The ToneQuest Report

Transcription

INSIDE
Six thousand
guitars later…
The return of
Bill Nash,
founder of
Nash Guitars
8
Our review
of the
‘57 Nash
Onyx
Cockaroux
10
Fundamental
frequencies
with TonePros
founder
Dwight Devereaux
Tone-shaping
hardware tips
plus…
a better Kluson –
our review of
TonePros
Kluson tuners
15
True
vintage tone!
Pyramid
round core
nickel classic
strings
17
The
Twilight Zone…
We snag
the 12 watt
Fullerton classic
no one seems
to want
for all the
wrong
reasons
19
The return
of Fuzz –
better than
it ever was!
Our review
of Xotic Effects’
new
Fuzzy Drive
Mountainview Publishing, LLC
the
The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone
$15.00 US, SEPTEMBER 2009/VOL.10 NO.10
Report
TM
Nash Guitars
“I don't understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound. Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for
50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off.”
— Jeff Beck
We first discovered Bill Nash while trolling eBay in 2004. At the time, he was working solo in the basement of his house, taking custom orders from individual clients
and creating dedicated web pages with images documenting every stage in the
building process for each guitar. We learned that Nash grew up in a musical family, his father Dick having been a very successful L.A. session musician (trombone)
since the ‘50s. Bill followed a familiar path, playing in local bands, working in
music stores and modifying or customizing his own guitars, and like a lot of us,
he was perpetually amazed by how how much time and effort were often
required to make new guitars truly playable in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
By the mid ‘80s, Nash ejected from the L.A. music scene to avoid becoming
a drug casualty, did a little rehab and wound up as vice president of a
video company. But the infectious lure of the guitar is a tough habit to
kick, and fortified by his wife’s generous practice of buying him vintage
guitars he probably felt he didn’t deserve, Nash slowly began
buying and selling used gear and making a few guitars
while working his day job from home. It wasn’t long
before his guitars caught on with knowing players, the
word spread, and Nash’s love for the guitar bloomed into
a new life as a very successful guitar builder. This is our
second cover story on Bill Nash, deliberately timed for
the waning dog days of summer in the midst of a global
economic recession that has forced us all to reconsider acquisitions we once took for granted. What better time to be reminded of a dedicated builder
whose vision has always been simply to give
guitar players more, for less? Enjoy…
TQR: Reflecting on the past with the benefit of hindsight,what have you learned
from the experience of creating Nash
Guitars from a dream that began in your
basement while you worked a day job?
It is interesting because I think very few
businesses end up where you think you’ll be
www.tonequest.com
cover
when you
start – especially if
there is an
artisan factor at work.
What I realized that I
didn’t think
about at
first is that
if you build
a guitar for
one person and it doesn’t meet that person’s expectations for
any reason, you have a problem. It isn’t necessarily that the
guitar isn’t a great piece or that there is something ‘defective’
with it… But if you have a guy who has saved some money
and has always had a dream guitar in his mind and waits six
months to get it built, and it isn’t exactly (and I mean exactly)
what he thought it would be, there is disappointment there,
and we have missed our goal. If I build a guitar, ship it to a
dealer, and 25 people play it, one of those 25 people is gonna
feel like, “Oh my gosh, this is the guitar I’ve been waiting for
all my life.” Now everyone wins – we win, the dealer wins,
and most importantly, the player wins. So after the first
ToneQuest article and the first few dealers began to pick up
the line, I began to realize that a dealer network was the way
to go for us. That’s not to say that there aren’t builders who
specialize in building one guitar for a specific client, but it
was going to be tough for us to do – especially when you get
into the area of aged guitars… We can all agree what a sonic
blue guitar looks like when it’s brand new. But if you have an
idea of an aged sonic blue guitar with a certain yellowing in
the clear coat… This is
all very emotional, too.
Guitarists are a strange
breed! It may be that
something clicked in
your head when you saw
Ry Cooder at the Forum
in 1987 and that’s what
you’re mentally replicating. If I don’t hit that
exact memory of the
color of Cooder’s guitar,
or if I don’t get the wear
pattern the same… well, it’s almost impossible.
TQR:
How long were you able to maintain the old model
where you were building guitars for individual
clients and putting up web pages for every stage in
the building process for each client? At that time I
think you were trying to build the equivalent of a
guitar a day.
Once we got up to about 100 guitars on order for individuals
with all the associated web pages and phone calls, I realized
that I was spending three days a week doing things other than
building guitars. So, your ToneQuest article hits, and I also
have to give some real credit to my first few dealers – Phil’s
Guitars in Washington state, Apollon Music in Japan, Killer
Vintage in St. Louis and Rumbleseat in New York. Phil was
the first one… I met him at a local guitar show and I had
brought a bunch of custom stuff to see where this thing was
going. Phil offered me a certain price and he’d take like eight
guitars. I didn’t want to drag them home… I wasn’t making
as much on the price he offered me as I wanted, but I could
go home with some cash and pay for additional parts and
supplies. Then he called me in two or three days and asked
me if I had any more guitars, because he had sold them all.
That’s when I realized that I needed to figure out a wholesale
model. I also learned that these established guitar dealers had
a lot of credibility with their clients and a reputation to protect, and that was very important to our early growth.
TQR:
Ken Parker observed that Leo Fender’s genius was
in part due to his keen understanding that as long as
his dealers made money, Fender would be successful.
Leo Fender is my biggest
hero, and yes, dealers are
your business partners. If I
can make money, the dealers can make money, and
the player can buy a guitar
for under $2,000, the whole
thing works really well. I
fight very hard on the suppliers’ side to maintain that
model – in talking to my
suppliers, making commitments and keeping our
Leo Fender
costs down while maintaining a level of quality. That’s where my efforts have to go. This
isn’t bragging, but for the bulk of our dealers, our guitars are
the fastest moving and most profitable items they sell.
TQR:
Well, that’s the big question – how do you maintain
a higher level of component and build quality while
keeping costs in line, well below the street price of
the typical ‘custom shop’ instrument?
Leo Fender, God bless him, hit the nail on the head so well
with these guitars, designing them from a perspective of cost.
He made them cheap to make, cheap to repair, and luckily it
all worked really well. We just try not to screw them up. If
you get too complicated with it, the magic goes out the window. But getting back to suppliers… You have to be willing
to eat some bodies and necks. Everyone that works for me –
-continued-
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TONEQUEST REPORT V10. N10. September 2009
cover
we all own a lot
of 8.5 to 9 pound
Teles and Strats.
If I get a shipment of 100 bodies in and 6 of
them are over our
weight specification, I don’t send
them back. I try
not to get too
crazy with my
suppliers. I know
they can’t tell
what something
will weigh until it
is cut out, routed,
and sanded. We
have a certain target – we want each body under 4.5 pounds,
which renders a finished guitar between 7 and 8 pounds. You
get above 4.5 pounds and I ask the guys in the shop who
wants to build a Strat or a Tele for themselves? For me it
works great because I love heavy Teles, but for the supplier,
I’m removing the pain-in-the-ass factor, and he is more willing to give me that extra $5 or $10 per unit. If I get a body
that is over a certain weight, I’ll burn it. I don’t care. It’s just
easier for everybody.
When you get to the necks, they are the harder part of this
equation… The best-sounding necks have the least desirable
truss rod situation. The single-action, heel-adjust, old school
truss rod makes the best-sounding necks to me. Now, that
truss rod can only correct a string tension bow, whereas a
double-action truss rod can adjust the neck both ways. The
double truss rod is also twice as heavy, you’re taking out
more wood in the neck with two pieces of metal, and it doesn’t sound nearly as good. I would rather throw out 5% of the
necks we get or even replace them in the field to achieve
what we gain in sound quality. Many of these OEM and
aftermarket neck shops will dip the necks in a stabilizer/
sealant – not because it improves the quality or sound of the
neck – it pretty much turns the wood into plastic and it doesn’t sound good, but that neck will never warp. I would rather
use a traditionally crafted neck and accept the risk of warping
in some instances. It’s worth it for a better sound.
TQR:
Have you offered figured necks by request, and do
you specify any particular grain orientation?
We offer figure as an option to our dealers, but we also
charge a fairly steep premium because if there is a problem,
we will replace the neck. Birds-eye isn’t nearly as potentially
unstable as a heavily flamed neck, but we have to be prepared
to replace maybe one out of five flamed necks. There are
people who
swear by
quarter-sawn
necks, but I
think the
most important thing is
that the wood
is dry before
they cut it. I
also find
quarter-sawn
necks to be too stiff. It’s almost like comparing my Les Paul
Standard with a rosewood fingerboard to my Les Paul
Custom with an ebony board. To me, it’s a harder sound. I
just think it’s important that the neck be cut from a clear,
knot-free piece of maple. I also like the feel of a flat-sawn
board – I think they are the most resonant. It’s like the
George Carlin line – “Every man has a plan that won’t work.”
You know, on paper, a guy
could sit and dream, read
everything he could find on
the web and in every chat
room and then decide what he
wants is a quarter-sawn, tripleA flame neck with an ebony
fretboard, graphite nut, titanium bridge, this set of pickups,
custom electronics, and he’s
gonna end up with something
that’s just horrible. But on
paper, it should work because
he’s buying all the ‘best’ stuff. That happened with some of
my early clients before I realized I was much better off selling my guitars to dealers. The guitar is going to be worn in
like an old boot and somebody is going to come along and
feel like they’ve been playing it for 40 years.
TQR:
I’d have to think that the biggest part of your labor
costs are related to applying the finish and distressing the guitars.
Yes and no. Painting and using nitrocellulose lacquer, which
is the only lacquer we use, is the hardest part of the equation,
but since we are building guitars that are going to be distressed,
you’re
able to
cut
some of
that
process
out, and
it’s why
-continued-
3
cover
we don’t make any ‘new’ looking guitars anymore. Once in a
while I’ll get talked into it and I regret it every time. We’re
just not set up for that anymore. You have to maintain really
clean sanding areas, and have guys who are used to wet-sanding and buffing new finishes… But since we’re distressing all
the guitars, if a tiny little piece of steel wool lands in the final
clear coat, nobody is going to freak out. Alder is easier to
work than ash… ash has to be grain-filled, and we have to
use a filler that is very, very organic and lacquer-based or the
guitar isn’t going to
sound good. A typical
2-piece body gets final
sanding here because
we’d rather not pay
our supplier to do that
extra five minutes of
the final sanding stage
and again, it keeps the
price down. With ash,
we grain fill it, it goes to paint and gets about four very thin
coats of clear lacquer that is sanded down, and now it is really prepped for paint. It gets one more clear coat which is
called a ‘wash coat’ in the finishing world, and then if it’s
going to be a solid color it will get a vintage white undercoat,
then the color coat and a clear coat over that. So we have
fewer coats of paint and less sanding to do because the guitars have so much less paint applied to them.
TQR:
What have you learned about using nitro?
You remember the
shop fire we had in
our spray area a few
years ago… Nitro is
great, great flammable stuff. Light up a
ping pong ball and
you’ll know what
you’re dealing with.
The funniest thing I
know about nitro is
burnt guitars
even our suppliers
don’t understand it, because the guys that work at the paint
companies are so used to dealing with industrial paints that
are latex or something that is catalyzed. The thing about nitro
is that depending on the humidity and temperature, the mix is
constantly changing. You need to thin it. Sometimes you want
to slow the drying time, other times you want to speed it up,
and the different pigments all change the way the paint flows.
The white pigments, which are made of titanium, react differently than the black pigments, so there is a little bit of an art
to the mixing, because we hand mix all those colors. After
the shop fire we had, we experimented with some waterbased lacquers, although we never shipped any guitars with
it, because you read up
on them and they say
it’s exactly like using
nitro, you’re gonna love
it, it’s non-flammable,
etc. But you shoot it
and it’s just wrong. It
doesn’t age the same,
and the thing about
nitro is, we’ve got it
down to where we know
scorched spray booth
how to remove it –
that’s the other part of distressing guitars – you have to know
how to get the paint off realistically.
I think one of the mistakes people make with lacquer is the
tendency or need to rush it. If you’re shooting thin coats of
real nitro for a new guitar, you’re going to need 12-15 coats
depending on the day you’re shooting it, and it takes about six
hours for each coat to dry. Nitro dries from the outside/in and
a skin forms on the top. Well, if you put more lacquer on that
first skin before it is dry, you wind up with two skins. It feels
dry in 45 minutes, but it isn’t. It can take a long time for the
lacquer to really dry, it will feel sticky to the touch, and the
guitar doesn’t fully cure. Also, there is a certain absorption
into the wood that helps with that. Most production guitars –
even those that are sprayed with nitro – get a poly prep coat on
the bare wood because it eliminates the need for grain filler, so
now you’re basically shooting nitro over a poly car finish
instead of the wood. I also think it’s important who you have
working for you… a lot of the problems with manufactured
guitars is that they have people working there who don’t know
what they’re
building or
what the end
result is supposed to be.
It’s just a job.
One of the
first things
that someone
we hire does is
get involved in building their own guitar so they can see and
understand how and why things are done in a specific way.
TQR:
What range of options do you offer now in terms of
neck shapes, fret wire, etc.?
We have standardized our fretboard radius to a 10", and we
use Dunlop 6105 because you can dress it a few different
ways, it has a lot of meat on it, but it isn’t super huge…
Everybody likes it. We do two neck shapes now. We were
offering three – a medium C, a soft V boatneck and a ‘fatback,’ which we dropped because so many people thought
-continued-
4
cover
they wanted it, but
it often turned out
to be just too big.
We even replaced
them for free, so a
lot of our personal
guitars here have
fatback necks
(laughing). So now
we just offer the C
or the boatneck.
Again, it’s also about how to make guitars and keep the price
down. Well, if I have just two neck shapes to deal with, it’s
that much easier administratively. The nut width is a standard
1 5/8", we only use a single heel-adjust truss rod, mostly
alder and ash bodies, although we do offer the Tele Thinline
in mahogany, and we shoot virtually every vintage color and
even a few they didn’t use.
TQR:
What are your thoughts on hardware? You know,
the aftermarket bridge and saddle business has really taken off, with some companies even pushing
bizarre stuff like mixing brass, graphite, steel
and/or titanium saddles for optimal tone on a Tele…
First of all, I think
anyone who owns
a guitar should be
willing to tinker
with it – take their
guitar apart and
experiment.
Go for it. To me,
a ‘52 Tele is a
Volkswagon…
You wanna put weird fenders on it or turn it into a dune
buggy, have at it. But… I have still not found that any of that
stuff makes as big a difference as having a decent piece of
wood for the body, a good neck, and very little finish. If
you’re adding all that designer hardware to a guitar finished
in poly, I think you’re just spending good money after bad.
There is a sound to things like the titanium Strat block, and if
you like that sound, do it, but I don’t like that sound. I like
the sound of that lightweight, cheap metal. We do use compensated brass Tele saddles, because the original saddles
were designed for use with a wound G string. I think there is
something significant contributed by the standard Tele bridge
plate, and I also think the standard Kluson-style lightweight
tuners sound the best on Fender-styler guitars, rather than
something heavier… some German kind of thing. I think it’s
great that there is a discussion of all these things, but you
shouldn’t believe everything you read.
TQR:
What have you learned about aging hardware?
As far as aging hardware with abrasion and chemicals, I have
figured out different blends of chemicals that do what we
need it to do
very quickly
without being
dangerous.
There is a lot of
stuff that can
ruin metal effectively, but you
Actual ‘57 bridge
can also kill
yourself doing it. What you have to learn about aging metal is
not just how to age it, but how to stop the rust. If something
is going to continue to corrode six months after the guitar
was built, that’s not a good situation. That’s why so much of
this stuff gets taken apart… The saddle reacts differently than
the screw that goes in the saddle, and if you age them the
same way, or together, you’re going to have problems. You
can’t just take an assembled Strat bridge and age it – the
screws, springs, saddles and bridge plate have to be aged separately and in a different
fashion. This is the stuff
that I feel we have really
developed on a larger
scale as an art form that
doesn’t affect functionality. We’re all using the
same tuners, and they have
a little blob of grease in
Fender relic aged tuners
them. How do you get the
metal to look old without dissolving the grease? I’ve screwed
up a lot of parts getting to where we are now. And the bass
tuners are different because they aren’t sealed.
TQR:
You have a certain range of pickups that you use,
and there must have been the same kind of evaluation process that was involved in determining what
you would ultimately offer.
Had I not started out in this process building for individuals, I
would never have been exposed to some of the pickups I was
exposed to. A guy would say he wanted pickups made by soand-so, and I didn’t even know what those were, so I’d get on
the web and educate myself. At some point you have to
decide what you’re going to offer, and if someone really
wants something
else, they can
install them later.
