Report - Wolfetone Pickups

INSIDE
Mambo Son’s
guitarist
Tom Guerra
takes a journey
to the center of
the mind
of the
Byrdland blaster,
Ted Nugent
Love the
One You’re With…
How optimizing
the guitars
you already
own
provides cheap
relief in tough times…
7
RS Guitarwork’s
Roy Bowen
on
replacement
pots, tone caps,
refins, repairs
and the variable nature of
nickel-silver
Optimizing
Junior…
Common sense
tips for safely
replacing
pots, caps
&
pickup covers
14
Primal Scream!
Chasing
tone with
Wolfetone’s
MarshallHead
hi-octane
humbuckers
plus…
Wolfe’s
‘meaner’
P90s
17
The Eastman T185 MX
A truly superior,
affordable
semi-hollowbody
thinline electric…
Mountainview Publishing, LLC
the
The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone
$10.00 US, September 2010/VOL.11 NO.11
Report
TM
Ted
“I am Classic Rock Revisited. I revisit it every waking moment of my life because it has the spirit
and the attitude and the fire and the middle finger. I am Rosa Parks with a Gibson guitar.”
– Ted Nugent
Who among us has played
more than six thousand
shows, sold 30 million
records, arrived at the peak
of their career bankrupt,
rebounded with a vengeance
and is still throwing down
loud and proud thirty years
hence? Uh-huh. Ted. In case
you hadn’t noticed, the state
of Michigan, and the city of
Detroit in particular, have
turned out some very interesting human beings… Bill
Haley, Del Shannon, Jim
McCarty, Bob Seger, Alice
Cooper, Iggy Pop, Marshall
Crenshaw, Wilson Pickett,
Little Willie John, Smokey
Robinson, Aretha Franklin,
Madonna, Don Was, Jack
White, and Stevie Wonder,
among others.
Then there are the bands…
MC5, Mitch Ryder and the
Detroit Wheels, Iggy Pop and
the Stooges, Cactus, George
Clinton and Funkadelic,
Grand Funk Railroad,
Brownsville Station, ? Mark
and the Mysterians, Rare
Earth, the mighty, mighty Motown stable, and The White Stripes. And let us not forget Clarksdale,
Mississippi native, John Lee Hooker, who found his voice playing in the east side clubs of Detroit
while working a day job at the Ford Motor Company. But when it comes to ‘70s arena rock, Ted
Nugent held a stranglehold on the blistering brand of gonzo mayhem that is and has always been
www.tonequest.com
cover story
unique to Detroit. Why Detroit? Who knows? It’s simply the
place where the spark burned hottest long enough to create
an attitude of complete, uninhibited abandon. Call it a free
for all…
“One chord is fine. Two chords is pushing it.
Three chords and you’re into jazz.” – Lou Reed
In 1965,
The Fifth
Dimension
in Ann
Arbor and
The Hideout
were the
places to
be seen and
hear popular Detroit
bands like
The Underdogs, The Mushrooms, The Fugitives, The Lords,
and The Rationals. Downtown, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit
Wheels blistered the charts with two back-to-back hit singles
featuring one of the most influential and utterly rippin’ guitarists in the history of rock & roll, Jim McCarty. If you’re
wondering why McCarty seems to be popping up so often in
the TQR, we’re trying to give you a not-so-subtle hint… Most
of the major cities in the midwest could boast at least one
local guitar hero in the ‘60s – Herb Crawford, guitarist in Sir
Winston & the Commons in
Indianapolis, Glenn Schwartz
in Cleveland (the original
guitarist in the James Gang),
and in Detroit, McCarty was
the shit. Naturally, this did
not go unnoticed by a young
Ted Nugent, who also happened to note McCarty’s
brief flirtation with a comparatively rare and unusual
Glenn Schwartz
tool for rockers – the Gibson
Byrdland, which Nugent cleverly chose as his signature guitar. Destined to transform Gibson’s comely jazz box into an
acetylene jizz rocket, Ted shrewdly figured that a vibey, semihollow axe like the PAF-loaded Byrdland would be uniquely
capable of spewing molten torrents of thick, persistent distortion when plugged into a blackface Twin (or six) on ‘10’ that
would sustain for days.
“We were the first wave raised on Les Paul, Link Wray,
Dick Dale and Scottie Moore... We were the first wave to
say, ‘More amps is better.’ We were using the same amps as
Chuck (Berry) and (Duane) Eddy. We just turned them up and
discovered distortion is not an enemy.”
Indeed, distortion
was Nugent’s friend,
and he cashed a lot
of checks drawn on
a towering bank
of Fender Twins
pounding massive
Showman cabinets
and the world’s
largest collection of
vintage Byrdlands.
It is also essential to
note how Nugent’s
feral leaping about and prowling the stage in nothing but a
loin cloth or trailing a furry cat tail effectively ignited the
latent tribal instincts of his white, working class fans — a
generation centuries removed from the frenzied ecstasy of
tribal rituals celebrating the hunt, the kill, and the feast, vanquished enemies, life’s beginning and end, and the collective
faith in a higher power. You can knock the act all you want —
swinging on a rope or riding in on a buffalo — but Nugent’s
game was all about putting people back in touch with the
essence of their primitive DNA — the very same reason why
the appearance of rock & roll scared the living shit out of so
many people when The Pelvis showed up. Ted was the leanest, craziest, hardest rocking mofo in the tribe wielding a
lethal thunder stick that operated in just one mode... 140 dB.
Nugent’s first taste of success came early in the Amboy
Dukes, whose hit single, “Journey to the Center of the Mind”
was released in 1968 and charted at number 16. He eventually changed the name of the band to Ted Nugent and the
Amboy Dukes and recorded Survival of the Fittest, Call of the
Wild and Tooth, Fang and Claw in rapid succession during
the ‘70s, while becoming famous for arranging cage match
guitar duels on
tour with opponents like the
MC5’s Wayne
Kramer and
Frank Marino
of Mahogany
Rush. Nugent
then tossed the
Amboy Dukes
name completely aside
and became
simply Ted, teaming with Derek St. Holmes on guitar and
vocals, Rob Grange on bass and drummer Cliff Davies. The
band signed with Columbia and proceeded to scorch the
earth with the release of Cat Scratch Fever. Yeowww. Well,
that one was pretty good, but he trumped himself with the
release of Double Live GONZO in 1978, arguably his best
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
cover story
work ever. (Riverhorse claims to have been deeply inspired by
and strongly recommends “Great White Buffalo.”) Now Ted
was at the top of the rock & roll dung heap for half a minute
in the relative scheme of life, until Captain Even Up made an
appearance in 1980, and he was forced to file for bankruptcy.
Did he slither back into a dark hole and drown his troubles
in drugs and drink? Nooo... He hit the road like a man possessed, worked his way back into solvency, and he hasn’t let
up since.
Yes, Nugent has more
recently become a
highly visible and
controversial political
animal as well, but
the Quest for tone has
nothing to do with animal rights, the Second
Amendment or politics,
so you’ll get none of
that here (nor did we
edit any out). For this
edition of the Quest,
Ted simply shared his passion for the music that has supercharged his life. Enjoy...
TQR: As a rocker entering his fifth decade on the world
stage, how are you holding up?
Considering all the animal flight time off the towers of amps
and 5 foot drum risers for more than 6,000 brutally energized
rockouts, plus 40 years of mountain climbing, swamp running
and killing dangerous beasts with sharp sticks, I’d say I am
doing miraculously grand! Sixty-one years clean and sober
does a healthy wildman make.
TQR: Are you surprised that straight ahead heavy rock
and roll has survived over the years?
Not at all. All us so called “classic rock” bands were raised,
inspired and spiritually driven by the Godz of black American
soul, masters like Chuck, Bo, James, Wilson, BB, Howling,
Muddy, Lightning, and the mighty Motown FunkBrothers
magical music et al. Such emotional, uppity, soulful music motivated us to put our hearts and souls into being the
absolute best musicians that we could possibly be, and such
American Dream excellence has a life of its own and cannot
be ignored nor deterred. I crave it more today than I did as a
snotty little Detroit sassafras in my garage with a loud amp
in 1958. It is raw, pure, primal-scream uprising music for the
defiant ones, and there are plenty of us still out here.
TQR: What can you tell us about your current tour, and
band lineup?
God clearly loves me
more than other guitar
players, since He has
surrounded me with the
most gifted, ferocious
rhythm combos forever.
Again, this “Trample
The Weak Hurdle The
Dead NugeTour 2010”
is propelled by the
Godz of Thunder –
Mick Brown on drums
and Greg Smith on
bass. These guys ain’t right. They deserve me. Defying gravity
with the highest energy rock of my life is such fun. It defies all
logic, but our rockouts this year are tighter, higher energy, and
ridiculously more fun that ever before. We ain’t right.
TQR: Going way back to the beginning, in your early
teens, who were your early musical heroes, and
what type of music really moved you?
Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Mitch Ryder and the
Detroit Wheels, the Beach Boys, The Ventures, Lonnie Mack,
Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, all things Motown, the pure,
raw interpretation by the Stones, Beatles, and Yardbirds of
American black music drove me wild and still does to this day.
TQR: Do you remember your first decent guitar and amp
setup? What were you playing back then?
As early
as 1958
I had
a beat
up but
gorgeous
blonde
no- cutaway
Epiphone
big fat
hollowbody and a small single 12" speaker Magnatone amp from
Joe Podorsek at the Capitol School of Music on Grand River
Avenue in Detroit. I experienced with much delight my first
attack of feedback and it was glorious even before I could
control it at all.
