Smith is selling raffle entries for $5, and contributing builders include Caroline Guitar Company, Earthquaker Devices, Emerson Custom Guitars, JHS Pedals, Mr. Black, Dwarfcraft Devices, Empress Effects, Pedal Train, Mojohand FX, Barber Electronics, Dr. Scientist Sounds, SolidGoldFX, Pigtronix, Lava Cable, Strymon, Blakemore Effects, Wampler Pedals, Smallsound/Bigsound, Quinn Amplifiers and Effects, and Voodoo Lab.

Raffle entries and a specially designed t-shirt with the logos of every contributing builder can be purchased at walrusaudio.com. A winner will be drawn May 29 and all proceeds from the sale of both the raffle and the t-shirt to the Red Cross of Oklahoma.

The Body of the ES-5 with the fancy truss rod Cover.

Engraved truss rod cover.

In 1949, Gibson did something nifty, introducing the ES-5. The number 5 had special significance for Gibson, dating back to the Lloyd-Loar-inspired master Models of 1924. Each of these – guitar, mandolin, mandocello, and mandola – bore that numerical designation.

And, when a deluxe and pricey electric made its debut, what better name than “Electric Spanish 5?” With a cutaway, body size and style borrowed from the acoustic L-5C, and with slightly plainer versions of the L-5’s neck, fingerboard, and headstock, the model was in many ways a new electric version of the L-5. It was quite an impressive thing in its own right, but its three pickups made it downright groundbreaking.

Trouble was, its Spartan complement of controls left it functionally, well…awkward. With a Volume potentiometer for each pickup, a master Tone control, and no selector switch, all the pickups in the world weren’t any use if you couldn’t coordinate them quickly and easily. As many players will attest, pots do not make good switches. Gibson soon remedied all of this with the ES-5 Switchmaster, unveiled in 1955. The Switchmaster designation not only conjured up images of deluxe ’50s automobile instrumentation, but heralded the inclusion of separate Volume and Tone controls for each pickup, linked to a swanky master four-position selector. Gibson’s attention to detail extended even to the daintily engraved plastic switch surround. With these modifications, the guitar had arrived. The next evolution occurred when Gibson replaced the P-90s with their new humbucking pickups in late 1957.

The two ES-5 Switchmasters pictured here are of this last variety. Both incorporate similar tightly grained maple throughout, with stunning figure. Both are endowed with gleaming natural finishes and, bearing serial numbers less than a 100 apart, both are unmistakably from the same batch. These gorgeous deep-bodied blond twins would be difficult enough to track down individually, let alone reunited like this in a pair. They are surviving representations of the most practical incarnation of the three-pickup hollowbody technology, and some of the most desirable and valuable as well. The carefully engraved metal truss rod cover that graces the headstock in the close-up bears the name of the guitar’s original owner – Sue Griffiths. An option that was offered by the company to those who purchased the guitars, personalized name engraving is encounted only occasionally by collectors today. Most have long since been discarded or changed. The fact that this one survives is a testament to the owner’s love.

The Front and Back of a 1959 Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster.

From their curly maple necks and laminated bookmatched backs to their opulent gold-plated parts; from their neatly bound f-holes, fingerboards, and body edges to their decorated curlicue tailpieces and pantographed switch-plates, these two are pristine examples of a lost cultural icon and one heck of a guitar.

This article originally appeared in Vintage Guitar Classics No. 1 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Modified Fender Bass

The Gibson ES-335 played by Vince Martell in Vanilla Fudge.

When Vanilla Fudge helped pioneer the progressive-rock movement in the latter half of the ’60s, bassist Tim Bogert played more than one Fender Precision – and usually installed Telecaster Bass necks on them.

Bogert preferred the chunkier feel of the Tele Bass neck, which reminded him of ’50s P-Basses. And for him, one instrument, in particular, became a favorite for nearly three decades as he used it during stints with the Fudge, Cactus, and Beck, Bogert and Appice. Like many dedicated musicians, through the years, he refined it as parts became worn or when he felt the need to experiment. From the top down, it epitomizes a perpetually viable piece of gear.

The maple neck, for example, is its third, and was bought from a parts supplier that let Bogert search its inventory until he found one that looked and felt right. It has a plethora of birdseye figure markings, and he installed a brass nut and had a ’50s Precision Bass decal added to its headstock.

Sharp-eyed Fender aficionados will note the lack of holes on either side of the pickup, where an arched handrest/pickup cover would normally be installed. Nor are there holes on either side of the bridge. That’s because the body is also a replacement!

“It’s a body Fender gave me in the late ’80s,” Bogert recounted. “The earlier maple body had been chewed up over the years, and I asked for a new one; I’ve always liked a maple neck and maple body.”

“The only original parts left on the bass are the tuning pegs, bridge, and neck plate,” Bogert said. “I was always f***ing around with it!”

The two small chrome caps on the pickguard cover a spot where switches were once installed to control a two-pickup setup he used with a previous body. “One was an on/off, the other was a pickup select,” Bogert recalled.

Though not an original part, he considers the bass’ pickup it’s “…most important part, because it came off a ’57 Fender I got in ’68 or ’69, when we played the Hollywood Bowl with Jimi Hendrix.”

The finger rest, which was installed between the pickup and the bridge instead of the typical location on the pickguard, helped him manipulate the strings.

“In ’65 or ’66, when I started working with the Pigeons, we would do these crescendos. But the volume on Fenders back then would drop off really quickly if you tried working the Volume control. So instead, I would brace my thumb on that rest and work the strings to make the crescendos smoother. I learned to do that very precisely.”

In the late ’80s, he acquired a new body for the bass and installed the original bridge and ’57 pickup. But because by then he had begun playing basses with more than four strings, the warhorse was mostly relegated to storage. Today, he primarily plays contrabass.

In the late ’90s, Bogert sold this vital piece of prog-rock history to New York music producer/collector Randolf Pratt, who also owns Fudge guitarist Vince Martell’s Gibson ES-335 (VG, April 2011).

This article originally appeared in VG September 2011 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Jerry Garcia with the Cripe-built guitar called Lightning Bolt. Photo: Rick Gould.

Steve Cripe left a unique legacy in the annals of music history. He was not a guitar player, not a songwriter. In fact, you may not even know his name. But the guitar builder became part of the fabric that makes up the story of the Grateful Dead when he built guitars for the legendary Jerry Garcia during the final years of the musician’s life.

Garcia long favored the work of another builder, Doug Irwin, whose custom instruments – known to the band and its fans as Wolf, Tiger, and Rosebud – were played at Dead concerts for almost 20 years. Garcia was loyal to his Irwins throughout his career.

Cripe traveled an unorthodox road that led him from crafting ornate woodwork interiors for luxury yachts to collaborating with the venerable icon.

“He was always good with his hands,” said Cripe’s older sister, Rhonda Williams. “He worked almost exclusively with exotic woods,” and she said he became interested in building guitars because he wanted to learn to play them.

In July, 1990, Cripe bought a how-to book on electric-guitar construction. But despite his in-depth knowledge of woodworking, success was limited due to what he termed as “errors” in the book; his first guitar had “…a neck the size of a baseball bat.” Nonetheless, inspired by the Dead’s cover of “Morning Dew,” a guitar-driven staple of the band’s live repertoire, the longtime Deadhead decided to build another guitar, but this time one intended expressly for his idol.

