rockabilly69

Thanks DB, I am pretty lucky to know Lynn Wheelwright. When he needs someone one to demo his stuff, he usually calls me, or the other guitar player in our band Vorraro, Ryan Hawthorn. We have goten to play some seriously cool guitars and amps, stuff people dream about, and more than once, Lynn has allowed me to keep guitars/amps overnnight so I can really learn about them. Lynn is a a walking encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to vintage electric guitar stuff, but when it comes to actually using the gear and making music with it, he loves to get feedback from Ryan and I. Check out Lynn's work on this book... https://pinecasterbook.com/the-authors/

I thought this might be a fun thing to talk about. Last night I spent at least 8 hours playing through a really cool historic amp, a 1941 Fender amp, which you could read about here in these two articles... https://reverb.com/news/the-vibro-set-where-fender-really-started https://www.fretboardjournal.com/video/hear-one-of-leo-fenders-first-musical-instruments/ (that's actually me playing the Strat and the ES125 in some of the videos posted) Last night I was recording the tones of the amp with some different guitars than the ones we used last time. All of them belonging to me, except for one (see below). And the owner of the amp, famous guitar historian Lynn Wheelwright, had me test it out with a new speaker that was custom made for the amp by the Jupiter Speaker company. Lynn built an external speaker cabinet for it, which was probably a good idea, because I was playing with the amp at almost wide open volume at times. The amp itself had just gone through a tune-up, so we were checking it out how to see how it was performing. The amp was plugged into a brown box voltage regulator. The amp performed great, and even after 8 hours of being on, there was no sag in tone that I could hear. And it was really a quiet amp compared to many of the vintage amps I've played through (most every model 50's tweed, and 60's blackface amps). Here's a picture of the Vibro amp (only one volume control which works on the mic channel only, no volume for the normal channel) with the external cabinet miked up as it was set up in my studio (brown box to the right)... I had some rhythm tracks recorded before Lynn got there, so I just played the lead fills on each guitar, so we could compare the sounds of each if them through the amp. I played my Strat, my Tele, and my Gretsch G6120T 55VS (DeArmonds) through it. I chose the Strat and Tele guitars because they are partscasters that I built, and both are better than my Fender Custom Shop guitars. They are three of my favorite instruments, which I have played through some great vintage amps, and Lynn really wanted to know how I felt this original '41 amp compared to these amps. We had already tested the amp with vintage guitars a while back (55 Strat, 56 LP Special, and an early sixties ES125). Lynn may have some reproductions of this amp made in the future, so we were doing some research to see how well the amp played with some modern guitars, and how it compared to modern boutique amps. I say if they got the reproduction right, this would be a cool amp to own because it has some really cool tones. Especially for someone like me, that really likes slightly dirty vintage guitar tones. It gets great clean tones with lots of harmonic content, and some pretty great dirt when cranked, but I really loved it with just a bit of hair on it. It just has a unique voice. I ran the amp through it's paces playing from whisper quiet, to rattle the external cabinet loud. And like most amps, it had it's sweet spot were it revealed the qualities of each guitar. There really wasn't a guitar that it didn't like! The only thing we hadn't tested it with was a humbucker guitar. Well Lynn just got a new Nacho Les Paul, and I told him it would be cool to test the humbucker sound with it. He was thinking the same thing, so he went home got his Nacho, and brought it back to my studio. Here it is... And we plugged it in and it sounded great. It sounded very vintage. The body was very resonant, and the pickups had the microphonics that people associate with a good PAF. The action was a little high, but low enough for me to get the job done. I got the takes with the Nacho on the first pass. I really wanted to hear more of the Nacho, but it was getting late, so I asked Lynn if he would leave it and the amp with me, so I could see I could find some really good tones. Only thing, when I was testing out the other guitars, I was going for some fast picking on the Gretsch, which had on some heavier .012 flatwounds, and I developed a blood blister on my fingerpicking hand (I rarely use a pick). So I was mainly looking to play less aggressive with the guitar while testing for tones. I thought it would be cool to find some tones that would be unique to that guitar and amp combo. While I was twiddling the volume knob on the amp, I heard this really cool acoustic like tone out of the middle position of the Nacho, very Stones like, so I wrote a little slide guitar song around it. There are three tracks, the first rhythm on the middle position, slide guitar with the bridge pickup, and a little solo with the bridge pickup for the third track. BTW I was plugged straight into the amp, no pedals here As a matter of fact if you listen closely, you can hear those Nacho pickups getting some cool compression and double tones. And the amp was just turned up enough to get a litte hair. This is what I came up with...

this the Sebatron...

Thanks I got a new preamp in the house, a Sebatron VMP2000VU, I use the 4 channel version of this in my studio, although my studio one doesn't have the VU meters. I don't think there's better multi-use tube preamp for home and project studio use. I love it on everything. All the drums you heard from my studio were through the Sebatron. And it sounds great on bass and guitars too. I recorded a cleaner and slightly longer version of this song with my Jaguar through the same mics and pre...

