premier guitar volume 18 issue 8 august 2013
TRANSCRIPT
Fall Out BOyThe power-pop rockers disbanded then reunited in order to Save Rock and Roll.
DuncanaFrica SOcietyLuthier Jay Duncan and his Ugandan students make guitars for the future.
rOBert ranDOlphOn falling back in love with pedal steel and getting his feel-good groove back.
Charvel Desolation Soloist DX-1 ST • Lakland Decade 6 • Cole Clark Angel AN2A3BB • Z.Vex Fat Fuzz Factory
• Jaguar HC50 • Epifani AL 112 • Reverend Kingbolt • EarthQuaker Devices Disaster Transport SR • Roland Cube 80GX • Nordstrand Shush Puppies
REVIEWS:
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DR1 Peavey Vypyr VIP 2DR3 FU-Tone High Performance BridgesDR5 Sandberg Electra TT4 (pictured right)DR7 Electro-Harmonix Epitome
DiGital aDVantaGeIn addition to the insightfulreads in our August 2013 print edition, check out the following online-only reviews. >>>
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AUGUST 2013
+ Rig Rundowns
fall out boy • John Scofield • robert randolph
premierguitar.com
AUGUST 2013
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Living CoLourreo speedwagon
10guitar & Bass reviews
Z.Vex / CharVel / lakland Cole Clark / Jaguar / nordstrand / epifani reVerend /
earthQuaker deViCes / roland PLUS! 4 digitaL-onLY reviews
the
amp issue
how tuBe amps work
DIY! repLaCe speakers—the Right waY
inside the north ameriCan guitar
ampLifier museum
& more
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Wheeler Brothers on tour this summer including performances at Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival and more! Complete tour itinerary available at www.WheelerBrothersMusic.com The Wheeler Brothers play Eastman MD305 Mandolin, E20OM Acoustic Guitar, T386 Thineline Electric Guitar, AC420 Acoustic Guitar and an Eastman Banjo.
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6 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Publisher Jon Levy
EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Shawn Hammond
Managing Editor Tessa Jeffers
Senior Editor Andy Ellis
Gear Editor Charles Saufley
Senior Art Editor Meghan Molumby
Web Content Editor Rebecca Dirks
Associate Editor Chris Kies
Associate Editor Rich Osweiler
Associate Editor Jason Shadrick
Video/Photo Editor Daniel Dorman
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Production Coordinator Luke Viertel
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The Hot Rod Hempster Speaker is a finely tuned Eminence Cannabis Rex, custom voiced specifically for
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8 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
TuninG uP
Lemmings Without a Cause? BY shawn hammond
Okay, by raise of hand, how many here were originally seduced to strap
on one of these planks of wood and steel because of the instrument’s long, monochro-matic history of me-too players who wowed with their steadfast commitment to confor-mity and focus-group-informed playing?
[Crickets.]
That’s what I thought. Show me someone whose primary inspi-
rations are the dudes from White Lion, Kingdom Come, Slaughter, or any other derivative bandwagon band, and I’ll show you someone with a very incomplete and warped view of bass, guitar, and overall musi-cality. (Though I do say that with all due respect to the aforementioned players, who I’m sure are accomplished instrumentalists.)
But let’s face it—in every genre, the ones who inspire us and have staying power for the generations are the ones who don’t give
Shawn [email protected]
a flying cuss what other people think is “correct.” From Robert Johnson to Charlie Christian, Les Paul, Joe Maphis, Hendrix, Page, Van Halen, Bill Frisell, Yngwie, J. Mascis, Thurston Moore, and countless others, the players who change lives and inspire new generations are the ones who think “Does this sound [expletive]-ing amazing?” rather than “Am I doing this the way everyone thinks I should?”
And yet, I’m still shocked and dismayed by how often I hear or read players saying things so incredibly un-rock ’n’ roll—and I mean that in a totally genre-nonspecific sense. I want to shake and slap my computer display every time I read someone say, “What a loser—he played that metal lick with way too much delay,” or “That guy sucks—I can’t believe he played that sweep-picking line with the bridge pickup and played rhythms with his neck pickup,” or “That tone wouldn’t work in any context,” or “WTF? He played that fuzz pedal with his bridge pickup—what a [expletive] dumbass!”
Even if you couldn’t google yottabytes’ worth of aural data from players new and old contradicting these narrow-minded views, you’d think we guitarists and bassists—long the proud rebels of music—would fly the one-fingered flag high and encourage anyone who has the cojones to flout tradition in the name of something fresh.
Now, I realize this view comes largely from my biased perspective of playing guitar for the purpose of trying to forge my own path, and not everyone plays for that reason. But even if you are perfectly content to get your 6- and 4-string joy from playing covers, shouldn’t you still applaud those who at least try to push the envelope, if not simply because you realize all those cover songs you love were spawned by musicians who naively/bravely tried the same thing? After all, you never know when one of those “[expletive] dumbasses” is going to make it big and spawn a tune or trend that you may very well be covering one of these years.
As I write this, a tune by one of the most innovative and shamelessly ripped-off guitar-ists of all time has just randomly issued forth from my iTunes playlist. Jimi’s “Bold as Love” exemplifies everything I’ve just said: Just when everyone probably thought he should’ve upped the “Purple Haze” ante on his second album, he made Axis: Bold as Love a lot funk-ier and more laidback, with more clean tones and nice R&B grooves rather than a bunch more blazingly distorted tracks telegraphing insecurities about his own past. Today, we celebrate the LP as yet another gloriously gorgeous chapter in his all-too-short story. Maybe that can inspire some of us to decrease the amount of time we spend wielding sharp words that do good to no one and instead wield axes bold as love a little more often.
Hendrix flouted expectations with his mellower, funkier sophomore Experience effort, yet today we celebrate Axis: Bold as Love as a high-water mark in music. Might we all profit more from adopting his do-my-own-thing attitude than from going to any lengths to cop his sound and chops?
i n t r o d u c i n g
LX1E Ed ShEEran SignaturE Edition
+ava i l a b l e e v e r y w h e r e
e d s h e e r a n . c o m
A percent of proceeds from sAles will go to eAst AngliA’s children’s hospices.www.each.org.uk
10 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.compremierguitar.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS > FEATURES & REVIEWS
146 ChARVEl Desolation Soloist DX-1 ST148 lAklAnd Decade 6150 ColE ClARk Angel AN2A3BB153 Z.VEx Fat Fuzz Factory157 jAgUAR HC50161 EpIFAnI AL 112164 REVEREnd Kingbolt167 EARThqUAkER dEVICES Disaster Transport Sr171 RolAnd Cube 80GX174 noRdSTRAnd Shush Puppies
125
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56 Fall out BoyThe power-pop rockers disbanded then reunited in order to Save Rock and Roll.
67 john ScofieldUncle John combines jazz concepts with his electronic-versed vocabulary on Überjam Deux.
77 Robert RandolphOn falling back in love with pedal steel and getting his feel-good groove back.
88 james WilliamsonThe Stooges’ guitarist dusts off his Les Paul after 30 years.
93 how Tube Amps WorkWe demystify the basics of tube-amp functionality.
108 dIY: Swap Amp Speakers
A step-by-step guide to replacing old amp speakers (with killer video, too).
125 nAg Amplifier Museum
One of the largest collections of rare and amazing amps on the continent.
141 duncanAfrica Society
Luthier Jay Duncan and his Ugandan students make guitars for the future.
ContentsFEATURES
REVIEWS
Volume 18 Issue 8 August 2013
NAG Amplifier Museum
Cole Clark Angel AN2A3BB
150
Epifani AL 112
161
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Opening Notes
TABLE OF COnTEnTS > ColUMnS & dEpARTMEnTS
Contents (Cont’d)
16 Rig Rundowns
19 opening notes
24 Your Feedback
26 news
28 Staff picksPG editors and Duff McKagan and Jeff Angell of Walking Papers talk about funeral songs.
30 Media ReviewsTedeschi Trucks Band’s Made Up Mind Plus: Sly & the Family Stone Box Set, Vince Gill and Paul Franklin, Superchunk
176 new products
178 Modern Builder VaultVenture Guitars
180 gear of the Month1964 Fender Vibroverb
190 next Month in pg
192 last CallMr. Jibs and Ignorance of the Law
dEpARTMEnTS
50
gIggIng & RECoRdIng
32 Tone TipsBase Tones
34 on BassIt’s All About the Song
36 guitar TracksiOS, Anyone?
TECh TIpS
38 State of the StompA Promising Pedal Debut
40 Esoterica ElectricaThe Amplifier Wars
42 Acoustic SoundboardA Very Golden Anniversary
ColUMnS44 Ask Amp Man
A Fiery Hot Rod Deluxe
46 Mod garageFactory Telecaster Wirings, Pt. 1
48 The Bass BenchString Nut or Zero Fret?
VInTAgE & UpkEEp
50 Vintage Vault1955 Les Paul Custom and 1956 Gibson GA-70
52 dIY w/john leVanSetting up a Floyd Rose-Style Trem
54 Trash or TreasureNational Style 1 Tricone
on ThE CoVER A 1960s Vox AC4 with original cast-aluminum “egg” tremolo foot-switch. Photo by Dan Formosa
Ph
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Vintage Vault
Volume 18 Issue 8 August 2013
GORE, ELIXIR, NANOWEB, POLYWEB, GREAT TONE • LONG LIFE, “e” icon, and other designs are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates. ©2013 W. L. Gore & Associates, (UK) Limited
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“Elixir Strings Phosphor Bronze don’t have that brittle new sound. The sound stays consistent over the life of the strings and doesn’t vary like others do.” - George Marinelli
Photo Credit: Stephen Kearney
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Elixir® Strings Acoustic Phosphor Bronze deliver distinctive phosphor bronze warmth and sparkle - together with the extended tone life that players have come to expect from Elixir Strings.
Elixir Strings is the only coated string brand to protect the entire string, keeping tone-killing gunk out of the gaps between the string windings. Our innovative Anti-Rust Plated Plain Steel Strings prevent corrosion, ensuring longer life for the entire set. With a smoother feel and reduced fi nger-squeak, they’re a winning choice for the studio and stage.
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FEATUREd
14 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
lESSonS
Beyond BluesHow to Use the
Super Locrian ScaleBy Levi Clay
kick out the jamsHow to Make Your
Delay Pedal Work for YouBy David Stocker
Future RockTwo-Handed Tapping and How to
Play the Intro to “Atlas Novus”By Chris Letchford
Rhythm Rules5 Ways to Make
Your Chords CoolerBy Keaton Simons
Concepts & TechniquesJim Hall
By Amanda Monaco
Access all of our lessons online, for free, with streaming
audio and downloadable, printable notation PDFs.
WEB ExCLuSiVES
ONly ON PremierGuitar.com…
WEIgh In!It’s our annual amp issue and we got to wondering—how is that low-watt, small amp trend going these days? So, we asked you to tell us about your main amp and found that, resoundingly, loud was alive and well in guitardom with more than 50% of you using an amp with 50-watts or more of power. Weigh in on this topic at facebook.com/premierguitar or reply @premierguitar on Twitter.
How many watts does your main amp have?
Your guide to the latest stories, reviews, videos, and lessons on PremierGuitar.com
Vintage Amp Demo Blowout!See and hear some rare vintage amps with our demos from the National Guitar Amplifier Museum (see feature p.125). We plug in a JMI Domino, 1960 Magnatone 213 Troubadour, 1960s Selmer Zodia Twin Thirty Truvoice, and a 1966 Ampeg SB-12 for your enjoyment. If that weren’t enough, we head to Nashville to fire up a 1983 Dumble Overdrive Special with a range of vintage and boutique guitars, from a ’61 Strat to Lee Roy Parnell’s vintage goldtop Les Paul.
This month, we review the Electro-Harmonix Epitome pedal, Sandberg Electra TT4 bass, Peavey Vypyr VIP II amp, and MXR M75 Super Badass pedal.
REVIEWS
Also Former Kinks guitarist Dave Davies discusses the early days of the band and his new solo record, we take you inside Ovation Guitars with a video tour, and detail each of Billie Joe Armstrong’s touring guitars in our photo gallery.
We’ve moved our contest schedule to page 190. Head there now to see what’s coming up and a list of winners.
lookIng FoR oUR gIVEAWAY lISTIng?
5 Ways to Make Your Chords CoolerBy Keaton Simons
Concepts & TechniquesJim Hall
By Amanda Monaco
This month, we review the Electro-Harmonix Epitome pedal,
Concepts & Techniques
It’s our annual amp issue and we got to wondering—how is that low-watt, small amp trend going these days? So, we asked you to tell us about your main amp and found that, resoundingly, loud was alive and well in guitardom with more than 50% of you using an amp with 50-watts or more of power. Weigh in on this topic at facebook.com/premierguitar or reply @premierguitar on Twitter.
How many watts does your main amp have?
See and hear some rare vintage amps with our demos from the National Guitar Amplifier Museum JMI Domino, 1960 Magnatone 213 Troubadour, 1960s Selmer
1966 Ampeg SB-12 for your enjoyment. If that weren’t enough, we head to Nashville to fire up a 1983 Dumble Overdrive Special with a range of vintage and boutique guitars, from a ’61 Strat to Lee Roy Parnell’s vintage goldtop Les Paul.
This month, we review the Electro-Harmonix Epitome pedal, Sandberg Electra TT4 bass, Peavey Vypyr VIP II amp, and MXR M75 Super Badass pedal.
REVIEWS
Dave Davies discusses the early days of the band and his new Ovation Guitars with a video tour, and detail each of Billie Joe
’s touring guitars in our photo gallery.
We’ve moved our contest schedule to page 190. Head there now to see what’s coming up and a list of winners.
ookIng FoR oUR gIVEAWAY lIVEAWAY lIVEAWAY ISTIng?
This month, we review the Electro-Harmonix Epitome pedal, This month, we review the Electro-Harmonix Epitome pedal, REVIEWS
100+(29%)
50–99(24%)
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MASTER DESIGNED NEWPORTER™
© 2013 FMIC. FENDER®, NEWPORTERTM , AND THE DISTINCTIVE HEADSTOCK DESIGNS COMMONLY FOUND ON THESE GUITARS ARE TRADEMARKS OF FENDER MUSICAL INSTRUMENT CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
HANDCRAFTED IN NEW HARTFORD, CONN.
A New Era.
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16 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Guitarist Dave Amato walks through his gui-tars, Marshall JCM800 amps, and Bradshaw-designed rig. Here, we check out his guitars.
For REO Speedwagon’s current tour, Dave Amato only brings out a small portion of his extensive guitar collection. On this run he brought out several Gibson Les Pauls (two prototypes of his signature model), a Gibson ‘57 Custom Shop Black Beauty, a Gibson Lonnie Mack V with a Bigsby, a Fender double neck Esquire/Telecaster (that he uses on “Time for Me to Fly”), a pair of Bill Nash T-style guitars, a Gibson EDS-1275, and two (J-200 and J-185 12-string) Gibson acoustics. All the guitars are strung up with Dean Markely .009s.
RiG RunDOWnS
RIG RUNDOWNS® Our latest, greatest behind-the-scenes gear videos with the stars.
Guitarist Vernon Reid and bassist Doug Wimbish demo their rigs and detail the complex, yet very different, ways they pro-cess their signals. Here, we spotlight Reid’s unmatched use of technology.
Vernon Reid uses mainly a Roland VG-99 (the brains of the setup) into two Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifiers in stereo. The signal goes from the Parker’s hex pickup to the VG-99 to a DOD Passive Mixer, which splits the direct guitar out from the VG-99 to a Zoom G3 (used for auto wah), a lap-top with Guitar Rig Mobile Interface with programmed sounds controlled by a Roland FC-300 and Ableton Live controlled by a Keith McMillan SoftStep, Line 6 M9 (for modulation), and Eventide H9 with expression pedal, all running through a Mesa/Boogie Lonestar combo. It also goes through an iRig interface to iPad with Amplitube and Live FX and a Roland GR-20 that runs direct to the house. All the signal processors are parallel to each other, blended in and out with expression pedals.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 17
RiG RunDOWnS
Watch nowHead to premierguitar.com/rigrundown or youtube.com/premierguitar to watch these three videos in their entirety, plus all
150+ Rig Rundowns in our archives. Also new this month:
Michael Angelo BatioMAB shows us his signature Deans and one-of-a-kind doublenecks, as well as the amps and effects used on his Hands without Shadows – A Tribute to Rock Guitar shows.
RIG RUNDOWNS® Our latest, greatest behind-the-scenes gear videos with the stars.
Zinner’s main guitar is his also his first guitar: an ’80s Japanese Strat he received in a trade for some comic books at age 14. The guitar was originally designed as a shred machine, but the locking nut screws have been removed, as well as the tremolo bar (though Zinner still uses the tremolo with his palm). Sometime in his youth the neck pickup was also swapped (the new model is unknown). The guitar carries stickers—and battle scars—from Nick’s entire life as a musician.
He uses four amps: the pictured Fender Deluxe 2x12 (set brighter) and Fender Deville 4x10 (set darker) combine for his main guitar sound, with an Ampeg combo behind them to enhance his low-end. The sideways Fender Twin Reverb (far left) amplifies his Zoom RhythmTrak RT-123 drum machine, which he’s used for years. The drum machine goes through a Boss ODB-3 Bass Overdrive. Atop the Twin Reverb is a Roland RE-201 Space Echo, which he just uses as another gain stage—the tape is broken.
Zinner uses his vast array of effects to achieve the band’s recorded sounds through samples and looping, as well as compensate for the lack of a full-time bass player with a broader tonal spectrum. His main board (far right) is home to a DigiTech JamMan, Line 6 MM4, ProCo DeuceTone RAT (his primary fuzz tones), Boss DD-7, HBE Power Screamer, and Electro-Harmonix Graphic Fuzz. To the left of that, his second board has a DigiTech Whammy, another DigiTech Jam Man, a Line 6 DL4, Electro-Harmonix POG, and TC Electronic Flashback Delay. His third board contains a second Line 6 DL4, and three Eventide pedals: TimeFactor, PitchFactor, and Space. Finally, by his amps, is a fourth board with two more sample-loaded DigiTech JamMan pedals. Before his signal goes into his amps, it hits a TC Electronic Classic Booster + Distortion.
We check out the four pedalboards and four amps of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s guitarist Nick Zinner, as his guitar tech Jesse Quitslund explains how Zinner uses looping and sam-pling live, and Nick runs us through his guitars. Here are some highlights.
“After years of trying to get all of the tone, playability, and versatility I wanted in an amp, I turned to my friends at Schecter and legendary amp designer James Brown. Together we have created Hellwin, a line of amplifiers designed to sound and perform at the highest level whether you’re on the big stage or in your garage!“
- SYNYSTER GATES
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 19
opEnIng noTES
niCk ZinnERMay 4, 2013
Alexandra PalaceLondon, England
Photo by Anthony Batista
Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner gets the indie outfit’s set started at a recent U.K. show. Zinner’s wine-red
semi-hollowbody is a custom First Act Delia that was built for him in 2007 and
boasts appointments like a built-in fuzz circuit (which he has disabled), a Bigsby
trem, and a pair of Kent Armstrong vintage-style humbuckers.
20 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
opEnIng noTES MiChAEL PAGETMay 24, 2013
Pinewood Bowl AmphitheaterLincoln, NE
Photo by Chris Kies
Bullet for My Valentine lead guitarist Michael Paget digs deep into one of his ESP Michael Paget V signature axes. His EMG
81 and 85-packed Vs are totally stock and feature a fretboard inlay inspired by the band’s The Poison album cover art, in addi-
tion to a body graphic taken from their Scream Aim Fire tour T-shirt. “The V just felt the most comfortable, and totally suits
my playing style,” says Padge. “Throw some EMGs in there, and boom—the ultimate metal guitar.”
JOhn FOGERTyMay 28, 2013El Rey TheatreLos Angeles, CAPhoto by Lindsey Best
Celebrating his birthday rock ’n’ roll-style with a gig and the release of his long-awaited new record, Wrote A Song For Everyone, John Fogerty gets the party started with his 1968 goldtop Les Paul. He acquired the guitar in the mid ’90s and has kept it stock with the exception of removing the finish from the back of the neck. “I like to feel the wood, and I just love the sound of the neck pickup,” says Fogerty. “P-90s rule!”
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 21
opEnIng noTES
OLi hERBERTMay 18, 2013
Crew StadiumColumbus, OH
Photo by Barry Brecheisen
All That Remains’ Oli Herbert launches into a solo during
the band’s main-stage set at the 2013 Rock on the Range
festival. The classically trained virtuoso recently joined the
Jackson camp and is pictured with a 2013 custom Warrior. The crimson-swirl axe is one
of three Jacksons in his arsenal and boasts runic inlays on its 27-fret ’board, a Floyd Rose
trem with Floyd Upgrades, and EMG 81 and 85 pickups.
22 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
opEnIng noTES
Saga Musical InstrumentsP.O. Box 2841 • So. San Francisco, California
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hen it’s your instrument that’s holding you back, it’s time for a
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The result is more bang…period!
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24 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
LETTERS
keep those comments coming!Please send your suggestions, gripes, comments, and good words directly to [email protected].
Your Feedback
Blast from the PastThis photo is from 1961 and the guitar is a 1958 Gibson ES-140 T 3/4. I still have it—more than that, I use it. I was playing in a 15-piece big band in college at the time this was taken. Our band (http://www.cpcollegiansalumni.com) still gets together every year. In fact, we’ve done so since 1967. Thanks! —Gil Gillivan, via email
Get Insured?This is my recent experience with having nearly 10K worth of gear stolen and our painful and educational experience of trying to retrieve the gear from a local pawn-shop. My guitarist and I walked into our rehearsal space, and after a 5-minute scissor kick rehearsal, realized our chosen tools of sonic debauchery were nowhere to be seen. His overpriced custom shop guitar, Brian May-approved amp, pedals, and my crowded board of processors (used to compensate for talent) were gone! A quick bit of Dick Tracy work not only revealed the identity of the thief (check your band manager’s criminal/drug abuse record before you give him a key), but helped us track down the gear to a pawnshop.
I called in the cavalry, with police report in hand, a list of serial numbers, receipts and a few pictures of us being awesome onstage with the gear. Sadly, I was rudely awakened to the facts of police recovery and procedure, In short, there is none. Law enforce-ment will prosecute the criminal if sufficient evidence is provided but they do absolutely nothing for recovery. In the pawnshop owner and the detective’s own words: “The pawnshop is legally consid-
GETTinG ThE kinkS OuTI saw the Kinks perform in New York City in 1987 and loved it. And, they didn’t even get in a fight that night. Thanks for doing this interview [“Dave Davies—Pure Spirit,” August 2013] of one of the most underrated musicians in rock history. As for the question about “Sunshine of Your Love,” I didn’t really get it at first, either. But, the first four notes of “Sunshine of Your Love” are pretty much exactly the same as “You Really Got Me,” then Cream expands on it, but did not copy it.—David Hoyer, via premierguitar.com
Dave and Ray were the perfect complement to each other: Ray, the sensitive, sardonic “artiste” and Dave, the play-by-the-gut basher. And being brothers, neither would let the other get away with too much shit! Kinks forever!—Jim H., via premierguitar.com
I was at a concert in Washington, D.C., in the early days of the Kinks. They were late—really late—coming out. I’ll never forget the host, a local DJ, coming out and screaming into the microphone, “They’re going to be a while folks. The lead guitar player is in the back shooting up.” When they finally showed up, they rocked.—Dave, via premierguitar.com
ered the victim.” This means that if I can prove that the gear was in fact mine (serial numbers, photos and unique identifiers listed in a police report), I have the legal privilege of buying the gear back from the pawnshop at the price they had purchased the gear. Lucky us!
There are a few things we did right. The police report can take weeks to be reviewed and ap-proved by the detective and leave a window for your equipment to disappear from the pawnshop. We brought in an officer to the store, had him make a copy of all receipts and serial numbers as written by the pawnshop and place the gear on a 90-day police hold. This was legal proof that the shop did have the equipment in their possession and prevented them from releasing the gear to anyone unless approved by law enforcement for at least 90 days. Second, we had the serial numbers, photos (of us being awesome) and receipts for all of the gear. The shop can legally state that you do not have proof of ownership otherwise and refuse to release the items to you. In reality, we were very fortunate to have located the gear, period, and will be even more thrilled once we can afford to buy back our own gear. The one thing that would have made this nightmare at least bearable would have been insurance. I discovered through a 2-minute Google search that specialty insurers will cover your gear, even while traveling, against everything from fire to theft for less per year than a quarter of what we’ll have to pay to get our gear out of pawn. I won’t go anywhere without insurance now and should my gear ever be stolen again, I may consider my future in air guitar. Is there a category for shoegaze air guitar?—Jesse Mancillas, Sacramento, CA
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II he joined the Air Corps hoping to be a pilot, as he’d had some past flying experience. Rejected as a pilot due to less-than-perfect vision in his left eye, Smith was given the option to go to mechanic school or join Air Corps band. He chose the latter and was given a cornet, a meth-od book, and a chair in the band.
After returning from the war, Smith began working the studio scene in New York City as a session guitarist for records, radio, and TV. His strong music-reading chops and incredible versatility made him one of the most in-demand guitarists of the 1950s. His fame only grew as he recorded under his own name. Smith’s affiliation with the Royal Roost and Verve labels turned him into a guitar sensation, and in 1952 he earned a Grammy for his recording of “Moonlight in Vermont.” To this day, many guitarists shy away from playing and recording solo versions of this tune, fearing they’ll be compared to Smith and fall short. Known for his use of closed voicings, Smith was a master of smooth harmonic transitions.
In 1955, Smith worked with Guild to produce the first signature Johnny Smith guitar—the Guild Johnny Smith Award—and it entered production in 1956. In 1961, Smith was approached by Gibson to design another archtop. Gibson Johnny Smith models are known for their strong acoustic tone and remain highly sought after by guitar collectors around the world.
Ultimately Gibson moved their elec-tric and archtop guitar operation from Kalamazoo to Nashville, and in 1989 Smith transferred his signature model to Heritage Guitars. In 2004, he moved his signature model back to Guild because archtop guru Bob Benedetto became
news Bitsbeautiful clean tone. An inspiration to Pat Martino, George Benson, Bill Frisell, Jack Wilkins, Jack Petersen, Russell Malone, and many, many others, Smith enjoyed a long, celebrated career.
Smith started his musical career working in pawnshops that allowed him to use their guitars to teach and play—as long as he kept the store’s stock in tune. During World War
OBiTuARy
Remembering johnny Smith 1922-2013Colorado Springs, CO – Best known for his Grammy-winning recording of “Moonlight in Vermont” with tenor sax titan Stan Getz, Johnny Smith was also respected for his blistering single-note lines, unsurpassed solo-guitar chops, and
Photo by Lawrence Grinnell
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involved with the company. Benedetto oversaw the design and construction of the Guild Benedetto Johnny Smith Award until he left Fender (Guild’s parent com-pany) in 2006. Guild Benedetto signature models are known for their playability and lush, evenly balanced tone.
As an educator, Smith wrote books for Mel Bay, gave private lessons, and taught at the pioneering Stan Kenton Camps. He was known for his profound knowledge of music theory and the creative ways he approached fretboard harmony. Though the guitar is notated an octave higher than it sounds, Smith believed it should have always been notated on the grand staff in actual pitch. Many of his books are written this way, making it difficult for some guitarists to absorb Smith’s methods.
In 1958, Smith moved his family from New York to Colorado Springs and opened up a music shop, which became known and respected for its service, repair, and instruction. Smith taught for years out of the store—Bill Frisell was one of his students—and continued to be an active performer before retiring from the guitar in the mid 1980s.
Smith loved the outdoors and was an avid fisherman, hunter, and pilot of small aircraft. In a freak accident involving an airplane bucket seat, he cut off the end of one of his left-hand fingers. The remain-ing section of the finger had to be sewn into the palm of his hand while the finger healed and took a skin graft. It was dur-ing this time that Nokie Edwards and the Ventures recorded Smith’s tune “Walk, Don’t Run.” It was a huge hit and finan-cially allowed Smith the time he needed to heal. He recovered from the accident and continued to play and teach.
Known throughout his career as one of the kindest and genuinely nice people in the world of jazz, Smith and his music inspired countless guitarists. His compositions, arranging techniques, and technical prowess make him a true guitar legend. —Corey Christiansen
EVEnTS
EllnoRA guitar Festival Unveils 2013 lineupChampaign, IL – This year’s incarna-tion of the ELLNORA Guitar Festival
takes place September 5-7 and incorpo-rates 11 individually ticketed events, along with 11 free shows. Performers include Buddy Guy, Dweezil Zappa, Jonny Lang, Luther Dickinson, John Scofield, Kaki King, Lucinda Williams, and many more. ELLNORA’s 2013 Artist in Residence is Austin-based Dobro/steel master and three-time festival alum Cindy Cashdollar.
True to the festival’s international nature, ELLNORA 2013 includes sets from Norseman Andreas Aase on a
guitar-bouzouki hybrid, South African Derek Gripper who plays Malian kora music on a nylon-string classical guitar, Andalusian flamenco ambassador Paco Peña, Hindustani slide guitar master Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, and French-born impressionist/Gypsy jazz composer Stephane Wrembel. Additional American performers include Sam Bush, Del McCoury, Del Castillo, and El Ten Eleven.ellnoraguitarfestival.com
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STAFF PiCkS
Susan giffordReader of the MonthWhat are you listening to? My earwig, five days running: “Hook” from Travelogue: Blues Traveler Classics.What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” articulates a longing to be finally set free, and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s “Heroes and Heroines” illus-trates people pursuing their dreams despite continual uncertainty. The final line: “And Lord help the fool who said you’d better quit while you’re ahead. A dreamer born is a hero bred, on Earth and up in Heaven.”
Tessa jeffersManaging EditorWhat are you listening to? Sly & the Family Stone’s Higher! box set. (Thank you falettinme listen to four discs of funk nastiness!)What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? “Hang You From the Heavens” by Dead Weather, Beastie Boys’ “Bodhisattva Vow,” “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin” for a bit of honky-tonk humor, and lastly, Sigur Ros’ “Saeglóplur” as the outro to my life, a final ode to my peeps to say that which hath no words.
jeff AngellGuitarist, Walking PapersWhat are you listening to? Walking Papers demos and rehearsal recordings in order to work on lyrics and melodies. Aside from that, lately I can’t get enough of: Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and Essence, Morricone’s The Good, the Bad & the Ugly soundtrack, The Kills’ Blood Pressures, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Metz.What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? “When the Music’s Over” by The Doors or “Lay Me Low” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
duff MckaganBassist, Walking PapersWhat are you listening to? The new Queens of the Stone Age, Alice In Chains and Black Sabbath, Celebration Day by Led Zeppelin, and Disclosure and Purity Ring because I have a teenager that I’m musically influenced by.What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? “I Wanna Be Your Dog” by Iggy and the Stooges and Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades.” What else? Duh.
Andy EllisSenior EditorWhat are you listening to? Cousin Harley B’hiki Bop. Paul Pigat plays great hill-billy jazz and surf-spy gui-tar, plus all the wicked steel on this album. That’s just not fair!What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? First, “Bold as Love,” then the Grateful Dead’s “Attics of My Life,” and finally “In My Life.” After that: Party time! Break out the libations and crank up Sticky Fingers.
Chris kiesAssociate EditorWhat are you listening to? The soundtrack to my recent 2,500-mile road trip included Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish, Down’s NOLA, Elvis’ 1956, Storytellers: Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson, Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience, Stones’ Sticky Fingers, and QOTSA’s S/T.What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? Since I’ve bonded with my wife and many friends—old and new—at William Elliott Whitmore shows, I’d hope he’d play a set holding my breath for “Diggin’ My Grave,” “Rest His Soul,” or “Black Iowa Dirt.”
Shawn hammondEditor in ChiefWhat are you listening to? The Kinks’ BBC Sessions 1964–1977, the Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo’s Blackmail, and Radiohead Live at Tramps June 1, 1995. What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party.”
Rich osweilerAssociate EditorWhat are you listening to? Deer Tick’s soon-to-be-released Negativity. Led by John McCauley, these alt-country rockers can really weave a story—lots of desperation and heartbreak in these huge-sounding tunes.What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? I’m headed for the freezer à la Ted Williams so won’t need such a service, but if I had to choose, AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” or “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by BOC.
jason ShadrickAssociate EditorWhat are you listening to? Chris Thile, Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1. This cements his rep as one of the all-time great mando pickers. His spot-on takes of Bach come from being both a humbled student and a hungry artist wanting to push his instrument to the furthest limits.What song(s) would you request for your wake or memorial service? I tend to go for the less obvious choices, so it would be “Just Friends” by Pat Martino or anything from Jim Hall Live!.
Exit Music Call us morbid if you must, but making music is all about documenting this crazy rollercoaster of life and death. This month Duff McKagan and Jeff Angell of Walking Papers join us in imagining soundtracks to take us into the great beyond.
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geniuses of the 20th century, but PG read-ers will love how this box set showcases the potent, precise weavings of guitarist Freddie Stone and bassist Larry Graham. The duo’s interplay and Sly’s production prowess shines on the familiar album selections, and the live cuts (especially those from the ’70 Isle of Wight Festival) are a blistering, red-hot party. But the mono singles are artifacts of revelatory power. Hearing “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” through the super-focused mono mix is like a locomotive mowing down your shed and feeling com-pelled to dance on the wreckage. This, like most everything on the four-disc Higher!, is a clinic on how explosively music can evolve in the hands of artists with little time for expec-tations or boundaries. —Charles SaufleyMust-hear tracks: “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (mono single), “Medley—Music Lover / I Want To Take You Higher / Music Lover (LIVE, Isle of Wight)”
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Vince gill and paul FranklinBakersfieldMCA Nashville
Now that modern country music has veered more toward the pop metal of the 1980s, it’s sublimely refreshing to hear how two grand masters of guitar pay homage to what many people consider the Golden Age of country. On Bakersfield, Vince Gill and pedal-steel guitarist Paul Franklin team up for a collection of tunes that harken back to the time when the sounds coming out of Southern California rebelled against the overproduced string-laden tracks that Nashville was producing at the time.
Gill’s tone is pitch perfect—just the right amount of Tele snap—and he admirably handles all the lead parts while Franklin’s weeping pedal steel bends (especially on “The Bottle Let Me Down”) show exactly why he’s been a first-call session player for decades. Drawing exclusively from the catalogs of Merle Haggard (who contrib-uted to the liner notes) and Buck Owens, Gill and Franklin aren’t out to reinvent the tunes, but they find a way to interject their
MEDiA REViEWS
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Tedeschi Trucks BandMade Up MindSony Masterworks
When it comes to describing the soaring, sweet—and sometimes savage—sound of Derek Trucks’ slide guitar, words are barely adequate. Years ago, he started exploring the melismatic, microtonal melodies of South Asian music—particularly the late Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan and Sufi devotional singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. (Referring to the latter, Trucks once told this writer, “In fact, he is as important to me as any guitarist.”)
At this point, Trucks has thoroughly integrated his hot, raw, juke joint-inspired slide tone with the subtle pitch inflections and dynamic expressiveness of Indian and Pakistani vocal and string traditions. It’s a powerful synthesis of East and West, with all the legitimacy of John McLaughlin’s pioneering work in the fusion realm.
There’s plenty of burning guitar throughout Made Up Mind, but first and foremost this is a band record with a heavy nod toward classic Memphis soul. In superb form, Susan Tedeschi sits forward in the mix with her powerful vocals, supported by thick layers of keys, sax, trombone, trumpet, bass, background vocals, and percussion. (In the spirit of the Allman Brothers, all songs except a Trucks-Tedeschi acoustic duet fea-ture two drummers.)
The album sounds very polished—the songs are carefully arranged, all the parts are buttoned down, and the mix is precise and manicured. Listeners expecting the rollicking, loose-limbed vibe of such Derek Trucks Band classics as Already Free and Songlines—or even TTB’s debut, Revelator—might be taken aback at first hearing. But the beauty of Made Up Mind lies in the carefully woven ensemble textures that sup-port Tedeschi’s lusty pipes, and this blend of feel and finesse is likely to pull in new fans who might not own the back catalog.
This may mark a shift from the TTB’s jam-band origins to a more mature, sophis-ticated sound, but one thing hasn’t changed: When Trucks cuts loose, the gloves come off. And that’s what makes this album essential listening for anyone who plays slide guitar. —Andy EllisMust-hear track: “Do I Look Worried”
even more influential—than any of those rock titans: Sly and the Family Stone.
The button-down Motown hit fac-tory, the cool, steady output of Stax, and the indefatigable funk armada of James Brown and his bands may have been soul’s bedrock. But Sly and Co. were irreverently inventive while dwelling at soul’s fringe—brewing an ever-evolving and mutant bouillabaisse of funk, pop, soul, gospel, and psychedelic rock that profoundly informed everything from Miles Davis’ barrier-shat-tering “electric” albums and ’70s funk and disco, to Prince and the Beastie Boys in the decades that followed.
Higher! showcases Stone as one of the most overlooked production and arranging
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Sly and the Family StoneHigher!Epic/Legacy
Short versions of San Francisco music his-tory focus on the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Creedence, Santana, and in some cases, should-have-beens like Moby Grape and Quicksilver Messenger Service. But you can’t tell the complete tale of the ’60s NorCal scene without dishing propers to a band that was as mighty—and perhaps
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own style and, in doing so, allow the songs to breathe. The opener, “Foolin’ Around” is a great showcase not only for the country shuffle of bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Greg Morrow, but Franklin’s swinging fills that always seem to fit around Gill’s vocals with restraint and taste. Bakersfield is a perfect example of taking inspirado from your heroes and using your talents to move the music for-ward. —Jason ShadrickMust-hear track: “Nobody’s Fool But Yours”
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SuperchunkI Hate MusicMerge Records
So many awe-some things were happening musically in the late ’80s. Along with the welcome (for many) demise of glam metal came scores of bands delivering new sounds—bands less concerned with their hair and pants and more intent on producing raw and thoughtful music. Whether you called it indie, college, or alterna-tive, the genre gave way to bands like Mudhoney, Nirvana, Pavement, and the Lemonheads, and it was an exciting time to be a consumer of music.
Superchunk may not have been as big a name as some of its contemporaries coming out of the Pacific Northwest at the time, and there’s really nothing grunge-y about their music, but they were a big part of the changes that were happening on the landscape. It’s not easy to name another band able to arrange the level of beautifully hooky, guitar-fueled, power-punk tunes that these North Carolinians have been doing for a quarter century.
The group’s latest, I Hate Music, is more of the same. Melodic, gorgeously thick gui-tar hooks reign king throughout much of the 11 tracks, while frontman and guitarist Mac McCaughan—whose voice could be called the Geddy Lee of indie rock—wails lyrics that are more about happy than hate. One of the best records I’ve heard to date in 2013. —Rich Osweiler Must-hear tracks: “Low F” and “FOH”
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My signature Custom Audio Amplifiers PT100 is the heart of my current touring rig and is able to get me to the four “base tones” I need to cover almost any gigging situation.
GiGGinG & RECORDinG > TonE TIpS
PETER ThORn is an L.A.-based guitarist, currently touring with Melissa Etheridge. His solo album, Guitar Nerd, is available through iTunes and cdbaby.com. Read more about his career at peterthorn.com.
BASE TOnES BY Peter thorn
I’ve assembled and used versatile guitar rigs over the years for the many different types
of musical situations. Channel-switching heads with effects loops, vintage-style heads or combos with no master volume, wet/dry/wet rigs, modelers—I’ve done it all. What I’ve come to realize is that essentially I need just four “base tones” available, no mat-ter the gig or rig I’m playing. If I have this quartet of tones accessible through my feet or fingertips, I can pretty much cover any gig from pop to heavy rock, just by playing the appropriate guitars and adding the right effects. Guitar rigs are like snowflakes in that no two are the same, but if you can achieve these base tones with your rig, I guarantee you’ll be able to cover a ton of ground. So this month, I’ll show you how I achieve them with my current touring rig.
Base Tone 1: American CleanChannel 1 of my signature CAA PT100 amplifier is designed to give me a great American-style clean. I set the controls so that the amp is totally clean when I play a guitar with single-coil pickups, but breaks up a bit when hit hard with a humbucker-equipped guitar. To round out this base tone, I just add a good, transparent compressor. My preferred pedal compressors are the Carl Martin com-pressor/limiter and the new Suhr Koji. Both are versatile enough to go from subtle and transparent smoothing and boosting, to all-out squish. I also love the Origin Cali76, which packs an 1176 circuit into a pedal. It’s too large to fit on my pedalboards, but I do use it in the studio often. The Seven Sisters Grace from Red Witch gets honorable mention as well, because it’s small enough to fit on almost any pedalboard. I usually set my compressors for subtle and transparent boost and smoothing—subtle enough that you might forget they are on but would miss them if you turned them off. This setting just pumps up my clean sound and makes everything a bit easier to play.
Base Tone 2: Edge of BreakupA good edge-of-breakup tone is vital for my current touring gigs. I just hit channel 1 of the CAA PT100 amp with the clean-boost side of an Analog Man King of Tone (KoT) pedal, which gives a beautiful, light breakup with a perfect balance of highs, lows, and mids. It’s also quite smooth sounding without being dark. For a cool lead tone, I like to boost the KoT pedal with either a Suhr Koko
Boost or an XTS Precision Multi-Drive, or just use the red high-gain side of the KoT pedal. I’ll sometimes use one of these options as an alternative to my main lead sound (aka base tone 4). Some other pedals on the mar-ket that I think achieve the edge-of-breakup tone quite well include the BearFoot Honey Bee, the Teletronix Mulholland Drive, and the Carl Martin AC-Tone.
Base Tone 3: British CrunchChannel 2 on my PT100 was designed to give me a killer Brit-style crunch distortion, with great punch and upper-mid cut. Think JCM800 with the preamp gain at 9 o’clock and the master set to about 11 o’clock so the output tubes are cooking a bit. I love this sound because it’s the epitome of rock ’n’ roll to me. I like enough gain that the guitar will feedback a bit and sustain, but not too much since I want to retain definition and punch. I also want to be able to roll the volume down on my guitar and get almost clean as well. Just remember that the more gain you use, the less punchy and dynamic you sound—it’s all a balance. I’ll sometimes hit this tone with a fuzz for crazier, more out-there sounds. I like and use the Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz because it plays nice with buffers, some-thing many fuzzes don’t do. If you’re a clean amp kind of player that doesn’t use channel switching and you achieve your gain tones with pedals, I recommend the Carl Martin Plexitone pedal to achieve this base tone.
Base Tone 4: leadA singing lead tone that has great sustain is almost universally important for the modern, electric guitarist. My PT100 amp has an excellent built-in lead-boost circuit that adds drive and gain to channel 2’s
British-style crunch tone. I’ll use the amp’s built-in boost if I just want more gain without changing the tone. If I want to add some mids and overdrive while boosting the sound into endless sustain and musical feedback, I’ll use the XTS Precision Multi-Drive. I like the mid-boost side of my Suhr Koko Boost for this lead application as well, and I’ll hit it if I want the upper mids boosted to make a part cut through, but don’t want any extra overdrive from a pedal.
