Tag: features

Eric Sardinas

Eric Sardinas: Alex Ruffini.

Resonator/slide specialist Eric Sardinas is no blues curator. While he pays homage to the music that inspires him, Sardinas is a fiery super nova that performs with a personalized blend of soulful musicality and showmanship. He and his band, Big Motor, unleash high-intensity blues-rock with an earthy accessibility and raw power driven by his resonator.

How do you approach getting your sound?
The way we approach everything is always organic, fresh, and of the moment. It’s always an honest way of recording. I’ve worked with Matt Gruber for the last two albums, and I like to push myself lyrically and musically. It’s a moment in time. I like to look back, build upon it, and push myself forward.

With the new album, Matt is involved for the third time in a row. I’m excited about it because I look at this as going back to ‘plug in and play.’ We’re about capturing something and having fun with the songs. The album is called Boomerang and it’ll be out in mid October.

You play more than 300 dates each year. You probably have a lot to write about.
It’s a blessing to be able to live the life I dreamed of – to be able to create, whatever the hardships. I have no complaints. My life on the road has its ups and downs, and it’s challenging. My life is music and music is my life, and there’s nothing I would do to change it. I’m very thankful.

You grew up hearing a lot blues players using Stratocasters. What was it about the resonator that pulled you in that direction?
I’ve never gravitated to solidbody guitars. I didn’t connect to it. What I connected with was my love for Delta blues. When I heard a player having something to say and having a connection with the music – that pure, open energy and connection with the instrument, it meant more to me than a Marshall stack. Listening to Charlie Patton, Bukka White, or Skip James play – and connect to that emotion – really made me fall in love. I started on a beat acoustic toy guitar, then an acoustic, and then a resonator. When I was a teenager, I drilled a pickup in because I wanted to electrify what I was doing so I could get off the chair.

I really connected with the resonator because of the romance I had with early players like Tampa Red and Fred McDowell. When slide players like Robert Johnson or Son House would speak on guitar, there was a connection with the voice. When I play electric, I push the instrument that I fell in love with from the Delta, the country, Texas, and Chicago blues, into a place where I found my voice.

Do you do anything special to your resonators?
What I need from my instrument is to take the guitar down to the sweet sound that is pure. I don’t have an interest in piezo pickups or anything like that. I like to work off a straight mic – I work off the cone and use my Volume as a tone control. Whatever the guitar gives me, I give it back.

For amps, I’m using Rivera Amplification. I use the Knucklehead, but it’s slightly tweaked. I like to use a crisscross organization of the speakers in my 4×12’s Greenbacks and straight ’68 Marshalls. I also use a sub for my lows. I like that to move the wind.

Do you use effects?
When it comes to effects, I use a Dunlop 95Q wah and an MXR Phase 90. I also use a capo because I use heavy strings; I like the tension because it affords me a little bit more of a direct attack and a little bit less give on the strings with the slide.

I have a signature slide by Dunlop called the Preachin’ Pipe. Dunlop actually took the slide that I had worn down to a nub, weighted and balanced it, and created this slide. I had worn down and played more than 5,000 shows with the slide they copied. On the signature slide, the temperament and the weight is exactly what I like. The wear and tear isn’t there, but that’s up to the player.

What’s your number one guitar?
It’s a cutaway resonator finished in black by Gibson, called the La Pistola. It’s my signature model. The other guitars are the runts that I threw pickups in, I believe in, and drag on the road. We have a heavy tour toward the end of the year.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s December 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

May 3, 2015
Bryan Sutton

Bryan Sutton ranks as one of the most accomplished and in-demand acoustic players in Nashville. In 1991, fresh from high school, he joined the gospel group Karen Peck and New River. In ’93, he moved to Nashville and joined the band Mid-South for several months before studio work started to dominate his time and began full-time as a studio musician on gospel recordings.

In ’95, Ricky Skaggs hired Sutton to play mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and guitar.

“We may have done 15 or 20 bluegrass dates, then the next year we did 40, and by the time I left his band in ’99, we were doing nothing but bluegrass.”

Sutton’s recent solo release, Into My Own, has more blues and old-timey influences, and shows Sutton’s growth; besides stellar flatpicking and original songs, “Swannanoa Tunnel” highlights his nuanced, powerful lead vocals, and guest artists include guitar whiz Bill Frisell, Ronnie McCoury, and Noam Pikelny. The final cut, “Been All Around The World,” highlights the flatpicking style that draws from Norman Blake and Tony Rice, but expands it with precisely-articulated rhythm and subtle melodic flourishes.

For a number of years, Sutton’s go-to acoustic was his ’48 Martin D-28 with two black pickguards. Recently, though, he acquired another Martin – a ’42 D-28. “It has war-time specs with a T-bar truss rod, and has a punchy push of air that’s really good for bluegrass.”

The ’42 isn’t Sutton’s only “herringbone” Martin. He also has a 1940 Martin D-28. “The first time I played that guitar, I was hooked. I bugged Greg Luck for several years before he agreed to sell it to me.”

