UpFront Guitars

Cool Amp Find Vol. 2 – 2000’s Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb

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Here’s another cool amp find that we recommend: A 2000’s era Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb. We found ours a local music store that has virtually all second hand gear. Something in the back of my head thought it might be “something” so we nabbed it. You can typically find them anywhere from $550 – $800.

But be warned: This is a somewhat controversial amplifier, and owning one might subject you to criticism and scorn on the gear forums.

CVR

Why? Because while it has blackface cosmetics, it’s not really a blackface amplifier. It’s more similar to the early 60’s brownface Vibrolux Reverb, but it’s not an exact copy of that either. Designer Bruce Zinky — who is the designer of the new line of Supro amplifiers — designed the “CVR” to be a spongier, more forgiving amplifier that would break up a lower volumes. Sort of a brown/tweed if you will. Along the way he also enabled reverb on both channels, took out the negative feedback, and a few other tweaks. Depending on your point of view, he’s either a hero or a heretic.

Maybe not quite a hero, but everyone who plays it really likes this amplifier. Try as I might, I could never really bond with a true blackface. I’ve tried a couple true Black and Silverface Pro Reverbs, but tended to find them too stiff, too bright, and too loud. Getting any character out of them required uncomfortable volume levels. I’ve been more of a tweed fan, and even my Dr. Z Remedy is similar to a smaller Marshall, which was copied from the Bassman, which is a tweed. But while little tweeds are fun, they don’t much headroom at all, which is limiting if you are in a cover band and want to use some pedals.

The CVR fits this middle ground and has enough headroom to gig, but gets its character at reasonable levels. Turn the volume up to about 5 and play with the guitar’s volume knob and you can get a wide range of excellent clean to lightly crunchy tones. It’s a little loose in the low end, but that’s the plan.

But purists decry it’s lack of faithfulness to any particular original Fender schematic, the low background hiss caused by adding reverb to both channels, and what’s felt to be an overall wimpy reverb. Phooey I say. In most situations it’s way more usable, and gives you the “turned up” tone at a level your band can live with. And does anybody turn a “true” Fender reverb up over 3? Regarding the hiss, who can tell once you are playing? And if you have a drummer it’s a totally moot point.

In addition the 2×10 speaker format is a great combination. There is more speaker surface area than a 15″ speaker, and you get nice low end response and better coverage with less beaming than a single 12″ speaker. Top it all off, the CVR weighs only around 40 pounds, maybe less depending on speaker choice.

Naturally, since this is not a faithful reproduction of a Vibrolux there are modification kits to make it true to the brownface Vibrolux schematic. Moyer is one of those kits and Fromel makes a couple different versions of his kit. My brother installed the Fromel kit in his CVR and it did exactly as intended. My only caution is that is “undoes” some of what makes it a CVR, and makes it more like a true Vibrolux. Yes, it is quieter, but also little stiffer and brighter. Fortunately you can do only parts of the Fromel kit, and the instructions tell you exactly what mod is having which impact on the amp. You can upgrade the tone caps and power supply caps, but not necessarily put back the negative feedback, etc.

These are really nice amps, easy to carry, and for very reasonable money your are getting a gig-worthy amp that will rival products costing triple the price. Hands down my favorite all-around Fender so far. With the new amplifier world generally split into two camps of cheap/depressing and boutique/expensive the CVR is a gem.

UpFront Guitars Goes To NAMM 2017

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OK, so we just got back from NAMM, and as always it’s a fun if not tiring and slightly deafening time. This is not a blow-by-blow rundown of the show, but a few quick observations on what we did and saw.

G&L – G&L did not display at the show, but the factory is 20 minutes away and so we dropped in for a tour. We spent quite a bit of time there, and got a very detailed tour from Ben the Shop Foreman (I won’t throw out a lot of names because I did not ask them that ahead of time. But you can read their build sheets). There is a lot that goes into a guitar, but the process takes place in four major sections: Wood shop, paint, polish and assembly. It’s pretty compact facility and G&L builds in a day what Fender probably builds in 15 minutes. It’s a group of people who build guitars and love doing it. And they are doing it better than ever.

