DBX Sound Custom "Dark Back" Tele

Here's a truly unique one-off piece, a custom Telecaster-style guitar made by DBX Sound, which is basically a guy named Dave Carness working out of San Francisco.  He calls this the "Dark Back," and it's made out of an exotic tropical wood that I couldn't even attempt to pronounce - Pumajillo, with a Maple veneer on top.  The amp I've chosen for a backdrop is a super-sweet Fender Supersonic.  It has a preamp toggle that lets you choose between a Vibrolux or a Bassman circuit, and a second switch that lets you run either setting in a "vintage" or super high gain "burn" mode, covering just about all the tonal options you could want out of a Fender combo.

Yes, the top is pretty, but the most amazing thing about this guitar is it's weight, or lack thereof.  It tips the scales at just barely over six pounds - very easy on the old shoulders!  Even the neck feels light as a feather.  The pickups are Alnico Tone Riders, which have a nice vintage Tele sound - no one need know that you're not lugging around a seven-and-a-half-pound-plus monster to get that tone.  There's also something just a little bit...friendlier about that lower horn, as well.

The headstock shape just barely deviates from the standard Tele, and the aged tuners are a nice touch.  Overall this is one of the coolest guitars we have in the shop - and until Mr. Carness makes a few more, you certainly won't find another one anywhere else!

Gibson Trini Lopez

Here's another one that a friend brought in to show off.  Yes, the same guy that had the Supro amp, the lap steel, and the National Belaire.  Some people have all the fun.  This is a Gibson Trini Lopez from the mid-sixties,  a semi-hollowbody with a distinct look that sets it apart from its closest cousin, the ES-335.  Trini Lopez sang mostly pop and strummed with a bright, infectious feel, but the eye-catching diamond soundholes and inlays of his signature guitar have given it a cult following amongst well-off rockers like Dave Grohl and Noel Gallagher.

The owner swapped out the original pickups for these high-output coil-tappable beasts sometime in the 80s, though he swears he's got the original pickups squirreled away somewhere.  These pickups have have a good tone, though they do look a little conspicuous next to that yellowed binding and checked, aging finish!  Also - that amp in the back is one of ours; a nice little small-wattage Gibson Skylark with built-in tremolo.

As you can see, the headstock is similar to the ones used on the Firebird models.  I don't know how well you can see from this picture, but a "friend" of the owner's apparently took it upon himself to drill extra holes in the headstock, to change the tuners to a "3x3" arrangement.  The holes have been filled in since then, but yeesh, with friends like these... Still, this is a fantastic old Gibson; a little piece of history that you can still play!

Gibson ES-330T

More vintage finds - the guitar is a 1960 Gibson 330T, and the amps are a Gibson GA-18 Explorer and a Premier 120, both from around the same era.  Both amps sport a funky, darker tone that would have been an alternative to the bright, spikey twang of the new-fangled Fender amps of the day.  On-board reverbs were an unknown quantity at the time these amps were built, so a swampy and moody tremolo is the only effect available on either.

The ES-330T is basically a one-pickup version of the more famous ES-335, and this one has aged beautifully, with a some nicely yellowed binding and some fine, subtle checking on the finish.  The 'burst   Like the similar one-pickup ES-125, this stripped-down model is a great value for a vintage Gibson!  Who needs two pickups, anyway?

Gibson ES-125 and BR-9 Amp

Here's a pair right out of the 1950s - a Gibson ES-125 and a BR-9 amplifier. We've had another ES-125 in the store before, but like we say, you can never have too many guitars from the 50s. Playing through this rig makes me want to play some jazzy jump blues licks, or maybe some western swing.  Much like those bygone musical styles, this guitar and amp have authentic roadhouse appeal, but also a certain sweetness and delicacy that often goes unappreciated.

