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A most excellent hang... Our interview with Little Feat guitarist Paul Barrere

The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone It’s August... It’s hot. This is hotter... The return of Dixie Chicken! 11 Review – The Rivera Venus 3... a dual 6V6 1x12 that will rock your world! 12 Mike Piera (Analogman) on the history of compression pedals

$15.00 US, JULY-AUGUST 2009/VOL.10 NO.9

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Paul Barrere All of the good, good times were ours... in the land of milk and honey And time, time adds it’s scars... Rainy days they turn to sunny ones Livin’ the life, livin’ the life lovin’ everyone. “All That You Dream” – Paul Barrere Of all the places on Earth, one has served as the undisputed breeding ground for human creativity and artistic expression in the past century, and that place is Los Angeles, California. Aside from Hollywood’s role as the film capitol of the world, Los Angeles was once the golden rose of the music and recording industry – both in support of film, and as the default destination for established and aspiring musicians of every conceivable musical genre.

Review – Analogman Comprosser 14 The King of Ponce on Amp Mods... Jeff Bakos gives it up on his favorite ‘mods’ 17 When less is more... the Amp Preserver 18 The momentary suspension of disbelief and the search for the holy wail... Without clarity, you got nuthin’ 21 Bob Burt’s Clean Boost, Overdrive & heirloom pine 25 Noiseless in Richmond... Lindy Fralin’s noiseless P90 & Strat pickups!

While rock icons like Neil Young and Tom Petty were compelled to migrate to L.A. in the pursuit of successful careers, others were lucky enough to have grown up in and around the Hollywood Hills, Laurel Canyon and Santa Monica. For them, the vibrant L.A. club scene was familiar territory no matter where their musical interest might lie – from The Fez, where David Lindley was first exposed to the oud through Hami Safino... to the Ash Grove, where musicians went to see, hear and keenly study other musicians, and the revolving kaleidoscope of trippy clubs on Sunset – the ultimate showcase destination for bands with hopes of ‘making it’ in the ‘60s.

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interview One aspiring musician who grew up on Mulholland Drive in Santa Monica was Lowell George. After passing through an assortment of short-lived bands beginning with The Factory (where he first met drummer Richie Hayward), The Standells, and The Fraternity of Man, George landed with The Mothers of Invention long enough to appear on Weasels Ripped My Flesh and Hot Rats. While working with Zappa, George demo’ed a song he had written titled ‘Willin’ featuring Ry Cooder on guitar, which in no small way became a catalyst for the birth of Little Feat (a name inspired by Jimmy Carl Black’s laconic reference to Lowell’s size 8 feet...) Meanwhile, Paul Barrere – an L.A. guitarist from the same Hollywood orbit as George – had been paying his dues in a band called Led Enema. Lowell must have detected more than a little talent lurking within the younger Barrere, since he impulsively invited him to audition for Little Feat first as a bass player – an audition that Barrere failed, since he didn’t actually play the bass... Following a tepid commercial response to Little Feat’s first album, Lowell approached Barrere again to join an expanded lineup that would include Hayward, Billy Payne, Kenny Gradney and Sam Clayton – this time as a guitar player. Sailin’ Shoes had just been released, and the band hit the road in support of still another stellar Little Feat LP that failed to stir the attention it deserved. When the band returned to L.A., they recorded another gem destined for gold – Dixie Chicken. More touring ensued, but George’s ongoing disillusionment with the music industry resulted in the band briefly breaking up, only to reform in Maryland to record Feats Don’t Fail Me Now – an album that finally succeeded in attracting national airplay and an ardent following of new fans. Little Feat’s hot hand continued with The Last Record Album, featuring “Rock & Roll Doctor,” “Oh, Atlanta” and “All That You Dream,” followed by Time Loves a Hero, and the excellent live album, Waiting for Columbus. Despite Little Feat’s commercial success and popularity in the U.S. and abroad, George’s restless nature drove him to pur-

sue a solo career as the band’s last studio album, Down on the Farm was completed. Lowell released one solo album, Thanks I’ll Eat It Here, and while on tour in Virginia he died of cardiac arrest June, 29th, 1979 at the age of 34.

Resurrection Little Feat re-formed in 1988 with Fred Tackett added on guitar and singer Craig Fuller. Their new album Let It Roll instantly rekindled the band’s popularity, which had grown to legendary status as their early recordings continued to be discovered and savored for what they had always been – timeless, hook-laden classics that deftly explored a broad swath of essential American music – from folkie blues, country-tinged ballads, southern boogie, ‘70s fusion, and straight ahead rock & roll. Steady touring and recording supported by diehard Feat fans around the world have kept Little Feat working ever since, and we caught up with them in Atlanta on June 6, 2009 – the last show on a tour that had taken them to Europe and the East Coast. Now, playing in the town for which one of your biggest hits was named is cheatin.’ But the packed house at the Variety Playhouse would have been packed anyway... People know what they’re gonna get at a Little Feat show – a flawless, high-energy rip through the band’s considerable catalog of unforgettable songs, delivered with fresh energy and conviction by a supremely talented and veteran group that clearly

still enjoys making music together. Unlike some tired ‘nostalgia’ acts held together by nothing more than a paycheck, the gang in Little Feat hardly look as if they are serving a prison sentence. Their easy smiles on and off stage are genuine, as is their obvious enjoyment in making people happy doing what they were meant to do. It’s a good life if you can swing it, and Little Feat do swing. We don’t often spend much ink on documenting historical facts that could easily be referenced on the web, but in respect to Little Feat and Paul Barrere in particular, the historical perspective offered here yields inspiration. Afterall, how many bands are still really cookin’ with no slippage after nearly four decades? After a long period in which Little Feat featured a vocalist, the original group now performs with singing duties shared by all, much of it resting on Barrere’s capable shoulders. Of course, he and Fred Tackett also have another job to do, which is to faithfully honor classic songs that are heavily dependent on and often dominated by elec-continued-

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interview tric, slide and acoustic guitar that requires a considerable range of nimble tones, nuances and skill. Watching them work up close is a testament to all great musicians as they constantly remind us of the elegant notion of playing to serve the song – not such an easy feat in Little Feat... Play guitar in this band and you’ve got a busy night ahead of you. To their credit, Little Feat also respects the music and their audience enough to understand that what we want to hear tonight is what we heard the first time – not some re-heated, ‘improved,’ or lame jam band version of “Fat Man in a Bathtub...” Mess that up and you also stink up my memories of The Three Blondes from Wisconsin, Little Howard’s wicked-good red clay MDA, Kamikaze shooters and the 14th Street midnight water ballet. You really can’t improve this stuff, but the 2009 edition of Little Feat doesn’t mail it in, either. Billy Payne’s brilliant talent on keyboards remains as vibrant and creative as ever, Kenny Gradney and Sam Clayton expertly nail the pocket, and if we have ever seen or heard a better drummer than Richie Hayward... well, we haven’t. The man is simply on it every second from ‘hello’ to ‘goodbye’ with taste, drive, power, finesse and style. By now, Little Feat’s legacy in the history of rock & roll is a matter of record. Their incomparable grasp of the groove vividly remains in their recordings, while they continue to serve up a rollicking good time on stage as if it were 1979 (minus disco). And so it is with great pleasure that we offer a personal introduction to Paul Barrere – a laid back and approachable soul with a wry and reverent appreciation for all the colorful ups and downs that life in Little Feat has afforded him. We couldn’t have asked for a better hang, and now, it’s your hang, too. Enjoy... I started playing the guitar when I was thirteen, raised in a family that believed in music lessons, and I had two older brothers, so my parents had us all taking piano lessons. Being the youngest, I started when I was five and kept it up until I was eleven, when I finally told my parents I was absolutely sick and tired of practicing for an hour every day in the same

place and needed an instrument I could take up to my room. Strange but true, I saw the Benny Goodman story and here he is playing his clarinet on a fire escape, you know... but clarinet was not the instrument I wanted. It took a few years until I realized I wanted to play the guitar. The way I came to that realization was that my brother was having a party and a guy showed up with a beautiful Gibson 3/4 acoustic and he was playing over in the corner where all the girls were (laughing). So that was it. I decided I had to get a guitar, it turned out that the guy at the party was selling the Gibson, and my parents bought it for me. Fortunately, my brothers were playing rock & roll in the house, Gabor Szabo and the music the guy had been playing at the party was all Jimmy Reed stuff – “Got Me Runnin’,” “Baby What You Want Me To Do”... I started learning all those songs – just teaching myself – and I had a good ear from all those years of piano lessons. I never learned how to actually read music, but I would have the teacher play the piece and I would learn the chords and the notes and play it for him the next week as if I were reading the music. Then my parents had the brilliant idea of getting me a guitar teacher. We lived in Hollywood at the time, and the teacher lived in Silver Lake, which was kind of a cool Bohemian area, and she talked me into selling the Gibson and getting a really nice Candela Spanish guitar made by a builder in Los Angeles whose instruments have become very valuable. The guitar teacher went off to the Newport Folk Festival one week and never came back, so I continued teaching myself and got into Gabor Szabo. A good friend of mine was Leroy Vinnegar – a very in-demand bassist in L.A. who played with Les McCann, the Jazz Crusaders and made records on his own. His stepson Mark played the drums, and Lee Roy had a whole setup in the basement of his house – a Bandmaster amp, an old Stratocaster and a set of drums, so Mark and I set out to replicate the songs from Chico Hamilton’s Man From Two Worlds. Mississippi John Hurt It went from that -continued-

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interview to listening to heavier music – BB King and Albert King, and I really got into Mississippi John Hurt. I absolutely adored his folk/blues style, and I was bouncing around between electric jazz/rock and acoustic folk/blues not really knowing which direction to go. TQR:

Did you have it together enough to begin playing out anywhere?

Oh, no (laughing). I don’t think I played a show until I was about 16. First of all, stage fright was a big problem. We eventually played a couple of parties with that trio, then we added a keyboard player and played a few more parties. By the time I was 18 I had gotten an ES175 and a Les Paul Junior and we put together a blues band and wound up playing at a club called Bido Litos. That club was famous because it’s where Love started playing a lot, and the Doors, so it was quite a thrill to be playing there. TQR:

With two bitchin’ guitars, what amps were you using?

Seemed like every amp I had ever gotten I would always blow up, and I wound up buying a Vox Super Beatle from a surfer buddy of mine. I didn’t have a speaker cabinet, so I would always get these little 1x12 cabinets and blow the speakers. I finally found an old Bassman bottom – I didn’t blow that. TQR:

So now you’re getting your chops together in Hollywood at the age of 18, playing at Bido Litos, and Lowell George eventually enters the picture...