Building on Garcia’s taste for Irwin’s guitars, he emulated the body style of Irwin’s Tiger, and, referencing only a VHS copy of the Dead’s video So Far,  studied Tiger as it appeared in 1985. He built two prototype guitars in this fashion. The top and back of one is lignum vitae, with a core of greenheart, and a laminated Brazilian rosewood/maple neck. Inlaid in the Brazilian rosewood fretboard is a lightning bolt of lignum vitae sapwood. The top and back of the other are Cocobolo with a Zebrawood core, while the neck is laminated Cocobolo, maple, and rosewood with an ebony fretboard. Inscribed on the cover of its electronics cavity is, “Prototype of J. Garcia’s Lightning Bolt Guitar, June 92, S. R. Cripe.” Both guitars have 22 frets.

After he realized Garcia’s preference for 24-fret guitars, Cripe began work on one in March, 1993. The guitar, dubbed Lightning Bolt, was completed one month later, and Cripe described it in an article he wrote in ’95 for Dead fanzine Unbroken Chain. “Lightning Bolt is made of a black walnut core and East Indian rosewood top and back, with rock maple for contrast. The neck is also made of the same rosewood and maple. The East Indian rosewood is recycled from an old opium bed that was given to me a few years ago. The fretboard is of Brazilian rosewood recycled from an old hotel in Miami Beach. The lightning bolt itself is mother-of-pearl surrounded by padauk, tinted maple, and rosewood.”

Lightning Bolt (Front and Back). Photo courtesy Steve Armato.

Pat O’Donnell, proprietor of Resurrection Guitars, makes Cripe replicas and notes how Cripe created the guitar’s unique green color by applying a coat of blue with a felt-tip pen before putting lacquer on its maple body.

Like Irwin’s method of construction for Tiger and Rosebud – sandwiching layers of wood horizontally to make the bodies – Cripe built the “wings” of the body of Lightning Bolt with three layers of wood laminated horizontally. But at its heart is a nine-ply vertically laminated neck/center block that extends the length of the guitar. The result? Massive sustain.

The volute, the bulbous mass of wood at the base of the headstock, is another distinct feature of Cripe’s guitars. And no two are the same; guitarist Steve Kimock, who owns two Cripes – one made of teak, the other ebony – said of the volutes, “Who knows what [Cripe’s] intention was? It may have been equal parts attempt to strengthen that area of the neck, which was a great idea, and give a little more physical balance to the instrument.”

Satisfied with the guitar, Cripe embarked on a campaign to get the instrument to Garcia. This was ultimately accomplished through a record-company contact friendly with Garcia collaborator David Grisman. Weeks went by before Cripe came home one day to hear Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally on his answering machine, saying Garcia was “intrigued” and “fiddling around” with the instrument.

A month later, Garcia tech Steve Parish contacted Cripe with a flurry of questions. The conversation led to the official naming of what was to become Garcia’s primary instrument. And Cripe was surprised to learn that Garcia had already been playing it with the Jerry Garcia Band, and that he planned to play it at Dead shows in Oregon.

Parish also said Garcia wanted to order another guitar. Honored – and motivated – Cripe delivered Top Hat in November of ’93, this time consulting with Gary Brawer, of Brawer Stringed Instrument Repair, an expert in the electronics of Garcia’s Irwin guitars, including the MIDI modifications Garcia required.

Top Hat, Volute. Photo courtesy Steve Armato.

During the construction of Top Hat, Cripe called Parish while the band was at Madison Square Garden. He asked Parish to measure Lightning Bolt so he could match the neck to that guitar, Parish responded, “How did you make the first one?” Cripe replied that he “…winged it.” Parish, then Garcia himself, told Cripe to use his intuition again. “If I don’t like it,” Garcia said, “I’ll send it back.”

Top Hat has a walnut-and-maple core, Cocobolo top, back, neck, and fretboard, and was named for the motif on the battery cover – a skull wearing a red, white, and blue top hat. The inlay is also made of non-endangered warthog tusk, as are the fretboard and Cripe’s firecracker logo inlays. And though the guitar never made an appearance onstage, it was also never returned.

In December, 1993, Cripe realized his first sale as a luthier, receiving a check from Grateful Dead Productions, Inc. The stub on the $7,000 check says, “2 custom guitars for Garcia; OK per Parish.”

Cripe finally met Garcia backstage at a Dead show in Miami in the spring of ’94. They spoke for 45 minutes, with Garcia praising Cripe’s work. Later, at a ’95 Tampa show, Parish told Cripe that Lightning Bolt was “…holding up better than any guitar Jerry has ever owned.” He also said that Garcia enjoyed playing Top Hat at home.

Garcia commissioned two more guitars from Cripe, one to be made at Cripe’s discretion, another to be a refinement of what he’d accomplished with the first two.

Hal Hammer, Jr., who mentored Cripe as he learned to build guitars, recalls that Cripe was reluctant to send the resultant guitar – called Eagle – because “… [it] looked so much like a Weir guitar. But he still thought it would be cool to send a couple guitars and let Garcia choose.”

While still working on the second guitar, Cripe’s mission would change after Garcia’s untimely death in August of ’95. Steve decided to finish the guitar, now fittingly called Tribute, in honor of the late musician. Adam Palow, who was eager to apprentice with Cripe in Florida, says of the guitar, “[it] has 64 pieces of mother-of-pearl inlay, a nine-ply neck, an eight-ply body with a ¹/2” cocobolo top, piezo pickups, three humbuckers, an effects loop, and the cover plate features the planet Saturn with sterling silver rings.”

(LEFT) Steve Cripe. Photo courtesy of Pat O’Donnell. (RIGHT) The guitar that was to be called Masterpiece, after the deadly fire in Steve Cripes’ workshop. Photo courtesy Steve Armato.

According to Hammer, Cripe was working on yet another guitar, called Masterpiece. But on May 21, 1996, Cripe was in his workshop, using high-phosphorous gunpowder in pursuit of another passion, making custom fireworks. An explosion occurred and Cripe was killed. Masterpiece, too, was lost in the fire.

Following the tragedy, The St. Petersburg Times reported that a neighbor, Jack Smith, had admired a guitar in Cripe’s workshop that appeared to be almost done. Smith said he was struck by the material Cripe was using – black wood. “It was a beauty,” Smith said, adding that he enjoyed visiting his neighbor’s workshop. “I lost a friend,” he added. So, too, did guitar enthusiasts everywhere.

Stephen Ray Cripe’s Lightning Bolt and Top Hat are on display at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Eagle and Tribute remain in private collections.

Steve Armato recently launched cripeguitars.com and is writing a book on Cripe guitars. James D. McCallister is a novelist, freelance writer, and Deadhead. Special thanks to Nick Meriwether and to the family and friends of Steve Cripe.

This article originally appeared in VG January 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Photo: Joe Lopez/www.jolopezphotography.com.

For all of his decades of noteworthy guitar work, Robby Krieger isn’t resting on his laurels.

In 2002, Krieger and Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek formed Doors of the 21st Century (and they still perform as Manzarek-Krieger), but the guitarist’s newest album, Singularity, is an ambitious instrumental effort that expands on his desire to create music with numerous instruments and musicians.