Congrats, and as Rich said glad it turned out great for you!

well that's a great idea!

I almost sold mine, but it was too good sounding after I put the Wolfetone pickups in it (Dr Vintage neck, Marshallhead bridge), and when I changed out the switch, I put new CTS 500K pots in , Sozo .022 cap, all new cloth pushback wire, and a switchcraft jack, so it's good to go!

Frankly, it kept me from playing that guitar!

Thanks Rich, I had a big condensor mic on in the room and when I was tapping my foot I noticed it picked up a pretty good thump from the carpeted floor And... I always tap my foot when I play Blackbird!!! BTW I posted the wrong pickup combinations, this is the right combos... Left Side position 1: neck position 2: neck and bridge In Parallel / In Phase position 3: bridge Right Side position 1: neck and bridge In Series / In Phase position 2: neck and bridge In Series / Out Of Phase position 3: neck and bridge In Parallel / Out Of Phase

A few days ago I replaced the single coil Nocaster Cavalier Holy Grail pickup in the partscaster Esquire that I built with a Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons BG-1400. I love having a great sounding single coil sized humbucker in it, especially because it's humbucker quiet! The Nocaster Holy Grail was great sounding too, but I hated dealing with the single coil noise when recording by my computer monitor. And just last night I replaced the 5-way switch in my PRS Custom 22. I never liked that switch, as I never knew what position I was in. And grasping the 5-way switch with sweating hands while under the stage lights was a pain! Fortunately there's a company "Free-Way" that makes a great 6-way toggle switch that is fairly straight forward to install. I used model Number 3X3-08 Here's the guitar with the Free-Way switch installed... The switch has 2 banks of pickup selections. There's a left and right side of three postions each... Left Side position 1: neck pickup (coils in parallel) position 2: neck and bridge in phase (coils in parallel) position 3: bridge pickup (coils in parallel) Right Side position 1: neck and bridge (in series) position 2: neck and middle (in series) Out Of Phase position 3: neck and middle (in parallel) Out Of Phase So here's a demo of the Esquire as the rhythm guitar, and my PRS with me switching through the switch positions starting with position 1. I'm also playing bass, snapping my fingers, and I mic'd the floor so you can hear me tapping to the beat:)

congrats, nice looking combo and great sounding amp!

I just blew it up in Photoshop and that definitely looks like a crack. I would like to look it over very quickly and I would ask how that happened.

There are so many good companies that make pedal boards, power supplies, gig bags or hard cases for them etc. It's hard to give advice when we don't know what's floatin' up in your noggin. When I start building a new pedalboard, I think of the job that it is going to do, and then I build to that. I needed a very simple board as a backup for my main acoustic board just in case it goes down, and knowing I was going to use 4 pedals, it wouldn't need to be very big. So I figured I could make one from parts I got at the local home depot. I used some black paint, simple shelving, aluminum from the metal stock, and screws and handles from the fastener section. The only thing that didn't come from home depot was the rubber feet which I already had here. I power it with a one spot to the tuner. And the tuner powers everything wlse from it's convenience 500mv 9 volt DC outlet. It has all the pedals I need for my acoustic guitars that are equipped with magnetic pickups: volume, tuner, EQ, reverb and delay. The beauty of building your own board is that you can make it the exact size you need it. After I built mine, I did a google search and found a company that had a gig back that would fit it.

The Marv Wineburst that Kuz was kind enough to send on to me... And for you blasphemers, here it is with a proper pickguard...

Mark, right there, is why I went solo! I have a band band, and a duet, but I make most of my money as a solo! Good luck with your new drummer, and sorry to hear of your friend's passing.

...good to see things are rolling along. "New Dave" seems like a good fit!

I like 10's on my electrics (except my two banjocasters which use 9's) , 12's on acoustics, 12 or 13's on resos (if it will work without the cone rattling I use 12's). I play so much that anything heavier hurts my hands.

Mark, take this for what it's worth. Most musicians/bands that I go to see are playing too loud on stage, ESPECIALLY rock musicians. Learning to play to the limits of your PA is just as important as getting the songs down. And on top of that, learning how to not kill the audience with excessive volume is just as important. It's the mark of a true amateur when they are turning up their PA, to get over the already TOO LOUD guitar amps. You're on the right track rehearsing with your PA the way you intent to play. Maybe you can stage some practice performances for honest friends who can give you some feedback on the volume levels. I do think it would be a good idea to budget for some powered monitor speakers that you can add to you 600 watt PA. But you have to be very conscious of loud monitoring as the reflected sounds of monitors can wreak havoc on the overal sound! Good luck on the quest.

You've got the band rolling, you know what needs work, in the words of the Beatles, "it's getting better all the time". Keep at it Mark!

If Ed Bickert can do it on one of these I think a H525 should work just fine... http://youtu.be/wQ0FdyxuG4U