When it’s suggested that perhaps he could have merely borrowed the guitar for sessions, he pauses. “When I have a chance to play a guitar that great, I really prefer it to be an ownership relationship. I need to be able to make setup adjustments so it will play exactly as I want. There’s a certain ‘modern’ way to play bluegrass now that is very technically demanding, so a guitar’s playability has to be perfect to do the sorts of things that I need to do.” Comparing it to his other D-28s, he added, “The ’48 is a wonderful guitar for miking, and it’s very well-balanced. But, it doesn’t have the bloom of the ’40 and ’42 models.”

Sutton is also associated with Bourgeois guitars; Dana Bourgeois created the Country Boy and D-150 models Sutton used during his time with Skaggs. Bourgeois recently created the Bryan Sutton signature model, which will be based on the D-150 Sutton still uses on many of his studio sessions.

“It’s a very loud and responsive guitar,” he noted. “All of Dana’s guitars feel really good in my hands, and that has been consistent from the first instrument I played to this most recent model.” Only 30 BS D-150s will be produced, with an Adirondack-spruce top and bracing, Brazilian-rosewood back and sides, hide glue, double-scalloped X-bracing, and a vintage-type long-slotted saddle.

This fall and winter, Sutton will tour with Hot Rize, playing in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York City.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s December 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

May 3, 2015
The Carr Skylark

The Carr Skylark
Price: $2,390 (list)
Contact: www.carramps.com

If you could own only a single guitar amp – horror of horrors! – Steve Carr’s new Skylark just might be the one.

When it comes to building modern boutique amps inspired by classic vintage designs, few people have the mojo like Carr. He founded his concern in 1998, and today is based in a former chicken hatchery in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Carr offers just 10 models, so when a new one comes along, it’s time to sit up and take notice.

Carr’s all-tube, point-to-point-wired Skylark may have been inspired by the old tweed Fender Harvard, among others. But along the way, he tinkered and tweaked his design into something unique.

The amp is an ideal home rig that can also stand up for itself playing gigs with that over-loud drummer and his monster crash cymble. It’s nicely compact, tipping the scales at just 36 pounds, so your roadie can have the night off.

The Skylark has tone in spades, but its most intriguing feature is its built-in attenuator.

A what?

Attentuators are typically wired into an amp between the output stage and the speaker, using a coil to reduce the output wattage. This allows the player to put more load on the amp at a lower volume, thus driving it harder. Dramatically harder. Few amp-makers offer a built-in attenuator, and most players are forced to add a stand-alone unit into their signal chain or effects loop.

So what does this electrical mumbo-jumbo mean to a mere guitar picker?

With the Skylark, players can adjust the amp’s output from a mere 1/100th of a watt up to a solid 12 watts. So if you’re playing at home or in a small club at a low-volume, low-watt setting, you can still make this amp sound like Bachman-Turner Overdrive at its finest.

Adding to the Skylark’s astonishing flexibility are its Mid and Presence controls, a High/Low gain toggle, built-in spring reverb, and a standby switch. All this in one amp.

The Mid control provides a wide range of sonic adjustment. The user can hollow out their tone at one extreme to just bass and treble with no middle, or conversely fatten that middle to potbellied proportions.

Presence works on the output circuit to buff up top-end muscle, as with an old Bassman. Dial it in to get a wide-open sound with glorious shimmer and sparkle. Or those picking a dark-toned vintage guitar can add bite. Lots of it.

The Skylark’s reverb uses a two-spring, 17″ reverb tank akin to those in ’60s Fenders. Carr adds an audio taper pot to control the reverb so it comes on more gradually, allowing the player to finesse levels.

And finally, there’s a new Celestion Type-A 12″ speaker that rings clear but still has nice compression. Thanks to the speaker’s smaller, lighter magnet, the overall amp doesn’t strain the back.

These features add up to one of the most versatile amps we’ve ever played. Distill that Mid and Presence to a pure treble tone that would make Don Rich grin ear to ear. Add a growl to the sound with the gain toggle on High and revel in Grady Martin-esque rockabilly tones. Or switch on that attenuator and make the amp grind out a power crunch like Eric Clapton playing the blues with Cream. And yes, once again, this is all in one amp.

Carr also prides himself on immaculate fit and finish. His team builds its own cabinets – one of the few boutique makers to do so. Carr employs solid pine, covers it with tolex, and tops it with a handmade leather handle, all done to ensure quality. And the ’50s styling speaks for itself.

Carr is a guitar player first and foremost, and his philosophy is that amps are instruments in and of themselves. The Skylark will make you sound good, and then make you want to play harder. And you can’t ask for much more than that.

