The Musician's Room: My Gear Through the Years

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An Old Favorite

Here's the amp I moved to next: a '66 Gibson GA-55RVT "Ranger", Gibson's answer to the Fender Super Reverb. It is a non-switching, low-gain, 50 watt amp using 6L6 power tubes. The Ranger has four ten-inch speakers, reverb, and tremolo. It has a somewhat dark sound, but a very mellow, pretty distortion. For a smooth sustain, it is best operated by plugging the channels in parallel and winding everything out (including the brightness switches). I also used an outboard preamp (Electro-Harmonix LPB-2) to goose up it's gain a wee bit. Most of my performance photos from the '70s show this this amp in the backline. My particular one had nice wooden handles added on the sides, in line with the bottom of the chassis, which made lugging it MUCH easier. Someone had also changed out the white sparkle speaker cloth for black, which I prefer. You can see that and one of the handles in the pic above.

Of course, during the '70s, we were all winding out our amps and killing ourselves with volume in order to get a decent sound. The Mesa folks changed that by introducing MASTER VOLUME CONTROL. Some guitarists trace the beginning of the decline of western civilization to that day. I don't, as I wanted to be able to hear for the rest of my life. Toward that goal, I traded in the Gibson amp. It is, however, the one amp in my chain I still REALLY miss...


Master Volume Days

My next amp was a Traynor YRM-1 Reverb Master. In 1978, I traded evenly for the Ranger to a dealer who pulled nervously at his pipe. Turns out it wasn't tobacco in the pipe... The Reverb Master was a single channel, 50 watt, master volume amp featuring EL34 power tubes. It had a very nice, Marshall-eque bark, even if a little darker and colder by comparison. The design used the tubes so conservatively that I never needed to change mine in eighteen years(!) You really could only get one sound at a time with this amp, but it had some really nice sounds, mind you! Toronto-based Yorkville Sound built these amps, and tested their designs by literally throwing them out a second-floor window. They'd brush the shards of tubes out ad put in a fresh set of tubes. If the amp worked, it passed. Mine came with (get this) a huge, two-by-twelve-inch FOLDED HORN speaker cab, model YCV-212, made for Traynor by Cerwin Vega and loaded with two ER-123 speakers. As it turns out, those were the speakers Duane Allman used. Talk about aiming for big venues! You could practically irradiate the first four rows without trying. I traded the cab for a Mini-Korg analog synth and eventually sold this amp to a vintage guitar store to make space. Did I say the Gibson amp above was the only one I miss? Okay, I missed this one too so I eventually went on a quest and replaced it. More HERE .


Acoustic Love

Here's a lovely Marshall AS100D stereo acoustic amp. It has facilites to accept a stereo guitar and up to two mics with phantom power, and offers an EQ-less stereo line input for tracks or another line level source. The three mic/pickup inputs come with comprehensive phase, EQ, and feedback notching controls to shape your tone and control the cavity resonance feedback that typifies acoustic guitar. The amp also has a extensive digital stereo effects section allowing use of both internal and external effects. There are comprehensive direct and line out facilities to allow you to feed an external PA and use the amp as your monitor or you can handle everything through the stereo 100 watt (50+50) built-in amplifier. All-in-all it is a very flexible set of facilities for a player/singer in a small package and the color scheme is marvelous! The pic is the unit when it was at the local guitar store. I traded it for another tube amp.


The Only Echo Game in Town...

Right around '78, I picked up an Echoplex: For years, the 'plex was literally the only echo game in town for guitarists. Oh, there were others, but they were complicated and prone to break down on stage. The original version featured tube preamps but later ones were all solid-state. I remember Tom Scholtz of Boston and Joe Walsh complaining about the hiss from these units (and rightly so), but they were the best anyway. I picked up an EP-3 (solid-state) and kept it for twenty years. It was in better shape when I sold it than when I bought it! I finally sold it because it was just too darned noisy for recording, both mechanically and electronically. I was an idiot. The Echoplexes didn't have true bypass. They added a little dab of gain and smoothed the highs of the guitar sounds just a bit whether the effect was in or out. In my opinion, the solid state ones sound just as nice as the tube ones and cost much less. Apparently Eric Johnson agrees, because he uses TWO of them in his live rig. I saw 'em with my own two little eyes. A tube version was re-releasd at a very reasonable cost by the original designer, who even added noise reduction! Then Fulltone released their Fulltone Tube Tape Echo.

