Category: Guitar Equipment

Categories
Guitar Equipment Pro Audio Archive Publications

Johnson Sound Systems of Manitoba circa 1951

Download the abridged (10pp from 20pp) JOHNSON SOUND SYSTEMS circa 1951 catalog:

DOWNLOAD: JohnsonSoundSystems_catalog

Alright here’s a real obscurity for you.  JOHNSON was a brand/dealer of ‘musical merchandise’ in Brandon, Manitoba Canada in the 1940s/50s.  I’ve scanned the 10 pages from their circa 1951 catalog (the date is a guess based on the particular microphone models available in the catalog).  I’ve omitted the pages featuring luthiery parts, electric razors (!), etc.  Amplifier models featured include:  The Johnson Vibrante, Maestro, Johnson Junior guitar amps; and the Johnson M1, M2, M3, and J1 PA heads; plus Hofner classical and archtop guitars, mics from a few makers, Celestion Rola G-12, P-44, Z10Z0 speakers, plus pickups, etc.

For a few words about JOHNSON and its founder Albert Johnson, plus photos of many later models of Johnson amps, visit this site.  The most interesting fact: these amps were not re-branded pieces from another manufacturer; they were in fact unique designs built on the familiar+dear Hammond chassis.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Icons Publications

BOSS guitar effects and associated audio products 1984

Download the entire twenty-four-page 1984 BOSS full-line catalog (7.3 MB file).

DOWNLOAD: Boss_Full_product_Line_1984

Products covered, with full specs and photos, include: Boss DD-2 digital delay, HM-2 heavy metal, CE-3 and CE-2 chorus, BF-2 flanger, CS-2 Compression Sustainer, DM-2 (analog) delay, OC-2 Octaver, VB-2 Vibrato, TW-1 touch wah, GE-10 equalizer, plus many more pedals; HC-2 handclapper and PC-2 Percussion synth; DE-200, DM-300, DM-100, RX-100 tabletop delay/reverbs; SCC-700 effects controller; BX-600, BX-400, KM-60 mixers; plus many more odd items.

Volumes can be said about the BOSS brand of audio products.  BOSS was created in 1976 as a guitarist-oriented division of the ROLAND corporation of Japan.  They arrived at their classic form-factor of a small cast-metal pedal with large foot-switch and safely recessed knobs in 1977.  Since then, these devices have become as ubiquitous as the electric-guitar itself.

Audacious, perhaps, but probably accurate.  When a young kid gets the guitar and amp he has been wanting, the next thing he wants is a ‘pedal.’  And more likely than not, that pedal will be a BOSS pedal.  To a novice guitar-player, these effect units literally open up a world of possibilities, offering the potential to free the instrument entirely from the acoustic sound that the vibrating strings create and into a world of engineered audio.

When I was a kid learning to play guitar, the BOSS digital delay pedal (ie ‘Echo pedal’) was our holy grail of pedal effects.  These things were so expensive that almost no one could afford one.  They cost as much or more than your amplifier.  On the other hand, we had no interest in the DM-2 ‘Delay’ (read: Analog Delay) pedal, which has more limited echo time and ‘impefect’ ‘analog processing’ which causes noticeable high-frequency loss on the echo repeats.

Ironic now that the DD-2 digital delay pedal is nearly worthless, while the DM-2 and DM-3 analog delay pedals of the same era trade for upwards of $400.  I have been using a DM-2 in my live-performance guitar setup for several years and it is a truly great device.

I used one of these percussion-synths for a long time too.  These are very cool if you can find one cheap.

I can’t imagine that this mixer sounds very good but shit it is funky.   A cosmetic holdover from the 1970s BOSS line.

Have you seen ‘THE BOSS BOOK” (no author attributed) from Hal Leonard Publishers?