This article originally appeared in VG December 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

May 2, 2015
St. Blues Scoundrel

St. Blues Scoundrel
Price: $1,898 (list)/$1,349 (street)
Contact: www.saintblues.com

Intended as a versatile instrument for the player with a budget for just one boutique guitar, the St. Blues Scoundrel is a double-cutaway with a P-90 in the neck position and a humbucker in the bridge. There’s a bolt-on maple neck with maple fingerboard (also available in pau ferro), and the controls are on the lower bout Tele-style, minus the control plate. The trem is from Wilkinson, as are staggered tuners that enhance sustain by eliminating the string tree. If it seems like a mongrel mix, don’t be fooled – the Scoundrel is of fine pedigree thanks largely to the pickup configuration.

Both Kent Armstrong pickups are made for 24.75″ guitars. The Scoundrel, however, has a 25.5″ scale, like a Strat or Tele. In the bridge position, Armstrong’s JB humbucker offers a great combination of bite and body – both snap and twang like a Fender and the broader harmonic range of a Gibson. Overdriven, it’s tight and punchy. The neck position yields the warm tone of a classic P-90. With the Tone knob at its brightest, the P-90 is chimey; rolling the tone back a bit makes for a brown and slightly muted timbre, good for fat, long-sustaining melody lines or big rhythm beds.

St. Blues draws on the best qualities of these pickups for the middle position, where the tone is brassy on the top and ballsy on the bottom. Full chords bubble out of the amp in plump spheres. On single-note lines, the tone is very vocal-like. The middle position recalls Jimmy Page’s clean and shimmery electric (think “The Rain Song”) thanks to coil-splitting the humbucker and blending it with a coil-tap from the P-90 so you’re hearing a single coil from the bridge humbucker and a partially bypassed coil from the neck P-90. With so much character in that middle position, it’s inviting to explore what nuances can be brought out.

The “soft” C-shaped neck (10″ radius with nickel 6150 medium jumbo frets) is fluid and forgiving. The deep cut at the pocket allows for full access up the 22 frets. The bridge-position pickup blade runs close to the Volume pot, making it a bit tricky to flip with a pinky on the go, but the Volume is comfortably within reach for swells.

For all that it offers, the Scoundrel looks pretty unassuming. The review model had a matte finish over a soft Tobacco Burst (also available in Honeyburst, Delta Rust, and Blue Suede) with the nicely figured alder grain visible. But beware; small-batch production is the name of the game at St. Blues. It keeps quality high and players happy. The Scoundrel’s first run sold out fast. You might want to get on this puppy.

This article originally appeared in VG December 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

May 2, 2015
Crucial Audio Echo-Nugget

Crucial Audio Echo-Nugget
Price:$799 (list)
Contact: www.crucialaudio.com

It’s hard not to be impressed by the physical presence of the Crucial Audio Echo-Nugget. Unlike typical small-footprint stompboxes, the Echo-Nugget is a beast, measuring approximately 6″ x 8″ x 3″ and weighing a few pounds. Before it’s even plugged in, its heft, solid build, and layout earn points. But the ace up its sleeve is Crucial Audio’s combination of a real tube preamp and analog delay.

Technical specs on this mighty box include a pair of 12AX7 preamp tubes and a bucket-brigade analog circuit providing up to 500 milliseconds of delay. There are Time, Repeats, and Mix controls for the delay section, and footswitchable Output and Tone controls for the preamp. The box also has high- and low-impedance inputs for regular passive magnetic and active pickups, respectively.

Plugged in and on the job, the Echo-Nugget is pretty exciting, thanks especially to that old-school vibe – real analog circuits and tubes hard at work in an era of instant digital delay. The delay controls are easy to manipulate. Time lets the user dial in the degree of delay while Repeats sets the fade time. Mix allows the user to set the level of the echo effect – from wet-and-sloppy to just a smidge of delay in the distance. Unlike digital delays with LED readouts, there’s nothing on the Echo-Nugget to tell the player exactly what millisecond they’re on, aside from a pulsating yellow light that blinks in rhythm with the corresponding delay time. Turn the knob down, and the light blinks faster in time with the shorter time between echoes. Turn it up and the echoes are farther apart, hence a slower-blinking light. The circuit sounds great and provides everything from rockabilly slap-back and standard rock delay to Albert Lee-style “cascade” echo. The Tone knob can be used to sweeten the effect as desired.

On the tube side, the 12AX7s add a fine boost and “sauce thickener” to the proceedings. In fact, turn the echo side off, and the right half of the Echo-Nugget functions as a stand-alone tube preamp. How cool is that? The only caveat is that the box has a large footprint on a pedalboard. It’s not cheap, either. But no question, you get what you pay for.

The Crucial Audio Echo-Nugget is a hip piece of guitar gear that not only looks old-school with its gold anodized finish and chickenhead knobs, but conjures vintage tones with ease. All told, this is a great pedal for guitarists who value tone and build quality above all else – a serious box for serious tone merchants.

This article originally appeared in VG December 2014 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

May 2, 2015
Vox AC50

1965 Vox AC50 Photo: Val Rothwell, amp courtesy of Jack Wright.

Vox AC50
Preamp tubes: one ECC82 (12AU7), three ECC83 (12AX7)
Output tubes: two EL34s, fixed-biased
Rectifier: solidstate
Controls: Volume, Treble and Bass for each channel.
Output: nominally 50 watts RMS, but upward of 70 watts flat-out.