Yeah, I graduated high school after having to leave Hollywood High and graduating from North Hollywood at the request of the principal, and Lowell had gone to Hollywood High with my older brothers. So he had known me and listened to these garage bands I’d been in and I had always gone to see him play either with the Mothers or the Factory. I was asked to join the band of a songwriter named Hank Shifter, who had a gig coming up at the Whiskey AGo-Go. He was managed by Johnny Rivers, who booked the

gig, and then found out that only Hank was a member of the musicians’ union. Johnny paid all of our dues, which was very nice. It was a two-night stand at the Whiskey, and Hank blew out his voice on the first night, so it was myself and the bass player singing all the songs on the second night. We quit that gig after the drummer was drafted, and I got a job as a busboy at this restaurant called the Black Rabbit Inn that had been started by a bunch of Hollywood musicians and managerial types. I actually waited on Miles Davis when I was there. It was like a hang... a hippy gourmet, non-vegetarian wild romp. TQR:

You were now attending the University of Rock...

Oh, yeah – absolutely. And Hollywood at that time... I remember watching the riots on Sunset strip from a little hillside in the canyon and looking down at all those people just getting whacked by the cops, and thinking, “Those people are crazy!” (laughing hard). This was around 1969, and we formed a band with a bunch of guys at the restaurant and we’d rehearse religiously, five days a week, from like noon to five and then go off and work at the restaurant hauling down $50 a night, which was good money in ‘69. We were putting in the time for about two years and we never played a gig. We lived at this guy’s house who was going to produce the band – his big claim to fame was that he produced the first Richard Pryor record. Around the third year of this all going down, we’re just blasting away at these songs and now we’ve got them down pat... The songs were like a cross between Captain Beefheart and Led Zeppelin – the lyrics were completely whacked and the music was very loud and very raucous. There were two guitars players, drums and harmonica, and the other guitarist was playing a solidbody National tuned down to C sharp – a very low tone. TQR:

And this was Led Enema...

That’s right. One day we get a knock on the door and it’s this guy, Earl McGrath, who had been an assistant to Ahmet Ertegun. Earl lived about four doors down in Laurel Canyon and he was... (laughing) he was doing EST at the time. This -continued-

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interview is the ultimate Hollywood story (laughing). I love it. “I’m doing my EST and I’m in my closet four hours a day screaming and all I can hear is you guys jamming. But Ahmet Ertegun you sound pretty good... Can I bring Ahmet up?” Well, sure. The next day Ahmet Ertegun is sitting in the basement of this band house in the lower Canyon and he says, “You guys are pretty good. What’s the name of the band?” Led Enema... “Well, we’ll have to change that...” So he offers us this deal, and for some reason the powers that be in the band, which were basically the harmonica player who sang and the producer say, “No, we don’t want to do that – it will compromise our artistic integrity.” So we’re back drudging off to work at this f’ing restaurant smelling like grease, and then Lowell shows up... He’s got a bass in his hand and he says, “I want you to audition for this band I’m putting together.” I said, “Cool... I don’t play the bass.” “Well, it’s two less strings...” So I go down to Echo Park and audition for this band. I’d already known Richie, and that’s where I met Billy Payne, but I failed miserably at my bass audition to say the least. I think the thing that got me was a chart for a song called “The Dance of the Nubile Virgin’s Legs” with a lot of time and key signature changes scrawled on a scrap of paper. So I said if you ever need a second guitarist, give me a call. In ‘72 when Sailin’ Shoes was released and Roy Estrada decided to join Captain Beefheart, they decided to expand the band and once again, Lowell did it like the older brother would do it... “OK, here’s the record, man... If you can learn the record you can be in the band.” TQR:

How long had Sailin’ Shoes been out?

Not long – a month or two, and that was when Sam Clayton

and Kenny Gradney came over from Delaney and Bonnie. As soon as we learned the songs we were on the road to promote the record, but of course, by that time the record had died and Lowell began thinking about going back in the studio. That’s when we recorded Dixie Chicken. TQR:

Did you need to scrape some gear together once you were in Little Feat?

Well, I already had a Stratocaster at that point, and I had a blackface Bassman head and a Dual Showman bottom. TQR: Were you using effects at all? I was running straight through, just cranking it at that point. Then Lowell started introducing me to pedals. What I used for recording was what I used in the garage and the basement in Laurel Canyon and on every record since – a ‘57 tweed Vibrolux. TQR:

So you hit the road to support Sailin’ Shoes, and then come back off the road and go straight into the studio to record Dixie Chicken... Can you describe how that album was recorded in terms of equipment and recording techniques?

There weren’t tons of overdubs... Lowell would be in the booth with the engineer and basically have the five of us go in and play the songs. And we rehearsed pretty extensively before we went in. We were with Warner Brothers, and they had access to all those studio sets right next door, so at one point we were rehearsing on the Camelot stage, which was pretty interesting. We recorded at Clover Recording down on Santa Monica Boulevard and it really went pretty smooth. The one thing I really remember being extra special is when we recorded “On Your Way Down” with my Vibrolux, Lowell thought it would be cool to tie it in with a Leslie cabinet... And the solo was absolutely live, as was the solo I play on “Dixie Chicken.” It was amazing that we actually got so much done on the basic tracks. Lowell was really the only one who would go in and overdub his guitars. TQR:

What guitars were you playing?

Strats, and I had two MusicMan guitars – one was a Sabre -continuedTONEQUEST REPORT V10. N9. July-August 2009

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interview and I can’t remember what the other one was. Right about the time we released Dixie Chicken, Leo Fender had started MusicMan and Lowell and I went down to Anaheim and he gave us a few guitars and quite a few amps. We weren’t real crazy about the guitars, but since we were endorsing them, we felt like we should play them.

play through that. I loved the combination of a Bassman head with the Showman 2x15 cabinet live – it made the Stratocaster sound fatter. Back then and even now I didn’t know the difference between a single coil pickup and a humbucker. Just give me a guitar and I’ll play it. TQR:

TQR:

Were you also moving in the same circles with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and David Lindley in L.A.?

I kind of stayed in the background... sort of like the second guitarist in the band. Lowell was the main focus, as well it should be, because he was such an amazing talent. He was truly my mentor... the one that got me to play more than 3-chord blues. It was a great transformation. The first three to four years with Little Feat was an amazing education for me working with Billy and Lowell. As my confidence and my chops grew, I started getting out a little more – I knew Jackson and we would hang out a little bit. We had a couple of different places we rented that were like storefronts, and we eventually took over Jackson’s place when he built his studio in Santa Monica. Between the Warner Brothers stable, if you will, with Emmy Lou and Bonnie, Ry Cooder... there was a lot of interplay. Billy got called in for a lot of sessions, and Richie, and occasionally I would get a call for something like a Nicolette Larsen record. So there was a real good comraderie there. Quite frankly, if I had been a little sharper I would have used it more to my advantage (laughing). But you have to remember it was the ‘60s and I was coming out of a band called Led Enema... there were certain aspects of my life back then that were not so healthy (laughing). TQR:

Did you ever run across Dumble?

Oh yeah. Howard was uh... well, now he’s Alexander, but I’ll call him Howard since that’s how I knew him. Lowell had one of his amps, and Howard basically worked out of a little rehearsal studio called The Alley. His stuff really took off, but I was never really a big gear head – just give me a Stratocaster, I loved my Vibrolux in the studio – I’ll

You used a certain effect with great effect on Dixie Chicken...

Yeah, the Maestro Phase Shifter – I wish I could find one, because that was a big part of my sound. Having worked with Van Dyke Parks, who worked with Ry, Maestro Phase Shifter Lowell was really good with effects. His big thing was using two of those big Lexicon 1176 compressors – one pushing the signal and the other squeezing it. When you’re not playing, they are noisy as hell, but when you are playing, the sustain is amazing, and it’s a real crystalline sound. It sustains forever. He would put that on my guitar sometimes in the mix as well. TQR:

What kind of amps was Lowell using?

After we got rid of the Music Man stuff he was playing the Dumble with a few Marshall cabinets. Since he couldn’t carry a couple of Lexicons around, George Massenburg made him a little compressor box and he got an MXR Dynacomp as the second compressor. Boy, that thing used to hiss like crazy. TQR:

Well, living in Atlanta in the late ‘70s, the two hottest bands that got the most play in the Buckhead bars were Little Feat and Mother’s Finest. When you threw that vinyl on a turntable the party would instantly intensify. Women danced on bars, clothing would come off, and strangers became soul mates for an hour or two. I can’t tell you how many times that music transformed the vibe in a club to something strangely erotic, earthy and magical.

I can’t even remember how many times we played Richard’s -continued-

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interview in Atlanta with Mother’s Finest opening for us. That was a great band. TQR:

You broke up again after Dixie Chicken. Why?

Well, strangely enough, when we were in Atlanta promoting the record for the first time, the promo people thought it would be great if we went around to the radio stations with these little Kentucky Fried Chicken boxes made up, but instead of a picture of the Colonel on the box they had the lady on them and instead of ‘finger lickin’ good,’ the box read ‘finger pickin’ good.’ They filled the boxes full of chicken and they dressed us up as busboys and put Lowell in a chicken suit. He wouldn’t wear the chicken hat, so I did. Somewhere there is a picture of that... Anyway, we went around to all these radio stations with the chicken and then Lowell found out that there weren’t any records in the stores. When he got back to L.A. he went down to Warner Brothers and just flipped out. “You demean us like that and then people aren’t able to actually buy the record? What kind of bullshit is that?” He got disheartened with the record industry as usual and he just broke up the band. At this point there was talk of Lowell, Billy and possibly Richie starting a supergroup with John Sebastian and one of the Everly brothers – which one I can’t remember, but they decided not to do that. Lowell got word from our managers that one of their old clients was the Lovin’ Spoonful and their bass player had this studio in Hunt Valley, Maryland outside of Baltimore. They had this up-and-coming engineer there named George Massenburg, so why don’t we go out there and make a record? We moved to Maryland for three months to make Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, which was kind of a literal title at that point, and we played a lot of community colleges in the area while we were there. TQR:

You probably ran into Roy Buchanan once or twice...

Roy Buchanan

Oh, yeah. He would come up to the studio and hang out with Lowell, because Lowell would be sitting in there when the sessions were over tweaking... and tweaking. And tweaking... (big, knowing laugh). But we got to do a whole lot of

stuff while we there. The studio was $5,000 a month, blocked out. Robert Palmer came in and we recorded a lot of the tracks for Pressure Drop, Lowell produced the Seldom Seen record there, which is how we met Emmy Lou... It was a good time. TQR:

Now, did your choice of gear change or evolve during this time?

I did like the Music Man amps, and I was using their basic Twin... what is it, the Sixty Five? That’s the only one I’ve still got, and then I got turned on to the 210 HD and I’d bypass the speakers into a 4x12 Marshall cabinet. TQR:

Little Feat has never come across a an extremely loud band... It’s more of a carefully crafted ensemble that can definitely boogie. Was that part of the original vision, or more of a happy accident?

I think it was more of a happy accident. We were never loud on stage. We were always very much into sustain, but we got that with the compressors, and there are ways to get distortion at lower volumes. Today I use an Ibanez CP-10 compressor. It’s easier playing live today because of the technology, but also for having done it for so long – maturation, and more about not leaving stones in your path. We’ll play anything from a 200-seat club to much larger venues, so I carry two different speaker setups. I have two little 1x12 JBL cabinets that I use in smaller places, and I’ve been using a Rivera 120 Stereo amp forever that has the best chorus sound I’ve ever heard. I’ve got two, and I’ve been playing them since 1992. TQR:

Are they still making them?