The body has been re-finished somewhere along the line, but it's in an attractive cherry burst, very professionally done.  That lone pick-up is all original, though.  Sure, it's only one pickup, but if you can only have one pickup, an old Gibson P-90 is a damn good one to be stuck with.  ES-125s have a reputation as the "best deal" in vintage guitars because the basic design and single pick-up layout have kept the prices well below the likes of an ES-335, ES-175, etc.

The BR-9 was built between the late forties and fifties.  It has a single 8-inch speaker and a very distinctive tonal identity: whereas most of our small low-wattage tube combos very quickly break up into snarling distortion, the BR-9 stays clean and crisp even with the single volume knob wide open.  The most you'll get out of this one is a little extra warmth, a little "blurring" around the edges.  Early amps like this were designed with "hi-fidelity" in mind, so conspicuous crunch and grind tones were to be avoided.

The control panel is about as simple as you can get!  No tweaking necessary.  I also believe these amps were also meant to be played with a lap steel guitar.  This amp would certainly be a boon to any tone connoisseur and/or studio rat.  I can't think of any piece of gear that so effortlessly conjures up the sound of early honky-tonk, Hank Williams, and big Cadillac cars with new whitewall tires.

Dan E. Lectro

Whipping up another batch of promotional material, and I decided to turn that funky old Danelectro DS-50 amp we've got into an awesome robot buddy.  This will make for a really fun new flyer.  I call our new mascot here "Dan E. Lectro," and I've even set up a Facebook page for him.  Now if only we could teach him how to make coffee in the mornings...

Silvertone Guitar & Matching Amp

Another awesome guitar/amp combo!  Here's a black sparkle Silvertone 1423 with a matching amp.  Silvertone, for the uninitiated, was (and still is) the brand name used by Sears for their musical instruments and amplifiers, though these particular models were actually built for Sears by Harmony, and thus feature a pair of the highly coveted DeArmond pickups instead of the lipstick tubes more common to Silvertones.  These guitars were made from '58-'62, and you sometimes see them referred to as "Jupiters" or "Stratotones," after the model names that Harmony used.

The amp is a 1481, an 8-watt beast that was Silvertone's answer to the Fender Champ.  Unfortunately, this little guy has come to us "sound free" and will need to stop by our repair shop before it's ready to kick out the jams.  The fact that it still has the original Sears/Silvertone vacuum tubes from the early 50s/late 60s might explain why it's not working, but with old amps like this there are many problems that can develop after decades of use (or disuse, as the case may be).  Fortunately for us, though, we have our crack team of tube amp gurus around to suss out things like that!

Construction-wise, the 1423 is basically a flat-top hollowbody without any sound holes, sporting a single-cutaway shape that was no doubt inspired by those (then) newfangled Les Pauls.  There are a few nifty innovations, though - the plethora of knobs and such presages the crazy Japanese wiring setups of the late 60s, but are still very functional.  That oversize flipper switch on the horn lets you control the blend of the two pickups, giving you a wide variety of tonal options.

As you can see, this particular guitar is missing the truss rod cover, but otherwise is in fantastic shape.  Great sounds, a smooth-playing neck, and sporting a set of heavy gauge strings with a wound G - just the way that the good lord (and the guitar builders of the day) intended.  What more could you ask for?

G&L ASAT Classic

Here's a very nice G&L thinline tele, with a humbucker in the neck position and a gorgeous red finish.  There's just a tiny bit of metal flake in the finish; just enough to give it a nice vibrant "sheen" underneath all those fancy stagelights.  There's plenty of flash sonically, too, with both the humbucker and the semi-hollow construction warming up the inherently spiky twang of a tele.  I'll admit to having no great fondness for most thinline teles, but this one plays great!  I have to say that I've liked the larger frets that have been on the G&Ls that I've played so much that it definitely influenced my decision to have my Fender Telecaster re-fretted with similar fretwire.