Throughout his solo career, Krieger has crafted tightly arranged songs, avoiding meandering jams. Those on Singularity underscore that reputation.

Named after a Krieger painting that graces its cover, he described singularity as “…a profound event such as the big bang… I could have started with something smaller, such as, say, the destruction of a galaxy or two, but I figured ‘What the hell?’ Hopefully, the music evokes thoughts along those lines.”

Singularity is more cohesive and melodic than his previous solo disc, Cinematix, and while there are plenty of guitars to be heard (Krieger used a ’59 Fender Stratocaster, a Gibson SG, a ’59 Gibson Les Paul, and his three vintage mono ES-355s), reeds, horns, drums, acoustic bass, a Hammond B-3 organ, etc. get to solo, as well.

“I think it’s a little less fusion-y than Cinematix,” said the guitarist. “It’s got a bit more of a Spanish flavor, and more traditional jazz.”

As if to underline Krieger’s “Spanish” musical inclinations, the first track, “Russian Caravan Intro,” is a solo flamenco-guitar piece of the sort he has been wanting to record for many years. He used a 1953 Ramirez. It’s followed by “Russian Caravan,” a 10-minute, almost-orchestral work that incorporates trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, sax, flute, and acoustic bass, in addition to traditional small-combo instruments. It doesn’t even pick up a tempo until the 2:50 mark, and the tempos noticeably shift for the balance of the song. An overdriven electric guitar played by Krieger can be heard harmonizing with a flute.

(LEFT) Robby Krieger is recognized as a Gibson SG player. With the Doors, he played a ’67 Standard that served as the basis for Gibson’s new Krieger signature SG. Its neck profile was modeled after a Les Paul Junior, and its pickups are wired out-of-phase. “Other than that, the guitar is a copy of my ’67,” Krieger said.

“I actually started writing the song about 15 years ago, when Miles Davis died,” Krieger recounted. “My friend, Arthur Barrow – who wrote most of the songs with me – and I decided to do some kind of Miles tribute; maybe something like (Davis’ 1960 album) Sketches of Spain. And we kind of forgot about it until we resurrected it for this record.”

“Southern Cross” is a Latin-tinged easy-listening tune that features slide work by Krieger, playing Barrow’s old Kay, often very high on the fretboard. “The guitar had a big cutaway on the back, so I could go way up on the neck,” he noted. For the majority of slide parts, Krieger relied on a ’54 Les Paul.

There’s more flamenco on “Event Horizon Intro,” followed by what Krieger calls “a soundtrack vibe” on “Event Horizon.” Other songs on Singularity have a small-combo jazz feel.” Numerous instruments get to solo, which is exactly how Krieger wanted each song to develop. For example, the opening melody of “Trane Running Late” (inspired by saxophone legend John Coltrane) is carried by sax, and when it came to solo parts for the other instruments, Krieger was laissez-faire. “I didn’t tell [the other musicians] what to play,” he said.

The final track, “House of Bees,” has a be-bop feel, with more than one instrument playing melodies with each other, note-for-note. There’s even a low-end sax solo, a la Gerry Mulligan.

He was meticulous getting the album exactly as he wanted it, with its extensive instrumentation and arrangements. Recording and producing it, he recalled, took “…a couple of years. It wasn’t something we could do all at once. I’d been playing the Doors stuff with Ray so much that I wondered when I’d get (Singularity) done. But I love the way it turned out.”

Krieger plans to tour in support of the new album, and continue performing with Manzarek.

This article originally appeared in VG January 2011 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Victoria VIC 105
Price: $1,495
Contact: Victoria Amp Co.; phone (630) 820-6400; victoriaamp.com.

In the 1990s, Mark Baier put himself on the map making quality reproductions of choice ’50s tweed-amp circuits. For the last decade, Baier has broadened his amp line with models that are not reproductions, but the product of his own fertile imagination.

His latest is the VIC 105. A variable-/low-watt amp housed in a 50-caliber ammo box, it has a cool Plexiglas front panel/faceplate with an input, Volume and Tone controls, a Boost switch, a Boost Level control (which increases power-stage gain while decreasing negative feedback), and switches for Half-Power (which switches off one of the power tubes and runs the amp in pure single-ended mode), Standby, and Power. Tubes include a single 12AX7, a pair of EL84s, and an EZ81 rectifier tube. Amazingly, phase-inversion is handled by the EL84s in what Baier calls a “self-splitting output stage inverter” that uses the dual power tubes in single-ended fashion. In effect, one power tube drives the other.

The back panel has an IEC connector, fuse holder, and speaker outputs for 4- and 8-ohm loads. Victoria was kind enough to include a speaker cable with the amp.

Using a Fender Telecaster and 1×12″ cab, we dialed in a clean tone on the 105. Setting the amp on full-power mode and engaging the Boost function, the Vic stayed clean until the halfway point, where it became more responsive while giving a very nice “clean with just a bit of dirt” tone.

Activating the Half-Power switch made for the perfect jump-blues tone – funky and ready to distort with hard playing, yet clean with a softer touch. Cranking up the Volume, the amp got dirtier but cleaned up consistently when the guitar’s Volume was rolled back.

Activating the Boost function, the amp turns into a rock machine, especially when paired with a humbucker-equipped guitar and a 4×12 cab. Naturally, humbuckers shed some of the “cleanliness,” but their driven tones make the switch worthwhile. With the Tone set at 2 o’clock and the Boost and Volume each at 3 o’clock, the amp does a great job mimicking ZZ Top tones.

Playing through the VIC 105 using various guitars and cabs, the amp was impressive in its ability to produce raw-yet-full tones. Most amps with a “raw” sound have an obvious midrange emphasis, while amps that cover a wide frequency range are not known for their responsiveness. This one is different; even though it has the same power tubes and rectifier as an 18-watt Marshall, it is not the least bit British-sounding. Baier credits the amp’s responsiveness to its simple circuit – based on a vintage PA head – and the self-splitting output stage.

The VIC 105 is a great-sounding plug-and-play/low-watt head. If you are looking for raw, responsive tone with a wide frequency range, few if any amps do it this well. Though happiest when paired with a guitar bearing single-coil pickups, the VIC 105 works well with other guitars. And it’s built into its own road case! –

This article originally appeared in VG July 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Yes, there’s plenty of reverb-drenched guitar from Regan, and bassist Bob St. Laurent and drummer Jim Lang can ride a wave with the best of them, but “Mayhem at Pillar Point” is a straightahead ’60s garage rocker, while “Pig Farm” is a fun country tune with fine bending and twang. “Mojave Dry Run” is a creepy boogie with feedback and other cool guitar sounds. “Teahupo’s” has surf overtones, but it’s really just a fine rock instrumental with a funky edge. “B6 Shuffle” is a funky shuffle where Regan’s guitar supplies the fuel.

There is plenty of surf. “Save the Waves” and “Pier Pressure” are heavy on the feel and have nasty, ultra-hyper guitar work from Regan; notes bounce off the walls. On “Splat!,” the boys show a sense of humor to go with their chops; a mash-up of the theme songs from “Banana Splits” and “Batman,” it’s the perfect mix of rock and surf.

While Meet the Deadlies is loaded with fine playing, it’s also full of what most rock and roll forgets these days – plain ol’ fun!