It takes finesse to get a great lead tone that sings and cuts, but isn’t piercing. It needs to be tight, but not thin. And this is achieved by using an amp with just the right amount of bass in the preamp. Too much, and you get mush and woof when playing chords. Too little, and single notes will sound thin. If using a pedal like the Plexitone into a clean amp is how you achieve your crunch, then boosting the Plexitone with a pedal like the XTS will give you great results here.
Once again, if you can dial-in these four base tones, you should be able to cover almost anything musically. If you use a modeler—no worries. Just set up these core tones as four presets, and then base all your other presets off of them. There is no need to use every amp model in the box. Simply pick four great ones that are in the same ballpark as the ones I’ve been talking about, and it’ll make your modeling rig seem much less complex and easier to get a handle on. Until next month, happy tone tweaking!
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steve cook has been fighting his rock-star frontman urges for decades, holding down the low end for such artists as Steve Cropper, Sister Hazel, and Phil Vassar. Join in his “touring therapy” on Twitter @shinybass.
GiGGinG & recordinG > on Bass
it’s All About the sonG BY Steve Cook
A short time ago, I was at a bar with some of my touring friends just enjoy-
ing some late-night shuffleboard action and stories of time on the road. Sadly, the jukebox wasn’t offering much in the way of entertainment by belting out mind-numbing dancehall and the latest dubstep from the self-appointed DJ of the hour. The music was just glorified ambient noise on this chill evening—insipid and uninspiring.
But the forces of good soon took over when an anonymous bar patron loaded the jukebox with some musical sensibility. The back room speakers started vibrating with the opening strain of “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye, and suddenly, moods started to change and heads started to bob. It was as if the wet blanket was pulled off the night. My drummer turned to me at that moment while air playing Jamerson’s bass part and said, “Man, listen to that—so simple, so perfect. Why isn’t it like this anymore?”
Ah, the good ol’ days. We seemed to live more simply then. The days were all about just playing music—simple, sweet music. We didn’t concern ourselves with licks and flash, or effects and solos. We played for one reason: To woo women! But then drugs eased into our culture and so did effects pedals. Labels were directing traffic from behind the dark curtains, and many hundreds of amazing musicians were being screwed out of pay, credit, and residuals. Good ol’ days, indeed.
These “easier” days (or much more dif-ficult if you ask someone who recorded 50+ years ago) were not better or worse. We simply didn’t know better. When record-ing was in its infancy, bassists were rarely heard, and the flash and glory went to the melodic instruments: Django had his gui-tar, Satchmo his trumpet, and Woody his clarinet. The amazing bassists backing these legends were playing perfect, simple (and probably scripted) parts for the arrange-ment. The solos came and went, and we just did our jobs holding it together. We hadn’t moved into busy bass-lick-land … yet.
As the electric-bass parts on records moved from quarter-notes on 1 and 3 to dotted eighths to blazing-fast Jaco licks, bassists started feeling the freedom of expression. Thankfully, producers and more level-headed bassists kept it pretty much in check during the recording pro-cess, but live playing took on a whole new
approach. It seemed that playing more notes—or that dreaded fill after every eight bars—became the norm rather than the exception. As the urge to be busier crept in, bassists that were usually easy to deal with were getting fired from gigs.
Here in Nashville, I learned a hard lesson very early on. I was right-off-the-bus new to town and was hired to play a showcase for an aspiring singer who happened to be a friend. The rest of the band was made up of hired A-list players from Nashville, but instead of using a trusted gun on bass, I was brought in. After the first rehearsal, no one from the band spoke to me, but the manager of the artist took me aside. “Man, it was good,” he said. “But can you kinda not play so much? Like, be cool with it, you know? Let the guy soloing solo.”
After that amazingly humbling experi-ence, it still took several years before those words actually sunk in. As bassists, our role as the foundation can get skewed, especially after we hear John Entwistle or Cliff Burton playing so many notes. We can get excited in a hurry, and if we don’t show restraint, the groove or the song we’re tracking can lose focus just as quickly.
There is an expression I’ve heard around Music City that rings true throughout the world: Play for the song. This means it’s your job to capture the essence of what the producer or songwriter has envisioned when coming up with the formula to make the song come to life. Let’s set aside your style, reputation, and resume for one minute, and figure out how it all fits in.
For example, you’ve been hired to play on a rock track—just straight-ahead, eighth-note, pounding rock. It’s a hard-edged song but you decide to throw good sense out the window and play a 32nd-note slap groove in the verses. This is not play-ing to the song. Just because you can play a slap line doesn’t mean you should play it. You can, however, take this moment to maybe put one big pop in the bridge to add something different, which endears you to the producer. It’s a delicate combination of taste, talent, and ultimately, execution.
The real crime usually happens in a live situation. First of all, it’s a bit looser than a recording session and generally without oth-ers looking over your shoulder at what you’re playing. Beer is flowing and people are rock-ing, so you decide to play whatever you want. But are you really making the songs better by flashing all your chops every time there is musical daylight? Leave the hole filling to the drummer. Your job is to anchor the whole thing and shine when it’s your time, which is actually all the time if you anchor it well.
But why do the Entwistle and Burton types get all the fun? Well, because they are in a band and maybe their bass riffs are the song, which guarantees they won’t go away. The rest of us mortals have to rely on our broad musical knowledge and taste to play just the right notes and grooves for the songs we’re working on.
Playing for the song doesn’t mean there’s no artistic feeling involved or that your style can’t be incorporated. Those early recordings sound so good because the bassists aren’t stepping all over the other players. And quite frankly, they wanted to keep working. Being the tasteful bassist goes further than being the flashy one, and it’ll help you keep working, too.
To hear an example of how to play for the song, listen to “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye and marvel in the beauty of James Jamerson’s simple low-end groove.
As bassists, our role as the foundation can get
skewed, especially after we hear John Entwistle
or Cliff Burton playing so many notes.
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36 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Mitch GAllAGher’s latest book is Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate Guitar Sound. He is the former Editor in Chief of EQ magazine. In addition to being a writer, he is a freelance recording engineer/pro-ducer/mastering engineer, teaches music business and audio recording at Indiana
University/Purdue University, and is Sweetwater’s Editorial Director. www.mitchgallagher.com
GiGGinG & recordinG > guitar tracks
ios, Anyone? BY MitCh gallagher
Think your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch is only good for email, web browsing, and
Angry Birds? Think again, because your handy little computer can be a powerful musical companion—capable of serving as everything from an amp and effects substitute to a host for DAW software, complete with full mixing capabilities and plenty of plug-in processing power. No matter what style of music you make or how you prefer to work, there are apps and accessories for your iPad or other iDevice that will let you capture recordings and work on your music wherever you find yourself.
appsThere are hundreds of thousands of these inexpensive (or even free) small programs that make our devices fun and useful. You can get an app that will turn your iDevice into a Line 6 POD, or one that will turn your iPad into a 48-track recorder with up to 24 simultaneous inputs. There are dozens of metronomes, tuners, setlist managers, syn-thesizers, drum machines, and much more. There are even remote-control apps for tak-ing charge of the other gear in your studio.
I recommend the following apps for putting your iDevice to work—divided into “musi-cian’s toolbox” apps and useful studio apps.
Musician’s toolbox appsMetronome Plus: A powerful yet easy-to-use metronome that can also record your playing and accelerate the tempo automati-cally while you practice licks.Subdivide: Another metronome that is great for practicing odd time signatures and rhythmic feels.iReal b: A virtual version of The Real Book.Setlists: A handy app for managing set lists, displaying lyrics, and more. You can even link multiple iPads running Setlists together and control them from one master iPad so that everyone literally stays on the same page.Songsterr: Guitar tab app.Jammit: Song-learning and practice app that breaks down songs into separate drum, bass, guitar, keyboard, and vocal parts that you can slow down for easier learning.forScore: App for managing and displaying charts for gigs.PolyTune: This is a virtual iOS version of the TC Electronic PolyTune tuner.GuitarToolkit: This app has a tuner, met-ronome, chord dictionary, scale dictionary, arpeggio dictionary, and more.
Line 6 Mobile POD: This turns your iDe-vice into a POD and it’s included with Line 6 guitar interfaces.IK Multimedia AmpliTube: The iOS ver-sion of the popular computer amp/effects modeler.JamUp Pro: This amp/effects modeler has a built-in 8-track recorder and the ability to play back and slow down songs.
studio and recording apps WaveMachine Labs Auria: A 48-track DAW with up to 24 inputs, plug-ins, edit-ing, mixing, and more on an iPad? Yes! With the right audio interface, you can use Auria as the centerpiece for a studio or live-recording rig.Steinberg Cubasis: A version of Steinberg’s popular Cubase DAW that runs on iOS and features plug-ins, virtual instruments, MIDI, etc.MultiTrack DAW: A straight-ahead DAW that’s great for capturing and building ideas, and for creating final productions.FourTrack: A simple 4-track recorder. I use it to capture ideas on my iPad and iPhone.Loopy HD: A powerful loop-recording and playback app that’s fun to use and is controllable via a MIDI foot pedal. (I love this app.)GarageBand: The “standard” music-making app from Apple. It’s fast and easy to use.DAW Remote: Control a DAW running on your computer using your iDevice. This makes it easy to record yourself playing and singing without having to sit at the computer.
HardwareIf you’re going to use your iDevice for music making, there are some accessories you’ll want to have. First, a stand is very handy for holding your iDevice in place. I like the Ultimate Support HyperPad because it can sit on a studio desk or clamp to a mic stand. IK Multimedia also makes several versions of their iKlip stands that work well onstage or in the studio, too.
Perhaps the most important consideration is how you’re going to get audio in and out of your iDevice. Yes, you could use the built-in mic and headphone output, but you’ll quickly find yourself wanting a better solution for most things you’re doing beyond running a metronome. Fortunately, there are many great possibilities. Focusrite, Apogee, Tascam,
Roland, and others have professional-quality audio interfaces that plug right into an iDevice (though in some cases you’ll need the Apple Camera Connection Kit adapter). You can even use the 32-channel Antelope Audio Orion if you want to go high end and have tons of ins and outs for Auria or Cubasis. At the other end of the spectrum are iOS-compatible micro-phones, such as the Apogee MiC and the Blue Spark that plug right in and make it easy to record a vocal or an acoustic guitar.
For many applications, all you’ll really want to do is get your guitar signal directly into your iDevice. And many manufacturers have stepped up to provide a wide range of options. I’ve found Apogee’s Jam and the Sonoma Wire Works GuitarJack to work well, but lately I’ve been using the new IK Multimedia iRig HD. Line 6 has the new Sonic Port that looks great, and it comes with the Mobile POD app. One thing all of these guitar interfaces have in com-mon is that they’re brain-dead simple to oper-ate—just plug in and go.
If you’re an iDevice owner and you’re not using it to make music, you’re really missing out. So download an app, grab your guitar, and get started!
Loopy HD is a fun and useful multitrack app for loop recording and playback.
38 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
This new arrival to the world of overdrive/boost pedals is not a TS9 clone.
tech tips > state of tHe stoMp
kevin boleMbAch is the president and founder of Godlyke, the U.S.distributor for many well-known boutique effect brands, includ-ing Maxon, Guyatone, EMMA, and Providence.
A proMisinG pedAl debut BY kevin BoleMBaCh
The first time I heard of Normandy Guitars was at the 2009 Winter
NAMM show in Anaheim. Normandy’s display immediately caught my attention, as it looked great and was über-functional. The entire booth was made out of chain-link fencing with swinging “barn door” gates on both sides. The fencing had guitars mounted all over it and the gates could be swung shut at the end of the day to secure the entire contents of the booth inside—genius!
Even cooler were the actual instruments the company was displaying. Normandy specializes in aluminum-bodied guitars and basses, and they had some wicked-cool instruments on hand, including hollowbody guitars and basses, as well as an aluminum Flying V bass that I was dreaming about long after the show ended.
We hit it off with the Normandy crew straightaway. Like me, owner Jim Normandy had played bass in a touring band for many years, so we had a lot in common. We kept in touch after NAMM,
and recently Jim dropped me a line to introduce their latest product, the O-CB pedal. The O-CB takes two of a guitarist’s most necessary tone tools—overdrive and clean boost—and packs them into a com-pact single-pedal package.
Now, anyone who knows me is aware that my tastes typically lean towards the more exotic and esoteric effects devices. In other words, overdrives and boosters typi-cally don’t get me fired up. However, as with all Normandy products, the O-CB’s retro-cool aesthetics drew me in, and once I heard the pedal, I was sold.
The O-CB sports a utilitarian design that screams WWII army surplus. The pedal’s bullet-proof construction covers the usual feature set we’ve come to expect from a quality handbuilt device, and this includes 3PDT switches, Switchcraft jacks on flying
leads, ultra-bright LEDs, and robust metal-shaft pots with smooth turn action and set-screw secured knobs.
The O-CB’s internal circuitry is mini-mal, but once again displays an obsessive attention to detail. The single op-amp design features a beefy PC board loaded with a single TLO71IN IC, tantalum capacitors, low-tolerance resistors, and classic 1N60 germanium clipping diodes. Solder work is top notch, and all wiring is kept organized and neatly routed using cable ties.
The pedal’s control set consists of three knobs to adjust the output characteristics: The overdrive knob controls the amount of dirt, the level knob controls the volume of the dirt, and clean boost controls the volume of the separate boost circuit. The circuit’s overdrive and boost sections can be engaged separately or combined using the unit’s dual footswitches. When used togeth-er, the OD is cascaded into the boost so that the distorted signal can be made louder without increasing the amount of saturation.
Construction and functionality aside, the true test of any pedal is the sound quality and here the O-CB again delivers in spades.
I found the O-CB’s sound to lean more towards the distortion end of the tone spectrum—a TS9 Tube Screamer clone it’s not. The sound is big, full, and robust with no loss of low end and none of the clean signal “leakage” that is sometimes present in op-amp overdrive designs.
With the overdrive knob set low, the pedal exhibits a round, wooly tone that’s great for bluesy lead lines or stoner rock riffing. Turning this knob up increases the saturation but also brightens up the pedal’s overall tone, adding more clarity and sus-tain while creating a symbiotic interaction between your guitar and amp—lead lines sing and sustained notes morph into glori-ous harmonic feedback.
With the OD knob dimed, the O-CB takes you into full-on distortion terri-tory and does a nice job of emulating the muscular tones of late-’70s hard rock. Big, burly, and uncompromising, this pedal means business.
The clean boost function can add up to 35 dB of clean gain—perfect for a cutting solo boost or for bombing the front end of your tube amp. The boost function can be engaged independently of the overdrive, which is a useful function if you need to get a clean passage heard over the top of a band without added distortion.
When used together, the O-CB’s over-drive and boost functions provide a versa-tile tone palette for a wide variety of play-ing styles. The only other pedal you need is a tuner!
Pricewise, the O-CB rubs elbows with many of the best-known boutique overdrive pedals on the market. Yet with the added bonus of an independent onboard clean boost and touring-grade construction, this pedal clearly stands out in an increasingly saturated market of saturators.
This is Normandy’s first stab at making a pedal—I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. And if you want to see some adventurous aluminum guitars and basses, check out Normandy’s website.
The single op-amp design features a beefy PC board loaded with a single TLO71IN IC,
tantalum capacitors, low-tolerance resistors, and classic 1N60 germanium clipping diodes.
HOG2 transports your axe to a technicolor universe of fantastic sounds. Play single notes or chords and it creates 10 totally polyphonic octaves and intervals soaring from two octaves below to four above your instrument’s pitch. Each voice is completely independent. Use them individually or in combinations — with or without your dry signal.
New algorithms, our most advanced ever, elevate the quality of the HOG2’s sound generation and Freeze functions to unprecedented levels, while tracking is telekinetic. Polyphonic perfection awaits!
• 10 fully independent voices: –2 Octaves, –1 Octave, Original, +5th, +1 Octave, +1 Octave+5th, +2 Octaves, +2 Octaves+3rd, +3 Octaves, +4 Octaves.
• 7 Expression modes: Octave Bend, Step Bend, Volume, Freeze+Gliss, Freeze+Volume, Wah Wah and Filter. Expression pedal included.
• Full MIDI control over all parameters and presets.
• Freeze modes: hold a note or chord and play over it or glide to a new one with gliss.
• Master volume for added convenience.
• Separate lower and upper harmonic amplitude envelopes to sculpt attack or decay speeds.
• Dedicated resonant filtering with sweepable frequency control.
Save and recall up to 100 preset programs with the optional Foot Controller.
DREAMIN COLOR
WWW.EHX.COM
EHX_HOG2ad_Premier_Aug2013.indd 1 6/13/13 1:35 AM
40 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
jol dAntziG is a noted designer, builder, and player who co-founded Hamer Guitars, one of the first boutique guitar brands, in 1973. Today, as the director of Dantzig Guitar Design, he continues to help define the art of custom guitar. To learn more, visit guitardesigner.com.
tech tips > esoterica electrica
the AMplifier WArs BY jol dantzig
Mr. Shoe came flying into our rehearsal space, shouting and waving his arms
as if he were flagging down a taxi. “Your amplifiers are distorting,” he shouted above our Yardbirds-style rave up. Obviously upset, he continued, “Your amps—they’re making square waves.” It was 1969, and I’d only just joined up with my friend Gary’s band to practice in the basement of a store-front in Deerfield, Illinois. Mr. Shoe was the landlord, and his son Al had built the basement into the fledgling recording stu-dio where our little rock combo practiced a few times a month. As a ham-radio enthu-siast and something of an audiophile, Mr. Shoe recognized the Skilsaw-esque buzz of our power chords as a problem to be solved as opposed to a desired condition. It may have been the first time I’d heard the term “square wave,” but instinctively, I knew what he meant.
“That’s what we want,” we told him, but our explanations fell on deaf ears. Defeated, the old man left the building shaking his head muttering something about harmonic distortion, leaving us to our “bad” sound. Obviously, we were beyond help.
That day certainly wasn‘t the first time someone had turned up a guitar amp and thought it sounded cool as it tried to destroy itself. We were only mimicking the sounds we’d heard on recordings and in concerts. But our encounter with Mr. Shoe under-lined a radical schism that had occurred in the audio universe: Instead of merely accu-rately reproducing the sound of the guitar, the amplifier had become part of the instru-ment, and there was no turning back.
Suddenly, guitar and amp builders were faced with an entirely different and louder playing environment. As music became more aggressive, the amps got bigger with “piggyback” amp/speaker setups displacing the lowly combo style. And then came the Vox AC100. Built to roar over the screams of Beatles fans, it towered above the com-petition and was lusted after by teenage boys around the world. Not satisfied with his Vox, however, Pete Townshend urged music-store owner Jim Marshall and engi-neer Ken Bran to develop the iconic “stack” topped with 100, or even 200 watts of punishment. Fender, SUNN, Acoustic, and many others followed suit, building larger and more potent gear as rock’s arms race heated up.
There was resistance to the trend, of course. Many of the amp and guitar manu-facturers felt betrayed by the onslaught of high-decibel levels and escalating distortion in rock music’s vernacular. As legend goes, Ampeg’s founder, Everett Hull, disliked distortion so much that he wrote a warning into his company’s literature and demanded that his engineers design extra headroom into their amps to keep things tidy and clean. Clearly, Mr. Shoe would have liked this guy. In a twist of ironic fate, Ampeg would roll out their mighty SVT less than a decade later. And in 1969, the company outfitted the Rolling Stones with a backline befitting for the kings of rock and their massive stage show. Just the same, the big blue boxes sported the warning “This amp is capable of delivering sound pressure levels that may cause permanent hearing damage.” If you’ve ever tried one of the original SVT amps, you know this wasn’t an idle threat.
In retrospect, a lot of the escalation may have been created by the lack of sound-system and monitor technology of the time. Most recordings were still made using small amplifiers—Jimmy Page’s Supro, Clapton’s Bluesbreaker and Joe Walsh’s Fender Harvard come to mind—but concert amps were all about filling the venue, or at least the stage. Of course, there was the visual aspect. Giant walls of amplifiers became the backdrop for any well-heeled rock
band. The intimidation and grandeur of six Marshall stacks was a middle finger to the older generation and their unhip music.
High power and huge volumes pushed equipment to the limit. Pickups squealed and guitars began to feedback uncontrol-lably. As a defense, guitarists developed new skills like palm muting to compen-sate. Playing technique began to be about holding the power back until needed, as opposed to struggling to stand out—the exact opposite of an acoustic guitar, or even early electrics. On the manufacturing side, there were other considerations. The after-market for guitar parts and all manner of effects pedals began to bloom. Wax potting of pickups to eliminate microphonic squeal became common—any small degradation in sound being considered an acceptable tradeoff. One company marketed foam to be stuffed inside guitars to dampen the howling effect at high volume.
Over time, the sound-system industry developed usable monitoring and provided enough mic coverage so that stage levels could be reduced to allow proper mixing of a band’s entire sound. A 1970s performer might barely recognize the gear used to deliver sound to a stadium show today. Computer-controlled sound arrays that can efficiently amplify vocals, drums, and small, low-watt guitar amps have reduced stage volumes to 1950s levels.
In-ear monitors changed the game even further. I recall visiting some friends on a major tour and was surprised to learn that there was zero stage volume involved. The immense wall of amps was a facade and all the guitars were amped into speaker emula-tors, which in turn were fed to the house and in-ear monitors. During the monitor check, the only sound on stage was drums. Even the guitar techs had to wear ears in order to do their job! When the house kicked in, that’s when it actually sounded like a rock show. Today, I meet plenty of pros that have never stood onstage in front of a full stack, so seems as though we have come full circle. I wonder if Mr. Shoe would still disapprove.
Coming full circle from the Marshall multi-stack excess of the ’70s, today’s sound-system tech-nology would allow a guitarist to use the tiniest of amps as a backline rig in a stadium setting.
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42 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
tech tips > acoustic soundBoard
rick turner is a longtime luthier who worked for Alembic and Gibson (among others) before founding Renaissance Guitars, Rick Turner Guitars, and Compass Rose Guitars. An inventive designer, he helped pioneer the boutique guitar with the Model 1 that he
built for Lindsay Buckingham in the ‘70s. He once toured with the Grateful Dead, and rumor has it that he can build a mandolin in four days.
A very Golden AnniversAry BY riCk turner
I’m really pleased to be joining some old friends as a writer here at Premier Guitar
in this, my 50th (gulp!) year as a profes-sional luthier.
It was 1961 and I was still in high school when I first started working on my own instruments: a Fairbanks & Cole 5-string banjo and a Harmony-built Stella 12-string guitar. The following year, I wound up at Boston University at one of the very best times for a young folkie to be seduced away from college and into the coffeehouse folk-music scene. One thing led to another and in 1963, I wound up as an apprentice at the Stringed Instrument Workshop on Tremont Street in Boston, initially handweaving leather guitar straps. Before too long, I’d loaded them up with more straps than they could sell, which actually turned out to be my lucky day.
The owners of the Stringed Instrument Workshop repaired guitars for the leading folk-music store in Cambridge, which had just had an entire rack of Paracho-built, nylon-string guitars fall over. There was every kind of damage imaginable—broken pegheads, cracked sides, holes in tops and backs, bridges half or completely off, and more. These were guitars that cost about $8 apiece in Mexico and sold for $50 at the store, so writing them off was no big deal. But if anything could be salvaged, that was all to the good. That pile of guitars was my introduction to hot-hide glue, repairing and hiding dings with stick shellac, French-polish touchup work, cleating cracks, and doing fretwork. It kept me busy for weeks.
There were very few independent guitar makers in the U.S. circa 1963. I did get to visit John D’Angelico’s shop in New York and knew a flattop builder named Clyde Tyndale in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who’d figured out that he could “break in” new guitars by putting them in a closet with stereo speakers. And there was Peter Colby, an incredible craftsman in Boston who made the interesting combination of Kentucky long rifles, banjos, and autoharps.
One of the reasons for the paucity of luthiers making archtop or flattop steel-string guitars, banjos, autoharps, etc., is that these were instruments with a history totally tied to factory production. Companies like Washburn, C. F. Martin, Harmony, Oscar Schmidt, Vega, Gibson, and S.S. Stewart are where these instruments typically came from. The S. S. Stewart banjo company put out more than 25,000 banjos in the last quarter of the 19th century. Harmony was making
thousands of stringed instruments a day at one point! Even more obscure brands like Bay State, Howe-Orme, Paramount, and Weymann were cranking out instruments in quantities that seem almost unbelievable now.
Things were a bit different in the world of classical guitar, where the tradition is deeply embedded in small shops. In the early 1960s, a few classical shops and tra-ditionally trained builders such as Eugene Clarke and David Jose Rubio were making world-class guitars in the U.S. And Michael Gurian was transitioning from classicals into what would be one of the earliest of the “new wave” of boutique, steel-string guitars.
When I started, there were only two small books on guitar making. Both were published in England, both concentrated on classical guitars, and both barely gave a nod to the possibility that one would want to make a steel-string guitar. There was absolutely nothing on guitar repair, so we hacked away, reverse engineered, and invented to figure it all out. We shared our successes, disasters, and techniques while we discovered other folks who shared our passion for all things guitar.
At the time, the understanding of repairs and maintenance—even jobs as common and mundane as fret levels—was crude at best. The techniques I first learned for neck resetting bore more resemblance to circa 1490s Spanish Inquisition torture than to the museum-conservation-quality work that is expected today. We now have dozens and dozens of highly specialized tools for repairing
and adjusting acoustic and electric guitars, and easy access to thousands of aftermarket guitar parts from companies like Allparts, Stewart-MacDonald, and WD, whose wares are available online with the tap of a finger. Repair luthiers like Dan Erlewine of Stew-Mac and Frank Ford (frets.com) are constant-ly coming up with new and improved ways to restore, repair, and adjust guitars to keep them in service.
In future columns, I’ll try to bridge the worlds of guitarist and luthier to make the language of the builder and repair tech more familiar to you. This will hopefully help you understand what you can do (and what should probably be done by a luthier) to get your guitar or other fretted instrument into the best possible playing condition. I’ll also delve into some of the theory that goes into guitar design, what traditional and contempo-rary materials science has to do with structure and vibration, how instruments age for better and/or worse, and more. Also, I’d love to hear from readers out there. What do you want to know that I might possibly be able to explain?
Off to extract another guitar from the sawdust!
Premier Guitar’s newest columnist, Rick Turner, shows off the backside of his Model 1 guitar.
www.gibson.com
Introducingthe 1934
Original Jumbo
The new 1934 Original Jumbo
Destined to become a legend
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PG_Aug_2013.pdf 1 6/21/13 11:53 AM
44 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
jeff bober, one of the godfathers of the low-wattage amp revolution, co-founded and was the principal designer for Budda Amplification. Jeff launched EAST Amplification (eastamplification.com) in 2010, and he can be reached at [email protected].
tech tips > ask aMp Man
plAyinG it cool With A hot rod deluxe BY jeff BoBer
Hi Dennis,Thanks for reading and for your kind words.
Per your assumption, yes, I’ve heard it and seen it all before. Okay, probably not all, but definitely this. The two resistors, designated R85 and R86 in the “Blues” series and R78 and R79 in the “Hot Rod” series, are part of the low-voltage power supply in these Fender amps.
While these Deluxe models are func-tionally tube amps, there is some degree of solid-state in the signal path. Not like mod-eling, profiling, or sampling types of amps, but in a much more basic way. All of the clean, crunch, and overdriven tones in these amps are generated by the good ol’ vacuum tube, but there are a couple of places where a solid-state device is used.
One of these locations is the effects loop. Here, an op amp is used to buffer the signal prior to the effects loop send and another is used as a recovery preamp for the effects loop return. Another area is the reverb circuit: An op amp is used to gener-ate the send signal to the reverb tank, and another handles the recovery of the reverb signal from the tank. Also, switching ICs (integrated circuits) control the amp’s FETs (field-effect transistors) and relays.
The reason I mention all this is that these solid-state devices are powered by the amplifier’s low-voltage power supply. And guess what? The low-voltage power supply is derived through the two resistors in ques-tion. So yes, issues like reverb dropouts and volume drops or fluctuations are all poten-tially caused by failure of the low-voltage power supply. Let’s take a look at the potential causes for this failure and what I’d recommend doing to remedy it.
It’s true that the final low-voltage outputs, +16VDC and -16VDC, come through these resistors. In a typical scenario, when you use a resistor to drop voltage—such as a plate resis-tor in a tube circuit—the smaller the resis-tance value, the less voltage drop across it. Think of a decreasing resistor value as com-ing closer to a piece of wire. A short piece of wire will have virtually no voltage drop.
The original resistor values in your amp were 470 Ω, and you mentioned a sugges-tion to replace them with 330 Ω resistors. Conventional wisdom dictates that with less voltage drop across the resistors, they should actually run at a cooler temperature because any voltage that’s dropped across the resistor is converted into heat.
But you say that the 330 Ω resistors actually run hotter, and here’s why: These resistors do not immediately or directly feed the low-volt-age circuit. The power supply uses two Zener diodes on its output. These diodes “clamp” the output voltage at a particular point—in this case, 16 volts. According to the schematic, the “input” voltage on the original 470 Ω resistors is 48 volts. The output voltage is clamped at 16 volts. The voltage drop across each resistor is 32 volts. Using basic Ohm’s Law, voltage drop squared divided by the resistance will give us the power being dissipated across said resistor.
In this case, it’s 2.17 watts. If we do the same calculation with the 330 Ω resistors, we come up with 3.10 watts. Almost a full watt more! So yes, you are correct, they will run hotter. They are, of course, still within their power rating of 5 watts, but the down-side is that the hotter they run, the more potential damage they will do to the circuit board ... especially because they are not in an open-air environment.
I’d guess this forum repair suggestion refer-ences the fact that the other amps in this fam-ily (the Blues DeVille, Blues Deluxe, and Hot Rod DeVille) all use 330 Ω resistors here. However, the reason is that they’re all fed with an initial DC voltage of approximately 33 volts, not 48, which allows them to run with a cooler dissipation of less than 1 watt.
My suggestion would be to install the correct 470 Ω resistors and keep them as far away from the circuit board as possible. You also need to check the integrity of the traces on the board as well. These boards are con-structed with very thin, single-sided traces, with no plated-through holes, and this makes them very susceptible to damage, both from overheated components, as well as simple servicing. In instances like this, I’ve carefully scraped the solder mask from the traces for a good distance and added an extra-thick layer of solder to reinforce the trace. It not only helps to stabilize the connection, but also helps to dissipate the heat at the leads.
Here’s hoping the only extra heat coming off your Deluxe is from your playing!
Warning: All tube amplifiers contain lethal voltages. The most dangerous voltages are stored in electrolytic capacitors, even after the amp has been unplugged from the wall. Before you touch anything inside the amp chassis, it’s imperative that these capacitors are dis-charged. If you are unsure of this procedure, consult your local amp tech.
Hi Jeff,I’m sure you’ve heard it all before: channel-switching problems, the reverb drops in and out, unwanted distortion, and volume fluctuations in a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I bought mine used about three years ago and enjoyed two glorious, trouble-free years of music making. Then all the aforementioned problems started to happen. Plus the jewel light flickers and randomly goes dim.
The internet forums—bet you love those—point to a pair of 5-watt 470 Ω resistors. From what I can tell, the general
consensus is to replace those with 330 Ω resistors and keep them off of the board with silicone.
Okay, I did all of that. These resistors heat up like crazy, supposedly wreaking all kinds of havoc, such as cold solder joints and burned PC boards. I can attest to the PC board. Now I understand that while the 330 Ω resistors solve some problems, they heat up even more. I know that you’ve got the answer because you have a column in the best magazine around! Thanks,Dennis
The two resistors in question. They can heat up and cause solder joint failure, wreaking havoc on the amp.
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46 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
dirk WAcker lives in Germany and is fascinated by anything related to old Fender guitars and amps. He plays country, rockabilly, and surf music in two bands, works regularly as a session musician for a local studio, and writes for several guitar mags. He’s also a
hardcore guitar and amp DIY-er who runs an extensive website—singlecoil.com—on the subject.
tech tips > Mod garage
fActory telecAster WirinGs, pt. 1 BY dirk waCker
Let’s continue our Telecaster adventure that began several columns ago. The next step
involves an intense investigation into several factory-spec Tele wirings. We’ll see how they evolved and then look at ways to mod them.
A while back, I showed you Leo Fender’s two-pickup Esquire wiring, or Broadcaster blend circuit (“The Two-Pickup Esquire Wiring,” April 2013), which was the first Telecaster wiring ever. In his original hand-drawn circuit, Leo identifies the 250k pots as “1/4 meg” and there’s even a little error—the 15k Ω resistor is shown as “15M.” You can see this drawing at the Fender Museum and it’s one of the real treasures of the exhib-it. For Tele freaks, it all started here.
This circuit was used for the two-pickup Esquire, which was later named Broadcaster. The guitar finally became the Telecaster in April 1951. This circuit is also the one you can find in all “Nocasters,” so we can roughly say it was used from early fall 1950 to approximately May 1952.
Remember, the original two-pickup Esquire wiring is characterized by the absence of a real tone control. Instead, the second pot acted as a blend or pan control between the two pickups, and this was only engaged with the 3-way pickup selector switch in the rear position. In May 1952, Leo modified the circuit to incorporate a true tone control by skipping the blend functionality and discarding any two-pick-up combination.
Today we know that it was not Leo’s idea alone, and this change was mostly made because of Bill Carson’s suggestions. Carson worked as a professional Western swing gui-tarist and was Leo’s favorite guinea pig for testing his Telecaster and early tweed amp designs. Viewing the 3-way switch from the playing position, here’s how the Telecaster circuit was modified. This is the switching matrix I’ll use in all future Telecaster col-umns, so please keep it in mind:
Position #1 (switch lever on the right): Bridge pickup alone with tone control engaged. (This is identical to today’s mod-ern Telecaster wiring.)
Position #2 (switch lever in the middle): Neck pickup alone with tone control engaged. (On modern Telecasters, this posi-tion engages both pickups wired in parallel.)
Position #3 (switch lever on the left): Neck pickup alone with a bassy-sounding preset and no further tone control. (On
a modern Telecaster, this selects the neck pickup alone with tone control engaged.)
This is often referred to as the “dark circuit” or “blackguard” wiring and was roughly used from mid 1952 up to late 1967. Within this 15-year period, the cir-cuit stayed mostly untouched, but Fender changed the specs of the two capacitors sev-eral times (more about this in a moment).
Electronically, the original dark circuit-features two 250k Stackpole audio pots, two Cornell Dubilier (CD) 0.05 µF/150V paper-waxed caps, and one 3-way pickup selector switch, originally from CRL with a 1452 imprint.
For all wire runs from the pickups and between the switch and pots, Fender used a waxed, cloth-covered wire in yellow, black, and white. Black was for all ground connec-tions, white for the hot wire from the neck pickup, and yellow for the hot wire from the bridge pickup, as well as all connections between the switch and pots.
The wiring scheme is above. Note: In this diagram, the colors differ from the original dark circuit I just described.
Today’s Tele players will be familiar with switching positions 1 and 2 (though on mod-ern Teles, the neck pickup alone is in position #3, rather than #2), but position #3 with the bassy preset is something that’s mostly forgot-ten today and worth a deeper look.
With the neck pickup alone and the 0.05 µF tone cap engaged, the sound is very dark—a preset “organ tone” that Leo Fender thought would inspire guitarists to play bass lines. Some contemporary jazz guitarists like this dark tone, but in the ’50s guitarists didn’t want to play bass lines. Leo believed in this feature, so he transferred it from the original
two-pickup Esquire to the Tele, and it stayed untouched until late 1967.
Here’s how the “dark circuit” evolved over the years: The pots’ resistance didn’t change until 1969, staying at 250k audio, but depending on availability, Fender used different brands, such as Stackpole, Centralab, and CTS. In late 1952, the value of the cap between the 3-way switch and the volume pot changed from the original 0.05 µF to 0.1 µF, making the preset bassy sound even more bassy. The cap between the volume and the tone pot (this is the real tone cap) always stayed 0.05 µF.
Fender used paper-waxed caps from Cornell Dubilier until 1961, always with a 150V rating. The tone cap between the two pots retained its tubular shape, but the orig-inal 0.05 µF tubular-shaped cap between the volume pot and the 3-way switch became a chiclet shape when it changed to the 0.1 µF capacitance in late 1952.
In 1961, Fender replaced the paper-waxed caps with 50V ceramic caps. These are often referred to as “red dime” and “orange dime” (or “circle D”) caps.
It’s possible to be more precise in describing capacitor changes, but the tonal differences between paper-waxed and ceramic caps are much more significant than all the little changes during the era of CD paper-waxed caps. Next month we’ll continue exploring the evolution of factory Telecaster circuits, so stay tuned!
The original “dark circuit” Telecaster wir-ing. Diagram courtesy of Seymour Duncan
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48 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
tech tips > tHe Bass BencH
heiko hoepfinGer is a German physicist and long-time bassist, classical guitarist, and motorcycle enthusiast. His work on fuel cells for the European orbital glider Hermes got him deeply into modern materials and physical acoustics, and led him to form BassLab (basslab.de)—a
manufacturer of monocoque guitars and basses. You can reach him at [email protected].
strinG nut or zero fret? BY heiko hoepfinger
In earlier centuries, acoustic guitar, man-dolin, and lute production included a lot
of local specialties that were handed down from generation to generation. Examples of this include a special bracing pattern or regional materials and woods that were incorporated only into local instruments.
The electric bass, being a very young instrument, grew up in “international” times. Parts, ideas, and solutions might originate in a specific geographical area, but once these were adopted, they were used everywhere in the world (patents excepted, of course). So it’s a bit surprising to stumble over something in guitar design that’s called European, or even more specifically, German: And that’s the zero fret.
Here’s a short rundown for those not yet familiar with zero-fret technology. A traditional string nut has several functions: It serves as one side of the bearing of the string. It also sets the height of the strings and aligns their spacing, and defines the end of the fretboard and anchors one point of its intonation.
A zero fret separates the business of spac-ing and height, so you end up with two parts instead of one. It is simply another fret positioned where a standard nut would be situated (Fig. 1). A second part—which almost looks like the original nut, but with deeper grooves—is placed behind the zero fret to align the strings. That’s it!
The zero fret takes care of the intonation and, more importantly, establishes the cor-rect and minimal string height. There’s no better height than being identical to those other frets.
There’s some talk of a zero fret needing to be higher than the others, but that just doesn’t make any sense. If the following fret would need to be higher than the previous one, our fretboard would look like a set of stairs.
Historically, only a few U.S. instrument makers used a zero fret. And when the ’60s guitar boom hit, many of the cheaper instruments used a zero fret, so conse-quently the zero-fret concept was seen as a hallmark of budget guitars.
Generally, there shouldn’t be much dif-ference in manufacturing costs. The zero fret requires two parts, while cutting four nut slots that consistently offer the correct height and spacing is costly in terms of time.
Of course, any nut can be set up for the same action and playability as a zero fret,
but if you’ve ever slotted a nut you know how time-consuming it is to accurately set string height. Many nuts are left higher than necessary because shortly after being perfect-ly cut, the slots wear too low. If the nut is left too high, the intonation will also suffer because pressing down a string raises tension ... especially the closer you get to the nut—a bass player’s main moneymaking area.
So other than providing good, low action, what else does a zero fret offer? A classic 4-string bass with a nut and 21 frets gives you 88 notes—84 of which you access by holding the string against a polished nickel-silver fret. But the bass player’s favor-ite four notes are generated by running the string through a groove in a piece of plastic or a dead animal body part.
Why would anyone want these four notes to sound different? Yes, we know there has been a lot of great music played using bone or plastic nuts, but with all the lengthy debates about tone woods, the sonic qualities of different finishes, or even the brand of the battery in your active circuit affecting its sound, I can only hope your nut is at least made of very magical “tone bone.”
Now, let’s talk about friction. You’ll want the nut to have a minimum of sticking fric-tion to achieve good, stable tuning. There is a technical factor for this. It is dimension-less, and the lower the value, the better for tuning. Steel-on-steel is around 0.15, while steel-on-synthetics is between 0.26–0.46. Assuming identical forces, the zero fret will
put all down pressure on the slipperier con-tact of steel-on-steel.
One argument against the zero-fret concept has been fret wear, although this mainly comes from guitarists, saying the thinner strings cut little grooves into the zero fret, causing strange “pling” sounds if it pops out while you’re bending a string. Tell that to Brian May, who finally had the zero fret on his “Red Special” swapped after 40 years, while the rest of the frets had been replaced way more often. And you can’t say he didn’t use it.
Several luthiers make zero frets from stainless steel, perhaps simply to avoid the endless discussion. Fret wear mainly comes from friction, not contact. The zero fret wears much less than the other frets, as the string break point is basically motion-less. Except for tuning, there is very little motion there!
So why aren’t zero frets used on every instrument? Maybe because we Germans want to keep that tiny local specialty for ourselves, which is why we try to con-fuse you with pictures of very “creative” zero-fret arrangements (Fig. 2), and—sac-rilege—even smuggling in a photo of a guitar (Fig. 3).
fig. 1. The zero fret done right. Photo courtesy of www.marleaux-bass.de fig. 2. A very confusing arrangement: a zero fret plus adjustable nut. fig. 3. Zero fret with a compensating nut behind it! Photo courtesy of AcousticMusic.Org
fig. 1 fig. 2 fig. 3
50 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
A 1955 Gibson Les Paul Custom—serial #511553—rests against a 1956 Gibson GA-70 1x15 combo. In a departure from earlier Les Paul models, the “Black Beauty” had a solid mahogany body, which gave it a darker, warmer tone than the maple/mahogany formula of its predecessors. It also was the first guitar to sport Gibson’s innovative Tune-o-matic bridge.
vintAGe & upkeep > Vintage Vault
1955 Gibson les pAul custoM And 1956 Gibson GA-70
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 51
The Les Paul Custom featured the split-diamond pearl headstock inlay previously reserved for the Super 400 archtop.
vintAGe & upkeep > Vintage Vault
dAve’s GuitAr shopDave Rogers’ collection is tended by Laun Braithwaite and Tim Mullally and is on display at:Dave’s Guitar Shop1227 Third Street SouthLa Crosse, WI 54601davesguitar.comPhotos by Mullally and text by Braithwaite.
The Gibson Les Paul Custom was for-mally unveiled at the July NAMM
show in 1954, along with the Les Paul Junior. The two instruments were meant to increase the range of Gibson’s Les Paul solidbody guitars by adding both a fancier model and an economy version. The Les Paul Custom’s sumptuous looks and special low, smooth frets earned it two nicknames: “Black Beauty” and “Fretless Wonder.”
