Veteran guitar monster Richie Kotzen has done it all from opening for The Rolling Stones, recording with Stanley Clarke, to coming to the rescue for Poison and Mr. Big. Having recorded a stack of solo albums, he now joins former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan, to form The Winery Dogs, who have released a heavy rockin’ effort packed with gargantuan musicianship and vocals, big hooks, and blue-eyed soul. VG caught up with Mr. Kotzen to get the story.
How did you come together with Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy to form The Winery Dogs?
From my perspective it really came through radio personality Eddie Trunk. I was thinking out loud to my buddies that it would be cool to do a band project again. Suddenly out of the blue I got a phone call from Eddie Trunk. He was talking about how Mike Portnoy and Billy Sheehan were looking to do a power trio. They needed someone that could sing and play guitar. Eddie suggested me.
It was Mike Portnoy who actually called me and opened the door. We decided to get together at my house and come up with some ideas, jam, and see what happens. In that initial meeting we spent the day together and recorded three or four instrumental ideas that would eventually have vocals.
Those guys went off on tour and I marinated on what we had done. I remember writing two of the songs and finishing the lyrics. The guys liked it so we decided to get together again. Over the course of a couple of meetings we realized we had some inspired work. We decided to move forward and ended up making a record.
It sounds like everything fell into place quite naturally, including the songs you started.
It was a two-fold process in making the record. We got together a couple of times and threw around a bunch of ideas and constructed verses, choruses, bridges, and solo sections. We recorded rough demos of those and I developed them into songs. I sent those back to the guys and I got their feedback, then tweaked that accordingly.
I would say that process made up for at least half of the record. The other half were ideas that were lurking on my hard drive. I remember playing some stuff for the guys that I had in progress. A couple of things they liked. One of them was “I’m No Angel.” That was a song I pretty much had in the can.
In the process of working we put some things together. There were two songs that I finished that I brought in. One was “Regret” and the other was “Damaged.” They were pretty much ready to go and the guys liked those, so we put them on the record. Then there was one that Mike took from the original sessions and wrote lyrics to. That was interesting for me because it was the first time I ever recorded a song that was coming from me, where I didn’t write the lyrics. On “You Saved Me” Mike wrote the words and the melody.
Despite having strong individual styles, the record has a unified sound.
All of us have our sounds and what’s interesting about this record is that element has not been lost. When you hear the record you know it’s me singing and playing guitar, but when you hear the drums and the bass, you know it’s Billy and Mike.
Sometimes in situations where you’re thrown into a room with guys who have strong personalities, it’s easy for somebody to get lost. That didn’t happen. The thing that I love most about the record is that everyone’s personality is still there. None of our personalities compromised the other person’s personality. I think that’s important and what makes the record special.
Did you do anything different in terms of your guitar sound?
I had my Fender Vibro-King, a Custom Vibrolux, my Bassman, and my Marshall 2×12 cab with the little head. It’s like the 1974 combo but it’s the 20-watt head version. Then I had a 100-watt Marshall plexi through a 4×12 in the isolation booth, and an amp I built from a kit that’s basically a tweed Deluxe. They were all setup and mic’ed so I was able to experiment and try different things. Most of what I ended up using on the record was the Fender stuff. I get better tone out of a combo, so I’ve kind of abandoned the 4×12 cabs. It’s a lot clearer. It’s still got gain, but it’s not that fuzzed-out gain. When you play fast you want that clarity. You have to find that sweet spot where you get in-between where the gain is out of control, and in control.
This article originally appeared in VG November 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Though obviously a familiar name given his hits from the 1970s and ’80s were FM staples and today are virtually ubiquitous on classic-rock radio, last month we talked with Steve Miller about his less-discussed musical pedigree. Literally raised in the company of some of the biggest names in guitar music (Les Paul, T-Bone Walker, etc.), by age 12 Miller was earning money as a musician before eventually moving to Chicago to make a living playing the blues, then attaining superstardom after releasing a string of hit singles and albums.
Though never much into vintage guitars, Miller is nonetheless a prolific guitar collector who works with some of the best-known luthiers, creating custom instruments.
We pick up the conversation discussing how he came to possess a small army of recent-issue Gibsons.
You recently went on a hunt for good Les Pauls. What were you looking for – new stuff, vintage stuff?
I was looking for both. In 2006 I was awarded the Les Paul Tech Award at the TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio’s Technical Excellence and Creativity Awards show, and was presented a Les Paul ’59 reissue. It’s a beautiful instrument and a lot of fun to play. In fact, a lot of the solos on (Miller’s new album) Bingo! were done with that guitar.
A while after that, I was at Chicago Music Exchange looking for a Gibson doubleneck. I tried a few and wasn’t satisfied, and they had the Jimmy Page-signed version on the wall. I said, “Okay, bring it down.” So the guy pulls it down, and it’s one of 200 doublenecks that Tom Murphy put together. It was the first time I had seen one of his, and what a great guitar, especially the six-string SG section. I was knocked out. It turns out they had 11 doublenecks, and I tried them all. Suddenly, I was very impressed with what Tom Murphy and the Gibson Custom Shop were doing.
So I bought three of them and started looking for a “Murphy’d” Les Paul. Just as we were starting last year’s tour, I heard there was a Billy Gibbons Pearly Gates version coming out; I love the way Billy plays and I love his tone, so when I heard the Reverend was giving up the secrets, I jumped right onboard – his tone is so cool!
So, Scotty – my manager, who’s a guitar nut too – said, “Let me call around and see if I can find one. I played one and I think you’re gonna really love it.”
