Fender: 25 Years at the Ensenada Factory

October 24th, 2012

We sometimes like to take pleasure in kicking the big guys when they are down. GM, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft…the Yankees. Seeing the seemingly invincible struggle sometimes makes us little guys feel better. In the world of guitars, certainly the two electric heavyweights Fender and Gibson have had their share of troubles. Fender has been in headlines for their struggling profitability and the much publicized IPO that never happened (probably because the Private Equity people realized that the stock value just wasn’t there). Gibson of course hit the papers with their government raid and fines related to the improper importation of restricted hardwoods. I still maintain that if everyone else in the industry can manage to buy fingerboards legally, then Gibson most likely was doing something not kosher. Also there’s just something about a $3500 guitar with lacquer drips, but that’s for another day.

Fender however recently hit a real milestone with the 25th anniversary of their manufacturing facility in Ensenada, Mexico. What is so great you say about celebrating a factory that makes guitars in Mexico rather than in the USA? The importance of the Fender Ensenada factory is that over two decades ago Fender realized that as global competition would continue to drive manufacturing to low cost countries, that is was better to control their destiny rather than subcontract it. The Fender factory in Mexico now employs over 1000 people and occupies over a quarter million square feet, turning out electric guitars, acoustics, and amplifiers.

It would be nice to think that this manufacturing could have stayed in the US, but by nature guitar making is labor intensive. And with 80% of the worlds guitar market being under $600, nearly all this market is going to be fulfilled by suppliers in low cost countries. In a recent Music Trades article about the Fender plant, it was pointed out that in 1990 China produced 0% of the world’s guitars. Now China produces over 70% of the world’s guitars, but only 45% of the total market value. In other words, they make a boatload of inexpensive guitars. And most of these China factories don’t have names that we would recognize. They are contract manufacturers that produce guitars and then brand them with names that we do recognize. This is how much of the consumer product world works, but it’s hardly the image we like to have of guitar making as a craft.

Fender deserves a lot of credit for investing to maintain control over their intellectual property, their manufacturing processes, designs, materials and product quality. Building a factory is a huge undertaking, and it would have been much less expensive for Fender to just find a factory to build their designs. However, when we stop manufacturing, we also lose touch with the skills and technology to actually create the product. Product designers who know how their designs are made invariably design better products. Take a guitar pickup for example: Here is a product where several companies can take the same wire, magnets and bobbins but all get different results. It’s the process of making the pickup as much as it is the actual design. When manufacturers and designers work together, products and quality naturally improve at a faster rate. The pace of product development increases too, and it takes less time to bring a new product to market. Although the factory is in Mexico, it’s a day trip from the Fender HQ in Arizona. They are in the same time zone and the same continent, and it makes a difference.

As a lot of people already know and appreciate, a “MIM” (Made in Mexico) Fender is a good quality product. It’s not a cheap guitar; it’s a guitar that delivers top value for the price point. As the factory continues to increase its capabilities, the price point and value of the MIM products will continue to rise. From the standpoint of brand equity, the Fender MIM products are largely embraced by the guitar playing public, and while some would rather be playing a true USA Fender, nobody is being done a disservice by playing an Ensenada product.

Whether it is Foxconn producing the iPad or whoever actually makes Nike footwear, there is increasing separation between the creators of products and the manufacturers of the products. Some pundits will argue that owning the design is the only true value, and that manufacturing is strictly a matter of finding the lowest cost source. That’s how we get Barbie Dolls with lead paint, and why it’s hard to buy a Toaster Oven that will last more than three years. Guitars are not appliances or toys, and should not be built that way.

Fender has its share of troubles, and for some purists the only real Fender guitars are those made before 1965 when a man named Leo ran the company. But for people of normal means, Fender Ensenada products are the pathway to owning what are arguably the most recognizable shapes in rock and roll. Kudos to Fender for keeping the dream of rock and roll alive.

Tags: Fender, Guitars, IPO, UpFront Guitars, wall street
Posted in General Items, Guitars and Accessories, The Music Business | Comments Off

The Fender Bassman Amplifier – The amp for almost everything?

July 5th, 2012

Preface: Never say on the internet that anything is ever the “best” or you will be hounded by email, gear pages will convulse with derision, and internet servers will glow incandescently straining to handle the volume of traffic proclaiming your incorrectness. So in this post I will completely avoid the term “best’ and merely relate one’s own experience with a particular amplifier.

This story started several months back when my brother Neil called up and said “Hey, I found this really nice amp, you want to go in halves with me?” It seems that our friend Dan Neafsey of DGN guitars had acquired a Fender Bassman Ltd in a trade and wanted to sell it. This is the “nice” reissue of the Bassman with a pine cabinet, GZ34 rectifier and (4) Jensen ALNICO 10″ speakers. It’s very much like the original Fender 5F6 schematic except of course for the printed circuit board, non-carcinogenic capacitors and a 3-prong plug. And it doesn’t cost eight grand. On top of that, it’s a rare “relic” version with some nice mild aging to the tweed, and some faux cigarette burns on the topside. Some find the whole relic thing pretty cheesy, but it looked good and the aging was tastefully restrained. Lastly, Dan had ditched the circuit board and done a point-to-point Mojo Guitar Works conversion with some nice high grade components. So not wanting to turn down a brother in need, I sent him some bucks via PayPal and the deal was done.

