clicking here - Echoparkguitars.com

INSIDE
Shouldn’t
the process of
buying a
‘serious’ guitar
be fun?
Introducing
Uncle Meat
&
the Echopark
La Carne…
The story behind
how Gabriel Currie
builds ‘serious’
guitars
6
Our interview with
Arcane pickups
founder
Rob Timmons
A Dano done
right…
9
RS Guitarworks
Slab Electro
Our interviews
with Roy Bowen
&
pickup winder
Curtis Novak
13
The enduring
appeal of Fender amps…
Shane Nicholas
on the EC Twinolux,
Super-Sonic
&
pawn shop
Excelsior amps
–Review–
The EC Twinolux
18
Cable Tone?
Conquest Sound
custom shop
cables
Mountainview Publishing, LLC
the
The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone
$15.00 US, April 2013/Vol.14 NO.6
Report
TM
Serious Guitars
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” – Zappa
He’s baaaaaaack! Yes, we have returned to the fine and funky streets of Los Angeles and Echo
Park following a brief hiatus (nine months and 3 million babies if you’re counting) to give you
an inside peek at one of Gabriel Currie’s latest creations – ‘La Carne,’ or what we have come to
affectionately call the Meat Guitar. But wait, there’s more… We are also featuring RS Guitarworks
Slab Electro – call it a Dano done right. Very cool. “OK, but when are you going to review the
Ribbecke Halfling, a DeTemple, Gustavsson, or a Trussart? And why the Frank Zappa reference
again? You’re running out of ideas, dude.”
Well, not quite…
We’ll freely admit to
missing Zappa, his
music, and oh, how
we miss his humor,
so frankly, we won’t
be apologizing for
Frank. We could all
use a good laugh in
these serious times,
and plenty more of
‘em down the road.
Hey, how about you
stop for a minute,
grab a libation and
let’s raise a toast
to laughter? That’s
better, in’t it? OK,
let’s get serious.
Of course we are
generally aware of
what’s happening in
the world of booteek
custom guitars – serious builders building serious guitars for serious players with serious cash.
We get it. But in some important respects the booteek guitar world can sometimes seem a little
too serious for comfort, which is another way of saying that there are certain aspects that make
us instinctively squirm, beginning with the stories that are spun to justify the money involved. And
we’re not just talking about small, independent entrepreneurs… The Big Boys have also become
very dependent on issuing limited editions with seriously bloated price tags. That’s OK, except
for the fact that when ‘the very best we can build’ is priced so far above what it may have cost to
build it, you’re no longer simply buying a guitar – you’re paying a very large fantasy tax for your
www.tonequest.com
cover story
‘dream
guitar.’
Oh, the
descriptive prose
and spec
sheets
used to
capture
your
imagination are
impressive and effective. As a result, limited editions almost always
sell out, often before they are ever shipped (Japanese dealers
go ape shit for this stuff.) Invariably there are also buyers
whose sole interest is in flipping the guitar at an even more
inflated price after the limited editions have all been sold.
reviewing it, we played it long enough to seriously wonder
who on earth could possibly be stupid enough to shell out
ten large ($15K list) for such a raggedy piece of collector bait. We don’t care if a team of master builders pawed
and measured every inch of Beck’s original Esquire with
a Defelsko Positector 6000 and solid gold, pearl-handled
calipers, the quest for tone has nothing to do with the quest
to blow a stack of cash on a guitar that will never see the
back seat of the Mercedes. Hey, is there some serious class
envy at work here? Nope. Have we become sourly jaded and
rabidly resentful of the high dollar custom guitar biz? Not at
all. Anyone brave and talented enough to build guitars for a
living deserves as much as they can get. We also believe in
supporting American guitar manufacturers, as well as custom
builders overseas like Juha Ruokangas and Nik Huber. But
as Roy Blankenship of Blankenship Amplification once wryly
observed in these pages, “There is a lot of dick measuring in
this business.” In the Quest for tone, this we do not abide…
Now consider this, as described in our July/August 2010
cover story… In 2010 Jeff Beck’s actual #1 Strat was a
cracked, patched up and refinned J Black/Jeff Beck signature
beater that wouldn’t fetch $3,000 on eBay if it belonged to an
unknown guitar humper from St. Louis. Used Klon overdrives
that originally cost $300 now sell for $1,000 or more because
it became known that Beck was using a Klon. And then the
fantasy ensues… “Hey, I wanna sound like Jeff Beck…”
Oh, good. Now the
Unknown Missouri
Humper is using a
pedal that cost three
times as much as the
Fender Pro Junior
he’ll need to buy because Beck was using
one of those, too. Discarding the twisted logic of such fantasies, Unknown Humper
didn’t really need a Klon nearly as much as he needed to blow
a grand on it simply to feel better about himself. This is nothing new… The pursuit of material objects is often intrinsically
linked to heightened feelings of well-being and self-esteem
over more basic needs. As bad as you might need them, you
don’t get quite the same thrill from running down to the store
for toilet paper and dental floss.
Unlike custom booteek trophy guitars purchased
with funds carefully hidden from whining booteek trophy wives, the Echopark Meat guitar is
transcendant in the way it seems to have been
conceived during the golden era of American
guitar building – a classic one-off that nimbly escaped becoming stereotyped. Currie’s La Carne
is in all respects a serious guitar for serious
rockers, but you won’t necessarily need a trust
fund to pay for it. Currie’s Meat Axe also exudes
mystery and a certain promise of uninhibited fun
on the scale of a spontaneous midnight skinny
dip, and we like that. The look, feel and sound of La Carne is
potent and heavy, but way, way
short of appearing fussy or selfconscious, and we like that, too.
La Carne impresses us as a pure
classic with the style and nostalgia of faded Seafarer dungarees
lovingly patched by a beautiful
hippie chick, a ‘65 Chevy Impala
327 Super Sport, Tommy Singer
turquoise and coral chip inlay silver Navajo bracelets, slobbering
black labs, ice cold Rolling Rock,
and Apalachicola Bay oysters on
the half shell at Eddie Teach’s raw
bar on Saint George Island. When
a guitar can make you feel as fortunate and satisfied as a
dozen Apalachicolas dredged from the bottom of the bay that
very morning, you have found something worth keeping.
We have already
vowed not to review
any bolt-on neck
guitars that cost over
$5K. We did that
once with the ‘Jeff
Beck’ Custom Shop
Esquire, although
instead of seriously
We also make no bones about liking the builder… Yes, Currie
works long hours for which he can never be fully compensated as a solo builder, and while he ain’t working for free, he
-continued-
2
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
cover story
isn’t building guitars strictly
for the money, either. He
stopped building guitars for
awhile and worked high-end
construction for the money,
but returned to guitar building for the love of it. Listening to him talk, you can tell
it’s in his blood. Gabriel
Currie is an artist, but he is
also a very humorous and
self-effacing human being
who knows that the music
world can often be a strange
and bizarre scene populated
with strange and bizarre characters, of which he is one. Guilty
by association, Currie is having fun building serious guitars,
sometimes even for rock stars whose albums he scratched up
as a kid. Craftsman, yes, tone freak, too, and now, with the
creation of La Carne and in recognition of his solid Angelino
roots, we feel inspired to award Currie with an appropriate
alias that befits his accomplishments. That, and as you are
about to be reminded, he just makes a damn good story worth
reading. And so it is with great pleasure and anticipation that
we again introduce to you Gabriel Currie, otherwise known,
at least for the moment, as Uncle Meat. Enjoy…
TQR:
Let’s start with the name... In any language we
read ‘meat.’ Is this the Echopark meat guitar?
Yes, actually it translates to ‘The
Meat,’ and its inspiration should
be very obvious to most vintage
enthusiasts. It’s a straightforward
slab! ‘La Carne’ is a simple way
to describe what that guitar is all
about. Having been raised in a
predominantly Mexican neighborhood, I thought it would be a
great way to add a little culture to
it, ya know? This model and the
‘El Cabillo’ (the horse) are new
to the line and they are simply
my interpretations of what
Dwight, Wilshire, Coronado and Coronet guitars should have
been. I love all the old Epiphones – most had great necks, but
they were too small and thin and they really didn’t have great
P90’s or any other truly great pickups in them in my opinion. So
I had my friend Jesse Amarosso’s ‘63 Wilshire on my bench last
year doin’ a fret job, and I just thought, “Hmmm… these are so
cool! Well, I’ll make one and see what happens. That Wilshire
inspired me to take it to the next level and create a new model,
and the reaction has been great. It has actually attracted a fairly
well known artist who wants to collaborate on a signature mod-
el with the La Carne
as the canvas. So I
think it’s gonna make
the cutting room floor
in a bigger way than
I expected, which is
quite humbling to me.
TQR: You
describe the body as ‘equatorial mahogany.’ Seems
as if that could be African, South American... and
we’ve heard about mahogany being used that
comes from Viet Nam and the South Pacific...
What do you like to use most when available and
why?
Well, I never use any of the
South Pacific mahogany
family. They are good only
for architectural purposes,
plus, they are too dense
and heavy to be used for
instruments, but some
companies do use them…
A lot of manufacturers in
China, Canada and India
use that wood because it’s
really cheap. South American mahogany is also too dense and
it’s all fairly new growth timber. It’s still moving and takes a
couple of years to even start to become good for instrument
building on my level, anyway.