You know, I play,
I have a zillion
amps, and I
would listen to all
the pickups we
would install and
-continued-
5
cover
I ended up using Lollar pickups for all of our Fender style
guitars. There is something incredibly musical and dynamic
about his pickups and they are great people to work with. If
you can plug a Strat straight into a Hiwatt and it sounds really good – not muddy sounding and still has clarity – you’ve
really got something, because a vintage Hiwatt is a very
unforgiving amp. The market has told me what they want. I
don’t think I’ve ever gotten an e-mail from an owner saying
that they didn’t like the pickups. The Fralins are also great.
Perhaps a little brighter and less forgiving, but through an old
Bassman – magic.
TQR:
Which Lollar sets do you use?
In a Strat, we use the
Blonde neck and middle
with a Special in the
bridge, which is hotter
and warmer. The problem
with a lot of Strat pickups
is the bridge is too thin
and sharp or the neck
sounds too big. The thing
is, the amount of string
vibration and energy
released at the bridge is so
much less than what is
happening at the neck.
When I was a kid I was
always putting these big, beefy Strat bridge pickups in my
guitars to compete with a Les Paul. So I’ve found that the
combination of the Lollar Blondes with a Special in the
bridge works really well. When we install Fralin sets, regardless of what set they order, I always install a high-wind
bridge pickup with the steel baseplate. The bridge needs 30%
more output. With Teles, we use the Lollar Vintage neck and
again, a Special in the bridge.
TQR:
for myself.
It depends
on the player… it
depends on
the amp…
Some guitars sound
better with
specific
amps than
others. So I don’t think you should make an assumption about
a guitar just by picking it up. A heavy piece of ash is also different than a heavy piece of alder.
TQR:
We also had another builder comment that swamp
ash is the most inconsistent wood of all.
Oh, absolutely. You get 100 bodies in and you have a couple
that are in the 3.5 pound range, and others that are nearly 6
pounds, and that could be from the same tree. I had one of
the wood guys explain this to me a few years ago… The closer you get to the bottom of the tree, the lighter the wood is,
and as you go up the tree, the wood is more dense and heavier. Alder, on the other hand, is a virtual weed. You get a 40
year-old alder tree and it’s ready to fall over. It tends to be a
little heavier overall, but it’s more consistent than ash.
TQR:
So you’re managing all these things we’ve been
discussing to achieve a target that essentially
reflects your vision for Nash guitars.
Let’s talk about the weight of guitars, which seems
to be so important to most players, the prevailing
thinking being ‘lighter is always better.’
I have 65-70 guitars in my own
collection and
every one of them
is different. If you
have a pretty
heavy right hand
or pick attack… if
you chew into
your strings hard,
a light guitar to me doesn’t sound as good. One of the best
sounding Teles I own is a solid walnut, 9.5 pound guitar I built
When this shop was in my basement, it was my business.
Today, it’s really not just my business. There are other people
that work here, and it wouldn’t run without them, without
Patrick, my shop manager, and certainly not without my wife.
I’m a moody, reclusive, confused, disorganized person. I
know one thing pretty well, but my wife has worked this
business so those factors related to my personality don’t play
into it. Left on my own, I would have fired everyone and shut
the thing down a long time ago. I’ll get mad at a dealer and
say screw this guy, and my wife will say, “Listen, don’t send
that e-mail – let’s talk about it.” I’m impatient, and I’m confused, and there is no way this could have grown and become
what it is without people protecting me from myself.
-continued-
6
cover
TQR:
OK, you’re eccentric, but you figured out the one
big thing… How can you make players happy?
Develop a dealer network and let people discover
their own unique idea of the perfect guitar. Tell us
about the Les Paul conversions…
We buy new
Gibson USA Les
Paul models, strip
it all down, shoot
it in nitro with
classic sunburst
colors, and then
re-work the fretboard and the
frets. You know
what I hate? I hate a guitar that reminds me that I’m playing
the guitar. I want a guitar that makes me forget I’m playing. I
also kind of buck what the market thinks it knows by using a
Dimarzio Bluesbucker in the neck and an Air Norton in the
bridge. For all the guys out there on the web talking about
vintage reissues and PAFs, I wanted to revert back to something I would play. The Bluesbucker is essentially a P90 with
an extra coil to make it hum canceling. It’s a great neck pickup because it doesn’t have the output of the bridge. Getting
back to balancing things out, when you split the coil, you’re
turning off a smaller coil and truly getting a Strat sound out of
the neck. I can play a Les Paul on the neck pickup and sound
like Robin Trower. The Air Norton in the bridge has a lot
more power and harmonics, but without the typical string pull
of a big, powerful pickup. We only do two or three of these
every month, and many of our dealers have them on constant
order. We have a waiting list, so they are really hard to get.
TQR:
Wrapping things up, do you feel like you’ve
changed or significantly impacted this industry?
You began building guitars when you still had a
day job, and you pursued your dream working
alone in your basement until you had succeeded in
creating an entirely new career. And when your
ability to pursue that career was challenged by a
company much more powerful than you, you chose
not to back down, while a lot of other builders were
receiving cease and desist letters and doing nothing.
It’s an interesting question and I haven’t
thought of it in those
terms. I had to ask
myself some questions:
“Is what I’m doing
morally correct? And if
I think it’s morally correct, am I willing to
fight for the right to do it?” Then you have to put the money
into the equation… Are you willing to pay the toll to get over
the bridge? I’ve been advised not to discuss this publically,
but the fact is, I still love Fender guitars. I still own a ton of
them, and I love Fender amps. Have I had an impact? It’s
hard to think that a guy that builds a hundred guitars a month
is gonna have much of an impact on anything if you look at
the true size of this industry. Yeah, I can sit here at the shop
and think that I’m the biggest of the independent, boutique
guys… Then go to NAMM and see how big you feel. In
comparison to what’s really happening in the retail musical
equipment industry, I’m a very successful part of a very small
segment of this industry.
TQR:
In terms of numbers, yes, but on another level you
have consciously chosen to give people more for
their money, and you have been rewarded for that
decision with success.
If I have had
an impact on
other manufacturers trying to
make the best
guitar for the
money in a
way that benefits the player,
boy, I would
feel really
good about that. But I’m more focused on making the people
that buy our guitars and our dealers happy. You know you
have something when one individual buys a lot of your guitars, for example. It is always a matter of choice, and the most
touching thing is when we get an e-mail from a 12 year-old
who saved the half the money for one of our guitars and his
parents chipped in the other half. That’s when I’m reminded
of what we’re supposed to be doing. On the other hand, when
a very successful musician who can afford any guitar he wants
is buying yours, that’s pretty cool, too. A secondary benefit is
that I’ve gotten to meet most of my guitar heroes – those that
are still living, anyway. There is also something to be said for
improving what you do by simply doing it over and over. I
think we make a better guitar today than we did two years
ago, or when we first talked to you in 2004. I would hope to
continue that. Every once in a while I think about perhaps
building something that wasn’t designed 50 years ago, but this
is what I do best. I just like to build guitars. I’d like to see
things continue to grow, but not to the point where I want to
kill myself… It can only grow so big because I won’t just sit
on a yacht and let the company run itself. I’m here every day.
I work seven days a week – well, seven nights a week, unless
I’m out of town. I’ll continue doing this as long as I don’t feel
like this is my Monday morning again.TQ
7
review
The Onyx Cockaroux
ToneQuest
Review
Fifty five years after
its introduction, the
enduring value and
appeal of the
Stratocaster as the
greatest utility instrument ever conceived
will never be
eclipsed. Every style
of music imaginable
has been rendered
from a Strat, including stuff that defies
categorization… Just
try neatly summing up the body of Jeff Beck’s work as a guitarist. In fact, it would be fair to say that without the
Stratocaster and its precision tremolo design, there is no Jeff
Beck as we know him today. This is but one example – we
could easily choose any number of historic icons such as
Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Hank Marvin,
Rory Gallagher, Jimi, or Stevie Ray. Point is, the list tells the
story – the Stratocaster was indeed a stroke of genius that
completely flew in the face of traditional guitar building in
1954, just as the Broadcaster had been derided as a ‘toilet
seat’ in 1952. Who knew? Leo and Freddy knew. Players love
to play ‘em, and there seems to be no end to the creative
variations that can be crafted and explored from guitars
inspired by the Stratocaster. And so it goes with our ‘57-ish
Nash, appropriately christened here in Atlanta as the Onyx
Cockaroux.
Well, just look at it. Aside
from Eric Danheim’s (Big
Tex) work, we know of no
other builder that has put their
personal stamp on beater guitars as uniquely as Bill Nash.
We have always found the
signature, visual vibe of Nash
guitars to be somewhat exaggerated in an artful way that
makes them far less passive
and mundane than typical
production guitars. Walk into
a store like Ludlow Guitars in
New York and you can immediately spot the Nash’s on the wall from the front door, as if
they were bound in neon. Yep, you can. Our Nash Telecaster
painted in what we fondly refer to as ‘pawnshop gold’ has
become a benchmark amongst Telecasters, and we’ve owned
a ton – from a sweet vintage ‘56 blackguard we bought
stripped and restored, to an early Japanese reissue blondie
with rosewood slab, to no less than three Nocasters and a
Mexican or two, one equipped with a Bigsby. Among them
all, the Nash has endured, and in the process it has become
an old and treasured friend. And this too will be the case
with the Cockaroux. Here’s why…
We don’t know about you, but
we can usually tell whether a
guitar is a keeper within the
first few minutes we’ve played
it, if not sooner. It’s a highly
personal thing to be sure, but
we suspect this is not uncommon.When we popped the case
for the first time to reveal the
Nash Strat, we actually started
laughing, simply because the
entire look of the guitar shouted, “You’re gonna have some
fun with me…” Indeed, the
visual statement made by this guitar completely embodies the
concept that playing is supposed to be fun. How could it not
be? The gonzo distressing on the ash body combined with an
aged, anodized guard creates the whimsical image of a customized beater meant to be played, and this is where the
heavily aged Strat really shines.
First and foremost, the ample ‘C’ neck shape combined with
a 10" radius and 6150 frets combine to produce an effortless
playing experience. After an initial crank or two on the truss
rod, installing a set of Pyramid round core .010-.048 nickel
classics, dialing in the individual string height to taste and rechecking the intonation, the
Nash plays flawlessly, tunes
up and holds pitch well with
no quirky string binding when
the tremolo is used. The
tuners, bridge and saddles are
burnished but not rusted, and
the three tremolo springs were
already set up as we would
have, with the outer two
angled inside out and the center spring straight, producing
just the right amount of spring
tension for our taste with the top edge of the trem claw set
1/2 inch below the top of the rout. Should we need to lube
the saddles and nut in the future we’ll do so with a #2 pencil.
Tone
The ash-bodied Nash weighs exactly seven pounds and resonates as much as any solidbody can from the peghead to the
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8
interview
bottom strap button. If you could play it, you’d smile as we
are right now, having just picked it up and hit a big cowboy
G chord. Plugged in, the Lollar Blonde and bridge Special
pickups create a rich, full tone throughout the range of the 5way switch. In the typical style of Lollar pickups, the neck
and middle produce classic Strat tones with Lollar’s signature
foundation of expressive harmonics, rich midrange fullness
and sweet but not piercing treble. The bridge Special is intentionally designed to avoid the thinner, narrow tone that
afflicts many Strat bridge pickups. You lose a little top end
quack with the middle and bridge combined, but this is
inevitable when you fatten up the bridge. Wiring is standard
with a 5-way switch and a big orange drop tone cap. We really couldn’t ask for a more satisfying player, and for less than
$1800, it’s a remarkable value in an American-made guitar
with custom pickups, the right specs and a true nitro finish.
Nash guitars are available in varying levels of aging from
light to heavy, and in all the traditional colors. Used Tele and
Strat models generally sell for around $1300. TQ
www.nashguitars.com
Lollar on Strats
ToneQuest
We asked Jason Lollar to elaborate on his unique approach
to designing and winding Stratocaster pickups – arguably the
toughest set of all to nail in all three positions. Listen…
TQR:
How have you addressed preferences for both ‘vintage’ and more modern Strat tones with the four
Strat sets you make today?
Most players
tell us that vintage-style Strat
bridge pickups
are far too
bright, with ‘ice
pick treble.’
One reason for
that extreme
treble is that
Leo intended on
getting a lot of
cut out of the
bridge pickup, because he designed the electronics so that the
bridge pickup wasn’t connected to a tone pot. Leaving that
extra pot off makes a pickup brighter when the pot is no
longer loading down the signal. I always suggest a simple
wiring modification so you can tie the bridge pickup with the
tone pot for the middle pickup, which makes your bridge
pickup far more useable.
Using flat poles, RWRP selection on the 2 and 4 position and
winding the bridge pickup for a little fatter tone is all part of
how I address what many people may feel are design flaws in
the original pickups. The sets that I make for Bill Nash have
bridge pickups that are wound to be fatter sounding with a
little higher output than what I use for matching sets. Bill
mixed pickup sets I made in ways I hadn’t yet considered,
and it turned out that a lot of people liked how he paired
them up. Now I offer what I call the ‘Dirty Blonde’ set,
which is a Blonde neck and middle and a Special S bridge,
and a ‘Dirty Blackface’ set which is the Blackface neck and
middle with a special S bridge.
TQR:
It seems to us that Strat pickups are the most difficult to voice ‘right’ in all 5 positions…
Strat pickups are
absolutely difficult to get ‘right’
– that’s a very
astute observation. I think the
mistake that
some people
make is going
down a wire
size, using smaller diameter wire to get more turns on the
pickup. As soon as you switch wire size, you completely
change the tone and dynamics. I usually wind with the same
gauge wire as the original spec, or even go with a bigger
wire, so my Strat coils sometimes get so big they barely fit
under the pickup cover. But using bigger wire, you don’t lose
all the high end that gets lost with smaller wire and more
turns.
As the names indicate, I did have particular amps in mind
when I developed my Strat sets. They were all developed
over a number of years working and playing with a lot of vintage Fender amps, talking to players and just observing how
things
work. I
always
consider
the amp
and how
hot a guy
runs it
when I try
to help
Buddy Guy’s ‘58 Strat
select pickups for someone. Leo’s Strat pickups evolved over time,
too… You get this really chimey tone with a softer attack on
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9
hardware
the earliest examples, which were wound with Formvar wire.
That wire coupled with magnets that have a lower gauss or
weaker magnetic pull along with the specific metallic content
of the magnet are the keys to what determines the tone of a
pickup. All the earlier Fender pickups were in the 5.4K
range. Sometime in the later ‘50s they switched to a stronger
Alnico 5 magnet, but continued to use Formvar and wind the
coils to around 5.4K. These are not my favorite Strat pickups
– too glassy and bright. In the early to mid ‘60s they
switched to plain enamel wire with Alnico 5, and they
bumped up the windings to around 6.2K. These have a more
aggressive tone – a little hotter with a little more midrange. I
like both the early ‘50s and ‘60s pickups – they are just a little different from each other.
The Tweed set we
make has a lot of
top end and clarity
available and they
don’t produce a lot
of voltage, so they
match up well with
a tweed amp that
doesn’t have the
clarity of a later
Fender amp.
Couple the
Blackface set,
which is in the +6.2K range, with a blackface amp, and the
sound tends to have less midrange than a tweed or blonde,
more headroom and tighter bass response, so you can run a
hotter pickup with more bass and midrange, and the amp will
still have good clarity. You’ll also be able to push the amp over
the edge easier. That’s my take on it. We wind a Tweed set,
Blonde set, Blackface set and the Specials. Keep in mind that I
play fairly clean – more like the level of distortion on later
Johnny Guitar Watson stuff, and tone is so subjective… It often
surprises me how I design pickups to be used with only moderate distortion levels, but people wind up running them with far
more gain than I imagined and the pickups sound great.The
Specials were originally designed for
guys that want a fatter tone with more
sustain, and you
don’t get as big a space between the notes like a typical vintage Fender pickup. The Specials feel wetter, where with a typical Fender you really have to get more sustain with your
hands. A lot of people wind up choosing the Specials because
they make your rig sound bigger, and for their fuller tone.