The NAMM Show – With over 1100 exhibitors for just “fretted instruments” it begs the question, “how on earth does one make up their mind on anything?” The shear number of guitar manufacturers makes you wonder how anyone survives. Especially the small builders who are often making very expensive guitars in low numbers. Some of their work is exquisite and some just weird. But how they carve out their market niche and clientele seems challenging to say the least.

The amplifier market seems to be a tale of two cities: The big and fairly big guys like Marshall, Fender, Orange and Vox, and the boutique-ish small builders scattered throughout the show. With margins very thin on amplifiers, many of the small builders seem rather disinterested in dealers, and focus more on direct sales or getting picked up by Sweetwater. Supro is currently occupying the space between average and boutique, and the guitar world needs more of that. For us, the search continues for amp line that is inspiring and reasonably affordable. Sigh.

Keeley Electronics – Except for our beloved Solodallas, we have deliberately avoided pedals. The whole market seems insanely over-saturated, and like a lot of things at NAMM, how on earth does one choose? But pedal effects are a fact of life, and I have a pedal board, so who am I to judge? So we chose Keeley electronics. Why? They have a comprehensive line that covers just about everything, they sound good, are well built, and they shy away from gimmicks and silly stuff, like calling a volume knob “urgency” and nonsense like that. Pro-level pedals for regular folks that won’t cost you $400.

Heritage Guitars – We’ve been looking at Heritage for about three years, but never quite made the jump. We’ve played a couple and they are awesome, but long delivery times, minimal marketing, and the secondary market made us skittish. But they’ve got new ownership, a renewed emphasis on artist relations and marketing, and better operations management that should bring down lead times and bolster consistency. So we are going to take the plunge, and while it will take 3-4 months to get our first batch, we are really looking forward to it.

Norman Guitars, Art and Lutherie – Acoustics have never been a big part of our business, but they are a big part of the market. We’ve dabbled in some higher end acoustics, but I’m convinced that if you can’t have Taylor or Martin, you’ll be forever swimming upstream. Their names are synonymous with the genre, like Kleenex. But everyone needs a solid, affordable acoustic, and we decided to go with two of Godin’s other historic  brands, Norman and Art and Lutherie. Both have been given a little bit of a reboot, and the new A&L guitars in particular have some very cool “Americana” finishes that are hip, and fit in well with singer-songwriter coolness. Take one to Brooklyn, and you’ll be an instant hit.

Best Booth Venue for Music – Taylor. The Taylor room always has interesting people, a nice stage and great sound. And usually a surprise or two.

Biggest Marketing Splash – D’Angelico. Where did these guys come from? Somebody has put some serious bucks into what I thought was a little jazz box company. Even Ukes for heaven’s sake. And Bob Weir was the invitation-only headliner on Friday night. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Pianos, Band and Orchestra – This is not a guitar show, and the amount of space occupied by Piano, B&O and Sheet Music makes one think twice about what makes the industry tick.

Metal Heads – They keep the guitar industry alive and are the guitar’s most faithful supporters, even more than Blues. The autograph line for Steve Morse at the Ernie Ball booth always wraps around at least once.

Line 6 – Was not even in the convention hall, but in a ballroom at an adjacent hotel. I don’t follow the logic on that. Would you take a long walk through a crowd and security to look at a Line 6? Me neither.

Post Show Music in the Hotels – Take a nap, do whatever, but make a point of hanging out a the host hotels after the show closes for the night. The music is frequently good — at least performed well — and you never know who you will run into.

Flame and Quilt Maple tops for G&L Guitars

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flame maple top on ASAT Special from UpFront Guitars
A G&L Flame Maple top on an ASAT Special
Quilt Maple Top S-500 UpFront Guitars
A very deep Quilt Maple top on a G&L S-500

One of the snazzier options for a G&L guitar — or any guitar — is the addition of a flame or quilt maple top. The grain pattern in these woods is produced by cutting specific varieties of  maple in a direction that highlights the grain or figuring of the wood. This technique has been around a long time, and violin builders have been using flame maple — especially for instruments backs — for ages.