So we started looking, and I’m on the road when these two signed Billy Gibbons guitars show up – numbers 15 and 16. I tried them, and without a doubt, these guitars are the real deal. I mean they sounded so good; I started using number 15 onstage that night. I was delighted with how it felt, how it played, and especially with how I sounded on it. Then I found a couple of aged ones, serial numbers 22 and 23, and they were amazing, too. I started asking myself, “Wow, what is going on here?” Wherever we went, we started visiting whatever guitar stores were in that city.
Eventually, I ended up at the Gibson Custom Shop and met all the guys building these guitars. They were wonderful. I was so impressed by what they had accomplished. I couldn’t believe the quality of the guitars that were coming off that line. The five hours I was there, a lot of guitars got finished, and I played them all. All of them I have are really wonderful, easy to play, set up perfectly, and sound wonderful. We started recording with them, and I take four on tour with me.
The Storm-Thorgerson-designed cover of Steve Miller Band’s new album, Bingo!
You’ve also been talking with Gibson about building some customs, right?
Yes, I’m getting ready to place an order after trying a lot of different artist models, incorporating everything I’ve learned from them and have figured out playing my pearly gates for a year and from talking to Les himself over the years and his son Rusty about Les’ personal guitar.
The Gibson Custom Shop does some nice work.
I think they’re at the pinnacle of the guitar building history. I really do. This is the golden age for Gibson – it will be hard to get better than this. I’ve tried more than 30 Les Pauls and any of them would knock anybody’s socks off. There’s not one bad one in the bunch. And Tom Murphy, Pat Foley, Steve Christmas, and all the guys at the Custom Shop are to be congratulated for their hard work and the fine instruments they’re producing. There are a hundred men and women at the Custom Shop who are all very serious about their work, and they’re turning out wonderful guitars. Jimmy’s doubleneck 12-strings is priceless to me – I love them. They’re wonderful instruments, and Tom Murphy has done a great job. I prefer the Murphy guitar or a VOS, and before I tried them I just thought that was all a gimmick.
You said you have four of those on the road. What else are you taking on tour this year?
I just went through everything with Wes Leathers, my guitar tech, and we’re taking new Martin J-12-40E 12-strings that are really right on the mark. I’m using those for my acoustic sets, some different tunings – B, D, and E. I also use the D-45 and a D-41 for my acoustic set.
Are those newer Ds?
Well, I’ve been using them for the last 15 years. They’re well-played-in road guitars. I’m taking six John Bolin Strats with custom pickups made by Seymour Duncan, two BillyBo guitars with TV Jones pickups, a new Custom Shop VOS Les Paul Junior that has a P-90 that sounds like it’s a foot deep that Steve Christmas steered me to, and a couple of Bolin N/S guitars with custom electronics by Haz. I introduced Ned Steinberger to John Bolin, and John built the N/S models for me. Ned’s been a good friend for years; I’ve played lots of his guitars in my shows over the years.
For more than 20 years, Steve Miller has been working with luthier John Bolin to create unique instruments – solidbody, hollowbody, basses, etc. Here are a few.
I also have two CV Guitars, they are called PG Mods; Larry Corsa puts them together using Les Paul Standard fadeds with Manalishi pickups with an out-of-phase Peter Green setup, and they are great guitars, too. They’ve got great tone.
My search for the ultimate tone continues. I’m playing a Wildwood Gibson LP mod with a double-cut maple top, and they carve both sides of the maple top, which creates a small tone chamber. They had Gibson make 25 of them. Then, I ran into a client of Bolin’s who’s owns an original ’53 Les Paul goldtop, an original ’59 Les Paul Standard, and an original ’57 Strat, and I asked him, “Would you bring those to our gig?” We were doing a tribute for (late bandmate) Norton Buffalo at the Fox Theater in Oakland in January; he graciously brought all three – the ’59 was formerly Eric Johnson’s, with “Buddy” written on the pickguard. It was great to play the real deal and see what it really sounded like ’cuz I hadn’t played a real ’59 in so long, you know? And it was this lovely, sweet, clear-sounding guitar. It had all the stuff you wanted, and its lower strings had a clearer tone. You had to crank the amp up a little more, but once you did, the thing started to sing. It wasn’t as hot as a Burstbucker pickup, but it was clearer-sounding and a little sweeter, more musical. That’s why I started looking at Les Pauls again. I thought, “Okay, I get it.” I like that sweet sound more than I like just a super-hot sound. So in the end I think it’s all about pickups, really. The instruments that Gibson is building are as perfect as I could ask for especially when they have been Plecked… I see any new Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul as a perfect platform for whatever pickups you like. I pick the instruments that feel best and the neck that suits me the best – it isn’t about finish or color or whatever. I’ll change pickups all day long just to find the perfect match. I talked to Seymour Duncan after playing the ’59 and described to him what I thought I was hearing and he sent me two sets of pickups that were not wound as hot, and they sounded really good. You just sort of have to crank your amp up a little bit more, and then there it is.
Seymour’s Antiquity humbuckers have some really fantastic overtones…
That’s exactly what I came away with, and man what a sweet, fat, hot sound And if you want to go over the top, just turn up the amp two numbers – there it is!
So now I’ve got this great bunch of guitars and I’m hoping to build one with Edwin Wilson at Gibson’s Custom Shop that has a combination of all the right parts and pieces for my tone and me.
1. A Tom Anderson Guitarworks Drop T with graphics inspired by Native American art. 2. A Steve Andersen custom. 3. A Steve Andersen Emerald City. 4. A Jim Triggs New Yorker. 5. A Jim Triggs solidbody with mother-of-pearl covering.
