PremierguitarGH DL

greatest hits highlights
the very best of premier guitar vol. 1
5 tele-style buildeRs
yOu shOuld knOw
aRtist
inteRviews
Joe Bonamassa
Alex Lifeson
PG On the ROad
taylOR made
An exclusive tour of the
Taylor Guitars factory.
washbuRns GuaRdian anGel
The man who owns 500+ Washburns explains himself
Gear galore from the LA Amp

Show and Experience PRS 2009
the RetuRn Of the

hOt ROd GuitaR
REVIEWS:
PGs hOttest videOs
Check out some of PGs most popular videos.
Charvel Warren DeMartini - San Dimas Epiphone

Valve Junior 2008 Gibson Les Paul Standard EVH
Wolfgang Furman P-1800 TC Electronic ND-1
Eventide Time Factor EH Stereo Memory Man Fender Custom 57 Twin Amp Fractal
Audio Axe-FX Egnater Rebel 20 Collings 360 Godin Fifth Avenue Kingpin Catalinbread
Stompboxes Zoom H2 & H4
GREATEST HITS
PREMIERGUITAR.COM
the relentless pursuit of tone
GREATEST
HITS
the very best of premier guitar

VOLUME 1
PREMIER GUITAR
GREATEST HITS VOL. 1
w w w. p re m i e rg u i t a r. c o m
PREMIER GUITAR GREATEST HITS VOL. 1
PREMIER GUITAR
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EDITORIAL
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6 PREMIER GUITAR JANUARY 2010
PREMIER GUITAR
PORTRAITS
in TONE
GEDDY LEE AND THE SANSAMP RPM RACKMOUNT.
Geddy Lee chooses the SANSAMP RPM Rackmount to

get the tones he needs. How does Geddy feel about the
SANSAMP RPM? Heres the story in his own words from
the email he sent to us.
13 Aug 11:25:19
Ive been very happy with the SansAmp RPM. It gives me the
drive and controlled distortion I need for my sound, with extra
clarity and extra low end response if I need it.
Best wishes,
Geddy
The SANSAMP RPM is a versatile instrument pre-amp with

parametric equalization. It is a supercharged tone shaper
for any signal source. Partner it with a SansAmp RBI for
the ultimate bass pre-amp system, or with a SansAmp PSA
for total domination. For more details, visit us at:
www.tech21nyc.com.
RUSH - Snakes & Arrows

www.rush.com
SM
DONT FOLLOW TRENDS. TRUST YOUR OWN EARS.
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p r e m i e r g NEW
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Designed and manufactured in the U.S.A.
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PREMIER GUITAR GREATEST HITS VOL.
TUNING UP
Greatest Hits
Welcome to the first Greatest Hits edition of
Premier Guitar. By most standards, our relatively
young operation shouldnt be ready to roll out a
Greatest Hits edition yet. But then again, were
not your typical magazine. In fact, we rarely
refer to Premier Guitar as a magazine.
Premier Guitar is what has been described as
the media company of the future. Sure, we have
a magazine, but thats only one part of what
we do. Rather than put all of our focus on a
monthly print product while doling out limited
online content, we put the entire print magazine
online in both the familiar web format (html) and
a digital edition that looks just like youre reading a print magazine online. Its all free, too. We
dont make you buy an online subscription and
we dont make you log on to get to the good
stuff. We also put a ton of stuff onlinevideos,
reviews, articles, builder profiles, photo galleries,
sound clips, etc.that you wont see/hear anywhere else, not even in the magazine. It is the
best of all of this content that you have before
you in this Greatest Hits edition. Think of it as a
snapshot of what we do.
The other magazines youre familiar with put a
lot of effort into trying to figure out what they
should be writing about. We, on the other
hand, take many of our cues from you. Because
our entire magazine is online like the rest of
our content, we can see which articles are hot,
which new products are getting forwarded to
friends, which mods are printed more often,
etc. We take this data and use it to shape what
PREMIER GUITAR
should be covered in future issues. Rather than

think we know it all, we track trends and bring
you more of what we know youre digging. Dig?
This first Greatest Hits issue is no different. We
rounded up the articles, videos, reviews, etc.
that you guys have spent the most time with.
Considering how much stuff we crank out every
month, we know that its easy to miss something. Heres your chance to make sure that the
best of the best wont get by you.
In a nutshell, were a media company for gear

nuts, a very different media company, and we
dont mind putting you in charge. You help us
decide what to write about and you decide how
you want to devour what were putting out.
Like you, we understand the never-ending need
for more opportunities and ways to read about
gear, the people who make it and the artists
who do amazing things with it.
One way to make sure that youre getting

it all is to sign up for our email newsletters.
Backstage Pass is an ad-free, weekly, mini-magazine thatll hit your inbox once a week after
you sign up for it. Once a month it features the
goodies in our magazine, and then it highlights
new web exclusives during the other weeks.
Also, soon well be offering an additional email
newsletter thatll hook you up with exclusive
giveaways and gear info from your favorite
manufacturers.
Cheers,
Another thing that makes us different is our

editorial approach. Those of you who have
been reading us long enough know that were
constantly reviewing products from new manufacturers. We love the classic brands but were
all about the up-and-coming boutique builders,
too. We also have the industrys top innovators
writing for us, but have made arrangements
for them to do so while momentarily stepping
aside from their brand-specific duties. What
they contribute to the collective tapestry of gear
knowledge is immeasurable.
Joe Coffey
Editorial Director
GREATE
ST HITS
the relen
tless pu
rsuit of
tone
PREMIER
GUITAR.C
GR
EAT
EST
the ve
ry best
of prem
VOLU
ME 1
HIT
ier gu
itar
OM
Our fantastic selection of PRS guitars has now expanded to

include limited-runs, Private-Stock, PRS acoustics and even an
original Modern Eagle prototype! To top it off, we just visited
Pauls shop and hand-picked 31 knock-out guitars! We have
always been impressed with Paul Reed Smiths superb quality

and are excited to be an ever-growing PRS dealer! Please call
or visit our website for more details!
877.737.3781
musiciansfriend.com/prs
800.343.9795
guitarsale.com
10
PREMIER GUITAR
I cant remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
an eight-minute twenty-seven-second farewell, written on a D-28, 1971
AMERICAS GUITAR
Music history. Martin history.
"American Pie" by Don McLean 1971, renewed 1999 by Songs of Universal, Inc. on behalf of itself and Benny Bird Co., Inc./BMI. Used by permission. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. 2005 C.F. Martin & Co. martinguitar.com
FEATURES + REVIEWS
Alex Lifeson
45
Joe Bonamassa
54
FEATURES
45 Alex Lifeson
Alex Lifeson talks about his mean, mean stride, his return
to Gibson and his epic gearbox.
54 Joe Bonamassa (Web Exclusive!)

The Blues statesman talks music and gear.
59 5 Builders You Should Know: TelecasterStyle Boutique

We talk to Ron Kirn, Rick Kelly, Chihoe Hahn, Bill Crook
and Jay Monterose about building boutique Tele-style
guitars.
76 The Return of the Hot Rod Guitar

As the modern custom shop comes full circle with its hot
rod beginnings, we take a look at the movements early
years.
88 Taylor Made: an exclusive tour through

the Taylor Factory
A look inside the processes behind Taylor guitars.
102 An interview with Steve Fryette

Steven Fryette recently sold the VHT brand, continuing
his amps under the name Fryette. We talk about building
VHT, letting it go, and where Fryette is headed.
108 Boss DS-1 Mods

12
PREMIER GUITAR
5 Tele Builders
59
Steve Fryette
102
REViEWS
112 Charvel Warren DeMartini San Dimas
114 Epiphone Valve Junior
120 2008 Gibson Les Paul Standard
122 EVH Wolfgang
125 Furman P-1800 PF R Power
Conditioner / Surge Suppressor
126 TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay,
Eventide Time Factor and EH Stereo
Memory Man with Hazarai
134 Fender Custom 57 Twin Amp
137 Fractal Audio Axe-Fx
(Web exclusive!)
139 Egnater Rebel 20

142 Collings 360
145 Godin Fifth Avenue Kingpin
148 Catlinbread Stompboxes
(Web exclusive!)
150 Zoom H2 & H4

(Web exclusive!)
13
DEPARTMENTS
www.premierguitar.com
VIDEOS
DEPARTMENTS
156 Hottest Videos
16 Opening Notes
Boss, Cornford, Digitech, Egnater, Fender Fishman,

Greg Howe, George Lynch, Marshall, Martin,
Mesa/Boogie, Moog, Orange, Randall,
Sevendust Rig Rundown, Seymour Duncan, Steve
Vai Interview, Summer NAMM 09: Worlds Largest
Pedalboard, Van Halen Kramer Auction
Jerry Cantrell, Ziggy Marley, Dave

Matthews, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gene
Simmons, Cesar Rosas
GREATEST
HITS
the very best of premier guitar

VOLUME 1
On The
Cover:
On the Cover: Past covers of
Premier Guitar
Cover Designed by: Nick Ireland
Gigging + Recording
26 On Bass
Steve Cook
The Best $20 Ever Spent
36 Tone Tips from the Road

Peter Stroud
The Big Audition
Tech Tips
28 Acoustic Soundboard
19
Jeff Huss
Dads, Daughters & Guitars
Ziggy Marley
30 Mod Garage
Dirk Wacker
50s wiring on a Stratocaster
32 Get Wired
Evan Skopp
P-90 Primer
34 Stomp School
Tom Hughes & Mike Piera
Stomp School Q&A
20
And Dont Miss ...

38 Fierce Guitar
Greg Howe
Detail photo 2009 by Chris Compston Guitar photo 2009 by Chris Campbell / Civilized World
GREATEST HITS
PREMIERGUITAR.COM
the relentless pursuit of tone
Dave Matthews
Hammer-ons from Nowhere
40 Signal Chain
Dean Farley
Sounding Analog in a Digital World
164 Last Call

John Bohlinger
Legends and Lyrics
Eye Candy
161
Wilkins Sgt. Peppers Bass
14
PREMIERGUITAR
24
161 Greatest Hits Guitar

of the Month
Gene Simmons
2009 Taylor Guitars
Always to our own tune.
See
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Se
ee al
all of
of our
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Jerry Cantrell
Sept 20, 2009
Eagles Ballroom
Milwaukee, WI
Photo by Chris Kies
Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains uses his trademark
84 G&L Rampage during the song Rain When I Die.
The beaten, battered and burnt Rampage features
some Cantrell-approved mods: a Seymour Duncan JB
humbucker, a Kahler trem chosen for what he calls his
heavy-handed trem-clamping style and a Floyd Rose
locking nut for improved intonation. Watch Cantrell
walk you through his current touring gear in a video Rig
Rundown online at premierguitar.com
18
PREMIER GUITAR
OPENING NOTES
19
20
PREMIER GUITAR
OPENING NOTES
Ziggy Marley
Charter One Pavilion
Chicago, IL
June 14, 2009
Photo by Jasen Petersen
Ziggy Marley strikes a chord with his
custom James Trussart Holey SteelCaster.
The guitar has a gator engraved pickguard,
a 3-tone Jamaican finish and a combination
of Strat and Tele-style pickups.
P R E M I EPRR GE MU II TE AR RG GU RI TE AA RT E S TO CHTIOT BS E VRO L2. 010 9
17
19
OPENING NOTES
Dave Matthews
September 25, 2009
Principal Park
Des Moines, IA
Photo by Chris Kies
Dave Matthews wails away on what is rumored
to be a prototype for a signature Taylor. This
particular guitar is a 914ce with a Sitka spruce
top and Indian rosewood back and sides. It
appears to have Grux-inspired inlays.
20
20P R EPMRIEEMR I EGRU IGT UA IRT A RD E CGERMEBAETRE S2T0 0H9I T S V O L . 1
True
Blue
True
Bl
Play Hard. Play Fast. Play Laguna.
The New Laguna LE400Q. Quilted maple carved top, double-locking trem, Alnico pickups - $399
To find a Laguna dealer near you please visit playlaguna.com
2009 Laguna Guitars
23
OPENING NOTES
24
22
Stevie Ray Vaughan

Fitzgeralds
Houston
June 20, 1983
Photo by Tracy Anne Hart
Stevie Ray Vaughan plays his Gibson 335 during the

third show of the 83 tour supporting his first album,
Texas Flood. He reached for the 58 dot-neck after
breaking a string on his trusty Number One Strat
during the song, Rude Mood.
25
23
OPENING NOTES
Gene Simmons
September 25, 2009
Cobo Hall
Detroit, MI
Photo by Jasen Petersen
The most recognizable bassist in the world
continues to do his thing at age 60. On
this night, the band played Alive! in order
(almost in its entirety) to celebrate the
live album that was recorded in the same
venue 35 years ago. The Punisher bass
you see here is made under Simmons
own name. Simmons also makes the other
iconic bass he is known for playingthe
Axe Bass. A limited run of his Axe Basses
is being sold and hand-delivered by
Simmons during the current KISS tour.
14
24P R E MP RI EERM IGEURI TGAURI T ADRE C EGMR BE EA RT E2S0T 0 H9 I T S V O L . 1
OPENING NOTES
Cesar Rosas
Surf Ballroom
Clear Lake, IA
February 2, 2009
Photo by Joe Coffey
OPENING NOTES
Perhaps the most versatile player known for

holding down the same rhythm gig for decades,
Cesar Rosas is no slouch when it comes to
playing
Surflead.
Ballroom
His famous solo on Los Lobos
version
Clear
of Lake,
La Bamba
IA (recorded with a stock 60
Strat)February
showcased
2, 2009
his range of influences from
the likes
Photo
of by
LosJoe
Panchos,
Coffey Scotty Moore and Jimi
Hendrix. Armed here with a recent production
Strat,Perhaps
Rosas celebrates
the most versatile
Ritchie Valens
player known for
influence
holding
anddown
legacy
theatsame
the 50
rhythm
Winters
gigLater
for decades,
Commemorative
Cesar Rosas is
Concert
no slouch
at the
when
Surfit Ballroom
comes to in
Clearplaying
Lake, Iowa
lead.(see
His famous
photo essay,
solo on
page
Los148).
Lobos
version of La Bamba (recorded with a stock 60
Strat) showcased his range of influences from
the likes of Los Panchos, Scotty Moore and Jimi
Hendrix. Armed here with a recent production
Strat, Rosas celebrates Ritchie Valens
influence and legacy at the 50 Winters Later
Commemorative Concert at the Surf Ballroom in
Clear Lake, Iowa (see photo essay, page 148).
Cesar Rosas
22
P R E M I EwRw wG U. pI rTeAmR i e rAg Pu Ri tI aL r . c2 o0 m0 9
P R E M I E R GwUwI wT A. pR r eG mR iEeArTgEuSi Tt aHr .I cT oS mV O L . 1
25
ON BASS
STEVE COOK
The Best $20 Ever Spent

What is the best $20 you have ever spent?
Go ahead and think about it, Ill wait. A
few months back I talked about spending
money on your gear, and not going cheap
for pro gear and great tone. Now lets slide
down to the other end of the economic
spectrum. I have put together a list, in no
particular order, of things you can buy for
under $20 that will come in handy, probably
save the day, and make you say, That was
the best $20 I ever spent. Grab Andrew
Jackson, and lets go shopping.
A Tuner I cant tell you how priceless this
really is, especially since someone in the
band will forget theirs. You can get one for
way under twenty bucks almost anywhere
(even Target and Best Buy now), and they
are so small you can have one on your
keychain. For you iPhone users, there are
several apps for under $5.
Spares Rather than bullet these individually,
Ill just put them all together, because you
really should have extras. If money is tight,
then dont get top-of-the-line spares, but
enough to get you through the gig. You
should have a spare strap, cable, and set of
strings. The one time you dont pack any of
these, youll need them. Thanks, Murphy,
and your cursed (and sagacious) laws.
Batteries If you have an active bass, then
youll need a 9V. If you are running a tuning
pedal, well, you get the point. Make sure
you have back-up batteries for whatever
you need batteries for. Even if you changed
them before you left the house. Are you
going to let a $5 9V battery ruin your $1000
paying gig? Im no economist, but my Magic
8-ball says no. Make the small investment
today, and get the return call later.
Gaffers Tape OK, duct tape users, listen up.
Theres a new kid in town, and his name is
Gaffers Tape. Its actually not new; its been
the choice of pros for years. Its strong,
comes in many colors, and doesnt leave a
sticky residue behind. You can secure cables
on the floor and theres no mess when you
tear down. And its about $9 a roll. You may
have to dig a little deeper than your local
music store for this one, but I promise you,
48 P R E M I E R G U I T A R J U N E 2 0 0 9
26
PREMIER GUITAR
spend the couple extra dollars, and youll

leave the duct tape for, well, duct work.
I have put together

a list, in no particular order, of things
you can buy for
under $20 that will
come in handy, probably save the day,
and make you say,
That was the best
$20 I ever spent.
A Flash Drive In this wonderful age of technology, you can select a flash drive in the
checkout lane of a grocery store. For those
of you that dont know what it is, a flash
drive is a small, USB storage device thats
about the size of a stick of gum. I use it
when I transfer files from my Mac to my PC,
and save a ton on burning discs. No more
making tapes of songs for the band to learn.
Throw them on a flash drive and get them to
everyone that way. The flash can hold lots of
songs, set lists, back issues of Premier Guitar,
etc, and can be had for about 815 bucks,
depending on the memory size.
A Pocket Tape Recorder I cant leave out
my songwriting friends. How many times
have you been driving along and had an
idea for a song, and lost the idea before

you got home? I have, and of course, I
thought they were all hits and would have
made me a fortune. So I went and bought
a pocket tape recorder. These are a little
more than $20 new, but any pawnshop has
them for about $20, and used is not a bad
way to go for these. I keep it with me all
the time, and any idea, whether a melody
or just a title, goes on tape. Its also the
perfect tool for songwriting sessions, the
obligatory note to self, and for getting
creative while recording.
A Guitar Stand Back to the stage now. This
really goes without saying. If you have a
guitar (or several) you are going to need
a place to rest them. I am not a fan of
Catch the Slowly Falling Tele as it slides
off the front edge of the amp because
someone thought the angle would hold.
Next thing you know, you are replacing a
tuning peg when a simple $12 stand would
have saved the day.
And now the coolest way to spend $20:
Craigslist! Today, right now, in your town,
there is someone cleaning out his music
room, and you can get just about anything
you need to round out your rig. I have seen
everything from gig bags to microphones
to anvil briefcases (great for cables!) for
under twenty dollars. Make a list of what
you need, and get to craigslist.com for your
next cool used-gear purchase.
So, theres your economic help for the
months ahead. Hopefully, youll get to the
point where you have techs to worry about
all these things, but for the rest of us, keep
these items in mind when youre out bargain hunting. It could be the best $20 you
ever spent.
Steve Cook
Steve has performed and recorded with a diverse range

of artists, from Edwin McCain to Randy Brecker to Course
of Nature. Steve is also an alumnus of Woodstock 99,
performing with his band King Konga. His current projects
include extensive touring and video production with Bucky
Covington (Lyric Street) and writing a popular weekly tour
journal on his website: shinybass.com.
ww ww ww .. pp rr ee mm ii ee rr gg uu ii tt aa rr .. cc oo mm
29
ACOUSTIC SOUNDBOARD
JeFF hUSS
Dads, Daughters and Guitars

Im trying to help my 14-year old daughter
learn to play the guitar. Anyone who has a
teenage daughter knows how this works. It
is a well established fact among teenagers
that the two dumbest, most embarrassing,
irrelevant, out-of-touch humans to ever
waste space on this earth are the very two
people that mixed up the DNA cocktail that
created them in the first place. I suggest
songs to work on; she rolls her eyes in that
special teenage way. It takes an incredible
amount of patience. I usually possess just
a little less than an incredible amount. But
well get through this. Shes actually growing
out of this phase a bit already. I asked her
the other day if she wanted to go to a movie
with me, just the two of us, where we might
be seen together in a mall. She actually
considered it before saying no, but she did
suggest that if her older brother went along
she would go. Hes 20 and has some scruffy
facial hair that I guess must have some magical power to absorb some of the dork rays
that must be radiating off of me.
But she is interested enough in learning

to play that she is willing to put up with
dear old dad, and interested specifically
in acoustic guitar (thank you, Taylor Swift).
There is something magical about the
acoustic guitar. Electrics are cool, but lots
of things that are electric are magical: the
automatic coffee maker, the lost television
remote, the microwave oven. (I remember
two old men back in the 80s arguing about
whether food heated in the microwave
would then cool down faster.) But the
acoustic guitar just sits there in your lap
on the couch, or on the deck or the beach,
and makes music without any sparks except
for the ones you supply.
I was about 14 when the guitar bug first
bit me. My brother-in-laws family joined
my family for a Thanksgiving dinner. After
we ate, they pulled out an acoustic guitar
and played The Letter by the Box Tops
with full three-part harmony. I had never
been that close to anyone playing a guitar,
and I knew I had to get one. My first was a
plywood sunburst beginner model that was

actually playable and stayed in tune, even
if its tone was not something we try to
replicate in the shop these days. I worked
my way through some chord books and got
some help from friends who played. I used
the money I made in high school working
as a busboy to buy LPs and expand my
musical knowledge beyond what I could
hear on the radio. Eventually I traded up
to a better guitar. In college, my roommates encouraged me to play my guitar,
especially after I got a banjo. I traded up
for yet another guitar and started putting
all of my music on cassettes so I could listen in the car. I was an entrenched holdout
when CDs first came out, as I wanted to be
sure they didnt go the way of the 8-track
or the Betamaxbut of course I eventually gave in. I still have all of that stuff in
boxes somewhere in the basement. Now,
of course, its all on my iPod. Talk about
magic.
Last night we were on our way home from a
softball tournament. My daughters team has
been struggling this year, and they had just lost
a heartbreaker in the championship gameand
we had what looked to be a long, just-lost-aheartbreaker-in-the-championship-game type
of ride home. But after a couple of miles of
silence she asked if I could help her to learn
Jack Johnsons Angel on the guitar, because
she thought it would be a good song to play
the next time the family all got together, maybe
Thanksgiving. We spent the next two hours
listening to songs on her iPod, talking about
which ones would be easy or hard to learn and
planning when we could find time to work on
them. Maybe Ill grow some scruffy facial hair,
and we can play them together.
Jeff Huss
Molly Huss with her dreadnaught and her laptop.
54 P R E M I E R G U I T A R O C T O B E R 2 0 0 9
28
Jeff Huss, co-owner of Huss & Dalton Guitar Co.,

Inc., hails from North Dakota and moved to Virginia in
the late eighties in pursuit of bluegrass music. Along
with the music came the opportunity to build acoustic
guitars and banjos. In 1995, he and business partner,
Mark Dalton formed their business and have established world-wide recognition for building high-end,
boutique style guitars and banjos.
31
MOD GARAGE
DIRK WACKER
Gibson 50s wiring on a stratocaster

Hello and welcome back to Mod Garage.
This month you find a PG first hereas far
as I know, this mod was never published
anywhere else before, so well step into new
territory today: using the famous Gibson 50s
wiring on a Stratocaster!
The Gibson 50s wiring is sometimes also
called Vintage Wiring or even 50s
Vintage Wiring, but it all means the same:
the way Gibson wired up their electric guitars
in the late 1950s, including the Burst Les
Paul guitars as well as the SGs and 335s. It
has been a hot topic on the forums in recent
years, and there have been many myths
and stories about this wiring method. It was
forgotten for a very long time, but today it
seems to be more popular than ever.
Electronically, theres nothing too out of the
ordinary about this wiring; it simply connects
the tone pot to the output of the volume pot
(middle lug) instead of the input. All the latefifties Gibson guitars were wired this way, but
you can do this with every guitarand this
month well do it with our Strats. So whats the
big deal, you ask? The 50s wiring will have two
major effects on your tone:
DISCLAIMER: Wiring diagram courtesy of Seymour Duncan Pickups and used by permission. Seymour Duncan and the
stylized S are registered trademarks of Seymour Duncan Pickups, with which Premier Guitar magazine is not affiliated.
this wiring, its difficult to get the same bloom,

meaning the notes open up after theyve left
the guitar. Its always difficult to describe such
tonal flavors, so I suggest you give it a try and
to see for youself if you love it or not.
First, the overall tone gets stronger and more

transparent. Its difficult to describe, but perhaps saying its more in your face would be
a good way to describe it. Second, the typical
treble loss that occurs when rolling back the
volume is much less, and both the volume and
tone controls react more smoothly and more
evenly, without the typical hot spots. As a side
effect, its easier to clean up an overdriven
amp by simply rolling back the volume on your
guitar a bit. As always this is a matter of choice,
but its definitely worth a try. Its easy to do,
requires no cosmetic changes, and its easy to
switch back to the standard wiring. Well talk
about this wiring again when we switch over to
Les Paul and Telecaster mods.
The other effect has to with a problem we all

know from our passive volume controlsthe
idiosyncracy inherent in passive single-coil
pickup systems like the Stratocaster: when you
turn down the volume (even just a bit), the
high end or treble loss is disproportionate. In
other words, a small cut in volume creates a
far greater loss in your guitars treble response.
You can get rid of this problem by installing a
so-called treble bleed networka combination of a capacitor and a resistor in parallel or
in serieson your volume pots, but maybe the
50s wiring will make this unnecessary for you.
This wiring will greatly decrease the treble loss
compared to the standard wiring.
So, before we heat up the soldering iron, lets

have a closer look at the tonal effect of the 50s
wiring. Im sure youve heard about the magical
tone of the late-fifties Burst Les Paul guitars; we
all know this tone from our old records. Part of
the magic is the 50s wiring, which makes the
tone very transparent and more direct. The
guitar responds much better this way. Without
Lets get started

If you havent done it yet, printing out the standard Stratocaster wiring diagram and placing
it on your workbench is always a good start.
This makes it easier to see and understand the
differences in the modded schematics. You can
download the standard wiring scheme directly
from the Seymour Duncan website.
56 P R E M I E R G U I T A R J U LY 2 0 0 9
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PREMIER GUITAR
As you can see, were only swapping two wires,

marked red and green, and cutting the jumper
wire normally connecting the two stages of our
5-way pickup selector switch. Remember, theres
a jumper wire running from lug A of stage 1
to lug A of stage 2 on the switch, connecting
both stages. This allows each pickup signal to
exit from the same lug and connect to the volume pot. We do not want it for this mod, so its
important to cut this connection.
Thats it! I hope you have fun experimenting
with this wiring method. I know some serious
professional guitarists who use the 50s wiring
method in all of their guitars, so it should be
worth a try for everyone. Stay tuned for more
Strat mods coming next month. Until then,
keep on modding!
dirk Wacker
Dirk Wacker lives in Germany and has been addicted to

all kinds of guitars since the age of five. He is fascinated
by anything that has something to do with old Fender
guitars and amps. In his spare time he plays country, rockabilly, surf and Nashville styles in two bands, works parttime as a studio musician for a local studio and writes for
several guitar mags. He is also a confessing hardcore DIY
guy for guitars, amps and stompboxes, and runs an extensive webpage (singlecoil.com) about these things.
33
GET WIRED
EVAN SKOPP
P-90 Primer
Dog Ear P-90
In the last column, George Ellison was

going through the major pickup types,
starting with the Strat single coil, which he
called the best pickup. Id have to agree
that the Strats pickups are responsible for
some of the greatest tones the electric guitar ever made. I love Strats, too, but I also
have a special place in my heart for another
single coil, one thats older than the Strat:
the venerable P-90.
During the sixteen years Ive worked for
Seymour Duncan, Ive noticed a dramatic
surge in the popularity of P-90s. In fact, no
recent movement in pickups has been
quite as strong as the renewed interest in
these great-sounding tone beasts. Lets
look at the history of the P-90 and discuss
its unique characteristics and advantages.
Gibson debuted their Electric Spanish
line of guitars in the thirties as a way for
guitarists to be heard, particularly in an
ensemble format. Some of these early
instruments, like the 1936 ES-150, used
built-in, straight-bar, Charlie Christian
pickups. Walt Fuller was the man responsible for this new design. This pickup
eventually evolved into a rectangularshaped, diagonally-slanted single coil unit
with adjustable pole pieces. You could see
these odd pickups on the ES-300, along
with certain Gibson lap steels from 1940 to
1945. This transitional pickup was the big
brother to the P-90, which Fuller developed
in 1946, and which appeared on Gibsons
ES-175 and Switchmaster guitars shortly
thereafter. Fuller used black thermo-formed
plastic covers to house these pickups. And,
like their predecessor, they used adjustable
poles and Alnico magnets.
In the early fifties, Gibson began their official collaboration with the legendary Les
72
32
P PR RE ME MI EI RE RG GU UI TI AT AR R F GE BR RE AU TAERSYT H2 I0T0S9 V O L . 1
Soap Bar P-90
Paul. It was in the spring of 1952 that the

majestic Gold Top Les Paul debutedfeaturing P-90 pickups. Back in the day, you
could have one of these beauties for a
mere $210. Sigh
Some might argue that the P-90 was Gibsons
only truly successful single coil pickup. To
me, the P-90 has the perfect blend of output
and high-end response. Compared to the
Strat, the tone is fatter, with more beef and
more mids. Like the Strat pickup, traditional
P-90s employ a single coil design with sandcast Alnico magnets. Unlike the Strat, the
vintage P-90 uses a single conductor, braided
shield hookup cable. The original P-90s were
machine wound using 42 gauge, plain enamel
magnet wire. Traditional P-90s use two
magnets with opposing fields that face each
other: the two south sides faced the screw
pole pieces.
The average DC resistance of the original
P-90s was around 8.50k ohms. Unlike the
Strat pickups tall, thin bobbin, the P-90
uses a short, flat bobbin, which accounts
for a fatter, more midrange-intensive tone.
As for covers, the late-forties ES-5s and
ES-175s used the black thermo-formed
dog ear cover, while the 1952 Les Paul
used a cover that looked vaguely like a bar
of yellowish soapnot that youd necessarily want to wash with it. These soapbar covers were readily available in black
as well, and were found on the 1956 Les
Paul Custom and 1957 Special Junior. The
soapbar version is truly unique in that the
mounting and height adjustment screws sit
in between the A and D string pole
pieces on one side and the G and B on
the other.
If you were around in the fifties and sixties,
you could hear jazzers like Herb Ellis and
the great Joe Pass using P-90s to produce

warm n woody tones, especially when
used with the heavier gauge strings of the
day. Other notable P-90 users have included Freddie King, George Thorogood, and
Mountains Leslie West.
The nineties revival of swing and rockabilly
music fueled a resurgance in traditional
P-90 tones. Clever pickup manufacturers
have figured out new ways of delivering
P-90 flavors. Some have developed ceramic
magnet P-90s used together with highoutput coils for Bad to the Bone tone.
Others have built hum-canceling P-90s that
use a stacked-coil design, which not only
cancels the hum found in all true single coil
pickups, but also allows the player to switch
between series, parallel and split wiring
for even more tone options. Some offer
P-90s housed under covers that make them
direct, drop-in replacements for humbucker-equipped instruments. And still others
offer full-size humbucker pickups that can
split to a real-deal P-90.
So, whaddayathink? Are P-90s right for
you? Well, if you like a big, fat, punchy tone
with lots of single coil cut, and boosted
mids, then you might be ready to take the
P-90 plunge.
Evan Skopp
Evan Skopp is head of Marketing and OEM Sales for

