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INSIDE The Rev Delivers the Goods from the Woodshed !

the

Report Billy F. Gibbons

The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone $10.00 US, October 2002/VOL.3 NO.12

10 Lighten Your Load with a classic Les Paul Special 11 The Radiators’ Dave Malone on Tone from the Bayou! 19 The ElectroHarmonix Holy Grail Reverb www.tonequest.com

TM

cover story Welcome, Señors and Señoritas. We resume our exploration into the mysterious realm of tone, and this month our journey begins midway between Houston and San Antonio in a little town called La Grange. You know how that story goes... The creepin’ shuffle boogie intro to “La Grange” exploded into one of the most unique and recognizable guitar tones on the planet, compliments of Billy F. Gibbons and that Little ol’ Band from Texas. You gotta hand it to the Rev... with just one note stroked from Pearly Gates, there is no absolutely no doubt who’s in charge, and that’s a high wire act matched by a mere handful of players in the long and colorful history of the guitar.

formed a feisty combo The Jazzy Five, followed by The Gibbons Brothers Band, appearing in the upstate New York resorts. Full out 30’s elegance… and a bit of ragtime, shabby sheik to boot. TQR:

The JR simplicity is nothing short of infectious. It grabs you quick. A pure and accessible sound, which is always still around. Two guitars and drums is the ultimate trio. Jimmy Reed, and also the Big Beat Master, Bo Diddley… Street-simple and elemental, with an unexpected complexity of the inner workings of tremendously toneful trios. Bo Diddley on guitar, Clifford James on his solid snare, and Jerome Green’s propelling maracas. All quite intriguing. Loud electric guitar became the move.

We caught up with Mr. Gibbons in his hometown of Houston, and it was a good hang. ZZ Top has ridden high on the charts with a ton of hits over the past 30 years, yet the band and crew are a completely down-to-earth outfit lacking any of the hubris that often infects successful artists and their ‘people.’ We spent two days in Houston talking about Billy’s unique vibe and how he nails it, and as you might expect, many surprises await, so let’s get to it!

TQR:

What was the first exposure to this strange music that set ya’ll on the path to play the blues?

BB King, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis, and Houston blues radio! It started way early… these are just a few of the many that stand as the inventors of this fine American art form. The challenge remains to attempt a refreshed interpretation of the magnetism of the blues. TQR:

Your dad entered the picture about that time, yes?

Indeed. He enjoyed entertaining, spanning a remarkable career, from concerts through the motion picture business, and all points in between. He developed quite a wide range of creative expressions… TQR:

Jimmy Reed is credited as a most important influence. Why Jimmy Reed in particular?

TQR:

So LOUD electric guitar was next?

Yeah… single cut, single pickup Gibson Melody Maker with a Fender Champ amp. TQR:

Damn… you got right on it, didn’t you?

Yessir… That was ignition! TQR:

I suppose your garage band scene was not far behind?

Yeah. At first, just bangin’ and jangin’ things after school, chasing blues records. Some buddies also picked up the guitar, and a guy a couple of streets over with a set of well-beat drums, well, that was it. It was on. The unlikely aggregation The Saints started runnin.’ TQR:

Was there any particular mentor, or was it picking things up on your own?

The back rooms blaring the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard took over.

A house full of music, no doubt! TQR:

So The Saints provided a genuine beginning!

Si, Señor! TQR:

You’ve got ties from England, correct?

Yes. My poppa and his five bro’s hangin’ in New York

Most certainly… neighborhood parties, always out of control – always real gone. Truly reckless. The Stones suddenly jumped on the scene, playing their version of classic R&B with their different twist, and providing even more influ-continued-

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cover story

The Moving Sidewalks. By that time we were guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards. There was a brief time when soul music was the rage and we briefly added horns to the band, but the tough sound of a combo was tighter.

at Gazarri’s on The Strip. I saddled up along side the drummer to redesign the lineup back in Houston, Texas. After looking around a bit, we found a friend of ours who was an accomplished Hammond B3 specialist. He also kicked bass pedals, which filled out the sound, and that’s all we really wanted.

TQR:

TQR:

ences. I organized a new group and recorded a tune, “99th Floor,” released on a local Houston label, which fortunately caught on over the region’s radio stations. Out of town calls and bookings started showin’ up. We loaded up a station wagon and headed out of town. Nuthin’ but a blast. TQR:

Is “99th Floor” still available?

Yeah, the original version is to be included in a new ZZ Top boxed set. It’s furious and fuzzy. TQR:

And the name of this new band was…

What kind of guitar were you playing?

A white ’63 Jazzmaster. Stabbin’ at that cool look… matching stuff… Fenders and blonde piggybacks. TQR:

Definitely a style, Amigo.

Oh, yeah… two blue frame 12’s behind maroon grill cloth – full volume. Then Vox started making an appearance on the scene. Vox were the biggest things we experienced. From the rare Vox tube models moving on to the super chromeframed towers. Meanwhile, I switched the Jazzmaster to Fender Esquire. And with the inherently thin, cutting Esquire, Vox made the sound pretty hairy. Those circuits could really bark. TQR:

What happened on the heels of “99th Floor” and the subsequent Moving Sidewalks releases?

We continued performing throughout Louisiana and Mississippi – mostly southern stuff – and in 1968 we were signed to appear on the Jimi Hendrix tour along with the band from Paris called The Soft Machine. We played a number of shows in Texas and a few in Arizona, and wound up in California twisting off on our own for awhile. We’d play a middle of the week gig at this joint or that, then Friday nights

What kind of music were you playing?

We kept all the blues influences, and then the psychedelic scene captured us. One of the first psychedelic bands ever – The 13th Floor Elevators – actually coined the term psychedelic. Their first record was called The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, and they followed that with an album called Easter Everywhere. TQR:

We’ll check that out. Another heavy acid band from that period were Blue Cheer, and that was a direct, 4-way hit.

Oh, man… I loved that band. When was that… 1967? TQR:

Yes, when they broke out with “Summertime Blues…”

Loved that song. We went out to see them one night, and not only were they the loudest band we had ever heard, but that was the first time we had ever seen a drummer use cut-off broomsticks for sheer power (laughs). TQR:

You retained your 3-piece organ trio?

Yeah, we changed the name from The Moving Sidewalks to ZZ Top, and we cut a single in 1969 titled “Salt Lick,” backed by a track called “Miller’s Farm.” It was named after a ranch we’d been given access to. We set up at the ranch house and you could play as loud as you wanted and bothered no one. TQR:

Did you come up with the idea for the name of the band?

Yeah… we practiced and wrote material for about six or so, and the drummer and I decided on recruiting our buddy from -continued-

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cover story Dallas to play bass, Billy Etheridge. He originally was rhythm guitarist in one of Jimmy Vaughan’s first groups out of Dallas called The Chessmen. And then, Etheridge introduced me to drummer Frank Beard, who quickly established the now famous backbeat. And Frank then recommended auditioning another Dallas bassist, Dusty Hill. Frank and Dusty worked together in Dallas, and made for a solid rhythm section. TQR:

Rock solid and tight, indeed…

Yeah, Dusty did a few pickup gigs around Houstontown, and took Mr. Beard’s offer to join an afternoon jam session. We did a simple blues shuffle and it lusciously lasted for three full hours. We looked at each other and said, “Man, this feels pretty good.” That’s what went down. TQR:

What gear was on the deck at this time?

We still had Vox, the old Esquire, an Oyster Pearl Ludwig kit, and, of course, a Fender bass. Then we met Jeff Beck… We hung around with his outfit for awhile and noted a strange amp even bigger than the Vox. Man, it did sound great. We had discovered Marshalls. Beck’s road manager had contacts at Jim Marshall’s factory back in the U.K., and suggested he score a couple of stacks for us. They were the 1969 Super Leads, and as soon as they arrived, we jumped over to them immediately and never looked back. Now, when I met Beck, he was playing his sunburst Les Paul. Shortly thereafter, the Jeff Beck Group album came out… what a great record. TQR:

So Beck was playing his ‘burst…

Yeah, I kept asking around and discovered that Gibson had discontinued them. The original sunburst Les Paul as we all know it, now long gone, got replaced by the Les Paul SG. At the same time, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers appeared, and on the back of the album cover was a picture of Eric Clapton with a ‘burst and a 2x12 Marshall Bluesbreaker combo. Well, I saw that, and thought there must really be something to that guitar. I didn’t have much technical knowledge at that time, but noticed the pickups on the Les Paul were larger than the pickup on the Esquire, plus there were two of them. A buddy of mine, Red Pharoah, had a guitar with a couple of those pickups on it, so I bought it… a 1958 Flying V. I picked it up for $300, and we were off and run-

ning. Marshalls and humbuckers. TQR:

Is that when you began to really hone in on what we would consider to be “your sound?”