Here’s how the 1955 Gibson catalog described the Custom’s unique features: “Solid Honduras Mahogany body with carved top, size 17 1/4" long, 12 3/4" wide, 1 3/4" thick with graceful cutaway design; bound with alternating white and black strips on top and bottom of body. Mahogany neck, with exclusive Gibson Truss Rod construc-tion; ebony fingerboard; deluxe pearl inlays.”
The luxury treatment continued with the split-diamond pearl headstock inlay previous-ly reserved for the Super 400, Gibson’s flag-ship archtop. Another feature, also formerly limited to high-end Gibson archtops, was the powerful, neck-position alnico 5 pickup. The Custom was the first Les Paul to receive the innovative Tune-o-matic bridge, which allowed for individual string intonation.
While the Les Paul Custom’s looks and darker sounds (the latter due to the all-mahogany construction and deep-toned neck pickup) were aimed at refined jazz players, rock ’n’ roll guitarists were also attracted to the instrument. Chuck Berry, Franny Beecher (Bill Haley & His Comets), and Robby Krieger (The Doors)—along, of course, with Les Paul himself—are a few of the well-known players who favored the first version of the Les Paul Custom at some point in their career.
A 1955 Les Paul Custom originally sold for $325. Its current value in excellent, all-original condition is $20,000.
This ’55 Custom rests on a 1956 Gibson GA-70 Country Western amplifier. As “Country Western” suggests, it was Gibson’s attempt to get a brighter sound—one comparable to Fender’s popular amplifiers. The GA-70 was similar to the Fender Pro produced at the same time. Like the Pro, it had two 6L6 power tubes and a 15" Jensen speaker. As great as it sounded, only 332 were made between 1955 and 1958. The original price was $260. The current value in excellent, all-original condition is $2,000.
Sources for this article include: The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy, 1915-1963
BY dave rogerS, laun Braithwaite, and tiM MullallY
The Custom’s neck pickup was designed by Seth Lover. The unusual “staple” pole pieces are actually six individually adjustable alnico 5 magnets.
by Robb Lawrence, Gibson Electrics—the Classic Years by A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Guitars—Ted McCarty’s Golden Era: 1948-1966 by Gil Hembree, and Gibson Amplifiers 1933-2008: 75 Years of the Gold Tone by Wallace Marx Jr.
52 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
vintAGe & upkeep > guitar sHop 101
Last week, a client brought in an Ibanez solidbody for a setup. Overall, it was
in great condition, but the Edge tremolo was out of adjustment and the action at the locking nut was ridiculously high. My client wanted to perform with the guitar, but it was unplayable in its current condition. At first glance, it looked as if it was going to be a typical setup, but as you’ll see, looks can be deceiving.
The project guitar. The instrument we’re dealing with is a 1987 Steve Vai signature model Ibanez Jem. My client wanted it set up in standard (A-440) tun-ing with D’Addario EXL120 strings, which are gauged .009–.042. The guitar appeared to have been previously set up (and I use that term loosely) for a .010 set of strings. The action was very high and the tremolo was tilted back against the body (Fig. 1). This guitar is designed to have a “floating” tremolo, which means it should have been level with the body. However, my biggest concern was the locking nut.
Preliminary evaluation. The first step in evaluating a guitar’s condition is to tune it to concert pitch and take four primary measurements: action (string height) at the 12th fret, neck relief (or gap between the strings and frets), action at the 1st fret, and intonation.
To measure the action, I place a capo on top of the 1st fret and then use an action gauge (a specialized ruler available from stewmac.com) to measure the string height at the 12th fret. Measuring from the bot-tom of the string to the top of the fret, the string height was 3/64" on the 1st string and 5/64" on the 6th string. The action was way out of balance!
To measure the amount of relief in the neck, I hold down the 6th string at the last fret and measure the greatest distance between the bottom of the 6th string and the top of the frets. The relief was .020"—a little more than necessary.
For string height at the 1st fret, I remove the capo and measure again with the action gauge. At the 1st fret, the 1st string was 2/64" and the 6th string was just over 3/64". Again, this is extremely high action at the locking nut. To make this guitar playable, I’d need to slightly tighten the truss rod, float the tremolo, and lower the locking nut.
Adjust the truss rod. With the guitar tuned to concert pitch with .009 gauge
hoW to set up A floyd rose-style treMstrings, I began by adjusting the truss rod (Fig. 2). Tightening the truss rod reduced the relief from .020" to .012"—the proper amount of relief for my client’s shred-ori-ented playing style.
Note: On single-action truss rods, clock-wise motion tightens the rod, lessening the relief. Counter-clockwise motion loosens the rod, increasing relief. Just think “lefty-loosey, righty-tighty.”
Adjust the trem claw and bridge base. As I mentioned, the Edge tremolo was tilted back against the guitar body. On a Floyd Rose-style system, you can’t use the tremolo to its full potential if the bridge base isn’t level with the body. When prop-erly adjusted, the tremolo should be able to pivot forward and backward.
Using a medium Phillips screwdriver, here’s how I adjust the trem claw to get the bridge base level with the body:
• Tune to pitch.• Check the tremolo to see if it’s tilting
back toward the body or lifting up too much away from the body.
• Inside the trem-string cavity, adjust the two screws holding the claw to the body of the guitar (Fig. 3). Loosen the screws to lift the bridge base away from the body. Conversely, tighten the screws to pull the bridge base back toward the body. Always adjust both screws equally.
• Retune the guitar and inspect the tremolo to determine if it needs more adjustment. Expect to turn the claw screws and retune repeatedly before you level the bridge base.
After several attempts, I finally got the bridge floating parallel to the body with just enough clearance to pull the tremolo in both directions (Fig. 4).
Once this task is complete, adjust the overall bridge height by raising or lowering the two screws located on either side of the base (Fig. 5). The goal is to raise the bridge to have enough clearance to actually use the tremolo. Note: This is a balancing act between the amount of “float” and “height.”
The measurements that matched my client’s playing style were a little lower than on a typical guitar. I set the action at the 12th fret to 2/64" on the 1st string, graduating to 3/64" on the 6th. This was
a comfortable action that worked perfectly for my client’s preferred .009 set of strings.
Adjust the action at the nut. When the action is too high at the nut, the strings will pull sharp when you fret them. And, of course, the guitar is tough to play—we don’t want that.
As we know from the preliminary evalu-ation, the string height at the 1st fret was extremely high on this Jem. Usually, you can lower the locking nut by removing it and taking out small metal shims.
But when I took off the strings and removed the locking nut (Fig. 6), there
locking nut pitfallsThere are three common issues I run into with the locking nuts in a Floyd Rose-style tremolo system:
(1) The radius of the locking nut doesn’t match the fretboard radius.
(2) The locking nut sits too high and there are no removable shims.
(3) There are deep grooves in the string blocks caused by over-tightening.
When the radius of the locking nut is rounder or flatter than the fretboard, the action will be inconsistent at the nut. When the nut is too curved, the middle strings will ride higher than the two E strings. When the nut is too flat, the middle strings will be low and the E strings will be too high. Make sure you have the correct locking nut for your guitar.
If the entire locking nut assembly is too high—as in this project—you’ll probably have to remove some of the wood under it. Don’t try this un-less you have the proper tools and training to do it correctly.
Take great care when you tighten the string blocks at the nut. If you overtighten them, it will ruin the blocks and you might strip the bolts. The blocks just need to be snug. When grooves appear in the blocks, it’s time to replace them. Otherwise, the blocks won’t lock down the strings and can cause them to break.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 53
vintAGe & upkeep > guitar sHop 101
StorY and photoS BY john levan
john levAn, Nashville guitar tech, has written five guitar repair books, all published by Mel Bay. His bestseller, Guitar Care, Setup & Maintenance, is a detailed guide with a forward by Bob Taylor. LeVan welcomes questions about his PG column or books. Drop an email to [email protected] or visit guitarservices.com for more
info on his guitar repair workshops.
weren’t any shims. This is one of those little “surprises” you’ll run into from time to time working on guitars.
Instead of shims under the locking nut, I found a big glob of paint (Fig. 7). This raised the locking nut, so it had to be removed. When a locking nut is jacked up too high, the best way to deal with the problem is to measure the depth of the rosewood slab that’s under the locking nut to determine if you can remove any wood without compromising the structural integ-rity of the neck.
Caution! If the action at the locking nut is too high, consult a qualified luthier or guitar tech before attempting to sand the neck.
Fortunately, the slab was thick enough that I could safely remove both the paint and some rosewood to lower the locking nut. I sanded off the paint and then about 1/64" of wood (Fig. 8) and reinstalled the locking nut.
After tuning the guitar to pitch, I again measured the action at the 1st fret. It had 1/64" clearance at the 1st string and 2/64" at the 6th string. This is perfect action for the string nut—just high enough to prevent
open strings from rattling on the 1st fret, but low enough to keep the strings from pulling sharp when fretted.
Next, I adjusted the string retainer behind the locking nut (Fig. 9). Here, the goal is to lower the retainer just enough that the strings don’t change pitch when you tighten the string blocks (Fig. 10).
Adjust the intonation. Adjusting the intonation is the final step in setting up a guitar. I’ve covered this process in detail in “DIY: How to Set Up a Fender Stratocaster” [November 2012], which you can read at premierguitar.com. Here’s a summary: Intonating a guitar involves adjusting the length of each string so the instrument will play in tune. I use a strobe tuner for this. First, install new strings and tune the 12th-fret harmonic on each string to pitch. Then, fret each string at the 12th fret and compare it to the 12th-fret har-monic, which is the reference. If the fretted note is sharp, move the saddle away from the neck. If the fretted note is flat, move the saddle toward the neck.
Some tips: Remember to always retune after every adjustment. Also make sure
you strike the string as you would when playing. In other words, if you normally strike the string lightly, then use the same technique when tuning and checking the intonation.
On this guitar, some of the strings fret-ted sharp and others flat—the variation was between 5 cents flat to 8 cents sharp (a cent is 100th of a half-step). No wonder this Jem wouldn’t play in tune. Most locking tremolo systems, including the Edge trem-olo, require a hex key to loosen the bolt that holds the bridge saddle in place. After you move the saddle to the correct location, tighten the bolt, retune, and check the into-nation for that string. Take your time—it’s important to get this right.
That’s it! Follow these steps and your Floyd Rose-style trem will be adjusted for optimal performance.
fig. 1. When a Floyd Rose-style tremolo is tilted back against the body—as shown here—you can’t use the system to its full potential. fig. 2. Adjusting the truss rod to reduce neck relief. fig. 3. Adjusting the trem claw to bring the bridge base level with the guitar body. fig. 4. On a correctly adjusted Floyd Rose-style trem, the bridge base is level with the body. fig. 5. Adjust bridge height by raising or lowering the two screws located on either side of the bridge assembly. fig. 6. To remove the locking nut, take off the strings and then undo these two screws. fig. 7. The paint glob under the locking nut acted like a shim. fig. 8. Sanding off the paint and 1/64" of wood lowered the locking nut and improved the guitar’s playability and intonation. fig. 9. Adjusting the string retainer. fig. 10. The string retainer should provide just enough downward tension that the strings don’t change pitch when you tighten the string blocks.
fig. 1
fig. 6 fig. 7 fig. 8 fig. 9 fig. 10
fig. 2 fig. 3 fig. 4 fig. 5
54 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Hey Zach,My father recently passed away and left me his guitar that he had for many, many years. It’s a chrome guitar with National on the headstock and no other information that I can find. I’m a guitarist, but having grown up in the 1960s, I’ve always played elec-trics and know little about these reso-nators. Can you tell me what I have and what it is worth today?Thanks, Jeff in Pensacola, Florida
zAchAry r. fjestAd is author of Blue Book of Acoustic Guitars, Blue Book of Electric Guitars, and Blue Book of Guitar Amplifiers. For more information, visit bluebookinc.com or email Zach at [email protected].
vintAGe & upkeep > trasH or treasure
nAtionAl style 1 tricone BY zaCharY fjeStad
Hey Jeff,Cool guitar. This makes me want to get the old bluegrass band back together! Resonators are great, niche instruments that were ahead of their time for a brief period in history. Before the electric guitar and amplifier were invented, the only other way to make the sound of a guitar louder was to make the instrument physically bigger. So the resonator—though it didn’t involve any electronics—really was the first version of guitar amplification.
Let’s touch briefly on the history of National. In the early 1920s, brothers John and Rudy Dopyera started building banjos in Southern California. That’s when guitarist George Beauchamp approached the duo to solve his volume problem: His guitar couldn’t be heard over the other instruments in the vaudeville orchestra he was playing in. The idea came to the brothers to put aluminum resonators in guitar bodies to amplify the sound, and soon after, both the resonator guitar and National brand were born. John Dopyera left National in 1929 to start his own com-pany called Dobro with his other brothers. But National and Dobro later merged in the 1930s, and since then have undergone several reorganizations and buyouts over the years.
Resonators have one or more thin alumi-num cones (similar to a cone in a modern speaker) that amplify the sound. Unlike tra-ditional wooden-body guitars where sound is created by the vibration of the body’s tonewoods, a resonator transfers the vibra-tion from the strings through the bridge and into the aluminum cone. The body then acts as a speaker cabinet.
Your dad’s fantastic guitar appears to be a National Style 1 tricone and it looks like he took really good care of it. Since you don’t know much about resonators, I’ll first explain what tricone means. Resonators are generally constructed as either a single cone or a tricone. A single cone is one large resonator while a tricone is three smaller resonators that are assem-bled in a triangle. Each variation sounds a bit different. The tricone has a nice, warm tone with a slight attack when strummed, and a long sustain. The single cone varia-tion is usually louder than tricones and has a much sharper attack, but a shorter sustain. Each style appealed to different types of guitarists and they were both very popular with artists playing Hawaiian and blues music in the ’20s and ’30s.
There were four different National tri-cones available and they were simply called Style 1, Style 2, Style 3, and Style 4, based on their appointments. Your dad’s guitar is a Style 1 and it features a plain body with dot inlays on the fretboard. Style 2 instruments have either a “Wild Rose” or “Wild Irish Rose” engraving on the body, but no engraving on the coverplate. Style 3 instruments have “Lily of the Valley” etching and diamond fretboard inlays. And the top-of-the-line Style 4 instruments have “Chrysanthemum” etching, diamond
fretboard inlays, and fancier headstock over-lays and designs.
All tricone resonators from this era have a body made out of a solid-nickel alloy called “German Silver” with nickel plating, a T-shaped bridge cover, slotted headstock, 12 frets clear of the body, and were avail-able in a Spanish (round neck) or Hawaiian (square neck) version. Looking at the back of your guitar, it appears to be a Spanish-style guitar. With round-neck Nationals, there should be a serial number stamped into the body by the endpin or on top of the headstock. Take another look for the serial number, and you should be able to date your instrument as well.
As you can imagine, the higher the style number, the more the resonator is worth. This doesn’t mean the Style 1 is worthless though. A National Style 1 tricone from the late 1920s or 1930s is currently worth between $5,000 and $6,000 in excellent condition. Round necks are the most popular configura-tion as well. So get this guitar insured, and if you take care of it like your dad did, it’ll be a treasure for generations to come.
left: This Style 1 tricone from Na-tional is one of the earliest examples of a resonator guitar and “guitar amplification.” It was designed to be loud enough to compete with other instruments in a band setting or patrons in a noisy juke joint.
rigHt: One can date tricone reso-nators from this era via the serial number, which is normally located at the top of the head-stock or stamped into the body near the endpin.
56 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
feature > fall out boy
After a turbulent hiatus, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, and Joe Trohman triumphantly return
to the top of the charts with a new album, a string of sold-out tours, and revived outlook on life and music.
Written by Jon D’AuriA
Photos by Alex crick
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 57
feature > fall out boy
From 2001 to 2009, Chicago’s pop-punk wunderkind’s in Fall Out Boy—vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist
Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drum-mer Andy Hurley—rode a wave of rock star-dom that took them to heights unfathomable by most bands. Four multiplatinum albums rocketed them to the top of the charts and thrust them onto arena stages worldwide. But the fame and accolades were matched by the highly publicized troubles of individual band members—including Wentz’s tabloid-plas-tered engagement and marriage to the already press-weary Ashlee Simpson. On November 20, 2009, the band announced they were going on indefinite hiatus and that they didn’t know if they’d ever play music together again.
The hiatus proved productive for all four bandmates. Though he endured harsh criticism from fans and the press, Stump embarked on a solo career that pushed his vocal prowess and guitar experimentation to new levels. Wentz developed a clothing line, a film production company, and other ven-tures while continuing to write music on his own. And Trohman and Hurley collaborated with members of Anthrax, Volbeat, and Every Time I Die in the Damned Things.
Then after months of rumors, in February of this year the Fall Out boys announced they had worked out their dif-ferences and were working on a new album titled Save Rock and Roll. Refreshed and reinvented, the album features the band’s
trademark vocal hooks, cleverly crafted riffs, pedal-laden ambience, and a tighter rhythm section. Songs like “The Phoenix” and “My Songs Know What You Did in The Dark (Light ’Em Up)” still thrive on the youthful vigor that put the band on the mainstream map, while the album as a whole showcases more maturity and enhanced musician-ship. Getting a second chance that’s seldom granted in the music world, the band has again seen its work shoot to the top of charts all around the world, and the subse-quent tours are sold out.
While Fall Out Boy’s fans are rejoicing as the foursome emerges from the ashes, no one appears happier about the return than the guys themselves.
The Fall Out Boys are rockin' signature axes these days. (l to R): Bassist Pete Wentz on his Squier Pete Wentz Precision bass, guitarist Joe Trohman with his Squier Joe Trohman Telecaster, and frontman/guitarist Patrick Stump on his Gretsch G5135CVT-PS “STUMP-O-MATIC” Electromatic Corvette.
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feature > fall out boy
How does it feel to be back together and on top of the world again?Patrick Stump: It feels so good to be back doing this with these guys. It’s funny, because I feel like we never understood where we were or how we were doing and then we took a step back and realized that we’re mak-ing music for—and affecting a lot of people. I’m very happy to be back doing it. Joe Trohman: It feels great to be back and to have made the changes we needed to make. We weren’t running very well as a band before the hiatus—communication skills collapsed between us and there were a lot of issues. Going on that break and starting new projects really helped us be more confident, and it helped us gain a lot of mutual respect for each other and our abilities, which became a really inte-gral part of us getting back together. Now we’re in just a better place. Everyone is too old to get angry about stupid things, which is awesome. Everyone just trusts each other. Pete Wentz: It feels crazy. It’s really rare that you get a second chance to do some-thing—and especially something so fun, fulfilling, and interesting. It’s something that we’re not taking for granted in the least this time around.
What was it like the first time you all stepped back in a room together and played music?Trohman: We met up at Patrick’s house in his backyard studio, and I was a little nervous. Then we started playing and, at first, it was like the worst Fall Out Boy cover band imaginable. We hadn’t played together in so long and it was just terrible. It was pretty weird for a minute, but once we shook the dust off it was better than the last time we’d ever played—back when we were a well-oiled machine. Stump: Yeah, we sucked—we didn’t remember anything. At the second practice, we fell back to just about as good as we were, and then the third practice I feel like we sounded pretty great—even better than we were. It feels like we’ve been able to go back in time to fix our mistakes. Wentz: The first rehearsal was definitely shaky, but once it started clicking we all knew that we had potential to be better than we’d ever been.
What were the biggest lessons you learned from the hiatus?
Stump: The biggest thing for me was going out and doing my solo stuff—that made me a lot more confident as a frontman. I’ve always been a reluctant frontman because I’m a shy guy—for years I was just hiding under my hat the whole time—but I went out on my own and had to do it. Trohman: I went right from FOB to other projects, and it made me learn how to work with other people. Anyone who plays in the same band for a long time should play with other people, because you can learn so many things from different players’ styles, tastes, techniques, and work ethics. I learned how to be a better songwriter and a better musician and how to play better with
others—both musically and as a person. I learned how to be a better bandmate, and I looked at a lot of my bad tendencies and neuroses and figured out how to change them for the better. I think it took being in other bands to realize that I really wanted to be in this band more than anything. Wentz: During our time off, I was mak-ing a lot of music on my computer—it was more of an electronic kind of sound. I didn’t play as much bass as I wanted to in the break, so I knew I had to get back into my playing before we even began to approach a comeback. I didn’t want to show up on day one and not know what I was doing, so I really stated working on my
Joe Trohman's signature Squier Tele features a '70s-style Strat headstock and a Tele Deluxe-like pickguard loaded with two humbuckers, a single-coil, a 3-way selector, and two sets of volume and tone knobs.
technique, playing with a metronome and taking steps to make myself a better player.
What was the writing process like for Save Rock and Roll?Trohman: On prior albums I would write very little—I felt very unintentionally dis-carded. Pete and Patrick would write so much that, by the time we’d be ready to record, I wouldn’t have much of a voice on the record. That’s what caused the greatest frustration for me. This time around, I was a big part of the process. I live in New York and they live in L.A., so we wrote ideas and sent them back and forth. We took each other’s tracks and worked on them and kept growing them. That’s just how we do it now. Stump: It was a very collaborative record. I felt for a long time that I was overpowering
in the studio for our previous records. I still like to be the central hub for the songs, but more than any other record this was all of us working together. I would wait for every-one’s ideas and then put them together, and I would only write in the studio when parts
needed it. At this point, it’s hard for me to recall who wrote what—but that’s how a band should be right? Wentz: It felt good to approach songwriting in a new way, and we all really stepped it up so that the burden wasn’t always on Patrick
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Patrick Stump belts it out while holding down the rhythm at a recent Fall Out Boy gig in Seattle.
Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman, Pete Wentz, and Andy Hurley pay tribute to Spinal Tap—complete with malfunctioning chrysalis pods and a guest appearance from bass-ist “Derek Smalls” (Harry Shearer)—in this memorable appearance on Conan.Search term: Fall Out Boy - "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark" 04/17/13 - CONAN on TBS
In this 2008 clip from the Live in Phoenix DVD, the Fall Out boys perform “Sugar, We’re Going Down” to a packed stadium.Search term: Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Goin Down HD (Live in Phoenix)
Stump, Wentz, and Trohman grab some flattops and prove they can cut it live without all the fireworks and blaring amps.Search term: Fall Out Boy Thnks Fr Th Mmrs Acoustic
YOUTUBE IT
feature > fall out boy
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 61
or anyone specific to come up with some-thing. Joe wrote more on this album than he had on any records prior. Also, work-ing with producer Butch Walker taught us that less is more and that when you give frequencies space, they sound bigger. It was a big change to go down that road.
It sounds like you approached your instru-ments much differently on this album.Stump: For a long time I had taken a lot of the melodic leads in the songs—the kind you would hum. That was my thing. If I wrote the melody of a song it would already be done, and that wouldn’t leave a lot of room for Joe to play around with. So this time around it was important that Joe had a strong voice, because he’s such a great player. Joe has some really great guitar moments on this record, and I focused on a lot of atmospheric stuff. I was cramming guitar everywhere on our last record because I had been really into polyrhythm and syncopated riffs—to the point where I was quintuple track-ing all of my guitar parts. This was a lot simpler playing for me. Trohman: I think what I was most concerned with was slowing down and feeling, versus speeding up and fitting in as many notes as possible. I was try-ing to do things that made the guitar sound like it was singing rather than just quickly repeating the same thing. I was trying to take things out of tune and discorded and make them sound musical. You can learn all the scales and modes that are out there and learn to play as fast as possible, and that’s impressive as hell, but if it doesn’t have some emotion and feel behind it, it’s not impactful. I got back to playing the blues and I relearned old Hendrix stuff and went back to my roots. I played a lot of things that I wouldn’t normally play in Fall Out Boy. Wentz: More than ever, I really just focus on the rhythm and figuring out what the song needs from the bass. I don’t need to play flashy lines or stand out as much, because so much is already going on in the music. I’m writing parts that are in the pocket with Andy’s drums and create a strong foundation for the other guys. I think locking up with him and strumming with the kick drum has enhanced my
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playing and made me a better player. Live, Andy plays a lot of fills that he doesn’t play on the album, but he always gets back to the one and nails it. Andy is definitely the glue of the band—he just doesn’t mess up.
Joe and Patrick, in the past you guys traded off playing lead and rhythm guitar on dif-ferent songs. That seems to have changed.Trohman: We’ve kind of reevaluated our process. We looked at how it sounds at the front of house when we switch back and forth from lead to rhythm and figured out that, sonically, it can make it hard to come through at some points. So now I’ve taken over all of the lead stuff, unless there’s some-thing that’s difficult for him to sing and play. I enjoy playing rhythm and just grind out on it and headbang to it a bit, but I’ve kind of evolved to playing the lead riffs. I enjoy serving the song what it deserves. Stump: I still play some leads, but what we landed on was that Joe has a style that can accomplish more or less any of those great lead-guitar lines. In the song “I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got
Was This Stupid Song Written About Me” [from 2005’s From Under the Cork Tree], there is a little arpeggiated tapping part that I would do while I was singing, and every night I was just making things so difficult for myself by playing that. It was like tap-ping your head and rubbing your stomach. So now Joe plays that stuff and it makes the whole band tighter because I can lock in rhythmically with Andy and Pete.
At this point, how would you guys say you’ve evolved the most as musicians?Trohman: I’m at a point where I’m so hun-gry to learn new stuff. I can play so much where I don’t have to think about it at all, so I’ve been looking for things to challenge me. I want to find some new tricks and weird techniques that I can apply to my playing. I definitely don’t think I’m any-where close to being done learning, and I think that if you do hit a point where you stop learning then you should just stop playing music in general. I wish I could go back and tell my younger self to learn theo-ry, chords, picking patterns, and rudiments,
and then just don’t think about it when you’re playing. Stump: Not to toot my own horn or any-thing, but I think I’ve evolved into becoming a pretty rad little rhythm player. I never sat at home and shredded and ran scales for hours—I’ve always been a songwriter, but mainly by necessity. I developed all of my personal play-ing hallmarks in that span, and I think it’s a good thing to teach yourself—because you’ll develop your own style. A lot of my origins come from my love of funk. Over the years, I think I’ve become pretty well rounded. Wentz: I’ve grown to accept the rule that I’m playing bass—and that it’s not just a guitar with four strings. I’m part of the rhythm section and, more than ever, I’m focusing on that and how to make myself better in that role. The average person doesn’t always hear the bass. You subcon-sciously hear it, but if it wasn’t there you’d know it wasn’t there. The bass can be a lot of ear candy in a great way.
Each of you has a line of signature gui-tars—that must be pretty cool.
feature > fall out boy
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 63premier_rocco_ad.indd 1 5/21/13 3:53 PM
Wentz: It’s crazy for me to be able to go in and design it from scratch—it’s really one of the greatest honors a musician can experience. When I first started play-ing and would go into Guitar Centers, I wanted the freshest basses and guitars they had, but as a kid they’re just too expensive to walk in and buy. I couldn’t pay $800 for a bass I was just going to play in my garage and learn other people’s music on. It’s important to me that it’s part of the Squier series—because those are the basses that kids are going to be able to buy. Kids come up to me and tell me they’re playing my bass, and I remem-ber being on the other end of that. And to be able to share that with guys like Sting and [Green Day bassist] Mike Dirnt is amazing—though I’m probably the lowest guy on the totem pole. Trohman: It’s beyond words how exciting it is—I would have never dreamed of it as a kid. To be honest, I still can’t believe it now. The people at Fender are so amazing to work with, and it’s such a trip to have other players play on guitars that I helped design.
Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz says it was important for his signature bass to be part of the Squier series because he wanted it to be affordable to young players.
feature > fall out boy
64 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
What were the first guitars you guys owned?Trohman: Mine was a Harmony Barclay Bobkat guitar with a matching amp. I got them both for, like, $50 and just played away on it any chance I could get. Stump: It was a black Epiphone that my stepbrother lent me, and it was in really bad shape. I still have it. The first guitar I ever bought, though, was a sil-ver Gibson SG. Wentz: My first bass was a cheap knock-off that said “Naugahyde” on the head-stock. I had never heard of it before—but I really don’t think anyone has [laughs].
Who are your biggest musical influences?Trohman: Jimi Hendrix, [Depeche Mode’s] Martin Gore, Jimmy Page, Freddie King, Reverend Gary Davis, the old Delta blues guys, Johnny Winter, Kirk Hammett, James Hetfield, Greg Ginn, Eric Clapton, and Billy Gibbons. Stump: One of the first people who got me okay with not being a shredder is Elvis Costello. He always said he was more attracted to chord changes than the big moments of shredding. Prince is a huge influence for me—he’s a shredder, but he’s also a metronome. [Pantera’s] Dimebag Darrell, also—because he was all about feel, and that’s rare in metal. Wentz: [Guns N’ Roses’] Duff McKagan is probably my biggest. When you listen to him you might think that he’s doing what you’d expect from the bass, but then he puts in a run or a fill that just blows my mind. Mike Dirnt is also huge for me. When you’re playing in a three-piece, the pressure is so big for bass. You have to be the backbone and then some.
So what’s next for Fall Out Boy?Wentz: We’re so excited about the recep-tion that we’ve gotten with this album that we definitely want to move forward and make another record and keep tour-ing. But at the same time, the space we gave ourselves to make this album made us better as a band and better as song-writers. So we have this tour and festivals overseas, and then a tour with Panic! at the Disco. All that time should give us some space to write some new music. We’re definitely always forging ahead—we’re just happy to be back.
GuItaRS Squier Joe Trohman Telecaster, Fender
Blacktop Baritone Telecaster, Gretsch G3140 Historic, Reverend Warhawk III HB, Fender
Wayne Kramer Signature Stratocaster, Fender Custom Shop acoustic
aMPSTwo Orange Thunderverb 50s, Sunn Model
T, Divided by 13 FTR 37, 1969 Marshall 8x10 cab, Hiwatt 4x12 cab
EffECtSBoss Gigadelay, Way Huge Aqua-Puss, Earth-Quaker Devices Disaster Transport Jr., Earth-Quaker Devices Grand Orbiter, EarthQuaker Devices Hummingbird, Catalinbread Dirty
Little Secret, Catalinbread Heliotrope, Electro-Harmonix Pulsar, DigiTech Whammy, Ibanez
ES-2 Echo Shifter, TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb, RJM Music MIDI foot controller
StRINGS aND PICKSDean Markley Blue Steel sets (.011–.052),
medium-gauge Dunlop Tortex picks
Joe Trohman’s Gear
GuItaRS Gretsch G5135CVT-PS Patrick Stump
“STUMP-O-MATIC” Electromatic Corvette signature models
aMPSMarshall JCM800, Vox AC30
EffECtSLine 6 POD
PICKS aND aCCESSoRIESDunlop medium-gauge picks,
Peterson strobe tuner
Patrick Stump’s Gear
bassesCustom Fender “Michael Jordan” Precision
bass, Squier Pete Wentz Precision bass
aMPSOrange AD200 head driving
Fender 810 PRO V2 8x10 cab
EffECtSTech 21 SanAmp DI,
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
StRINGSDean Markley heavy strings
Pete Wentz’s Gear
THIS IS WHAT I USE.
© 2013 FMIC. EVH®, the EVH, the EVH® logo, and the unique headstock and body designs of these guitars are trademarks of ELVH, Inc. All rights reserved. logo, and the unique headstock and body designs of these guitars are trademarks of ELVH, Inc. All rights reserved.
KURTALLISONON TOUR NOW WITHJASON ALDEAN
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2013_EVH_KurtAllison_Ad_PremierGuitar_FINAL.indd 1 4/17/13 4:28 PM
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feature > johN SCofIElD
You could make a case that John Scofield gets bored easily. “Maybe a little bit,” he says with a laugh. Even
a cursory glance at his output from the last decade reveals he has tackled everything from straight-ahead modern jazz (ScoLoHoFo’s OH! and Enroute) to an old-school R&B Ray Charles tribute, and even New Orleans gospel (Piety Street). Yet within each new musical outfit, Scofield’s edgy, Vox-powered tone comes through loud and clear.
On his latest album, Überjam Deux, Scofield reunites with the same outfit that was on his 2002 album, Überjam. It shares the same forward-thinking approach his previous employers, Miles Davis and Billy Cobham, explored in the heyday of jazz-fusion.
While Scofield does sneak in hints of his well-devel-oped bebop language here and there, you always can count on a healthy dose of the blues. “Although I don’t consider myself a ‘blues’ player,” says Scofield, “I love blues guitar and have been trying to get into it my whole life—B.B. King and Albert King, who’s a freak of all time.”
In all the Überjam projects, Avi Bortnick handles the rhythm guitar duties, as well as executing all the samples live and in real-time. “That’s the way Überjam has always done it,” says Scofield. “We do it all at once and Avi has a system where he can trigger the samples with a foot controller.”
That edge between where everything works out and anything could go wrong is where the most adventurous of jazz musicians live, and Scofield has taken up residence there for the better part of four decades. Even among his contemporaries—Stern, Frisell, and Metheny—Scofield’s approach is singular, and he could even be considered the most open-minded of that group. We caught up with Scofield between tours to talk about the motivation behind reuniting Überjam, his new pedalboard, and what attracts him to guitars that just feel old.
by JAson shADrick
Uncle John’s Electro-Jam BandCombining a jazz concept with an
electronic-influenced vocabulary, John Scofield takes us behind the scenes of his new album, Überjam
Deux, and dishes on everything from relic’d guitars to Dead tunes.
Ph
oto
by
Mar
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et F
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feature > johN SCofIElD
It’s pretty hard to sit still while listening to the new album. Some of the tracks have a very danceable quality.Yeah, I agree, it uses elements of that stuff. But when I think of dance music, it’s Britney Spears and that kind of thing. This is different. It’s not music that’s made spe-cifically for dancing. But, yeah, it has that "four on the floor" stuff that’s disco, really. It has become dance music.
When did you first start to experiment with electronics in your music?When I started doing this band with Avi Bortnick‚ over 10 years ago‚ I’d made a record called Bump, which had a lot of things with two guitars where I overdubbed stuff. So I was looking for a rhythm guitar player and I found Avi. We started playing together and he told me about all this stuff going on out there with electronics and how he was interested in that. He brought in some loops that we started to play along with. It was probably around 2001. I was interested in it, but I didn’t even own a computer at that time. I just didn’t know how to do it.
It’s been a decade since the first Überjam album. What inspired you to revisit this group? Did you have a stockpile of material?No, I didn’t really have tunes lying around. I was just thinking of what I wanted to do next. I always loved playing with those guys and I thought enough time had gone by that we could do something different from what we’d done before. I felt the urge to do something with electronics and thought why not play with those guys? We’re a great band and we have something else in us that could come out.
What was the compositional process like?More than half of the tunes were composed by me and Avi together. But the way we composed was he had all these tracks that he’d been working on where he overdubbed and put down some grooves and stuff. He gave me 30 of these home demos and then I just messed with them. The songs are basically his kind of grooves and then I put bridges to them or created "A" sec-tions. Turns out some of the stuff I put in was actually material I’d written earlier, but never really found a place for. He just let me take his tunes and manhandle them.
Was most of the tracking done live? Samples and everything?
Armed with a Custom Shop relic'd Strat, Scofield snakes through an electro-groove while drummer Louis Cato looks on. Photo by Henry Hayes
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70 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
We play along to the samples. There may be something where we mess up and have to stick a sample in after because the sam-pler didn’t work, but that’s kind of hard to do. We aren’t playing to a click all the time. On some of the tunes where we stop play-ing along with the groove and just play as a band, then when we come back in he can click the sample in with his foot in tempo. Hopefully there’s no train wreck and the sample comes in at the same tempo.
On a few tunes there’s a definite Afrobeat influence coming through. Where did that come from?Avi brought that in. There’s an older song called “Thikhathali” on Up All Night and that’s a real Afrobeat thing. Avi played for many years in a band of guys from Nigeria while he was in San Francisco. He’s quite knowledgeable about Afrobeat music. Two of the tunes on the new album, “Camelus” and “Snake Dance,” are coming out of Fela and all that.
What is it about this style of electronic-influenced, vamp-oriented music that keeps drawing you in?I love to play bebop and will continue, probably all my life, to play modern jazz.
But when we play in this area, I like the fact that it’s not as developed, that I don’t have Miles and Mingus and Mulligan and Monk looking over my shoulder. Even though it’s very related to that, it’s not that. We’re rocking out and I like that.
You could almost draw a parallel to what those guys were doing in the ’30s and ’40s.I guess. On one hand, everybody is in love with the history of the music they are
passionate about, but is also weighted down by the music of their idols. When you are able to free yourself from that a little bit, it’s a good thing.
Do you approach improvising within this group differently from your trio?Yeah, I do approach it differently. In a trio, I’m going to play more chords and fill it up more. In this group, I can paint a little bit more and take my time. There are sections where I
Scofield’s trio—with Bill Stewart on drums and Steve Swallow on electric bass—burns through a blues from a show in 2010. Eschewing any standard blues clichés, Sco-field floats over Swallow’s propulsive bass line. Search term: "John Scofield Trio - Trio Blues [2010]"
Rhythm guitarist Avi Bortnick kicks things off with some samples before drummer Adam Deitch takes over with a hip hop-meets-disco groove. Bortnick’s “solo” at 2:02 is the perfect foil to Scofield’s angular lines.Search term: "John Scofield "Every Night Is Ladies Night" Live at Java Jazz Festival 2007"
Rhythm guitarist Avi Bortnick kicks things off with some samples before drummer Adam Deitch takes over with a hip hop-meets-disco groove. Bortnick’s “solo” at 2:02 is the perfect foil to Scofield’s angular lines.Search term: "John Scofield / Medeski, Martin & Wood - 'Hot-tentot' - North Sea Jazz 2007"
YOUTUBE IT
Scofield digs into a bend during an Überjam performance with drummer Louis Cato, bassist Andy Hess, and guitarist Avi Bortnick (not pictured) on Dec 31, 2012. Photo by Henry Hayes
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premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 71
don’t play. I think in order for this music—or any music really—everybody just can’t jam their stuff in there. That becomes amateur-ish. I probably play fewer notes than I used to because I’m trying to make them work—and hopefully they are more to the point.
What were your first experiences with vamp-based music?I started with vamp- and groove-based music when I started playing guitar. In that the music that fusion came from, the James Brown things that original fusion guys were into, is the music that I grew up with in the ’60s. I got better at it and more into it, but it’s funny because I was learning jazz music in the immediate post-fusion era. I got good at playing “Billie’s Bounce”—well, good enough at playing that style of jazz guitar—in the early ’70s. At the same time, fusion reigned, so when I got to play with good jazz players they were always playing some vamps. That was just part of it. The other thing was studying Coltrane and his music with McCoy Tyner. A lot of that music was just vamps. Music coming out of
that era of jazz is very applicable to every-thing Überjam is doing.
Did the first wave of what we now con-sider jam bands—like the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers—influence you when you were younger?Well, I consider Hendrix and Cream jazz-influenced. They were rock groups that took the idea of jazz, in that they played extended solos and improvised together. I see that as an extension of the jazz music from the ’60s and really jazz in general. Labeling these different genres gets pretty confusing and it gets hard
to do. Even when the labels are right, there’s always something wrong about it. [Laughs.] I’ve thought about it a lot and I trace the early jam band stuff back to the groups in the rock era that would stretch out like the Grateful Dead. I’m pretty sure all those groups got that idea from modern jazz. Even if they weren’t jazz musicians and couldn’t play the chords to “Stella by Starlight,” they took that concept and used it.
Your sound has been closely associated with your Ibanez AS-200 for nearly 30 years. Did you continue to use it on this album?
feature > johN SCofIElD
"I like the fact that [this music] is not as developed, that I don’t have
Miles and Mingus and Mulligan and Monk looking over my shoulder."
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I used my Ibanez for half the album and my Fender Strat for the other.
What was it about the Strat that drew you away from the Ibanez?I’ve played the Ibanez for 30 years and it’s still my main guitar, but it’s just fun to play other guitars. One thing about these Fender guitars—both the Telecaster and Stratocaster—is the more I play them, the more they respond differently. They make certain things easier to play because they speak on particular kinds of things that the Ibanez doesn’t, and vice versa. There’s one tune we were working on, and I was playing the Strat. Avi said, “Just go back and play it on your Ibanez.” I did and that was exactly what it needed.
Are they vintage Fenders or newer ones?No, they are fake vintage. [Laughs.] They’re from the Custom Shop. I told a friend of mine, Artie Smith, who is one of the great guitar guys in New York, that I wanted to get a Strat, but didn’t want to spend 15 grand on a vintage one. He said there was a good one at Sam Ash, so I went up there and played it for a while. I was totally embarrassed to buy it, because it has a fake
cigarette burn in it and screws that have been rusted and two kinds of rubbed-off finish. [Laughs.] But you know, it sounds really good and it’s a great guitar.
Do you think there’s something special about playing a guitar that simply feels old?I think it might have something to do with what the Custom Shop is doing to the guitars to make them play like a guitar that has been around for a while. I think it’s something more than just the cosmetic value, but I’m not sure because that whole thing is magic anyway.
I just bought an old ES-330 because I was playing a gig with my Tele and I broke a string and I’d left my strings back at the hotel like a dummy. The guitarist in the other band had an old 330, and I bor-rowed it and loved it. So I shopped around for a 330 and at one point I was trying to choose between 10 vintage ones in differ-ent stores. But one of the shops, Willie’s in Minneapolis, also had a new Gibson Custom Shop ES-330, and I came close to buying that one because it was really good. When I closed my eyes, I had a hard time figuring out which guitar was vintage. But as it turns out, each one of them is differ-ent anyway.
It sounds like you didn’t use many effects on the album.I only used my Boomerang on one part of “Snake Dance.” However, I did get a new pedalboard for this tour. My old pedal-board died and Mason from Vertex Effects came down to a gig in Oakland. I knew he had been making pedalboards for a lot of the guys out West, including Robben [Ford]. For Überjam, I have to have my Wammy Wah pedal, although I didn’t use it on this record. Mason convinced me to try a new distortion pedal, which is the Blue Note, and that was nice. He also sold me on one of his new wah pedals, which replaced the Vox I’d been using. I use my Boomerang off the board, so he came up with a way to hook it up since it’s not true bypass and because it’s big. I use the Boomerang a lot in Überjam. You can’t program anything into the Boomerang, which is good, so I do it all on the fly. I just quickly play something in there and it comes back either in half-time or double-time, backwards or something.
Did Mason mod any of your existing pedals?Yeah, my old Boss GE-2 Equalizer and Boss CE-3. The equalizer is more like a treble
feature > johN SCofIElD
Putting keyboard players everywhere on notice.
Introducing TriplePlay, the wireless guitar controller that lets you turn
your electric guitar into any instrument that you want − and compose,
perform and record like never before. Includes a comprehensive software
suite from PreSonus, Native Instruments, Notion Music, and IK Multimedia.
fishman.com/tripleplay
booster and the chorus was modified with a faster speed, more warble, and some fatness to emulate a Leslie. He then made them all true bypass.