At this point I should say that my brother lives about 130 miles away, so half ownership is kind of like joint custody: When do I get to see it, how often, and what about weekend visits? However, Neil also does most of the major work on my car. As luck would have it, it was time for a new timing belt and I headed off to Connecticut with my car and a DGN Tele®.

There are a couple guitar players at the repair shop where my brother works, so there is usually some gear hanging about the garage. They literally have a garage band. Shortly after arrival, my car was on a lift in one bay, and in the other bay was the Bassman warming up, along with a LP Junior, the Tele and a couple pedals.

The garage is a high-bay affair with decent acoustics, and any amp tends to sound pretty big in there. But the Bassman was just on another level. Diving in with the Tele, the Bassman had a wonderful combination of slightly spongy twang, deep full bass, and a room-filling presence that made a typical 1×12 combo sound strangled and puny. This puppy really breathed; and the interaction of some rectifier sag and four little speakers huffing and puffing in a pine box created a connection between guitar and amp that was more mechanical than electrical. Each note had a beginning, middle and end that was totally musical, with a broad projection and sense of texture that you could almost reach out and grab. Open tunings and drop D on the Tele created shivers and silly grins all around. I was hooked.

As I drove back I realized that our mutually arranged weekend visits with Bassman would not do. But what now? There are not any shops around me with cool gear — except maybe mine and I sure didn’t have one — and I was not going hit up Guitar Center hoping to get lucky. So with few other options it was off to the “Magic Devaluator” of all merchandise: eBay. I got lucky almost instantly, and there were three used Bassman Ltd’s with the right specifications all bidding in the $700 – $900 range. So for a little over $800 shipped I got a very clean Bassman Ltd with a couple light scuffs, mint condition cover, and even the glossy cardboard piece they put over the top with the all the sales promo stuff and suggested amp settings. From what I can tell, it’s not really used at all. To finance this, I sold my real ’67 Pro Reverb for close to twice that and came out ahead on the deal, sonically and financially.

Whenever I get a new amp, the first thing I try to do is make it “better”. I hauled out some NOS tubes — Bugle Boys, GE’s, RCA blackplates – talked to my brother about what he experimented with, and so forth. The amp came with the original Groove Tube/Fender tubes including the USA-made Groove Tube 6L6 ‘s. However, except for substituting one of my NOS 5V4 rectifier tubes that I got from KOS (oddly, rectifier tubes do sound different), nothing really sounded better than the original tubes. Clearly the Jensen speakers sounded great, so I was not going to touch them (plus Neil already tried that and said don’t bother). Fender had done their homework: The Bassman really needed nothing, and any effort to improve it’s sound took it the wrong direction. Lesson learned.

I experienced a similar phenomena with whatever guitar I plugged into it: The tone was good off the bat, with very little tweaking of the knobs. I tried a lot of guitars: Les Paul’s, an Archtop, various G&L’s, a Rickenbacker, and even a Godin Multiac Nylon string. No matter the guitar, it was never a total “do over” with the EQ. Just maybe a slight tweak of the bass or treble and I was off and running. I would have never imagined bringing my G&L and a Rickenbacker to the same gig, but with the Bassman it might just work. And I’m just talking EQ: I have not even mentioned that the Bassman has a bright and normal channel, each with hi and lo inputs, and you can jumper the inputs to use both channels at once.

I was flabbergasted: All these years I have been messing around with amplifiers, and it never once occurred to me to try a Tweed Bassman. Now I wonder why they aren’t more popular. To some degree the great popularity and legend of the Blackface amplifiers led me to believe that this style of amp was the holy grail of tone. After trying and failing with a few real Blackface Fenders, I discovered in a roundabout way via a ValveTrain Trenton that the Tweed tone really suited my style. Between the Bassman and my Dr. Z Remedy, I’ve pretty much got things covered. Which I guess means that I’m really a Marshall fan because the Remedy is based loosely on a Plexi (but with 6V6 tubes) and the Bassman is the basis for the JTM45. My whole amplifier belief system has been upended by the Bassman.

There may be some perfectly good reasons not to want a Tweed 5F6 style Bassman. You might find that an amp that looks like a big brown suitcase is the wrong look for you, your band, or your peers. I suggest you get over that one, and just have them listen to it or look the other way. Or, that a 4×10 amp is too heavy and bulky. The amp is a little boxy, but the pine cabinet and ANILCO speakers keep the weight down to around 50 pounds, which is way less than any tube 2×12, and even some tube 1×12 combos (If size and weight are truly major concerns, check out the ValveTrain Trenton for a vibe that’s close, but in a smaller package). You might also be rightly concerned that a Tweed design amp won’t handle pedals or high gain very well. While this is generally accurate of the Tweed genre, the Bassman was intended to handle a bass guitar signal, and therefore does have pretty good headroom, and it’s 50 watts. I find it works pretty darn good with pedals, although if truly high gain rock/metal is your thing, then you will look silly playing a Bassman, and you are free to purchase the large ominous-looking black box of your choice. But if your styles include blues, roots, indie and a good dollop hard driving rock — think JTM45 — there is no reason a Bassman and a couple well chosen pedals won’t get you there in style, and at reasonable volume levels, and set you back less than a grand. Plus you can finally bring your Rickenbacker to the gig.

