Vintage guitar of the week #2 - 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst
This, ladies and gents, is a proper Silverburst.
One of the better Silverburst finish guitars you will see is a '79 Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Why does the Silverburst on this Les Paul look so good?
Answer: Because it's aged naturally.
Something I'm surprised guitar makers have not done yet is an "Aged Silverburst" finish. We've seen every single kind of aged/"relic" finish you can think of except an aged Silverburst, so if you want the aged look for this particular finish, you have to buy the genuine article.
While I'm not a Les Paul guy personally, I totally admit that the look of this guitar is pretty much spot-on perfect. The finish and binding has nice, even yellowing to it, and the headstock in particular looks crazy-good.
This can't be replicated (or at least not yet)
Guitar builders who "relic" don't do Silverburst, and I doubt they ever will. Why? Because nobody knows how. I've never seen it attempted. In addition, it's really tough to replicate genuine yellowing where the body and the body binding and the neck binding and the headstock binding all match up properly for a proper aged look.
Any guitar builder who would attempt this look would spend many long hours trying to get a guitar to look like the '79 Paul does. In fact, they would have to outright buy and study this Paul just to have a proper frame of reference.
"Golden Era" rock guitar?
Definitely.
Here are some of the top rock hits from 1979:
- AC/DC - Highway to Hell
- Led Zeppelin - All My Love
- Van Halen - Dance The Night Away
- The Police - Roxanne
- Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
- Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me
- Bob Seger - Old Time Rock And Roll
- Eagles - Heartache Tonight
1979 was a good year for rock, and a lot of Les Paul guitars were used in recording studios back then.
This is a Paul you'd be proud to have in your own studio, even if it's just a small one in your home. Grab one of these Pauls while you can.
Does Epiphone make a Silverburst Les Paul?
Sometimes they do, but not always. It an on-again/off-again color they offer.
What is the secret to perfect fuzz guitar?
Fuzz tone is something most guitar players get wrong because they ignore the one setting they should pay attention to the most.
When it comes to the fuzz effect, wow do you have a lot of choice. And I mean a crazy amount of choice. From that link alone, you could spend hours going through all those fuzz effects, and I'm not kidding.
My preference is digital fuzz using the DigiTech RP360, which has 8tavia (which I believe is Octavia), Later Fuzz, DOD Classic Fuzz, Face Fuzz (emulation of the Fuzz Face), and my favorite, Big Pi, an emulation of the Big Muff Pi.
So what's the secret to great fuzz?
Effect-level tone knob. What that means is a tone control directly on the fuzz effect itself. Not the guitar. Not the amp. Not the EQ. The effect itself has to have some kind of tone control on it.
As you will see on that first link, there are many fuzz pedal effects that do not have a tone control of any kind. Instead, you just get a master volume, fuzz level and nothing else. The Fuzz Face is an example of this.
Why does the tone control matter so much on a fuzz effect?
I'll use the Big Muff Pi and Fuzz Face as the examples here.
Let's say you have two guitars. A trebly single-coil Fender Telecaster and higher-output Gibson SG that has far less treble than the Telecaster does.
With the Fuzz Face, it is pretty much guaranteed that you will love the Fuzz Face on one guitar but hate it on the other.
With the Big Muff Pi, you can use its tone control to shape the sound to the guitar currently plugged into it, allowing it to work with both guitars. That's the big difference right there.
A tone control on a fuzz effect doesn't do what you think it does. Instead of it acting like EQ, it acts almost like a wah pedal. This is a good thing.
Tone control makes for a far more usable fuzz effect. It even helps out when shaping a sound to whatever amp you're using at the time.
Remember, fuzz isn't just for '60s hippie rock
A lot of players don't know that Eric Johnson is quite a fan of the fuzz effect. And yes, it's true, he has a signature Fuzz Face pedal. Would I personally use it? No. I'd go with the Big Muff Pi instead any day of the week because it has a tone control while the Fuzz Face does not.