A maple top is both cosmetic, and to some degree sonic, and guitar builders frequently employ maple to add brightness. In particular it pairs well with mahogany solid bodies, which otherwise can be a little dark or muddy. So while they look great, is this a good idea as an option for a G&L guitar?

In theory, woods that are more hard and dense tend to add brightness. I guess one way to think about it is that they are more reflective than absorptive. Maple being quite hard tends to accentuate high frequencies. Single coil guitars like a G&L probably don’t need maple for the purpose of brightness, although an exception to this might be the ASAT Deluxe which has two humbucker pickups. In this case the classic pairing of mahogany body and maple top is a natural. Or a Bluesboy, which has a warm and woody Alnico 2 neck humbucker. And while the Fallout is thought of as a “simple” guitar, from personal experience the P-90 and Humbucker pairing responds nicely to a maple top, and looks very cool. Tuxedo Punk, if you will.

But will a maple top ruin your ASAT, S-500 or Legacy? No it won’t, and in the case of the MFD pickups they have plenty of depth and body to work well with a maple top. With any Legacy or traditional ALNICO pickup it can get pretty bright, especially at the bridge. But if you like the look, don’t be shy: After all you do have tone controls. The concept that guitars sound best with all the controls up is just not so. Personally I don’t think any P-90 sounds best wide open, but I love them with a little bit of volume or tone roll off. You paid for those knobs, so use them.

In the extreme, it is possible to create a guitar that is too bright. Maple will add some brightness, certain body woods will add brightness, a vibrato bridge is brighter than a hard tail, and so on. I did have a customer order a Comanche, quilt maple on Empress wood, and vibrato bridge. Between the wood, pickups and bridge it was about as zippy as you an get. I actually thought it sounded good, but he was never quite happy and changed out the pickups. In general, the pickups are the greatest driver, with body wood and bridge type being the next biggest factors. Fretboard material in my opinion matters least.

And remember, you do have tone controls….so build something you dig looking at.

Interesting Amp Find Part 1 – The Mesa Stiletto 50W

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mesa-shotI would normally categorize myself as a “less is more” person when it comes to amplifiers. I tend to favor rather simple amps, usually single channel, and use a couple pedals. Most of the time I’m using a Dr. Z Remedy, but also have a Bassman, a Custom Vibrolux and as of recent a Mesa F50 (the next blog topic).

But along comes this Mesa 50W Stiletto that we took in trade. I once had a 100w/50w Lone Star Combo, and it shares a lot of the options, knob assignments and tweaking possibilities. So even though I have never played a Stiletto, I somewhat knew my way around it.

This amp was Mesa’s answer to the Marshall sound, and as such sports EL-34 power tubes, a Plexi/Bassman style circuit, and a sealed cabinet with a Vintage 30 speaker. It has the Mesa “spongy” switch that drops the amp voltage for more touch response, and the ability to switch between tube and solid state rectifier (individually on each channel). Also like many Marshall amplifiers there is no reverb.

Initial impressions of the amp was that it was extremely bright and tight. On regular power and solid state rectifier, this amp as very little give, and if you’re a “spongy” amp guy like me it’s a little disconcerting. But between the tube rectifier, the spongy switch, and the three position “character” switch for each channel, there is something for everyone.

I like EL-34’s, and they have a very complex and harmonically rich top end. This helps the Stiletto pump out some awesomely good clean tones. By running on spongy with the gain and master around noon, and using the tube rectifier, it’s not hard to get some sweet touch-induced tube crunch. The amp also has an overall level control, and you can get these tones at reasonable volumes. But if you want your own personal Twin, run it on solid state rectifier and full power and you’ll have ample clean headroom. It’s likely that if you ask a typical Mesa player how they like their clean channel they’ll say, “I don’t know.” The Stiletto has a clean channel worth knowing.