They just reissued ten I think, in a limited edition. So I carry the two JBL 1x12 cabinets for smaller gigs and on the bigger stages I carry a Marshall cab with old Vintage 30s wired stereo. I also use a couple of overdrives – one is a standard Boss Blues Driver, and the other is something called a Diabolic Gristle Tone -continued-

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interview Manipulator. Greg Koch turned me on to that.

TQR:

TQR:

The last mod I did of real significance was after Lowell passed away – in ‘80 or ‘81. I had met this gentleman named Randy Cobb that worked for Seymour Duncan back when he was working out of a garage in Santa Barbara, and he told me to bring my guitars and he would re-wind the pickups. So I went up there and we took the original pickups out of the guitars, took the old wire off and he found the biggest wire he could use and just let it go – didn’t count the number of turns or anything, and both guitars sounded great. For a long time I would use one guitar in G and the other in A.

You’re a Stratocaster player for the most part, and sometimes Strat pickups need some help.

They do, absolutely. Especially when you want some growl. I can’t remember the names of any of the distortion pedals I

used way back in the day other than a Fuzz Face. I remember when Little Feat broke up, I got a Boss distortion pedal, and I did play around with a Roland tap delay. TQR:

You also adopted Lowell’s fondness for Sears Craftsman sockets for slide.

TQR: Yeah, the 5/8 socket. I had been playing slide prior to Little Feat, but I always used glass. They would get broken, of course, and one day Lowell handed me one of his Sears sockets and said, “If you break this, Sears will replace it.” I’ve used them ever since. TQR:

Your main guitars were a ‘69 and a ‘72 Strat. Do you still have them? Yeah, I still have them and the ‘69 just got retired – I won’t take that one out anymore. The ‘72 will soon follow – they both sound great, but they’re getting too valuable to risk taking them out anymore on the road. When Fender found out that Little Feat was getting back together, they came down to the rehearsals for Let It Roll and gave Fred and I each a guitar, and I got this teal Strat Plus. It’s like the most amazing Strat Plus I’ve ever had. I’ve bought two or three of them since and none of them have sounded as good.

TQR:

Any idea why?

I don’t know... I got no idea. The teal Strat has been my main guitar since 1987, and a sunburst I have is converted over to open G tuning. It sounds pretty decent... not quite as fat as the ‘69 or ‘72, but those guitars have been bastardized several times.

In what way?

What are some of the most memorable shows you’ve ever played, Paul?

One of the best was opening for the Doobie Brothers at an afternoon show at the Rainbow Theater in London. We had such anticipation about being in London for the first time and we were like the darlings of the British press because we were so different from any other American rock & roll band. There had been quotes from people like Mick Jagger calling us their favorite band. You would not have wanted to follow us on stage at that show... we were hot, but believe me, a couple of times we went back over there and they lambasted us. The press can be fickle. There were a couple of shows we played with the Who – one in Anaheim Stadium that was my first exposure to playing in front of something like 70,000 people, and opening for the Stones in Stuttgart was quite memorable... More recently, in ‘89 we did a two night run at the Pantages Theater. We were really on during those shows and Bonnie and Eric Clapton sat in with us. That was a great way to come back with Let It Roll. TQR:

How about favorite recordings?

Most recently, Little Feat Kickin’ It at the Barn. We did it up at Fred Tackett’s barn – it’s not really a barn... more like a chicken coop that we converted (laughing). We went up there -continued-

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interview to record and we just played. Most of the soloing was all captured live and it was just a real comfortable vibe. I’ve loved just about every record we’ve ever made other than Down On the Farm, Fred Tackett when there was a lot of contention, we were breaking up, and Lowell went out on the road soon after and passed away. That’s the toughest one to recall, but there were parts of those sessions before all the craziness started that were just fantastic. We were recording the actual song “Down On the Farm” at Lowell’s house, and I remember Lowell in the backyard yelling at the frogs to Shut up! Shut up! TQR:

Micing the back of the amp is good, though. Like an open back cabinet, it can add a lot of ambience.

It does. And you too can hear what the drummer hears on stage (laughing). TQR:

How about acoustic guitars?

I have a deal with Epiphone and I use an Epiphone and a Gibson on stage. When I’m recording I have a ‘71 Martin D28 and a D35 12-string I’ve been using a lot, and I picked up another Martin with a single cutaway back in ‘83, but I’m sorry I don’t recall the model number. TQR:

TQR:

Do you do anything unique with things like mic placement when you record?

I kinda leave it to the engineer. There is a very interesting two-theory method of recording guitar amps in a room – one is to place one mic really close and another in the back of the amp. I’ve been working with a guy who will place multiple mics all around the room with one in the front and one in back. The only problem with that is that you have so many different signals that you have to choose which ones to use. TQR:

Well, I have to say that “All That You Dream” means a lot to me in many respects. It was written about my relationship with Bonnie Raitt years and years ago, and even though I loved the Little Feat arrangement, it wasn’t truly representative of the way I wrote it. When Fred and I do it now acoustically we slow it down quite a bit and focus on the lyrics more.

From the entire Feats catalog, are there any songs in particular that really turn you on?

You mentioned how Lowell was such a mentor and major influence for you, yet you never seemed to be operating as the ‘second guitarist.’ You hit the ground running, and let’s not forget... when Lowell was singing, he usually wasn’t playing.

I was ready to go, and that’s why he hired me, because it was so hard for him to play and sing at the same time. He once told me, “Frank Sinatra doesn’t play anything when he sings...” TQR:

Lowell left before there was ever much written about him. What was he like both as a human being and a bandmate?

He was very enigmatic, really. He could be the most loving, giving person in the world, and then he could be the complete opposite. He was so talented... he didn’t demand respect, but you gave it out of respect. Here’s a funny story... when we were recording Dixie Chicken he started chasing me around the studio with one of those big fire extinguishers with the powder in it, right? Well, he cornered me in the control room and said, “I’ve got you now, don’t I?” and fired it off. He missed me, but he managed to hit all the faders on the mixing board. He was very interesting in the fact that he was the first guy I ever knew who would edit cassette tapes without really knowing what he was doing. When we did “Rock & Roll Doctor” he would sit and record these little grooves on cassettes and tinker with it, and he gave Billy this edited cassette of “Rock & Roll Doctor,” which is why it’s so quirky... There are a couple of measures in there that would break your legs if you tried to dance to it. Lowell said to Billy, “Normalize this.” Billy really did most -continued-

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interview of the arrangements when we were learning the songs, so Lowell would work that way, and other times he would just come in and play the song, like “Long Distance Love” or “Two Trains.” “Dixie Chicken” was really built, where Billy came up with the little keyboard riff.

deal on something like December 1 for a million dollars, right? Everybody in the band gets $100,000 and of course, on January 1 we all got stuck with a taxable windfall of $100,000 (laughing). We were so stupid. So yeah, we made some money – that’s when everybody bought a house.

TQR:

TQR:

That’s an interesting observation, because when you think about it, what Little Feat song doesn’t have a signature, melodic hook that’s played on the guitar?

Yeah, a little signature lick. Billy, myself and Lowell would all contribute to that. TQR: As much of a smash Dixie Chicken was here in the South, it wasn’t that big a success nationally was it? No, at the time it sold about 40,000 records, but the follow up, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now was about 200,000, which was pretty good, and the older catalog started selling well after that. They have all gone gold by now, of course. TQR:

How did you record this year’s Join the Band with so many guests like Bob Seger, Vince Gill, Sonny Landreth, Emmy Lou and Bela Fleck, among oth ers?

We went down to Jimmy Buffett’s studio in Key West and recorded 22 basic tracks, and then there were other sessions in Muscle Shoals and Nashville with Billy and Mac McAnally producing. I’m sure all the lawyers got rich (laughing). TQR:

Since you mentioned it, did you guys ever make any money when you were peaking, or did it all get skimmed off as it did for so many others? It was a very interesting situation... Right after Waiting for Columbus we re-upped with Warner Brothers and we called it The Big Deal. Warner Brothers even had boxing robes made up with “The Big Deal” on the back. We were playing a show at the Forum and we signed the

What unfinished business is left for you, Paul?

I want to just keep creating music, and recently I have been doing some things I swore I would never do, but I’m doing them anyway... I’m trying to work my catalog for commercials. “All That You Dream” was used in The Sopranos, right? And it is up for another show in May, and when I got the letter for “All That You Dream” I asked my publisher who I should talk to about pitching songs for commercials? I have this idea for using “Old Folks Boogie” for a Viagra commercial... “Off our rockers acting crazy and with the right medication we won’t be lazy... You know you’re over the hill when you mind makes a promise your body can’t fill.” And they air these commercials right in the middle of the dinner hour so your 11 year old daughter can start asking you questions about erectile disfunction. Crazy (laughing). So I’m working the catalog, writing songs and playing music. We’ve all been hit with this economic downturn, but we’ll be back out on the road touring this summer and the Fall is filling up. We figured out that for the past twelve years we’ve averaged 120 shows a year, and we’ll probably do about 80 this year. Life is good. TQ www.littlefeat.net

Dixie Chicken It’s August. It’s hot. This is hotter. Please receive this gift with grace, and do not e-mail your host bitchin’ about a recipe being printed in the ToneQuest. Just make the damn chicken! It’s killer on pig meat or grouper, too. A man that can’t cook is no man at all, so stock your spice cabinet and get on with it, baby. Eat good, play good...

Dixie Chicken — Seasoning Paste 2 tablespoons salt 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger root 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon grated lime peel

-continued-

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amps 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel 1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cardamom 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 1/4 teaspoons nutmeg 1 1/4 teaspoons savory 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice 3/4 teaspoon black pepper 2-4 diced fresh scotch bonnet or habanero chile peppers, seeded 4 bay leaves 3-4 pounds of chicken 6 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 bottle of beer

Combine all of the seasoning paste ingredients in a large bowl and rub the paste all over the chicken real good, like Kama Sutra oil. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. While you’re gettin’ your grill going, put the chicken out and bring it back to room temperature. Melt the butter. Gently scrape the seasoning paste off the chicken pieces with a large spoon and stir it into the butter and beer. Grill the chicken and baste with the butter/beer mixture often as the chicken cooks, covered, over indirect heat (move yer coals to one side and the chicken on the other).

ToneQuest Venus Envy… The Rivera Venus 3

Paul Barrere’s early ‘90s Rivera Stereo 120 was recently reissued in a limited run of twelve amps, and of course, they are long gone... We contacted Paul Rivera Jr., however, and he sent us a Venus 3 1x12 combo with reverb and many of the trademark features that are unique to Paul Rivera’s outstanding designs. Our review follows... The Rivera Venus Series includes three models available as a head or combo – the dual 6V6 Venus 3, dual 6L6 Venus 5, and four-6V6 Venus 6. The 15 watt Venus 3 is available as a 1x10 or 1x12 combo, and our 1x12 review model was equipped with a Celestion G12H 30 speaker, excellent Electro-Harmonix 6V6s, and Sovtek 12AX7s.