If you are going for that Eric Johnson tone, a delay effect is required along with the fuzz. He does use a BOSS DD-2 along with a Deluxe Memory Man.
Personally, if I were going for that "echo over echo" sound, the BOSS Tera Echo can do that in a single pedal.
Fuzz and delay actually do work very nicely together. Not so much for rhythm, but for lead tones it's a great sound.
What? You haven't tried a fuzz effect yet?
If you've been trying and trying to get "that sound" but can never seem to hit the mark no matter what (especially for your lead sound,) the thing you're missing is probably fuzz.
Fuzz is a very old-school effect, but it does work wonders. I recommend the Big Muff Pi linked above, but you can try out any one you want. However, as I also mentioned, I strongly suggest getting one with some kind of tone control on it. Believe me, you will very much appreciate having effect-level tone control on your fuzz.
Cheap Guitar of the Week #18 - Gretsch G5421 Electromatic Jet Club Firebird
The more I look at this guitar, the more I want one.
The Gretsch Electromatic Jet Club Firebird is, simply put, a cool guitar.
This is one of those guitars that's easy to dismiss, but the more you look at it, the more you notice the details, and the more you want one.
First, it's a two-tone body. The back and sides are walnut-stained.
Second, yes it does have the "G" arrow knobs. This is a Gretsch thing where the knobs they use have a rather ornate look to them - even on a Jet priced this low.
Third, which most photos of this guitar do not show, it does have an arched top.
Fourth, bound body. Real easy to miss, but makes for a very nice look.
What about the sound?
That's the best part about this guitar.
The Gretsch dual-coil pickups that come on this are absolutely not "muddy," but rather bright and trebly in a real good way. I best describe the sound as a mix between a Jazzmaster and a P90. It's a very, very usable sound that works for everything from rock to country to stoner to shoegazer (if you know that that is) to just about everything you can think of. No, it does not do metal. However, I'd even recommend this to a metal player for when he needs a guitar to record clean parts.
For the "atmospheric" guitar players out there, one thing I know this Gretsch does better than most guitars is work with effects. Put a washy-style reverb or delay on this and it sings. Why? Because of the way the pickups sound.
For players who are into vintage, stoner rock and 1990s grunge tones, this guitar handles fuzz tone like you wouldn't believe. Even better than my Jazzmaster. You hook this Gretsch up to a Big Muff Pi and look out... crazy-big sound. Drop the 6 string to a D, let the power chords ring out and oh yeah, good stuff.
Looks much better in person
Stock photos do not convey the wow factor you get seeing one in person.
I'll put it another way. Strats are Strats, Teles are Teles and so on, but with Gretsch, it's different. Way different. Even their black guitars don't really show off how good they look in person. Why? I'm not exactly sure. There's just something about Gretsch design where the photo never really captures what the guitar truly looks like when you see it with your own eyes, similar to Rickenbacker guitars. No photo of a Ric accurately shows off how good a Ric looks in person either.
Worth it to get a cheap Gretsch?
Yes. I have played an import Gretsch before, the Electromatic Double Jet with Bigsby, and was very impressed with it. That's a guitar that runs a few hundred bucks more. If the Jet Club Firebird is even half the guitar the Double Jet is, oh yes, it's worth the buy, no question about it.
Getting Eric Clapton tone out of a DigiTech RP360
It's tutorial time.
Generally speaking, guitar players that are seeking to get "Clapton tone" are usually referring to something he calls "woman tone." This is a sound best described as having little to no treble with an overdrive that makes it sound like you're driving a speaker to its limit.
Fortunately, you don't need to drive a speaker to the point of it almost blowing up to get the woman tone sound. All you need is a DigiTech RP360, tweak two settings, and you pretty much have it.
Step 1. Having the "correct" guitar
The only thing you have to know here is that a Stratocaster is actually not the guitar you want. Why? Because most Strats do not have the rear (as in "bridge") pickup wired to a tone control.