Yes. Things took another step up a month later when a friend called and said he knew a farmer with an original Les Paul. He kept it under his bed and rarely played it. At that time I was driving an old 1930s Packard automobile, and I gave it to a girlfriend so she could get out to California to audition for a part in a movie. She made it and got the part, and swiftly sold the Packard and sent a check to me. I remember the day her letter arrived, and immediately struck out toward the farmer’s place and said, “How ‘bout $250 for that guitar?” He said, “Fine,” and that’s Pearly Gates. Pearly Gates

TQR:

An original Texas gee-tar…

It sho ‘nuff is. TQR:

And what followed was the culmination of one of the most distinctive, unique, and recognizable guitar tones on the planet…

Well, it did take some time to develop, and there was an evolution in progress, but all of these little indicators… seeing Beck, and then Pearly Gates Clapton with one of these guitars, and Mayall through his brilliance, finding so many wonderful guitarists like Peter Green and Mick Taylor. They were all playing these sunburst Les Pauls. TQR:

And ZZ Top was off to the races…

Yeah, we had met this individual who had an interest in management. He had come down to Houston with another friend of his to see us perform with The Doors. He ran a record distribution agency in Houston that happened to handle London Records, which was the label for The Rolling Stones and Mayall. Well, Mayall had organized a U.S. personal appear-continued-

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cover story ance tour, traveling alone from town to town. More often than not, he would get a hankering to put together impromptu jam sessions, and would usually inquire who might be available to handle a couple of hours of the blues. And that’s how we met our soon-to-be manager. Being somewhat familiar with our work, we got together and it was a classic scene. He brought out some cigars and said, “I’m going to make you a star.” With our handful of songs, we piled into this 1968 Buick deuce and a quarter – a big old land yacht – and drove to a little town in east Texas. We cut the first ZZ album at Robin Hood’s on the Texas/Louisiana line. That studio already had a couple of national hits with J. Fred and the Playboys, Mouse and the Traps, and a lot of the big soul bands from southern Louisiana…The Boogie Kings, GG Shinn and the Rollercoasters, Cary Ray and the National Soul Review… all from Robin Hood’s. They had the momentum and knew how to do the do. A preview of the ZZ recordings reached a few labels, with London Records showing a keen interest. I said, “Man, that’ where The Rolling Stones are. Let’s go there. TQR:

In regard to your playing and your fine, fine signature guitar tone – you mentioned an ‘evolution’ had taken place over time. We might say a revolution considering the impact you made with Pearly… Looking back now with the benefit of hindsight, how were your influences as a guitarist continuing to develop and become more defined, from Trés Hombrés, onward?

A most interesting question… A revisit of the vintage recordings from some favorite blues performers, including Muddy, Little Walter, BB King, Clifton Chenier, Howlin’Wolf, and the all-time longstanding favorite, Jimmy Reed. Oddly enough, as many times as one revisits these timeless, unchanged recordings, different ways to look at the blues as an art form continue to appear. As soon as you think you’ve got a bead on exactly what’s going on, at the very least you discover something that might have been overlooked or interpreted in a different fashion. My interest in the blues still rides high. TQR:

Were any of your contemporaries or blues heroes of the past inspiring your playing and songwriting?

We all have our personal influences, and it’s worthy to note

some of our cherished contemporaries, like the late great Doug Sahm, Jimmy Vaughan, and of course, Stevie… Also the work of John Mayall and his line of infamous Bluesbreakers, who have continually provided a source of mystery and entertainment. TQR:

The first time we heard Buddy Whittington on a record we thought, “Now, who the hell is that?”

(Laughs) Yeah… and another great player, James Hard Harpin’ Harmon is a fine entertainer who would be just as happy walking onto a stage at 9 p.m. opening a show or strolling in at midnight as the headliner. TQR:

You can righteously be accused of having created the perfect marriage of the smokiest, greasiest blues riffs slithering around the ka-ching of monster big time Top 40 lyrical hooks and tongue and cheek imagery… a tall order, indeed. What’s the voodoo behind your song writing success? Is it more inspiration by accident (“I was playfully engaged with a warm snifter of Reposado one evening when Mescalito appeared…”) or do you just sit down and deliberately create another hit?

The mystery behind the magic of ZZ Top is an engaging endeavor… We take the latest composition and go to the woodshed, where we place Frank Beard at the opposite end of the room where Dusty and I are set up. We then deliver the goods, and at the end of the day we ask Frank what it is he thought we said? Usually, it’s an interpretation that is so far removed from what was actually written, yet it’s usually better than what we had originally started with earlier in the day (laughs). TQR:

So there’s still room for the happy accident coming from the ZZ woodshed.

It starts out with the two bearded boys posing a challenge to the beardless Mr. Frank – “Where’s it going, and what’s your interpretation?” TQR:

How has your stage rig evolved from the early days with ZZ Top to the present? You’ve credited the Les Paul ‘burst and the Marshall Superlead…

The Marshall and Pearly were the energized origin of the sound of the ZZ Top trio, enjoying the acquisition of some really exotic critters that we’ve since collected over the years. We managed to build a couple of stacks of guitar rigs on either side of the drum riser, and in essence, we have Dusty pounding out his thang on a Fender 4-string, (which is basically a low guitar in the band), and the Reverend Willy G slamming out his thing on a high bass… and we have Mr. -continued-

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cover story Beard in between. Over time, there were some interesting excursions into guitar design centered from that one cornerstone element… Pearly Gates was the mystery factor that founded the sound of the band, and that particular sonic element was the one to be acknowledged. All of the creative excesses we’ve made managed to succeed as playable instruments while retaining the tonal qualities still found in Pearly Gates. TQR:

Were you putting Seymour Duncan’s Pearly Gates pickups in a lot of the custom guitars you had built for ZZ Top tours?

TQR:

How long ago was that? Pre-Eliminator. We framed it as a quizzical shelf piece in our studio and on one afternoon, one of the great Houston engineers, “Willy the Workingman” took the DeArmond over to the console to see what this thing was all about. It rattled and shaked and tumbled and quaked, and we thought it was a little bit of insanity, but it sure sounded good.

Bamboo Tele

Yes, and we also had the goodly assistance of the Gibson Custom Shop, the Fender Custom Shop, Seymour Duncan, Mr. John Bolin’s outfit out of Boise, Idaho, James Trussart, Tom Anderson, WD Products, Warmouth… the list is endless. I should also mention the late Eric Yunker. It is a somewhat idealistic approach, entering brave new worlds without compromising tone, taste, or tenacity. As most instrumentalists know, you could grab the first six guitars on an assembly line and the last six on the line and none of them will necessarily sound the same. In the final analysis, it’s basically meat on metal on wood… At the same time, you’ve got a complex collective of different grain structures and wood from different stands of trees held together by new glue, old glue, and sometimes no glue… Pickups are wound with 42 gauge wire that might have been dipped in lacquer one week and something else the next. Thanks to the stalwart perseverance of people like Seymour Duncan, Lindy Fralin, DiMarzio, Rio Grande, and others, we now have insights into the unknown.

It’s a mouse trap which is still not completely understood, yet, it is one of the key features in the old Bo Diddley records. Steve Melkisethian of Angela Instruments had stumbled across one and sent it down thinking that we might be interested and perhaps even find a use for it.

TQR:

We live in the golden era of the guitar. We have more choices today than ever before.

That’s the good news. And despite these disparate, unpredictable elements, it really comes down to diggin’ in deep for some creative soul and spirit, and from there you can sho ‘nuff make it happen.

TQR:

Yeah, he had it plugged up and we said, “What is that doing over here?” to which Willy replied, “We’re gonna find out.” As you know, the DeArmond has reached a point with me that has gone beyond the point of being ridiculous, yet if you can get one that actually works, they produce one of the craziest, indescribable tremolo sounds… TQR:

Now, the DeArmond tremolo is very cool, and we particularly liked it on “What’s Up With That?” and “Zipper Job” on Rhythmeen. When and how did you discover it?

It’s a reddish blue, transparent throb which we find particularly satisfying on “What’s Up With That?” on Rhythmeen.

Oh, yeah… TQR:

TQR:

He had taken it over to the console and he was running the guitar signal through it?

That track showcases the throb quite nicely.