Seymour Duncan, based in Santa Barbara, California. He
serves on the board of directors of Musicians Institute
in Hollywood and is past-president of the Guitar and
Accessories Marketing Association.
35
STOMP SCHOOL
ANALOG TOM with ANALOG MIKE
stomp school Q & A

Greetings gearheads, welcome back to
Stomp School! Since starting the column, Analog Mike and I have received a
number of pedal-related questions from
Premier Guitar readers. So, we thought
wed take some time in this months column to answer some real questions
posed by real readers. Here goes
Q: First of all, I love the column!
Very cool, and full of useful info.
I have a question. Im planning on
adding a clean boost to my pedalboard and was wondering where to
place it in the chain. It seems logical
that I should put it at the end of the
chain to boost the signal after the
loss from my pedals and just before
it hits the amp. But, Im not sure.
What do you suggest? I appreciate
any help you can give me. Again,
I love the column (and PG is my
favorite mag)!
Rock & Roll,
Greg
a little direction. I was given an older

Boss 7-band EQ pedal that was dead.
Knowing just enough about soldering
to be dangerous, I thought I might be
able to fix it. Upon plugging it in, I got
nothing. No LED, no sound nothing.
The order of a clean boost

and a distortion pedal
determines what it will
do: a clean boost into a
distortion pedal will add
more distortion; a clean
boost after a dirt pedal
will increase the volume
without adding distortion.
A: Hi Greg. The order of a clean

boost and a dirt pedal (overdrive
or distortion) determines what the
clean boost will do. A clean boost
into a distortion pedal will add more
distortion. Thats because the distortion pedal is already clipping, and
will just clip more when you hit it
harder. Thats also why a small amp
cranked up (or a Marshall on 10) does not
get louder when you hit it with a louder
signalits already out of headroom, so it
can only distort more. Thats how a lot of
players used the Electro-Harmonix LPB-1
back in the day, to overdrive the amp. A
clean boost after a dirt pedal will increase
the volume without adding more distortion. So put it where it will do what you
want (or get two: one for more distortion
and one for more volume!).
Q: I just read your troubleshooting
article and really enjoyed it. I wondered if you might be able to give me
64
34
PREMIER GUITAR FEBRUARY 2009

from the battery to the board. The black

battery wire first goes to the input jack,
then through the input plug to ground.
Plug a cable into the input and check that
your battery ground terminal is getting
to ground on the jack and ground on the
board. There may be a black wire from
the input jack to the board.
After poking around inside for a while

and touching up some solder joints, it
worked. I thought I was a genius! But
soon enough, it stopped working again.
Short of retouching every solder joint
on the board, can you give me any suggestions on likely culprits?
Thanks,
Kevin
A: Hi Kevin. A totally dead pedal is usually the easiest type to fix. In this case, it
sounds like power is not getting to the
circuit board. If you have a simple continuity meter, you can usually trace the path
If your ground is getting to the board,

then you need to check the positive.
There should be a red wire from the
battery clip going to the board near the
power jack. It then goes into the power
jack, which has a switch to send the
batterys positive voltage to the board
if there is not a power plug inserted
into the power jack. Check that there
is continuity from the red wire to both
parts of the jack that are not connected
to ground. If you only get continuity to
one of those points, then the switch in
the power jack is broken and the jack
should be replaced. If the switch in the
power jack is broken, however, the pedal
should still work with an external power
supply plugged in. Hope that helps.
Well, thats all we have room for this
time around, but we do have a few
more reader questions to answer, so
check back with us again next month.
Until then, keep on stompin!
Tom hughes
(a.k.a. Analog Tom) is the owner and proprietor of For

Musicians Only (formusiciansonly.com) and author of
Analog Mans Guide To Vintage Effects. Questions or
comments about this article can be sent to: stompschool@formusiciansonly.com.
Analog Man
(analogman.com) is one of the largest boutique effects

manufacturers and retailers in the business, established by Analog Mike Piera in 1993. Mike can be
reached at AnalogMike@aol.com.
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37
TONE TIPS FROM THE ROAD
PETER STROUD
The Big Audition

So youve received the rare audition call for
a band or artist that is actually recording
and touring. COOL! Whether theyre well
known or preparing for their first album
tour, the same amount of preparation is
necessary. Im asked quite often about this
subject, so here are my suggestions, drawn
either from personal experience or that of
others. Obviously, Ill be speaking from a
guitarists perspective, but the same applies
to any gig, really.
1. Do your homework. If its a famous artist, you may get the call from their management or from the artists themselves
(Don Henley called me slight choke.) If
the latter, be careful not to be a goober
or a fan. If thats the first impression
you make, the next call may be from the
management saying, Thanks, but theyve
found their guy. Feel free to ask the questions you need to prepare properly and
get a feel for what theyre looking for, but
dont be over the top. If youre dealing
with the MD (Music Director), you should
find it much easier to cull necessary pointers and ask questions about the artist. You
can research a lot on your own. Buy all
available CDs (they may offer to send them
to you, but dont expect it). View any live
DVDs they may have; this is the best way
to get an idea of what they may be looking
for and how to play the songs. Hit YouTube
for any live footage or interviews, read any
press or interviews on the internet. Do you
have any acquaintances who are personally
friendly with the band or artist? Find out
everything you can about them. Know who
(and what) youre dealing with going in.
2. Try to schedule your audition to allow as
much time as possible to prepare. If they
must have you in the next day, plan on
staying up all night! I previously made the
mistake of scheduling an important audition (Don again) that required learning nine
songs with only two days to prepare. I survived on catnaps and eating meals standing
with a guitar around my neck.
3. Unless you absolutely know the gig calls
for free-form playing and improvising,
52P R EPMPRIREEMERMI GEI REURI GT GAU URI TI AT ARGRR EFAGETBRE RES AUT TAHERISYTTS H2VI0OT0LS9. V1O L . 1
136
dont. No wanking! More likely, the artist

prefers their songs to be played exactly as
recorded, or at least starting from there. Its
always best to learn the material verbatim,
right down to the tones.
4. Practice the songs by playing along to
the CDs. Theyll probably ask you to work
up four to six tunes, maybe more. Make
There are many

factors involved
in any audition,
but mainly the
artist is just
looking for that
unspoken fit
a mix of playing
ability, feel with
the band, sound
and personality.
the songs and parts come to you as second
nature. Then, learn more of their material
they may not have asked for. Youll seriously
impress them if the audition is going really
well and they want to keep playing.
5. It might help to make lead sheets for each
song (printed on a computer, big and bold)
with simple arrangements, the key (tuning
or capo?), which guitar or instrument to use,
and any notes on pedal or amp settings.
Anything to take the technical thinking out
of the picture so you can concentrate on just
playing your best. Youll be surprised what
youll forget under pressure.
6. Keep your audition rig as simple as pos-
sible, but with everything you need to get

the job done. If you can keep it down to a
few guitars, a simple pedalboard and one
amp, great. Or a couple of smaller amps
if youre doing an A/B rig. Dont come in
with a rack of fifteen guitars, a wall of amps
and a crew hauling your roadcases. They
wont be impressed.
7. Dont play too loud. If anything, make
them ask you to turn up. Try to balance
your volume against the drummer or the
other players. If youre a drummer, gauge
how loud you play around the singer (if
youre lucky, youll avoid the dreaded plexiglass!) and the rest of the band should then
hopefully set their volume around you. Or
at least the singer will tell the rest of the
band to turn down!
8. And finally, act like you own the gig. Not
cocky, but displaying total confidence, with
your head up. No shoe gazing or uncertainty. Be a good hang, but be aware if theyre
on a time frame. Make your lasting impression and get outta there.
After the audition, when youve left the
building and your heart rate settles down
to normal, its then down to fate and circumstanceespecially if theyre auditioning
a ton of players. Dont take it personally if
you dont get the gig. There are many factors involved, but mainly the artist is just
looking for that unspoken fita mix of
playing ability, feel with the band, sound
and personality. If youre understanding
when they call to say you didnt get the
gig (always an uncomfortable call for anyone to make), theyll be way more likely
to refer you to someone else. Its a small
community out there. Most artists, bands
and management look for cool personalities, exceptional or unique players and low
maintenance, meaning you dont whine or
expect star treatment. But if you get the
gig Then hats off to ya!
Peter stroud
Peter is co-founder of 65amps.

sherylcrow.com
65amps.com
P R EPMR IEEMR I EGRU IGT UA IRT AGRR EGARTEEASTTE SH TI T HS I VT SO LV. O1L . 1
39
2
FIERcE GUITAR
GREG HOWE
Hammer-ons from Nowhere

Hammer-ons From Nowhere (HFN) is a term
I came up with a long time ago in order
to provide students with tab notation that
described the idea of hammering on to a
string that was not previously fretted. Most of
us are quite familiar with the term hammeron, which is of course a technique performed
by forcefully bringing a fretting-hand finger
onto a string that was previously fretted or
previously sounded in order to execute a new
note without having to simultaneously pick it.
A typical hammer-on will always be higher in
pitch than the note that preceded it, however
with HFN, this is not necessarily the case.
One of the advantages to using HFN is that
you can basically hammer-on to any string
you choose and produce results in which
a hammered note ends up being lower in
pitch than the one preceding it. In fact, the

HFN concept actually lends itself to the idea
that a hammered note is lower in pitch than
the preceding note. This can result in many
unusual and unorthodox sequences, many
of which can involve huge interval jumps
that easily simulate licks and passages more
commonly associated with advanced fingerpicking techniques. The most blatant example
of this can be heard on the Extraction
album, in the unaccompanied acoustic guitar
instrumental piece called A Delicacy.
The first few examples are basically repetitive
exercises conisisting of short sequences in
order for you to get comfortable with the
whole concept of HFN. The later examples
online at premierguitar.com illustrate more
complex sequences, some of which include

the use of open strings.
Note: When using a lot of distortion and gain,
I find that rolling way back on the guitars
volume knob, along with applying palm
muting with the picking hand, significantly
helps in achieving clarity and articulation with
these types of ideas. Also, for tone reasons,
I often use the second finger of my picking
hand (hybrid picking) in place of upstrokes,
but this is not necessary.
Greg Howe
Greg Howe has enjoyed a successful recording career

since bursting onto the scene in 1988, and his talents
have been sought after by some of the biggest names
in the music entertainment industry, such as Michael
Jackson, Justin Timberlake, and Enrique Iglesias.
Go to premierguitar.com to see additional examples of this technique,

and watch Gregs video demonstrations
38
PREMIER GUITAR
41
SIGNAL CHAIN
DEAN FARLEY
Sounding Analog in a Digital World

Hows everybody doing? For this months
topic I want to continue on the subject of
recording. Since there are two distinctly
different media for recordinganalog, or
tape-based recorders, and digital recording systems, such as Pro Tools, Samplitude,
Ableton LiveI thought it would be a good
idea to look at what you can do to make
digital media, such as Pro Tools tracks,
sound more like analog tape recordings.
This time well have a peek at a very flexible software package that does a fantastic
job of emulating a large variety of vintage
analog hardware components like compressors, limiters and EQsnot to mention the
various types of vintage analog multi-track
decks like those made by Ampex, Studer,
Otari and MCI (just to name a few). Those
last four names were key to producing
many of the guitar tones youve heard on
many of your favorite records and CDs.
The software Im referring to here is called
Analog Channel, which is part of the Classic
Pack bundle created by McDowell Signal
Processing (McDSP) of Mountain View, CA.
When using Analog Channel, you dont have
to worry about the inherent problems of
recording to tape-based systems, such as
excess tape hiss, hum or mechanical wow
and flutter. You can align your virtual tape
machines frequency response and dynamic
range to your hearts content, as well as
create all sorts of different and ingenious
sounds. Have you ever listened to any of
those old AC/DC albums and asked yourself how they got those big, fat-sounding
drums? Was this by sheer accident, or was
this the work of a very clever engineer who
knew just how to align the tape machines
head bump to add a predetermined effect
to the drums sound when the recorded
signals hit the tape? Analog Channel has
a separate head bump control, too.
Interestingly, this type of control does not
exist on any tape recorder; traditionally, the
tape operator did this manually. The software allows you to perform the same operation by turning a single knob. This particular
plug-in has a ton of clever functions that will
add immensely to your musical creations.
74 P R E M I E R G U I T A R M A Y 2 0 0 9
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PREMIER GUITAR
While were at it, its worth mentioning that

McDSP also makes entire suites of tools (in
various available bundles) for compression,
limiting, mastering, equalization and soundprocessing tasks. For compression, limiting
and EQ, the brand new Retro Pack bundle
is a wonderfully easy way to add some
more analog magic into your Pro Tools sessions. You can make modern sounds with it,
too, since the design is original and not just
modeled after older, vintage gear. For final
mastering needs, you might check into the
Recording music can

be very rewarding,
because it teaches
you at ground level
what makes any
recorded tone sound
bad or good, great or
phenomenal.
ML4000 plug-in. This is the perfect way to
add some polish and shine to your mixes. The
ML4000 has all kinds of useful expanders,
gates and compression algorithms for you to
tweak with and can be very transparent.
For those of you who love the sound of
all things lo-fi, the way-cool FutzBox plugin is just the ticket for manipulating your
tones in interesting and twisted ways. The
FutzBox gives you the stuff that might turn
your musical ideas into the next cool trend.
On the flip side, they offer a couple of
other handy plug-ins that do an amazing
job with all the numerous sonic artifacts
that you dont want to hear. Their NF575

Noise Filter and DE555 De-esser plug-ins
are great at ridding your tracks of vocal sibilants and other noise issues that can create
problems in your recordings.
Recording music can be very rewarding,
because it teaches you at ground level what
makes any recorded tone sound bad or
good, great or phenomenal. You need some
basic ingredients to start you on this journey,
and there are a lot of options out there. The
last time I looked, I had quite a few plug-ins
installed in my computer, but the ones I find
myself using all the time now are those I
mentioned here from McDSP.
Another issue that happens all too often
when using a Pro Tools rig (particularly
the smaller LE versions) is that some software plug-ins tax your computers processing ability quite heavily. I have found
the McDSP plug-ins to be much more
CPU-friendly than many other competing
plug-ins. You can always benefit from a
great reverb program, but so many of the
commonly used echo and reverb plug-ins
can eat your computers processing power
alive. Finding tools that are less resourcehungry (as well as great sounding) makes
any recording package run cleaner and
more trouble-free.
Well, there you have it: a few good ways to
make your digitally produced music sound
more analog and vintage than ever before.
My money has been well spent in the digital recording realm, and Im getting really
great results with the sounds I hear coming
from my Mac. If you want to check out what
else McDSP has to offer, visit their website
at: mcdsp.com.
Happy recording, and well see you
next time.
Dean Farley
is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings"

(sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence
on the trends in the strings of today.
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PREMIER GUITAR
INTERVIEW
BY MAX MOBLEY
Walk softly and carry a big F-sharp suspended. If legendary
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson had a mantra, that might be it. That
chord (technically an F#7sus4) is known to his legion of fans as
The Alex Chord, or The Hemispheres Chord, as it is the
opening chord to Rushs 1978 prog-rock opus Hemispheres. It
can also be heard ringing out on Far Cry, the opening cut on
Rushs nineteenth studio album, 2007s Snakes and Arrows.
That a single chord can be associated so strongly with one
guitar player is testament to Lifesons influence on the medium. He is a guitar players guitar player. Where Steve Vai may
make us say I wish I could do that, Alex Lifeson makes us
say, I wish Id thought of that.
Snakes and Arrows was Rushs 27th album to appear in the
Billboard Top 200, and it turned into a long, good ride for
the band. The album was followed by a marathon tour spanning two years and two continents, a double live album, and
the November 2008 release of the three-disc DVD/Blu-Ray,
Snakes and Arrows Live, in which Rush puts on a clinic on
how to play a rock concert.
As a musician, Alex Lifeson has occasionally been overlooked, in
part because he is a guitar player dedicated to serving the song
instead of stepping on it. As most guitarists know, that kind of
restraint is no easy feat. Of course, serving a Rush song can be
like serving a 12-course meal. As the sole guitarist and one third
of the worlds most complicated rock band, Alex has served well.
About to release their twelfth compilation CD, Retrospective 3, I
spoke with Alex Lifeson, and we talked about (what else?) guitars
and his notable return to an all-Gibson lineup.
Photo Andrew McNaughtan
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Photo Ross Halfin
Congratulations on the Snakes and Arrows

Live DVD/Blu-ray that came out in November!
It is stunning in its sound and picture quality. I
see its doing great in the charts.
Thank you. Yes, its doing very well on the charts.
We were at number one for a while and then
we were at number two. Then we started to slip
down and now were back at number two.
Snakes and Arrows has been
quite a ride for you guys.
Yeah, its been great. The tour was great, I
thought we played really, really well. The recording of the album was a lot of fun. We had a
great time with [Snakes and Arrows Producer]
Nick Raskulinecz. We really loved working with
him, and it was the first time that we made a
record where we were just feeling so positive
throughout the whole experience. So there
was just a great energy surrounding the whole
project and ending with this DVD. Particularly
in Blu-ray, it has a great look to it. We filmed it
over two days, so we got great angles and lots
of perspectives of the band playing. Its really a
DVD about us playing, rather than in the past
where we brought in different elements, like on
Rush in Rio, for example. That was about that
event and our connection with the audience.
This one is really about our show and us playing.
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Your first real electric guitar was your

Gibson ES-335. I wonder, why that model,
since the guitarists you were listening to,
Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix for example,
were playing either Les Pauls or Strats?
Well, yeah, but I was also into people like
[Jefferson Airplanes] Jorma Kaukonan, and
Alvin Lee. And that guitar was always a beautiful guitar. Ive always really liked that whole sixties San Francisco music scene, and that guitar
was probably the prevalent guitar at that time.
So to me it seemed like a natural place to go.
And I just grew with the instrument.
You played Gibsons almost exclusively until
Rushs Permanent Waves album in 1980?
not going to be on the road anymore. I got

a Strat as a backup, and I just wasnt quite
comfortable with it, you know, coming from
the Gibson world. So I got a Schaller neck
for it, and I put a humbucker in the bridge
positionjust fooling with it a little bit, trying
to get something that was sort of a hybrid
between a Gibson and a Fender.
Had you modified your Gibsons previously?
No, not really, I think the only modifications I ever did was I might have put a Bill
Lawrence L-500 in one of them.
Is the ES-355 used on the Snakes and
Arrows tour the original, or is it the Alex
Lifeson Signature Model?
Correct.
And then you went through a Fender period?
Yeah, I sort of went through a Fender period.
In fact, we did a gig with Blue Oyster Cult
at the Nassau Coliseum in the late seventies, and one of the horns had fallen off of
the stack and then fell on my 335, as well as
a double neck that I had. It sheared a headstock off the double neck, and it took a real
big gouge out of the neck of the 335. So I
decided, Okay, the 335s going home, thats
I had them both out. I used the original at

the end of the show, and I used a prototype
of the Inspired By model earlier in the
show on The Trees.
Your 355 was wired to mono. Was that just
to facilitate gigging, or was there more to it?
Yeah, mostly for that reason. But I didnt feel
the need to utilize it as a stereo guitar. For
me it had greater utility as a mono guitar.
My tone. My cable.
Do cables really impact guitar tone?
Cables can distort the sound of your

guitar by pushing the mids up and
turning the highs down. Elixir Cables
feature a unique cable technology that
fixes this problem by delivering the
lowest capacitance and truest voice
of your guitar.
www.elixircables.com
49
Photo Neil Zlozower
Lifeson in the mid-70s with his Gibson EDS-1275 that was damaged by a falling speaker horn in Uniondale, NY. After repairing a
broken neck and repainting the guitar, Lifeson gave it to Eric Johnson as a gift. It was stolen from Johnson within weeks.
I notice that the crowd reacts to you

strapping on your ES-355. Why do
you think that is?
I got that guitar in 1976, so Ive had that guitar for quite some time, and I used it almost
exclusively from that period up until around
the late seventies. And I guess maybe that
its so connected to me? That white 355, you
really dont see them around. I cant think of
anybody else that uses that particular model.
years, and obviously at home I have lots of different guitars, and I use them all. But it was nice
to come back to Gibson after not having been
there exclusively for a long time. And theyve
been terrific in working with me and the kind of
things I want modified on a guitar and set up
the way I like. When they approached me with
the 355, it just seemed to make a lot of sense.
This was a model that was probably more in the
background of their catalog. So it was nice to
bring that to the forefront, because it really is
such a beautiful instrument. It just sounds great.
Do you use the Varitone switch live?

Not really. I think I may have in the old days
when I had just the one instrument, or just
a couple of guitars. Thats why I put that
little micro-switch in, so I could pre-set that
knob, and then just hit the micro-switchso
Im always defaulting back to the number
one position [bypass] rather than turning
that rotary knob. In the studio I might use
it, but live I dont.
Before the Snakes and Arrows tour, you

were primarily using Paul Reed Smiths.
Was having your signature model

ES-355 a big deal for you?
Yeah, they sent me a couple of guitars in the

early nineties. I think I was using Signature at the
time, which was made here in Canada. They had
active pickups, and just the kind of a sound that
I was going for in the late eighties. But when I
started playing these PRSs, they were fantastic!
They came out of the case and they were still in
tune and they were set up perfectly, just the way
I wanted. And for a long time I used them probably more than anything else on stage.
Yeah, it was! I was very excited about it. You

know, Ive gone through a lot of guitars over the
And really, I dont have a problem with them. I

love the instruments; I still have all of them. In
fact, Im sitting here in my office, and they just

sent me a 245 to check out. But I just wanted
a change. I wanted to go back to a more classic sound and a classic feel on stage. I wanted
to go back to Les Pauls. Thats really the only
reason. In the studio, I use everything.
In the making of the Snakes and Arrows
documentary, I think every time I saw you
playing it was a Tele.
Yeah, the Tele is the one I really gravitate to
in the studio. Its my favorite writing guitar.
That Tele is a 59 reissue, but we changed a
few small things on it like brass saddles, and
we took the finish off the neck so it just feels
really different. I love it. And for me, writing
on that guitar is just a very natural kind of
thing. It just feels like the right instrument for
me to be writing on.
In the studio I like to incorporate that sound
against something like a Les Paul or a PRS. I
find that it provides a really nice contrast on
top of the thickness of that humbucker sound.
What pickups are in that Tele?
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PREMIER GUITAR APRIL 2009
Just the stock pickups.

And on the Gibsons?

On the Les Pauls that I have, I switched over
to the Jimmy Page wound versions. Theyve
got a nice, smooth top end, and the bottom
is nice and tight. And my 355 has the same
[stock] pickups that have always been in there.
Some guitarists describe the PRS tone
as a Fender/Les Paul hybrid.
Yeah, I would say thats pretty accurate, probably
leaning a little more toward the Gibson side than
the Fender. I think they have a unique sound,
a slightly smaller, tighter sound than what the
Gibson is, particularly if you look at a model like
the 245 or the McCarty and A/Bd it against the
Les Paul. I think the Les Paul has just a little more
weight and size to it, a little more growl in the
lower end of the guitar. The PRS has very nice
clarity. Theres an ease in the way you play them.
They do such a great job on the neck.
Well, its not a problem for me now, but I

kind of missed it. I grew up that way. Every
Saturday I used to go to our local music
store, Long & McQuade here in Toronto,
and theyd let me play anything on the
wallusually it was an SGfor about an
hour and theyd they say, Ok, get outta
here, kid. And then Id come back the next
Saturday, theyd let me play for an hour and
then theyd say, Ok, get outta here, kid.
To this day when I go into a music store, I
feel like a kid again. Theres always something I want to buy. Whether its a little
effects box or some picks, [laughs] every-
thing that I dont need! But theres some

magic about music stores.
Are you the kind of player that
has an emotional attachment to
a particular instrument?
Well, my 335, my 355 and that Tele, and the
first CE bolt-on that I got from Paul Reed
Smith, as well the one I used for most of the
1990s and early 2000s, which again was a CE
bolt-onwhich is not their fanciest model.
Those guitars right there are probably my most
important kids, and I wouldnt want to get rid
What do you look for in a neck?

I dont really have a preference. The neck on
my 355 is very small, and it was typical of that
era in the early to mid-seventies. The neck
on the Inspired By version is a much bigger,
more contemporary neck. I have to say that I
really like playing that neck, too. I dont like
anything too big or too thick, but what I like
is having the variety. I think there is a tendency to play a little differently when you pick up
any particular instrument.
Tell me about your Howard Roberts
Gibsonsyou have a Fusion and a
Standard Howard Roberts?
I started with the Standard Howard Roberts.
Paul Northfield, who engineered Moving
Pictures and a few other records that we did,
had one in the studio and it was just beautiful.
So I ordered one from Gibson way back in 78
or 79. And then later that year or the following year, they brought out the Howard Roberts
Fusion and to me, at the time, it seemed like the
perfect guitar. It was a hollowbody, it looked like
an oversized Les Paul, and it had a nice balance
to it when you played it. So it had all the things
that I looked for in a guitar, and its still one of
my favorite guitars to play to this day.
Is the solo from Tom Sawyer on that guitar?
I think all of Tom Sawyer is on that guitar.
I assume you cant go to a guitar shop
and poke around, is that a problem for
you? Do you miss it?
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of any of them. Id be heartbroken losing the

others, but oh, and a couple of these other
Les Pauls that I have currently, because theyve
been set up exactly the way I want them. So I
guess they could all go except for those.
And what about the Howard Roberts?
Well, I definitely need the Howard Roberts, yeah.
OK, so you would keep pretty
much all of them?
[laughs] Yeah, now that you mention it. Im
thinking, Well, thats not really fair to that
Gretsch sitting over there, so...
Your gear list for the tour lists six Les
Pauls, mostly Customs and Standards.
Tell me about them.
Well, a couple have piezos, and a couple have
Floyd Roses. Ones got a Bigsby. And the
tonality is different from one to the next. Ive
got a Custom that weighs about 80 pounds,
and Im sure that that last E chord I played is
still ringing out! Its amazing! Its such a heavy
piece of wood that sustains like crazy. And
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then the Gold Top is great. Its a 59 reissue,

and I love the neck on it. That one is set up
with a piezo with no vibrato. They all have
their own job. They are tools for me.
Theres some debate going on about
the Swiss cheese body Les Pauls versus
the chambered body Les Pauls, do you
have an opinion?
They sent me [a chambered] one and I checked
it out, and it is nice to have a lighter Les Paul
[laughs]. I would have to say its lacking a little
bit, but really, I would want to spend a little
more time with that guitar and put it through
its paces. I got it when we were on tour, and Id
like to see how it reacts in the studio. It is kind
of nice to have that little break for your shoulder, but Im not sold on it yet.
And speaking of the shoulder, did the
double neck go out on the road this
last tour, just in case?
Well, the double neck made it to rehearsals,
just in case. [Laughs] But it didnt make it on
the road this time. But you never know; its
there, its waiting...
How do you go about choosing a

particular guitar to play live?
Well, for this tour, because I had a lot of tunings
and different requirements I had to try to set up
for, it made the whole selection process much
easier. But I think increasingly over the years I
like to mix it up a bit, even if its just bringing
one particular guitar for one or two songs. I
know it drives Bucky [Alexs guitar tech Bob
Bucky Huck] crazy because its just that many
more string changes he has to do on a daily
basis. Its a lot of fun to have all these instruments around for a three-hour show.
How loud is Rush on stage?
Youd be shocked! Im sure your stereo at home
is louder. The loudest thing on stage is Neils
drums, acoustically. Theres no monitors on
stage. Geddy goes direct so theres no bass rig
on stage. My amps are down very low, just loud
enough so that I can get some feedback if I step
right up to them. And the reason we do that is
we want to have a nice, manageable sound on
stage that we can pump clearly through the PA.
How much guitar is in your in-ear monitors?
wwwwww. p. pr er emmi ei er gr gu ui ti at ar .rc. co omm
My mix tends to be pretty representative of

the whole sound. I have a nice, full drum mix
and keys in stereo, and vocal and bass up
the middle. I probably have a little more ride
cymbal, hi hat, snare and kick, in the whole
balance of the drums. The guitars I typically
have on the left side, and then I do a short
eight-millisecond delay on the right side, just
so I can get guitar hard left and hard right.
When is Rush going back into the studio?
Well this tour, it really, well it killed us! We did
120 shows on this tour. The show is over three
hours, and were no spring chickens, thats for
sure. So we decided we would take a year off
and get it out of our systems. Whether Geddy
and I get together sometime in the spring and
do a little bit of casual writing, thats fine. And
we probably willwe get a little antsy. But I
dont think well get into anything until the fall,
and whether thats going to be a new record or
another tour or what exactly, Im really not sure.
Im assuming at this point we would be working
on another album.
Is it hard to decide what songs to play live?
Well, its really hard with all of this material,
and we have so many songs that we sort of
have to play. As much as I enjoy playing on
everything, I kind of get a little tired of it. It
would be fun to do some stuff that we havent
done in a long time. I think it would be really
interesting and keep us on our toes, and that
would make for a very interesting DVD as well.
Any chance of another a solo album for you?
ALEX LIFESONS
GEAR BOX
You know, I just did a big renovation in my

studio, and Rich Chycki, who engineered the
last couple of records and DVDs, has moved

in with me so were planning on doing a
lot of things. Id like to do a little bit more
producing, working with some other artists,
Photo Andrew McNaughtan
and Ive thought about doing another solo

project thats definitely along there somewhere on the stovetop. Well see.
Guitars
Effects and Routing
1 Gibson Black Les Paul Custom