We sell more Blackface sets than anything else. A lot of guys
want that slightly more midrangey tone with a little more output, and I often grab the Blackface set and use it myself. I
like the bridge pickup a lot, even though it’s one of the
brighter bridge pickups I make. I like the way the amount and
type of harmonics change as you hold a note. If you play fast
all the time, you wouldn’t hear it – holding a note and giving
it a little wiggle to enhance a partial harmonic. Not the ‘Roy
Buchanan’ kind of harmonics… What I’m talking about is
more subtle. A lot of the magic in great pickups can only be
fully experienced through subtlety and touch, and you don’t
hear those things mentioned enough.TQ
www.lollarguitars.com, 206-463-9838
ToneQuest
with Dwight Devereaux, TonePros Sound Labs
Fundamental Frequencies
We’re constantly tweaking guitars here as you know, and a
comment that Bill Collings made in our interview with him
last year recently came to mind… “You guys like those light
aluminum tailpieces and our guitars being as acoustic as they
are, they sound awful with them. The aluminum just gives
you the wrong information and screws it all up.” This didn’t
come as such a big surprise to us because we’ve deliberately
chosen heavier stop tailpieces for 335’s and chambered Les
Pauls in the past. We also always replace the Nashville
bridges on Gibson USA guitars with an ABR-1 that has a
solid base rather than the Nashville’s partitioned, hollow
construction. We asked Dwight Devereaux, founder of
TonePros Sound Labs to clarify many of the often misunderstood ways in which bridges, saddles, tailpieces and tuners
can significantly color your tone. Listen…
Well, my friend
Bill Collings is
absolutely correct, and you’re
not going to fool
his ear. There is
also a slight misconception about
the difference
Bill Collings
between the
weight of different materials and the affect on tone of the
material itself. Besides it being lighter, aluminum in a tailpiece has an entirely different frequency response. If you
were to look at it on test equipment, you’ll see an emphasis
in the highs and high mids, with almost an absence of
response in the low frequencies. Depending on how you couple different materials together in a guitar, you get different
sounds. The reason Gibson went with a heavier tailpiece was
not because of cost… The original tailpieces in the ‘50s were
made from pot metal. Aluminum was an extremely expensive
metal at that time, and that fact often gets lost. They weren’t
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10
hardware
out to build
very expensive, high-tech
aircraft aluminum tailpieces (laughing)… Their
goal was simply to make a
metal tailpiece from the least expensive material possible that would do
the job. It was also a fairly inconsistent manufacturing process
– the individual shapes varied, the finish of the material before
plating varied. At TonePros, we produce aluminum parts in the
thousands today, and the core alloy itself, how it’s poured, the
actual mold and how it’s allowed to cool all make tremendous
differences. If you attempt to use a lower grade of recycled
aluminum, it will come out of the mold with pits in the surface
that are unsuitable for guitar parts. You don’t have to use the
highest T-6 grade or an alloy intended for the space program,
but the alloy itself has to be clean of impurities or it will hang
up in the mold. So we have to carefully spec everything out for
our suppliers – low cost junk doesn’t work.
TQR:
Well, people still get hung up on weight… Weight
of the hardware, weight of the guitar… and
inevitably, ‘lighter’ is always deemed ‘better.’
make, because by changing the composition of the studs, we
can continue to color the sound of that tailpiece. ‘Z-mag’ zinc
alloy is the most common material used to make hardware
today, and that’s what we use in our heavier tailpiece. In the
studs, which are transferring the energy into the top of the guitar, there are two materials – brass, which is what Gibson uses
now, and steel, which was used in the ‘50s. As a material,
brass typically adds low end and warmth, so if someone
brought me a trebly SG, for example, I might recommend a
standard weight tailpiece and brass studs to produce the maximum amount of warmth and low end. There are lots of different choices and combinations; a standard weight tail with
brass studs for the warmest, fullest tone; a standard weight tail
with steel studs for enhanced clarity in the wound strings; an
aluminum tailpiece with brass studs, which adds back some of
the low frequencies that are not enhanced by aluminum, but
with the top-end chime of the aluminum tailpiece, and finally,
an aluminum tailpiece and steel studs, which is the brightest of
all combinations and turns out to be a great application for big,
thick mahogany body guitars. In the ‘50s that was a nice combination – a lightweight pot metal tailpiece with steel studs
and humbucking pickups. The fullness of that sound was a big
selling point that really separated Gibson from Fender. We typically ship an aluminum tailpiece with brass studs, but you
have the option of using steel, since many people already have
brass studs and the heavier zinc tailpiece.
TQR:
I get those types of calls often, and a lot of times people are
shocked by what I tell them. If someone tells me that they want
a super lightweight aluminum tailpiece because “that’s what
they used in the ‘50s,” I suggest we talk about it a little first. As
you said – chambered guitars, semi-acoustics… a thin-bodied
solidbody like a Firebird or an SG… whoa! That might not
deliver the
desired
result. What
a lot of people may not
take into
account is that the reason Gibson went to a heavier alloy tailpiece is that part will actually produce a fatter, warmer low end,
which is what Bill Collings was referring to. I’ve mentioned
before that we’ve worked a lot with artists like Lyle
Workman… Some of his guitars (Hamer) were built by Jol
Dantzig, and Jol totally tunes what he builds. So when Lyle
brought these guitars to me I didn’t automatically say, “Well,
let’s pull all these tailpieces off and replace them with lightweight aluminum.” That is another example of changing something that would not necessarily have provided the desired result.
TQR:
How many different alloys do you use?
There is really only one standard-weight tailpiece that we
And how does the bridge come into play?
All of the tune-o-matic style
bridges we make, and perhaps
more importantly, those that
were made in the ‘50s are the ‘Zmac’ zinc alloy. For some reason
this material got a bad name in
certain circles, but it’s actually
an excellent material for making
bridges. But there is a big difference between an ABR-1 and the
Nashville-style. An ABR-1 is
quite a bit thinner, and it is solid
Nashville bridge
on the bottom. That solid bottom
produces better bass, and the thinner part of the bridge produces a little more highs or high mids. Traditionally, the brass
saddle material in the ABR-1 also supports low or low-mid
frequencies similar to the brass tailpiece studs. By accident or
design, the ABR-1 produces a nice treble response and a
warm, round tone. The Nashville saddles are made of zinc,
not brass. and being open on the bottom, the Nashville bridge
produces a different tone. Where it may not have the ‘colored’ tonal qualities of the ABR-1, it does promote enhanced
sustain and a flatter, more balanced tonal response. Some
people describe the tone of the Nashville bridge as ‘airy,’ and
there are people that like one or the other for different rea-continued-
11
hardware
sons. Vintage
guys like the
ABR-1 and
wouldn’t consider anything
else. Other
players like
the Nashville
bridge, or maybe it came with their guitar and they don’t
even know the difference. It depends on the style of music
you’re playing and what you want to hear from the instrument. Can we discuss what some call ‘fads’?
TQR:
Sure – the flavor of the month, the year…
There were those in the beginning that tried to throw that veil
over us, and what we’ve been talking about in part is the
assumption that whatever was used in the ‘50s must be better
for everything today. Well, recently some of the newest items
that have emerged are bridge bodies, saddles and tailpieces
made not just of aluminum, but what we call ‘exotic’ alloy
materials.
TQR:
Like using titanium, steel and brass barrel saddles
on yer Tele…
In some cases, yes. So
let’s discuss that from
a TonePros Sound
Labs perspective…
First of all, we are
probably the largest
brand in aftermarket
bridge and tailpiece
titanium tailpiece parts in the world
according to the people who track such things, and I guess
most would agree that we have a considerable amount of
experience. So when you begin to consider exotic alloys, the
metals themselves are going to lead you to the characteristics
they produce, as I have described with the various other combinations of brass and steel studs with lighter aluminum or
heavier zinc tailpieces. The results from using these metals are
known. If your goal is to have the most trebly, thinnest tone
possible, maybe some of these alloys are for you… When the
aluminum tailpiece came out, some people jumped to the conclusion that if an aluminum tailpiece sounds so good, an aluminum bridge would sound even better. But most often that’s
not really the case. The fundamental resonant frequencies that
are desirable for electric guitar don’t really lend themselves to
the presence of that much aluminum or other harder/lighter
alloys. When going to aluminum bridges and saddles, or titanium, you are most likely removing a great deal of the warmth
and full frequency response from your guitar. Then there is the
idea of using exotic alloys solely for saddles, like titanium…
With a
standard
Titanium ABR-1
tune-omatic style saddle, the correct way to notch a saddles is from
the back side, so the string leaves from a perfectly clean, unnotched front edge. This is why the table on our saddles is
also a little deeper – to leave room for notching at the back
with a clean front edge. Now, most titanium saddles we have
seen are sold un-notched, and the table for the surface of the
saddles has been relatively thin. Because of this, and the hardness of titanium, it’s almost impossible to notch titanium saddles as I’ve described. And since titanium is so much harder
than the string, if that notch isn’t absolutely, flawlessly, baby’s
butt smooth, chances are you’re going to be breaking strings.
We aren’t necessarily against the use of ‘exotic’ alloys or any
other material for that matter, as long as it is used appropriately to produce a truly desired result.
TQR:
Most of us don’t have the proper files to notch a
new saddle even if we think we know how to do it,
so why would anyone want to buy an un-notched
bridge for a guitar with normal string spacing?
Depending on where or
when the guitar was
built, CNC machines
weren’t always being
used, and the position
of the studs for the
bridge wasn’t always
consistent. The
TonePros bridges that
come on new Les Paul
vintage ‘59 Les Paul bridge
Standards from Gibson
USA for example, are notched from our factory and the
notches themselves are plated, so we’ve really taken that to
another level. We’ve done considerable consulting on this
with Gibson, and everything we gave them initially had to be
thoroughly tested prior to production.
TQR:
Let’s talk about TonePros Kluson tuners…
Well, today, the upgraded Gibson USA models all come stock
with the TonePros Kluson tuners, and the Gibson Custom
Shop has used them on some models, although it isn’t a specification on all of them. We’ve shipped them for Slash and
Derek Trucks’ guitars, for example, and they have been used
on some of the high-end Gibson Montana guitars, which has
opened up new relationships with ‘acoustic’ artists like Sheryl
Crow and John Hiatt. We just came out with what we call the
‘drop-in’ Series, which carries the TPKG-3 product code. We
went through a lot of engineering changes that were really
revolutionary to make a drop-in replacement Kluson. As
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12
hardware
opposed to our ‘33’ or ‘B3’ Kluson Series, we went back more
to more vintage specs with the post height and the shape of
the post being flat on the top. The post height is relatively
short like the originals, but that’s just the way they were made,
and we adhered to that.
TQR:
We have a set that was sent to us when they were
released, and they are destined for our latest ‘58
Historic Les Paul for this article.
And they will drop right in.
When we first developed our
Klusons, we built them to
allow a sealed tuner to be used
with a press-in bushing. A
Grover or Shaller is a sealed
tuner, while the old original
Klusons were a bent metal
shell that was not sealed, with a
fairly loose mechanism that
would allow the posts to move
back and forth over time. The
big advantage to a Grover or a
Shaller was that the post was
much more stable and wouldn’t
move forward when being
pulled by the string. Now, the structure of a tuner involves a
round gear and a worm gear… The round gear is on the back
edge of the tuner post, and the worm gear is attached to the
button. When the string pulls the tuner post forward, if the
mechanism is loose,
the tension causes the
round gear to move
underneath the worm
gear, and that’s what
causes tuners to slip.
We designed a support
TonePros Kluson, right
jacket on a sealed
tuner that would fit without modifying the hole in the headstock. Another thing we did that is absolutely critical to a
tuner’s performance is something we call Sonic Gasket
Technology. It does two things… we place a little extra metal
around the baseplate, and it’s milled exactly flat. This insures
that the support jacket – the metal collar around the base of
the post – and the baseplate of the tuner are oriented at precisely 90 degrees. And because we mill the support jacket
into the baseplate and then mill the baseplate bottom exactly
flat with the shape of the gasket, it means that the tuner contacts the back of the headstock uniformly on all sides (without leaving a mark), and performs just like a metal gasket.
On the old Klusons that weren’t sealed, there was merely a bent
piece of metal as a baseplate, and you’d see those marks on the
back of the headstock where the edge of the tuners had sunk
into the finish. Those marks tell you that the tuner wasn’t seated
flush – it was tighter on one side than the other, and that prevents the tuner from being mounted at a perfect 90 degrees,
which causes the post to move and slip under the worm gear.
Stay with me on this… It’s also more common to see those
indentations on the finish from the
tuners on the top edge, and this is
because the string tension is
pulling on the post downward,
with the most pressure exerted on
the top part of the back of the
tuner. That’s just another verification of how the string tension can
affect the function of the tuner. It’s
real. So in designing Sonic Gasket
Technology, we insure that we’re
at a perfect 90 degrees when the tuner is seated in the headstock, that it seats flush, and since the gear is tight, the string is
anchored at the headstock and the tuner becomes a resonant
point for that end of the string.
TQR:
We discussed this with Joe Bonamassa, who commented about how all the British Les Paul players
in the ‘60s used Grovers, and he didn’t think it was
merely a fad… that there was something about the
mass of those big, sealed tuners that not only functioned better, but enhanced the sound of the guitar.
We experienced the same thing when we had Joe
Glaser install a set of aged Grovers on our Historic
goldtop.
That’s right. The only drawback, aside from the old Grover
tuner design being a little on the loose side, is the added
weight on the headstock, and the pros and cons of that are still
debated. What we were chasing was a tighter, more solid gear
and stable design for the lighter Kluson keystone-type tuner.
TQR:
Did you also expect an improvement in sustain and
tone?
We would ask questions like,
“How did the Les Paul Junior
sustain for so long?” Well, the
answer is that they connected
up all three tuners on a flat
piece of steel and basically
spread the resonance transfer
across a baseplate on the back
side of the headstock. From a
resonance standpoint, that is a
superior design. Les Paul
Juniors may have been deficient in some areas, but that
wasn’t one of them. We get it.
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13
hardware
TQR:
Where can people buy TonePros now? If I want a
heavier zinc tailpiece with steel studs, a notched
ABR-2 bridge and the drop-in TPKG-3 Kluson
tuners, I can get all that from one source, no sweat?
We’re in music stores,
Musician’s Friend,
AllParts, Guitar
Center… Our distributors and professional
dealers do a fantastic
job, and we always
suggest you start there.
But if you need something special or can’t find our products
in your area you can always try my son’s site at Marquis
Distribution. Brian is very knowledgeable, and a committed
“ToneQuest Head” so you’ll always get the 10% ToneQuest
discount. Marquis is located in the same county as TonePros,
so it is not unusual for him to literally wave to me as he’s
headed into our warehouse to purchase special items needed
to put an order together. He knows the product line well and
keeps most items in stock.
‘08 issue of TQR, and most of us would agree that the warmer
sound of brass Tele saddles is universally appealing, but did you
know that ‘brass’ Tele saddles from different sources can sound
significantly different? What is ‘brass,’ anyway? The standard
composition of brass is 70% copper and 30% zinc, but these
proportions can and do vary widely, as does the purity of the
alloys used. The musical character of high-quality brass is certainly known, since the trombone, tuba, trumpet, tenor and
French horn are all made from
brass, as are saxophones, and
the ‘reeds’ used in pipe organs
and harmonicas. Still, we’ve
noted differences in sound
between stock brass saddles on
Fender guitars and aftermarket
compensated brass saddles
from Stewart McDonald and
Callaham, for example. We’ve
no significant complaints with
any of them, although we have
used ‘brass’ saddles from another ‘boutique’ company that
sounded curiously lame and left us wondering how this could
be. Brass is brass, right? Apparently not.
Tone Shaping Tips
We hope you’ve begun to get the message… Aimlessly pouncing on the faddish popularity of ‘booteek’ hardware, including
lightweight nickel-plated aluminum stoptails, wraparounds, and
all the variations on bridge, bridge plate, saddle and tailpiece
alloys and designs offers no guarantee of ‘better tone,’ whatever
your idea of better tone may be. We’ve consistently recommended Callaham hardware for Strats and Teles, for example
because, as Dwight Deveraux observed in respect to the alloys
TonePros uses, the
results achieved by
using the Callaham
stuff are known.
We’ve done enough
swaps with original
Fender hardware to
know that Callaham’s
bridge plate and saddles on a Tele or a Strat are going to enhance harmonics and
add a more lively character to most guitars. If this is important
to you, it’s worth doing. If not, it isn’t. Play the stuff that originally came on your guitar and enjoy it.
Throw a set of titanium saddles on your Strat or Tele, however,
and in our experience, those results are known as well, which is
why we’ve never really talked about them. We even dabbled in
the kool-aid once and installed titanium, steel and brass saddles
on our Nash Telecaster with the intention of writing a review.
Well, here’s our review… don’t bother. We actually liked the
bright and steely sound of vintage-style threaded steel saddles
on the ‘59 Custom Shop top-loader we reviewed in the January
Turning to Gibson-style hardware, we don’t automatically
start discarding and replacing parts without first considering
the inherent nature of each instrument, as Dwight described.
We arrived at this through trial and error years ago, having
sensed that brighter sounding semi-acoustic and solidbody
guitars like SGs and Firebirds really didn’t sound better with
lightweight aluminum tailpieces, while heavier Les Pauls, for
example (those closer to 9 pounds or more) do, but not necessarily lighter ones closer to 8 pounds, and definitely not the
chambered models. For those, we’ve always installed the
heavier zinc TonePros, or a spare from a stock Gibson. As a
point of interest, note the ranges in weight between various
tailpieces we’ve weighed on a digital scale: TonePros nickel
plated aluminum 1 oz., Gibson nickel plated aluminum 1.3
oz., TonePros zinc 2.7 oz., Gibson zinc 3 oz.