Equatorial is a trade name. Acajou Mahogany is its native name, and the region of origin is West Africa (Ivory
Coast, Ghana and Nigeria). I am using three Khaya spices…
Honduran 10/4 for necks, equatorial 8/4 slabs for bodies, and
ribboned sapele 8/4 slabs for bodies and some necks. When
I started Echopark guitars I wanted to find a reliable supply
equal in tone to the old South American mahogany that was
used through the ‘40s, ‘50’s and ‘60s. Due to obvious environmental issues and long term and consistent availability, I
began to look at alternatives that would enable me to remain
consistent from the beginning. I sourced several suppliers and
importers here in Los Angeles and got samples of newer
growth Honduran Utlie, Cuban,
sapele and equatorial, and then
I built guitars with all of them
and compared workability,
weight, acclimation, moisture
content and tone. To my ears,
and apparently a good majority
of the industry as well, equatorial sounds about 95% the same
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
3
cover story
as older South American mahogany as opposed to the newer
growth South American, and it falls within the lower weights
as well. It is very dry and stable because of the climate of
origin, and its coloring and grain similarities make it very nice
for the nitro finishes we do. However, the best thing is that
purchasing equatorial African Khaya over “genuine” Khaya
and using re-claimed timbers for necks as often as possible
makes me feel good about not directly contributing to the continuing destruction of vital South American rain forests and
its native inhabitants. Fortunately, it just plain works for what
I want to get out of my instruments in terms of tonal range,
weight and appearance.
TQR:
We were intrigued to read that the neck is made
from quarter sawn Honduras mahogany salvaged
from the old El Dorado Hotel in L.A. from the ‘20s.
How did you get it, what form was it originally in
and what was involved in working with it to make a
guitar neck?
I’ll tell you a little story about
that… I busted my ass as a
historical restoration master
craftsman after leaving the
guitar business from 1998
- 2007. I went to work for
one of the country’s leading
restoration specialists, and we
built modern loft conversions
from all the vacant historic
buildings in ‘theater row’ in
downtown Los Angeles that
included old hotels like the
El Dorado and the original
Orphium, the Palace Theater, Los Angeles Theater, Green and
Green, Frank Lloyd Wright homes built in the early 1920s
by Rudolph Schindler, and a lot of the older libraries and
courthouses.The last job I did in that period of my life was
working on the ill-fated Ambassdor Hotel. I was lead artisan
on the restoration of the Coconut Grove “Cafe” restoration
where Robert Kennedy was killed. During this period I came
across piles of ‘tear out’ and discarded architectural timbers,
mostly beam casing, doors, door framing, trim and a few
coffered ceilings. So I just started loading up the truck after
work or as jobs ended – all the casings and doors from the El
Dorado were old mahogany. True 2x4 styles had been used,
door frames and headers. They all had to be ripped out and
new fire-rated doors installed on the newly renovated floors.
Many were just trashed from decades of the buildings being
vacant, and a few were probably used for fires. Bums, junkies
and crackheads gotta stay warm, too. But yes, those timbers
were probably milled in the early to mid 1800s, then imported
for the coastal building booms from the late 1800s through
the ‘30s and ‘40s. This material and the old Victorian era
furniture reclaims
are what I mill
for neck blanks as
an upgrade. The
standard Honduran, Sapele and
equatorial is great,
but all of this old
stuff is incredibly
stable, massively
resonant and toneful, and it’s just great to find pieces like this
and use them to build instruments. If I were a tree, I would
not want to be a door, a table, a mantle or anything other than
a musical instrument. Several of the instruments I have made
with these timbers have found their way on to some recent
recordings by some fairly prolific artists. As a builder, you
can hear and feel the difference immediately
TQR:
You mentioned Jescar fret wire in the specs. Most
builders don’t mention the brand of fret wire they
use, just the size. Why Jescar?
I’m into letting people know exactly what goes into my
guitars, and I love the Jescar wire. All the sizes are perfect,
it’s not too hard, yet it lasts a long time and it works nicely.
Dunlop is a bit softer and the Japanese wire is too hard, but
it’s a preference thing, too. I just happen to like it best for my
instruments.
TQR:
Please describe a ‘custom taper’ 500K CTS pot as
listed in the specs for the La Carne…
The volume control needs to have
clarity without adding some kind
of resistor or cap to correct capacitance issues and in turn, lack
of true clarity and chime. Look,
I am a freak about sonic details,
and you always want to improve
whatever you can. When I was
building Joe Perry’s last guitar we
were having issues with the consistency in the taper and clarity of
the volume pot at lower volume
levels when you roll it off. It led
me to look at all of the pots that
Ghettobird I’ve been using, and in a batch
of 150 pots, 70 might read in the range I want. After many
discussions with my friends Adam and Eric at Satellite amps,
George Tripps, head designer at Dunlop, and Rob Timmons at
Arcane pickups, we noted that the problem seemed to be wide
spread. I contacted CTS and ordered some of the higher-end
(expensive) components they offer. Pots today are just not as
well made as they were 40 years ago. Everything is cheap and
-continued-
4
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
amps
thin, and that creates a problem.
Taper is important with guitarists
who go straight into the amp, and
even those who use huge pedal
boards on big stages and multiple
setups need a solid volume control
with an even taper at the tip of
their fingers. Right now I’m testing some 250K custom pots with
George Tripps from Dunlop – very
high quality, built like little tanks!
So far it seems like a step in the
right direction. Very ‘50s Centralab sounding. The 500K pots will be next. Hopefully they
will be put into production at some point this year and I’ll use
them exclusively as soon as there is a production run.
TQR:
Where do you get bison bone for nuts? Do you buy
larger pieces and cut them yourself?
I get it from genuine dead bison (laughing). OK, I get it from
an archery supplier who lives on an undisclosed Native American Reservation. The supplier has consistently great quality.
It’s not porous like camel bone, which is commonly used, and
it holds my lubrication cocktail very well. Its got a great ring
to it and it doesn’t wear out as quickly as camel bone. Many
luthier suppliers have the Chinese stuff that could be anything
from dogs to pigs… I buy blank 1x3 by 3/8” pieces, then cut,
shape and slot lightly. After that they go into the cocktail until
I’m ready to fit on to an instrument. At that point I do all the
final fitting, slotting, and then hand polish.
TQR:
Tell us about the pickups from Arcane and why you
chose them.
Our mutual friend Gill Chavez
reminded me of Rob Timmons
and Arcane pickups a couple
of years ago when I was at his
house showing him some new
guitars. Gill was running Tobias
when I worked at Tak Hosono’s
place back in 1992. Rob was
hired and trained by Gill at both
Valley Arts guitars and Tobias
just before Gibson bought them
out. But Rob Timmons has
been hand winding pickups
for at least 12 years – he has a long history here in the guitar
industry in L.A. and has been key in the success of several
brands. We finally connected at a little show a friend of mine
was having at his studio. I knew of his pickup work through
Trussart and a couple other builders, but Gill’s word was all I
really needed. We’ve done some cool work together in a short
period of time. Rob is an artist as well, and he gets it.
The first thing I had him do was
clone the P90 in my 1959 double
cut Junior. That pickup is hotter than
average and it’s bone stock. I think
‘ol Joe was a little hung over that
day at the winding machine because
this P90 measures almost 10K and
it sounds like a tree – big, but not
choked out, perfectly compressed,
and it cleans up so beautifully and
just chimes when you roll off the
volume. With the tone control and
Grey Tiger vintage cap it’s perfect.
I wanted that exact tone, response
and character in my dream P90, so we took it apart and Rob
measured it every way you can, from the base plate to the magnet size, strength and type, wire gauge, pole pieces – everything.
I got the first one, and it was potted like he normally does, and
it was close, but not quite there. I had him wind a second pickup
with no potting, and of course I’m gonna say it’s perfect, but
so did Jonny Wikersham, David Kalish, Joe Perry and Warren
Huart… We housed
it in a nickle cover
that adds a bit of
dimension and
harmonic resonance
while doing a great
job of cutting the
RF noise about in
half. From there
we’ve made a clone
of the neck pickup in my 1958 Les Paul Special, and a killer
knock-off version of a DeArmond gold foil. It’s the biggest,
clearest, nastiest single coil I’ve ever heard, and we call it the
Gold Coil. John Grisham and David Kalish both were floored
when they heard it, so we’re off to a great start. Plus, Rob is just
ten minutes away and I can just go right over to his place any
time and work on ideas. The real bonus aside from his experience and skill is that he can make pickups to my exact specs,
and his personal touches like
custom etching, numbering
and brand stamping on the
base plate of each pickup
provide a unique appeal that
no one else can offer.
TQR: The color of the finish on La Carne is really
unique and interesting. How
did you come up with it?