Where the evolution of guitar amplification in general traces musicians’ needs to be louder, the history of Vox follows, in particular, The Beatles’ need to play louder. And this was a very real need indeed, with thousands-strong crowds of screaming teenage girls drowning out the Fab Four’s live shows with frustrating regularity. Vox founder Tom Jennings and his head engineer Dick Denney might have doubled the power of the AC15 to produce the concert-ready AC30 for Hank Marvin and the Shadows, who performed both as a solo instrumental act and as Cliff Richard’s backing band, but their AC50 was the result of a desperate effort to help the world’s most popular band to be heard.

Virtually running to keep up with the pace of The Beatles’ popularity, Denney developed the AC50 late in 1963 by first modifying existing speaker cabinets, and quickly getting together the amplifier chassis to do the job, rather than the more-intensive R&D venture devoted to the flagship AC30 earlier in the decade. As Denney told author Andy Babiuk in Beatles Gear, “I made up the first one using an AC30 cabinet with two 12″ speakers plus a ‘horn’ speaker for more top end. The horn didn’t fit, so I cut a hole for it in the back of the cabinet. I didn’t have the time to make up a new cabinet, because we had to get them their new amps. There was always a rush.”

As a result, the first AC50s were delivered to George Harrison and John Lennon as custom-made, single-channel heads and modified cabs ready just in time for the band’s Christmas ’64 concerts in Finsbury Park, London. At the same time, Denney concocted the prototype of the AC100, given to Paul McCartney to replace a solidstate Vox T-60 bass amp that wasn’t cutting it, volume-wise. The first production AC50s, which hit the market early in ’64, were also single-channel amps, initially with compact “small box” cabinets, with a larger head shell introduced later in the year. Both had GZ34 tube rectifiers like the AC30 (and Marshall’s JTM45, for that matter). The AC50 head’s initial retail price of just under £100, equivalent to nearly $2,000 today, might make you feel a little better about the supposedly high prices of contemporary “boutique” amps, considering the big Vox’s paucity of features.

The first two-channel AC50s arrived around August of ’64. Rare early examples of this incarnation had the iconic early brown-diamond Vox grillecloth, but by the fall of that year they were dressed in the black-diamond cloth of the outstanding ’65 AC50 you see here. Also gone was the tube rectifier, replaced by more-robust solidstate diode rectification. Otherwise, the two-channel AC50 was much like its single-channel predecessor, electronically, although it split the MkI and MkII’s voice-for-all-seasons preamp into Normal and Brilliant channels, with slight changes in the voicing of the early gain stages of each, to suit bass and lead guitar respectively (much as did Fender’s blackface Bassman head and many Marshall heads). As the conjoined goals for this design were clarity and headroom, Denney used the two halves of a low-gain ECC82 (12AU7) preamp tube as the first gain stage for each channel, with a 500pF coupling capacitor from the Brilliant channel to the next stage to accentuate its highs, and a more-standard .022uF coupling cap on the Normal channel for a fuller, more balanced tone. The former also included a bright cap on its Volume control. Both channels used the same value of 25uF bypass cap around the cathode-bias resistor of the ECC82 – rather than giving the Brilliant channel more crunch with, for example, a .68uF cap as Marshall would use – though the first gain stage in the Brilliant channel was biased hotter. Otherwise, they were identical from here on out.

Next, each channel went on to its own ECC83 (12AX7) cathode-follower tone stack with Treble and Bass controls (no midrange), a useful bid for independent EQ that made these genuine two-channel amps throughout, where rivals Marshall, and eventually Hiwatt, had shared EQ stages. A conventional long-tailed-pair phase inverter continued the bid for a bold, tight tone and passed the signal along to a pair of EL34 output tubes with individual bias-adjust pots that made it easy to balance the bias of mismatched pairs. Interestingly, Vox had used EL34s in very rare early renditions of the AC30, as Jim Elyea examines in great detail in his book, Vox Amplifiers: The JMI Years, though higher B+ voltages and a fixed-bias, class AB output stage (rather than the AC30’s cathode-biased class A design) helped these tall British bottles produce a lot more oomph in the AC50. A MkIII AC50 in good condition, with fresh biased tubes, can be loud. Very loud. Running full tilt, an AC50 in good condition can deliver significantly more than its stated 50 watts, even upward of 65 or 70 watts, and more than that at its peaks. Between the gutsy output stage and the efficient low-gain preamp, these amps go a long way toward their maximum potential before sliding into significant crunch, too. This amp’s owner, Jack Wright, says he gets to the breakup zone quicker with a Les Paul and a treble booster, where he finds it “sits somewhere between a [Marshall] JTM50 and a Hiwatt.” The amp was used on several Beatles recordings of the mid ’60s and can be heard – though barely – on much of the live concert-film footage from the same period that you might stumble upon.