TQR: You became known as a guitar slinger around the
time of the Amboy Dukes, and during the early
‘70s, you’d have “showdowns” with other guitarists, people like Mike Pinera, Frank Marino and
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
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cover story
Wayne Kramer. A good friend of mine saw you
and Mike at the Allen Park Auditorium and said
it was amazing – what can you tell us about those
days?
My love for music has always been pure and intensely adventurous, so the opportunity to jam with anybody anytime
anywhere was and will never be turned down. Our clever
booking agents at Diversified Management came up with a
ticket selling marketing plan to create a challenge between hot
guitarists that we could book together on the same shows. We
had a ton of fun with it each night but we never looked at it as
a real contest, just a chance to play together. Mike, Frank and
Wayne were incredible and very inspiring genius guitarists.
TQR: TQR: Who are your top 3 all-time favorite guitarists, and
why?
Lonnie Mack for
tone and overall
lyricism so early
on, Jimmy McCarty of Mitch
Ryder’s band for
sheer fire and Jr.
Walker saxophone
type solos, and a
Alvin Lee
toss-up between
Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie, Eddie Van Halen and Joe
Bonamassa for all things insane guitar statements. There are
so many phenomenal virtuosos out there that it is impossible
to limit it to only three. I think of Mike Bloomfield, Johnny
Winter, Ronnie Montrose, Buddy Guy, BB, Albert and Freddie King, Gatemouth Brown, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, Eric
Clapton, Jimmy Page, Alvin Lee, and so many more. Guitars
and guitarists bring me monster quality of life.
TQR: with the most amazing dynamic array of tones I had ever
heard or imagined. I was hooked at that very moment, and to
this day 50+ years later. Amazing huh! I also toured with the
Young Rascals around 1967 and ‘68 when Gene Cornish used
a Byrdland with incredible tone. There simply isn’t any other
guitar with such a rich timbre.
You took the Byrdland in a new direction, as you
were the first to do stuff like divebombing and managed feedback
on a hollowbody, as well as some
really tasty, beautifully melodic
instrumentals like “Hibernation,”
“FreeFlight” and ”Homebound.”
What made you bond with that
particular guitar?
I first witnessed Jimmy McCarty
with Billy Lee and the Rivieras at
the Walled Lake Casino outside
Detroit as early as 1962 before
they were Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. He played a Byrdland
through a Fender Twin Reverb
With the trifecta of “Ted Nugent,” “Free for All”
and “Cat Scratch Fever,” you began selling out
stadiums and got huge. I first saw you in the ‘70s,
right after the release of “Cat Scratch Fever.” At
the time you were using something like 6 Super
Twins and 6 Dual Showman cabs live…and it was
LOUD AS HELL! Were they all actually plugged
in and if so, how did you control the feedback,
given that you were playing the Byrdland exclusively at that point?
Truly a moment in time, that’s for damn sure. Yes, they were
all plugged in, all tone and volume knobs set on 10, and it was
insanely, dangerously, brutally loud and painful, but oh so
glorious and FUN! Though it looked like I was a very talented,
extremely athletic dancer on stage each night, and while I in
fact was, what I was really doing was scrambling hither and
yon to find spots on stage where the desirable notes and chords
would feedback and not allow the mighty Byrdland to eat my
face with uncontrollable feedback. It was really, really intense.
TQR: A lot of people know you as a screaming lead player, but you have a great sense of rhythm and almost
singlehandedly invented the heavy muted palm fast
picking, on songs like “Great White Buffalo” that
later became a standard technique for many metal
players. Where did you pick that up?
I got that from
Jimmy McCarty
originally. If you
listen to “Jenny Take
A Ride” his variable
muting touch in
conjunction with
just the right let ‘er
rip unmuted ringing
is dynamic music
personified. I took
it to the ultimate level if I do say so myself, partly because in
the absence of string muting, the Byrdland would simply ring
beyond control and make my chords sound painfully Caucasian. I love the percussiveness.
TQR: Obviously, most people associate you with the
Byrdland, yet you’ve played a lot of other guitars…
during the ‘80s, you began to use solidbodys live,
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
cover story
I remember you playing a Les Paul, a PRS, and I
think a Hamer with Zebra finish. Why the change?
was that your fave studio amp was a brown Fender
Deluxe. How did you go about getting that sound?
I crave
musical
adventure, so
I allow
no
limits
whatsoever on
what
I play
or where I go. My prime arsenal today is a gaggle of amazing
Byrdlands, numerous PRS hollowbody monsters and a squad
of killer Les Pauls. I am also thoroughly enjoying some new
Taylor electric hollowbodies that are amazing.
I owe so much of the
recording of that sacred
tone to Tom Werman
and Tony Reale as they
loved my natural tone as
much as I did and went
to great lengths to make
sure it was captured in
the studio with the use of
the correct microphones,
placement and recording
process. Thank God huh!
Most of those recordings
were performed with my
stage Twins and Showman cabs, but the extra thick grease
on “Cat Scratch Fever” was a rare Gibson Bell amp with
a strange 12" speaker. Its all about the ears, hands, fingers
and recording process and most importantly, the people who
are your team listening closely and caring about the details.
Intense stuff.
TQR: In the 70s, you were always known as an “guitar
straight into the amp” guy…although there is some
flanging on studio tracks like “Stranglehold”. Are
you using any effects these days, and if no, can you
tell us why you prefer the clean sound and do you
feel you can get as many sounds out of this setup as
you need?
My Byrdlands have such a wonderful, rich and unique sound
to them that I rarely mess with it by adding effects. That being
said, I also like to experiment and find that flange, chorus,
echo, wah and a few other ditties make for some sonic bombastic crescendos when applied appropriately. I have them all
on standby. I especially like to step on cats.
TQR: How bout pedals?
All the above from Dunlop & BOSS.
TQR: When you are not on tour, what kind of stuff do
you play around the house? This may be sacrilegious, but do you own an acoustic guitar?
I jam every day and love it. I always have Byrdlands, PRS,
Gibsons, Taylors and an occasionally various other guitars on
hand, like a killer custom beast by Ed Roman. And yes I do
own numerous acoustics; Gibsons and Taylors. I love them
all and play them all the time at hunting camps each fall and
winter religiously.
TQR: The tone on your records, especially those first
three solo records, was just incredible, very distinct,
crunchy and very tasty. In those days, the word
TQR: In the 70s, were you ever playing other guitars live
or in the studio? I remember seeing a picture of you
in Creem or Circus of you playing a sunburst Strat.
I have an amazing 1954 Strat
that Al Nalli Music in Ann
Arbor gave to me around
1979. I used it on the song
“Workin Hard Playin Hard”
rhythm track and it kills. I
also used some Gibson Howard Roberts here and there
too. And it must be noted,
that my earth moving masterpiece “Fred Bear” song was
a spontaneously emotional
recording of that special song
shortly after Fred’s death
with a then-experimental PRS in 1989. Anyone who hasn’t
heard/experienced this incredible song does not know Ted
Nugent music at its finest.
TQR: What are your all-time favorite instruments that
you’ve owned over the years, and do you still have
them?
I love all my Byrdlands, but wish to hell I still had the 4 or 5
early ones I somehow lost touch with dammit! I did not set
out to collect guitars, but in my inexhaustible quest for the
mystical guitar tone, I’ve amassed quite a collection of Byrd-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
5
cover story
lands over the years worth
a damn fortune, and I got
a pair of 1959 Les Pauls
that I have been offered
$250K each for and a
whole bunch more. Wild.
TQR: As with a lot of
guitarists who grew up
during the sixties, you
were influenced by Chuck
Berry…
Mankind owes Mr. Chuck
Berry an indefinable debt of gratitude for his invention of
rock-n-roll. This great American truly perfected Les Paul’s
creation. There is no meaningful music that doesn’t have a
Chuck element to it somewhere, somehow.
live, and as they say, the rest is history. That phenomenal
classic guitar solo was live, take one.
TQR: It has been a flurry on nonstop highest of highs, one career
blitzkrieg after another, concert after concert, year after
year. The animal enthusiasm of my bands and audiences are
indescribably inspiring and have a life of their own every
night, every song, every concert. Certainly my 6000th rock in
Detroit July 4, 2008 (MotorCity Mayhem DVD) was nearly
uncontrollable for me it was so intense. You have to witness
the performance of “Fred Bear” in Michigan or Wisconsin to
know what I am talking about. It is not of this earth.
TQR: TQR: One of your trademarks is your speed, your fluidity
and your vibrato…where did you get that from and
did you consciously develop your technique or did
it just come from playing 300 nights a year?
I have always played my guitar to a berserk level of intensity
with relentless passion. Some would call it practice, but I
just play and play and play and play. I never practice scales
or patterns, I just play grinding, primal, driving, intense
sensual rhythmical passages that would all make killer song
themelines. I make music, not just lifeless guitar patterns.
Everything I play beckons bass and drums and animal noises,
and by playing like a madman all my life, a style and touch
develops in an unstoppable way. I still do it everyday. I love
music, especially my music.
TQR: What are a couple of your all-time favorite guitar
sounds which you’ve recorded (and if you remember, what setup was used to get those sounds)?
Good Lord, there are so
many, I really love them all.
“Stranglehold” is a monster
classic as I recorded it with
my Byrdland and a pair
of stage Twins live in the
studio with Cliff Davies on
drums and Rob DeLaGrange
on bass. I had planned on
playing the rhythm guitar
track with them, then overdubbing a lead, but we were
so locked in that magical
zone that I went into an
improvisational lead section
What were some of the personal favorite high
points in your career? I’d imagine the mega concerts like the Cal Jam II have gotta be right up
there…
Something that I know is important to you is your
charity work…what can you tell us about it?
That I have been so
very blessed to be an
American and to be
invited into the lives
of US military heroes
and their families’
lives, is precious
beyond compare. I do
a lot of charity work
with terminally ill
children whose last
wish in life is to go
hunting or fishing
with Ted Nugent.