The Stratocaster guitar by design does not have any tone control wired to the rear-only pickup setting. That's the way Leo Fender designed it. There is no Squier Stratocaster I know of with an SSS pickup layout that has a "bridge-only" tone control wired to it. There is no Fender Standard Stratocaster model I know of that has the bridge-only tone control. I do not know if the Fender American Standard Stratocaster has a bridge-only tone control or not.
A Telecaster, even for the cheapest Squier model, does have a tone control wired for bridge-only use. And unless it's a special model of some sort, all "standard" Fender Telecaster models have a bridge-only tone wired in.
Jazzmasters and Jaguars all have tone control for bridge-only use, unless it's some sort of special model like the Jim Root Jazzmaster that only has one master volume and nothing else.
For any non-Fender design, they all should have tone control on all pickups present. So if you want to give this a go with a Les Paul, SG or whatever you have, you can as long as the tone control works for both the front and rear pickups.
Step 2. Voice the guitar for woman tone
This is very easy. Volume up, tone down. Either select the front pickup or the rear pickup, put the volume all the way up, tone control all the way off.
Step 3. An understanding of voicing by modeling
The voicing here is all done by the RP360 and nothing else. No amplifier is involved whatsoever. This is nothing but a direct sound. All digital, no tubes, no analog.
Step 4. Modifying preset #1 Plexi-Drive
The modifications to this preset are as follows:
1. Change compressor to RED COMPRESSOR, and enable.
2. Change reverb to LEXICON STUDIO and set to a level of 65.
That's it. Yes, really. There's nothing more to it. After that, brush up on your Clapton riffs.
The RED COMPRESSOR is an emulation of the MXR Dyna Comp. The LEXICON STUDIO is an emulation of one of their many reverb effect units. Changing these two particular effects when modifying the Plexi-Drive preset make for a fairly convincing Clapton-style tone.
Vintage Guitar of the Week #1 - 1976 Fender Stratocaster Mocha
I've decided to try out a new thing here, Vintage Guitar of the Week. This is the first one...
...and it's a 1976 Fender Stratocaster Mocha.
When you see the price of it, the first question you'll probably have is (unless things change), "Why isn't it selling for more?" There are a few reasons for that.
First, it's a hardtail (technically a string-through-body). You'll see the ferrules on the back of the guitar. Some Strat players just don't care for hardtails. Ordinarily, I don't like hardtail Strats either, but it works on this particular guitar.
Second, it's a 3-bolt and not a 4-bolt plate where the neck connects to the body. Some Strat players believe that negatively affects the tone (it doesn't).
Third, most aren't 100% original. You'll find things like reproduction volume and tone knobs. If you just said, "So?", I had the same reaction. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.
Fourth, many have a few chips here and there.
If I had the money for one, I'd buy it in a second because it's a bargain as far as a vintage Fender electric is concerned. That, and there are three other things I really dig about it.
Many come with the original hardshell case, and I actually prefer those over the tweed cases because it has a very '70s vibe to it.
Mocha is one of the best "woody" colors for Strats, and you don't see it often. Strats of the '70s that show wood grain are usually "Natural", and I just don't care for those because it makes the guitar look like a coffee table. Note that I'm not talking about Telecaster Butterscotch here. I'm talking about Natural finish such as the '75 "natural" Strat. That I don't like. (But by all means, if you like it, go ahead and get it. I'm not the boss of you.) Mocha, on the other hand, looks like a proper woody style finish for a Strat.
I also really like the fact some '76 models can be as light as 7 pounds. More often than not, '70s era Strats are boat-anchor heavy. Not this one. And that's a very good thing.
I'll add something else I dig about it too. The "bullet" truss rod cover. Yeah, I know, it's just a visual thing, but I always loved the look of it.
If you have the cash for it, grab it. Nice price, real-deal vintage, good guitar.
Does Squier offer anything in Mocha?
Yes, sometimes. It's not a regular run color for them, but periodically you'll come across Squier in that oh-so nice mocha brown.