martin_gotte's Music Gear Setup

I own a 1991 ebony Studio and played it on countless gigs and in the studio. 1 piece mahogany back, 3 piece maple top, comfortable medium-sized mahogany neck, ebony fretboard, no binding, 490R/498T pickups. The neck pickup sounds warm and jazzy when played clean, and throaty and singing when distorted. The middle pickup position delivers a great rhythm sound, while the bridge pickup can sound (positively) gnarly in a clean setting and aggressive and rich when distorted. Due to the ebony fretboard, this guitar has a sharp attack and sounds more like a LP Custom than a LP Standard. This guitar has a great 70s/80s hard rock Les Paul Sound and is a real workhorse.

Made by Fender Japan. I own a ca. 1987 first edition Fender JV model with the 3 bolt neck, large headstock and bullet trussrod. The neck is comparably slim and has a V profile, vintage frets and 7.5 radius. Body wood is basswood in the export series (i.e. mine) and ash in Strats for the Japanese market. Later editions have a small headstock, 4 bolt necks and 57 specs. The original US-made pickups sounded good, but had a very low output that I did not appreciate at the time. I replaced them with Fender Texas Specials which sound great in all 5 pickup switch positions in this guitar. This not always the case with Strats according to my experience. I own 3 Fender Strats, and this one is my Classic Rock Strat, as it has a fat 60s/70s Rock sound that pairs well with both Marshall and Fender style amps.