Rivera amps are known for their exceptionally solid construction, and while the Venus 3 is modestly powered at 15 watts, it sounds much bigger due to the 11x20x19 cabinet dimensions coupled with our favorite Celestion 12. Front panel controls are straightforward with a couple of nifty twists –

Volume with pull boost, Bass, Middle with pull Mid Notch, Treble, Master Volume, Reverb and Presence. A ‘Modern/Vintage’ rocker switch on the back panel takes the amp down to 7 watts in the ‘Vintage’ position. Additional features include dual speaker outs in parallel, Line Out, Power Amp Out and Preamp In jacks. The Venus 3 develops moderately loud, lush clean tones in the full-power 15 watt ‘Modern’ setting, further enhanced by an Accutronics 3-spring reverb pan that sounds slightly shallower than the longer pans you may be familiar with in bigger vintage blackface Fender amps, but still far superior to most contemporary amps equipped with short pans. Set clean, the Venus is suitable for practice, recording and perhaps a small ensemble in an intimate setting, but it won’t hang with a full band, nor was it intended to... Tug on the push/pull Volume Boost, however, and the Venus catches fire, delivering a polyphonic gusher of exceptionally musical, variable levels of distortion that can be precisely shaped in thickness and intensity by mixing the Volume and Master Volume control levels. Lots of amps can be pushed into heavy distortion, but no other modern 1x12 combo we’ve heard does so with the grace and elegance of the Venus 3. Yes, it’s a thoroughly ass-kickin combo fully capable of out-muscling a vintage blackface Deluxe Reverb (you’d need a boost pedal to get close), but you’re also rewarded with a long, wet kiss. For moderate breakup and vivid chime, we left the pull boost volume feature in (off) and just cranked both the Volume and Master to around 1 o’clock – perfect for crunchy, single coil rhythms. With the boost engaged, the Venus steadily blooms with the Master Volume level adding increasingly thick, rich ballast at higher settings – the kind of heavy output tube distortion that works well with so many different types of pickups and guitars. Lowering the Master level and increasing the Volume boost adds rapidly escalating levels of gain and intensity that become progressively thinner and more linear -continued-

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effects as the Boost control is set above the Master Volume level. For middy and jangly Liverpool moments, enter Riveras’s Mid Boost push/pull Notch. What you get here is an instant trip into classic British mid tones with plenty of room for variable emphasis and intensity throughout the sweep of the Midrange pot. Ram a typical humbucking guitar through the mid notch and you get some fascinating and very usable linear single coil tones that contrast nicely with the fuller, rounder sound of the amp with the Notch off. This kind of practical versatility and voicing was the hallmark of Paul Rivera’s work with Fender in the ‘80s, when he and the design team at Fender resurrected the company’s amplifier business from the lingering hangover of the late ‘70s with the development of the Concert Series and many other designs.

Comprosser ToneQuest ANALOGMAN

Compression used as an effect for guitar may be the most over-looked and misunderstood tool within the essential bag of tricks available to guitarists. Many players seem to consider compression pedals the exclusive domain of chicken pickin’ country boys like Red Volkaert or the late and great Jerry Reed... Granted, compression is very useful for enhancing note separation and controlling the strength of pick attack, decay and sustain for speedy staccato passages, but it was also used with great effect on all the early Little Feat recordings to put a finer point on Lowell George’s slide playing, adding clarity and a pristine tonal quality that simply helped his Strat sit proudly in the mix with sustain that was not dependent on raw volume. Paul Barrere also uses compression for the same effect. Another contemporary player who has used compression effectively is Sonny Landreth. He’s not squeezing his tone into a small, pinched and nasally sound at all, but gently adding just enough compression to, again, enhance clarity, sustain and pick attack. Mike Piera (Analogman) has been building his Comprosser for years, but he hasn’t been complacent in assuming that the original version was the end of the road... We asked him to provide a concise overview on the history of the most popular compression pedals and the Comprosser, and our

So what is the true intention of the Venus 3? The clean tones are very nice, if a little shy in the style of a blackface Deluxe, but your world will change dramatically with this amp opened up. It really does sound like a big, powerful, beautiful beast unleashed, again due to the circuit design and features, and the boxy cabinet that works so well as a tone chamber. The 6V6 power tubes make an utterly beautiful sounding rock and blues amp (yes, that’s two ‘beautiful’s for emphasis) with a much bigger soundstage than typical EL84 combos (we’ve said that more than once as well). Rivera’s EQ controls enabling you to precisely tweak the amp for a variety of guitars, and the range of slight-to-intense overdriven voices is extraordinarily pleasing, musical and inspiring. The Venus 3 is simply a rollicking, fun amp to play, and best of all... it’s built with pride in America with a printed circuit board! Yup, we’re nudging you to consider a $1500 Class A, pc board amp. For those about to rock unencumbered by the misguided cork sniffer’s aversion to progress and consistency, we salute you. You’ll thank us later. TQ

“There are a few compressor pedals that became very popular and still stand the test of time. The first was probably the MXR Dynacomp, which came out in about 1974. It was based on a CA3080 Operational Transconductance Amplifier IC chip. This is basically a fast electronically controlled amplifier which could be used to change the volume of a signal based on certain parameters. A compressor is basically an automated volume control with specific attack and release characteristics, so this chip has found wide use in audio circuits for compression. The Dynacomp was used by many rock and country artists, and many are still using their old script logo Dynas. Dunlop reproduced this pedal exactly in ‘09 and they are quite excellent, unlike the previous Dunlop made MXR Dynacomps.

www.rivera.com, 818-767-4600

Ross tended to copy MXR with some improvements, and that

review of the latest version follows.

-continued-

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effects is exactly what the gray Ross compressor does. It came out in the late 1970s. It’s a little more steady and warmer than the Dynacomp, but most of the characteristics are the same, as the basic circuit is intact, with added stabilization. The Boss CS-1 came out in about 1980 and also found popularity with many guitarists. It does not use a special compressor type chip, but works similarly. It also had a Normal/ Treble switch which was very useful. They made a lot more of the later CS2 so you will see them more often, but a few people still swear by the CS-1. These pedals are often used as an effect, not like a studio compressor, which is usually used in a subtle manner. There were a few studio style compressor stompboxes, like the Retrospec Squeeze Box. This was a tubebased compressor pedal that worked like the rack mount studio compressors, and it is still popular as a front end for guitars and bass players for recording or live. Unfortunately, he stopped building them years ago. There are other similar style compressors on the market now, and they are generally called ‘opto’ compressors as they use opto-couplers to control the gain, and are not as much of an effect as the old Dynacomp types. Back in the late ‘90s, Phish was very popular and people were looking for the old Ross compressors that Trey Anastasio used. We found the schematic and compared it to the Dynacomp, and I saw that it would not be hard to modify the Dynacomp to the old Ross specs. So I started modifying new Dunlop Dynacomps to Ross specs and there was quite an improvement, largely due to the matched and selected transistors we used. Ross did, in fact, use selected low-noise transistors in two parts of the circuit, as seen on the schematic and the pedals (X on the tops of the select transistors). After a while, we decided we should make the pedals from scratch as the jacks, switch, and pots on the Dynacomps were attached to the board and not of very high quality, making repairs difficult. We finally released our Comprosser in 2000, and it was the only Ross clone on the market. Way Huge had

made the Saffron Squeeze a few years earlier, but I thought it was a Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer clone until Jeorge corrected me on a mistake on my website and I realized his was the first Ross clone, with a few tweaks. We have been tweaking the Comprossor since it came out in 2000, first by adding the Attack knob, based on some of the Japanese compressors. We also added the Orange Squeezer to the board to make our Bicomp – two different and complimentary compressor pedals in one box. Our latest version has more clarity of the original note and stability. Jim Weider showed me how great his old script logo Dynacomp sounded. I didn’t think it could beat our comp, but it did have more clarity. So I modified his existing Comprossor with the metal can chip and our latest specs, and it’s sounding great now too. Our latest specs include ideas from the Way Huge Saffron Squeeze (stability) and a Japanese boutique compressor (capacitor type) along with the script logo Dynacomp (chip). The trick is that you have to know what to steal – only the good stuff! I remember hearing that phrase back in the ‘70s, when Datsun came out with the 240Z and kicked the British sports cars in the ass. I have made a few of these comps with the special metal can IC chip in addition to our other new specs. Buddy Miller got his old bicomp upgraded to those specs recently, and Bill Hullett and Jerry McPherson have been using our comps in Nashville too. But the metal can chips are very expensive and hard to find, so it’s available as a special request option. We’ll throw it in free for any ToneQuest readers though.”

Review If you’ve been reading TQR for long, you may have noticed that we haven’t found a pedal from Analogman we didn’t like – from the germanium-goosed Sun Face fuzz pictured here on Doyle Bramhall’s pedalboard (along with an RC Booster and

Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive), to the Beano Boost treble boost in our rig, and the early ‘90s Japan-made Boss DD3 -continued-

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tech delay modified by Mike Piera. We had previously discussed the Analogman Bi-Comprosser way back in 2001, which became a favorite of the late Stephen Bruton as a result of our article. Today’s Comprosser has been enhanced with the Attack control, which provides complete control over the strength of pick attack and how the notes develop – essentially hard or soft. The Sustain control gives you the precise ability to control and modify a broad range of decay times, and the Volume control pushes the signal to progressively stronger, louder levels that can also act as an overdrive, while also gradually emphasizing your attack and sustain settings. So, we need to think of compression as it functions in the Comprosser not as an effect that abruptly squeezes the signal, altering attack and chopping off sustain... The Comprosser functions more as a very high-fidelity (true to your original signal), warm and musical boost while controlling levels of sustain and the character of pick attack. It’s not surprising that slide players especially appreciate the ability to enhance sustain and smooth the overall signal, but these features are also very useful in introducing a seductively smooth character to rhythm parts and solos. Unlike the old Dynacomps and MXR pedals, you won’t be fighting noise, worn out jacks or any of the other anomalies that time can introduce in ‘vintage’ pedals. With the Comprosser, the overall sound and functional features are as good as it gets, and yes, ToneQuest readers will exclusively receive Comprossers with the expensive ‘metal can chip’ included at no charge. TQ www.analogman.com, [email protected]

ToneQuest The King of Ponce Gives it Up on Amp Mods

Today more than ever, the wise tonefreak will take a long look at his amp stash and carefully consider the untapped potential lurking within. Simple modifications to a good amp can yield a truly great one – you need only consider the possibilities rather than assuming you may have already squeezed every ounce of tone from your amps, and we gladly offer our own recent experience as an example. Jeff Bakos is one of the most accomplished amp techs we know, a bass player with years of experience working the Atlanta blues and rock scene, and a remarkably talented recording engineer, having recorded much of Sean Costello’s catalog, Jason and the Scorchers,