I call it an ‘Aged Vanguard
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
5
pickups
Burst’...The custom ‘aging’ is something I accidentally started
doing with the Rose Series last year. I truly adore old Kay
Vanguards, Trutones, Silvertones, Supros and any well worn
models from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. I love holding an old
beat up guitar and wondering where it’s been, who has played
it, the songs it may have inspired, the amount of booze and
dirty women it’s been witness to… The magic and energy it
has… The color and finish… It was just me digging for a way
to capture that feeling of finding an old beat up guitar in the
back of a Chevy somewhere in Texas or Mississippi – something like that. I’m not into the custom shop relic thing at all,
but there is a certain appeal about capturing some of that, so
I wanted to do it my way. It’s a
lot of work to get it to look and
feel right. I don’t use Freon to
check the nitro, and there is a
specific formula to spraying the
coats so that it checks correctly,
wearing just so, dirtying up and
then some. I approach it more
like mimicking a fine oil painting
and not so much like copying an
old guitar. I have worn out quite
a few guitars over the years, so
I know how, where and what to touch to make it feel, look
and even smell right. But I do not touch the fret boards or the
back of the neck. That’s up to the owner to wear out. It’s like
hugging your best friend’s wife for that one second too long…
You gotta watch the hands sometimes and exercise some
restraint. Just because you might be tempted to do something
doesn’t always mean you should (laughing).
TQR:
What new models have you developed or do you
have planned since we reviewed the Downtowner
last year?
There are six new models. The web
site will be updated by the end of
March. I took all the options that
were the most popular over the last
year for the Downtowner and ‘59
and just made them stock models.
There are two refined versions
of the Downtowner – the new
Custom has two aged humbuckers with ribboned mahogany and
the 3-tone burst with upgrades for
koa, korina or aged mahogany.
The new Deluxe has one PAF, P90 or mini humbucker with
a burst finish standard. The two new ‘59s are a Custom and
Deluxe. The Custom has two PAFs with an ebony fingerboard,
and the Deluxe has a PAF, P90 or mini humbucker. The new
2013 Southsider is a big box semi hollowbody with a handcarved old growth Sinker Redwood top, equatorial body with
a flamed red maple center block, fat, aged mahogany neck
with a koa center, Madagascar ebony board, black walnut
head plate, Grover open back tuners, and Arcane, Novak or
Amalfitano PAF/P90.It’s the baddest guitar I’ve ever made in
terms of overall top flight Jazz/Blues/Country/Rock capabilities, and it’s a lot of work!!
The new 2013 Clarence GC is an
different thing altogether. I took the
Trisonic body slab of swamp ash,
rear routed like a Junior, designed
a bridge T-style pickup like a 1950
10K Alnico 5 lapsteel with the
new Gold coil that Rob and I built.
It also has a Glendale “raw deal”
bridge with Kholer saddles and
a flamed red maple neck. I think
these will be a really popular for
a lot of guys in the coming years.
It’s so classic but new, and it has
a great range. There is a demo
on Youtube that my good friend
Darren Bennett did a month ago or
so. The plate is full of ideas, and I may do some work with a
couple of other artists this year. That is what I love to do. TQ
www.echoparkguitars.com, 626-536-3317
INTERVIEW
Arcane
Impressed with the tone of the Arcane P90 and Firebird
pickups (and those cool nickel silver aged covers), we spoke
with Rob Timmons, founder of Arcane Pickups about his
background and work…
TQR:
It seems as if you have been involved with a lot
of different aspects of the guitar industry prior to
launching Arcane…
I’ve been involved with a lot of stuff. I went to Roberto-Venn
because I wanted to be a guitar builder, and then I got a job at
Valley Arts here in Los Angeles. It was a pretty cool company, but it wasn’t long before I realized that all they wanted me
to do was sand guitars. I worked there for a while and then I
went to Tobias and worked in the wood shop, which was very
cool because I could actually build all kinds of exotic basses.
Then Gibson bought Tobias, the company was shipped off
and I began to realize that those were dead end jobs, so I got
into actually running companies. At one time I was in charge
of the U.S. division of Fernandez Guitars, but I realized that
I really didn’t want to do that kind of work, either. One of the
-continued-
6
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
pickups
plating, metalwork
and engraving, and
patinas that are
beyond anything
vintage. Instead of
looking 50 years
old they look like
they are 5,000
years old.
things that really sparked my interest in building pickups was
Tom Holmes. I had known him since the ‘90s and the guys in
Japan were really fascinated by his pickups.
TQR:
We have heard that they wanted to buy everything
he could make.
Yeah, they were always
after me to get him to sell
them some pickups, but they
wanted something like 2,000
sets and I think Tom was
winding maybe 40 a month.
They kept asking, and eventually he became interested.
At first they were going to
make the tooling over there,
but Tom could never approve
Tom Holmes the quality of their parts, so
he started shipping parts to them in Japan. There was a guy
who was going to build Tom’s pickups over there, and about
the time I was leaving Fernandez Tom decided to withdraw
from the arrangement and go with someone else. Anyway, I
was always very impressed and interested in all the parts Tom
made and the detail and craftsmanship he had achieved. I
have been making pickups for quite a few years, and although
I am a smaller manufacturer, I have made and designed a lot
of pickups and done a lot of OEM work. I consulted with
Jim Tyler when he wanted to make his own pickups and set
up his machines. I’ve also done a lot of vintage rewinds and
created books full of specs over the years for hundreds of
pickups. I can’t put
them all on my web
site because that
would be way too
confusing. There
are basically two
lines of my pickups
now. There is the
Vintage line that I call the Experience pickups that are exact
replicas of different era pickups. If it’s Fender and it would
have been hand-wound I hand-wind them. If it’s Gibson I
have vintage mechanical winding machines, and I also have
CNC machines. I actually collect winding machines…
Another part of the line is OEM stuff – custom pickups that
may have never existed before made for guitar builders. I
was doing the Tyler thing, and then I met James Trussart and
I have developed models and worked with him. I really like
working with guitar builders, and I want to build pickups
that will add value to the guitar. I do things like engrave the
base plate with Arcane Inc. and the builder’s name, and each
pickup will have an engraved sequential serial number. We
usually start with something vintage and then develop pickups that are tuned to a builder’s guitar. I do patinas, custom
TQR:
I’ve seen that, and it’s amazing. How did you learn
to do that?
The engraving I had already been doing, but I developed the
patinas working with Trussart. If you look at some of his
early guitars they had this really crazy patina that was black
or green, copper or gold, and they had these brushed pickups
in them. I found out how I could make pickups with the same
patina and colors as the guitars, and I learned a lot of that
from him. He is a real master of working with chemicals to
achieve that unique look. Instead of making a vintage copy of
a pickup, how about we make one that has a unique spec for
your guitar that has never existed before? All of a sudden it
seems as if that look is catching on now.
TQR:
You mention using ‘tuned Alnico magnets’ on your
site. What is a tuned Alnico magnet?
You can do different
things with Alnico
magnets. You can use
it fully charged or
de-gaussed. I have
my own magnet
charger, and I want to
be very consistent. You can buy magnets fully charged, but
they can still vary. You might get a block of bar magnets that
are charged, but have they all been charged consistently? I
charge them myself so that I know they are fully saturated if
that’s what is called for. I don’t want the kind of variation that
existed with vintage pickups.
TQR:
Does the same consideration apply to the wire used
to wind pickups today? We know the old stuff varied.
Wire can vary as much as
10%. And the thickness
of the coating can be all
over the place, too. They
use dies to draw the wire
through and the dies can
get worn. It’s not like you
can specify a 1% variance.
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
7
pickups
I have collected a lot
of wire over the years
and I also measure
the tension, even
with hand wound
pickups. I mean, 50
years ago there were
great craftsmen, but
they weren’t necessarily thinking about
all the factors that made a truly great pickup. When I have a
great example of a pickup I want to know that every other one I
make will be the same, and sound just as good.
TQR:
There seem to be so many different variations referenced in the general specifications for vintage
pickups during different years… Early Telecaster
pickups are described as having different specs and
a different sound from the mid ‘50s, late ‘50s, early
‘60s and so on. The same variations are referenced
for Stratocaster pickups, and to some extent, Gibson
P90s and humbuckers, and you reference these
variations by specific year within your vintage or
Experience lines. How were you able to get your
mind around these subtle variations to the extent
that they are reflected in each pickup from each
era? We’re all used to having seen this referenced,
but most of us really don’t know what the difference really is.
I have a lot of friends that
have vintage guitars and I
have done a lot of rewinds
on vintage pickups. You can
also find a lot of information
on those spec changes from
other sources. I do vintage
era pickups, but I’m not trying to pursue the inconsistencies. Some of this is also
theory, and your ears have to
be the ultimate test. When I work with small builders we may
be hand-winding using Alnico 3 with a different stagger and
we may change the number of turns to get a specific outcome.
thing applies with pole pieces and screws. If you look at the
screws I use they are very crisp and precise – you can tell just
by looking at them.
TQR:
Everything adds up. When Gibson changed from nickel silver
covers to chrome it changed the sound, definitely. Brass
covers mute the sound compared to real nickel silver. It all
matters.
TQR:
You mention things like pole screws and base plate
materials – the type of steel that is used. How
important is that in the sound of the pickup?
Certain steel alloys impart a different sound, and I believe in
the importance of magnetic coupling. There are very cheap,
stamped out pole shoes or keeper bars you can buy that actually hold the polepieces in place. Most of them are stamped
out but they really should be milled and mine are. The same
It seems to. There are people who are very welleducated in electronics that would tell you that a
tone cap in a guitar that is merely dumping high
frequencies to ground can’t possibly affect the
sound of a guitar otherwise.
