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Acquiring and maintaining even a modest collection of desirable, toneful and truly playable “vin-tage” guitars has become increasingly challenging and costly within the past decade. As pricesfor the most coveted and familiar Fender, Gibson, Gretsch and Martin models have doubled,tripled and more, players who bought these instruments early and at low prices are now beingseverely tempted to cash in on their investments, sending their rare guitars to non-playinginvestors and collectors where these instruments will remain largely unplayed, out of sight and offthe market – effectively reducing supply and ratcheting up prices even more. You may recall asimilar surge in prices when just a few well-known vintage guitar dealers began shipping the mostsought-after Gibson and Fender guitars to Japan …

In fact, shifting supply and demand now affects prices for nearly every type of guitar ever madeas collector markets for even the most obscure instruments continue to grow. Blues and swingplayers have been gobbling up Harmony Strat-o-tone guitars from the ‘50s within just the pastfew years, driving prices up from $150 to $600 and beyond, while even ‘70s era Fender andGibson guitars have reached collectible status among nostalgic players whose first garage bandguitars included many of the worst instruments ever made in the USA (including our own 1971Les Paul Custom). Name any early model from the more obscure guitar companies and a cult ofcollectors exists for them all – from Leo Fender’s Music Man electrics and the earliest G&L’s toBaldwin, Carvin, Dean, Hagstrom, Hofner, Magnatone, Micro-fret, Ovation, Schecter, Vox andYamaha.

One of the very earliest resources for rabid guitar collectors was the Guitar Trader’s VintageGuitar Bulletins mailed from Redbank, NJ. If you prowled a pawnshop or urban music store well-stocked with used instruments in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the “dregs” on the wall would have included

Mountainview Publishing, LLC

$10.00 US, February 2006/VOL.7 NO.4

Eastwood Guitars

INSIDEIntroducing

Eastwood Guitars&

Myrareguitars.com

“Radical vintage guitarsthat play better than the

originals...”

Eastwood founder MichaelRobinson on buildingreplicas of the most

bizarre vintage guitars from

Europe & Japan

9ToneQuest Eastwood

Reviews...

Valco Airline

Univox HiFlyer

Stormbird

Wandre ‘Doris’

11Fargen Amplifiers...

Benjamin Fargen Interview

Review...The Fargen Blackbird

14Avatar Speakers & Cabs

15Aged Hellatones – broken

in is better than new!

Avatar cabinets

16Reader Q&A...

The vocabulary of tone –What do the words really

mean?

19The ToneQuest Clarksdale

Amp is born!

TONEQUEST REPORT V7. N4. February 2006

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2

bizarre imported and domestic electric guitars with nameslike EKO, Airline, Aria, Guyatone, Hondo, Kent, Kay,Harmony, Teisco, Electra, National, Supro, Tokai and Samick.And as the Internet became populated with online dealer net-works such as GBase.com and auction sites like eBay, globalaccess to used guitars exploded, rendering even the mostunlikely instruments “collectible” due to their availability,mass exposure and low prices.

Sadly, the inefficient butromantic strategy of jumpingin the car at dawn andspending an entire day orweekend hitting pawnshops,music stores and estate saleshas come and gone in mostareas of the country; thepawnshops have discoveredeBay, many small, independ-ent music stores are gone,and having become unwit-tingly imprisoned by ourdesire for affluence, most of

us couldn’t find the time to throw the damn cell phone in adrawer and hit the blue highway anyway.

One of our favorite secret stops for used guitars wasChambers Music & Golf on the hillbilly side of RossvilleBoulevard in Chattanooga, TN. Slow down when you passBig Hearted Smiley’s (Buy Here, Pay Here – EverybodyRides!) and Chambers’ was on the left in a cavernous down-town space that resembled a gutted supermarket. As ayounger man, Charlie Chambers could have passed forJohnny Cash’s brother, and while he never had much to say(“that ain’t for sale” meant get your wallet out and startpeeling) he did maintain a chaotically organized stash of cooland bizarre guitars in the midst of piles of ancient golf clubs.Hanging on the wall or buried beneath stacks of mysteriousguitar cases you might could find an assortment of mildewed

Gretsch Chet Atkinsmodels with crack-ing belly pads, boatanchor ‘70sFenders, and anodd assortment ofoff-brand guitarsand amps in disre-pair. But for someodd reason, ol’Charlie was reallyhot for Mosritesand Standel stacks.

Strange – because Charlie was old school – a Brylcream andAquaVelva man who would proudly pull out his custom-built

Hank Garland model Gibson arch-top (one of only three ever made)signed by Hank on the back.

Best of all, right next door was acool, dark and narrow hillbillybar with fifty cent Budweisersand a good juke box – the perfectspot for talkin’ yourself intoanother guitar during a breakfrom horsetrading with Charlieon a hot summer day.

Our taste in collectible guitarsnever veered far enough from themiddle of the road to include aMosrite (we did score a ThinlineTele from Charlie that could blow

mighty chunks of nasally tone and a 1952 Gibson J45), butone of Semie Mosely’s custom axes divinely inspired aCanadian guitar freak by the name of Mike Robinson tobegin re-creating obscure vintage guitar models that were“even better than the real thing.” Fueled by vintage acquisi-tions and sales on eBay, Robinson ultimately foundedEastwood Guitars and set out to build reproductions of themost radical and obscure instruments that uniquely resonatedwith his eclectic taste in vintage guitars. Robinson’s story is aclassic example of how an enthusiast’s passion can be suc-cessfully leveraged into a thriving business, and his guitarsare indeed radical, affordable, and they play better than theoriginals. With thanks to Billy F Gibbons for alerting us tothe world of Eastwood, it is our pleasure to introduce you toMike Robinson and Eastwood Guitars. Enjoy …

TQR: How and when did yourinterest in vintage guitars developand what were some of the specificmodels that interested you themost?

Growing up in the Toronto area dur-ing the early to mid 1970’s, I gotmy first guitar – a Japanese ElDegas SG copy – and proceeded tolearn every Rush song from theirfirst three albums. I was hooked atthe age of 13. As I could not affordan amp, I remember playing myguitar through one of those all-in-one stereos that had an 8-track,AM/FM tuner and a turntable ontop. I spent endless hours in mybedroom listening to a riff, liftingthe needle from the album, trying

TONEQUEST REPORT V7. N4. February 2006 3

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the riff, putting the needle back down, trying the riff again.Those were the days.

Somehow 15 yearsflew by and I foundmyself as the ownerof a high-tech com-pany in the process ofacquiring a competi-tor in Silicon Valley,and in 1991 wemoved from Torontoto California.Although it had fadedsomewhat, my inter-est in electric guitarssoon began to resur-face through frequenttrips to local shops inthe area, particularlyGuitar Showcase inSan Jose. They had

an extensive collection of vintage guitars on display – cer-tainly the largest in the area. You name it they had it, in fact,they had ten or twenty of each! I made a few purchases therein the mid ‘90s – a Gibson Tennessean and a Rickenbacker330 come to mind – but my deep passion for the world ofVintage Bizarre surfaced in 1998 when I discovered eBay. Icould sit in my office and shop through an endless sea of gui-tars available for sale. Everything you can imagine was forsale there, and within a few short weeks I was buying 5-10guitars a month.

My goal was to get as much guitar as I could for as little aspossible, sticking with the $100-$300 wacky Japanese mod-els. To justify this new obsession without introducing divorceproceedings, I would repair, set up and resell the guitars oneBay. After a year or so I was up to 15-20 guitars a month,my positive eBay feedback was growing, and I was beginningto streamline the process of buying and selling. During this time I started a website –www.myrareguitars.com. The idea was to catalog the collec-tion for reference that other people could use to help identifytheir eBay treasures. Before long I had a few hundred guitarsphotographed and a short story of each on the website. Thisbecame a helpful resource for many others like myself thatwanted to know about a Norma, a Teisco, a Domino, or anEKO, but had never touched one. You won’t find one of thoseat the local Guitar Showcase. So, eBay was the shop andwww.myrareguitars.com became the technical expert in allguitars Bizarre. Within two years there were very few guitarsof this style that I had not owned and that I did now have afirst hand opinion on.

Somewhere along theway (I think it wasspring 2001) I stumbledacross a Mosrite sale oneBay. There were 35new old stock Mosriteguitars being auctioned,one by one. I bought#13 for $2,200. It was amagnificent guitar, andfor the first time I beganto realize the levels thatcan be achieved throughthe marriage of quality,design, style and tone inan electric guitar. It was

leaps and bounds away from the wacky ‘60s Japanese guitarsI had been collecting – so good, in fact, that I feared taking itout. This inspired me to find a “Mosrite-like” guitar that Icould play out without fear of damaging it. After goingthrough 5 or 6 different attempts, I found a winner. I was soimpressed with this instrument that I wrote an article about itcalled “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and posted it onmy eBay website. That was five years ago and I still get peo-ple sending e-mail about it today.