UPDATE: I loved this one so much I bought a new/old stock 'Plex off EBay. You can read about it HERE .


...And a Few More Sounds

Though I've always loved Marshall amps, to my naiive dismay, I discovered that even an extremely flexible Marshall (or any other amp, for that matter) can't cover all the bases. Here's an inexpensive way to add some more mellow distortion sounds: a Mesa V-Twin preamp. I'm told it is basically the preamp of a Mesa MKIII amplifier in pedal form, although the "Solo" channel is more like the "orange" channel of the Mesa Dual Recto series. The V-Twin offers three sounds: clean, blues (crunch), and solo (overdriven), with only two sounds foot-switchable at a time. The blues setting does a nice crunchy rhythm sound and the solo sound just loves to sing.

For live work, run the unit's guitar level output into the Marshall, which can give four sounds (two from the Mesa and two from the Marshall). For recording, run the V-Twin's power amp output into the series loop return on your amp, which makes the V-Twin the preamp for your power amp and makes the Mesa sound much more bold.

By the way, the unit can run with two lower-gain 12AT7 tubes in it instead of the stock 12AX7s. That change was suggested by Mesa/Boogie to offer a more mellow sound. Delicious! This one went to a player in Maryland.


The Workhorse

Here is a 1974 Conn F-27, a guitar I saved nearly a year for when I was in my teens. The guitar traveled with me for years, up and down the eastern seaboard. I literally played the frets off it. To my inexperienced eyes, this guitar looked really cool with its gold-plated Grover tuners. Though it is a plywood guitar, it recorded and served well on stage. It is now my "work" guitar. A bit of fun at its expense: It was advertised by the Conn Corporation as possessing an ebony fingerboard and bridge. However, over the years my pick began to reveal another color on the lower arm of the bridge. Eventually, when I had it refretted and the neck plained, the truth outted: Instead of an ebony fingerboard, it ended up having a very nice chunk of Brazilian rosewood, dyed black. This guitar now lives with a good friend.










Flame On!

The Gibson Les Paul Studio is a great mid-level guitar that allows players to dip their toe into the Les Paul waters without breaking the bank. Oh, to have had this level of guitar available in my early years. At that point, back in the 1970s, a young guitarist's only choice was between crap or expensive royalty. Enter the LP Studio, Gibson's attempt to keep the very best characteristics of the LP line and pare away everything that can be to create a high-quality, low cost instrument. Every once in a while Gibson gets a moderately flamey maple top set that needs a home and it shows up on a Studio. This is a wine red 2007 Studio with gold hardware. It is probably chambered, and as a result is quite light at 7lbs 6oz. That's good for my back. The guitar has 498T and 490R Alnico pickups that sound pretty sweet, and has a fuller neck like a '57. It sits tonally somewhere between the '74 Standard and the ES-335. I've just liked the looks of these moderately flamed wine red LPs since they began appearing. Though it photographed well, this one had been, um... well played-in. With a few hours of love and care and some finish restoration, this guitar is shined up and glowing again. Look HERE to find out what I did. A shiny new pickguard completed the makeover. More pics HERE. Alas, this and the next two guitars went on to new homes when my playing room became overcrowded.