I encountered this 122-page volume at the bookshop one afternoon and I have to say: it is one of the best books in the (albeit limited) genre of ‘musical-instrument-writing’ that I have come across.  Extremely dense, rigorous, and well-illustrated.  If you have ever used guitar-effect pedals in your work, I highly suggest that you pick it up. “TBB” traces the development of each of the effect devices from their inception through discontinuation.  This history is in many ways the history of the evolution of the electric guitar and audio processing in the 1980s.  A lot to think about.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Publications

Gretsch Guitars 1978 Full-Line Catalog

Download the entire eight-page 1978 Gretsch Electric Guitars Catalog:

DOWNLOAD: GretschElectricGuitars1978Catalog

Models covered, in text and photo: include: Gretsch #7595, 7594, and 7593 White Falcon; #7680 and 7685 Super Axe and Atkins Axe; the usual #7690 super Chet, 7670 Country Gentleman, 7660 Nashville, and 7655 Tennessean; The Gretsch Committee #7628 and 7629 bass; Roc Jet #7611; Country Roc #7620; TK 300 #7625 and Bass #7627; Broadkaster #7609; and Country Club #7576.

The late 70’s were hardly the most lauded period in Gretsch history; were it not for the lingering (after-after-after) effects of ‘Beatlemania’ I doubt they would have even lasted this long.  Interesting to see that they have kept most of the circa 1964 classics intact; but more interesting is the scattered approaches to innovation that they assumed with their newer models, like the Alembic-influenced Committee models seen above.  BTW; an etymological question: when did the phrase ‘designed by committee’ become synonymous with ‘bad design’ rather than ‘this is a positive feature’?

Not really sure where they were going with the TK300 line…  Punk/new wave maybe? Odd-shape-for-the-sake-of-odd-shape?  Then figure in the oft-noted ‘Super Axe’ with its built-in phaser and compressor, already several years into production (feel like they beat Gibson to the party here…  feel like the RD artists came later…).

Did anyone really think that phase-shift was such a fantastic effect that you would want it around for ever and ever and ever in your guitar?  As much as I dislike 80’s guitar design, at least people had the good sense not to market high-end guitars in the 80’s with built in chorus and flange effects (prove me wrong here people…).

Categories
Guitar Equipment Pro Audio Archive

Orange Amplifiers Full-Line Catalog Circa 1970

Download the entire twelve-page c. 1970 Orange Musical Industries Catalog:

DOWNLOAD: Orange_catalog_1970

This catalog contains photos and specs on familiar pieces like the Graphic 80 and 120 heads (see above).  It also details many extremely obscure products such as the Orange 15 (!!!) channel Mixing Console # 101R, the Orange Deluxe and Deluxe Custom Disco (DJ) units, and the Orange Cart Machine and Condenser microphone units.  Crazy.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Pro Audio Archive Publications

Fender Album Of Stars Promotional Magazine c. 1968

Download the entire 32-page Fender ‘album of stars’ promotional magazine, circa 1968:

DOWNLOAD PART 1: FenderAlbumofStars1

DOWNLOAD PART 2: FenderAlbumOfStars2

Apologies for the weird alias-ing.  I’ll get better at scanning eventually.

A special PreservationSound nod to Merry-Go-Round frontman Emitt Rhodes (standing), aka the father of home recording.  IF you are not familiar with Rhodes and his outstanding work, check him out…Also be sure to scope this amazing early music video for one of his best tracks. “Hey how do we let people know that he plays EVERYTHING on these recordings?”

Some of the images in this 32-page ‘album’ have been reproduced often; for instance, the highly-dubious Dylan-with-Jazz Bass.  Many, though, have never been seen by those who do not possess the actual document. This is a fairly rare item these days, as it was created with the intention of being cut-up and pinned to one’s wall.  There are actually cut-lines printed in the margin of each page.  So dig in….

Artists include:  Union Gap, Mike Bloomfield and the Electric Flag, Brenda Lee and the Casuals, The Fifth Dimension, Sebastiao Neto with Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, Oscar Mesa and Mike Saluzzi with Roger Williams, The Merry-Go-Round, Vic Gaskin with Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Brown Jr., Herman’s Hermits, Chad and Jeremy, Bob Dylan, Wayne Newton, Sonny and Cher, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Lee Michaels, Noel Harrison, Edgar Willis and Barry Rillera with Ray Charles, Ian and Sylvia, The James Cotton Blues Band, Duke Ellington and Mercer Ellington, The Beach Boys, Don Ellis (check the prototype echo ((?)) unit), The Baja Marimba Band, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The First Edition (feat. Kenny Rogers on a Coronado Bass II), Rick Nelson and James Nelson, The Chambers Brothers, The Byrds, and a dude who apparently played a Stratocaster guitar named Jimi Hendrix.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Pro Audio Archive