Tags: 5F6, Bassman, DGN Guitars, Fender, rectifier, Tweed, UpFront Guitars, ValveTrain
Posted in Amplifiers and Accessories, General Items | Comments Off

Guitar Tweaks: Can you hear the difference?

June 3rd, 2012

We’re talking about tweaking your guitars and your amps. You know: Stuff, gear, tweaks; can you hear the difference? Once the drummer fires up, does it really matter that you specifically tweaked your pickups, capacitors, pots and speakers? Does it matter to you or to the audience (should you have one) or do you do it just because you love to experiment?

What have you tried? What can you hear? What’s for real? The Internet is full of stuff to buy and try. Some with disputed results, some not. Some is must have, or at least must try.

For starters, let’s takes strings. Strings make a real difference in your sound. Steel, Nickel, Nickel over steel, Nickel over Nickel. How about even Nickel over round core versus a hex core? It is pretty much undisputed that different strings sound different. Most people won’t argue that strings make a difference.

The next topic is Guitar electronics as in “Caps and Pots”. You commonly hear “was like taking a blanket off my amp”. Yup a nice old (or new) PIO (paper in oil) cap can really smooth out and open up a dark or muddy guitar. Some of the “chicklet” caps in today’s guitars are very harsh. And it all depends on the value of the cap. .015 is really nice in a LP with a Humbucker in the neck. Tame a shrill bridge pickup with a .047 in the bridge. Most guitars, LP’s anyway come with .022’s. There are a lot of variables here and again most will agree “pots and caps” make a difference because they do.

Pickups: Way to big a field to even start to discuss here. I’ve tried a bunch. I’ve heard large changes, not always what I wanted and I’ve found after some installations I can barely hear any difference at all. It’s nobody’s fault; the whole idea of describing sound is rather vague anyway. But in general shop wisely and have an idea of what you want, and then pickups are a good solid upgrade. I’ll throw out a generalization, and that is go for pickups with less output than you think you want. Pickups wound really hot choke off highs you may want later. Get the tone out of the guitar and tailor it at the amp. Also pickup output can be increased with larger magnets as well as windings. Difference is the larger magnets don’t choke highs like windings. You can also split hairs by changing magnets in the pickups you already have, but that may be getting too OCD for some.

As with pickups, speakers are a huge topic and they can make or break your sound. Everyone likes something else. And remember what sounds great alone in practice situations may not sound great in a band setting. Loud alone isn’t the same as loud with a drummer. This is why I like heads and separate speaker cabs. Mix and match. Makes for more options. So let’s put speakers into the category of yes, makes a difference. Yes we heard the difference.

So many more things you can change. Everything matters. The room you play in matters. How far is your open back amp from the wall at home vs a practice or gig? Your amp, your tubes, your tube bias……… Even the pick you use makes a difference. This is an area where naming all the stuff that matters can’t really be tackled in one blog. But it is stuff we mostly all agree we can hear, and that it matters. We want our base tone to be as good as it can be. If we can hear it, then it was worth it.

So why is it that the web is full of players who argue that you can’t hear the difference in cables? They say the cable from the guitar to the amp can’t make any difference, and any difference heard is because you just paid a lot for a cable. It’s all snake oil and pseudo-science, right? Nope, I’m here to say that it matters much more than you think.

A year ago I was at UFG (Upfront Guitars) world headquarters to try some stuff. I had a nice Gibson R4, my groovy little true PTP wired boutique amp armed with nice old tubes and we’re rockin’ out. We were trying different cables. I was playing a solid core cable versus my OK mid-priced name brand stranded cable. Yes there was a difference. More clarity, more shimmer (here we go, trying to find words to describe tone) from the solid than from stranded, and less distortion. Then I tried a coil cable. I have a tendency to make any straight cable turn itself into a knotted mess in minutes. I had hopes that the coil cable sounded good. If it did I was getting it. It was as clear as day that the coil cable was the worst cable we tried. Worse than a straight stranded cable. Worse than my daily cable. No doubt, no question, it was dull, dark, and fuzzy. No point in debating it, and not close to the solid cable

A real eye (ear) opener was when I did a blind test. This was not planned but it worked out that way. I had been playing just guitar with solid core cable into the amp. Played some chords, riffs, all the stuff you play when you are trying gear out. Then I added a couple of pedals into my signal chain. These are good pedals with true bypass, they were all off and I used stranded cable between them and to the amp. I started playing again. The other guy in the room whose back had been to me all this time said right away “wow, what did you change?” All I’d done was add some stranded cable to my signal chain. The clarity was different, a little more muffled, a little less “shimmer” Also I found that what I had thought was attack-driven dirt when I played harder was actually distortion from the stranded cable and not from me hitting the amp harder. Swapping in solid core cables cleaned up the signal and the distortion was gone. I now have solid cable in my board and the whole signal chain, but I’ll agree that good stranded cable is very close to solid cable. I’m just looking for a clean signal. I can wreak havoc later with a pedal, right?