Words fail me to adequately describe such an emotional blessing. How I deserve this no one will ever know, but their spirit
and strength make me a better man. I owe them much.
TQR: Are there any milestones that you haven’t accomplished?
I never think in terms of milestones, but rather quality of life
prioritization in my daily pursuit of excellence in all I do. My
life revolves around my wife Shemane and amazing family
and friends, and dogs, too. The music is insanely powerful,
gratifying and compelling, but not in the same ballpark as the
people in my life. My music is so intense because my life is
so wonderfully intense on all levels.TQ
www.tednugent.com
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER: East Coast guitarist/songwriter Tom Guerra recently released a double album with East
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
interview
Coast Mambo Sons entitled “Heavy Days” which is being
met with critical acclaim. For more info, see
www.MamboSons.com
A Guide to Fixing Your Broken Tone…
RS Guitarworks
‘Upgrading’ and improving guitars — new or old, has never been
easier, but like everything related
to the guitar — pickups, effects,
amps and speakers, an argument
could be made that we are faced
with too many options to be certain that the red-hot gizmo we buy today won’t be trumped
tomorrow. Naturally, you want to know what’s ‘the best’ and
buy accordingly the first time. Short of winging it on a hope
and a prayer based on an ad or a compelling chat room
recommendation, what are you gonna do? May we suggest
you become informed? Well, that’s why you’re here, and that
is why we invited Roy Bowen (the ‘R’ in RS Guitarworks) to
share his knowledge and experience in working with guitarists to make things that are not quite right as good as they
can get — everything from stripping your sweet baby nekkid
and shooting nitro, to repairing accidental or intended molestations, replacing pots, tone caps, hardware, pickups, or even
pickup covers. Here’s a depressing thought… did you know
that many commonly available ‘nickel silver’ humbucking
covers could be killing yer tone? Uh, huh… You’ll never know
until you know, but when you do, there will be no going back.
The wrong pot values can also screw up your tone, while
superior tone caps can improve it, but if you simply settle for
whatever may have been indiscriminately installed in your
guitar, you may never realize its full potential. Look, times
are tough, money is tight, and successfully tweaking a guitar
you already own – making it sound and play better – may be
the best move you can make as we approach the autumnal
equinox. So let’s get down to it… The Quest for tone needn’t
always be a $2,000 proposition.
TQR:
Roy, how do you advise people that think they want
or need to replace pots or tone caps in a guitar?
Most
of the
time it’s
not that
hard
because
the first
thing I
ask are
things like what are you not hearing in your guitar? What do
you like? What don’t you like? What kind of amp do you use,
and what style of music do you play? I also urge people not to
listen to everybody else, because there is no single magic bullet. We describe on our site what a specific kit will do — add
clarity or brighten up the tone, for example. We spend a lot of
time talking to customers on the phone asking these questions
— what’s missing in your sound? If a guitar sounds too thin,
the Modern kit isn’t the best choice, while if it sounds muddy,
the Modern kit might be the best choice.
TQR:
How are the pots and caps in your kits fundamentally different than stock, factory parts?
Well, the quality of a pot doesn’t necessarily have anything to
do with the sound. It does have something to do with longevity, feel and taper…
TQR:
Or what happens when you put a soldering iron on
it…
There ya go.
That was
the problem
with the CGE
pots that
Gibson used
for so long.
They were
silk-screened
carbon path
and instead
of being phenolic or anything else that is heat-resistant, they
were plastic. Good enough to put a soldering iron on them
once at the factory, but try to change a pickup later and they
were done.
TQR:
And when were those pots used?
From ’95 or ’96 up to 2003. They are easy to identify because
they have a big Gibson script on the back. They were made in
Mexico and were the lowest common denominator at that time.
TQR:
And they were linear taper…
Yeah for the volumes, which isn’t what you want unless you
play clean all the time. There are people who love linear pots,
but for me they never work. The other thing about our kits is
that the value of the pots is within 1% of the value we set for
each position and kit because we measure and match all of
them. Big companies are never going to pay someone to sit
there and screen every pot. As far as I know we are the only
company that has pushed CTS enough to get our tolerances
at 5%, and it took us four years to get their engineer to do it.
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
7
interview
20% is standard, 10% is considered premium, and we got them
down to 8% for a long time before we narrowed it down to 5%.
TQR:
And what’s the spec at Fender?
They
have
always
used
CTS
and
there is
nothing
wrong
with
the pots
they use, except that the tolerance is 20%. Below or above
spec isn’t necessarily good or bad… below or above is good
in the context of what you need. If you’ve got a guitar that
is knocking the fillings out of your teeth, high is bad. You
have to view pot values in the context of the complete circuit
and the guitar. For example, if you go lower in the value
of the tone pot, you can take some of the presence out of a
guitar that sounds harsh without actually losing highs. On
Les Paul Juniors, Gibson would often use a 500K pot for the
volume and a 250K for the tone pot, because they didn’t want
to choke the pickup, but they also didn’t want it to sound
too sharp. When a customer tells us that they have a guitar
that sounds too bright and harsh, we will often recommend
a 250K tone pot for the bridge pickup, but you don’t want
to do that with the neck pickup, which often suffers from
sounding muddy, and a 250K pot would make that worse. A
lot of people buy the Gibson USA guitars like the Les Paul
Standards and Classics that have 300K volume and 500K tone
pots, which produce a guitar with no high-end, just a lot of
high mids. If they had gone the other way it would make a
much better sounding guitar. I have told people in the past to
just reverse them in those guitars.
TQR:
Tone caps are another misunderstood subject. Can
you describe the evolution of the tone caps you
have made for you at RS?
When we first started we were using
the Hovland Musicap, and I came up
with some changes
working with them
and we introduced
the Hovland Guitar
Cap, which we
were really happy
with. Our modern
black guitar cap that we make now is the same as the original
Guitar Cap. However, we had a lot of supply problems with
Hovland and at one time we went for three months with no
inventory. We later found out that Hovland didn’t really make
anything — they were just a middleman. So we found a
company here in the U.S. that is known for making audiophile caps,
gave them the
specs for the
original Guitar
Cap and they
reproduced it
for us. Later
we asked them
to decrease the
Aged pot kit, Luxe Bumble Bees
voltage and
physical size of the cap, because larger caps can be problematic in some guitars. We have three brands of caps that we
sell now — the paper-in-oil Luxe caps, which are either NOS
Vitamin Qs in a vintage package, or Russian NOS military
caps that are made to look like old Cornell-Dublier, Grey
Tigers or Bumble Bees. When we found Donovan at Luxe
he was selling them on eBay and I thought his caps were so
perfect for us, because they are paper in oil, they look like
the old caps, and so much of our work is based on restorations. We also have the paper in oil Jensen caps made for us,
and then the modern Guitar Caps. When we found Luxe, our
initial thought was we would stop offering the Jensens, but the
truth is that they both have very unique sounds. The Jensen
caps have a very round bottom end, very full in the low mids
and kind of rolled off a little on the top, which is good if
you have a really bright guitar. I think that’s been key to our
growth — people can get on our forum and talk about what
they are hearing in their guitar and find a solution that works.
If someone gets on the forum and says they installed a kit in
a guitar they were thinking of selling and they love the sound
of it now, then we’ve done our job. On the other hand, guys
will read something like that, buy the exact same kit with the
Super pots with Jensen caps thought that having read that post,
it must be ‘the
one,’ and it isn’t
right for their
guitar. Again, it
is much better
to ask questions,
read the information we make
available and choose the right kit for the sound you want in the
guitar you are playing. It’s not a matter of ‘one size fits all.’
TQR:
You also offer a .015uf tone cap for neck humbuckers, which can make a big difference in presence
and clarity.
-continued-
8
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
interview
We do. The neck pickup typically needs the clarity. One thing
we found that seems to be really common is when someone
puts new pots in their guitar, they’ll install the hottest resistance pot in the bridge… That’s not what you want to do. The
lowest resistance pot should be the bridge tone pot, then the
bridge volume, and the highest resistance should be the neck
tone and volume. I had a customer that got a little upset with
me because I wouldn’t sell him four pots for his Les Paul that
were all exactly matched at 512K. I could do that, but what’s
the point? It’s just wrong.
by no matter how diligent you are — the goal is to minimize
that as much as you possibly can. You have to do that on
several different levels — when the shipment comes in, at
later stages when you might be aging something — all along
the path from the time you receive a shipment until you ship
to a customer. We originally started out building and repairing guitars and finishing, and that created the market for the
parts we were using and it organically grew from there. We’ve
learned a lot.
TQR:
TQR:
Let’s move to the fascinating subject of pickup covers… The term ‘nickel silver’ can be interpreted
many different ways. What have you learned about
pickups covers?
Anyone can misinterpret metal formulations and many
do, because terms
like ‘brass,’ ‘steel’
and ‘nickel silver’
are subject to broad
interpretations… If
you read ‘solid nickel’
covers, well, what
grade of nickel is it?
This is an ‘aluminum
tailpiece.’ OK, is it
made from old Toyota bumpers, or is it 70/75 aluminum? The
biggest thing that we learned is that it’s just impossible to
control what purity you are getting, and it varies. Bigger yet,
the material thickness varies in pickup covers. There is a fine
line between a cover that is too thick and sounds horrible, and
a cover that is too thin that will create feedback problems because it isn’t rigid. Most sheet materials like nickel silver have
a tolerance of within 1/10,000th of an inch, but when you are
working with a cover that is only 20,000th of an inch to begin
with, that’s all over the place. We also don’t use plated covers
at all – they are just pure nickel and if you want them to look
shiny and new they are buffed out.