That article was the spark that ignited Eastwood Guitars. Toget the idea, here is an excerpt from the original article:“For the past few years I had been looking for a really niceMosrite Ventures Model vintage guitar. Prices ranged from$1,500 to $4,000 depending on the year and the condition.Last year an angel descended on eBay with 35 NOS Mosrite

guitarsthatwerebuilt in1987.Theseguitarswereallbrandnew,had

never been sold and were stored in a warehouse for 14 years.Unbelievable! They were auctioned off one by one, weekafter week, until they were all gone. I bought the 13th onethat sold and I was not disappointed.

The first day I stared at it, the second day I touched it, and onthe third day I played it. The fourth day I told the family. Thefifth day I told the neighbors. The sixth day, everyone cameto look at it. The seventh day I rested. What an incrediblybeautiful guitar! In fact, I soon realized that it was too beauti-

Sidejack


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ful. How could I risk pulling it out of the case every day andplaying it? It was like having a bad addiction. I needed a fix.It drove me crazy to know that it sat right over there in thecorner, taunting me, yet at the same time I could not riskopening the case for fear of damaging such a wonderfulinstrument. I needed a solution. Then it hit me … Buy a real-ly nice reproduction Mosrite that I could play everyday!

TQR: So how did this initial idea evolve into Eastwood? What were the major challenges you faced in developing the Eastwood line?

About thesame time Ibought thatMosrite, Ihad startedto discoverthe bizarre1960’sdesignsfrom

Europe, especially EKO from Italy. The collection startedveering in that direction, and soon I discovered that the EKObrand had been resurrected in Recanati, Italy. I called andasked for the USA distributor. There wasn’t one. I asked whatit might take to become the USA distributor, and the answerwas, “How about an order for 20 guitars?” Well, I figured Icould get five different models, four of each, keep one ofeach for myself and sell the other three on eBay to pay forthe whole exercise. I sold the first shipment within a fewweeks and ordered 60 more. Strange thing though – some ofthese guitars were made in China, shipped to Italy with theEKO brand, then shipped to me in California. Something was

wrong with that picture. That yearthe sales manager at EKO was plan-ning a trip to the 2001 NAMMshow in Anaheim and asked if Icould meet with him. I agreed. Atthe show I placed my last orderwith EKO, and I also began toresearch the manufacturing capabil-ities of Korean and Chinese guitarmakers. That was a real eye-opener.In hindsight, I had the good fortuneto sell the high-tech company in thelate 1990’s, and began to focusmore time on the website. At thispoint it was still a hobby and I real-ly had no plans for it to evolve intoa new career. Most of our familyand friends were back in Torontoand my wife’s parents were headinginto their eightieth year on the plan-

et, so we decided to move back to Canada in 2002. Beforeleaving for Canada, I decided to make another trip to NAMM.This time I went with the intention of starting a new business– making reproduction electric guitars that were “Even BetterThan the Real Thing.” I met with a number of different suppli-ers from China and Korea, one in particular that had VOX andMosrite copies as samples in their booth. All I had to do wasstep up to the plate and order 650 guitars…

On the Saturdayevening of theshow I went backto my hotel roomwith the catalogsand started to for-mulate the pur-chase order – LesPaul copies, Stratcopies, BeatleBass copies, Teles,etc. That is whateveryone was sell-

ing at ridiculously low prices. I tried to stick with theMosrites, VOX and other oddball stuff, but 650 guitarsseemed an impossible number, so I had to back-fill the orderwith some vanilla stuff. Now, all I needed was a name. Iturned on the TV and there was a Clint Eastwood moviemarathon. Hmmm … The next morning I met with my newChinese supplier and wrote up an order. “What brand namedid you want?” he asked. “Eastwood” was my reply.

Six months later, a 20 foot ocean-going container on the backof a truck was unloaded in my driveway in Toronto. All theneighborhood kids helped unload it. We stuffed them in thebasement, the living room, the dining room and the attic.Needless to say, that month we set some new personalrecords on eBay.

TQR: As each Eastwood model has been developed with actual examples of vintage instruments available for reference, how closely have you followed the original designs? What were some of the most unique construction features found in the original guitars and were there features found in specific vintage models that you have actually improved on?

My big first lesson was that the copy guitars – Les Paul, Tele,Strats, etc. were not profitable. Everyone was doing it under abunch of different names from the same factory. But, at thetime, filling an order of 650 guitars was hard to do with onlythe obscure reissue stuff. The next NAMM show I focusedmy attention on the Korean suppliers. Prices were a lot high-er, but so was the quality, and I could order as few as 200guitars in each order. Eko


cover story

Rightaboutthistime,JackWhiteof theWhitestripeshadstartedto hit

it big on a worldwide basis. He played an old Valco AirlineJetsons model. I had a few of those in my collection, so Itook one with me to NAMM. I met with three or fourbuilders, and all but one said, “No way.” However, one com-pany sat down with me and discussed many ways to improveupon the original design yet retain the look and feel. Weagreed on a tone-chambered mahogany body – no need forRes-o-glas, it was never any good – and a 25 fi" scale mapleneck, Alnico humbuckers, etc. Only ten weeks after theNAMM show I received by courier the first prototype. It wasabsolutely stunning.

I invited some local musician friends over to take it for a testdrive, and all agreed that it was a winner. It needed a few cos-metic adjustments, pickup upgrades, etc. but other than that itwas ready to roll. I contacted a local machine shop and

droppedby withan origi-nalAirlinetail-piece.Theycreateda solidchrometail that

looked much better than the prototype harp piece. We tookfive different humbuckers through trials – surprisingly differ-ent tonally with the tone-chambered body – and settled on theAlnico Hot-10’s. We also contacted the original knob manu-facturer for Valco in Chicago. To my surprise, they were stillin business and still had the original moulds from the 1962Airline knobs! These knobs were used on most Valco prod-ucts – Supro, National and Airline guitars and amps – andhad not been made sine the 1960’s. We dusted them off andmade a thousand of each. Next, I found a dealer in Floridathat was selling replica Airline metal headstock logos andcombined all these pieces – along with some minor mods tothe prototype – and the Airline re-issue was born.

Through this entire process I constantly consulted with mycustomers. I posted pictures on the website of the originaldesign drawings; I posted questions around some of thedesign difficulties we were experiencing, asking for theirinput. For example, the original version was two piece Res-o-glas and therefore had a white rubber grommet that held thetwo pieces together. It proved to be a very complicated manu-facturing task, so much so that it would drive the price of theguitar up significantly. Initially I thought the lack of the“stripe” would severely impact sales, however, after pollingmy customers they convinced me that it was not so important.A better playing, better balanced, more stable guitar wasmore important than some esthetic details.

These customer-driven lessons helped me hone my skills inrecognizing the delicate balance between original authenticityand modern playability. After all, there is no point inEastwood Guitars if the re-issue ends up costing twice theprice of the original. Might as well buy an original! Our goalis to seek out the vintage models that have a certain appeal totoday’s players, but due to vintage pricing they are out of thereach of most budgets. The original Airline’s are now sellingin the $2,000-$3,000 range. The Eastwood version is $699-$899, and if you read the reviews at Harmony Central, theEastwood is a far superior guitar.

Another success story for Eastwood has been the EastwoodGP. Every day, through www.myrareguitars.com we receivee-mails from customers suggesting models from the past thatmight make a great re-issue. One in particular, the OvationUltra-GP, was already on my list. Josh Homme from Queensof the Stone Age was getting a lot of publicity at that timeand damn, the guitar just looked so cool! I had one in my col-lection about six years ago, bought and sold for far less thantoday’s eBay price, which was now topping $2,000 on itsway to $3,000. A friend in Europe had cataloged a greatseries of photographs from a few different Ultra-GP guitarsand sent them along with some detailed measurements andspecs. Admittedly, I was unsure of the potential market forthat guitar, but in the end I just wanted one for myself and afew friends. Sooner or later I would sell the rest, so we wentahead with the prototype. Once again, when it arrived I wasfloored. We sourced an original pickup and had them mod-eled by our supplier. We changed the headstock and came upwith a new Eastwood logo. The first production model wentto my friend in Europe, and a resounding thumbs up cameacross the Atlantic. The initial production run sold out in sixweeks with no advertising, and the power of the Internet stillamazes me to this day. Then, the reviews started coming in.We had another block buster hit.

Again, I think the success of this model was due to the con-stant communication with our customers before, during andafter the introduction of the new model. People know what to

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expect and when they get it they are more than satisfied andtell their friends.

TQR: Where are the Eastwood guitars built today and who builds them?