Your previous pedalboard was a loop-based system and this new version is more linear. Why the switch?This new one has a buffer, which is a new thing for me. My previous pedalboard, which was also really good and made by Pedal-Racks here in New York, was a dif-ferent system. On that board I was able to turn on each pedal individually so my guitar would not be routed through other pedals. When you have each one on, you’re only going through that pedal. With Mason’s system, they are all hooked up through the buffer and it magically makes it sound okay. He took my old pedals and made them true bypass, so everything is true bypass and the buffer gives back what-ever you’re losing. It’s pretty amazing.
One musical collaboration that might sur-prise some people is your work with Phil Lesh. How did that relationship start?It was perhaps 10 years ago when I first played with him. Warren Haynes
recommended me, and Phil called and we played a bit in California. Back then we just rehearsed. I don’t think we even played a gig until a year after that. Lately, I’ve been doing a few gigs with him every year. I think this year we’re doing five gigs.
The Dead catalog can be quite intimidat-ing for an outsider.All those tunes! And I don’t know any of them. But here’s where Phil has been really nice to me: He let’s me have a music stand with the charts on it. I get the recording of the tune, I write out a chart, and I play it. Actually, I put my handwritten charts on a hands-free computer screen. I can scroll through the set, watch the screen, and play
from my charts. Otherwise, I’d have to learn those tunes and I’m too stupid for that. [Laughs.]
Another recent project that has caught the ear of many guitarists is your Hollowbody Band. Kurt Rosenwinkel and Mike Stern have each toured with that quartet. Do you see that second gui-tar chair as a rotating spot?Yeah. It is at this point, although I would like to do that project with both those guys again. I’d written a bunch of music a little over a year ago. I had six tunes and was thinking of making a jazz record. I thought it would sound good with two guitars, so I orchestrated them for two
“I consider Hendrix and Cream jazz influenced. I see that as an extension of the jazz music from the ’60s and
really jazz in general."
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guitars, called Kurt, and asked if he wanted to do a tour last summer. This year, Kurt got that Clapton Crossroads gig, and he couldn’t do my thing. So then I called Mike [Stern], who’s my old buddy and one of the great guitar players, as we know. We hadn’t played together in many, many years. He wanted to give it a shot, so he learned the tunes and we did it.
How did the Blues Project with Robben Ford come together?We’d talked about playing together for years. When we finally got around to it, Robben suggested we just call it a blues project. We’re both into blues—he espe-cially with his background with Jimmy Witherspoon and the blues band with his brother—so we decided to do that. It was so much fun.
Any plans to record either the Hollowbody Band or Blues Project?It’s such a weird time because I can’t record all of them on my record label. That’s all right, because maybe I can do them all even-tually, although it might take some time.
It seems like you have some type of new project every year.It’s the marketplace, mainly, because I make my living doing gigs. After you’ve played in all these places, they want you back but they don’t want you with the same thing. So they ask you about any special projects you might like to do. So that’s where a lot of these things are coming from. In a way, that’s bad because there’s little opportunity to have a band that develops, but in a way it’s good because it forces you to come up with new music and new sounds. In my case, it has really been rewarding because the stuff I might not have gotten to, but wanted to do, the marketplace has pushed me into doing. I’ve benefited from that musically.
Even with all your projects, does your trio still feel like home?I think so. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on too. In Europe I’ve done this organ trio with Larry Goldings, who’s a long-time collaborator in different ways, and Greg Hutchinson on drums. That’s another long-standing project, I really want to get into that. But yeah, the trio with Steve Swallow—Steve’s my mentor and Bill Stewart is just a giant.
In several of your recent groups your main musical foil has been another guitarist. What is it about playing with another guitarist that interests you the most right now?Here’s the thing: I think piano and guitar are a very hard match—they’re both percussive. Every time I hear a group with piano—not only my own group, but other groups—it seems like piano and guitar tend to get in each other’s way. That doesn’t mean I don’t love playing with piano players—I do it in my own groups. Although I think it’s weird that with the organ, that doesn’t happen. With the organ, everyone can play whatever the hell they want and it works. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because the timbre of the organ is more like a choir than a
feature > johN SCofIElD
GuItaRS 1981 Ibanez AS-200
Fender Custom Shop Relic Stratocaster’70s Ibanez “lawsuit” T-style guitar
aMPSMid-’90s Vox AC30 Top Boost
EffECtSDigiTech Whammy XP100
TC Electronic Polytune MiniNeunaber Technology
Mono Wet ReverbVertex Modified Boss CE-3
Empress TremoloVertex Modified Boss GE-7 Equalizer
Vertex Axis WahRockett Audio Designs Blue Note Overdrive
Bomerang Phrase Sampler
StRINGS, PICKS, aND aCCESSoRIES
D’Addario .011-.049 (on Ibanez)D’Addario .010-.049 (on Strat)
Dunlop 2 mm Delrin picks
John Scofield’s Gear
percussive piano. But I think guitars really work well together. When I have another guitar comping and I blow over it, or vice-versa, it works really well because the electric guitar has turned into this thing where it’s a solo voice and an accompanying instrument, so we need each other in a way.
Scofield gets in the groove on his lawsuit-era Ibanez T-style. Photo by Lisa Miller
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Robert Randolph plays at the Beacon Theater in NYC on
the Experience Hendrix Tour. Photo by Frank White
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by tessA Jeffers
78 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
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Making music is kind of like being in love: You have to take the highs with the lows, and sometimes the
chemistry is there, sometimes it’s not. “When you’re not having that great creative process—and we all know how great it feels—that sucks the energy out of you,” says Robert Randolph. After a three-year hiatus, the renowned sacred steel player and his Family Band—a group comprised of Randolph’s actual family mem-bers, including his sister Lanesha Randolph on vocals—is on the upswing of that ebb and flow. And the proof is in the outfit’s first album for Blue Note Records, Lickety Split.
“I am just happy we were able to find a great label that shares the same vision with
us, musically,” he says. “It allowed me to take some steps back and sit in the house and practice for four hours a day again—which is relaxing and stressful at the same time!”
Randolph co-produced Lickety Split and co-wrote nine of its 12 songs, and he says the guitar tones were largely inspired by two things—working with legendary engi-neer Eddie Kramer, and his acquisition of a great new instrument. “People wonder why Hendrix and Zeppelin’s guitars sound like they do—a lot of that is just from being in the studio with Eddie Kramer. He just knows what to do, it’s the strangest thing.” As for the new tone toy—a Jackson Steel Guitar Company stand-up pedal steel—he
sums it up simply, “That thing just has magical tone.” Randolph also included two covers, “Love Rollercoaster” and “Good Lovin’”—the latter of which employs fervo-rous Hawaiian-style slide riffs.
With song titles like “Amped Up,” “Born Again,” and “Brand New Wayo,” it should be clear that on Lickety Split the Family Band still has its roots in the gospel—and still has its signature upbeat energy. “We were always taught to make that [spiritual] connection and not play to the glorification of yourself,” says Randolph. “The church is about everybody getting together to create this one joyous atmosphere—a great day of singing and playing together.”
Randolph brings at least four pedal steels on tour. He's pictured here with a Fessenden 13-string, but his latest tone toy is a signature 6-string pedal steel by Jackson Steel Guitar Company that allows him to play while standing up. Photo by Frank White
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 79
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Lickety Split has a really live vibe. How do you tap into that so well in an isolated environment where everything is under the microscope?Studios have turned into this place where everybody doesn’t really play together—nobody is in the studio at the same time. It’s more like, “We have technology, so let’s just piece things together.” With us, the real energy comes from being in the stu-dio for hours a day, just playing all kinds of tunes—because it’s the interaction that
brings about that live feel. I know I’ve got something good going when I can’t wait to perform the song live and see how the fans react to it.
When did you first get guitar fever, and what keeps you coming back?I was a teenager, 15 or 16. I started play-ing the pedal steel guitar in church and, because our church has a history of the pedal steel guitar, I grew up watching all those older guys before me. They were my
Muddy Waters, my Albert King and B.B. King. I always wanted to be like those guys, so I would spend all day practicing and trying to be like them. That’s when I first had the fever.
You’ve recently been bringing some attention to steel players Calvin Cooke, Darick and Chuck Campbell, and Aubrey Ghent—better known as the Slide Brothers. Are they some of the guys you grew up watching in church?Oh yeah. There’s a lot of guys who died along the way, but those are the remain-ing original guys. I grew up always want-ing to be like those guys—they were the big stars of the church. The steel player was always the star.
There used to be a pretty big stigma from church members when sacred-steel bands ventured outside houses of worship. How is it now?We’ve all been scrutinized, especially from the older guys. I was younger and didn’t pay it any mind. Older guys got hurt by it because they spent their whole lives dedicated to it, only for people to tell them they’re playing the devil’s music. Nobody pays that any mind, because now they see the love and joy that we share with people. Nothing is more satisfying than to be out here, spreading music across the world.
The new album opens with two high-energy songs “Amped Up” and “Born Again,” which kind of allude to a reawakening. Are those songs sort of emblematic of what you were going through while writing this album?“Born Again” is actually a love song, to be honest with you. It’s about finding some-one that makes you happy. It sounds like it’s a spiritual song, with all of the backup singers that sound like a choir. That’s sort of the great part of who I am and what we do—it can seem spiritual, and you want to lift your hands up or something. That’s just the root of where we come from. It’s like Sly and the Family Stone—they have the gospel influences, as well. I saw an interview with Sly explaining the song “I Want to Take You Higher,” and he said at the time everyone was getting high and it was all about getting higher—but it sounds spiritual.
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premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 81
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How would you say your playing has evolved in the last decade or so?I’ve learned a lot from being around great guitarists like Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana. Us young guitar play-ers—people like Derek Trucks, Jack White, and all these young guys—we’ve all sort of grown, evolved, and got-ten better, and most of us had time to be around legends like Buddy Guy, Clapton, Santana, or Kirk Hammett. One thing I appreciate about these older guys is they see us as the next group of guitar pioneers, and it’s great for them to be critical and tell us how to get better. I learned a lot from them in terms of really trying to stay original and do whatever inspires me to have that excitement at the beginning and keep that same vibe.
Speaking of Santana, you have a track with him on the album called “Brand New Wayo." Yeah. It was funny, because the chorus you hear was done after the music was recorded. We put up a mic and were doing the vocals while the music was playing back. We just left it all hap-pening at the same time and there was this bleed of playback going into the microphone.
Do you get nervous when Santana’s watching you play?I enjoy it. One thing I learned from these guys is that they’re watching you because they appreciate what you do. They want to see you rise, just like you want to see them. It’s great, because those guys don’t watch everybody.
Are you a gut-level player or does theory play a part in what you do?I don’t even know theory, so for me it’s all about what goes together. In the studio, everything happens on the spot. I can never play the same thing twice the same way, really. We spent a lot of time with the great Eddie Kramer, and he said that Hendrix used to be the same way. Kramer said he always had to roll the tape when Hendrix was playing, because he would always forget what he played or it was
never the same when he tried to play it again. That’s what happens with me.
What made you decide to record a cover of the Ohio Players “Love Rollercoaster”?I had my iTunes going and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ version came on, and I said, “Hey let’s see if we can beat the Chili Peppers’ version.” It came out really funky and punchy and dirty at the same time. I wasn’t even going to put it on the album, but people from the label heard it and
That’s sort of the great part
of who I am and what we do—it
can seem spiritual, and you want to
lift your hands up or something.
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82 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
said “You gotta put this on the album—this is cool!”
Is there a such thing as a sad Robert Randolph song?[Laughs.] I don’t think I have any sad songs.
“Welcome Home” is sentimental, but it car-ries a positive message for veterans, right?My house in New Jersey is by one of the armories. I talk to the guys there when I’m in my backyard, and I wrote that song in my living room after talking to them about what’s going on. Everyone’s starting to come home now, so that’s the story behind that song.
Let’s talk about your instruments. Are you still playing your 13-string pedal steel?
Robert Randolph & the Family Band perform the energetic single “Born Again,” which also appears on their new album, Lickety Split. Check out the solo around 4:30, and the slow, natural fade at the finish.Search term: Robert Ran-dolph & The Family Band: Born Again
This full concert gives a mes-merizing view of Randolph’s pedal-steel slide work, in-cluding some lap steel play-ing at the 23-minute mark.Search term: Robert Randolph North Sea Jazz Festival 2011
This 2009 show is chock-full of shredding rock solos, call-and-response funk breakdowns, and intensely soulful jamming.Search term: Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Nobodysoul (Live)
YOUTUBE IT
Randolph opens for Carlos Santana at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City in 2005. Santana returned the favor by playing on "Brand New Wayo" off the Family Band's new album, Lickety Split. In additon to trading licks, the two guitarists have been swapping amp secrets. Photo by Frank White
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I have a new stand-up pedal steel now. It’s my original idea—it’s a 6-string Jackson Steel Guitar Company signature Robert Randolph pedal steel.
Has it been fun to switch from a 13-string to a 6-string?It’s all relative, but the stand up looks a little more rock ’n’ roll—it makes me look sexier. [Laughs.]
You can’t kick your chair back now, though.Yeah, but now I can kick the guitar around, y’know—like a regular rock ’n’ roll person.
How many guitars are you taking out with you for this tour?I play four pedal steels: one stand up, one in dropped-E tuning, one in regular 13-string tun-ing, and then one in 12-string tuning, because one less string helps me to be able to sing and play with less thinking. I also have my red spar-kle Fender Custom Shop Tele. I love that guitar.
Let’s talk about a different kind of pedal: What’s your go-to effects pedal?
The pedal I can’t live without is my Morley wah. I also have this pedal by a company called JAM. I won’t tell you which one—I don’t want to give away all my secrets—but JAM makes some of the best analog pedals. [Editor’s note: According to JAM’s website, Randolph is using (or has used) the Waterfall chorus/vibrato, Rattler distortion, Dyna-ssoR compressor/sustainer, Chill tremolo, and Red Muck fuzz-distortion pedals.]
Is that what you’re using in songs like “Take the Party,” where your riffs have a more vocal-like quality?On that one I’m using my stand-up pedal steel with a chorus made by the JAM folks. It’s not all the way chorus-y—it’s sort of like a filter chorus on the low end.
You’ve said before that you haven’t found a rock ’n’ roll pedal-steel amp. Have you found one yet?The perfect pedal-steel amp is in between the old Peavey Classic Chorus and a Fender Bassman … or a Fender Deville. It’s really those three. In the studio it’s much easier to swap in or swap out, but live it’s important because the steel is crazy—you want to be able to have it clean and dirty, but it’s gotta be mid-range-y and fat sounding. Think about it like this: All of those amps have been made for regular guitar. When people test them out, they test with a regular guitar, not a pedal steel. If you want more low end from a Fender Strat or a Gibson, you do this or you do that, but it’s never been done for a pedal
[Eddie] Kramer said he always had to roll the tape when Hendrix was playing, because he would always forget what he played or it was never the same when he tried
to play it again. That’s what happens with me.
feature > RobERt RaNDolPh
Since growing up playing pedal steel in the House of God, Ran-
dolph has become one of sacred steel's most prominent players.
But he's also paying it forward by championing the Slide Brothers, a group of sacred steel-playing
elders who Randolph says were the "stars of the church" when he
was a kid. Photo by Frank White
84 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
GuItaRS Jackson Steel Guitar Company 6-string signature stand-up pedal steel, Jackson Steel Guitar Company 13-string pedal
steel, Mullen 13-string pedal steel (tuned to dropped-E), Mullen 12-string pedal steel
(tuned to C#13), Fender Custom Shop Telecaster, Asher 6-string lap steel
aMPSCustom Fuchs 100-watt head,
Fender Vibrosonic
PEDalSMorley wah, Goodrich volume pedal,
JAM Waterfall
StRINGS, PICKS, aND aCCESSoRIES
D’Addario Robert Randolph custom coated pedal-steel strings [top to bottom: .015, .013, .012, .014, .016, .019, .022, .026 (wound), .032 (wound) .040, .046, .054, .060], Shubb Robert Randolph custom bar slides, Dunlop
large-gauge and metal 19 mm picks
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86 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
steel. So I’m doing it, but it just takes time. I’m working with both Fuchs and Fender to see who really nails it. It’ll probably be ready in another month or so … we’ve been working on it for 9 months already.
Do you still use your Super Reverb or the tweed ’57 Fender Twin reissue that was originally built for Jeff Beck?The Jeff Beck rig was great, but it wasn’t perfect so I’d get pissed off. The Super Reverbs break up too quick for me—they don’t stay clean how I need them to stay clean. Like that magical tone that you hear on “New Orleans” [from Lickety Split]—it’s so hard for me to get it like that live, because that was like three different guitar rigs going on in the studio, and then Eddie Kramer EQ‘ing it. If I didn’t hear it played back like that, I couldn’t play it like that. It’s like listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan playing “Lenny”—you know he had to hear his guitar sounding that beauti-ful while he was recording it. If not, he wouldn’t have known to play it that way.
There’s a rumor that you’re incorporating car speakers in your new amp design?I learned a trick like that from Santana that I’m starting to explore, but that’s a little secret. [Laughs.]
In “Amped Up,” you sing about breaking a string. Does that happen to you often?That’s relative to during our live shows when things are getting hot—especially years ago. I always used to break a string when we were in the middle of a good song or a good groove. I actually use my own strings made by D’Addario—I had to get custom ones, because my hands sweat a lot and I needed extra coating and protection on them.
What sorts of new things have been inspiring you and your playing recently?I’ve been listening to old African music lately. But for me, it’s always been listen-ing to Zeppelin—because the guitar is never really the same sound. In every song there’s this different sound and dif-ferent things for you to want to try and go, “What was that? What’s he doing there?” Y’know? That’s what’s really important and inspiring for me.
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feature > jaMES WIllIaMSoN
by corbin reiff
Punk Pioneer James Williamson discusses the stooges
seminal years and Why, after a 30-year hiatus, he
dusted off his les Paul custom, left his silicon Valley
career, and helPed his old friends bring neW life to
the band—including on their latest lP, Ready to die.
James Williamson may very well be one of rock’s most enigmatic guitarists—a “forgotten boy,” if
you will. As lead guitarist for iconic proto-punk band the Stooges in the early 1970s, he helped pio-neer a new, rawer music that would heavily influ-ence future legends such as the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious, Johnny Marr, Kurt Cobain, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Tim Commerford. But when the group’s incendiary third album, Raw Power, flopped upon release in 1973, Williamson decided to leave the music world behind. He earned a degree in electrical engineering, moved to Silicon Valley, and eventually became a vice president at Sony. Meanwhile, as the Stooges’ influence increased over the years, many were left to wonder, “What ever happened to James Williamson?”
After the untimely passing of Stooges co-guitarist Ron Asheton in 2009, fans got their answer when Williamson decided to trade in his mouse pad for a Les Paul so that the band might live on. And despite the tongue-in-cheek humor of the group’s new-est offering, Ready to Die, Williamson says, “I feel like I have more music in me … I’d still like to do another album or two.”
Williamson joined the Stooges in 1971, shortly after the release of their second album, Fun House. “After I graduated high school, I moved up to Ann Arbor [Michigan] and ended up living in a house with a couple of guys in the band. The guy that was playing rhythm guitar for them at the time, Bill Cheatham, wasn’t really that good of a guitar player—he knew it and they knew it, so eventually they just asked me to join.” Williamson stayed on with the group for another year or so before the band called it quits … or so he thought.
In 1973, legendary Stooges frontman Iggy Pop invited Williamson to England to work on his new solo album for Columbia Records. “He called me up with very short notice and said, ‘Hey, I got a record deal. Why don’t you come with me in a couple of days to London and let’s do it?’ I was stay-ing on my sister’s couch at the time, so my options were to stay on the couch or go to London—it wasn’t too hard to figure out.”
Once the two were overseas, one thing led to another and it ended up being a full-on Stooges reunion. “Our idea was to start a new band with an English rhythm sec-tion, but when we got over there we didn’t like the way any of those guys played,” Williamson says, “so we called the Asheton brothers [Scott and Ron] over and made Ronnie switch to bass.”
Initially, the band ran into problems with management over the direction of the music. “We tried a bunch of different demos, but management didn’t like them so we kept writing new material,” Williamson says. “I would sit in my room, working out riffs and things on my Gibson B-25 acoustic guitar, and ended up with a whole bunch of stuff. Eventually, the management got sort of consumed with breaking David Bowie in the U.S., and they quit paying attention to us. It was great, because we were then able to go into the studio on our
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feature > jaMES WIllIaMSoN
own, without a producer or anything, and make Raw Power.”
Armed with a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom driving a Vox AC30, as well as a Martin D-28 acoustic—all on loan from the studio—Williamson dove headfirst into the recording process. Although he hadn’t previously tried the Vox-and-Paul combo, he was delighted after plugging in. “That driving sound on the record is
a combination of the way I play and the sound I was able to get with the combina-tion of that instrument and that amp. It’s definitely a good sound.”
Despite its latter-day recognition as a milestone record in the history of popular music and a forerunner to the punk move-ment, upon initial release, Raw Power was a flop. The band continued on for another year and a half or so before calling it a
James Williamson's Gear
GuItaRS 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom, 1962
Fender Jaguar, 1963 Martin D-28,Gibson B-25
aMPS1964 Vox AC30 Super Twin (studio), 1957
tweed Fender Deluxe (studio),Blackstar Artisan 30 (live)
EffECtSAdvanced Pedal Workshop Treble Boost,
Durham Electronics Sex Drive
StRINGS aND PICKSD’Addario EXL110 (.010–.046) electric
sets, D’Addario medium-gauge acoustic sets, D’Addario medium-gauge picks
day after a show at the Michigan Palace in Detroit on February 9, 1974. “We’ve always been good live, but we weren’t very professional,” says Williamson. “Eventually, nobody had any stomach for it anymore, so we broke up.”
After the Stooges disbanded, Pop and Williamson headed to Germany to record with David Bowie, though this time Williamson came along to try his hand
Ph
oto
by
Ken
Set
tle
90 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
James Williamson (right) returned to Iggy (left) and the Stooges in 2009 after the death of guitarist Ron Asheton. Photo by Greg Cristman
This 2010 version of "Search and Destroy"—probably Wil-liamson's most well-known tune—finds the ex-Sony V.P. rocking his trademark black Les Paul Custom through a trio of Blackstars.youtube search term: Iggy and the Stooges – "Search and Destroy" Live
In this live rendition of “Gimme Danger,” Williamson employs a goldtop Les Paul outfitted with a Fishman Powerbridge to produce the opening acoustic tones before launch-ing into full electric onslaught.youtube search term: Iggy & The Stooges - Gimme Danger (Live @ Sonisphere Fest 2010)
Need evidence of how Wil-liamson, Iggy Pop, and the Stooges presaged punk in 1970? This clip begins with a network-TV talking head marveling at how “the kids seem to be enjoying” Pop’s repeated ventures into the crowd, as well as his rubbing of peanut butter on his chest.youtube search term: Iggy & the Stooges Live 1970
YOUTUBE IT
feature > jaMES WIllIaMSoN
at studio engineering. “I found out very quickly that the only thing worse than playing in a band you don’t like is record-ing bands you don’t like!” Williamson also worked with Pop on 1979’s ill-fated New Values before hanging up the hat on his music career. He had no idea what his next move might be, but fate seemed to intervene. “By chance, I ran across one of the new personal computers that was just coming out and it was so exciting for me, so I said, ‘You know what, I want to do this for real.’ So I got a degree, moved to Silicon Valley, and had a great ride for a whole bunch of decades.”
Williamson never anticipated a second act in the music business, but when Ron Asheton died on New Year’s Day in 2009 and his old bandmate came calling, it was an offer he could hardly refuse. “Iggy called me up and we had several conversations,” says Williamson. “Initially, I told him no—because I wasn’t even sure I could do it. I hadn’t played guitar in 30 years. But once I retired from Sony, I was free to do what-ever. I thought, ‘I owe it to those guys.’ We go back to our 20s and they needed me, so I said ‘What the hell’ and I signed up.”
He spent months relearning his old parts by gigging with a local group called Careless Hearts prior to rehearsals. The Stooges’ first gig with Williamson back in the fold was in front of 40,000 people in Sao Paolo, Brazil—quite a leap from his previous larg-est audience, which was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000.
After a few years on the road, they’d worked up new material and decided to take it to the studio. The resulting record, Ready to Die, is an eclectic mix of the clas-sic, overdriven Stooges sound with tracks like “Sex and Money,” “Gun,” and “Ready to Die” interspersed with tunes that verge on balladry (“Unfriendly World,” “Beat that Guy”)—albeit with a fair dose of grit.
The band’s creative process involved jam-ming on riffs that Williamson had worked up on his own, just like the old days, before heading into the studio. “We finished up the jams we wanted to record—it was about 15 altogether—and we ended up with the 10 on the record,” he says. “It felt good and I think the album sounds good. Our goal going in was to sound like us, and I think we achieved that.”
Gear-wise, Williamson elected to use the same recipe that led to his iconic tone on
Raw Power: a 1969 Martin D-28 acoustic guitar along with his trusted 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom played through a 1955 Vox AC30 Super Twin amp. “The Les Paul Custom I use has a very specific sound that is unique to it,” he explains. “In the early days, the pickups were all handwound so each one was different. This one has a rela-tively low DC resistance, so it has a certain kind of sound to it.” Williamson takes two backup Les Paul Customs on the road, and
both are equipped with pickups reverse-engineered by Jason Lollar to match the set in his ’69 Paul.
In addition to playing guitar on Ready to Die, Williamson served as producer—and he was determined to forestall the types of knocks he’d previously gotten as a producer. “Sometimes people criticize me and say I don’t favor my guitar as much as I should. This time I said, ‘You know what, you want guitar? I’ll give you guitar!’”
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PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 93
feature > Tube Amp operATion
Put your hand in front of an empty elec-tric socket, and you won’t get a shock—
because electrons just don’t fly through space, right? Well … they will under the right conditions—like inside a vacuum tube.
Here we’re going to take a look at the inner workings of standard amplifier circuits—the tubes, transformers, resistors, and capacitors that work together to create the amazing tones that have powered countless songs for the past 60+ years. While this stuff may be daunting to some of you, take heart—this is century-old technology. The basic concepts really are not too difficult to grasp.
We’ll discuss amplifier circuits by looking at my absolute favorite small amp, a 1960s Vox AC4. While it’s small and simple, an AC4 actually is not the simplest guitar amp out there. Unlike Fender’s earliest tweed Champs, the AC4 has a tone control and tremolo, which gives us a bit more to talk about.
But before we get started, let’s make it clear that this article is not in any way encouraging or equipping you to open up the back of your amp and start poking around. Make no mis-take: Amplifier circuits, even when unplugged, contain voltages that can kill you. And if you’re an amp tech, please excuse any oversimplifica-tion in the discussion—this is a primer for gen-eral consumption, not a compendium of pos-sible exceptions and anomalous phenomena.
Warning: All tube amplifiers contain lethal voltages. The most dangerous voltages are stored in electrolytic capacitors, even after the amp has been unplugged from the wall. Before you touch anything inside the amp chassis, it’s imperative that these capacitors are discharged. If you are unsure of this procedure, consult your local amp tech.
TexT, phoTos, and illusTraTions by dan Formosa
94 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
feature > Tube Amp operATion
The Vacuum TubeFirst, let’s talk about some basic principles of electricity. An electron—the heartbeat of electric energy—is a negatively charged subatomic particle. In a vacuum (i.e., in the absence of air and matter), an electron will, in fact, fly through space if attracted by a sufficient positive charge—because opposites attract. Experiments conducted well over a century ago demonstrated that electrons will not only fly through space, but they can also be controlled. Scientists showed that, in a vacuum, electrons flow-ing from a heated metal element—the cathode—and being pulled toward a posi-tively charged element—the anode—can be deflected by a magnetic field.
Learn how to control that magnetic field accurately and, as RCA did, you can display an image of Felix the Cat on a phosphores-cent surface at the far end of the tube. The tube used in that case was the cathode ray
tube (aka CRT)—better known today as an old, pre-LCD/LED/plasma television.
In guitar amps, we’re not that interested in displaying images with our tubes, but we’re still very interested in controlling those electrons—and we can use a guitar to do it. Picture this: In the center of a tube’s glass envelope is a cathode. It carries just a slight positive charge, and it’s ready to release a gazillion electrons. It’s especially ready if it’s been heated. Surrounding the cathode is the anode—although in the guitar universe we typically call it the plate. The plate carries
a high positive charge that’s ready to pull those negative electrons toward it. To the highly positive plate, the cathode’s slight positive charge still makes the cathode seem negative (we’ll talk more about this slight positive charge later). If you place these two elements in a vacuum and power them up, electrons will fly relentlessly toward the plate. When you add a third element—the grid—between the two, you can control the flow of electrons. And when you position the grid close to the cathode and connect the grid to the relatively tiny voltages com-ing from your guitar pickups, something interesting happens: The tiny signal unleash-es a flood of electrons, allowing them to fly freely to the plate. That rush of electrons from the cathode to the plate mirrors the signal from the guitar, amplifying its signal many times over.
Okay, so let’s get back to that earlier mention of the slight positive charge. The reason we want the cathode to carry a slight positive charge is that it makes the grid, with no charge yet applied, seem negative. Voltages are relative. And while opposites attract, like charges repel. The apparently negative grid close to the cathode will keep those negatively charged electrons in place until the guitar signal is ready to swing the grid positive to release them.
One other useful electron-related fact to know is the difference between voltage and current. Think of current as the amount of water flowing through a pipe. More current means more water being delivered. Voltage, on the other hand, is like water pressure—it’s the force behind that water. Increase the voltage (pressure) and you’ll increase the current (amount of flow). A resistor acts like a constriction in the pipe, with more resistance being analogous to a tighter con-striction. So it follows that placing a differ-ent resistor in a circuit will affect both the voltage and the current.
What actually goes on inside a guitar amplifier is obviously a bit more complex than just the flow of electrons in tubes,
caThode Vs. fixed biasA Vox AC4, like many amps, is designed to make the power tube’s cathode slightly positive—a state that is commonly referred to in the guitar universe as cathode biased. Other amps, instead, put a negative charge on the power tube’s grid. That’s called fixed bias, and it has a similar effect. Either method causes electrons to stay put on the cathode until needed.
96 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
though. Next we’ll do a quick overview of the additional parts involved, followed by more detailed, part-by-part descriptions.
The VolTagesThe first and largest component in an amp circuit, aside from the speaker, is the power transformer. It supplies electricity to the circuit, converting AC voltage from the wall to proper AC voltages for the amp. AC (aka alternating current) is a sine wave of electricity—an alternating positive and negative voltage coming from our electric sockets at 120 volts, 60 sine waves a second in the U.S. (These operating voltages vary around the world. Standard voltage can be 100, 120, or 230 volts, at 50 or 60 cycles per second.)
The AC4’s power transformer elevates the 120 AC volts to 250 volts AC, and then sends that voltage on to the rectifier tube, the first tube in the circuit. The recti-fier tube’s job is to convert AC voltage to DC (aka direct current—a steady positive
voltage rather than a sine wave). The power transformer’s other job is to supply low AC voltage to the filaments (the heaters) inside every tube in the amp—that’s what gets the cathodes hot. The filaments in the AC4’s tubes all work off of 6.3 volts.
The rectifier tube isn’t perfect. The DC voltage coming from it isn’t steady, it’s more of a ripple. Filter capacitors—the large, cylindrically shaped components that come next in the circuit—help smooth out the ripples in the DC voltage. Filter capacitors are similar in construction to batteries in that they store a charge—a potentially lethal charge—even after the amp is unplugged. This is why you should never poke around inside an amp unless you’ve been trained to safely discharge the caps.
The high and relatively steady DC volt-age dispensed by filter capacitors goes to the tube plates—the elements that need that high, positive, electron-attracting charge. The amount of voltage on a tube’s plate is determined by the voltage coming off the
filter caps, and also by resistors positioned along the DC line. With a high DC voltage, the plates are ready to start pulling electrons.
Note: AC and DC voltages can coexist on the same wire. In a guitar amp, the AC guitar signal is imposed on top of the high DC voltages. Fortunately, that AC signal can be separated: Capacitors in the circuit block DC voltages but allow the AC guitar signal to get through.
feature > Tube Amp operATion
The AC4 uses four tubes—an EZ80 rectifier, an EF86 preamp tube, an EL84 power tube, and an ECC83 (12AX7)—to drive the tremolo circuit (which Vox calls a “vibrato” circuit.) The AC4 is designed to provide the plates of the latter three tubes with a different DC voltage that’s appropri-ate for that tube.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 97
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98 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
feature > Tube Amp operATion
4T1: POWER TRANSFORMER 4 4 5 4
5 5 9 5
V1EZ80(6V4)
6.5V (6.3V)2A
V2EF86(6267)
V3ECC83(12AX7)
V4EL84(6BQ5)
250V115V
230V 250V
R31K 5W
C232
+–
C132
+–
V2EF86 (6267)
V3ECC83
(12AX7)
2.7V
270V 260V
SP18” SPEAKER
3 OHM
R1
100K
R2
100K
C58
C4.1C3
25
C9
.02
R10
220K
C10
.01
C11
.01
R41 MEG
C725
R123.3K
R151MEG
R14220K
R9100K
R191MEG
VIBRATOSPEED R17
1MEG
SW2VIBRATO FOOT SWITCH
Vibrato onVibrato off
R71.5K
R6220K
R85.6MEG
R1810MEG
C8.001
R111MEG
+–
[ ]
R522K
3
1 67
2
83
V4EL84(6BQ5)
2
9
3 8.5V
7
C1225
+–
R131MEG
R16
6.8K9
215V
1
86
37
1
C6
.047
TONE & AMPLIFIER
ON-OFF SWITCH
VOLUME
R201502W
V1EZ80(6V4)
NO. V-1-1MODEL AC-4 AMPLIFIER
AMERICAN TUBE NUMBER IN PARENTHESES
T2: OUTPUTTRANSFORMEREL84 current
EL84 current
EL84 current
EL84
cu
rren
t
1.7V
145V to 165V
VIBRATO OSCILLATOR (TREMOLO)
AMPLIFIER
POWER SUPPLY
Inpur Jacks: the guitar signal
starts here
Guitar signal
Three filter capacitors help
steady theDC voltage.
Rectifier tube: Converts AC voltage from the transformer to DC voltage.
Fuse 1: 1 amp
Fuse 2: 2 amp, in the voltage selector plug
6.3 Volts AC is fed to the filaments (heater elements) of each tube.
EF86 preamp tube
(a pentode)
Oscillating voltage from the tremolo
circuit is fed to the cathode and
suppressor of the preamp tube.
EL84 power tube (a pentode)
ECC83 (12AX7) is a dual triode – two
tubes in one.
These three capacitors create the oscillation in the vibrato circuit.
Resistor
Potentiometer
Capacitor
Ground
SW1: On Off switch(located on the tone control.)
High voltage DCAC guitar signalHigh voltage DC andAC guitar signalVibrato oscillationHigh voltage DC and vibrato oscillation
To the uninitiated, circuit schematics can look like a rat’s nest of wires and components ar-ranged in a way that saves space on paper—but that also needs to be mentally untangled in order to truly understand the circuit. Here is a 1960s Vox AC4 schematic, rearranged and color-coded to help you decipher what’s going on. The original Vox numbering system for the resistors and capacitors (R1, R2, C1, C2, etc.) is included, in case you want to follow along using the original Vox schematic.
Click here to download a PDF of the Vox AC4 schematic
Click here
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 99
The guiTar signalWe all know your guitar’s signal comes from your pickups, but to understand the amplified signal, let’s start at electrical ground. In practice, ground in a guitar amp means a connection to the chassis. (In the AC4 schematic, the ground connections look like upside-down Christmas trees.) Electrons flowing through a tube originate from ground. The cathodes of the EF86 and the EL84 each have a resistor attached to ground. This creates the small DC volt-age on their cathodes to prevent the elec-trons from flowing. When the guitar signal reaches the grid, the electrons then flow. However, the cathode resistor alone would also affect electron flow when the guitar is played. A bypass capacitor is put in parallel with the resistor to increase gain and allow AC electrons to effortlessly get through.
The electrons released by the guitar sig-nal flow from ground to the EL86 cathode, then to the plate, through a .047µF signal capacitor, and through the volume poten-tiometer to the grid of the EL84. At the EL84, a similar electron flow takes place,
but this time it’s more powerful. Enough electrons will travel from the EL84’s plate to the output transformer to drive the speaker.
The electrons don’t stop at the out-put transformer, though. If you look at the schematic, you’ll note that they pass through it and cycle back to ground. In a way, you can think of an amplifier as an electron circulator whose ultimate goal is to send electrons through the output trans-former. Our job as guitarists is simply to get those electrons to do that in tune and with reasonable timing.
The “VibraTo oscillaTor” circuiTYou’re probably familiar with the mix up in terminology between “vibrato” and “trem-olo.” The 1960s Vox AC4 schematic used “vibrato” to refer to the oscillation in vol-ume that is more commonly referred to as “tremolo.” Because some of you may want to refer to the original AC4 schematic, we’ll stick with the company’s terminology here.
The AC4’s ECC83 (12AX7) vibrato tube creates a low-frequency oscillation. That oscillating voltage is connected to the
cathode of the EF86 tube, which affects the bias. Think of it as sending a very low-sound signal to the EF86’s cathode—maybe 2–10 Hz (cycles per second). These frequencies are way too low for the human ear to detect, but they do affect electron flow in the EF86 from 2 to 10 times per second.
componenTs in more deTailNow that we’ve got our quick overview of how an amp works out of the way, let’s get into some more detailed descriptions, com-ponent by component.
Power transformer – The power trans-former is the amp’s larger transformer. It converts 120V wall voltage (240V in many countries) to a high AC voltage entering the rectifier (EZ80 in the case of the Vox AC4) tube. The transformer also supplies 6.3V AC to the filaments (heating elements) of the tubes. (Some rectifier tubes require 5V for the filaments, but not the AC4’s EZ80 tube.)
Capacitors (aka caps) – Capacitors are shown in the schematic as two parallel lines perpendicular to the wiring. In some schematics, one of the lines may be curved.
feature > Tube Amp operATion
Click here to download a PDF of the Vox AC4 schematic
100 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
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There are three types of capacitors in a guitar amp—filter, bypass, and signal—and their values are measured in microfarads, which are designated by the symbol µF.
Filter capacitors are large metal cylinders that, like batteries, hold a charge—even long after the amp has been unplugged. Unlike batteries for household items like flashlights and smoke detectors, they hold potentially lethal voltages. These are why you don’t mess around inside your amp unless you know how to do so safely. The rectifier tube’s purpose is to convert the AC voltage (a sine wave) into a con-stant DC voltage to power the tubes. The rectifier tube does a good but not perfect job. What emerges is actually a ripple-like DC voltage, so the filter capacitors help reduce the ripple by storing and releasing high voltages. Filter caps typically have values in the range of 8–50 µF, sometimes higher. The AC4 uses two 32 µF caps and one 8 µF cap. The two 32s are actually both inside one cylinder—i.e., they are a single component in the amp. The 8 µF cap is a separate component.
As previously mentioned, in an AC4 a resistor and a bypass capacitor are connect-ed to the cathodes of the preamp tube and the power tube, wired in parallel—mean-ing, side-by-side. (In the AC4 schematic, the cathode is the lower element in the tube diagram.) Current flowing through a resistor causes a change in voltage. Cathode resistors are used to add DC voltage to the cathodes (2.7V for the EF86 and 8.5V for the EL84). The purpose is to make the cathode positive in relation to the grid. That cathode resistor, however, also resists the guitar signal’s current flow. Hence, the parallel addition of a bypass capacitor. Since a capacitor will block DC but allow AC to freely pass through, the bypass cap does what its name implies—it allows the electrons needed for amplifying the guitar signal to bypass the resistor and flow freely through the cathode. In an AC4, the EF86 and EL84 bypass capacitors are both 25 µF. Larger values would let more bass through, while smaller values would reduce it.
Signal capacitors, meanwhile, are the small caps inside the amp, and they perform
two critical functions. First, they block DC voltage while allowing AC voltages (like the guitar signal) to pass through. They also determine, according to their value, which guitar frequencies will pass through. In other words, signal caps define the tone of the amp. AC4 signal-cap values range from .1 µF–.001 µF. Smaller values (like the .001 µF cap on the AC4’s tone control) allow only treble frequencies to pass through. Put another way, the tone control sends high frequencies to ground instead of letting them reach the power tube.
Resistors – These are the small, cylindri-cal components with color-coded stripes indicating their value. If you haven’t already guessed by their name, they resist the flow of electricity. They are represented in the schematic as a peaks-and-valleys shape, like a seismograph reading or a few capital V’s strung together. Higher values resist the flow more than lower values. In doing so, they decrease voltage as electrons try to travel through.
Resistance is measured in ohms, often using the symbol Ω. A “k” after a number
feature > Tube Amp operATion
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indicates thousands (i.e., 220k Ω = 220,000 Ω). “M” or “meg” indicates millions. The lowest value seen in an AC4 is 150 Ω, while the highest is 10M Ω (10 million ohms). In addition to ohms, resistors have a wattage rating. Most resistors in amps are rated at 1/2 watt. Wattage needs to be higher if the resistor is in the power section. In an AC4, the 1k Ω resistor located between the first two filter caps is rated at 5 watts. (Note: some amps will use a component called a “choke” here rather than a resistor. A choke is an inductor that looks like a small trans-former. Inductors don’t like changes in cur-rent flow, which means they will help choke out some of the ripple we spoke about, reducing amp hum.)
Preamp tubes – The first tube that your guitar pickups’ signal will get to is the first preamp tube. In many amps, it’s a 12AX7 (ECC83 in Brit parlance), but in the Vox AC4 it’s an EF86. Remember the three ele-ments inside a tube—the cathode, plate, and grid? The presence of those three ele-ments define the tube as a triode tube. An EF86 adds two more elements, making it a pentode (from the Greek term “penta,” meaning “five”).
The two additional elements within a pentode are the screen and the suppressor. Like the grid, the screen and suppressor are wire wraps inside the tube, not continuous metal. This allows them to impose charges that affect the electrons while still allowing the majority of electrons to pass through. The presence of the cathode and plate with-in the tube makes the tube itself something of a capacitor. To reduce that unwanted capacitance, the screen is placed between the cathode and the plate, with a DC volt-age applied. The suppressor is the wire wrap closest to the plate, and it is connected to the cathode. (In an EL84, this connection is made within the base of the tube.) Because the suppressor has large gaps in it, it has virtually no effect on electron flow from the cathode. Still, some electrons will hit the plate and bounce off. The suppressor sends the electrons from these “secondary emis-sions” back to the plate.
Power tubes – Just as the guitar signal is amplified by the preamp tube, the signal from the preamp tube is amplified by the power tube. In an AC4, it’s an EL84. The five ele-ments in this pentode tube perform the same functions as the triode EF86’s elements, only with greater current passing through.