TQR:
So you simply try to monitor the consistency as
much as you can…
And you wind up sending some back. We received an order
and the tops were bowed up and the sides were flared out,
and you could take your hand and deform them with hardly
any effort. They were horrible. So we called the company
and told them this wasn’t going to work. The orders we had
received from them previously had been perfect — beautiful.
You have to let your suppliers know that you are a stickler for
details and you won’t accept anything that doesn’t meet your
standards. Otherwise, you get what you get. Things will sneak
Let’s talk about finishing. How much of your finishing work involves repair and restoration versus
total refins and perhaps aging of newer guitars?
I have a guitar here
right now that is a ’57
Les Paul TV Junior with
a headstock break. The
customer doesn’t really
want the guitar refinished,
he just wants what is a
really ugly 3-piece break
repaired and the finish
touched up to match the
rest of the guitar without
any visual evidence of
the repair. Or sometimes
we’ll get a vintage P90
guitar that has been
D’Angelico break routed for humbuckers
and they want the original
P90 routs put back… I
have a ’41 D’Angelico
in the shop right now
with a broken neck – a
beautiful guitar, and we
have repaired the neck,
matched the color and
where there are areas the
finish is checked on the
neck we will match that.
You also have to pay attention with vintage restoD’Angelico break fixed
rations. We had a cherry
’61 SG with the neck out of it – a really ugly break that we
repaired, touched up the finish and drew in the grain where
it was needed, and the customer sold it to a very well-known
dealer on the West Coast. I watched him point out to the
dealer at a guitar show where the repair had been made, and
that’s the right thing to do. Anybody that is in the refinishing
business has to think the best of people. You are trying your
best to make something go away and not look like a repair
was never done, and you want to believe that the guitar won’t
be misrepresented.
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
9
interview
We had a guy call for a quote
on refinishing a guitar, and
he asked if he would save
any money if he stripped
it first before sending it
to us. We said ‘sure,’ the
guitar comes in and on our
work order we have the
customer sign it, stating
that all the information they
have provided is accurate,
including the serial number
he submitted, which was no
longer there since he had
already stripped the guitar.
So the guitar comes in, we
refinish it, stamp the serial
number he provided and
he gets the guitar back and
everyone is happy. Now, I
don’t really keep up with what might be considered a ‘rare’
Historic Les Paul, but apparently there were something
like five limited edition Historics in this special color with
Brazilian rosewood fingerboards that are valued by Les Paul
collectors. Well, the guy sells the guitar we refinned on eBay
for $10,000 and references the serial number as being one of
these five rare Historics. Then the guy that bought the guitar
on eBay puts some pictures up on the Les Paul Forum and
says, “Hey, look at my rare
Historic Les Paul!” and
another guy chimes in that
he owns one of those rare
Historic models and his
guitar has the same serial
number as the guitar we
refinned… What can you
do? I contacted the guy
that bought the guitar we
refinished, faxed him a copy
of the work order and told
him to contact PayPal and
get his money back because
here’s proof that you were
defrauded. After that experience, if a guitar comes in without
a serial number it goes out the same way, no exceptions.
TQR:
Can you age or ‘relic’ just about any custom shop
Fender or Gibson guitar built within the past twenty
years or so, or are there some models that have to
be refinished before you can age them?
Fenders can, and Gibsons can up to 2005. Around the time
the VOS guitars came out, Gibson switched to some kind
of finish that… you could put it in lacquer thinner and it
won’t melt. I have no idea what it is. It’s rubber. You can
tie it up in a knot and watch it unravel on a workbench, and
that’s no joke. I’ve never seen or heard of nitro that wouldn’t
melt when you hit it with thinner. If you try to touch it up
or spray lacquer over it, nothing will stick to it. I haven’t
had it analyzed, but I’d have to guess that it is some kind of
catalyzed finish. In general, I don’t like it, and it’s a shame,
because I think that the Gibson Custom Shop is building
some of the best solidbody guitars Gibson has ever made.
The irony is that on another level they may be using the
worst finishing material ever.
TQR:
That comment might get a lot of Gibson owners
thinking about a refin. If they have what they consider to be a dead nuts killer guitar with the original, post-2005 finish on it, just imagine how much
more killin’ it could be with thin nitro…
Maybe…
maybe not.
Sometimes
it just
doesn’t
work. If
you’ve got
a guitar that was made in 2005 and it’s had all that time to
dry out, it may not sound better than it does today after we
strip it and shoot it with real nitro. Lacquer doesn’t chemically harden – it dries out through an evaporative process.
The solvents have to bleed out of it, and that’s why the
finish sinks into the grain of the wood. That’s why lacquer
becomes more brittle as it ages, and the older it gets, the
less solvents that are left in it. Truthfully, a brand new nitro
lacquer finish is just as gummy as any kind of urethane
finish or something like that. It’s what it does six months
from now… two, five or ten years from now as it continually dries and becomes more a part of the structure of the
wood. Something like a polyester or water-based urethane
finish is chemically hardened, and after it’s applied it’s as
hard as it’s going to get. I believe they used to use a different
lacquer formulation for Murphy-aged guitars, but I think that
has changed as well. Believe it or not, when you are aging a
guitar or doing a repair with aging using a blade, if the finish
is too brittle it chips when you try to cut the checking in, and
if it’s too soft, it doesn’t look right, either. You can’t get that
fine look of real finish checking.
TQR:
How about aging Fender guitars?
You can age the Custom Shop guitars, and the recent Eric
Johnson model. The USA American production reissues have
a polyester sealer with a polyurethane color and four coats of
lacquer on top of it, so short of stripping those guitars, no, you
can’t age them. The Fender Thinskins age real well.
-continued-
10
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
interview
TQR: I suppose you don’t
have too many people
sending in Mexican Strats
or Teles…
Well, they do send those in
to be refinished…
TQR: And when you strip
them are you finding 2 and
3-piece bodies or something else?
We just did a Tele for a
guy and it was a 3-piece,
and it wasn’t a bad body
at all. Now, we had a Mexican Strat in here a couple of weeks
ago to be painted fiesta red and it was a 6-piece body with
veneers on the top and back to cover up the seams.
TQR:
That seems like an awful lot of work to make a guitar body…
It does. We actually had a blonde custom shop guitar here that
was a 3-piece veneered body with veneers on the top and back
to cover the seams. I don’t know what the incentive would
have been to use that body instead of a 2-piece…
TQR:
What kinds of structural things do you deal with
most often?
There are still a lot of Les Pauls
that come in for a re-fret that
have to have the fingerboards
planed because of a hump at
the body, and a lot of Fender
basses come in that have a big
S curve in the neck and we have
to plane the neck.
TQR:
Do you ever use heat to straighten a neck with
a bow or back bow that the truss rod can’t fully
remove?
a year, so of
course, the
neck was
back-bowed.
After all
that time the
neck had
developed a
‘memory’ in
that back-bowed state. In that case you back the truss rod off,
put a clamp on it and heat the neck, leave it there for a day or
two and you probably won’t have a problem with it again. The
same thing can be done with a new guitar that for whatever
reason wasn’t sold for a year or two and just sat in the case
under full string tension. Heat straightening can work on
those, but if you have a ’66 Precision bass that has been under
string tension all those years and the neck has busted a move
to the left, heat isn’t necessarily going to cure that. To some
extent, wood does what it wants to do dictated by the grain.
When we build guitars, we’ll take neck blanks and shape
them up and then set them side for a few months to see where
the wood wants to go. You can deal with a dip because the
truss rod can take that out, but what you don’t want to see is
a hump. We built a perfectly good neck once that looked like
a roller coaster after a few months. Why did it do that? Who
knows, but we couldn’t use it. Back in the early ‘90s I was
working at a store that was a Fender dealer, and the number
one salesman for the year could buy a Masterbuilt Custom
Shop guitar for something like 20% below dealer cost. The
guy who won didn’t want it, so having been second, I did.
I called Fender and Gene Baker was the masterbuilder who
was going to build it, so I told him what I wanted – a really,
really flamed maple neck and Brazilian rosewood fingerboard.
When it arrived it was just amazing (looking), but it was the
biggest piece of trash I have ever owned in my life as a guitar.
You couldn’t leave it for two weeks without having to adjust
the neck. One day it would be bowed and the next day it was
back-bowed, and it had no tone whatsoever. The workmanship was great, and it was beautiful to look at, but that guitar
wasn’t a guitar – it was nothing but a wall hanging.
TQR: Tommy Rosamond at USA
Custom will sell you a flamey maple
neck, but he won’t back it up with a
warranty that it will stay straight…
We do have a jig to heat straighten, and I have a limit to what
I will expect to accomplish with heat straightening. It’s pretty
unrealistic to expect that a really drastic bow can be completely removed with heat.
TQR:
It won’t sound as good, and it is not
going to stay straight. You can put a
guarantee on it – I’ll guarantee that it
won’t stay straight (laughing).
Doesn’t it depend on how long the neck has
remained in that bowed state?
It does. We had a gentleman send in a newer Custom Shop
Jazz bass, and apparently the previous owner had taken the
strings off of it and left it that way with the truss rod tight for
quartersawn neck
TQR: We have also been told before
that a quarter-sawn neck doesn’t sound
as good either…
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
11
interview
I think Bill
Nash said that
they sound
too stiff to
him. That’s
another thing
Tommy and I
have discussed,
and neither
RS Rockabilly Custom one of us like
quarter-sawn necks. I think it’s the quickest way to make a
good guitar sound bad. They don’t resonate. They are lifeless
because they are too stiff. There are very few things we won’t
do for our customers, but we won’t build a 4A flamed anything. The most we’ll do is a very, very lightly figured neck,
and we won’t build a guitar with a quarter-sawn neck. We’ve
had customers send them in, I’ve fought with them, and I just
don’t like them.
