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Electric Fingerland, Pt. 2
by Dean Farley
This month we’re going to take a deeper
look at the connections between the
guitarist and the amplifier he/she is using.
Last month, we began simplifying the
signal chain so you could see how string
gauge can profoundly affect your style of
playing. We also saw how this influences
your hands in the way you play your guitar.
Hopefully, you’ve had an opportunity to try
a different gauge (and/or style of string) to
see how it worked with your own guitar.
For now, I’m going to assume that you at
least tried something slightly different. You
have just struck the strings and the converted
electrical energy from those strings
is now racing down the guitar cable
towards the input stage of the amplifier.
The amp will react to the actual gauges of
the strings (and how hard you’ve struck
them) in one of two ways; in regards to
the first way, let’s assume that you’ve just
kerranged a heavier set of strings (13-56)
really hard. This “bigger” signal will enter
the input stage of a tube amplifier as a
high spiking wave that will sound a bit
fuzzy. What’s actually happening is that this
strong high signal wave (aka amplitude)
will hit the amplifier’s input and fall about
20 decibels downward before any real sustain
is heard. 20 decibels is a hell of a lot
of signal loss!
Now, let’s say you’ve just hit that same
exact “big” chord, only this time you’re
using lighter strings (9-42, for example).
What will happen this time is the initial
attack will show up at the
amp’s input stage with a much lower
amplitude – opposite of the heavier set
above – and the decay of the lighter
string will also be hovering above that
level where the heavier set’s level was
dropped to when it came toppling down
(about 20 decibels, remember?) from that
higher attack amplitude. This means that
the lighter string will be heard with more
sustain because it is riding higher above
in amplitude – naturally due to the mass
of the string vibrating more freely, as we
discussed in last month’s column.
Still with me here? Now let’s introduce
another element to the party. I’ll use Paul
Kossoff (of Free with Paul Rodgers featured
on vocals) right here as a pointed
example of having a very distinct sound/
tone. It’s been said after looking at old
footage of Free shows that Kossoff literally
“jumped for sustain!” You could see him
jump up and down as he would vibrato a
note to keep it going. Why was this happening?
Paul Kossoff used a Marshall
1987 Bass head most of the time. We
can assume that the tubes in Kossoff’s
head were fairly fresh and I am told by the
Mad Professor himself, Bjorn Juhl of BJFE
Electronics, that as a tube ages the gain
of that tube stays about the same; however,
the inherent distortion will rise and
the bandwidth will diminish. Therefore, an
amplifier with worn down tubes will distort
easier than it would with fresh tubes and
with worn down tubes the bandwidth
would be narrower.
We can further assume from Kossoff’s
playing style that he had to use heavier
strings (a 10-52 or 11-52 set) as a bit of stiff
tension would be required for the strings
to stay within the boundaries of the fretboard.
Paul Kossoff was once a salesman
at a Selmer’s music store in London and
that Selmer also carried their own brand of
strings. The Selmer Light Gauge set was
gauged 11-14-17-31-42-47 and it would be
more than likely that he used this set on
his Les Paul during that same time period
(ca. 1970 or slightly before). If you listen
carefully you’ll notice that, all things considered,
Kossoff’s tone was pretty clean. He
would literally fight both his guitar and amp
to keep that note going by literally keeping
the string in motion.
This is a textbook example of how you
can develop your own sound by getting
to know all of your gear intimately. These
days we can easily reverse engineer what
must have been a “happy accident” for
Kossoff at the time. Back in 1970 the gear
dictated what you would play as opposed
to today, where we have many more
options to sculpt our sound. Different times
indeed!
Another thing that can influence the way
you “play” an amplifier is whether you
have switched the position of the tubes
in the amp and see whether they sound
better in a different order. Did you also
know that preamp tubes will actually can
get better as you play them? With some of
the New Old Stock preamp tubes (like the
famous “NOS” brands/rebrands such as
the original Telefunken “waffleplate” 12AX7/
ECC83 types), they have a huge tendency
to sound much better after you have
played them in for a couple of years, minimum.
My very dear, late friend, Ken Fischer
of Trainwreck Circuits told me about this
piece of trivia as he sold me a couple of
these original Telefunken ECC83 tubes several
years ago. My profound thanks to both
Bjorn Juhl of BJF Electronics, Stockholm
Sweden and the late, great Ken Fischer of
Trainwreck Circuits who blessed me with
26 years of knowledge about amps and
guitars. We’ll see you next month!
Dean Farley
Dean Farley is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings" (www.sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence on the trends in the strings of today
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