‘‘Vibrato oscillator” – Besides preamp and power tubes, you’ll see another tube in our AC4 and most other amps with a tremolo and/or reverb circuit. Often, as is the case with the AC4, it’s a 12AX7 (ECC83).
Looking at the schematic, you’ll notice something different about the 12AX7 rela-tive to the EF86. It’s a dual triode, meaning it has two separate triodes in a single tube. As used in the AC4 vibrato circuit, the two halves work closely together.
Unlike some other amps’ tremolo cir-cuits, which let you control the speed and intensity of the effect, the AC4’s only offers a knob to govern speed. When the AC4’s footswitch is open (i.e., when its internal contacts don’t make a connection), the vibrato circuit is heard. It sends a voltage to the cathode of the EF86 preamp tube in pulses, while an array of capacitors and resistors along with the speed control deter-mine the rate. Closing the footswitch sends the oscillation to ground, deactivating the vibrato effect.
The two halves of the 12AX7 are wired to invert the AC sine wave. Electron flow in the two halves works 180 degrees apart—completely opposite. There are three signal capacitors in the vibrato circuit, and each one offsets the sine wave 60 degrees. The vibrato speed control affects that offset. As mentioned, think of the vibrato circuit as outputting a low-frequency oscillation, 2–10 cycles per second—too low to hear as a sound, but affecting the EF86’s cathode bias that many times a second.
If you look at the schematic, you’ll see that the oscillation originates on the right side of the 12AX7, sending it to the grid on the left side. The cathode (pin 3) sends the oscillating voltage to the EF86. The result is a variation in the preamp tube’s ability to allow electrons to flow, 2 to10 times per second.
Output transformer – It may seem strange, but an amp’s output transformer doesn’t just provide power in any old way—it’s critical to shaping the amp’s sound. It does something interesting. Electrons flow through the power tubes’ plates at high
feature > Tube Amp operATion
The ground connection plays a big role in un-derstanding the flow of electrons through the power tube and to the output transformer. This simplified schematic shows the basic circuit. The amplified guitar signal pulls electrons from ground, through the bypass capacitor to the EL84 tube, through the output trans-former, and through the filter capacitor back to ground.
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Here we see a view of the AC4’s chassis with the back panel removed (above), and with the chassis removed from the amp (below)—a design that makes it a bit of a chore to try out tubes from various manufacturers, both old and new stock.
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106 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
voltages but low current. The output trans-former converts that to a low-voltage, high-current signal that will drive the speaker.
The high DC voltage on the tube side of the output transformer will not pass to the speaker side—the output transformer blocks DC. But it will transfer the AC gui-tar signal to the speaker side.
Output transformers are rated in imped-ance (i.e., in ohms) on the tube side, and resistance (in ohms matching the speaker) and watts on the speaker side. Impedance for an EL84 is approximately 5K Ω. The AC4’s 8"speaker is rated at 3.2 Ω (basically 4 Ω). A single EL84 puts out 4 to 5 watts, so the speaker needs to be able to handle that (it shouldn’t be a problem for most speakers—that wattage is pretty low).
Class-A operation – The designation of “class A” is often a topic of hot debate for some tube-amp enthusiasts. A guitar amp can run its tubes in class A, class AB, or class B. (Other classes exist, but not for audio applications.) Class A describes an amp in which a power tube conducts the entire sine wave of the guitar signal. Amps with two power tubes can divide that signal between the tubes, with one handling the “down” half of the guitar signal’s sine wave and the other handling the “up” half. It’s also referred to as “push-pull” operation. A perfect division between the halves is class B. In class AB operation—which is typical for many amps with two power tubes—each tube handles more than half, but not the full wave.
Any amp with a single power tube (aka “single-ended” amps) will always be class A—that single tube must handle the entire wave. That means our AC4 is class A, too. That said, amps with four power tubes typically pair two sets of class-AB-operating tubes, working much like a two-tube amp but adding power to each half of the sine wave. Similarly, amps with more than one power tube can still achieve single-ended, class-A operation by wiring two tubes in parallel. This allows them to essentially act as a single, more-powerful tube (the Gibson GA-8 is a good example of this).
Tube diagrams – Note that the arrange-ment of elements in a tube diagram is sche-matic, not actual. In the EL84, for instance, the cathode sits in the center of the tube, with the filament located inside the cath-ode. The other elements (grid, screen, sup-pressor, and plate) surround the cathode, in that order.
The cathode and plate are made from bent metal. The grid, screen, and suppres-sor, however, are wrapped wires. That’s how the electrons can travel almost unimpeded from the cathode to the plate—there’s space between the wire wraps.
Dotted lines in the tube diagram for the grid, screen, and suppressor reflect the fact that these elements are wire wraps, not solid metal.
leT The elecTrons flowNow that you know the fundamentals of a tube amplifier, take some time to study the amp schematic. (The AC4 schematic shown here has been redrawn, color-coded, and notated to help clarify the concepts.) It’ll probably take several times of going over it to get things down, and you should always be very familiar with the schematic of any amp you’re working on. Again, keep in mind that the voltages stored in amplifier capacitors are lethal. If you’re not familiar with how to safely drain them of their
charges, make sure you get a qualified amp technician to perform any mods or repairs.
If you’d like to start your journey toward being more proficient with amps, there are lots of great books and online sources that will help. Free PDFs of Navy Electricity and Electronics Training Series, Module 6—Introduction to Electronic Emission, Tubes, and Power Supplies are available online. Jack Darr’s Electric Guitar Amplifier Handbook, Norman Crowhurst’s Basic Audio, and Morgan Jones’ Valve Amplifiers are also great books to track down—or you can try to locate a vintage RCA Receiving Tube Manual. If not, then simply warm up those tubes, crank the volume, play a power chord, and listen to those electrons flow!
Thanks to Vox guru Mitch Colby (colbyamps.com) and Tim Schroeder of Schroeder Audio (schroederaudioinc.com) for their technical assistance with this article.
feature > Tube Amp operATion
Cathode(filamentis inside)
Grid
ScreenSuppressor
Plate(anode)
Glass
Glass envelope: maintains a vacuum
Plate: high voltage, attracts electrons
Suppressor*: keeps electrons from rebounding off the plate
Screen*: reduces internal tube capacitance
Grid: connected to guitar signal, controls electron flow
Cathode: releases electrons to the plate
Filament: heats the cathode
* A suppressor and screen are not found in a triode
Elements in a pentode
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feature > Amp SpeAker replACemenT
Replace YouR SpeakeRS—the Right WayWhether you’ve blown your existing cones or are one of the adventurous few who realizes how powerfully you can tweak your tone with a new speaker, this 17-step guide shows you how to deal with everything from impedance to phasing and series/parallel wiring. Plus—don’t miss our video tutorial at premierguitar.com
by skip sims
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 109
feature > Amp SpeAker replACemenT
Replace YouR SpeakeRS—the Right Way
Analyzing every aspect of your signal chain is a common pastime of many tone-hungry guitarists. From strings and picks to pickups and stompboxes, we swap elements in and out of our rigs, guitars, and/or signal chains, hoping for some magical new combination. At the very end of the line, however, is a component that guitarists and bassists
often overlook as a means of improving or altering tone—speakers. And the fact that speakers are swapped out far less than pick-ups, pedals, and complete amps is rather odd, considering that the speaker is the final component that physically creates our tone. Here we aim to help change that.
Perhaps one of the reasons we don’t change speakers as much as other stuff is that some of the related technical specs can be confusing—and either dangerous or damaging to our gear if we don’t get them right. Depending on the number of speakers and intended use, speaker swapping can require an understanding of phasing and impedance, as well as the relationship between series and parallel wiring. But these concepts really aren’t so complicated that they should deter us from fine-tuning the tones coming out of those paper cones.
For this demonstration, we’re installing a quartet of 25-watt, 16 Ω Celestion G12M Greenback speakers in a vintage 1968 Marshall basketweave cabinet, which we’ll configure for a 16 Ω impedance using series/parallel wiring. (To view the wiring dia-gram for this project, visit premierguitar.com/4x12-wiring.) We’ve chosen a 4x12 cab because it offers the most complex example of speaker replacement. For example, re-outfitting a half-stack requires dealing with impedance and matching phase, as well as exploring the classic Marshall series/parallel wiring. (In smaller projects—say, 1x12 combo—all you need to worry about is getting a speaker with the right impedance/ohm rating and connecting the wire leads in the correct polarity.) All right—let’s get to it!
Tools Needed• Voltmeter• Soldering iron and Solder
(preferably 60/40)• Wire Stripper• 22 aWg multi-Strand Wire• 9V battery With poWer lead• phillipS ScreWdriVer • poWer drill With phillipS head
Click here to see video of Skip replacing the speakers in this 4x12 cab and to view the series/parallel wiring diagram
Click here
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1 Carefully remove your new speakers from their boxes and place them on a padded work area, with the cones down and solder tabs facing you.
2 Use your voltmeter to test the impedance of each speaker before proceeding with installation.
This ensures all speakers will work as a matched set. The measured impedance for each speaker should not exceed the rating on its label. (In the case of our 16 Ω-rated Greenbacks, the reading was 13.5 Ω each. It’s not at all unusual for the meter reading for a speaker to be slightly lower than what’s listed on the label or company spec sheet.)
3 Test each new speaker for phasing. A 9V battery with a power lead lets us check
for proper movement of the cone. Connect the positive and negative leads of the battery to the corresponding solder tabs of the speaker. The cone should move away from the magnet. If the leads are reversed, the cone will recoil inward toward the magnet—this is incorrect and consid-ered out of phase.
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feature > Amp SpeAker replACemenT
4 To begin the process mounting the speak-ers, open the back of the cabinet and remove
any debris—I recommend using pressurized air for a thorough cleaning. (This is also a good time to check the tightness of baffle screws.) Then mount the speakers, starting with the upper-left unit first. (This helps reduce the chance of damaging a lower speaker if, say, you drop a tool or the speaker slips.) Only hand-tighten the screws until all the speakers are in place. Then use a screwdriver—rather than a power drill—to secure the speakers to the baffle. Use a crisscross pattern (e.g., tighten the upper-left bolt, then the lower-right, then lower-left, then upper-right), and only apply enough torque to snug the speaker to the baffle without distorting the speaker basket. Once the speaker frame is snug, it should only take a half to a full turn with a screw-driver to set the screw.
5 If the original wire harness is in good
condition, you can use it with the new speak-ers. However, if you are replacing the harness, allow enough wire length from each solder tab to reach the speaker jack on the backboard. Cut and strip the end of the wires to prepare for tinning.
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7 Now we can test and confirm total cabinet impedance. Connect the ends of the positive leads together and the negative leads from both sides that will be soldered to the speaker jack. If the cabinet is wired
properly (series/parallel), the ohms reading from the voltmeter will be consistent with the reading of a single speaker impedance reading. In this case, each speaker read 13.5 Ω out of the box.
6 Tin the solder tabs on the speakers, and then solder them to the terminals. (Tinning—i.e., wicking a small amount of solder onto each bare end of the new wire—makes it easier to solder the wires and reduces
the risk of overheating during the process.) Once you’ve wired your cabinet, compare your work to the diagram at premierguitar.com/4x12-wiring to ensure that all you connections are correct.
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feature > Amp SpeAker replACemenT
10 A standard 1/4" speaker jack has the positive lead towards the speaker baffle and the nega-
tive lead closest to the backboard.
8 To check phasing, use the speaker leads from each side of the cabinet and twist the red wires together and the black wires together. Confirm that the speakers are in phase by placing the positive (red) lead of
the battery to the red speaker lead and the negative (black) lead to the black speaker lead. You will hear each speaker react to the battery, and the cone should push away from the speaker magnet. Be sure to check the movement of the cone until you actually see each one move outward. Between this step and the previous one, you will be able to tell that you have properly wired your speakers in phase and with proper impedance.
9 Next, solder the speaker leads to the speaker jack. Be sure to solder the red
(positive) lead to the tip of the jack and the black (negative) to ground.
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feature > Amp SpeAker replACemenT
13 Connect the speaker cab’s speaker input to the amplifier’s speaker output and listen to each speaker at a low volume. Listen for any inconsistencies between speakers.
11 Once the speaker leads have been soldered to the speaker jack, test the impedance again to
ensure proper connection to the jack. In our example, this speaker gained one ohm (14.5 Ω) after soldering the wiring harness to the speaker jack.
12 Confirm that the speakers respond to the battery phase test again. Plug a
speaker cable in the cabinet’s speaker jack and place battery leads on the other end of the speaker cable—red to tip (positive) and black to shaft (ground). Your results should be consistent with those in step 8.
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14 If the speakers all seem consistent in volume and response, mount the speaker jack to the
backboard and prepare the cabinet for closure.
15 Make sure there’s sufficient padding on the center post for proper backpres-
sure against the backboard. There should be a slight springing of the backboard while closing the cabinet and placing the screws.
16 Replace the backboard by placing the screws in the four corners first—this sets the proper tension against the center post. Alternately place the remaining screws—top to bottom and left to right, in a
crisscross pattern—and be sure secure the backboard with even pressure on each.
the Straight Truth About Pickups by Jason LollarThe “magic” found in some (but not all) classic vintage pickups was created by accident. Don’t let anyone tell you different. And over time, some pretty stellar accidents happened. The only way to recreate that magic is to study more than a few exceptional examples of all the classic pickup types, while acquiring athorough understanding of exactly what materials were used and precisely how each pickup was constructed and wound. Only then is the “magic” repeatable, if you are willing to spend the time and money required to chase the dragon. I am.
I personally design and wind over 30 different pickup models,including all the vintage classics, many obscure works of art known only to lap and pedal steel players like Robert Randolph, and even a few of my own designs that never existed in the past.
I invite you to visit our website for sound clips, videos andcurrent product information, or call us for a free producthighlight brochure.
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17 Connect your cab to your amp again—double-checking that you’ve got the right impedance jack and/or impedance knob or switch setting—and enjoy the sounds of your new speakers. Here, Tyler Powers
gives this 1968 Marshall plexi a workout.
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feature > amp museum
written By Jeff BoBer, Photos By tina nachodsky
Invisible Sound Studios’ Dave Nachodsky and Joe Rinaolo record killer guitar tracks the old-fashioned way—with nice 6-strings driving boxes full of hot, glowing bottles. Over the years, they’ve collected so many rare and amazing amps—Marshalls, Fenders,
Gibsons, Ampegs, Voxes, Hiwatts, and more—they decided to designate part of their studio as a museum. Here, East Amplification’s Jeff Bober gets their story.
The NorTh AmericAN
Guitar amplifier museum
Clockwise from top left: a 1968 Marshall Major head, a silver-sparkle Kustom 4x10, a ’60s Ampeg J-12 Jet, a late-’40s/earlyl-’50s TV-front tweed Fender Deluxe, and a 1963 Selmer Zodiac Twin Thirty Truvoice 2x12.
With its vintage posters and CDs, checkerboard floor, ‘50s endtable, plush couch, and a tuck-and-roll Kustom cab with four speakers in a vertical array, Invisible Sound’s lounge exudes a hip yet homey vibe perfect for chilling between takes in the equally vintage-vibed tracking rooms.
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With all the hype surrounding new technologies today—with
digital this, sampled that, modeled tone signatures, and profiled sounds—it’s nice to find an establishment like Invisible Sound Studios in Baltimore, Maryland, a place where musicians thrive on getting sounds the old-school way—from a nice guitar and a great amp. After all, that’s how most of the classic recordings were made.
Invisible Sound was founded by Dave Nachodsky and Joe Rinaolo, two guys who happen to own an absolute treasure trove of cool old amps. So many that part of the building has come to be known as the
North American Guitar Amp Museum. It’s a working museum for musicians who want to lay down tracks with a mind-boggling collection of amps you just don’t see everyday—such as a mid-’60s Selmer, a 1966 Ampeg Portaflex SB-12, a 1960 Magnatone Troubadour, a JMI-built Domino/Vox AC4, and a ravaged KT88-driven Marshall Major.
Nachodsky and Rinaolo’s amp collec-tion has grown considerably over the years. The heads, cabs, and combos now line the walls of at least two large studio rooms, and in most places they’re two rows deep, if not more. Most every piece is readily
available to add tone, drive, and color to the recording experience. In addition to the necessary recording gear—including a remarkable collection of vintage micro-phones—the amp collection sits amongst piles of vintage drums, stompboxes, and processing gear, including a couple of very cool plate reverbs! We asked Jeff Bober—who co-founded Budda Amplification and now runs East Amplification, in addition to writing our monthly Ask Amp Man col-umn—to sit down with Invisible Sound’s Nachodsky and Rinaolo to discuss the collection, explain how it got started, and describe some of their favorite amps.
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The “Wailing Wall” at Invisible Sound/North American Guitar Amplifier Museum has just about every flavor of American and Brit grit (and grind)—from blackface and silverface Fenders to specimens from Ampeg, Sunn, Traynor, Vox, WEM, Tone King, East Amplification, 65 Amps, Budda, Marshall, Selmer, Hiwatt, Mesa/Boogie, JMI, and Orange.
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How did you guys get into the record-ing and amp-collecting business in the first place?Dave Nachodsky: I started out playing bass in bands way back in the ’70s and early ’80s. I kind of fell into recording accidentally—started recording our own stuff, playing with Joe. Then we started recording friends’ bands and other bands. After a year or two had gone by and we hadn’t recorded any of our own stuff, I realized, “This is a recording studio,” and it went from there.Joe Rinaolo: The studio was actually in the basement of my house. Dave’s brother’s band wanted to record, and they offered us $15 an hour, so we started with that. From there, we started collecting amps. Brett Wilson and the True Tones came in, and they were using vintage amps, so I got the bug there. He got me my first tweed Fender Champ. Guitars were already hit-ting their market value and amps were just starting to creep up, so we ended up get-ting quite a few. The rest is history.
So when was this—when did you start collecting amps?Nachodsky: The ’80s. As a bass player, I had an Ampeg SVT and a half SVT [4x10] cabinet, another smaller Ampeg head, and a Music Man head, and Joe had a [Fender] Twin, a Marshall, and a couple of other amps in the basement room where we put the drum kit—and where we separated the laundry! It was a small room, and we had our amps along one of the walls. One day someone said, “Nice collection,” and it was, like, “Oh yeah, I guess so!” People would see that and come to a second ses-sion, and they would bring something and say, “This was down in the basement or in a closet.” The tweed Deluxe was that way. There was no tweed on it and someone had shellacked it—right, Joe?Rinaolo: That was the Vibrolux. It was in his closet and he traded a drum machine for it.Nachodsky: It hummed and had no tweed, and it probably had a bad speaker. He was, like, “Will you guys give us an
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Pining for a plexi? Invisible Sound and the North American Guitar Amplifier Museum have plenty to jumper, including both 50- and 100-watt 1972 Marshall JMP Super Leads (above, sitting atop a Marshall slant 4x12 with Celestion Greenbacks), or a 1965 Marshall JTM 45 Mk II driving a 1970 Marshall 8x10 (right).
If you’re looking for a different brand of British brawn, they’ve also got 1976 and 1974 Hiwatt DR-103 heads that you can pummel the mics with via a 1975 Hiwatt SE 4123 4x12 cabinet, or a 1965 Vox AC-50/4 Mk III driving a 1973 Orange 4x12 cabinet (above right). Need pulverizing American metal tones? No prob—plug into the Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Solo head and route it through the Marshall Bass Lead 1960 straight 4x12 with Greenbacks (above right).
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hour of studio time for this amp?” So we said sure. At the time, it was 15 or 20 bucks an hour. We got that amp fixed and added it to the lineup along the wall in the little basement. Rinaolo: We used to do our Saturday trips to Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center shop, and at the time they had another store, what was that other guitar store?Nachodsky: American Guitar Center.Rinaolo: There were all these guitar stores within the same vicinity, so we’d go down and get some Chinese food and hit all these stores. Amps at the time were reasonably priced, so we would jump on quite a bit. I got an old Ampeg V4 with a cabinet for three and a half hours of studio time. At that time, I went to Precision Audio Tailoring to get my amps serviced.Nachodsky: And you [Jeff ] were fixing them all.Rinaolo: Working out of your house—that’s where we met.
Yeah, it seems that’s where every-thing starts—in somebody’s house or basement. So it sounds like the studio and the amp collection started simultaneously?Nachodsky: Yes. And when we moved here in ’90, this place was so much bigger [than the old location]. We thought we were going to take all our stuff and fill this space, but it filled like that much [holds hands close together]. Then it became like every hoarder’s dream—“We have to fill this space!” So we did. [Laughs.]Rinaolo: It was a labor of love—“If you build it, they will come.” At the time—before eBay and before everyone knew everything about vintage stuff—these were just “used” amps. The guitar market had taken off, but the amps had not gone through the roof yet. We were finding them at little stores like Gordon Miller Music and
aBOVe: The “Wall o’ Heads” features a 1963 Gibson GA-5 1x6 combo, a 1968 SOC head (a rebranded silverface Fender Bassman), a 1966 Fender Bassman, a 1966 Fender Bassman “kickback” 2x12, a 1963 Fender Bassman, 1968 Fender Bassman, 1972 Ampeg B-25, 1970 Sunn 1200S, 1973 Traynor Custom Special – YBA3, 1976 Ampeg SVT,1970 Ampeg SVT. Then begins the Wailing Wall, with its 1968 WEM Control ER-15, Vox AC15H1TV, 2006 Tone King Meteor 40 Series II, East Studio 2 (serial no. 001), 1964 Fender Twin Reverb with original JBL D120s, 2000 Budda Super Drive 45 series II, 2000 Budda Super Drive 30, Budda 2x10/2x12 cab, and 65 Amps London.
RIGHT: The east wall features bass and echo gear, including ’60s Premier 90 and Danelectro 9100 reverb boxes, a ’61 Watkins/Guild Copicat tape loop, a ’60s Cordovox 1x10, ’60s and ’70s Echoplexes, a ’73 Roland RE-201 Space Echo,’60s and ’70s Ampegs—a Gemini I and II, V-4s, SVTs, Portaflex fliptops (B-18-N, B-15, and SB-12), a Reverberocket, and a J-12 Jet—a ’69 Gretsch Twin Reverb, a ’59 Magnatone 213 Troubadour, a ’70s Kustom 100, a ’72 Plush P-1000S, ’70s Sunn Concert Lead and Concert Bass heads, and ’70s Acoustics—a 450 head, a 301 1x18 cab, and a 134 combo.
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Links Music in Pennsylvania. Anywhere you went, they had used amps—and they were pretty well priced, like $250 to $450.Nachodsky: They were cheaper than that—at Petros you had to turn sideways!Rinaolo: Petros was a whole other story.Nachodsky: They were all tube amps, and they were like 50 bucks for a run-of-the-mill Fender Bandmaster. They’d have four or five of ’em. The Twins were $150 at one point.Rinaolo: You could walk into someone’s house and they’d say, “My grandfather had an old amp,” and you could pick it up for a couple bucks. I mean, nobody knew what anything was at the time. But now with eBay, everything is “vintage.” Nachodsky: A lot of guitar players went contemporary in the ’80s and ’90s and into
the 2000s—a lot of guys were not playing tube amps, or if they were, not old tube amps. A lot of people had a rack proces-sor with a stereo power amp so the chorus could go out to two stereo cabinets.
That was ubiquitous in the ’80s—the refrigerator-sized rack and stereo cabinets.Nachodsky: I remember when you could buy a Marshall head for 200 bucks a piece, every day of the week—as many as you want-ed—because the older guys who had all that stuff thought they had to do the new thing. I think there was a bias against tube amps—they were not in vogue. At guitar shows back then, sometimes a guy would bring an old tube amp, a tweed or something small, and set it under the table in case someone wanted
to hear a guitar. We’d go and say, “Want to sell that amp?” and they’d say “I guess. What will you give me for it?” They were focused on the guitars. At the time, a 1950 Fender Telecaster or Broadcaster guitar was worth what, five grand? And even then, people were asking “When will the insanity stop?” Yet the amp that would have been part of the same vintage rig wasn’t worth $200.
It was just an afterthought at that point.Nachodsky: Yes. But the amps caught up pretty quickly over time.Rinaolo: Back then nobody seemed to real-ize the amp was the other half of it.
How many amps do you have in your collection now?
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Rinaolo: About 175.Nachodsky: The last official count was about 160, but we’ve added since then.Rinaolo: We added the new East [Amplification] Studio 2—so we’re at 176! [Laughs.]
And they’re all available to use in your studio. When you’re recording, does it make your job easier having access to all of those classic amps?
Nachodsky: That’s a double-edged ques-tion, because it depends on the player—their experience, their guitars and equip-ment, and what they’re used to working with. I wouldn’t say it makes it easier, but it always makes the result better. And the other thing is, we’re not snobs. If a guy comes in and says, “I usually use this cheap, solid-state practice amp and I’ve built my sound around it,” I say “Bring it in—we don’t have that, and we could spend six
hours trying to make some other amp sound like what you have.” I may have my opinion on the sound and/or the gear they’re using, but what matters is that we’re ready to go and they’re comfortable.Rinaolo: But for the right person—a player who’s a little bit more into his sound—it’s great having a crayon box of colors at your fingertips. Sometimes you play a song and you get out there to play the lead and it doesn’t fit with a Marshall plexi, but when
feature > amp museum
Whether you feel the need for tweed or like your Fullerton tones in brown-, black-, or silverface varieties, Invisible Sound’s back room is stocked with all the Fend-er flavors you could ask for—from Champs and Deluxes to Twins, Tremoluxes, Bassmans, and Band Masters. And then there’s the cabs with everything from 12" JBLs to 15" behemoths. If you’re looking for something nastier, there’s always the Sovtek, Sound City, and Marshall plexi heads and the straight- and angled-front Celestion-loaded cabs.
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Vintage mics galore! Invisible Sound’s microphone collection includes several shelves full of old and new models from Neumann, AKG, Shure, Sennheiser, Sony, Electro-Voice, and Oktava, as well as this shelf full of enough chrome-grilled vintage RCAs to please Elvis, Harry Connick Jr., David Letterman, and Casey Kasem.
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you plug the same guitar into a Vox AC15 it just sits right in the mix. Having that palette to choose from really makes a differ-ence—not to mention the different drums and microphones we have. That gives us the ability to go in a lot of different directions. We also do re-amping, so if you want to send in a clean track, we can re-amp to any one of the amps and send the new track back to you.
Of all the amps, what are your personal favorites?Rinaolo: My ’62 offset Marshall is probably my favorite. It’s a remake of the first hand-wired JTM45 that Jim Marshall made. Nachodsky: I like the specialty things, like the Gibson GA20. It’s sort of Gibson’s version of a Deluxe. I bought the second one because the first one was a ridiculous screamer—people don’t expect it to do what it does. We have two of those. The
second one is just okay, though. For a long time, you couldn’t give Gibson amps away. Even now, they’re definitely not priced or valued like Fenders. Although the GA40 is a big one right now. I like the smaller stuff and the weird stuff, like the Magnatone Troubadour with the tremolo, or the Cordovox—which has a 10" guitar speaker and no horn, but it rotates. A Leslie has a horn and a 15" speaker, so it’s kind of the opposite of a guitar amp and it has its own sound. But you drive the Cordovox with another amp, and man, the brown Deluxe through that is ridiculous.Rinaolo: It’s kind of hard to pick your favorite child. They all have a story about how we came by them—and that’s a whole other thing.Nachodsky: There’s a particular one that I feel is possessed and I’m afraid to change the tubes in it—the 50-watt Super Lead JMP Marshall. There are certain models
that are usually great to get, but then there are one or two of those that just excel.Rinaolo: Then again, the player’s going to make the difference. And the song you’re recording makes a difference in what amp sounds the best or what drums sound the best. And when you have more than a hundred choices … we’ve had guitarists sit in the middle of the room and line guitar amps around them and play until they find what they want to put on the track. Nachodsky: In a lot of contemporary rock guitar music, there’s not often one guitar track per guitar player—there are layers. So even if you have the best sound ever, if you’re layering different parts on top of each other they might not stack up in a good way. A lot of times guys will come in with their rig, which will be great, but when we get to the fourth guitar track we’ll say, “You have to use something else.” Not necessarily for the tone but for the difference in tone.
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Though outfitted with a modern hard-disk recording setup and a 64-input Amek console, Invisible Sound’s control room is outfitted with plenty of vintage processors, including a Universal Audio 565 filter, a Roland SRE-555 Chorus Echo, MXR Pitch Transposers, Altec limiters and tube mixers/preamps, Spec-tra Sonics Complimiters, and racks from Lexicon, Yamaha, Roland, dbx, Joemeek, and Avalon.
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Jay Duncan with his first
DuncanAfrica students in
Mpigi, Uganda.
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builder profile > dunCanafRICa
By Lindsay tucker
Canadian luthier Jay Duncan makes the world a better place by helping others build sustainable communities, one guitar at a time.
Canadian master luthier Jay Duncan is emphatic about the ability of guitars
to change the world—but not just in the hands of heroes who create timeless music. In fact, his own guitars are hard at work, impacting lives at this very moment in ways that are arguably more important and far-reaching than, say, hearing the music of a master player from any genre. His will to empower those in poverty and desire to share his acoustic guitars with the world led him to open DuncanAfrica, a registered charity and trade school in Uganda where, for nearly a decade now, he’s been teaching locals everything there is to know about guitar making.
In a 1,000-square-foot cement shack in the tiny village of Mpigi, Duncan’s students learn about every step of the process—from bending sides to bracing soundboards and handcarving beautiful mahogany necks. And they’re not just learning a trade, either. Duncan’s acolytes are also paid to be there five days a week, nine hours a day, creating the gorgeous, classically inspired guitars sold on the company’s website—and all the profits go back to the community. Just as at many larger operations in the States and abroad, most students work on an assembly line, perfecting a specific job, such as rim or body assembly. But some of the better woodworkers graduate from
working the line to becoming the sole luthi-er for one of the handcrafted instruments in DuncanAfrica’s higher-end Artisan series.
In addition to helping the people of Mpigi make a living while learning the art of guitar building, Duncan is also providing a sort of Business 101 class. He teaches his stu-dents/employees about writing emails, using Microsoft applications, and hiring student managers. Once enough villagers have been trained, they’ll be able to run the business themselves. “The idea is that they’ll be able to start their own manufacturing company, independent of us,” says Duncan. “They’ll actually own it and export the guitars, and we’ll distribute and sell them for them.”
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builder profile > dunCanafRICa
Roots in the ’80sSo how exactly did Duncan’s involvement with a remote African village come about? It all goes back to his youth. In 1983, at the age of 13, Duncan watched millions dying on television as the worst famine in a century hit the country of Ethiopia, eventu-ally claiming more than 400,000 lives and inspiring relief efforts like the 1985 Live Aid concerts. “It struck me as something that was just incredibly wrong. How could civilized human beings sit by and watch?” Duncan recalls wondering. “Now, it’s a very complicated problem, but to a 13-year-old boy it just didn’t make sense. And so Africa has always played on my heart.”
Duncan felt he could be of most help by educating villagers and empowering them to become self-sufficient. “Teaching a skill that they can use to support their families for the rest of their lives is much better than some kind of welfare handout,” he says. So in 2005, he made a decision to take his eponymous Jay Duncan guitars to Uganda.
It took two years of planning to get the school off the ground. During this time, Duncan spent five months building seven prototype guitars, selling them off for $2,500 each to raise the needed funds. “That was less than half of what they’re worth,” he says, noting that, at the time, his Jay Duncan guitars were selling for $5,000 each despite having a value closer to $7,500. “But that was our seed money for the trade school, and we’ve really leveraged it.” After three research trips to the village, Duncan and two colleagues rented the tiny cement house that would become their workspace and set up shop. It was a simple dwelling, but it had electricity and plenty of natural light. “For houses there,” Duncan says, “it was pretty nice.”
They met with the local elders in the vil-lage and organized an information night for prospective students, who filled out applica-tions to enroll in Duncan’s guitar-making trade school. After choosing and training about a dozen villagers for this pilot project, Duncan returned to his home in Canada in 2007, leaving the students to make their first trial run of guitars without his supervi-sion. Four months later, four finished guitars arrived on his doorstep. “Seeing those guitars meant, basically, that it was a success,” he recalls. “They made them without any help. Behind getting married and having my kids, that was one of the best days of my life.”
Best Laid plans ...It hasn’t exactly been easy going for Duncan and his upstart. Although this year they were finally able to move into a larger, 2,400-square-foot building, it’s taken longer than anticipated to find the right individu-als and get them trained to Duncan’s excep-tionally high standards (“I’ll saw a guitar in half mid-production if it isn’t coming out right,” he says). Commodities like comput-ers are alien to most Ugandans, and there are obvious barriers in verbal communica-tion, as well. “Technically, English is the
first language of Uganda,” Duncan says, “but not everyone speaks it, so it’s very dif-ficult to teach.”
As could be expected, progress is slow but steady. “We’re about a quarter of the way there,” he says, noting that they need to convert 30 students into experts in order for the business to run smoothly without him. Although they’ve trained close to 15 thus far, results vary and retention has been relatively low. “We’ve had four or five stu-dents come through who were just stellar,” he says. “And we’ve had two or three who
DuncanAfrica guitars are made largely with primitive hand tools. Recently, the school received a table saw, but prior to that the most advanced pieces of equipment in the shop were an edge sander and a bandsaw.
Jay Duncan says that DuncanAfrica instruments’ tonal qualities come from a unique “double-X” bracing system that allows the tone from the back and sides of the guitars to really resonate.
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were just terrible. The rest are somewhere in between.” Currently, the school has eight student employees making guitars under the guidance of “master student” Simon Adyaka, who apprenticed under Duncan’s first pro-tégé, Mwesige David. David was Duncan’s go-to man from the beginning and manager of the school in its early years up until last February, when he succumbed to cancer. Losing David—Africa’s best guitar maker thus far, according to Duncan—was tragic. “He was the kind of guy who could do everything, and those people are really rare,” Duncan says. “He was amazing, not just as a woodworker but in the community.”
But students of David, including Adyaka, have stepped up and assumed more responsibility in order for the guitar making to continue. David’s widow, Olive, is still very involved with the charity, overseeing the business side, accounting, and other administrative duties.
Asked how one teaches luthiery nuances such as strutting and fret positioning to someone who’s never seen a standard first-world guitar before, Duncan admits it’s difficult to show the craftspeople of Mpigi the sorts of bar-setting reference points that we take for granted. “The learning curve is really steep. There are no Taylors for sale in Uganda,” says Duncan of the U.S. flattop brand famous for its immaculate fretting
builder profile > dunCanafRICa
Luthier Jay Duncan came up with his “Broken Road” inlay design during the formative years of his charity, DuncanAfrica. He was living in Africa, bored and sick with the flu at the time, when inspiration hit. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to make a fancy guitar.’” He used koa, mugavu, maple, cow bone, and ebony to create the inlay pattern that lines the headstock, rosewood neck, and fretboard of this Selah OM-CR from the Suubi series. ABOVE: Student Isaac Mukaasa shows off a DuncanAfrica model with a Broken Road inlay.
Locally sourced near the DuncanAfrica school, this beautifully grained mugavu wood sounds like a cross between mahogany and koa. It has a golden, luminous appearance and yields com-plex midrange tones.
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and finish work. And, naturally, there are no CNC machines to provide the kind of automated accuracy and repeatability found at so many other shops, both large and small. Instead, students use hand tools to carve out the necks, braces, fretboards, and other delicate pieces that make up each instrument. Until the spring of this year, when Duncan sent over a table saw, the two fanciest pieces of equipment in the shop were an edge sander and a bandsaw.
“Rumor has it, the guys threw a little party and invited the landlord over to celebrate last year when we sent the edge sander,” says Duncan. “It’s funny what gets woodworkers excited, eh?”
The GoodsDuncan was in love with guitars long before he fell in love with Africa. The
43-year-old started playing at age 8 and taught himself lutherie when he was in his 20s. He got his official start working for Canadian guitar maker Larrivée in the late ’90s and into the early 2000s, during which time he started his own Jay Duncan guitars, specializing in OMs and dreadnaughts. For DuncanAfrica, though, he’s expanded his product line to also include a jumbo, and he has plans to add a parlor model later this year. “I think for most guitar players, there’s just something sexy about a big ol’ jumbo,” says Duncan, adding that he anticipates the parlor will be “super popular” as well.
Apart from the four different guitars available—the Selah (OM), the Jubilee (dreadnaught), the 1962 (jumbo), and the Pearl (parlor)—players have a choice of three different series at varying price points. The newest and most wallet-friendly line is the Jericho, which features dreadnaught and OM models in local woods like mahogany or mugavu. (Sourced near the school, African mugavu has been described as a cross between mahogany and koa.) Starting at $779, guitars in the Jericho line come with a passive pickup and gigbag,
builder profile > dunCanafRICa
aBOVe: DuncanAfrica headstocks, like the one on this Suubi series model, are more evocative of an archtop than a traditional acoustic. InseT: The mid-priced instruments in DuncanAfrica’s three guitar lines are found in the Suubi series. “Suubi means ‘hope’ in Uganda,” luthier Jay Duncan says.
DuncanAfrica headstocks, like the one on this Suubi series model, are more evocative of an archtop than a traditional acoustic. InseT: The mid-priced instruments in DuncanAfrica’s three guitar lines are found in the Suubi series. “Suubi means ‘hope’ in Uganda,” luthier Jay Duncan says.
few years, he’s owned both rosewood and mugavu OMs, and recorded in Nashville with a friend’s mugavu dreadnaught.
“None of them were overly bright or Taylor-ish,” he says of the tone, but he noted that the DuncanAfrica mugavu guitars he’s played sat beautifully in band mixes. “Think vintage Martin or Gibsons,” he says. “I actually restrung a ’60s Gibson—the model eludes me—when tracking in Nashville, and I compared it to the mugavu ‘Jubilee’ dread. There was no comparison—the DuncanAfrica sounded
as opposed to the deluxe hard case, which comes standard with the two other lines.
The middle-of-the-road Suubi series starts around $1,400 and offers chrome Gotoh 16:1 tuners, a one-piece mahogany neck, and a bridge, bridge pins, and fret-board of ebony. “That’s your standard, great guitar,” Duncan says.
The third and priciest series, the Artisan, is special in more ways than one. Beginning at $2,400, these instruments aren’t built on the assembly line but entirely crafted by master student Adyaka. Artisan guitars incorporate gold Gotoh 510 Series tun-ers and feature attractive mother-of-pearl inlays. Wood choices for the Suubi and Artisan lines vary from model to model and are slightly customizable, but expect the highest quality Indian rosewood and local woods like ebony, spruce, mahogany, mugavu, and maple.
The TonesSinger/songwriter Dave Siverns has played a fair share of DuncanAfrica guitars, and he says the quality of their dark woods makes for a unique, resonating sound. In the past
“Rumor has it, the guys threw a little party and invited the landlord over to celebrate last year
when we sent the edge sander,” says Duncan. “It’s funny what gets woodworkers excited, eh?”
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strymon.net/mobius
better in every way.” When prodded, Siverns has trouble comparing his DAs to any modern guitars. “They’re a bit louder and richer in general, and feel more bro-ken in on the first play. I’d probably com-pare them most to some of the smaller, handbuilt guys like Collings, but with a bit more of a rustic feel and sound.”
When asked what’s different about his 6-strings, Duncan prefaces the explana-tion with, “I am a tone freak,” before going on to explain that many of the instruments’ tonal qualities are due to a unique “double-X” bracing system that he says allows the tone from the back and sides to really shine. East Indian rosewood gives a wide tonal range with strong highs and lows, while Western flamed maple lends a gorgeous aesthetic and a warmer tone that Duncan says is “almost vintage-sounding, right out of the box. We also use Ugandan mahogany and sapele, which makes for a nice, warm body with a bit of tinkle in the high mids, and the local mugavu has a powerful midrange.”
The futureDuncan says his school in Mpigi has aver-aged 25 guitars annually, but he’s seen a significant increase in demand over the last year or so, with 35 guitars being com-pleted in 2012, and 20 orders in a two-month span this year. He has high hopes for an eventual output of 200 instruments per month and enough profits for the Mpigi community to put toward things like health care, education, and entrepre-neurial initiatives.
With his distinctive-sounding guitars, and inspiringly selfless attitude, Duncan can’t be surprised that word of mouth has carried the DuncanAfrica story across the globe. “We’re asked all the time to take our project to different parts of the world—North Korea, Guatemala, India, and, last week, it was Russia.” But while Duncan loves the idea of expanding his reach to other countries or continents, he says he’s got some caveats before taking his shop/school model somewhere else. “The money would have to be there,” he says. “We set up DuncanAfrica with abso-lutely no money, and it’s been an incred-ibly hard seven years because of that. But if the financial backing were in place, we would gladly go somewhere else and do something similar.”
better in every way.” When prodded, Siverns has trouble comparing his DAs to any modern guitars. “They’re a bit louder and richer in general, and feel more broken in on the first play. I’d probably compare them most to some of the smaller, handbuilt guys like Collings, but with a bit more of a rustic feel and sound.”
When asked what’s different about his 6-strings, Duncan prefaces the explanation with, “I am a tone going on to explain that many of the instruments’ tonal qualities are due to a unique “double-X” bracing system that he says allows the tone from the back and sides to really shine. East Indian rosewood gives a wide tonal range with strong highs and lows, while Western flamed maple lends a gorgeous aesthetic and a warmer tone that Duncan says is “almost vintage-sounding, right out of the box. We also
146 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > CHaRVeL
charveLDesolation soloist DX-1 stBy Jordan wagner
Since the ’80s, the name Charvel has been more or less synonymous with
hot-rodded solidbodies. With strong Fender roots, Charvel adopted a no-frills approach to guitar design that helped usher in an era of streamlined shred machines for players seeking the perfect platform for acrobatic lead work, raunchy rhythms, and supreme tuning stability for tremolo dive-bombing.
Fast-forward to 2013, and Charvel—now operating under the umbrella of the Fender family—is still building guitars
that expertly blend proven designs with stripped-down, shred-oriented elements. The Desolation Soloist DX-1 ST blends classic “super strat” concepts that metal players have grown to love with a silky, slender neck, a deeply carved neck joint, and mammoth-sized tone.
a meeting of the mindsThe Chinese-made Desolation DX-1 ST combines the sleek look of the famed Soloist model from Jackson (another
company that’s now in the Fender family) with flashy aesthetic accents. The curvy mahogany body sports a string-though design, multi-ply binding, a vibrant flamed-maple top (with transparent finish only), a black-nickel Tune-o-matic-style bridge, and a scalloped heel for easy access to the 3-piece, through-body maple neck’s higher
to hear audio clips of the guitar at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…
Mahogany body with maple cap
EMG 81 bridge pickup
EMG 85 neck pickup
Tune-o-matic-style bridge
Through-body stringing
Master volume and 3-way pickup selector
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 147
review > CHaRVeL
RATINGS
Pros: fantastic build quality. superbly comfortable neck profile. handles roaring metal rhythms with aplomb. Cons: clean tones can sound anemic. Lack of tone control makes it difficult to tame excessive highs.