I know of a very well-respected builder who charges a lot
of money for Strat/Tele guitars and his whole gig is quartersawn, flamed maple necks. If either one of them isn’t bad
enough, let’s put both on the same guitar (laughing). Then I
see people talking about how great his guitars are, so maybe
he has figured out something I haven’t. Everybody who builds
guitars figures out how they want to do things, but I just don’t
want to put my name on something with a lifetime warranty
using materials I can’t trust, no matter how pretty they are. I
have to feel that what we’re building is going to remain useful. Our Japanese distributor came over several weeks ago and
they seemed to
be really blown
away by how we
build guitars. A
customer will
call in and maybe they’ll start
telling us what
features they
want, and we’ll build it that way, but I’d rather you tell me
what you want it to do as an instrument. Our distributor was
really blown away by how we’ll put a guitar together, strum
it for awhile and decide that ‘as is’ it doesn’t work. Then I
might go to the parts bin and change the saddles or tone caps
until it seems to really be working as an instrument. Our build
sheet will tell you what components are in the guitar, but it’s
not a generic thing. Just because it is a certain style of guitar
doesn’t mean we will build it the exact same way with the
same components every time. We play them, then decide.
TQR:
How do you feel about weight?
When Scott and I go to pick wood, and we have some really
good sources for lumber here, we are looking for wood that
looks good, and we
listen for tap tones,
but we don’t want
something that will
make a tank, either.
If I had my choice
between making
a 6 pound Tele
that sounded bad
Greg Martin
and a 7 pounder
that sounded good, that’s what I’m going to do. ‘Lighter’
isn’t better and neither is ‘heavier.’ A lot of people do want a
guitar that is ridiculously light, but with a swamp ash guitar,
the lighter you get, the less midrange you have. I don’t think
Les Pauls sound good when they are really light. I’ve had a
lot of Les Pauls, including a Historic ’57 that was 7 pounds
12 ounces and it was just a horrible sounding guitar… No
complexity to it at all. No depth to the sound. But then you
can take Greg Martin’s vintage ’58… I don’t think that guitar
weighs 8 pounds, and it sounds incredibly good. But not all
of the classic vintage guitars are great… I’ve played real ‘59s
and blackguard Teles that were really not very good guitars,
anymore than all PAF pickups sound good.
TQR:
What’s your feeling about the size of a neck as it
relates to tone and resonance?
I think a neck that’s too big can have the same effect as what
we were talking about with a quarter-sawn neck, and by the
same token, really thin necks don’t sound good either. It’s a
balancing act, and the guitar is a recipe, but the neck is where
the sound is, and I’d rather have a great neck with a so-so
body than the other way around.
TQR:
It’s always interesting to note how every neck has
slightly (or significantly) different points along
the fingerboard where you can hear and feel the
resonant frequencies where the entire guitar comes
alive. Fascinating, and always variable.
That’s a funny
thing. When we
were building the
most recent round
of Old Friend guitars there was one
that for whatever
reason just really
went off the hook
Roy & Scott
in anything in G.
I mean, it just wanted to jump out of your hands. Then again,
we cut up a neck that had a horrible dead spot right around the
5th fret. I was checking some neck blanks on Saturday, just
tapping on them, and one end of the board was completely
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12
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
interview
alive, but the other end was absolutely dead, so we didn’t use
it. When you’re a big manufacturer, of course, you can’t do
that, but we’re not trying to build even three hundred guitars a
year. We don’t want to be a big company in that sense. Being
the ‘R’ & ‘S’ in the company, the final adjustment on every
guitar that comes out of here is done by either Scott or myself.
TQR:
You’ve also done a lot of work with people like
Lindy Fralin and Greg Martin on pickups, and as
you know, the ‘custom’ pickup business has exploded in the past ten years, largely because the parts
and equipment that are required have become easily
available in small enough quantities that virtually
anyone can become a pickup maker. After all the
prototyping and study of vintage pickups you’ve
done, have you figured out where the magic is?
That is a challenging question, and I
wish I could put my
finger on one thing.
Here comes the bad
answer… I think
a lot of it is in the
talent of the winder
and whatever formula they have hit
on that produces a
sound that works for
people, because you’re right – nine out of ten guys are calling
All Parts or Stew-Mac and ordering the same parts, so where
is the variable? Well, the only variable is how they are winding. There are people like Jim (Rolph) and Lindy that do their
own thing, and I know for a fact that Lindy has never stopped
experimenting with new twists and designs, and I admire that.
There are people that just by nature can’t leave things alone,
and while I wouldn’t lump myself in with someone like Lindy,
that’s my problem, too. The thing I admire about Lindy is that
he has never worked with the mindset that, “people already buy
these pickups and I don’t have to try to make them any better.”
He’s never done that, in fact, I just got two prototypes in last
week from Lindy after I had asked him if something I thought
of might work. He said, “I don’t know – let’s try it.” I’ve also
had him build some amazing failures. You just don’t know
unless you try. But as far as your questions about the ‘magic,’ I
think it is a thing that hasn’t been found yet. Just like a guitar,
it’s the sum of all the parts to some extent.
TQR:
And that applies as well to all of the kits you’ve
developed.
Yeah. Sometimes the kits work as is, and if you have a guitar
that is a little quirky, you can call or write and we’ll figure
something out. We just realized this year that we’ve sold
100,000 kits,
but still, blindly
following one
thing is usually
not the way to
go. And that
applies as well
to pickups. If
you’re trying
Modern kit
to get an ‘old’
sound, you have to do some work and give some thought to
how that can be done – it’s not necessarily a matter of just going by one set of specs.
TQR:
The problem is, some players have a tendency to
blindly believe whatever most people are saying, or
saying the loudest. It happens with pickups, pedals, amps… And the intensity of it is so bizarre,
because this ‘buzz’ often seems to disappear as
quickly as it appears.
It happens with everything. There was a time when Jim
Rolph’s pickups were getting all the attention, then that died
down and it was Timbuckers, and then the Wolftone Doctor
Vintage… After we came out with our kits, this company
called Black Rose bought one of them, copied it and started
making their own. Then all of a sudden everybody was talking about Black Rose upgrade kits. People would ask him
questions
online about
why the kit
sounded
a certain
way, and
he couldn’t
answer their
questions
because he
didn’t even understand how the kit worked. Quirks wear off,
and quality lasts. We advertised early on in VG and Premier
Guitar and I couldn’t count on one hand the number of
people that came to us from those ads. There was a weird
point in our history where everything turned, and I could
read a post where someone slammed us and twenty people
responded saying he was wrong. I guess that’s when you
know you have arrived. If we are a flavor of the month, it’s
been a 6-year flavor. Do Scott and I want to bring out more
products? Sure, and we want the next generation of anything
we build to constantly improve and perform better. But we’re
not trying to be Fender or Seymour Duncan, because then we
wouldn’t be able to be so hands-on. Scott’s favorite thing that
he likes to tell people is we’re just termites… just two guys
that really like messing with wood. We still enjoy doing that
every day, and we always will.
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
13
pickups
Lagniappe
Upgrade
notes: We
replaced the
stock, linear
taper CTS
pots in our ‘06 Les Paul Junior with a ‘Les Paul Jr./Melody
Maker’ pot kit from RS Guitarworks consisting of an audio
taper 500K volume, 250K tone, and a .022 mf Jensen paperin-oil tone cap. All of these upgrades were relatively easy,
and a big step up from the stock parts. The 250K tone pot and
Jensen cap added a rounder, deeper tone without rolling off or
dulling treble. Recommended.
If you’re
working
with a relatively new
guitar made
within the
past several years, be prepared to confront ROHS compliant
solder on the pots. Unlike older rosin core solder containing lead, this stuff will not melt quickly by merely applying
the tip of your soldering iron to it, and you can easily ruin a
good pot by overheating the case. To avoid this, melt a small
quantity of your own rosin core solder on the existing stuff
and it will immediately soften, enabling you to get all the
wires off the pots, or remove existing caps for replacement
without burning anything up. We also use a strip of painter’s
tape to hold the large insulated wire from the input jack to the
opposite side of the control cavity we’re working on. Paying
someone to swap pots and caps seems unnecessary, but we
also understand that you don’t want to leave the wiring harness in your guitar looking as if a 6 year-old had got ahold of
it… That’s embarrassing. But if you want to fully explore the
benefits of upgrading your electronics – including pickups, we
urge you to learn how to do your own work. Yes, you can.
If you’re stumped on sourcing vintage tone caps, they can
be found at places like eBay and Angela Instruments, but
you need to become educated first… NOS vintage caps that
have been measured are your best bet, and they will cost the
most. We recommend CornellDublier ‘greenies’ over vintage
Sprague Black Beauties and
Bumble Bees, which sound
colder and edgier to us, while
the C-Ds possess a smoother,
warmer tone. For Fender style
guitars requiring a .047 mf cap,
you might experiment with the
large, tan ceramic disc caps
that were widely used in Supro
amps and some guitar brands
in the ‘60s. If you are
tempted to buy cheaper ‘pulls’ – used caps
originally installed in
an old piece of vintage
gear, do so only if the
seller states the actual,
measured value of the
cap to spec, or invest
in a capacitance meter (around $30). Buying old caps that have
drifted way out of spec is just stupid. The Luxe caps are an
excellent alternative to vintage caps. They typically produce a
rounder tone with more depth than modern polypropylene caps,
and secondarily, they are cosmetically true to the originals.
The RS Guitarworks
nickel silver pickup
covers we installed
on the Wolfetone
MarshallHead set are
excellent – visibly
thinner than typical
covers, and like Tom
Holmes’ covers, we
like the ‘aged’ look of
unplated nickel silver.