2 prototype Gibson Les Pauls with Floyd Rose tremolo
3 reissue Gibson Les Pauls (59 Gold top, 58 sunburst,
59 tobacco sunburst) with Fishman piezo system
2 Gibson Howard Roberts with Fishman piezo system (one
Fusion with Tune-O-Matic Bridge)
2 1976 Gibson ES-355s (Alexs 1976 original
and Alex Lifeson Inspired By Model)
1 Garrison OM-20 Octave Mandolin
3 Martin D12-28 Acoustic Guitars
Furman PL-8 and PL Plus Power Conditioner

1 Dunlop DCR 1SR rack wah
1 Ernie Ball 250k volume pedal
1 Mesa Boogie 4channel amp switcher
2 Axess Electronics CFX4 Amp Switchers
2 Axess Electronics GRX4 Guitar Router/Switchers
2 Behringer Ultralink MX-662 6 Channel Splitter/Mixers
4 Audio Technica AEW 5200 Guitar Wireless Receivers
3 Fishman Aura Acoustic Guitar Modelers
2 Custom Audio Japan GVCA-2 Rev.3 Midi
Programmable Volume Controls
1 TC 1210 Spatial Expander + Stereo Chorus/Flanger
1 Behringer XR4400 Multigate Pro
4 TC Electronics G-Force guitar effects processors
2 Hughes & Kettner Rotospheres
3 Palmer PDI 03 Speaker Simulators
Amps and cabinets

2 Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 Guitar Amp Heads
2 Hughes & Kettner Alex Lifeson Signature Triamp MKII
Guitar Amp Heads
8 Hughes & Kettner 4X12 Guitar Cabinets

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INTERVIEW BY JOE COFFEY

PHOTOS BY ROSS HALFIN & ECKHARD HENKEL
The critically-acclaimed, fan favorite

with the soulful licks and to-die-for
tone isnt just a phenom anymore.
Joe Bonamassa hasnt been for a
while now. Having toured since the
early 90s, he is what you would call
road-tested. Having released seven
albums, all of which reached #1 or
at least the top ten in Billboards
blues charts, he is what you call a
studio veteran. Most importantly, he
is what you would call a bluesman.
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There are phenomenal players out there

who cut the occasional blues album -- and
then there are bluesmen who cut albums.
To call Sloe Gin, Bonamassas latest, a blues
album is redundant.
In fact, Sloe Gin, goes where most blues
albums rarely go these days the place
where it all began: acoustic blues. At the
same time, hats are tipped to rockers who
advanced the blues, and boundaries are
pushed. This is whats most interesting
about Bonamassa and its very apparent on
this album. Despite his chops having won
him total respect by the blues community,
stores like Best Buy dont put him in the
Blues section. Theres no denying the blues
cred is there but Bonamassa brings so
much more to the table.
We caught up with Bonamassa and talked

about his ground-breaking album, the state
of the blues and of course, his killer tone.
You go back and forth between acoustic
and electric on this album. If you were in
a different situation Id ask you how you
convinced the powers that be to let you
do that.
Thats the beauty of owning your own label.
To me its important to move the boundaries a little, as far as what people consider
blues and break down some of those preconceived notions of what it really is. You
know, Led Zeppelin is just as much blues
as Robert Johnson. Of course, some blues
purists will take my picture and throw darts
at it [for saying that]. Eleven of the same
songs gets boring to anybody.
INTERVIEW
Blues Statesman Talks Music and Gear

What happened to blues albums?
Did you get it right?
One- the industry is changing; people are

downloading records. Two- people are not
making records that drive people to the
stores to buy them. For me, to have some
acoustic music on there gives it a different
flavor and appeals to a broader audience.
Its easy to strap on a Stratocaster and try
to out-Stevie Ray the umpteenth guys who
are trying to out-Stevie Ray each other. To
me, its like- is there a song with a melody?
Is there a song a woman would enjoy?
Thats important. For a long time the blues
have ignored 50% of their audience by
catering to just guys.
I really like the way it turned out. I wanted

to make an album you could listen to all
the way through and have it make sense at
the end. Unfortunately, people cherry-pick
songs and download them today, missing
the feel that albums are designed with.
If you took Thick as a Brick [Jethro Tull]
and listened to those songs out of order it
would be total chaos as a piece of art and
thats kind of the thinking I was going with
lets try to make this thing so that it flows
from start to finish.
This album really makes me stop and

think about its production values. There
are so many things going on. For example, the lead tracks Zeppelin-eque sonic
quality hits you right in the chest.
I cant take credit for that. Thats [engineer]
Kevin Shirley. Kevins such a brilliant producer and such a great musical mind. He
comes from a different background. He was
predominantly doing more heavy records,
you know Zeppelin remixes, Black Crows,
Iron Maiden so he came to the table with
a very different perspective. He was coming
up with stuff I would never think of in a million years. Like the song, Sloe Gin; I never
would have thought of that, even if I had
heard it before I would have never thought,
Lets see what you can do to make it not
only viable but the title track, too.
There are so many great, different flavors
on this album. How did you approach that
in the studio?
We did two separate sessions for the
album. In January we did a full-on, all
acoustic thing all the acoustic tracks and
Ball Peen Hammer. Then we came back
and did all the electric tracks. And we
didnt really know how it would work if we
should do a side A/side B thing or if going
back and forth would make it disjointed.
We went through several sequences and
even had to burn about 25,000 [CD] jackets
when we made the last change. [laughs]
Lets talk gear. You mostly used a 59

Historic Les Paul for the electric-driven
cuts on this album. Can you take me
through that rig?
Sure. I have four Historic 59s of varying
degrees of flame toppage but I use one in
Your D-28 sounds amazing. Howd you

record it?
We used a Neumann 87- the studio had
a newer one. We used it through a 1083
Neve and basically an 1176 UREI compressor. We were going for that early Crosby,
Stills & Nash tone. Moderns have a tendency to get a little scooped out in the
mids so you dont really hear all the notes
but that particular D-28 doesnt have a ton
of bottom and it doesnt have a ton of top,
which of course bluegrass guys would pick
it up and say, Oh, this is a crappy one, but
for a recording guitar its very direct. I think
its a 57 or a 58.
Pick up anything new lately?
Yeah, Ive got a Gibson Custom Shop prototype- its called a Skylark. Its based on
I think people are getting back to that

mentality of Let me work on my playing
first and then finding gear to augment
that and make it easier.
particular a little more. . . That main one I
use is a 2003. And it has original Bumble
Bee caps. To be honest with you, Im not
really a fan of people tearing up Melody
Makers from the 50s to rip 500k pots and
Bumble Bee caps out of em, but someone
had already done this to what was an unusable guitar that my dad bought. So, we put
a legitimate set of 59 pots and Bumble
Bee caps in this Les Paul and I put in a set
of PF humbuckers from 1953. It just opened
up the guitar, giving it that very 800 Hz to
900 Hz very human quality to it. For me the
moment of truth on any Les Paul is when
you go to the G string, B string and high E
string does the bottom end stay tight and
bright. This one does and I use it for that
particular reason.
a late 50s early 60s Korina lap steel. Its

shaped like a Les Paul and it has the old
Flying V logo on it, but the Skylark headstock and the 59 profile neck. The cool
thing is, all the frets are numbered which is
really wild. I think people are getting back
to that mentality of Let me work on my
playing first and then finding gear to augment that and make it easier.
Youve seen a lot of changes in the guitar
industry over the years, plus you know a
lot with your dad owning a music store
and all what excites you right now?
You know, to me whats exciting is seeing
guys like Jeff Beck plugging straight into
a JCM2000 with pretty much a stock Strat
hell just make you cry, you know. I just saw
Johnny Winter; we just did a show with
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him in
in Dallas.
Dallas. Hes
Hes still
still aa guy
guy plugging
plugging the
the
him
Firebird straight
straight into
into the
the amp
amp and
and itit sounds
sounds
Firebird
like Johnny
Johnny Winter.
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think people
people are
are getgetlike
ting back
back to
to that
that mentality
mentality of
of Let
Let me
me work
work
ting
on my
my playing
playing first
first and
and then
then finding
finding gear
gear
on
to augment
augment that
that and
and make
make itit easier.
easier. Its
Its gotgotto
ten back
back to
to the
the basics
basics of
of ---- can
can we
we just
just buy
buy
ten
little Fender
Fender Champ
Champ and
and aa Les
Les Paul
Paul and
and
aa little
make itit sound
sound like
like something.
something. Thats
Thats the
the
make
new thing.
thing.
new
Amp-wise, this
this guy
guy Peter
Peter Van
Van Weelden
Weelden from
from
Amp-wise,
Holland isis building
building some
some great
great MarshallMarshallHolland
type stuff,
stuff, some
some Dumble-type
Dumble-type stuff.
stuff. Alan
Alan
type
Phillips of
of Carol-Ann
Carol-Ann Amps,
Amps, the
the guys
guys at
at
Phillips
Two-Rock are
are making
making some
some nice
nice stuff
stuff and
and
Two-Rock
Marshall II like
like their
their new
new vintage
vintage modern
modern
Marshall
thing. II love
love the
the clean
clean channel
channel on
on that.
that. But
But
thing.
again, all
all this
this good
good stuff
stuff isis about
about getting
getting
again,
back to
to basics.
basics.
back
Whats next
next on
on your
your horizon?
horizon?
Whats
Next year
year were
were going
going to
to start
start working
working on
on
Next
the World
World Blues
Blues Album.
Album. Were
Were going
going to
to
the
six continents
continents to
to record
record with
with indigenous
indigenous
six
musicians playing
playing the
the blues.
blues. II want
want to
to show
show
musicians
people how
how the
the blues
blues are
are interpreted
interpreted by
by
people
others all
all over
over the
the world.
world. Its
Its aa pretty
pretty ambiambiothers
tious project,
project, something
something no
no one
one has
has ever
ever
tious
attempted before
before so
so were
were going
going to
to try
try to
to
attempted
be the
the Magellans
Magellans and
and sail
sail around
around the
the Horn
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be
without killing
killing ourselves!
ourselves!
without
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PREMIER GUITAR
OCF>?LM
7IO1BIOF>)HIQ
2?F?=;MN?L1NSF?
IONCKO?
BY ADAM MOORE
Theres a lot of talk of change this year, and

thats all fine and good, but some things
should just stay the same. One of those is
a 1952 blackguard Telecaster. Capable of
covering jazz, blues, rock and everything in
between with a distinctive bite, Leo Fenders
Telecaster proved that planks of wood could
indeed sound musical. Comprised simply of
an ash body and major-league worthy neck,
this guitar was nothing other than a workhorse; its construction and modular nature
made it a natural choice for active musicians. And although it would (temporarily)
be eclipsed by its space age brother starting
in 1954, the Telecaster has always retained a
devoted cadre of loyalists who have prized
the instrument for its clarity and uncompromising honesty.
While time and skyrocketing vintage markets
have taken the number of original blackguards in the wild to new lowswith the
remaining likely sitting behind glass or vault
doorsa still-going-strong boutique world is
ensuring that these guitars are available for a
new generation, or an older generation just
looking to relive the glory days of instrument
design. Fortunately for buyers, a competitive
marketplace and expanding supply options
have brought about better materials, higher
quality, myriad options and bearable prices.
Theres now really no reason not to have a
good sounding, well built Tele-style guitar in
your arsenal.
This month, we sat down with five small buildersBill Crook, Chihoe Hahn, Rick Kelly, Ron
Kirn and Jay Monterosewho all specialize in
Tele-style guitars, and asked them about their
approach to building and just what separates
their guitars from the rest. And even though
Tele-style guitars are fairly straightforward in
nature, we found five different answers, each
with their own dream of the ideal Tele-style
guitar. So whether youre looking for an artquality instrument to call your number one,
or you just need another Tele to fill out your
closet, were betting youll find a builder here
to call.
PREMIER GUITAR JANUARY 2009

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Jacksonville, Florida
Years Building: 40+
Starting at: $1650
Average wait time: 6 weeks
Contact:
ronkirn.com
904-880-6613
)'0,
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Photos by Ron Kirn. Photographed at Ron Kirns

Jacksonville Shop, November 14, 2008.
0IH)CLH
0-,)'0,%3'201
How did you get into guitar building?
It really began back in the mid-sixties. I
started as a teenager, and like everybody, fell
in love with the guitar. This was back in the
days of Elvis and the Ventures and the early
Beatles, etc. Of course I wanted a guitar, so
my father bought me an early Silvertone,
which was a horrible guitar. And Ive always
had a mechanical aptitude, so I immediately
attacked that thing, trying to rectify it. And I
learned quite a bit about guitars from that.
Tell us a little bit about your philosophy.
I just build them the way I think they should
be built. Theyre either playable or not playable, to me. I just take it all the way through
to the final end, and I play itin fact, Ive
got two of them sitting here behind my desk
right now that I finished a couple of days
ago. What Ill do is Ill finish them, string
them up and intonate them, and then Ill let
them sit there and just get used to being
under tension, because the wood will shift.
Then Ill fine-tune them from there. For some
reason, people seem to appreciate that type
of thinggo figure.
What do you love about the Telecaster?
Its really hard to say. To me, its kind of like
you find a mutt and everybody puts it down
because its not an American Kennel Club
registered dogbut it turns out to be your
best friend. And thats kind of the way I felt
about the Telecaster. The simplicity, the concept of less-is-more kind of slaps you in the
face. You dont need 14 pickups and a monster whammy bar and all of these controls.
Do you offer customers a set model or
configuration?
No, I build custom guitars, and I tend not
to dissuade potential clients from what they
want. I understand the psychology behind a
choice of a guitar.
Most people are led to a specific guitar by
someone within their circle of influence who
will persuade them of what they need to
have. So if your best buddy walks up to you
and says that youve got to have a Telecaster
thats Shell Pink with an alder body and a
rosewood neck, and its gotta have Fralin
pickups and a Callaham bridge and a fourway switch in it, that settles in your mind
because its been reinforced by your association and the dependability of the source that
suggested it to you.
If you walk up to a luthier and he says,
No, man, you dont want Shell Pink or
an alder body. What you need is swamp
ash, oh, and Fralins suckyou need to use
Owen Duffs pickups. And that rosewood
fingerboard looks like crap on there. And
you also appreciate this guy, because, one,
youve chosen him, and two, he does this
for a living, so you immediately assign
value to his input and you allow him to persuade you from what you originally wanted
from your guitar.
bought these things tell me that theyre

blown away by the sound. But it might just
be working on their heads, too.
Why should someone buy a Ron
Kirn guitar?
Well, for the cost, you cant touch it. Thats
it in a nutshell. Its literally like being able to
buy a Ferrari for what a Crown Vic costs.
And you go out, and you now have a guitar,

and you show it to your friend, and he says,
Well, thats cool, but it would have sounded
better with an alder body. And youre out
gigging and playing your favorite song,
and in the back of your mind, you always
have that thought, Did I make the wrong
choice? Any kind of little thing like that will
gnaw away at you until eventually it erodes
your confidence in the instrument, and you
make it your number two, you sell it, whatever. Whereas, on the other side of the coin, if
you walk up to me and you tell me what you
want to do, and I say, No problem; lets do
it, and you say, What do you think about
that sort of thing, Ill say, Its great.
I understand you build guitars with
reclaimed lumber?
I try, people tend to like it. Let me tell you
about this lumberthe buildings were built
in 1600, but they used the lumber from
previous buildings that were built roughly
100 years earlier, the historians say. Which
means that they were built by the first French
settlers to hit that area in 1500. So Ive still
got enough for about four or five of those
guitars. Its fascinating to work with that stuff;
when you cut a piece off, you pick it up and
ask yourself, Is there anything else I can
make with this? It makes for an incredible
sounding guitar. For somebody whos not
really into the tone psyche and that sort of
thing I dont know if its my subconscious
telling me that I need to hear a great sound
out of this guitar, but the few guys that have
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The Signature of
Jazz Guitar.
www.benedettoguitars.com
Howard Alden plays a Howard Alden Bambino Deluxe Custom 7-String. Hear Howard, Bucky
Pizzarelli and Howard Paul, August 15th, at Miner Family Vineyards Benedetto Players Concert,
Napa Valley, CA. www.minerwines.com/events
64
PREMIER GUITAR
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Photos by Chris Murray. Photographed at Chihoe Hahns

Garnerville shop, November 14, 2008
&;BH%OCN;LM
Garnerville, New York
Years Building: 8
Starting at: $2800
Average waiting time: 10 weeks
Contact:
hahnguitars.com
845-918-1334
&&,
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!BCBI?&;BH
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Howd you get into building guitars?
I got into it trying to get a guitar that I
liked. I was searching for a tone that I just
couldnt find by buying new guitars and
looking around at used guitars, so I just
started making my own.
Has the Telecaster always been a favorite
design of yours?
Yeah, Ive played Teles since I was a kid,
for no other reason than thats what was
around. [laughs] Ive always loved that
clean Fender tone, and thats just sort of
what I started with, and eventually I fell in
love with.
Do you have a particular model of Tele or
Esquire that you look to for inspiration?
Its really early to late-fifties Tele-styleId
say up to 59. And thats the inspiration; the
one thing that I like to say is that I like to
be as inspired in the execution as Leo was
in the design. Its probably the most basic
design in a guitar that you can have. You
cant even break it down beyond how it has
been broken down. So that is really what I
try to stay true to: the absolute simplicity
of the design. And I sort of stay away from
anything that is either ornate or tone-sucking. I just keep it as plain as it can be.
That sounds like a very stripped down
building philosophy.
When you buy something today, you sort of
look at it and you inspect it for any imperfection, and if you find any imperfection,
you sort of summarily reject itI think thats
generally how things are today. And that
gives people a sense of quality, perfection
in the execution. And what I try to do in the
guitars, my aesthetic goal, is to straddle the
line between manufacturing perfection and
handmade. So that the person can get
the sense of superior quality, but it retains
that human element.
What is your flagship model?
The model that I offer is called the 228. And
its, again, inspired by a fifties Telecaster.
There are variations on that that I do; I
do swamp ash, alder, and Im working on
mahogany bodied guitars now. But its all

built off the 228 platform.
You fabricate most of your hardware inhouse, correct?
Yeah, the bridges, the saddles, all of the
knobs, the neck plate and the control plate.
Does the fact that youre making all of
these components yourself give you a
different perspective on the building of
these guitars?
I dont think so; theyre really just tools. A
friend just showed me a Glendale bridge,
and I was blown away by it, period. So I
called up Dale and Im talking to him about
working to fabricate some stuff for me.
Because, to me, the hardware is like the
pickupsits a tone shaper, it allows you to
achieve something with the guitar. So I talk
to the customer, I usually ask for favorite
guitars, for favorite songs, for audio clips
to get inspiration from the customer. And
from there, we talk about it and decide
what the hardware and pickup choices are
going to be. And thats the starting point,
but then you actually build the guitar, and
then youve got something, usually an X factor that you couldnt have anticipated, and
you can even tweak it from there. So I do a
lot of my own parts, but its just one choice
thats available for the customer.
you could put all of the guitars up against

each other, and theyre all going to be radically different. I think its just that there are
100 decisions to be made in making any
guitar, and they all add up to more than the
parts. Id say if theres one thing, it depends
on the ear of the builder and the aesthetic
of the builder which flows through every
one of those 100 decisions.
Why should our readers consider buying
a Hahn?
I think people will find it to be an extremely
musical instrument. Its made to be
extremely dynamic and articulate, but primarily musical. The notes are articulate, but
its a seamless blend between strings and
as a whole. Its as much a rhythm guitar as a
lead guitar.
Is there a go-to pickup that you use in

your guitars?
Id say there are go-to manufacturers that
Ive used, and I certainly dont mean to say
that some are superior, but Ive worked a lot
with Lollar, Fralin and Duncan.
What brings you back to those builders?
I like the way that Jason achieves specific
things with specific pickups. Theyre very
dialed in to what it is hes trying to achieve,
and they do it really well. I think Fralin
they all sound amazing, but I love the flexibility, the versatility of his pickups. And I
love the balance of the Duncan pickups.
What makes your guitars unique?
When youre dealing with small builders,
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PREMIER GUITAR
the Straight Truth About Pickups by Jason Lollar

The magic found in some (but not all) classic vintage pickups
was created by accident. Dont let anyone tell you different.
And over time, some pretty stellar accidents happened.The
only way to recreate that magic is to study more than a few
exceptional examples of all the classic pickup types, while
acquiring a thorough understanding of exactly what materials
were used and precisely how each pickup was constructed and
wound. Only then is the magic repeatable, if you are willing to
spend the time and money required to chase the dragon. I am.
I personally design and wind over 30 different pickup models,
including all the vintage classics, many obscure works of art
known only to lap and pedal steel players like Robert
Randolph, and even a few of my own designs that never
existed in the past.
I invite you to call or visit our web site to obtain a free catalog.
Lollar Guitars PO Box 2450 Vashon Island, WA 98070 (206) 463-9838 www.lollarguitars.com
92 P R E M I E R G U I T A R A U G U S T 2 0 0 9
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)?FFS%OCN;LM
New York City, New York
Years Building: 36
Starting at: $1500
Average waiting time: 6-8 months
Contact:
kellyguitars.com
212-691-8400
Photos by Lisa Sharken. Photographed at Rick Kellys

Manhattan shop, November 14, 2008.
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0C=E)?FFS
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How did you get into building?
Right after collegeI majored in sculpture in
collegeI started with Appalachian dulcimers
in the late sixties, early seventies, and then
I converted over to guitars; I started electric
guitars probably around 1972.
When did you first discover the Telecaster?
That was actually because of a guy down in
Maryland named Dimitri Callas. He was an
awful lot like Roy Buchanana family man.
He was asked by the Stones if he would play
with them, and he said, No, I have to stay
here with my family, kind of like Roy did. He
had a bunch of old fifties Teles, and he had
me make him a couple of bodies. That was
in about 1975, and so thats when I started
working with Teles.
Ive pretty much been making 52 Tele-style
guitars since the early seventies, and I make
them very much to Dimitris 53 Tele specs.
So I make a very traditional Telecaster, but I
have a new design now where the horn on
one side is actually lopped off, and it follows
the curves of Leo Fenders custom Telecaster
pickguard that had that short curve to it. I sort
of made the horn match that curveits very
Leo Fender-esque. And I use the paddlehead
stock on it, which also matches the Fenders
prototype.
The thing I do differently is I use wood thats
over 100 years old. Ive been collecting
reclaimed lumber since the early seventies,
when I lived down in Maryland. I was out
every Sunday at farm auctions; Id get greatgranddads wood that was in the barn that no
one really bid on, and I wound up stockpiling
a lot of old wood. Today its a lot easier to
find old timberthere are a lot of reclaimed
lumber businesses out there now that will
just sell it to you. But theres no reason to
use new wood, which is inferior to old wood,
when it comes to guitar building. You need to
have the resins crystallize in the wood, so it
becomes more resonant. Thats the main difference in my guitarsthe age of the wood
and the resonance of the guitar.
Lately Ive been using wood from an old

street here in the city thats called the Bowery;
its one of the oldest blocks in Manhattan, the
early lower Manhattan. The buildings go back
to the 1850s, and I just recently got a whole
load of 1865 white pine from [filmmaker] Jim
Jarmuschs building, which was what the original Telecasters were made from. This is all oldgrowth Adirondack pine that has some amazing grain patternsits so tight and extremely
resonant. And its all roof rafters, which means
that the wood was up there under black tar
for 140 years, cooking all day and cooling at
night, so its got this alchemy thing going on.
It makes an amazing guitar.
How would you describe your building philosophy? You mentioned earlier that you
kind of stick to a very traditional design.
because theyre traditional. And there

are guys that make amazing bridges for
TelecastersGlendale makes a great bridge
and a beautiful set of saddles that interconnect. Theyre amazing sounding and they
perform perfectly. Leo made a perfect guitar,
and its really hard to make it any better, but
nowadays people have been coming up with
individual components that really do make it a
little bit better.
Why should our readers consider buying
a Kelly?
Well, I think theyre going to get the individuality of a true custom guitar. What they call
custom shops today arent reallytheyre just
pulling pieces off a factory line. This is a custom shop: one guy from start to finish.
Yeah, thats really my whole thing. I spent

many years building guitars that were unusual
in design, and I think I have some pretty
amazing designs, too, but that just kind of
faded awaypeople dont ask for those guitars anymore. Theyre really looking for more
traditional guitars, and I sort of found a niche
in Fender-style guitars made from old wood.
Its what people want me to make them, and
its what I seem to be most popular for.
What kind of hardware do you use?
Thats another thing I do differently from a lot
of companies: I use individual makers. Take
pickups, for instance; I use only people who
just make pickups, not companies that make
guitars as well. Right now Ive been using a
lot of Don Mare pickups; weve actually been
doing some trading of guitar parts.
What do you like about the Don Mare
pickups?
Theyre handmade, and its one guy making
them, and he really concentrates on using the
best materials. And he captured something
about that original fifties tone that no one
seems to be able to have gotten. I use Lindy
Fralins alsohe and Lindy are very similar in
that respect. They capture that fifties vibe.
What about the rest of the hardware on
your instruments?
I try to stick with Klusons for tuning machines
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!LIIE!OMNIG%OCN;LM
Moundsville, West Virginia
Years Building: 20
Starting at: $2600
Average wait time: 8-10 months
Contact:
crookcustomguitars.com
304-845-3929
!0--)
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Photos by Ken Blake. Photographed at Bill Crooks

Moundsville shop, November 24, 2008.
CFF!LIIE
!LIIE!312-+%3'201
Howd you get into guitar building?
Well, Im 50 years old. Growing up around
here as a kid, music stores were more worried about saxophones and violins than
electric guitars. And my dad was one of
those guys who, if your roof leaked, you
climbed up there and fixed it; so when my
guitar didnt work, I figured out how to fix
it. And I buggered up a bunch of them and
went from there.
How do you approach the building of a
Tele-style guitar? Whats your philosophy?
I love the looks of the past. Its a timeless
look and feeland that tone! But for a lot
of modern players there are some shortcomings that vintage instruments have. So
I try to keep a lot of the looks and classic
vibe, but I try to make them a little more
user-friendly for modern players.
What do you mean by making them more
user-friendly?
Some simple stuff, like compensated saddles and compound radiuses. Growing up,
something that always drove me crazy with
old Teles was trying to intonate them. And
with a vintage radius, you were always hindered in how low you could get your high
E string and bend itof course, if you grew
up on them, you didnt know any better and
you thought it was okay.
What would you call your flagship model?
Well, everything is built to order, so there
really is no flagship model. But the basic
model, if there was one, would be the 9.5
compound radius neck that I use a lot, with
a very traditional bridge made by Callaham.
I use those almost exclusively unless somebodys looking for something different.
Who do you think is making the best Tele
pickups right now?
You know, for the neck pickup, my favorite
is the Adder Plus neck pickup; its a small
company out of the Chicago, Illinois area,
and Ive used them for years, and theyre just
a great pickup. My favorite bridge pickup is
made by Peter Florance of Voodoo Pickups.
What do you hear in those pickups that

youre not hearing anywhere else?
Theres a richness in the midrange. Itll be
clean when its supposed to, but, like a
good pickup should, when you dig in youll
hear more harmonics and growl out of it.
You know when you pick one up, and youve
got an amp just sitting there on the edge,
and you dig in and it gets big and fat?
Thats what Peters pickup does for me in
the bridge.
A lot of it is the attention to detail. The final
neck shaping I do by hand; I roll the edges
of my necks because I want them to feel
like a pair of shoes youve owned for years.
I want it to be comfortable. The way I finish
my necks is a little different, but again, it
feels like old lacquer that youve played it
doesnt feel sticky or glossy. I spend a lot
of time on the fretwork, the nutwork, just
going over the details.
den. So this went on for a couple of years,

and I ended up hooking up with a graphic
artist. And we figured out how to do it, but
it was an ongoing process of being able to
get a print that looked like something
finding the right kinds of ink. Some of the
first ones I sprayedI didnt know any betterI was using a lacquer-based sealer, and
I watched the ink run right off when the
lacquer hit it.
Who should be playing your guitars?
Ideally, a guitar player that wants to just
play, and not fight the guitar, in terms of
playability. Because ultimately youre there
to make music, and the guitar is just a tool
to do that. And theres nothing worse than
trying to make music when youve got to
worry about things like intonation.
My necks are held on with threaded steel

inserts and machine bolts, as opposed to
wood screws. I really like what it does for
the sound of the guitar; it helps with the
resonance and the sustain. And I build a lot
of guitars that use string benders; guys are
pushing down on that, and thats anywhere
from 16 to 22 foot pounds of pressure
theyre applying. So besides the neck fitting
in the pocket tight, it just keeps everything
much more foolproof.
A lot of people know you for your paisley
guitars; how did those come about?
Its funny; I had never thought about doing
them until Brad [Paisley] got his record
dealIve known him since he was a little
kid. Myself and couple of friends of mine
threw our money together, and I got the
parts to build him a guitar as a congratulations present. He said that he really liked
the [guitar] that I had previously built him,
but he was wondering if I could do paisley.
So I started researching it, and I knew that
the originals had been done with a papertype covering, so I looked everywhere I
could, on the internet, wallpaper stores.
But even when I could find it, it looked like
something from someones grandmothers
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Bergenfield, New Jersey