Tones
Playability
Build/Design
Value
Charvel Desolation DX-1 ST, $649 street, charvel.com
registers. The unfinished neck’s oiled wood treatment makes it extremely comfortable, smooth, and friction free when you’re reach-ing for any of its 24 jumbo frets. A set of black-nickel locking tuners keeps the strings firmly in tune, even after pulling seriously big bends. Add the matching, flamed-maple headstock veneer and striking abalone fretboard inlays, and the Desolation DX-1 ST is pretty eye-catching on top of being a wonderfully comfortable guitar to play.
The Desolation is powered by a pair of EMG 81 and 85 active pickups—long a pop-ular combination with metal guitarists who like their searing highs, immediate response, and drum-tight bottom end. Output is man-aged by a 3-way switch and a single volume control, a fact that will be a bit of a disap-pointment to players who love the creamy, even tone of an overdriven 85 with the tone rolled all of the way off. It’s understandable that Charvel would want to keep things sim-ple—and, admittedly, a tone control probably doesn’t rank high on a lot of heavy shredders’ list of needs—but its absence limits the guitar’s tonal versatility to just about everyone else.
Apart from a few minor adjustments, the Desolation was ready to play right out of the case. The action was a tad low when tuned to standard pitch, but not so wildly off the mark that it took more than a minute or two to properly set the bridge to a buzz-free height. The guitar’s smooth carves made it feel like
the mahogany body was locked to mine—something I found really helpful during more acrobatic fretboard-climbing moments.
Kickstart my HeartAs streamlined as the Desolation’s controls may be, it still generates a wealth of fierce metal and hard-rock tones. But it just as ably handles lower-gain situations. Using a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier to churn through a cache of old-school thrash riffs, I found that the EMG 81 bridge pickup delivered super-hot high end and a very focused low end that remained clear no matter how much gain I stacked on top. The guitar’s mahogany body seemed to add a slightly rubbery response to the midrange, but you can also hear some snappy highs and lows that may well be the product of the maple top. Whatever it was due to, it helped lend definition to rum-bling drop-tuned chords and legato leads. Decreasing the Boogie’s gain to around half-way enabled the guitar’s midrange to speak
more clearly and generate more of a velvety classic-rock crunch. For the most part, the balance between the low-end girth and top-end shimmer is very good, but if you tend to operate your amp in trebly high-gain zones, the high end can become somewhat rigid and bristly, underscoring the DX-1 ST’s lack of a tone control.
The neck-position EMG 85 was much more responsive for coaxing smooth cleans and lightly overdriven tones, thanks to its supremely deep lows and glassy high end. The pickup’s natural midrange scoop was a little too intense for warmer-sounding blues and jazz progressions, but it helped lows and highs bloom when playing arpeggios. And with a touch of overdrive from the Mesa’s orange channel, the Charvel was quite capable of generating midrange punch for gritty lead work and growling rhythms. Pushing the gain up even further loosened the lows slightly and focused the highs and attack, transforming the Charvel into a perfect canvas for clear legato and sweep-picking work. Unfortunately, the attack was so focused on notes higher up the fretboard that they became piercing if I picked too hard. Adjusting the amp’s presence helped make the attack less strident, but the tone also lost a noticeable amount of body in the upper mids. Again, this is something a tone control would’ve helped remedy.
The VerdictA metal maniac who needs a solid guitar that’s both easy on the eyes and the wal-let will find it hard to turn away from the Charvel Desolation DX-1 ST. The build quality is exceptional, the tones can range from mellow to very aggressive, and the neck is to die for. Its clean tones won’t overshadow your favorite Stratocaster or Telecaster—and the lack of a tone knob makes it almost impossible to tame the strong treble in some situations. Yet, when considering the guitar’s incredible playability and crushing overdriv-en tones, those quibbles can feel like small trade-offs, especially at such a great price.
… the EMG 81 bridge pickup delivered super-hot high end and a very focused low end that remained
clear no matter how much gain I stacked on top.
148 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > LaKLand
LakLandDeCaDe 6By Jordan wagner
to hear audio clips of the bass at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…
The 6-string bass is often misunderstood. Guitarists tend to wonder why you
wouldn’t just slap on a heavier set of strings and tune down, or use a baritone guitar to help cover the lower registers. But the 6-string bass offers a truly unique voice with a range that’s between a baritone and a stan-dard bass. For decades, it’s been an essential tool for country players, who use it to fat-ten up bass lines tracked by upright basses. And famous players as diverse as Jack Bruce, John Lennon, and Robert Smith have made 6-string bass a part of their arsenal.
The luthiers at Lakland are fans, too, and they’ve spent the better part of two years
developing and refining the prototype they first introduced at Winter NAMM in 2012. Called the Decade 6, Lakland’s 6-stringer fea-tures the same short scale, narrow neck, and triple-pickup configuration as the 6-string bass most of us are familiar with—the Fender Bass VI. But Lakland also instituted a few changes that make the Decade 6 much more than a high-end clone.
The Low downDressed in a striking candy-apple-red fin-ish, a faux tortoiseshell pickguard, and black pickup covers, the 30 1/4"-scale Decade 6 is a thing of beauty. Our review bass has an
alder body, but ash and mahogany are also available, as are several other finish options. The Decade’s “Shorty J” maple neck has a 4-bolt joint, and it’s topped with an 18-fret rosewood fretboard adorned with bird’s-eye-maple dot inlays. Tuned one octave below standard tuning, the .024–.084-gauge strings are anchored by open-gear Hipshot tuners on one end and a custom bridge on the other.
The three JP-90 pickups are made in-house by sister company Hanson Pickups, and they feature alnico 5 magnets for crisp highs and tight, warm lows. With outputs of 8.6k for the neck and middle pickups, and 9.6k for the bridge, they’re very close
Vintage-style JP-90 pickups
5-way selector
Alder body
andandandandandand
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RATINGS
Pros: rock-solid build. off-the-charts playability. versatile—from tic-tac to more modern tones. excellent defi-nition and note separation. Cons: Lows aren’t as deep as a 4-string. could use tradi-tional “strangle” switch. Pricey.
Tones
Playability
Build/Design
Value
Lakland Decade 6, $3,250 street, lakland.com
to vintage specs. While the 5-way blade switching is more akin to, say, a Fender Strat, the single volume and tone controls are similar to the Fender Bass VI. That said, I would have liked to have seen Lakland include a version of the Bass VI’s bass-cutoff slider (aka the strangle switch)—a fan favor-ite that expanded the versatility of Fender’s already-expressive instrument.
deep ThoughtsPlugging the Decade 6 into a Verellen Meatsmoke tube bass head driving an Ampeg Isovent combo cabinet, I started out the way many 6-string bass fans would: I set the amp with lowered mids, turned down the lows slightly, pushed the treble, and palm-muted a spaghetti-western bass line. The resulting tic-tac tone was spot-on with the sound of cow-boy film soundtracks that Ennio Morricone
made famous in the ’60s, but with noticeably more midrange muscle and bite. More tra-ditional bass parts had an extremely detailed attack and upper midrange, with the thick, rubbery response that short-scale basses are known for. In fact, the tones were so full and robust that, had I been blindfolded and lis-tening to someone else playing the Decade 6, I would’ve been convinced they were playing a traditional 4-string.
Each of the five pickup-switch posi-tions offers a wealth of distinct tones, from the scooped midrange in posi-tions two and four to the bolder mids and highs when soloing the bridge and the bowel-rattling subs from the middle and neck pickups. The instrument also handled overdriven tones with aplomb—a fact that should prove appetizing to play-ers hungering for heavier sounds. Playing full chords through the Meatsmoke’s roaring overdrive channel yielded a mon-strously powerful wall of sound that still managed to retain clarity. The note sepa-ration—while not as defined as an electric guitar’s—was light years beyond what most standard basses can produce. And this gives the Decade 6 unique abilities to add contrasting textures within songs, such as using overdriven broken chords and fuzzed-out melodic interludes above the 12th fret.
The VerdictThe Lakland Decade 6 is a marvelous instrument that not only nails the time-honored 6-string bass tones of yesteryear, but also has its own unique voice. It combines the warm, syrupy lows of a tra-ditional 4-string with the bright attack of a P-90-equipped guitar. Though the low end doesn’t quite reach the depths of a P- or J-style bass, the tones are expansive enough to cover a wealth of musical applications. Everything about the Decade 6—from the solid build to the even weight, attractive looks, and knockout playability—is tailored to near perfection. And then there’s the huge fun factor.
Bassists who eschew picks or think the narrow string spacing is just for guitarists might be tempted to pass by this Lakland, but they’d be doing themselves a serious dis-service. The Decade 6 brings the timeless tones of the 6-string bass to a new genera-tion, and its superb quality alone deserves the attention of even the harshest skeptics.
The resulting tic-tac tone was spot-on with the sound of cowboy film soundtracks that Ennio Morricone made famous in the ’60s, but with noticeably more midrange muscle and bite.
Rosewood fretboard
review > PEAVEY
DR1 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
PEAVEYVypyr VIp 2 and Sanpera IIbY LYLE ZAEhringEr
Hartley Peavey’s now-global business began a lot like many other musical
instrument companies that got rolling in the late ’60s and ’70s—a musician with a soldering iron and a knack for electronics applied both to the nascent art of rock ’n’ roll. Unlike a lot of those companies, how-ever, Peavey has always remained steadfastly independent, and even over decades of mas-sive growth, Peavey maintained a focus on affordability while delivering the features and flexibility of more expensive gear.
While Peavey has dabbled in many facets of the sound and instrument business over the years (their PA systems are ubiquitous in nightclubs, theaters, airports, and even the U.S. Capitol Building), the company’s bread and butter remains amplifiers. One of the most famous—and desirable—is the ’70s Classic 30, a 30-watt combo amp with a distinctive, bluesy, classic-rock tone derived from a solid-state preamp and 6L6GC power tubes. This amp garnered a following among gigging guitarists and the amp-mod community, which constantly tinkers with the Classic 30’s tone.
Fast-forward to 2008, when Peavey released cutting-edge modeling software called ReValver mkIII, which let users modify tones not just by tweaking knobs, but also by changing the virtual circuitry of the amp model. The following year, the company introduced the first series of Vypyr amplifiers, which were based on the company’s new TransTube modeling tech-nology. The goal of TransTube, like many other modeling technologies, was to create tube-like tone with natural compression in the power amp, a wide dynamic range, and tube-amp grit.
Now, Peavey has unveiled a second ver-sion of the Vypyr line, the VIP series, as well as an optional pair of foot controllers, dubbed Sanpera I and II. VIP stands for Variable Instrument Performance, and it
to watch a video of the amp at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…means this latest iteration of the Vypyr line of amps is designed and built to handle electric 6-strings, acoustic, and bass gui-tars. And after plugging in your weapon of choice, you can simply select guitar, bass, or acoustic settings, and the Vypyr will recon-figure and optimize its performance for that instrument. The onboard modeling engine also includes amps that are tweaked specifi-cally for acoustic guitar and bass.
An Amp for Every SeasonThe Vypyr VIP 2 reviewed here is a mem-ber of a three-amp family that includes the VIP 1, VIP 2, and VIP 3 (rated at 20, 40, and 100 watts, respectively). These amps are designed to accommodate stages and
studios of every size. Both the VIP 2 and 3 have a 12" speaker while the VIP 1 sports an 8" driver. The cabinet for each model in the series has a ported, semi-closed back designed to extend the low-end range.
The controls on the back of the amp are basic and simple—just power input, on/off switch, and the Sanpera’s combined data and power MIDI connection. At power up, the LED window on the Sanpera greets you with “Plug in, tune up and rock out!” You’re also treated to a dazzling lightshow from the—no kidding—78 LEDs on the amp’s front con-trol panel. That number of LEDs may seem
PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
and butter remains amplifiers. One of the most famous—and desirable—is the ’70s Classic 30, a 30-watt combo amp with a distinctive, bluesy, classic-rock tone derived from a solid-state preamp and 6L6GC power tubes. This amp garnered a following among gigging guitarists and the amp-mod community, which constantly tinkers with the Classic 30’s tone.
Fast-forward to 2008, when Peavey released cutting-edge modeling software called ReValver mkIII, which let users modify tones not just by tweaking knobs, but also by changing the virtual circuitry of the amp model. The following year, the company introduced the first series of Vypyr amplifiers, which were based on the company’s new TransTube modeling tech-nology. The goal of TransTube, like many other modeling technologies, was to create tube-like tone with natural compression in the power amp, a wide dynamic range, and tube-amp grit.
Now, Peavey has unveiled a second ver-sion of the Vypyr line, the VIP series, as well as an optional pair of foot controllers, dubbed Sanpera I and II. VIP stands for Variable Instrument Performance, and it
36 amp models40 watts
12 stompbox models
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 DR2
review > PEAVEY
RATINGS
pros: Low price. Lightweight design. Easy-to-navigate models and effects. Made for electric, bass, and acoustic guitar. Cons: Feedback can be a problem at high gain or volume (there’s no noise gate). Lacks the lows you’d expect from an amp marketed for bass.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
Peavey Vypyr VIP 2 and Sanpera II Foot Controller, $199 street, peavey.com
a bit excessive, but on this amp they are essential for navigating to the effects, amp models, and other features, and selecting and modifying the amp’s sounds. Essentially there’s no menu system to navigate on the Vypyr. That’s a big plus for musicians who favor a simpler control layout.
Apart from the Peavey-related amp mod-els, there are 24 electric guitar amp models in the VIP 2, including 6534, “twin,” “xxx,” “British,” and “butcher” models. The six acoustic amp and six bass amp collections each include a Trace Elliot model (from the Peavey family, of course).
A Trip to the Tone LibraryI first explored the Vypyr using a Fender Stratocaster plugged directly into the amp. I pressed the electric guitar button, and spun the amplifier knob to classic (an emu-lation of the well-known Peavey Classic mentioned earlier). Each electric guitar amp model on the Vypyr has three virtual chan-nels, clean, crunch, and lead. These chan-nels are accessed by pressing the amp selec-tion knob and are indicated by a change in the LED color from green, to orange, to red—so far, so easy.
The Vypyr’s TransTube engine pretty eas-ily belted out solid approximations of the Classic’s tone. There was sparkle to spare in clean mode and a very tube-like sense of pick dynamics, and the amp was very responsive to pickup changes. Its dynamic range is obviously not as pronounced as what you’d hear from a handwired, all-tube combo amp, but at $200, it’s impressive and fairly natural. Each of the Vypyr’s amp channels offers adjustment to the pre-gain, lows, mids, highs, and post-gain settings. And turning up the pre-gain on the Classic’s clean setting produces an articulate overdrive tone with plenty of spank and range for picking nuance. The Classic’s crunch chan-nel can sound a bit harsh with bright single-coils, but dialing back the treble controls on my instrument took care of the harshest overtones and helped give the amp a gritty, sustain- and harmonic-rich distortion.
The original Peavey Classic was never intended to be a big crunchy rock ’n’ roll amp, but the Peavey 6505, which was inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s 5150 sig-nature model, excels at these heavy tones and it’s the foundation for the 6505 model on the Vypyr 2. The 6505 model matched up well with my Gibson SG’s humbuckers
and the sound was bubbly, blistering, and retained dynamic response when you rolled back the pre-gain. And like most of the other models on the Vypyr 2, the 6505 responds much like a tube amp when you roll back your instrument’s volume control.
The Teachings of BuddaPeavey aligned with boutique amp com-pany Budda in 2008, and the insights they gained are apparent even in the Budda model included in the Vypyr. The Budda setting packs a big low-mid punch, making it excellent for in-your-face blues soloing, as well as intricate jazz noodling. This Budda model was my favorite amp model on the Vypyr, due in large part to the dynamic range and full-bodied tone. A lot of model-ing software tends to struggle with those two very important characteristics, but the Vypyr 2 nails it here in a manner that belies the amp’s price.
Modeling software brings enormous versatility, and it can be a challenge to make an amp simple to operate. One of the most important breakthroughs with the Vypyr VIP series is the incredibly intuitive control layout. When I bought my first smartphone, an Apple iPhone 4, I was surprised to find no included user manual. With the Vypyr VIP 2, it feels like Peavey took a page from Steve Jobs’ book of minimalism and intui-tive operation when they designed the front panel. Your instrument selection determines the amp model selection, which is tweaked with a few tone adjustments (they typically sound great all at noon), and you select your effects by spinning a few lighted rotary knobs. The tuner, effects editing, and basic mixing control are all available within a push and a spin of those same rotary knobs.
Effects AplentyIn addition to the well-executed standard effects like phaser, flange, reverb, delay, octaver, tremolo, chorus, and envelope fil-ter, there are also some off-the-wall effects.
Synth mode turns your guitar into a cheesy-sounding lead synth, but it tracks the instrument’s pitch exceptionally well. You can also make your electric guitar sound like an acoustic, a 12-string, a 7-string, a sitar, or a bowed violin-like instrument. These models can all be combined with each of the amp models, as well as the pre-viously mentioned effects.
Sanpera—Far Beyond Steppin’With the accompanying Sanpera foot controller you can access a looper setting. What’s really cool about a looper effect with a multi-instrument modeling amp is that you can lay down a bass line with a bass amp model, and then perform guitar solos over that with a guitar amp model. The Sanpera’s II dual expression pedals are assignable, so you can use them for wah-wah and volume effects, but also for controlling parameters such as the speed of a tremolo effect. The numerous stomp switches let you toggle effects in your vir-tual effects chain like you would on a typi-cal pedalboard.
The VerdictIf asked what I would expect to pay for something like the Vypyr VIP 2, my hon-est guess would be about 400 bucks. So I was pleasantly surprised to find the street price was half that. As a guitar amp alone, this device has a ton of value. It’s versatile, the models are convincing, the controls are intuitive, and the lightweight chassis makes it a good practice amp or small stage combo. The additional bass and acoustic inputs, as well as their accompanying amp models, make the VIP 2 even more versatile to anyone who likes to practice and write with more than just a 6-string electric. If you’re looking for a fun and simple model-ing amp with easy controls and a wealth of effects at an insanely nice price, I’d strongly suggest taking Peavey’s new Vypyr VIP series for a spin.
premierguitar.com
ily belted out solid approximations of the Classic’s tone. There was sparkle to spare in clean mode and a very tube-like sense of pick dynamics, and the amp was very responsive to pickup changes. Its dynamic range is obviously not as pronounced as what you’d hear from a handwired, all-tube combo amp, but at $200, it’s impressive and fairly natural. Each of the Vypyr’s amp channels offers adjustment to the pre-gain, lows, mids, highs, and post-gain settings. And turning up the pre-gain on the Classic’s clean setting produces an articulate overdrive tone with plenty of spank and range for picking nuance. The Classic’s crunch channel can sound a bit harsh with bright single-coils, but dialing back the treble controls on my instrument took care of the harshest overtones and helped give the amp a gritty, sustain- and harmonic-rich distortion.
intended to be a big crunchy rock ’n’ roll amp, but the Peavey 6505, which was inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s 5150 signature model, excels at these heavy tones and it’s the foundation for the 6505 model on the Vypyr 2. The 6505 model matched up well with my Gibson SG’s humbuckers
150 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > COLe CLaRK
coLe cLarkangel an2a3bbBy adam PerLmutter
to hear audio clips of the guitar at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…Founded in 2001 by Adam Cole and Brad Clark, Cole Clark now builds
everything from acoustic guitars to lap steels and ukuleles. But the Australian com-pany’s original intent was simpler—make steel-string flattops from unique, sustain-able, and local tonewoods, such as bunya and Queensland maple. Cole Clark’s most recent offering, the Angel AN2A3BB, stays true to the company’s original mission. But in many ways it’s a sum of the lessons Cole Clark has learned since the company started, and this adds up to a modern grand auditorium guitar of superlative quality.
The design and CraftsmanshipAt a glance, the Angel AN2A3BB looks more or less traditionally built, but like many Cole Clarks, it has a lot of construc-tional attributes that distinguish it from the average steel-string. For starters, it’s built with a Spanish heel, a construction
method more associated with classical guitars that integrates neck and neck joint and is thought by many to transfer sound better than a dovetail joint. The top and back feature surfaces of standard thickness and ridged sides instead of the kerfing that reinforces most flattop bodies. According to Cole Clark, these alternative methods contribute significantly to the guitar’s pro-jection and volume.
The Angel is built from a selection of solid Australian species—a bunya top, Tasmanian blackwood (a relative of koa) back and sides, and a Queensland maple neck. Meanwhile, the bridge and fretboard are made from the more conventional choice of rosewood, and players with tra-ditional tastes can opt for a top built from grade AA spruce.
The woods from Down Under used in our review model are certainly attractive. The top glows with a reddish hue and is
dotted with bird’s-eye figuring here and there, and it complements the warm red-dish-brown streaks of the blackwood back and sides. A thin, satin nitrocellulose finish reveals the details of all the woods in their natural glory. A rich chocolate-like brown, the fretboard and bridge make a smart counterpoint to all of the lighter-colored woods. The woods are a tactile delight too, especially the bridge and fretboard.
Ornamentation on the guitar is beau-tifully Spartan. There’s no back strip or end strip, just a narrow ring of maple binding on the top and back of the gui-tar. The rosette comprises rosewood and blackwood rings, and the fretboard is dusted with traditional snowflake inlays in
PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
started, and this adds up to a modern grand auditorium guitar of superlative quality.
esign and CraftsmanshipAt a glance, the Angel AN2A3BB looks more or less traditionally built, but like many Cole Clarks, it has a lot of construc-tional attributes that distinguish it from the average steel-string. For starters, it’s built with a Spanish heel, a construction
back and sides, and a Queensland maple neck. Meanwhile, the bridge and fretboard are made from the more conventional choice of rosewood, and players with tra-ditional tastes can opt for a top built from grade AA spruce.
The woods from Down Under used in our review model are certainly attractive. The top glows with a reddish hue and is
Ornamentation on the guitar is beautifully Spartan. There’s no back strip or end strip, just a narrow ring of maple binding on the top and back of the gui-tar. The rosette comprises rosewood and blackwood rings, and the fretboard is dusted with traditional snowflake inlays in
Bunya top
Tasmanian blackwood back and sides
FaceBrace soundboard transducer system and
piezo undersaddle pickup
FaceBlend preamp
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 151
review > COLe CLaRK
RATINGS
Pros: distinct, stylish looks and unique tones in a smart, modern grand auditorium. Cons: hardcore traditionalists will prefer a grand audito-rium with a dovetail joint, a shallower body, and more effec-tively concealed electronics.
Tones
Playability
Build/Design
Value
Cole Clark Angel AN2A3BB, $2,099 street with hardshell case, coleclarkguitars.com
mother-of-pearl. Overall the design feels very organic, though that effect is dimin-ished to some extent by the plastic elements used for the electronics, which include con-trols for the preamp on the lower bout and a battery compartment on the butt end.
Cole Clark put the Angel together nicely. The neck-to-body junction is smooth and solid, the binding is perfectly flush with the body, and other tricky areas like the volute on the headstock are clean and carved pre-cisely. The 20 Dunlop 6230 frets are flaw-lessly polished and entirely free of jagged edges, there are no tooling marks on the fretboard, and the TUSQ nut and saddle are tidily notched.
Inside the guitar, you’ll see some slightly rough woodworking apparent on the unfin-ished back and sides, and on the opposing A bracing, as well as a few very small glue spots. But these are hardly unusual, don’t affect the sound in the slightest, and on the whole, the Angel is a well-built guitar.
smooth playing aussieRemoving the Angel from the included molded plastic case, I was pleased by the guitar’s light weight and the sweet smell of the wood. The Angel feels a little deep for a grand auditorium guitar, but it’s perfectly balanced between body and neck. It’s a plea-sure to cradle on the lap, and it feels just as good to play slung over your shoulder.
The C-shaped neck has a medium-deep profile and comfortable rounded shoul-ders. With an agreeably low action and the perfect amount of neck relief, the guitar plays smooth and superbly right out of the case, and stretchy barre chords and speedy single-note runs are all easy to execute with-out excessive hand fatigue. The 44.4 mm nut (about 1.75") makes the fretboard feel super-spacious and perfect for fingerstyle techniques, and this effect is compounded by the long 25.5" scale. The fretboard’s 12" radius facilitates string bending too, and the guitar felt elastic and bend-happy, even
with the .012 set of Elixir strings the guitar ships with.
easy and adaptableThe visual appeal of the Angel is echoed in the tones that lurk within, warm and alive with clarity. A simple open-E chord rings beautifully, sustains with swirling harmon-ics, and is well balanced from the 6th string to the 1st. Perhaps due to the integral neck, output seems remarkably consistent up and down the fretboard. For instance, a B played at the 6th string’s 7th fret does not sound dissimilar, in terms of timbre or vol-ume, as one played at the 5th string’s 2nd fret. Overall, the Angel feels very responsive and is equal to the task of the gentlest fin-gerpicking and most frenzied strumming. The sound loses none of its luster or har-monic richness when the guitar is tuned to open G, DADGAD, and even down to low C. These alternative tunings are quite easy to access, thanks to the smooth-feeling Grover 18:1 tuners.
Being a grand auditorium-sized instru-ment, the Angel begs to be fingerpicked, and it has a very adaptive voice that you can apply to everything from Renaissance lute pieces to country blues and chord-melody jazz. Still, it’s plenty cooperative when played with a plectrum, whether for delicate arpeggio work or more aggressive soloing and strumming—though the latter might be less advisable, given the lack of the optional pickguard.
Three Ways to Get electrifiedThese days most mid-priced electric-acoustic guitars use undersaddle electronics, which can sound bass-heavy, quacky, and not entirely faithful to the instrument’s nat-ural sound. But just as a home audio system incorporates subwoofers, midrange boxes, and treble horns to best distribute a full-range sound, the electronics on the Angel incorporate three separate transducer ele-ments to handle all of the sonic frequencies.
These include six individual piezo sen-sors under the bridge for the low end, a FaceBrace (soundboard transducer) for the midrange, and a condenser microphone for the high end.
The preamp includes two dials: One blends the output between the piezo and soundboard transducer elements, and the other controls the level of the mic. Once this balance is right, you can tailor the tone using standard volume, treble, mid, and bass controls, but it’s unfortunate that this system doesn’t include the commonplace built-in digital tuner.
I plugged the Angel into a Fender Acoustasonic amplifier. Because acoustic guitar amps are designed to compensate for the shortcomings of traditional acoustic electronics, it took a bit of tweaking of the blend controls to get the most natural sound. What seemed to work best for this purpose was a slight emphasis on the under-saddle elements. Plugged into GarageBand, the electronics have an uncommonly warm, lifelike sound and generate a minimum of extraneous noise—this is plug-in-and-play at its best.
The VerdictCole Clark’s Angel AN2A3BB is a smart, modern acoustic-electric grand auditorium that’s beautifully built, supremely playable, and capable of generating voices that are at home in many musical contexts—espe-cially with its super-flexible electronics. What’s more, the Angel is built from a selection of solid, sustainably sourced tonewoods that lend a unique flavor to otherwise familiar tones. Though it’s not inexpensive, it’s a total winner when it comes to playability and style. And if you crave breaking away from the pack soni-cally and visually, the Cole Clark Angel is a great way to do it.
premierguitar.com
a grand auditorium guitar, but it’s perfectly balanced between body and neck. It’s a pleasure to cradle on the lap, and it feels just as good to play slung over your shoulder.
The C-shaped neck has a medium-deep profile and comfortable rounded shoul-ders. With an agreeably low action and the perfect amount of neck relief, the guitar plays smooth and superbly right out of the case, and stretchy barre chords and speedy single-note runs are all easy to execute with-out excessive hand fatigue. The 44.4 mm nut (about 1.75") makes the fretboard feel super-spacious and perfect for fingerstyle techniques, and this effect is compounded by the long 25.5" scale. The fretboard’s 12" radius facilitates string bending too, and the guitar felt elastic and bend-happy, even
low C. These alternative tunings are quite easy to access, thanks to the smooth-feeling Grover 18:1 tuners.
Being a grand auditorium-sized instrument, the Angel begs to be fingerpicked, and it has a very adaptive voice that you can apply to everything from Renaissance lute pieces to country blues and chord-melody jazz. Still, it’s plenty cooperative when played with a plectrum, whether for delicate arpeggio work or more aggressive soloing and strumming—though the latter might be less advisable, given the lack of the optional pickguard.
Three Ways to Get These days most mid-priced electric-acoustic guitars use undersaddle electronics, which can sound bass-heavy, quacky, and not entirely faithful to the instrument’s natural sound. But just as a home audio system incorporates subwoofers, midrange boxes, and treble horns to best distribute a full-range sound, the electronics on the Angel incorporate three separate transducer elements to handle all of the sonic frequencies.
152 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
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premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 153
review > z.Vex
z.vexfat fuzz faCtoryBy Jordan wagner
When the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory hit the scene in the winter of 1995, there was
nothing out there quite like it. Its strange, unruly sounds and twitchy sensitivity were in stark contrast to the typical fuzz units that most players were used to. Younger guitarists might not realize that the choices for fuzz pedals were pretty limited at the time, and for adventurous guitarists looking for fresh sounds, the Fuzz Factory and its mad timbres seemed like a prayer answered.
It has been 18 years since the Fuzz Factory appeared, yet the pedal continues to be wildly popular amongst experimentalists, noise-makers, and guitarists looking to add more—and more daring—flavors of fuzz to their music. But with the exception of the Theremin-like Fuzz Probe, the Fuzz Factory hasn’t really been updated with any new abilities for generating additional tones. And this explains why the new Fat Fuzz Factory is creating so much excitement.
The Fat Fuzz Factory builds upon the same core components and tone-generating capabil-ities of the standard Fuzz Factory—using new-old-stock (NOS) ’60s germanium transistors and a highly sensitive set of controls—but also includes a switch that greatly expands the low end and shifts the range of its famous oscil-lating feedback to much lower registers. This switch not only makes the Fat Fuzz Factory a beastly fuzz generator for guitar, but also helps it enhance the lower-register output of basses with Earth-shattering results.
Boss HoggJust like the original Fuzz Factory, the heart of its new portly brother is a pair of high-gain, NOS germanium transistors, which are attached to a handassembled and popu-lated circuit board. It also uses true bypass switching and runs on either a 9V battery or a Boss-style power adapter, but because it only pulls 4 mA—which is astonishingly small—it will be a long time before you have to replace the battery. The pedal comes in two flavors—a handpainted version that’s completely assembled in the U.S. and a more
to hear audio clips of the pedal at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…affordable Vexter edition that’s partially built in Taiwan and sports a silk-screened motif.
The pedal uses five highly interactive controls for volume, gating, compression, drive, and a menacingly labeled stab knob, which can either change the pitch of the pedal’s oscillating squeal or the tone of the fuzz, depending on where the other controls are set. Because moving one control can have a drastic effect on how the others react, dialing them in can, at first, seem challeng-ing. Thoughtfully though, the manual pro-vides a few sample settings to get you started with high-gain compressed fuzz, Velcro-ripping tones, and cleaner Octavia-type effects. Above the drive and stab knobs lies a three-way switch for setting the low-end fre-quency range. When set to 1, the pedal is in standard Fuzz Factory mode. Moving it to positions 2 and 3 add more sub-harmonic intensity, and gradually darken and thicken the fuzz to degrees well beyond what the standard Fuzz Factory is capable of.
Tubby ToneEven though the Fat Fuzz Factory was designed to add more low-end muscle to the classic Fuzz Factory sound, the fact
that you can operate it as a standard Fuzz Factory is one of its best features. Putting the mode switch in position 1 yields the pedal’s brightest and sharpest tones, and its clear and uncluttered tonality make it the best setting for newcomers, as well as the best way to hear how the controls interact and affect the tone.
I found that with a Les Paul and a Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, Z.Vex’s pre-prescribed compressed fuzz setting—gate at 3 o’clock, comp at 9 o’clock, drive and stab maxed, and volume to taste—yields a bright and gated fuzz tone that’s a great place to begin crafting your own sounds.
Pushing up the comp control softens the highs and the attack, which also causes the gate control to squelch the sound harder, resulting in a cool, 8-bit video game-sound-ing fuzz. Dropping the comp and drive to their lowest settings and turning up the gate to around 2 o’clock applies a low-gain, upper-octave effect to each note. These are only a couple of examples that can be
PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 153
3-position mode switch
Gate control Stab control
154 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > z.Vex
RATINGS
Pros: enormously versatile. minimal battery draw. massive volume capability. can produce warm moog-like emulations with both guitar and bass. Cons: relatively steep learning curve. finicky with pedal-chain placement. some modes induce sudden oscillation.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
Z.Vex Fat Fuzz Factory, $329 street (handpainted), $199 street (Vexter edition), zvex.com
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discovered fairly quickly. Deeper tweaking, however, can reveal all sorts of otherworldly tones—smooth fuzzes that drop notes down an octave after holding them for a few moments, motorcycle engine revving, space-age ray gun bursts, and much, much more.
Moving the switch to position 2 adds considerable lows to the tone and makes the pedal darker sounding. There are still plenty of the Fuzz Factory’s characteristic sizzling highs in the mix, but you’ll hear a meaner, less razor-like edge than before. In this envi-ronment, sustained single notes from the Les Paul’s bridge pickup had nearly as much body as full chords, and heavily gated low notes played with the neck pickup shook the room with a fat, synth-like snarl. Lowering the gate control dropped the pitch range of the fuzz oscillation too, making it easy to dial up droning, gut-shaking whines that alter-nate pitch like a demonic Theremin.
With some settings though, it was pretty obvious that changing modes also had an effect on the range of various controls. Switching to position 2 caused some of my favorite non-oscillating tones from position
1 to instantly oscillate—requiring me to tweak the pedal’s gate and comp controls to get rid of the whine.
The pedal’s most corpulent tones come from the bottom-heavy position 3. This mode works particularly well when matched with a high-gain setting and single-note runs on high-er strings, which receive a pronounced bump in presence. Adding more gating to higher-gain settings yields a grinding synth-like tone that dies with a gnarly sputter—almost as if some-one directly hard-wired a dual octave-down pedal to a circuit-bent Casio keyboard. Because of the very dense and complex tones you get in this mode, it’s easy for chords to turn into a jumbled mess. It’s best for single notes that
need a little extra kick, or bassists who need more depth and intensity in their lines.
The VerdictThe Fat Fuzz Factory offers a huge range of fuzz tones. The mode switch’s position 1 has all the endless fuzz variations of the standard Fuzz Factory. But the switch’s additional positions open the gates to two very different-sounding harmonic ranges that deliver everything from tubby stoner fuzz to total low-end Armageddon. It’s a touchy pedal that requires some patience and willingness to experiment, but with persistence it’ll reward you with a level of flexibility and tone that exceeds its formi-dable and very influential predecessor.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 155
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to watch a video demo of the amp at premierguitar.com/aug2013
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premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 157
review > jaguar
jaguarhc50BY Matthew holliMan
Part of the charm of vintage amplifiers is their inherent simplicity—I mean,
do you really need six or seven knobs to get a decent tone? While there is something to be said for versatility and control, the short answer to that question for a lot of players is that less is more.
Jaguar Amplification is no stranger to minimalist tendencies, and the company’s new HC50 dodges the doodad trap to deliv-er a potent, distinctly English-voiced EL34
amp that’s happy dishing immaculate clean tones and more ferocious sounds alike.
Your Tone, SirThe HC50 has just four chickenhead knobs—master, volume, bass, and tre-ble—two inputs, and standby and power switches on its faceplate. Jaguar added a couple goodies on the back panel—power-scaling and an impedance selector. At full power, the HC50 delivers 50 class-AB
watts—enough headroom for just about any stage. At half power, there’s still plenty of volume for most stages, but it also facilitates a full-bodied, dirtier blend at a lower output level. The HC50 ships with a 12" Celestion Creamback, which is has ample breathing room in the girthy open-back cabinet.
Like the rest of the Jaguar family, the HC50 has Brit blood in its circuits. Long a staple of English amplification, two EL34s
jaguarjaguarjaguar
Master volume Bass and treble EQ section
158 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > jaguar
RATINGS
Pros: Fantastic, atmospheric el34-driven cleans. Classic rock in a box. cons: Minimal features might bum out tone tweakers.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
Jaguar Amplification HC50, $2,029 street, jaguaramplification.com
drive the power section. Two 12AX7s and one 12AT7 power the preamp, and there’s also a GZ34 rectifier. All tubes are matched JJs. There’s something distinctly British about the Jaguar aesthetic too—white pip-ing and fawn-hued vinyl take cues from the Vox wardrobe and are a cool contrast to the sparkled blonde grille. And with a cabinet crafted from a 13-ply birch wood frame, this Jaguar is rugged enough to take out on the town too.
Clarity and CrunchIf you’re a high-gain nut or feel lost without the latest thousand-amps-in-one digital gad-get, the Jaguar HC50 is probably not for you. But almost any other type of player is bound to love the HC50s clean tones—they’re some of the most spectacular and lovely EL34-driven cleans I’ve ever encountered. Many folks don’t associate British circuits with clean tones, and rightfully so—many Marshalls of yesteryear sound great with dimed-out gain but turn lifeless when you back off the vol-ume. Save for a few high-wattage Marshalls, Voxes, and Hiwatts, this tends to be the rule rather than the exception.
But as my experience with the HC50 and conversations with Jaguar’s Henry Clift made clear, the company made tackling the British cleans conundrum a priority in designing this amp. Clift says the genesis of this ampli-fier was, in part, a clamor from players ask-ing for a better platform for effects pedals. Given that, I was surprised to see a master-volume based circuit, which, if you’re not careful, can generate harmonic mush when you have a lot of stompboxes in the mix.
The ability to elude this problem so effectively is one of the real strengths of the HC50, however. Starting my test with a humbucker-equipped Epiphone Genesis, I set up the HC50 at full power and dialed master and volume to high noon. At these levels, the humbuckers generated a light crunch with great harmonic clarity and separation. The Jaguar displayed excellent touch sensitivity with the hotter bridge pickup, delivering extra bite in response to a harder approach. It’s a sensation you’ll probably bask in, but that touch sensitivity and capacity for detail can leave you feeling a little vulnerable if your playing is less than precise—you’ll hear every subtle nuance of your pick gliding across the strings.
Gain remains fairly sedate until you hit about 3 o’clock. Thereafter, you get a
very English, Kinks-like crunch. Maxing the volume produces a more distorted and harmonically rich crunch, but again, you have to think in classic rock terms here. There’s no blocky compression or hyper saturation, just dirty, gritty muscle for chords and crisp, gleaming sustain for single-note solos.
Throwing a handful of pedals in front of the HC50, I found the Jaguar capable of communicating, in detail, the essence of nearly every effect I threw its way. An Ibanez TS9 was a great asset for lead work, allowing for more drive and silkier sustain. Heavier distortion from a Sovtek Big Muff found steady footing in the HC50’s clean gain structure, too. While some crunchier amps swallow a Muff ’s harmonic nuances, the Jaguar broadcasts its gnashing character without a hint of burping or clipping. With a Telecaster in hand, this clean-twang-meets-Muff wall-of-fuzz mix is a perfect shoegazing cocktail. Just throw in your favorite reverb, shake, and serve.
Curious about the Jag’s compatibility with a closed-back cabinet, I hooked up an old ’60s Bassman 2x12 and switched the impedance to 4 Ω. While I could generate
more cutting tones with this setup, the amp displayed less of the ethereal bloom you get with an open back. For more hard-rock attitude from the HC50, a closed-back cab is a great place to start. Still, for all the Angus Young-style attitude I got from the closed-back setup, I did miss the airier quality of the Celestion Creamback and the open cab. I can’t imagine many owners attracted to the versatility of this recipe will stray far from that combination.
The VerdictThis sweet little Jaguar is a solid choice for old-school Brit tone hounds and the plug-and-play crowd. You can run your guitar straight into the HC50 and find a vibrant, lively tone without a single pedal in the mix. But the Jaguar is just as alive with your pedal collection out front—I couldn’t find an effect that it didn’t take to like a fish to water. With the capacity to deliver both operatic sustain and a classy mod jangle, you’ll be hard-pressed to top this Jaguar’s potential without shelling out for a vintage classic.
Jaguar Amplification HC50, $2,029 street, jaguaramplification.comJaguar Amplification HC50, $2,029 street, jaguaramplification.com
Power-halving switch 3-position Ω selector
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 159
Michael Tobias Design
The NEW Kingston Rubicon
Guitar
SmokeySoCal Artist
For more info: mtdkingston.com
photo by Scott Rathburn
review > FU-TONE.COM
DR3 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
FU-TONE.COMHIGH PERFORMANCEBRIDGE PACKAGESby GErry GaNadEN
After building a better mousetrap, Adam Reiver of FU-Tone.com (for-
merly Floyd Upgrades) decided to build an even better mousetrap. In our February 2009 issue we reviewed the Big Block upgrade, a Floyd Rose tremolo replace-ment sustain block that’s substantially more massive than the standard Floyd Rose block. It represented a big improve-ment, but Reiver figured he could find more ways to improve on the existing Floyd Rose design. And by using stainless steel and titanium in critical parts of the unit, he has indeed taken the Floyd Rose concept in several new directions. Already such players as Warren DeMartini, Steve
to hear soundclips of the bridges at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…
FU-TONE.COMFU-TONE.COMFU-TONE.COM
Stevens, Phil Collen, Slash, George Lynch, and Alex Lifeson have embraced the poten-tial of these upgrades.
Stepping OffThe standard Original Floyd Rose (OFR) bridge was built with a steel baseplate, steel saddles with steel inserts, a metal spring claw, steel springs, and a thin nickel-plated brass sustain block.
Reiver’s improvements begin with two high-performance bridges. Each features steel baseplates that are very similar to the OFR baseplate in dimension, but things change fast from there. The more basic and affordable upgrade package includes
Titanium block
Titanium saddles Brass spring claw
Titanium insertsHeavy-duty
noiseless springs
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 DR4
review > FU-TONE.COM
RATINGS
Pros: The brass package increases tonal capabilities and unlocks characteristics that might be hidden in a locking tremolo-equipped guitar. The titanium package offers structural indestructi-bility while giving the guitar a much more aggressive attack in tone. Cons: The titanium block may give a guitar a harsh brittle-tone to a common wood like alder.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
FU-Tone.com High Performance Bridge Standard Upgrade Package, $319.95 street;
FU-Tone.com High Performance Bridge Full Titanium Package, $922.95 street, FU-Tone.com
stainless steel hardware (string-locking screws and saddle-mounting screws), but also features titanium saddle inserts, noise-less springs, a brass spring claw, and a brass Big Block sustain block. The more technically advanced and expensive version includes the same stainless steel hardware, but with a titanium block, titanium saddles with titanium inserts, a brass spring claw, and heavy-duty noiseless springs.