Delta Moon, and others. You’re getting the complete amp mod brain dump from Jeff in this issue, so pay attention... In the fall of 2006 we scored a 1958 Tremolux, which was eventually featured in the July 2007 of TQR. Since the cabinet had been stripped nekkid of all tweed remnants and the output transformer had been replaced, we paid just $1,082.00 for it. The circuit remained virginal and in fine shape right down to the little piece of tape on the chassis signed by ‘Lilly,’ and we had high hopes for our new old beater. We sent the cabinet off to Greg Hopkins at Vintage Amp Restoration for an aged recover, replaced the replacement OT with a Mercury Tone Clone, and when we finally got the Tremolux back together, it did not disappoint. A perfect 17 watts of tweedy good thang and intoxicating tremolo, the Tremolux has pleased us mightily ever since. Then just last week Riverhorse blew into town for thirty eight hours and back-toback shows featuring the Arc Angels and Little Feat, and during a moment of calm on Saturday afternoon, he broke out two boxes containing a pair of NOS late ‘50s Tung-Sol 5881s. Pondering a suitable destination for the TungSols, our gaze fell upon the Tremolux, which had been churning along quite nicely for two years on an old pair of stellar RCA 6V6 blackplates, a big-ass RCA 5U4 rectifier and an Amperex 12AX7 in the G spot. Then our thoughts turned to Neil Young, and how his tech Larry Cragg had reminded us that Neil’s thunderbox Deluxe was biased for 6L6s. Solidly treading in ‘what if?’ mode, we took the Tremolux and the Tung-Sols down to Jeff Bakos’ shop on Monday afternoon for the installation of a bias pot, which would enable us to experience the full girth of the Tung-Sols biased up in the Tremolux. And why not? With barely twenty minutes on the bench, the bias pot and resistor had been added (another essential ‘mod’ on amps that don’t have them), and we were ready to play out our -continued-

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tech hunch. Once again, we were not disappointed... As gloriously rich and responsive as the Tremolux had always sounded, the Tung-Sols launched it into full bloom, with a bolder, richer voice, clearer when pushed into distortion, if not really cleaner (the Tung-Sols are notorious rough boys in a good way). This simple modification created a doubling effect in which all the tonal qualities and dynamic responsiveness of the amp seemed to have been multiplied incrementally, creating a qualitative change in sound that would be otherwise unimaginable from such a moderately powered tweed 1x12. And there ya go... Were it not for the burning desire to insert those hot Tungs in something sweet and willing, who knows when we would have considered juicing the Tremolux? Well, the jelly juice is flowing now, and there will be no turning back, although should we ever wish to dial it back down with 6V6s, we can do so in a snap. Nice mod. Damn near life-changing, actually, having transformed the Trim-o-lux into a bigger, better version of its former glory. If you heard it, you wouldn’t believe just how glorious it sounds. Game over. Now on to Mr. Bakos, otherwise known as the King of Ponce, as he runs down some of his favorite tone-enhancing mods. Enjoy...

cabinet with a bigger speaker than the one installed in your combo amp, you’ll need to have a new baffleboard cut that can be swapped for the original. These days it’s easy to order a new baffleboard for most vintage Fender amps complete with the proper grill cloth pre-installed direct from Mojo Musical Supply (www.mojotone.com), and you can always switch back to the original.

The Number One, all-time classic ‘mod’ is to merely change the original speakers in your amp. Everything you, your guitar, and your amp are creating is ultimately experienced through the speakers. I like to install the Celestion G12H30 70th Anniversary (Avatar Hellatone 30) in 12" applications, and one of my all-time favorite 10-inch speakers is the Eminence Legend 102 Alnico.

Disconnecting the negative feedback in a Fender amp brings the gain and midrange way up into a very mean, aggressive sound. You can disconnect it, or add a in/out switch to turn a Fender into a meat-eating chainsaw with full Fender fidelity.

‘50s Tremolux with 15” speaker

You can also acquire new tones from your amp by changing the size of the speaker – like moving up from a 10" to a 12" or from a 12" to a 15". Unless you’re planning on using an extension

Pulling the two middle power tubes in a Fender Twin or a 100W Marshall have to be among the top two ‘mods’ in terms of effective simplicity for reducing power to manage-

able levels without sacrificing tone. Some people even think these amps sound better with just two power tubes (or they sound better than a comparable 50 watt). On a Marshall you need to set the impedance at 8 ohms when running just two power tubes. A Twin has no impedance selector, but it can easily handle the 50% mismatch running at 2 ohms with two 8 ohm speakers in parallel at 4 ohms. Pulling V1 (first tube on the far right facing the back of the amp) in a 2-channel Fender amp for more gain in the Vibrato channel is also very effective, since most people don’t use the Normal Channel (but Stevie did, always shooting for the cleanest tone possible). The ‘Marshall mod’ for Fender amps usually refers to Blackface 2-channel Fender amps – you split the cathodes apart, change a couple of values and do some minor re-wiring to convert the Normal Channel to more of a ‘Marshall tone.’

The Tube Amp Doctor ‘Tone Bone’ EL84 SRV’s ‘64 Vibroverb tube socket adapters will take a 50 watt dual 6L6 amp down to about 16 watts with dual EL84s. I’ve recorded a guy using a Soldano that was running with these adapters and it sounded pretty good, although I was thinking, ‘Why not just find a Marshall PA20?’ -continued-

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tech is a great mod... You can make it a mid boost by changing the stock 120 pf cap to .001mf.

The ‘César Diaz mod’ – replacing the original output transformer in a Fender Deluxe, Vibrolux or Pro Reverb with an OT from a larger model like the blackface Bassman will firm up the bottom end, raise the threshold for clean headroom and add a little power. César did this with all of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1x15 Vibroverbs. If you’re worried about de-valuing a blackface Fender, try it in a Silverface model. Rectifier tube swaps: Try switching from a 5AR4 to a 5U4, 5R4 or 5V4 for a softer pick attack and more sag. Replace the stock silicon diode rectifiers in Fender amps like Bassman and Showman heads, or Marshall or Hiwatts with FREDS (fast recovery epitaxial diodes). The dynamic pick attack and overall feel with FREDS is much smoother and less hard and clangy sounding than typical silicon diodes. You’ll need to consult with your amp tech for the proper FRED values for your amp’s power supply and safe installation. Since you’re working with the power supply circuit, this is definitely not a ‘do-it-yourself’ operation. Add a 25K midrange pot to all Fender amps that don’t have one. This dramatically expands the tone of a Deluxe Reverb, Pro Reverb, Princeton Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, etc. I usually install the pot in the hole for the extension speaker jack on the back panel (no drilling required). The KT66 mod in a Fender gives it a more tubby bottom end. 5881s in a 6L6 Fender are the opposite – they sound more aggressive and distorted – it’s a good sound if you want more compression and output tube distortion from a typical 6L6 Fender blackface or silverface amp. Installing and re-biasing a Fender amp designed for 6V6 power tubes with 6L6s as David described can produce a bigger, stronger voice. Sean Costello always had me bias his blackface Deluxe for 6L6s, and it was his main stage amp for years. Sean Costello You can also use tubes like the current production Tung-Sol 5881 for a bigger tone with a little more grease. Bumping up from 6V6s to 6L6s is best suited to the blackface Deluxe Reverb and tweed Deluxe (Neil Young). Changing the value of the bright switch cap in a Fender amp

Using 6550 output tubes in a Marshall is also a great move... You have to change a few things – it requires a feedback wire change and rebiasing. Instead of getting that hi-fi, high-end breakup, you get a smoother midrange voice with a fuller, fatter bottom end – kind of like 6L6s but with more power. It gives the amp more headroom, too. You can also try KT77s in a Marshall. It has a more sawedoff sound that’s looser and mushier, if that’s what you like.

‘Blackfacing’ The silverface Fender amps are among the best sounding bargains in the amp world, and when you dial them in right with good tubes and speakers, they can easily beat the sound of many contemporary ‘boutique’ amps that cost three times as much. Blackfacing a silverface makes the amp sound less dumpy... warmer and more musical with a little more mids and gain. Some amps need restoration before you make the change over to blackface specs. I’ll often get an amp like a ragged out early ‘70s Super Reverb with leaking caps that still works, and I’ll go through it and replace the power supply caps, clean up the changes to the circuit that occurred in the silverface era and the amp turns out sounding amazing. Some of the silverface amps are closer to a blackface circuit than others... There were fewer changes from blackface to silverface in amps like the Deluxe or Princeton Reverb, while Bassman heads, Super Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb and Pro Reverb amps had more changes. When you blackface an amp, you’re replacing caps and resistors, removing unnecessary parasitic caps, re-dressing leads and making changes to the phase inverter circuit. The cost of blackfacing a silverface amp starts at roughly $200 for an amp that has been well maintained and doesn’t need restoration beyond the changes to a blackface circuit. You often need to plan on replacing tubes and speakers, but once you get a silverface right, they can sound incredibly good. -continued-

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review ‘Blueprinting’

Words of Caution

Some people like to ‘blueprint’ old amps by referencing the schematic and replacing any caps or resistors that are out of spec by more than maybe 5%. Fender amps were originally built with parts that had an allowable tolerance of 10%-15%, which is why some of them sounded better than others even when they were new. Over 40-50 years some of these components can drift, and this is how we wind up with old Fenders that sound like magic, and others that just sound dogged-out. Amps can age in both good and bad ways. You might have an old amp that sounds pretty good, and if you blueprint it with all new components, a lot of the character of the amp can disappear. Everybody has heard stories about the guy who has all the old Astron caps yanked out of his tweed Deluxe, takes it home, plugs in and cries... Sometimes you have to change parts that are shot to enable the amp to work and remain stable... other times it’s a judgment call. The most important point of having work done on any amp is to optimize it for your specific needs. I try to leave as many of the old coupling caps on the board as possible, because they play a big part in shaping the tone of the amp. Power supply caps are less important, although some people would argue that, and there are good replacement transformers available today when you need them. I usually install a Mercury Magnetics Tone Clone in a classic amp unless the customer specifically wants something else.

You’ve heard this before... all guitar amplifiers operate on lethal voltages, which are also stored in the power supply caps, meaning you can be shocked even when the amp is unplugged. Aside from simple speaker and tube swaps, any work performed on the internal circuit of an amp should be left to a professional. And if your amp tech isn’t familiar with any of the specific mods we’ve described here, we suggest you find one that is... One TQ reader had a midrange pot added by a ‘tech’ who got it all wrong, and he wound up having to send his amp to Jeff. Mod forth (with caution...) TQ

Lagniappe The Chicken Wire mod is a classic for amps owned and provided by club owners as a courtesy to bands. I just did a Chicken Wire mod on a couple of silverface Fenders for Matt at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack in Atlanta. Basically, you construct a chicken wire cage around the bottom of the chassis to prevent the tubes from being pulled without first having to remove the back panel. This does a great job of preventing the blues bands that play at Fat Matt’s from jacking the tubes out of his amps at the end of the night. I’m not kidding.

Bakos Ampworks Atlanta, 404-607-8426

ToneQuest When Less is More – The Amp Preserver

Perhaps you’ve heard how Eddie Van Halen used a variac to coax his vintage Marshall into those gloriously cocky ‘brown’ tones from his early recordings by knocking the voltage down to 90 VAC on his Marshall with a variac... As is so often the case in the music world, rumors of the Van Halen variac circulated like the clap among guitarists, some of whom got the story wrong, thinking that by really cranking a variac beyond 110 volts (more is better, right?) they would be delivered to electric Shangri-La post haste. As amps blew up, interest in variacs waned.