Years Building: 25 years
Starting at: $5000
Wait time: 6 mos. -3 years
Contact:
vintique.com
201-926-0636
Photos by Will Barrientos. Photographed

at Lark Street Music, November 25, 2008.
(;S+IHN?LIM?
4',2'/3#
Have you always been playing Telecasters?
What have you discovered about the instrument over the years?
Absolutely not. I did the same thing that
Danny [Gatton] did; I was playing Gibsons for
years before I got to the Telecaster thing. The
Telecaster thing started in the D.C. area because
Roy Buchanan was playing. And nobody had
ever heard anybody do that with a Tele before,
so it opened up a lot of our heads about what
you could actually do with that guitar.
the bridge we started with a special alloy that

enhances tonal characteristics and sits flat on
the body, transferring maximum string energy
and sustain. Because of the special alloy we
use, our bridge does not affect the sensitive
magnetic flux field of the pickups; the pickup
sees only the vibrating strings.The hardware is
machined, not stamped. I make every piece by
hand personallyI consider it a real art. Others
have tried and failed to match my quality of
craft or tone, but it all starts in my hands.
Why arent more guys doing it your way?
So we started playing those guitars, and then

we discovered their shortcomings. Theres a lot
of great attributes to the 53 Tele. Its odd to
think that the first production guitar would end
up being the best platform all of these years
out, but we didnt like the fact that you couldnt
get the guitar to intonate. The bridge plate
was floating on the guitar; there was enough
space to slip your business card under the front
of it, and with the bridge plate not making full
contact with the body, it would oscillate, causing
the pickup to feedback and squeal. So we knew
that was kind of screwed up. Also, the necks
would loosen and shift in the pocket, causing
string misalignment.
What did you do to address problems with
the neck pocket?
In the process of addressing this, and the other
shortcomings, we ended up creating a new
paradigm in solidbody guitar construction. We
designed, engineered and produced high-quality hardware based on this theory of mechanical
connection. With repeated removal of the neck
for adjustments and service, the wood screw
holes would strip out, allowing the neck to shift.
We came up with a system where we drill and
tap the hard rock maple and install carbon steel
threaded anchors. We also replaced the wood
screws with stainless steel machine threaded
screws. Our choice of hardware allowed us to
retain the vintage look, but without the neck
shift. And with the neck drawn down under
maximum compression, the result is unparalleled resonance and sustain.
How did you apply the concepts to the rest of
the hardware?
The saddles are made of the best materialno
cheap stuff hereand I actually invented the
vintage-style barrels that intonate perfectly. With
Mass producers cant do it my way. The handmade quality comes from being a true craftsman and artist. I have total command of my
skills and tools. Most guitar guys dont have the
same expertise, knowledge and creative ideas.
The ones that do cant execute it in the same
way. Were all unique in our talents; I happen to
be a player and a builder. Ive never understood
builders who cant play on a professional level
or push the envelope of their designs. Necessity
is the mother of invention; Danny Gatton and I
had to build our own Tele-style guitars because
there wasnt anything commercially available at
the time that met the demands of our playing,
and our pursuit of perfection.
I make total art-style guitars called the DG5394
and 5394. Ive spent years refining them to be
the finest handmade Tele-style guitars available anywhere, handmade with premium oldgrowth wood completely by me. Other than
the fretwire, tuners and stainless screws, we
manufacture everything elsefrom an exactreplica of a 53 Tele body to handmade Charlie
Christian pickups. All of the patterns, templates
and fixtures are based on my Tadio Gomez 53
Esquire and are dimensionally accurate to .020.
You cant tweak them any further!
For the hi-fi humbucking freaks, we incorporate the rocket science designs of pickup
giants Bill and Becky Lawrence.
Who are you guitars meant for?
Vintique guitars are for anyone who loves
the fifties-style Teles, but requires a no-holdsbarred platform to execute the highest order
of functionality in this type of instrument. Its as
versatile as the artist playing it. Tele giants from
James Burton to The Hellecasters use our hardware, and Danny Gatton, Bill Kirtchen and Jim
Weider have played the guitars as well. Vintique
is also currently building guitars for Vince Gill
and jam band king Steve Kimock.
Some people have raked you over the coals
for fulfillment problems and lengthy waits. Is
that fair?
Thanks for asking that! The music business and
industry as a whole can be tough. Its not easy
to be an artist making music or to achieve a
high art in manufacturing. Unless you have a
golden horseshoe buried where it counts, its
a labor of love. Ive been dragged about with
promises and been taken advantage of, and
unfortunately some of my clients have had to
endure the lows with me. The good news is that
this year my pal Steve at Angela Instruments will
be distributing our hardware, and Ill have guitars at Gothic City Guitars as well.
What kind of pickups are you using

in the 5394?
The two basic options available are the vintage-style handwound single coils spun on
Danny Gattons homemade pickup winding
machine that he had wound on since 1967.
He even showed Seymour Duncan how he
wound flatpole Broadcaster pickups on this
unit back in the day! This also includes the
Chuck Christian models on the DG5394.
141
73
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PREMIER GUITAR
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77
Photo: Rendition of EVHS famous first guitar which inspired a generation of hot-rodders.
THE RETURN OF THE
Hot Rod Guitar

BY GERRY GANADEN
64
76
FEATURE
I was thirteen in 1977 when I got my first

Gibson Les Paul Custom. It was my dream
guitar ever since Id seen it in the hands
of many of my favorite guitar players, like
Ace Frehley and Peter Frampton. A year
into it, I started having problems trying to
make it sound a particular way. I took it to
a local music store to ask how to go about
making it sustain more, and the guy behind
the counter introduced me to replacement
parts. He showed me a heavy-mass stop bar
tailpiece and a high-output pickup. Thus
began my journey into the world of hotrodding the electric guitar. As time went on,
I started adding other parts to it, and each
time I put something new on it, it was like
having a new guitar all over again. By the
time it was all over, nothing on that guitar
was stock except the wood.
In the thirty years since then, much has gone
on in the guitar world. Basically, there have
been two approaches in play: modifying an
existing guitar, or building a guitar to meet
high-performance needs. It also always
came down to two kinds of guitars: Fenders
and Gibsons. What Fenders lacked was the
output and full-bodied tone of the Gibsons;
what Gibsons lacked was the comfortable
playability of the Fender neck and body.
changing the electronics to replacing bodies

and necks. Or, if there wasnt anything out
there that suited your needs, you just built a
guitar that featured everything you wanted,
including the way it looked. Historically,
the whole idea of the electric guitar was to
amplify the sound of the instrument. Hotrodding it meant amplifying everything, from
refashioning the electronics to giving it one
hell of a graphic paint job. Taking it to the
extremes is what hot-rodding is all about.
For us hot-rodders, the fifties through the sixties might be considered the dark ages of the
electric guitar: the instrument was still young,
and the companies at the forefront were still
tinkering. Early hot-rodding was evidenced
by John Lennon and George Harrison scraping the finish off of their guitars to get better
tone. Gibson was coming out with things like
the VariTone switch, which gave the player
several preset tones. Fender developed the
Slimline Telecaster in the seventiessurprisingly, it had a dual coil humbucker-style
pickup in the neck position. So, it was evident
that the spark had already been ignited. But
it was only when a custom shop opened up in
Azusa, California that some really crazy stuff
was about to go down.
The Ground Zero of Hot Rod Guitar
The Hot Rod Revolution: The Early Days

In 1978, the year after I got that Les Paul, a
revolution erupted, and a movement started
that continues today. With the release of
the first Van Halen album, rock guitarists
were exposed to the unthinkable: putting a
Gibson-style humbucker pickup in a Stratshaped guitar. It was like two worlds colliding the guts of a Gibson in a Fender-style
body. By todays standards, its not uncommon, but thirty years ago it was unheard of.
My other guitar buddies and I stared at that
album cover, looking at Eddies picture on
the front, asking, What the hell is that?
Hot-rodding a guitar was something that
was done out of necessity. You either had to
modify an existing guitar to give it features
it wasnt originally intended to havefrom
Wayne Charvel was a guitar player in the

L.A. area who started a business in guitar
repair, including refinish work for Fender
under contract in the mid-seventies. Some of
his work included routing humbucker cavities
in Strats. He started doing customizations
that no one had ever done before, and also
developed aftermarket parts, including hardware made of aluminum, brass and stainless
steel. While doing basic guitar repair and
contract work for Fender, he was also making customized guitars that eventually developed into original designs. Soon, he was
building custom-made guitars to order and
was the only true custom shop on the block.
It was in this shop that a kid named Eddie
Van Halen would sit on the floor and tinker
with guitars while Charvel did his work.
Charvel would eventually offer replacement

bodies and necks made by his friend, Lynn
Ellsworth. Ellsworth began making Strat
bodies and necks under Charvels tutelage,
and then started Boogie Bodies Guitars, a
replacement guitar parts company. Charvel
sold them at the repair shop. In the late
seventies, Ellsworth would partner with Ken
Warmoth to create Warmoth Guitar Parts.
It was also during this time that Charvel did
some work with Dave Schecter, who had
begun to make aftermarket guitar parts.
Together, they built necks and bodies to be
sold through Charvels mail order service.
Later, Schecter would go on to form Schecter
Guitar Research, and would design high-end
superstrats for discerning players. Eventually,
Charvel began making bodies and necks on
his own, as Ellsworth and Schecter took what
they had learned from him and begin their
own luctrative businesses.
Wayne Charvels guitar repair workshop in
Azusa seemed to be the birthplace of the
modern hot rod guitar. Eventually, it would
become Charvel Manufacturing in San
Dimas, Californiaand would grow into the
flagship of the revolution, producing some
of the most influential guitar designs to
appear on production models to this day.
With his staff, he created some of the most
original guitar body designs anyone had
seen, and had them painted with everything
from hot rod flames to asymmetrical stripes
and highly detailed graphic artwork. To a
guy like me, San Dimas is hallowed ground.
One employee of Charvel became legendary in his own right. Karl Sandoval was a
luthier at the Charvel shop and later became
known to local L.A. area guitarists as a radical guitar builder. He understood the needs
of the working musician as well as the rockstar mentality. His clients included Eddie
Van Halen and George Lynch, but Sandoval
made more of a statement with his work for
Randy Rhoads: the famed polka dot Flying V.
Like Ellsworth and Schecter before him, Karl
Sandoval had Charvel as a launching pad to
elevate his stature in the hot rod community.
P R E M I E R G U I T A R F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 119
77
2
The Hot Rod Movement Branches Out

In terms of historical importance, at this
point Wayne Charvel was the central figure
in the west coast hot rod guitar movement.
But, another key player on this coast who
would eventually do some work with Charvel
was Bernie Rico of BC Rich Guitars. His company was an established guitar manufacturer,
and enjoying success at the time. Based out
of the Los Angeles area, Rico was designing
guitars with much more radical body shapes.
The names of these guitars became synonymous with the brand name: Mockingbird,
Seagull, Eagle and The Bich, to name a few.
Ricos main contribution to going left-of-center was his refinement of the neck-throughbody design and the development of a heelless neck joint. To make a more affordable
version of some of the BC Rich guitars, Rico
also produced bolt-on models, for which he
contracted Charvel to construct necks.
In 1978, Wayne Charvel decided to move on

to other ventures, and sold the Charvel company to an administrative employee, Grover
Jackson. A guitar player in his own right,
Jackson took on the business end of the
Charvel company, but also had a genuine
interest in transforming it. Once he gained
control of the place, he brought a major
focus to the company with marketing savvy
and a much-needed artist relations program.
While maintaining the Charvel company
name, Jackson took what Wayne Charvel
had started to the masses, by providing local
and national players with high performance
machines. He started an endorsement program, which meant high-profile players were
constantly seen with Charvel guitars.
In 1980, Jackson met with Ozzy Osbournes
guitarist Randy Rhoads to design a much
more unconventional guitar. It was an offset
V-shaped guitar, with one wing shorter than
the other. Charvel Manufacturing was still

enjoying the success of Wayne Charvels
designs and customized Strat-like guitars.
Jackson didnt want to risk disrupting that
success by putting the Charvel name on
Randys new guitar, so he simply put his
own name on the guitars headstock and
the first Jackson was born. At an Ozzy
show the following year, I saw that guitar.
The ferocity of Rhoadss playing made
me notice the brand name on the guitar,
a name Id never heard of. Unbeknownst
to me at the time, I would later own over
twenty Jackson guitars!
My first exposure to a Charvel was at a local
shop in 1983, and my first impression was that
it played much more easily than my Les Paul.
Like Van Halens guitar, it was strat-shaped,
had a single humbucker and a brass tremolo
bridge. Even more striking were the hot rod
flames painted on it. The fastness of the neck
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120
78

FEATURE
was due to the flatness of the radius, and I felt like a better
guitar player simply by virtue of that.
Charvel and Jackson guitars would soon be seen with
lots of players on the world scene, from Gary Moore and
Iron Maiden to RATT and Jeff Beck. With such high-profile players involved, Jacksons marketing got the word
out that there was a new production standard entering
the game. These were manufactured guitars derived
from the customizations done on guitars at Charvels
original shop. They included angular body shapes, highoutput pickups, various electronic switching, flat-radius
necks and stunning graphic paint jobs. Not only did they
make the Randy Rhoads signature model, but they also
made other Vs, an Explorer-styled guitar called a Kelly
and the Strat-shaped Soloist, which was the first superstrat to appear on the market.
Using the Rhoads model as its flagship, the neck-thrubody models were designated with the Jackson label,
while the bolt-on, Strat-shaped models went under the
Charvel name. Clearly, these didnt resemble anything
Randy Rhoads with his famous polka dot V guitar, built by Karl Sandoval, and offset V-shaped guitar, built by Jackson.

121
79
Neal Sheltons Rare

Charvel/Jackson Guitars
Neal Shelton is a southern California music store owner who
for almost thirty years has collected many early Charvel and
Jackson guitars. Though hes brokered hundreds of these rare
guitars through his shop, he has also managed to own quite
a few of the companys true gems, including one-of-a-kind
custom models, pre-production versions, and celebrity-owned
Charvel/Jacksons.
His first exposure to a Charvel was in 1979, while he was
shopping for gear in Hollywood at a small store called Guitar
Center. Shelton says of his epiphany, There was a wall of
these awesome guitars with custom finishes, crazy colors,
and graphics. My jaw dropped! The one that really caught
my attention was a Star body, pink with a silver lightning bolt
graphic. I really wanted it, but I was on a budget to buy a PA,
a Marshall half-stack and a guitar. I had to settle for a used
G&L F-100. I never did forget that day.
The San Dimas Jacksons helped create a flagship model, the Soloist.
Gibson or Fender had produced. Eventually, the Charvel

name was phased out and Jackson flourished as the
standard that other companies would come to follow.
At that point, it was clear there was life blooming
beyond the Les Paul and the Stratocaster. Rock guitar
playing was becoming more extreme, and the tools
needed to accomplish this more challenging playing
style were being developed to make it happen.
A New Name in the Game
So its 1985, and George Lynch is showing me a new guitar.
He had done an even trade for a Charvel at a music store
while on tour with Dokken. It was a red Kramer Baretta, and
it was heavy. The body was made of maple and painted red,
with a matching red headstock. He said it was every bit as
good as what Charvel was doing with custom-ordered guitars, but this Kramer was a stock production model. It had
a single humbucker (like the Charvel I had seen a couple
of years before), a wide 1-3/4 wide nut, a flat radius, big
frets and Floyd Rose tremolo. At that time, no production
model guitar had a Floyd included as stock hardware. I had
seen a magazine ad with Eddie Van Halen, but I was still
attached to my Les Paul. However, after plinking around with
Georges Kramer Baretta, I just had to have one. The next
day, I went down to the local guitar shop and ordered one.
Kramer was a whole world away from San Dimas, being
based in New Jersey. It started out in the mid-seventies
as an offshoot of the Travis Bean Guitar company, which
built guitars around an aluminum neck. That guitar was
super neck-heavy, and the neck itself was cold to the
touch. Gary Kramer, then business partner of Travis Bean,
redesigned the neck, and with the folding of Beans company, he pursued this redesign. The new guitar featured
wooden inserts in the neck for weight relief, and to give it
the feel of a normal guitar neck. He marketed it under his
own name, and with the partnership of music store owner
Dennis Berardi, Kramer Guitars went on to perfect the
production that Travis Bean guitars had lacked.
122
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82
PPRREEMMIIEERR GGUUIITTAARR GF RE EB ARTUEASRT Y H I2T0S0 V9 O L . 1
With so many custom options available on Charvels and

Jacksons through the years, Shelton cites the differences that
set these guitars apart from the mainstream: They had a nice
wide fretboard with a slim, fast neck. These guitars were built
for speed, not sluggish like a Les Paul. They were built to play
and perform metal.
Shelton played the L.A. metal scene for many years, and
continues performing in Hysteria, the premier Def Leppard
tribute band. His store, Neals Music, is located in Huntington
Beach, California, where many of these gems can be seen. Of
these, the true treasures are the vintage Charvel and Jackson
guitars on display.
These guitars show an evolution of their own, which Shelton
describes as a progression. The Charvels had a Strat-style
headstock, but due to Fender copyrights, they had to switch
to the pointy headstock that most everyone now thinks of
when they think of Jackson or Charvel, remarks Shelton.
Of the guitars Shelton owns, one stands out as his proudest
piece. I have a 1982 Charvel EVH black and yellow-striped
that belonged to Eddie Van Halen, he divulges. They only
made about a hundred of these guitars as a production run.
He also has the original company invoice made out to Eddie.
This is the oldest Charvel guitar Shelton currently owns,
although he has had many that predate this one. I have
owned many pre-production Charvels in the past, dating
back to 1977, he remarks, before Wayne Charvel put serial
numbers on the guitars, and some of them were even built
using actual seventies Fender hardware. As a broker of these
rare guitars, Shelton can be considered partly responsible
for having fed the hot rod fever. As he says, I have literally
had hundreds of vintage Jacksons and Charvels go through
my hands. I supplied many of the collections you see on the
internet today.
Visit Neal Sheltons 1982 EVH Charvel at: nealsvintage.com.
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175
Calling these Pacer models, Kramer began

to feature a double-locking tremolo made
by Rockinger, a German company. Eddie Van
Halen appeared in ads with a Pacer series
guitar and the tremolo was listed as the
Eddie Van Halen Tremolo. It was during
this time that a new contraption by a guitar
tech named Floyd Rose entered the scene.
It was a double-locking tremolo, much like
the Rockinger, but it had a two-point floating pivot rather than the six-screw anchoring of the Rockinger. As Kramer continued
to evolve, they discontinued the use of the
Rockinger and began using the Floyd Rose
tremolo, which was exclusive to all Kramer
guitars by 1984. By then, Kramer had started
adding other body shapes with exotic
graphic paint jobs.
One of the Gary Kramer 1983 Duke Bass guitars.

The Duke was also available as a six-string.
The new series of guitars had the new

neck and a pronounced double-cutaway
body very similar to the Travis Bean guitars
in appearance. Most of the accessories
on these guitars were completely Kramer
designed, like the active pickups and the
bridges. One of the more innovative designs
Kramer offered at this time was the Duke
bass, which was a headless bass guitar with
the tuners attached to the body. This preceded the Steinberger by several years, and
showed the companys intention to move
into more original designs.
By the time more contemporary guitars were
designed, Gary Kramer had left the company (see sidebar story) but Kramer guitars
continued to redesign their products with
Berardi and luthier Phil Petillo. Beginning in
1983, Kramer guitars took on a more Stratshaped appearance and all-wooden necks.
a competitive sport. Even more traditional

rock players like Peter Frampton and Neal
Schon were using customized hot-rodded
guitars that suited their playing styles.
To Mod, or Not to Mod?
The general components needed to hot-rod
a guitar were focused on increasing the performance capability of the electric guitaras
I had done to my Les Paul, increasing sustain
by changing the tailpiece and the bridge
pickup. It was finding a way to improve my
guitar to meet the standards of the playing
trends before finally buying a new guitar
that met those standards more completely.
But there were those who didnt want a new
guitar. If there was a will, there was a
At that time, in order to get a Floyd on your

Charvel/Jackson guitar (or any other custom
manufactured guitar), you had to buy one
and send it to them to put it on your order.
Kramer owned the rights and distribution
to the Floyd Rose until the late eighties. As
an alternative to the Floyd Rose, companies
offered the Kahler tremolo bridge, which
was more like a moving tailpiece that passed
the strings over roller saddles. One key
point of difference was that it stayed in tune
with the use of a lockpiece on the headstock
behind an existing nut. It proved less desirable because this design didnt eliminate
friction at the nut, and the tailpiece didnt
have enough of a break angle to increase
sustain. The Floyd Rose was preferable
because of its tuning stability and sustain.
Kramers had all the custom hot-rod options
already done to them: high-output pickups,
a Floyd Rose tremolo, flat-radius necks and
flashy paintjobs. It seemed they had taken
what Charvel had started and mass marketed it. Soon, players everywhere needed
to have guitars that were souped-up with
the appointments introduced into the mainstream by these east and west coast branches of the guitar industry. They were highly
influential and became the standards to
follow. Guitar playing had gone into a whole
new realm, and shredding was becoming
A 1981 Kramer Pacer
124
82
64

George Marinelli
(Bonnie Raitt, Bruce

Hornsby...)
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Compulsion
A 1986 Kramer Kline Ghoul which featured the exclusive Floyd Rose
double-locking tremolo with a two-point floating pivot.
way. These discerning players chose the modifying route.

Replacement parts saw a boom in sales during this time
period. It began with the pickup.
The pickup I put in my Les Paul was a Gibson Dirty
Fingers humbucker. It was a gnarly pickup that put a lot
of sizzle into my tone. The salesman who showed me my
options put a wide variety in front of me. DiMarzios filled
the display case, along with a bunch of other replacement parts. DiMarzio was one of the first companies to
offer such a wide variety of replacement partsthat also
included necks, bodies and hardware. But their main
product was their headspinning array of pickups. Seymour
Duncan would later arrive on the scene as major competition, making even more tonal options available.
As the years went by, a huge assortment of other parts
companies appeared, making it possible for any guitarist
to hot-rod to their hearts delight. There were electronic
gadgets available to make your guitar scream, provide
endless amounts of sustain, and even shoot out lasers.
Of the more outstanding parts companies was Warmoth
from Puyallup, Washington. As mentioned earlier, it was
a company born out of the Charvel legacy. Lynn Ellsworth
and Ken Warmoth put together a company that made a
whole host of Strat-compatible necks and bodies using
premium and exotic woods. They did everything in-house
and built a large enough market for guitarists to begin
doing their own customization on a massive scale. Other
similar companies, like Mighty Mite, Chandler and Zolla,
were very good and affordable, too. All of them gave guitarists the ability to hot-rod guitars at home or have their
local guitar repair guy slap something together for them.
In 1987, I decided to take a stab at building a guitar. How
hard could it be? I had a Charvel and a Kramer, but at that
point I wanted to see if I could make one just as good or
better than what I had. I ordered a Warmoth neck and
body; I collected other hardwarefrom screws to bolts
and wiring; and got a humbucking Seymour Duncan pickup to make this dang thing. Once I had gotten a Floyd
Rose tremolo, I went at it, using the Charvel and the
Kramer as my cheat sheet. From building this guitar,
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The single thing that made Kramer guitars more desirable

to me over the competition was that Eddie Van Halen was
playing their products, says Terry Boling of Easley, South
Carolina. He is one of the premier Kramer collectors in the
US, having owned hundreds of Kramer guitars over the past
twenty years. Boling has often been referred to as The
Godfather of Kramer, having written the most definitive story
of the Kramer guitar company. Also a motorcycle enthusiast,
Boling began collecting Kramer guitars in 1984. He believes
the popularity of the Kramers was due to two factors: With
the endorsement of Eddie Van Halen and being the sole distributors of the Floyd Rose tremolos, Kramer was difficult for
anyone to overthrow.
Of the Kramer guitars Boling currently owns, his white Baretta
model is his favorite. Its an original 1985 Baretta, he says,
with the R5 Floyd Rose nut width, and its loaded with an aftermarket EMG 81 pickup. The radius of the fretboard is really flat,
and the neck thickness is fairly thin and feels absolutely terrific
to me. Ive played it somewhere in the neighborhood of six to
seven thousand hours in the twenty-one years Ive owned it.
Kramer closed up shop in June of 1990, but Boling
continued his crusade to honor the company by launching
kramerkrazy.com. He also contributed a lengthy, six-part
research report on the company for Vintage Guitar Magazine
in 1998, which was well-received by guitar fans. It contained
many unknown facts about the company, including the
involvement of ESP Guitars and other companies in Kramers
product manufacturing.
ESP helped fulfill the needs of Kramer for guitar bodies and
necks, says Boling, along with other wood suppliers like
LaSiDo (a Canadian guitar company) and Sports (a wood supplier from Connecticut). By 1986, ESP was the sole supplier of
bodies and necks.
In 1995, Gibson bought the Kramer name and began
importing guitars from Korea under the Kramer brand
name, using the same model names from previous years.
Boling was displeased, saying, They were importing guitars under the names Pacer and Baretta that had no
similarities to the original guitars of the eighties. I felt this
was a hard slap in the face of the original company, its
founders, and the fans of their products.
But with the pressure of the Kramer fans in online forums, the
newly formed Kramer company restructured their production
and is finally recreating the original models in the US. In some
cases, theyre even better than the original versions. Boling
recently bought a new 1985 reissue Kramer Baretta. The fit,
finish and overall quality meets or exceeds many of the original 84 85 Barettas I have owned over the years, he says.
For more information about the original, legendary Kramer
guitars and Terry Bolings history of the Kramer company,
visit: vintagekramer.com.
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know a thing or two about music.
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Here we go again.
Our guitars have been the United Kingdoms

best-selling acoustics for the past 3 years.
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85
I began to develop a true understanding of

how a guitar works everything from a pickups peak resonance to the sustain factor of
wood combinations, to the correct balance
point of a Floyd Rose.
During this time, guitarists could be seen
with augmentations to classic guitars. There
were Les Pauls with locking tremolos on
them. There were Strats with one or two
humbuckers in them. There were the true
hot rods, like Kramer and Jackson. Newer
competition from companies like ESP and
Fernandes appeared, having been influenced by the hot rod movement. Ibanez got
a rebirth at this time, developing their now
famous RG series.
l ight
l ight
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compa ct
What Goes around Comes around

As with everything in life, all good things
come to an end. With the demise of the
hard rock scene, guitarists reverted back to
rock musics more humble beginnings, citing
simplicity as key. Along with this revival, the
guitar world reverted back to the Gibsons
and Fenders that were the tools of our forefathers. The nineties ushered in the vintage
market, and the hot rod revolution was over.
While Jackson guitars continued, Kramer
went bankrupt and closed up shop.
It seemed like kids who grew up in the
eighties and were now of age had gone into
their dads closet to see what made their
dads hip. What they found was dads old
Crosby, Stills & Nash records, along with

dads old Les Paul and Fender Super Reverb.
Coming into their own, that generation took
its inheritance and started their own bands,
following dads lead. Suddenly, what was old
was new again. Gibson and Fender seemed
to undergo a much-needed revival, bringing
back the regal stature of electric guitar. I
embraced it for a while myself, but I missed
the high-octane, six-string flamethrower I
had wielded in the previous decade.
At the turn of the millennium, things became
a bit complacent, and music trends changed
again. The nineties had given us a lot of
dark, brooding images, and guitar playing
had gone off the beaten path toward odd
tunings and other techniques that werent as
a d justa bl e
compa ct
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FEATURE
challenging as they once

had been. However, in 2002 Ozzy
Osbourne fell victim to reality television, and
metal was being exposed to an entirely new
generation. The kids who grew up in the
nineties were maturingjust as in the previous decade, they went through dads closet
to find out what made him hip. When they
found Judas Priest records, they discovered
some fierce guitar playing. And they found
dads Charvels, Jacksons, Kramers, ESPs and
Ibanez guitars, along with his Marshall amp.
They took up those guitars and started learning Van Halen riffs.
The return of the hot rod guitar has come,
and were seeing a much needed shot in the
arm. Newer, technically advanced players are
again being provided with the

appropriate tools, along with the
enhancements of much more sophisticated
technology. Things are more precise, and guitar
makers are introducing products that may
take us beyond what we already knew about
guitar construction. We have computer-driven
machinery that makes things more accurate,
but the old-school minds are still at work.
Things have come full circle, but guitar design
innovations continue evolving to fit the high
performance needs of accomplished guitarists
around the world. Of course, no new revolution
will ever recapture the humble beginnings of
that shop in Azusa.
Photo: A 1981 Kramer Vanguard.
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guItaR
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PREMIER GUITAR
TAYLORGUITARS
According to the Timeline section of
Taylors website, Bob Taylor had this to
say about his first guitar,: I worked on that
guitar my whole 11th grade year, and the
day I strung it up was pretty great. My
friends came over and we all played it
and everyone thought it was the best guitar theyd ever strummed. Like we really
knew, or something. Actually, it was a pile
and wasnt made very well, but it wasnt
too bad for a 17-year-old kid working on
his own and not knowing anything about
the subject.
Beginning with this humble, self-admitted
pile of a guitar, Bob Taylor has earned
a well-respected spot in the industry by
constantly striving to find better ways to
do things, even within a craft as bound by
tradition as guitar making. Initially derided
for such heretical behavior as bolting-on
necks and choosing unique tonewoods,
Taylors non-conformist tactics have come
full circle, with even the staunchest of
old-world companies now offering several
bolt-on models in their catalogs. Not content with simply building different guitars,
Bob also seems intent on building guitars
differently, honing his manufacturing processes and creating custom tools with a
trusted crew of engineering visionaries.
Bob Taylor and crew were kind enough to
offer Premier Guitar an opportunity to tour
Taylor world headquarters in El Cajon,
California. Nestled in a non-descript industrial park in a San Diego suburb, Taylor
has created a campus that runs the gamut
from low-key gift shop to high-tech robotic
finishing rooms, all within walking distance
of one another.
Waiting in said gift shop for the tour to
start, we were honored when Bob himself arrived to show us around, offering a
glimpse into his overriding sense of stewardship as well as his love for the instrument, demonstrated by everything from
our personal tour to his ongoing quest
for earth-friendly woods and manufacturing techniques. What follows is a small
glimpse into the future of guitar building,
according to Bob Taylor.
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BUILDER PROFILE
An Interview with
STEVEN FRYETTE
BY CHRIS BURGESS
Its always about the player and playing

music, and what you hope to accomplish
by playing music. Thats always my starting
point. Even if I forget for a moment, eventually Im forced back there because thats the
point where all the inspiration is drawn from.
Music is a collective pursuit, everybody is
involved in that, and borrows, and intermixes
and adds. Some people, guys like David
Torn come to mind, innovate. When you get
an opportunity to interact with an innovator, very cool things happen. Generally, its a
pretty collective conversation. So when you
sit down and talk to players, you always have
lots of common ground to work with.
Producing a piece of equipment or an instrument for an artist to use, on the other hand,
is a problem-solving project. When you sit
down and talk about music, youll talk about
what you like, or somebody that you saw that
was particularly good. As the conversation
grows, you get into things that are common
ground, and eventually you start getting into
problems, like Im trying to do this, or I
dont have the technique to do that, or I
heard something I havent figured out how to
do. When you get to that point in the conversation, these are the things that make you
go, Alright, how do I address that, or create
something to solve that problem?
So the initial idea for a design really is about
being presented with a particular challenge?
Absolutely.
The amps you make are
well, worshipped
After twenty years, VHT founder Steven
Fryette is building his highly regarded amps
under a new name: Fryette Amplification.
The VHT trademark has been sold to AXL,
which produces amplifiers bearing the VHT
logo. Fryette continues to hold all the patents and designs, and will continue to make
all of the VHT models currently in production. We spoke to him about what that
change means, about what hes gathered
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PREMIER GUITAR
in his twenty years of designing and building amps, and about what we might expect
from him next. The following is a portion of
that conversation.
As somebody whos been doing this a long
time, do you take a different approach with
each amp design, or are you following a
pattern that youve established?
[laughs] for lack of a better term?