This article originally appeared in VG‘s June ’11 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Levy’s Hendrix Lyrics straps are available in six designs.

Levy’s Leathers Jimi Hendrix lyrics guitar straps are inspired by the style of the legendary guitarist and use his images and handwritten song lyrics exclusively licensed from Authentic Hendrix. Each sublimation-printed polyester strap has an original design, song title, and handwritten lyric excerpt on the front, with the full song lyrics printed on the back. Learn more at www.levysleathers.com.

(RIGHT) Rhoads’ polka-dot guitar was built in 1979 by Karl Sandoval, with a mahogany body, modified ’60s Danelectro non-adjustable maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and bow-tie inlays, two DiMarzio humbuckers (PAF in the neck position, Super Distortion in the bridge), separate Tone and Volume controls, a standard vibrato, and a selector switch on the upper bass bout. Rhoads photos: Neil Zlozower.

Randy Rhoads was only in the rock and roll spotlight briefly before dying in a freak airplane stunt. Yet here we are, 30 years later, still talking about Ozzy Osbourne’s sideman and the impact he had on several generations of rock guitarists. In tribute, Sony Legacy has issued a spate of 30th anniversary releases featuring the two Osbourne studio albums with the diminutive guitar hero, as well as a freshly unearthed live recording from 1981, and a DVD documentary titled Ozzy Osbourne: Thirty Years After The Blizzard. A fresh book on the guitarist’s life is also imminent. No matter how you slice it, Randy Rhoads still matters.

Part of the Rhoads legend has to do with Ozzy himself, a frontman who has led an uncanny 40-year career, first fronting Black Sabbath, then as a top solo artist and then as a reality-show star on television. But the meat of the matter are the two initial Ozzy solo albums, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, both packed with top-notch metal anthems and stellar musicianship from the guitarist and a fiery rhythm section.

In retrospect, Randy Rhoads’ performance on these LPs was one of those “a star is born” moments, a combination of natural ability, timing, and sheer kick-ass attitude. Over the course of about 18 months, this band set towering standards for ’80s metal, studio production, and lead-guitar pyrotechnics. Yet Rhoads virtually appeared out of nowhere and was gone before many people appreciated or acknowledged his gift. With these ideas and conundrums as a base, we’ll explore his influences and recordings to get perspective on this brief, glittering guitar god.

Roots of Randy
Born at the end of 1956, Rhoads was part of a generation poised to witness the explosion of the Beatles and the Stones; the huge guitar evolution that began with the Yardbirds, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream; and finally the harder rock of the Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Mountain, and then all of the great bands of the early ’70s. It was a blissful time to be a young electric guitarist with a good set of ears and the desire to become proficient on the instrument. Add to that the fact his mother, Delores, owned a music store in North Hollywood and Randy had a strong foundation to nurture his love of the guitar.

By the time he joined Ozzy Osbourne’s group, Rhoads’ style began to morph into a singular voice. Like his Southern California peer, Eddie Van Halen, Rhoads used two-handed tapping and a trebly, edgy guitar tone that bordered on harshness (his was even more razor-sharp than Van Halen’s). Yet in contrast to Eddie’s more-abstract lead style, Rhoads’ style was grounded in the European classical-metal styles of Ritchie Blackmore, Uli Roth, and Michael Schenker. Fold in generous dollops of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Leslie West, and you begin to piece together his guitar style and why it was so popular. It was “contemporary daredevil guitar” like Van Halen, but firmly rooted in ’70s blues-rock and Euro-metal styles.

“A big influence on Randy at the time – one that isn’t spoken about very much – was Alice Cooper’s guitarist, Glenn Buxton,” said Kelly Garni, original bassist in Rhoads’ early band, Quiet Riot, speaking to VG. “Randy liked all the weird noises and feedback Buxton came up with and would always point them out. Then Mick Ronson came along with Bowie, and he, too, was a noisy guitarist. Randy liked that, so he started coming up with his own strange sounds and noises, and that proved to be the basis of his own style. In fact, he started getting a style very young and, when later, I heard Randy’s big guitar solo on the live Ozzy Tribute record, I just kind of shook my head because there were all these licks that he used to play when we were kids.

“We first heard about Van Halen when they were still known as Mammoth,” Garni adds, elaborating on the Rhoads/Van Halen connection. “They were playing parties in Pasadena, which is a world away from Burbank. We’d hear rumors of how there was this great, loud band down there, and Randy got his girlfriend to drive him down to one of the parties. When he came back, I asked how they were, and all he would say was they were ‘pretty good.’ Later, after they had become Van Halen, we played a gig with them at the Glendale College Auditorium.

“Despite the rumors, Randy didn’t mind when his students would ask to learn Van Halen licks. In fact, he always thought that he learned more from giving lessons than the students did.”

Caught in the Blizzard
Through the late ’70s, Rhoads played heavy glam-rock with Quiet Riot, earning enough following to record two albums for Sony Music in Japan. The story of his famous audition with Ozzy has been told many times, but suffice to say, in the fall of ’79, Rhoads found himself in England with Ozzy, producer Max Norman, bassist Bob Daisley (Rainbow, Gary Moore) and drummer Lee Kerslake (Uriah Heep), writing songs and prepping for Osbourne’s debut solo effort for Jet Records, a Columbia/Epic imprint. A lot was on the line – Ozzy had been unceremoniously dumped after nearly a decade fronting Black Sabbath, and both his new guitarist and producer were untested.

Eventually, the lineup migrated to Ridge Farm, near Dorking, in the south of England. The band started working with producer Chris Tsangarides, who had worked with Judas Priest and was making a name for himself helming Thin Lizzy’s records. But after a week, Ozzy was reputedly dissatisfied with the early mixes and switched production duties to Ridge Farm’s in-house engineer – Max Norman. As Norman later told KNAC.com radio about the guitarist and his tone, “Randy spent a lot of time playing – that’s all he ever did, really. He didn’t drink or do drugs; just a clean-living guy and very quiet. Randy was also a big fan of Eddie Van Halen, but when it came to his guitar sound, he wanted it a lot brighter than Eddie’s. As a result, we did some pretty interesting things at that time, like triple tracking solos, which have never been done before.”

As these things sometimes go, the combination of players and producer was harmonious, and the resulting Blizzard of Ozz album was a surprise hit and today stands as a masterpiece of ’80s metal. In fact, paired with AC/DC’s Back in Black, Blizzard helped ignite what would become heavy metal’s most successful decade, and remains Ozzy’s best-selling record with over six million copies sold worldwide. The album kicks off with “I Don’t Know,” a full-bore stomper that, in retrospect, sounds like Black Sabbath on steroids. Certainly, you can hear the Van-Halen-esque approach, with Rhoads providing all the harmonic content behind Ozzy’s vocals, including salvos of chords, lead licks, riffs and squeal galore. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of guitar playing going on – but it’s what the music calls for. Its solo is classic Rhoads, a frantic mass of bends, jittery wrist vibrato, two-handed tapping, and muted arpeggios that became the bedrock of his style.