I think that’s an appropriate description of the sound. Thanks to Bo Diddley and Steve at Angela Instruments, we have another peek into the Wonderful World of Tone. -continued-

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cover story TQR: Your two pound ‘bursts are quite the thang… How’d they do that, and what were you thinking when you decided to gut them perfectly good guitars? Sheer laziness… I got to talkin’ to some of my Les Paul buddies… Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck… even Eric Clapton… he kind of grimaces when you bring up the Les Paul. “Hey, Eric, how about throwing this over your shoulder?” (making a “bad oyster” face and laughing). TQR:

Well, we all kinda want him to play one again, which is reason enough for him not to. Eric seems to be quite the contrarian…

That well could be. Even Slash… my two buddies from the Black Crowes… Jimmy Vaughan even played one during his early career, and there may be lingering memories of the weightiness of our favorite tone grinder. But the code has been cracked, and with a judicious approach to the modifications, you can lift the load but still deliver the tone. TQR:

So what you’re saying is that many of our favorite players may have put the Led Paul down ‘cause it was too damn heavy.

That was one reason. Credit should be given to those that follow form. Fashion may change, but this is an instance where form must remain, even in the face of changing fashion. TQR:

You’ve certainly stuck to your guns, Rev…

You gotta have the tone, brother. TQR:

Tell us about your fascination with the old tweed Fender Dual Professionals.

Yes… by the way – the hemp Tone Tubby speakers were sent over to the studio last week. We had a couple of Dual Showman cabs, and you know that amp went through an evolutionary renaissance, but fortunately, we had a couple of the old, smaller 2x12 cabinets with the maroon grill cloth. Now, I didn’t realize that they make a “darker” and a “brighter”

hemp Tone Tubby, so we did a little experiment and loaded one cabinet with the two darker ones side by side and the other cabinet with the two brighter ones. Then we tried another cabinet with one of each in the same cabinet. Each one of them has merits, and they’re all different, but we concluded that no matter how you stack it, that is one fine, fine piece of product. They look great, but most importantly, they sound great. They are really stunning, and they stand tall with anything – blue frame Jensens, 30 year- old Celestion Greenbacks, the Vox Bulldog… you name it. All of the industry leaders are now standing beside another new individual, and it’s really cool. TQR:

We couldn’t agree more. It’s not often that some thing truly new and cool comes along, just like those old Dual Professionals in their time…

They were introduced in 1948, and I believe that Don Randall may have had something to do with the decision to build an amp that could hold two speakers instead of one. They didn’t know what to call it, and Leo looked over his shoulder and saw a box of metal nameplates that they used for their double neck steel, which was called the Dual Professional. They reminded Leo that the name was used for a Hawaiian guitar, and Leo said, “Yeah, but we have a few extra boxes of these names plates, so let’s just call it the Dual Professional, too (laughs). So, for the first run, they had a double neck steel and the amp with the same name, and I believe it was 1951 when they changed the name to the Super. ‘Lil’ Red’ & Dual Professional

TQR:

And you’ve been collecting them over the years…

Yeah. They were only 18W-20W, and they varied somewhat. Although the circuit boards were the same, the values of the components and transformers could change from week to week. Thanks to the ingenuity of Leo and his staff, they were able to create a cabinet and an amp that was louder, and it sounded bigger than Dallas. The Dual Professional was one of the interesting turning points in amplifier history. They’re rare, and like guitars, each one has a peculiar personality, but -continued-

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cover story if you’re willing to check them out, there’s probably one that’s perfect for every application. And if it doesn’t work, just find a good fuzztone and turn it up to ’10’ (laughs). That’ll work every time.

That’s true, and the good news is… it’s not always the guitar or the amp or the amp and the guitar… it’s how you spend your time getting it to go from here (head) to here (hands). TQR:

TQR:

You’ve used the B.K. Butler Real Tube Overdrive for a long time, haven’t you?

Yeah, the Real Tube has a 12AX7 driven circuit, it’s not battery powered, and at the same time, the standard that Mr. Butler established still stands tall with each and every model. With a little experimentation, you can tweak them in to what I call “sittin’ on the fence” tone. You don’t have to go ‘Rat’ and you don’t have to go ‘Clean.’ You can just approach… let’s call it the border zone. No… la frontera (laughs). It’s like TexMex tweakin.’ TQR:

You don’t seem to be someone who practiced a lot though – it seems as if you just jumped into a band and you’ve been playing ever since.

Yeah, let’s change the old adage to playin’ makes perfect. TQR: What’s up with those African guitars? Where did you get them? I went to Africa. TQR: You’ve been in the studio recently polishing off a new CD that will be out soon. What’s the theme of this year’s ZZ Top party?

And Dusty uses one too…

Yes, he does. He takes a little bit more of a darker stance than most, but at the same time, it just produces an indescribable yet delightful sense of overdrive without getting out of control. TQR:

We’ll know soon. There are all kinds of challenges to be addressed.

Or pummeling your amp and speakers… TQR: I’m sure there are.

That’s right. Harvey Moltz from Rainbow Guitars in Tucson discovered the Real Tube. He was really the grist of the grind, and he was the one who allowed me to first check it out. I’m also still very fond of one the most exotic little effects ever made – the Expandora – the little silver Skoal can with all of the craziness inside. That unit not only carries good tone, but it works off batteries, and a lot of players really like it. TQR:

And they are priced accordingly… You also get a ton of your tone through your hands. You have a real easy touch, and you don’t appear to be breaking a sweat going through the motions of playing the guitar. It’s smooth, light, and fluid, with no struggle at all.

That’s a gracious compliment. It’s not a problem workin’ up a sweat – the problem is wipin’ it off (laughs). It’s always a challenge to get the mind to match the motion. But the real task is to enter that wondrous realm of making it flow. TQR:

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And there’s that innate ability to play the song perfectly when the little red light is lit. You either have that, or you don’t.

Well, you do it every month… TQR:

Kinda like a ZZ Top record… We consider every ZZ Top record to be a party record, and every party needs a theme.

Just pop it in the car stereo, drive to El Paso, and report back to me later. TQR:

Is the Quest for Tone ever over?

No. You got to have the tone. TQR:

¡ Gracias, Amigo ¡

¡ Si, Señor ¡ TQ

Stay tuned for ZZ Top’s new release on RCA, plus reports from the road as TQR Advisory Board member Billy F. Gibbons and the boys embark on the Europe Tour 2002! For more information on the band, including tour schedules, swag, and news, visit www.zztop.com

TONEQUEST REPORT V3. N12. October 2002

cover story Gear from the Woodshed

TQR:

TQR:

Again, each instrument held differences in character and personality, yet, the object of the project retained the profile of perfect personality. Ghostly!

Whoah! What the hell…

"Gibbons Historic Jungletele"

Check this out… (handing over a ’59 burst Historic Reissue) I bought a few recent re-issue models right from the rack, and following a bit a some experimental customizing, each one successfully emerged as ultra-light Les Paul Standard ‘50s style Sunbursts – traditionally considered a rather weighty solid-body Spanish electric 6-string. The modifications were expertly transformed and customized by the illustrious guitar maker, Mr. John Bolin & Co., from his state-of-the art studio out in the wilds of Idaho. Bolin and crew developed a technique allowing the radical transformation of these fine instruments, which retained the heaviness of the performance of the guitar, while lifting the guitar into fresh heights of slingin’ the slab. Definitely a shot in the dark, yet, a surprisingly utilitarian outcome from a previously unknown design concept! The challenging aim to liberate the weight progressed with no shortage of the unknown…! At the completion of this radical restructuring, the series were restored to factoryfresh like thrasers, retaining structural integrity and most importantly…the TONE…! As the infamous Pearly Gates remains one of ZZ Top’s cornerstone elements, workin’ within that mysterious structure proved to be most rewarding. This unexpected excursion jumped up during a discussion out in California with our good friend Jimmy Page & Co. over in Hollywood’s late night loud-zone… Jimmy’s Les Paul is one of the wickedest examples on the planet, along with one of the wickedest pound-for-pound heavyweight electrics. The combination of our curiosity of revamping our fave-rave Standards forwarded the move. And, thanks to the brilliance from Bolin’s expertise in handling the affair, all’s good on stage and studio. Quite a delight! Deep, dark grindin’ continues onward, Amigo – no question about it. Great work.

TQR:

Any difference in performance regarding altering weight and mass?

And Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups entered the mod, too, yes?