What’s in the pedal board you use live?
The first thing is a switch that kills my microphone in the house PA but lets me talk directly to my in-ear-monitor mixer Steve McHale and the rest of the band through their in ear monitors. It’s handy for quick on the spot adjustments, messages to the house mixing engineer, or quick cues and changes to the band, the stage crew and guitar techs.
Then, for guitar there’s a Klon Centaur I use for the Gibson guitars, a Fulltone OCD for Stratocasters – it’s weird, but they always sound different in each venue; sometimes I switch guitar setups and one just feels better than the other.
Next is a Boss DD-2 set for when I play “Fly Like an Eagle.” Then there’s a Boss DD-2 set for short delays, a Keeley compressor, a Seymour Duncan SFX-07 Shape Shifter, and a Vox V847 wah. Everything’s plugged into a Voodoo Power supply and there’s a Radial SGI single-line transformer.
The pedal board runs to my Dr. Z Stang Ray, which then goes to a cab with two Celestion Gold 12” speakers.
We talked earlier (see the August issue) about how things came together so well while you were recording the songs on Bingo!. But we should also mention that you worked with renowned artist Storm Thorgerson on the cover art.
Yes, and it was a huge project! Storm listened to all the music and did 30 drawings. I picked the ones I liked, and then he went to Spain and shot the pictures (laughs)!
Steve Miller’s current stage set is more than a little “guitar-inspired.”
Certainly no half-hearted effort! His work for Pink Floyd involved some fairly extreme concepts.
Get this, man! We’re working on more projects, one where he’s digging a guitar-shaped hole in England that’s 60 feet long and five feet deep with people dressed in ’50s-style clothing pouring water into the guitar. For another, he did a drawing of vinyl discs coming out of the sky at an angle, landing in the desert. So we built the discs – they’re 30 feet in diameter!
So yeah, these are these huge, surreal Pink Floydian album covers.
And these are for your albums, like the other batch that you recorded during the Bingo! session?
Well, I started a record company – Space Cowboy Records. Perfect time to start a label (laughs)! Thank God we have our touring income, man. Seriously, though, it’s really exciting to be working with the kind of artists I’m finding. For a really a long time, I was uninspired about making records, mainly because of the business of it. It’s like, “I feel like doing a record. But I’ve got to call a lawyer and then micro manage the company,” you know? But this is different – a lot better, a lot more interesting, and a lot more fun, which is the way I want to do it. And hell, I’m 66 years old. I don’t have a lot of time!
Storm Thorgerson’s rough sketch for an art project involving a 60-foot hole shaped like a guitar.
But do you still enjoy playing live?
I never felt that way about touring. I love to tour, I love to play, I’m excited about my new stage setup, I get excited working on set lists, putting things together, working on the acoustic section of the show and figuring out this and that. I love all of that.
But the business part is too irritating…
Right. I wasn’t very interested in doing it. But working with Storm, working with (recording engineer/co-producer) Andy Johns, and having somebody like Joe Satriani come in… Having (vocalist) Sonny Charles join the band, having the band up for it, having the sounds sort of wake up after a long, long time…
And with your own label, you’re the boss.
Yes. I don’t want to be mad at a record company, so it feels really good, like it’s in our hands, not some corporation that doesn’t care. It has that feeling of the good old days, when we’d record what we wanted to record.
And of course, these days you can’t record albums thinking they’ll make you a star. It just doesn’t work that way.
No. The whole business is so… it’s sad. I feel bad for young musicians because there’s no place to play, no place to grow. Pop music today is people groomed by the Disney Company and put on television, then made pop stars. It’s a very hard way to go. People like me would never have a chance today. I’m not a video artist. I can’t dance and make it look great and keep my hair just right.
The good news is I’ve found two groups I’m working with; one is The Danger Babes – two girls in San Francisco who are 20 years old, brilliant writers, and really great performers. They sound like a combination of Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, only newer and better. And then there’s Max Marshall, a young guitarist and writer from Texas. He was 12 at the time we met, and a really good guitar player. I got him to come to New York and introduced him to Les Paul, and Les brought him onstage and he got to play with Les. He’s 16 now and burning it up; he’s somewhere between the Kinks and Led Zeppelin and the Moody Blues, and a phenomenal writer. For the last two years he has been to the Berkeley College of Music, taking guitar courses in the summer. He’s a real smart kid, and very talented. I hope to finish records with both acts next spring
6. & 7. Two hollowbody electrics by Jim Triggs with artwork inspired by World War II military aircraft. 8. A custom solidbody by Joe Veillette. 9. A highly-modified/altered Gibson L-1. 10. An early-’90s Gibson J-2000.
So, as label head, will you be producing their albums?
I will help them produce their own albums, but they’ll call the final shots, own their own publishing, and be their own bosses. I never was interested in producing other people because they always thought if I produced them they’d become rock stars. But these two acts have the hard part down – the writing and the musical talent. They’re great musicians and writers, hard workers, and they have musical ideas, which is exciting. I’m having fun now!
Participants in the Kids Rock Free program get their rock on; (from left) Dillon Brown, Matt Rubic, Emileen Bernal, and Alex Romero. Photo courtesy Kids Rock Free.
Go On, Give the Money and Jam!
Steve Miller is a huge believer in a music education program for kids age 7 to 17 called Kids Rock Free. Part of the Fender Center (a 501C charity based in Corona, California), its mission is to provide free and low-cost music lessons in piano, guitar, bass, voice, drums, and combo-band.
