Anaheim, CA (January 20, 2012) ā Ampeg announced the Limited Edition Heritage B-15 is back for 2012. Ampeg is doubling the number sold for 2012 and will be shipping worldwide.
Hand-wired and assembled in the U.S.A., the Ampeg Heritage B-15 delivers legendary tone in a design that truly lives up to the iconic standard set by inventor Jess Oliver 50 years ago. The Heritage B-15 features the circuit paths of both a 1964 and 1966 B-15, including classic Baxandall EQ controls and premium 6SL7 octal preamp tubes along with a bias switch, recreating each yearsā distinctive bias methodology. The extremely high-quality flip-top cabinet features the legendary double-baffle design and houses a highly-researched, custom-designed 15Ė Eminence driver. The Heritage B-15 is no mere tribute; it meets and exceeds the performance, look and tone of the legendary original, down to each and every component.
The 2012 run of the Ampeg Heritage B-15 is limited to 100 units and will be available worldwide in June, 2012.
For more information:
www.ampeg.com
Onstage, Tommy Emmanuel executes a move that is not from the playbook of his hero, Chet Atkins.
āMy biggest decision every day on tour is, āWhat do I want to start with? How do I want to come out of the gate?āā Emmanuel explains to me over a video call. āA good opener has to have everything. It has to be full of surprise, it has to have lots of good ideas, lots of light and shade, and then, hit it again,ā he says, illustrating each phrase with his hands and ending with a punch.āYou lift off straightaway with the first song, you get airborne, you start reaching, and then itās time to level out and take people on a journey.ā
In May 2023, Emmanuel played two shows at the Sydney Opera House, the best performances from which have been combined on his new release, Live at the Sydney Opera House. The venueās Concert Hall, which has a capacity of 2,679, is a familiar room for Emmanuel, but I think at this point in his career he wouldnāt bring a setlist if he was playing Wembley Stadium. On the recording, Emmanuelās mind-blowingly dexterous chops, distinctive attack and flair, and knack for culturally resonant compositions are on full display. His opening song for the shows? An original, āCountrywide,ā with a segue into Chet Atkinsā āEl Vaquero.ā
āWhen I was going to high school in the ā60s, I heard āEl Vaqueroā on Chet Atkinsā record, [1964ās My Favorite Guitars],ā Emmanuel shares. āAnd when I wrote āCountrywideā in around ā76 or ā77, I suddenly realized, āAh! Itās a bit like āEl Vaquero!āā So I then worked out āEl Vaqueroā as a solo piece, because it wasnāt recorded like that [by Atkins originally].
āThe co-writer of āEl Vaqueroā is Wayne Moss, whoās a famous Nashville session guy who played āda da daā [sings the guitar riff from Roy Orbisonās āPretty Womanā]. And he played on a lot of Chetās records as a rhythm guy. So once when I played āEl Vaqueroā live, Wayne Moss came up to me and said, āYou know, you did my part and Chetās at the same time. Thatās not fair!āā Emmanuel says, laughing.
Atkins is the reason Emmanuel got into performing. His mother had been teaching him rhythm guitar for a couple years when he heard Atkins on the radio and, at 6, was able to immediately mimic his fingerpicking technique. His father recognized Emmanuelās prodigious talent and got him on the road that year, which kicked off his professional career. He says, āBy the time I was 6, I was already sleep-deprived, working too hard, and being forced to be educated. Because all I was interested in was playing music.ā
Emmanuel talks about Atkins as if the way he viewed him as a boy hasnāt changed. The title Atkins bestowed upon him, C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player), appears on Emmanuelās album covers, in his record label (C.G.P. Sounds), and is inlaid at the 12th fret on his Maton Custom Shop TE Personal signature acoustic. (Atkins named only five guitarists C.G.P.s. The others are John Knowles, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed, and Atkins himself.) For Emmanuel, even today most roads lead to Atkins.
When I ask Emmanuel about his approach to arranging for solo acoustic guitar, he says, āIt was really hit home for me by my hero, Chet Atkins, when I read an interview with him a long time ago and he said, āMake your arrangement interesting.ā And I thought, āWow!ā Because I was so keen to be true to the composer and play the song as everyone knows it. But then again, Iām recreating it like everyone else has, and I might as well get in line with the rest of them and jump off the cliff into nowhere. So it struck me: āHow can I make my arrangements interesting?ā Well, make them full of surprises.ā
When Emmanuel was invited to contribute to 2015ās Burt Bacharach: This Guitarās in Love with You, featuring acoustic-guitar tributes to Bacharachās classic compositions by various artists, Emmanuel expresses that nobody wanted to take ā(They Long to Be) Close to You,ā due to its āsyrupyā nature. But for Emmanuel, this presented an entertaining challenge.
He explains, āI thought, āOkay, how can I reboot āClose to You?ā So even the most jaded listener will say, āHoly fuckāI didnāt expect that! Wow, I really like that; that is a good melody!ā So I found a good key to play the song in, which allowed me to get some open notes that sustain while I move the chords. Then what I did is, in every phrase, I made the chord unresolve, then resolve.