Indeed. Bolin’s relationship with Seymour Duncan Research is still the choice of champs. Bolin and Duncan both acknowledge the value of the original elements from Seth Lover’s remarkable invention of the Humbucking magnetic pickup. The real luxury of hot-rodding one’s preferred rig is still cuttin’ up with scant regard to sanity. Going for some serious tone ain’t no thang. Just light up the torch and go for it – decals on ‘em, paint ‘em and rip ‘em into Day-Glo world! Chop ‘em, rock ‘em, and do what you wanna do. Drive it straight to the unknown zone…and play them Blues…! TQR:

(Walking to the rack of amps and effects) This is the stuff that delivers some of the ZZ extremes…

Mostly so… loads of variables are in there, but we’ve managed the sound analysis using real-time analyzing gear. We’ve stayed up through those all-night jams just running Pearly straight in and straight out, standing on the Texas ‘G.’ We listened for the averages, and after those 3 o’clock-in-the-morning moments, satisfaction rides on in. And once you do it twice…you be right on. Establish the curve of your picture and get it on, man…! What is the character of this crazy girl named Pearly? Soulful EQ’ing will bump it up down the line and you’re in there. Another good thang…! TQR:

Calibrating those variables sounds like a righteousness kind of night…

Yeah. You get to play it. We’re sorting about with some experimental tunings on the main guitars – open ‘E,’ even down to ‘B,’ and on down to low ‘A’, bro… Hideous…! -continued-

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guitars TQR:

Which gauge strings?

Vintage effects include many DeArmonds, Marshall Supa Fuzz, Park Fuzz, and DeArmond volume pedal.

Eights. Wet rope below-sea-level.

Studio Notes: Billy Hale (BFG’s guitar tech): “Have no fear.” As you know, each piece of gear usually impacts the output in some manner – positive, antagonistic, and always unexpected. Double the rig. If one bank breaks down, you got a back-up restoring the line. We’re on JMP1 12AX7-driven preamps, Line 6’s rack unit, Zoom’s power box, a Varidrive signal snapper from San Diego, Bixonic Expandoras, Z Vex oddities, all of it… matched into Marshall’s tube boys for a grind to warp the mind. Prior to this we were using a beautiful Marshall EL34 100/100. This Pro 120 hit the market, and I can’t remember where we experimented with this amp, but we started collecting them and flooding the tone settings, and the effect became truly transparent as one might want, still retaining the whip of Jim Marshall’s special sound. Power amplifier platforms simply Demeter Isolation Cabinet takes the sound and make it bigger. We keep some measures of available headroom, ‘cause we don’t wanna redline the motherfuckers per se… Just tweak those 50-some odd user presets and step on it. Keep domain over your power …!

Notes on Instruments Pictured: ‘Lil’ Red’ (SG pg. 7) is one of Billy F. Gibbon’s first guitars. The Teuffel was custom-covered in pink fabric resembling the old pink paisley pattern used on ‘60s Telecasters. Billy and Dusty own matching Teuffels.

We also toured “The Woodshed,” where we found a few more toneful curios, including a customized little vintage Marshall 2x10 combo that had been modded for dual 12’s. Also present in Billy’s studio rig was a vintage Alamo (Valco), a Marshall Valve State, and the ever-present Real Tube Overdrive by B.K. Butler. Guitars included a wild ‘matchstick bamboo’ Tele, a vintage Esquire, and the esteemed and worldly Pearly Gates. Billy’s rack rig in the studio included a pair of Marshall JMP1 valve midi preamps (dimed), Tech 21 Sans Amp units, and a duet of rack-mounted DeArmond Tremolo units.TQ

HISTORIC REISSUE SINGLE CUT LES PAUL SPECIAL Most of us won’t be willing or able to acquire a ‘59 burst RI and lighten the load as the Rev did, but if toting the Led Paul is beginning to put a hurt on ya, there are options… Feeling devilish? The horny SG might do the trick. It’s light, you can run your humbuckers in it, and it’s a Gibson, which means it’s supposed to be ‘good enough.’ The SG’s evil look never really caught on, which also makes the vintage models a great bargain (comparatively speaking), and even some of the 70’s era brown (should we say ‘chestnut’?) SG’s can be pretty good utility guitars with a simple pickup upgrade. But it’s a bit of a crapshoot... Many old ‘70s SG’s seem to now be cursed with screwy necks, and we’ve played a few that divebombed like a Strat (but in the absence of a tremolo tailpiece). Not good... -continued-

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interview Let’s go for something much more comely, with kinder curves, like a 1997 Gibson Historic Reissue Les Paul Special. We specifically hunted down a single-cut model on eBay and we wound up paying just under a grand for our barely used ‘96. The Les Paul Specials remain in production at the Gibson Custom Shop, and they are available as double or single cutaway models in Cherry or TV Yella finish. Our particular guitar was originally shipped from the Gibson Custom Division on September 1, 1996, which was the first year of production. According to TQR Advisory Board member and Gibson Pro Shop Manager Ernest King, our guitar was an early transition model, since the Gibson logo on our guitar is a gold decal rather than the later pearloid logo on holly veneer. These axes are more in the Stratocaster weight range, but they are single-slab mahogany, and they sound real good. Part of the mojo is the wrap-around tailpiece. It makes an audible difference that you’ll really feel and hear when you play. This guitar vibrates, and the tone has a deep, woody vibe that’s lacking by comparison in a lot of new instruments today. Again, it’s the wrap-around that really makes the difference, and if you’ve passed on this feature thinking you couldn’t get your intonation dialed in, that’s just not so. In addition to the standard Gibson tailpiece with two sets screws for fine tuning the position of the bar, the wrap-around tailpieces made by TonePros offer 3 adjustable sliding sections for improved intonation. You adjust each section for a pair of strings, similar to vintage Telecaster saddles, but the tonal benefits of the wrap-around design are maintained. Reviews are in the works. The ‘60 Special is considerably lighter than a ‘58 or ‘59 Les Paul Historic RI, and it’s a really fun guitar to play. The Special sounds plenty big enough, although the neck profile is the ‘slim taper’ rather than the late ‘50s baseball bat style. We like ‘em both, and would be happy with either neck shape exclusively. We did notice that the slimmer neck needs a shade more playing time to settle in after changing strings. The truss rod on our Special had never been touched, and it needed tightening by a quarter turn when we received it. That done, we strung it up with a set of Pyramid .010-.048’s and it took about 10 minutes for the neck to settle down. Since then,

the Special has stayed in tune perfectly, and it seems to get happier every time we play it (as do we). Of course, the factory fret level had skimmed the crown on the frets, and we’ll probably get them dressed. We’re back to P90’s again with the Special, and the Gibsons on our guitar sounded very, very good. They’re dynamic, warm, punchy, full of bite, and kicked down a little, they can be charming, subtle, and smooth. We mentioned the fun factor, and the way the Special resonates is energizing and inspiring. You can feel the entire body and neck vibrating as you play, and the Special’s extraordinarily lively character is absolutely captivating. The classic design is so uniquely cool, that if you leave this guitar out where it’s accessible and in view, you’ll quickly discover just how irresistible it is. We rarely find such a unique classic that really has something different to offer, but the Special fits the bill, and we hope you’ll find the time to check them out. It’ll be well worth your time.TQ

Dave Malone

& the

Interview & photos by Jim Beck

Thanks to TQR subscribers Jim Beck and Dave Malone for the following interview in which Dave so thoughtfully shares his personal Quest for Tone. Once again, you’ll find pIenty of priceless tips in this article, straight from an experienced and supremely talented and accomplished player who has devoted years to The Quest. TQR:

When did you first pick up a guitar?

I’m one of those people that saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and went, “That is cool!” I didn’t really get into it right away – my older brothers shortly thereafter were playing guitar, and I ended up kind of sneaking in and playing theirs, and as you well know when you’re learning, it hurts like hell… When you can actually play a song for the first time, I don’t know about you, but for me it was, “Oh, my God – this, I’m gonna do!” So I would play ‘til my fingers bled – one of those goofballs. Having my older brother playing helped immensely. TQR:

Did you ever receive any formal training?

No, no – my dad was in the Air Force, but by the time I start-continued-

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interview ed playing guitar, we had settled in the country in Edgard, Louisiana. You’ve never heard of it – David Bartholomew was from there – the guy that arranged for Fats Domino and wrote all those songs. It’s just a little town along the river in Louisiana. Lots of sugar cane...

and some people don’t. People who are prone to buying whatever the current pop sensation is want to hear the hits all the time. Maybe they don’t like it, but it certainly keeps everything fresh. TQR:

TQR:

Louisiana is one of the most musically rich areas in the world. Who were your local influences?