Yamaha Guitars And Guitar Amplifiers 1968

Download the entire 12-page 1968 Yamaha Guitar/Amp Catalog (USA region):

DOWNLOAD: Yamaha_guitars_amps_1968_catalog

Models covered in this publication: Model 150, 120, 100, 80, and 60 Classical guitars.  Model FG-110, FG-150, FG-180, FG-230 steel-string acoustic guitars.  Model SA-50, SA-30, SA-70, SA-20, and AE-11 electric hollowbody guitars; and the TA-60 and TA-30 guitar amplifiers.

I have owned and used several of these instruments.  The electrics are really very cool, but keep in mind that most examples will need a neck reset and/or plane in order to play like a new guitar.  Dig that dark green finish on the bass though.  Killer.

It has often been noted that Jimmy Page toured with Yamaha acoustics in the early 70’s, which may be why Japanese Made ‘red-label’ Yamaha acoustics are currently in-demand.

Yamaha has used the term ‘natural sound’ for many decades to market a wide range of different audio gimmicks.  The only constant seems to be that ‘natural sound’ represents Yamaha’s willingness to try odd new things in a constant technological struggle to achieve more accurate sound-reproduction.  This early iteration of ‘natural sound’ seems to consist of these odd trapezoidal ‘happy-meal’ foam speakers.  We had one of these amps in our band back in the 90’s and it was heavy as a bastard and very dull-sounding.

Not sure if this was Yamaha’s own technology or if they licensed it from another firm.  In any event, these odd speakers made their way into an obscure Fender combo amp in 1969, the Bantam Bass.

(web source)

The Bantam Bass is essentially a Bassman 10 with one large foam speaker in place of four 10″ drivers.  It was a short-lived product.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Technical

Premier 88: ready to go.

After probably 14 hours of work and $200 of parts, my Premier 88 is working 100%.

As I described in an earlier post, the Premier 88 is a rare and highly unusual instrument amplifier from the 1950s.  It consists of an amplifier unit and a speaker unit; but rather than the amplifier unit sitting atop the speaker, like most every other 2-piece amp, the 88’s amplifier sits beside the speaker cabinet.  The two sections clasp together with luggage latches.  It moves as one (very large and heavy) piece.

This odd side-by-side form-factor is not the only unique feature of the 88.  Check out the control panel.  Rather than conventional bass/middle/treble knobs, the ‘instrument’ channel of the 88 has 5 organ-stop-type levers that can be switched in or out.  Each lever is a bandpass filter.  IE., if you depress all 5 levers, you get the full tonal spectrum.  If you depress none of the levers, you get silence.   The ‘Microphone’ channel also has a pair of unusual tone control switches; they seem to be hi-cut filters.

Here are some examples of the sounds that the 88 produces.  Right channel is an SM-57 close to the speaker; Left channel is a 414 in omni approx 10 feet away.

LISTEN:  Low_and_High

Listen: Mid_only

The trem is super weird and extreme. Here are a couple of examples:

Listen: Trem_low_settings

Listen: Trem_HighSpeed

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In all honesty, this amp was a pain in the ass to service.  When I first brought it into the shop, it did turn on and pass signal; the tremolo sort-of worked, as did all of the tone controls.  It just sounded terrible and it had no output.  The longer it ran, though, more and more parts seemed to fail, starting with B+ resistors and then moving on to the 50 year-old tubes.  So eventually I ended up replacing most of the components in the amplifier.