Yes Hendrix liked the sound of a 50’ coiled chord from Radio Shack. There is also a guy on Youtube with fantastic demos of his ’59 LP and Trainwreck amp. He likes the sound of a very long (100’?) cable in his signal chain. He likes what it does for his tone. His tone BTW is freakin’ awesome. You may also like either of the above. You gonna tell Jimi his sound was crap, to get another cable? He knew what he was doing. A cable is a tone control. Don’t ignore it.

I guess I feel like I owe it to myself to get things right. I just want the cleanest purest signal from my guitar to the amp or pedal. I know that once the band starts up, once the drummer shows up late and starts his noise in the room with the low ceiling and the wall of mirrors across the dance floor you may feel all is lost. But you gotta have a good thing going in right? If you can hear it, it will have an impact on your playing. And you can hear it.

- Neil Swanson

Tags: Evidence Audio, LAVA, UpFront Guitars
Posted in Amplifiers and Accessories, Guitars and Accessories | Comments Off

The case for owning multiple guitar amplifiers

March 7th, 2012

You have many guitars, why is just one amp enough?

The whole idea for this topic came from a conversion Gordon (UpFront Guitars owner) and I had about the Weber vs Celestion speaker as mentioned in a previous blog entry. Gordon is in a position to play many different guitars and many different amps. Me not so many choices. I tend to play a smallish Class A amp and bypass the tone stack. Speakers are my tone control so I’ve tried a bunch. I love P90 Les Pauls, Gold top or JR’s. My speaker tastes differ from Gordon’s because of the guitars I lean towards. We do agree on the G12H30 and Weber 12F150B however.

As for amps, I really like the sound of the KT66 tube. I came across a very old 6L6G that kicks that KT66’s butt and sounds more KT66 than the KT66 sounds. Now I have an advantage in that my amp (an Emory) takes almost any tube you can imagine. It is kind of like having several amps. So here we go, why NOT have several amps?

Why not have several amps? Well think about it. You can gig with a 15-25 watt amp today no problem. And really why wouldn’t you? They are smaller and easy to carry. These days most clubs own a good PA and want to mic your gear anyway, or the band brings their own sound, choosing between many of the great lightweight powered speaker systems from JBL, RCF, QSC, etc. Besides, it’s getter to get the volume to the front with the PA and not with searing stage volume. Many years ago I did sound at a club. Looking back on the gear that arrived onstage, well I’d hate to see that now. No, I didn’t like having a guy with a Fender Twin in control of his volume. I had no mics on amps, I had no control. A good sound guy with control of the house sound is your friend. The guy with the guitar and his finger on that chicken head volume knob is not.

There are plenty of amps in that 15-25 watt range that in fact cost less than the next guitar you lust after. I’m talking a nice small tube-filled combo in the flavor or your choice. Or maybe a small head so you can mix and match those multiple 1×12 cabs with different flavor speakers with different flavor heads. No pedal can really emulate a Tweed circuit on that edge of breakup. I’ve tried. A pedal to make an amp that doesn’t sound like a Black Face sound like a Black Face? Well maybe. At least as long as it is run clean because a Black Face break up is a sound all it’s own. Marshall in a box? There are those that claim that possibility. And remember, no pedal will ever get you a great clean tone.

Let’s say you have a tone in your head, a favorite player that you want to sound like. Some of mine are……..A Gibson 335 into a Tweed Deluxe will do wonders toward sounding like Larry Carlton on “Don’t take me Alive”. A loud clean Strat with great reverb and echo á la David Gilmour. A Les Paul JR into a wall of Sunn PA amps: Leslie West. Strat into small Tweed just like Clapton on Layla. The list goes on. The point is you need more than the guitar, you need the amp or AN amp that is more like your “head tone”. No, I’m not denying the fact that tone is in the hands. But a Guild Starfire into a Line 6 just isn’t going get you into Zakk Wylde land. You need some gear help here.

We saw some of this first hand when Upfront Guitars did the All American Guitar show in Valley Forge, PA in 2011. Let’s for the sake of simplicity use two Valvetrain amps as examples. The Valvetrain Trenton for the warm smooth Tweed sound and the Bennington for the more cutting bell like clear Black Face tone. Both amps were on display for sampling. Both amps fall into the “American” camp in regards to the way they are voiced. We had 15? guitars on display from G&L, Godin and that nasty little Tele from Angry Angus.