That the AC50 ultimately failed at its goal, one might argue, despite being an impressively loud “50-watt amp” – The Beatles abandoning live performance after ’66 in the face of virtually inaudible stage volume levels – is no judgment on the success of the amp itself, merely testament to the power of pubescent hysteria. Later MkIV AC50s gained a little more preamp crunch and a more traditional mids-forward guitar tone in general when an ECC83 (12AX7) became standard equipment in the first gain stage in place of the tighter, cleaner ECC82. Elyea’s book further tells us that as many as 7,000 AC50s were produced in the JMI years up to the end of the ’60s, with a further 1,200 or so manufactured by Dallas Arbiter and subsequent owners of the Vox brand into the mid ’70s.

This article originally appeared in VG September 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

April 21, 2015
Recording King Ray Whitley

The Recording King Ray Whitley Model 1027 (left) and Model 1028.

As a maker of high-quality instruments, Gibson was hit hard by the onset of the Depression in the 1930s. Company president Guy Hart, a former accountant, recognized that Gibson could not survive by simply waiting for better times, and he took action, diverting some guitar production to wooden toys, creating the Kalamazoo line of budget-priced instruments and taking on contract work for outside distributors.

The most successful of these distributor’s brands made by Gibson were Recording King (sold by Montgomery Ward) and Cromwell (distributed by Grossman, Richter & Phillips, Gretsch & Brenner, and Continental). Gibson made several archtop acoustic models under the Recording King and Cromwell brands that would be considered at least borderline high-end guitars. The best of all of the contract models, however, were a pair of dreadnought-sized flat-tops made for Recording King and endorsed by cowboy movie star Ray Whitley. Model 1027 had rosewood back and sides and Model 1028 had mahogany back and sides.

Gibson’s relationship with Montgomery Ward began in the spring of 1931 with a deep-bodied flat-top similar to Gibson’s Nick Lucas model. Two years later, Ward contracted with Gibson to produce a squat-bodied flat-top similar to the Kalamazoo KG-11 that was endorsed by country singer/songwriter Carson Robison.

By 1937, Ward was offering more than a dozen Recording King flat-tops and archtop models made by Gibson. Buyers may or may not have recognized the body styles and workmanship as Gibson’s, but none of the Recording Kings (or Kalamazoos or any other non-Gibson branded instruments) had Gibson’s patented adjustable truss rod in the neck.

That same year, Ray Whitley visited the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo. Born in Atlanta in 1901, Whitley was raised on a farm, where he learned to rope and ride well enough to become a rodeo performer, specializing in tricks with the bullwhip. He moved to New York in 1930 as a construction worker, but quickly launched his musical career on WMCA radio with his group, The Range Ramblers. He had made one marginally successful stab at a film career, returned to New York, and was ready to give Hollywood another try when he ordered a custom guitar from Gibson.

Gibson had great timing in introducing the Nick Lucas Special endorsement model in 1927. Lucas was well-known as a singer and guitarist but his career – along with exposure for his Gibson model – took a giant leap in 1929 when he performed “Tip-toe Through the Tulips” in the film Gold Diggers of Broadway. Gibson had a similar opportunity with Whitley, who took his new Western-trimmed “super jumbo” Gibson to Hollywood, landed a contract with RKO Pictures in ’38, and became a familiar face in Western movies (albeit mostly in the role of a sidekick). He also wrote “Back in the Saddle Again,” which he introduced in the 1938 film Border G-Man and which, with a rewrite from Gene Autry, became Autry’s theme song a year later. And he managed the Sons of the Pioneers, during the period when the group included Len Slye (soon to be Roy Rogers).

Gibson actually received great benefits – at no cost to the company – from Whitley’s cowboy friends in Hollywood. Gibson catalogs pictured all the Western film stars who had ordered a Super Jumbo for themselves, including Gene Autry, Ray “Crash” Corrigan, and Tex Ritter. Perhaps Gibson didn’t feel the need to reward Whitley with a formal endorsement model, but Montgomery Ward seized the opportunity.

In the spring catalog for ’39, Ward introduced Model 1027, featuring Whitley’s signature on the headstock. It was not similar to the Gibson SJ-200 that Whitley had helped introduce. If Whitley or Ward had asked for a similar model, it’s likely Gibson would not have wanted to dissipate the excitement that the SJ-200 was generating. Instead, the Whitley model was based on another relatively new Gibson – the Advanced Jumbo. Like the AJ, which had been introduced in ’36, the Recording King Whitley had Gibson’s round-shouldered dreadnought body with rosewood back and sides. Also like the AJ, the Whitley had an X-braced top. Virtually every other flat-top model that Gibson made under a contract brand (or under the Kalamazoo brand, for that matter) had lateral bracing. The bound fingerboard had small diamond inlays, unlike that of any Gibson. The bridge was an elegant new three-point design (which Gibson would soon introduce on its J-55 model), and the oversized pickguard was also unique to the model. The only Gibson element the Whitley model lacked was an adjustable truss, which Gibson never installed in anything but a Gibson.