Stainless steel hardware is critical in Reiver’s designs for more than aesthetic reasons. Steel components are susceptible to moisture-driven corrosion—a problem that plagues the standard hardware on frequently used OFRs that are exposed to acidic sweat or the occasional beer soak. The structural integrity of titanium is a step beyond stainless steel, of course, as it verges on indestructible.
Mass is also a critical and fundamental difference between the FU-Tone.com ver-sions and the originals. While the OFR bridge weighs exactly 1 pound, the other two have drastic weight differences. The brass block version weighs in at 1.25 pounds, and the titanium block version is an amazingly light 14 ounces.
The durability and, in some cases, weight advantages of these materials is beyond question, but the tonal differences can be less easy to pinpoint. And what real-ly makes these components sonic upgrades is the way they work together.
More Boom Through BulkOur test guitar for this review is a pre-Fend-er-era Charvel with a single Seymour Duncan JB pickup. It was originally equipped with a top-mounted, non-recessed floating Floyd Rose with a 42 mm sustain block.
The brass block FU-Tone bridge was the first version I checked out. Removal and changeover included replacing the pot-met-al spring claw and steel springs. And after replacing the spring claw with the new brass one, I installed the bridge into the cavity and hooked the noiseless springs into place.
Stringing up, there is a noticeable dif-ference in the feel of clamping the strings with the titanium inserts via the stainless steel locking screws. The titanium inserts can withstand up to 140,000 pounds of pressure, while the OFR inserts have always been prone to deforming, expanding, or breaking under the pressure of the lock-ing screw. In these respects, the titanium
inserts are a vast improvement, insuring against structural mishap, and they hold the string firmly from accidental slippage. Very little effort was needed to tighten the lock screw when clamping the strings into the saddles securely.
Once the guitar was strung up, intonat-ed, and tuned, the it sounded richer, deeper and capable of more sustain. The OFR sustain block has been known to contribute to thin tone, but the brass block FU-Tone bridge gave the Charvel a much needed boost in midrange resonance. You can also hear tighter definition and focus in individ-ual notes and greater clarity in chords. And with the noiseless, polymer-coated springs, there was no creaking, squeaking, or any ghost resonance.
After playing for several hours with this setup, I removed the brass block rig and switched in the titanium unit. As part of the upgrade, I also replaced the noise-less springs with the heavy-duty noiseless springs. Coated in a bright red polymer, these springs have a much higher tension than common tremolo springs. While installing the bridge, hooking the springs onto the titanium sustain block required loosening the brass spring claw a consider-able amount, and it’s easy to imagine that this increased tension would enhance the transfer of vibration from the block to the body. The clamping inserts inside the titanium saddles are cylindrical and almost twice the size of the standard Floyd Rose saddle insert, and they force the string to stay centered inside the saddle.
Once the guitar was properly intonated and tuned, the tones were crisp with more presence. In overdriven settings, there was a much more aggressive attack that, at times, bordered on harshness. Lowering the gain on the amp alleviated most of that problem. Still, the tone generated via the titanium block seemed brittle at extreme
settings compared to the brass unit or the original. Sustain was still excellent, though in general, there was less physically percep-tible resonance. Also, when reaching for the arm to vibrato chords or to do extreme pitch bends, I found the heavy-duty noise-less springs made the action of the bridge much stiffer.
The sonic properties of the titanium version can vary from guitar to guitar. And when installed in a solid mahogany Charvel Natural Series, the titanium block FU-Tone bridge balanced the dark tonal characteristics of the mahogany with the added presence derived from the titanium bridge, and the guitar sounded much more alive than it did with its stock OFR. Indeed, the FU-Tone.com titanium components were what this guitar needed to produce tones beyond the low-to-midrange voice it was born with.
The VerdictFU-Tone brass and titanium block tremolos with stainless steel hardware have much to offer. And both have the capacity to sum-mon the hidden tones in a locking tremolo guitar, depending on the wood. The brass version with stainless steel hardware and titanium inserts seems like the most versa-tile package. The titanium version was more useful in a darker-sounding guitar, as it can add a lively presence to a fundamentally warm instrument.
It’s surprising to hear how much tonal difference you can derive from otherwise invisible components like the stainless spring claw and noiseless springs, and there’s a lot to be said for stainless steel’s longevity.
FU-Tone.com offers each component sep-arately, so you can assemble your own system to suit your specific guitar and sonic needs—a real benefit. And whether you go for a drastic tone shift or a subtle one, you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve with parts you might otherwise have overlooked.
.com
TAM100 Signature 8-String Guitar
Tosin Abasi
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 161
review > epifani
epiFanial 112BY DaviD aBDo
Respected bass-amplification guru Nick Epifani knows a thing or two about
cabinet design. After much research and development alongside industrial designer and longtime Epifani team member Romano Ferretti, Epifani has released the AL series of combos and extension cabinets. Encasing Epifani’s signature drivers in light-weight, solid-aluminum shells that follow the Italian design tradition of form equal-ing function, these new cabs and combos represent the first of their kind. Our intro-duction to the AL series came in the form of the AL 112—a futuristic-looking combo that’s capable of delivering a ton of tone.
aL-chemyThe front-ported AL 112 is a unique hybrid of Epifani’s past and present innova-tions. The aluminum shell has a distinctive trapezoidal design with slightly bowed sides. According to Epifani, this shape delivers improved frequency response and an overall stronger output, while the alu-minum’s rigidity yields a protective shell with less weight.
Inside the AL 112 is another break-through in bass amplification that Epifani introduced four years ago—a 12" dual-voice-coil ceramic speaker that uses the company’s dual-impedance speaker technology (D.I.S.T.). With the flick of a rear-mounted switch, the D.I.S.T. con-verts the driver to either 4 Ω or 8 Ω oper-ation. This allows the option to run single or multiple speakers, while optimizing the delivery of power to the driver(s).
The same 600-watt amplifier from Epifani’s Piccolo 600 drives the AL 112. Its control panel provides simplicity and flexibility that surpasses many in its class. The tone controls consist of three shelving knobs—bass, mid, and treble. A vintage switch subdues the upper mids and highs to create a round, old-school sound, while mid cut can temper the honk of an upright pickup or be a slapper’s delight by scooping up to -8 dB at 800 Hz. Throw in
to hear audio clips of the amp at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…an effects loop, DI, and a mute switch, and you have Epifani’s recipe for maximum tone production with minimum components.
prima impressioneAt just a hair under 40 pounds, the AL 112 weighs less than your standard 12" ceramic-driver cabinet, but this combo doesn’t necessarily feel like a featherweight. One possible reason might be the placement of the handle, which makes for an unbalanced, awkward lift. Further, the hard plastic handle did not elicit complete confidence as it rattled back and forth in transport, and it took a while for me to eventually trust that it wouldn’t break.
However, all this was quickly forgotten when I powered up the amp and played it
with a 1964 Fender Jazz, a 1966 Fender Jazz with flatwounds, a Nash P-style, and an Ibanez BTB 6-string. Regardless of dynamic level, the AL 112 delivered each bass’ tones with a thick fundamental and a clean top end. Jaco disciples would love how both Jazz basses’ bridge pickups per-formed through the Epifani. With a touch of mid boost, each note fired out of the cab with immediacy and a slightly compressed feel that made harmonics pop. The AL 112 wasn’t afraid of any B-string bombs either, dropping notes from the first five frets with a chest-punching attack. The low end of
anianiani
Powder-coated aluminum enclosure 12" Epifani
ceramic speaker
162 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > epifani
RATINGS
Pros: Mind-bogglingly responsive and powerful. Sounds great in almost every setting. a best-in-class bass rig. cons: Cabinet and handle design can make for awkward transport.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
Epifani AL 112, $1,599 street, epifani.com
the Nash P-style was massive, and engaging the combo’s vintage mode brought that buh sound into Motown-like bass lines.
The Little Combo That CouldI played the AL 112 in a variety of situa-tions, and each one highlighted its quality. With a 10-piece horn band and master volume at 10 o’clock, the Nash rang out easily over an aggressive drummer and a bold brass-and-woodwind section. They even asked me to turn down so the vocalists could hear themselves.
The pinnacle of my AL 112 pleasure came on a funk gig when I placed the rig between two 100-watt half stacks and a notoriously loud drummer. The vocalist, who was responsible for the P.A., ran a line from the Epifani’s direct out to the board, and the AL 112’s master volume was set around noon. As we began to play, the notes from the ’66 Jazz came out with excellent presence and definition. Two songs into the set, the vocalist came over and apologized for forgetting to unmute the bass channel in the P.A—all that bass goodness was coming solely from the tiny Epifani. Everybody in the band was stunned.
I had similar successes at gigs playing blues, salsa, and rock covers. It didn’t matter which bass I played—the rig was unflap-pable and preserved its sonic space with plenty of clarity and volume. The fact that this diminutive combo could hang on gigs where I’d normally use an 800-watt amp and a 4x10 cabinet says volumes (pun kind of intended) about the AL 112’s design. But the best part came at the end of each night, when I could tear down and have the car packed in less than five minutes.
After so much success with electrics, I decided to throw the AL 112 one last curve ball and plug in my upright bass, which is equipped with a Fishman Full Circle pickup.
With a little help from the mid-cut dial, I was able to mellow out the nasty midrange frequencies that have plagued this particular bass when amplified. It didn’t take long at all to sculpt a pleasing tone that brought out the acoustic character of the upright.
The VerdictSo is aluminum a worthy material for a bass-cab design? After rigorous testing in different environments, the AL 112 combo certainly makes a compelling argument.
Epifani has used it to engineer a metallic masterpiece that delivers the best of what your bass has to offer in a sturdy, powerful package. This combo may be the ultimate one-trip-rig for a working bassist at any level. It sounded so good, no matter what I threw at it, that I was able to stop worry-ing about my gear and completely focus on what really matters—making music.
3-band EQ
Vintage switchMid-cut control
The fact that this diminu-tive combo could hang on
gigs where I’d normally use an 800-watt amp and a 4x10 cabinet says volumes
(pun kind of intended) about the AL 112’s design.
164 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > reVerend
reverenDkingboltBY joe Charupakorn
to hear audio clips of the guitar at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…
Since taking flight in 1997, Reverend Guitars has garnered a reputation as a
player’s company. With a lineup of instru-ments that include signature models of artists like country picker Pete Anderson, jazz/blues virtuoso Gil Parris, and avant rocker Reeves Gabrels, Reverend has always focused more on functionality than flash. At NAMM 2013, the Kingbolt was introduced as part of the company’s Bolt-On series, and it targets a heavy-metal/hard-rock market that the company has never really explored. Like most Reverends,
though, it’s a solid performer that inhabits a unique place within its target market rather than aping established standard bearers.
days of Metal passedThe Korean-made Kingbolt, with its pointy horns and curved bottom, has the aes-thetic presence of a “super strat” that got tangled up with a Jazzmaster and a Music Man. The retro-pop-meets-shredder sum of those parts—the like of which we don’t see often—is quirky and eccentric without looking goofy.
The 25.5"-scale Kingbolt features a korina body, a “medium-oval”-profile maple neck with 22 medium-jumbo frets and a 12"-radius fretboard that’s available in maple or rosewood (our test model has the former). Reverend founder Joe Naylor’s expertise as a luthier and his expe-rience in industrial design is evident in some of the Kingbolt’s less-obvious details, like the neck plate—which, in addition to having six screws for added sustain and increased tuning stability, has two smaller screws in the middle so that the plate stays
Korina body
Ceramic 13k Ω Special H pickup
Ceramic 6.5k Ω Special H pickup
DDD
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 165
review > reVerend
RATINGS
Pros: great sounds for almost any style. Flawless build. cons: Somewhat pricey for an import.
Tones
Playability
Build/Design
Value
Reverend Kingbolt, $1,079 street, reverendguitars.com
bolted to the back of the body when the neck is removed.
Hardware choices also reveal a keen design eye and emphasis on playability. The Wilkinson WVS50 IIK tremolo features an arm that you simply push in instead of an annoying threaded arm (you can also adjust swing tension), and the Reverend pin-lock tuners makes it very easy to change strings and keep the guitar in tune. Tuning isn’t quite as stable as a more conventional locking-nut-equipped guitar—when I gave the whammy bar a few violent dives and upward yanks, I experienced some percep-tible detuning, but it wasn’t too drastic. For folks like me who hate locking-nut tremolos, the pin-lock tuners and 1 21/32" graphite nut are a pretty cool compromise.
In terms of construction, this Reverend delivers in spades. The craftsmanship on the Kingbolt is immaculate—perfectly cut nut slots, properly seated frets, a correctly positioned bridge, and a great out-of-the box factory setup. All checklist items that, sadly, you can’t automatically expect these days. The Kingbolt’s neck is very comfort-able whether your proclivities include extended jams based on full barre chords, bluesy lower-register bends, or above-the-12th-fret shredding. The forearm and belly cut definitely add to the comfort factor—after a fairly long rehearsal that traversed many different genres, I never felt a sense of fatigue.
Like a Bolt of LightningI tested the Kingbolt through various set-ups, including a Mesa/Boogie Blue Angel amp and a vintage ProCo Rat pedal. The ceramic Special H bridge and neck pick-ups, measuring at 13k Ω and 6.5k Ω, respectively, give the Kingbolt the ability to get a modern sound or a slightly vin-
tage vibe. Overdriven, the Kingbolt has an authoritative lead voice that’s thick but clear and articulate—even at very high gain levels. Clean, the Kingbolt sounds confi-dent without possessing an overbearing, in-your-face aggressiveness.
Like other guitars in the Reverend lineup, the Kingbolt’s electronics include a bass-contour knob, which Reverend says can make a humbucker sound like a P-90 or a single-coil. It hollows out the sound and works a little like a coil-splitter except that there isn’t as much volume loss as you’d get with a tapped coil. While an obsessive gear-o-holic might never mistake the Kingbolt for a Stratocaster
or a Telecaster in a blindfolded test, there was a moment in the middle of a session where, a few seconds after flicking to the neck pickup, I looked over to double check the pickup configuration. I had the bass contour rolled back and, for a brief sec-ond, I thought I was hearing a single-coil. The faux single-coil sound was even more convincing when I played some twangy spaghetti-western-type riffs with the bridge pickup’s tone all the way up and the bass contour all the way off.
Overall, the Kingbolt is a bright-sound-ing guitar, and this is especially evident when playing with clean tones. Even after turning the tone knob fully counter-clock-wise and keeping the bass contour up all the way, I noted a crispness that you typi-cally don’t experience when you turn the tone knob all the way down. If you’re one of those guys who rolls off your tone to get jazz tones, you might not find the Kingbolt dark enough. On the other hand, your tone won’t turn into mud and you’ll be able to cut through any mix.
The VerdictReverend has always been about offering affordability without sacrificing qual-ity, and like most of their guitars, the Kingbolt’s price-to-quality ratio is very high. At $1,079, it feels and plays like a boutique instrument without the custom price tag. And although it’s marketed as a hot-rod rocker, what makes the Kingbolt especially appealing is its versatility beyond the world of power chords and JCM800s. Practically speaking, it could be the one guitar to bring to gigs where you don’t feel like schlepping multiple instruments. There isn’t much tonal ground the Kingbolt can’t cover with a few tweaks to the versatile control set. If you like to just dial up some basic sounds and be done with it, you’ll find what you need in seconds. However, if you’re a tinkerer, the Kingbolt offers a gold mine of tonal possibilities.
12"-radius maple fretboard
Graphite nut
Overdriven, the Kingbolt has an authoritative lead voice that’s thick but clear and articulate—even at very high gain levels.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 167
review > earTHQuaKer deViCeS
earthQuaker DeviCeSDiSaStER tRanSPoRt SRBY CharleS SauFleY
The Disaster Transport SR—an evolu-tion of EarthQuaker Device’s superb
Disaster Transport modulating delay—is an elegant and versatile beast for which the company’s cephalopod-limbed skull mascot is an apt visual metaphor. For while it seems to do the job of about eight pedals at once, this twin delay with reverb and modulation moves from vintage echo tones to endlessly unfolding realms of the bizarre with an ease that doesn’t require extra appendages.
deceptively SimpleThe Disaster Transport SR’s topmost row of knobs is dedicated to delay A. You get con-trols for time, repeats, and a wet/dry mix, as well as depth and rate controls for modula-tion, and a bleed control that’s one of the SR’s real secret weapons. The second row is dedicated to delay B—again, time, repeats, and wet/dry knobs—plus a reverb knob.
The SR has dedicated footswitches for each delay, and a bypass switch lets you shut off the effect without trails. Further, you can tweak both repeats and bleed set-ting via two expression pedal inputs.
Transgalactic Sonic TravellerThe SR’s basic delay voice is lush, expan-sive, with a trace of the natural-sounding ghost reverb that colors the richest-sound-ing analog delays. With judiciously applied time-modulation settings, delay A (30–600 ms) lets you approximate the chorus and vibrato modulation tones you’d hear from an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man—lovely stuff if you’re into the spare, quavering atmospherics of the Edge’s har-monics and high-register arpeggios in “The Unforgettable Fire.” And depending on depth and mix settings, you can induce vertigo-inducing pitch wiggles, more subtle Echoplex-type wobbling, and modulations that walk the line between chorus and rotary speaker sounds.
Delay B’s shorter range (30–300 ms) makes it the best of the two for dedicating to slapback effects, and this ability to move
to hear audio clips of the pedal at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…from slapback to longer delays can really expand your vocabulary and capacity to cover different feels in a song or set. Using a short delay on delay B also highlights the good sense EarthQuaker had to place the reverb on the shorter delay channel. While the delay and ’verb lack some of the grit that hardcore, vintage-correct rockabilly fanatics mighty demand, the slapback and reverb are an excellent approximation in most applications. And a more extreme reverb setting with shorter delays enables a cinematic, fade-to-dream-style take on country chord melodies that ride into the sunset in the most surreal, widescreen sense.
The bleed knob manages the relationship between the two delays. Fully counterclock-wise, it places them in parallel, making the delays distinct, separate entities—it’s a lush, relatively uncluttered sound, depending
on reverb and modulation amounts, as well as how complex your summed repeat pattern is. With both delays on, moving bleed past zero makes the signal part paral-lel, part series—i.e., part of delay A’s signal goes through delay B. With delay B off and bleed beyond zero, the delays are in series, which can create a significantly deeper, more complex sum of the voices that can sound rich, feverishly nebulous, or down-right opaque.
While you can blow minds by mating wildly wobbling oscillations with disparate delay times, some of the nicest sounds often come from subtle time disparities (or more precise and even divisions) between A and B, and careful use of the bleed and mix
Two independent delays
Delay A: 30–600 ms
Delay B: 30–300 ms
Modulation section
Reverb section
Bleed knob for series/parallel switching and blending
168 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
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knobs. Shape these worlds carefully, and you can add color to spare suspended chords or build simple melodies into Daniel Lanois-style minor epics.
The subtlety of the SR’s reverb may disappoint those hoping for transgalactic sounds, but it’s a great match for the delays. Your signal hits it before delay B, so you won’t lose the intricacies of a com-plex delay recipe in a reverb wash.
The VerdictIt’s hard not to be struck by the combina-tion of elegant simplicity and nearly infinite possibility that you get from the Disaster Transport SR. The layout and switching setup let you easily go from wildly chaotic to conventional delay-and-reverb voices. And being able to run the two delays in parallel or series—or a mix of the two—makes the SR adaptable to varying stage setups and songs. Add a musically voiced reverb, powerful modulation, and switch-ing that enables clever delay combinations, trails, or hard-bypass switching on the fly, and you’ve got a delay for almost any situa-tion—whether you’re an experimentalist or a roots rocker, or move between the two in a single night. Considering how many ped-als it could take to achieve a similar breadth of sonic possibilities, the SR adds up to an excellent value, too.
RATINGSEarthQuaker DevicesDisaster Transport Sr
earthquakerdevices.com $345 street
Pros a delay for every taste and occasion. unique series/parallel bleed feature opens new sonic realms. expression pedal options add serious flexibility. cons Despite streamlined design, some knobs may be hard to discern on a cluttered pedalboard.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
RATINGS
review > sandberg
DR5 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
SandbergElEctra tt4by david abdo
Let’s face it: The versatility and play-ability of the Jazz bass that Leo Fender
gave us in 1960 have cemented its place in music history and made it the weapon of choice for a wide spectrum of bassists the world over. Since then there have been many would-be contenders to the original formula, though a good number of these basses have fallen into the pretender cat-egory. But over the years several companies have come up with J-styles that stand out, usually because of some sort of ingenious electronic or physical improvement.
Sandberg’s high-end J-styles are in the lat-ter camp. These German builders have long been the darlings of the European bass scene, and in more recent years the company has garnered attention around the globe with its
to hear soundclips of the bass at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…wide selection of vintage-style and modern basses. One of their most recent offerings, the Electra TT4, is a J-style that offers a lot of the features Sandberg is famous for but at a more wallet-friendly price.
Pre-match InspectionAlthough most of the TT4’s components are made in Korea, Electra series instru-ments are assembled and quality controlled at Sandberg’s Braunschweig, Germany, workshop. While many elements of the test bass affirmed Sandberg’s reputation for skillful craftsmanship, a crack in the upper horn’s finish, slight exposure of the unfinished neck pocket, and a couple of unfinished fret edges did raise an eyebrow. In what was probably another cost-saving
decision, Sandberg eliminated the 4-dot company insignia that’s typically inlaid between the upper horn and neck pocket on higher end basses.
Those familiar with Sandberg basses will notice that the Electra TT4 has a look similar to the company’s vintage-inspired California series. The basswood body of our review model has an attractive creme finish that’s complemented by a tortoiseshell-pattern pickguard. The satin-finished maple neck is crowned with rosewood and 22 frets, and it’s anchored by six bolts that provide plenty of stability. Sandberg kept the look
DR5 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
many would-be contenders to the original formula, though a good number of these basses have fallen into the pretender catpretender catpretender -egory. But over the years several companies have come up with J-styles that stand out, usually because of some sort of ingenious electronic or physical improvement.
Sandberg’s high-end J-styles are in the lat-ter camp. These German builders have long been the darlings of the European bass scene, and in more recent years the company has garnered attention around the globe with its
Although most of the TT4’s components are made in Korea, Electra series instru-ments are assembled and quality controlled at Sandberg’s Braunschweig, Germany, workshop. While many elements of the test bass affirmed Sandberg’s reputation for skillful craftsmanship, a crack in the upper horn’s finish, slight exposure of the unfinished neck pocket, and a couple of unfinished fret edges did raise an eyebrow. In what was probably another cost-saving
Those familiar with Sandberg basses will notice that the Electra TT4 has a look similar to the company’s vintage-inspired California series. The basswood body of our review model has an attractive creme finish that’s complemented by a tortoiseshell-pattern pickguard. The satin-finished maple neck is crowned with rosewood and 22 frets, and it’s anchored by six bolts that provide plenty of stability. Sandberg kept the look
Alnico-5 single-coils
Push-pull pot for active or passive operation2-band preamp
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 DR6
review > sandberg
RATINGS
Pros: nice design with fantastic playability. cons: Unusually noisy pickups. difficult to conjure classic J-bass tones. Minor finish issues.
Tones
Playability
Build/Design
Value
Sandberg Electra TT4, $995 street, sandberg-guitars.com
classic with clover tuners and their take on the traditional headstock. While it’s com-monplace to find string trees on the 1st and 2nd strings, the TT4 has Sandberg’s pro-prietary retainer, which puts the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings at an angle consistent with the 4th string. This uniformity may not precisely deliver the benefits of an angled headstock, but it is a much better alternative than the typical circular retainers.
The Electra’s chrome bridge hints at influences from G&L and Hipshot hard-ware, and the saddles offer plenty of string height and spacing options, along with a locking mechanism that keeps them where you set them. The cutaway for each string slot makes for convenient string installa-tion, and players who have tangled with a broken string onstage will appreciate the quick-release feature. Meanwhile, the uniquely tapered strap buttons provide unforced fastening of straps in all shapes and sizes—and keep them securely in place.
The TT4’s wonderful low-end vibrations are transmitted by Sandberg-designed single-coils with alnico 5 magnets. Tones are shaped by a 2-band preamp that’s also designed by Sandberg. Aimed at the player who desires both modern and vintage tones, a push-pull pot in the volume knob allows toggling between active and passive operation.
sparring with the sandbergMy first impressions playing the Electra TT4 were quite positive. Its weight and
balance were excellent, and there was never any hint of neck diving or shoulder stress, regardless of the angle. Speaking of the neck, it’s super smooth and is really the center of the TT4’s savvy design. Moving up and down the fretboard was virtually effortless, and on many occasions I found myself not even thinking about the instru-ment—focusing instead on just making music. Simply put, the Electra TT4 has one of the most comfortable necks I have ever felt on a bass at this price point.
I tested the TT4 by plugging it into a Phil Jones D-600 amp pushing a Glockenklang Quattro 410. One can most certainly expect some 60-cycle hum when soloing single-coil pickups, but the Sandberg units were particularly noisy—especially the bridge pickup. When I popped the volume knob into passive mode, the bass delivered a taste of char-acteristic J-style tones, though they were a little timid in the low mids. This was alleviated to some degree in active mode, where the bass knob could supply more
lows and low-mid punch—but active mode also changes the Electra’s tonal character-istics to more of a clean, scooped sound. Boosting the treble knob provided ample brightness and put some teeth on popped notes, or warmed up the tone with a downward dial.
Circuit FightingI tested the Electra TT4 in a few different live settings and styles. On a blues-trio gig, I boosted the bass and significantly cut the highs to deliver deep, round sounds with the neck pickup. The treble knob really came in handy at a louder rock covers gig: A slight boost provided a pick-like attack to fingerstlye playing, allowing my lines to cut through overdriven guitars and a bombastic drummer. A horn-band setting was where the Electra performed best, though. The TT4’s timbre was fitting for a wide range of R&B and soul classics—from barking bridge-pickup lines to snappy thumb-slinging fills.
In all of these settings, the Electra’s play-ability shined—sometimes outshining its tonal traits. On some occasions its sound lacked a little authority, and I shied away from soloing the pickups due to the hum. But the TT4’s super-comfortable design definitely made for a very pleasing experi-ence for my hands and back.
The VerdictIn the realm of J-style basses, there’s a lot of competition. And though the Sandberg Electra TT4 may not wow vintage pur-ists with its tones—which could use more punch, and also suffer from some noise issues—this bass will work well for a vari-ety of modern music, as well as for slap-pers looking for a nice, moderately priced instrument. Overall, the Electra TT4 plays better than many in its class, and it offers many of the great features and characteris-tics that have long made Sandberg a stand-out bass company.
premierguitar.com
a broken string onstage will appreciate the quick-release feature. Meanwhile, the uniquely tapered strap buttons provide unforced fastening of straps in all shapes and sizes—and keep them securely in place.
The TT4’s wonderful low-end vibrations are transmitted by Sandberg-designed single-coils with alnico 5 magnets. Tones are shaped by a 2-band preamp that’s also designed by Sandberg. Aimed at the player who desires both modern and vintage tones, a push-pull pot in the volume knob allows toggling between active and passive operation.
sparring with the sandbergMy first impressions playing the Electra TT4 were quite positive. Its weight and
of the most comfortable necks I have ever felt on a bass at this price point.
I tested the TT4 by plugging it into a Phil Jones D-600 amp pushing a Glockenklang Quattro 410. One can most certainly expect some 60-cycle hum when soloing single-coil pickups, but the Sandberg units were particularly noisy—especially the bridge pickup. When I popped the volume knob into passive mode, the bass delivered a taste of char-acteristic J-style tones, though they were a little timid in the low mids. This was alleviated to some degree in active mode, where the bass knob could supply more
I boosted the bass and significantly cut the highs to deliver deep, round sounds with the neck pickup. The treble knob really came in handy at a louder rock covers gig: A slight boost provided a pick-like attack to fingerstlye playing, allowing my lines to cut through overdriven guitars and a bombastic drummer. A horn-band setting was where the Electra performed best, though. The TT4’s timbre was fitting for a wide range of R&B and soul classics—from barking bridge-pickup lines to snappy thumb-slinging fills.
In all of these settings, the Electra’s playability shined—sometimes outshining its tonal traits. On some occasions its sound lacked a little authority, and I shied away from soloing the pickups due to the hum. But the TT4’s super-comfortable design definitely made for a very pleasing experience for my hands and back.
The VerdictIn the realm of J-style basses, there’s a of competition. And though the Sandberg Electra TT4 may not wow vintage purists with its tones—which could use more punch, and also suffer from some noise issues—this bass will work well for a variety of modern music, as well as for slappers looking for a nice, moderately priced instrument. Overall, the Electra TT4 plays better than many in its class, and it offers many of the great features and characteristics that have long made Sandberg a standout bass company.
Maple neck
170 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Innovative Sonic Excellence www.diamondpedals.com
Just right.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 171
review > rOLand
rolanDcUbE 80gXBY Matthew holliMan
Roland introduced the Micro Cube in 2005 to the delight of street buskers
the world over. The compact, battery-pow-ered amp quickly became the benchmark in portability and a fixture for anyone engag-ing in small-scale, spur-of-the-moment gig-ging in unlikely locales. This summer marks the release of the Cube GX series, which comes in 20-, 40-, and 80-watt models and builds on with the company’s COSM (composite object sound modeling) audio software to hone a formula that’s always delivered a lot of bang for the buck to players who need to cover a lot of musical ground on a budget. Here, we’ll take a look at the 80-watt Cube 80GX.
Cube ControlLike the recent Cube 80XL, the 80GX has three channels—JC clean, lead, and solo. JC clean aims to capture the sound of the renowned Jazz Chorus-120. The lead channel has a 10-position rotary switch for selecting amp type—from acoustic sounds to tweed and heavily distorted settings. The solo chan-nel is user defined: Dial up any sound you want and save it here by holding down the button.
Bass, middle, treble, and presence knobs govern all three channels. The efx control lets you choose from five effects—chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, and heavy octave. Having all the effects on a single knob saves space, though it also sacrifices versatility and control. You also have to turn through the whole rate spectrum of a given effect before you click over to the next, which then engages at the lowest rate. Intensity and mix are set at fixed points, and the delay works in a similar fashion—repeats are fixed at around five, and turning the control clockwise increases the ratio of delay to dry signal. The “warm” delay has a more analog feel, while “clear” has a more digital-like repeat. A tap button, meanwhile, enables you to set the repeat rate. Reverb also comes in two flavors, spring and plate,
to watch a video demo of the amp at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…
but feedback is fixed, and turning the knob clockwise increases intensity.
The i-Cube link jack lets you connect the provided 1/4" (4-pole) mini cable to your computer or digital device and jam along with audio files. Further, the Cube Jam app for iOS devices enables basic recording over tracks from your playlist. You can even tweak recording and master levels, as well as playback speed and pitch.
Stacking effects and Tweaking TonesThe 80GX’s JC clean channel is a fine approximation of the powerhouse amp whose super-clean, high-headroom tones have appeared on everything from new age
to shoegaze albums. That said, an authentic JC-120, with its dual speakers and large, open-back cabinet, will certainly sound airier than the 80GX. With a single 12" speaker and a closed back, the overall output of the 80GX—regardless of channel—is stouter than what you’d hear from an open cab.
I routed a handful of pedals through the JC clean channel, and they all rang with precision and clarity. The bright switch was a little harsh for single-coils, though it gave humbuckers a welcome cutting edge. But while the 80GX was a great blank slate for my pedals, the onboard effects left me pretty impressed, too—and you can stack up to three of them. I preferred the spring reverb and its longer tail. It’s a bit brighter than
PREMIER GUITAR
control clockwise increases the ratio of delay
Clean, lead, and solo channels
12" speaker
Five onboard effects
Two reverb types
172 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > rOLand
RATINGS
Pros: Sturdy, compact construction. very versatile. i-Cube offers fun, convenient practice tools. cons: onboard effects have control limitations.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
Roland Cube 80GX, $419 street, rolandus.com
Blend fuzz, overdrive and distortion to taste. Wired in parallel and mixed together in the output stage, creating the sound of blending amps rather than running pedals in series. Truly better than the sum of its parts!
www.empresseffects.com
3 killer tones in 1 box
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most spring simulations, and you don’t get the magical clang of an actual spring, but it has nice body and breadth without dominat-ing your sound. However, the limitations of the delay are a tad frustrating, because you can’t really change the number of repeats. This means you can’t, say, get a true coun-try- or rockabilly-style slapback, because you’d want up to three repeats instead of five. The warm delay, however, does have a very natural analog feel, though it’s a bit bright. Pairing it with a nice dose of spring ’verb and the lead channel’s “black panel” tone is a nice, Fender-esque alternative to JC clean.
The lead channel’s “acoustic” sound bears little resemblance to an actual acous-tic—upper frequencies are brassy and it mostly comes off as a rather thin-sounding electric guitar. Single-coils will get closer to an acoustic sound, especially when you use the neck pickup and roll back the guitar’s tone a touch. Here you can find stronger hints of hollowbody resonance, but while it’s a serviceable stand-in for an acoustic in a busy band mix, it’s not a viable replace-ment in a solo or small-combo situation.
The lead channel’s “classic stack” sound delivers enough bristling attack to make it a clear nod to Marshall plexi tone. Both humbuckers and single-coils worked well in with this gainer sound, as well as with the “metal stack” and “r-fier stack” sounds. The stack settings are far from flawless simulations, but they certainly capture the spirit of these expensive amps. These more aggressive combinations work especially well as solo-channel presets, and they also match up well with the rhythm tones you’re likely to also create with the lead channel. You can even use a footswitch to mimic a 2-channel Marshall or Mesa/Boogie head.
The VerdictIt’s difficult to deploy an army of onboard effects and amplifier voices in a single, afford-able combo without making a few sacrifices. Vintage-tone sticklers who rely on the purity of a genuine blackface Fender or a Marshall plexi aren’t going to abandon the real thing for the Cube 80GX. But if you’re looking for a convenient, Swiss Army knife-type amp and can roll with the limitations inherent in this size and price bracket, the 80GX puts a wealth of tone at your fingertips. And those who need enough sounds to cover everything from Skynyrd to the Police with a super-portable rig they can use anywhere—from the farmers market to bars—will potentially find the Cube 80GX a godsend.
174 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
review > nOrdSTrand
norDStranDShUSh PUPPiESBY jorDan wagner
Having worked at Suhr Guitars and Azola Basses, in addition to gigs as
a recording engineer, Carey Nordstrand is one of those guitar builders who’s seen a bit of everything. And in 2004, after develop-ing pickups for both his own custom basses and other luthiers, word of his pickups’ excellence spread so much that he expanded the pickup side of his bass company into a full-fledged operation. Today, his pickup line includes designs for both bass and gui-tar, and his recently released Shush Puppy single-coils are designed to address the age-old issues of feedback, noise, and hum without losing the sweet, syrupy chime that defines a great single-coil.
Twist on a ClassicThe Shush Puppies’ compact design and modern appearance make them stand out visually next to conventional single-coils. Though they can have the effect of seem-ing a little bigger than standard single-coils when you take them out of the box, they will fit in a Stratocaster without any addi-tional routing or pickguard replacement.
Each alnico 5 pickup houses two thin bobbins containing 12 tiny pole pieces each. Twelve of these 24 are visible through the plastic cover. Nordstrand’s copper wire is carefully handwound around each custom-formed bobbin to prevent feedback, and it’s optimized for 250k Ω potentiom-eters. Each pickup’s bobbins are wired in series to prevent hum. Neck and middle pickups each have outputs of 6.9k Ω, and the bridge pickup reads a bit hotter at 7.4k Ω. The Shush Puppies also use insulated plastic wire and are offered with pickup covers in classic shades of black and ivory. Unfortunately, the covers don’t completely cover the bobbins, leaving a gap of about 1/6" where you can clearly see the copper windings, so it’s important to clean out any debris in and around the pickup cavities before installing the Shush Puppies.
puppy LoveWith their super-quiet performance, crisp tone, and pristine highs, the Shush Puppies accomplish nearly every one of Nordstrand’s intended goals. It’s surprising how little the hum-cancelling design affects the single-coil tones—if it even does at all. A lot of hum-canceling single-coils compress and dampen the response in the pursuit of low noise, and the objective is usually met at the expense of springy lows and syrupy quack. This is most definitely not the case with the Shush Puppies.
Dropped into a Fender Stratocaster and running into a Fender Twin Reverb’s second channel, the slightly hotter bridge Shush Puppy sang beautifully when playing slowly swept chords and gingerly picked alternating melodies. The highs have a quick attack, as you might expect, but the lows also have a faster response than most Strat-style pickups. Playing with a softer approach doesn’t diminish the attack much, and you hear a lot of rising bottom end no matter how lightly you pick. The bridge pickup’s output is remarkably strong and piano-like—qualities that aren’t easy to find in aftermarket bridge single-coils.
The highs and lows of the neck and middle pickups are also powerful and crystal clear, though they speak with a wide, low midrange. They also breathe a bit more thanks to their slightly lower output. Pick the strings with a soft touch, and the highs open up with a
hi-fi kind of clarity. The treble response of the neck pickup in particular is very respon-sive, but it can also amplify small quirks and rough edges in your playing. If you keep an extra keen eye and ear on your technique, this is a boon, though.
The VerdictNordstrand has successfully melded the sound and feel of a great single-coil with the low noise of a humbucker—all without sacrificing the bright tonality, response, and chime of a great traditional single-coil. Each pickup has ample volume and punch, and the set balances wonderfully together, too. The lightning-quick response might cause some vintage purists to raise an eyebrow, but the impressive harmonic complexity, glorious detail, and whisper-quiet noise level qualify them for a spot in the upper ranks of boutique contemporary single-coils.
RATINGS
Pros: noiseless, exceptionally detailed tones. responsive highs and drum-tight low end. Balanced volume across the strings, and as a set. cons: lows can sometimes feel stiff. pickup covers don’t completely cover the bobbins.
Tones
Versatility
Build/Design
Value
Nordstrand Shush Puppies, $119 (each) street, nordstrandpickups.com
to hear audio clips of the pickups at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…
norDStranDShUSh PUPPiESBY jorDan wagner
review > ElEctro-harmonix
DR7 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
ElEctro-harmonixEpitomEby matthEw holliman
Multi-effect units aren’t easy to do. They can go from promising to a
total letdown in the time it takes to get lost among the multitude of knobs that cover most such units. And though there are plenty of examples of companies who get it right, the general reputation for unruliness still makes them something of a pariah in the pedal world—engendering a mindset among cynics that says, “Who cares if you have a dozens effects at your fingertips if they’re difficult to use?”
to hear soundclips of the pedal at premierguitar.com/aug2013
CLICKHere…Apparently, that reputation hasn’t scared Electro-Harmonix. They’ve produced several multi-effect boxes in recent years—though they tend to be quite different than the pedals most players associate with the term. Rather than go the route of housing a hun-dred digital effects in a plastic housing with a flimsy footpad and a clunky interface, EHX inventively clusters some of their most reliable effects in a single box. The latest is the Epitome, a digitally controlled system that harnesses an impressive reverb
and modulation trio—the Holy Grail Plus, Stereo Electric Mistress, and Micro POG.
three of a KindPlayers who tend to run at the sight of more than three knobs probably won’t flock to the Epitome at first. It features nine knobs and four switches, but it looks more
DR7 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Four reverb types
Simultaneous chorusing and flanging
Stereo inputs
Stereo outputs
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 DR8
review > ElEctro-harmonix
RATINGS
pros: three highly usable effects that you can use individually or combine in startling ways to create a multitude of tame or out-there sounds. Efficient, space-saving design. Cons: lack of true-bypass switching may not be optimal for all rigs.
Tones
Ease of Use
Build/Design
Value
Electro-Harmonix Epitome, $369 street, ehx.com
complex than it is in practice, and the lay-out is rather straightforward. Gold, purple, and red sections help you visually separate the controls for each effect. And if you’ve used any of these staple EHX effects indi-vidually, you’ll feel right at home—the con-trols for the Holy Grail Plus, Stereo Electric Mistress, and Micro POG are essentially the same as the standalone versions.
In the Holy Grail section, the balance between your dry signal and the reverb is controlled with the blend knob, while the amt (amount) knob changes the length of the reverb tail. The 4-position rotary selec-tor chooses the reverb type—spring, hall, room, or the notorious flerb—EHX’s kooky ’verb that basically has a flanger at the end of the chain. Turning the amt knob clock-wise while on the flerb setting increases the modulation of the flanged output.
Engaging the shimmer switch activates an echo effect when the reverb type is set to flerb. The Grail section’s amt knob then
alters the length of repeats from 25 to 590ms. When only the Holy Grail foot-switch is engaged, the echo generates a single repeat. If you engage the Micro POG switch, you can add additional repeats for the sub, and upper octave, as well as the dry signal.
With the shimmer switch disengaged, the Micro POG delivers the polyphonic octave generation capability that has made each of the POG’s iterations (the POG, POG2, and Micro POG) hits. The Micro POG sec-tion’s controls are a breeze to use and will be a delight to anyone who found the original POG and POG2 intimidating. You just turn each one clockwise to increase the presence of the corresponding octave. Roll off the up and dry knobs to create faux bass sounds, or set them all around high noon for organ tones.
The Stereo Electric Mistress section is an updated version of the company’s classic from 1976—the first commercially available flang-er. Turning either the flanger or chorus knob clockwise increases the presence of those effects in the signal path. Rate transforms the speed of the modulation, ranging from a slow sweep to a chopping, laser-gun-like sweep.
Solo ’Em or Stack ’EmI’ve kept an EHX Holy Grail on my pedal-board for years—the spring setting has a huge, three-dimensional sound that’s damn close to replicating a true spring ’verb, and I’ve used it on everything from guitars and bass to vocals and synthesizers. And with the Epitome’s Holy Grail Plus sounds, I was able to summon a spring counterpart for my Fender Bassman that, with a little Bigsby wiggle, would win over any spaghetti-west-ern or surf fan. If you don’t plan on leaving the reverb engaged 24/7, you’ll need to
mind your blend level. Once you creep past 11 o’clock or so, the lack of dry attack pro-duces what’s perceived as volume loss. Just about any reverb pedal suffers this affliction, so if you’re aiming for a heavily saturated passage, you may want to kick on a booster to counteract the minimal loss.
Using the Micro POG is easy. If you’re a Jack White fan, you’ll be able to hit most of the “Blue Orchid”-type rhythmic tones except for a few of the two-octave and detuned settings he coaxed from his original POG. With the Grail in shimmer mode, the POG section’s controls alter the amount of octave delay decay. Keeping the POG’s sub and up knobs at very different settings is where things get really interesting, and you can create a quick sub slapback with an elongated octave-up comet trail. Or you can try turning down the dry signal to achieve clean, 8-bit style flutters that get downright nasty with a dirt box out front.