I have a very
large stock of old
paper-in-oil caps
and even different
types and brands of
caps sound different. Why do they
sound different
when two caps are
the same value?
I don’t know. I’m OK with people who don’t hear a difference, too. You’ll be fine with a cheap ceramic disc capacitor
and you can move on. I guess I just believe in processes and
how things are made. I’d rather use old precision machinery that was made in America when I can. Does it matter in
the final outcome? Not necessarily, but it’s the way I enjoy
working. There are things I do myself here that I could pay
to have done by suppliers, but I enjoy the process. I’m rooted
in vintage sounds and tones, but I really do enjoy coming up
with new and creative things, too. Like the Gold Coil pickup
that Gabriel and I came up with in a humbucker housing that
actually sounds better than the original gold foil pickups. We
changed the magnetic structure and we both liked it better,
but we didn’t know how it would turn out when we started.
That’s a lot of fun.
TQR:
TQR:
How much does the material used for covers matter
to you?
So I’m a player considering a new set of pickups
and I’m on your web site… I see five different
Strat sets, seven for Teles, as many for humbuckers
and five for P90s. How are you going to help me
figure out what to order?
I often do have to explain that when someone calls. Some
people may have a specific sound in mind from a guitar they
had in the past from a specific era, but I try to break it down
into different things. Like my early Tele pickups are wound
-continued-
8
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
guitars
with Alnico 3, and
the later ones are
made with Alnico 5.
If someone doesn’t
want that typical
shrill sound of a Tele
pickup with Alnico
5, I would suggest
one made with Alnico 3. I might suggest the Experience ‘50
if a player wants a more compressed, darker tone rather than a
brighter Tele sound. A lot of guys don’t want to read about all
the options they can consider, but if we talk we can figure it out.
I don’t think it was really known until recently that Alnico 3
was in a lot of the early Tele bridge pickups. Alnico 5 has a little
more zing and clarity, so you just have to talk about what they
want. P90s varied wildly because there is a lot of space for wire
in a P90 bobbin. Sometimes guys might have an idea that they
want a specific DC resistance like 9.5K , but that’s just one factor. I like to use proven formulas and guidelines because until
we listen to it, it’s all theory. I like to have a good reason to do
something that’s based on prior experience.
TQR:
What’s the turnaround on your pickups when
ordered?
RS Guitarworks
Slab Electro
Long-time readers know that
we are big fans
of Danelectro
guitars. Our first
review article
appeared in July
2000 featuring
an interview with
James Pennebaker, who had acquired and optimized a 56-U2,
DC-59 and a “couple of baritones.” The Korean reproduction Danelectros have typically provided good value, decent
playability and tone, and we have favorably reviewed several
6-string models and an excellent 12-string and baritone in the
past. Vintage? We bought a ‘59 copper U-1 at one time with
the intention of featuring it here, but the pickup was so weak
that we found it unusable. In those days we were unaware of
anyone capable of fixing it, and the guitar was in such great
shape that we didn’t want to touch or modify the original
electronics, so we returned it to the seller.
If it’s one of the stock Experience sets I may have it on the
shelf. If it’s a custom order with engraving it could be several
weeks depending on what’s in the works.TQ
We have also published two articles
on Jerry Jones’ unique and excellent replicas, including a detailed
interview with Jerry in June, 2004
with reviews, and most recently, a
January 2010 review of a Copperburst Jerry Jones singlecut. Jerry
Jones closed his shop in Nashville
and retired in April 2011.
www.arcaneinc.com.
Lagniappe
OK, so by now you know that we luv La Carne for its unique
style, superb feel and playability, and the excellent character
and tone of the P90 and Firebird pickups. We view it as the
quintessential rocker, but maybe you don’t want a rough and
ready beater… That’s fine. We don’t write these reviews with
the idea that this is an exclusive all or nothing proposition.
We’re simply trying to give you some ideas, for now or down
the road. In the interest of broadening your horizons, we suggest you check out some of the other models on the Echopark
site as well. There is a lot to see, the images are outstanding,
and the benefit of working with builders like Gabriel Currie
and others is that you can often dream up your very own
dream guitar, while supporting independent craftsmen and actually participating in the design process. Within specific solid
and semi-hollow body styles you can choose different types of
wood for bodies and necks, finishes, aging, neck profiles, fret
size, and other optional apppointments. That’s what we mean
when we say, Quest forth…
Delta Moon guitarist Mark Johnson
first brought the RS Slab Electro to
our attention through the Rebel Guitars web site. Intrigued,
we contacted Roy Blankenship at RS Guitarworks, who arranged for us to receive a copperburst Slab Electro for review
– the last remaining guitar among the first batch of prototypes built in 2012. We asked Roy to describe his inspiration
for the Slab Electro, and our review follows…
TQR:
It seems as if your concept for the Slab Electro was
to capture all the good things about the original
Danelectro while leaving some of the not-so-good
things behind. It plays like a real guitar.
Yeah, that was pretty much the idea. We wanted the sound,
but in a more playable guitar. There is one change being made
from the original prototypes. Initially Curtis Novak put a steel
plate on the bridge pickup like a Tele, and we noticed that
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
9
guitars
the neck
pickup had
the clarity
we wanted,
but it was
lacking
a little
bit in the
bridge, so
with this second run he is using a fiberboard base in the bridge
instead of steel. As far as construction goes, some people believe that the original Danos were all made with Masonite and
poplar, but I have restored some that were made with fir and
even pine. I think they used whatever soft wood was available,
and since we already build some guitars with pine, we decided
to use that.
TQR:
And just to be clear, we’re talking about the frame
for the body, with the top, back and sides made
from masonite and fabric strip on the sides.
Right. I always
thought the original
Danos looked cool,
but lately it seems
that we’ve become
known for building
hybrids between
other model designs
and Teles, like
hybrids between
a Gretsch and Tele, Flying V or Firebird. Plus, the Tele has
always been one of our favorite guitars and we’ve become
known for our Tele style guitars.
TQR:
Most significantly, you chose to build a classic
maple neck with a substantial profile and a slab
rosewood fingerboard. That’s not the kind of neck
you would find on an original Dano or even a Jerry
Jones replica.
We actually experimented with a
poplar neck and in
terms of stability I
didn’t think it was
worth the trade
off. There wasn’t
anything about the
poplar neck that seemed better than maple. We also kept the 16”
radius for that original feel. There is something about the tone of
the Danos that encourages slide playing, plus, they were often
such bad playing guitars that slide was all you could really do
with them.
TQR:
Did you use a standard Tele bridge plate?
Yes. We didn’t need to modify it at all, but the bridge lipstick
pickup had to be built with the Tele-style mounts for the
bridge plate.
TQR:
Does painting masonite present any unique challenges?
It’s a real pain. A good friend of mine recently gave me a
‘59 copper Dano and it had a large arm wear spot and you
could see that there was a clear sealer on the masonite that
we determined was shellac. When you spray masonite with
lacquer it gets real furry – it’s basically card board, so what
we did was shoot the masonite with one coat of polyester, and
we may try shellac in the next run. For the first run we kept
traditional Dano colors – solid copper, copper burst, red burst
with sparkle, and black with sparkle.
TQR:
What did you ask Curtis Novak to do with the
pickups, specifically?
He had restored so many original pickups that I just told him
we wanted a faithful recreation of the originals. On the second
run he is doing now the neck pickup will be underwound by
5% to better match the bridge, and as I mentioned we changed
the base plate for the bridge from steel to fiber board.
TQR:
What type of metal is used for the nut?
Aluminum, like the original. We
tried using Tusq and bone on one
of the prototypes and the sound
just wasn’t there. One of the
people that bought one of the first
Slab Electros was convinced that
the aluminum nut wasn’t going to
sound good and before even trying
it he sent the guitar out to have a
bone nut installed. Then he called
to tell me the guitar sounded dull,
and he hadn’t even played it with
the aluminum nut. It works. The
saddles are also aluminum. Our
first idea was to use brass, and that
made it too lively. We tried steel and that made it sound too
harsh. The original sound of the Dano was influenced by that
rosewood bridge, and while I’m not usually a fan of aluminum saddles, they just seemed to work on this guitar. We
used 250K pots although most of the Danos had 100K pots,
and we used Luxe paper-in-oil .05 tone caps. Tuners are Tone
Pros Klusons, and we used 6125 fret wire – a little wider than
6105 and not quite as tall. It’s close to the original wire and a
little taller.
-continued-
10
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
guitars
TQR:
With the first run sold now, when do you anticipate
that the second batch will be available?
Some time in April, and there will be six built, but anyone can contact us directly or contact a dealer and place an order for one at any time.
We also spoke with pickup builder Curtis Novak about the
lipstick pickups he makes for the Slab Electro, and we plan to
feature an expanded interview with additional reviews later
this year…
Curtis Novak
TQR:
You mention on your web site that building the
original Danelectro lipstick pickup is a complex
process…
Yes. I was very
active in reverse
engineering and
having to re-work
processes when
I worked for the
government at Los
Alamos, so I’m
always fascinated
by repairing and
re-working pickups to see how things are done. Most of the
modern lipsticks are made with a Firebird or mini-humbucker
bobbin because they just happen to fit in the tube really well.