“In my opinion the Fender Museum and Music school is the best designed and operated community music program in the country,” said Miller. “It was built for a reasonable amount of money, it’s self-sustaining and it focuses on teaching music by involving parents and children in a way that inspires and rewards good work. That’s why I’ve performed three benefit concerts for the school and donated substantially to the program. It works. It is the best community project I’ve ever seen and is a model for the rest of the country to emulate.”
Since 1998, more than 12,000 students have taken part in the program, and bands from it have performed with and/or opened for the Steve Miller Band, Bad Company, Joe Walsh, Merle Haggard, Lit, Alien Ant Farm, Bo Diddley, Etta James, Dick Dale, and others.
Fender Center and Kids Rock Free are in the midst of a fundraising and marketing effort, assisted by The John F Kennedy Center’s AIC program and designed to address the needs of 800 kids waiting to participate in the program. For more, go to fendercenter.org.
This article originally appeared in VG September 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
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The late-’60s EP-2 added a combined instrument/echo volume-blend oscillator to its control panel, and was the first Echoplex to offer Sound-on-Sound recording.
Sam Phillips didn’t invent tape echo with his mid-’50s recordings of Elvis, but he just as well may have. So influential, so inspirational were those songs – with their warm, glorious slap-back echo created in Sun’s control room by two jerryrigged tape recorders – that budding rock-and-rollers everywhere had to have it.
With the arrival of the Echoplex, circa 1959, tape echo finally became easily accessible, and if you wanted to rock like Elvis, it was just the spin of dial and a tape loop away. And that doesn’t begin to describe the sonic adventures Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd would take the Echoplex on. Its sounds are still being experimented with today, some 30 years after the assembly lines rolled to a halt with the last solidstate version.
True, there were many others playing with tape echo years (even decades) before the Echoplex. Les Paul, of course, was trying everything, but his recordings featuring his homebrewed delay were not as influential on rock. Ray Butts crafted his landmark EccoSonic amp in 1953 with built-in echo – first via wire, then tape. The Ecco-Fonic effect followed circa ’59 with a spinning tape head. But neither offered the flexibility of an adjustable playback head to fine-tune the spacing of the echo. Ditto the English Binson Echorec, which used magnetic recording discs. And the Italian-made Meazzi/Vox Echomatic was hard to come by – plus notoriously temperamental.
That adjustable playback head was the key to success for the Echoplex. It was also one of the hardest technical elements to get right during the long gestation of the machine.
The Echoplex story starts with Akron, Ohio, guitarist Don Dixon, who began building his own tape echo effect in the mid ’50s, as he told VG’s John Teagle. Dixon wasn’t an engineer and couldn’t get the machine right, so he answered a newspaper ad for electrical repairs and met Mike Battle, also in Akron. Battle could fix or build anything electrical, and spent the next years perfecting Dixon’s creation.
“It was three or four years before we really got it down where we wanted it,” Dixon told Teagle. “I’d say, ‘Put this back, take this out, a little more of this, a little less.’ And he said, ‘You’re just too damn particular!’ And I said, ‘Mike, if you don’t want to make the best one on the market, lets just quit.’ And he’d get mad, but, boy, he’d go in there and just do wonders with it.”
The key was that adjustable playback head. Battle added, “A lot of the early machines… you couldn’t move the heads, you just played to fit that speed. I don’t know much about music, but how could you play all them songs to the same tempo?” He added a playback head that slid, allowing infinite adjustment to the echo spacing – within the machine’s physical dimensions, that is.
Battle also enclosed the tape within a cartridge, which protected it and helped retain its sound quality. The cartridge’s patent-applied-for “endless loop magazine,” as early brochures hailed it, offered some two minute’s worth of tape.
The duo also labored to get the tone just right, directed by Dixon with Battle again shaking his head over the constant revisions. “I worked on that for him for two years. He said, ‘It ain’t just quite right, Mike.’ I was getting kind of disgusted with it.”
(RIGHT) A rare mid-’60s brochure for the Echoplex EP-2.
Battle’s brother, John, was a die maker, and he built the early cases and other metal parts in his basement. They first offered Echoplexes for sale in about 1959.
“Surprised me,” said Battle, a confirmed non-musician. “These guys would come in, play it, and buy it! I’d build another. I thought these guys buying this piece of junk should have their heads examined, but they had a circus with it!”
Soon, Dixon and the Battle brothers couldn’t keep up with demand. Battle showed the Echoplex to Chet Atkins, who tried and failed to interest Gretsch. Dixon and Battle connected with Market Electronics, a Cleveland company that produced Echoplexes and sold the first 500 to the Maestro division of Chicago Musical Instrument Company in 1959. Production was later taken over by Harris-Teller of Chicago.
The first Echoplexes were retroactively known as the EP-1. Our Echoplex here is a late-’60s EP-2, which added a combined instrument/echo volume-blend oscillator to its control panel alongside the Echo Repeats knob. It also featured Sound-on-Sound recording, allowing infinite looping – at least for the tape’s two-minute length.
With the rise of solidstate technology, Maestro instructed Battle to get rid of the tubes and update the machine. The solidstate EP-3 arrived in the late ’60s, about the time Maestro was taken over by Norlin Industries, then the parent of Gibson, which would sell the effect. The EP-3 was followed by the EP-4.
“Everyone was going to solidstate… so I developed the EP-3. It was the best solidstate Echo unit on the market,” Battle said. Despite his early frustration with Dixon over tone, Battle had become enamored with tube sound. “I did not like [the solidstate] direction, so I left the company.”