We have two factorieswe currently workwith, one in Korea andone in China.Basically, we have twoprice points to reach.As discussed earlier, ifyou can buy an origi-nal for less than theEastwood, you’ll prob-ably buy an original.Therefore, we havesome models thatrequire building in

China to keep the costs down. Two of those, the Hi-Flyer andthe DELTA-6 are among our top-sellers. The Delta 6 is loose-ly based on a Mosrite DOBRO resonator guitar ($399) andthe Hi-Flyer ($399) is a re-issue of the early 1970’s UNIVOXHi-Flyer. Again, we made some upgrades to deliver a guitarthat is superior to the original. For example, the EastwoodHi-Flyer has a set neck. The other advantage to these modelsis that the price point makes it a relatively easy purchase forthe first time on-line buyer. At $399-$499, the risk is relative-ly low, yet the reward is unexpectedly high. Most customersare “blown away” when they receive their guitar.Manufacturing in China has come a long way in the past fiveyears and you can get a lot of guitar for your money.

Our higher-end models are made in Korea. I’m not the first tosay it, and you may not agree, but I believe the quality ofmanufacturing from Korea today rivals what you get in theUSA, yet still comes in at one third of the price. This allowsus to re-create many fantastic designs from the 1960’s andkeep the price of the guitar well below the going vintage rate.Most of our Korean built guitars fall in the $599-$899 pricerange. The fit and finish of these guitars are among the bestyou will find from Korea. We work with a fairly small builderthat gives us the attention to detail that you simply can’t getfrom the big boys. Where the larger manufacturers will insiston using stock items (pickups, tails, bridges, etc), most of ourmodels – like the Airline custom tail-piece – have design fea-tures and components that make them unique to Eastwood.

With the multitude of players in the electric guitar spacethese days, there are two things that we remain firmly com-mitted to, in order to insure our continued growth. They are1) a steady supply of completely unique guitars designs and2) customer service beyond anyone’s expectations. We treat

our customers as we would expect to be treated ourselves. Infact, better.

TQR: Let’s briefly review each model and the various features and materials that are unique to each. We are adding 3-5 new models each year. Here are some details on our current models (in alphabetical order):

AIRLINE: Based on the early 1960’s VALCO Airline modelfound in Montgomery Wards catalogs. Available in two mod-

els 1)2PDLX– twopickupswithcustom

trapeze tail and 2) 3PDLX – three pickups with BIGSBYTremolo. Both models feature tone-chambered mahoganybodies with center block, Alnico Hot-10 pickups with indi-vidual Volume and Tone controls, Master Volume and fullyadjustable bridge. Bolt-on Maple neck with rosewood finger-board. The classic “Gumby” headstock features the originalAirline raised metal logo.

DELTA 6: Inspired by the MosriteCelebrity but becoming a resonatoralong the way, it is a semi-hollowbody resonator guitar featuring lami-nated maple body, set maple neckwith rosewood fingerboard, P-90 neckpickup, and a Piezo bridge pickupwith volume and tone controls. Theguitar also features a blend knob thatdials between the neck and bridgepickup. This is our best seller. I sus-pect because you get a lot of guitarfor $399, and for the average playerthat wants to add some versatility totheir recording arsenal, it’s a no-brainer.

HI-FLYER: Based on the early 1970’s UNIVOX Hi-Flyer(which itself was based on the Mosrite Ventures Model) giv-ing it the rare distinction of being a “copy of a copy.” It is

available in stop tailor tremolo tail. TheHi-Flyer features abasswood body withset maple neck,rosewood finger-board, two P-90pickups, 3-wayswitch, Volume and

Jason Lollar

Hiflyer


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Tone controls, fully adjustable bridge and a wide varietyof colors.

ICHIBAN: Eastwood’s first proprietary design (hence thename, which is Japanese for Number One) was the culmi-

nation of some ofmy favorite guitars –Mosrite, Teisco andGalanti to name afew. It is availablein stop tail or tremo-lo tail. Both featuretwo mini-humbuck-ers, adjustable roller

bridge, German carved mahogany body, satin maple neckwith rosewood fingerboard. Oozes sixties style!

Eastwood GP: Based on the rare early ‘80s Ovation Ultra-GP. Less than 400 of the original were made and they are

extremely hard tofind these days withthe vintage marketdriving the price upinto the $3,000range. The GP fea-tures a mahoganybody with contouredmaple top, set

mahogany neck, 5-ply binding on entire neck and body,dual humbucker pickups, two volume and tone controls.The deep carve on the back makes it one of the most com-fortable guitars ever designed.

NASHVILLE: It is difficult to find a high-quality 12-string guitar these days at an affordable price. When we

looked, all wecould see was theRickenbacker 360with a street priceof $1,200, and theEpiphone ElitistRiviera at $1,500.The Nashville fillsthe void at half the

price with a no-nonsense 335 style semi-hollow bodymodel featuring two mini- Humbuckers, trapeze tail, lami-nated maple top back and sides, set mahogany neck, 22frets with a 1 11/16" nut. Most guitarist own more thanone guitar, but many only own one 12 string. If it’s not aRicky it should be the Eastwood Nashville.

SAVANNAH: Imagine you merged the styles of a GretschFalcon with a Gibson 335. That’s the Savannah. Featuringtwo covered humbuckers, trapeze or tremolo tail, laminat-

ed double cutaway flame-top maple bodywith set maple neck. The Savannah contin-ues to receive rave reviews on HarmonyCentral and is a favorite with our rockabil-ly customers.

SIDEJACK (image pg.3): The very firstEastwood model to hit the streets in 2002,it remains one of our top-sellers. The intentwas to develop a Mosrite style guitar, butwith road-worthy characteristics like a setneck and rugged P-90 pickups in the under

$500 category. Judging by sales and reviews we really hit themark. It is available in tremolo or stop tail and a wide varietyof colors. The Sidejack features a basswood body, set mapleneck, two P-90 pickups, and adjustable bridge. It is alsoavailable in a 27" scale baritone model.

SUPRO: This Limited Edition reproduction of the SuproCoronado was made in 2005 under license from Supro USA.The Supro is available with custom trapeze tail or with a

Bigsby tremolo. Bothmodels feature tone-chambered mahoganybodies with centerblock, Alnico Hot -10pickups with individ-ual Volume and Tonecontrols, three wayswitch and fully

adjustable bridge, and bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fin-gerboard. The headstock features the original Supro raisedmetal logo.

TOKAI HUMMINGBIRD: In this case, to retain the authen-ticity of the original Hummingbird, we licensed the Tokainame and used a pearl inlay of the logo on the headstock. In

1967, the Hummingbirdwas one of the very firstguitars to be made byTokai, who later becamearguably the best repro-duction guitar manufac-turer during the lawsuitera. A radical shape inthe already radical

1960’s, the Hummingbird has become a very hard to findoriginal – the tip of the iceberg when the Japanese importsstarted to show the quality they are now renowned for. Thisone features two p-90’s, maple bolt-on neck, zero-fret and thetraditional sixties tremolo. The surf crowd has been embrac-ing the Hummingbird.

ROCKET: Based on the bizarre EKO ROKES guitar from the


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late 1960’s, the Rocket delivers a “what the ^%# is that?”stage presence with modern day playability and tone, rightdown to the pointy headstock. This is an unmistakable ‘60s

classic. TheRocket is avail-able in stop,string-thru ortremolo tail withP-90 or hum-bucker pickups.Also availablein a 30" scalebass model.

WANDRE: Obscure Italian designer Wandre Pioli createdsome of the world’s most bizarre and beautiful design in theearly 1960’s. A fusion of art and function, his rare guitarshave since become extremely valuable collectors pieces. As

many ofhis gui-tars hadcustomplasticand alu-minumparts, thisparticular

Eastwood model was based on one of the few designs thatcan actually be replicated with today’s components and man-

ufacturing capability. The result isa stylish and curvaceous guitarthat is wonderful balance of toneand playability. Features threemini Humbuckers with individualon/off switches, volume, tone andis available in stop or tremolo tail.The maple neck has s rosewoodfingerboard with star shapedmarkers and the very sixties zero-fret.

TQR: Have you chosen to re-develop obscure pickup designs? How was this done, specifically? Were actual vintage pickups used to determine the specs for the Eastwood pickups?

Basically, each new potential Eastwood model has to passtwo fundamental rules. First, is it possible to closely replicatethe look of the original guitar with our available materials andmanufacturing procedures? Second, can the final productretail for a price well below the current vintage price of the orig-inal? If these conditions can be met, then a plethora of otherissues come into play before the model will be considered, suchas trademarks and patents, available market, etc. Lastly, if all

other considerations are met, we consider tone. That mightsound a bit odd considering that you are reading this in TheToneQuest Report – but such is the harsh reality of this business.

