope you can see all
16:01
of the the cracking and such and uh even
16:06
you know the wear that's on like the
16:08
switch tip and the knobs and uh even
16:12
there's even a uh cigar burn here that
16:15
he did with one of his cigars and uh
16:19
yeah nice wear on the back of the neck
16:22
you can see that the back of the guitar
16:23
is much less uh
16:26
glossy but uh yeah got a nice neck plate
16:30
on
16:31
there it's just a a fantastic guitar and
16:36
uh and just the amount of work that went
16:38
into doing this uh the aging and
16:41
finishing on this and also he doesn't
16:43
have a like a paint booth or anything
16:45
he's just using rattle cans and little
16:48
you know little other kinds of spray
16:50
cans that he has and this is you know he
16:52
he does this all just out of his little
16:56
shop and uh yeah and so he uh aged you
17:02
know the pickup covers and aged the the
17:04
bridge and everything and uh one of the
17:08
really funny things was when we put the
17:10
pickups in
17:13
um these two ronellis pickups just
17:16
sounded amazing and for some reason the
17:19
bridge one was just not working and so
17:21
we tried a couple of different vintage
17:24
type you know Strat pickups and none of
17:27
them sounded right and I I think it's
17:28
because this guitar is somewhat on the
17:30
bright side which is really good for
17:32
these two pickups but it puts this
17:34
pickup in a rough position because this
17:37
pickup you know a strat Bridge pickup is
17:39
pretty bright it's brighter than a
17:40
Telecaster even though people don't want
17:42
to admit that and it has less body
17:44
because it's not mounted in a in a plate
17:47
or anything and it doesn't have a bottom
17:48
plate
17:50
well Brad said uh let's pull this the
17:54
bridge pickup out of this guitar over
17:55
here and he said I remember remember it
17:58
sounded really fat and so we uh we
18:02
pulled it out and it ended up being a
18:04
Seymour Duncan twang Banger so that's a
18:07
uh you know a vintage style pickup that
18:10
actually has sandcast magnets and then
18:13
uh and then it has a uh a copper uh well
18:17
it's a steel plate that's copper coated
18:20
it's copper plated and that's on the
18:22
bottom kind of like a
18:24
Telecaster um and that apparently boosts
18:27
output and especially boosts like low
18:30
end and low mids so uh ended up being a
18:34
really great combination and usually I'm
18:35
not really a big uh you I usually don't
18:38
mix a lot of pickups but uh the
18:41
combination of the uh the the 2 5060 Ron
18:45
Ellis uh and of course I was playing on
18:47
the neck pickup then uh these two
18:50
pickups are just amazing and then this
18:53
one uh you know it has enough uh oomph
18:57
to it to keep up with these guys with
18:59
the uh with the bottom plate and
19:01
everything and of course I always wire
19:03
every Strat like the you know the EJ the
19:06
Eric Johnson thing where I wired this
19:08
tone control to the bridge pickup
19:10
instead of it being on the uh on the
19:12
middle pickup so yeah so that's the
19:15
story of this guitar and uh it's really
19:19
a lot of fun it's a it's a great great
19:22
instrument and uh yeah and I've had a
19:25
little help you know in the setup
19:27
Department from uh
19:28
Nick over at Glazer shop he did a little
19:32
work on the nut and such but uh
19:35
otherwise yeah really have enjoyed
19:39
this well I hope you've enjoyed today's
19:42
episode I do want to say one other thing
19:44
before we before we leave and that's
19:46
just that uh I want to say
19:48
congratulations to my buddy uh Jimmy
19:50
olander he got on the cover of vintage
19:53
guitar magazine and thanks to Ward Meer
19:55
for uh writing a great article and for
19:58
putting him on the cover so I thought
19:59
that was really nice so go out and check
20:01
out that article that Ward merer wrote
20:03
on uh Jimmy olander all right guys I
20:07
hope you've enjoyed today's episode and
20:09
I'll see you next time bye-bye show them