Next up is another definitive Ozzy/Randy track, “Crazy Train,” a perfect blend of Rainbow’s euro-metal riffery with Van Halen’s sunny SoCal metal. A major-key power riff fuels the verse, laced with fast, open-string pull-offs that had been previously used by Les Paul and Jeff Beck. The solo, however, is a multi-tracked Rhoads attack, launching with classically infused two-handed tapping – a straight evolution from Van Halen’s “Eruption” – as well as Michael Schenker modal-styled runs before going back into the dark, dramatic chorus riff.

“I remember when I first heard ‘Crazy Train’ and then its freight-train of a guitar came screaming in,” Steve Vai of the lead in an interview on the box set’s documentary. “I think it’s the first rock track I heard where the solo came in and got scared.”

(LEFT) Rhoads’ 1970 Gibson Les Paul Custom had stock pickups, his name engraved on the pickguard, a brass toggle-switch tip, and (after this photo was taken) his initials on the truss rod cover. This and the polka-dot V made by Karl Sandoval were the principal guitars heard on Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. They are easily identified on the tracks by the vibrato (Sandoval) or non-vibrato (Les Paul Custom) style of playing on each song.

On the ballad “Goodbye to Romance,” you can observe two things – Rhoads’ elegant rhythm work and Ozzy’s famous Beatles fetish. It’s a mild, likeable pop song, but most noteworthy for Randy’s stately, melodic solo. A better glimpse of the guitarist’s mellower side is “Dee,” a multi-tracked bit of classical-styled guitar. Certainly, Rhoads was not the first, nor best, rocker to play classical guitar (having been ably preceded by Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Steve Morse, Rik Emmett, and Alex Lifeson), but in light of Rhoads’ brief career, the song became hugely popular among his fans. And in the new DVD documentary, later Osbourne guitarist – and über-Rhoads fan Zakk Wylde, plays a perfect, note-for-note rendition of “Dee” on nylon-string guitar.

Another bonus on the 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition is the inclusion of the B-side, “You Looking at Me, Looking at You.” It’s a catchy pop-metal anthem, one that will make you wonder why it wasn’t included on the original album – it says “hit single” all over it. Blizzard of Ozz’s pièce de résistance, however, is “Mr. Crowley,” which captures Ozzy’s “Vincent Price of rock and roll” image in one tidy package. Here, Rhoads pulls out all the stops for the famous solo, a skittering gem of speedy picking and Gothic-metal melody, with yet another lead burning up the outro. It’s easily one of the guitarist’s very best performances. Adds 
Wylde, “When you really listen to Randy’s solos, each one is like its own composition. They’re a song within a song.”

Diary of a Masterpiece
In September, 1980, Osbourne, Rhoads, Daisley, Kerslake and a tour keyboardist hit the road for the Blizzard of Ozz tour, which lasted for much of the next year. Released in the U.K. that fall, Blizzard was released in the U.S. in January, 1981, and, surprising to all (including Ozzy), it was an instant smash in the States, ratcheting up the pressure for a monster tour. Prior to the U.S. leg, however, Ozzy’s manager (and later wife), Sharon Arden, shrewdly sent the band back into the studio to cut a follow-up album. In retrospect, this was a master stroke – considering Rhoads’ brief life, had Sharon not made this pivotal call, Diary of a Madman might never had been created. Thus, when Ozzy began his American tour in April, he not only had a hit album on the charts, but another full album in the can.

Beyond the music, the tour gained notoriety for countless other reasons. Inexplicably, the powerhouse rhythm section of Daisley and Kerslake were sacked prior to the tour and their parts on the Diary LP were credited to their replacements, bassist Rudy Sarzo (later of Whitesnake) and drummer Tommy Aldridge (from the Pat Travers Band). Not surprisingly, many lawsuits later arose from this move. The U.S. tour itself was near-pandemonium, with sell-out shows, rampant drug and alcohol use, Ozzy’s high-profile arrest in San Antonio (for urinating on a wall at the Alamo) and, of course, the infamous incidents where Ozzy bit the head off a dove (intentionally) and a bat (unintentionally). Regardless of the bacchanalian atmosphere, the Blizzard of Ozz tour was one of the hottest concert tickets of ’81; in contrast, Osbourne’s old mates in Black Sabbath were still grinding it out on the mid-level metal circuit. The combination of great rock and roll and outrageous offstage behavior proved a great marketing asset for Osbourne.

As for Diary of a Madman, the album can be viewed as the perfect bookend to Blizzard of Ozz. While cut in only six weeks and sounding a bit rushed in places, it delivered a new batch of metallic anthems for FM radio, as well as ample Rhoads fretboard acrobatics. By this time, the guitar magazines were beginning to notice his playing, bringing word of a new guitar sensation to entice their readers. Interestingly, the guitarist was becoming more enamored with classical guitar and, as the initial thrill of touring with Ozzy began wearing off, expressed an interest to get off the road to practice his nylon-string skills. Randy reputedly even hired local teachers to give him classical lessons as the Ozzy machine rolled across the country.

Live Recordings
In 1987, the double-live LP Tribute was issued and credited, generously enough, to both Osbourne and Rhoads. Taped in ’81, tracks on this album capture the relentless energy of the Osbourne band, featuring Rhoads with the pummeling Sarzo/Aldridge rhythm section. The album was another hit (hitting #6 on the U.S. charts and selling more than two million copies), and captured the group in all its raw, metallic glory.

In the spate of 30th anniversary reissues, Sony has unearthed another concert recording from that year for the box set, again showing the skill and relentless energy of Rhoads in concert. One thing that becomes quickly clear, however, is that Rhoads preferred to play his guitar parts note-for-note from the studio versions and therefore, there aren’t many new solos to savor. On the other hand, you again have to appreciate how much of the show he carried on his shoulders – Rhoads had a million riffs, licks, and leads to remember and he nailed them on these concert documents. This approach further alludes to his interest in classical music and the art of playing music perfectly night after night.

Rhoads’ Rig
Rhoads’ guitar rig helped set the standard for modern metal and has been duplicated by thousands of aspiring players. Its basic ingredients were a solidbody with humbuckers and a vibrato bridge fed through a battery of effects; an MXR Distortion+, wah, MXR 10-band graphic EQ, Korg and Roland tape echoes (as well as MXR and Yamaha analog units), and MXR Stereo Flanger and Chorus pedals. His amp of preference was Marshall JMP-series Super Lead 100-watt heads with 4×12 cabs, many covered with white Tolex.

Rhoads is identified with several guitars, among them, a white Gibson Les Paul Custom, which was likely from the early ’70s. Fitted with stock Gibson humbuckers, he used this axe with Quiet Riot and with Ozzy. Photos also showed him with a black Les Paul Custom with three humbuckers.

Another key axe was the V built by luthier Karl Sandoval in the summer of ’79, just prior to landing the Ozzy gig. A polka-dot solidbody with “bowtie” inlays (one of Rhoads’ trademarks during the Quiet Riot years), the guitar also had a vibrato bridge and DiMarzio humbuckers, each with its own Volume and Tone controls. The set neck was taken from an old Danelectro guitar. Rhoads paid $738 for the guitar and today the model is known as the Sandoval Dot V.

The last piece in Randy’s guitar arsenal was a pair of custom-offset V-style guitars designed by Grover Jackson, Tim Wilson, and Mike Shannon. One black, one white, both Jacksons had Seymour Duncan humbuckers, vibrato bridges, and set-neck designs. These now-iconic guitars became quintessential metal axes after Rhoads’ death for their killer looks and fierce tone, and the list of players who’ve used them is impressive, including Dave Mustaine, Kirk Hammett, and Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho. And in the accessory department, Rhoads used Fender medium picks and GHS strings in both .010 and .011 sets.