The real original lipstick pickup magnet is much thicker than
a Firebird or a mini-humbucker magnet, and the magnet wire
was originally wrapped directly around that, so the coil is taller
and longer, and with it riding right on the magnet the sound is
is a little livelier. It’s also really hard to mass produce, which
is why modern builders use a pre-made plastic bobbin. Since
it’s such a smaller bobbin and magnet, they use a thinner gauge
wire and overwind it, so the resistance is very high and that
changes the tone a lot from an original lipstick pickup.
TQR:
And you are using a historically correct Alnico
magnet.
Yes, I have repaired quite
a few vintage lipstick
pickups and the magnets
are as tall as the actual
tube. They are taller and
a lot thicker, and that’s
where much of the beefy
tone comes from. Along
with the magnet’s drastic difference in size, the vintage lipsticks also used an Alnico 6 magnet, which most builders miss.
It also has a little bit to do with my winding process. For
years I have been trying to convince people not to think of a
pickup as an output device and that you shouldn’t measure it
by its output. It’s really an input device and a sensor, just like
a microphone. It’s passive, and as in recording, the higher
you turn the input volume up and the needle moves into the
red, it starts losing fidelity and saturates. It sounds louder, but
you lose all your fidelity, and that’s the way pickups work.
If you give the average person three pickups to listen to they
will pick the hottest one because of the added punch. But
they will get frustrated when they go into a recording studio
or they need to get a different sound and all they have is that
one ‘Stevie Ray
Vaughan’ hot
sound. He used a
pedal to get that,
and he could get
out of it whenever he wanted
Thinking of the
recording process,
you want to get the clearest, cleanest, high-fidelity sound you
can get and then post-process it. That’s also what you want
with a pickup. With most vintage pickups, it’s not that there
is a vintage tone necessarily, but they tended to wind them
for fidelity and a certain sweet spot. There are certain pickups
like the DeArmond gold foil that don’t come alive until they
are wound really hot, but the lipstick is known for being a
3.5K-4K pickup, and it’s got that massive magnet that creates
a big orb field around the coil. When the wire is laying on the
magnet, it rattles it a lot more than the modern versions with a
smaller, tighter wind. They also wax pot the modern lipsticks,
and using that plastic bobbin with a tiny magnet, it’s so much
not what it was.
TQR:
So clearly you don’t pot the lipstick pickups you
make.
No, I don’t. Fender was the only company that potted pickups
among the big companies like Gibson and Gretsch. Leo was
an electrical enigineer and that’s what you do with transformers. There is a lot of this on my FAQ, but if you think of a
pickup as a Jew’s harp, it’s fine when it’s on your lips and
you’re playing it, but once it touches your tooth it rattles
really loud. The microphonics and squealing in a pickup are
caused when two rigid parts come in contact with the coil
and it creates a feedback loop. You could dip a Jew’s harp in
Plasti-coat and it could be on your teeth and it wouldn’t rattle,
but it doesn’t sound like a Jew’s harp anymore – all the brass
is lost. The idea is that you isolate the musical part – the coil,
from all the rigid, rattling parts. You either isolate or fuse
them so when they resonate they resonate as one. Mosrite
pickups are known for being really squealy, and people will
say that they solved the whole thing by dipping the pickup
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
11
guitars
completely in wax. You can save that pickup by pulling the
screws out and dripping some hot wax down on each screw
and fusing all those parts. They used Bondo and epoxy when
they built the Mosrite pickups, and sometime they will break
loose and be rigid and they will rattle. But you can stop all the
rattle without touching the coil.
TQR:
Roy also mentioned that you had used a copper
plated steel base plate on the first batch of Slab
Electros, and then switched to a bridge lipstick with
a fiberboard base.
That’s true. The last
batch I wound for him
had the fiberboard
base. The copper plated
steel base used for the
Telecaster pickup acts
as a reflector. The thing
I think a lot of people
don’t get about pickups is that the coil does all the work. You
can have a pickup with just a coil and no magnet or steel. It
will be kind of weak, but you don’t need any magnets or steel.
All they do is create a large magnetic field around the coil,
and ferrous metals will do the same thing, so that big plate under the magnet just changes the field and enlarges it a little bit.
TQR:
Have you gotten any of the old Danelectro pickups
in for repair that were just too weak to be used?
Not really. Usually it’s something else. In all my years of
repair I have never really seen a magnet gracefully degrade.
When they degrade it is usually because the polarity is not
consistent across the magnet. There is a lot of theory about
vintage magnets becoming weak over time and that some of
the vintage tone comes from that, but I haven’t found that
to be true. I used to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory with some world renowned metallurgists and scientists,
and they didn’t see it either. Heat can do it – there are things
that can change the properties of a magnet, but any kind of
extreme heat like that would destroy the plastic in the pickup.
I rewound a Firebird
two or three times and
it wasn’t sounding quite
right but I wasn’t catching what was going on.
I finally took a polarity
tester and went over
the entire magnet, and
when I got to the very
last 1/8 of an inch the
polarity flipped. When I do a custom pickup I may grind 1/8
of an inch off a bar magnet, and if you aren’t careful to stop
and let it cool as you are grinding it, the same side of a magnet can read both north and south and the pickup will sound
out of phase. So the properties of a magnet can change, but I
don’t think it’s from ‘aging.’
TQR:
How popular are the lipstick pickups you wind
compared to the other types you make?
They are becoming more and more popular. The Jerry Jones
were a pretty good replica, and with him making them there
wasn’t a need for anyone else to be doing anything different. Where I get most of my business is in trying to cram a
Chevy engine into a Ford (laughing). I do lipsticks for Teles,
Jaguars… I can fit two lipsticks in a Firebird or a Gibson
humbucker cover. I can do side-by-side in the same tube, and
with that you can get a good lipstick sound in a Gibson guitar
and with four wires you can choose single coil or dual-coil
humbucking operation.
Slab Electro
Danelectro founder
Nat Daniel was
a clever and resourceful designer
and businessman. In an effort
to manufacture
affordable – some
might even say
‘green’ products, he used Homasote in place of wood to build
his amplifier cabinets – the first recycled, post-consumer
product developed in 1906 made from a slurry of recycled
paper. Today the Homasote company continues to recycle 100
tons of cellulose fiber, conserving nearly 750,000 trees and
eliminating 30 million pounds of solid waste that otherwise
would go into landfills.
Daniel similarly chose masonite for
the tops and backs of his guitars,
invented in 1924 by William H.
Mason in Laurel, Mississippi. Production of masonite began in 1929,
and it was used for doors, roofing,
walls and household siding among
other products. No doubt Daniel’s
resourceful approach was driven
by a desire to sell his products at
price points that would appeal to a
larger market, but whether by accident or design, his guitars also have a very cool and unique
tone all their own. Unfortunately, the output of the lipstick
tube Alnico bar magnet pickups was inconsistent, and being
-continued-
12
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
interview
budget instruments, tuning stability and overall playability
were mediocre at best by today’s standards. The Slab Electro
takes the basic foundation of the Danelectro to an entirely new
level with custom-wound pickups that are true to the ‘original’
Dano tone, and a neck and fretboard that allow this guitar to
transcend the narrow role of a somewhat clumsy slide guitar
to an every day player.
Weight freaks will swoon over
the 5.6 pound featherweight
feel of the Slab. The medium
C-shaped maple neck profile
and medium jumbo 6125
frets create a comfortable and
effortless playing experience,
and yeah, if you want to tune
to open G, break out the slide
and capo up, the 16” fretboard
radius makes sliding a breeze.
If you aren’t familiar with
the sound of these pickups,
perhaps it’s time… At 4.94K bridge and 5.37K neck you can
expect less volume and output than a typical Telecaster, for
example. Unlike most replica lipstick Dano pickups, Curtis
Novak uses full-size Alnico bar magnets, and he also makes
hum-canceling lipsticks and lipsticks for Stratocasters. Again,
compared to Fender single coils we found the Novak lipsticks
to have more depth,
detail, and chime,
sounding slightly
warmer overall
rather than sharp
and thin. The neck
pickup has the clarity and character
of a great Strat
neck – liquid, full, vocal and moody. The bridge pickup is less
sharp and biting than the typical tone of a Fender-style bridge
pickup, with lots of complex chime and harmonics. Overall,
expect a more finessed sound that is less penetrating, linear
and direct, with the percussive character of a semi-hollow
body guitar, yet the aluminum
saddles seem to encourage excellent sustain and a very ‘stringy’
tone. The aluminum nut doesn’t
influence the sound of the guitar
nearly as much, because, of course,
you only ‘hear’ it on open strings.
Played through an overdriven amp
or overdrive effects, the Slab Electro retains a more acoustic character rather than being confined to a
tight, compressed, driving sound.
