A former student of mine posted on Facebook that he was looking to buy a new guitar amplifier, and was interested in suggestions from his guitar-playing friends. This gent has been enjoying some significant success with his band over the last year, so he felt ready to move up to a professional-level rig. He'd narrowed the choice down to a Vox AC30, a Marshall JCM 900...then a Hughes & Kettner Statesman and various Hiwatts were added to the list of possibilities.
I was at first rather tempted to weigh in on the topic, as I'm usually pretty happy to talk guitar gear...but suggesting amps for another musician gets a bit tricky for me. I know what I like for myself, but I know better than to suggest it to someone else. I get funny looks. Or worse.
They say nothing succeeds like success, and success can make weird tastes suddenly look charmingly eccentric – or it might even set new trends. There was no vintage electric guitar market before the late '60's/early '70's, when fans started noticing “old”, “used” guitars in the hands of players like Mike Bloomfield, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Now you can't get an original '58-'60 cherry sunburst Les Paul for less than six figures. Jimmy Page happened to get his 'burst from Joe Walsh for a few hundred dollars in '69, but he regularly recorded on a Valco Supro amp. Heard of them? They were marketed as a student amp and sold through mail order by Montgomery-Ward in the '50's and '60's. Unfortunately for Pagey, he made the mistake of mentioning his use of them in an interview, and voila – you can't get them anymore, or at least – not cheaply.
Page had another department store connection, in the use of his Sears-Roebuck Danelectro guitar – an amazingly well-engineered student guitar with all the cost-cutting corners cut in the right places. The body was made of formica (i.e.: kitchen counter material) and the pickups were housed in lipstick tubes (Danelectro's factory was across the street from Revlon), and to top it off – they looked kinda cool, too. I have a 6/12-string double-neck version myself (albeit manufactured overseas, as mine is a '97) and its tone is quite distinctively rich - plus, it's less fragile and better-balanced than the Gibson/Epiphone double-necks available today.
As a teen, I remember being a bit bemused by the music videos of a flamboyant new artist. This guy had huge hair (even by '80's standards), eye-liner, ruffled cuffs and collar (a la Austin Powers, but a decade earlier), cool and funky guitar licks and stage moves that included the splits. His guitar of choice? Looked like a plain old Fender Telecaster, probably the most un-flashy looking of all electric guitar designs. Years later, I discovered I was wrong – Prince was playing a cheap copy of a Telecaster – a Hohner Madcat – which he plays to this day. I had one in the music store where I worked, and they're indeed a decent guitar...but they do seem a strange choice for His Purpleness.
Fast forward another dozen years, and the pop music world was agog over the White Stripes. Jack White's weapon of choice? Another Montgomery-Ward Valco special, in this case a JB Hutto-model Airline guitar. You thought Formica sounded a bit budget? How about hollow fibreglass? Granted, Jack White has stated that he likes a guitar to be difficult to play, that he actively seeks a guitar that will fight him – and let's face it, Jack White is no Danny Gatton in the technique department. Still, one could say an artist who should know better probably does know better, even if defying conventional wisdom...or to put it another way – crazy like a fox.
Just recently, Mike Luno Band was slated to play another seven-band Supernova night. I approached the band that was to follow us about sharing a drum kit in order to cut down the transition time between bands and make Curtis' drive from day-job to early gig a little less frenetic. The band – a great local act called Aida – were happy to share their drum kit. I offered up my guitar rig in return, as I'd be able to get to the gig with time to spare. Aida seemed interested. “What do you have for a rig?”, they asked. I told them. “That's okay, we'll just use our own amp, thanks.” I wasn't a bit surprised.
Guitar gear has a pretty strong fashion element to it. In the '80's, the conventional wisdom was that heavy guitars sustained better, brass hardware brought better sustain and tone, Floyd Rose locking vibrato systems were the only vibrato system worth considering, and any guitar amp less than 50 watts wasn't a serious consideration for any live rock stage. Today? The proponents of any of those beliefs are in much, much smaller number, and quite genre-specific (metal players, for example, would tend to stand by the last two statements. The first two are quite universally discredited). The older I get, the more I tend to view musical fashion with skepticism. I've seen most of the people fooled some of the time, and some fooled all the time.
Keeping this in mind, these days I just let my ears and fingers be my gear guide. One of the nicest guitars I've ever owned is the most plain-jane forgettable thing to look at. Some guitarists think of the SG model as a poor man's Les Paul – they lack the Les Paul's maple top, and have about half the body wood. Gibson also attaches the epithet “Special” as code-word for “Budget” - and the guitar I speak of is a black Gibson SG Special. No binding, minimal inlays, workaday pickups, and plenty of dings – but this guitar is a beauty to play, for the fingers and the ears.
The amp I favour for live work is an even stranger choice by conventional standards. I've owned a good handful of amps, and I've played hundreds – Marshalls, Fenders, Voxes, Dr. Z's. Victorias, Hughs & Kettners, Mesa Boogies, and on and on and on. My job at the music store years ago even allowed me to take quite a few out for gigs. While I'm still always on the hunt for, say, an original blackface Deluxe, there are mighty few amps I've liked better than my Peavey Classic 50. There are plenty of Peaveys that I've disliked over the years, and I know the Classic is perceived as a has-been country amp – but this one sure works for me. Honourable mentions would go to the Traynor Custom Special 90 on which I often record ('though the tone-sucking effects loop keeps it off my stage), and I once played a gorgeous Clara copy of a Fender blackface Deluxe Reverb at one of those times when I couldn't afford new gear. For what it's worth, Aida had some nice things to say about my tone after our show together (as I did about theirs), and maybe that's for the best. Prince's Madcat and Pagey's Dan-o probably caused more than a few head-scratches in their day, and I have no compunction about causing a few myself...in fact – the more, the better... ;)
I was at first rather tempted to weigh in on the topic, as I'm usually pretty happy to talk guitar gear...but suggesting amps for another musician gets a bit tricky for me. I know what I like for myself, but I know better than to suggest it to someone else. I get funny looks. Or worse.
