1966 Marshall Super Lead Plexi Head Owned by Eric Johnson on eBay!

The sellers of this fine 1966 Marshall Super Lead Plexi head were at first a bit coy as to who the celebrity owner actually was, showing us only a partial signature on the handwritten letter of authenticity.  I'm digging Eric Johnson's cursive penmanship!     

The listing for this particular amp has ended, but what the hey, better late than never I always say.

eBay Item number: 230500114170

The sellers also have what is possibly an authentic Jimi Hendrix owned Marshall JTM45, serial number 7026 on their website which you can check out here!

Joe Satriani's Experience Hendrix 2010 Guitars Revealed!

The folks at Premier Guitar have detailed Joe Satriani's pedalboard and amp setup as well the single-coil equipped prototype Ibanez JS custom axes he used for the recent Experience Hendrix 2010 tour!

Satch also talks about his switch to Marshall heads from his signature Peavey JSX's for both Chickenfoot and Experience Hendrix.

“At the start of the Chickenfoot tour, I noticed that my Peavey JSX rig sounded more specialized for someone playing lead guitar all night.  I had Marshall send me some different stuff to try out in Vienna, and I ended up using a JVM410 for the rest of the tour. It made such a profound difference, because I’m playing rhythm guitar most of the time in that band.  I was shocked to find that using a Vox Satchurator into a Marshall 6100 Anniversary head’s clean channel was really the best sound." 

Satriani tonehounds take note.

But it doesn't stop there!  Those resourceful PG folks also give us a great all access view of  the guitars and gear of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Jonny Lang, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph and Vernon Reid. 

And not forgetting of course Eric Johnson's particularly quirky setup complete with specific wooden folding chair on which he places his Marshall head for the ultimate in tone! 

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2010/Jun/Axes_Bold_as_Love_The_Gear_of_Experience_Hendrix_Tour_2010.aspx?Page=1

(Pic and Quote Source:  http://www.premierguitar.com/)

Ceriatone JTM45 with VVR Mod, Demo I

I was looking through old footage on the videocam the other day and came across a couple of clips from my Ceriatone factory visit in September 2009 -- clips which I was telling myself to post up ages ago but never got around to.

In this vid I'm playing Ceriatone's in-house tester guitar, a Fender American Standard Stratocaster, which I might add, was really well set up. 

I used the rhythm pickup with the guitar straight into the amp, in this case a Ceriatone JTM45 head into a Ceriatone 1 x 12 cabinet.  The EQ was set flat, more or less, with no reverb or additional pedals.

This is all I could want in a clean tone, really.  This thing sounded really juicy with glassy overtones and the Variable Voltage Regulator (VVR) mod added a natural compression to the notes.  This amp had a lot of 'sponginess' or 'give' to the tone, and the notes seemed to get bigger after the initial pick attack.  Really easy to play through.

Stay tuned for a couple more Ceriatone clips soon.

Marshall Announces Slash AFD100 Amp Project and Website

Marshall Amplification has come up with a unique marketing strategy for the new Slash signature Marshall AFD100 amplifier.  The website, http://www.afd100.com/ was created specially for the purpose of showing the new Slash signature model amp as it goes through its various development stages.

Based on the legendary JCM800 2203 head that Slash used on Appetite For Destruction -- which was actually a rental from SIR Studios, Hollywood -- Marshall intends to nail the mojo of this seeming Holy Grail of Marshall amplifiers.  The AFD100 is scheduled for release later this year.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Marshall has collaborated with Slash. An earlier amp, the Marshall Jubilee JCM 2555SL Slash Signature, was released in 1996.

Marshall Super Lead Head Formerly Owned By Paul Gilbert on eBay

Here's a listing for a 1975 Marshall Super Lead 100 which, according to the seller, was formerly owned by Paul Gilbert (Item #: 320439314600). PG apparently used this amp on Racer X's Second Heat.

Extensively modded by metal amp guru Lee Jackson, this amp apparently went through several modifications -- including some by Paul's dad -- before arriving at its present state. Jackson's final mod included the addition of cascading gain stages, a tube buffered effects loop and a power attenuator on the push/pull Master volume knob.