As discussed ear-lier, we are in thebusiness of deliv-ering top quality,playable, repro-duction guitars,or, as our market-ing exec says –Radical Vintage

Remakes – at an affordable price that is well below the goingrate for the vintage equivalent. Therefore, in some instances(many of our Chinese made models) we are bound to themost “cost effective” standard humbucker or single coil thatwill fit the bill. However, in most instances the new Eastwoodpickups are far better than the original 1960’s Japanese pick-ups.

In the case of our Korean models, we obtain multiple samplesfrom our suppliers – ceramic, Alnico, P-90’s, humbuckers,single coils – everything they have available. We test andapply the most appropriate tone to the appropriate model. Forexample, we went with the Alnico Hot -10 humbuckers forthe Airline models but found them a little too aggressive forthe Ichiban. As the Ichiban was planned as a punk/surf guitar,it needed some high-end clarity to stand out in drenchedreverb. The Hot-10’s were a wee bit muddy for that.Consequently, we use the same mini humbuckers in the 12-string Nashville to give it that Ricky chime. At the same timewe did not want to leave out the die-hard customers asking,“The original Airlines were single coils – why aren’t mine?”So, we sent an original Airline pickup to our supplier andasked them to closely replicate the output characteristics yetmount it under a standard nickel humbucker cover. We nowoffer the Airline VVSC (Vintage Voiced Single Coil) pickupsas an option. Likewise for the GP, we sent an original SuperII pickup for evaluation which resulted in the open humbuck-ers found today in the Eastwood GP. It is a delicate balancebetween style, function and affordability. Fortunately everynow and again, as in the Airline and the Eastwood GP, weknock the cover off the ball.

TQR: Are most of the models found on the web site kept in stock, ready to ship?

You will find some unique differences with Eastwood Guitarscompared to other companies. First, having started the busi-ness as an Internet based company, we do not follow the tra-ditional cycle of national importer > regional distributor >storefront. Yes, we do have a small number of dedicated andsuccessful dealers – and that number is growing rapidly – but

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most sales are direct to the customer. Consequently ourinventory is not “pre-paid” by a distributor and “pre-sold” tothe stores. As such, we must have a complete inventory on-hand of all models at all times to satisfy the end user. Eachguitar is pulled from inventory with receipt of the order. It isprofessionally setup by our technicians, packaged andshipped UPS Air – all within 24 hours. Most guitars arrive atthe customers’ door anywhere in North America in 3 days, 3-5 days in Europe.

TQR: What type of warranty is offered?

First, we have a NO QUESTIONS return policy for on-linebuyers. Basically, if you receive your guitar and you are dis-satisfied for any reason, return it for a full refund, less ship-ping. If you are returning it because it was damaged or youfeel it was misrepresented, then we will pay all shippingcosts. Second, we have a Three Year Limited Warranty. Thisis a basic industry standard warranty against defects.

TQR: Do you have any plans to introduce new models,and if so, which ones?

As stated earlier, we are introducing 3-5 new models eachyear. We already have gone into production with three newmodels that will be available in January 2006. They are:

JR DELUXE: This model is a close replica of the MosriteMark II guitar made famous by Johnny Ramone, yet anothermodel that the vintage market has taken into the stratosphere.It features all the nuances of Johnny’s – odd knobs, singlecoil matched with a mini humbucker. Expected price will bein the $699 range.

SATURN: Here is a veryunique guitar that was origi-nally made in the early1960’s by HOPF, Germany.It was never popular inNorth America, but had thenotoriety of becoming theposter-boy for the famousSTAR Club in Hamburg.This guitar pushed our man-ufacturing acumen to newlevels, featuring chrome pipebinding on the body and f-

holes. A real looker! We are also currently working on proto-types for a Barney Kessel Airline model and another basedloosely on the Harmony Rocket, which will be available laterin 2006.

TQR: What are the most popular models among the entireline?

The Airline and the GP have been runaway successes. At firstI thought it could be attributed to the connections with JackWhite and Josh Hommes. Indeed, these connections certainlyhelped it get kick-started, but it is the guitar itself that cata-pulted sales. If you read the reviews at Harmony Central, it isall about the quality and playability of the guitar, not aboutits star appeal. People initiate their interest in EastwoodGuitars based on the cool and intriguing designs and stylefrom years gone by. Then, much to their surprise, they find aguitar that becomes their favorite player – head and shouldersabove what they were expecting. That is the funny thing inthis business – we start out with the best of intentions toreplicate the look of the original, because for the most part,many of the originals were not-so-great players in the firstplace. So the look is what the appeal is. Then, somewherealong the way we end up developing a guitar that stands upon its own as a professional player. The look ends up as abonus.

After surveying the Eastwood models on the web we askedMike Robinson to send us a Stormbird, Airline, Wandre andHi-Flyer, and when they arrived from Toronto we had themout of their boxes and tuned up in minutes. Your first reactionto the Eastwoods will be, “This doesn’t really look, feel orplay like a cheap guitar …” and they really don’t. Of course,the “cool” factor is also off the charts, which will appeal toall but the most seriously afflicted guitar snobs. These guitarsare not only economically yet well built; they are also intend-ed to be fun. “Serious” guitarists who fail to grasp andembrace the concept that guitars can be fun might consideranother instrument to take so seriously. Try the harp – a won-derful choice for art gallery openings and other seriousevents.

But you do deserve a serious, critical review … The finisheson the Eastwoods aren’t painstakingly applied in a multi-stepprocess with nitro lacquer, but they are void of orange peel orother visible flaws and the poly finishes are artfully appliedand vibrant. The hardware, tuners, jacks and switches aren’tthe most costly available, but they work well for now, and farbetter than most of the worn out junk you’d find on an origi-nal. Heavy use will hasten the need for replacement.

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Playability and feelare outstanding,especially whencompared to theoverall quality ofthe original, vintagemodels that inspiredthe Eastwoods, andwe have no quibbles

whatsoever with the fret and nut work or fine details of fitand finish. At a time when we frequently see tooling marks onrosewood fingerboards of $2,000 guitars and new tuning keysthat simply don’t work with acceptable precision, theEastwoods hold up quite nicely for the bucks, thank you.Among all of our review guitars, the Stormbird was the hefti-est at 8.2 pounds, while the others were surprisingly lighterand well-balanced. And what about tone?

AirlineThe Airline we received is a featherweight with a remarkablyresonant, ringing voice unplugged and a completely cool

retro look and feel. Achambered mahoganybody and precise CNCprecision endow theEastwood Airline withfeatures that clearlysurpass an original inappearance and overallplaybility. These gui-tars are all great play-

ers without exception. The dual Alnico HOT-10 humbuckingpickups very much reminded us of the original pickups in ourvintage 1965 National Westwood, with very strong bass andmidrange emphasis and diminished treble presence and bite.Call them “fat” if not sparkling or particularly bright.Resistance measurements were 7.8K/neck and 8.3K/bridge –fully within the normal range for traditional humbuckers –but these pickups display what we would describe as anauthentic ‘60s budget humbucking guitar tone that is appro-priate for the era in which the original Airlines were built, ifnot a sound we would want to claim as our every day signa-ture tone. Is the Airline worthy of a pickup upgrade?Definitely. The economical Gibson ‘57 Classics would be anoutstanding choice.

HiFlyerHow could anyone fail to appreciate the style of this guitar?The HiFlyer feels as good as it looks, it’s light, resonant anda great, great player equipped with P90’s. Like the AlnicoHot-10 humbuckers, the P90’s are heavy on the bottom, midsand upper mids, with a perceptible roll-off on the top.Resistance measurements were 7.2K/neck and 7.7K/bridge.We would prefer more treble tones, especially since the

design doesn’t allowfor much heightadjustment on the tre-ble side of the pickups.You can back the pole-pieces out a bit, butnot quite enough toboost the highs highenough for our taste.Your experience may

vary – tone is subjective – but whether you choose to rollwith the stock pickups or replace them with your favorite setof P90’s, the HiFlyer is one to own.

StormbirdWe had to have this one, in gold no less, and it didn’t disap-point. The P90’s are identical to those in the HiFlyer and our

preceding com-ments apply toboth – ideallywe’d like a bitstronger trebletones from thesepickups. On theother hand, con-templating a pick-

up swap isn’t a big negative for us … we have routinelyacquired new “Custom Shop” guitars and replaced the pick-ups the very same day. Similar to the earliest vintage reissuesfrom Fender Japan, the Eastwood guitars are also built withminiature Alpha pots. Swapping them for standard 500K CTSpots is easy enough, but on the Stormbird you’ll be requiredto enlarge the mounting holes in the body to fit the standardpots – easily done with a sharp hand-reamer. We plan toreplace the original pickups with a set of stock Gibson P90’s,leaving the original plastic insulated wire intact. The resultsshould be impressive, because the Stormbird is a great playerright out of the box.