Songwriters... the stuff that Alan Toussaint wrote and then all the famous New Orleans singers did – really cool songs… Earl King, and as far as just the sheer joy of playing music and having this energy just jump out of you that infects the crowd, Professor Longhair was the guy for that. I was lucky enough to play with him a few times, and I was luckier still just to hang out with him a lot. Man, that guy was music! There were lots of people like that. Jesse Hill was a nut, but he was a great entertainer, and then somebody like James Booker, who was just beyond description. His piano playing was from another world. TQR:

You all tend to have a pretty rich sensibility to your playing.

Yeah, we were exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, and you know, in the South, they make gumbo out of pouring a lot of different things into a pot, and I guess that’s kind of what we do. TQR:

You seem to have become associated with The Grateful Dead, and the band is absolutely adored by Deadheads. How did that came about?

You know, musically, I don’t see it… but maybe it’s just from how we carry ourselves. We’re one of those bands that has always allowed people to record our shows, so then you get tape traders, which becomes a thing – maybe it’s that. Or maybe its just that we’re into this free abandon, go for it kind of attitude, with the jamming, I mean. Maybe it’s that and the fact that we kind of mix up blues and rock and country and soul, because The Dead did too, to some degree. TQR:

You have a working repertoire of several hundred songs, just like they did, which must have its own challenges.

Yeah, but you know what? As far as I’m concerned, if I was in one of those bands that had to play the same 15 songs every night, I would go absolutely nuts! I couldn’t stand it. That might be another connection to The Grateful Dead. People know that if we’re doing a 3-night run, at say, Great American Music Hall, they’re not going to hear the same songs from one night to the next. We’re going to do three nights and not repeat a song. Some people really like that,

You and Camile are very complimentary players.

Yeah, we don’t play at all alike. Before The Radiators, Camile was in rock bands and I was in country rock bands. I was very into vocal harmonies, and I still am, which The Radiators don’t do a lot of. We’re not the singin’est fools on earth, so I was playing country rock stuff – Buffalo Springfield, Poco, Burrito Brothers, Graham Parsons, and stuff like that. I was playing country rock and rockabilly licks, and he was playing blues and all rock stuff, and for some reason our styles worked well together. And even from day one – and this is not horseshit at all – we have this ESP thing going on that freaks us out to this day. It happened last night several times. In the middle of a song that we’ve played however many times, we’ll play a lick that neither of us has played before in that spot in the song. We’ll play the same lick, and we’ll look at each other like, “Where the hell did that come from?” Not only that, but sometimes we play them in harmony and it just freaks us out. We don’t even really talk about it that much because we’re afraid we’ll jinx it. But literally from the very first day we played together that happened. TQR:

It seems like one of your signatures is kind of a sweeter bayou feel, for lack of a better term – triad 9th’s and 7th’s funk. And Camile, he just shreds. He’s up and down the board and he screams. But you tend to stay with the “in-the-pocket” riff…

Well, my thing is, I never have been and never will be, nor want to be “Mr. Guitar,” where people say “Oh, look at that.” I’m glad Camile does it, because then we have a guy in the band who does it, and people dig it. I’m really only concerned with the song and what the song needs, you know? Trying to figure out something that helps the song along. Thinking that way, I’m all about trying to think about melody, and stay in the pocket. That’s definitely where I come from. Sometimes the song tells you. Talking about this ESP thing that Camile and I have, I think the song sometimes tells you what it wants you to play. I can’t stress enough that, bottom line, there is nothing more important than the song. -continued-

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interview The fact that we play these same licks at the same time out of nowhere – that came from somewhere. Maybe the song dictated to us to play that lick right there, and we both heard it the same way. Or maybe this is all bullshit (laughs). TQR:

I don’t think so. I’ve seen it, and others who have seen you play see it as well. We’ve seen it in a lot of the great bands where the players are able to communicate in that way.

Bottom line for me is, I try to play either melody or countermelody, or something that I think the song needs in the moment. I always try to stress doing something that works perfectly for the song, not necessarily just going off on the guitar, although that is fun, too. But I can’t stress enough that, to me, nothing is more important than the song itself. TQR:

Let’s talk about guitars. Your main stage axe is the Strat…

Yeah… I might as well mention that last year at the end of October our equipment truck was stolen. They got everything, and we’ve gotten nothing back so far. We’re getting our equipment back together now. I had 7 guitars on the truck, Camile had 3, and Reggie had 2 or 3 basses. My main guitar was a 1982 ‘57 reissue blonde Strat. I think that was the first year that someone at Fender got the bright idea to start making them like they used to, ‘cause everyone wanted those guitars, anyway. I think 1982 was the first year they reissued the ‘57 Strat, and from what I can tell, that was the only year that the neck had a lower profile. It’s not as stocky as my Telecasters, and it’s just a breeze to play. Maple fretboards are very unforgiving, and I just loved having having the smaller profile Strat neck. I changed the pickups to Van Zandts, and after the stuff got stolen, I couldn’t find one. Then my wife found one on eBay that was 15 serial numbers off from the Strat that was stolen. We were going to New York a week later – here, in fact, at BB King’s. The last time we were here, the guy that had the guitar on eBay met me, I played it, and it felt exactly like my stolen guitar, so I was as happy as could be. I think I’m going to change the pickups on it, too. They’re not quite right, but it plays like a dream. TQR:

Did you like the Van Zandts?

Yeah, I did, and I didn’t know anybody else that used them, actually. I kind of stumbled on to them. I’m always looking around for stuff, which is what’s cool about The Tonequest Report, because you can get all that information you wouldn’t get elsewhere. I don’t remember how I heard about them. I called them, and they told me if I would say that I used their pickups, they would give me a set. I checked them out and I really liked them. My younger brother Tommy is a guitar player in The Subdudes. After I had my guitar stolen and I wasn’t able to find another Strat that had that shape and same neck feel, I got the ‘82 that I play now and Tommy actually had his neck measured and cut exactly the same as mine, he liked it so much. He has Lindy Fralin pickups, and I really like the sound of them, so I might check those out. They have a nice sweet tone to them– a little bit hot – but not hot enough to be abrasive. They still sound very liquid, and all the other words people use to describe Strats, but with a little more “oomph.” So, since the stuff got stolen, I’m playing that ‘82 reissue Strat. Fender was very kind to me. They sent me a bunch of guitars and said “Try these, buy the ones you want, and send the others back.” I’ve got a sunburst ‘57 reissue Strat as my backup, and then I have a ‘62 Custom Tele as my Telecaster guitar. The first guitar I ever bought was a ‘56 Tele, but I don’t bring it on the road – it stays at home. I bought it when I was 17, paid eighty dollars for it and bitched about the price! But that thing... I will not take it on the road. TQR:

Do you still have the Melancon (pronounced muh lah’ sah) – your “Melecaster?”

He makes really good guitars. I got the Melancon because I didn’t want to bring my ‘56 Tele on the road anymore. I played a bunch of Fender guitars at the time, and I couldn’t really find any I liked. I didn’t want to drop a bundle on a vintage Tele when I already had one, so I tried this Melancon and it was just perfect. That got stolen, too. TQR:

Those are custom made in Louisiana?

Yeah, a guy in Thibedeaux, Louisiana by the name of Gerard Melancon. He makes really good guitars. That was a heartbreaker, too. I got that stolen and a couple of Danos and a Gibson SST – the electric acoustic with the star inlays in the neck. My backup Strat was a ‘62 body with a rosewood Telecaster neck on it. That got stolen, too. Somebody’s got some cool guitars out there, the thievin’ bastards! TQR:

What about your Les Paul – it really sounded great at the show. It looks like a Special with a tune-omatic.

They call it the TV Les Paul, with the P100’s. It’s not old – about 10 years old, I guess. It screams, and I love that guitar! Like I said, the first guitar I ever bought was a ‘56 Tele with -continued-

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interview a maple fingerboard, and those things are hard as hell to play. They’re very unforgiving, and you better be right on, ‘cause they will damn sure let everybody know that you screwed up. Playing Gibsons to me is almost like cheating (laughs). Fenders are harder to play, but it’s very rewarding when you get something out of them, you know? Gibsons, to me – they’re just like butter. I’m still a Fender guy, but I do like that Les Paul. I’ve owned a few Gibsons. TQR:

I was really impressed with the tone on that guitar. I noticed on your web site that you play some other weird stuff – mando-guitar, baritone, some other Danelectro… What other cool stuff stays home?