The gain channel is naturally quite bright (like a Marshall) and don’t be afraid to twist the tone controls to tone it down a bit. But once you have it dialed in, it’s got some amazing Brit-crunch that has overtones and character out the wazoo. The sealed back cabinet helps to tighten up the sound, and the enclosure is not a parallel box, we assume in order to reduce standing wave forms. The total gain potential is end-of-days crazy, and we can’t imagine a usable scenario. But if you like tight, harmonic crunch you can cut with a knife, it’s freak’in awesome. You can’t model this….

Drawbacks? The Stiletto combo must weigh around 70 pounds, so it’s a good thing it has casters. Also the Vintage 30 has an inherent midrange spike, and some EL-34 tubes are likewise, and we found the standard Mesa power tubes were a bit too forward in this respect. We are using some groove tubes that we like, and if we can find some Winged C’s we’d probably be really happy. We also tried a Warehouse Reaper HP in the Mesa, as we’ve like the Reaper in the past. We could not get it out of the cabinet fast enough. Just goes to show that Mesa really does engineer the amplifier, and you can’t just stick anything in there. Same with pre-amp tubes: They are not easy to get at, and just leave the Mesa tubes in there. If you can find a NOS 5U4GB, go for it.

I sort of thought that we’d move this Mesa along as soon as it came in the shop. But it sounds awfully good, and we’ve taken it on gigs where we don’t have to haul it up stairs. On cleans it comes close to our beloved Dr. Z. Remedy, and it can break up a lower levels. If you don’t want to bring any pedals and just use the gain channel — and if you can open it up — it’s other-worldly.

The Stiletto does not really EQ or respond like your typical Mesa, and in that respect it was probably somewhat misunderstood, and underappreciated. But it’s probably our favorite Mesa so far, and highly underrated. They are out there anywhere from $800 to $1300 and represent a true bargain.

The G&L ASAT Special – Truly Special

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A fancy ASAT Special
A fancy ASAT Special

My first-ever G&L was a 3-bolt ASAT Special purchased in the mid-80’s. I really knew nothing about the brand at that time, but thought it was a very cool guitar. It was used, and as USA guitars go, at a good price at the local music store.

It’s very hard to buck tradition, but the ASAT Special is intended to be evolutionary progress relative to Leo Fender’s iconic original solid body. The most noticeable difference to the Tele® are the large MFD pickups, often mistaken for P-90 pickups. These are what drew me to the guitar both visually and sonically. The neck pickup sounded very Strat® like, a tone I’ve always loved but never really took to playing Strats. But it was also bigger, fuller sounding, and could be jazzy, or Tele-like with a couple knob tweaks.

The bridge pickup was twangy, clean, and being a Beatles fan reminded me a lot of that early sound. But it too had more guts than my old 70’s Tele and sounded a lot sweeter than the Duncan quarter-pounder that I had in my homemade Parts-Caster. It wasn’t going to cut it for heavy rock, but through the drive channel of my Peavey — few pedals in those days — it was great for the type of stuff we were playing back then like REM, Crowded House and Steely Dan.

Fast forward thirty years and the ASAT Special is still relevant, and still a very usable guitar. It has the ability to channel both Strat, Tele, and even Jazzmaster, while also being able to kick it pretty hard with a gain pedal. My band is playing more funk theses days — thank you Bruno Mars — but country is also in demand. I think it’s time to break out the ASAT Special again.

G&L Introduces Nitro Lacquer Finishes

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surf green nitro pictureIn the world of guitars, there are a number of features that separate the higher end of the spectrum from the typical electric guitar. For my own purposes, I’ll classify high end guitars as those that have a street price of greater than $2000. For some that may not be an expensive guitar, but only a few percent of the market is above $1500 dollars, so at least in dollar terms it’s high end.

Many guitars in this price range still use the traditional process of finishing their guitars in Nitrocellulose Lacquer. This type of finish chemistry has been in use since the 1920’s and for decades was the preferred method for finishing all types of musical instruments. Nitro remained the dominant process up through the early 70’s when the faster and easier polyurethane catalyzed finished grew in popularity. Today probably 99% of all guitar production is some form of a poly finish.