The little Vox amp next to it is a Brian May Special, a little solid state monster that snarls and spits out lots of sharp, nasty, and distinctly musical distortion.  It's based on a homebrew amp that Queen's bass player, John Deacon, cooked up for guitarist Brian May.  May used it to add some hair and gristle to his tracks upon tracks of pristine Vox AC30 tones. Most people wouldn't think that those regal-sounding harmonized guitar lines in Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody were recorded with assistance from such a ornery and rude-sounding amp, but it really does the trick.  It also works as a powerful boost pedal when plugged in front of another amp.  Not bad for what's basically an oddball studio/practice amp!

1979 Stratocaster

 

Here's a nice pair - a newer Marshall and an older Strat.  A '79, to be precise, with a well-worn cherry burst finish.  There's something about a Fender Strat, though - the more beat to hell it looks, the more compelling it becomes, at least in my humble opinion.  As for the amp, it's a JCM 2000; Marshall's latest and greatest, paired up with a sweet 1960A 4x12 cabinet. 

 

If you get a good look up close, you can see why we call this one our "Mommy Dearest" Strat.  An array of cigarette burns dot the top, though I don't see any coat hanger marks.  Ah well.  Still, a guitar this uglied-up has the potential to be somebody's "Number One" someday, so come check it out!

1983 Gibson Challenger

Here we have one of Gibson's early 80s experiments, the Challenger.  From a distance, it looks to be yet another Les Paul, but the Challenger has a very un-Gibson-like bolt-on maple/rosewood neck, not to mention an extremely 80s retro-futuristic "Robot Gray" finish.

The amp here is a Gregory Bass 60A, a low watt mini-stack from what was allegedly a rather small New Jersey-based company in the 50s and 60s.  There is what looks to be an exhaustive look at the Gregory line here, although all you really need to know about this one is that it sounds awesome and looks spiffy, once again proving my theory that the best guitar amps are all really failed attempts at making a decent bass amp.

Back to the Challenger - it's hard to see with the black pickguard/black pickup configuration, but the original humbucker has been replaced with a very fine and pricey Bartolini.  The clean sounds are amazing, and even with gobs of distortion piled on, the pickup retains its punchy character. The little switch seems to act as a coil tap, which gives you a few more tonal options to play with on this single-pickup guitar.  Overall, you could do much, much worse from the era of spanex, leg warmers, and neon.

Les Paul Studio - and friends

Here's a early 90s Les Paul Studio, sitting next to a Silvertone 1472 and a Danelectro DS-50.  This is the key to great sludge rock tone, folks.  Just punish these cranky old amps with a modern high-output pickup and enjoy the carnage.  The Silvertone gets particularly scary when cranked.  The Danelectro has cool retro-futuristic styling, and the same "piggyback" design as the Silvertone Twin Twelve - the head just slides into the back of the cabinet.  Sweet.

National Lap Steel & Supro Amp

 

Behold:  A National Lap Steel and another wailing little Supro Combo.  The Lap Steel is a "Dynamic" model, and it sports a killer Art-Deco look.  I'm not sure of the exact model on the Supro, but I do know that the sounds that pour forth from it's 6 inch speaker and single volume knob are some of the thickest you're gonna hear.

 

Lap steels are pretty basic - no frets, no neck issues, and no worrying about the "action" of the strings.  It's basically a plank of wood with strings and a pickup, but that austerity just seems to have pushed the manufacturers of the 40s and 50s to work in every hip design element they could think of, and this Empire State-esque Dynamic model is a shining example.

  

Also, just to let everybody in the area know - we're going to be at the South Carolina Guitar Show in Spartanburg this year.  The show is the weekend of March 5 & 6th, and we'll have a booth for the store to sell, swap, and show off all of our coolest finds.  Come check it out!  

Merry Christmas from Wood & Wire

l to r: Mid 60s Gibson Explorer, MIM Nashville Tele, MIM Strat, Silvertone 1482

Well, Christmas Time is here again - its been a fun three months that we've been open here, and we're looking foward to a full year of cool gear and even cooler music. We're still stocking up - vintage tube combos, pedals, and guitars, from freaks and oddballs to true classics. We're also working on carrying a few newer lines that fit in alongside our old favorites - check back soon for some big announcements. Everybody have a happy holiday season!