But Battle’s creation lives on. With a ’52 Gibson ES-5 into a Fender Vibro-King, the EP-2’s slapback almost makes you think you’re in Sun Studios; its tubes create a warm, rich sound – in fact, some guitarists such as the Police’s Andy Summers switch off the delay and use the Echoplex just to thicken their tone. By adjusting the echo volume, you can put the emphasis on the guitar’s original signal, or the echo. Adding more repeats and spacing out the echoes creates an otherworldly vibe.
These days, analog and digital delay pedals are much less expensive, much more hardy, and easily replaceable. But the Echoplex – with that funky ’50s electromechanical technology and tube-driven tone – has become the standard by which everything else is measured.
This article originally appeared in VG July 2012 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
1966 Guild Starfire Bass. Photo: Contrino Photography. Instrument courtesy of Walter Parks.
In the mid ’60s, Guild took its knocks for making guitars that looked “inspired by” Gibson models. Fans of the brand think the sterotype is unfair, of course, and certainly, many Guilds from the era have their own intrigue. One very good example is the Starfire Bass.
Guild was founded by musical-instrument importer/distributor Al Dronge in the early 1950s, and many of its craftsmen were former Epiphone employees who opted to stay in town after Epiphone moved to Philadelphia. In ’56, Dronge moved the company’s production to the top floor of the Neumann Leathers building in Hoboken, New Jersey, where it would remain until it moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, in ’67.
Guild’s Starfire guitar was introduced in 1960 as a thinline hollowbody with a Florentine (pointed) cutaway, but models introduced in ’63 had a semi-hollow design with a “center block” and double Venetian (rounded) cutaways, a la Gibson’s ES-335-anchored thinlines.
The Starfire Bass debuted in ’65, its design obviously influenced by Gibson’s EB-2, which had been around since ’58.
From the top down, the Guild has the well-known center-hump headstock with two-per-side tuners, “peaked” logo, “Chesterfield” inlay, and a shield-shaped truss-rod cover. Its neck is made from Peruvian mahogany and has a rosewood fingerboard with 21 frets. Scale is 301/2″.
The body was the same one used on Starfire six-strings, measuring 161/2″ wide and 17/8″ deep (even if the catalog says it’s 2″!).
The wood used to make the body varied with the finish – sunburst instruments (and the occasional natural-finished example) in the line were given maple bodies, while cherry-finished versions were made of laminated mahogany. A typical Guild sunburst finish had a more orange-ish tint in its lighter portion than did a comparable Gibson.
Binding on the Starfire Bass’ top was three-ply (white/black/white) and the original version sported two parallel handrests. The bridge/tailpiece was made by Sweden’s Hagström, and had rosewood saddles that could be intonated individually.
The original pickups also came from Hagström, and there are significant differences between the single-pickup Guild and its Gibson counterpart; the EB-2 had a pickup in the neck position, while the potent Hagstrom Bi-Sonic pickup on the Starfire was roughly in the center of the top.
The Starfire is touted in Guild’s ’66 catalog as having “…the acoustical advantages of a hollowbody guitar in a double-cutaway bass with famous Starfire features. Aided by the resonance of its arched top, this guitar propels your group with the tight, strong sound that keeps the other instruments rocking right along.” (Yes, the text does refer to the instrument as a guitar…) The owner of the bass you see here, Walter Parks, believes the placement of the pickup helps validate the catalog’s claims.
“It provides a marvelous detail that a neck-position pickup doesn’t,” he said. “In most situations, the treble needs to be dialed down considerably. The pickup thereafter becomes robust, yet still provides plenty of point and focus to the note. There’s noticeably more sustain in the bridge-pickup model, probably because there’s more top wood resonating. And while they’re electric, mid-’60s Guild basses have wonderful acoustic properties.”
Parks’ band, Swamp Cabbage, plays funky blues on old Guilds exclusively and rehearses in the old Neumann Leathers building in Hoboken!
A two-pickup Starfire Bass was introduced in ’67, and was popularized during the psychedelic movement by Jack Cassady of the Jefferson Airplane and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead (some examples modified by the up-and-coming Alembic company).
By the early ’70s, the Starfire’s pickup was moved to the neck position, with a Guild humbucker replacing the Hagstrom Bi-Sonic (though neck-position versions with Bi-Sonics stayed in production for some time). Handrests were moved, offset between the pickup and bridge, and the bridge plate acquired an asymmetrical silhouette that referenced the harp-shaped tailpiece found on many Guild electric guitars.
The single-pickup Starfire Bass was discontinued in ’75, and while it may not have the historical significance of the Gibson EB-2 or its two-pickup Guild sibling, players and collectors know it’s another example of Guild’s underrated ’60s instruments.
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.
When you get the thumbs-up from icons like John McLaughlin and Chick Corea, it’s got to feel good. But, fusion guitarist Alex Machacek isn’t one to rest on his laurels, and he recently recorded Now, a lush piano-and-guitar duo with drummer/pianist Gary Husband. The album explores a different side to Machacek’s musical personality.
How did you prepare for recording Now?
Abstract Logix proposed the project, and once we started writing, we’d send each other demos and took it from there. Unfortunately, we had no rehearsal time; Gary was on tour with John McLaughlin.