Legacy
For a player who accomplished so much in such a short time, Rhoads remains a beloved icon of rock guitar, and duly so. With his death, of course, a certain cult of personality has grown around the man, some of it true, some of it fan-based hyperbole. But thanks to the internet, there’s a lot of Rhoads material to decipher, from print interviews to live videos and fan recordings. For the truly obsessed, there are audio recordings where you can hear Rhoads’ guitar lessons at his mother’s music store in his pre-Ozzy days.

Perhaps it’s from his peers we hear the greatest praise for Rhoads. “When you listen to his solos, there are moments of uniqueness,” Vai says on the new DVD. “And when I say uniqueness, I mean things that have never been done before by a guitar player.” Adds Ozzy nostalgically, “He was a phenomenal player, a genius. And he also loved playing guitar. You can tell.” And that’s probably Rhoads’ greatest legacy – an unbridled passion for the guitar that has inspired generations of players.

This article originally appeared in VG August 2011 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

John Lennon with his Epiphone Casino in December, 1968, on the set of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus.” Photo: Andrew Maclear/Redferns.

Of all the guitars the Beatles made famous, the only one that John, Paul and George had in common was the Epiphone Casino. Each owned a Casino and used it for countless recordings and performances.

Paul McCartney was the first Beatle to acquire a Casino. Influenced to purchase it by his friend, blues musician John Mayall, McCartney said, “You’d go back to his place and he’d sit you down, give you a drink, and say, ‘Just check this out.’ He’d go over to his [tape] deck, and for hours blast you with B.B. King, Eric Clapton… he was sort of showing me where all of Eric’s stuff was from. He gave me a little evening’s education. I was turned on after that, and [bought] an Epiphone.” Mayall recalls the late-night record sessions. “I showed him my hollowbody guitar that I’d bought when I was in the army in Japan in 1955. When people get together and listen to records, they talk about all kinds of things related to the music, so obviously we must have touched upon the instruments and it struck home. He got a hollowbody after to get that tone.”

The Epiphone Casino ES-230TD that McCartney purchased at the end of ’64 has an early-style Gibson-design headstock rather than Epiphone’s later hourglass-shaped headstock. Photographs taken in December of ’64, during rehearsals for the Beatles’ Christmas performances at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, show Paul playing a new Epiphone Casino still strung right-handed. Another picture shows McCartney and Harrison examining the right-handed Casino, evidently discussing how they would alter the guitar so the left-handed McCartney could use it.

McCartney’s sunburst Casino has serial number 84075, and according to Gibson’s records shipped November 1, 1962. McCartney altered it for playing left-handed, turning the guitar upside down, re-stringing it, and modifying the bridge for correct intonation. A strap button was added to now-inverted upper treble bout. McCartney used his Casino extensively in the studio with The Beatles, including the memorable lead-guitar break on “Ticket To Ride.” He also used it throughout his solo career, and still owns the guitar.

Paul McCartney’s and John Lennon’s Epiphone Casinos. Photos courtesy of and copyright OutLine Press UK.

In the spring of ’66, during recording sessions for Revolver, John Lennon and George Harrison decided to join the Casino club. The most obvious difference between these two virtually identical guitars was Harrison’s had a Bigsby vibrato, while Lennon’s had the standard Epiphone “trapeze” tail. Lennon’s was unusual in that it had a small black ring mounted around its pickup selector switch. Both had the more common Epiphone-style headstock and were fitted with gold-colored Volume and Tone knobs.

The first time Lennon and Harrison performed with their almost-matching Casinos was when The Beatles made an appearance on the popular British TV show “Top Of The Pops.” On June 16, 1966, they entered BBC’s London studios to mime both sides of their new single, “Rain” and “Paperback Writer.”

As the group started its ’66 tour of Germany, Japan, and the U.S., Lennon and Harrison chose the Casinos as their main instruments for the tour.

By ’67, The Beatles embarked on the sessions that would produce their masterpiece album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Present and used throughout were all three Casinos. And it was during these sessions that Lennon painted his by spraying a white or grey outline on back of the body and neck.

In early ’68, The Beatles headed to Rishikesh, India, to study transcendental meditation with The Maharishi and friends, including Donovan Leitch. There, Donovan convinced the trio to sand the finish off their instruments, telling them how a guitar sounds better without a heavy finish. After returning to London, during sessions for the self-titled “white album,” Lennon and Harrison sanded their Casinos. Lennon primarily played his newly stripped Casino for the sessions. Harrison said that once they’d removed the finish, they became much better guitars. “I think that works on a lot of guitars,” he explained. “If you take the paint and varnish off and get the bare wood, it seems to sort of breathe.” With the completion of the white album, promo clips were filmed for the single “Revolution”/“Hey Jude.” The clips showed Lennon using his natural Casino.

On December 11, 1968, Lennon appeared as a special guest for the filming of The Rolling Stones’ television special, “Rock ’n’ Roll Circus,” which included a memorable performance by the supergroup Dirty Mac, whose members included Eric Clapton on guitar, Keith Richards on bass, Mitch Mitchell on drums, and Lennon playing his Casino. Dirty Mac’s legendary performance of “Yer Blues” was one of the show’s highlights.

Lennon continued to use his Casino during the Beatles’ “Get Back”/“Let It Be” filming and recording sessions. On January 30, 1969, filming climaxed with The Beatles’ celebrated performance on the rooftop of their Apple Corps office building, in London. It was the last public performance given by The Beatles as a band and was documented by a slew of film cameras and still photographers – and an 8-track tape recorder rolling in the Apple basement studio. Lennon played his Casino.

The last studio effort found the Beatles back at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, where they recorded their swan song, Abbey Road. “The End” was intended to be the last song on Abbey Road, and gives the listener an all-too-brief glimpse of a great three-way guitar duel. McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon, in that order, each take a two-bar solo, cycling around three times. McCartney used his Casino, Harrison’s work is pure wailing Gibson Les Paul, and Lennon makes an aggressive, distorted howl with his Casino.

John, Paul, and George would continue to use their Casinos on numerous solo projects and recordings. McCartney still uses his, even referring to it as his favorite electric. “If I had to choose one electric guitar, it would be this,” he said.

Andy Babiuk is the author of Beatles Gear, which was recently released in a newly revised edition. He is also author of The Story of Paul Bigsby: Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Guitar and with Greg Prevost is preparing Stones Gear, a history of the equipment used by the Rolling Stones. He can be reached at andy@tonebendermusic.com.

’66 Epiphone Casino

By George Gruhn & Walter Carter

1966 Epiphone Casino

In the Epiphone line of the 1960s, the Casino occupied middle ground. In appearance as well as electronics it ranked well below the semi-hollow Sheraton and Riviera or the solidbody Crestwood Custom. But thanks to the Beatles, it is probably the best-known of all Gibson-made Epi models.

Like most of the Epiphone line of the ’60s, the Casino bore little resemblance to the Epiphones of a decade earlier, much less the ’30s archtops on which the company had built its reputation (be sure to read the feature on the Epi harp guitar in this issue).