Other musicians who were at least grounded in a casual, street-wise understanding of physics had discovered that their amps indeed sounded better at slightly lower voltages than the typical 120VAC USA wall current, as Junior Watson sagely noted in our December 2006 ‘West Coast Blues’ cover story. Tonal considerations aside, working the aging components in a vintage amp at 120 volts when it was originally designed to run at 115 isn’t optimal either, and this fact was not lost on a tube hi-fi enthusiast in Illinois by the name of Carl Hartman. A guitarist friend of Carl’s who owns vintage -continued-

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effects amps had seen a voltage reduction circuit somewhere online, inspiring Carl to do some research of his own, since he had noticed that the transformers on his vintage Dynaco tube hi-fi amp would become hot enough to ‘fry an egg’ at today’s higher wall currents. Carl: “I found a design for reducing the line voltage in an ARRL manual – an Amateur Radio Relay League ham radio manual from around 1944-45. It is a fairly straightforward method of dropping the line voltage using a transformer. If you wire the transformer in phase with the current it will boost it by whatever the output of the transformer is, and if you wire it out of phase it will reduce it by the same amount. So I built this thing and tried it on the Dynaco and you could now put your hand on the transformer – it was running cooler, as designed. I talked with my guitar playing friends and while you can use a variac, they weigh a good twenty pounds, they aren’t really portable, and there is no volt meter, so you can’t see the actual voltage you’re drawing. My design for the Amp Preserver is a labor of love... I hand-machine the box, I have an assortment of chassis punches and it’s all hand-drilled and hand-punched, hand soldered and built like a rock.” We agree. Carl’s little gray box is indeed built to last in ‘50s mil-spec style, but that’s not why you’ll want it. Sure, given a choice, none of us would choose to cook the original components in our vintage amps with five more volts than the 115 these amps were designed for (or the proper 105 VAC for British amps). Here in Atlanta, our line current is pegged at exactly 120, and we’ve heard that the line voltage in New York can exceed 125! Your vintage American amps were intended to ‘see’ 115, British amps 105, and the single chicken head knob on the Amp Preserver has three settings – ‘Line,’ which is your actual line current, -6, which will take our line current in Atlanta down to precisely 115, or -12, at 109. Comfortable in the knowledge that you are now no longer over-cooking yer precious babies, you’ll also experience a tonal benefit of impressive proportions... At 115 VAC our vintage Fender amps sound clearer and cleaner. No, not as in ‘lost’ distortion clean... the amps just sound clearer at all volume levels, and you’ll notice that a certain amount of trashy stuff

lurking in the high frequencies when you overdrive the amp completely disappears at 115. You may not have noticed this trashy stuff... but you will when comparing the ‘Line’ and -6 settings as the clarity emerges. The net effect is not unlike the difference between a lot of current production ‘PAF’ humbuckers and vintage PAFs in terms of clarity and note separation. It’s just a superior sound. Now, Carl Hartman’s home workshop is no factory, so you may have to wait a bit to receive your Amp Preserver, but at $159, it is definitely an essential, must-have tool. We have ours rigged with a surge protector/power strip that allows all of our amps to be connected to Carl’s box, which features a heavy duty on/off toggle switch on the back. Preserve and enjoy...TQ www.vintagesoundworkbench.com [email protected]

ToneQuest A Momentary Suspension of Disbelief

Since you are clearly a reader, if not an avid one (in which case we salute you for reading this, at least), perhaps you’ve come across the phrase ‘a momentary suspension of disbelief’ in the past. Further thought reveals many pertinent and useful applications for such a wonderful notion that would allow us to indulge in trust, faith, romance and fantasy with childlike innocence untainted by the worldweary adult habit of never quite believing so much, too much, as if doing so will protect and preserve what little is left of the innocence we have already lost. No, ‘healthy’ cynicism is hardly that... The cynic uses his jaded view of the world to slam doors shut with a crashing bang, and all hopeful voices with them. The cynic has an explanation for everything except his inability to embrace the new and unfamiliar with a sense of wonderment, or even feigned curiosity. He remains ever vigilant with a singular purpose – to pounce on

-continued-

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effects naiveté and enthusiasm for what they are – the misguided follies of inconsequential fools who would, for a moment, suspend disbelief at their peril. On a happier note, guitarists are by their very nature, anything but cynical. Gullible, perhaps... cynical, not so much. A cynical person would pick up the guitar for the first time, bash on it for a minute or so and quickly decide it wasn’t worth the effort. It’s the gullible and eternally optimistic among us that are foolish enough to actually believe we can learn to play the guitar, and do. Good on ‘ya. So perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising that guitarists’ apparent obsession with pedals (and in particular, those that offer the loftiest pretense of eternal transformation) continues unabated. At the risk of sounding, errr, cynical, we’d like to call ‘time out’ in the search for the holy wail for a little introspection. The wail will come soon enough.

What a Pedal Do Many of the first ‘pedals’ weren’t pedals at all in the sense that you could step on them to get yer rocks off. One of the earliest and bitchinest pedals that wasn’t a pedal is the DeArmond Tremolo Control first introduced in the late ‘40s and a favorite weapon of Billy F Gibbons (listen to Rhythmeen – the DeArmond is all over it – the throbbing, pulsating, bonerizer thing). The utterly delicious if cantankerous Echoplex tube/tape echo must also be counted as one of the world’s all-time greatest effects... just don’t step on it. The biggest selling ‘pedal’ that you could step on first emerged in the early ‘60s, but it really didn’t catch fire until Keith Richards whipped it out on “Satisfaction.” Gibson’s Maestro Fuzztone introduced germanium driven fuzz to the world, and the race was on. ‘Fuzz’ held the pole position in rock music through the late ‘60s, with

Jimi Hendrix stomping on the Arbiter Fuzz Face as he extended his grasp of effects with Roger Mayer’s Octavia and the Vox/Cry Baby Wah (and no one has ever wah’d better than Jimi since). As the ‘70s unfolded, pedals became increasingly sophisticated as players explored modulation effects. CMI (Chicago Musical Instruments) who owned Gibson, was a significant early player in the effects biz, producing far out stuff like the Maestro Ring Modulator, Envelope Modifier and Phase Shifter. Electro-Harmonix emerged from Mike Mathews’ fertile vision, then MXR, Mutron, Boss, Ibanez, hordes of custom booteek pedal builders ramped up in the ‘90s... and today you couldn’t fathom all the pedals being made by companies as diverse as Roland, to Two Dudes in a Garage Inc. if there were a Glock leveled at your head. And this is good for the pedalmakers, God bless ‘em, if insanely challenging for the rest of us.

What a Pedal Don’t Do We’ve heard a ton of pedals in the past ten years, and as good as the best of them might be, we’ve never heard one single pedal that could make a lousy amp sound good, or a marginally gifted guitarist play with the kind of soulful emotion and tone that will never be written on a staff or decoded in tablature. Not one. In fact, a lot Eddie Cochran of pedals – distortion, boost and overdrives in particular, just make matters worse for everyone involved, and especially the listener, who has absolutely no emotional investment in the guitarist’s pedal obsession. If your amp ain’t right... if your pickups ain’t right... if your mind ain’t right... no pedal is gonna help you. However, when your rig is tight and your chops are together, the right pedals can enhance our music way beyond the bounds of the ordinary plug & play with stunning results.

Frosted, Not Fried Here’s a thought... Most players today have absolutely no use for a gonzo, germanium fuzz fest other than as an occasional curiosity destined to collect more dust than playing time. Unless you’re dying to render some very heavy Voodoo Child or Crazy Train riffs from within, do you really need a buzz bomb on your pedalboard? The sound of a great, naturally overdriven amp is still pretty hard to beat, and the pedals that can incrementally goose such amps without adding faux ‘pedal tone’ are the ones to seek, assuming you have an amp that can do the deed. Step on the Notorious Claymore Nookie Melter IED and what happens? Your volume goes through the

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effects roof and if you back it down with the gain up, you got no game. Lemon jello shooters and a lap dance in Saskatoon from a Lithuanian chick named Dunya and a Led Zep tribute band ’s drag-ass version of “How Many More Times” – that’s what you got. Do you wanna be that guy? Hell, no. Unless you’re playing 130 dB gigs at Bong-a-roo, why bring a 12 gauge to a dart game? With non-distortion effects, things become a little less complicated. Delay? Get the Analogman modded Boss DD3, or buy the whole pie with a Line 6 DL4 ‘green box.’ Reverb? Lee Jackson’s Mr. Springy is the next best thing to a vintage Fender tank, and it’s a pedal. Univibe? Our fav is the Foxrox AquaVibe, and for phasey, dreamy stuff, the Red Witch Moon Phaser is the ticket. But most players still seem hopelessly obsessed with finding a pedal that can nudge their amps into the pleasure zone at practical volume levels. No worries – we’re inching closer to the holy wail every minute...

Clarity First Like ‘hot’ pickups and high gravity ales, we humans instinctively embrace the idea that more is better, yet the opposite is often true when it comes to acquiring stellar tone. And if our repeated references to clarity have begun to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard, get used to it... The mind-altering and elusive, utterly classic, unforgettable distorted guitar tones swirling in your head were quite likely spawned by a relatively clean signal being expertly jacked up with precision and care. Take David Gilmour, for example... Now here’s a fellow whose tone we can agree is immediately recognizable – stunningly lush with second order harmonics, pristine, smooth, suspended aloft with beautiful, airy sustain, fidelity and no jagged edges... It’s all there. And what has he been playing throughout his career? Mostly vanilla Strats with vanilla pickups – certainly not overwound – often charging up a Hiwatt or two, or, as Gilmour’s tech for three decades, Phil Taylor reminded us – at times even a Galien-Krueger or Fender Twin, which are all very clean sounding amps, by the way. Working with this extraordinarily robust and relatively clean signal, Gilmour precisely dials in an overdriven tone via a pedal like the B.K.

Butler Tube Driver, and we are then served up one of those unforgettable solos that sounds as if the high priest of rock guitar decided to throw on some huaraches, pack a bottle of Médoc and descend from the Pyrenees to remind us all exactly how the electric guitar is supposed to sound. Indeed. We spoke at length to Phil Taylor while in the middle of writing this rant, and he readily confirmed that what Gilmour has always sought in even his most ‘distorted’ guitar passages is clarity.