Yeah for their organic nature, for the way
players can interact with them, and Ive heard
you spend a lot of time watching and listening to players using your amps. During the
process of developing and refining, are you
watching or listening for certain cues that let
you know youre on to something, in terms
of the challenge youre trying to solve?
STEVEN FRYETTE
Fryette and a Pittbull prototype, ca. 1987.

In a way, there are two entirely different
perspectives in there. One is just a technical
perspectiveengineering, selecting components and arranging how theyre going
to fit together, making the idea work... that
brute, engineering aspect. The other is just
the being-in-the-moment sort of process.
In reality, those two things dont exist separately. They arent necessarily paid attention
to equally, but they have to co-exist for
the product to exist. I think the difference
between one product and another has a lot
to do with which perspective gets how much
time applied to ithow much you are willing
or able to go into that other zone.
Fryette testing a prototype Deliverance.

sound, and people have this idea that hes
blowing up the stage all the time. He came
over here one day, and he started playing
pretty quietly just this little rhythmic riff,
over and over again. It was really a small, littlesounding riff, but he kept playing it, and after
about three or four minutes, it just got bigger.
He didnt really change anything so muchand
he didnt change any amp settings or guitar
settings. The sound just got bigger, and bigger,

until I was amazedhe had transformed from
the regular guy coming in the front door into
the Page Hamilton that people see on stage,
and respect and strive to emulate the
whole vibe in the room changed, and thats
the creative interaction with the gear that
turns into something thats greater than the
sum of the parts.
And theres no manual for that zone, no set

of specifications to follow. Its entirely intuitive and you just have to really love music
and respect the people you work with to
surrender yourself to that.
I do listen to players, and interact with them
jam with friends and artists our key artists
are also friends, so the artist relationship is
more than just somebody whos playing our
gear. Were inspired by the music they make;
theyre inspired by the gear we produce.
Theres a synergy there that gets the conversation going and creates the interest on their
end to explore the gear more fully and to ask
questions, and really get into it and learn how
to get the most out of it. For us, too, to get
inside their heads, and see how theyre doing
it, how theyre solving their problems, and
where theyre drawing their inspiration.
A case in point is Page Hamilton. He uses the
Ultra-Lead almost exclusively, and Im always
amazed that he has the master volume turned
down kind of low, and he uses it in half-power
mode. But he has this big, huge, dynamic
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STEVEN FRYETTE
are responsible for the versatility, and then see
if weve retained it. If we have, lets throw it out
there and see if anybody recognizes that.
The idea was to take your mind off of the
switches and buttons and all that stuff. You
just play, and then you realize, Oh, wait
a minute, Im playing this amp that I never
thought could do these sounds, and without
all the features I thought I needed. And
that creates a moment of an awakening to
a particular segment of the guitar-playing
world that thought we were just a metal amp,
or that we were just about whatever kind of
sound or artist was associated with it.
It seems very much like an artists
approach to problem solving: put all the
things you need to know in your mind and
then just wait, let it cook.
Page Hamilton, Warped Tour 2006, Denver CO

Photo: Scott D. Smith / Retna Ltd.
Its hard to explain, but you have to really
look at that and think, Theres something
going on here that is organic. But not
organic in the sense of the word when
people say, Thats a really organic-sounding
amp. That word can mean a lot of different
things to different people. The organic I latch
on when you use the word is the synergy
between the player and their gear that happens as you warm up to it and get into it. Its
not about what circuit board, or a particular
capacitor, or that sort of thing. Its that theres
something in there that wakes up.
Yeah, the needed component finds its way to

the top, if given the opportunity.
Is that balance something youve always
been able to strikebetween the engineering and the know-how of building the
amp, and the artistic approach of letting the

missing piece find its way into the pattern?
Thats a really good question. If I knew, I probably could answer it. I would say that whatever
you call balance is the product of the time and
place youre injust like music is and the
gear that you use to get a sound is simply the
approach that you used at that time. In the real
world, players often find themselves not using
the gear they thought they needed to accomplish what they set out to do. I do the same
thing working out ideas as I would for playing
musictry to stay in receive mode.
It also sounds like youre clear about
approaching the whole thing as a journey,
just kind of going for the ride. Lots of
people sell themselves on the idea that
theres one path, and that they shouldnt
take any detours or follow anything that
interests them, but it seems like you really
respect the different places your own
obsessions have taken you.
Its very much a ride. The detour, by the way is
often the most interesting and revealing path.
Closing the door and saying, Okay, the rides
Are there particular amps that are a product

of that kind of happenstancethat came out
of a situation like that, where something just
developed, or turned into something else?
Theres a couple, actually. One was the
Deliverance. Someone here said they thought
our sound was too sophisticated to cop something like the guitar sound on Anarchy in the
UK. So I took a couple of minutes and set up, I
think the CLX, to sound like, or more correctly
put across the attitude of that guitar sound.
From there, we started exploring how we felt
that there was something some people werent
getting about our amplifiersthat their
versatility is not a function exclusively of the
feature set. How do we make that apparent?
How do we put something into the hands of a
player that illustrates the versatility absent all
the features? The obvious answer was, Lets
just yank out all the features that people think

145
105
106
PREMIER GUITAR
STEVEN FRYETTE
UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL
OFfigured
YOUR
GUITAR.
over. Weve
out what
we wanna do;
a brand over a long time, that theres somenow were
gonna make
this
time
a milThejust
components
found in
Graph
Techs
Electric
Supercharger
are out
specifically
designed to
lion thats
when Kits
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the door.
unlock the harmonics and tone of any guitar.
www.graphtech.com
Im pretty
lucky cause Ive met a lot of people
p 604.940.5353
who have
reinforced that feeling, you know,
that Im on the right track. Ive always had the
support of my friends and my family and all
that, but Ive also had some pretty good influences. There was a book I read once called Zen
and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Sure, I remember that book.

That was something that always stuck with
me, because that book dealt with the duality
of the rational side of doing a thing versus
the romantic side of a particular pursuit.
Of course, the whole idea of the book was
that those two things coexist. I went on a
motorcycle trip and read that book during
that time, so that really stuck with me. I was
fortunate to have a good ear, and to be able
to play different instruments, and have music
come to me
easily,
to Performance.
really love
Thepretty
Evolution
of and
Guitar
music. When you really love something and
theres a bunch of other people that all love
the same thing, then youre part of a community. If your life revolves around being part of
that, you cant help but pick up good information and get inspiration, and maybe even
get challenged, which is always a great thing.
With us, theres an underlying philosophy
that everything we do, whether its a product, or a feature, or a function, it has to have
a reason to exist, it has to be consistent with
what we consider the qualities of our product and sound, and it has to make sense.
Usually, if it meets those criteria, then the
rest of it sort of takes care of itself.
thing associated with that brand and that its a

cardinal sin to dispose of that or to veer away
from that modelalthough, in the nineties
internet companies were doing it all the time. It
was the M.O so you saw a lot of rebranding
going on then. It was the way to go.
The other part of it is the people who are our
family, our loyal players. Long-time users have
an attachment to that, and they felt maybe
that it was kind of ripped from them without
a proper explanation. Im sympathetic to that
point of view too, but the bottom line is, this
name change represented a huge opportunity
for us to grow and do a lot of things that we
had been constrained from doing for a long
time because of our size. So, as unusual as that
concept is (and shocking to some people), selling our trademark to another company whos
going to put it on an entirely different product
that doesnt have any association with our
products has worked out really well on a financial level and on a creative level for us. I made
the conscious decision to get out from behind
the amp and take my place on the front,
instead of using a pseudonym. Its going back

to this thing being a conversation.
What can we expect from you
guys going forward? I know youre
working on the Memphis.
Right. Memphis is going to be a series, starting with combos. Were working really hard on
that. For a long time weve sort of been in awe
about the demand for our big gear. Recently,
the emphasis on combos has been more
noticeable than in past yearsthe dull roar of
When are your combos coming back? has
turned into a little bit more of an aggressive
roar in the last couple of years. Were replacing our former Pittbull series combos with the
Memphis Seriesnew features, some refinements, and innovative cosmetics. A combo
is a specific kind of a thing. Theres a set of
expectations, and manufacturers have to live
up to those expectationsthose challenges
to address, maybe meet, but also try to open
peoples eyes and show them maybe another
little twist on that. Thats the innovative part
that youve got to keep your eye on.
e
t
i
L
Half the weight

of an original
Shubb Capo!
There is some confusion out there about

whats going on with the VHT name, and
the changeover to Fryette. Youre going to
continue to put out your ampsthe Sig:X,
Deliverance, Ultra-Lead, and the restunder
the new name, correct?
Theres a little angst out there about it, but the
bottom line is that we are the same company
that weve always beenwe just have a new
name. We had an association with another
company that lead ultimately to the sale of the
VHT trademark, and it was a good deal for us
and a good deal for them. It might be difficult
for people to understand, because its such
an unusual and seemingly drastic move in an
industry where people feel that when you build
84 P R E M I EwRw GwU. pI Tr Ae mR i e rAgUuGi Ut aSrT. c o2 m0 0 9
info@shubb.com www.shubb.com
707-843-4068
P RwE wMwI E. pRr eGmU iI eT rAgRu i t aArP. Rc oI Lm 2 0 0 9
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107
MODIFICATION
MODIFICATION
MODIFICATION
Boss DS-1
Mods
BYBYBRIAN
WAMPLER
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WAMPLER
BY BRIAN
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exclusive
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exclusive
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with
exclusive
podcast
with
Brian
Wampler
about
pedal
Brian
Wampler
about
pedal
Brian
Wampler
about
pedal
modificatoins
only
at
modificatoins
onlyonly
at at
modificatoins
premierguitar.com/podcast
To
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Switching
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Switching
Circuitry
Circuitry
Circuitry
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MODIFICATION
If youve been in a music store anytime since 1978, youve no
doubt seen the ubiquitous orange Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal.
Universally recognized as a good, inexpensive distortion pedal,
youve probably even owned one or two in the past. Although it
houses a simple circuit design, it produces a very good sound,
particularly for a mass produced pedal. Lets look a little more
closely at the circuit and check out some changes that are available to make this great pedal even better.
The circuit is a buffered bypass circuit with electronic switching, as
are all Boss pedals. The circuit comes in through R1, a 1K resistor,
and then travels through C1, a .047 microfarad, or F, capacitor
into the first buffer. This buffer goes out through C2 and then into
a JFET (junction gate field-effect transistor), which is part of the
switching. If the pedal is off, the signal goes out to the switching circuit and through the output through Q7, which is the other
JFET. These JFETs act as a switch, allowing the signal to either go
through the distortion circuit or out through the buffers, producing a clean signal.
When the pedal is on, signal travels to Q6, through C3 and into a
transistor gain stage. R7 controls the gain of this circuit by changing the voltage bias, consisting of a 470k resistor which you can
increase or decrease in value to adjust gain before the next stage.
Increasing the value increases gain, while decreasing it will give
you a little less gain overall but will tighten up the DS-1s low-end
response, ridding it of the flubbiness many people dislike. We can
also decrease C3 to get this same effect by not allowing as much
bass to come through. I like to change its value to either .022F
or .033F if Im looking for a less flubby tone. To clarify, to me
flubby means a deeply compressed tonality. C4, which has a
value of 250 picofarads (pF) also filters out some highs. Changing
this wont do too much, although you may be able to coax a little
more brightness by changing it to a 100 pF capacitor.
The signal then goes out through C5 into the opamp. This opamp
is used in a unique way to clip the signal. R11 controls the gain
in combination with the distortion knob, R13 and C8. The gain
control is set up this way to enable the clipping of higher frequencies as you turn the distortion up. When its turned down, it allows
lower frequencies in giving it a muddy sound since the signal
is clipped beforehand through the transistor gain circuits, then
clipped again when the distortion control is turned down. The first
stage clipping is still occurring and as a result, the pedal doesnt
sound as clear and articulate as many would like. R13 and C8 are
part of this non-inverting opamp circuit which provides negative feedback to ground. This is important for several reasons.
The resistor value of R13 and the capacitor value of C8 basically
provide a frequency range where the signal is made to clip. In this
case all frequencies above 33hz is being clipped. To contrast, a
Tubescreamer only lets frequencies above 728hz clip. This means
that none of the lower bass frequencies are being boosted and/or
clipped in the Tubescreamer.
The signal goes out through R14, which is a 2.2k resistor, through
C9, which is a .47F capacitor running across two diodes D4
and D5 and then to ground. All the usual diode tricks can be
done here to allow more asymmetric clipping or different clipping
flavors. Here C10 is also in parallel with D4 and D5 and is used to
filter out highs in conjunction with R14. R14 and C10 form a low
pass filter, cutting out high frequencies.
Go to indyguitarist.com/filter.htm and scroll to the bottom. Plug
these values into the corresponding fields to determine which fre-
Boss DS-1 Schematic
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PRODUCT REVIEW
quencies are being filtered. With the current values you will find its
filtering everything above 7k, which helps to smooth things out a
little bit. If its too bright, replace R14 with a resistor valued at 3.3k,
allowing more highs to be filtered out, or try a 4.7k resistor to filter
out everything above 3.3kHz.
After the tone control the signal travels through the level control
and then out through R18, which is a 10k resistor, and then on to
Q7, which is the other side of the JFET switching circuit. In its on
state, it goes past Q7, through C13 which is a .047F capacitor
through yet another output buffer and then a resistor, a capacitor
and finally through the output.
After traveling through the diodes and the capacitor, the signal
goes through a Big Muff P inspired tone control. There are many
Lets look at some modifications that will have your DS-1 doing your
things we can do to manipulate the tone here, and a great resource
bidding in no time.
is the Duncan Tone Stack calculator, available at duncanamps.
Classic JCM-type Marshall Tones:
com/tsc/. Experiment with different values to find the tone youre
LOCATION
CHANGE TO:
looking for. In the stock version of the pedal, the tone is a bit
C3
.033
scooped meaning that there is little mid frequencies allowed
R17
15k
through making the tone a little thin sounding. We can change
C2
1F
that quite easily however. Check out the suggested changes in the
D4
1N4148 Connected in Series to another 1N4148
charts below to get a warmer tone, a scooped mid tone or simply
D5
1N4001 Connected in Series to another 1N4001
less highs.
C5, C9
1UF
R13
OPTIONAL - Change to 1k for tons of gain, if you
do this, also change c8 to 1F
Modern distortion tones
LOCATION
R16
R14
C10
C5, C9
D4
CHANGE TO:
1k
10k
.001F
3.3k
LED
Vintage distortion tones
LOCATION
D5
C3
R16
C11
CHANGE TO:
LED
.033F
1k
.01F
If you like the general sound of the DS-1 but are looking less highs and more of
a tonal range change C10 to a capacitor with a larger value. Stock is .01F for a
frequency roll-off of 7.2kHz.
Less shrill highs
LOCATION
C10
C10
C10
C10
C10
CHANGE TO
.015F
.022F
.027F
.033F
.047F
FREQUENCY ROLLOFF
48kHz
3.2kHz
2.6kHz
2.1kHz
1.5kHz
All in all, the Boss DS-1 Distortion is an inexpensive pedal that can rival many of
the best boutique pedals simply by changing the circuitry a little. While this may
seem difficult, technical and out of reach it really is very simple if you know what
to change and where to change it. I hope that Ive given you the knowledge
and courage necessary to change your pedal from a mouse into a monster.
Happy soldering!
Brian Wampler
Brian Wampler is an author, effects designer/builder

and operates IndyGuitarist.com and Wamplerpedals.com.
His books include How to Build Effect Pedals, How
to Modify Effect Pedals, and Advanced DIY Effect Pedals
available at GuitarTone.net.
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PRODUCT REVIEW
CHaRVeL
Warren DeMartini San Dimas

BY GARY GUzMAN
206 PPRPREREMME MIIEEIRRE RGGUGUIUITTIAATRAR R GGRFREEEABATRTEEUSSATTR HYHIITT2SS0 V0VO9OLL.. 11

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I remember it well. It was 1984 and I was at

one of the hottest concerts of the summer.
There was a big buzz about this band from
Los Angeles that had just exploded onto the
music scene. They were all over MTV and the
radio, and their music was catchy, loud and
just plain rocked. Sure, they looked really cool
and had good songs, but the thing that drew
me to them right away was the guitar playing.
I had just started playing guitar that year, and
there were plenty of guitar heroes to look
up to at that time. This band had two guitar
players, but one was definitely the lead guitar
hero of the group. So there I was in the front
row watching this band rock out, and standing right in front of me was this tall, skinny
guitar player. He was playing notes so fast
that they were a blur! I couldnt believe the
sounds and tones coming out of this coollooking guitar. He switched guitars many
times that night, and all of them sounded
great. He had cool paint jobs on every guitar,
and the graphics kept getting better with
each one he played.
The band was Ratt, the guitar player was
Warren DeMartini, and the guitar was a
Charvel. I didnt really know about Charvel
guitars at the time, but this was the year
that I was introduced to them. (Yes, Eddie
Van Halen played them first, but he had
already switched to Kramers by that time!)
Two of my favorite guitar players that year
were Warren DeMartini and Jake E. Lee from
Ozzy Osbournes band. Both guitarists were
from L.A., both played in Ratt (Warren actually replaced Jake) and both had incredibly
innovative styles, not to mention tone. They
both played hot-rodded superstrats and their
guitars of choice were Charvels. I also learned
that year that those cool-looking Jackson
guitars that my ultimate guitar hero Randy
Rhoads played were actually Charvels as well.
The company has gone through a lot of
changes since its inception. I was happy to
hear that Fender had bought Charvel a few
years ago, and the intent was to return to the
high quality American-made guitars that they
were originally known for.
When I heard they were releasing a line of
Warren DeMartini signature guitars, I knew
I had to get my hands on one! The Warren
DeMartini - San Dimas line consists of three
guitars with the same basic platform, but
three different graphics to choose from. The
platform is an Alder body and the bolt-on
neck is one-piece quartersawn maple with a
12 16 compound radius and jumbo frets.
The hardware includes an original black Floyd
Rose tremolo, black Schaller tuners and NOS
Charvel brass strap buttons. It has a signaw w w. p re m i e rg u i t a r. c o m
ture, custom-designed Seymour Duncan humbucking pickup controlled by a single volume

knobjust like every guitar Warren plays.
I often pick up new guitars and immediately
think of what I would do to change it to fit
my preferences, whether it is string height,
pickups, the feel of the neck, etc. Fortunately,
this guitar looked and felt great right out
of the box. I was impressed by the overall
craftsmanship of the guitar, with high quality
parts and flawless artwork.
The body is made of alder, so its definitely a
resonant, well-rounded tone with incredible
sustain. The DeMartini is available in three different graphics: Crossed Swords, Bomber, and
Skull and Blood. Crossed Swords has always
been my favorite designprobably because
thats the guitar that I saw Warren use the
most in the early Ratt videos and concerts.
The neck is silky smooth and has a nice feel.
It has the original San Dimas neck shape,
with a medium thickness D profile. Its
slightly wider than I prefer, but overall the
playability is great. Youll have no problem
shredding some hot licks with this guitar! The
black locking nut and Schaller tuners are a
nice touch, and its very pleasing to see the
Charvel logo with Made in U.S.A. underneath it! The back of the headstock sports a
removable sticker reminding the player that
the headstock is the registered trademark
of the parent company Fender. Its nice to
see Charvel guitars can finally and legally
include the Strat headstock like the originalswithout having any trademark issues.
The headstock also has Warrens signature
on the back, but unfortunately its only a facsimile. If you want this guitar signed, youll
have to track him down yourself and have
him personally autograph it! (The case candy
does include a photo card with a real Warren
signature, however.)
I really like the guitars Seymour Duncan
humbucking pickup, which is a customdesigned signature model that can only
be found on these Charvels. Its a wellrounded tone, definitely chunky with a fat,
full sound. It also provides screaming highs
for a clear, crisp tone, and I love the way it
sustains. This pickup was definitely built for
rocking out, but even when you back down
on the volume with a clean tone, it doesnt
thin out the sound at all. What this guitar
and pickup configuration may lack in terms
of versatility, it definitely makes up for with
chunky, aggressive tone.
The custom features of this guitar, especially
with the pickup and graphic design, make it
a unique instrument that definitely stands out
among other superstrats. It would have been

interesting to see even more of Warrens
favorite specs incorporated into this guitar, such as his preference for triangle frets
and Big Block tremolo systems [Editors
note: see the Big Block on page 188]. Still,
the Charvel DeMartini is a well-built, welldesigned, high-quality guitar.
Some may argue that this guitar isnt worth
the high retail price. They may say that you
can just custom make a replica that can look,
feel and sound as good as this guitar for half
the price. This was also the argument when
Charvel released the Eddie Van Halen Art
Series guitar a few years back. I will agree
that these guitars arent for everybody, and
definitely not for the naysayer. This guitar
is aimed at fans and collectors like me, who
have dreamed about owning a guitar like
this since childhood. There is a definite nostalgia factor involved. Just like a lot of other
iconic eighties guitars that are now being
reissued, Im thankful that I now get the
opportunity to get a guitar I always wanted,
and can now afford! It doesnt hurt to have
Fender supporting the Charvel brand name
financially, with better manufacturing technology, proper marketing and access to
higher quality materials. Thanks to the acquisition from Fender, Charvel is now regaining
its reputation as one of the true pioneers of
the original hot rod guitar.
Buy If...
Youre a fan of the original Charvels
and/or Warren DeMartini
Skip If...
Nostalgia isnt your thing or youre
expecting all of DeMartinis specs
Rating...
4.5
ONTHEWeb
Head to premierguitar.com
to hear the Charvel Warren
DeMartini San Dimas in action
premierguitar.com
Charvel
Street $ 2400
charvel.com
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JUNIORS
There comes a time in an amps life when changes

nges happ
happen.
in m
We try our hand at the BitMo 3-way voicing/gain
mod kit
for the inexpensive Valve Junior.
By James Egolf & Adam Moore
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When Epiphone released the 5-watt Valve Junior at

Summer NAMM in 2006, its doubtful anyone was aware
of the industry-wide stir the little $150 tube combo amp
was about to create, moving value-conscience
guitarists out in droves to get one of their very own.
Another unforeseen effect following the
debut of the adorable, great-sounding-forthe-price Junior was the devoted subculture that sprang up around modifications
intended to handle its shortcomings,
turning the Valve Junior into the rock n
roll equivalent of the Nissan 240SX: fun,
cheap, and ripe for customization. That
the Junior arrived just as the low-wattage, boutique-bedroom amp craze was
gaining stride didnt hurt, either.
One of the first companies to recognize
the Valve Juniors sleeper potential was
Mercury Magnetics, offering up mods
that received nothing but praise from
both the guitar press and Junior own-
ers alike. But because the Mercury

Magnetics kit involved replacing both
transformers, it didnt come cheap; amp
geeks were paying nearly $300 to mod
a $150 amp. This was great for players
looking at the Valve Junior as a starting point for experimentation, swapping
out tubes and speakers, and now even
transformers and caps, to eventually end
up with a boutique-sounding amp, voiced
exactly as desired, for a car payment
south of a grand.
However, there was a second subset of
Valve Junior aficionados who were purchasing the little amp precisely because
it was inexpensive and sounded good in
stock form illustrating that not everyone

who drinks PBR is being ironic. It also
begs the question: why should the less
well-heeled be excluded from all of this
Valve Junior modding fun? Thats where
Bruce Hutcheon comes in, the mastermind behind BitMos amp mods, offering
up reasonably priced, less intrusive mods
that shouldnt intimidate anyone, from
either a price or complexity standpoint.
We met Bruce at the Dallas International
Guitar Festival, and even through the
cacophony of the show floor, we could
tell he was onto something. He offered
up a few of his mods for us to try, with
the Voicing/Gain being the first we
A look at the inside of the Valve

Junior. Notice the black
(Revision 3) PC board.
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The little Valve Junior is pretty

amazing in its simplicity. To get
costs down, Epiphone needed to
do their homework on the design
side, with the resulting component layout indicating that they
did just that, with a surprisingly
tidy, efficient looking interior that
exuded Feng Shui...
attempted, due to the seemingly easy

nature of the mod, and because of some
pressing time constraints. The following
chronicles our adventure installing the
mod; for a general idea of our technical
expertise, picture a monkey in a cage
with a stick, and a banana just out of
reach outside of the cage.
never did, and hes fine, but what about

his friend, the old dude with one eye
and nine fingers? Yeah, that guy. Dont
be him.
resulting component layout indicating

that they did just that, with a surprisingly
tidy, efficient looking interior that exuded
Feng Shui all over the place.
The instructions also let you know that

as soon as you bust out the soldering
iron that the warranty is void, something
Bruce provides very well written, thorough instructions for the mod, with one
minor oversight, albeit a huge one in our
First off, we tracked down a Valve Junior

at our local guitar shop, deciding to go
to keep in mind if youre the really cautious type. It also includes a few tips to
get the most from both the amp and the
case; he included a very simple diagram

on page three. We were pretty much
done reading at this point, instead rely-
with the head version and picking up the