Shoppers would cruise our wares and ask to play axe “X”. “Sure, great which amp” we’d ask. They’d point to the Bennington combo. So off they go playin’ their licks. All is sounding well, but then they ask if they try “that one”, pointing to the Trenton. BTW, both amps have two 6V6 power tubes, Trenton is s tube rectifier, Bennington SS rectifier. Both have the same size cabs and the same Eminence Wizard speakers. The difference being one a Tweed voice the other a Black Face voice.

Plugged into the Trenton things change. This amp is more their sound, their feel. It works better for their licks. It makes them play stuff that the amp’s tones conjure. I kid you not if you are a SRV fan or like that whole Texas tone thing you’d dig a Bennington and you’d play that kind of lick. And I can’t tell you how many times people grabbed that Angus Tele, plugged into the warmer tweedish Trenton, and after strumming a few chords they just HAD to play the three instantly recognizable and unmistakable opening chords to Hendrix’s “Wind Cries Mary”. The guitar and amp combo just hit that nerve. A guitar with Humbuckers into the larger Rivera heads would have attracted a whole other player. The gear leads the ear.

One really great young player came by and after trying I think three guitars into two amps started playin’ this mad funk stuff. People stopped and listened. Even the “DB “ Police (check noise levels) put down their meters and listened. His playing and the right guitar and amp combo (Angry Angus “Testy” and Valvetrain Trenton) were just so right. He soon stopped funking around, paused kind of looking off into space and launched into playing Hendrixs’ ”Wind Cried Mary” chords and riffs before veering off to “Power of Soul” from Hendrix’s Band of Gypsy’s”. Now he could have been playing those licks on anything and he would have been good. But he nailed the tone with the right guitar and amp. Others bonded with the Bennington and left thinking hard about another amp, not another guitar. The Bennington was their sound almost more than the guitar they brought or we supplied. They thought they needed another guitar. Now they want another amp.

Fender Reissue Bassman has found a good home

We saw the same thing occur: The same right melding of player, licks, guitar, amp and pedal over the two days of the show. I know the stuff I like to play. I know what tone is in my head. If it means you pass on another guitar to go with another amp to get there why not? Maybe it’s time to look towards alternate amps? Hey, I just got another Tweed style amp (A reissue Bassman, which means I had to get one too – Gordon). Did more for my tone than another P90 Les Paul ever would. Just saying………

Tags: angry angus, Blackface, Rivera, Tweed, UpFront Guitars, ValveTrain
Posted in Amplifiers and Accessories, General Items | Comments Off

G&L Guitar Sound Clips

February 16th, 2012

We are just getting started with this blog page, but it will include sound clips of the some of the many guitars that we currently have in stock or have carried at UpFrontGuitars. We’re on a steep learning curve recording-wise, so probably the clips will get better as we go!

ASAT Classic Custom Semi Hollow, Maple Neck – Recorded through Dr Z Remedy Head into pine 1×12 cabinet with G12H30 speaker, Shure SM57 microphone. JHS Charlie Brown Pedal used for overdrive tones. Recorded February 14th, 2012

ASAT Clas Cust SH

Tags: Alder, ASAT, G&L, Legacy, pickups, SC-2, single coil, UpFront Guitars
Posted in Sound Clips | Comments Off

G&L Neck Profiles – Suggestions

December 13th, 2011

One of the great benefits of ordering a G&L guitar is the ability to select both the neck profile and the type of frets. Other than going to a small custom builder, this type of option is usually not available in a “production” guitar. While this is not a complete listing of what is available from G&L — you can find that on their website — here is a rundown the types that I have sold and their relative popularity. Unless otherwise stated, width at the nut is 1-5/8″:

#1 – The G&L #1 neck is the standard 12″ radius neck that unless you specify otherwise, comes on every G&L Legacy, ASAT, Comanche or SC-2. The standard frets are the Dunlop 62100 medium jumbo frets. If you don’t know what you want, it’s hard to go wrong with this neck. Measuring .830″ at the first fret and .960″ at the 12th fret, it’s mildly beefy and fits most people well. We’ve also tried this neck with the Dunlop 6230 vintage fret option, but the combination of flat neck with skinny fret makes the frets seem undersized.

#1a – The G&L #1a is a 12″ radius neck that is about the same size as the #1 at the first fret, but only .870″ at the 12th. There is very little taper to the neck, so it feels pretty skinny as you move up the frets. Good for shredders and people who really like to be able to reach around the neck and hammer the notes.

#1b – Probably the second most popular 12″ neck after the #1. The “Heritage C” profile is great for women, people with smaller hands, or folks who like a thinner profile similar to the Fender Mexican and most American models. Feels instantly comfortable and tapers nicely up the frets. Thinner necks do have less mass which can affect sustain, but there are many other factors including variations inthe wood, how tightly the neck fits the neck pocket, etc.

#2a – Up until late 2010, this was G&L’s previously standard neck for the ASAT. Same thickness and 6100 frets as the #1 but with a 7.5″ radius. Feels more narrow and thicker than the #1, but it isn’t. Bending with the jumbo frets is still pretty easy, but it just feels a little awkward. Unless you are a frustrated Rickenbacker player, I don’t really recommend this combination.