These thinner, lighter covers can make a big difference in the
sound of your humbucking pickups… Expect more presence and overall clarity. Tip: When removing old covers and
installing new ones, carefully use a sharp box cutter or other
type of thin blade with a sturdy handle to cut the existing
solder sealing the baseplate to the cover. Place the pickup on
a sturdy tabletop, and standing over it, apply pressure with
the blade, rocking it back and forth, cutting the solder rather
than trying to melt it and create a clean break between the
baseplate and cover before the solder hardens again. When
applying solder to the baseplate and new cover, simply place
a short length of solder along the seam between the baseplate
and inside edge of the cover and run the tip of your soldering
iron along the solder. Over-heating the baseplate and internal
coils is a no-no, and this method will enable you to create a
quick and neat seal in seconds.TQ
www.rsguitarworks.net, 859-737-5300
Primal Scream
There are lots of ways to create burning, singing sustain and
distortion with an electric guitar… but most of us are no
longer in the position to do so merely by setting the volume on
a big, powerful amp on ‘10.’ It really wasn’t so long ago that
50 watt Marshalls, Twins, Super Reverbs and AC30s could be
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14
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
pickups
found on club stages being righteously cranked, but even on
big stages today, bands have become more intent on achieving a degree of separation essential to producing a live sound
equal to the quality of a studio mix. The very idea of Jeff Beck
playing an isolated 15 watt amp on ‘3’ says it all…
We like to mentally categorize the different routes that can
be taken to reach a specific destination in the Quest for tone,
and in nearly every instance we begin with pickups. Yeah, the
guitar itself is important, but the pickup is the sole electronic
source from which everything in the signal chain is fed — the
primary tone source in your rig. Thinking about classic Nuge
got us thinking about classic rock tones, and when you’ve
entered that realm, ‘bashful’ just won’t cut it. The subtleties of
tone we so often discuss in these pages are replaced by a different priority — the primal scream of a well-throttled guitar
moving air by the grace of a great tube amp and speakers that
can gracefully tote the note. Happily for us and for you, we
just received pickups for review from Wolfe, founder and sole
proprietor of Wolfetone pickups in Seattle, and he sent precisely what was required for this edition of the Quest – rockers!
By our count, Wolfe
makes 19 models of
essential Strat, Tele,
Humbucking and
P90 pickup models,
and he will vary
some of the stock
winds to taste. He
is best known for
his Doctor Vintage
humbuckers (stay tuned for a future review), designed to
reproduce a baseline PAF that remains within the original spec,
rather than the stronger snarl of the higher-output PAF variants that occasionally (but not as often as most people think)
came off the line in Kalamazoo in the late ‘50s. For the most
part, vintage PAFs are fairly tame compared to most modern
replicas wound today, and they invariably sound cleaner and
clearer. There were exceptions, however, and for that sound,
you typically need Alnico V wire and a few more turns to produce the smoke. Wolfe chose to send us his ‘MarshallHead’ set
– the next step up from the Dr. Vintage replica PAFs – unpotted, wound with Alnico V and more turns on the bobbins for
hotter resistance measurements of 8.2K/neck and 9.0K/bridge.
Most of the Wolfetone humbuckers ship without covers, so this
also gave us the opportunity to install a set of RS Guitarworks
nickel silver covers in our latest tobacco burst ‘58 Les Paul,
and a pair of Luxe replica Grey Tiger .022 tone caps.
As advertised, Wolfe’s pickups hit the amp harder, pushing it
into distortion faster than a cleaner, weaker set. Their output
seems comparable to typical Gibson Burstbuckers found in
Historic Les Pauls, but that is where any similarities end. The
Wolfetone bridge
pickups displays
a much smoother,
musical brightness
without the intense,
grinding edginess
on the top that you
hear with the Burstbucker 2. The tone
is focused in the
upper midrange frequencies with plenty of presence, and excellent definition and clarity on the wound strings. This pickup
is ‘hot’ enough to produce singing sustain without necessarily
relying on a boost pedal (depending on the amp, of course) and
our results are based on tests with our ‘58 tweed Tremolux,
‘59 GA 40, Germino 55LV, ‘66 Pro Reverb, and the 2002 Pro
Junior ‘Blondie’. The MarshallHead neck pickup was also a
nice surprise… Honestly, any time we solder in an unfamiliar
neck humbucker we do so with an underlying feeling of dread.
Why? Because most of them suck! Hey, we’ve heard plenty
of original PAFs that lacked mojo in the neck position, too,
but we want to do more than just fob off mellow jazz tones in
our guitars, and for lack of a better reference point, we always
think of Dickie Betts’ stellar rhythm pickup tone on the early
Allman Brothers records. Ideally, we want to hear presence
and definition on the
treble strings in our
rhythm pickup, and
that reedy, scooped
sax quality on the
wound strings without the woofy mush,
please. Once you’ve
heard an exceptional
neck humbucker,
typical vanilla versions sound utterly useless and uninspiring.
Apparently, Wolfe knows this, too, because his neck pickup
does not wallow in such mediocrity. While not as bright as the
best low-output vintage rhythm PAFs we’ve heard, the treble
strings do possess better definition and responsive dynamic
snap than the average replica PAF set, and played alone or
combined with the bridge pickup, you’ve got some very useful
tones available to contrast with the bridge alone. For those
about to rock in the hotter PAF zone… the Wolfetone MarshallHead set is highly recommended at $260.00.
A Meaner P90
Wolfe also sent a single P90 at our request, destined for the
luscious 2006 Historic Les Paul Junior. You’ll recall that this
was the last new Gibson to be sold at Midtown Music, where
it had languished in the case in storage for nearly three years
as other Historic stock was rotated. In other words, it got
lost in the day-to-day shuffle. When we spied it on the wall
in the nearly empty store that had been such a deep resource
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
15
pickups
for over ten years, the Junior
proudly revealed itself to be a
mystical mahogany gong that
had also developed a huge
swoop in the neck after sitting
in the case so long under full
string tension. Dave Tiller
knocked another $250 off the
clearance price, and we have
described how we gradually brought the neck back
straight over several months
of truss rod tweaking, initially
removing and lubing the truss
rod nut, and repeatedly making adjustments under zero string tension with back pressure
exerted on the neck. We have alternately installed Lollar and
Lindy Fralin P90s in the Junior, as well as the original Gibson,
and two different vintage Gibson P90s from the ‘50s and ‘60s.
A word about vintage P90s – they are by no means all stunners, sometimes sounding super-bright, clean and weak, with
none of the growl so many players expect, and the chances are
good that if you plan to play them through a cranked amp, or
God forbid – a boost pedal, they will scream bloody murder
with shrieking, squealing feedback. As Jim Rolph said about
vintage P90s, “If they don’t squeal, they ain’t real.”
Speaking of Rolph, we had installed both of our vintage
Gibson P90s before with disappointing results. They sounded
shrill, thin and weak, squealing at the least bit of prodding to
perform as they were intended. Did the ‘P’ stand for ‘pig’?
After sitting in a drawer for months, we sent them to Rolph
with a request to verify their origins, since the leads on the
‘60s model hinted at a possible rewound coil. Jim confirmed
our presumed timeline for each, agreed that the ‘60s P90
might have been re-wound, and we got them back a week
later. It wasn’t until we began the process of reviewing and
comparing Wolfe’s P90 that we broke out the vintage ‘50s
pickup again, more or less just to re-confirm our initial perception of how lackluster it had been.
Imagine our
shock when we
soldered in the
‘50s P90 and
WHAM – the
Junior spewed a
mighty gusher
of gorgeously
rude P90 gold
through the
Tremolux with
the first chord. Forty minutes later we came to our senses, put
the Junior down and called Rolph… “Jim, I just installed that
‘50s P90 I sent to you in a Les Paul Junior… Did you like the
way it sounds? It sounds unbelievable – huge and powerful
with tremendous low end, fat mids and sweet, biting treble
tones. What did you do? Well, those old magnets were just
about gone – they only measured 6-7 gauss on my meter so
I charged them back up to where they should be – 20 gauss,
and I have a little trick I do to keep them from squealing…
Out of respect, we didn’t ask what that trick might be, but we
thanked Jim profusely for resurrecting those tired pickups, and
he explained, “The magnets in P90s are sitting right next to
one another, and they weaken over time because of that. The
design makes them doomed to weaken. That doesn’t happen in
a humbucking pickup because there is only one magnet.”
P90s are one
of our alltime favorites,
and the sound
of a great
one played
through a vintage Fender
amplifier is
mesmerizing, so we felt a special twinge of anticipation when we read
Wolfe’s comments about P90s on his web site: “I’ve always
felt that a good P-90 should be mean, raunchy, and nasty, but
still able to clean up and become sweet when needed. P90s
have always been my favorite pickups to make as well as play,
as they seem to offer the best of both worlds.”
Indeed, they do. Wolfe’s P90s come in three flavors – ‘Mean,’
‘Meaner,’ and ‘Meanest’ with gradually increased output, midrange and growl. We received the ‘Meaner’ variant measuring
9K, and constructed with Alnico II magnets. As Wolfe put it,
“Well suited for the bridge position, it’s meaner and raunchier
than the ‘mean’ P90 with a thicker midrange and more low
end grunt.”
Do you know how a truly exceptional vintage P90 sounds?
If you do, let’s compare notes, and if you don’t, you will
now… In preparation for this review, we installed a new set
of Pyramid .010-.048s on the Junior and ran through all the
P90s we have on hand – the original Gibson, a Fralin, Lollar,
our ‘50s P90
gifted by
Riverhorse
for another
birthday we
won’t count,
and Wolfe’s
Meanie.
