Aynsley Lister Rig Progress & Four Awesome ’70s Stratocasters

Did he stick with the wet-dry rig? Ayns returns to take us to tone school!

Life too short for long YouTube videos? Please see the ‘Interesting bits and go-to sections’ information below.

Later in 2021 Mick caught up with Ayns before a show in Newbury, UK to transfer the pedals you see in this video onto a board which he’s been using ever since.
Today, Mister Lister returns for an update and to fill us in on how he’s been getting on with the expanded rig. Lucky for us he also brought a quartet of super cool 1970s Strats – not at all the ‘dead sounding boat anchors’ that many people believe them to be. As we’ll hear, these things sound utterly stellar!

Couple of points of note:
Wet/dry? Yeah, we know. The ‘correct’ definition of wet/dry is where there are no wet effects in the dry side, and no dry signal in the wet effect side. Try not to get too twisted about it. We refer to wet/dry in a TPS kinda ‘dual mono’ sense, and if it helps, every time we say wet/dry, just imagine we’re saying ‘wetanddry/dryandreverb’ as that’s actually what it is. The diagram around 24:40 should clear up any confusion.

Does Ayns' board change at the end? Yep, Dan did a little tune up that we filmed… but the audio failed sadly so we couldn’t use it. All he did was sure up the power and patch cables to ‘tour ready’ standard, improve some of the velcro/pedalboard tape, and add an external tap tempo button for the delay.

Pedals in this episode
• Alder & Ash The Tailor Pedalboard

• Sonic Research ST-200 Turbo Tuner

• T-Rex Octavius (not currently available new)

• T-Rex Alberta overdrive (not currently available new)

• Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive

• Free The Tone Final Booster (not currently available new)

• JHS Pink Panther Delay (now called the Lucky Cat)

• TheGigRig Bank Manager (used as external tap tempo)

• JAM Pedals Harmonious Monk

Guitars in this episode
• 1970 Fender Stratocaster Fiesta Red
• 1974 Fender Stratocaster Olympic White
• 1975 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst
• Patrick James Eggle Macon Single Cut

Amps in this episode
• Fender Vibroverb reissue (no longer available new)

Interesting bits and go-to sections
0:00 Intro playing
1:10 Welcome and context for today
4:00 How did the new rig fare?
6:11 Guitar volume control is king
8:00 Two amps & the Rift sig story
11:30 How the two amps are set up
12:35 Core sounds: the Rift amp
13:48 Most important pedal?
15:58 And the Vibroverb amp?
18:45 Royal Blue OD to Vibroverb
21:30 Gain, delay and mush
23:11 Why the wet amp needs to be clean
24:40 Signal flow diagram
25:40 Delay sounds, dry and wetdry
28:40 And some harmonic trem
30:30 More overdrive: Alberta
32:20 Aynsley’s ’70s Strats
37:25 ’74 and block saddles
39:00 Heavy guitars?
40:30 ’74 Strat sounds
42:50 ’70 Strat sounds
45:40 Enhancing the rig?
46:45 ’75 Strat
50:45 New album coming
51:47 Singing
54:00 How were the lockdowns?
56:30 Coming back - gig fit?
57:10 Guitar setup
1:00:00 The fun of the gear carnet
1:04:50 Ayns plays us out

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[bm]

The Fullerton-curve on that CAR is lovely. Such a deep carve.

[astewart]

Ohhhh man that '74 Strat is glorious. It's my birth year guitar and a dream for me. LOVELY!

[GiovanniBottaMuteWinter]

Aynsley’s visible level of inspiration as soon as he started playing the cream strat is, IMO, proof that not only each instrument has its own personality and sound, but also that we connect to each in different ways and each allows a different musical side to come out. That’s why we constantly chase new instruments and sounds. Or maybe it’s just the pickups height.

[johntruman]

This was so enjoyable to watch and listen to. No egos anywhere to be seen, although talent abounds. So British, so self effacing. I love you all. Power to you Aynsley, Dan and Mick.

[frankkuhlmann]

Thanks for this eye-opening video. My '77 Strat (natural, maple neck, small headstock) has a weight of 2.998 Kg or 6.609 lbs. For a long time it sounded stiff, but now it gets older it starts to do what I want to hear from it. BTW: I use partly the same rig => Vibrolux CVR/Marshall 1987x (5881) // or Stiletto and a Matchless 2x10 cab, just to match the speakers.
Pedals to taste...

Cheers from Münster, Germany,
Frank

[darenanderson]

I just adore how quick Aynsley is to laugh and smile. You can tell he just absolutely loves playing guitar.

[johnmirabile]

Thats it fellaz. i realized today im a Stat guy, i was a die hard les paul player, andwill always be...And i have sick 1960 pafs in my Goldtop...I JUST GOT A STRAT, THATS PERFECT! ONCE IN A LIFE TIME, we get a special guitar, where it feels like it becomes apart of your heartbeat....Theres an energy thing, the vibration, the feeling beneath your fingers, the fit in your hand, it just has that extra harmonic thing, where the notes seem like they split off and start dancing, the relationship i built with this guitar in the past few weeks, is poetic, i write a song everytime i plug it show as always...

[jesselawson]

Love his feel! Can’t wait to see a special on micks NEW STRAT!!!

[northguitars]

I absolutely love Aynsley’s volume control. It just helps create such a mood and accentuates textures.

[EmilioConesa]

Aynsley is a fantastic example of tone is in the hands!

[zeroamplification]

That 75 strat is the best of the bunch! What a beast I absolutely love it.

[oliv]

I had never even heard the name Aynsley Lister until today, but man, that was awesome. Crazy tones, great points and good discussions. And he's even smiling the whole way through

[kennethc]

Glad to see another person who's 'core tone' is a cranked amp, 'throttle controlled' via volume knob alone.

[therangersinger]

I have watched the first video with Ansley going on no less than 15 times. The man has great touch, tone and is as humble as one can be.

[hitnorcal]

Wow. Just WOW. Perfect tones and chemistry. I think Aynsley needs to be a regular! I love the adventure and discovery of the last episode coming back with these epiphanies. Quintessential TPS. So rewarding to watch.

[manit]

Sweet and awesome. What a fab episode gents, and boy, we need Aynsley back at least once every quarter! What a fabulous player and such a gent.

[periloustemple]

This was par excellance, fellas! That "yellow" guitar is like my 80 STRAT (a strange but amazing anomaly in the CBS era - but way too heavy). Mine would have started Olympic White, but its patina over time makes it hard to believe it is poly. It even has the bit of rusty thing from the guitar case in the just right spot. He's right: there are amazing gems in every era. I played a 20th Anniversary strat once. I liked the silver, but hated the lettering on it, but it sounded flippin amazing. You just never know til you play em. Great show - like always. Thanks.

[periloustemple]

This was the most amazing thing. Thank you all.

[ButternoteBackingTracks]

Late to the party, but I enjoyed this very much! Ayns is such a great blueser, he always gets a great tone. Those 70s Strats sound as good as anything I've ever heard, which I suspect is a lot to do with the capabilities of the player as much as anything else.

[dhod]

Just ordered a AL sig combo to go along with my V40D combo!
This video / Ayns' tones a big inspiration to the decision for sure... thanks!