Gary and I are known for rather busy music, but this was supposed to be very intimate. I think it was a good to show a different side of each of us. The only deviation was where I asked him to play percussion on one of the tracks behind my acoustic. There’s a tiny bit of hand-drumming that was supposed to be with his hands on the piano, but the piano goes out of tune easily. I said, “Drum something on an acoustic guitar.” He turned it around, put it on his lap, and played a little hand percussion. Other than that, it’s just piano and guitar, and that was the goal.
Did you do anything different to play with that sense of intimacy?
Not really, because I have a duo with my wife – she’s a singer and I’m used to accompanying her. We were working on a duo album in L.A., and people were surprised to hear me play clean. If I hear a punk guitarist, why should I assume he’s a great classical player? I don’t blame people for not being aware I have other ways of playing.
Do you care what your fans expect?
Of course I do. But then, if I like it, I feel good about it, and I feel good about presenting it. I think an artist should stand behind what he’s delivering. I can’t care too much, because I don’t know all my fans. One guy says I should go more into rock, and another guy says I should go into jazz. You can’t please everyone, so you’re left to your own devices. You just try to give your best in whatever you do.
Are you concerned at all with making commercial music within your genre?
There are other people who make music for a specific purpose. I make music the way I feel I want to. I’m not rich and I will not be rich, so why should I, in any way, compromise my music? I’m just doing what I’m doing and trying to be honest about it. I wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to target a demographic.
What is your main guitar.
It was made by Bill Delap, a luthier from Monterey known for building guitars Holdsworth used to play. A very generous friend gave me this one. The universe said, “This is your guitar.” I didn’t agree with the universe, but after a year, I started agreeing with the universe! It’s a hollowbody, and I’m a big fan of the headless design. It has good, substantive tone that other guitars just don’t have.
This article originally appeared in VG March 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Korg is not known as a guitar company, but to their great credit they worked with Fumio Mieda – developer of the original Uni-Vibe from 1968 – to resurrect his classic modulation effect as the Nuvibe.
A late-’60s Uni-Vibe is like the snow leopard of guitar effects; seldom seen and awesome to behold. But Mieda could not simply re-create the Uni-Vibe from 40-year-old schematics because the photocells central to the circuitry contained cadmium, which is toxic and no longer available. (Plus, it turns out the original schematics were inaccurate.) So he wondered: How close should a copy be to the original – and should it also emulate the original’s shortcomings?
Tone was the top priority, and the Chorus and Vibrato effects on the Nuvibe are deeply satisfying and genuine. The Chorus is not like a modern chorus pedal, but rather a chewy, phased effect. This is the sound for which the Uni-Vibe is revered, and it’s achieved in the circuit by mixing the subtler Vibrato effect with a dry signal. Chicken-head dials control the intensity of the active effect (chosen by footswitch) and the speed of the modulation. The Expression pedal, which is included, enables speed control by foot and overrides the Speed knob. A third dial for volume adjusts the output, which is at unity when set to Max.
A major departure from the Uni-Vibe is the Nuvibe’s addition of 10 sliders for shaping the LFO waveform. White markers denote positions for the original LFO, and users now have the freedom to adjust the oscillation. Red LEDs on the faders provide a real-time visual of the wave, which is very helpful when adjusting to remove an audible pop or peak. Also, it looks way cool.
Purists will appreciate the Nuvibe’s gorgeous tone. Given the vintage dimensions (10.24×6.69×2.64″, plus full-sized foot pedal), they’ll have to really want it, too. At a time when stompboxes are becoming small enough to be choking hazards, the Nuvibe’s ginormous footprint is an obstacle.
Players will have to judge the Nuvibe’s size and features according to their own needs. Do you require adjustable LFO or a pedal to control speed? Would you shell out for an excellent repro to complement your vintage rig? On balance, players who dig a vibey swirl have some very nice options available at one-third the size and less than half the price. But guitarists who are just nuts for the complete vintage vibe will be in Hendrixy heaven.
This article originally appeared in VG May 2015 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
The Lazy J Cruiser Deuce is more complex than your classic stomp-and-go pedal, though its functionality is intuitive.
The Cruiser Deuce’s brown finish and cream knobs (Gain, Volume, Drive, and Sat, i.e., saturation) give it a vintage look; In/out jacks on the side, two footswitches, and a mini toggle round out the operative parts. It operates like a two-channel amp – Gain and Volume knobs control the Boost channel (activated by the left footswitch), while the Drive and Sat knobs control the Drive channel (right footswitch) and the mini toggle governs the degree of compression through the Drive channel. In the middle position, it offers no compression, up employs a medium degree, down offers the greatest compression.
Plugged in between a Stratocaster and a late-’50s Ampeg Jet set for a little natural breakup, the Cruiser Deuce’s Boost (with Gain and Volume set at 12 o’clock) gave the amp greater clarity and presence.
With the Gain all the way on, the Strat produced overtones an octave higher on the sustained notes, even in selector switch positions two and four, where pickup frequency cancellation offered less output. Chords at full gain were crunchy but not too dirty, with audible note-to-note separation. And the seemingly endless sustain and harmonic richness of single notes was very musical.
Punching the right-side footswitch to engage the Drive circuit; set at noon, the controls caused other harmonics from the overtone series to blossom. Adjusting the knobs brought varying degrees of serious crunch, though the mini toggle effect was subtle at low volumes. Cranked, the levels of compression became more obvious. With both channels engaged, subtle adjustments of the knobs revealed various levels of expression as the channels interacted.
Run with a set-neck solidbody with a Charlie Christian-style pickup, it achieved that slightly overdriven sound of a late-’30s ES-150 through a small Gibson amp.