Gibson Hits One Out of the Park

Since seeing and hearing David Gilmour playing his '55 and '56 Les Pauls with P-90 "soap bar" pickups, I've been wishing I could afford to try out an LP with P-90s but the admission price has been too steep for a secondary guitar. Finally Gibson came out with a "Studio Faded" version of this configuration with a price point at one third of an LP Standard. This guitar features a one-piece, '60s slim profile neck, P-90 pickups with AlniCo-V magnets, frets and nut dressed with the Plek system, and the classic mahogany body with the maple cap. It yields a nice, playable guitar at a great price point. The sound is brighter and chimier than that of a humbucker-equipped LP. Wowser! That's quite an inducement for me, but I had to make sure it would sound good and play well. While killing some time in a store I pulled down this particular guitar and played. It made such an impression that I visited it a few times in the store and finally ended up bringing it home. By the way, have you noticed how many of my guitars have my favorite color, red, in their finish? I actually wanted to pick up a gold top version of this guitar but no-one in my family likes gold tops! More red... but it is pretty. More HERE .






Real Guitars Have Wings

You know, I've loved the Gibson Flying V since about 1974 when I first heard Wishbone Ash's Live Dates album. While browsing through the album's booklet I began to love the art deco look of the thing. Of course, listening to the album made me love its spanky sound. It didn't hurt that it was associated with some pretty cool progressive music. I was really drawn to one particular era: Gibson's '67-'69 mahogany V reissues. I just like their looks better and they just sound a little prettier to me. A while back, Gibson issued an inexpensive '67 V-Factor Flying V with a faded finish and those have begun showing up on the used market for a song. I saw this one hanging among the used guitars across the room in a guitar store and it called my name. The next day when I went back for it it was gone, purchased on layaway. A month later I was in the same store when a salesman brought the guitar out of layaway and put it back on the wall. It just seemed meant to be, so I redeemed it on the spot. I've added period-correct knobs. Look HERE for more pics.






More "Spank"

This is a 2009 Fender American Standard Stratocaster. I finally gave in and got one in order to get that clean spanky sound I'd heard from Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash and James Calvin Wilsey on Chris Issac's "Wicked Game." The body is alder with a three-tone sunburst and is topped with a three-ply parchment-colored pickguard and appointments. The maple neck is C-shaped and features a 9.5" radius fingerboard with medium-jumbo frets. The neck is finished gloss on the front and satin on the back and is tinted with an aged toner. The fretboard edges are hand rolled for smoothness and comfort and I think they've finally achieved that goal. The medium jumbo frets are comfortable as well. The guitar has three single-coil pickups and the "Delta Tone System" for the bridge and neck pickups that can remove itself from the circuit when opened up. Fender has recently added a couple of interesting features to the American Standards. They've gone back to their original practice of making the bridge pieces from bent steel and they've reformulated the metal for the trem block to increase density. Both are supposed to increase sustain and improve the tone. It is a pretty sounding guitar with bell-like highs, which was what I was after. The body resonates well, and I suppose that could be partially because it is pretty light at 7.9 lbs. This strat sounds great plugged straight into a Deluxe Reverb amp with no effects. It is hard to believe that after all these years, this is my first Fender guitar. My review is HERE .

Everyone Needs a Dread

Let's start with a stalwart: A 2001 Taylor 710ce. I spent a half-year watching this guitar on a store wall before I put it on layaway. The payout took long enough that the store let me go in and play it at will. This guitar has East Indian rosewood sides and an Engelmann spruce top that give it a great, full, bottom end, the usual clear Taylor sound, and good response to a light touch. It loves lowered tunings as well. The sides are unusually stripey. The rosewood binding and white pinstripe purfling caught my eye from the beginning. There were some issues with neck angle and a couple of cosmetic blims but Taylor cheerfully took care of those for me when the dealer sent it back. I've experimented with strings for ten years and have finally ended up settling on light Dean Markley Alchemy Strings. The Fishman Blender electronics with the onboard microphone makes it well onstage but the guitar really shines when recorded with mics. In that application, the natural compression and sustain of the rosewood makes for a smooth fingerstyle performance. More Pics.