Like many things that have become revered as the “best,” nitrocellulose lacquer was the available chemistry at the time, and one of the first commercial processes for producing colorful finishes. Until then, it was no coincidence that many commercial products — like cars — came in just black. It was not just economical, but a practical necessity.

But there are certain advantages that make nitro finishes attractive for musical instruments. The finish is quite flexible, which is a good property to let the base materials of the instrument resonate properly. The solvent-based nature of the finish means that you can both remove it, and patch it, which makes is repairable. Lastly is can be buffed and polished to a high gloss.

The drawbacks of nitro is that it uses toxic and highly flammable solvents — xylene and toluene for starters — which means specific handling precautions and ventilation. It’s also built up of many thin coats, so it’s also a slower process as compared to poly finishes. In contrast the modern poly finish is much quicker to apply, and requires fewer handling and safety precautions. Poly finishes have come a long way, and some manufacturers have developed thin environmentally-friendly finishes for their instruments, especially for acoustics. But to many players, poly finishes just don’t “sound” the same.

G&L toyed with nitro finishes on their now-discontinued “Rustic” line of guitars. This was during the relic boom a few years back when just about every manufacturer was beating up their guitars. But the finishing process was subcontracted, and lead times were often many many months. And it was an aged process.

Quite by surprise, G&L introduced their own in-house lacquer process in the spring of 2016. The process is still gaining momentum, and G&L tends to spray a single color in batches of twenty guitars at a time. The colors are pretty traditional and run the range of vintage and 60’s-inspired colors: Sunburst, Butterscotch, Sonic Blue, Fiesta Red, Surf Green, Shell Pink, and Vintage White are all colors that we currently have in stock. The nitro process also includes the neck finish, and all guitars at this point have glossy neck finishes with rosewood or maple fretboards. At this time there are no special orders being taken for nitro guitars.

The nitro finishes have a decidedly “non-plastic” look to them, and this is especially noticeable on the necks, and transparent finishes like Butterscotch and Sunburst. The thinner nature of the finish will also show a little grain texture in the finish. We see this the most on the mahogany bodied guitars. The finish is glossy and smooth, but you can just see the texture of the mahogany in the finish. On some of the guitars there is also the occasional small sink in the finish where the filler did not totally block the pores in the grain. This is not seen as a defect, but a positive sign that the finish is thin, and that the body is not excessively encased in potentially tone-deadening fillers.

Naturally, there is a price increase for the nitrocellulose lacquer finish, but G&L has done a great job in keeping the price in check. Most MAP prices are in the $1600 range for solid bodies, and $1799 for semi-hollow models. When you figure that all models have gloss necks — around $150 MAP in poly — the up-charge is very reasonable indeed.

Does nitrocellulose lacquer sound better? It’s hard to quantify, as every guitar is different in its own respect. But nitro is what I’d like to term as “directionally correct.” In other words the benefits of a thinner, more flexible finish is in theory always beneficial to improving the acoustic properties of a guitar. Or you could ascribe to the idea that no company would apply an expensive nitro finish to a poorly assembled guitar, or one with low quality materials. Either way, there should be no sonic downside to a properly applied lacquer finish, and plenty of potential for upside.

Kudos to G&L for bringing a type of finish generally reserved for the upper stratosphere into the “everyman” range.

 

Getting Better at Guitar: Play Well With Others

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This post is in no way to meant to be judgmental to the scores of guitar players that are perfectly content playing within the confines of their own personal environment. Realistically, that is the vast majority of the guitar world: Players who play for their own enjoyment and nothing else.

But is was a famous 19th century German Field Marshall who said, “No plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” And much the same could be said for playing guitar. Or as I like to put it, “It’s all well and good until the drummer starts.”

Playing with other people can be hugely disruptive, but also highly educational. Maybe that solo you have perfectly crafted at home just doesn’t seem to work once other people are involved. You may also find that some of your favorite tones don’t sit well in a mix of instruments. Even if you have no desire to gig, learning to play in the less-than-sterile environment of a group setting will make you a better player no matter what your aspirations.

