Mike Landau's 1967 Twin Reverb on eBay

Here's a listing for tonemeister Mike Landau's '67 Twin Reverb. (Item #: 200397540137)

According to the seller LA Vintage Gear (a 100% positive feedback seller I might add), this amp is in pristine condition despite being more than 40 years old. Conspicuously absent are any traces of rust anywhere on the amp.

Reworked by custom amp builder Roy Blankenship of Blankenship Amps, only the old capacitors and resistors were replaced. Those things do 'brittle out' or leak, as is common in amps this age.

The only other modification is that the original Jensen speakers have been replaced with Celestion Rola G12-65's, which appear to be the newer reissues.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's Studio Tone Secrets

Stevie Ray virtually redefined the sound of blues guitar. His fanatical attention to tone and the measures he took to get it are legendary.

The pic at right was taken during the In Step recording sessions by SRV's amp tech, the late, great Cesar Diaz -- the 'Amp Doctor'.


Stevie's amp setup from left to right were:

• A Marshall JCM800 driving a Marshall 4x12 slant cab
• A blonde '62 Fender Twin Reverb
• A 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer head on a Dumble 4x12 cabinet
• Two '64 blackface Fender Vibroverbs (that happened to have consecutive serial numbers), each equipped with a 15" speaker
• Two KT88-equipped Marshall Major 200-watt heads driving Marshall 4x15 and 8x10 cabinets

The speaker tally for this setup is interesting -- an 8x10 cab, two 4x12 cabs, a single 12" in the Twin, a 4x15 cab and two 15" speakers in the Vibroverbs. With eight 10", nine 12" and six 15" speakers, Stevie Ray could cover the entire sonic spectrum. His fondness for 15" speakers no doubt contributed greatly to his full-bodied, beefy tone.

For the In Step sessions, Stevie also relied on his ever-present Ibanez TS808 Tubescreamer, a Vox wah, a FuzzFace and an Octavia which he used in tandem with the Tubescreamer.

The Tubescreamer took a toll on his amplifiers which were already turned up to the point of breakup -- he would set it up so that it hit his amps hard with a hot, clean boost. According to Stevie, coupled with his heavy technique, and .013-.058 strings tuned to Eb, "I give my amps between two weeks to a month, and then they sound horrible."

Gear aside, the real secret to SRV's tone was in his hands. He could have plugged into a Fender Champ and still revolutionized the blues.

Steve Lukather's Paul Rivera Modified Fender Princeton

Here's an eBay listing for Steve Lukather's Fender Princeton Reverb amp:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Steve-Lukather-Fender-Princeton-Reverb-Amplifier_W0QQitemZ200380004115QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea7943713&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14

(The link will go down once the amp is sold)


Leo Fender had it right the first time.

The circuits for the Fender Princeton, Deluxe and Twin Reverb have long been the templates on which other American amplifier manufacturers have been building on.

And Fender's circuitry was adaptable and relatively easy to modify.

For instance, before launching his Boogie amplifiers, Randall Smith got his start by modifying Fender Princeton's in his garage, introducing cascading gain stages that enabled the little amp to scream with almost infinite sustain even at low, hotel room volumes.

Across the pond, Jim Marshall was basing his earliest creations on the original tweed Fender Bassman amps, but powered with EL34 power tubes instead of the American 6L6's.

Even Alexander Dumble designed his amplifiers around the Fender Deluxe schematic. And as Lowell George once put it, “A Dumble is a Fender made right.”

And more amp hot-rodders rose to the task to meet the needs of a tone and gain hungry clientele with each building a reputation based on their work modding the amplifiers of rock’s elite -- Jose Arredondo (Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai), Harry Kolbe (Al DiMeola, Allan Holdsworth, Yngwie Malmsteen) and Paul Rivera (Steve Lukather, Larry Carlton and many of LA’s session elite). Rivera was also a pioneer in building custom pedalboards and effects racks for studio guitarists in the late 70's.

Which brings us to Mr. Lukather's Rivera-modded Princeton. As the eBay listing describes it, this Princeton was Lukather's 'go to' amp from 1976 to 1982 and has appeared on a lot of his session work.

And it's not surprising. With its low wattage -- two 6V6 power tubes producing all of 12 watts -- the Fender Princeton was the secret weapon of many studio guitar players. The amp could be cranked if needed without becoming overbearing and, with a possible modification or two, could produce a gamut of tones from silky clean to high-gain.

Rivera's mods to Lukather's amp in this case included a 6-position rotary switch in place of the second input jack which enabled a selection of six different mid-boost frequencies. The red knob that was installed in place of the vibrato speed knob is a control for adding gain to any one of those six mid-frequencies.

As he did to most of the amps he worked on, Rivera also probably reworked the amp with his Stage 2 Plus mod where the preamp, output stage and power supply are modified to produce a smoother, more articulate distortion.

Paul Rivera went on to manufacture his own line of Rivera amplifiers in the late '80s. Lukather, ever the loyal customer, started endorsing his own signature model Rivera Bonehead amps in 1999.

Ted Nugent's Road to Hearing Loss

Here's a little Ted Nugent ad nugget from 1978.

In the previous article I discussed the joys of bi-amping. In that case, six amps rated at 180 watts each, and six cabinets each loaded with two 15" speakers must surely be the road to nirvana.

Or serious hearing damage.

But the late '70s were an innocent time. Bands were competing for decibel records at their live concerts and tinnitus sounded like something one got from eating a tainted can of Spam.

If we are to believe the content of this ad, Nugent was easily putting out well over 1000 watts of raw volume from his guitar -- a Gibson Byrdland hollowbody jazz guitar no less, stuffed with foam to dampen ensuing feedback.

Ol' Ted said he performed with a earplug in only one ear to protect that ear that was facing his amplifiers. By the early '90s he was saying that he had lost all hearing in his unprotected ear and it was "just there to balance out his face."

Uh oh..