The mando-guitar I did bring on the road. That’s a thing this guy named Fatdog at Subway Guitars in Berkeley built for me out of old Danelectro parts. Basically, it’s 4 double courses of strings, but they’re set apart on a guitar neck, so they’re spaced far apart. I tune it like the first four strings of a guitar – I don’t tune it like a mandolin. It’s wacky sounding, but it’s real cool. I might bring that back on the road again. It’s just been sitting at home. Let’s see… at home I have a Fender 8string electric mandolin – I don’t even know the model number. That’s going to go back on the road. I have one of those 4-string late ‘50s Fender electric mandolins with the anodized pickguard. They look like a tiny, shrunken Stratocaster, and I don’t believe they made a whole lot of them. I have a ‘68 cherry red Gibson 335 in mint condition, and that is the most I ever paid for a guitar. It looks brand new. The very first gig I played with it, I banged it into the mic stand and dented the lower horn (laughs). I thought “Oh, OK – it’s definitely my guitar, now.” I also have a ‘65 Gibson J160E, and I’m a real Beatles fanatic. Don’t get me started on that, ‘cause we’ll never stop talking! I really like that percussive sound of the J160. They never were very good acoustic guitars, and I think they are more of a percussion instrument with tuned strings. For that ching-ching-ching percussive, acoustic strumming thing that’s on the old Beatles records, it’s perfect. That’s the sound. After all of my stuff got stolen, Anders Osborne gave me a 1946 Gibson L50. I had to get it tweaked a little bit and get a new trapeze tailpiece for it, but when I strung it up, that guitar was just saying “thank you, thank you!” It was so happy to be strung up again. I have a 1936 Epiphone Broadway archtop with the off-center indentation on the headstock, and a 1921 Martin 00018. I just used that doing some recording

with Martin Simpson, the famous British guitar and slide player, who is phenomenal. Reggie and I did some tracks with him, and I also used the Gibson L50. I have a nylonstring classical guitar that this guy in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico made for me, and I have a turquoise Rickenbacker 12 – the pointy one. I think it’s the 360, and it’s just a beauty. I have a ‘62 reissue Strat in Sherwood Green, too. I also have a bunch of old Silvertone amps, a tweed Vibrolux, a brown Vibrolux, and a blonde piggyback Bassman that just kills. TQR:

Do you play on the Bass or the Normal side on that amp?

I go in the Normal. The secret weapon for our last album was this thing I kind of stumbled on to at Guitar Center in New Orleans. It’s called a Pro Junior by Fender – a little teenie class A amp that just screams. For a little amp with great tone, I highly recommend it. They come from the factory with kind of crappy input jacks and controls, like the plastic shaft controls, but you change all that stuff out and then you’ve got a great amp. They’re so good sounding! We used it more than any other amp, probably. For recording, they’re just awesome. TQR:

You got into the tweeds a little bit... Tweed Vibroluxes – you don’t see many of them.

No, this one has the original cover, it’s in really good shape and it is a sweet, sweet amp. I love it, but that stays home. TQR:

And the brown Vibrolux, too…

Yeah. That stays home and I’ve had that thing for ages. It’s gone through all kinds of changes, me messing with different speakers after I blew up the originals. Back then, people didn’t think about “Oh, it’s a vintage this or that.” They would mess with their stuff, then they’d kick themselves in the butt later when they realized what they’d done. Everybody has stories of guitars or amps they wished they had never gotten rid of. TQR:

What’s yours?

Oh, the best sounding Twin Reverb that was ever made, probably. It was my amp for years when I was doing country rock. You know, Twins are kind of clean. In fact, they’re very clean. But this one had that cleanliness to it but with a vibe -continued-

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interview and a warmth to it. I sold it, like a moron! I had a nice Super Reverb, old Les Pauls… TQR:

Tell me about your Silvertones...

Dickinson turned me on to this, and I think he got turned on to them from Ry Cooder. It’s the 1x12 Silvertone – I don’t even know the model name – but the controls are mounted vertically on the right side, on the back. They are just great. I have one that’s completely stock with the original speaker, and I have another one where someone modified the baffle and put in an ancient 10" Jensen speaker that just kills. Then I have another one, which is one of those 1x15 Silvertones – the kind where the amp stores in the back of the speaker cabinet. The amp stores in the back, and these two little plastic things flip down to keep it from falling out. It’s really goofy, but it sounds awesome! That big 15" Jensen just kills in that amp. All of these amps I’m talking about are really great studio amps, but they’re not really loud enough to play gigs with. TQR:

Thanks for drawing out your signal chain (on hotel stationery). That really helped me get a handle on what you’re doing with your effects.

That’s something I’ve invested countless hours on. Years ago, people didn’t realize how drastically every little thing in your signal chain affects the sound. I’ve experimented with all different kinds of cords, etc, and have hours of my life invested in trying different stuff. Not to the degree that Eric Johnson does – like which battery sounds better – I don’t go that far. It’s really surprising when people realize that just changing a cord can change how their whole rig sounds. So, I experimented with all

that stuff, and I came to the conclusion that for my needs, I like the Rock 500 Monster cable from the guitar to the input, which is the first input into the Vox wah. Then I patch mostly little George L cables. George L’s are really good-sounding wire. You buy the wire in bulk, then you buy the connectors. There’s no soldering – you clip the end off of the wire, stick it in the connector, bend it through this thing and tighten up a knurled knob, and that’s how you make the cables. And they just sound great. You have no loss in the high end, and all the low end, and the low end is no longer muddy. It really makes a big difference. They’re not really good to use as guitar cables, because the wire is real stiff, and I don’t think the connectors could take a lot of abuse, but for wiring pedal boards and con-

necting my splitter box up to the amps, that’s where I use them. So, it’s the Monster cable from the guitar to the wah, then George L’s patch , then a 3-foot George L goes around the mic stand to the left pedal board, and then on some of those, just from me messing around with them, I like the sound of the Planet Waves right-angle 6" wire. I just like the way they sound, and I don’t know why. I’m just going by what I like, which is all anyone should do, really. No one should just say “Oh, I’m gonna do this because so-and-so does it.” Everybody should listen for themselves. I have a Planet Waves cable going back to my left pedal board to the Bayou Buff Box, and then I have George L’s going to both amps and then another George L going up to my Korg rack mount tuner. TQR:

How did the concept for the Bayou Buff Box come about?

At some point, probably in my rehearsal space just monkeying around, I decided to see what two amps sounded like together. I discovered that I really like the spatial thing that two amps create, but I also discovered that I really, really like this enveloping thing... When you stand in the middle of the sound with one of the amps wet, meaning reverb, and one of them dry, it just creates this sound that I love standing in front of. And let’s face it, if you’re loving the way you sound, you’re going to play better. So, I did that, and at the time, I was using a splitter box, and I was checking that out, and I noticed some serious signal loss. It’s worse with the splitter boxes that they sell in the music stores, like Whirlwind and Morley. They split your signal sure enough, but you most definitely have signal loss. You have loss in the high end and the low end gets muddied up compared to going straight in. So I was thinking there had to be a way for me to do this, because it wasn’t much better than a crappy Ycord. I was talking to my brother John, the older brother who played music before I did, who works in the physics department at the University of Virginia. He put together a splitter box, and exactly what you put into the inputs is exactly what comes out of the outputs. That’s what a buffered splitting box is. In my case, I need one in and three outs, because I use two of the outs, which are footswitchable off/on that go to the amps, and the third out is always on, which goes to the tuner. So I can walk back to the splitter box, which is in front of my amps, step on the buttons to kill the two amps and go right to tuner. I couldn’t find a box on the market that did that. So my brother John built me one, it was stolen, and I was shit out of luck and back to square one. Kenny Lannes (Acoustic Analysis, Inc./KJL Amps) -continued-

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interview had called me years before to tell me about his amps, but I wasn’t interested at the time, or maybe, too lazy or whatever. I called him back and got connected with Kenny, and I just wanted him to make me another splitter box. But then when I heard his amps, I went “Wow, these sound good, man!” So we put our heads together and with my input and his input, we’re going to come up with a modified version of his 60 watt head. I tweaked the tone circuits on it a little bit. He’s got a midrange selector that’s a “cut” knob more so than a boost. You can add mids when it’s all the way off, and there’s a 6-way frequency selector switch. I cut the low mud out with the mid range cut knob, and then I can dial in the independent tone controls, which is very cool, and dial in whatever treble and bass I want and then cut that mushy100 Hz that sometimes just sounds like mud. TQR:

So, you select, say, the 100Hz frequency on the 6way selector and then decide how much to cut out.