Sounds like a
fun after-continued-
16
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
guitars
noon, dun’t it? Wait a minute… Remember the smartest guy
in the room from last month? He’s baaaack. “So you listened
to five different pickups in the same guitar, taking what –
twenty minutes to swap the pickup out each time? That’s
not right. How can you remember what they each sound like
compared to the others?” Of course we can – it’s just hard
to imagine for people that have never done it. And when in
doubt, we’ll always reload to verify our initial impressions.
One of the singular characteristics of a great vintage P90 is
the massive low end that gushes from E and A strings. Playing an aggressive, hard-charging rhythm, you may actually
have to lay off the wound strings a bit, and especially the big
E to avoid overwhelming the treble strings on full, 6-string
chords. For rock & roll, the vintage P90 is a beastly pickup
with a huge low and midrange voice that is audibly rolled
off on the very top. However, when you move into solos, the
treble strings sing with a sweet, overdriven tone like no other
pickup on earth. You simply need to learn to work with it,
rather than indiscriminately bashing on the strings. At lower
volume levels, the superior vintage P90 becomes jangly and
clear as only a single coil can, with beautiful harmonic textures and chime, yet it remains direct and focused, responding to pick attack with a percussive clarity and power that
you’ll otherwise only find in a great Tele bridge – but still,
the P90 is fatter. Work with it, and you’ll be amazed by what
a great P90 can deliver.
Unfortunately, for those
who have not
experienced
the sound
of a stellar vintage P90 in hand, all of this might seem as useful as
stepping outside, looking up and wishing on a star… unless
you were to order a Wolfetone. Assuming that Wolfe has
his act together to the extent that he can produce a consistent and repeatable outcome, you can expect to hear all the
qualities we’ve just described in Wolfe’s P90 with just a bit
more sparkle, presence and snap than a typical 50 year-old
P90. Indeed, if we were tasked with cutting the ultimate rock
guitar track endowed with an unforgettable tone that would
stop conversation among guitarists cold, we’d ram the Junior
through our ‘58 Tremolux goosed with the Bob Burt Clean
Boost and call it a day, confident in the knowledge that for
this style of music, we had arrived at the end of the road
in the Quest for tone. We were in fact so impressed with
Wolfe’s P90 that we switched it back and forth with our ‘50s
Gibson again the following day to insure that we can say
without qualification… Quest forth.TQ
www.wolfetone.com, 206-417-3548
Eastman
T185 MX Ltd.
If you think you may be above owning and playing an instrument crafted in Beijing, think again. Of course we appreciate the lusty and seductive curves of instruments built in
Fullerton and Kalamazoo, but in many important repects,
Eastman Guitars seems to have nimbly caught up with
American manufacturing in 2010, offering extraordinary
value with features that are rarely seen in more affordable
instruments built overseas. You can read the entire story on
the Eastman web site, but the short version is that founder
Qian Ni established a master violin workshop in China after
traveling to the USA to study music in 1992. His vision of
training skilled woodworkers to handcraft professionalquality, classic instruments has since grown to include an
impressive variety of archtop and acoustic dreadnought guitars, mandolins and mandolas. We happened to meet Mark
Herring, Eastman Product Specialist for fretted instruments
in California and a ToneQuest subscriber, through an e-mail
exchange earlier this year, and we asked him to provide some
background on the company. Our review of the Eastman T185
MX model follows Mark’s comments…
TQR:
Can you elaborate on the company’s philosophy
in building stringed instruments and just how ‘old
world’ your building practices are today as they
apply to guitars?
Our slogan is Modern Instruments – Old
Fashioned Quality, and I think that is a
great description of what we are trying
to do. Our philosophy has always been
to look at the best instruments made and
use those as a goal for what we are trying
to achieve. We are from China, however, unlike many of the stereotypes that
people have when they hear about Chinese
manufacturing, our philosophy has always
been to use the strengths of China
(for us it is our team of skilled
luthiers) to allow us to take the
time necessary to build instruments
of very high quality. When we
can use technology to improve
the quality of our instruments
we do, however, we try not to
have to compromise in order
to get an instrument finished in a
set amount of time in order to meet a
price point. This is an advantage that we have.
We look at the pre-war Martins that are coveted today and
-continued-
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
17
guitars
maple – some back and sides are just that
figured. I was just working with jazz icon
John Pisano the other day about building a
mahogany/rosewood board version of his
signature model (Pisano is the only signature
model Eastman we have in regular production
– we do a mahogany version of his model
already but with an ebony board). He just
went on and on about the “soulfulness” of
mahogany, and I absolutely agree.
ask ourselves what is it about those guitars that makes them
so special, and then we try to build instruments that we feel
aim toward that quality of a guitar. Qian and his father started
our workshop and it is still run as a family business. We stand
behind each of our instruments for its lifetime, and I think
that says a lot about what we do. The hand-built philosophy
extends beyond the Chinese factory as well. For example, due
to the hand-carved nature of our arch-tops and mandolins, the
top radii vary from one instrument to another, therefore the
bridge assemblies are hand-fit to each unique top here in our
California workshop where the final quality control and set-up
takes place.
TQR:
What other specific construction features and methods should we be aware of and appreciate (neck
joint, truss rod, bracing patterns and thickness,
binding, fretwork, etc.)
This is a great question. Due to our background we excel at
traditional dove tail neckjoints. Our truss rods are dual action
and our bracing is not routed out on a CNC machine. The
bracing for every top is custom cut for that particular piece
of wood. Furthermore, we acknowledge that we are still
relatively new at this game in the grand scheme of things. We
pride ourselves in actively listening to the feedback from our
dealers and players in order to constantly improve our products. We have incredible respect for the independent music
store owners and musicians that “get it” and choose to buy our
instruments. We have made and continue to make adjustments
in areas such as bracing thickness (or thinness), bracing patterns and neck angles based on their input.
TQR:
TQR: What type of finishing materials are used?
In regard to materials (wood), describe the selection
criteria for the wood used in your guitars – bodies,
necks, internal bracing, fingerboards, etc.
We have been building violins for quite some
time, and when people come to visit our workshop they are stunned at the sheer volume of
tonewood that we have on hand at any one time.
Over the years we have been very fortunate to
form relationships with some great wood suppliers in the U.S., China, Europe, and Canada. With
the amount of wood that we purchase, we are able
to get a great selection to work with. There
has been a huge buzz in the blogosphere
lately about the quality of mahogany
that we have been sourcing. Not only
is it incredibly toneful, but it is some
of the most visually striking mahogany
many have ever seen. At first glance,
some have mistaken it for stained
Nitrocellulose lacquer, and we have
recently introduced our “entry
level” 100 & 200 series flat-tops
that have polyurethane/matte
finishes. We also offer oil varnish
finishes on our top line mandolins.
TQR: And for the electric models, what type of pickups
do you use?
Kent Armstrong for our archtop guitars and Fishman for our
acoustics.
TQR:
Are your guitars completely built by individuals at
their bench, or are they passed along during different phases of the building process to workers with
specialized skills?
Each worker
specializes
in a specific
aspect of the
instrument.
Many of our
luthiers are
cross-trained,
but they
focus on one
aspect at a
time. We use routers for the pieces where consistency is crucial
(neck joints, binding, etc .) Everything else is done by hand.
We believe that each piece of wood is different and the results
achieved by treating it that way can be heard in the tone of our
instruments. Technology is great, and we try to use it wherever
we believe it will improve the quality and consistency of our
instruments, but we are fortunate that we are able to put the
necessary time into doing some of the things that we believe
make an instrument sound and play great. Custom cutting each
piece of bracewood to fit the top, hand carving the tops for our
-continued-
18
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
guitars
archtop guitars
and mandolins…we truly
believe this is
what makes
an Eastman
special. We
believe that
we are making
instruments
in the spirit of the Golden Age of American guitar making and
Lloyd Loar, Orville Gibson and Christian Martin. With the exception of the wonderful, small one-off boutique builders working in the US today, this is simply not being done in America.
The traditional methods used in our orchestral string factory in
China make us perfectly suited to carry on this legacy.
TQR:
What are your largest selling models?
Our AR805CE and AR810CE
15" and 16” archtop guitars, and
the MD515 F-style mandolin.
Our new Traditional Series of
acoustics have also been selling like crazy. We can’t build
enough. The AR805CE is a 16"
lower bout and the 810 is a 17".
The traditional series is truly an
amazing value. I will proudly put
our E10D that streets for $800
(Adi topped/solid mahogany
back and sides with a nitro finish,
diamond volute and open geared
“Waverly” styled tuners) up
against a D18 confident that it can hold its own. We are also
seeing an up-tick in sales in our double cut thinline series –
especially the T184 and T185. Slightly smaller than a 335, the
carved solid top (as opposed to the 335’s pressed laminate) is
very appealing to our breed of tone freaks. It’s also much less
expensive than a Gibson. We are really going to focus on making our acoustic line one of the best in the world, and we are
working on a new addition to our Dawg collection of mandolins with David Grisman. The DGM3 mandola will also be
coming out soon, and look for a 12 fret slotted headstock OOO
by the fall. The DGM3 is based on a Lyon & Healy scroll
headstock mandola and is absolutely beautiful. We’ve also
decided to only use flamed maple binding on all of our double
cut thinlines from this point forward just because it looks so
cool and prevents any chance of shrinkage down the road.
Review
We received Eastman’s version of a double cutaway, semihollowbody thinline, model T185 MX with humbuckers for
evaluation, finished in transparent cherry. Now consider this…
the Eastman version of Gibson’s
classic ES-335 features a solid
mahogany carved back and sides,
a solid flamed maple carved
top, figured maple binding,
ebony fingerboard and headstock
veneer, 3-piece mahogany neck,
a solid maple tone block beneath
the bridge and tailpiece, Gotoh
hardware, a side-mounted input
jack (Gibson should have done
that from day one) a beautiful
nitro finish, and Kent Armstrong
pickups, case included for a street
price of $1596.00.