'56 Supro/Valco Comet

Here's a 1956 Supro/Valco Comet, covered in glorious, glorious tweed. Our book says this is the only Supro amp with a ten-inch speaker that they made in the 50s. Not as clean as our blackface and silverface Champs, but very cool and practically dripping killer tone.


We're going to very carefully and respectfully try to freshen up the inside of this amp. As with most well-used gear from the fifties, this thing looks like it has seen the elephant, and all his children. Plug in your guitar and it'll tell you all about it.

60s Audition Guitar and Amp

Well, it looked like Santa Claus came early - we had boxes of new goodies piled up when I came in today. My boss gestures towards the tall, thin box in the corner and says, "got another Mexican Strat for you to sell..."

Grumble, grumble...



Hey, wait a minute - that's not a Strat case!



Score! A nifty mid-60s "Audition" guitar with funky, oversized gold foil-type pickups.



Audition was a brand name for guitars sold through Wool-worth's department stores in the sixties - in actuality, this is a Japanese instrument, probably built for Wool-worth's by Kawai or Teisco. The pickguard and body shape are off-kilter, the knobs & switches numerous, and the neck is as thick and heavy as a Louisville slugger. In other words, a perfect example of mid-60s Japanese guitar design.


The gigantic gold foils alone are worth the price of admission - sweet and twangy at the same time. These look very, very similar to the one that the great slide guitarist Ry Cooder slapped into the neck position of one on his famously hot-rodded Stratocasters (along with an old Supro/Valco lap steel pickup).

The "Cooder-caster." No, really.

But, just as every old low-watt Supro amp is the "one Jimmy Page used," I'm well aware that every Japanese gold foil pickup is the "Ry Cooder" pickup, especially when it pops up on the interweb. I say use your ears - mine tell me that this guitar is cool either way.


Also, we have the matching amp that goes with it. It's a 1x12 tube amp, and though it sounds like about a watt-and-a-half of volume, it gets nasty and crunchy very quickly.



Just for fun, here's the chassis/guts of that amp. This has built-in tremolo, but otherwise its about as bone-simple as can be. Yes, that's a Hitachi brand tube there in front. My boss says that the pots date this setup to about 1966, which sounds about right. Stop by and check these out soon - the funky stuff seems to practically fly out the door these days!

We've got plenty of other cool finds on way for the holidays - check back soon!

Los Tres Twangueros

Here's a good shot of a couple of different pieces we have. That's a 90s-era Danelectro U2 re-issue up front, and yes, that's a P-90 in the bridge position. This is another guitar we have on consignment from my friend Mike McMillan, and it's also one of my favorites. The P-90 sounds about as greasy as you'd expect sitting on top of that glorious, glorious Masonite, and the fact that it's wired out-of-phase with the lipstick pickup just adds to the freak factor. Like most Danos, this guitar is a nasty, nasty choice for blues, but the mods really push it to a new level. If a battered old Cadillac hearse ever pulls up in front of your house with Tom Waits at the wheel, THIS is the guitar you want to grab when he rolls down the window and yells, "let's jam!"

Everyone will envy you as you both drive off into the sunset, laughing manically.

Behind that, we've got two Telecasters - the Tele with the dark wine finish is a totally solid "mexi-caster," and the one with the burst is an American standard with EMG active pickups. It's a cool guitar, but my boss says we need to swap that mirrored pick guard for tortoiseshell...

This is the Gibson amp that you can see off to the left in the first photo. It's a "Falcon" combo from 1964, and even though we acquired it with the reverb tank missing in action, it still sounds fantastic. These old Gibson tube-amps have vibe to spare, but they can still be had for a song when compared to the Fender amps of the same era.

Hopefully we can take some videos sometime so everybody can actually hear this stuff. Maybe next time...