In terms of feel, touch and aesthetics, the build quality and
finish work are flawless, the Slab stays in tune with precise
tuning from the TonePros Klusons, and we found the fretboard
familiar and comfortable. The biggest adjustment for the uninitiated is the tone and dynamic character of the guitar. This
isn’t a thrasher, so if you play with a heavy hand and thrive on
the sound of an exploding guitar loaded with humbuckers or
other high output pickups, the Danelectro vibe may be new to
you. That’s OK… Guitarists paint with tone, but there are no
rules that say you have to use every color and hue. The Slab
Electro is one of those guitars that should be pulled out when
you want to make a memorable statement that can’t and won’t
be confused with anything else. TQ
www.rsguitarworks.net, 1-859-737-5300
www.curtisnovak.com, 760-820-4434
Fender Amplifiers
Endure and Evolve
The landscape of guitar amplification has changed dramatically during the past ten years, with more amps being built
at every price point than ever before, and many manufacturers utilizing factories in Asia to remain competitive. Even
relatively small custom builders like Steve Carr are now
competing in a global ‘boutique’ market, and while we still
seem to receive more inquiries about obscure custom builders,
we also like to stay abreast of what’s happening at Fender. We
have reviewed many of the reissue Fender blackface amps,
the Vibro-King, Cyber-Twin, ‘64 Vibroverb developed with
Cesar Diaz, Blues Deville,
Pro Junior and Woody, the
hand-wired ‘57 Twin, and
most recently, the handwired reissues of the tweed
Deluxe and tweed Champ.
We contacted Shane Nicholas, product manager for
amplifiers with a request
to receive three amplifiers
for review that represent
Fender’s diverse range of
products – from the $299.00
retro Excelsior 1x15 combo,
Shane Nicholas
$999.99 Super-Sonic 22, to
the $2,999.00 Eric Clapton Twinolux. We also asked Shane to
describe the inspiration for each. Enjoy…
TQR:
Shane, before we jump into the amplifiers we’ve
selected for review, could you summarize your
background and give us an idea of what your job
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
13
interview
at Fender entails? We know you’re very hands-on,
often demo’ing amps at NAMM in the past, and
very much a ‘guitar guy’… Can you give us an
insider’s view of what it’s like working at Fender?
I started working at Fender after many years in music retail.
I’ve been a guitar player since childhood, and musicians tend
to gravitate towards jobs in the music industry after they get
tired of gigging for a living. At Fender, if you are in product
marketing, you have to be a musician, because you must
“speak the language.”
As the Amplifier Product Manager, I shepherd the product
through its life cycle. I interface with engineers, planners,
manufacturing, supply chain, legal, advertising, sales, customer
service … all the people who contribute to the product itself,
and how we present it to the world. All the product managers and brand managers at Fender are musicians, and many of
them are great musicians, so it’s a great place to work.
TQR:
We selected the Excelsior, Super-Sonic and EC
Twinolux for review specifically because they so
nicely span a wide range of contemporary Fender
amplifiers in terms of price, specific features and
sound. Beginning with the Excelsior, can you
describe how each model was conceived?
Excelsior and Greta, our “Pawn Shop” series amps, came
about through ongoing conversations among some of the guitar
players here in the office who owned wacky old “off brand”
gear. One guy had some Supro and Silvertone stuff, one guy
collected ‘40s lap steel amps, another was into tube radios, and
so on. In this environment, wouldn’t you know it, ideas started
flying around regarding what we might do along those lines.
The Super-Sonic
amps are the closest thing we make
to “my personal
signature model.” I
am half joking here,
but when I play
gigs, I usually use
one. In my years on
stage, I’ve played
everything from Hank Williams to Black Sabbath, and that
kind of tonal variety was the impetus for the first Super-Sonic.
The original idea was to make a simple to use, vintage-toned
Fender tube amp that also contained a more modern high-gain
lead channel. We sell lots of them, and the list of artists using
them gets longer every day.
The EC amps came about at the request of Eric himself. At
one of the Crossroads concerts, he explained to our Artist
Relations
guys that
he loved
our tweed
amps, old
and new,
but that he
had ideas
for some
personalized
models.
We agreed to work together, and this spawned the three EC
models we currently offer. They have really done well, and
not just with Clapton fans.
With any of these projects, the initial concept is written down
and saved until one of our engineers are available to start the
project’s development. If it’s a simple design like a tweed
reissue, we can get the amp into production relatively quickly.
With a complex design like a G-DEC or Mustang amp, it can
take years.
TQR:
To what extent do you invite your peers and
associates at Fender in to check out new amplifier designs during the R&D process? Do you call
someone like Mike Lewis in to play through a new
amp often?
We absolutely call on
our peers to evaluate
new amps. In some
cases, they are the
inspiration. For example,
if we reissue a classic
Fender tweed amp, Mike
Lewis and Mike Eldred
are at the top of the betatester list, because they
are “the customer” for that product. They are dyed-in-thewool longtime blues players who gig with Fender tube amps,
and they sit right next to me. If it’s a $99 digital amp we are
developing, like the Mustang I, then maybe our kids are the
customers, so we’ll talk to them first.
TQR:
The EC Series represents the first Signature line of
amps for Fender. We’ve seen firsthand in the past
that Eric has played Custom Shop versions of his
signature Stratocaster with no embellishments other
than the occasional custom paint job. They are otherwise quite true to his standard signature model.
Can you describe to what extent Eric was involved
in the creation of the EC Signature amplifiers?
-continued-
14
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
interview
The EC amps were developed over a period of time. Eric’s
first request was that we build him a ’57 Twin with Tremolo
included. We modified one to achieve this, and Eric liked it
and used it live on a bunch of shows. This one had little knobs
for the tremolo filling the unused input jack holes. Next step
was a version of this including a power attenuator in a box
bolted inside the back panel. The final version, which we
dubbed ‘The EC Twinolux,” had everything laid out neatly
versus an amp with obvious modifications.
The amps that ended up being the EC Tremolux and EC
Vibro-Champ were developed in the same way, with
several rounds of prototypes.
We shipped protos to Eric
wherever in the world he
was at that moment, where
he tested them in the studio
or on stage and reported back. When he finally approved the
three finished models, we had no doubt that he would really
use them.
TQR:
TQR: You have been
at Fender now long
enough to have witnessed the ‘boutique’
custom amplifier market grow, vintage amp prices soar, and tastes and
preferences change in terms of power, volume and
portability. Who would have thought that someone
like Jeff Beck would have used a Pro Junior for
his main house sound on tour in 2010? What have
been some of the most surprising developments in
amplification during your time at Fender, what are
your favorite contemporary Fender amps and why,
and what do you envision for the future of guitar
amplification?
The Excelsior is a brilliant retro design produced at
an unbelievable $299 price point… How can you
build an amp that sounds so good at that price?
Thanks, I am glad you like
it! The Excelsior wasn’t
intended to be anything more
than fun, and we priced it
accordingly. We have a team
of engineers here in R&D that
are very experienced at amp
design, so they know how to
optimize and find cost savings when the project requires
it. It’s the same thing with our
Excelsior
supply chain folks who travel
the globe managing relationships with offshore manufacturers.
Finally, since we are Fender, the biggest seller of guitar amps,
we can achieve savings through economy of scale.
TQR:
tion and baffle size make
a huge difference. If you
are a serious player, tone
usually trumps convenience, unless you are
taking a taxi to the gig.
We were a little surprised to see a big 2x12 cabinet
matched with the SuperSonic, especially since so
many aging guitarists seem to have become weightabhorrent. Our impression is that the SuperSonic
was deliberately designed to be a performance rig
first and foremost in which sound reigned over onehanded portability…
The Super-Sonic amps are designed for stage use, to be sure.
That big Super-Sonic 212 cabinet isn’t the most portable, I admit, but boy, does it sound big and fat! The birch ply construc-
Mustang Mini
I’ve made no secret of my
love for the Super-Sonic
series. In addition, my favorites are the ones I have
played and owned since I
was a teenager, particularly
the ’59 Bassman, the ’65
Deluxe Reverb, and the
tweed Deluxe. I like the reissues and the old ones. I also
have a Mustang Mini on my
desk that I play every day.
Without going into detail about the vintage market or the
proliferation of boutique brands, I’ll say that the Internet
has prompted the biggest change to the guitar amplifier
landscape. Back in the ‘80s when I started in retail, there
were about four brands of amplifiers that any serious electric
guitarist would consider. At that time, it seemed that most
players desired up-to-date product, like solid-state Peavey
amps and rack-mount effects, for example. A 1950s Fender
amp could be had for a few hundred dollars, and the market
wasn’t very sophisticated.
Today, anybody with a laptop can go online to hear and see
what all the new amps do, order the necessary parts to build
an amp or start an amp company, or find the vintage collectible of their dreams. At Fender, we follow these trends
carefully. We don’t always respond directly, but we definitely keep track of what’s going on. You mentioned the
Pro Junior – we’ve obviously seen a trend towards players
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
15
amps
choosing lower-wattage
tube amps, which is
why we currently offer
about ten different tube
amps with 22 watts or
less. Meanwhile, more
players than ever rely
on digital solutions to
getting guitar tone, and
the stellar success of our
Mustang line proves it.
Regarding the future, we
will do what Leo did,
and what we’ve always
tried to do. We listen to
what musicians are saying and doing, and provide them with
useful tools to make music, whether it employs 1940s technology or next year’s technology.