We love this guitar – the player-friendly 25” scale, outstanding build quality, the weight and feel (6.3 pounds),
and especially the tone, which captures both the depth and
airy character of a hollow body, and the robust sustain of a
solidbody. Unlike a typical semi-hollow design, the pickups
are mounted directly to the carved maple top with a lower
maple block joining the body and top beneath the bridge
and tailpiece. Granted, the Kent Armstrong licensed pickups
are a budget set, but we’ll still give them an enthusiastic
B- for being far better sounding than many of the pickups
you’ll find in guitars made overseas – powerful and very
well balanced in both positions with a strong upper midrange presence. The pots also
display an even taper, turning
smoothly with a feather-light
touch. The slim-taper, early
‘60s style neck shape and
smaller-than-jumbo nickel
silver frets won’t appeal to everyone, but the fret work and
attention to detail are excellent, with a well-cut nut and
smooth Gotoh tuners. Even the
headstock design seems right,
when so many others just
seem wrong… The Eastman
simply impressed us as having
been built and designed by people who truly understand
and appreciate the craft of musical instrument building.
Managing costs in the area of electronics – pickups, pots,
switches and jacks comes with the territory, but the Eastman T185 succeeds in re-defining what we can expect from
an ‘affordable’ guitar in the future. If you are contemplating
the acquisition of a new instrument — electric, acoustic,
archtop, mandolin or mandola, we urge you to check out the
Eastman web site.TQ
www.eastmanguitars.com, 800-624-0270
TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
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, 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 col8.5ors, 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 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.
Analog Man, Bethel, CT
www.analogman.com 203–778–6658
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 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.
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
Resource Directory
Celestion International Ltd
www.celestion.com
For OEM Enquiries, contact Andy Farrow at
Celestion America, 732-683-2356
Retail & 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, ColliRDngs 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, stateof-the-art facility, and Bill Collings remains
hands-on, 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 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
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21
Resource Directory
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.
string amplification solutions.
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!
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 triamped 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.
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
BP-100(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
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.
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
KT-66 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
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
GZ-34 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.
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.
Monterey 100 – Based on the original ‘Super
GHS String Corporation
Battle Creek, MI
www.ghsstrings.com
1–800–388–4447
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
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/
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.TwoRock 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 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 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
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Resource Directory
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 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.
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.
Tonal Guarantee. Made entirely in the U.S.A.
Mercury Magnetics
www.MercuryMagnetics.com
[email protected]
818-998-7791 404–325–0515
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 best-sounding 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
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 Olympia, 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
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
Resource Directory
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 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
(415) 621–3904, [email protected]
FretTek, Los Angeles/CA
(310) 474–2238, [email protected]
Philtone, Baltimore/MD
(410) 783–0260, [email protected]
Peekamoose Guitars, New York, NY
(212) 869-2396, www.peekamoose.com
Suhr Guitars, Lake Elsinore/CA
(951) 471–2334, [email protected]
Charlie Chandler’s Guitar Experience
London, UK +44 20 8973–1441
[email protected]
GuitarLabs Scandinavia, Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 644–9480, [email protected]
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
one-stop source for expert finishing, refinishing
and aging, complete guitar assembly and repair,
custom electronic upgrade kits, pickups, hardto-find hardware, and more!
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.
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.
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!
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 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.
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
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
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25
Resource Directory
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 handbuilt 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, SingleEnded 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
re-stringing. 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
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
Resource Directory
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 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 to announce
the release of the brand-new GarageTone series
of effects pedals.
No longer does a musician on a budget have to
sacrifice tone and reliability. The GarageTone
series of pedals have been designed to have
boutique quality sounds and superior construction at amazingly low prices. Each circuit was
designed by Weil and chief engineer R.G. Keen
with all the time and care that players have
come to expect from Visual Sound. The pedals
include: the Oil Can (Phaser), the Drivetrain
(Overdrive), the GarageTone Tremolo, the Axle
Grease (Delay) and the Chainsaw (Distortion).
We’re also happy to say that we’ve just gotten
rave reviews from Guitar Player and Vintage
Guitar magazines
The GarageTone series joins the already
critically-acclaimed V2 Series of pedals: Jekyll
& Hyde, Route 66, H2O, Double Trouble, Son
of Hyde, Comp66, Liquid Chorus, Route 808,
Angry Fuzz, as well as the 10th Anniversary
edition of the Visual Volume pedal.
Sound web site, Facebook page, MySpace site,
or contact Bob Weil personally. Oh, and you’ll
find us on Twitter now, as well.
Visual Sound
www.visualsound.net
www.myspace.com/visualsoundusa
931-487-9001
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 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 Americanassembled 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.
wdmusic.com and enter coupon code TQWD
at checkout. Pleazse note: Coupon good for
wdmusic.com web orders only, offer not valid
on wdbiz.com orders.
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.
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 instrument 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.
For information on the entire range of WGS
guitar and bass speakers, please visit our web
site today.
877-WDMUSIC
www.WDmusic.com
Warehouse Guitar Speakers
www.WarehouseSpeakers.com
270-217-0740
Also, the Van’s Warped Distortion pedal has
been on tour with this summer’s Van’s Warped
Tour for the second year in a row!
For more information about Visual Sound,
sound samples, videos, artist endorsers and
product information, please visit the Visual
WD Music Products: As a special offer WD®
Music Products, Inc. is offering a 10% off coupon to Tonequest readers… Visit us at www.
-continuedTONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010
27
ToneQuest
Report
the
PO Box 717 Decatur, GA. 30031-0717
PERIODICAL POSTAGE
PAID AT
DECATUR,GA
AND ADDITIONAL
MAILING OFFICES
TM
ToneQuest
the
ToneQuest
Report
TM
Editor/Publisher David Wilson
Associate Publisher Liz Medley
Graphic Design Rick Johnson
EDITORIAL BOARD
Analogman
Peter Frampton
Albert Lee
Tom Anderson
Greg Germino
Germino Amplification
Adrian Legg
Tom Anderson GuitarWorks
Mark Baier
Billy F. Gibbons
Victoria Amplifiers
ZZ Top
Jeff Bakos
Joe Glaser
Bakos AmpWorks
Glaser Instruments
Dick Boak
Tom Guerra
CF Martin & Co.
Mambo Sons
Joe Bonamassa
John Harrison
Phil Brown
Pyramid Strings
Now in Stock
New Pyramids are in! Pure Nickel
Maximum Performance Pure Nickel
(original hex core) sets, .010-.046
Light and .010-.048 Light/Medium
roundwounds are in stock now, plus
Pure Nickel Roundcore Classics,
.010-.046 Light and .010-.048 Light/
Medium. To order, CALL 1-877MAX-TONE or visit www.tonequest.
com Free Pyramid/ToneQuest pearloid
hard picks included with each order!
Dan Butler
Butler Custom Sound
Don Butler
The Toneman
Steve Carr
Carr Amplifiers
A Brown Soun
Johnny Hiland
Gregg Hopkins
Vintage Amp Restoration
Mark Johnson
Delta Moon
Phil Jones
Dave Malone
The Radiators
Jimbo Mathus
Shane Nicholas
Sr. Mktg Mgr, Fender Guitar Amplifers
René Martinez
The Guitar Whiz
Greg Martin
The Kentucky Headhunters
Richard McDonald
VP Mktg, Fender Musical Instruments
Justin Norvell
Sr. Mktg Mgr, Fender Guitars
James Pennebaker
Gruhn Guitars
Riverhorse
KORG/Marshall/VOX USA
K&M Analog Designs
Tommy Shannon
Larry Cragg
Mark Karan
Neil Young
Bob Weir & Ratdog
Jol Dantzig
Robert Keeley
Hamer Guitars
Robert Keeley Electronics
Ronnie Earl
Gordon Kennedy
Dan Erlewine
Ernest King
Stewart-MacDonald
Gibson Custom Shop
Larry Fishman
Chris Kinman
Fishman Transducers
Kinman AVn Pickups
Bill Finnegan
Mike Kropotkin
Klon Centaur
KCA NOS Tubes
Lindy Fralin
Sonny Landreth
Mitch Colby
Double Trouble
Todd Sharp
Nashville Amp Service
Tim Shaw
Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
John Sprung
American Guitar Center
Peter Stroud
Buddy Whittington
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
Greg V
Nashville
Lou Vito
Artist Relations, PRS Guitars
The ToneQuest ReportTM (ISSN 1525-3392) is published monthly by Mountainview Publishing LLC, 235 Mountainview Street, Suite 23, Decatur, GA. 300302027, 1-877-MAX-TONE, email: [email protected]. Periodicals Postage Paid at Decatur, GA and At Additional Mailing Offices. Postmaster: Send address
changes to:The ToneQuest Report, PO Box 717, Decatur, GA. 30031-0717.The annual subscription fee for The ToneQuest ReportTM is $89 per year for 12
monthly issues. International subscribers please add US $40. Please remit payment in U.S. funds only. VISA, MasterCard and American Express accepted. The
ToneQuest ReportTM is published solely for the benefit of its subscribers. Copyright © 2010 by Mountainview Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. No part
of this newsletter may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Please forward all subscription requests, comments, questions and other inquiries to the above address or contact the publisher at [email protected].
Opinions expressed in The ToneQuest Report are not necessarily those of this publication.Mention of specific products, services or technical advice does not
constitute an endorsement. Readers are advised to exercise extreme caution in handling electronic devices and musical instruments.
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TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010