Wandre DorisThere is a note on the Eastwood web page for the Doris stat-ing that the original Wandre guitars built by Wandre Pioli in

Cavriago, Italy cansell for as much as$50,000. TheEastwood versionimpressed us asbeing the mosteccentric and quirkydesign of our four

review guitars, with an array of three on/off toggles for eachof the three mini-humbuckers, and single volume and tonecontrols. The neck pickup selected alone was predictablywoofy (causing the normally well-behaved #2 12AX7 in our


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brown Vibrolux to audibly rattle), but it’s a good sound forold school blues where a little unfocused, low distortion isappropriate. The middle pickup produced a full midrangetone which is very usable, and the bridge throws a cool, tre-bly honk. Various combinations of the three pickups also pro-duced interesting and usable tones with the exception of allthree pickups being on, which was pure mud. Overall outputwas predictably high for mini-humbuckers with resistancereadings of 14K/Neck and Middle and 14.6K bridge. TheWandre is super light, fun to play, and it will pull things outof you that might not emerge from a more traditional guitar.We could even suggest that the radical nature of theEastwoods encourages radical playing beyond the scope ofwhat you would usually defer to on more familiar instru-ments. Who says style doesn’t count?

ConclusionThe entire Eastwood line impresses us as economical yetwell-built replicas of vintage guitar art, originally designedand produced by companies that bravely marched to the beatof a different strummer. Michael Robinson’s vision of re-cre-ating these unique and rare designs is completely valid; hisguitars succeed not only as supremely affordable replicas ofrare and offbeat instruments, but as guitars that deserve to beplayed and enjoyed. Their winsome and charismatic appeal iscontagious, and a welcome change in an industry where thewrong things are often taken much too seriously at theexpense of our sheer enjoyment of the instrument we love somuch. Quest forth, and by all means … have fun.

www.eastwoodguitars.comwww.myrareguitars.com

416-294-6165

Like many of us, Benjamin Fargen fell in love with the tone and timeless versatility of Fender blackface-era amps, andthe blackface Deluxe Reverb in particular. Unlike some othervintage Fender models (the brown Concert immediatelycomes to mind), the sound of vintage Deluxe Reverb ampsthat have escaped modification or abuse seems to haveremained very consistent throughout their production. Someplayers are perfectly happy with them as is, others like tosubstitute 6L6’s for more clean headroom and volume, andyou know all about our fondness for adding a 25K or 50Kmidrange pot using the hole that exists for the extensionspeaker jack. The most common complaints about the Deluxedesign are a low threshold for clean headroom, loose low-end that can fall apart, and a predominant trebly tone (goodfor Gibsons!)

When BenjaminFargen sent us his30W Blackbird run-ning on a quad of JJ6V6’s for review, wehad yet to interviewhim and we were com-pletely unaware of thegenesis of theBlackbird. Only laterdid we discover thathe had accumulated a

short list of “fixes” used to delight blackface Deluxe owners,and while the 30W Blackbird is entirely unique, we confess tohaving favorably compared it to our own Deluxe during ourevaluation. We’ll elaborate on the Blackbird in a minute, butfirst, meet Benjamin Fargen…

TQR: How were you first exposed to electron ics and gui-tar amplifiers specifically?

I actually started getting into electronics in high school. Myhigh school electronics teacher was a musician (actually hewas an early member of what would later become CredenceClearwater Revival – he played keyboards and grew up withboth of the Fogerty brothers. I showed a real dedication to theclass and electronics in general, so he kind of pushed me tobuild some of the music related kits that were offered like afuzz box and such. It was a great class and where I reallylearned how to solder and read schematics, etc.

TQR: What were some of your favorite amp designs, and why?

I have always been a huge fan of the “Vox” tone – playerslike George Harrison, The Edge, Mike Campbell and JohnnyMarr all epitomize that sound for mE, so I guess the AC30 isdefinitely one of my favorite amps. I have also repaired andrestored hundreds of classic blackface Fenders over the yearsand the brilliance of all the classic blackface designs alwaysmakes me smile.

TQR: When did the idea for the Blackbird emerge and how was it inspired?

Speaking of thoseclassic blackfaceFenders, in the earlydays I used to repairall the local guys’Deluxe Reverbs andlisten to all the com-plaints that wentalong with them –

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shrill high end, loose flabby bass response etc., so as Itweaked these amps over the years I documented all the modsand repairs I did, which encompassed a multitude ofimprovements and solutions for these amps. I rolled them alltogether and made some big changes to the power sectionand the Blackbird was born, so it’s not a clone at all – but itstill makes you feel the way you think a great Blackface ampshould sound.

TQR: Describe the various amp models you build and how they have resembled or offered significant departures from specific, well-known vintage models of the past. Please also include information on the amp you’ve been designing with Jim Weider.

The Blackbird certainly covers the Vintage Blackface soundwith a new twist. The VOS is my new overdrive amps thattake the best of smooth singing overdrive but with a moreBritish flair than a Dumble etc. The Bordeaux is my dualchannel switching offering that encompasses the blackbirdpreamp and the VOS overdrive section. The Mini Plex is a12-8 watt SE Class A miniature british plexi style amp forlow volume club and studio use. The Mighty Plex is the ClassA/B push pull big brother to the Mini Plex.

Jim Weider is a greatguy and diehard vin-tage Fender player, sowe have come up witha two channel puretone amp that capturesthe magic of severalclassic blackface mod-els rolled into onechassis. We have mademany importanttweaks here and thereas Jim puts the proto-type through its pacesout on tour. Jim is akiller player and agreat guy, and we have

had fun working on this project over the last six months.

TQR: Can you summarize some of the unique things you like to do as a builder?

I definitely use a recipe of different caps and resistors in spe-cific areas of each amp to coax out different elements I like.They are subtle things, but when you listen to amps all dayevery day you start hearing these little things. Recently, I amreally excited over switching to Mercury Magnetic transform-ers. I have not been this impressed with amp parts since Istarted building them in my garage 8 years ago!

TQR: What was the process involved in determining the kinds of speakers that would go in your amps?

These days there are somany great choices thatit’s hard to choose.Since I cut my teeth onpure custom work in theearly days, I used tochoose each speaker foreach client, but now wehave our staple speakerswe use based upon max-imum flexibility – a

mixture of Webers, Celestions, and recently I have been veryimpressed with the new Eminence Wizard and Cannabis Rexspeakers.

TQR: Which brands of tubes do you use?

At this point reliability is the most important aspect followedclosely by tone and consistent availability. It is unacceptablefor an amp to reach its destination and not work due to a tubefailure, and we have found the EH12AX7 and 12AT7 to havethe lowest noise floor and reliability for preamp tubes. Theyhave a smokey tone to them that sounds really nice for over-

driveapplica-tions. Wealso useEH orwinged CEL34’s, JJ6L6’s and6V6’s fol-

lowed by JJ or Sovtek 5AR4’s. Each amp is burned in for afull day before they ship out.

TQR: How are your cabinets constructed? What types of wood do you use and why?

We use hand-builtpine cabs for all theBlackbird amps fea-turing marine-gradebirch ply baffles andhardwood rails forstrength. We alsouse birch ply for allthe English-styleamps. My brother’scompany (J. Designcabinets) builds all

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of the cabinets for Fargen. His company does killer work andit’s such a pleasure to work with someone who has a vestedinterest in quality and long term solutions so I can concen-trate on building amplifiers.

TQR: How do you describe the sound of your amplifiers,and from a builder’s perspective, what makes them sound the way they do?

I would say my amplifiers have a familiar vintage feel that issmokey sounding – never shrill or hard sounding. I am intoreally smooth tones that remain pleasant even at high soundpressure levels, and I would like to think we offer solutionsfor modern players who love vintage amps but may be tiredof fighting with them.

TQR: What’s ahead? What do you want to accomplish in the future?

I am currently working with another major artist to develop anew signature amp that will then be manufactured by anotherwell known musical instrument company. This type of designwork is exciting and something I have wanted to do for quite awhile. It allows me to keep the focus on Fargen Amps, whereit should be. Innovation and quality rather than quantity.

The Blackbird is acompact 1x12 ratedat 30W (dual 6V620W or dual 6L640W versions arealso available) thatwill meet the needsof players seekingwarmer ‘Fendery’tone at volumesappropriate forhome use, recording

and small clubs.

Using our stellar blackface Deluxe as a benchmark for com-parison, we found the Blackbird to be inherently warmersounding due to the Fargen’s circuit design, the addedmidrange control, EH and JJ tubes, and the Celestion Vintage30 speaker. Players fond of brighter single coil pickupsshould appreciate the enhanced warmth that the Blackbirdoffers. Darker humbucking pickups may call for a differentspeaker – we preferred the Eminence Private Jack and TexasHeat over the Vintage 30 with our humbucking guitars.