#2b – Take the thinner profile (similar to #1b) version of the 7.5″ radius neck and add the 6230 vintage fret option and you get a really nice old-school feeling neck that plays great. The vintage frets are a great match for the tighter radius ‘board, and the “Heritage C” profile is comfortable and fast. This neck is a hard sell because people don’t “think” they will like it. But people who play it love it.

Quartersawn versus Flatsawn Necks – All standard G&L necks are Flatsawn. If you were to take off the neck and look at the end of the neck you would see that the grain of the wood is parallel to the fingerboard. This makes a stable neck, and also they also get more Flatsawn necks per piece of maple stock, which keeps the cost down. Quartersawn necks have the grain perpendicular to the fingerboard, so the wood is much stiffer in the direction that the neck typically bends. But cutting this way yields fewer necks per piece of maple stock, which increases cost. Quartersawn necks are standard on the Rustic and Korina Limited Edition models. Sonically, the stiffer quartersawn neck if felt to be more percussive and with a quicker attack and less note compression than a flatsawn neck. While it’s not practical to A-B two necks on the same guitar, the Rustic and Korina guitars that I have played feel pretty snappy, with good note clarity and sustain. If you live in an area that varies widely in temperature and humidity, a quartersawn neck may require less tweaking.

Tags: ASAT, Comanche, G&L, Legacy, SC-2, UpFront Guitars
Posted in Guitars and Accessories | Comments Off

Selecting Guitar Pickups – Science or Art?

December 7th, 2011

Without a doubt, if you want to change the sound of your guitar the biggest single difference you can make is to change the pickups. Anything else: Bridge, saddle materials, pots, caps or tuners are refinements and tweaks that may or may not have a noticeable effect. But changing a pickup can have a mild to radical effect on the sound of your guitar. So how do you select a pickup with any level of certainty? After all it is a “blind” purchase, and aside from a demo guitar or sound clips there really is not an effective way to audition a new pickup.

Like music itself, making pickups is a blend of science and art. Furthermore, describing how a pickup sounds practically has it’s own vocabulary. You’ll hear words like “cluck”, “chime”, “hot” and “glassy” among other words to describe how pickups sound. To some degree you just have to immerse yourself into the world of pickups, read a lot of descriptions of various pickups, listen to sound clips or demo videos where available, and learn to relate what they are saying to what you are hearing. Like wine buffs, “pickup geeks” have their own language. But at the risk of generalizing, there a some basic categories and classifications that most people can agree on.

Conventional Pickups – By this I mean pickups that follow that follow the classic construction and material techniques set forth by industry pioneers at Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, etc. Within the world of conventional pickup designs there are arguably three typical configurations:

Fender® Style Single Coil - Essentially thousands of turns of fine gauge magnet wire wrapped around a bobbin with six individual magnet pole pieces. Some erroneously call it an electromagnet, but a pickup is actually an inductor. The vibrating strings disturb the pickup’s magnetic field and induce a current (signal) in the coil which goes to your amp and the rest is history, and a lot of it. This type of design is famous for clarity, good string definition, high end response, and the propensity to pick up stray electrical noise (hum).

The P-90 Style – This design was introduced by Gibson® in 1946, although there were earlier similar designs. The p-90 is a single coil pickup but the (6) pole pieces are threaded steel screws that pass through the coil with a bar magnet located beneath the coil. The overall coil resistance of the P-90 is generally higher than the Fender single coil, and the magnetic field is different. P-90′s tend to be higher in output with a thicker midrange and less clarity at the high end. The P-90 has gone in and out of vogue over the years, but a good P-90 is a joy, especially in the bridge. Some Fender-type pickups are really “imposters’ and actually follow the P-90 design. For example, many Fender MIM (Made in Mexico) and some Godin Stratocaster-type pickups are actually steel pole pieces with bar magnets beneath the coil. Usually this is a cost-driven decision although they can sound pretty good. P-90′s share the same noise issues as the Fender pickup, sometimes worse.

Hum Canceling (Humbucker) – Invented in 1955 by Seth Lover, who worked at Gibson. The humbucker pickup uses two single coils wired in series and out of phase. Using what is call common mode rejection, the two coils cancel most of the hum. Humbuckers are characterized by a fuller, thicker sound than a single coil, a strong midrange, but also with less high frequency response and upper end clarity. Nearly all Humbuckers use a construction similar to the P-90, with a bar magnet underneath the coil, and threaded screws or steel pole pieces that pass through the coil. There are many variation of the humbucking design: The coils can be in line which is the most typical configuration, facing each other with the pole pieces in between the two coils, or stacked which gives the appearance of a single coil pickup. The Precision Bass and G&L Z-Coil pickup have two coils side-by-side with each coil covering just half the strings. This provides hum canceling benefits while retaining a more single coil tone.