Right. I just wanted him to make me another buffered switching box, but then we started talking about different circuits and he knows all that stuff so well, that he could tweak out the tone section to exactly how I wanted. I said “Well, shit, I want to start working with you, and I’ll use your amp as my dry amp.” At the same time, I told him about this buffered switching box that had been stolen, so we put our heads together and redesigned that and actually improved upon my brother’s design, because it used a transformer or something to do the buffering, I think. With the new one, we have op amps where you can actually hit the front end of the amp harder if you want, or lower, so the two outs going to the amp have a little volume control. It’s almost like having a gain device stomp box on before you plug into the amp. So you can either set it at unity, which is zero, or a little less if you want, or whatever. It’s very usable, and it sounds great. I’ve got the prototype now and we’re working on getting the finished thing done. If something like that is on the market I damn sure couldn’t find it, because I went all over the Internet looking and in music store catalogs, and I found nothing like that. TQR:

I tried a Morley AB box probably 15 years ago to do a similar thing and I gave it up, because I could n’t make it sound good.

Right... they sound like crap. The Whirlwind is my backup. That’s the only one that’s even usable, but you can hear the difference with that, too. Big difference! TQR:

When you go above unity, it really will drive the preamp in your amp and break it up a little quicker?

Absolutely! I don’t do that a lot myself. I’m from the old school. I’m a stomp box guy – I love stomp boxes. The dry amp is not distorted, really. A lot of people who use two amps call them their clean amp and their dirty amp. I keep them both on at all times. My dry amp has got a little bit of dirt to it, but more of a warmth, and not really distorted. I get any distortion I want from pedals, because I like my rhythm parts to be clean. I like that watery Strat tone, or whatever other adjectives people use to describe that liquid Strat sound, especially when you’re in the 2nd and the 4th position in the 5 way switch. If you have a lot of distortion on them, you lose all that stuff. I like my dry amp to be not too dirty. TQR:

It’s loud, but it’s not breaking up yet.

Right, right. I get all the dirt from the stomp boxes. So my reverb amp I kind of discovered by accident. I was in International Vintage Guitars in New Orleans and I had seen pictures of these Gibson GA-30s, and I plugged into it, and it freaked me out. Probably the best sounding reverb I’ve ever heard. And that’s saying a lot, because as I said, I did have the best Twin Reverb ever made (laughs). TQR:

And the GA tends to mesh well with the KJL?

Yeah, very well. So I get the reverb from the Gibson and I just stand in front of this wall of beautiful sound, and it really inspires me. TQR:

How do you power the Buff Box?

Oh, just a regular 110 power cord. I was adamant about that. I’m on the third prototype right now because of all the changes we’ve made. The first one was battery powered and that was a pain in the butt. I got away from batteries com-continued-

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interview pletely, although truth be told, on some of the stomp boxes I do prefer the sound of batteries, but it’s just too much hassle. So on my right pedal board, all those pedals are powered up by that VHT Valvulator, which I don’t use in line. It’s got a tube in it that’s a little kind of preamp too, but I didn’t like the high end sound of it, so I don’t use it in line with my guitar, but I do use it to power up the pedals. Before I got the buffered switching box, when I was using the Whirlwind, I would use the VHT because it would restore the high end from all the long cable runs. Now that I have the buffered switching box, I don’t use it as a preamp anymore. I just use it’s power section to power up the stomp boxes on my right pedal board. Then on the left pedal board, I have a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2. The new versions have little dip switches for each output where it can do, like, battery sag. It’s very cool. So it simulates my Tube Screamer. I have one that Analog Man modified for me, with batteries. The harder you dig into it, it dips a little bit and makes this cool thing. I don’t even know how to describe it. TQR:

Like compression?

Yeah, and Voodoo Labs kind of simulated that somehow with these little switches for each of the outs for when you’re using any kid of overdrive or gain device. TQR:

I noticed that you’ve got a real broad functionality. With your huge repertoire, you don’t just throw it up on the neck pickup and call it good – you use a variety of tones.

Well, it’s not just for the songs – it’s just that I like sounds as much as I like guitar playing. I like the atmosphere that different sounds make, like a good sounding chorus used sparingly, or whatever. I like sounds. I’m just crazy about that stuff. TQR:

You mentioned chorus... I noticed your chorus tone has a lot of nice clarity to it – all the lush and none of the mush. Is that the Analog Man?

For my slow chorus it’s an Analog Man clone chorus, yeah. That’s a very lush sounding, warm chorus. It kicks in on the

low end a little bit and creates a very warm, chorus sound. I really like it. The other kind of chorus that I use would be something trying to simulate Leslie sounds, and I’m using a Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus. I’m not totally sold on that, because one of the things that also got stolen from me was a Hughes and Kettner Tube Rotosphere. From what I’ve found, that’s the best thing, for my ears anyway, for sounding like a Leslie. I also love the Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, but it’s just noisy as hell and I can’t use it. TQR:

What about your MXR Micro-Amp?

It’s just a gain thing – it adds a little dirt. I mainly use it as a volume device when I want to just kick it in instead of using the volume knob on my guitar. And I can also kick that in if I want to get really nuts with the Tube Screamer or the Boss Compressor-Sustainer, or the Boss Distortion, which I really like, by the way. TQR:

Which? The Boss Distortion?

Both of them – the blue Compressor-Sustainer or the orange Boss Distortion. I turn the tone all the way off, turn the drive all the way up, and then mess with the level according to whatever I need. You get that instant kind of Clapton “Strange Brew” kind of tone. I really like that pedal a lot. I also have a Boss delay I like quite a bit. My old pedal boards had all these old stompboxes and they were all stolen, so I had to start my research from scratch. I’m happy with everything I have on the boards right now, with the exception of the Leslie simulation. TQR:

Are you using the footswitchable boost on your KJL amp? Kenny told me the amp footswitches to max midrange boost.

No, I don’t use it. I set the amp one way and leave it there. The Gibson has channel switching, too, and it has a great sounding overdrive. I don’t use that either. I just get it from outboard stomp boxes. TQR:

Are you pretty pleased overall with the EQ on the KJL? From what Kenny described, he’s really worked hard on that section.

Yeah, the independent tone controls… I’ve played through all -continued-

TONEQUEST REPORT V3. N12. October 2002

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interview kinds of amps since my stuff got stolen, and I won’t even go into the names. A lot of them sounded pretty much the same. I noticed on a lot of them, for my ears, the bass control wouldn’t be usable past 3 or 4. After you turned it up past that it just turned into this low end mushy, thick, yucky stuff. You can use his tone controls pretty much throughout the full spectrum, from ‘Off’ to ‘On’. We’re working on something that might have a bigger power section. For people who would want to have more amp distortion in the preamp section, this amp doesn’t really do that. Even if you turn the preamp knob all the way up, it won’t get dirty like some of the other custom amps I’ve played.

TQR:

You’re using the KJL Club Owner cab with the 12 and the 10?

That’s right, with Celestion vintage 30’s – one 12, and one 10. Those speakers are what I’ve had the most luck with, and I like the overall tone from bottom to top. TQR:

Besides the sheer trouble of getting up here to play a gig in Anchorage, what are the challenges of using rented backline amps, tonally? You sounded great, but it’s got to be a bitch not having your own gear.

That is another big reason why I put so much time and effort into getting the pedalboards right. If you get a Twin Reverb from a backline company... I don’t necessarily like those amps, but the Twin is a workhorse, and you can get them anywhere. Everybody has them. If you can get one that even sounds halfway decent, then you can shape the sound with your pedals. Doing fly gigs, that’s really the only way to do it, unless you’re some superstar who can demand a certain amp. For a band that travels sometimes without our crew and our gear, it’s nice to have your pedal boards and a nice fly case so that you can still sound like yourself no matter what amp you play through. It would have to be a pretty shitty amp for Camile and I not to get a halfway decent sound out of it. TQR:

You sounded great in Anchorage. Of course, being Anchorage, I wasn’t sure what you were going to get (they both played vintage blackface ‘65 Fender Twins). I considered bringing my Bassman into town just in case (laughing).

When I’m using one amp, I try to get an amp that has at least an OK sounding reverb, because I do like reverb. TQR:

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I chain up my Bassman with a Peavey Valverb, and it does really well. It’s a rackmount tube reverb, and it’s got master volume, so you can hit your amp

harder with it if you want. Oh, my brother Tommy had one of those! It’s tube, you say? So it’s like an old rackmount Fender Reverb. I’m writing this down, because I’ve been looking for a good outboard reverb and I haven’t been able to find one. TQR:

You can usually find them on eBay, although not in large numbers. They usually sell in the $300’s… They’re wonderful, and footswitchable, too. Matched with a Bassman, it’s a great setup.