The front panel of the amp also features a custom plaque -- the famous 'Mel Bay Rocket' logo -- installed by Paul's dad. Paul's first guitar teacher used the Mel Bay guitar method which bored the six-year old Paul to tears -- so much so that he stuck with his lessons for 'only' three years.

Good luck holding a six-year old's attention for three months these days.

There is no Certificate of Authenticity but the seller promises to provide the buyer with email correspondence from Paul as documentation.

This seller also has another 50watt Marshall JMP purportedly owned by George Lynch and with a mod by Tim Caswell that was undone, returning the amp to stock. I never much cared for Lynch's tone, but you can check out the listing here.

If you buy this amp and your tone starts to resemble a swarm of mosquitoes, don't say I didn't warn you.

This seller seems to be a genuine collector but as always, caveat emptor, or as my buddy JP at Stratoblogster would say, "Due dilligence kids!"

Buy Racer X CDs Here!

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.

A Visit To Ceriatone Amplifiers Part II

The following interview with Ceriatone's Nik Azam is excerpted from my hour-and-a-half long visit:




The Guitar Column: I see you use a lot of orange capacitors on your circuit boards. Some have been labelled 'Holy Grail'. Care to share with us what that's about, or is it a trade secret?
Nik Azam: They're no secret -- the orange capacitors are made by Sprague. They are the only ones that will give the proper sound. The Holy Grail electrolytic caps are made locally in Penang (to Ceriatone's specs). It's an availability issue for these if we have to order it everytime from the US.

TGC: I see from your website that you also offer your amps in kit form. Of course putting an amp together from scratch is no simple matter.

NA: Yes, a certain amount of (electrical) knowledge is presumed on the part of the builder. It's an experience for the beginner who wants to learn to put together their first amp.




TGC: Then there is the issue of tube biasing. From what I know it can be dangerous if you're not sure of what you're doing.

NA: Biasing is easy once you know how to do it. And if the customer needs it, I will give them step by step instructions so they can (safely) do it themselves. And it's really not that difficult.

TGC: Do you think there is a difference in tone between amps with printed circuit boards (PCBs), and handwired amplifiers with point-to-point wiring?

NA: No there shouldn't be any difference. But the reason the big manufacturers use PCBs is that they are trying to squeeze in as many features as they can. This means that they have to substitute parts with smaller (alternative) components and that can affect the sound.

(Of the boutique amps) Fuchs uses PCBs -- they go for around US$3,000; Two-Rock amps are hand-wired, they're about US$8,000. People see our Overtone Special, which is modelled on the Dumble for US$1,000 and they go 'why not?' The Dumble amp is US$40,000.





TGC: How did you happen to come across the Dumble circuit? Dumble would put black epoxy over his circuit to conceal the parts.

NA: A couple of Dumbles were actually 'de-gooped' a few years ago, probably using some chemical agents to remove the epoxy. The parts were revealed and their values measured. After that it became public knowledge on the amp forums in the States.

TGC: What is the Overtone S&M Special?

NA: It's based on our Overtone Special. There are some mods in there that were created for two very early customers of mine, friends really -- Sami and Marin. Of course there's the double entendre of 'S&M'..

TGC: What is your view on transformer ratings? There is the opinion that it is better to use a 110v transformer like they use in the US, and then use an external step-up transformer if you're in a country where the mains are not 110v. I had this experience with Matchless amps myself. I thought Matchless didn't sound very good at all, rather dull and lifeless --the ones with the 220v transformer. Then I tried the 110v Matchless amps in the States and they were amazing. What's your view on this?

NA: Technically there should be no difference -- you're just using different leads on the transformer to adjust for the different voltage coming in to the amp -- 110, 120, 220 and 240v.

The change in sound in those Matchless amps may be because of some minor damage during shipping -- things can get moved around inside during shipping, altering the tone.






TGC: What do you think of the opinion that birch ply is the best wood to use for amp cabinets? Some people swear that birch plywood is the only way to go for the tone.

NA: Marshall started using birch ply simply because it was available and it wasn't expensive. Wood availability is a function of geography. In Malaysia of course, birch is not available. We use marine-grade ply made of local hardwoods.