Experimenting a bit through a solidstate amp and an archtop with a Fishman Powerbridge, the Cruiser Deuce’s Boost mode worked very well as a preamp to fatten the piezo bridge response over the entire frequency range. Because the Cruiser Deuce doesn’t change the bass, mid, or treble levels, the lack of tone controls never felt like an issue with any of the guitars.
Got your eyes set on a boutique amp, but just can’t swing right now? The Cruiser Deuce just might just do the trick!
This article originally appeared in VG June 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Photo: Billy Mitchell, courtesy Gruhn Guitars. Instrument courtesy of Lloyd Chiate.
When Gibson acquired Epiphone in 1957, the plan was to introduce a new line of Epis that would be made in the Gibson factory but designed to be slightly less expensive than the equivalent Gibson model.
It worked out that way in the electric line of the 1960s, where the more expensive Epis had mini-humbuckers and the equivalent Gibsons had full-size pickups. But in the acoustic flat-top line, it wasn’t quite that cut-and-dried. The Epi Texan was a little cheaper than the Gibson J-50, but its parallelogram inlays were a little fancier than the J-50’s dots. The Epi Frontier in sunburst was a little cheaper than the Gibson Hummingbird, but the natural Frontier was the exact same price as the Gibson. It looked as if Epiphone were somehow threatening to surpass Gibson, and the threat became reality in 1963 with the debut of the Epiphone Excellente, a model that had no equal in the Gibson line.
Epiphone’s new identity was the brainchild of Gibson president Ted McCarty. The company had roots back to the 1800s in Greece and Turkey; patriarch Anastasios Stathopoulos moved the family to New York in 1903; his sons Epi (Epaminondas), Frixo, and Orphie carried on the family business, becoming a major banjo maker in the 1920s and Gibson’s most formidable competitor among the guitar makers of the 1930s and early ’40s. However, Epi’s untimely death of leukemia during World War II left the company without effective leadership. Orphie sold what was left of Epiphone to Gibson in 1957. McCarty bought the company for its bass production capability, which then proved overrated. But he quickly came up with a new plan to quell a growing problem with Gibson dealers.
Gibson protected its dealers’ territories, and consequently, there were many stores that wanted Gibsons but could not get them. If Epiphones could be “almost a Gibson,” then the dealership base for Gibson-made instruments could be effectively doubled without actually opening any new Gibson dealerships. In early 1958, McCarty met with M.H. Berlin, president of Gibson’s parent company, Chicago Musical Instruments, along with several sales executives, and drew up a new line that incorporated elements from past Epiphones, current Gibsons, and even competitors’ models (such as Martin and Fender).
Some Epi electrics crossed over the “almost a Gibson” line. The Emperor, for example was larger than any Gibson thinline electric, and cost more than any Gibson except the carved-top Johnny Smith. The flat-top line, however, initially kept a low profile, starting with the Cortez (a version of Gibson’s small-bodied LG-2), the Texan (corresponding to Gibson’s round-shouldered dreadnought J-50) and the Frontier (intended to compete with Martin’s square-shoulder dreadnoughts but with the maple back and sides of the earlier Epi model FT 110).
Dealer and consumer reaction to the new Epi line was favorable, and the Epi sales force embraced the brand with pride. Every time a new Gibson was introduced, McCarty recalled, Epi sales manager Les Propp demanded something just as good for the Epi line. Out in the field, Gibson salesman and product demonstrator Andy Nelson was busy sketching out a full line of fancy Epiphones. At one point, Nelson said, he was called into McCarty’s office and told to knock it off, and that Epiphones would always be a notch below Gibsons. Nevertheless, one of Nelson’s designs made it into production as the Excellente, and no Gibson flat-top – not even the venerable J-200 “King of the Flat-Tops” stood above it.
The Excellente debuted in 1963, sporting a square-shouldered dreadnought body with rosewood back and sides. The rosewood alone made it different from any standard post-WWII Gibson. The oversized pickguard featured the engraved image of an eagle landing (which would later be revived on the Gibson’s deluxe archtop Kalamazoo Award). The ebony bridge had its own shape (although it might be interpreted as a droopy reference to the J-200 moustache), and unfortunately, it had the height-adjustable saddle that plagued Gibson and Epi flat-tops in the mid ’60s. The bound ebony fingerboard sported cloud inlays, the signature inlays of Epiphone’s DeLuxe archtop (which was to Epiphone what the highly respected L-5 was to Gibson). The headstock was inlaid with a huge pearl rectangle, with cloud pieces placed above and below. Andy Nelson’s sketch had an ornamental cutout at the top of the headstock, framing the Epiphone epsilon (Greek letter E), but the production version had the standard Epi headstock shape.
The Epiphone FT-120 Excellente hit the price list in July, 1963, at $535 (plus $50 for case). It cost significantly more than the Gibson J-200, which in natural finish listed for $475.
The listing was a bit premature, as only one Excellente shipped in 1963, but as might be expected of the fanciest guitar in the line, the Excellente soon found a home in the world of rhinestone suits and big hair. It was almost the Sonny James Southern Gentleman model (VG, August ’99), and Gibson went so far as to build one with a smaller pickguard and a reverse-belly bridge as requested by James, but the country star and his record label felt he was too strongly identified with the sound of his Martin D-28 to endorse an Epi. In the meantime, country music legend Ernest Tubb (whose guitarist, Jack Drake, had arranged for James to meet with Gibson) put down his famous Martin with “Thanks” on the back and began performing with an Excellente. Loretta Lynn found the Excellente to be the perfect symbol of her newfound success, and she performed onstage with it for many years.
