Kingtone

We haven’t talked amps in a while. Been meaning to though as I’ve made some major changes. The first biggie was I sold my beloved 1971 Hiwatt 100 head. It was just too much juice for my tender ears. It lives with a good friend now, so I sleep well knowing that. The second is the recent addition of Harley, a 1952 Gibson GA-20 that I acquired from a nice lady named Dusty. Her dad, Harley, bought it new in nineteen and fifty-two (or three). It needed a fair amount of work done to get it into playing shape, but now it screams with a nasty early B.B. King blues tone. I have also discovered it to be a perfect combination for controlled feedback with my Gretsch and have used it for several performances to date for that express purpose.

My 1965 Princeton Reverb continues to be my main amp and it is great to be able to mix and match it with Harley and my 1959 Alamo Titan (that my comrade Rob Price used to much satisfaction on the recent ‘Steady As She Goes’ west coast tour). This is a shot of the Alamo backstage at the Boise Experimental Festival, on top of some great vintage pails and next to an amazing vintage marching drum I procured for my set.

I added a new sonic item to my experimental palate - a 4ms NoiseSwash. It is a crazy pedal that is a show unto itself. I saw George Cremaschi use one last year and he pointed me to the right place. It is a rather unpredictable super feedback distortion pedal with many controls and an LFO and if you are interested in composing with it, you let it lead…

I did not have my beloved Princeton Reverb amp with me , so it was ‘amp du jour.’ Always fun. In Portland, Oregon it was ‘no amp’ - I went direct to the PA, which actually wasn’t so bad. In Seattle, it was a Fender Blues Jr that was very nice. In Boise, I played through a Roland Micro Cube, which I think is the most versatile little amp to come out in years. I dragged one to Europe last fall and performed with it in many capacities, from the streets (battery powered), to using it as a pre-amp into a PA.

Pedals for the ‘User Error Tour‘ (right to left): Noise Swash, Zvex Fuzz factory, Blackstone overdrive, Boss OC-3 octave (set to poly), Boss Trem, 2 Line 6 DL4s. I usually use one, but found a used one cheap and dragged it along for this tour. One was for capturing noise beds and the other for setting up rhythmic loops if I felt like soloing. I sometimes used one for delay and one for sampling.

Okay time to update what my set-up is…

Pedals: ZVex Fuzz Factory. This thing is the coolest. Handles like a Ferrari. Or maybe a pit-bull, ‘cuz if you mishandle it, it likes to bite back - which I like. It has the coolest deep fuzz, spits noise and even generates tones like a theramin.

Signal chain: Fuzz Factory, Blackstone overdrive, Memory Man Delay, Quicksilver Delay and Line 6 (for looping). If the mood strikes (say for special fx with my band SPLITLIP) I add my Boss Trem and a new Boss OC3 octave pedal between the distortion and delays.

Speakers: I am trying out a THD 2×12 speaker cab (w/ one Longhorn and One Vintage speaker). This cab has amazing low end. Like a 4×12. These speakers have less mid clarity than my V30s, so the jury is still out on it.

I changed everything for my October ‘05 Europe tour. The reason was the need to have something that would fit into an SKB roadcase that I bought to keep everything together, portable and flight ready. The case worked out great with two levels of stuff packed way snugly - extra pedals and stuff below and the board on top.

For the Europe tour, I used a Line 6 delay pedal instead of the MemoryMan, a Boss Tremolo pedal and a Boss TU-2 tuner pedal. It was always ‘amp du jour’ and sometimes had to go direct - which wasn’t so bad. I was losing some tone in this setup, so upon returning to the US started experimenting and found the Boss stuff to be the culprit, so out they went. I had also wanted a “straight into the amp” tone - ie a pedal set-up that would be simple and have EVERYTHING bypassed when not in use.

Replacing my old Matchless Hotbox is a Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive 2S. It delivers ‘cranked blackface’ on one channel and massive crunch on the other. It keeps ALL the low-end intact and isn’t fizzy. Best of all, it interacts with guitar pickups so I can turn down the volume knob, clean up the sound and KEEP the tone…from funk to metal on a tele. 9v and all in a tiny, elegant box. Pretty amazing.

Next is my trusty modified EH Deluxe Memory Man which i use for short and slapback delay. It always sounds great and I can twist the knobs with my toes! For the crucial long delay tones I use a Blackbox Quicksilver delay. Minor quirks aside, this is the only digital delay I have found that gets the regeneration of analog/tape delay right. It is very close to the sound of my old Echoplex EP3 (not quite as bright though), with none of the hassles in a compact box. AND you can control the volume/regen with a volume pedal - just like the mod I did to my EP3.

I still sometimes use my old Echoplex EP3 with a custom tape length of around 7 seconds (for sound on sound) and a Line 6 DM4 delay for live looping.

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‘The Suitcase’ (1995-2005):

The ‘Suitcase’ circa 1998-2004 - A burgundy faux alligator Samsonite suitcase that contains a: Vox V847 wah -> Matchless Hotbox -> MXR dyna comp-> Boss Tuner w/ signal bypass -> modified EH Deluxe Memory Man. A detachable IEC power cable feeds power to all the 110 and 9v units.

My main Amp setup:

1965 Fender Princeton Reverb. It has a padded line out taken off the speaker (a fender reissue alnico which stays on) and can then be fed to any other amp in order to get the Princeton’s tone, reverb and tremolo at any volume for stage work…This setup is a variation on the Neil Young/Ry Cooder live set up. The mod was done by Lawrence Fellows-Mannion.

1959 Alamo Titan amp. This lil’ ‘dumpster find’ really screams. It’s set up pretty much like a tweed Deluxe, but not as loud. I put a late 50’s Jensen P12 in there and it really gets that super-compressed Neil Young tone when turned up full. Great trem too. It has the same line out mod as the Princeton.

‘71 Hiwatt Custom 100 head. The Heavy Artillery. I usually use it as a slave amp for the combos feeding two old Bell and Howell film projector speaker enclosures with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. I sometimes face the cabs towards the back corners of the stage for a more even sound dispersion - really huge and full sounding. With the Hiwatt on its own (very rare) my choice would be an original Hiwatt cab with Fanes or perhaps a THD 2×12.

Here are some things I like to use for special effect:

1940’s .50 cal machine gun shell (recovered from the Black Rock Desert, NV), alligator clips (to alter/choke string pitch), knife sharpener, butter knife, chop sticks , Ebow, metal files, violin bow, my own bottleneck slides from thick straight neck bottles - there’s more juju in the process.

Tone matters for everything - not just guitars. Voice, drums, organ, etc. Most important, it has to work for the moment and for the composition.

I often get asked about my guitar tone. My usual response is, it’s in the fingers!

Most musicians who understand this concept don’t really need to talk about the basis of someone’s tone. Others seem to think this response is some kind of inside joke and that if they just use the right piece of gear…

Listen. The gear you are using is but a small part of the formula. It’s one thing to talk about different textures one can create by using a particular piece of gear, but far more important is how you play through and respond to that gear - the connection between your heart, your fingers, the instrument and the sound you are producing.

I have experimented with many guitars and with many amp and effects setups - vintage, non-vintage and combinations in between. It is an ongoing process. I tend to gravitate towards things that are built to last (often over-engineered) except if it provides ridiculous functionality or fucked-up sound. As Les Paul once said, “You’ve got to constantly mess around with things.”

I don’t change my basic setup around much, but little things are always in flux and there are always new discoveries!