When I first opened it up, I saw tha someone had added a Pilotuner mono FM receiver to the speaker cabinet.  I removed the tuner, and I then had to fabricate cover-plates for where the tuner face and tuner knobs had been.  I used aluminum plate stock.  That was the first piece of work.  And then:

*replaced the 15″ Jensen Alnico speaker with a new Jensen 15″ ceramic (there was a weird rattle in original speaker)

*replaced all electrolytic capacitors in amp (approx. 20)

*replaced all B+ and plate-mixing resistors in upper preamp chassis (approx 15)

*replaced all caps in tremolo circuit (some needed to be replaced twice in order to get the right response)

*clean all tube sockets and replace 3x 12ax7 in pre-amp.

*add grounded AC line to power amp chassis

*replaced 6L6 and 5U4 and 12au7 tubes in power amp chassis

Good lord.  Was it worth is?  Who knows.  Once you start a restoration like this, you kinda just need to push on through until it’s done done done.  This is possibly the only working example of this amp in the world, so I felt like it deserved a chance.

The repair was difficult owing to 2 conditions:

*There is no schematic available for this particular iteration of the Premier 88, and the pre-amp is extremely complex owing to the bandpass filter arrangement.

*The amplifier is split into 2 sections: The top half is the pre-amp and trem circuit, and the bottom half is the phase inverter, power amp, and power supply.  These two sections are joined by two cables: a shielded RCA line (audio signal) as well as an octal snake that carries B+, ground, heater lines, and tremolo defeat control.  Owing to the extremely short length of these two cables and the manner in which they pass through the tight trapezoidal enclosure,  the preamp cannot be operated unless the unit is fully assembled.  So… the preamp circuit cannot be operated while its circuit is accessible.

Now that all is said and done, it is clear that I would have benefited from making an octal extender cable so that the preamp circuit could be accessible while active.  Hindsight is of course 20/20.

A few things other repair tips that this repair has illustrated:

*If you are missing a schematic:  don’t assume that the plate resistors for 12A_7s are 100k ohm.  The 88 had 270k ohm plate resistors.  Generally speaking, when i get an old, noisy amp, I just replace all the 100k resistors, assuming that these are the plate resistors.  Bad carbon-comp plate resistors are often the source of weird intermittent noise in guitar amps.  But not in this case!  Premier used 270k ohm.

*Alnico speakers definitely sound better than ceramics for old guitar amps.  I always suspected this, and now I am convinced.  Wish I had sprung for the extra $100 for the Alnico Jensen.

*Don’t assume that working tubes can’t be causing weird intermittent problems.  I am generally pretty trusting of working preamp and rectifier tubes, and  I am often quick to assume that B+ resistors are bad, when i fact, it COULD also be the tube…

 

 

Categories
Guitar Equipment Icons Pro Audio Archive

ICON: Marshall Amplification

What greater visual icon for the mythic virility and power of the circa-1970 Rock-Star than the “Marshall Stack?”

(web source)

(web source)

(web source)

Jim Marshall was a drum-shop keeper in London in the mid-60’s who began cloning the 1959 Fender Bassman amplifier in order to give British Musicians the popular American-Amplifer sound they wanted at a lower price made possible by domestic UK manufacture.

By around 1968 he had arrived at the classic Marshall formula of a simple Fender-derived circuit using 4x EL34 output tubes, Drake transformers, and a head unit sitting atop 2 large sealed cabinets each holding four 12-inch speakers.  It is the use of the EL34 tubes (rather than Fender’s 6L6s) , with their greater power and gain, along with the ‘tight’ bass response afforded by the large speakers in the sealed boxes, that are most responsible for the ‘Marshall’ sound.

It is said that Pete Townsend was the impetus for the large human-height ‘stack’ aspect of the amplifier.  The form of these things certainly suggests the huge volumes of sound/noise that they can produce.    A great many bands used the ‘Marshall Stack’ in the 1970’s.

Nowadays, the ‘Marshall Stack’ is generally only used by true hard-rock and Metal bands, as well as the occasional ironic user.  Well, maybe ironic.  Who knows.

(web source)

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Today we will look at some early 70’s Marshall promotional material from the PS pile/archive.

Click on the link to download the entire 20-page 1971 full-line catalog: Marshall_1971_cat

Some circa 1970 Marshall oddities.  I have never come across any of these for sale anywhere.  Anyone?

20-channel Marshall ‘festival’ mixer.