Well, that’s good to know, because when I play my blonde Bassman at home, I’ve been using this little Alesis Microverb just because I couldn’t find anything that worked well. I had an outboard Fender reverb, but I didn’t really like it. TQR:

What’s the future hold for you and The Radiators?

Well, our motto is “Too stupid to stop!” We’re just going to keep doing what we do. We love playing together. We’ve never gotten to the level of a big superstar, but we’ve been awfully lucky to be able to do what we love and make a good living at it. Whenever I get bummed out or tired of all the airports and hotels and stuff, I just kind of remember what a regular job feels like. My worst day at work still beats the best day at a regular job… My wife put it into perspective when I was bitching and moaning about something and she was just looking at me, shaking her head, saying something to the effect of “Shut up – if I had a job where after I was through working, people stood up and applauded, I would be happy as could be.” She has a point, there. TQR:

Is the quest for inspiring guitar tone ever over?

No, and I think people should be aware of the fact that with very little effort, they can improve the way they sound. Even the smallest things can make a difference. Just because a cord works, doesn’t mean that it’s the best thing you should be using. I am curious about the solid copper wire that Steve Kimock is using… I’ve been thinking about getting a hold of him about those…TQ http://www.radiators.org/

TONEQUEST REPORT V3. N12. October 2002

effects techniques again), and the Victoria Reverberato is the shit, but it isn’t cheap either. Enter the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail digital reverb unit. Buy one now.

E

very so often (not often enough), someone creates a tool that inspires us with its extraordinary ability to do what it was intended to do so well that it seems destined to become an archetype among inferior pretenders. These small yet significant discoveries are the bounty that awaits all who bravely embark on the Quest for Tone (that would be you). As we continue to doggedly dog the tone, take comfort in knowing that we will only bring home the good stuff. Bring it on home…

Yeah, Jimmy... Bring it on home. The last time we saw Led Zep was in 1969 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (‘Hoosier’ for a cavernous brick barn with a dirt floor). Jimmy Page had an Echoplex and a violin bow with him on that unforgettable 3 hour gigjam, but the reverb was supplied by dual Marshall Super Leads and 24 celestial Celestions in the house. For two hours plus five encores, Page’s dual quartets of red hot Mullard EL34’s unleashed a withering barrage of high-decibel Celtic code-talk upon our wilting innocence. The band might as well have been playing Madison Square Garden instead of Naptown’s horse palace that night (thank you, boys). The crushing midrange snarl from Page’s Les Paul relentlessly smashed against the Coliseum’s glazed brick walls, screaming highs blew north in a wailing, reverberating vortex of luuuuuuuuvvvvvv, whilst the lows thundered down upon the horseshit and dirt floor of the Fairgrounds with such hideous force that our hearts felt as if they would be stopped by the gut wrenching smack of Bonzo’s kick drum and John Paul Jones’ bass pounding in our chests. Now, that was some ass-kickin’ reverb. Until now, you’ve had few good options if you wished to add the ambiance of reverb to your sound. You could buy an old Fender reverb box, buy a new Fender reverb box, or throw down big money for a Victoria Reverberato. Or maybe you have an old TC Electronics reverb stashed away... Most of the the Asian digiverbs have fairly well sucked, the old Fenders are dreamy enough, but expensive, the new Fenders are not the same as the old ones (modern manufacturing

We first spotted the Holy Grail tucked inside Peter Stroud’s effects rack. Anytime you can find a monster player who has been doubly blessed with dog ears and he happens to play in a band that affords him the luxury of using anything made by man, it pays to pay attention. We did. The Holy Grail packs some big time, believable spring reverb tone in a small and inexpensive package. We’ve been running the Holy Grail with our 1970 Park 75 50W head, and does it ever sound great! The springy bounce is righteous, and the noise is tolerable. Yes, the Holy Grail is a little noisy. You won’t care. Features are simple – three settings on a small slider switch – ‘Spring,’ ‘Hall,’ (genuine Fairgrounds bounce), and a wobbly weebly ‘Flerb.’ Like cheap tequila, the ‘Flerb’ sound is available, and the intended effect is intense, but we’re not sure it’s all that good for you. No matter. The Grail has one big knob to control the depth of your reverb vibe, and that’s it. Power is supplied by a 9 volt/500 mA jack (power supply included), and you get a nice little wooden box, all for the paltry sum of $99. The earliest units made were not true bypass, but they are now. The Holy Grail is conveniently available from Analog Man, and since digital effects aren’t usually his thing (there is no Digital Man), we asked him why he’s chosen to walk on the wild side by carrying the Holy Grail: TQR:

Given your deep experience with practically every cool production pedal known to man, what prompted you to start selling the Holy Grail?

We always try to offer any quality pedal that fills a void, and the Holy Grail certainly does that. There is really no way to build an analog reverb without using a traditional reverb tank (a few have tried this in pedals with poor results to date), so as far as pedals are concerned, digital reverb has no real competition. EH basically found a good chip (digital delay that can do all the processing with very little additional circuitry). It’s the Crystal Semiconductor reverb chip (CS4811), and it isn’t very expensive. They built it up with just a few features and it seems to do the job OK, except for a bit of noise at higher settings. If they have the (usually blue) switch with 9 lugs and wires are used in all 3 rows, it’s true bypass. The earlier models used a black switch with 6 lugs. TQ

TONEQUEST REPORT V3. N12. October 2002

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FEATURE ARTICLES:

The Gibson Custom Shop The Blackstone Overdrive Blackbox Effects

John Harrison A Brown Soun

Tom Anderson Tom Anderson GuitarWorks

Johnny Hiland

Mark Baier

Gregg Hopkins

Victoria Amplifiers

Vintage Amp Restoration

Jeff Bakos

Phil Jones

Bakos AmpWorks

Gruhn Guitars

Joe Barden

K&M Analog Designs

Joe Barden Pickups

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Dick Boak

Chris Kinman Kinman AVn Pickups

CF Martin & Co.

Don Butler

Mark Karan Bob Weir & Ratdog

The Toneman

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Ernest King Gibson Custom Shop

Carr Amplifiers

PICKUPS:

TV Jones Duncan – Seth Lovers Tom Holmes Revisited More From Lollar Land

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‘58 Reissue Les Paul Baker Warrior TQR’s 2002 Acoustic Picks

KCA NOS Tubes

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Bill Finnegan Klon Centaur

Ritchie Fliegler Fender Musical Instruments Corp.

Lindy Fralin

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Sonny Landreth Albert Lee Andy Marshall THD Electronics

René Martinez The Guitar Whiz

Greg Martin The Kentucky Headhunters

Terry McInturff Terry McInturff Guitars

ZZ Top

Joe Glaser

James Pennebaker Nashville, TN

Glaser Instruments

Scott Petersen

Doug Roccaforte Roccaforte Amplifiers

Paul Rivera Rivera Amplifiers

Roger Sadowsky Sadowsky Guitars Ltd.

Tommy Shannon Double Trouble

Todd Sharp Nashville Amp Service

Tim Shaw Fender Musical Instruments Corp.

Chris Siegmund Siegmund Guitars and Amplifiers

John Sprung American Guitar Center

Peter Stroud The Sheryl Crow Band

Randy Volin Rockindaddy’s Guitars

Donnie Wade Jackson Guitars

Laurence Wexer Laurence Wexer Limited Fine Fretted Instruments

Lord Valve NBS Electronics

Buddy Whittington John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

Don Young National Reso-phonic Guitars

Zachary Vex Z Vex Effects

Harmonic Design Pickups

The ToneQuest Report TM (ISSN 1525-3392) is published monthly by Mountainview Publishing LLC, 235 Mountainview Street, Suite 23, Decatur, GA. 300302027, 1-877-MAX-TONE, email: [email protected]. Periodicals Postage Paid at Decatur, GA and At Additional Mailing Offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to:The ToneQuest Report, PO Box 717, Decatur, GA. 30031-0717.The annual subscription fee for The ToneQuest Report TM is $98 per year for 12 monthly issues. International subscribers please add US $20. Please remit payment in U.S. funds only. Visa, MasterCard and American Express accepted.The ToneQuest Report TM accepts no advertising and is published solely for the benefit of its subscribers. Copyright © 2002 by Mountainview Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without the written permission of the copyright holder. Please forward all subscription requests, comments, questions and other inquiries to the above address or contact the publisher at [email protected]. Opinions expressed in The ToneQuest Report are not necessarily those of this publication. Mention of specific products, services or technical advice does not constitute an endorsement. Readers are advised to exercise extreme caution in handling electronic devices and musical instruments.

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