You can make the same general assumptions with Nashville
versus ABR-1 bridges relative to acoustic properties and the
weight of individual guitars. We
always replace the Nashvillestyle bridges on Gibson USA
guitars with a TonePros ABR-2
– just be sure to order the specific model that is designed to
replace a Nashville bridge,
because the diameter of the
studs and corresponding mounting holes at each end of the
bridge are larger than those on
an ABR-1.
-continued-
14
strings
A Better Kluson
Our experience with
the improved and
re-designed
TonePros Kluson
tuners surpassed our
expectations, if you
can imagine that. A
tuner is just a tuner,
right? Well, no. Say
good bye to pesky slipping gears and hello to palpably
enhanced sustain behind the nut, toneheads. The ‘new and
improved’ TonePros Klusons are all that and more.
For most of us endowed with at least a dollop of common
sense, fitting the TonePros Klusons can be safely done at home.
Removing the stock Kluson tuners is easy enough – the first
decision you will be confronted with is whether or not to
replace the original ‘press-in’ bushings seated in the mounting
holes of the headstock. Since they are knurled and tightly seated
in the headstock, we recommend that you leave the original
bushings in. Attempting to remove them without the proper
tools and experience can result in paint chips being lifted from
around the bushings, or worse. If you must remove them, visit
an experienced repair shop. The next and final step is easy
enough… The TonePros mounting screws and holes in the back
plate are just slightly smaller than those in the standard Klusonstyle tuners used by Gibson, so you may need to snug them up
in the mounting holes using round toothpicks. Insert a toothpick
fully into each hole, make a
cut line flush with the headstock, remove the toothpick
and cut to length at your
mark. Before inserting again,
use the tip of a small screw
driver or blade to split the top
of the toothpick before reinserting in the hole and
mounting the tuner with the
mounting screws. The toothpicks will provide a perfectly
snug fit without ‘modifying’
your guitar, and the old tuners can be easily re-mounted with
the original screws if necessary.
With your new Kluson
tuners installed you’ll be
pleased to discover that you
can now bring each string
precisely to pitch tuning up
or down, instead of only
tuning up to pitch and having to drop back down for
another go at it if you over-
shoot the first time. We’re serious. We also noticed an audible
improvement in overall sustain with the strings now anchored
to a more substantial sealed tuner. ToneQuest subscribers are
also eligible for an exclusive 10% discount on TonePros parts
through Marquis Distribution – just ask.TQ
www.tonepros.com
www.marquisdistribution.com
ToneQuest
Nickel Classics
Pyramid Round Core
Among all the contributing factors that are discussed, considered and evaluated in our personal exploration of inspiring
guitar tone, the strings we use are often taken for granted.
Because strings are also the only disposable part of your rig,
it’s easy to underestimate their importance. Given the wide
variety of gauges and formulations available today, experimenting with different strings is a relatively inexpensive and
potentially rewarding endeavor that may very well enhance
your tone, and your relationship with the guitar. Afterall, it’s
the magical confluence of your mind, your hands and the
strings on your instrument that create the fundamental
sounds we experience in acoustic and electric instruments,
and in a big, big way, the strings are the sound, eh?
We originally started our electric explorations of the guitar
with a 1964 National Glenwood electric equipped with light
gauge Gibson Sonomatics. Faithfully used ‘em throughout the
late ‘60s and into the ‘70s before switching to Ernie Ball
Slinkies, then .010-.052 GHS TNT and Boomers. Bright, powerful and durable, the Boomers are just that – bold as luv,
easily obtainable, inexpensive, and still a very solid choice
among all the electric string sets made today. For acoustic
guitars, we used light gauge D’Angelico Bronze sets for
years, then Guild Phosphour Bronze (why Guild we can’t
recall), while occasionally experimenting with Martin –
always searching for a set that would retain their initial
sparkle the longest. We’ve since concluded that acoustic
bronze strings simply have to be changed often if you want to
hear that fresh tinsel and sugar in your favorite wooden box.
Not long after we began publishing TQR, we discovered
Pyramid strings thanks to Don Butler, whose gig in a very
successful John Lennon tribute band led him to explore the
-continued-
15
strings
classic tones born in
Hamburg and Liverpool.
For a vintage Gretsch or
Rickenbacker 12, Pyramid
flatwounds were an essential piece of the magic,
and our experience with
Pyramid round wound
pure nickel and silverplated steel strings provided a mind-altering introduction to the complex harmonic richness and beauty of
Pyramids. Like certain vacuum tubes, speakers, pickups, classic old amps and guitars, the sound and feel of Pyramid
strings are utterly unique – no doubt a product of the alloys
used (such as 99.2% pure nickel wire and silver plated steel),
the manner in which the core wire and wrap are made, and a
time consuming method of handwinding strings for virtually
every stringed instrument imaginable.
Thanks again to Don
Butler and reinforced by a
loyal reader in Louisiana,
we were urged to try
Pyramid’s round core pure
nickel classics, and we did.
Decades ago, all guitar
strings were made with
round core wire, but modern, more efficient manufacturing processes led to the use of hex core wire in the ‘70s,
as the enclosed information sheet from Pyramid explains:
“Modern guitar strings feature a hex core (haxagonal) core
for the wound strings, simplifying production and lowering
costs. Unfortunately, the use of hex core wire has certain disadvantages… First of all, the soft nickel wire (the wrap) gets
slightly damaged when it sometimes ‘bites’ on the edges of
the haxagonal wire, causing micro-notches on the inside of
the wrapped wire. Secondly, hexagonal core wire is somewhat stiffer and less flexible than round core wire. Both of
these factors negatively affect the vibration characteristics
and tone development of the wound strings. ‘Round core’
Pyramid strings represent a return to the manufacturing practices of the ‘50s and ‘60s, resulting in strings that offer unbelievable tone and sustain.”
And we agree. Join us as we delve into a brief history of
Pyramid provided by Max Junger, followed by our detailed
description of the magical sound of the round core, pure
nickel classics…
“Our firm was founded by Anton Osmanek as a mail order
house for musical instruments and as a manufacturer of
strings in 1850 in
the town of
Schönbach near
Eger, located in
the northernmost
part of what was
then the AustrianHungarian
Monarchy.
Originally, the focus of production was on guitar and violin
strings, but later, other strings for musical instruments were
produced. Ever since 1858, for example, we have been making silk E strings for the violin. However, not only plain
strings were produced, but also wound strings. For the cores
of the strings (also called inlays), both Chinese raw silk
(China Trama) and plain catgut were used. This silk core was
wound with silver-plated copper wire or genuine silver wire
used especially for violin g-strings. Also used for the cores
were steel and brass wires which, again, were wound with
plain or silver-plated copper wire. Around 1936, in the course
of an increasing specialization in the manufacture of
strings, copper wires were
drawn in our own wire
drawing plant and silverplated in our electroplating
shop. After World War II,
the firm was relocated to
Bubenreuth near
Nuremberg in Bavaria,
where the company was completely re-established. The
emphasis of production is now on strings for all conventional
stringed instruments, including more exotic instruments, such
as the aoud, cavaquinho, charango, cuatro, nanun, requinto,
saz, sitar and tanpura, among many others.
In the ‘60s, many of the world’s most renowned bands
played electric and bass guitars equipped with our flatwound
strings. Today our firm has at its command an enormous
knowledge of the manufacture of all types of special strings.
In addition to standard
string combinations, individual combinations are also
manufactured on a wide
scale. All of our products
are shipped to more than
100 countries around the
world, internationally protected by the trade name
PYRAMID. Today, the firm
is directed by Norbert Junger and Max Junger and has been
in this family for five generations. It has always been in family hands, and the sixth generation is already making their
active contribution to our operations.”
-continued-
16
review
Round Core Pure Nickel Tone
Before we launch into the round core classics, some perspective is in order. Like everything else in the realm of musical
equipment, we have more choices among different brands and
formulations of guitar strings than ever before – flatwounds,
roundwounds, pure nickel, burnished nickel, steel, coated, and
in every possible gauge imaginable. And just like the subtle
but significant nuances that can be experienced with extraordinary examples of classic instruments and gear, what we’re
mining here is a very real
and audible quality of
sound that, to us, offers a
superior level of musicality that simply seems
more pleasing to the ear
under certain circumstances. If you are ramming your signal through
intense distortion effects
or high-gain amplifier circuits, the musical qualities we’re
describing may be masked or obscured. The beauty of the
Pyramid round core nickel classics is found in their clarity,
harmonic complexity, rich sustain characteristics and lack of
shrill, steely treble tones. Naturally, these qualities can best be
appreciated with cleaner tones or a mildly distorted edge. The
round core classics also feel more flexible and forgiving than
many other strings of the same gauge. Consider the sound
they produce to be a sweeter tone all around, with singing,
vibrant treble, full mids, a clear and solid voice on the bass
strings with a very responsive attack response.
We’ve always considered the standard Pyramid pure nickel
round wound strings to be exceptional, and they are – but the
round core pure nickel set takes this standard even higher. We
also tested our impressions by sharing a few sets set with
long-time Pyramid player Ernie King at the Gibson Custom
Shop in Nashville. Ernie’s take mirrored our own – that the
round core strings definitely seemed more resonant, with
enhanced sustain, a more vivid voice and lively character.
However, a small extra
step is required to ‘fix’
the nickel wrap on the
wound round core strings
prior to installation on
your guitar. Before cutting the wound strings to
length, you must first
make a sharp 90 degree
bend in the string to fix
the wrap – if you fail to
do this, the string will go
dead. Simply make your
bend on each wound string with needle nose pliers at the
desired length for each string, then cut the string just above the
bend and insert into the tuning post. No big deal. These
instructions are also included with each string package. When a
new guitar or amp isn’t in the cards, optimizing the gear you
already own can easily quench your tone quest for comparatively low dough, and the Pyramid round core nickel classics
are simply phenomenal strings. TQ
For a limited time, ToneQuest readers can acquire an introductory set of Pyramid Nickel Round Core Classics direct
from us at www.tonequest.com. Limit one set per order, your
choice of .010-.046 ($11.50), .010-.048 ($13.75) or .011-.050
($15.15) roundwound only while supplies last. Prices include
first class postage in the USA. Actual postage costs apply
elsewhere. Just place your order at www.tonequest.com for
the Round Core Nickel Classics, or call us at 1-877-MAXTONE.
The Twilight Zone
ToneQuest
“You unlock this door
with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another
dimension – a dimension
of sound, a dimension of
sight, a dimension of
mind. You’re moving into
a land of both shadow
and substance, of things
and ideas. You’ve just
crossed over into… the
Twilight Zone.” – Rod Serling
We are such a distracted people… Even within the relative
calm of downtown Decatur, Georgia – the seat of metropolitan Atlanta’s largest county, six miles from the center of the
city proper, cell phone zombies wander freely on foot and
behind the wheel. No one seems to live in the moment any
more except the very old and the very young – the rest
addicted to yakking their lives away spewing drivel into the
atmosphere by phone, texting, tweeting and twittering.
Twittering, tweeting twits… Twat? Single people terrified of
solitude clutch their laptops and glumly decay in designer
coffee bars with other lonely people as they dumbly stare into
the ether diddling touch-pads to avoid any chance of unintended human interaction. And this is so profoundly fucked
up. Did you know that as little as twenty years ago strangers
would actually make eye contact in public places? Yes! It’s
how we used to meet new people. In fact, new, happy little
human beings sometimes resulted from these random encounters that grew into something meaningful and real – families
of humans, the very essence of life. Today, fear and caution
-continued-
17
review
permeate our lives, and guitar players step over dimes to pick
up nickels in their quest for a moderately priced, low powered amp with exceptional tone at a volume that won’t get
them evicted or booted from the club by the noise police.
They do this, settling for an ‘affordable’ piece of mediocrity
because it’s all they think they can afford, or grossly overspending on an anemic little booteek amp with an irritating
‘boost’ switch being humped in a chat room, when they are in
fact surrounded by utterly classic and toneful little masterpieces that remain largely ignored by the lemmings who collect this stuff. Well, as we said… we are such a distracted
people. Who has time to notice? Thanks to you, we do. Now
turn off the cell phone and pay attention…
Let’s say
you’re
pondering an
empty
niche in
your current stash
with no
more
than $900
to spend… Something smallish and portable, yes, maybe in the
12W-18W range, but sweet with the juicy-juice of a Georgia
peach. Eat a peach. Pondering now… the tweed stuff is all too
expensive… The little Gibsons are fun, but cherry bombs with
not an ounce of headroom… How about an old Ampeg Jet?
Nah – looks cute, but if amps wore shoes the Jet’s wearing
wingtips. Blues Junior? Not bad, but I want better… Silverface
sumthin’… Princeton reverb? Same circuit as the blackfaces
technically, but the components and layout changed, and not
always for the better, the ‘70s cabinets progressively went to
crap and the speakers sucked… Blackface? A blackface
Princeton Reverb is way beyond the budget – $1600 for a dicey
beater, closer to $2K clean, and that’s ridiculous… Whoa…
Who’s this? Why, it’s Rod Serling again! Hello, Rod…
“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to
man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as
infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow,
between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit
of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the
dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call
“The Twilight Zone.”
It pays now to focus intently, all senses on full alert. Put that
coffee down! Coffee is for closers. Yes, we know it is difficult
to ignore what you may have ingested in unison from the
formless rabble that holds sway over considered opinion.
Translation: You will never read this in a guitar magazine.
Perhaps you have developed biased impressions for reasons
you can no longer recall, yet still they blind and constrain you.
In the quest for tone, relying on vaguely vetted mythology can
become a very expensive and wasteful habit. It is time that
you stand up, raise your head high, and with arms outstretched, gracefully push off from the precipice of fear and
indecision and fly – fly straight to a blackface Princeton.
We scored ours
on eBay from
luthier and
music store
owner Craig
Landau in
Charlotte,
North Carolina.
We made Craig
an early offer
for the cleanest
blackface amp
we have ever seen – a bone stock ‘66 with the original, pristine Jensen C10Q speaker. Craig had bought the amp from a
customer that needed some cash, had it checked out and a
grounded AC cord installed. The amp tech commented that
he was pretty sure he was the first to have ever pulled the
chassis. When the amp arrived, we spent a while just ogling
its timewarp condition, lustily fondled it with a Telecaster and
Les Paul, and then met Jeff Bakos at his shop for some tone
geeking. The Princeton didn’t really seem to need anything
(unless you thought you were buying a Marshall), but we
agreed that a bias pot would be useful, and we added a 50K
midrange pot in the back panel hole for the tremolo pedal –
real good with a Telecaster. The trem would be left ‘on’ with
the intensity turned off when not needed. While we were
poking around we also spied a fried resistor in the power section that we replaced. There is nothing to be gained by merely disconnecting the brown-era tremolo in the Princeton as
we’ve done with other non-reverb blackface amps, because
disconnecting it won’t increase gain. At 12 watts clean before
clipping, the Princeton’s voice is exceptionally rich, deep,
clear and bright thanks to the circuit design and components,
the classic Jensen C10Q, and our vintage RCA 6V6 tubes
(the amp arrived with the original RCA 12AX7s and a
Sylvania-labeled British Mullard GZ34 rectifier). However,
contrary to prevailing thought relative to non-reverb blackface amps in general, we were also able to coax an adequate
amount of lush, focused, jangly distortion from the Princeton
on 9-10 with all of our guitars – the least with our weaker
Stratocasters, naturally. Another significant aspect of the nonreverb Princeton that seems to be overlooked is its extraordinary sound mated with an exceptional boost or distortion
pedal. Since the Princeton is relatively clean on ‘7,’ it sounds
all that much better boosted with a pedal or fuzz, and unlike
bigger, more powerful amps, the volume doesn’t jump to
unacceptable levels when you step on a boost effect.
-continued-
18
effects
At this point
in our review
it’s time to
slow down,
stop and
really think.