SRV Let’s keep going... How many ways can people get the ‘secret’ to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s tone fucked up? Yes, he would occasionally step on an Arbiter Fuzz Face modified by César Diaz, an Octavia, a Vox wah, or in the early days, a Tube Screamer, but from the guitar to his amps Stevie was all about clean, mind-numbing clarity and power rendered through EV speakers and Fender amps modified with Bassman output trannies, circuit tweaks and robust power supply caps, a 100 watt Dumble or two, and when it worked, a 200 watt Marshall Major. It also helps to string your guitar with piano wire. Power and clarity. Dirt on dirt doesn’t work. The challenge for most of us is a big one – we are no longer playing at the decibel levels of an arena band. Volume must be constrained to an appropriate level for the room you’re playing, which could be anything from a cramped blues bar to a slightly larger club, a small concert venue or an outdoor festival stage. This is our reality, and since we are hobbled by such absolute limitations, we suggest that perhaps your choice of amplifiers undergo careful consideration before marching off in search of The Most Magical Pedal In the World. Clarity is of course the arch enemy of bad players. We call such amps ‘cruelly revealing’ and ‘unforgiving’ in the way they hide and obscure nothing. A clean amp is what it is, and it will reveal you to be who you are, too. Ah, but this clean foundation properly laid does have its rewards, and with just a smidge of grease, true greatness can ensue, which brings us, finally, to the holy wail. We hope the torturous path we’ve dragged you down thus far hasn’t been too painful, but if you were anticipating a candy-ass 5-star review article on still another pedal that will be forgot-continued-

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interview ten in three months, the pleasure of your disappointment is all ours. TQ

ToneQuest The Holy Wail & Heirloom Pine

We first heard about Bob Burt years ago from a reader who had raved about Bob’s skills as a custom cabinet builder in Pensacola, Florida. Burt is also buddies with John Landgraff – the noted amp tech and designer of the highly regarded Landgraff Overdrive sold by Pensacola’s Blues Angel Music. Apparently the pedal bug bit Bob, too, and he sent us a couple of absolutely remarkable and truly outstanding effects to try along with an intriguing, custom made 1x12 pine cabinet. We asked Bob to elaborate on his approach to both pedal and cabinet building, and our reviews follow. Enjoy... TQR:

You mention on your web site that you spent a lot of time evaluating various boost and overdrive pedals while developing your own designs. Can you share some of the most significant things you’ve learned and observed that have contributed to the results you’ve achieved?

I’m glad to find that you heard the most important thing about these two pedals other than their purposed function – natural, unaltered tone. First and foremost, I have learned that the largest contributor to tone is in the player’s hands. Each fretted note or stroke of the pick colors the signal that flows from the string. Additionally, I have learned that good tone is subjective for each individual player, making it very difficult to produce a ‘one size fits all’ pedal that will please everyone. So in considering these two simple facts, I have tried to produce pedals that are functionally simple and exceptionally transparent and clean in their output. I consider the OD and Boost to be functionally very similar to the role of an amplifier – not necessarily intended to change tone as much as amplify it, so the cleaner the sound, the better. TQR:

Where did you acquire your knowledge of electronics?

I was inspired by John Landgraff originally, and later by Clay

Jones. Clay directed me to RG Keen, who has achieved a mythical status in the effects world. He is very willing to share his knowledge through his books and website. I spent many hours there at www.geofex.com reading and experimenting with different projects. There are also many electronics forums where builders can get great info and feedback, and I frequent them often. Additionally, I have several very close friends who know pedal building inside and out who are willing to assist me any time I ask. TQR:

What seems to make your pedals standout is their exceptionally musical quality – very natural, organic, smooth, musical and quiet without altering the sound of the guitar. How much of this is a product of design versus component selection?

Speaking of overdrives, there is no doubt that I liked the original Ibanez TS 808 most of all, even though I found the Rat to be a very usable effect as well. There were five things I identified in those two pedals that I thought would make the perfect overdrive for me. * Plenty of saturation and gain available. * Enhanced lows. * Reduced or scooped midrange tone. * A wide range of tone, from ‘brown’ to Twin. * Increased volume (output). I think these goals have been achieved with the Overdrive, and there was a definite focus on design with it as well. Component selection plays a part too, but not as much as the design and layout. I could have used toggle switches, clipping diodes etc., but so many of these cannot be used on the fly, so to me they are unusable in a live situation. I wanted to build a simple, usable unit that might not work for everyone, but would be a perfect fit for the right players, and especially everyday, working musicians. The Boost followed a similar pattern of production with a heavy focus on design. It had to be crystal clear, noiseless, and clean. It makes single coils sound full and fat while brightening humbuckers and giving them a glassy edge. And it stays clean, giving your instrument volume to burn. My list of favorite overdrives is long, but if I had to narrow it down to a few favorites the list would include the Landgraff -continued-

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interview Dynamic Overdrive, the Clay Jones Overdrive and the vintage TS808. I have used all three extensively over the Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive past ten ears. I use my Landgraff a lot in recording situations and in church, and it has a very smooth breakup that works well in lower volume settings. I have also been a real fan of the Xotic Effects pedals. I owned and used the RC Boost for years, and I like the fact they incorporated a tone stack into their circuit. I am also fond of the rotary sound from time to time and have used an old Rocktek Chorus from the ‘70s to get this effect and chorus when needed. I’ve also been a fan of light delay for many years, and the Line 6 Delay (the big green one) is the most versatile unit I have ever used. My delay of choice for the past five years has been the DOD Digital Delay – simple to use and very transparent. I like small pedals that are easy to set up and play. I have plans by the end of the year to produce a pedal that houses the overdrive and boost in the same enclosure, saving room on the pedal board and giving the player the benefit of having these two units in one package. I use my Boost behind my Overdrive, which really gives it a huge sound. I intend to offer a couple more pedals in the near future, with a compressor/sustainer ready to go, and I’m working on a delay as well. TQR:

nets. Many may argue that fact, but my ears are my measuring stick. Cabinet design and speaker choice play a big part as well. I will build with any material a customer requests as long as it is structurally sound. I have found mahogany to be my favorite hardwood for cabinets, and maple follows close behind. Since so many of my builds end up with a natural finish, it is a real pleasure to work with so many exotics. TQR:

So many custom builders seem to use heavy birch ply... Is this simply because of availability, lack of imagination, or because Marshall originally used it?

I suspect many mass-production builders prefer plywood because it is stable, easy to machine and readily available. Plywood stays nice and straight after cutting and it is not affected much by humidity. Pine and other solid woods will twist and warp as the moisture content rises and falls, making it more difficult to work with. Also, solid wood has to be planed and milled extensively, so it requires more labor to get it ready to use. Being a one man operation, it’s easier for me to take the time and work the material properly. Some of the structural features of my cabinets include solid wood construction, box joint joinery, 7-ply birch baffles,

Regarding the 1x12 cabinet you sent – what kind of pine did you use (it looks very old...)

The cabinet I sent is made of old growth, reclaimed pine that is over 100 years old. I have approximately 10,000 board feet of this material, which should last me for quite a while. I build exclusively with this old pine unless otherwise requested by my customers. I find it has superior resonance and tone qualities, and to my ear it is the finest material available for building speaker cabi-

and the benefit of having a cabinet designed and built to your exact specifications. If a client wants a specific design, I can produce it, where off-the-shelf, mass-produced cabinets are pretty much the same design. I have learned over the past eight years building cabinets that design and engineering play a large role in the overall function and output of a cabinet. Closed back cabinets give you a loud directional sound. Oval ported rear panel designs give you a big, full sound that can really fill a room. Great for jazz and blues. I build a 2x12 cabinet that utilizes both these designs in one cabinet – the best of both worlds. It is a great design which allows the player the ability to play large or small venues with excellent results. -continued-

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review Reviews We had no idea what to expect when we first opened the box holding Bob Burt’s Boost and Overdrive. We didn’t even know he built pedals – seemingly a stretch for someone known for his cabinet work, but as we now know, Bob is clearly a long-time player as well and he clearly knows his way around electronics. We couldn’t help but notice, however, that Burt had declined to name his pedals anything but ‘Clean Boost’ and ‘Overdrive...’ Bob Burt’s Clean Boost and Overdrive... Kinda like naming your dog Dog, or your cat Cat... no overt references to rare mammals, incendiary devices, body parts or altered states of consciousness. We find this refreshing. Burt’s uniformly compact steel cases are a study in simplicity – nicely finished in enamel paint with no graphics, and an austere array of buttons and knobs – just enough to do the job. Each pedal gets its own serial number along with an acknowledgement that it has been made for Blues Angel Music, and Burt signs each pedal on the back and inside the case and cover plate. When we first peeked inside the Clean Boost, it looked nearly empty until we noticed a small circuit board tucked into one end beneath a blue blanket of melted poly shielding. It’s a wise man who would make it difficult to have his work knocked off too easily these days, and given the performance of the Clean Boost, knocking off this pedal wouldn’t be a question of ‘if’ but ‘when.’ We connected the Clean Boost to our pedal board second in line behind the Boss tuner, and chose the ‘58 Tremolux for a first pass with our Nash TQ Tele. With the 17 watt Fender’s volume set on 6, we set the single knob on the

Clean Boost at 11 o’clock and let fly with our usual assortment of big 6-string chords, noting how the unaffected sound of the Tremolux was altered by the pedal, as well as its affect on clarity, string definition, and any detectable changes in EQ. Trading the Nash for our most recent acquisition – another ‘07 ‘58 Historic Les Paul stoked with Holmes humbuckers, we ran through more complex chords and single string runs, moving the single control on the Clean Boost higher and lower before switching guitars again to a Nash Strat equipped with Nash’s preferred mix of Lollar blondes with a Lollar Special bridge pickup. By this time we really didn’t need to keep on going, but we ran all three guitars through a Germino 55LV and ‘66 Pro Reverb with Burt’s Clean Boost at varying settings for an encore. The verdict? Buy this pedal now before the rest of the world catches on. It’s perfect. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah... tone is subjective and to Burt’s credit, he isn’t making any bold claims, but we will. All the Clean Boost does is take the precise tone of your guitar and amp and make it bigger by degrees. If you have your amp set ‘clean,’ you can bump up the breadth and depth of your clean tone, or at higher settings gently push it into an overdriven state inch by inch. Nothing else changes. Your tone remains completely unaffected, but the extraordinarily natural musicality of the Clean Boost must be experienced to be believed. Burt’s pedal simply performs like corn starch or flour as an invisible thickener for whatever you’re cooking, depending on how much boost you choose to use. Set your amp at higher volume levels with distortion just emerging or in full bloom and you get more, but not at the expense of tone or clarity. It’s as if the pedal weren’t ‘there,’ and with every slight twist of the control you’re plugging into a bigger, progressively bolder version of the very same amp. Yes, this may require you to indulge in the momentary suspension of disbelief, but when our first session with the Clean Boost ended, we sat back and thought to ourselves, “That is one of the best-sounding and most useful tools we have ever heard.” Desiderata.