In the fall of ’39, Montgomery Ward introduced a second Ray Whitley signature model (1028), also an X-braced dreadnought, but with mahogany back and sides. The fingerboard inlay was less elaborate – simple pearl dots – and the bridge on most examples was the rectangular-style Gibson used on its standard mahogany dreadnought, the J-35. Again, the only significant difference between the Whitley and a Gibson was the lack of a truss rod, and this mahogany Whitley delivers the same power and tone one would expect from a J-35.

Shipping totals compiled by Gibson employee Julius Bellson show the rosewood model (1027) got off to a good start, with 171 instruments shipped in ’39. In 1940, however, only nine were shipped, for a total of 180. The less-expensive mahogany model (1028) shipped 116 in ’39 and another 116 in 1940, for a total of 232.

By ’39, Gibson was enjoying a resurgence of sales of Gibson-branded models and booming business with its Kalamazoo line, and the company began winding down its contract production. In 1939-’40, 232 mahogany Whitley (1028) models were sold, making it the best-selling Gibson contract model for any outside distributor for that two-year period – a testament to the quality of the model.

Whitley never achieved the star status of Autry or Rogers, but he had a solid career, making 54 films for RKO and performing at the Venice Pier and other Southern California venues. Full recognition of his accomplishments didn’t come until after his death in 1979. He was inducted posthumously into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Western Music Association Hall of Fame. His prototype J-200 is currently displayed at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. And guitar players and collectors are just beginning to fully appreciate his Recording King models.

This article originally appeared in VG September 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

April 16, 2015
Musicvox MI-5 12-String

The Musicvox MI-5 12-String
Price: $899
Info: www.musicvox.com.

Since its appearances in the Austin Powers movies, Musicvox guitars have received a cachet for cool ’60s hipness and wicked space-age designs. Their latest axe, the MI-5 12-string, continues that tradition with a double-cutaway body shape that sports an extra-long bottom horn. Let’s explore this groove machine.

This Korean-made guitar has a solid mahogany body with a bolt-on maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. It weighs 7.4 pounds, and has a 243/4″ scale, 111/16″ nut width, one control each for Volume and Tone, plus a three-way pickup switch. Twangability comes courtesy of Musicvox Special Vintage humbuckers in Filtertron-style housings. There’s also a beveled three-ply pearloid pickguard, triple-bound body, tune-o-matic-style bridge and tailpiece, and a mondo open-face headstock with Kluson-style tuners. In old-school style, the paired tuners point outward and backward. Our test guitar was finished in black with pearloid block inlays akin to that on a Les Paul Custom. Color options include Seafoam Green, Candy Apple Red, Silver Sparkle, Gold Sparkle, White (with gold hardware), and Taxi Yellow.

When you pick up the MI-5, its shorter, Les-Paul-like scale might throw you for a second. The bridge is set back, creating a compact design, but give it a few strums and you’ll begin to dig its unique vibe – quite likeable – and the bolt-on neck is easy to grab and play.

Plugged into a modeling amp, the MI-5 covered a lot of ground. Flipping between pickups, the bridge delivered thinner/’60s jangle, with some icy highs for playing Byrds, Marshall Crenshaw, or The Police (use the Tone knob to temper that treble, if you like). The neck pickup, meanwhile, brought on fat, warm, and almost acoustic-like tones, more like classic George Harrison or Jimmy Page. The MI-5 sounded great with various effects ladled on, notably reverb, chorus, and generous dollops of tremolo. Crank up the overdrive and it moves nicely into Rush territory where you can conjure Alex-Lifeson-style chords using shimmering open strings – strong and authentic.

Musicvox has another winner on its hands. Aside from the shorter-feeling scale, most will have to get used to the tuners. But again, it’s a classic configuration that has worked for nearly 50 years. More importantly, the tuners hold tune, which is critical with a 12-string. Add their good tone, a nice design (dig that triangular pickguard!), and that all-important vintage jangle, and you have a fine electric 12-string on your hands. You may not put it down for awhile.

This article originally appeared in VG January 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

April 15, 2015
Late 1920s Gibson L-1 (Flattop)

Photo courtesy Gruhn Guitars.

Because I don’t know what to call this Gibson guitar, I refer to it as a “Florentine,” for lack of a better name. Though the body decoration is unlike any cataloged Gibson guitar, the fingerboard and headstock ornamentation is almost identical to Gibson’s Florentine banjo (made between 1927 and ’37). In size, shape, construction and woods, it is identical to a late-’20s style L-1, but “L-1” seems inadequate to describe this instrument.

Perhaps we should call it a “Venetian.” It is a mystery why Gibson named its banjo after the Italian city of Florence and then ornamented it with scenes of Venice. Similarly, the companion banjo to the Florentine was described in the catalog as having “Spanish”-style ornamentation and yet it was called by an Italian name, “Bella Voce.”