Tommy Emmanuel's Gear
āIām writing music for the film thatās in my head,ā Emmanuel says. āSo, I donāt think, āIām just the guitar,ā ever.ā
Photo by Simone Cecchetti
Guitars
- Three Maton Custom Shop TE Personals, each with an AP5 PRO pickup system
Amps
- Udo Roesner Da Capo 75
Effects
- AER Pocket Tools preamp
Strings & Picks
- Martin TE Signature Phosphor Bronze (.012ā.054)
- Martin SP strings
- Ernie Ball Paradigm strings
- DāAndrea Pro Plec 1.5 mm
- Dunlop medium thumbpicks
āAnd then to really put the nail in the coffin, at the end, āClose to youā [sings melody]. I finished on a major 9 chord which had that note in it, but it wasnāt the key the song was in, which is a typical Stevie Wonder trick. All the tricks I know, the wonderful ideas that Iāve stolen, are from Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, James Taylor, Carole King, Neil Diamond. All of the people who wrote really incredibly great pop songs and R&B musicāI stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a -half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.ā
I share with Emmanuel that the performances on Live at the Sydney Opera House, which include his popular āBeatles Medley,ā reminded me of another possible arrangement trick. In Harpo Marxās autobiography, Harpo Speaks, I preface, Marx writes of a lesson he learned as a performerāto āanswer the audienceās questions.ā (Emmanuel says heās a big fan of the book and read it in the early ā70s.) That happened for me while listening to the medley, when, after sampling melodies from āSheās a Womanā and āPlease Please Me,ā Emmanuel suddenly lands on āWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps.ā
I say, āIām waiting for something that hits more recognizably to me, and when āWhile My Guitarā comes in, thatās like answering my question.ā
āItās also Paul and John, Paul and John, George,ā Emmanuel replies. āYou think, āThatās great, thatās great pop music,ā then, āWow! Look at the depth of this.āā
Often Emmanuelās flights on his acoustic guitar are seemingly superhumanāas well as supremely entertaining.
Photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
A trick I like to employ as a writer, I say to Emmanuel, is that when Iām describing something, Iāll provide the reader with just enough context so that they can complete the thought on their own.
āYou can do that musically as well,ā says Emmanuel. He explains how, in his arrangement of āWhat a Wonderful World,ā heāll play only the vocal melody. āWhen people are asking me at a workshop, āHow come you donāt put chords behind that part?ā I say, āIām drawing the melody and youāre putting in all the background in your head. I donāt need to tell you what the chords are. You already know what the chords are.āā
āWayne Moss came up to me and said, āYou know, you did my part and Chetās at the same time. Thatās not fair!āā
Another track featured on Live at the Sydney Opera House is a cover of Paul Simonās āAmerican Tuneā (which Emmanuel then jumps into an adaptation of the Australian bush ballad, āWaltzing Matildaā). Itās been a while since I really spent time with There GoesRhyminā Simon (on which āAmerican Tuneā was first released), and yet it sounded so familiar to me. A little digging revealed that its melody is based on the 17th-century Christian hymn, āO Sacred Head, Now Wounded,ā which was arranged and repurposed by Bach in a few of the composerās works. The cross-chronological and genre-lackadaisical intersections that come up in popular music sometimes is fascinating.
āI think the principle right there,ā Emmanuel muses, āis people like Bach and Beethoven and Mozart found the right language to touch the heart of a human being through their ears and through their senses ... that really did something to them deep in their soul. They found a way with the right chords and the right notes, somehow. It could be as primitive as that.
Tommy Emmanuel has been on the road as a performing guitarist for 64 years. Eat your heart out, Bob Dylan.
Photo by Jan Anderson
āItās like when youāre a young composer and someone tells you, āHave a listen to Elton Johnās āCandle in the Wind,āā he continues. āāListen to how those notes work with those chords.ā And every time you hear it, you go, āWhy does it touch me like that? Why do I feel this way when I hear those chordsāthose notes against those chords?ā I say, itās just human nature. Then you wanna go, āHow can I do that!āā he concludes with a grin.
āYou draw from such a variety of genres in your arrangements,ā I posit. āDo you try to lean into the side of converting those songs to solo acoustic guitar, or the side of bridging the genreās culture to that of your audience?ā
āI stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a-half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.ā
āIf I was a method actor,ā Emmanuel explains, āwhat Iām doing isāIām writing music for the film thatās in my head. So, I donāt think, āIām just the guitar,ā ever. I always think it has to have that kind of orchestral, not grandeur, but ā¦ palette to it. Because of the influence of Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Elton John, especiallyāthe piano guysāI try to use piano ideas, like putting the third in the low bass a lot, because guitar players donāt necessarily do that. And I try to always do something that makes what I do different.