Unlike astockDeluxe, youwon’t findfault withtheBlackbird’sability tohandle bass

frequencies – the piggish output transformer has obviouslybeen designed to provide solid, unyielding low end, whichalso results in a higher threshold for clean headroom. Evenwhen pushed hard, the Blackbird doesn’t break up as intense-ly as a typical dual 6V6 amp, which we found refreshing. Ifyou’re looking for thick sustain and intense overdriven toneyou’ll need a pedal, but as you probably know, cleaner ampsoften match up best with your favorite overdrive and distor-tion effects, and it’s a fact of life that amps that excel in pro-ducing brilliant overdriven tones rarely also offer gobs ofclean tones at usable volume levels (unless you’re ready forchannel switching). The overall character of the Blackbird is

warm, cleanand veryquiet withexcellentreverb that isrich and lushwithout thehard splashpresent in somany com-pact reverb

amps built today. Fargen has also added a Hi and Lo powertoggle on the back. We preferred the Hi Power setting, rely-ing on the volume pot on our guitars to manage volume,power and distortion.

The Blackbird is well-built with meticulous attention to detailunder the hood. Fargen’s layout and soldering skills areadmirable, the cabinet is solid with no detectable buzzes orrattles, and at 35 pounds it’s an easy carry.

At a time when more custom amp builders seem to be chas-ing mighty distortion with British roots (Fargen also builds a12W “Mini-Plexi” and a 40W “Mighty-Plexi), we like theidea of a clean 30W custom-built cousin to the DeluxeReverb. The Fargen site features lots of soundclips, and inaddition to building his featured amps, Ben Fargen also con-sults with players on custom designs. Stay tuned for a reporton the new amp he’s been developing in the past year withthe King of Tone, Jim Weider!

www.fargenamps.com, 916-971-4992

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Based on the feedback we’ve received, our April 2005 issueon speakers was a big hit. Thanks to everyone who has writ-ten or called to discuss their next speaker adventure – we’rehappy to help and especially pleased when your projectsresult in inspiring tone.

Since the April issuewas published we’vebeen busier than everbefore evaluatingspeakers for reviewarticles and the debutof the TQ Clarksdaleamp. Add the EminenceWizard to our list ofabsolute favorite 12’s,along with the

“Hellatones” from Avatar – an aged Celestion G12H 70thAnniversary or Celestion 60W that rock. If you aren’t famil-iar with Avatar, we suggest you bookmark their web site forfuture reference now. In addition to selling Eminence andCelestion speaker s at the lowest prices we’ve found any-where, they also build very affordable, top notch cabinets inevery possible configuration you might need, and as we said… we love the Hellatones.

Avatar is located near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and we askedfounder Dave Noss to give us the skinny on his background,the development of Avatar, and what’s hot in speakers andcabs. Enjoy…

TQR: What is your background and what inspired you to start Avatar?

I have been playing guitar for 40 years and I worked instereo/electronic stores as a teenager and after college. I start-ed Speaker Center in 1983 in the SF Bay Area, which was achain of speaker stores carrying raw speakers, crossover partsand quite a bit of car stereo speaker separates and amps. Iwas on the ground floor of the car stereo explosion – youknow – filling the trunk with eight 15’s with a few 1000 wattamps … That lasted into the early ‘90s and that is also whenI saw other stores selling 2x12 and 4x12 guitar cabs for whatI thought was way too much money. I immediately recog-nized that I could make similar speaker systems as good asthe top brand names. I could use the best speakers and sellthem factory direct to musicians out of my stores at a muchlower factory direct price. I ordered pallets of CelestionVintage 30’s from the UK and since I had all of the best con-nections with the best factories for speakers and cabinets for

car stereo, it was an easy transition to cabs with guitar speak-ers. I started with 2x12’s and 4x12’s loaded with Vintage 30’sand sold them for about half of what other stores were charg-ing for Celestion-loaded cabs.

TQR: How did the concept of “aging” speakers come about and how is it done, specifically?

I heard about aging speakers in the forums, so I decided that itwould be a great service to offer to our customers. Then I tookit one step further and decided to come up with my own pro-prietary speakers. I came up with the idea of taking the mostpopular Celestions, breaking them in and marketing themdirectly to musicians at a very fair price as Hellatone. I wasbuying the Celestions in large container quantities anyway, soit was a natural transition. We break them in by playing themon audio amps with bassy CD’s for at least 15 hours at nightwhen we aren’t here. We also do a very minimal, subtle treat-ment on the speaker which I should keep to myself.

TQR: With so many choices available today, choosing speakers can be tough (and expensive). What are the best selling Eminence and Celestion speakers you sell, and which among them are your personal favorites, and why?

My favorites are the Celestion G12H30 and Vintage 30, whichis why I chose them to use for the Hellatones. The Vintage 30has the pronounced mids to cut through the mix and theG12H30 has the nice low end and that nice warm break upwhen overdriven. And of course, those two speakers really com-pliment each other well when used together in the same cab.

Eminence has many 12’sto choose from and mostof them are pretty popu-lar. In the beginningwhen they first came out,the Governor and Wizardwere the most popularbecause they are voicedsimilarly to the CelestionVintage 30 and G12H30.But trends change, and

lately the Texas Heat for crunch, and the Swamp Thang forgood clean tones and big low end have increased in popularity.

TQR: You also offer incredibly good deals on cabinets. Can you describe how they are built, the materials used, and how you are able to sell them at such a reasonable price?

Again, volume and great relationships with cab makers. We


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don't makethe cabs here– we farmthem out andbuy in vol-ume. Ournew coloredtolex premiercabs aremade in anearby town

by a shop that only makes cabs for us. They are 3/4 inchbirch ply with dovetail joints and are available in black,blond, red, green and brown and we will be adding orange ina week or two. My son Eric Noss is in charge of all opera-tions so he and his team do all of the assembly, testing, QC,packing and shipping.

TQR: What are the most popular cabinet configurations and speaker combinations you sell?

We do offer lots ofchoices but the favoriteguitar cabs are the2x12’s, usually withVintage 30’s orG12H30’s (Hellatones)or a mix of the two.Another favorite for thelower wattage amps isone Alnico Blue and oneG12H30 or Hellatone

30. Our most popular 4x12 is the straight cab with fourVintage 30’s for hard rock and metal.

TQR: In your opinion, are the Celestion speakers now made in China equal to, better, or in some ways dif-ferent or not as consistent as those previously madein England? (This is a subject of constant debate that no one seems to agree on).

I know there is a lot of debate on this. I’ll give you the quotefrom my FAQs because it pretty much wraps up my feelingson Celestions. “Do the UK Celestions and the ChineseCelestions sound the same? Technically, no two speakers areidentical. For most guys there are no appreciable differencesbetween the two but Tone is very subjective, so when a realtone tweaker expresses his opinion that he can hear a differ-ence between the same model speaker from the two differentfactories, he has the right to his opinion and you can’t arguewith him. We’ve sold thousands of Celestion guitar 12’s overthe years and found them to be of the same very high qualitythat Celestion has always been known for. Our guitar cabs getgreat reviews and most of those cabs are loaded with

Celestions, most of which come from the China factory.”

TQR: What’s ahead for your company – are there any new products on the horizon?

We just introduced the new, larger Premier Vintage cab styledafter the Bluesbreaker cab and it’s working out very well. Weare constantly looking for new things to do. I find it veryhelpful to read the popular forums because that’s where I canlearn so much about what musicians really want.

www.avatarspeakers.com, 208-762-5251

“Aging” new speakers is a great idea and you can hear thedifference. Speakers are essentially mechanical devices thatdefinitely improve with time, and we often hear new speakersbegin to bloom with a smoother, warmer tone even during thefirst few hours of play. It’s this smooth musicality so oftenpresent in vintage speakers that we all crave in new speakers

(wish you could hearour 1968 Marshall4x12 cab), and toreceive new speakersalready broken-in is adefinite plus. Wedirectly compared anaged G12H 30WHellatone to an identi-cal, new G12H 30Wfrom Avatar and our

results confirmed our own experiences with new and “natu-rally aged” speakers. The new G12H lacked the lush low-endof the aged speaker and midrange and treble tones weresharper and not quite as smooth and musical sounding.Overall, the new speaker sounded tighter, stiffer, and harmon-ic content was more raw and aggressive while the agedspeaker sounded much sweeter. Granted, 15-30 hours of play-ing time may produce similar results, but why wait if youdon’t have to?

We also auditionedan Avatar Premier2x12 cabinet loadedwith a HellatoneG12H 30 andHellatone 60. At 21"x 28.5" x 12 " with a“football” oval back,the 45 .lb Premier isacoustically full andwarm with the ambi-

spruce circa 1898

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ent character of anopen back whilemaintaining someof the punchinessand projection of aclosed back design.The Premier isn’tas linear, tight or“beamy” as a

closed back 2x12, but if that’s what you like, Avatar buildsclosed back cabinets as well.