Valve Junior 1X12 extension cabinet, too,
both readily available for $130 each. The
mod, offering up suggestions on possible tube swaps, such as sub-ing the

stock 12AX7 with a NOS 5751, and where
ing on the Mr. Miyagi method of Picture

perfect tree. Now, make like picture,
although a few of the instructions did
Voicing/Gain mod costs $25, putting the

total cost of this rig at $285.
The tools suggested by BitMo for the
to start with the amp settings once

the mod is complete. Bruce was also
thoughtful enough to include a link to a
ultimately stick. The first one was leaving the switch in the middle-off position while soldering, going so far as to
upgrade are: screwdriver, soldering iron,

rosin core solder, wire stripper, needlenose pliers, drill and drill bits, dark col-
pdf that covers the basics of soldering if

youre new to this.
suggest clamping it in place. Next was

advice on how long to trim the legs on
the caps to make everything fit properly,
ored tape and acrylic spray sealer for the

included decals, in short, nothing out of
the ordinary. The instructions include the
To start the actual mod, we needed to
saving potential heartache when read in

a timely fashion ( i.e., before the soldering starts).
same old safety warnings weve all heard

before, but they bear repeating; rock
some goggles or safety glasses when
soldering or drilling. Sure, your grandpa
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remove the chassis from the cabinet,

which was straight forward enough, and
in its stock form, the little Valve Junior
is pretty amazing in its simplicity. To get
costs down, Epiphone needed to do their
homework on the design side, with the
In grossly over-simplified terms, the mod

consists of a three-position switch, with a
couple of caps soldered across one side
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121
Drilling a hole for the gain voicing switch
and to ground on the volume pot, and a

resistor soldered across two legs on the
other side, with one of those two legs
then being run to the R1 resistor on the
circuit board and the other to ground. We
decided to initially solder everything to
the switch, ending up with what looked
like a spider from the future.
Once we began soldering the leads
from the switch and components to the
intended spots on the circuit board was
when we encountered our first problem.
Since we found ourselves with a misplaced multimeter during the review, we
figured what the hell, lets just eyeball
the solder joints and go for it. So once
we had everything wired in before drilling the hole for the switch we decided
to plug in and get some signal, as per
Bruces instructions. We were immediately greeted with faint, microphonic
feedback that increased as we rolled
the volume up. Also, as the notes began
to decay, they would fart out, with the
notes ending abruptly, like an old fuzz
tone, except it didnt sound at all cool,
just damned annoying.
We tried resoldering all of the connections; the problems remained. We tried
swapping out the Valve Juniors 12AX7
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for a known good one; the flatulence and

feedback continued. We made sure the
power tube was seated properly; still it
persisted. I can still hear it. At this point
we were officially stymied, so off to our
favorite local shop it went. The verdict? A
bad volume pot. If you didnt see that one
coming, dont worry we didnt either.
But it does raise a good point: you may
want to live with the amp for a while
before doing any mods to give any like
problems a chance to pop-up. Its a lot
easier to swap the amp out for a new one
at your local guitar store than solder in a
new pot. We would like to give big ups to
Ronny Boles and Bill Nix at Somewhere
in Iowa Guitars for being kind enough to
track down the problem for us.
Once that was out of the way, we decided to drill the hole for the switch in the
chassis and finish things up. Bruce offers
up advice for placement, suggesting placing it between the volume knob and input
jack. Figuring he knows whats best, we
did as instructed and wrapped things up,
placing the chassis back in the box. He
also included a nice water transfer decal,
to indicate whether the switch is in the
Low, Mo, or Whoa! positions.
So, how does the mod sound? I can
hear you asking. Amazing, Im happy to

reply. Remember the earlier part about
calling in some help to chase down the
feedback? Ronny and Bill have been
in the vintage guitar business almost
since its inception, and, between the
two of them, have plenty of sweet old
amps floating around. What they dont
own currently, they did at one time. The
BitMo mod made their collective jaws
drop. We plugged it a 4X12 cabinet, and
it sounded incredible. The Valve Junior
was plenty impressive before the mod,
but the three-way Voicing/Gain mod
turned it into something you could easily
rock at gigs.
In position one, or Low, the mod is
supposed to give the Junior more of a
blackface tone, adding a bright cap to the
circuit and offering up the most headroom of the three positions. We botched
this position because we used instructions from June, when Epi was still shipping the green PC board (revision twos),
but the amp we purchased in August
had a black, or revision three, PC board.
Speaking with Bruce indicated that this
would work, but would sacrifice some
clean headroom, due to Epiphone moving
things around from one board revision to
the next, and Bruces need to counter
117
Decisions, Decisions
BitMo offers several reasonably priced kits
to add additional tonal flexibility to the
stock Valve Junior, priced from between $25
and $70.
The kits are available through either eBay
or thetubestore.com.
BitMo Brat This mod kit adds a tone control with a pull-switch which adds gain and a
British top boost overdrive.
Finally, the switch is installed and working!
moving the spots where his components

are placed in a kind of cross-continental,
electronic game of chess. After we heard
what this thing is capable of in Whoa!
mode, Im fine with losing a little headroom in the Low position. Keep in
mind that Bruce ships current kits with
updated instructions.
Position two, or Mo mode, imparts
more of a British flavor to the Valve
Junior, increasing the gain and bottom
end. This was a nice setting with the
Juniors volume knob between nine
and 12 oclock, offering up a convincing Faces-era Ronnie Wood-esque
medium grind. This would be great for
fat rhythms, and less sustainy, stringier
sounding leads.
The capper here is the aptly named
Whoa! position. All of the bases can
be covered here clean-ish, grind, and
distorted, all while retaining the amps
new-found, British-flavored thickness.
Park the amps volume control at three
oclock and youre golden. The guitars
volume knob becomes your amps channel-switching control, and when the
hot-rodded Junior is running balls-out, it
sounds incredible with creamy, singing
sustain, inspiring me to indulge in long-
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winded jams. Im sure my neighbors hate

this thing, but who cares, I pay taxes
too. It was so nice to be able to get that
familiar fat tone without breaking either
the eardrums or the wallet.
Bruce has managed to take a very good
thing the stock Epiphone Valve Junior
and with a relatively simple mod, make
it a thousand times better, taking it from
good to great. This amp and mod combo
would be great for most any live club
situation when a cranked-sounding tube
amp is needed. Its almost a must for
home recording, although I cant guarantee it wont wake up the young uns.
Wed like to thank Epiphone for unleashing the Valve Junior upon an unsuspecting public. The combos go for $150, and
the heads and the cabinets go for $130
each. They are available wherever fine
instruments are sold. For more information, visit epiphone.com.
BitMo Tweaky Starts off with the Spanky

mod, adding no additional knobs, switches,
wires, drilling or decals nothing but tone.
Includes instructions for differently voiced
mods: Swanky (blackface), Yankee (tweed),
Cranky (British high-gain) and Skanky over
the top!
BitMo Trio This mod combines BitMos
two most popular kits: The Duo Tone/Fat
Boost control mod and the 3-way Voicing/Gain
switch, providing a total of six unique voicings
and gain settings.
BitMo Voicing/Gain The 3-way Voicing/Gain
mod on its own.
BitMo Duo Tone Control The Duo Tone
mod sold separately.
BitMo Studio 10-uator This kit adds an
attenuator to either the back of your Valve
Junior, or as a stand-alone kit housed in a
plastic case.
The BitMo kits are available from thetubestore.com, or you can order one from
Bruce via his eBay store.
Head to premierguitar.com to hear before and

after clips of our modded-out Valve Junior!
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PRODUCT REVIEW

%'
1-,
*?M.;OF1N;H>;L>
BY STEVE OUIMETTE
168
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Im a Les Paul guy. Been playing them for years

and years, and to me nothing touches a great
one. They represent a cool factor to the highest degree and have been a staple of rock
since the beginning. From Jimmy Page to Ace
Frehley to Slash, the Les Paul is the prototypical rock guitar and icon. Over the years Gibson
has made many variations on the Les Paul, and
with the Custom Shop, VOS, Inspired By, and so
on, there are a lot of Les Pauls to choose from.
However, a real Gibson Les Paul doesnt come
cheap by any means. With a list price of $2609,
the 2008 Les Paul Standard is not inexpensive
as far as guitars go, but in the Gibson line it certainly is not at the top of the price range. Lets
dig in and see what Gibson has put together for
the new 2008 Les Paul Standard.
First Impressions
The 08 Standard represents many of the familiar aspects of a Les Paul, but also brings some
new things to the table. Features include a
chambered body, enlarged neck tenon, Bourns
pots, TonePros locking bridge and tailpiece,
Neutrick locking output jack, straplocks, an
asymmetrical neck shape and a Plek guitar
setup. Pulling the LP out of the case I immediately noticed its weight. Having a 74 LP Custom
as well as an 03 R8, the guitar felt pretty light.
This is obviously due to the chambering, or
weight-relief. That said, it didnt affect the tone
adversely to my ears. In fact, acoustically the
guitar has a very balanced tone with plenty of
shimmer and depth. Over the time I had the
Standard, I grew very accustomed to the weight
and actually rather enjoyed it when playing for
long periods of time.
The TonePros bridge adds stability and
increased sustain and is a welcome addition
to the guitar, as many of us already upgrade
our Les Pauls with TonePros bridges.
Probably the most significant improvement
to me was the out-of-the-box setup. Having
the guitar Plekd at the factory, I was able
to tune up the LP in a few seconds and get
right to playing. Though the B and G strings
had some light buzzing from the nut up to
the 5th fret, I cant discredit Gibson here
because the guitar traveled from Nashville to
my home in Scottsdale, Arizona, so a minor
truss rod adjustment was all that was necessary. It was without a doubt the best set up
Les Paul Ive played out of the box.
Aesthetically, the 2008 Standard looks great.
The review guitar had a beautiful, lightly
flamed top in a Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish. The fit and finish on this guitar is excellent,
showing no paint flaws, poor fret dressing
or hardware issues that I could see. Gibson
dropped the pickguard from this model, which
is really just a choice youll have to live with.
It didnt bother me, and it isnt the first time
Gibson has shipped a Les Paul without one.
Also, the guitar ships in a very nice Gibson USA

hardshell case with a white padded interior.
Plugging In
I had the opportunity to spend a good amount
of time with the 08 Standard at the studio.
Incidentally, I also had my 74 Custom (stock)
and my 03 Murphy R8 with Sheptone Tribute
pickups on hand throughout to see how the
08 held up to the others. To start with, the
new neck profile feels great. Its not as thick
and chunky as a 58 profile, but certainly not as
thin as a 60. The asymmetrical shape was very
comfortable to my hand, and it felt natural with
enough wood to get a strong handle on the
guitar. The idea behind the asymmetrical shape
is to have more meat on the bass side of the
neck, tapering off slightly on the treble side.
It works. The frets were finished perfectly and
didnt have any high or low spots up and down
the neck. And as Id mentioned, the intonation
was dead on due to the Plek, and the setup had
a very comfortable and low action.
Plugging into a JCM 800 half-stack showed
that it sounds very much like a Les Paul, but
with a twist. The chambering brings it slightly
into a Les Paul/ES-335 hybrid territory (an
80/20 ratio, Id say). Its hard to put a definition on that sound but it definitely brings a
little bit of a semi-hollowbody guitar tone.
Not a lot, but enough to notice the difference.
Comparing it to my 03 R8 I felt the Standard
didnt have as much bite and muscle to it, but
that may have also had to do with the pickups.
Tonally, the Burstbuckers are a bit rough. Not
necessarily a sweet or defined sound to my
ears, but more aggressive and slightly darker.
They sound like a higher gain pickup than
they are, and were a bit more muted sounding when compared to the 03 R8 and quite
a bit darker than the 74 Custom. That said,
when I recorded with the guitar I didnt notice
as much of a discrepancy in the tone as when
all three were being played live. Pickups and
tone are very subjective, so even though they
wouldnt be my first choice, another player
might find the Burstbuckers to be a perfect
complement to their style and amp choice.
Oddities
There were a few choices that left me scratching my head, the first being the Neutrik locking
jack. In an era where innovative devices like
Snap-Jack allow for easy decoupling of the
cable to prevent stress damage on the instrument, or to stop an amp from toppling over,
the locking jack just doesnt make sense to me.
In twenty years of playing Les Pauls, Ive never
had a scenario where the cord came unplugged
from the guitar. Somebody at Gibson wanted to
make damn sure that cord wasnt getting pulled
out! It became a nuisance to me every time I
went to unplug the cord, and it seemed like an
unnecessary addition.
Another oddity is the semi-transparent control

cavity cover. Its as if Gibson wants to highlight
the fact that they now employ a PCB to handle
all of the electronics. All pots are mounted
directly to the PCB, and the pickups, switch
and jack are all plugged in with connectors, not
soldered. Perhaps this is a time and cost-saving
move, but it brings up a variety of issues. What
happens if you want to change pickups or a pot
goes out? What if you want to make modifications to the circuit?
Finally, the pots felt cheap and flimsy. That could
be due to the fact that they had nearly no resistance to them or that I knew they were directmounted, but that didnt affect the taper or the
tone to my ears.
The Final Mojo

Aside from some of the issues pointed out, I
really enjoyed this guitar. It represents a new
model with some welcome updates (the Plek
setup being the highlight to me), as well as a
few oddities. However, the new 08 Standard is
still very much a Les Paul and should be considered if youre looking for a moderately priced
new Les Paul.
OS'@
you want an updated and moderately priced Les Paul.
1ECJ'@
youre a traditionalist.
0;NCHA
.0
-,2&#5?<
Head to premierguitar.com to
hear the 08 Les Paul Standard
in action.
premierguitar.com
Gibson
MSRP $4009 Street $2609
gibson.com
Our expert has stated his case,

now we want to hear yours.
Log on to premierguitar.com, click
on this digital article and share your
comments and ratings.
P R EPMR IEEMRI EGRU IGTUA IRT AGRR E ADT EE CS ET MHBI ET RS V2 O0 0L 8. 1
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EVH
PRODUCT REVIEW
Wolfgang
BY GERRY GANADEN
Eddie Van Halen is known for hacking his

way into great tonetaking chisels and a
set of screwdrivers to a guitar body to get
some of the most influential guitar sounds
known to mankind. That seems ironic when
you look at his new signature series EVH
Wolfgang guitar, which gleams with sheer
elegance. While its true that this one
122

evolved out of previous Van Halen signature

guitars, the EVH Wolfgang is clearly a different kind of guitar.
The Wolfgang guitar used for this review
features a basswood body and AA top
with subtle figuring that glows through
its amber-colored tobacco finish. The
shape of the body is reminiscent of previous Van Halen signature models, but has
more refined and subtle differences. Its
total thickness is 1-1/2. The maple top is
arched, and is 1/2 thick at the apex of the
arch. The back of the guitar is finished in a
dark, transparent brown color to complement the front. A regal touch is added by
155
a five-ply black-and-cream colored binding

that surrounds the face of the body. From
both sides of the neck pocket, its plain to
see the binding is not simply trimmed off,
as it rounds into the crease of the neck.
The body as a whole is covered in a very
thin acrylic finish.
The scale length of this guitar is 25.5. The
neck is made of a two-piece, AA heavy
birdseye maple with an angled headstock. It
seems bulky yet comfortable at 3/4 thick.
Embedded inside it are two graphite reinforcement rods that aid the truss rod staying
true. The fretboard is a separate 1/4 slab
of heavy birdseye maple. The headstock
also evolved from a previous EVH signature
design, but has a more pronounced fork at
the tip. It uniformly matches the body with
the same amber-colored tobacco sunburst
and five-ply binding. The frets are vintagestyle, Strat-sized stainless steel wire and
are rounded on the surface, not crowned
to a near point. The 3-on-a-side tuners are
custom-made for the Wolfgang by Gotoh,
and they add to the elegance of this guitar
with their pearloid buttons. The neck joins
the body at the 16th fret and is bolted to
the body with four offset position bolts. The
heel area of the body is carved to fit the
inner palm of the hand while fretting notes
in the upper register of the neck. The truss
rod adjustment access is at the end of the
neck, recessed into an exposed cavity. Its a
wheel turned by exposed holes that needs
only an Allen wrench or any metal rod (like a
small screwdriver) to turn.
Getting into the Nuts and Bolts

Much of the hardware and electronics is exclusive to this guitar. The
first-ever signature Floyd Rose
tremolo bridge is on this guitar.
It bears both the Floyd Rose and
EVH brand logos. While the previous Van Halen signature guitars had
licensed Floyd Rose variations, this is
a specific tremolo made for this guitar by Floyd Rose. An EVH D-Tuna
is attached to the low E saddle.
The nut width of this guitar is
1-5/8, and the locking nut is
bolted through the back of
the headstock, the more traditional Floyd Rose way. The
500k volume pot and 250k
tone pot are custom-made
by Bourns and EVH, and
bear the EVH brand logo.
They are firmly mounted to
the interior of the heavily
shielded electronics cavity,
with grounds attached to metal
screws embedded into the wood.
156
Unlike the non-descript knobs adorning

many guitars, the Bourns pots are capped by
MXR-like knobs in a nod to Van Halens preference for MXR pedals. The three-position
pickup selector toggle switch is at the top
horn of the body and is wired backwards in
comparison to most guitars featuring this
switch: up is the bridge pickup, middle is
both pickups, and down is the neck pickup.
At the heart of this guitar are the customdesigned, custom-wound, double-potted
pickups. These zebra-coiled EVH humbuckers are low output and are screwed directly
into the wood. There are no springs or
adjustment transit screws. The wood is
carved to the exact measurement the pickups need in relation to the string height.
Because of their low output, the sound of
this guitar is very defined. Through a moderately overdriven amp, there is more individual string volume than the masking sizzle
of a higher-output pickup.
Playability
At nearly eight pounds, the weight is average for this type of guitar. Its set up according to Van Halen spec and factory strung
with a standard .009.042 set of strings.
The neck feels more vintage and old-style
with its meatier center section. Most modern rock-style guitars have necks that are
thinned out in the middle, but the Wolfgang
feels more like an old Strat. Like previous
Van Halen-designed signature guitars, the
neck shape is asymmetrical, but feels evensided along its length. The action is very low
at 1/16at times, it feels like the lower
strings are slapping against the frets when
playing fretted chords. Because it has a
compound radius of 12 to 16, the surface
of the neck gets flatter as you ascend up
the fretboard, easing playing in the upper
register and soloing past the 12th fret. With
stainless steel frets, bending notes and
lightly vibrato-ed chords seem slippery to
the touch and take a little getting used to.
Stainless steel frets are resistant to major
wear, which was the reason for using them
on this guitar, but the slippery feel makes
the G-string seem flimsier than normal. One
thing to note is the thinness of the frets
theyre not troublesome during shredding
because of the fretboards flatness and the
straightness of the neck (due to the graphite
rods). Most shred guitars feature big frets,
but this guitar doesnt need them. With
the action low and slippery frets, shredding
seems effortless. Again, it takes a little getting used to, but once you get started, the
temptation to perform the intro chords to a
Van Halen classic like Somebody Get Me a
Doctor is inevitable.

123
The Floyd Rose tremolo set up is for downward travel only. Its seated into the wood
and recessed only slightly into the body in
its resting position. This contributes much
to the natural string vibration transfer.
When depressing the bar downward, it only
takes a light touch because there are only
two springs. This also contributes to making bending notes feel less stiff. The D-Tuna
is a push-in/pull-out attachment that drops
the low E to a perfect D.
The Sound
The guitars natural resonance is significantyou can feel substantial vibrations
in the neck, and the guitar is easy to hear
unplugged. The lack of lacquer allows the
naturally resonating piece of wood to vibrate
freely. As a tonewood, basswood is less trebly and has a porous mass, giving this guitar
its natural midrange. The maple top adds the
density needed to give it the treble without
adding more unneeded mass.
Plugging into a moderately overdriven
amp, the tone is ripping. Unlike some guitars that have moderate output pickups,
the low-output EVH humbuckers have a
string clarity in which you can hear every
string in barre chords. For most of the testing, the bridge pickup was used (since its
used 90 percent of the time in hard rock
settings). There seems to be more natural
string volume, making it sound much more
aggressive than some metal guitars with
active pickups. Rolling down the volume
knob, the tone is clean, and open chords
ring with clarity. The vibration transfer to

the pickups is due mostly to the fact that
theyre screwed directly to the wood. This
is the reward for such a painstaking measurement and routing jobthe pickups are
just deep enough to be in perfect relation
to string height. This in itself is ingenious in
the design of this guitar.
Speaking of rolling the volume knob, the
Bourns 500k volume pot has a low-friction
action to its rotation. The taper is gradual
and not sudden when bringing it up or down.
This is more evident from the zero point and
glides easily without much force.
the body. After putting this guitar through

the ringer, abusing the volume knob, dive
bombing the Floyd and trying to outplay
the fretboard for several hours, this guitar
kept coming backno need to retune it, or
even consider adjusting the polepieces in
the bridge pickup. Checking the fretboard
for a hair of wear on the frets turned up
no single indent. While this guitar might
not be for everybody, it truly lives up to its
design claims. If this is truly meant to distribute to a wider guitar-playing audience
exactly what Eddie uses, this guitar serves
as testament to him.
Another contributing factor to the guitars

tone is that the Floyd is non-floating, as the
bridge plate rests on the surface of the body.
What this does is lessen the amount of vibration lost, as happens when a Floyd Rose is
suspended only by the pivot posts. This sucker
sits squarely on the body and makes the guitar
sustain well when striking a simple A chord, or
holding a single note for quite a while.
The Final Mojo

The new EVH Wolfgang is a guitar made
from years of Eddie Van Halens own
research. It has an ease of playability and
though somewhat small-bodied, it sounds
like a herd of wild elephants when cranked
through an overdriven amp. The outstanding features of the guitar are the stainless
steel frets, the thinly coated body, lowoutput pickups screwed into the wood, and
the non-floating Floyd Rose seated into
Buy If...
You want defined clarity from lowoutput pickups in a guitar thats
built like a tank, with consistent
action and wear-resistant frets.
Skip If...
Youre a rock player who enjoys standard production guitars with high-output pickups to mask your tone.
Rating...
4.0
ONTHEWeb
Head online to hear sound samples
of the guitar in action at
premierguitar.com
EVH Brand Guitars
MSRP: 3149.99 as reviewed
Evhgear.com
124

157
GEAR CLOSE-UP
FURMAN
P-1800 PF R Power Conditioner / Surge Suppressor
BY JOE COFFEY
For those of you who dont want to be that

guythe guy whose bar gig rig involves
rackmount gearwe suggest you look away.
The studio applications for power conditioning equipment are obvious, but for some reason a lot of players are comfortable rolling the
dice and using office-supply-store power strips
for gigs, only to scramble for that potentially
deadly 99-cent, two-prong adapter when that
inevitable buzz rears its ugly head. The P-1800
PF Rs superb instrument-specific uses should
tempt you to buy a portable rack box to put
next to your amp.
An update to Furmans Power Factor Pro R,
the P-1800 PF R features the companys surge,
spike and voltage technologies, as well as

their new Clear Tone and Power Factor technologies, designed specifically for high-current
electronic gear like guitar amps and powered
studio monitors. Were talking 45-plus amps
of instantaneous reserve current and tuned
filtering circuits that allow your amp to perform like it shouldregardless of a whether a
venues stage outlets are powering five neon
beer signs and the kitchens deep freeze.
outlets with securing straps, a BNC connector in the back for your gooseneck lamp, and
even a front panel USB outlet.
A digital voltmeter/ammeter takes the mystery out of current draw, while nine outlets
(one on the front) in isolated banks give you
more than you should need for a single rig.
Extra touches include three wallwart-spaced
Furman Sound
List $599
furmansound.com
Our demo unit handled amp testing in various

circuits with aplomb, providing slightly to dramatically cleaner sound (not to mention peace
of mind) when A/Bd with a Furman Merit X
Series conditioner, a number of strips, and no
conditioner at all.
HEAROS
High Fidelity Series Earplugs
BY CHRIS BURGESS
John Bohlingers Last Call column last
month got me thinking more about hearing protection, which I admit I dont use
very often. The band Im in is not into
blaring stage volume, and rehearsal is
usually even quieter. And, unless Im
opening up a big amp to hear what it can
do (or when Brett Petrusek is around), I
dont find myself dealing frequently with
uncomfortably loud music. But some of
my favorite amps do require high volume
to really sound their best, and I did hear
Bohlinger pretty clearly reminding me
that volume doesnt have to hurt before
it starts doing damage.
182
P R E M I wE Rw wG .UpI rTeAmRi e r Ag Pu Ri tIaLr . c2 o0 m0 9
The problem I always have with earplugs is

that even when theyre comfortable enough to
wear for long periods, they leave me hearing
only a thuddy low end and muffled mids with
no high end to speak of. And taking the soft
foam plugs out to make EQ adjustments and
then holding them in until they expand into
place againits not an easy way to spend an
afternoon testing amps.
As luck would have it, we had recently received
a few sets of High Fidelity Series earplugs
from Hearos. These are designed to provide
flat attenuation, and are made specifically for
musical application. With average attenuation
across the frequency range falling somewhere
around 20dB, they dont provide the greatest

amount of noise reduction available. But they
do allow you to hear a more balanced frequency spectrum. After trying several different
kinds of hearing protection while testing amplifiers, I can say that wearing these is much like
wearing a set of studio headphones. Of course,
they dont weigh as much, but the sound is as
balanced, and they dont take a lot of time to
install correctly. Theyre also washable and reusable, and theyre comfortable enough that they
wont drive me crazy if I wear them more often.
Hearos High Fidelity Ear Plugs
List $14.99
hearos.com
P R E M I E R G wU wI TwA.Rp rGe RmEi Ae Tr gE uS iTt aHrI.TcSo mV O L . 1
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133
PRODUCT REVIEW
FENDER CUSTOM
57 Twin-Amp
BY BOB GOFFSTEIN
160 P R E M I E R G U I T A R J U N E 2 0 0 9
134
A couple of decades ago several small amp

manufacturers, noting the demand for used
Fender amps, started to produce amplifiers using old Fender circuits, capitalizing
on the simplicity of operation and purity
of tone of these classics. I invested in a
Clark Piedmont (59 Bassman) and a Clark
Beaufort (narrow panel Deluxe) and so am
well acquainted with the high standards
used to produce these replicas.
It didnt take Fender long to figure out that
there was a market waiting for reissues of
some of their most revered models, and thus
followed a steady stream of amps that bore
the Fender logo and looked just like the
amps of yore. Most contemporary players
understood the choice of the first series of
reissue models, but sometime around 2004
the 57 Twin (model 5E8-A, also known as
the low-power Twin) came out, and the less
vintage-oriented players scratched their gearheads and wondered.
Whats up with the 57 Twin?

The first Fender amps (and most others) were
born out of circuits printed in the back pages
of tube manufacturers catalogs suggesting ways to use their new audio tubes. The
early circuits based on these primitive tubes
were simple, and the initial amp models were
wimpy, but somewhere against the hum of
these primordial beasts the sharp report of
the starters pistol signaled the beginning of
the amplifier race.
Leo Fender could not play the guitar, but he
had a knack for translating into products the
suggestions and demands of those who could.
Most of his advisers were the country guitar
and steel players of southern California, with a
few big-city rock n rollers thrown in. The professional players wanted loud. They needed to
fill the sonic space of large ballrooms, dance
halls, roadhouses and outdoor celebrations
without the benefit of the Front of House
monoliths that are seen at todays large venues. Beginning in 1952 at 25 watts, the Twin
Amp was Leos answer to this demand.
The Twin underwent constant modification and
several model changes in the years to follow.
As the models changed, the power output
increased. What is unique about the 5E8-A
is that it used two 5U4 rectifier tubes (higher
power rectifiers had not been invented yet) to
prevent the sag of the attack/decay envelope
and allow a decrease in the negative feedback
loop to the tone stack. This made the Twin
loud and punchy enough to cut through, but
also allowed another browner, spongy tone
favored mainly by Blues players by simply
removing one of the rectifiers.
The subsequent Twin Amp models featured

four output tubes and high-power or solidstate rectifiers and many more output watts,
making them suitable only for very loud rock
gigs and large venues.
Meet the Beastie

The 57 Twin RI is a replica of its predecessor
manufactured by the Fender Custom Shop
(with a few changes thrown in for versatilitys
sake). The nicely applied lacquered Tweed cloth
covers a finger-jointed, solid-pine cabinet with
a thin leather handle (more on that later). The
chromed steel vertical chassis houses highquality components mounted on a sturdy black
fiberglass eyelet board, sturdy tube sockets,
and nicely done point-to-point wiring. The
switches, jacks and pots are high quality and
the transformers and choke are from the highly
regarded Mercury Magnetics Company. There
is a bias adjustment pot on the circuit board.
The tube complement includes four Sovtek
12AX7WCs, relabeled Groove Tubes 12AX7R; two Groove Tubes-6L6GE (made in the
USA) and two Electro Harmonix 5U4GB rectifiers. The speakers are 12 Eminence Alnicos
designed by Ted Weber (of Weber VST),
which look remarkably like Weber P-12Ns.
The top rear-positioned control panel features five chicken-head knobs, which all traverse from 112 (take that, Nigel). There are
separate Bright and Normal channels, each
with its own preamp circuit, separate Volume
controls and two jacks, followed by Treble,
Bass, and Presence controls that are common
to both channels.
Comparing schematics of old and new,

there are some relatively important differences. The original used three 12AY7 preamp tubes (but the same AX as the phase
inverter). There is no bias adjustment pot
on the original, and output tube plate voltages have been increased in the reissue
to 450V from original 400V. There are also
a couple of internal fuses on the new circuit (good idea). The new circuit is geared
toward a brighter, louder sound, with the
flexibility of being able to adjust bias on
output tubes to provide a more customized
sound and allow changes of output tubes
from one brand to another.
A few design considerations are in order for
us filament brains and non-tech types as
well. The old Fender amps were not very
consistent in sound, due to the fact that the
factory tended to use whatever components
they had on hand at the time, often of loose
tolerance, which led to variations in circuit
voltages that could affect sound. Add to this
the fact that there was no practical way of
adjusting bias in this fixed-bias amp and you
could end up with two amps that looked the
same but sounded very different.
When Fender set out to make this 57, they
picked one particular amp that was admired
by many top players and measured all the
circuit parameters of that amp. They then
used tighter-tolerance components and
handwound transformers that individually
tested to spec in order to replicate the
sound of this amp.
PREMIER GUITAR
JUNE 2009
161
135
Enough Already, How Does it Sound?