Having both a flanger and chorus onboard creates opportunities to generate unique modulation flavors, including a fair-ly wide variety of cool, stuttering synthesizer
effects when you crank up the rate. You can also get a faux cocked-wah sound by pushing the Mistress’ presence and rolling off the rate. Increase the rate a few hairs, and you can simulate auto-wah bounce, or crank it all the way up for a UFO flyby effect (which sounds especially cutting with single-coils). Engaging the shimmer button changes the right-to-left signal path and places the Electric Mistress at the end of the chain. This generally results in more atmo-spheric output made up of huge modulating reverb that’s great for ethereal rhythm beds.
Some folks may be bummed that the Epitome isn’t true-bypass, but it does pre-vent annoying effect-engage clicks—which can be especially painful when you’re using echo-/time-based effects over a wispy chord structure. Thankfully, the Epitome runs clear as a bell, and it’s practically impos-sible to coax a harsh tone out of this thing, though you’ll most certainly find some weird ones.
the VerdictLike a lot of guitarists, I tend to stay away from multi-effect units: Cycling through tiny LCD screens and saving presets is not my idea of a good time. But, as with just about everything Electro-Harmonix produces, the Epitome is different—it’s a pedal full of possibilities and a surpris-ingly user-friendly control set. Each of the effects are great individually, but you can spend days concocting new combinations with the trio of reverb, modulation, and octave effects. And the signal-path- and echo-switching capabilities add a layer of texture-altering functionality you wouldn’t get from any of these popular EHX effects in their standalone forms. For some players, this particular bundling of effects will be totally confounding and, at $369, incredibly expensive. But pickers who love unusual, atmospheric textures are not only likely to deem the Epitome a bargain, but a weapon of very impressive power, too.
... as with just about everything Electro-Harmonix produces, the Epitome is different—it’s a pedal full of possibilities
and a surprisingly user-friendly control set.
176 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
new products
new productsfender Cabronita Telecaster ThinlineAn updated Tele with a semi-hollow ash body, an f-hole, Fideli’Tron humbuckers, a modern “C”-shaped maple neck, a 9.5"-radius maple fretboard, and vintage-style, string-through-body Strat hard-tail bridge. Msrp $999.99 fender.com
ultrasound amplifiers ag15MThis 15-watt acoustic amp has two channels (one for vocals and the another for any stringed-acoustic instrument), a custom 8" coaxial speaker and tweeter, a volume control for each channel, and 4-band EQ for the instrument input. street $299 ultrasoundamps.com
el rey effects fuzz de la MuerteThis handwired, true-bypass fuzzbox is silicon-based with an onboard gate and 3-way color selector switch. Other controls include level in, fuzz, tone, gate, and volume. Msrp $149 elreyfx.com
Seagull excursion natural SgThe dreadnought-sized Excur-sion features a wild cherry top, back, and sides, silver leaf maple slim neck (1.72" nut width), and optional Fishman Isys+ electronics are available. street $299 seagullguitars.com
Creation audio Labs funkulator eQ Tone ShaperThe Funkulator is geared for the bassist who loves the upper-mid scoop of a ’70s J Bass and demands great slap tones with the ability to switch the EQ on and off during a gig. street $149 creationaudiolabs.com
ender Cabronita Telecaster ThinlineAn updated Tele with a semi-hollow ash body, an f-hole, Fideli’Tron humbuckers, a modern “C”-shaped maple neck, a 9.5"-radius maple fretboard, and vintage-style, string-through-body Strat hard-tail bridge. Msrp $999.99fender.com
ultrasound amplifiers ag15MThis 15-watt acoustic amp has two
ey effects uzz de la Muerte
This handwired, true-bypass fuzzbox is silicon-based with an onboard gate and 3-way color selector switch. Other controls include level in, fuzz, tone,
elreyfx.com
Zexcoil T-BuckerZexcoil put their Juicy Bucker for-mula into a T-style bridge package, offering a PAF-voiced normal mode along with a more conventional spank in silent split mode. street $100 zexcoil.com
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premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 177
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178 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
Modern builder vault
VenTure Guitars BY riCh oSweiler
Not so long ago, Boston-area musicians Austin Bousley and Travis Alexander found themselves suffering from the same affliction that plagues countless guitarists. The gear-junkie friends had
budgets that simply couldn’t satiate their taste for the vintage, custom, and unique instruments they’d “constantly drool over” at local shops. And feel-ing that many modern-day production instruments lacked what they loved in vintage and custom guitars, they decided they wanted to do something about it. “We wanted to see more craft and soul come back into the guitar market and wanted to be a part of that,” says Bousley.
About six years ago, the two started out slowly by hot rodding and re-finishing guitars they already owned. Not long after that, they partnered with two other friends and officially launched Venture Guitars as a team of four. Today, the mostly self-taught group of builders works out of a shop in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where they build custom instruments in what-ever style and configuration their customers can dream up.
Bousley says his crew’s community mindset and passion sets them apart. “We love music, the scene that surrounds it, and the players themselves,” he says. “We work closely with each customer and try to deliver the guitar they want, and we’re willing to try and build anything.” He thinks this willingness is the main difference between Venture Guitars and other builders. “We haven’t just built guitars we liked and sold them,” he continues. “We’ve been build-ing fully custom guitars for each customer, so we can bring that connection between the player and their instrument back to life.”
Though Venture has been building only completely handmade, 100 percent custom guitars thus far, the outfit will soon offer a production model of sorts with their Anna Lee design, which incorporates the use of CNC. That said, their custom offerings will remain completely handmade. The production-model aspect of the Anna Lee is certainly a departure for the company, but the planned price point of $2,200 will be more accessible for many than a typical custom build. “We are currently going nuts experimenting with the sound for the Anna Lee,” says Bousley. “We still haven’t officially decided what we’re going to put into them, but we have a pretty good idea where we’re going to go.”
Venture is “pretty all over the place” when it comes to inspiration for their designs, but Bousley says the entire team loves the newer, prog look that some builders are doing, as well as soulful, vintage Fenders. “I know it’s cliché, but it’s a P bass from the ’70s that really gets me, or an old SG or Rickenbacker,” he says. “There’s just something about a guitar that old that has a story to it. And that’s where we all come together—making something with a story.”
pricing and availabilityThe typical wait for a custom-built guitar from Venture Guitars is cur-rently 6–10 months, depending on the build. With plans to produce the Anna Lee in batches of 10, players will likely be able to get their hands one of these models quicker. Venture does direct orders through an online quote/order form, where buyers list all the components and specs that will make up their custom instrument. Pricing for a custom Venture guitar varies with build, but typically falls in the $3,000 to $4,500 range. ventureguitars.com
Vg #00080Venture also accom-modates low-enders, and this is a fine ex-ample of the luthier’s custom bass offerings. Built for a southpaw, the P-style body is carved from alder and paired with a 1-piece maple neck that’s topped with a quarter-sawn-maple fretboard. Both the block inlays and pickguard are cut from 5A-rated flame maple and stained green. An Aguilar AJ-60 Jazz-style pickup in the neck and a Music Man humbucker in the bridge give it the abil-ity to deliver a wide range of bass tones.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 179
Modern builder vault
< Vg #00117Painted “plum crazy,” this solidbody one-off has a head-turning silver-sparkle finish and a pair of silver racing stripes. Built for New Found Glory guitarist Steve Klein, the 25.5"-scale guitar boasts other aesthetic standouts like the group-ing of mother-of-pearl inlay along the length of the ebony fretboard and the Venture logo—also cut from MOP. The deep purple #00117 is packed with a single EMG 81 humbucker in the bridge.
> Vg #00013For this classic-looking semi-hollowbody, Venture didn’t hold back on the master-grade, 5A-rated flame maple, using it for the top, truss-rod cover, control-cavity cover, and back of headstock veneer. Other appointments include the Gibson Super 400-style block-inlay markers that grace the ebony fretboard, mother-of-pearl side mark-ers, and a bone nut. Choosing a classic pickup combo, #00013 is outfitted with a Seymour Dun-can JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck.
for info on other models from Venture guitars head online to premierguitar.com
180 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
gear of the Month
1964 fender Vibroverb written BY ChriS kieS
Blues-rock guitarists have squabbled over the last quarter century about what
contributed most to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s colossal tone. Some believe it was his heavy-handed attack or the beaten-with-love Strat with an alchemy all its own from a ’63 body, ’62 neck, and ’59 pickups. Perhaps that’s true, but the bedrock of his signature “Texas Flood” firepower was his two 1964 Fender Vibroverb amplifiers.
Introduced in February 1963, the 40-watt Vibroverb was Fender’s first amplifier to fea-ture both onboard tremolo and reverb effects. The first iteration of the 2-channel amp was built with the 6G16 circuit (based on the Vibrolux), two 10" Oxford speakers, and an output transformer from Fender’s Super. It used two 6L6GC power tubes, three 7025s for its preamp and phase inverter, a GZ34 rectifier, and two 12AX7s—each controlling reverb and tremolo. The normal and bright channels both had two inputs and controls for volume, treble, and bass. The bright channel had additional knobs for reverb, and speed and intensity dedicated to the tremolo. Cosmetically, the seminal Vibroverb was cov-ered from head to toe in brown.
The following year, Fender overhauled most of their amp models, including the Super, Twin, and Vibroverb. (The Super was given two more 10" speakers, the Twin was given two 12" speakers, and both were outfitted with reverb.) The second version of the combo saw several modifications, like swapping the two 10" Oxford speak-ers for a single 15" speaker from either JBL or Jensen. Power-wise, the ’64 Vibro was constructed with an AA763 circuit, 12AT7 tubes for the phase inverter and reverb, and the optical-coupler tremolo that replaced the tweed-style effect. This also marked the first year Fender’s amps were decked out in the now-classic blackface design that incor-porates black tolex, a black control panel, and skirted black knobs. In addition, each channel had its own bright switch and the second channel was now labeled vibrato instead of bright.
got some gear that would make a great gear of the Month? Then email pics and its
story to us at [email protected].
While SRV’s tech, César Diaz, heavily modded his Vibroverbs—swapping input resistors, coupling capacitors, and count-less tubes—the ’64 blackface shown here is nearly mint. “I have seen some nice vintage amps come through the shop, but the rarity and condition of this one is unmatched,” says Zach Smith, store manager of The Minor Chord. “There’s not one crackle to any knob, switch, or jack. We even had a copy of the original bill of sale, all the origi-nal paperwork, and the original dust cover is still in great condition.”
Smith and his colleague Gary Supernor test-drove the cherry Vibroverb with three era-correct guitars—a Rickenbacker 330, a ’66 Fender Mustang, and an original mid-’50s Fender Stratocaster. They weren’t surprised when each guitar sounded out-standing. “The Ricky had a nice warm meaty tone,” remembers Smith. “For the Mustang, we cranked the reverb and it was surfing time. And the each pickup position of the ’50s Strat was its own little slice of heaven
[laughs].” Smith believes the amp’s original 15" CTS speaker is what makes the ’64 so special. The amp easily handled anything they threw at it and has a nice low-end oomph, he says, but it can maintain a brighter, clearer crispness as you turn up the treble.
The original Vibroverb lacked in sales compared to other Fender amps and was made only two years, with under 1,500 produced. The ’63 model was reissued from 1990–1995 and the ’64 Custom reis-sue—designed with César Diaz—ran from 2003–2008. A special thanks to Carl Strathmeyer and Zach Smith of The Minor Chord in Littleton, Massachusetts, for allowing us to feature this fine piece of gear and its story.
laughs].” Smith believes the amp’s laughs].” Smith believes the amp’s laughsoriginal 15" CTS speaker is what makes the ’64 so special. The amp easily handled anything they threw at it
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 183
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“I’ve gotten more compliments on my tone with the Baby Blues than since I started playing! I can’t believe how good it sounds. I take it to a gig when I don’t know what rig will be there and the Baby Blues always comes through with THE sound!The Baby Blues is just amazing!”
“Well, Light My Fire! The Brown Sugar just kills it! I think I just found a new box of tricks for my lead and crunch tones. This pedal is insane! Everything from full-on 70’s lead tones to amazing squeal and sputter!”
“The Boiling Point doesn’t feel like a pedal. It plays like a great amp, breathing and reacting. It possesses musical mojo of the highest order.
The most incredible piece of gear I have purchased in nearly 36 years of playing.”
“The Red Dog has a wonderful warmth with a huge bottom end! The sound is direct, very natural, with lots of air and a very spacious feel. When I use it with the Boiling Point, the guitar sound is incredible.”
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premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 185
nordstrand pickups
Introducing the new
• Lush & detailed single coil tone• Noiseless hum-cancelling design • Unique eye catching appearance
www.nordstrandpickups.com 909-790-2548
Presenting the new flagship model ofthe Nordstrand Pickups product line.The Shush Puppy is the culminationof over 6 years of R&D along with adesire to provide players with anuncompromising single coil tonewithout the noise. The Shush Puppy delivers pure single coil tone, zero single coil hum.
• Easy direct replacement• Optimized for 250k pots
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The Savannah Collection might be the most beautiful and distinctly toneful G&L Custom Creation ever.
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The New G&L Savannah Collection
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Exotic African Korina tops and ultra-light semi-hollow African Okoume bodies for airy clarity and superb articulation.
Pickups designed by Paul Gagon, Leo Fender and Seymour Duncan for harmonic richness.
Pao Ferro fingerboards with Plek-dressed frets for unsurpassed playability.
G&L’s Old School Tobacco Sunburst finish to capture the rare beauty of the African Savannah.
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 187
Electric Guitar Amplifiers
*3 Band EQ for total tonal control*10” full range, 35 watt speaker*Patented circuitry (4 stages of gain)*Distorts like a classic tube amplifier*Speaker-out jack can drive 4x12 cabs*Light weight (12 lbs.) great portability
G-1 50WBass Amp
(coming soon)
188 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
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190 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
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GEARHEADS WIN! Congratulations to these recent PG
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Dunlop StringsMultiple Packs of Strings June 27-July 8
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be sure to read our completely free digital edition at:
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STepHen STiLLS and KennY WaYne SHepHerdBlues wiz Shepherd and ‘60s folk/pop icon Stills team up for The Rides, whose Can’t Get Enough is an eclectic mix of originals and covers from Muddy Waters to Neil Young.
SuMMer naMMWe bring you the latest in guitar news, with video demos, interviews, and a comprehensive roundup of the must-sees at this year’s Music City throw down.
THe ariSTOCraTSWith chops flowing out the ears, Guthrie Govan and Bryan Beller discuss being sidemen to Satriani (Beller) and Steven Wilson (Govan), and how to keep a power trio together.
dOWn TO THe WireThe decades-long career of Maricela “MJ” Juarez, Seymour Duncan’s beloved pickup winder. We also illustrate our favor-ite wiring modifications for four guitar models.
neW gearExpect full reports on the G&L Jerry Cantrell Superhawk and Fano Alt de Facto GF6, as well as Gibson’s LG-2 acoustic. We’re plugging into a Fargen Blackbird and the Dr. Z Antidote, and stomping on the Rotosound Fuzz CS, Catalinbread Echorec, and a Devi Ever Drone Fuck Drone (who doesn’t want to hear what that sounds like?). On the low-end spectrum, we look at Martin’s new acoustic 4-string and the Orleans bass preamp from Port City.
NEXT MONTH IN
The Rides
Premier Guitar ISSN 1945-077x (print) and ISSN 1945-0788 (online) is published monthly by Gearhead Communications, LLC. Principal office: 3 Research Center, Marion, IA 52302. Periodicals postage paid at Marion, IA 52302 and at Additional Mailing Offices. © 2013 Gearhead Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Premier Guitar are registered trademarks of Gearhead Communications, LLC. subscribers: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address. U.S. Subscriptions: $24.95 for one year. Call for Canada, Mexico and foreign subscription rates. postmaster: send address changes to premier guitar, 3 research center, Marion, ia 52302. customer service and subscriptions please call 877-704-4327 or email [email protected]. printed in usa. volume 18 issue 8 august 2013
premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 191
“...The Ultimate Headless Guitarand Bass Resource...”
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192 PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2013 premierguitar.com
John bohlinger John Bohlinger is a Nashville multi-instru-mentalist best known for his work in televi-sion. He’s been the Musical Director for the CMT Music Awards for the past five years, led the band for all six seasons of NBC’s hit program Nashville Star, and has worked on
many specials for GAC, PBS, CMT, USA, and HDTV.
last call
Mr. Jibs and ignorance of the law BY john Bohlinger
Years ago I attended a party in the Garden State that featured a chimpan-
zee named Mr. Jibs as entertainment. On loan from a local zoo, Mr. Jibs didn’t have an act or do any tricks, but he did drink beer and smoke cigarettes—a talent I shared with him at the time. Perhaps it’s my simian build or the fact that collectively Mr. Jibs and I sucked down an entire pack of Camels and many beers, but for some reason, the two of us really connected. We spent hours beating our chests, dancing manically to Bob Marley, holding hands and howling our inscrutable secrets and most sincere lies as the afternoon party turned into a blackout followed by a nauseous, head-pounding morning on a strange floor.
I hadn’t thought about Mr. Jibs for years until yesterday, when I read it’s illegal to give monkeys cigarettes in the state of New Jersey. One would think there’s not much of a chance of breaking that law, but here I am, a repeat offender. This hazy memory made we wonder about what other laws I’ve unwittingly broken. Ignorance of the law does not absolve one of the consequences of breaking the law, written or not. That being the case, it’s high time someone actually wrote down the unwritten laws to which all band members should adhere. I give you:
The Written Version of Unwritten Laws of Being a Good Bandmate, First Edition.
1. In an open jam, share solos equally with anybody who wants one.You know that player who takes his 12-bar solo ... and then takes your 12 bars as well?
That guy is a douche bag. Even if this per-son plays great, no others onstage will hear what this solo hog actually plays over the sound of their inner voices loudly repeating “What a doucher. Seriously, what a com-plete, solo-stealing doucher.”
2. Help load and unload the gear.You know that guy who disappears when all the heavy lifting needs to be done, and then shows up after the van is unloaded or reloaded? We all hate that guy. Unless you have serious health issues, man-up and hump some gear.
3. Be on time whenever possible.Of course you’re busy—we all are. But when you’re habitually late, you send a mes-sage to your bandmates that says, “I’m more important than you.” They will despise you for this. Hell, I despise you for this and I probably don’t even know you.
4. If the soundman and your bandmates ask you to turn down, turn down. We all want to hear ourselves, but a good mix never comes from a volume war. Learn to compromise or be ostracized.
5. Do your homework.Even when we know the material, we all occasionally make mistakes, but we make a whole lot more when we don’t practice. Bands work interdependently like a rowing team, professional tag-team wrestlers, or people conducting a good orgy (I imagine). When you’re bad, you make everybody else look and sound bad. Don’t be the weakest link when all it takes is a bit of practice to get you hitting the right notes.
6. If you have long road trips or share hotel rooms, avoid food that turns your stomach into a toxic waste dump.Not only do your noxious methane leaks increase the size of the hole in our ozone
layer, they can do some real damage to your bandmates’ morale and olfactory system.
7. Music is fun, so have fun.I’ve worked briefly with people who are the equivalent of a human storm cloud. Just as laughter is contagious, so is grumpiness. One sad sack can make an onstage party feel like a funeral.
8. Be loyal to your bandmates.We all have a family member who drives us mad.* Amongst family, we can dis-cuss a black sheep’s shortcomings, but if somebody outside the family insults our siblings, parents, uncle, etcetera, most of us want to beat the insulter like they owe us money. That’s the way a band should be. Argue amongst yourselves, work out your problems, but stick up for your bandmates to the rest of the world. There’s the family you’re born with and there’s the family you choose. Be loyal to both.
There it is—a good start to the writ-ten law. I’m sure I’ve missed many other unwritten laws. To be honest, I probably drive my bandmates crazy with my lack of self-awareness and personal glitches. I hope to become a better bandmate. If you’re reading this at premierguitar.com, please use the comment section to add your own additions to the unwritten laws of bands. Maybe collectively we can turn this list into a book—or a pamphlet—titled The Written Law of Bands and make music more fun for musicians who follow in our footsteps.
*I suspect I’m the disgrace in my family. My sibs are all pretty awesome.
Party or no party, dancing manically or just chilling out, it’s always fine to lively up with Bob Marley.
We spent hours beating our chests, dancing manically to Bob Marley, holding hands, and howling our inscrutable secrets
and most sincere lies as the afternoon party turned into a blackout.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
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Dunlop_MXR_SuperBadass_Premier.pdf 1 6/21/13 10:24 AM
Special Promotional Section WEB 1
Welcome to the Premier Guitar
Amp Product Showcase. To
complement our coverage of amps
in this issue, we’ve included this
special promotional section that
puts the spotlight on even more am-
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of new gear from a variety of manu-
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where you can go to play and/or
purchase the gear!
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AMP PRODUCTShowcaSe
Special Digital Promotional Supplement
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Blackstar’s affordable ID: Series of programmable guitar amps redefines what you can expect from amps of this price point. Blackstar’s patent-applied-for True Valve Power™ accurately reproduces six distinct power tube responses – EL84, 6V6, EL34, KT66, 6L6, KT88. When engaged, it delivers the response, dynamics, sag and break up characteristics of a tube amp, plus the same power output as an equivalent tube power amp. This means that for the first time ever in an affordable programmable series, you can have an amp that delivers live, with the same loudness and feel as a tube amp. The Voice control offers a selection of six channels, and there’s also an effects section that gives you studio quality modulation, delay and reverb effects. With the included Blackstar GUI software and USB con-nector, you can easily do deep editing, store up to 128 patches, and share your patches with others.
Street: Starting at $299blackstaramps.com
Blackstar AmplificationID: Series
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1x12 Top-Mount Combo. Two Channels, Five Modes covering the best of both British and American iconic sounds. Channel 1 features NORMAL (Brit Clean) and TOP BOOST (Brit Overdrive) Modes, Channel 2 includes TWEED, HI 1 (Briit Hi-Gain) and HI 2 (Boogie Hi-Gain) Modes Also features Patented Multi-Watt™ Channel Assignable Power for your choice of 15,30 or 40 Watts per channel. Either Channel can be used for clean or overdrive sounds depending on preference and style. Channel Assignable REVERB and EF-FECTS LOOP with Hard Bypass. 6x12AX7, 4xEL84. Also available Metal Head (17" Wide w/Padded Gig Bag) $1599.00 and 2x12 Combo $1899.00.
Street: $1,749mesaboogie.com
MESA/Boogie, LTD.TransAtlantic™ TA-30
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A Classic Amplifier with a Deluxe Soul!The ultra-compact GIULIA is the latest addition to Schertler’s Classic amplifier series. Ideal for small
venues, home studios or for practice, the single channel amp has the same high quality sound, appear-ance and robust construction as its larger siblings DAVID and UNICO, while weighing in at just 6.3kg. Separate Line and DI outputs enable connection to a mixer, subwoofer or other external device.
GIULIA is also equipped with a high-quality digital reverb (controlled via potentiometer) and an Insert socket, enabling the connection of an external dynamics processor or a volume pedal. Giulia is avail-able in Wood and Grey finish.
Street: $499.99schertler.com
SchertlerGiulia Acoustic Amp
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“The G12H-75 Creamback (aka Creamback H) is a 12" ceramic magnet loudspeaker, with a 1.75” voice coil, offering 100dB sensitivity and 75-watt power handling with true vintage tone.
We took the G12M-65 Creamback and gave it an ‘H’ magnet, creating a new guitar speaker with the tonal balance of a G12H, and Cream-back levels of power handling. It delivers fuller sounding single notes, adding more focus, body and girth to your tone, resulting in a highly ar-ticulate, vocal character. “
Street: $169celestion.com
The ValveTrain Trenton has been de-signed in the tradition of the masters. Premier Guitar recently awarded the Trenton amplifier their coveted Premier Gear award, citing 5 out of 5 on tone and ease of use. The hand-crafted, handwired, 6V6 amplifier provides voices inspired by the 50’s and 60’s. The Trenton is a flexible amp for both studio and home, and boasts 4 distinct switch-able voices through its hand-wired all tube circuit.
Street: $1,399valvetrainamps.com
CelestionG12H-75 Creamback
ValveTrain AmplificationTrenton
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“The new OR100H can simply be summed up in one word: ‘Stunning’! This top of the range guitar amp is the first OR model to feature two channels and delivers up to 100 watts of incredible Orange tone making it the crown jewel of the OR series.
EL34 powered. Features twin channels, All Valve, Pics-only front panel, Footswitchable dirty channel gain boost, global boost, and channel switching.”
Street: $2,199orangeamps.com
Orange AmpsOR100 Guitar Amp Head
TM
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The piccolo 600 is a remarkably small yet powerful amplifier de-signed for the player who demands quality, convenience, portability, without compromising the studio quality clarity of our UL series and the power and precision necessary to drive multiple stacks of speakers.A proprietary Class D amp makes it one of the most powerful and full-sounding yet lightest amps on the market today - all in a form factor that can fit in your gig bag.
Street: $999epifani.com
The Audio Kitchen Big Chopper might be the best kept rock guitar secret of the last few years. It’s vast arsenal of tones provides the entire spec-trum from spine tingling clean tones to overtone rich overdrive - with two distinctly different channels and 30 watts of hand wired EL84 magic from London’s most popular boutique amp shop. A favorite of players, engineers and producers, it is the new sound of rock and roll guitar.
Street: $3,599audiokitchen.co.uk
Epifani Custom SoundPiccolo 600
Audio KitchenAudio Kitchen Big Chopper
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A top-seller worldwide for nearly 10 years running, the MICRO CUBE is the most popular battery-powered amp of all time. Why? Because it’s loud and sounds great! The new MICRO CUBE GX retains the tiny size and huge sound of its legendary predecessor while adding many great additions and improvements, including i-CUBE LINK, increased output power, a chromatic tuner, and a MEMORY function for sav-ing your favorite settings. The massive, high-gain EXTREME brings the total number of COSM amps to eight, while HEAVY OCTAVE has been added to the onboard effects section for thick, ultra-low tones. i-CUBE LINK opens many new opportunities for practice and recording, providing a built-in audio interface for working with music apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The new Roland Cube Jam app is a great MICRO CUBE GX companion for practicing, changing pitch, center cancel and tempo adjustment to your favorite songs.
Street: $149rolandus.com
RolandMICRO CUBE GX
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Tech 21Trademark 60
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Weighing just 36 lbs., the Trademark 60 is a road-worthy workhorse that de-livers big and tall in almost any situa-tion. A 2-channel, 60-watt, 1x12 ampli-fier, it can sound like a slew of beaten up vintage amps, modern day raunch machines, plus you have the flexibility to create your own trademark sounds.
Features include 100% analog SansAmp™ technology, a lush Accu-tronics multi-spring reverb, Celestion Seventy80 speaker, active EQ, Boost function, effects loop, and XLR output to go direct to a mixing board or PA.
This chameleon of a combo debuted in January 1996. A year later, the infa-mous Les Paul chose the Trademark 60 for his shows every Monday night at The Iridium in New York City until his unfortu-nate passing in 2009. Paul also used the Trademark 60 at Carnegie Hall for his 90th birthday performance in 2005.
Almost 2 decades later, the Trade-mark 60 is still pumping out timeless killer tones worldwide. And stil manu-factured in the U.S.A.”
Street: $609tech21nyc.com
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Handmade in Stevensville, Maryland, the PRS 2 Channel Custom 50 adds several features to the 2 Channel ‘H’ platform to create a versatile and articulate amplifier.50 watts, 2 channels, 6L6 power tubes, global reverb, lead master volume, clean master volume, volume, treble, mid, bass and bright switch for each channel, solo boost, mid shift, depth switch, effects loop. Fixed bias. Also available as a 100 Watt head or 50 watt 1x12 closed back combo.
Street: $1,799prsguitars.com
PRS Guitars2 Channel Custom 50
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Paul’s Amp adds several features to Paul Reed Smith’s favorite single-channel amplifi-er that expand the amp’s tonal character and flexibility. The Cinemag transformer provides authentic vintage tone, while a sophisticated clean/dirty switch changes three circuit ele-ments at once to achieve Paul’s ideal clean and gain tones. Midrange and presence con-trols have also been added to further help tone sculpting. 50 watts, EL34 power tubes, volume, presence, treble, mid, bass, master volume, clean/dirty switch. Fixed Bias.
Street: $2,899prsguitars.com
The PRS SE 30 head is a versatile 2 channel amp with modern and vintage tones. The clean channel provides pris-tine cleans and moderate crunch with chime and clarity. The lead channel is clear with harmonic richness and respon-sive tone. 30 watts, ‘Tungsol’ 5881 power tubes, global reverb, lead and clean mas-ter volume, volume, treble, mid, bass and bright switch for each channel, effects loop. Fixed Bias. Also available as a 1x12 closed back combo.
Street: $927prsguitars.com
PRS GuitarsPaul’s Amp
PRS GuitarsPRS SE 30
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The new RD100H 100 Watt, 3 channel head from Randall is part of our Diavlo series. All tube high gain tone has never been any hotter than this. With Tube Boost Mode, Speaker Emulated XLR direct output & ground lift, Class A discrete instrument level FX loop and a 4 function footswitch, the RD100H is ready for all performance situations regardless of venue. Count on the RD100H to deliver bone crushing to sparkling clean tones.
Street: $799.99randallamplifiers.com
Possibly the world’s most versatile guitar Amp/Pedal. Its 1 Watt amp drives any 8 Ohm load. Use the RG13 for practice or as your main pedal. Go directly into the FX return of any amp for Randall tone. The speaker emulated XLR output is perfect for going direct in the studio or injecting pure Randall tone directly into the FOH system in live situations. Extra 9v power output for powering additional foot pedals.
Street: $249.99randallamplifiers.com
Randall AmplifiersRD100H
Randall AmplifiersRG13
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The PRS Sweet 16 is a single-channel amp that can handle sparkling cleans with single coils to humbucking crunch. At the appropri-ate volume set, a full range of tones are ac-cessible using just the guitar’s volume knob. 16 watts, 6V6 power tubes, reverb, a full TMB tone stack, and PRS’s transparent master volume circuit. Cathode-biased. The Sweet 16 is handmade in Stevensville, Maryland utilizing thick pc boards for consistency. Also available in a 1x12 combo.
Street: $1,342prsguitars.com
The StompHead 4.HG is an ultra light, compact amplifier with integrated footswitch, designed to be set on the stage like a pedal board. The amp is analog based on tube technology. The power amp is a transistor/tubes hybrid. Dynamic, compression and distortion characteristics are the same as classical, high end tube amps. The sound is clean, punchy and saturated. Features 70W/40W RMS, 2 channels, 4 footswitches, parallel effect loop, LINE OUT with guitar speaker sim, 4-8-16ohm impedance.
Street: $969osiamo.com/taurus
PRS GuitarsSweet 16
Taurus Amplification imported by Osiamo LLCStomp Head 4HG
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A low-wattage, high-headroom amp designed with the pedalboard player in mind. But don’t get us wrong... Its thick tone and articulate dynamics sound phenomenal with only a guitar plugged in. With its hi-fidelity EF86 preamp circuit coupled with a cleverly designed EL84 power section, the handwired M12 is truly in a class by itself! Want to hear precisely what your pedals sound like without using ear-splitting high-wattage amps? Then this is the amp for you.
Street: $1,549humbuckermusic.com
Essentially, a handwired blackface Princeton style amp with all the de-sirable modifications. The speaker upgraded to 12" for more low end, a dwell control added for the tube driven reverb, and the transformer upgraded providing more clean headroom, as well as the ability to alternate between 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes. Also, a “Middle” tone control has been added replacing the original fixed 6.8k resistor yielding far more versatility.
Street: $1,595humbuckermusic.com
Humbucker MusicDr. Z Amplifiers M12
Humbucker MusicVintage Sound Amps Vintage 20
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A true stereo, dual 5 watt amp with ridiculously lush reverb on one side, and Swart’s impeccable tremolo on the other. The Class-A power section utilizes two single ended 6V6’s, one for each channel. The 2x12 cab is Swart’s own unique design using an angled baffle that increases stereo separa-tion. For a 10 watt (total) amplifier, it is considerably louder than expected and without a doubt one of the most fun and addictive we have ever played.
Street: $2,798humbuckermusic.com
This amp features classic handwired 5F6-A architecture combined with all-tube reverb and harmonic filter vibrato in a 1X12 combo. At 20 Watts, it delivers rich dimensional performance for intimate gig or studio use. It’s tweed heritage is evident with every note, administering a luxuri-ous pallet of tones, from sweet cleans to aggressive overdriven flavors. The Silver Sonic brings the huge spatial performance of the Golden Melody in a lower wattage, studio-friendly package.
Street: $2,885humbuckermusic.com
Humbucker MusicSwart Space Tone Stereo
Humbucker MusicVictoria Silver Sonic
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ENGL AmplificationIronball E606
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“There’s a new kid in town and it’s a tough one with a mind-blowing attitude:The new ENGL E 606 Ironball delivers warm and rich cleans, organic crunch, chunky rhythm and fat
& juicy leads which you would not expect from an amp this size. Made in Germany, this 20-watt, all-tube head (2xEL84 power amp tubes) is designed to fulfill the needs from players of all styles of music. Fea-tures include 2 channels, Power Soak (20W, 5W, 1W, Speaker Off), Master Volume Control & Master Volume Boost (MVB) with fixed setting for a second Master Volume, Headphone Out, Speaker Out (8 Ohm, 16 Ohm), Frequency Compensated Out, Serial FX Loop (Send & Return). Pure tube tone in a compact body.”
Street: $1,199.99engl-amps.com
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The newly re-designed Loudbox Performer offers more power and enhanced features in a lighter, more efficient design. The Performer features 180 watts of clear bi-amplified acous-tic sound and two flexible mic/instrument input channels that accept both ¼" and XLR sources. Each channel includes Fishman 3-band EQ (shelving bass and treble with resonant-style midrange), feedback-fighting Phase switch and Notch filter controls, and a new dual digital effects section with Reverb, Chorus, Flanger, Delay, Echo and Slap Echo.
Street: $769.95 fishman.com
“The Impala is one of those very rare amps that can do it all. From sweet glassy clean tones to pushed, in your face American overdrive – you will find it here.
The control panel is deceptively simple with its ultra wide range Volume control the star.
At lower settings the Impala stays in the 60s American clean voice while taking the volume past 3 o’clock brings in heightened pre amp toothy overdrive. The Master Volume allows you to dial in the right amount of power tube thickness and overall loudness.
Street: $2,490carramps.com
FishmanLoudbox Performer
Carr AmplifiersImpala
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“The Impala is one of those very rare amps that
Carr Amplifiers
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JVM410HJS head. This four channel, all-valve beast is packed full of features, including: • 3 switchable Modes per channel • Two Effects Loops – one programmable • Studio-quality Noise Gate for each channel • MIDI switchable • Two switchable Master Volume controls • Master controls for Resonance and Presence. • 6-Way, programmable LED footswitch included
The JVM410HJS comes supplied with a fully programmable, 6- way footswitch which is connected to the amp with a standard, ¼" guitar cable. Its revolutionary, patent-pending technology allows you to program each of the 6 footswitches to do one of the following: 1. Switch Store. Operate one of the amp’s 8 front panel switches: Channel Selection/Mode for each channel; Noise Gate (on/off); Master Volume (1 or 2); FX Loop (on/off) or Mid-Shift (on/off :OD1 & OD2 channels). 2. Preset Store. Recall any pre-selected and stored, front-panel switch combination – namely Channel & Mode, Gate (on/off: OD1 & OD2 channels), Master (1 or 2) FX Loop (on/off).
Street: $2,399marshallamps.com
MarshallJVM410HJS Joe Satriani Signature All-Valve 100-Watt head
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Class A, hand-wired 5W tube amp, made in the U.S.A. Boutique amplifier manufacturing at a non-boutique price. The Micro Plex offers a range of Plexi-style tones, with push-pull gain and tone shift modes, and the ability to swap between six power tubes - a single power tube socket for use with any octal power tube, without the need to re-bias. Big, classic sound in a compact design.
Street: $999fargenamps.com
Fargen AmplificationMicro Plex
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The Cherry Bomb is an explosion of tube tone! Don’t let the killer looks fool you, this amp delivers the goods and is a veritable kitchen sink of tone tools for gigging and recording musi-cians. The Cherry Bomb is a 100-watt amp that features two completely independent, foot-switchable channels, each of which has switchable saturation modes and master volumes. Using the Cherry Bomb’s two channels and three way saturation switches, you can dial in everything from sweet cleans to singing leads and massive power chords. The Cherry Bomb’s incredible flexibility allows guitarists from any genre to find their unique sound. Other tone tools include a footswitchable solo master volume that can be set to provides a volume boost for live soloing, an adjustable line out, a tube buffered series/parallel effects loop and a unique overall master volume that allows you to get incredible tones from arena to bedroom volume.
Street: $3,599henningamps.com
Henning AmplificationCherry Bomb
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ISP Technologies Decimator G String II™ is the second generation Decimator Noise reduction. The Decimator G String II is cov-ered under two new patents pending. The Decimator G String II features Linearized Time Vector Processing™ for improved re-lease response. The Decimator G String II™ also includes a novel LINK function allowing two pedals to be linked with a standard 1/8" phone cord allowing true Stereo performance similar to the Decimator ProRack G Stereo MOD, but in pedal form.
Street: $226.35isptechnologies.com
ISP Technologies introduces the Decima-tor II™, second generation Decimator Noise reduction. The Decimator II is covered under two new patents pending. The Decimator II features Linearized Time Vector Process-ing™ providing the most transparent release of any noise reduction system. The Decima-tor II™ also includes a novel LINK function allowing two pedals to be linked with a stan-dard 1/8" phone cord offering performance similar to the Decimator ProRack G system, but in pedal form.
Street: $134.13isptechnologies.com
ISP Technologies LLCDecimator G String II
ISP Technologies LLCDecimator II Noise Reduction Pedal
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This dual EL-34, 50-watter draws inspiration from the British Plexi designs of the 60’s. The VINTAGE clean channel has two voices – the “45” and “59”. The “45” is a perfect platform for the overdrive pedal junkies whereas the “59” voicing has that classic immediate, touch-sensitive feel with the ability to blend internally-jumpered DARK and BRIGHT channels. Switch over to the MODERN over-drive channel and The Duchess shows her tough side with all levels of gain and saturation able to be dialled in. The unique MI-designed spring reverb with individual LEVEL for each channel and the buffered FX LOOP (with SEND and RETURN levels) allow for seamless integration of any kind of effect, selectable via our new programmable six-button footswitch.
Plus, The Duchess has a five-way power scale control that can give you full power-amp distortion at 5W or full clean headroom at 50W! Whatever era of British rock is your favourite; The Duchess has it in spades!
Street: $2,295miamplification.com
MI Amplification“The Duchess” 50W 1x12 Combo
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Built with the highest quality construction and components, the Hammersmith is as the name and vintage, yet modern, look suggests. The Hammersmith’s diode clipping gain struc-ture projects lush British-inspired, midrange heavy distortion. Back panel boasts a dialable “deep” control. A new look for Diamond, the 2-channel Hammersmith is up for anything you can throw its way. 4x PM/Winged “C” EL34 power tubes and 6x PM 12AX7 preamp tubes. Effects loop, clean and crunch chan-nels, full and separate tone controls.
Street: $2,499diamondamps.com
Heretic. A noun meaning, “anyone who does not conform to an established attitude, doctrine or principle.” Such is the new Dia-mond Heretic. Built with the highest quality construction and components, the Heretic provides a thunderous, full gain tone that’s open, precise and hits you in the chest like a sledgehammer. With a similar gain style to the very tight but powerful Spitfire 2, the Heretic picks up where the Spitfire 2 leaves off - gain you can feel, without the saturation, buzz and “mosquito” tone.
Street: $2,699diamondamps.com
Diamond Amplification, Inc.Hammersmith
Diamond Amplification, Inc.Heretic
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Two channel guitar amp with 4 voices (2 American, 2 British) covering authentic Tweed, Blackface, Plexi and Hot-rodded Plexi tones all under one roof. Channels can be JUMPed to create rich blended tones. Volume management provided by 3P’s patent-pending HybridMASTER™ allowing power output adjustment of a pair of EL34s (6L6 optional) in either 38w or 18w mode all the way down to a whisper without losing punch or definition. Features include a series FX loop.
Street: $2,899 (Head), $3,299 (1x12 Combo)3rdpower.com
Pro mid-sized lunchbox guitar amp with 2 voices, Plexi and Hot-rodded Plexi. Volume management provided by 3P’s patent-pend-ing HybridMASTER™ allowing power output adjustment of two 6V6s from 22w all the way down to a whisper without losing punch or definition. Enough power to keep up with a drummer, while at 23 pounds, light enough for fly dates. Hand-wired amp features a series FX loop as well as 16, 8 and 4 ohm speaker outputs.
Street: $1,699 (Head), $1,999 (1x12 Combo)3rdpower.com
3rd Power AmplificationDream Weaver™ Tube Amp
3rd Power AmplificationDream Solo 4 Amp Head
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Hand Built All Tube Boutique Amplifier. Series One is a 25 Watt Combo with a 12" Speaker. This amplifier is built with a pine enclosure which is lighter and resonates tone better than particle board. This is designed for ease of op-eration with a very responsive EQ and has a High Grin and Normal channel.We have taken the Boutique concept to a production build making the SCAR “Series One” the most affordable Bou-tique amplifier in the industry.
Street: $995surfcityamproom.com
The Torpedo is purpose built to be a clean to mildly dirty amp that accepts pedals like a dream. These amps are voiced for a classic British tone with abundant chime and top end shimmer. It also features a mid boost switch that takes it into more classic crunchy tones when cranked up. With the optional reverb, this amp may indeed be the ultimate clean amp. The Torpedo and Torpedo Reverb are available in 30W (4xEL84) or 50W (2xEL34) versions, both cathode biased, and SS recti-fied (tube rectification optional).
Street: $2,200 - $2,800tonicamps.com
SCAR AmplificationSeries One
Tonic AmpsTorpedo Reverb
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Lang Guitar Tube Amplifiers are a tube only design utilizing 12AX7 preamp tubes and E34L or EL34 power tubes.Specifications:
50 and 100 watt availableEL34, E34L power tubes2 independent channelsFootswitchable4, 8, 16 ohm outputBlack Tolex standard. Other colors at additional costCustom designed transformers, individually selected components.
Street: $1,799langamps.com
The GROSSMANN SG-BOX is an isolation cabinet wich allows to do high quality guitar recordings at high sound pressure without noise disturbance to the environment.An extremely effective sound isolation ensures sound re-duction of over ca. 30dB in your recording environment!
With he integrated resonance absorber the recording sound quality is dramatically improved.
The SG-BOX comes unloaded with two robust micro-phone holders and FRESCO (fire rapid easy speaker change option).
Handcrafted in Germany.
Street: $800grossman-audio.de
Lang AmpsLang Tube Amplifier
Grossman AudioSG-BOX
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