What we’re
saying here
is that if you’re going for lush, mega-dollar overdriven tone in
a 12-watt package, the blackface Princeton linked with a juicy
boost device completely shames the typical low-watt, designer
booteek amp. Yet Jeff Bakos agreed that this particular underappreciated Fullerton model gets little respect in the absence
of ‘makeovers’ that really don’t seem necessary… Jeff: “I
recorded a session with a guy who used a blackface
Princeton… He had his pedal rig really dialed in and his guitar sound was unbelievable.” Do a little research and you can
quickly find a few ‘Princeton mod’ references and schematics,
the most popular being the ‘Paul C.’ and ‘Stokes’ mods that
involve modifications to the phase inverter and power supply
sections, or the ‘Prince of Wails’ mod, which requires the
entire circuit board to be yanked and rebuilt. All of these mods
are intended to squeeze more gain and volume from the
Princeton, and while we’re not opposed to optimizing any
amp, our Princeton sounded so good as is that we really didn’t
feel compelled to transform it into something it isn’t. If you
want a Deluxe, buy a
Deluxe. We did eventually succumb to the irresistible urge to bias the
Princeton for a majestic
pair of matched NOS
GE 5881s, however, and
the GEs fattened up the
Princeton big time with a deeper, wider voice, while still
retaining the overdriven character of the 6V6s from 8-10 on
the volume knob. Run with the RCA 6V6’s or 5881s, just dial
the Princeton in with the right overdrive device for intense distortion if you wish, and you’re there. The clean tones with a
Telecaster and a little (or a lot) of tremolo are mind-alteringly
good, and our Les Pauls gloriously sing through the Jensen
C10Q with no farting or floppy bottom end. As for reverb, our
‘63 blackface reverb unit handles that beautifully. Need we
remind you that Jim Campilongo tours big venues quite successfully with his
stock blackface
Princeton Reverb
amps? Stay tuned for
an upcoming visit
with Jim… We can
also tell you that we
stumbled on one of
the most perfect
blues guitar tones we
have ever created with the Princeton, loaded with the GE
5881s, an Amperex 12AX7 in the honey hole, our ‘63 Fender
reverb tweaked to Bloomfield/Ronnie Earl levels, and the Bob
Burt Clean Boost with our ‘57 Historic Goldtop and Holmes
humbuckers. Even after decades of messin’ with amps and guitars, there is no end to discovery for those with an open mind.
Remember that. If we can achieve such stellar results, so can
you. Bust a move. TQ
Fuzzy Drive
ToneQuest
Xotic Effects
You may recall us
questioning why anyone would really need
a ‘gonzo germanium
fuzz fest’ in the
“Frosted, Not Fried”
section of last
month’s edition of
TQR. With the ‘66
Princeton in the house
and Xotic Effects’ latest, the Fuzzy Drive,
we’re compelled to eat our words. It’s still true that stepping
on a typical fuzz pedal with a big, powerful amp demands a
lot of real estate, but we’ve been reminded how effectively
the sound of a very imposing and powerfully distorted amplifier can be created from a small amp like the Princeton with
the right pedal. And the Fuzzy Drive is the right pedal…
We don’t know how they did it – we
could probably ask Xotic founder
Toshio Horiba, but in the end, do you
really care? That tiny array of chips,
caps and resistors on the circuit board
of the Fuzzy Drive simply delivers a
fat and musical, noise-free fuzz that is
among the best we’ve ever heard, and
lightyears beyond an unmodified vintage Arbiter Fuzz Face. As usual with
Xotic, a tone pot has been included –
very useful for precisely shaping the
bass/treble balance using different guitars and amps, and
from there it’s all about variable levels of penetrating grease
– certainly stronger and hotter than an edgy clean boost, yes,
but for classic blues/rock tones in the style of The Rev or
David Grissom, the Princeton mated with the Fuzzy Drive is
simply the end of the road for low volume dealing – seriously
huge, corpulent and bad ass, but never killin’ ya. Most highly
recommended – this, caballeros… is the shit.TQ
www.xotic.us/effects/
19
Resource Directory
Don’t miss your opportunity to
save 10% on selected products
offered by members of your
ToneQuest Resource Directory!
Look for exclusive ToneQuest discount offers in gold and reference
TQR when placing your order.
TQR Directory News! The Gibson
Repair Shop, Nashville, new gear
from Visual Sound, Warehouse
Guitar Speakers, Reinhardt Amps,
Rocky Mountain Slides and more!
AllParts Top players and guitar builders rely on
Allparts for the right guitar and bass parts they
need, in stock and ready to ship. AllParts offers a
complete range of finished and unfinished guitar
bodies in a variety of premium tone woods, including alder and swamp ash, with optional highly figured maple tops. Finishes include all of the most
popular vintage colors, including see–through
blonde! Premium necks are also available with
maple, rosewood, and ebony fingerboards in a variety of neck shape profiles, with or without binding.
Custom design your next guitar with AllParts,
including tailpieces, tuning keys, bridges, nuts and
saddles, pickups, pickguards (that really fit),
knobs, hardware, and electronics for many popular
models. Bass players and lefties can also find the
parts they need at AllParts! You can also rely on
Allparts for hard to find parts, along with vacuum
tubes and amplifier hardware.
AllParts, Houston, TX
www.allparts.com 713–466–6414
Analogman TQR readers are invited to save $25
on the Sunface NKT with Sundial Fuzz, or receive
free shipping on all handmade Analog Man brand
pedals, Foxrox, Teese wahs, and the PedalPower2!
Mike Piera is one of the premier guitar effects
dealers and manufacturers serving professional
players worldwide. Analogman is unique, since it
manufactures, modifies, buys, sells, and repairs
vintage and new guitar effects. Specializing in vintage and high–end effects, you won’t find cheap
Taiwanese “ happy meal” style, toy effects there.
Analogman is dedicated to helping you successfully pursue your quest for tone, and every customer
is treated as a prospective friend. Analogman can
meet all your effects needs, including: Buying and
selling vintage, new, and custom built effects, and
modifying pedals to sound and function better. A
full repair service, including referrals to specialists.
Creating the best new effects with vintage values,
schematics, and original owner’s manual copies.
FREE help with effects problems by e–mail or in
our Web Forum, plus professional consultation and
technical services. Analogman specializes in pedal
modifications for the Ibanez and Maxon Tube
Screamers and several Boss pedals (SD–1, DS–1,
BD–2, DD5, etc). They also modify Fuzzfaces to
vintage germanium specs. Analogman hand–built
pedals include the Clone chorus, Comprossors, and
Sun Face fuzz pedals. There are 3 versions of the
Comprossors available, based on the Ross style
and/or the Orange Squeezer style of compression.
Other hand–made pedals available from Analog
Man include the FOXROX Captain Coconut and
20
TZF flanger, Teese RMC wahs, Z Vex, Black Cat,
Tubester, Ultravibe, Pedaltrain and George L
cables. Jim Weider recently collaborated with Mike
on the King Of Tone overdrive pedal, which is
being introduced in December 2003! Please check
the web site for more information, and e–mail if
possible. If you must call, please mention
ToneQuest and they’ll make time to help you.
We also offer a Premier Vintage cab modeled after
the ‘60s Bluesbreaker.
Avatar also markets their great sounding Hellatone
line of 12” guitar speakers – aged Celestion
G12H30’s and Vintage 30’s, both of which have
received stellar reviews.
Avatar Speakers, Dalton Gardens, ID
208-762-5251, www.avatarspeakers.com
Analog Man, Bethel, CT
www.analogman.com 203–778–6658
Antique Electronic Supply Antique Electronic
Supply carries the largest selection of parts for guitars, amplifiers, high–end audio, antique radios and
amateur radios.
Looking for an obscure vacuum tube? Antique
Electronic Supply has the world’s largest inventory
of NOS vacuum tubes, carrying hard to find tubes
from such companies as RCA, GE, Sylvania, Tung
Sol and others. They carry a great selection of currently produced tubes from JJ/Tesla, Winged–C
(which are manufactured in the JSC Svetlana
Factory in St. Petersburg, Russia), Valve Art and
EI. In addition they stock Groove Tubes, Ruby
Tubes and other current production tubes from
both Russia and China.
Along with vacuum tubes AES has a wide range of
parts for Ampeg, Vox, Fender and Marshall amplifiers, carrying such items as speakers from both
Jensen and Celestion, tolex, handles, grill cloth,
reverb tanks, resistors, capacitors, transformers,
knobs, switches and other much needed parts.
Antique Electronic Supply also carries Korg keyboard parts, as well as components for Leslie cabinets and a variety of books, software, test equipment, soldering supplies and chemicals.
Antique Electronic Supply has a great selection of
parts for guitars and basses. They offer a full range
of parts for both Fender and Gibson, stocking such
items as bridges, pickguards, knobs, potentiometers, and tuning knobs. They have recently started
carrying Badass Bridges, and they also sell Pro Co
and Maxon effects pedals. Information and images
are available for all of their items on www.tubesandmore.com.
For 22 years Antique Electronic supply has been in
business and they know how to please their customers, offering same day shipping on orders
placed before 2:00 p.m. MST. Catalogs are available upon request.
Antique Electronic Supply, Tempe, AZ
www.tubesandmore.com, 480–820–5411
Avatar Speakers was founded in 1991 by Dave
Noss and is known for selling well-built,high value
guitar and bass speaker cabs loaded with the best
speakers in the world from Celestion and
Eminence. We also offer the best prices on raw
speakers from these fine companies.
Avatar recently introduced the new G2112H
Premier cabs available in Red, Orange, Green,
Brown, Black or Blonde tolex, loaded with your
choice of speakers. Features include 13 ply baltic
Birch cabs with superb dovetail corner joints and
your choice of open, oval, or closed backs. Grill
cloth colors include Wheat, Black, vintage Fender
and Oxblood with white piping.
Callaham Vintage Guitars & Amps New from
Callaham! Check out the new billet steel ABR-1
style ‘tune-o-matic’ bridge! Bill Callaham is a
builder of exceptional electric guitars that exceed
the original quality, tone, and beauty of the vintage
models that inspire his work. “ Better than vintage” is an apt description for the Callaham “ S”
and “ T” model electric guitars that feature premium lightweight ash and alder bodies, custom
hand–shaped rock maple necks, and cryogenically
treated Lindy Fralin pickups specially wound to
Callaham’s specifications for true vintage tone.
Bill also offers cryogenically treated, pre-wired
vintage pick guards for Strat style guitars, and his
exclusive formula for cold–rolled steel alloy
tremolo blocks continue to delight players around
the world with improved resonance and sustain.
Callaham vintage saddles also improve sustain
while minimizing string fatigue and breaks.
Additional Strat parts include stainless steel trem
arms, string ferrules, bridge plates and mounting
screws, and string retainers. Attention Tele Players!
Callaham now offers a complete line of custom
Tele parts. Please visit their web site for information on pre–wired control plates with premium
pots, capacitors, and cloth–covered wire, specially
wound and cryogenically treated Fralin vintage
Tele pickups, compensated brass bridge saddles,
bridge plates, knobs, jacks, tuners and string trees!
The only thing better than Callaham parts is a
Callaham guitar. We said that, and you can take it
to the bank.
Callaham Guitars, Winchester, VA
www.callahamguitars.com 540–678–4043
Carr Amplifiers Check out the ALL NEW Carr
Mini-Mercury! The Mini-Merc is an extremely
versatile combo with all tube Reverb, 3 position
Boost switch, Treble cut switch, and a built in
attenuator yielding 8, 2, fi, or 1/10 watt output.
100% hand wired and every amp is rigorously tested before leaving our shop.
The Mini-Mercury offers tones and big amp ‘feel’
ranging from lush 60s American reverb to modified ‘brown’ ‘70s British crunch at almost any volume. The cabinet measures a friendly 19.5” wide
by 15” tall by 10” deep at the bottom sloping to 9”
deep on the top. Our new Mini-Mercury has the
same electronics as the standard 1-12” Mercury
differing only in its smaller cabinet and its warm
and smoky 10 inch Eminence “Lil Buddy” hemp
cone speaker.
Plug into any Carr amp and you’ll immediately
understand why we said in our first very first
ToneQuest review, “Finally, somebody got it right.”
Right, as in the perfect marriage of classic Fender
balance, clarity, and head room, with innovative
overdrive features that produce natural, sweet tube
distortion, but never at the expense of the tone
Resource Directory
you’ve worked so hard to capture in your instruments. Lots of small–batch amp builders use premium components and labor–intensive,
point–to–point construction, and Carr is no exception. The Solen filter caps used in Carr amps alone
cost more than the sum of the parts in many boutique circuits!
Carr amps are professional tools and works of art
that will inspire you for a lifetime. Check out the
many stellar reviews and dealer locations for Carr
amps at their web site, and contact the boys at Carr
for more information about which Carr model is
best for you.
Carr Amplifiers, Pittsboro,NC
www.carramps.com 919–545–0747
Celestion Ltd. Nobody knows more than
Celestion about guitar loudspeaker design and
manufacture. Think of your all-time favourite guitar riffs and solos, chances are, they were played
through Celestion guitar loudspeakers. For the last
fifty years - since the birth of the Celestion Blue
(the first ever purpose-built guitar loudspeaker) our magical mix of metal paper and magnets has
formed an essential part of the sound of guitar
music.
Some of the greatest speakers available today are
part of the Celestion Classic Series. Over the years,
we’ve applied our design expertise to build a range
of speakers that will give you classic Celestion tone,
no matter what style you play. The Alnico Series
and the Heritage Series, both hand-built in Ipswich,
England, are the result of meticulous attention to
detail, created for those who are absolutely dedicated to the pursuit of true Vintage tone.
For high-volume OEMs, Celestion Originals represent outstanding value for money. We have the specialist experience coupled with the most advanced,
high-volume manufacturing techniques to deliver
Celestion tone, quality and brand appeal at
extremely competitive prices.
Celestion International Ltd www.celestion.com
For OEM Enquiries, contact Andy Farrow at
Celestion America, 732-683-2356
For retail and distribution enquiries, contact
Group One Ltd 516-249-1399 www.g1limited.com
Collings Guitars Bill Collings’ story provides
a classic example of what can be achieved with
an engineer’s brain, a machinists’ hand and an
experienced repairman’s eye. After dropping out
of medical school in Ohio to work in a machine
shop, Collings moved to Texas in the mid 1970’s
where the experience he gained repairing and
restoring guitars guided his design of the first
Collings guitars. His understanding of the flaws
and shortcomings found in production instruments was instructive, and he set out to eliminate those shortcomings with the very first
Collings guitars
Today, Collings has 50 full-time employees
working in a new, 22,000 square foot, state-ofthe-art facility, and Bill Collings remains handson, building all the tooling used throughout the
shop and personally working on guitars at his
bench whenever time permits. As the business
has grown and processes refined, there is one
thing that has not changed…Bill Collings’ commitment to building the finest handmade
acoustic steel string instruments in the world.
Collings instruments have grown to include 32
different acoustic guitar models including the
famed dreadnought and OM models, seven
award-winning mandolin models in both lacquer
and varnish finishes, three archtop guitars, and a
new line of seven electric instruments crafted to
inspire rock, blues, jazz, country, and your
music, too.
Bill Collings work is respected by professional
and amateur musicians alike…anyone on the
quest for quality. Some of these include artists:
Keith Richards, Lyle Lovett, Pete Townshend,
Emmylou Harris, Andy Summers, David Crosby,
Chris Hillman, Joni Mitchell, Don Felder, John
Sebastian, Lou Reed, John Fogerty, Tim
O'Brien, Pete Huttlinger, Kenny Smith, Brian
May, Joan Baez, John Prine, Nigel Tufnel of
Spinal Tap, and Steven Spielberg to name a few.
We invite you to play a Collings today.
For more information on the complete line of
Collings instruments and dealer locations, please
visit our web site.
Collings Guitars, Austin Texas
www.collingsguitars.com, 512-288-7776
Dave’s Guitar Shop offers Fender, PRS,
National, Taylor, Gretsch, Guild, Hamer, Vinetto,
Ernie Ball, Rickenbacker, Martin, Santa Cruz, and
many other fine new and used instruments, plus
new and used amplifiers such as Fender, Marshall,
Line 6, Carr, Matchless, Victoria, Bad Cat, Dr.Z,
Savage Audio, Ampeg, plus hundreds of guitar
effects, aftermarket pickups from Joe Barden,
Seymour Duncan, and more. Due to their inventory
of over 1,000 guitars, amps, and accessories,
Dave’s is an excellent resource for top of the line
Custom Shop and Historic reissues, to intermediate
new and used gear. Unlike some dealers’ out of
date stock lists on the web and in print, Dave’s
inventory is updated daily. The selection of new
and used instruments is truly exceptional, and you
can often select among several models of the same
new guitars to find that special instrument that was
meant for you. Dave’s staff is friendly and
extremely knowledgeable about the instruments
and gear they sell, because they’re players, too.
Please check the web site for current inventory,
and you are welcome to call for more information
or an accurate, in–hand description.
Dave’s Guitar Shop, LaCrosse, WI
www.davesguitar.com 608–785–7704
Eastwood - Since 2001, Eastwood has been creating some of the most exciting Electric Guitars
the world has ever seen. Our RADICAL VINTAGE REMAKE series feature a variety of models
based on popular sixties designs - from the classic
Mosrites to our top-selling AIRLINE - they capture the excitement and style of the originals. Each
year the prices of the originals skyrocket - getting
harder to find and harder to play! Eastwood’s focus
is to make top quality replicas - that cost less and
play better - so the average musician can experience the excitement of playing one of these beautiful vintage guitars as their every day player.