400-watt Marshall PA rig circa 1971.  The Mixer unit actually had some pretty intelligent features for the day, like a 2-watt headphone amp with a simple single  knob to cue any individual channel or the mix buss.

And who used this stuff?  Joe Cocker, apparently.

Marshall even marketed a Microphone at the time. The Model 3700.  Looks shitty. It is nearly impossible to research this unit due to the fact that an entire line of Marshall (no relation) Mics is currently being made.  Killer mic box, tho.

….And don’t forget the Marshal Super-Sound T-shirt.  Wow.  What can you say about this ad.  Note that only small and medium are on offer.

The Marshall Artist does turn up from time to time.  I could get into one of these.  Seems to be like a BluesBreaker plus reverb.

We’ll close this out with a couple of original pricelists:  USA 1972 and Germany 1974.   A reality check:  the ‘stack’ of a 100-watt head plus 2 4×12 cabs was listed at $1600 in 1972. This equals $8629.69 in current US currency.  Even allowing for usual 40% retail price deduction, that was still a $5000 amp.  Good lord.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Icons Pro Audio Archive

DESIGN ICON: MXR audio effects in the 1970s

MXR Innovations began making their first product, the Phase 90 phase-shift pedal, in the early 1970s.

(web source)

Phase-shift is an audio effect which adds a gentle ‘swirl-y’ motion to a sound.   The sound of a clean electric guitar picking through a chord progression with a phase-shift effect is one of the truly definitive sounds of 70’s rock music.  Listen to the rhythm guitar part in this long-haired chestnut and you will hear what I am talking about.

MXR did not invent the phase-shift effect, but their Phase-90 did more to popularize it than any of its predecessors.  MXR’s real ‘innovation’ was the high-quality, small physical size and indestructible nature of the device.  In contrast, previous phase-shift pedals tended to be bulky, noisy, and not especially durable.

BTW, the MXR phase 90 is still made today, 40 years later; and it is still in wide use.  MXR Innovations no longer exists as a corporate entity; the brand-name and trademark were sold in the 1980s to the Jim Dunlop Corp, who now manufacture Phase 90 pedals in various subtle varieties.

A book could be written on the history of MXR, and it is not my intent here to share that long and fascinating story.  If you are interested in the details, I highly recommend Tom Hughes’ excellent book “Analogman’s Guide to Vintage Effects,” which features candid long-form interviews with a few of MXR’s founders.  This book is a must-read for anyone who uses audio-effect processors in their work.  Thorough and essential.

Anyhow, let’s just take a moment to celebrate the incredible and powerful industrial design and graphic design of the iconic MXR brand.  In a previous post, I included a scan of one of the early MXR ads.  It still looks beautiful and evocative today, 35 years later.  Everything that these guys did in the 70’s was done with care and attention to detail. Consider these c.1980 MXR dealer-support materials, including a full scan of the circa 1980 full-line catalog (16pp).

DOWNLOAD THE FULL CATALOG: MXR_c1980_catalog

From the Hughes book, in the words of MXR founder and Phase 90 creator Keith Barr (later, founder of Alesis (!)):

“I mean, to me, MXR was an art project.  Yeah, it was a business, and yeah there was the little game to see how cheap we could make a unit, but still make it reliable…Richard was the guy who was really into the sound, I was the guy who was into clever design, Tony was the guy who was into digital circuitry, and all of us were into…that’s why they ended up calling there company ART, A-R-T.  We had this idea collectively that what we were doing was an artistic expression; it was the way this thing was packaged, the way it looked, the way it felt- all these little things made up what it is” (Hughes, 234).

Oh yeah… in case you were wondering… not only did Barr go on to create Alesis (the company that literally changed the world of home-recording forever with it’s ADAT digital 8-track),  the other MXR designers Richard Neatour and Tony Gambacurta created ART, arguably the most innovative guitar effects company of the 1980s and 1990s; and Mike Laiacona, MXR’s first salesman, created Whirlwind, which is still one of the major forces in meat-and-potatoes basic pro-audio hardware.  Incredible.

Categories
Guitar Equipment Icons Recordings

Spring Reverb Defines a Mythic Space Where The Legends of Rock Live

Listen to this audio.