In any case, the Italian nomenclature that began with these banjos has persistently recurred in association with the Florentine solidbody mandolin, for instance, or the “Florentine” and “Venetian” cutaway descriptions that today have achieved common usage even outside the Gibson line. I have no idea how or why the Italian names came about, but there is no doubt they have been effective.

In the late ’20s and ’30s, Gibson and many other manufacturers decorated guitar bodies (usually only the tops) with stenciled scenes or patterns over a standard finish, but this is the first guitar I have ever seen – Gibson or otherwise – that is completely hand-painted. Except for the bridge and binding, the top, back and sides are totally covered. The back of the neck is also painted, except for the area behind the first 10 frets, where the player’s hand would have rubbed away any paint, had it been applied.

The Gibson company was founded for the purpose of building carved-body guitars and mandolin-family instruments. The first Gibson flat-tops had slightly arched tops and backs. The GY (Army-Navy) model was introduced in December 1918, then the flat-top L-1 and L-0 were introduced in 1926. During the first five or so years of flat-top production, Gibson offered only the “L” series guitars (initially the L-0 and L-1, and then the L-2) and the Nick Lucas Special, with tenor and plectrum versions available in 1928. Originally, the L-series guitars all had the same rounded body shape adopted from their predecessor, the archtop L-1. A variety of bracing patterns, beginning with a classical-type fan bracing, was used during this period, as were a variety of bridge styles. By about 1931, all of the L-series guitars had been changed to a more elongated body shape, similar to that of the then-popular Martin 00-size guitar, and “X” bracing was standard.

This Florentine guitar has the early, rounded, L body style and the bridge is one of several typical early variations. The bracing pattern, characterized by an inverted “V” below the soundhole, is the immediate predecessor of the “X” pattern. The guitar has no serial number by which to pinpoint the exact date of manufacture, but the structural features indicate it was made in the late 1920s. It has a spruce top, mahogany back, sides and neck, a bolted-on bridge, 19 frets, and a 24-inch scale. It measures 13 5/8 inches wide and 4 1/8 inches deep. These features are typical enough of an L-1, but that is where the similarity ends.

I have seen custom Gibson guitars with rhinestone-studded headstocks, and of course, pearloid fingerboards are not unknown, the Century model being an excellent example. Gibson banjo ornamentation has often crossed over into guitar decoration. We have seen the rhinestone pattern on this guitar’s headstock duplicated on Florentine banjos, but it is much less common than the standard Florentine peghead inlay which looks similar to a floral bouquet. The fingerboard, on the other hand, is all but identical to that of the banjo, allowing for the difference in size. Tiny scenes of Venice, each with water in the foreground and clouds in the sky, have been etched into the pearloid at marker positions. Each scene was tinted, and a thin layer of lacquer was applied overall. The engraved, gold-plated tuners have pearl buttons and though they do not function any better than the standard, they are a cosmetic upgrade from standard L-1 tuners.

The guitar’s wood body appears to have been left unfinished for the paint to be applied. The painting was done in oil colors, applied with minimal physical texture, then lacquered over. Again, scenes of Venice were depicted. As is typical, the lacquer has yellowed with age and dimmed the color. A combination of yellowed lacquer and the fading of the scenes’ tint has reduced the fingerboard etchings to a sepia tone. In spite of this, the guitar is still very colorful. The fingerboard has blues, reds and yellows against white pearloid. Judging from the small spots where the lacquer has chipped away, the body was brilliant. Under the lacquer the sky is a bright “robin’s egg” blue and the water is an intense, deeper shade. An eye-opener even today, this guitar must have been spectacular when new.

The guitar may well be one-of-a-kind. I obtained it from a trader in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It seems a disproportionate number of non-catalog models are from close proximity to the Gibson factory. Perhaps it belonged to an employee of the Gibson factory or being close to the factory made it easier for folks to make their spacal wants known.

Though not at all practical from a player’s point of view, this is certainly a beautiful instrument. Although pictured with strings, it is not playable. The top crack visible in the upper bout is unstable, but repair might damage the painting. Also, you can see that playing has already worn paint off the top, next to the soundhole. The guitar is such a work of art that being limited to display doesn’t seem much of a limit at all. Many hours of work went into the decoration of this instrument, and that certainly has not been wasted. The guitar can still command the eye, if not the ear.

This article originally appeared in Vintage Guitar magazine’s January 1997 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

April 9, 2015
Saga Gitane DG-250M

Saga Gitane DG-250M
Price: $949
Info: www.sagamusic.com
Features: Open-gear 14:1-ratio tuners, solid spruce top with “petite bouche” oval soundhole, birdseye maple back and sides, ebony fingerboard, maple neck, zero fret, bone nut, mustache bridge, Selmer-style tailpiece, wood binding.

Saga Instruments has established itself as a keeper of the vintage flame: the company, with its Chinese manufacturing plants, has evolved a series of historically-based instruments that are highly affordable, very modern, yet redolent of vintage vibe.