Fender EC Twinolux
As guitar deities go, Eric Clapton has never seemed to be
much of a gearhead. Avid guitar hound, yes, but not as keenly
interested in the technical side of things to the extent that
some other guitarists have obsessed over their amplifiers
and effects. You are probably already very familiar with the
guitars and amps associated with his brief time spent in the
Bluesbreakers and Cream… Clapton unintentionally put the
‘59 Les Paul on the list
of must-have guitars
with the Bluesbreakers,
while playing his Fool
SG, ‘64 ES-335 and a
Firebird I with Cream.
When he switched
to a Stratocaster and
surfaced with Derek
and the Dominoes, a
lot of Cream fans were
initially left stunned,
disheartened and slackjawed, but then again,
the payoff was Layla – a record that Tom Dowd described in
our September 2001 interview as the “national anthem of rock
records.” Despite having taken a full year for Atlantic to get
Layla pushed onto the charts, Clapton succeeded in completely reinventing himself with a strong new voice, an entirely
new tone, and the songs he wrote remain every bit as fresh,
urgent and captivating as the day they were first released. We
asked former tech Lee Dickson about EC’s various amps in
our September 2001 cover story…
“When I first started working for him he was using Music
Man amps and open back cabinets with JBL K120’s in them.
It’s evolved
from Marshalls, Dean
Markley amps,
Soldanos, Dual
Showman
amps, and most
recently, the
Twins. He really doesn’t ask
a lot, and he’ll
decide when
he wants to change amps. The last few years he’s been using
these custom-built Fender Twins. There are only three, and
they were built by John Suhr while he was at Fender. It took
over three years for them to round up the original transformers, speakers, and some other parts for the amps, but they can
never be identical due to the nature of the old parts. Anyway,
that’s what he’s using now, and as you can see, we have one
Twin in a stand here on stage with an identical backup behind
it. Eric can pick up any guitar and play through any amp
and get the Eric Clapton sound from it. It’s there. “It’s in the
trousers,” as he says. He’s not one of those guys who tweaks
the amp and messes with it – quite the opposite. He just wants
to walk in, pick up the guitar and play. I remember Eric going
into a guitar store in Memphis that was across the street from
his hotel, and all he was interested in were the old Harmony’s
and guitars that Muddy might have played early on. That’s
what he brought from the store the next day. He’s not one of
those guys who likes push/pull, boost/cut, grunge/clean, treble
boost/mid boost, thin/fat… that’s all bollocks. He comes from
the ‘plug it in and go’ school, and that’s the way he works.”
Prior to the appearance of the
‘Custom Shop’
Twins, Clapton
had been using a
low-power 5F8-4
Twin modified by
Cesar Diaz that
subsequently sold
at auction in 2004
for $23,900. Cesar
described his
modifications in
our August 2000
interview… “I took his low-power tweed Twin – the one with
the two rectifiers, and changed the transformer to a Fender
export transformer. In fact, I have the original transformer,
because he didn’t want it. It’s the same power transformer that
went into the Showman for the first two years. I also took the
two rectifiers out and replaced them with a silicon diode and
installed two more 6L6s, just like you’d see in a later Twin.”
-continued-
16
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
amps
In addition
to the tweed
Twins built by
Suhr, Denis
Cornell built
his own version
loaded with
Tone Tubby
speakers for
Clapton, which
Twins
was followed
by the hand-wired Fender reissue low power ‘57 Twin (TQR,
December ‘08), and most recently, the EC Twinolux.
We know a little somethin’ about tweed Twins… the sound of
them anyway. Last year David Gilmour’s long-time tech Phil
Taylor went shopping for a second Twin to add to the London
collection. He found a big 5F8-A on eBay in the States and
had it sent directly to Jeff Bakos here in Atlanta for a lookover
before shipping it to England. It didn’t need much – a few
Mallory 150s and a resistor or two… All it really needed was a
guitar plugged into it, and we did just that before it was crated
up. At the same time, Bruce Tanous, a subscriber from Washington, D.C. sent another narrow panel 5F8-A tweed Twin to
Jeff for some TLC and two new speakers – ‘50s Jensen P12Ns
pulled from an old Hammond rig that Tanous had acquired.
The cabinet had also been shipped to Gregg Hopkins for some
deft restoration work
due to oversized mounting screws
having been
used to further fortify
the chassis
for the road.
Having both of these amps in the same room was a rare treat
not likely to be repeated, and they fully earned their reputation
for being counted among the holy grail of vintage amplifiers.
Clean, big, deep and wide is what they are, and we were surprised and pleased to discover that their tone actually sounded
very, very similar to our own ‘58 fixed bias 5G9 Tremolux
biased
for 6L6s,
if much
louder
and more
powerful,
of course.
Still, the
similarity
in terms of
pure tone
was uncanny, really. Pretty much everyone that has heard
the Tremolux shoots it a knowing look of respect and deep
admiration, and so it goes with the Twins, only from a few
more feet away, perhaps.The Twin’s massive transformers
and comparatively simple circuit are key to its sound, yet
both amps sounded exceptionally fine and dynamic even at
low volume levels – clear, supremely rich, and true to all
the big narrow panel tweeds, extremely vocal. We use that
description a lot with certain pickups, amplifiers and guitars
because in our mind, that’s the critical line of demarcation
between ‘good’ and truly ‘great.’ Plenty of amplifiers new
and old sound good, others create a tone and character that
are so complex and musically captivating that you can never
forget them.
The handwired EC
Twinolux has
been cleverly
tweaked to
render it more
versatile at
varied volume
levels with
a switchable power attenuator. A 3-position switch selects 1
SP Lo, producing 1/4 power with just one speaker active, 2
SP LO with the second speaker added, and FULL with both
speakers at 40 watts full power. Additional controls include
Power, Standby, Presence, Vibrato Intensity, Speed, Bass,
Treble and Volume. Tubes in the Twinolux follow the ‘56 -’57
5E8-A circuit utilizing two 5U4GB rectifiers, two 6L6GCs
and four 12AX7 preamp tubes. Speakers are Alnico Fender
Special Design Weber/Eminence 12s as installed on the
hand-wired ‘57 Twin. A vibrato footswitch and cover are also
included. Weight is 53 pounds.
Having previously evaluated
and reviewed the
‘57 Twin (TQR
December ‘08)
the Twinolux
seemed familiar enough
aside from the
enhancements
made to this model. At all power settings the amp remains
relatively clean until you approach ‘7’ on the volume control,
when you can expect a gradual increase in sustain and a sweet
overdriven tone building in intensity all the way to ‘12.’ The
attenuated 2 SP Lo sound with both speakers selected is very
similar to full power, just not as loud, but the volume seems
higher than the 1/4 power specification indicates. The 1 SP
LO setting with one speaker engaged seems to thin the tone
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
17
cables
considerably
compared
to the
fuller
sound
of both
speakers,
with a
significant drop in bass frequency response. Consequently,
this isn’t a setting we would probably ever use. The vibrato
effect is very swampy – not as intense as that of our ‘58 Tremolux, but good nonetheless.
At a street price of $2999.00, the hand-wired Twinolux is a
substantial investment. By comparison, used hand-wired ‘57
Twin amps are selling for $1400-$1600 in ‘as new’ condition.
For those on a budget, this may be an attractive alternative,
and you can
reference our
December
‘08 review
for tips on
optimizing the ‘57
Twin. We
like that amp
a lot. The
Twinolux simply expands the capabilities of the original
low-power Twin to meet the needs of players today who may
not always find 40 watts of power and volume appropriate for
home and club use. What we found most appealing is how the
Twin retains its relatively high threshold for clean headroom
at the 2 SP Lo 1/4 power setting rather than quickly spilling
over into heavy distortion in the style of a smaller tweed amp
like the Deluxe. Because the Twinolux remains cleaner below
‘7,’ it can be used for clear or moderately grinding rhythms
at higher volume levels and
boosted with an overdrive
or boost pedal as needed
with excellent results. Of
course, you can also leave
the volume of the amp set
higher and clean up using the
volume pot on your guitar.
We also like the responsiveness of the tone controls on
the Twinolux. The Presence
control is extremely useful
for gradually moving top
end sparkle forward with
different pickups, and blues
players will appreciate what it does for otherwise woofy neck
pickups in particular. The bass and treble controls also effectively adjust EQ with a smooth and precise taper that is very
useful in dialing in the tone of different guitars. True to the
character of Fender tweed and brown amps, the voice of the
Twinolux is less scooped in the mid frequencies, producing a
rich clean tone and a smooth growl turned up. We also urge
you not to be put off by the 40 watt power rating… While
different amplifiers may share the same power specs, you’ll
find that the Twinolux does not create quite the same impression of aggressive power and crushing volume as a Super
Reverb, for example. Call it a kinder, gentler 40 watts, with a
smoother, less abrupt tone. Overall, the Twinolux produces an
outstanding range of tweed-inspired tones with a bold voice
that only two 12” speakers can deliver, and the added capability of effectively managing volume without sacrificing tone
and dynamic punch. It also sounds equally good with Fender
single coils, P90s and humbuckers. Hand-wired and housed
in an elegant pine cabinet, the Twinolux appeals to us as an
enduring workhorse – a simple plug & play amp and a worthy
modern alternative to a Fender legend. TQ
Next issue: Reviews of the Fender Excelsior and Super-Sonic
www.fender.com
Cable Tone?