With roots in Greece and Turkey, Epiphone was founded as the House of Stathopoulo in the early 1900s. Epaminondas “Epi” Stathopoulo, one of the founder’s three sons, led the company to a prominent position in the tenor-banjo market of the ’20s (an era in which Gibson struggled to develop a competitive banjo model). Epi had the foresight to recognize the rising popularity of the guitar in the late ’20s and, in particular, the role the archtop guitar – an instrument invented by and produced almost exclusively by Gibson – would play in popular music of the coming years.

In 1931, Epiphone attacked Gibson’s dominance with a line of archtops called Masterbilt, playing on the notoriety of Gibson’s L-5 “Master Model.” Gibson responded with more and larger models, and Epi countered with an even larger model. The competition extended to the electric line, where in 1937 Epiphone introduced a pickup with individually adjustable pole pieces, and Gibson followed suit in 1940.

During the production hiatus for World War II, Epi Stathopoulo died of leukemia, and when guitar production resumed after the war, the company struggled. Its six-pushbutton pickup selector system on the three-pickup Emperor was an arguable improvement over the six knobs Gibson used on its three-pickup ES-5, but in most areas of the market, Epiphone lagged behind Gibson. Epi’s brothers were unable to bring the company back to its pre-war prominence, and in ’57 they sold Epiphone to the Chicago Musical Instrument Company, Gibson’s parent.

Ted McCarty, general manager of Gibson, viewed Epiphone as an opportunity for Gibson to expand its dealer network while maintaining territorial exclusivity for existing Gibson dealers. McCarty continued some of Epiphone’s archtop models in the new lineup, and other Epi features, such as multi-ply necks and metal-covered single-coil pickups, also provided continuity between the old Epis and the Gibson Epis. However, most models in the Gibson-made line were completely new.

Gibson had been making thinline electric guitars since 1955 (the Stathopoulos had never introduced a thinline Epiphone), and Gibson introduced the thinline double-cutaway, semi-hollow ES-335 in 1958. Almost concurrently, a similar (and fancier) model appeared in the Epi line – the Sheraton. A year later, Gibson introduced a stepped-down model with the same body shape but with a fully hollow body and single-coil pickups, called the ES-330. In ’61, a model similar to the Gibson ES-330 showed up in the Epiphone line as the Casino.

Structurally, the Casino was the same as the ES-330, with a thinline, double-cutaway hollow body. Functionally, too, it was the same guitar, with one or two “dog-ear” P-90 pickups (with black covers), a Tune-O-Matic bridge, and a trapeze tailpiece. A vibrato was optional. Cosmetically, both models had single-ply binding on the top, back, and fingerboard, pearl dot fingerboard inlays, and an inlaid peghead logo with no other ornamental peghead inlay. The Casino was offered in sunburst or Royal Tan finish while the ES-330 was offered in sunburst or natural.

When Gibson upgraded the ES-330 in ’62 with chrome-plated pickup covers and small block fingerboard inlays, the Casino was also upgraded to chrome-plated pickup covers and single-parallelogram inlays (a pattern not standard on any Gibson).

Gibson designed the Epiphone line to have prices slightly below the equivalent Gibsons, but the only significant difference between the standard Casino and the ES-330 was the brand name. In ’63, Gibson apparently valued the Gibson brand at $15 more than Epiphone. The two-pickup Casino listed that year for $275 and the sunburst ES-330 was $290 (Cherry finish, which had replaced natural, was $305).

Despite the lower prestige of the Epiphone name, the Casino actually topped its Gibson counterpart slightly when it came to the vibrato. The Epiphone vibrato had an anchor bar with a graduated diameter to compensate for the different string diameters. The result was a more consistent pitch change across the strings. Whether the improvement was noticeable to the ears of listeners is arguable, but the Epi-style unit at least had the appearance of an improvement over the simple U-shaped spring design of the Gibson “Maestro” unit, and the Epi unit was not offered on any Gibson model. In fact, the 1963 catalog did not offer any kind of vibrato as an option on the ES-330, while the vibrato-equipped Casino remained a catalog model.

The relative merits of the Casino and the ES-330 – and most other Epis and Gibsons models, for that matter – became irrelevant when Casinos appeared in the hands of the Beatles. Paul McCartney bought a sunburst in 1964, and John Lennon and George Harrison each bought sunbursts in ’65. In ’67, Harrison played his Casino equipped with a Bigsby on a video for “Hello Goodbye,” and Lennon played his on a TV broadcast of “All You Need Is Love.” By September ’68, when the group appeared on the BBC show “Top of the Pops,” Lennon had scraped the finish off his Casino, and Harrison did the same to his shortly thereafter. Lennon played this now-natural Casino on the Beatles’ final appearance together on January 30, 1969, on the rooftop of the Apple building.

If the Beatles had any influence at all on Epiphone sales, it was too little, too late. Through the ’60s, Epiphone sold more than 6,700 Casinos – more than double the sales of any other model – but that was not enough to save it. By the end of ’69, Gibson had scrapped the entire Epiphone line and replaced it with a new line imported from Japan. By the time the Beatles’ rooftop performance was seen by the public in the film documentary Let It Be, it was May 1970, and nothing in the Epiphone line resembled a Casino.

This article originally appeared in VG May 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

The Vox AC30C2X and AC15C1

The AC30C2X is a 30-watt, 2×12 combo loaded with Celestion Alnico Blue speakers (there’s another version of this amp with Celestion G12M Greenbacks – take your pick). There are two channels – Normal and the famous Top Boost, which adds more grit and presence. There are also High and Low input jacks for each channel, offering more options for guitars with different pickups. With three 12AX7 tubes in the preamp, there are a myriad of tone controls here, as well. While the Top Boost channel has its own Treble and Bass controls, the Normal channel does not; fortunately, there’s a Tone Cut knob in the master section that can help you find the right tones for both channels. The reverb circuit also has its own Tone knob for dialing in brighter or darker ’verb flavors. No question, the AC30C2X is a tone-tweaker’s dream come true. And aside from reverb, there’s a Tremolo circuit for adding all sorts of wavy, pulsating effects to your guitar tone. For more, plug your pedals into the amp’s effects loop, and there’s also a footswitch jack to turn the reverb and tremolo on and off. There’s a jack for an external cab, as well.

Powered by four EL84 tubes, the AC30C2X packs a nice punch for a 30-watter – you’ll be pleasantly surprised by it’s big, beefy sound. Using a Strat and a Les Paul, the amp is suitably retro, giving plenty of tonal options. Sure, you can get all the bright, chimey George Harrison sounds you want, but the AC30C2X is just as much a great blues, rock, and country amp. And with the built-in reverb and tremolo, surf guitarists are going to love it – the brawny tube tones combined with these essential ’60s-instro effects are not to be missed. It also packs nice overdrive tones, but if you need more, an overdrive pedal on the front will deliver your favorite Stevie Ray/Bluesbreaker sounds. And if you want more old-school vibe, you can “jump” the two channels with a short cable, essentially linking the Normal and Top Boost sections for even more drive. All told, this is one amp whose charms are hard to resist. The only potential pet peeve is the upside-down control labels – which while they may be more authentic, require standing behind the amp to read, which is a minor annoyance. At 73 pounds, it’s also a weighty beast, but that’s fairly common for a 2×12 tube amp.