Variations on a Theme – For many, the best pickups were invented nearly sixty years ago, and that’s that. But there is always somebody our there trying to improve the breed and there are some notable examples. Lace Sensor has been producing uniquely designed hum cancelling pickups for many years, aimed primarily at Stratocaster players. Their Lace Alumitone pickup is a real departure — in both looks and sound — from a normal pickup and combines both noiseless operation and a very broad frequency range. The G&L MFD (magnetic field design) pickup in terms of construction is really very much like a P-90. However, the MFD has a fairly low coil resistance and larger magnetic field. The result is high signal output and a broad, flat frequency response. The term “hi-fi” is often associated with MFD pickups because they don’t over accentuate any particular frequency. Guitar players in general are conservative bunch, and many shy away from anything seen as deviating from past classics. But the Lace, MFD, and noiseless pickup designs from Lindy Fralin and others offer some real alternatives to the classic limitations of pickup design.

Can you buy a pickup on “specs”?

There are a several ways to characterize a pickup by measuring certain properties. However some of those are hard for the typical consumer to relate to. The most common measurement of a pickup is resistance (usually in thousands of ohms, or KΩ). Resistance is essentially the DC resistance of the pickup coil. Resistance can generally describe the approximate output of a pickup, and typically higher resistance pickups are hotter (louder) pickups. Resistance can be increased by either more windings, or changing the gauge of the magnet wire, or a combination of both. While we are talking generalities, higher resistance pickups will often have more midrange and less high frequency response, and a “fatter” sound. As mentioned earlier, pickups are not actually resistors but inductors, and inductors are measured in Henries. Lace actually lists the inductance of their pickups, but I’m not sure that is of much value to the average guitarist.

Magnet power can be measured too, but measuring the magnetic field of permanent magnets is quite complex, and beyond the realm of most of us. Different magnet materials such as generic ceramic magnets and the revered ALNICO (Aluminum, Nickel, Cobalt) have differing magnetic properties, retain their magnetic properties differently over time. Some pickup makers will actually “age” their pickups, essentially demagnetizing them (degaussing) to replicate how an old pickup might sound now. So magnet efficiency and material (Ceramic, ALNICO 2, ALNICO 5, Samarium Cobalt) do make a difference in pickup sound and efficiency, but most people rely on subjective descriptions rather than hard measurements. You can always subjectively measure the magnetic properties of a pickup by taking a small screwdriver and seeing how strongly it is attracted to a pickup pole piece. Again talking in generalities, stronger magnets will induce a greater signal in the coil and produce more output.

Many months ago I was swapping out some pickups in my son’s “Highway 1″ Telecaster. It’s a nice guitar, but I’m a Rio Grande dealer and wanted to road test some of their product. The stock Telecaster bridge pickup sounded pretty good but was maybe a little thin. I measured the resistance, and it was a whopping 11K ohms. But the magnets had almost no “pull” on the screwdriver. The resistance of the Rio Grande Halfbreed Tele bridge pickup was a more normal 8K resistance, but the ANILCO magnets had a much stronger subjective pull. The result? Both pickups had similar volume output but sounded different. If we looked at the Highway 1 pickup solely in terms of resistance we would think, “wow that’s going to be really hot”. But not knowing the magnetic field of the pickup showed how resistance is a incomplete measurement by itself. It’s reasonably safe to say that selecting a pickup by reading the manufacturer’s technical data is not going to accurately describe the tonal qualities of the pickup.

So How Do I Select A Pickup?

Without being a wise guy: It’s a journey. As mentioned earlier it’s important to read pickup reviews, gear pages, and manufacturer’s websites, and experiment a little by trying out some pickups. If you can handle a screwdriver and a soldering iron, the world is your oyster. If you try a pickup and don’t like it very much, chances are somebody on eBay will. Keep in mind that pickups will sound different in different guitars, so it’s most effective to experiment with your own guitar.

There are many other factors that affect the sound of a pickup than just resistance and magnetic force: Winding pattern, winding tension, potting (usually a wax material applied to the coil to help prevent feedback), bobbin size and height, etc. It’s impossible for the consumer to predict the effects of all these potential design considerations. It’s for the manufacturer to do the proper R&D to determine what variables give them the sound they want within their cost targets.

Do not assume that only boutique manufacturers can produce good pickups. There are many small winders devoting tremendous energy into recreating the vintage vibe of early pickups, but reverse engineering a 1957 PAF may not be the solution to everybody’s needs. Larger companies can do a lot of R&D and invest money into building very consistent processes. Just because “Company A” sells thousands of “shred-o-matic” pickups at the local big box does not mean they can’t satisfy the needs of a blues traditionalist. I work with a guitar builder that often uses boutique pickups in his guitars but also really likes the DiMarzio Area 51 pickups and encourages their use. I sell Rio Grande pickups, and they don’t get hung up on creating vintage reproductions. Their focus is to build great sounding pickups for a variety of applications. I wish they would write better descriptions on their website, but I’m OK taking the time to write my own. I also really like the G&L MFD pickups (not all of them equally though) and their large MFD is probably my favorite pickup to play. But it’s not a vintage anything, and especially not a traditional Fender single coil. Leo Fender developed the MFD because he was trying to develop something that was even better. He was looking forward, not backwards.