Avatar’s build quality is excellent with no compromises andincludes 13-ply Baltic Birch, rabbett and dado interlockingside joints, steel (not plastic!) recessed handles, steel cornercaps, and a deep selection of speaker combinations and tolexand grill cloth options. Loaded with aged Hellatones the priceis phenomenal – $289.00 plus $34.00 shipping. See theAvatar web site for more information on 1x12’s, 1x15’s,4x10’s and 4x12’s.

What could be more rewarding than loading up on newspeakers for your favorite amps or adding versatile new toneswith different cabinet configurations? Try playing yourMarshall-style 50W head through a 4x10 cab … Add a littlereverb and you’ve got a strong blues rig that will have otherplayers wondering why that hadn’t thought of it. Call it theHoney Dripper. And if you have a vintage Fender black orsilverface amp with blue ‘Fender’ label Oxfords (EIA code465), please get over the thought of keeping it original, putthose Oxfords in a closet where they belong, and make thatamp whole and honest with new speakers. As Jeff Bakossays, “Changing speakers is one of the easiest and most sig-nificant ‘mods’ you can ever do.”

“As I read various portions of Tonequest, I am always mysti-fied by certain phraseology that is used to describe soundsfrom guitars or amps, for example:

“Greasy” – what does this mean? I have an idea what agreasy sound might be but I’m not really sure. Can you givean example of a greasy sound in a song or by an artist?

From the Oct 2005 issue, page 19: “The Cream-Tone trans-formed the tone of our humbucking guitars into a greasy,brokedown, almost-single coil tone that was seductive andunique.” What does this mean? Greasy? Brokedown? I canonly guess. Later, same page, ‘the same EQ changes wenoted with humbucking pickups push the character of Strat

forward, enhancing the scooped, tinsley tone, low-midresponse and snarl … The out of phase #2 and #4 positionsreally quack through the Cream-Tone, the neck pickup thumpslike it should, and the bridge rips …’

‘Push the character of the Strat forward?’What does thatmean? ‘Scooped, tinsley’ tone – what is that tone? I suspectthat means the frequency response is scooped, with the midfrequencies 3db or more below the bass and high frequencies.‘Snarl’ – what does this mean? ‘Really quack’ – is this thesound that Albert Collins got from his telecaster? ‘Thumpsand rips’ – I don't know what this means. What is ‘head-room?’ There is always a lot of talk about headroom and Idon’t know what that means.”

Randy BreiLake Ridge, VA

Dear Randy:

The vernacular of tone can be odd indeed. Have you everbeen in a recording studio and listened to a discussion ofwhat is (or isn’t) being created and recorded in terms oftonality and feel? While the interpretation of terms used toevaluate tone can be as subjective as the act itself, you haveinspired us to take a stab at defining some of the more famil-iar terms used by us and others in specifically describingamplified guitar tone. Why is a separate vocabulary for guitarnecessary? Well, think about it … Every instrument in anorchestra is what it is – a viola is a viola. It’s the music beingplayed in a symphony by all the instruments that creates themood and collective tone of the piece, while the tone of anelectric guitar and amp can vary by design or modified andmanipulated to create a palpable range of moods and tones allby itself. Wouldn’t it be fun if someone could build a guitartone meter with a needle indicator that would simply point tothe following “readings?”

Airy – The opposite of tight, dark or compressed. We oftenrefer to specific pickups as having an “airy,” open tone andwe view this quality as being broadly preferable for mostplayers and styles of music. Of course, for those who relishMesa Triple Rectifier stacks, C-tuned Les Pauls, body art andface hardware, “airy” is for pussies. Fair enough. You’re read-ing PussyQuest, then.

Awesome – given the source, usually very loud and very bad.Mature, sober human beings don’t find much to be truly awe-some very often, otherwise, how could it indeed be awe-some? Any Guitar Center on a Saturday is busting with awe-some tones.

Bluesy – You won’t find this in the Court of the CrimsonKing. Bluesy tone is raw, rich, honestly contrived and

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unadulterated. Albert King set astandard he will forever own aloneon an electric guitar, Bloomfielddid, too, steel player FreddieRoulette’s “Puppy Howl Blues”with Earl Hooker must be ranked,and you can take your pick of anynumber of Delta blues players onacoustic guitar, Robert Johnsonbeing the most celebrated.“Bluesy” is something that’s eitherrunnin’ in your veins or it ain’t,and for way too many “blues”players today, it ain’t.

Ballsy – Bold. Unapologetically so, which is to say that asolid statement is being made. It may not be a statement youwould (or could) make, but it always gets your attention andrespect. Jeff Beck has always been amongst the ballsiest ofplayers, as demonstrated on the classic Jeff Beck Group

album featuring BobTench, Max Middletonand the late Cozy Powellthat includes “I’m Goin’Down.” Learn to play thissong the way Beck did in1972 and you will haveaccomplished somethingvery significant – butdon’t play it out. Ever.This is your little secret.

Cut live in a Memphis studio and produced by Steve Cropper,this album proves that the true tipping point for ballsy tone is90% attitude. Beck’s 50W Marshall was merely an appropri-ate instrument to be used, abused and exploited.

Brokedown – Rawand flawed to perfec-tion. “You’ll get aworried mind learn-ing my mistakes.”Jimmy Reed must becounted, and JimboMathus makes everyguitar he touchessound brokedown (asmost of them are).

Listen to Jimbo’s “Mule Plow Line” or Buddy Guy’s SweetTea for brokedown guitar tone.

Brutal – Possibly pleasing, but often only when you are theone dealing. A Firebird played through a Peavey 5150 and aRat pedal is brutal.

Bad – Really good, which could mean anything, includingtruly bad. Consider the source.

Bad ass – Totally badand defines “theshit.” DoyleBramhall is a trulybad ass guitar player.Buy all of his musicand if you shouldcatch him live, askhim why he hasn’tbeen featured inToneQuest since he’sabove anything else

(but he ain’t above this). Meanwhile, buy Welcome and getbusy…

Blistering – Faster than you can play and totally bad ass toboot, as in early Jimmy Page. Vai and Satriani are blistering,but they don’t possess the heavy traction Jimmy did, and ofcourse, they’ve never had the songs. But take heart – you canalso play one note and be blistering … Albert Collins definedblistering. It ain’t the gear (although it helps) – it’s the heat inyour heart.

Crunchy – Distorted,tight and compressedwith lots of midrange shi-zle biscuit. Very un-Fendery. A Dallas-ArbiterSound City 100W head isvery crunchy, as is theMarshall JCM 900. Hell,Michigan’s native sonMichael Katon is theSultan of Crunch. Buy his

music for your zestiest parties, and should you find your wifedancing on a table and trading mescal shots with your boss,please send Mike a note of thanks. He’s from Michigan … soof course he’ll be proud. www.katon.com.

Deep – 3-dimensional. Ry Cooder is deep. Adrian Legg isdeep. Lindley is deep. The Beach Boys album Surf’s Up isexceptionally deep (with a couple of lame exceptions pennedby Mike Love). Vintage Leslie cabs, Fender reverb units,Brown Pro amps and some Dumbles are deep. Back to Surf’sUp for a minute … try learning to play the guitar like BrianWilson sings. That would be deep (volume pedal required).

Evil – Dark, brooding, threatening tone, as found in anyNordic metal band or our very own Brian Hugh Warner.Canton, Ohio must be so very proud … www.marilynman-son.com

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18

Funky – Like a monkey. This is a lost art in guitar and thereare many different nuances of funk. Sure, The Ohio Playerswere funky, but The James Gang’s “Funk 49” was really notfunky at all. ‘Nawlins players are all funky, and Bryan Lee isamong the funkiest. www.justin-time.com/authors/bryanlee/

Greasy – Back to Ry Cooder… Billy Gibbons … Lindley… Sonny Landreth! (how youwhisk lightning into thatgreasy roux, boy?) Harry DeanStanton is the poster boy forskinny greasy, which is muchharder to pull off than fatgreasy. Buy the Paris, Texassoundtrack or rent the movie.Very greasy.

Headroom – The amount of volume available in an ampbefore clean tones melt into distortion. A silverface mastervolume 1979 Fender Twin loaded with JBL’s has a cubic shit-load of headroom. A Fender Champ has none.

Loose – Most often refers to low end that falls apart ratherthan producing a solid thump. Ever eaten street food inMexico? The vintage 2x10 Fender Vibrolux Reverb is a great

amp, but it lacks thefamously solid bot-tom of the 4x10Super Reverb. Dittowith the vintageblackface Vibroverb,which is why CésarDiaz always replacedthe output transform-

ers in SRV’s Fender amps with Bassman trannies and subbedsilicon diode rectifiers for the GZ34. So, you’re a seriousamp collector? Well, where is your Diaz, playah?