The Overdrive With its trippy green and black swirling paint job, the appearance of the Overdrive reminded us of a similar multicolor bowling ball pattern used by John Landgraff for his -continued-

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review Ultimate Overdrive, and both of these effects are comparable in their exceptional ability to unleash the full, hardrockin’ potential of your best guitars and amps. Just keep in mind that any pedal – no matter how well designed and constructed – can’t make your rig sound fundamentally better. The better your unaffected tones sound before you step on anything, the better your results will be when you do. With boost and overdrives, any flaws in your tone will be magnified, not obscured. After ten years and countless guitar amplifiers having passed through our hands as new review pieces and used and vintage amps bought for review, we’ve ruthlessly pared down the number of amps we own now to a core group representing classic and essential benchmarks. As such, we can audition everything from speakers to pickups, guitars and pedals with a high degree of confidence that we’re consistently treading on high ground – exceptionally high, in fact... something on the order of the upper five percentile, if such ratings mean much. After ten years of pruning, we‘re confident of that much, for now anyway. Still, there are undiscovered treasures yet to be found. Always will be. Like the Clean Boost, Bob Burt’s Overdrive displays a remarkable tendency to avoid coloring tone unless you choose to do so by adjusting the single EQ control, which is neutral at 12 o’clock, acting as a treble cut at lower settings while increasing treble and presence above the neutral setting. Burt: “I wanted to be able to go from a Fender ‘brown tone’ – to a Fender Twin with a roll of the tone knob, so 12 o’clock is sort of like the neutral position with the darker

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tones being below that, and the brighter tone above 12 o’clock.” Like the venerable Xotic RC Booster that Bob mentioned (and a stalwart on our pedalboard), the flexibility of even one EQ control in an overdrive is tremendously useful. In contrast to the Clean Boost, the Overdrive introduces more compression, producing variable levels of focused intensity as you mix the volume and gain levels. Higher volume levels with lower gain settings result in a more open tone, while increasing gain over volume steadily ratchets up the level of focused compression and burn. Pinch harmonics roll off your fingertips, sustain cascades into bowed violin tones, and Burt’s Overdrive is every bit as musical and void of sawtoothed grind as his Clean Boost. With our amps – namely the Tremolux fortified with 5881 Tung-Sols, the Pro Reverb, Germino 55LV and ‘59 GA40, we were able to get to our intended destination (subtle breakup to gloriously rich Cream tones) with the Clean Boost alone. The Overdrive delivers you to more ‘modern’ levels of distortion intensity created by all the usual suspects who first lit up high gain Marshalls in the ‘80s and beyond.

Tone Candy With its clear finish and wide grain streaked with sugary resin, you can immediately sense that Bob Burt’s 1x12 cabinet has been built with very old pine – heirloom stuff often seen in old southern homes and described as ‘heart pine.’ Our sample cabinet was finished in a thin, light amber lacquer

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with a clover leaf cutout on the back that achieves the same effect as an oval opening, effectively bridging the sound of both an open and closed back design with a focused, yet airy ambience. Equipped with another of our favorite speakers, the Eminence Wizard, the cabinet weighs 31.2 pounds at 20x16.5x10.5 inches, and heavy duty, tall rubber feet are mounted on the bottom to elevate the cab off the floor. The cabinet is artfully box-jointed using 3/4 inch pine boards with every detail of Burt’s craftsmanship exposed at each corner beneath the clear lacquer. As striking as this cabinet appears, hearing is believing when you experience its sound with the full-bodied and throaty Wizard. We ran the Germino 55LV through it on 6 and the amp had never sounded so lively. The difference between pine and birch ply can be startling – even more so when the wood has gracefully aged for a century. Burt’s cabinet produces a bright and bouncy tone anchored with rich mids and plenty of low end that makes birch ply sound a little plodding and stiff by comparison. You can hear this contrast easily enough with a ‘50s Fender open-back combo cabinet, but it seems to be accentuated even more in Burt’s extension cab. We can only imagine how a 2x12 would sound... Best of all, Burt will build virtually anything to spec, which leaves the door wide open for you to explore the possibilities for separate extension or combo cabs utilizing his stash of rare pine that possesses extraordinary acoustic qualities and a striking visual appeal. Think of it as tone candy.TQ www.bobburtcabinets.com

ToneQuest Noiseless in Richmond

After 30 years or so winding pickups, Lindy Fralin has finally developed noiseless designs for P90s, Strats and Teles. For those of you interested in getting the hum out of your life, listen up...

TQR:

What inspired you to begin thinking about noiseless pickups after all this time?

I spent months researching patents for pickups, and I found some fascinating pages in the original PAF patent filed by Seth Lover in 1955 where he had included every way you could use two coils to get hum-canceling; two coils all the way across (PAF's), a left and right (like a P-Bass or our P92), a stack of two coils (one passive), and sideways or top to top (the EBO bass pickups and our hum-canceling P-90). Lover covered every future possible use of two coils for a hum-canceling design when the PAF patent was filed. But they obviously didn’t enforce their patents, because the Gretsch Filter-tron and the P-bass came out within months of the first humbucker and Gibson didn’t fight it.

Noiseless P90s We wanted a noise-free P-90 that was the same size and would fit the same covers as the originals, and after making many prototypes of different ways to do this, we came up with our present design. Our humcanceling P-90 uses two coils rotated inward or “top-to-top” to get hum-canceling. This let me use the same six poles down the center for a stock look. Also, this way both coils are both active, unlike a stack design. Of the three output choices, the ‘Stock’ set is my favorite. They still have bright -continued-

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pickups wound strings, but there is enough thickness to make them grind like Chuck Berry or Freddie King. (These sound like 50’s P-90s wound to 8K or less). With the 5% overwound set, they get a little thicker and darker but to my ears not better sounding. The 5% under set is very clean. This design doesn’t seem to lend itself to overwinding or under-winding as much as the original single single coil P-90s do.

a more efficient design, we could use fewer turns, and all the bridge pickups in the sets are wound approximately 10% stronger. I don’t really like high output Strat or Tele pickups, because you lose something you just can’t get back, so we don’t push the ‘High-Output’ split blade. The Vintage and Blues outputs sound great – the Blues being 5% stronger. There is a nickel silver base-plate underneath that is soldered to the bottom of the blades because we found that the blades had to be grounded. I actually came up with this design five years ago, but I couldn’t figure out how to eliminate the dead spot in the middle. Then last year, when things were slow, I revisited the design and spent a month trying various blade shapes, and one day it came to me to have them cross. We’re also already working on a similar Telecaster design that will be out soon.

Review

A lot of pickup designers have used right/left designs – like the P-Bass, and the pickups in the ‘50s Valco lapsteels with 3 and 3 poles and the plate above the strings. I don’t think it even occurred to them at Valco that they could be hum-canceling. About half of those pickups are noiseless and half aren’t. Some people call this pickup the ‘Ry Cooder’ model because he put one in the bridge position of a Strat. We have found we like the left-right design better than stacked or two coils all the way across.

Call them what you will – hum-canceling, noiseless or stacked – guitar companies and pickup designers have been fighting hum since the early ‘50s. Gibson’s humbuckers may have been the first patented design, but Gretsch (Ray Butts’ Filtertrons) and Leo Fender quickly followed with their own noiseless pickups. We’ve always maintained that when you lose the noise, something unique to the sound of typical ‘noisy’ pickups gets lost with it. Difficult to describe in words – the best description we can offer is a kind of shimmering, vivid harmonic reflection that seems to disappear along with the noise, sometimes replaced by a rather linear, sterile character that just isn’t quite as deep or interesting, musically speaking. That’s a generalization, of course, but a fair one in many cases.

The only way to design this to fit in a Strat cover was to have blades – not Alnico rods, and the reason they cross in the center is totally functional – otherwise you would have a weak spot in the middle when you bend a string. Using blades allowed me to use two full size coils with a pair of long bar magnets underneath. The blade itself is in the style of a Charlie Christian pickup, which was always a loud but clean pickup. We used standard #42 gauge wire, but since it’s

On the other hand, we like some noiseless designs very much... They don’t remotely sound like vintage Fender single coils, but Joe Bardens take no prisoners – they are big, roaring mofos, imposing and solid from top to bottom. Nothing not to like there. We also like the Lace Sensor gold pickups often found as original equipment in early Eric Clapton Signature Strats. Coupled with the EC mid-boost circuit, there isn’t much you can’t do

Strat

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TONEQUEST REPORT V10. N9. July-August 2009

pickups with that rig (although by now a lot of the necks on those guitars are a little wonky). EMGs aren’t bad at all, either, if that’s what you like. And now we can add Lindy Fralin noiseless pickups to the mix.

P90s Fralin’s P90s sound very, very similar to a pair of vintage ‘50s Gibson P90s we own – both under 8K. Bright, clear and proud, there isn’t a hint of muddiness in them, no shrill icepick tones or flubby bass. Like our old P90s, we’d describe the Fralins as rather hi-fi compared to what we know some of you may consider to be the ultimate P90 sound, which can be easily described in two words... Mississippi Queen. Or, Leslie West. Or, Les Paul Junior... (Well, that’s three, but you get the point). Busted! The Fralin noiseless P90s are not about such heavy, overwound, grind me‘til I whimper tones, although that’s not to say you couldn’t get those tones with the Fralins, but you’ll need to rely on your amp, some treble roll-off and maybe a pedal to get there. No, the noisless Fralins are by nature a cleaner, clearer rendition of Gibson’s famous single coil, with both the neck and bridge producing an animated treble and upper mid presence that is subject to the subtle influences of your guitar. Given their transparent clarity, the acoustic quality of a semi-hollow body, for instance, can sound slightly more so. What you won’t hear is the edgy intensity and

aggressive attitude of a typical vintage-style, slightly overwound (+8K) P90. If that’s what you want, may we respectfully suggest that no one is going to hear the ‘noise’ until you stop playing anyway, so go ‘vintage’ – hum and all. Just remember that if you consider yourself to be a ‘vintage’ tonehound, our pair of authentic ‘50s P90s have far more in common with the Fralin noiseless set than what you may think of as a stronger and midrangey ‘vintage P90 tone.’ There are all kinds of ‘vintage’ tone, and now you’ve got another worthy option in the noiseless category. The Fralin P90s are an easy drop-in replacement for stock P90s – soapbar or dogear.

Strat You know what the big challenge is with Strat pickups... The big, liquid tone of the neck pickup seems easiest to nail, the

middle pickup often just sounds unremarkably there, and the bridge can be too sharp, thin and brittle. But tone the bridge down with a few more turns of wire on the bobbin and you lose the quack and pop with the bridge and middle combined. Strat pickup sets just require very careful and thoughtful tweaking, and they seem to us to be the most temperamental pickup ever designed given their 3-position orientation on a Strat. The good news is that the noiseless ‘Blues’ set of Fralins we requested for review are not afflicted with a noticeable swing and miss in any combination. This is not so surprising, since Lindy Fralin has been winding pickups most of his life and you’d have to assume he listened to these ad nauseum before putting a final nail in the design... We like the tone of this noiseless set a lot, which hits the mark in all three positions, missing only some of that scooped, shimmery, noisy vintage stuff previously mentioned. You don’t get that, but the tone is rich, clear and strong (for a Stratocaster), and very nicely voiced. We also admire the design – the artfully arched top, cream 2-piece bobbin (black is also available), and blades crossing in the center. These pickups don’t make your Strat look or sound like a science project. What you can expect is a righteous variation on Stratocaster tone – not ‘vintage’ – but nonetheless outstanding in a hum-canceling design.TQ www.fralinpickups.com, 804-358-2699

TONEQUEST REPORT V10. N9. July-August 2009

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