They say nothing succeeds like success, and success can make weird tastes suddenly look charmingly eccentric – or it might even set new trends. There was no vintage electric guitar market before the late '60's/early '70's, when fans started noticing “old”, “used” guitars in the hands of players like Mike Bloomfield, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Now you can't get an original '58-'60 cherry sunburst Les Paul for less than six figures. Jimmy Page happened to get his 'burst from Joe Walsh for a few hundred dollars in '69, but he regularly recorded on a Valco Supro amp. Heard of them? They were marketed as a student amp and sold through mail order by Montgomery-Ward in the '50's and '60's. Unfortunately for Pagey, he made the mistake of mentioning his use of them in an interview, and voila – you can't get them anymore, or at least – not cheaply.
Page had another department store connection, in the use of his Sears-Roebuck Danelectro guitar – an amazingly well-engineered student guitar with all the cost-cutting corners cut in the right places. The body was made of formica (i.e.: kitchen counter material) and the pickups were housed in lipstick tubes (Danelectro's factory was across the street from Revlon), and to top it off – they looked kinda cool, too. I have a 6/12-string double-neck version myself (albeit manufactured overseas, as mine is a '97) and its tone is quite distinctively rich - plus, it's less fragile and better-balanced than the Gibson/Epiphone double-necks available today.
As a teen, I remember being a bit bemused by the music videos of a flamboyant new artist. This guy had huge hair (even by '80's standards), eye-liner, ruffled cuffs and collar (a la Austin Powers, but a decade earlier), cool and funky guitar licks and stage moves that included the splits. His guitar of choice? Looked like a plain old Fender Telecaster, probably the most un-flashy looking of all electric guitar designs. Years later, I discovered I was wrong – Prince was playing a cheap copy of a Telecaster – a Hohner Madcat – which he plays to this day. I had one in the music store where I worked, and they're indeed a decent guitar...but they do seem a strange choice for His Purpleness.
Fast forward another dozen years, and the pop music world was agog over the White Stripes. Jack White's weapon of choice? Another Montgomery-Ward Valco special, in this case a JB Hutto-model Airline guitar. You thought Formica sounded a bit budget? How about hollow fibreglass? Granted, Jack White has stated that he likes a guitar to be difficult to play, that he actively seeks a guitar that will fight him – and let's face it, Jack White is no Danny Gatton in the technique department. Still, one could say an artist who should know better probably does know better, even if defying conventional wisdom...or to put it another way – crazy like a fox.
Just recently, Mike Luno Band was slated to play another seven-band Supernova night. I approached the band that was to follow us about sharing a drum kit in order to cut down the transition time between bands and make Curtis' drive from day-job to early gig a little less frenetic. The band – a great local act called Aida – were happy to share their drum kit. I offered up my guitar rig in return, as I'd be able to get to the gig with time to spare. Aida seemed interested. “What do you have for a rig?”, they asked. I told them. “That's okay, we'll just use our own amp, thanks.” I wasn't a bit surprised.
Guitar gear has a pretty strong fashion element to it. In the '80's, the conventional wisdom was that heavy guitars sustained better, brass hardware brought better sustain and tone, Floyd Rose locking vibrato systems were the only vibrato system worth considering, and any guitar amp less than 50 watts wasn't a serious consideration for any live rock stage. Today? The proponents of any of those beliefs are in much, much smaller number, and quite genre-specific (metal players, for example, would tend to stand by the last two statements. The first two are quite universally discredited). The older I get, the more I tend to view musical fashion with skepticism. I've seen most of the people fooled some of the time, and some fooled all the time.
Keeping this in mind, these days I just let my ears and fingers be my gear guide. One of the nicest guitars I've ever owned is the most plain-jane forgettable thing to look at. Some guitarists think of the SG model as a poor man's Les Paul – they lack the Les Paul's maple top, and have about half the body wood. Gibson also attaches the epithet “Special” as code-word for “Budget” - and the guitar I speak of is a black Gibson SG Special. No binding, minimal inlays, workaday pickups, and plenty of dings – but this guitar is a beauty to play, for the fingers and the ears.
The amp I favour for live work is an even stranger choice by conventional standards. I've owned a good handful of amps, and I've played hundreds – Marshalls, Fenders, Voxes, Dr. Z's. Victorias, Hughs & Kettners, Mesa Boogies, and on and on and on. My job at the music store years ago even allowed me to take quite a few out for gigs. While I'm still always on the hunt for, say, an original blackface Deluxe, there are mighty few amps I've liked better than my Peavey Classic 50. There are plenty of Peaveys that I've disliked over the years, and I know the Classic is perceived as a has-been country amp – but this one sure works for me. Honourable mentions would go to the Traynor Custom Special 90 on which I often record ('though the tone-sucking effects loop keeps it off my stage), and I once played a gorgeous Clara copy of a Fender blackface Deluxe Reverb at one of those times when I couldn't afford new gear. For what it's worth, Aida had some nice things to say about my tone after our show together (as I did about theirs), and maybe that's for the best. Prince's Madcat and Pagey's Dan-o probably caused more than a few head-scratches in their day, and I have no compunction about causing a few myself...in fact – the more, the better... ;)