Muddy – Poor note definitionon chords, smeared tones lack-ing presence and sparkle. Dull.Appropriate for forays intoauthentic blues requiringcheap pawnshop tone. Can beacquired from old Harmony,Kay and Supro guitars, Valcoamps and other cheap-when-it-was new gear. Joe Bardenonce called these instruments

“toys.” It takes a full grown man to play a toy. Lindley wasone of the first to plug his toys into a Dumble, and you knowthe rest …

Overwound – The Deadboys’ (Stiv Bators, Cheetah Chrome,Jimmy Zero, Johnny Blitz, and Jeff Magnum) debut vinylrelease Young, Loud and Snotty. Otherwise, refers to pickupsbuilt with more turns for increased output. Usually darkersounding as a result with an edgy tone.

Papery – Thin, razory, edgy tone with very little punch orperceived power. Older, cheap speakers with undersized mag-nets produce papery tone, as did the dashboard speakers inyer daddy’s ‘65 Impala.

Quack – The #4 out-of-phase position (middleand bridge) on a Strat.For an example of snarlyquack, reference SRV’swah wah-laced rhythmtrack in Lonnie Mack’s“Hound Dog Man” on theStrike Like Lightning CD.Yes, we’ve said thisbefore and we’re tellin’

you again ‘cuz you didn’t listen the first time!

Rippin’ – Sharp and clear with great presence and power.Single coils rip better than humbuckers. If a saw rips, a hum-bucker hammers. Joe Bonamassa and Buddy Whittington rip. Kal David rips. Johnny Winter holds the original patent onrip.

Scooped – Diminished midrange presence and emphasiswhen compared to low and high frequency response. Fenderblackface amps typically produce a scooped tone, which isnot a bad thing, but we do enjoy adding a 50K midrange potto Fender blackface amps (Deluxe Reverb and Pro Reverb) tomerge Fender and Marshall tones in one amp. My Deluxewill kill your Deluxe …

Signature tone – Your uniquely identifiable sound and hope-fully what you’re chasing here.

Snarl – Tone with athick edginess. Stratplayers chase thistone endlessly whenall they really need todo is move up to agood Telecaster or geta set of Lollar “TQ”Strat pickups. RoyBuchanan inventedsnarl. Got a light?

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Sonny Landreth


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Tinsely – No, not Tinsley Ellis … Liberally sprinkle some oldschool Christmas tinsel on a tall mound of Spam, spread outyour meditation mat and release the muse. Should this fail toreveal the essence of tinsely tone, try any old Police recordsand bring on the night.

Uber Tone – “Above all others,” and in reality a completefantasy since you cannot possibly hear “all others.” Harvey’sbasement tone in Akron might be better than yours, yet we allharbor our own concept of Uber Tone, real or imagined, andthey are completely valid. It may not be the best sex anyonehas ever had – it only matters that it’s the best sex you’veever had …

Underwound – Kenny Chesney

Wide glide – Big,smooth, wide opentone, whether it’s thestylized surf tones ofJames Calvin Wilseyon Chris Isaac’s earlywork, the broad hori-zons evoked by TheEdge, or a PaulFranklin pedal steelsolo. Wide glidemakes you want tofill the tank with $3gasoline, drive thetwo lane highwaysonly and stop at the

joints where the locals eat. Well, whaddya waiting for?

A full year in development, we’ve completed the first twoprototypes of the ToneQuest Clarksdale amp and you’reinvited to order yours now. Long-time readers will recall ourprevious reviews of the rare DeArmond amplifiers built in

1959-60 inToledo, Ohioby RoweIndustries – thesame companyfamous forDeArmond pick-ups andDeArmondeffects. GuitaristSteve Kimock first

turned us on tothe DeArmond1x10 withtremolo, andthanks toMontana guitarbuilder LarryPogreba, wereceived an origi-nal “C.F. Martin”DeArmond 1x12 in

2004 that really shook us up. To put it bluntly, this little dual6V6 amp roared with a deep expressiveness, rich harmoniccontent and an intensity that we had never heard in any other1x12 amplifier from any era, and our reaction was consistent-ly echoed by all who heard it. We’ve never seen a DeArmondthat dated from any years other than 1959-60, making themrare and nearly impossible to find – until now.

The original cabi-net and steelchassis were sentto Mojotone andCAD drawingsmade for exactreproductions, theoriginal trans-former set was

sent to Mercury Magnetics to be cloned, and Jeff Bakos blue-printed the original circuit and is building each amp chassispersonally using Zoso caps. After evaluating over a dozenspeakers we selected the Eminence Wizard with EvidenceAudio speaker cable by Tony Farinella. The 20W, dual chan-nel, 4 input, cathode biased Clarksdale can be run with dual6V6’s and a 5Y3 rectifier for ultimate overdrive, or a pair of6L6’s and a 5AR4 for slightly more power and a bigger atti-tude. While it can also produce brilliant clean tones at moder-

ate vol-ume set-tings withsingle coilpickups,we re-cre-ated thisamp forits

remarkable overdriven tone. The only non-original feature isa direct out jack enabling larger amps to be slaved for morepower. For more information or to place your order, pleasesee the Clarksdale Amp page at www.tonequest.com or call1-877-MAX-TONE. Price: $1,950.00 excluding shipping. Adeposit of $1,000 is required, and because each amp is cus-tom built, please allow four months for delivery.

TQ

TQ

Paul H. Smith

Highlight


www.tonequest.com

TToonneeQQuueesstt

The ToneQuest Report TM (ISSN 1525-3392) is published monthly by Mountainview Publishing LLC, 235 Mountainview Street, Suite 23, Decatur, GA. 30030-2027, 1-877-MAX-TONE, email: [email protected]. Periodicals Postage Paid at Decatur, GA and At Additional Mailing Offices. Postmaster: Send addresschanges to:The ToneQuest Report, PO Box 717, Decatur, GA. 30031-0717.The annual subscription fee for The ToneQuest ReportTM is $79 per year for 12monthly issues. International subscribers please add US $40. Please remit payment in U.S. funds only. VISA, MasterCard and American Express accepted.The ToneQuest ReportTM is published solely for the benefit of its subscribers. Copyright © 2006 by Mountainview Publishing LLC. All rights reserved. Nopart of this newsletter may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system without the written permission of the copyrightholder. Please forward all subscription requests, comments, questions and other inquiries to the above address or contact the publisher [email protected]. Opinions expressed in The ToneQuest Report are not necessarily those of this publication. Mention of specific products, services ortechnical advice does not constitute an endorsement. Readers are advised to exercise extreme caution in handling electronic devices and musical instruments.

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INTERVIEWS:

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Why you need an SGThe ToneQuest King DaddyPeekaMooseRobin

EDITORIAL BOARD

Analogman

Tom AndersonTom Anderson GuitarWorks

Mark BaierVictoria Amplifiers

Jeff BakosBakos AmpWorks

Dick BoakCF Martin & Co.

Joe Bonamassa

Phil Brown

Dan ButlerButler Custom Sound

Don ButlerThe Toneman

Steve CarrCarr Amplifiers

Mitch ColbyKORG/Marshall/VOX USA

Ben ColeGHS Strings

Jol DantzigHamer Guitars

Dan ErlewineStewart-MacDonald

Larry FishmanFishman Transducers

Buzz Feiten

Bill FinneganKlon Centaur

Ritchie FlieglerFender Musical Instruments Corp.

Lindy Fralin

Peter Frampton

Billy F. GibbonsZZ Top

Joe GlaserGlaser Instruments

John Harrison A Brown Soun

Johnny Hiland

Gregg HopkinsVintage Amp Restoration

Phil JonesGruhn Guitars

K&M Analog Designs

Mark KaranBob Weir & Ratdog

Ernest KingGibson Custom Shop

Chris KinmanKinman AVn Pickups

Mike KropotkinKCA NOS Tubes

Winn KrozakPaul Reed Smith Guitars

Sonny Landreth

Albert Lee

Adrian Legg

Dave MaloneThe Radiators

Jimbo Mathus

René MartinezThe Guitar Whiz

Greg MartinThe Kentucky Headhunters

Richard McDonaldVP Mktg, Fender Musical Instruments

Terry McInturffTerry McInturff Guitars

James Pennebaker

Scott PetersenHarmonic Design Pickups

Paul RiveraRivera Amplifiers

Tommy ShannonDouble Trouble

Todd SharpNashville Amp Service

Tim ShawFender Musical Instruments Corp.

Chris SiegmundSiegmund Guitars and Amplifiers

John SprungAmerican Guitar Center

Peter StroudThe Sheryl Crow Band

Laurence WexerLaurence Wexer LimitedFine Fretted Instruments

Buddy WhittingtonJohn Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

Don YoungNational Reso-phonic Guitars

Zachary VexZ Vex Effects

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