Its smaller sibling, the AC15C1, is a 15-watt/1×12 combo with a three 12AX7s and a pair of EL84s in the power section. Accordingly, the amp isn’t as loud as its bigger brother, nor does it have the big low-end. But the effects sound killer, especially for surfy sounds.

This amp would be great for club gigs with a PA, or rehearsals. Or, just set it up in the living room for your own retro riffing.

Because these amps are made in China, their prices are quite affordable. You may think they lack the requisite British mojo because of that, but they’re good-sounding boxes, with vibe out the wazoo – especially the 2×12 AC30C2X. No doubt, John, Paul and George would say, “Check ’em out, mates!”

Vox AC30C20X/AC15C1
Price: $2,000 list/$1,249 street (AC30C2X); $900 list/$599 street (AC15C1)
Contact: voxamps.com.

This article originally appeared in VG January 2011 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Their music is obviously Beatles- (“JonBenet,” “Wear This Dress”) and Byrds- (“Please Stop Stealing From Grandma”) influenced, and unlike most funny music, it’s got enough going for it to make it listenable past the point when the jokes begin to wear. They may be best compared to Barenaked Ladies, but outrageous and obscene as they may be, the Clutters never come off as smug. Whether they’re in full out comic mode like in “Please Stop Stealing From Grandma” or when they tone down the funny in “Life The Movie” their songs are just flat out good. And how can you not like a band that writes a love song to the Three Stooges (“Moe Howard”)?

At the core of the Clutters’ sound is the vibrant ring of Jim Earl’s Rickenbacker 12-string. It’s one of the elements that lift the Clutters’ music above similar fare. Every track on this album would sound just as good if the band had played it straight. Still, be careful who’s in the room when you play it.  

This article originally appeared in VG‘s Nov. ’10 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Manzarek became one of the most influential keyboardists in rock and later was a best-selling author and Grammy-nominated recording artist in his own right. His most-recent album, 2011’s Translucent Blues, was a collaboration with slide guitarist Roy Rogers.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) 1939 and 1941 Gibson Super Jumbo 100. Photos: Eric C. Newell.

The Super Jumbo 200 is Gibson’s most celebrated flat-top model, and deservedly so, thanks to its use by cowboy movie stars in the pre-World War II years and by country music stars in the post-war years. The Super Jumbo 100, on the other hand, is one of Gibson’s more obscure models – a status it does not deserve. In aesthetics, as well as performance, it should be ranked among Gibson’s most noteworthy models.

As its name suggests, the SJ-100 occupied a place significantly below the SJ-200. Since the model numbers reflected list prices – $100 and $200, respectively – Gibson seemed to be saying that SJ-200 was twice the guitar that the SJ-100.

While the SJ-100 did not have the degree of ornamentation of the higher model, it nevertheless had its own distinctive sound and – as these two SJ-100s show – its own distinctive look, as well.

The lack of attention garnered by the SJ-100 began with its introduction in 1939, in the shadow of the SJ-200. Both models were the same size – 17″ wide across the lower bout – and shaped like the “advanced” (widened) L-5 Gibson introduced in 1935. They were only 1″ wider than Gibson’s dreadnought-size flat-tops, but they appeared even larger thanks to their circular lower body shape. Gibson began making the SJ-200 on a custom basis (initially just called Super Jumbo) in ’38. It featured back and sides of rosewood – then, as now, the premium tonewood for flat-tops.

In ’39, when the model was first cataloged, a second super jumbo-sized guitar made its debut; the SJ-100 had mahogany back and sides, and though its price was only half of the SJ-200, it was still higher than other Gibson flat-tops (the Advanced Jumbo and the Nick Lucas Special), and it had features to justify the price.

The SJ-100’s bridge was the same open-ended moustache shape that the SJ-200 sported, but without the long blocks of inlaid mother-of-pearl. Early examples of both models had individual height-adjustable bridge saddles. The SJ-100’s pickguard did not have the engraving of the SJ-200, but it did have its own distinct shape, recognizable by a sort of scalloped feature on the upper edge. The top binding on the SJ-100 was only three-ply, compared to seven-ply on the SJ-200, but the SJ-100’s binding was unusually thick – around 0.25″ thick. Not only did it surpass the SJ-200’s binding in thickness by about .05″, its wide white layers outlined the body with a stronger visual effect than the seven thin plies. The SJ-100’s back binding was single-ply, but it, too, was extra thick.

The SJ-100 had the maple neck and ebony fingerboard of the SJ-200, but with pearl dot inlays instead of the 200’s crests. The 100’s peghead represented its biggest departure from the 200, and from Gibson tradition as well. Where the 200 was bound and sported an ornamental inlay, the 100 had no peghead binding and no ornament. It was further distanced by a series of notches on the sides. The reason or inspiration for the notched design is unknown, but it appeared on two other new models in ’39 – the mahogany-body dreadnought Jumbo 55 and the electric archtop ES-250.

In 1941, Gibson downgraded the SJ-100 slightly. The notches disappeared from the headstock and the open-ended moustache bridge was replaced with a more compact bridge. The new bridge, with pointed ends and a point extending from the lower edge, was arguably as elegant as the moustache, but it made the SJ-100 easy to identify. No other Gibson except the J-55, which received the same spec changes in ’41, ever had the sculpted bridge. The scale length was also shortened slightly, from 26″ to 251/2″.

Like most Gibson models, the SJ-100’s run officially ended at the end of ’41, when the U.S. entered World War II and Gibson diverted most of its production to war products. Total production, according to new research by A.R. Duchossoir, was 177 units, which was only 19 more than SJ-200 sales. One would expect the lower-priced model to have greater sales, but perhaps it didn’t meet the expectations of Gibson’s new owners, the Chicago Musical Instrument Co., which purchased Gibson in 1944.

In terms of sound, the typical SJ-100 exceeds expectations, especially compared to the rosewood-body pre-war SJ-200s. One would expect the 200 to have a voice as big as its body – bigger than a dreadnought – but the typical example simply does not produce the booming sound associated with large-bodied rosewood guitars. The typical SJ-100, however, sounds like a big guitar with an extra bit of sustain, and is sonically as good as Gibson’s other pre-war mahogany guitars, such as the Jumbo and J-35.

One wonders if the people at CMI actually compared an SJ-100 to an SJ-200 or to Gibson’s newly introduced J-45. Apparently, they did. Duchossoir notes that two SJ-100s were shipped to CMI headquarters in July, 1944, as were examples of most other models, presumably for review. Duchossoir also notes that those two SJ-100s were probably newly made, so it’s impossible to know how closely they followed the pre-war specs.

When the war ended, production resumed on the SJ-200, but with maple back and sides instead of rosewood – possibly a result of the sampling by CMI. The mahogany-body dreadnoughts J-45, J-50, and Southerner Jumbo had been successfully introduced during the war, and Gibson continued producing them when the war ended. Given the moderate success of the SJ-100, one would think there would be a niche for a mahogany super jumbo, but the SJ-200 was the only pre-war flat-top the new regime revived after the war.

The SJ-200 went on to lasting fame, billed by Gibson as “The King of the Flat-tops,” while the SJ-100 became one of Gibson’s most obscure – and most intriguing – flat-tops.

This article originally appeared in VG December 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.