This being a brand-spanking-new amp, I subjected it to many hours of component and
speaker burn-in/break-in before I even plugged
in. When I plugged in, I was struck by how little
it sounded the way I expected. The amp was
loud indeed, but the high end was brittle and
percussive, and there was very little of the singing sustain that I had come to expect from the
Tweed series. This tone would probably be fine
for a pedal steel sound, but I was looking for
something more blues-rock oriented. I plugged
in a Weber Bias-Rite and measured the bias current and plate voltage: 29mV and 475V respectively. Hmm. That alone could be the source of
the problem. I checked the online Weber bias
chart for these 6L6s and proceeded to gradually
increase the bias current as I played the amp.
At about 40mV, things started smoothing out,
and at 45 the amp sounded very goodand I
was still well within bias parameters. Plate voltages had dropped to around 450. [Note: there
are dangers inherent in working on amplifiers,
including lethal voltages. Do not attempt to service your amp, including bias adjustment, unless
youre properly educated and equipped to do
so. A well-qualified amp tech will be able to help
you obtain the sound you want.]
The sound was still punchy, but there was now
a sweet but very ample top end and midrange,
with a full, but not muddy, bottom. I suspected
much of the punchy attack came from the
speakers, so I plugged a couple of other amps
into the same speakers making sure I stayed at
a 4-Ohm load, and yes indeed they sounded
just the way P-12Ns sound, which is a good
thing, unless you have an amp that has a predominantly dark sound. This Twin has plenty of
high end, making this speaker a good choice.
The noise floor of the amp is low, but it will
hum with single coils. Nonetheless, I like the
way Gibson single coils sounded with this
setup and mainly used them for test playing
and listening. I threw in a Strat with DiMarzio
virtual vintage pickups, and an Ibanez with
Schofield humbuckers, too.
With the Normal channel set at 5, Bright at
0, Treble at 8, Bass at 4 and Presence at 5,
162 P R E PMRI EE MR I GE UR I GT AU RI T A RJ U NGE R E2A0T0E9S T H I T S V O L . 1
136
the tone was bright, clean, and sustained,

sounding like the missing link between Tweed
and Blackface. Increasing the Normal volume
(V1) to a stageworthy 8 brought some clipping to the output that was mostly smooth
and creamy with just a hint of buzz. Pulling
one of the rectifiers didnt result in much of
a change, but a slight compression. There
would be more sag at a higher gain setting.
The next tonal excursion led me to replace the
missing rectifier and Y-cord the two input channels together, thereby pushing the output with
both preamps. This really popped my cork!
Smooth distortion with good bite and a bit of
upper-mid feedback. Nice. I messed with the
two V knobs and liked V1 at 7 and V2 at 5 for a
medium stage volume. I reduced the treble to 6.
A Fender reverb tank made the sound (you
guessed it) reverberant. Effect and gain
pedals sounded fine but adversely affected
tone purity. Humbuckers sounded very
sweet and sustained with nice mid support,
but without the P-90 grind.
I pulled the three preamp 12AX7s and
replaced them with NOS RCA 12AY7s.That
sound was good enough to eat: clean but
sustained with more headroom. When pushed,
the clipping was very smooth without the
previous buzziness. I Y-corded the two channels and could not find a sound I didnt like.
If I wanted a bit more shimmer, up went the
bright channel volume; more weight brought
the normal channel into play.
Modifications are included in the documentation
for the amp. There are many more things that
can be done to a tube amp to change its sound,
such as substituting different tubes (output
tubes especially can make a large difference), or
speaker substitutioneven internal components
may be easily changed (but only by someone
aware of the risks of high-voltage circuits).
My one beef has to do with the thin leather
handle. It is fine for lifting it out of a road case,
but it hurts when you have to carry the amp
more than a few yards. The amp is not light (53
pounds) and deserves a better handle. Fender
acknowledges that the handles on the old amps

did routinely break, and that the 50s-style
leather handle of the reissue is intended for
period-correct looks, and has a similar chance of
breaking. Fender does provide a spare handle
that, while it looks as uncomfortable as the original, is reinforced to increase its reliability.
The Final Mojo

If youre a blues or classic rock player, this is
an amp that you can take to the bank (may as
well bring it along when you talk to the loan
officer). It has classic Fender tone available in
many easy-to-blend shades. If you like the way
it sounds out of the box, great; if not, a trip to
your favorite amp guru can get it up and running for your signature sound. It reveals excellent build quality with minimal coupling circuits
and 5:8 knob-to-tube ratioalways a good
sign, as far as Im concerned.
Buy If...
you want a great-sounding and versatile
amp with vintage tone and appearance
and high reliability.
Skip If...
you need a lot of built-in bells and
whistles, or youre not playing medium-to-large venues that provide
medium-to-large paychecks.
Rating...
4.5
ONTHEWeb
Head online to watch a video of
the Fender 57 Twin in action at
premierguitar.com
Fender
MSRP $3880
Street $3100
fender.com
without killing ourselves!

A couple of decades ago several small amp
manufacturers, noting the demand for used
Fender amps, started to produce amplifiers using old Fender circuits, capitalizing
on the simplicity of operation and purity
of tone of these classics. I invested in a
Clark Piedmont (59 Bassman) and a Clark
Beaufort (narrow panel Deluxe) and so am
well acquainted with the high standards
used to produce these replicas.
PremierGuitar.com
PRODUCT REVIEW
Web Exclusive
It didnt take Fender long to figure out that

there was a market waiting for reissues of
some of their most revered models, and thus
followed a steady stream of amps that bore
the Fender logo and looked just like the
amps of yore. Most contemporary players
understood the choice of the first series of
reissue models, but sometime around 2004
the 57 Twin (model 5E8-A, also known as
the low-power Twin) came out, and the less
vintage-oriented players scratched their gearheads and wondered.
FrAcTAl

Audio Axe-FX
Whats up with the 57 Twin?
%'
1
*?M.;OF
By STEVE OUIMETTE
BY STEVE OUIMETTE
The first Fender amps (and most others) were

born out of circuits printed in the back pages
Comparing schematics of old and
of tube manufacturers catalogs suggestfour output tubes and high-power or solidthere are some relatively importa
ing ways to use their new audio tubes. The
state rectifiers andw wmany
more
output
watts,
ences. The original used three 12
w. p re m i e rg u i t a r. c o m
early circuits based on these primitive tubes
amp tubes (but the same AX as t
were simple, and the initial amp models were
inverter). There is no bias adjustm
I was all ears when the Fractal Audio
Tech Specs
The Axe-FX is so deep and full of options
wimpy, but somewhere against the hum of
on the original, and output tube
Systems Axe-FX came out because part of
Fractal calls the Axe-FX an advanced guitar
that even after weeks of exploring it
these primordial beasts the sharp report of
Meet the Beastie
ages have been increased in the
my work revolves around recreating claseffects processor. While thats certainly true,
seemed like there were still dozens of new
the starters pistol signaled the beginning of
to 450V from original 400V. Ther
sic and modern guitar
tones. race.
I was also
its really an understatement.
Housed
a
soundsShop
to experiment
with - and
I mean fuses on the
the amplifier
manufactured
by theinFender
Custom
a couple
of internal
excited because the unit has the potential
two rack unit, the Axe-FX
runschanges
a 500MHz,
usable sounds.
For(good
the most
part,
(with a few
thrown in great,
for versatilitys
cuit
idea).
Thethe
new circuit
to solve a few problems
at once
dual-core
and The
is able
to process
interface
couldnt
much easier
to use.
Leo Fender
couldfor
notme.
play the guitar,
but processor
he
sake).
nicely
applied lacquered
Tweed
cloth betoward
a brighter,
louder sound,
billion floating-point
instructions
per solid-pine
At first
I was
a bit concerned
the size
had a knack for translating into 2products
the
covers
a finger-jointed,
cabinet
with
flexibilitywith
of being
able to adjust
suggestions
and demands
whoThe
could.
a thin leather
handleruns
(more onof
that
Theon theoutput
tubes
tomost
provide a more
Check this out - the
studio I work
out of is of those
second.
Ultra model
that I tested
thelater).
display
unit since
I do
Most
were the country
guitar
chromedof
steel
high-on two 22
sound
allow
changes of outp
often booked solid
so Ioftryhistoadvisers
arrive before
a 600MHz
version capable
2.4vertical
billion chassis houses
of my work
flat and
panel
monitors,
and
steel
players
of
southern
California,
with
a
quality
components
mounted
on
a
sturdy
black
from
one
brand
to
another.
sessions start for the day - sometimes thats
instructions per second. Comparing this to
but I was pleasantly surprised by the intuifew
big-city
rock
n
rollers
thrown
in.
The
profiberglass
eyelet
board,
sturdy
tube
sockets,
the only way I can get in. Obviously, this
a plug-in amp simulator running on a PC or
tive layout and clear graphics. In the case of
fessional players wanted loud. They needed to
and nicely done point-to-point wiring. The
A few design considerations are in
isnt ideal as most musician-types prefer
MAC isnt even fair. Not only does it proa dimly-lit studio or stage you would never
fill the sonic space of large ballrooms, dance
switches, jacks and pots are high quality and
us filament brains and non-tech
to work later in the day. To top that off, by
vide 49 amp types, 23 cabs and 25 effects,
have a problem seeing what you were edithalls, roadhouses and outdoor celebrations
the transformers and choke are from the highly
well. The old Fender amps were n
the time I set up the amp, mics and board
it also allows you to combine and route
ing. On top of that, you can download a
without the benefit of the Front of House
regarded Mercury Magnetics Company. There
consistent in sound, due to the fac
for the tone Im looking
for,that
I usually
haveat todays
them
in just
every
possible
combieditor
(http://www.axechange.net/
) towhatever co
monoliths
are seen
large
ven-about is
a bias
adjustment
pot on thefree
circuit
board.
factory tended to use
precious little time
leftBeginning
for the actual
perfornation
I should mention that
do all your tone-shaping
PC oratMac
ues.
in 1952
at 25 watts,
theimaginable.
Twin
they on
hadyour
on hand
the time, ofte
mance. This has led
mewas
down
many
roads,
of the 25 effect types,
are multiple includes
as four
well Sovtek
as share presets
with other
users
Amp
Leos
answer
to this demand.
The there
tube complement
tolerance,
which
led to variations
from re-amping, to post-processing to
iterations of each which
brings relabeled
the number
get 12AX7the latest firmware.
cool!affect sound. A
12AX7WCs,
Grooveand
Tubes
voltagesMighty
that could
The
Twin underwent
and 100.
R; two
Groove
Tubes-6L6GE
(made in the
the fact that there was no practica
matching tones, to
recording
multipleconstant
amps modification
up more toward
There
are two
sets of
model
in the years
to unbalanced
follow.
USA)
and
two
Electro Harmonix 5U4GB rectiadjusting bias in this fixed-bias am
as a backup plan.several
Dont get
mechanges
wrong, restereo
inputs,
two
unbalanced
As
the
models
changed,
the
power
output
fiers.
The
speakers
are
12
Eminence
Alnicos
could end up with two amps that
amping is great for the convenience of getand one balanced stereo analog output(s),
In Use
increased.
What
is
unique
about
the
5E8-A
designed
by
Ted
Weber
(of
Weber
VST),
same
butinvolved
soundedgetvery different.
ting tone after-the-fact, but you still have to
digital I/O in the form of S/PDIF input and
After the initial setup,
which
is that it used two 5U4 rectifier tubes (higher
have an inspiring tone when putting down
AES outputs, MIDI in/out/through and a
ting the inputs and outputs routed to my
power rectifiers had not been invented yet) to
The top rear-positioned control panel feaWhen Fender set out to make thi
the D.I. tracks, even if its not the final one.
pair of pedal inputs for real-time control of
mixer and MIDI interface (for Sysex dumps
prevent the sag of the attack/decay envelope
tures five chicken-head knobs, which all trapicked one particular amp that w
Sometimes the plug-in amp modelers do
parameters. Conveniently located on the
and patch editing on a large screen), I did
and allow a decrease in the negative feedback
verse from 112 (take that, Nigel). There are
by many top players and measure
the trick but Ive yet
that
con-This made
front
controlsBright
for both
a casual stroll
the various
patches.
looptotouse
theany
tone
stack.
thepanel
Twin are level
separate
andthe
Normal channels,
eachthrough
circuit
parameters
of that amp. Th
sistently meet myloud
personal
expectations
ins but
and outswith
as well
as anpreamp
instrument
There was
a wide variety
tones repre- componen
and punchy
enoughofto cutstereo
through,
its own
circuit, separate
Volume
used of
tighter-tolerance
what a real amp should
soundanother
and record
jack on tone
the far right.
A largeand
scrub
sented.
Everything from
classic totransformers
modern
also allowed
browner, spongy
controls
twowheel
jacks, followed
by Treble,
handwound
that ind
like, which is exactly
whatmainly
I needby
if Blues
I wantplayers
a
isby
positioned
the right
of the LCD
ampare
sounds,
to crazytested
ambient
patches
that to replica
favored
simply just toBass,
and Presence
controls that
common
to spec
in order
removing
one
the rectifiers. graphical interface.to both channels.
sound
this amp.
good performance
captured
to of
tape.
would be suitable for
movieofsoundtrack
PREMIER GUITAR
P R E M I E168
R G U I T A RP RG ERME AI ETRE SGTU HI TI AT SR V ODL E. C1E M B E R 2 0 0 8
137
JUNE 2
Audio Axe-FX
work. Some of the patches transformed the
guitar into a completely different instrument
that youd be hard pressed to guess that a
guitar was even involved. Most of the sounds
were very usable and switching from Les Paul
to Strat, I was able to use the input control to
get the right amount of gain into the Axe-FX
to really make the guitar sing. Dialing up the
Hells Bells preset, I immediately noticed
how much clearer and defined the sounds
were coming right out of the box. There was
no digital hash and no blanket over the tone
of my guitar. It also felt a lot like the response
of one of my old Superleads. You can dig in
for more gain and bite, or roll off the volume
and the tone cleans up very nice. It felt like I
had my amp in the control room and a micd
up 4x12 in the live room.
To create my own patches I used both the

onboard GUI as well as the PC editor. Sure,
its nice to use the large screen and a mouse
but it was easy to build sounds up right
there on the unit. By taking an empty preset
I started by choosing an amp type (Plexi),
then selected a cab (4x12 Cali) and chose a
reverb (med room). As simple as that sounds
there are a million options to create from just
that basic of a setup. I spent hours tweaking
the sound by changing out the amp and cab
as well as the mic choice (Royer 121!). The
available parameters for each model went
very deep. For instance, the Plexi1 amp has
the standard controls youd see on a Marshall
Superlead. However, beyond that it offered
control over depth, damping and sag as well
as a master volume and level control. The
next page allowed complete tweaking of
the tone stack frequencies and where it was
placed in the amp itself, which significantly
alters the tone.
After I had enough basic tone-shaping I
opened the floodgates to the effects portion of the tone. Fractal offers everything
138
PREMIER GUITAR
from compressors to flangers to vocoders

and everything in between. It was refreshing to see that the effects were not specifically modeled after classic units but made
to be what the original effects strove to be.
Without the coloration of resistors, caps
and layout you get the option of clear and
focused sounds. I immediately enjoyed the
ability to have infinite control over the flanging type as well as using a studio quality compressor before hitting the amp.
Speaking of FX, the Axe-FX really shines in
the reverb department. Not only do all of the
rooms sound convincingly smooth and artifact-less, they have incredible flexibility to be
tweaked into just about any sound you would
want. I liked the reverb so much I ended up
using the Axe-FX as a reverb unit for a mix of
a recent song. It totally stood up against my
best plug-in verbs as well as a few hardware
units we have at the studio. Nice!
The final test for me came from something

Ive been doing for a while now. It involves
using a real amp head loaded down with a
THD Hotplate, then routing the line-out of
the Hotplate into the modeler just to use the
cabinet simulator. Its a great way to use my
favorite amp when I cant get into the studio
(my neighbors dont like my 4x12s!). The
Axe-FX was hands-down the best solution
Ive heard to date. Plugging the Hotplate
line-out directly into the instrument input of
the Axe-FX, I created a patch that consisted
of a 4x12 greenback cab micd up with an
SM57 and running into a medium room. All
of the articulation of my amp came through
and it provided me with a totally usable tone
that was just slightly different from the real
configuration Id use in the studio. Not better, not worse -- just slightly different. We all
know that the slightest variation in mic position, room sound, etc. will change the tone
so I didnt expect a perfect comparison. Lets
just say I might have found my new favorite

way to record guitars, and I can think of
another project Im getting into that would
definitely make the Axe-FX a welcome addition to my studio.
Final Mojo
I cant say enough good things about this
box. Top to bottom, the box itself is extremely tough. Electronics-wise, it has headroom
and processing power to spare. The models
of the amps, speakers, mics and all the FX are
top-notch. Listen to the audio examples on
the fractal audio website and youll see what
I mean. (Im told the company is going to
revamp their website and add a slew of new
clips September 1st)
The user interface is clean and easy to read
and the PC editor, even in beta, is super easy
to use. You can use it in the studio as well as
in any live situation (try using a laptop and
plug-in modeler sometime). It also doubles
as a killer studio FX processor on its own.
One thing I had an issue with was the fan
noise coming from the unit. After speaking
with Tom King from Fractal, he mentioned
that they are planning to offer a silent fan
upgrade at a nominal charge.
Buy If...
you are looking for a road-worthy

all-in-one guitar preamp/effects
processor
Skip If...
you are cool with plug-in amp
modelers
Rating...
4.5
Fractal Audio Axe-FX

MSRP $ 2299.95
Fractal Audio Systems
fractalaudio.com
PRODUCT REVIEW
#%,2#0
0# #*

BY CHRIS BURGESS
Its been coming for some time; now its here.
And Ill be very surprised if it doesnt change
some things.
Weve been eager to get our hands on a
Rebel 20 since the prototypes showed up on
video many months ago. Some people will call
it boutique gear, and it is clearly a pro-level
amp, but theres a far broader appeal here
than the term boutique usually implies. For
starters, its lightweight (and an easy rig to find
room for) but its loud enough to sound like it
should take up a lot more space. Thats good
and loud. Its also sturdily built, uncomplicated,
and visually appealing. Oh, and its got seriously killer tone.
PREMIER GUITAR DECEMBER 2008

183
139
#%,2#0
PRODUCT REVIEW
Knowing Egnaters amps (as well as his reputation), I was expecting a solid tone machine,
but Im just blown away by how good the
Rebel 20 is as an all-around rock nroll amp.
Its really small, but its also really big. The
appeal of a premium amp at this price might
make it a considerable option for beginners
and cash-strapped gearheads alike, but there
is absolutely nothing here for a true purist
to sneer at. Here is pure tube tone, feel and
responsiveness for the masses.
Features
The Rebel head uses Groove Tubes: three
12AX7s in the preamp, a pair of EL84s and a
pair of 6V6s. Its also got a variable Wattage
control (that goes from 1 to 20 watts) right
on the front panel, so its got the room covered, whether its the den or a small club.
It weighs only 16 pounds and comes with a
shoulder-strap carry bag, so its perfect as a
grab-and-go amp, but it still packs a hell
of a punch. Our review model came with two
1x12 Egnater closed-back birch cabinets.
These are each loaded with a 12 customvoiced Egnater Celestion Elite 80 speaker
(the same speakers as in the Tourmaster
combo I dig so very much). The small cabinet
is front-ported to facilitate a phenomenal
bass and high-end response. One cabinet is
really enough for everything but a big venue,
but two are you know, better. Open it
up, and you can really push some air, but it
doesnt get to ear-bleeding levels.
_'NbM;FMIAIN;P;LC;<F?5;NN;A?
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140
184
P RP RE ME MI EI RE RG GU UI TI AT AR R D GE CR E MA TBEESRT H2 I0T0S8 V O L . 1
Both amp and speaker cabinets have the

same two-tone covering, checkered grillecloth with cream piping, and big Egnater
logo that make his amps so easily recognizable. The design is not an extravagant
departure from the traditional, but it does
give the amp its own look. In addition to
the Watts control, the Rebel 20 features a
single input, On/Off and Standby switches, a
standard 3-knob tone stack, Master Volume,
Gain, Tight and Bright switches, Tube Mix
control, and an effects loop that accommodated a variety of effects with no tone loss
or noise. In other words, you get a lot of
control over this pint-sized beast.
wwwwww..pprreemmiieerrgguuiittaarr..ccoomm
0# #*
Tube Mix
There are many new ideas in high-quality
amps these days, but few that routinely get
down to business like Bruce Egnaters ideas.
The original big idea for the Rebel 20, when
it was first announced, was to offer a switchable option between 6V6 or EL84 output
tubes (check out the video from the New York
Amp Show, or NAMM 2008 for a look at the
prototype). 6V6s are said to be smoother and
warmer, while EL84s sound more vigorous,
raw and chimey, like the classic British-voiced
amps. What everybody knows, though, is that
however you describe them, theres a distinct
difference in the way they sound, so this feature is like having two amps in one high-quality, single-channel head.
But its really more than two, because when
a problem arose with making the option
footswitchable, instead of just scrapping the
notion, Egnater decided to improve on it. He
put the output tube selector on the front control panel, next to the Watt and Tone controls,
and then made it variable. For the first time,
you can choose between EL34 or 6V6 output tubes or, if you like, you can blend them
together in whatever ratio suits you. What
that sounds like, Ill get to, but first Id like to
pause and respect the exceptional pragmatism of that idea.
The advantage of blendable output tube
types really comes down to adding versatility to the amps voicingmuch more than
you can get by just switching tubes. There
is enough versatility there to dial in a whole
catalog of great rock tones. You just need to
adjust the front panel controls while you play,
and let your ears do the walking. This is going
to appeal as much to gearheads already deep
into high-end amps as it will to players who
may be shopping around for an upgrade but
havent decided how far they want to go.
And of course the knob-fiddler in me finds it
extremely gratifying.
Just experimenting with the controls while I
played it, I started recalling songs I havent
played in years. The tones were so authentic. Blues-rock, glam classics, garage rock,
wwwwww..pprreemmiieerrgguuiittaarr..ccoomm
definitely metal, meaty eighties power chord

stuff, Detroit sound; this amp does all of it. The
Rebels got a well-defined, articulate crunch
that loosens or tightens with a twist of the
Tube Mix knob, or the flick of the Tightness
switcha rumble removing cutoff that helps
you to keep the low end from getting too
flabby or mushy at higher gain. With the EL34
output tubes selected, using the switch will
give you that controlled, Marshall-sounding
bottom. The 6V6s are a little rounder and softer, while the EL84s are a little throatier, bolder,
with more bite. With gain, both exhibit crispness, satisfying harmonics and sweet sustain.
The Brightness switch adds presence and clarity; using it along with the Treble control vastly
expands the tonal variety of the high end.
With either output tube type selected, the
cleans are full and balanced, and the distortion just rips. The Gain control has a lot of
room, and its got great saturation even at low
wattages. The amount of control you have
over the smoothness is pretty amazing. With
some healthy gain and volume, the amp has
a superb growl, even with the thinner bite of
my Telecasters single coils. It never gets too
spanky or twangy, but it will take you from
blues to a southern rock sound with ease.
There is a lot of gain here, far more than
youd need for all but the hardest rock. You
can easily pull off metal, and the old-school
metal tone will knock your socks off; the lowmids are not for the fainthearted, and the
ported cabinets are obligingly responsive to
ass-kicking low end. Dime the Rebel 20 and
set the Tube Mix knob to 6V6 and this amp
becomes a blunt weapon, but not a bludgeon. Turn the Tube Mix over to EL84 to add
a fierce edge for thick, searing leads.
I had to share this amp with somebodyit
was too good to keep to myselfso I invited
fellow reviewer Jordan Wagner to bring a guitar in and give it a listen. We plugged in his
1978 LP Custom with Tom Anderson pickups
and immediately came down with a case of
Now thats what Im talkin about! fever. Im
still having dreams about that tone, it was so
ballsy and pure. The Burstbuckers on an allmahogany LP Studio also sang and criedthe
crunch from the bridge pickup was edgy and

bright, and the woman tone off the neck
pickup was like a fat, rich howl.
Like Egnaters ideas, the quality is also first
classits built like a little tiny tankand his
team has earned a reputation for taking care
of their customers and their business. Unless
youre a one-amplifier kind of player, and
you love that one above all others, its very
difficult for me to see any reason why you
wouldnt go for one of these. This is paradigm-changing gear.
OS'@
this ones mine! you hear me?
Go get your own! I mean it,
get your own!
1ECJ'@
youve got your heart set
on a Tourmaster.
0;NCHA
5.0
-,2&#5?<
Head online to premierguitar.com
to hear sound clips and watch
video demos of the Rebel 20.
premierguitar.com
Egnater Amps
Head: Street $599 Cab: Street $249
egnater.com
Our expert has stated his case,

now we want to hear yours.
Log on to premierguitar.com, click
on this digital article and share your
comments and ratings.
P R E PMRI E MR I GE RU I GT AU RI T AG R E A TD EE SC TE MH BI TE SR V2O0L0.8 1
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COLLINGS
360
BY PAT SMITH
Okay, its confession time. I am a guitar junkie. I love guitars and have played a whole bunch of em over the years.
I am old enough to remember when guitar companies
made (basically) one model of each guitar, with maybe an
option for vibrato (before we called them whammy bars).
And now I feel sad at how many trees die to make junk
guitars that will end up as landfill. On the other hand, and
happily, today the art of guitar making has come a very
long way, and while there is a lot of junk at the bottom,
there are some stellar things at the top. This review looks
at the top of the heap with the new Collings 360.
A Modern Classic
Collings has been a high-quality acoustic guitar maker
for some years now, and whether or not you are a fan,
nobody can fault the flawless construction of their guitars. Now Collings is making electrics from jazz boxes
to rockin solidbodies. The new 360 (named for a Texas
highway) is at the low end of Collings line of solidbodies, but it is far from a low-end guitar. The body is sort
of a stretched Les Paul shape, which is pleasing to my
eye, though the 360 is thinner and lighter than an LP.
The vintage Tobacco Sunburst nitrocellulose lacquer finish is flawless, period. Collings offers some options here,
including parallelogram inlays, flame maple neck and
quilted maple top. Our sample 360 has a shimmering
curly maple carved top on a one-piece mahogany body,
with a 24-7/8" scale mahogany neck (with 1-11/16" nut
width), Indian rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays and
an ebony peghead overlayits a fine looking geetar.
The old-style top hat knobs are inset in the top, which
is a classy looking detail, but may make the knob access
feel a bit different to some folks. Two standard Gibsonstyle volumes and two tones with a 3-way switch are all
you need to get some great tones from the Jason Lollar
154 P R E M I E R G U I T A R J U LY 2 0 0 9
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ww ww ww.. pp rree mm ii ee rrgg uu ii tt aa rr.. cc oo mm
mini-humbuckers. Yes, thats right, minihumbuckers here and I like em. Minis to my
ear have a sound that has more in common
with P-90s than full-size humbuckersrich and
open sounding but with plenty of power. The
360 is wired in what Collings calls 50s style,
which they tell me means that its wired so
that the volume control doesnt make the tone
bassier, and indeed the 360 has a nice, even
response to the controls. Collings explains it
like this: The 50s wiring refers to the fact
that we attach the tone circuit to the wiper, or
output, of the volume pot instead of the input
side, where the pickup comes in. This makes
the tone circuit less sensitive, so it doesnt get
muddy when the volume decreases. It helps
maintain clarity by not bleeding off the highs
as the volume decreases.
The 360 hardware starts with TonePros bridge
and tailpiece, which lock in place so they dont
fall off if you take off all the strings, and they
look rock solid. Lastly, the guitar is topped off
with Sperzel tuners with vintage white buttons. The tuners work well, but personally I am
not keen on the look of the buttons (just my
personal taste, many will dig em).
So hows it sound?
Another bit of personal taste here: I love
guitars that are resonant, and the 360 is alive.
The feel of high quality is obvious as soon as
you pick it up. The fretwork is flawless and
the setup is right on. The 360 comes strung
with .011s, which is an unusual move these
days and speaks to the kind of players at
whom this guitar is aimed. The neck has a
round, old-style LP feel and is very comfy. I
plugged it in to my Carr Rambler and got a
rich, clean sound with plenty of high overtones and loads of sustain, making this a nice
guitar for jazz, roots and blues folks.
I am so impressed by how this guitar feels; the

body is thinner than a Les Paul, so its not too
heavy. It feels very lively in your arms and plays
perfectlyso I added a distortion box (Baby
Blue OD) and tried some rockin. The Baby
Blue is a very transparent box and allows the
character of the guitar to come through. The
360 delivers all you would want. For rockin
some blues, the bridge pickup gives an almost
Tele-like sizzle that kicks butt, and I loved the
neck pickup for playing some slide. The minis
dont seem to get muddy at all, which can be a
problem with full-size humbuckers sometimes.
This would be a great roots rock guitar too!
The Final Mojo

So lets review: the fit and finish are perfect;
playability is more of the sameperfectorama;
tones are all you might want from this kind of
guitar (so again: perfection). Collings guitars
are not cheap, but if you are a committed
pickerhead this guitar will last a lifetime and

reward you every time you play it. Because this
is not a standard Les Paul shape, it comes with
a nice Armitage fitted hard shell case. Some
may be put off by the mini-humbuckers, but
you really should give them a try before you
just dismiss them. I would like to say something
critical, but nothing comes to mindits just
that good. So it comes down to whether or not
you like the look and feel, and I really do.
Buy If...
you want a high-quality
American-made guitar that will
last a lifetime.
Skip If...
youre looking for a
shredmeister guitar.
Rating...
5.0
ONTHEWeb
Head online to watch a
video review of the guitar
in action at
premierguitar.com
Collings Guitars
MSRP $2900 (base model);
$3500 (flame top)
collingsguitars.com
PREMIER GUITAR
J U LY 2 0 0 9
155
143
2
P R E MPIRE ERMGI EU RI T GA UR I GT AR RE AGT RE ES AT T HE ISTTS HVIOT LS . V1O L . 1
148
144
PREMIER GUITAR
GODIN
Fifth Avenue Kingpin
PRODUCT REVIEW
BY GAYLA DRAKE PAUL

Full disclosure right up frontIm a huge fan of
all things Godin. I love their attitude, their versatility, their environmental consciousness, and
yes, they make some damn fine guitars. The
newest addition to the Godin family is the Fifth
Avenue Series of archtops, and the Kingpin is
the flagship in the line.
Godin set out to create a great-sounding,
great-playing yet affordable archtop guitar for
those of us who dont have between $3000 and
$25,000 to drop on a guitar. With a street price
somewhere between $700 and $870, the highly
playable Kingpin is a dream come true.
The laminated wood top, back and sides
are of Canadian Wild Cherry, and Godins
Custom Polished Finish makes it look like it
came forward through time from the fifties.
The model I got for review was finished
in the lovely Cognac burst. The cool
vintage-looking pickguard and super shiny
tailpiece are extremely tasteful, while the
shiny black headstock is elegantly shaped
with gentle curves. The simple
chrome tuners balance
the tailpiece perfectly. The rosewood fretboard
is 1.72" at the
nut, and the
silver leaf maple
neck provides a
solid and smooth
weight and feel.
The volume
and tone controls complete the classic vintage

look. The signature
Godin Kingpin P-90 pickup looks cool, and sounds
fantastic. With a body
around 20" long and just 3"
deep, its perfectly comfortable to hold and light enough
to play for as long as you want
to. And trust me, that will be a
good long time.
I was surprised at how much of an
acoustic voice the Kingpin has. Ive
played a lot of the more expensive
archtop acoustic-electrics and many
of them sound too mid-rangey and
lackluster unplugged, but the Kingpin
has a little more oomph in the lows
than I was expecting, giving the highs
a much fuller foundation. Plugged in,
however, its remarkably warm and rich.
The P-90-style pickups, being single coil,
are always a little noisy, but the tone is
wonderful. I plugged into the clean
channel of a Peavey Bandit 112,
dialed the mids back to nine
oclock, boosted the bass
to about 1:30, shaved
a hair off the treble
and got gorgeous,
pure melted-chocolate
tone. A little more
mid-range and this
guitar begs for the blues.
A taste of distortion and
youre ready for some roots
rock or rockabilly.
The only problem I
encountered was with
feedback, which is not
unexpected with this
style of guitar. Lovers
of the archtop have
devised a multitude
of tricks over the
years to fight the
feedback beast,
from balloons to duct
tape to blocking the
f-holeswith varying
degrees of success, not
to mention interference with
the resonance of the top. Thats
wwwwww. p. pr re emmi ei er rg gu ui ti at ar .r c. co omm
the only problem I had, and for my applications I dont think it would be a deal breaker,
and it certainly wasnt an insurmountable issue.
However, with that element a little more under
control, I think this guitar could compete with
guitars thousands of dollars pricier, especially
for those who want or need to play at a lot
higher volumes than I do.
Playability is excellent; it plays exactly like an
archtop shouldlike butter. The rosewood
fretboard is smooth and easy, and with six
months to a year or so of regular play it will
have a wonderful feel. The neck is comfortable
and satiny, and much less bulky than some of
the vintage instruments from which the Kingpin
descends. The floating Graph Tech Tusq bridge
makes for near-instant small setup and intonation corrections. Set up to your preferences,
this guitar will play flawlessly and never give
you a minute of trouble, which is a remarkable
achievement at this price point. Great sounding and playing, this guitar earns a solid place
in the archtop world. Simply and tastefully
appointed with vintage cool to burn.
Buy If...
You want to boldly step into the

archtop world without blowing your
budget, or you need a terrific gigging
guitar so you can leave your handmade archtop at home.
Skip If...
You want to play extremely loud, or
if you want something heavy, shiny
and highly ornamental.
Rating...
4.0
ONTHEWeb
Head online for a video review of
the Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin at
premierguitar.com
Godin Guitars
MSRP $825
godinguitars.com
P R E M I E R GP UR IETMA IRE RG RGEUAI TT EASRT HAI TP SR IVLO 2L 0. 019
175
145
148
PREMIER GUITAR
149
PRODUCT REVIEW
Catlinbread Stompboxes