TONE & STYLE - All Eastwood Guitars are fitted
with high-quality modern components that offer an
optimal playing experience that far exceeds their
1960’s original counterparts. It is hard to find a
guitar these days that oozes more vintage style
than an Eastwood! All Eastwood Guitars are setup
professionally before shipping to our customers.
VALUE - All Eastwood Models are subjected to
extensive research and development to continually
raise the level of performance. At the same time,
we are very careful to maintain an affordability
level that our customers expect. These elements
combine to deliver peak performance and higher
quality than the originals at a much lower price.
SERVICE - A product is only as good as the people who stand behind it. Eastwood Guitars service
is second to none in the industry because we simply treat customers the same way we would expect
to be treated. All guitars come with a 3 Year limited Warranty. Guitars purchased directly from us
receive a no-questions-asked return policy. Or, if
you are located near an Eastwood Dealer, you can
buy from them at the same direct price we offer
online.
THE FUTURE - We continue to bring new models
to the Eastwood line-up. Our goal is to introduce
3-5 new models each year, available in a wide variety of colors and of course, including left-hand
versions. Please feel free to email us directly if you
have some suggestions for models that we should
consider developing in the future!
Eastwood Guitars, Toronto, Canada
www.eastwoodguitars.com, 416-294-6165
Eminence Eminence is proud to present the
Patriot and Redcoat series of guitar speakers.
Incorporating both British and American cone
technology into speakers that we manufacture in
the USA gives us the ability to provide you with
virtually any tone you desire. Be it British or
American, clean or dirty, big bass or screaming
highs, we have a speaker that will allow you to “
Pick Your Sound.” Choose from one of seventeen
new models! Eminence has been building speakers
to custom specifications for nearly every major
manufacturer of guitar amplifier and sound reinforcement products since 1967. Their new Legend
Series of guitar speakers captures the essence of
the vintage American and British speaker designs
that are held in such high regard today by so many
discerning players. The Legend Series includes
classic British and American designs for 6,” 8,”
10,” 12,” and 15” speakers utilizing ceramic and
AlNiCo magnets, British or American cones, and
Kapton polyamide voice coils for superior heat dissipation and durability. Best of all, because
Eminence has been successfully competing for
years with other speaker manufacturers as an OEM
supplier, the Legend Series speakers are priced far
below those of many other popular manufacturers
of “ reissue” and custom speakers. The Eminence
Legend Series delivers all of the tone and durability you need, at a lower price, with no compromises
in quality. To locate genuine Eminence dealers in
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Resource Directory
your area, please visit their web site or call
Eminence Speakers.
Eminence Speaker LLC, Eminence, KY
www.eminence.com 502–845–5622
Contact: Chris Rose
Evidence Audio was founded in 1997 by Tony
Farinella to supply the MI and Studio community
with performance–based cables at reasonable
prices. The most well–known cable is the Lyric
HG (High Gain) guitar cable. Readers of Guitar
Player Magazine voted the Lyric HG as “ Best
Accessory of 2004” supporting the opinion drawn
by editors of magazines from around the world.
In simple terms, cables from Evidence Audio are
built different; as a result, they sound different.
The Lyric HG features two solid core high grade
IGL copper conductors and a braided shield that is
grounded at the amp end only. This is the correct
way to “ drain” spurious noise. By using solid core
conductors strand interference is eliminated as
well. Designed to be neutral and honest, the cables
don’t actually “ improve” your tone, they simply
replace a cable in your signal path which was likely destroying it. What you hear is a tighter more
muscular bottom end, a clearer more complex
mid–range and a sweeter more detailed high end.
Dynamics and harmonics are improved and sustain
is no longer masked. Overall the guitar becomes
more three–dimensional sounding, cuts through
clearer and at the same time takes up less space in
the mix.
The Siren Speaker Cable and The Source AC
Power Cable compliment the Lyric HG. They offer
a solution to distortions cause by cables in other
areas of the signal path and power supply. The
effects of the speaker and power cable are consistent with that of the Lyric HG: you hear the guitar
and amplifier, not the cables.
While not inexpensive, cables from Evidence
Audio are still one of the most cost effective ways
of improving your tone. It’s like changing pickups
or a bridge – a small detail with big results. Please
visit the Evidence Audio website to locate a dealer
near you and demand a demo!
Audionova Inc., http://www.audionova.ca/
514–631–5787 ext. 22
Fishman Widely recognized as the premier
designer and manufacturer of acoustic amplification
products, Fishman is committed to making acoustic
musicians heard while faithfully maintaining their
own natural tone, for the best possible sound.
The Fishman product line began with the BP100(tm) acoustic bass pickup, originally developed
to meet founder and president Larry Fishman’s
own jazz performance needs. With a track record
of quality engineering, reliability, functional simplicity and - most importantly - the natural tone it
enables, Fishman firmly established a reputation of
excellence that consumers have come to expect
from the brand.
For acoustic guitar, Fishman offers the flagship
Acoustic Matrix(tm) Series active pickup system,
the Rare Earth(tm) Series active magnetic soundhole
pickups, and the Neo-D(tm) magnetic soundhole
pickup, as well as passive undersaddle, classical,
archtop, and resophonic guitar pickups. Fishman’s
new Ellipse(tm) series combines the Acoustic
Matrix(tm) pickup with our industry leading preamp
design. Designed to fit in the guitar’s soundhole, the
Ellipse(tm) system provides volume and tone control at your fingertips and easily installs without any
modification to your instrument.
Fishman pickups are also available for banjo,
mandolin, harp/piano, violin, viola, cello and
acoustic bass. In addition, the Concertmaster(tm)
amplification system for violin and the Full
Circle(tm) upright bass pickup offer two elegant
and cutting-edge string amplification solutions.
Utilizing cutting-edge Acoustic Sound Imaging(tm)
technology, Aura(tm) features the most innovative
acoustic amplification technology available today.
This stompbox-sized unit captures your instrument’s
true acoustic sound with stunning, studio microphone quality. Anytime, anywhere. Aura(tm) eliminates the boundaries of conventional acoustic amplification and gives the most natural, realistic amplified acoustic instrument sound available - both on
stage and in the studio.
Joining the award-winning Loudbox(tm) and
Loudbox Pro(tm) acoustic instrument amplifiers, the
new Loudbox Performer(tm) completes Fishman’s
popular, highly-acclaimed family of acoustic amplifiers and represents the size, power and features that
musicians demand. Setting a new standard in
acoustic amplifiers, the Loudbox(tm) series feature a
powerful tri-amped system that delivers sweet highs
and undistorted lows-even at tremendous volumes.
As Fishman celebrates its 25th year as the leader
in acoustic amplification, the company continues
to redefine the benchmark of acoustic sound. For
more information, please visit www.fishman.com.
Fishman Transducers Inc.
Wilmington, MA
www.fishman.com 978–988–9199
Germino Amplification Greg Germino’s passion is in recreating and optimizing the sound of
Plexi-era amplifiers using the highest quality
components and attention to detail born from
decades of experience as an amp tech and guitarist. Germino amplifiers are designed and built
to enable guitarists to acquire the classic sound
of the Plexi amps again, while avoiding the significant inconsistencies and reliability issues
found in expensive, vintage examples.
Models include:
The Classic 45 – A finely tuned, faithful replica
of the JTM-45 using a custom wound version of
the Radio Spares output transformer. Works well
with 6L6GC/5881 tube types and KT-66s, or
EL-34s after re-biasing. Rated at 35 watts, the
Classic 45 can also be fitted with 6V6s when
using a 5Y3 or 5U4 rectifier.
The Club 40 reprises the early sound of the
JTM-50 and JMP-50 Bass 50 watt heads. A GZ34 rectifier and solid state rectifier are selectable
by a switch allowing for the softer rounder feel
of a JTM-50, or the quicker pick attack and
response of a JMP-50 Bass head.
Lead 55 & Lead 55LV – The Lead 55 models
use a classic dual EL-34 output section and
‘lead’ circuit values. Both models are voiced the
same with the only difference being the power
transformer in the LV model supplies lower voltage at the output stage. Additionally, the LV
model is delivered stock with optional tube/solid
state rectifier switching.
Monterey 100 – Based on the original ‘Super
Amplifier’ from 1966, also known as the JTM45/100, the Monterey is a faithful re-creation of
the JTM-45/100 in every way with extreme
attention to detail in both build quality, parts
used and the incredible sound.
Fillmore 100 – Lets roll back in time to 1967,
the year that Marshall made the switch from KT66 tubes to EL-34's with new transformers for
this tube type, and a steel chassis All of these
early amps used a Bass circuit derived from the
JTM-45. Steel chassis made their debut in early
in 67 as well.
Headroom 100 – The Headroom 100 specifically
emulates the sound and construction of the very
early ‘68 100 watt plexi panel Super Lead and
Super Bass amplifiers to exact detail. Available
with either a “Super Lead” circuit for the ultimate in singing sustain or, Super Bass circuit
values for those wanting a cleaner amp with a
more rounded tone.
For more information on Germino amplifiers,
cabinet options, dealers and prices, please visit
our web site.
Germino Amplification
Graham, NC
www.germinoamps.com, 336-376-8354
GHS – The String Specialists Who plays GHS
strings? Artists as diverse as Eric Johnson, Martin
Barre, Charlie Sexton, Will Ray, Warren Haynes,
Tom Morello, Ritchie Sambora, Steve Howe, Brent
Mason, Junior Brown, Zakk Wylde, Tommy Castro,
Rene’ Martinez and TQR advisory board member
and AC30/Telecaster stud Mr. James Pennebaker, to
name just a few! GHS has been manufacturing guitar strings since 1964, and whatever your musical
tastes, GHS has the right string for you. You’re
invited to try a set of GHS classic Boomers, brilliant
Nickel Rockers, Burnished Nickel strings for a
warm, vintage tone, Compound Nickel strings for
electric arch tops, and the recently introduced
Infinity Bronze coated acoustic strings for extended
tone and brilliance. All GHS strings are available in
a wide range of gauges to appeal to every player.
Refer to the GHS “ Brightness Bar” found on select
packages of strings and at our web site. It’s your
guide to determining which strings will produce the
specific range of tone you’re seeking.
Please check out the all new GHS web site at
www.ghsstrings.com for expert information about
GHS strings, including technical documentation on
the entire GHS line of strings for fretted instruments, tech tips, string tension calculations, the “
Brightness Bar,” and a comprehensive list of the
top artists who play GHS strings. All GHS strings
are manufactured to continually exceed your
expectations.
GHS String Corporation
Battle Creek, MI
www.ghsstrings.com
1–800–388–4447
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Resource Directory
Gibson Gibson Repair & Restoration
World Class Repair of Stringed Instruments
Over the years, Gibson has received countless
requests from players needing work on their guitars, mandolins, etc. These players all say the same
thing: “I don’t trust anyone but Gibson to work on
my instrument!” Until recently, these folks had to
rely on whoever was available in their local area
and hope they had the skills and experience to do
the required work.
All that has changed now. Gibson has opened the
doors of its in-house repair facility and is accepting stringed instruments of all types and all brands
for repair or restoration. Offering a state of the art,
temperature and humidity controlled environment,
as well as a full staff of highly skilled and experienced luthiers, Gibson is fully equipped to perform
any and all operations required in all phases of
repair and restoration.
Among the services offered are:
Pro Set Up – Acoustic or Electric
Fretwork – Fret Dress to Plane & Refret
Custom Wiring/Pickup Installation
Structural Repairs – Body Cracks, Bracing, Broken
Headstocks
Neck Resets
Custom Paint/Finish Repair/Relics
Total Restorations
So whether it’s an acoustic or electric guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele or oud, if it has strings and it
needs attention, we can help. It doesn’t even have
to be a Gibson – we’re an equal opportunity Repair
Shop! Call, write or email. We’ll guide you
through the process and we’ll help with shipping
and insurance information so your instrument gets
here and back quickly and safely. We’ll tell you
upfront what your costs will be and no work is
begun before what is to be done has been
explained and approved by you.
Gibson Repair & Restoration
Nashville, TN
615-244-0252
www.gibson.com/Products/Places/Repair/
Guitar Adoptions
Since 1999 Guitar Adoptions has provided musicians with an unmatched selection of premium
electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers and accessories online, combined with exceptional customer service personally provided by the company’s founder, Dave Schmidt. The Guitar
Adoptions online concept is simple: Select instruments that offer the best proven performance and
value available today, present them online with
superior photographic detail and sound clips, and
directly consult with customers to assist them in
making the right choice the first time.
Guitar Adoptions maintains an extensive inventory of acoustic and electric guitars that includes
G&L, Giffin, Gretsch and Original Senn
electrics, Guild, Morgan and Northwood
acoustics, K&K Sound, Schertler and L.R.
Baggs acoustic pickups, and Guitar Adoptions is
the largest Larrivee and G&L dealer in the US.
We also maintain an extensive inventory of guitars for lefties!
Our extensive selection of custom amplifiers
includes Fargen, Louis Electric, Gretsch,
Victoria, Clark, Sewell, Ultrasound, Schertler
and L.R. Baggs. We also carry a wide selection
of excellent stompboxes, including: Ellis
Acoustic, MI Audio, MXR, Retro-Sonic Custom
Effects, Seymour Duncan, Sweet Sound
Electronics, Dunlop and T-Rex Engineering.
Guitar Adoptions also maintains an outstanding
selection of pre-owned instruments by G&L,
Gibson, Fender, Larrivee, Heritage and more,
always described in detail and available for inhand descriptions. Check our web site often for
new arrivals! Whether you are an experienced
pro, collector, a weekend warrior, or beginner
who wants quality, we are dedicated to helping
guitarists find the instrument of their dreams
with hands-on, personal service and product
knowledge that big online sites simply cannot
offer, and always at competitive prices.
To view our inventory, please visit www.guitaradoptions.com and rest assured that all e-mail
and phone inquiries will be promptly answered
by Guitar Adoptions founder, Dave Schmidt.
Guitar Adoptions
Wonder Lake, IL
815 653-6500
Toll Free 877-241-4580
www.guitaradoptions.com
Just Strings.com Now more than ever, guitarists
are reaping the benefits of technical innovations in
string making that have led to the widest selection of
guitar strings ever available. JustStrings.com is dedicated to providing guitarists with the largest selection
of acoustic, roundwound, and flatwound strings,
complimented by exceptional personalized service
and outstanding value. Trying different types of
strings often results in amazing new discoveries that
not only improve the sound of your instrument, but
dramatically enhance your playing enjoyment. From
traditional hand–crafted strings to high–tech exotics,
JustStrings.com exists to help you get the most out
of your instrument. Try a new set today, or order
your favorite acoustic or electric sets and SAVE!
Juststrings.com offers the best prices on all of the
major and specialty brands, promptly delivered to
your door. Shop online at JustStrings.com, or place
your order by fax at 603–889–7026 or telephone at
603–889–2664..
JustStrings.com, Nashua, NH
www.juststrings.com [email protected]
Keeley Electronics – Check out the new Keeley
Katana Preamp! ToneQuest subscribers receive 10%
off on all pedal mods and the Keeley Comp, Java
Boost and Time Machine boost! Keeley Electronics
recently won a Guitar Player Reader’s Choice
Award and Keeley is now the exclusive distributor
for Framptone! Robert Keeley’s Time Machine
Boost, Keeley Compressor, and his custom,
state–of–the–art modifications for vintage pedals
continue to receive rave reviews from guitarists
around the world. Keeley pedals are used by
Aerosmith, Abbey Road Studios, Steve Vai, legendary producer Bob Rock, George Lynch, Peter
Frampton, James Burton, and many, many more
guitarists and music pros around the world. The
Time Machine Boost is a versatile 2 channel, 3
mode pre–amplifier designed to drive your amplifiers into overdrive or saturation. The two channels
are labeled “ Vintage,” and “ Modern,” with the “
Vintage” side inspired by rare germanium boosts
like the Dallas Rangemaster. The “ Modern” channel is a new +23dB gain, dual JFET transparent signal amplifier. The Keeley Compressor is a superb
audiophile and studio grade compressor with true
bypass switching and premium metal film resistors
and capacitors for the cleanest Ross clone compressor ever available. Available with a standard
Ibanez/Boss style adapter jack and/or battery power,
you can say goodbye to that old red Dyna Comp!