The Gitane DG-250M, based on a limited-edition Selmer from the 1940s, is another in this line of vintage inspirations from Saga, which includes other Gypsy jazz guitars in the Gitane line, resophonics from Regal, and well-received fingerpicker and flatpicker favorites from Blueridge.

The review DG-250M came out of the case in perfect tune with itself, although over a half-tone flat for shipping. I knocked out a couple of choruses of “Oh, Lady Be Good” without touching the tuners, then grudgingly took the time to tune up to pitch.

Until then, I didn’t know I preferred ’40s-style blonds!

This little blond has some interesting vital statistics. First, the 265/8″-scale neck is made of figured, flatsawn maple. The neck is a generous 13/4″ wide at the nut, carved very slim and comfortably rounded with shoulders. Unlike most Selmer-style guitars, this neck is topped by an unslotted headstock with a birdseye maple overlay and nickel-plated, open-gear tuners, but traditional Selmer details reappear with the zero fret, undersized nut, ebony fingerboard, and pearl dot inlays. The occasional players’ confusion raised by the presence of a 10th-fret inlay (in the European style) is counterbalanced by the faithfulness to the original details of ’40s Selmers. You’ll get used to it. A side dot at the 12th fret, though, would be helpful for up-the-neck runs.

The most unusual detail on the body of the Gitane DG-250M is the three-ply back and sides. During World War II, Selmer made a run of about 20 guitars with birdseye maple back and sides. Our review guitar, made to imitate these rare instruments, is generously covered with birdseyes, which wink up at you as you move the instrument to admire the undulating woodgrain as it refracts light. The plywood is not a cost-cutter; most original Selmer bodies featured plywood construction, except for the top (ironically, ’40s Selmer birdseye guitars were solid wood throughout, according to Francois Charle in The Story Of Maccaferri Selmer Guitars). Having owned a boutique Gypsy jazz guitar with solid wood back and sides, I think the triple-ply strategy works better. The extra resonance of solid-wood back and sides does not really serve the sprightly tone and aggressive cutting power of the Selmer-style instrument. Maple, hard as it is, provides an excellent body wood for the demands of Gypsy Jazz. Add the influence of the hard maple neck, and you have a lap-held weapon with the penetrating power of a laser.

As attractive as the maple body is, I was particularly impressed by the quality of the slightly arched spruce top. The straight, even grain and the “silk” effect that indicates perfect quartersawn stock are all indicative of the sophistication and power of Saga’s wood buyers. I have seen many Saga products, and have consistently noticed the tops are of a very high grade.

The guitar’s body made up of all this delicious-looking tonewood is 181/2″ long, 16″ wide at the lower bout and 111/4″ wide at the upper bout. The tapered body is 4″ deep at the tailblock. The classic compensated ebony mustache bridge features a two-footed center saddle that is moveable between the glued-on mustache ends. The “petite bouche” oval soundhole (23/4″ x 11/8″) is surrounded by an attractive wooden rosette, and the bindings and purflings are also made of a complimentary wood. The thin lacquer finish is clean and glossy, with a little evidence of sanding on the tapered heel.

A gold-plated Gypsy-approved tailpiece will accommodate both loop- and ball-end strings. Only the shiny plastic insert (Selmer used plastic, ebonite and rosewood) on the tailpiece detracts from the visual appeal of the guitar body from the front. If this guitar were mine to keep, I’d use a piece of 0000 steel wool to dull the gloss of the insert. This little effort makes it look like ebony from a few feet away.

When compared to a Gitane D hole DG-500, the DG-250M was considerably more aggressive in the high end. I also had an opportunity to play the guitar with New Orleans’ leading Gypsy Jazzer, Tony Green, alongside a 1990s Dupont “petite bouche,” an ’80s Saga “petite bouche,” and a pre-war Francesco Oliveri “grande bouche.” The new Gitane more than held its own volume-wise, with a head-register voice that nicely complimented the deeper chest-register sound of the solid wood Dupont. The restored Oliveri and the older Saga never had a chance.

Workmanship on this DG-250M is solid in most areas, though there’s a little woodfiller nestled into a few spots around the neck joint. The frets are highly polished, and play cleanly with a manouche-appropriate action of a strong 3/32″ at the 12th fret on the high E string.

Although a nice-quality Golden Gate CP 1510 case is supplied with the DG-250M, the guitar moved around a bit too much in it. Saga’s marketing department told me that a reissue Golden Gate Gypsy Jazz Guitar case has been approved for production.

The DG-250M was modeled from an original ’40s Selmer. At the Winter NAMM show, Djangophile John Jorgenson told us, “The Saga sounds remarkably better than the original.” Jorgenson liked the DG-250M so much, he asked Saga to build a signature model. I like this guitar enough to wish they’d name it after me. Unfortunately, it plays Gypsy jazz a lot better than I do!

This article originally appeared in VG May 2005 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

April 9, 2015