Truth be told, even for experienced musicians jam sessions or jam nights can be intimidating and/or frustrating. If you happen upon one with a couple self-anointed guitar slingers, jam nights can devolve into a noisy game of sonic one-upmanship. But true guitar slingers know how to play “in” the song rather than “on top” of the song. Ultimately, the goal of playing with a group is to make the song better, and not just insert “your solo” at every available opening.

A potentially more productive alternative is to find a couple people – or even just one other person – and work on developing a set of songs you like to play. Songs provide context and goals, and help develop structure, listening skills, dynamics and phrasing. These are all critical aspects of playing, and much harder to develop when only playing alone. And unlike a pure jam session, there is less of a competitive element and more of a shared vision. This does not mean that you can’t improvise, but the secret to a great jam session is good listening skills and dynamics. Learning songs with people teach those skills. Who knows, you might like what you hear, and decide to venture out to a local Open Mic night.

Little Known G&L Product Options – SB-2 Tone Mod

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sb-2-tone-modAs many G&L bass fans know, the G&L SB-2 comes with a somewhat unconventional control set of just two volume controls. While this sounds a bit odd, they actually work like two tone controls. Turning down one pickup effectively shifts the mix, adding more highs or lows depending on which one you turn. It’s a jazz bass setup without a tone control.

For those concerned of any potential limitations of this setup, there is the G&L SB-2 Tone Mod. G&L adds a global tone control where the jack usually is, and adds a side-mounted jack. Bingo: Volume-Volume-Tone. Global harmony and peace on the gear pages finally acheived.

As an SB-2 player, I don’t necessarilly miss the tone control, but I really like the idea of a side-mounted jack. For that reason alone it’s a nice concept, and there is no downside of having a tone control other than a minute amount of additional signal load.

You won’t find this on the G&L option list, so just ask.

 

Little known G&L product options – Logo Delete

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asat-qmt-hsOne no-cost option that we’ve grown rather fond of is the “Logo Delete” option for G&L headstocks. Just as it implies, the Logo Delete option gives you just the G&L logo without any model designation. We think it gives the guitar a nice clean appearance, and if you are doing a model that has no specific logo — such as a Bluesboy — you might even say it makes sense. Some players have never seen this option before, and one prospective buyer asked if it was a replacement neck.

Because they don’t have decals for every possible color combination, matching painted headstocks almost always come with a logo delete.

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G&L Legacy, gloss finish with standard logo

We like the look, and have ordered several guitars in this style.

New body wood options for your G&L Guitar

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For years, the standard body wood offerings from G&L have been Alder and Swamp Ash. Mahogany is available too, but is generally reserved for the ASAT Deluxe and other maple topped guitars.

For a couple years G&L has been quietly offering pine as a non-price list option, and lately Empress Wood. Here is quick rundown on the two “other” woods currently in the G&L line up.

Pine – We’re personal fans of pine, most notably for its tone, and generally good weight properties. Pine has a slightly softer top end, and a touch of compression on the attack. So while as not punchy as some woods, it’s got a little “give” and responds nicely to pick attack. The low end is also very clean and clear. It’s good for basses as well as guitars. The heaviest pine guitar we’ve seen is 7.8 pounds, but they are more typically 6.8 – 7.4, with bass guitars being proportionally heavier. The grain pattern is nothing dramatic, and tends to be straight and clear.

Empress – Looks a lot like swamp ash, and is the welterweight champion of the current G&L lineup. This fast-growing and strong wood is native to Asia, and has historically been used for both musical instruments, and furniture. Empress guitars are typically right around 7 pounds, and our experience is that there is not a great degree of weight variation between guitars. Tonally Empress is on the brighter side with a very solid and punchy attack. The sound is a little less dimensional than swamp ash, with greater emphasis on the fundamental tone. If you like a forward tone with plenty of presence, Empress is a good choice. We really like it for bass guitars, and it has very solid low end response.

So two woods, with two very different personalities. With many guitar players — especially those of a certain age — looking for lightweight and comfortable guitars, both Empress and Pine offer alternatives to traditional woods, and with their own unique tonal spin.