Gtr_Amp_Close_up

You don’t need me to tell you that this is the sound of an electric guitar playing through a guitar amp (speaker).  You would believe me if I told you this was what you were hearing.

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But what about the space that this happening in?  And what does the sonic event of this speaker-movement sound like in that space?  I can show you.

GtrAmp_in_a_room

…And you would believe me that this is the space in which this event is taking place.

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Humans are pretty good at using our ears/brain to evaluate a sound and judge the space in which that sound is occurring.  We never had to do this much until about 100 years ago, because until we had technology to record/transmit and playback sound as audio, the only way to hear a sound was to be physically present where the sound was being generated.  So baring blindness or blindfold, if you heard a sound, you did in fact have good direct knowledge of the space in which the sound was occurring.  But we now have the technology to capture and reproduce sounds divorced from their origin in time and/or space.  And we also have devised technologies to synthesize the sound of spaces.  We can synthesize very good imitations of real physical spaces that we have experienced in the flesh.  And we can also synthesize the effect of imaginary and unreal spaces.

Listen to the guitar performance again.

GtrAmp_DigitalReverb_Church

I have taken the close-mic’d guitar-audio you listened to initially and ‘placed it’ into a ‘church-space’ by processing it with a computer-reverb program.  There is no actual physical space captured here, other than the 2-inches between the microphone and the speaker.  But, if we suspend that knowledge, I think that we can all reasonably accept that yes it does in fact sound like the guitar-performance is taking place here:

(web source)

Many generations of computer-programmers have labored for decades to create that sonic illusion, and they have done a pretty good job at it.   Even the cheapest pieces of audio-hardware nowadays come with these digital-reverb programs built-in, and there are generally dozens of ‘spaces’ on offer, from Halls to Churches to Rooms etc.  And most of the time, these reverb-programs are effectively able to convince us of the spaces that their names suggest.

But what about spring reverb?  AKA., guitar-amp-reverb?  AKA, the reverb knob on your old Fender (or whatever…) amp?  Exactly what space is defined there?

Let’s take a listen.  Here’s the same close-mic’d guitar performance you heard earlier; this time, though, I have turned on the reverb knob on the amp.

GtrAmpSpringReverb

It’s evocative, right?  But of what?  And more importantly, of where?  Our brain is telling us that the guitar is now in some sort of space.  But what is that space?  Well, literally, it’s the space and the springs inside this little 9-inch steel can in the back of the guitar amp.

(web source)

But emotionally, we don’t feel like we’re hearing the sound of this little sardine can.  Instead, the guitar-performance (and our imaginations) have been transported to some sort of mythic Rock-Legend-Space.  How is this possible?  Because we have heard this same goddamn accutronics-reverb-tank sound a million trillion times since were little kids.  Because nearly every good-quality guitar amplifier made in this country or any other between the years 1965 and 2000 had one of these little mechanisms in it.  Furthermore, we never heard the sound of this ‘space’ when we were walking down the street, or to the kitchen in the middle of the night to get a snack (crunchy carrots).  We have heard this space a zillion times always and only in context of Rock and Roll.  Either on record, on the radio, or in a club watching a band on an elevated stage.  Through these millions of associations, the sound created by that little metal can has come to represent a sort-of Mount Olympus of Rock and Roll.

(web source)

Or, if you like, the Hall Of Justice of Rock.

(web source)

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Have you ever read Rock Dreams by Peelaert and Cohn?  It’s a collection of illustrations (with some explanatory text) that attempts to visualize the legends and myths that we associate with various Rock and Soul performers.

All of the personages represented in the illustrations are real, actual people who were born, lived, and died (or will).  But they have been placed in settings which are simultaneously unreal and yet totally expected.  The scenes depicted in the images are not actual places where these people ever set foot.  Instead they are spaces that we have created in our collective imaginations.  And they are very fitting.

I think the spring-reverb box in the guitar amp has come to define such a space.  Not a space of inches and miles, walls and ceilings, tiles and columns; but an imagined space where Rock and Roll lives; an imagined space that we all imagine with uncanny similarity.