Conquest
Sound
has been
around
for
decades
– since
1977 to
be exact.
We rummaged
around
and found an old Conquest cable (still working) that dates
back to the ‘70s, which got us thinking about some of the
places it had undoubtedly been used… Of course, coil cords
were also very popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s when no one
seemed to be concerned with capacitance and signal loss.
Stevie Ray actually preferred it. We can vividly recall one
instance in a recording studio when, being too lazy to walk
across the room to unplug the cord from an amplifier, we
just kept tugging on it until the cord was stretched taught,
and suddenly the male jack shot out of the input jack with
tremendous velocity, rocketing straight to a direct hit on
-continued-
18
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
cables
the family jewels. These days you don’t see coil cords being
used much, and the market for ‘high end’ (expensive) guitar
and speaker cables has grown in step with custom pickups,
guitars, amplifiers and effects. How much are you willing to
spend on a ‘better sounding’ cable? While we haven’t quite hit
the ridiculous prices of high-end audiophile cables, you can
spend a lot on custom speaker and guitar cables. Or not…
Conquest has introduced a new line of Custom Shop cables
for guitar, and we received two for review. We also asked
Larry Spalla and Nick Kutzko from Conquest to describe their
intentions in developing their new Custom Shop cable, and
our review follows…
TQR:
In general, how has instrument cable evolved and
been improved over the past 30 years?
In the past 30 years alone, cable for audio applications has
changed dramatically. Audio and Instrumentation cable took
its roots originally from the telecommunications and military
industries. It has only been recently that cables became geared
to specific applications. Over time, cable product emerged
for specific markets based on their application. Twisted pair
cables were designed to reduce cross-talk, radio frequency
interference, and common mode rejection. As new and
improved insulating materials became available, better and
newer design and processing techniques were developed to
reduce targeted spurious noise components. The technology
for guitars and their amplifiers was born; this has sparked a
revolutionary change in the past 30 years. During this time,
audio quality and the end user’s awareness has increased dramatically. The educated buyer has demanded more comparative testing and specific cable designs for individual instrument uses. Our goal was to create the best sounding cable on
the market, but keep it affordable. Many of the leading brands
of “high end” cables were used in our test comparisons along
with numerous instruments, amps, professional musicians,
sound techs and recording studio engineers. The cable consists of four conductors of pure copper and a 95% tight weave
braid shield. The four conductors are wired North/South and
East/West which creates a hum cancelling effect. No noise
passes through.
The
large
outside
diameter
created
by combining
the conductors
allows
a totally clean signal to pass from the instrument to the amp
or board. Signal loss is non-existent because of the superlow shield resistance, so there is no signal loss in the highs,
mids and lows. The cloth weave on our woven versions is the
tightest and heaviest in the industry, applied by the company
that invented the process. The jacket was designed to take the
beatings of road use but is very flexible. It is impervious to
oils, liquids and most other chemicals. The heavy braid shield
acts like an armor plating. The consensus from our tests was
a tighter, cleaner, crisper overall sound with the frequencies
from high to low being retained and accurate. It was best
summed up by John Pierce, L.A session player and member of
Huey Lewis and the News when he said “Sounds like there is
no cable between my guitar and amp. I can finally hear what
it’s supposed to sound like”. The last point is cost. We made
these affordable – priced much lower than most on the market
and attainable by any musician.
Breaking out a pile
of cables for a tonefest probably isn’t
the kind of thing
you look forward to
in your spare time,
so we are happy to
shed some light on
what’s happening
with Conquest’s
new cables. Obviously, the most important factor is durability. Nearly a fourth
of the cables we have here don’t work anymore – shorted
at a jack, including a few that weren’t cheap. Look, cables
get stepped on, twisted, jerked around and generally abused
even under normal ‘home’ use, so you can buy cheap ones,
fix them or throw them away when they fail, or spend a little
more for something that will last. Conquest cables are backed
by a lifetime guarantee, and the cables we received for review
equipped with Neutrik jacks appeared on inspection to be solidly assembled (in Monee, Illinois) to insure reliable service.
The next big question is, do ‘high end’ cables really produce
a meaningful difference in sound? In our experience, cheaper
stranded cables tend to produce a darker, murkier tone that
seems somewhat muted by comparison. Superior cables can
make your rig sound as if a blanket has been removed from
your amp, with a more immediate, faster sound and enhanced
fidelity that just seems more ‘there.’ The Conquest cables
produced the clarity and immediacy we have noted from other
premium cables reviewed here in the past, but at a significant
cost savings and no sacrifice in flexibility. PVC 10’ with
Neutrik jacks as reviewed: $42.50 Heavy braided covering
10’ with Neutrik jacks: $64.00. Also available in other lengths
with silent or right angle jacks.TQ
www.conquestsound.com
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
19
ToneQuest
Report
the
PO Box 717 Decatur, GA. 30031-0717
PERIODICAL POSTAGE
PAID AT
DECATUR,GA
AND ADDITIONAL
MAILING OFFICES
TM
the
ToneQuest
ToneQuest
Report
TM
Editor/Publisher David Wilson
Associate Publisher Liz Medley
Graphic Design Rick Johnson
EDITORIAL BOARD
Billy F. Gibbons
Greg Martin
Joe Glaser
Richard McDonald
Tom Guerra
Joe Mloganoski
Bakos AmpWorks
Johnny Hiland
Todd Money
Dick Boak
Gregg Hopkins
CF Martin & Co.
Vintage Amp Restoration
Joe Bonamassa
Mark Johnson
Analogman
Tom Anderson
Tom Anderson GuitarWorks
Mark Baier
Victoria Amplifiers
Jeff Bakos
Acquire Your Personal Copy
of the 1999-2012 TQR Archives
NOW ON SALE!
Imagine having a PDF file of every issue of
TQR on CD, including a searchable issue-byissue index for your future reference and enjoyment. Acquiring the ToneQuest Archives is now
more affordable than ever, priced at just $299.00
when you order by June 15, 2013. Order today
and you’ll also receive a free ToneQuest guitar
strap with your CD. Order your personal copy
of the ToneQuest Archives today by clicking the
Order Back Issues selection on the main menu
at www.tonequest.com, or call us toll-free at
1-877-MAX-TONE (629-8663). Don’t delay
- order your CD archive today!
Phil Brown
Dan Butler
Butler Custom Sound
Don Butler
The Toneman
Steve Carr
Carr Amplifiers
Erick Coleman
Stewart-McacDonald
Larry Cragg
Neil Young
Jol Dantzig
Jol Dantzig Guitar Design
Ronnie Earl
Dan Erlewine
ZZ Top
Glaser Instruments
Mambo Sons
Delta Moon
Phil Jones
Gruhn Guitars
Mark Karan
Bob Weir & Ratdog
Robert Keeley
Robert Keeley Electronics
Gordon Kennedy
Ernest King
Gibson Custom Shop
Chris Kinman
Kinman AVn Pickups
Mike Kropotkin
KCA NOS Tubes
Sonny Landreth
Stewart-MacDonald
Albert Lee
Larry Fishman
Adrian Legg
Fishman Transducers
Bill Finnegan
Klon Centaur
Lindy Fralin
Peter Frampton
Greg Germino
Germino Amplification
Dave Malone
The Kentucky Headhunters
VP Mktg, Fender Musical Instruments
Co-Founder K&M Anaslog Designs
Manager Gibson Repair & Restoration
Justin Norvell
Sr. Mktg Mgr, Fender Guitars
James Pennebaker
Artist Relations, Fender Musical Instruments,
Nashville
Riverhorse
Tommy Shannon
Double Trouble
Todd Sharp
Nashville Amp Service
Tim Shaw
Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
Randall C. Smith
Designer & President, Mesa/Boogie Ltd.
John Sprung
American Guitar Center
Peter Stroud
Buddy Whittington
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
Greg V
Los Angeles
The Radiators
Lou Vito
Jimbo Mathus
Mike Voltz
Shane Nicholas
R&D / Product Development, Gibson Memphis
Sr. Mktg Mgr, Fender Guitar Amplifers
René Martinez
The Guitar Whiz
The ToneQuest Report™ (ISSN 1525-3392) is published monthly by Mountainview Publishing LLC, P.O. Box 717 Decatur, GA. 30031-0717, 1-877-MAX-TONE,
email: [email protected]. Periodicals Postage Paid at Decatur, GA and At Additional Mailing Offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to:TheToneQuest
Report™, PO Box 717, Decatur, GA. 30031-0717.The annual subscription fee for The ToneQuest Report™ is $89 per year for 10 issues. International subscribers please add US $40. Please remit payment in U.S. funds only. VISA, MasterCard and American Express accepted. The ToneQuest Report™ is published solely
for the benefit of its subscribers. Copyright © 2013 by Mountainview Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in
any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without the written permission of the copyright holder. Please forward all subscription requests,
comments, questions and other inquiries to the above address or contact the publisher at [email protected]. Opinions expressed in The ToneQuest Report™
are not necessarily those of this publication.Mention of specific products, services or technical advice does not constitute an endorsement. Readers are advised
to exercise extreme caution in handling electronic devices and musical instruments.
TONEQUEST REPORT V.14 N.6 April 2013
20