TGC: I notice on your shelf over there that you have several face-plates marked with the word 'reject' on them. To be honest, I can't spot anything wrong with them -- your quality control standards must be very high.

NA: All our face-plates use the traditional silk-screen method for the lettering. Sometimes there is a little smear or imperfection somewhere (on the lettering) so we reject it. Because we're in Asia and we sell amps around the world, sometimes a small imperfection can get amplified. And nowadays with the internet, word spreads quickly.

We went through seven different vendors before we settled on one who could make our face-plates with a low rejection rate.

TGC: What about the grille cloth on your amps? They look good -- are those from a local supplier?

NA: I get them from China. I have to purchase a minimum of 10,000 meters of fabric before they will sell them to me. The best time to purchase parts from China is at the end of the year when vendors are trying to sell off their stock for the year.

TGC: Do you make your amp cabinets in-house?

NA: I get the cabinets made (by a vendor) -- a two-man operation makes them. No CNC machines. They build the cabinets by hand using marine ply and regular dowel joints and then cover the cabinets with black Tolex. We do get requests for other colors but I try to keep it simple -- it's available in any color as long as it's black!

We have only four basic cabinet types for our amp heads -- we try to streamline operations.

TGC: What speakers options do you offer? And what about speaker ohms -- does that affect the sound?

NA: We use Celestion speakers mainly, or Jensens. Based on the output of the transformers, 16 ohms will give the fullest sound. But it also depends on the number of speakers you're using, the type of speaker, whether they're wired in series..

TGC: Which is your most popular amp model?

NA: It depends on the flavor of the month. One month it may be the JTM45, another the TrainWreck clone. But for the last couple of years the Overtone Special has been hands-down the most popular.

TGC: I have to ask -- of your entire line, which amp are you most proud of?

NA: I'm proud of all of them.

TGC: To be more specific, given your entire amp range, which one would you choose to take to a gig?

NA: I would take the JTM45.

Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover | Techniques and Equipment

Here's a clip of maestro Eric Johnson doing his thing on Cliffs of Dover. In the world of instrumental rock guitar, it's rare that a piece stands the test of time while being the signature tune most closely associated with the artist. Eric's Cliffs of Dover is just one such rarity.

On this clip he plays a lengthy intro with his most pristine of chimey clean tones, courtesy of the 4th position of the pickup selector switch on his Stratocaster. His clean sound is pumped through two Fender Twin Reverbs amps, each driving two 12" speakers in a single Marshall 4x12 cabinet for stereo. This cabinet is an open back, which allows him to get the bottom-end of a Marshall cab while still maintaining the open-back characteristics of a Fender Twin.

His clean tone is awash with copious amounts of Electro Harmonix Memory Man and/or Echoplex tape delay and a hint of chorus from his TC Electronics Chorus unit which he also uses as a splitter to send his signal to his two Twin Reverbs.

The background 'loop' sounds like an a 800ms sample from a Boss DD-2 Digital Delay pedal. Back in the day, the Boss DD's were among the few that provided a short sampling feature so that loops could be created on the fly. But you were limited to only 800ms of sampling time.

At 1:41-1:51, Eric uses what he calls his ' japanese koto' technique. While fretting notes conventionally with his left hand, he employs a thumb and forefinger technique with his right hand -- he plucks the note with his thumb while the index finger lightly dampens a note on the same string right next to the fret played with the left hand. He then adds a little vibrato with the left hand.

At 3:01 he flips to the lead pickup on his Strat, switches to his lead channel and begins traversing the fingerboard with his trademark pentatonic flurries. Unlike most players who approach pentatonics with hammer-ons and pull-offs, Eric prefers to alternate pick most of his pentatonic ideas. He describes his slightly unconventional picking technique as alternate picking where he holds the pick at an angle to minimize friction and faciltitate speed. He also picks from the guitar's body up into the air, brushing the string with the side of the pick with a slight bounce in the wrist. He's been known to lightly sandpaper the sides of his red Jazz III picks to create a finely rough surface to facilitate this brushing effect.

On his lead channel is a TC Electronic's Sustainer, a Fender Reverb unit, another Echoplex and a Chandler Tube Driver.