Robert Keeley pedal mods include 2 versions for
TS9’s – the TS808 mod, and the “ Baked TS9” for
searing hot Tube Screamer tone. Keeley uses the
original TI RC4558P chip that appeared in the early
TS808’s, while increasing the bass response and
overdrive range. The result is a perfectly voiced 808
that’s cleaner when turned down and produces twice
the drive/gain when turned up, with all of the stock
808 character in the middle. The Keeley modded
BD–2 is not a fuzz pedal but has the best characteristics of a fuzz pedal, and it’s much smoother and
more realistic sounding. Other exclusive Keeley
modifications include the Boss Blues Driver BD–2
Tube Mod, the PHAT Switch BD–2 Mod, Rat
Mods, Boss DS–1 Seeing Eye Mod, Boss SD–1,
and Boss Chorus CE–2. For detailed specs, user
comments, dealer information, sound clips, and
ordering information, please visit the Keeley
Electronics website.
Keeley Electronics, Edmond, OK
405–260–1385, www.robertkeeley.com
K&M Analog Designs — Two Rock
K&M Analog Designs, LLC, was formed in northern California in1998 by Bill Krinard and Joe
Mloganoski. The company brings a combined 70 +
years of experience in tube amplification and guitar tone to the boutique amp market. As talented
designer/engineer and seasoned guitarist (respectively), Bill and Joe have developed a uniquely
toneful, dynamic and affordable line of hand built
vacuum tube amplifiers that are instruments
designed to completely complement your individual playing style. Each amp is equipped with proprietary custom transformers and coupling caps,
the best available new and NOS tubes, and each
model has unique build architecture and layout not
found in other modern hand built designs. Early
K&M customers such as Carlos Santana helped
launch the company to the forefront in its earliest
days. Current K&M and Two–Rock devotees
include John Mayer, Steve Kimock, Mitch Stein,
Barney Doyle, Mark Karan, Michael Kang, Volker
Strifler, and Matt Schofield, among others. The
company launched its line of Two–Rock amps in
the summer of 1999. Current models include the
Custom Reverb Signature, Overdrive Signature,
and the affordable and portable Jet and Jet
Signature head and combos. The Classic series of
amplifiers have become by far the most popular of
any Two–Rock series to date. The line features single channel clean amps with reverb, and several
dual channel platforms with different lead voicings, tube or solid state rectifiers, and other tone
tailoring options. Power levels of 20 to 150 watts
are available.Two-Rock is also celebrating their
10th Anniversary this year, commemorating the
event with a 10th Anniversary Limited Edition
amp/cabinet package as well as 2 production amps,
including the just released 10th Anniversary J-2
head and combo. A number of extension cabinets
equipped with special design speakers by
Eminence and Warehouse Guitar Speakers are
available, as well as an all-tube buffered effects
interface(mono or stereo). A number of customized
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Resource Directory
versions of the aforementioned have also been
built for players seeking the ultimate personalized
tone machine.
Joe Mloganoski, [email protected]
K&M Analog Designs LLC, www.two-rock.com
pickups in his two custom Fessenden pedal steels.
And the list doesn’t end there – Jason has wound
pickups for guitar greats such as Billy F Gibbons,
Peter Stroud, Kevin Russel, Rick Vito, Elliot
Easton, Duke Robillard, and the Beasty Boys,
among others.
707-584-8663, In Japan, www.two-rock-jp.com
Koch Guitar Amplification was founded in 1988
by Dolf Koch in the Netherlands and are known
worldwide as a manufacturer if high end boutique
guitar amplifiers. They have many models for all
styles of music from the new 20W Class “ A”
Studiotone combo to the 120W Powertone II head.
All amps are channel switching with two or three
extremely versatile channels. They are recognized
for having both sparkling clean channels and wide
ranging drive/gain channels. They were the first to
utilize trim pots on their heavy duty circuit boards
enabling anyone to adjust bias with only a screwdriver and voltmeter. Speaker damping switches
which when toggled from high to low alter the tone
to a more scooped sound. Rhythm volume switch
on the footswitch (included) which when engaged
drops the level to a pre–determined “ Rhythm”
level. It’s the opposite of a boost and does not alter
the lead tone as a result. It so useful guitar players
tell us that they’re surprised that no has done this
before. All amps have Accutronics reverbs and
Koch designed speakers that have a sweeter more
extended high end. These speakers also handle
more power and have a better bass response than
almost any guitar speakers available. They are an
integral component to the KOCH sound.
Other products include the Loadbox which attenuates a tube amplifiers output without destroying its
tone, i.e. no huge loss of high frequencies. The
Pedaltone is a semi–four channel, foot operated
preamp which has four 12AX7 preamps tubes. One
of these tubes acts as a .5W power tube! It has
many patch points and output options for almost
any application.
Some famous people that use Koch are: Paul Reed
Smith, Al Di Meola, Randy Bachman, Buzz
Feiten, and Jimmy Bruno to name a few. KOCH
also manufacturers the 300W EDEN VT300 all
bass head and the 200W Sadowsky SA200 bass
head on an OEM basis.
Audionova Inc.
www.audionova.ca/
514–631–5787 ext. 22
Lollar Custom Guitars & Pickups
According to Jason, he never really set out to
become a custom pickup designer and builder.
Jason Lollar is a guitar builder on Vashon Island,
Washington (near Seattle) who originally began
building pickups for his own guitars and a few
friends when he couldn’t find the tone he was after.
The word spread, and now Jason custom builds
over 30 different pickups, including Strat, Tele,
humbuckers, P90’s, custom steels and Charlie
Christian–style pickups, all persoanlly designed
and wound by Jason. He is especially well known
for his P90, Imperial Humbucker and Tele replacement pickups, but he has also designed pickups for
many unusual applications…
Recently, Jason was acknowledged by gonzo pedal
steel player Robert Randolph for having wound the
Jason is always happy to personally consult with
his clients via phone and e–mail to determine the
pickups that are right for each player, and TQR
recommends Lollar pickups without exception. His
Lollar Special Strat pickups are standard equipment in our custom built ToneQuest guitars.
Call Jason or check out all the options available on
his web site.
www.lollarguitars.com, 206–463–9838
Mercury Magnetics The basis of every tube
amp’s characteristic sound is the unique design
of its transformers. Mercury transformers are
legendary for their stunning tonal superiority,
build quality, consistency, and reliability. We
believe in old-world customer service and single-minded focus. Transformers are our only
business, allowing us to concentrate on providing you with the best-sounding guitar amplifier
trannies in the world.
If your amp is suffering from bland and unexciting tone, then it’s time for a transformer upgrade
or repair. Here are your options:
ToneClone™ Best-of-Breed Series
Transformers: Behind every great-sounding
vintage guitar amp is a piece of transformer history. Within any amp line there are usually a
large number of transformer variations, inconsistencies and just plain ol’ building errors that
affect their sound (good or bad). At Mercury, we
seek out, study, blueprint and replicate only the
best-of-breed transformer designs (including
their all-important anomalies) and add these discoveries to our catalog. And we make these
incredible tonal selections available to you
through our ToneClone™ line.
Axiom® Series Next-Gen Transformers: Nextgeneration guitar amplifier transformers. The
Axiom series are in a class by themselves. We’ve
taken our advanced knowledge of modern transformer design and mated it with historically bestsounding designs of the past. Axiom trannys are
hybrids that take vintage tone to the next level!
More bloom, more overtone color, and awesome
tonal depth. If you ever needed convincing as to
how outstanding transformers affect your sound,
Axiom trannys will astonish you.
Mercury Vintage™ Transformer Service: Most
vintage transformers have already outlived or are
nearing the end of their life expectancies. That’s
the bad news – now for the good… Mercury will
restore, rebuild or rewind your valuable original
transformers. Or, we can clone your originals so
that you can continue to play your old amp without fear of further “wear and tear.”
Free Transformer Testing And Evaluation
Service: Do you think there might be something wrong with your transformer? Send it to
us. We’ll test it in our lab and report back to
you. Our evaluation procedures are thorough,
complete and reliable, and always free. The only
transformers that come with a 10-year
Manufacturer’s Warrantee and a Money-Back
Tonal Guarantee. Made entirely in the U.S.A.
Mercury Magnetics
www.MercuryMagnetics.com
[email protected]
818-998-7791 404–325–0515
Nash Guitars Have you ever thought, “ If they
would just make a Tele with….” , “ I love my Strat
but it just doesn’t….” “ Why don’t they make a
Jaguar that could….” Well, you’ve come to the
right place. From exotic woods, custom paint,
unlimited neck types, custom designed logos, pickup selections, Timewarp aging, or any other feature
imaginable – Esquires with hidden neck pickups,
Strats with interchangeable pickup assemblies,
Custom Shapes — whatever… If you can dream it,
we can build it.
Each guitar is a unique work of art, handcrafted by
me. The use of 100% nitrocellulose lacquer, high
quality vintage hardware, superior woods and a
wide variety of pickups and options produce magical instruments that have thus far not been available “ off the rack” . The level of aging on our
Timewarp guitars can be adjusted from “ played it
once a month at church” to “ used to break open a
window during a fire in a Louisiana roadhouse.”
Bill Nash is an Olympi, WA based builder of aged
vintage guitars inspired by Leo Fender. Available
through Nash Guitar dealers in the US and
Overseas. Please see Nashguitars.com for information and a dealer near you.
Nashguitars
Olympia,WA
www.nashguitars.com
1–877–484–8276
Mojo Musical Supply is the all–inclusive
amplifier parts supply house. ToneQuest readers
receive an exclusive 10% discount on all Mojo
products! Just reference the “ MojoQuest304” discount code when placing your order. Mojo specializes in pre–1980 amplifier parts, including a wide
range of custom and vintage reproduction cabinets,
a line of exact reproduction transformers, and
hard–to–find electrical components. Mojo continues to supply a full range of speakers for the guitar
market, including Jensen, Celestion, and of course,
their own custom Mojotone speakers. The
in–house cabinet shop at Mojo specializes in making authentic Fender and Marshall reproduction
amplifier cabinets, custom cabinets from your own
design, as well as cabinet repair and re–covering.
Mojo stocks over fifty different amp coverings and
grill cloths to insure that vintage enthusiasts and
custom amp creators have a large palette to choose
from. Within the last two years, Mojo has become
one of the largest vacuum tube importers in the
world, stocking over 20,000 tubes. Because they
buy tubes in large volumes, their prices remain
very competitive. For completed electronics, Mojo
is the east coast distributor for Belov amplification
and also the home of Mojotone Custom electronics. Mojo manufactures and markets the Tone
Machine amplifier, a powerful and eclectic tube
guitar combo. They are also able to offer turnkey
and partial component electronics and cabinets for
OEM’s and builders of all sizes. The future of
Mojo lies in their ability to work directly with
manufacturers, or bring the manufacturing in
house. Our plans for the coming months and years
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Resource Directory
are focused on making quality vintage parts available at even better prices, while assuring that all of
their products are of the highest quality.
Mojo Musical Supply
Winston–Salem, NC
www.mojotone.com
1–800–927–MOJO
PLEK The brand name PLEK stands for a technology which allows the best fret dress and setup work,
based on a computer controlled scan.
The Plek is a computerized tool that scans an
instrument strung to pitch, generating graphic
views of the fret plane, fret heights, fret shape and
placement, fingerboard relief radius, humps and
bumps — basically everything that luthiers and
repair pros have wanted to see well but couldn’t,
until now. Besides having measurement and dressing capabilities many times more accurate than the
human eye allows, the PLEK has two particularly
great advantages over manual fretwork.
First, it scans and dresses a guitar while it is tuned
to pitch. This is a major breakthrough, since necks
are subjected to approximately 100 pounds of string
tension. This string tension invariably affects the
shape of the fret plane, creating curves and humps
that change when the strings are removed for a fret
dress. The PLEK identifies precisely what needs to
be done for perfect results when the instrument is
re-strung, whereas even the most skilled luthier or
repair professional must guess about how to compensate for the effect of string tension when dressing the neck with the tension released.
Secondly, the PLEK applies very sophisticated formulas for optimum neck curve or relief, adjusting
the calculations for the actual string height and individual string gauge from the treble side of the fingerboard to the bass. Achieving these same results
by hand would be lucky and extremely rare at best!
The Plek is now in use by some of the top repair
and restoration experts worldwide. We invite you
to contact the Plek repair shop nearest you, or
learn more about Plek technology at
www.plek.com
Plek, Berlin/Germany
+49 30 5369–6339, [email protected]
Joe Glaser, Nashville/TN
(615) 298–1139, [email protected]
Gary Brawer, San Francisco/CA
FretTek, Los Angeles/CA
Philtone, Baltimore/MD
Peekamoose Guitars, New York, NY
(212) 869-2396, www.peekamoose.com
Suhr Guitars, Lake Elsinore/CA
Charlie Chandler’s Guitar Experience
London, UK +44 20 8973–1441
[email protected]
GuitarLabs Scandinavia, Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 644–9480, [email protected]
Reinhardt Amplifiers It’s not uncommon for
Reinhardt amp players to comment that their
new Reinhardt amp “sounds great with all my
guitars,” which isn’t so surprising… While Bob
Reinhardt builds 12 distinctly unique guitar
amps (plus a 200 watt bass head), every model
is designed to meet the practical needs and
expectations of working in players in a wide
variety of venues – from small clubs to arenas –
and with tone and power shaping features that
make Reinhardt amps truly versatile tools built
to professional standards.
Whether your prefer the dynamic character of
dual EL84s in the Reinhardt 18, twice the power
in the 4-EL84 Titan, the club-friendly dual 6V6
MI-6 and Sultan inspired by Mark Knopfler, or
the classic tones of the dual EL34 Vintage 50, 50
watt Storm, or the 100 watt Fat Albert and V100, Reinhardt delivers the exceptional, classic
tone and road-tested construction that experienced pros demand.
Innovation Meets Classic Tone
All Reinhardt amps are available with custom
voicings and options, such as power scaling and
dual channels that deliver variable levels of rich
distortion, touch-sensitive dynamic response and
truly classic tones derived from premium EL84,
6V6, EL34, KT66 or KT88 power tubes.
Reinhardt amps come standard with a custom
blend of Flying C, JJ, TungSol Reissue and EH
tubes. Transformers are custom Heyboer, and we
use the premium caps that are best suited for
each application – Sozo Vintage series and
Mallory 150s. You’ll also find PEC Mil Spec 2
watt pot, 1% tolerance resistors, Teflon wire,
shielded input cable for low noise and CNC
machined .090 aluminum chassis with welded
corners for durability.
Who’s playing Reinhardt amps?
Reinhardt players include Mark Knopfler, Brent
Mason, Greg Martin (Kentucky Headhunters),
Pat Buchanan, Lou Toomey (Brooks & Dunn)
and Keith Nelson (Buck Cherry) to name just a
few. Please visit our web site for detailed specs
on every Reinhardt model, sound clips, and
unsolicited testimonials from current Reinhardt
players.
Reinhardt Amplifiers
www.reinhardtamps.com
434-525-5590
Rocky Mountain Slides I became obsessed
with creating a family of high quality hand crafted slides that would be able to offer the questing
slide player "custom" options at a reasonable
price, and offer a slide with a wider tonal pallet.
These slides and tone bars are truly like nothing
else in the market today! Lighter, faster and more
maneuverable slides based on the density of the
material and not just the mass or weight of it to
provide the necessary tone and sustain required.
Like most slide players, I acquired allot of slides
over the years and liked some of what that one
did, or this one did, but never found one slide
that offered enough to really make me happy! I
personally have a collection of over 300 slides to
use as tonal references in the designing of our
ever increasing family of slides. To be able to
truly construct slides that can be called
HYBRID – a blending of the best of Brass,
Glass, Steel and Ceramic tones…a truly unique
sliding experience!
Our Company now offers over 195 finger slide
possibilities and over 63 tone bar combinations
and growing… I never want to stop creating a
quality, hand crafted alternative to the “One size
fits all” mentality that seems to permeate this
area of the music accessories market. The right
tool for the right job is always a good thing, and
as creative people you should never have to
“Settle for something LESS”. Please feel free to
visit our site and discover the wonderful expanded universe of tonal combinations that we offer.
We are constantly improving and updating our
website and among other improvements, have
added a Blog, for anyone to add their comments
and feedback on our line of slides. Just one more
way to interact, and have an immediate and positive impact on the options and possibilities
available within our family of slides and tone
bars. Input is imperative with us and we always
love to hear back from all those that have a
“Dream Slide” or a tone or tones, that they
haven’t reached yet!
We also have an ever expanding Custom Shop,
where you can let your imagination go wild and
we’ll work together and see what the muses bring.
The Company motto, from its inception, has
always been…”If you don’t try, you don’t get!!”
That is what has driven this company to always try
harder and experiment with our materials and the
inspiration of ourselves and others around us. I
hope to hear from you soon – Doc Sigmier.
Rocky Mountain Slides, 719-530-0696
www.rockymountainslides.com
RS Guitarworks RS Guitarworks is the your onestop source for expert finishing, refinishing and
aging, complete guitar assembly and repair, custom
electronic upgrade kits, pickups, hard-to-find hardware, and more!