So while there is science in pickup building, the selection of a pickup is almost totally subjective, and purchasing pickups just based on specifications or snob appeal will not lead to guaranteed satisfaction. Read, listen, test, experiment, and develop your own understanding of what works for you. And don’t forget to practice in between pickup swaps!

Tags: G&L, humbucker, Lace, lindy Fralin, P-90, pickups, Rio Grande, single coil, UpFront Guitars
Posted in Guitars and Accessories | Comments Off

The Tweed Sound: Right for You?

November 18th, 2011

The world of amplifiers is often divided into particular sound “camps” to describe the tonal characteristics. Blackface and Tweed are used to describe two of the classic Fender eras, while “British” is often synonymous with Marshall amplifiers, although it can also be applied to brands like HiWatt that were based on the brawny EL-34 power tube. Vox of course is Vox, but derives its roots from cathode-biased EL-84 based products (like some early Marshalls). For the purpose of this discussion, we are going address the Tweed style, and how this sound applies to some of the amps we carry from ValveTrain and Rivera.

Tweed – The Fender “Narrow Panel” Tweed era from 1955 to 1964 was really the Genesis of mass-produced guitar amplifiers. While there were other brands emerging in the late 40′s and early 50′s, Fender certainly captured the lion’s share of professional endorsements, and what became know as “tweed” amplifiers were commonly found on professional back-lines everywhere. The Tweed era lasted into the early sixties, at which time Fender addressed many of the issues that were seen as deficiencies in the their Tweed designs, ultimately evolving into the what is lovingly known as Blackface amplifiers.

In the 50′s there was no specific guitar amplifier technology, and early guitar amplifiers were essentially schematics taken from standard design handbooks. Often these handbooks were published by tube companies trying to promote their products. As such, a public address amplifier used at a factory or county fair had a lot in common design-wise with a guitar amplifier. But amplified guitar applications were a lot more demanding that just amplifying a voice (not to mention the new electric bass). As bands got louder and players looked for more volume, the limitations of early amplifier designs became apparent: Limited clean headroom and harmonic distortion at higher volume levels being the most comment ailment. The low wattage, cathode-biased pre-amps and tube rectifiers of the day were not always up to the task of delivering loud, clean volume. The earliest bands to electrify were country, swing and dance bands, and distortion was not seen as a desirable characteristic for an amplifier. This was especially true of pedal steel players, which was an important market for Fender at that time. Although the Narrow Panel Tweeds were certainly a step up from the earlier designs, the rapid growth in popularity of rock music was pushing their limits.

As new amplifier models in the 60′s became louder and cleaner — including the advent of solid state technology — some players started to miss that old compressed, warm sound of the earlier Tweed designs. Today, a good portion of the boutique amplifier market is dedicated to reproducing early Tweed designs, and many advertise which old Fender schematic version they use. You literally can’t swing a dead cat without hitting somebody’s latest version of a Champ, Bassman or Super; all in search of that warm top end, soft compression, and musical grind at higher volumes. In fact even Fender themselves has gotten in on the game with the “EC” Eric Clapton series of — you guessed it — Tweed amplifiers.

While Tweed amplifiers are great for many styles of rock music, they do have some limitations. Clean headroom at higher volumes is still a limitation, so if you are looking for that — or are content lugging around a Bassman or Tweed Twin — look elsewhere. The front end of Tweed amps also have limited gain, and can be overwhelmed by pedals. Put a strong gain or distortion pedal in front of a Tweed and you’re likely to get a mushy combination of pedal distortion and front end distortion. Tweed amps are at their best with minimal effects and sometimes the best effect is just a good guitar and cable. Lastly part of the sweetness and purity of the Tweed sound was a product of their simple circuits. Amps faithful to the Tweed heritage typically lack reverb, have minimal tone shaping capabilities, and channel switching is unheard of. Tweeds are not full-feature amplifiers, but part of their beauty lies in their ability to create very pure, organic tones with great texture. For some, that’s all that is needed.

Much of the ValveTrain line is based on the low wattage Tweed designs of the 50′s. The Trenton, Tallboy and really all of their Vintage Series (315, 416, etc) are either Tweed inspired or directly descended from specific Fender schematics. The ValveTrain line are not pure clones however, and several models have an expanded control set that provides features such as half/full power, internally connected normal and bright inputs, and master volume controls. These amplifiers retain the classic tone and feel of the original designs, but increase the flexibility of the amplifier for both gigging and recording. The Rivera amplifier lineup does not really address the Tweed ethos. Generally higher in power, with solid state rectifiers and a full complement of tone shaping options, Rivera clean tones are squarely targeted at the Blackface sound, and will addressed in a companion post on the Blackface era.

Tags: 5E3, Cathode Bias, Tweed, UpFront Guitars, ValveTrain
Posted in Amplifiers and Accessories | Comments Off