The Excellente may have surged past all the Gibson models in price and ornamentation, but not in sales. Total production from 1963 to ’69 was 139. By comparison, the slightly cheaper J-200 topped the Excellente’s total figure every year. During the same period, the Epi Texan was averaging about 1,500 per year and its counterparts in the Gibson line, the J-45 and J-50, around 7,000 per year. The Excellente was effectively out of production by the time of the 1968 price list, where it checked in at $675. Only eight were shipped in ’68, and two in ’69.
Today, the Excellente holds the same position as its price in the 1960s would suggest; possibly the best flat-top made by Gibson in that era, and certainly a symbol of triumph for those who believed Epiphones were every bit as good as Gibsons.
This article originally appeared in VG March 2007 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
When it comes to “travel guitars,” players are often forced to sacrifice size for portability and even functionality. Unlike many travel instruments that are simply miniaturized six-stringers, the Traveler AG-105EQ is a useful and playable instrument featuring a full-sized fretboard and a body that’s just two inches smaller across the lower bout than a full-sized grand concert guitar.
How is this accomplished? Three U-clamps and Allen bolts anchor the strings north of the nut, while a Steinberger-like tuning system on the far side of the bridge holds the ball ends, eliminating the need for a headstock and allowing standard strings. Called the Streamline Tuning System, it’s different from a traditional headstock-and-tuning-key system in one major way: it’s a lot better. It goes out of tune with the regularity of a presidential election and transforms tuning into a one-handed affair. Only the rear .625″ of the tuning system touches the top, so its damping effect is minimal.
Thanks to a fretboard that’s 1.75″ wide at the nut and a satin-finished C-shaped neck .875″ thick at the seventh fret, playing the AG-105EQ is a breeze. The excellent setup is reflected in the .098″ clearance between the bass E string and the top of the twelfth fret. The 25.5″ scale conspires with the solid spruce top and 3.25″ sides to produce clear and bright bass, sweet highs, and notes with serious punch. Chord note definition is very good.
Plugged in, the 105 comes to life. Its Shadow Nanoflex pickup captures vibrations from the strings and the top, introducing much more harmonic complexity, breadth, and depth to the amplified sound than average piezo and soundhole pickups. The Nanoflex is connected to an Allegro preamp with controls for volume, treble and bass, and a headphone output and auxiliary input. There’s even a built-in tuner and a phase switch for conquering feedback. The Allegro runs on two AAA batteries that are easily accessed through the soundhole, even by people with large hands.
With its great sound and compact size, the AG-105EQ is damnably inviting (just try to get anything else done in a room with it in full view). Its headless design and headphone-out jack make it the ideal tour bus guitar, and it’s even large enough to play onstage without looking like you used to deflect a blast from a shrink ray. And, it includes a well-padded, functional gig bag. But you don’t have to travel to love this guitar – once you get one, you’ll have a hard time leaving the house.
This article originally appeared in VG August 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
While many pedal makers tinker away on effects that exhibit their personal tonal philosophies, the fact is that most don’t play gigs or compose music. Seraphim Marcopoulous of ToneConcepts was keen enough to take advantage of his professional relationships with some of the finest guitarists in the industry, asking, “What’s missing?”
After collaborating with the likes of Billy F Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Alex Skolnick, and Jim Campilongo, Marcopoulous discovered what was missing: They wanted a tone-shaping boost pedal that enhanced the sound of their rig, kept their core tone intact, and improved the sound of subpar backlines. Named by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, The Distillery was created for guitarists with an ear for nuance who want to preserve the character of their guitar’s sound.
The Distillery’s workmanship is solid and its graphics strikingly cool. A true-bypass pedal, it features two circuits, each activated by a footswitch. The right footswitch is the On/Off button for a boost circuit featuring three controls: The Boost knob gives 20 dBs of added volume and edgy grit; the Guts knob is an extra gain stage to add more punch and sustain; and the Bleed knob is a passive tone shaper that can tame highs or add edge. These features would be more than enough for the guitarist seeking to add more pizzazz to their amp, but we’ve only begun.
Engaging the Shape footswitch on the left opens up a big can of tone-shaping delights. The Contour knob adjusts high frequencies when turned clockwise, and also works as a filter, while the Edge knob adds sparkle and upper-mids. These two knobs work together to fatten up thin single-coils or to achieve more clarity with bassier neck-position humbuckers. Unfortunately, while the Boost can be engaged without engaging Shape, Shape can’t be used without Boost.
Used with a variety of combo amps, high-gain heads, and guitars, The Distillery is like an energizing cold snap. The Boost section alone offers transparent amp-pumping options with lots of variations from light volume goosing to full-blown organic breakup. It’s perfect for the anti-pedal player who prefers to exploit the tonal purity of an old combo amp. Engaging the Shape side and adjusting the Contour and Edge knobs did not produce one bad sound, but rather provided everything from comfy mids to crispy chime. It also added lively zing to fuzz and distortion.
Not recommended for the attention-challenged, The Distillery is nonetheless a superb pedal for the experienced guitarist who understands the idiosyncrasies of EQ, boost, and their respective effects on making beautiful music.
This article originally appeared in VG March 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
After collaborating with the likes of Billy F Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Alex Skolnick, and Jim Campilongo, Marcopoulous discovered what was missing: They wanted a tone-shaping boost pedal that enhanced the sound of their rig, kept their core tone intact, and improved the sound of subpar backlines. Named by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, The Distillery was created for guitarists with an ear for nuance who want to preserve the character of their guitar’s sound.