Interestingly, Eric places the Tube Driver after his reverb and delays. This gives his tone a characteristic warmth with a bit of 'mud' as his effected signal is being pumped into his overdrive.

His amp setup for his lead channel is either a Marshall 100 watt head, or the holy grail of amps, the Dumble Overdrive Special. His speaker cabinet of choice for this channel is a closed-back Marshall 4x12.

At 3:31 Eric makes a quick tonal adjustment on the lower tone knob. Strats are conventionally wired such that the first tone knob controls the front pickup and the second lower tone knob controls the middle pickup. The lead pickup is not wired to a tone control. Since Eric is on the 5th position on his pickup selector, this shows that his lead pickup is wired to his second tone control. Joe Bonamassa also talks about this very useful and simple Strat mod, which I mention here. This helps take off some of the shrill top-end when using the Strat's lead pickup on its own.

Eric Johnson is one of those rare masters of touch, tone and technique and all three elements feature abundantly in both his live performances and in his studio recordings. But his near-fanatical attention to detail on his solo records means that he probably spends more time than he should on each one -- which makes his recorded output pretty scarce.


Check Out Eric Johnson CDs And DVDs Here!

Roger Mayer's Voodoo 1 and the Virtues of Bi-Amping

I purchased a Roger Mayer Voodoo-1 pedal about 10 years ago. I stuck it on my pedalboard as the last pedal in the chain for its signal buffering qualities and set it for a slightly gritty boost and left it 'on' always -- volume at 3 o'clock, tone at 10 o'clock and gain at 9 o'clock. I liked the gritty boost because it sounded like a clean amp set to LOUD and on the verge of breakup.

For the uninitiated, Roger Mayer designed and built some of the pedals Hendrix used, most notably the Octavia which created the random octave generating effect heard on Purple Haze. It's no small feat coming up with a whole new category of pedal like Mayer did with his Octavia, and have it become a sort of cult classic.

But after a few months, for some reason or another, I relegated the Voodoo to the dark recesses of my pedal closet.

To my ears my Ibanez Tube Screamer or Boss Blues Driver sounded better -- particularly the Blues Driver for its clarity of tone.

With its design pedigree, the Voodoo 1 was a 'semi-boutique' pedal, with its more reasonable price being the only factor in its not qualifying for full-boutique status. Bear in mind that around this period of time, boutique pedals hadn't yet taken off to the degree they have today. And the ones that were out there were seriously over-priced and generally sounded like 'carefully executed farts' -- to quote bassist Michael Anthony. Damn germanium transistors..

Of the better known boutique overdrive pedals of note 10 years ago, the Klon Centaur and Fulltone Full Drive were high on the tone list. But I didn't think they were very good despite the hype and hoopla. I dislike pedals that color the basic guitar tone too much, or make everything sound like you're playing through a vintage Fender Bassman -- that dark, thick, clunky, fat for fat's sake tone.

I'll say it again -- the Tube Screamer and Blues Driver sound pretty good. Still do.

Getting to the point of this story (finally) -- I recently got out the ol' Voodoo 1 again to explore the dual buffered outputs of the pedal. I got it out totally on a whim prompted by a sudden recollection of the bi-amp possibilities of this pedal.

I fired up my Marshall TSL amp and Fender Stage 160. The tube TSL100 has really nice classic Marshall tones while the solid-state Stage 160 does a half-way decent job of replicating a clean Twin Reverb. The words 'fired up' when applied to tube amps always makes me feel uneasy..

Combined together via the Voodoo 1 set to the cleanest setting, I was amazed at the complexity of sound, even at the relatively lower (for me) volume I was playing at. Setting the Fender on a very mild overdrive and with the Marshall's preamp channel pumped, I got a clear singing tone and great note separation on diads and 3-note chords.

Playing around with the guitar's volume pot yielded a whole spectrum of colors. Single notes had definition and character and were easily nuanced by changing pick attack. Feedback also seemed so easily attainable at certain notes on the guitar, particularly on the upper frets on the second string.

If you ask me, bi-amping is the way to go -- it truly is 'the secret' as tonemeisters Lukather, Landau and Thompson will attest. And we haven't even scratched the surface of the stereo reverb/delay possibilities.

The Voodoo 1 might have a little voodoo in it after all.