Located in Winchester, Kentucky, RS Guitarworks
began as a small repair and refinishing shop in
1994. As the word spread among guitarists, our
business rapidly grew and today we receive expensive guitars from around the world for aging and
refinishing. We offer many hard-to-find vintage
replica parts and other specialty items related to vintage Fender and Gibson guitars, and we also custom
build complete guitars, including our “Old Friend”
Series, “Step-Side” and “Artist Replica” models.
RS Guitarworks Premium Wiring Kits offer a dramatic and immediate improvement over the factory
electronics found in even the most expensive guitars. During a year of research and development we
tested over 20 different tone capacitors and nearly
every type of potentiometer made before developing our upgrade kits, which feature measured CTS
pots within 10% of their specified value, and RS
Guitarcaps in .022uf and .047uf values made
expressly for us by Hovland. Our customers tell us
that our wiring upgrade kits impart a fuller, clearer
tone than standard factory components, with a
smoother, more even and responsive taper from
each pot. Additionally, each potentiometer is tested
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Resource Directory
on a digital meter, checked for the proper sweep
pattern and sorted and labeled as a neck/volume,
neck/tone, bridge/volume or bridge/tone control.
Wiring Upgrade Kits are available in 5 different
styles for various Les Paul type guitars, as well as
Telecaster, Stratocaster, and PRS guitars, and
Explorer and Flying V types. Nearly any other configuration can also be built with a call to our shop.
RS Guitarworks is also an authorized Fender,
Jackson, Charvel, Guild and Gretsch Service Center.
Please call or visit our web site for complete information on finishing, refinishing and aging of new
and used guitars, custom wiring kits, vintage repro
parts and repairs.
RS Guitarworks
859-737-5300, www.rsguitarworks.com
Stewart MacDonald Stewart-MacDonald offers a
complete line of hard–to–find tools, parts, accessories, instructional videos and books for building,
repairing, setting up, and optimizing the playability
and tone of stringed instruments. Whether you are
just getting started or you’re a seasoned luthier,
you’ll find everything you need in the Stew–Mac
catalog, including: fret wire, finishing supplies,
glues and adhesives, wood, bodies, necks, binding,
tuners, nuts and saddles, inlay, bridges, tailpieces,
electronics, pickups, and free information sheets
and professional advice! Their friendly customer
service and technical support staff are trained to
help you make the best product choices, and they
also offer an Unconditional Return Guarantee. If
you’re not satisfied with an item for any reason,
simply return it.
Stew-Mac is the leading supplier of innovative
products for guitarists and repair pros, and every
thing they make is guaranteed to work well,
because every product is tested by the professional
luthiers at Stewart MacDonald first! The master
builders and repairmen on staff include Dan
Erlewine – well–known author of guitar repair
books and magazine articles, member of the
ToneQuest Report advisory board, and a regular
contributor to TQR. Dan and all of the experienced
luthiers at Stew–Mac personally develop and test
every product the company offers, and they are
also dedicated to education. The Stewart
MacDonald catalog is packed with helpful tips,
and the company produces an extensive series of
training videos at their facility in Athens, Ohio.
For more information on the entire range of products available, please visit the Stewart MacDonald
web site. In addition to their free online help service, your telephone call is also always welcome.
Stewart MacDonald
www.stewmac.com,
1–800–848–2273
Swart Amplification Long before the first Swart
amp ever appeared, Michael Swart had been playing through vintage amps for decades at live gigs
and recording sessions as both a guitarist and
recording engineer in Wilmington, NC.
Despite his access to countless vintage Fender,
Vox, and Ampeg amps, Swart always felt the quintessential small recording/home use amp had yet to
be built, thus begin the quest for the best tone via a
small, manageable package. After a slew of suitcase amp wannabees, emerged the original Space
Tone 6V6se, a Class A, 5 watt, Single-Ended, tube
rectified beast with an über simple circuit revolving around the soulful 6V6. The amp delivered big
sound with unmatched musicality along with
amazing distortion. The 18w Atomic Space Tone
soon followed to wide acclaim, and Swart amplifiers were quickly embraced by working pros and
guitarists who shared Swart’s appreciation for truly
exceptional guitar tone.
Today, six different Swart models are hand-built to
serve the needs of guitarists for live performance
and recording:
Space Tone 6V6se - The amp that started it all. 5w,
Class A, Single-Ended, Tube Rectified, 8" Weber,
finger-jointed, lacquered tweed pine cab. Amazing
STR-Tweed - Another BIG Class A, Single-Ended
5w w/extra stage, Swart reverb, and 12” speaker.
Atomic Space Tone - Perhaps the amp that REALLY put Swart on the map. Considered one of the
finest made. 18w 6V6 or 6L6 with tube reverb &
tremolo
AST Pro: AST circuit w/slightly larger cab,
recessed knobs, 12” of choice
AST Head MKII - AST in a head w/defeatable
master volume and choice of cabinets
Super Space Tone 30 Head (SST-30) 30w of soulful 6V6/6L6/EL-34 mother of tone beauty. Richer
than chocolate. Matching, custom tweed 2 x 12
Space Tone Cabinet
Head to Swart Online for the latest news, rants,
photos, raves, artists, events, and dealer locations.
Michael answers every call. Kelly responds to
every mail. Personal service is #1 priority.
Swart Amplifier Co., Wilmington, NC
www.swartamps.com, 910-620-2512
Toneman Veteran working guitarist Don Butler is
an experienced tech who specializes in servicing
and restoring JMI–era Vox tube/valve amps as well
as many other vintage British amps including
Marshall, Selmer, Hiwatt, Sound City and Orange
amps. Don also services and restores vintage
tweed, blonde, brown and blackface era Fender
amplifiers. Don’s modifications and upgrades to
vintage reissue Vox, Marshall, and Fender amps
have earned him a solid reputation among players
throughout the country for achieving dramatically
improved, authentic vintage tone from reissue
amplifiers. Don uses hand–made Mercury
Magnetics Axiom Tone Clone transformers, along
with the correct, premium signal path components
to bring reissues to vintage specs. He also modifies
reissue Vox wahs to vintage specs, and he offers
upgrades to Vox Valve Tone pedals and reissue
Ibanez TS9’s. For the past 6 years, Don has been
building the famous Rangemaster Treble Booster,
which is an exact replica of the original Dallas
Rangemaster unit from the early 60’s. In addition
to the original treble model, Don builds a full
range model and a switchable model combining
the features of both Rangemaster units. Don was
also the very first dealer for Pyramid strings, and
you can count on him to maintain a full inventory
of Pyramids at all times.
Don Butler, Newhall, CA
www.tone–man.com
661–259–4544
10–6 PST, Tuesday–Saturday only
TonePros Sound Labs & Marquis
Distribution Since our first published review article, The ToneQuest Report has enthusiastically recommended the patented TonePros system of guitar
components.
TonePros tailpieces feature a patented locking
design. For years, guitars with stop tailpieces and
wrap-around bridges have been cursed by “lean” or
tilt on their stud mounts. Since string tension was
all that held tailpieces on, the only contact area
was just a bit of the edge of the bottom flange, just
a bit of the lip of the stud top, and often just as little contact with the intonation screws. TonePros®
Locking Studs provide 100% of the contact area of
the bottom flange, 100% of the contact area of the
stud top, no lean, and dramatically improved sustain, resonance and tone.
TonePros bridge and saddle components feature
the “patented pinch” - the lateral pressure that is
applied from the strategically placed “tone screws”
that greatly reduce the play or wiggle of the bridge
posts in their inserts. The posts are frozen in place,
resulting in a solid connection between the strings,
bridge, and guitar top, transferring more string
vibration and resonance to the guitar body, resulting in an audibly stronger, sweeter, woodier type
of resonance and sustain. And once your guitar is
set up, it’s locked. Bridge height and intonation
settings remain intact and exact, even after restringing. TonePros® System II Components are
found on the worlds best guitars, played by the
world’s best artists.
TonePros Sound Labs International,
www.tonepros.com
www.guitarpartsdepot.com
818–735–7944
Marquis Distribution At Marquis Distribution,
we offer the highest quality guitar parts to fit your
needs. We specialize in guitar replacement parts,
and hard to find, vintage-inspired and vintage
replica parts, including aged TonePros and
TonePros Kluson parts, emphasizing your desire to
achieve a vintage look and tone at an exceptionally
high level of performance. Whether you need to
replace one part on your guitar or outfit many guitars with whole new setups, our focus remains on
the individual customer and your unique needs. Be
sure to request the 10% ToneQuest Discount
when ordering!
www.marquisdistribution.com, 209-845-9579
Victoria Amplifier From our first Victoria to the
one we build for you, every Victoria amplifier is
meticulously crafted for real musicians and built to
be played for a lifetime. We utilize components
and manufacturing techniques that are chosen for
their proven ability to meet both the sonic and real
world gigging demands that musicians depend on.
From the real Allen Bradley resistors (new manufacture, not surplus) to the finger jointed pine cabinets, every aspect of a Victoria Amplifier is
designed to provide years and years of faithful
service and superior tone. With the addition of our
new Victorilux and Sovereign amplifiers, Victoria
now offers amplifiers with features like reverb,
tremolo and high gain circuits that will surpass
anything currently available and define the word “
tone” for years to come. But manufacturing new
-continued-
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Resource Directory
amplifiers is not all we offer! Our restoration and
repair department is equipped to turn the most
heinous, hacked up old amp into an inspiring gem.
Our obsession with period correct components and
our real world expertise are your assurance that an
investment piece or an old road hawg will leave
the shop with all of its tonal potential maximized.
The job gets done right at Victoria Amplifier. You
can be sure that we at Victoria Amplifier Co. will
continue to provide the finest guitar amplifiers
available anywhere, at any price. New from
Victoria — the Victorilux and Victoriette — the
ultimate club amps, plus, the Sovereign — our
answer for players seeking true vintage British
tone with master volume and reverb at a
stage–friendly 35 watts!
Victoria Amplifier, Naperville, IL
www.victoriaamp.com 630–820–6400
Visual Sound Founded in 1995 by guitarist Bob
Weil, Visual Sound is excited and happy to
announce that it has recently come out with two
new pedals to join the already critically-acclaimed
V2 Series: the Open Road Overdrive and the
Truetone Clean Boost pedals.
Designed by Weil and chief engineer R.G. Keen,
these pedals had already “wowed” a great number
of players, artists and dealers when previewed earlier this year at the Winter NAMM Show in
Anaheim…and, now, it is making a huge impact on
players of all stripes, as the pedals have been flying
off the shelves.
BREAKING NEWS: Visual Sound has partnered
with the Warped Tour to create a limited-edition
guitar effect pedal, the Vans Warped Distortion.
With appropriately named knobs like Grind, Edge,
and Loud (translation: Drive, Tone, Volume…), the
Vans Warped Distortion is totally geared towards
Warped Tour inspired guitarists. With grinding lowend distortion, it will make you just want to turn all
the knobs to “10” and let it rip. Visual Sound has
put all the road-tested features of their renowned V2
Series pedals into the Warped Distortion, so you
won’t ever have to worry about it dying on you in
the middle of a gig.
The staffs of Vans and the Warped Tour were stoked
when Visual Sound brought this pedal to them. So
many bands on the Warped Tour use Visual Sound
products, so it was a natural fit.
As if that weren’t enough, the 10th Anniversary edition of the Visual Volume pedal and line of 1SPOT
adapters and power supplies continue to find their
way onto pedalboards and rigs all around the world,
as well.
that includes the original CTS company, Credence
Speakers, Voice Communication Coil, and Hawley
Products – the oldest cone manufacturer in the
world. When an OEM speaker manufacturer needed to clear warehouse space in 2006, WGS was
born and began manufacturing and selling
American-assembled guitar speakers to the public.
Today we build a wide range of high-quality and
reasonably priced 10 and 12-inch Alnico and
Ceramic magnet guitars speakers that celebrate
and reprise the golden era of speaker manufacturing in the USA and England during the ‘60s
and ‘70s, including the 15 watt Alnico Black &
BlueTM, 50 watt Alnico BlackHawkTM,60 watt
Veteran 30TM, 25 watt Green BeretTM, 80 watt
British LeadTM, 65 watt ET65TM, 30 watt
ReaperTM, and 75 watt Retro 30TM, among
others. WGS also builds high-power bass and
PA speakers, and we are constantly developing
and adding new speaker models to meet the
demands of today’s guitarists.
Why should you consider buying WGS speakers? At a time when speaker manufacturers have
moved production to Asia, compromising quality
and reliability while prices continue to increase,
our speakers are proudly assembled in the USA
by a team with decades of speaker design and
building experience, at a reasonable price. Our
employees take pride in building the very best
speakers available anywhere. Selling direct via
the Web enables us to keep prices low without
compromising quality. You buy direct from the
manufacturer, and we proudly stand behind our
products with fast shipping and exceptional customer service.
For information on the entire range of WGS guitar
and bass speakers, please visit our web site today.
Warehouse Guitar Speakers
www.WarehouseSpeakers.com
270-217-0740
WD Music Products As a special offer WD®
Music Products, Inc. is offering a 10% off
coupon to Tonequest readers… Visit us at
www.wdmusic.com and enter coupon code
TQWD at checkout. Please note: Coupon good
for wdmusic.com web orders only, offer not
valid on wdbiz.com orders.
For more information about Visual Sound, mp3
downloads and product information, please visit the
Visual Sound web site or MySpace site, or contact
Bob Weil personally.
Visual Sound
www.visualsound.net
www.myspace.com/visualsoundusa
931-487-9001
For the past thirty years WD® Music Products
has been providing quality service and parts to
satisfied working musicians, discriminating
builders and OEMs. WD® pioneered the field of
aftermarket pickguards and continues to lead the
way in the niche we created in 1978. We have
manufactured thousands of pickguards and if
you need a replacement or something you envision yourself we can make it happen. For many
years WD® Music has also carried a full line of
replacement parts for just about any stringed
instrument.
Warehouse Guitar Speakers® LLC is an
Internet-based retail speaker supplier and manufacturer based in Paducah, KY – an area of the country with a long history in speaker manufacturing
WD® Music is proud to continue the legacy of
Kluson® tuning machines, one of the most
respected OEM and replacement tuners for
decades. Replace or restore your vintage instru-
ment with genuine Kluson® tuning machines
from WD® Music. We stock Kent Armstrong®
pickups, L.R. Baggs® acoustic gear, Q-Parts®
custom knobs and accessories, Bigsby® tailpieces, Graph Tech® products, Wilkinson®
bridges, Grover® tuners and accessories, Big
Bends® maintenance supplies, Guitar Facelifts,
effects and much more.
History is repeating itself with genuine Kluson®
tuners, continuing with WD®’s customer service, and…Stromberg® Jazz Guitars. No one can
attempt or claim to reproduce the prestige of the
original archtop Stromberg® guitars. But with
history in mind WD® is also proud to distribute
Stromberg® Jazz Guitars. With six models to
satisfy everyone from the serious working jazz
musician to the rockabilly king Stromberg®
offers an affordable, quality instrument for
almost any taste or style. Stromberg® jazz
Guitars is a small, limited production archtop
guitar company whose main goals are quality,
playability and affordability. Play one and see.
WD® Music Products. Thirty years of knowledge, service, quality parts and accessories waiting to serve you. Everything from pickguards,
tuning machines, pickups, electronics, necks,
bodies, bridges, prewired assemblies and hard to
find hardware—if your guitar or bass needs it,
chances are WD® Music has it. Old fashioned
customer service, genuine Kluson® tuners, classic Stromberg® Jazz Guitars, and so much more.
Call 877-WDMUSIC or visit
www.WDmusic.com.
Willcutt Guitar Shoppe Located in Lexington,
KY, Willcutt Guitar Shoppe is one of the world’s
premier boutique guitar and amp dealers. Customers
may select from guitar lines such as PRS, Hamer
USA, Fender, Gibson, McInturff, Gretsch,
McNaught, Nik Huber and Taylor. With a vast
inventory of over 1500 guitars always on hand,
Willcutt’s staff of experienced guitarists can reliably
assist you with the purchase of your next dream guitar or amplifier. Recognizing that a superb electric
guitar requires an amp of equal quality, Willcutt
offers a tremendous selection of handbuilt amplifiers, including Dr. Z, Victoria, Carr, Bad Cat,
Bogner, Mesa, Fuchs, Rivera, and Koch.
Willcutt’s staff of veteran, working guitarists has the
hands-on product knowledge necessary to assist
players at every level in finding just the right guitar
or amp the first time. The store’s website features
high quality digital photos of nearly every item in
stock, and 99% of all high end instruments are kept
in their cases – not on display – insuring that every
instrument remains in the best possible condition
prior to sale. Pictures and detailed, in-hand descriptions are always available on request.
Willcutt Guitar Shoppe, Lexington, KY
www.willcuttguitars.com
859-276-0675
27
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