By JAMES EGOLf
%'
1-,
*?M.;OF1N;H>;L>
After sourcing some small Hammond cases at the local Frys, Catalinbreads own Nicholas Harris decided to see how much tone he
could finagle out of the diminutive boxen, and in the process, freed up some precious pedalboard real estate for pedal toting
minions. Nicholas was generous enough to send over the results for our perusal: the HyperPak Dirty Channel, the Serrano Picoso,
the Ottava Magus Octave Ring Multiplier and the V8 Fuzz Tone Generator.
V8 Fuzz Tone Generator
BY STEVE OUIMETTE
This V8 pedal is more fun than my first real girlfriend. Its unique
CMOS inverter chip design allows for smooth, nearly respectable
fuzz when the Fuzz control is below noon, but once it goes past
its invisible Maginot Line, all kinds of cool, random noises are
produced with or without any input signal. Before this point is
reached, the V8 behaves much like a nice old Colorsound Supa
Tonebender. Nicholas told us this about his sonic objective for the
V8: You know that Commodores song, Easy right? That solo
tone is just so cool I wanted to get that.
For me, the most fun was right on the edge, keeping the Fuzz knob
at noon or a touch past, rewarding the picker with some rasp and
sputter on the low notes while retaining the smooth, legato fuzz tones
on the mids and highs. But the difference between this and toy-robot
sounds is about a half-millimeter tweak of the Fuzz knob. This pedal
could easily go from a convincing cover of Becks Bolero to a Nels
Cline-inspired noise fest with little more than a deft big toe. It also
has the ability to clean up like it was going to a parole hearing with a
simple twist of your guitars volume knob. Good times.
Buy If...
you always end up falling for the

crazy ones.
Skip If...
you play rhythm guitar exclusively
in a Carpenters cover band
Rating...
4.0
MSRP $129
Catalinbread
catalinbread.com
Serrano Picoso
Catalinbreads original Super Chili Picoso, based on Jack Ormans
Mosfet boost design, has already attained legendary status among
clean boost aficionados, and the Serrano Picoso is well on its way
to garnering the same accolades. Featuring the same single-knob
layout as its bigger sibling, the Serrano Picoso gives up the Fat/
Clean switch as a concession to size and features 5dB less boost
than the Super Chili. But with 30dB of boost remaining, it should
still handily take care of most boosting needs.
I havent played through a Super Chili Picoso, so Im unable to
compare the two, but its a safe bet they are similar, since the Serrano is based on the same circuit as the Super Chili. I have used
other other boutique boosts, and really like the way this thing
sounds. Where others sound like a Class A mic pre very slightly
coloring the signal in a beautiful, warm, pleasing way while adding
a hint of top-end sparkle the Serrano Picoso sounds like the
mythical More pedal guitarists have been clamoring for, adding enough boost to be noticed, all while staying off of your rigs
inherent tonal fingerprint. The lesser Picoso would excel as a line
amp for larger pedalboards, a proper boost pedal or as a willing
participant in a stackable gain affair. The Serrano is aptly named,
working perfectly as an extra spice in a recipe you already love.
168

148
Buy If...
you like your tone, but crave more.
Skip If...
you go straight from your guitar to
the amp.
Rating...
4.5
MSRP $119
Catalinbread
catalinbread.com
PremierGuitar.com
Web Exclusive
HyperPak Dirty Channel

No, the name isnt reference to Cinemaxs after hours programming
the HyperPak was envisioned as the perfect pedal in front of your
favorite single channel amplifier after repeated dinner-time viewings of the Whos Live at Leeds DVD. I didnt have a mid to late 60s
SG Special kicking around, so I busted out my trusty Hamer Korina
Special and played the G to G/F riff from My Generation. I have to
say, Mission accomplished!, and hope this proclamation isnt as far
off base as the last time it was uttered.
Another design objective was good clean up via the guitars volume
knob; it works well, although it boosts the high-end and low-end in
this capacity, sounding a tad thinner than simply bypassing the pedal.
84
The HyperPak Dirty Channel is nice, but I like the crazy girls, and
despite her name, she isnt one. I have rarely found myself needing a
P well-behaved
R E M I E R G U I T A distortion
R O C T O B Epedal,
R 2 0 0but
9 if you are in need of a distortion
pedal for a single channel amp and overdrives arent cutting it, by all
means, give this one a go.
Buy If...
you need some dirt for a resolutely

clean amp, like a Twin.
Skip If...
you like a few surprises with your dirt.
Rating...
3.5
MSRP $129
Catalinbread
catalinbread.com
Ottava Magus Octave Ring Multiplier

Ottava is Latin for Octave, Magus is Italian for Magic, and Magic
Octave is a brilliantly descriptive name for this little guy. Featuring
Intensity and Volume knobs on its psychedelically silkscreened face,
the Ottava Magus is the cosmic make up gift for everyone who
bought a Boss OC-2 mistakenly thinking they were going to rock the
solo to Purple Haze and instead had to be content playing Fool in
the Rain.
The Ottava has all of the same caveats as the one-up octave pedals
that preceded it, working best on the neck pickup, with the tone
rolled back and staying around the twelfth fret E minor pentatonic
position; but even with these limitations, the Ottava is more fun than
joyriding in a 64 GTO. Venturing down low on the neck offers up a
really cool sputter fuzz with just a hint of octave, with the octave becoming more and more pronounced as you move closer to the magical twelfth fret position, where it eventually replaces the fundamental
note. When in the sweet spot, the ring modulation also becomes
more pronounced.
Buy If...
you dig retro-future, destructo-tones
Skip If...
your set list includes Girl from Ipanema
and the audience gets pissed when you skip it.
Rating...
4.5
MSRP $129
Catalinbread
catalinbread.com
Honestly, this pedal is almost impossible to describe, so just check

one out ASAP, and maybe the following can tell you more about the
Ottava than more description: I would use something like this maybe
once or twice a night, tops, and thats after making a special spot in
a song or solo for it. Regardless, from the first couple of notes, I was
earmarking both the funds and the space on my pedalboard for an
Ottava Magus of my very own.
149
PRODUCT REVIEW
Zoom H2 & H4: Two Handy Recorders
Two powerful approaches to recording

%'
1-,
*?M.;OF1N;H>;L>
By DAn BERkOwITz
The Zoom H4
BY STEVE OUIMETTE
The H4 is really three devices in one: a stereo field recorder, a 4-track

recorder for songwriting on the road, and a USB computer interface.
As a field recorder, it has two mic capsules on the top in an X-Y pattern. The most straightforward application is to switch it on, aim it
toward the band and press the record button. To set the level, there
is a 3-level sensitivity switch. Pick the right sensitivity and let the H4s
auto-level scan calibrate the appropriate amount of gain. This isnt an
auto-gain function that rides gain during recording but instead a quick
way to get started. When youre ready to record, press the record
button again, the red light goes from flashing to solid, and youre
underway.
In the stereo mode, you have four recording options controlled with
a set of four buttons that select 96khz, 48khz, 44.1khz and MP3 (at
several levels of resolution). The included 512 meg SD card gets
around 40 minutes of stereo recording at 44.1 khz. Drop in a 2 gig
card instead and youll get more than 3 hours worth of recording time
(in MP3 mode, you can record for hours on end!). If youre so inclined,
its possible to dial in several options phantom power for an external
mic, compression/limiting, high-pass filtering to cut wind rumble, even
mic modeling for four popular studio mics.
Every now and then, someone in my blues/R&B band will bring a

recorder to a gig or practice. For a while, it was a Sharp minidisc, but
that whole category of recorder is outdated and a bit complex to use
plus, transfering the music in real time is a pain.
Weve been known to go to the other end of the spectrum and have
hauled a rack case with a high-end digital recorder and top-notch preamps. But that setup is complicated and theres a lot of gear to haul in
addition to our usual PA, amps, etc. In the end, we had the potential
to get a CD-quality recording, but were always stymied by something
the wrong level on one of the tracks, bad acoustics in the house, an
overly noisy audience you name it.
Ive been looking for a simpler solution to take home the goods
something to toss in the gear bag, plop down on a table and just hit
record. Enter two little gems from Zoom that both wear the label
Handy Recorder.
The Zoom H2 and the Zoom H4 are indeed handy. Theyre also on opposite ends of the field recorder realm. The H2 the newer of the two
models is a straight-forward recorder with a minimal learning curve.
The H4 is like a loaded burger with everything on it. It has a bigger
learning curve but it can do nearly anything you can dream up.
168

150
To navigate these features, the H4 uses a combination of a menu

button and a tiny jog wheel. The display was fairly tiny and for my
old eyes, reading glasses were needed to get through the menus.
Probing the Zoom website (www.samsontech.com), I found a system
upgrade that added a few features and also changed the display font
to something easier to read. Nonetheless, there were times when I got
caught pushing the menu button instead of turning the jog wheel
that meant starting over but eventually I got used to the routine of
starting with one button and shifting to the other.
To give the H4 a whirl, I recorded an old upright piano at home from
a few feet away. Running through my studio monitors, the sound was
great, with a clear frequency response and a good bottom. At a gig a
few nights ago, I ran the direct out from my bass amp directly into the
H4s XLR jack to create some play-along practice tunes for our guitarist. Again, the recordings sounded fine and should be helpful and if
he can figure out the songs from just the bass part, Ill give him extra
credit.
Need a Tiny Recording Studio?

Moving to 4-track mode, the H4 becomes a recording studio in one
hand. On the bottom of the H4, youll find two input jacks incredible
for a device this small. Each is a combo jack that can accommodate a
guitar cable or an XLR mic plug. You can use the built-in stereo mics,
facturers, noting the demand for used

er amps, started to produce ampliusing old Fender circuits, capitalizing
e simplicity of operation and purity
ne of these classics. I invested in a
Piedmont (59 Bassman) and a Clark
fort (narrow panel Deluxe) and so am
acquainted with the high standards
to produce these replicas.
PremierGuitar.com
Web Exclusive
nt take Fender long to figure out that

was a market waiting for reissues of
of their most revered models, and thus
wed a steady stream of amps that bore
ender logo and looked just like the
of yore. Most contemporary players
rstood the choice of the first series of
e models, but sometime around 2004
7 Twin (model 5E8-A, also known as
w-power Twin) came out, and the less
ge-oriented players scratched their gears and wondered.
ats up with the 57 Twin?
rst Fender amps (and most others) were

out of circuits printed in the back pages
Comparing schematics of old and new,
be manufacturers catalogs suggestfour output tubes and high-power or solidthere are some relatively important differays to use their new audio tubes. The
state rectifiers and many more output watts,
ences. The original used three 12AY7 precircuits based on these primitive tubes
amp tubes (but the same AX as the phase
simple, and the initial amp models were
inverter). There is no bias adjustment pot
y, but somewhere against the hum of
on the original, and output tube plate voltprimordial
beasts the
Meet the Beastie
ages have been increased in the reissue
too, plugging
in a sharp
guitar,report of
arters
pistol
signaled the
beginning
to 450V from original 400V. There are also
bass
or keyboard,
or use
the micof
mplifier
race.choice. You can even use both manufactured by the Fender Custom Shop
a couple of internal fuses on the new cirof your
cuit (good idea). The new circuit is geared
inputs at once. Once youve toggled the(with a few changes thrown in for versatilitys
ender
couldbutton
not play
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guitar,
butinput
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Theinnicely applied lacquered Tweed cloth
toward a brighter, louder sound, with the
menu
down
pick an
can dial
knack
for translating
into products
the the H4covers
finger-jointed,
solid-pine cabinet with
flexibility of being able to adjust bias on
a plethora
of effects
essentially,
has aacouple
of
estions
and multi-effect
demands of pedals
those who
could.
a thin
handle (more on that later). The
output tubes to provide a more customized
Zoom
inside,
with amp
andleather
cab modeling,
of hisplus
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were phaser,
the country
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chromed
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sound and allow changes of output tubes
auto-wah,
chorus,
reverb, delay,
andsteel
evenvertical
more. In
addi-houses highZoom H4 Recorder
teel players
of southern
California,
components
from one brand to another.
tion to the
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ig-city rock n rollers thrown in. The profiberglass eyelet board, sturdy tube sockets,
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The old
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ut the
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large
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the 44.1
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pared
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this to
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timesaver,
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Beginning
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at 25mode.
watts,That
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the time,time.
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place as data rather
thanon
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was Leos
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quality
and 44.1 khz
is a four
computer,
and
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12AX7- interface
voltages
viable level to shoot for.
recording
you that
like. could affect sound. Add to this
win underwent constant modification and R; two Groove Tubes-6L6GE (made in the
the fact that there was no practical way of
al model
changes
in the years
follow.
USA) andresolution
two Electro
Harmonix 5U4GB
rectiadjusting
in this
fixed-bias
amp
and On
youone track
Those
same buttons
that to
choose
your recording
in stereo
To work
with the
4-track bias
mode,
I recorded
a bass
duet.
e models
power
output
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speakers
are 12
could
end up
amps
that electric
looked bass
the a jazzy
modechanged,
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played
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on the second track using my electric upright bass. I monitored the
r rectifiers had not been invented yet) to
The top rear-positioned control panel
fea-through When
setwhich
out toworked
make this
sound
studioFender
monitors,
fine 57,
sincethey
no mics were
nt the
thefeel
attack/decay
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five chicken-head
all tra- Oncepicked
oneI particular
amp
was
admired left and
In sag
caseofyou
cramped putting
a tunetures
together
with the H4s knobs,
but- which
involved.
recorded,
was able to
panthat
each
instrument
llow tons,
a decrease
in and
the negative
feedback
verse
from 112
(take
that,
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aretweakbythe
many
top players
measured
thethe two
menus,
small display,
theres yet
another
option.
With
theNigel). right
balance
betweenand
them.
Finally, all
I sent
to therecorder
tone stack.
Thisoff,
made
and Normal
each
circuit parameters
of that
They then
turned
youthe
canTwin
plug in theseparate
included Bright
USB cable,
hook channels,
tracks
to my computer,
imported them
toamp.
GarageBand
and added
and punchy
enough
to to
cutyour
through,
but andwith
itsown
preamp
circuit, separate
Volume
used tighter-tolerance
and
up the other
end
computer,
voila!
the H4
is powered
some
reverb, compression,
and EQ. Incomponents
all, these tasks
were easily done
llowed
browner,USB
spongy
controls
twopops
jacks,
byonce
Treble,
handwound
that Ifindividually
by another
the computers
port.tone
In this mode,
a newand
menu
upfollowed
with
I figured out
the basic transformers
working scheme.
youre writing a song
ed mainly
by Blues players
by simply
controls
common
tested
to spec
order
toareplicate
the
two choices
audio in/out
and connect Bass,
to PC.and
ThePresence
first of these
two that are
with,
say, acoustic
guitar,
vocal,inbass
and
lead instrument,
the H4
ving one
of the
both and
channels.
of this
options
letsrectifiers.
you record through the H4stoguitar
mic inputs right to
makes it a snapsound
to record
andamp.
mix.
your computer. Although the H4 includes a version of Cubase, I used it
P R E M I E R G U I T A R J U N E 2 0 0 9 161
with GarageBand.
w w w . p r e m i e r g u i t a r .On
c o m its own, a USB interface will cost a good chunk
of the H4s $300 street price, so if you anticipate that kind of use, its a
definite plus.
151
Zoom H2 & H4
The Big Picture for the H4
Despite all Ive written about the H4 so far, this barely scratches the
surface of what it can do. Dig into the 100-page manual and youll
learn a lot more about what its capable of. On the plus side, youll
find the Zoom H4 to be a very versatile, do-nearly-everything unit.
Although the first few minutes seemed daunting, it soon became
manageable, even logical. I was also initially concerned about some of
the switches that are quite tiny I wondered how sturdy they would
be. Im a careful guy, though, and after some time with the unit, I think
it should last quite awhile.
The H4s tiny display is one of the key downsides, as is the multilayered menu system and the need to work between the menu button
and the jog wheel to make selections. I wish there was a way to mount
the H4 on a stand besides the option they provide a cradle attached
with hook-and-loop straps with a tripod-threaded nut on the back
side. The SD card is a little difficult to grasp and remove because the
plastic door gets in the way. And frankly, I dont think Id use mic modeling, preferring to apply EQ after the fact to accomplish approximately the same thing. Ditto with the effects, because its easier to edit
and adjust an unaffected track. But for quickly adding in a convincing
modeled electric guitar in 4-track mode, this is your baby. Finally, the
H4 is a bit bigger than Id prefer, but given all that it can do, I can live
with that.
Buy If...
youre looking for a moderately-priced recorder with a lot of

versatility.
Skip If...
a big learning curve will keep you from using great features.
3.5
Rating...
MSRP $499
Samson Tech
the front) or a 120 angle (on the back). You can also combine them
together for recording 360 degrees in either stereo or 4-track sound
that can be edited into surround sound.
Compared to the H4, the H2 is more intuitive to operate. After sliding
the on-off switch, the H2 boots up in whatever mode you used last
(same as the H4). Although it also uses menus, more of the controls
are right on the face as dedicated buttons. Two arrow keys let you
choose the mic configuration, which is noted by a tiny red LED dot.
Another red dot lights on the top of the recorder, showing which side
has the active mics.
Rather than using the menu-button-plus-jogwheel method of selecting options, the H2 uses a single menu button and the forward/back
membrane buttons for playing back recordings. Its a bit unintuitive at
first to move up and down by arrows that point sideways, but thats
still a problem most of our logic systems can handle. Working this way
with the menus, the red record button in the middle becomes the
selection key for menu choices. Its a cleaner approach than with the
H4, but it still requires patience to work your way up and down the
menu options.
Stripped Down but Nicely Functional
Although the H2 lacks the effects available in the H4 no reverb or
amp modeling, for example it offers some useful options in their
place. There are two levels of auto-gain, plus three levels of compression and three levels of limiting. I found the limiter to be a useful
feature for managing peaks while recording at a gig, making the H2 a
set-and-forget gig recorder.
Imagine any accessory that you could possibly want the H2 likely
comes with it. In addition to the wall-wart power supply, USB cable,
windscreen and carrying pouch of the H4, the H2 has some great
conveniences. Rather than a strap-on cradle, the H2 has a tripod
socket on the bottom. Besides using a tripod, though, the H2 has a
little three-legged screw-on base and a mic clip adapter. There is also
a pair of earbuds for listening to what youve recorded and a stereo
Y cable with 1/8 miniplug to a pair of RCA plugs great for running
the H2 into a mixer, or conversely, going into the H2s line-in jack from
your CD player.
samsontech.com
Keeping it Simple with the H2

The H2 Handy Recorder takes the opposite route of the H4. Its a
simple recorder that can be brought to a gig, set up quickly, and
forgotten until the end of a set. The H2 is a couple inches shorter than
the H4, but about the same width and thickness. When I first brought
the H2 to a gig, our guitar player mimed shaving his chin with it the
H2 has an uncanny resemblance to an electric shaver. You might also
mistake the H2 for an old-school mic from the 50s, at least when looking at it from the rear.
Lurking under that shaver-like screen is something surprising two
pairs of mic capsules that can be used in either a 90 degree angle (on
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PREMIER GUITAR
Inputs and options are simpler for the H2. The H4s combo /XLR
jacks are gone, with only a 1/8 miniplug mic input and 1/8 line-in/
out jacks instead. The output jack doubles for connecting the earbuds,
with a rocker volume switch alongside. If you see the H2 as a basic gig
recorder, these differences should be no problem. I can imagine using
the earbuds or running through my studio monitors, but probably
wouldnt use the line-in or mic-in jacks.
Like the H4, when you connect the USB cable to the H2, youre ready
to transfer files to a computer or have the H2 serve as a computer interface. Again, I wouldnt use the H2 as an interface through its built-in
mics, but the file transfer capability is extremely handy.
Giving the H2 a Gig Test

As with the H4, you can record in WAV or MP3 formats. The MP3 format proved useful at a gig where the H2 was first tested. In part, this
was because of the long recording time on a 512 meg memory card,
Pre
mi
We erGu
bE
xcl itar.
c
us
ive om
but also because

the MP3 format
is the standard for
online shar
ing. We were in a noisy bar
with poor acoustics, but once the
crowd thinned out, I decided to record
our last set from a table out in front of the
band where a some loyal fans were willing to
babysit the H2. Playing the recordings back at home,
I thought the quality was excellent and the performances
were better than usual.
Using a shareware product called MP3Trimmer (deepniner.net/
mp3trimmer), I quickly listened to the tunes and picked out four.
MP3Trimmer easily extracted the tunes to separate files and another
program, MP3Gain (mp3gain.sourceforge.net) helped me bring up the
sound level I didnt have a chance to fine-tune the recording level
while playing, but the low sensitivity setting on the H2 kept levels in
bounds.
You can hear the gig recordings at my bands MySpace site, all done
with the Zoom H2 (www.myspace.com/tornadoesblues).
The H2 went to a second gig where we performed in a small restaurant with a stripped down trio of guitar, bass, harmonica and vocals.
I set the H2 on a shelf above a wine rack at the back of the room and
let it run. Again, the recordings were crystal clear, so much so that we
could understand conversations between the wait staff and the diners
Ill pick a better recording location next time! The recording at that
gig was well-balanced, with clean highs and smooth, focused lows.
Another handy use one I didnt take advantage of is to record a
practice where we typically play in a circle. Set the H2 to 2-channel
surround and everybody gets into the mix with little fuss. This would
be great to record an acoustic livingroom jam, too. And if youre a
podcaster, imagine using the H2 in either 2- or 4-channel mode to
record an interview with just one device and no extra mics.
Which Recorder to Pick?

In all, both the H2 and H4 are excellent recorders, chock full of features and priced at a very nice level. With care, both should last quite
awhile. The H2 typically sells for about $200 and the H3 for $300. If
you want to record your gigs and practices, the H2 is a no-brainer
Zoom H2 Recorder
choice. If you envision more recording needs song writing on the

road, for example the H4 will easily do that, plus record your gigs as
you go.
The H2 shows that Zoom learned some things from its first venture
with the H4. For many of us, we dont really need effects, mic and amp
modeling, 4-channel recording and all the rest. In their place, wed like
easier, more intuitive controls that get the recording job done with
fewer operator errors. By concentrating on the essentials needed in
a field recorder, the H2 provides quality recording at a new low price
point. The SD card on the H2 is easier to reach through a bottom
hatch, and the accessories are nicely functional. For my gig recording
needs, the H2 is the Handy Recorder of choice.
Buy If...
you want a value-priced recorder with easy-to-learn

basic functions.
Skip If...
you need multi-tracking or conventional input jacks for

guitars or mics.
Rating...
4.5
MSRP $335
Samson Tech
samsontech.com
153
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MORPHABILITY
The HB TWO/TONETM from Joe Barden Engineering is really two great
pickups in one our HB humbucker with its tight lows, mids, pristine
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PREMIER GUITAR AUGUST 2009
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GUITAR OF THE MONTH

Feast your eyes on thisa Pat Wilkins Bass featuring a
hand-painted image of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely
Hearts Club Band album cover. It took artist Chris Compston
two years to finish his rendition; it pays such meticulous
attention to detail that it looks like an actual print,
until you get very close to it.
Detail photo 2009 by Chris Compston Guitar photo 2009 by Chris Campbell / Civilized World
The bass has a chambered alder

body, maple neck and ebony
fingerboard, Nordstrand NJ
4SV pickups and Hipshot
bridge and tuners. It is
a private work and is
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P R E M wI EwRw G. pUrIeTmA iRe r g Mu iAt Ra Cr .Hc o m2 0 0 9
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PREMIER GUITAR
163
LAST CALL
JOHN BOHLINGER
Legends & Lyrics

My guitar pickin brethren, its all about the song.
The most mind-bending guitar solo becomes
merely an empty, music-store dweedal-ladweedal-la when played over a crap song.
Legends & Lyrics, a television series which
begins airing in April 2009 on PBS, chose some
of the worlds best songwriters and filmed their
performances in an attempt to showcase the
craft of songwriting. Some of these songwriters
employed backing musicians to help fill out their
sound. I was hired by Motown legend Lamont
Dozier for one episode and rock legend Justin
Hayward (of The Moody Blues) for another.
Theres an interesting story behind these familiar songs. Lamont had already cut the track for
Where Did Our Love Go for The Marvelettes,
who refused the song. Motown would charge
Lamont for the session unless somebody else
cut the track. Lamont began the hard sell to
other acts. He called The (yet-to-have-a-hit)
Supremes and said, Girls, I have got the
song that will make you stars. They replied,
We already heard about that dog of a song
youve been pitching around. Luckily a record
was due and the hitless girls did not have the
juice to reject the work of Barry Gordys top
writer. In turn, The Supremes protested with
a passive-aggressive performance, turning a
complicated vocal line into an angry, repetitive, unison of baby baby, ooh baby baby.
Lamont maintains that this angry delivery
helped make it their first #1 single. Another
factor that helped the songs success was that
Lamont had recorded the track in a low key
for The Marvelettes. On The Supremes earlier
work, Diana Ross sang considerably higher,
Lamont Dozier, Megan Mullins and John Bohlinger
Lamont Dozier is best known as part of the

Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting and
production team responsible for a ton of
Motown. Unless youve spent your entire life
in a cave, with your fingers firmly planted in
your ears, you know his set list:
1. Stop! In the Name of Love
2. Where Did Our Love Go
3. I Cant Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
4. My World Is Empty Without You
5. How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You
The challenge arose in that Lamonts version of these standards strayed far from
the Motown arrangements were familiar
with. My hands naturally drifted toward
the changes used in The Supremes albums
because I could not expunge the Motown
arrangements from my subconscious. I was
forced to read the entire show. Reading
isnt normally a problem, but my tiny charts
were hard to see way down by my feet, and
I was singing backgrounds, which meant
that I lost the foggy line-of-sight to the
charts while on the mic. Fortunately, the
gig went well because the strength of these
songs pulled through the performance.
164
192 P R E PMRI EE MR I GE RU I GT AU RI T A RM A YG R2E 0A0T9E S T H I T S V O L . 1
Again, the omnipresent Moody Blues songs

truly comprise part of the soundtrack of our
lives. Ive heard Nights in White Satin thousands of times, but I never really studied that
signature lick. The first ten times I played it, I
knew I didnt have it quite right until I counted
out the beats like a fourth grader. The song
is in 6/8, with the signature line beginning on
the fourth beat of the second measure. Try
playing it without counting and you will want
to start early. If you watch the program and it
looks like Im counting, its because I am.
Justin also had an interesting story behind all
of his songs. Once, they had a session and no
songs; it was up to Justin to write something.
Around 3 a.m. the night before the session, he
found a few different scraps of two separate
songs and segued them together. The next
morning he went to the studio sleep deprived
but completely confident that it would work.
He convinced his skeptic band mates and they
recorded live, with no overdubbing. Listening
to him play the song after hearing the back
story I thought, Well, of course this is two
separate songs. It doesnt matter: Question
became their second biggest hit in the UK.
The Moody Blues, The Supremes, and many
others became part of our lives because of the
power of the songs, more than their voices or
instrumental prowess. If you aspire to become
a legend, write some killer lyrics.
Justin Hayward, Megan Mullins and John Bohlinger
but was forced to rework her style to fit the

track. Where did Our Love Go introduced
the world to the warmer register that Diana
Ross has utilized for the rest of her life.
The next day I played with Justin Hayward.
Justin is an intimidating guyrather, his body
of work is intimidating. Hes actually an amazingly talented, humble, kind person with a
great sense of humor, but his amazing singing/
playing/songwriting and good looks make me
feel like a beta male at best. Having learned
that the show isnt conducive to reading, I
vowed to memorize Justins set. (Nights
in White Satin, Driftwood and Wildest
Dreams were with me; Question and Who
Are You Now Justin played alone.)
Pianist William Brendle (American Idol), Lamont Dozier, Megan Mullins

and John Bohlinger
John Bohlinger
John Bohlinger is a Nashville guitar slinger who has

recorded and toured with over 30 major label artists. His
songs and playing can be heard in several major motion
pictures, major label releases and literally hundreds of
television drops. For more info visit johnbohlinger.com
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AG100D
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