āI want to be different and recognizable,ā he continues. āI remember when people talked about how some playersāyou just hear one note and you go, āOh, thatās Chet Atkins.ā And it hit me like a train, the reason why a guy like Hank Marvin, the lead guitar player from the Shadows.... I can tell you: He had a tone that I hear in other players now. Everyone copied himāthey just donāt know itāincluding Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, all those people. I got him up to play with me a few times when he moved to Australia, and even playing acoustic, he still had that sound. I donāt know how he did it, but it was him. He invented himself.ā
YouTube It
Emmanuel performs his arrangement of āWhat a Wonderful World,ā illustrating how omitting a harmonic backdrop can have a more powerful effect, especially when playing such a well-known melody.
Angus Clark is an expert of all things Tony Iommi, and he has the gear to prove it! The Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Rock of Ages guitarist shows us a couple sweet Iommi tribute SGs as he walks us through Black Sabbathās discography, breaking down Iommiās vocabulary, sound, and gear, and how Iommi created some of the most identifiable riffs in all of rock. Angus is plugged in and ready to go, so we get to hear some of the moves in actionāincluding how loose, light gauge strings create the signature Sabbath sound, how it encouraged some parts of Iommiās lead moves.
The Rickenbacker 481ās body style was based on the 4001 bass, popularly played by Paul McCartney. Even with that, the guitar was too experimental to reach its full potential.
By the early 1970s, the great interest the lads had sparked in 6- and 12-string Ricks had waned. But thankfully for the company, there was still high demand for yet another Beatles-played instrument: the 4001 bass.
Paul McCartney was gifted a 4001 by Rickenbacker in 1965, which he then used prominently throughout the groupās late-ā60s recordings and while leading Wings all through the ā70s. Other rising stars of rock also donned 4000 series models, like YesāChris Squire, Pink FloydāsRoger Waters, the Bee Geesā Maurice Gibb, Creedence Clearwater Revivalās Stu Cook, and more.
And like that, a new star was born.
So, whatās a guitar company to do when its basses are selling better than its guitars? VoilĆ : The Rickenbacker 480. Introduced in 1972, it took the 4000-series body shape and created a standard 6-string out of it, using a bolt-on neck for the first time in the brandās history.
The 481ās slanted frets predate the modern multi-scale phenomenon by decades. The eight-degree tilt of the frets is matched by an eight-degree tilt of the nut, pickups, and bridge.
āIt was like a yo-yo at Rickenbacker sometimes,ā factory manager Dick Burke says in Rickenbacker Guitars: Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo. āWe got quiet in the late ā60s, but when the bass started taking off in the ā70s, we got real busy again, so making a 6-string version of that was logical, I guess.ā
The gambit worked, for a time. Sales of the 480 were strong enough at first that, in 1973, a deluxe model was introducedāthe 481āand itās one of these deluxe versions that weāre showcasing here.
āThe 481 features slant fretsāpointing ever-so-slightly toward the body of the guitarāand the eight-degree tilt of the frets is matched by an eight-degree tilt of the nut, pickups, and bridge.ā
Take a close look and youāll notice that the body shape isnāt the only remarkable feature. The 481 was Rickenbackerās first production run to feature humbucker pickups. Here, you can see each humbuckerās 12 pole pieces dotting through the chrome cover, a variant casing only available from 1975 to 1976. (Interestingly enough, the pickups had first been developed for the 490, a prototype that never made it to public release, which wouldāve allowed players to substitute different pickups by swapping loaded pickguards in and out of the body.)
The new pickups were also treated with novel electronics. The standard 3-way pickup-selector switch is here, but so is a second small switch that reverses the pickupsā phase when engaged.
The inventive minds at Rickenbacker didnāt stop there: The 481 features slant fretsāpointing ever-so-slightly toward the body of the guitarāand the eight-degree tilt of the frets is matched by an eight-degree tilt of the nut, pickups, and bridge.
Long before the fanned fret phenomenon caught on in the modern, progressive guitar landscape, Rickenbacker had been toying around with the slant-fret concept. Originally available from 1970 forward as a custom order on other models, slant frets were all but standard on the 481 (only a small minority of straight-fret 481s were built).
The 481 was the deluxe version of the 480, which preceded it and marked the first time the company used a bolt-on neck.
Dick Burke, speaking separately to writer Tony Bacon in an interview published on Reverb, only half-recalls the genesis and doesnāt remember them selling particularly well: āSome musicians said thatās the way when you hold the neck in your left handāyour hand is slanted. So, we put the slanted frets in a few guitars. I donāt know how many, maybe a hundred or twoāI donāt recall.ā
Even proponents of the 481 do not necessarily sing the praises of the slanted fretboard. Kasabianās Serge Pizzorno, a 481 superfan, told Rickenbacker Guitars author Martin Kelly, āI donāt just love the 481, itās part of me.... The 481ās slanted frets have made my fingers crooked for life, but I donāt care, Iāll take that for itās given me riff after riff after riff."
Initial 480-series sales were promising, but the models never really took off. Though they were built as late as 1984, the slant-fret experiment of the 481 was called off by 1979. And these slanted models have not, in the minds of most players or collectors, become anywhere near as sought-after as the classic 330s and 360s, or, for that matter, the 4001s.
For that reason, 481sādespite their novelty and their lists of firsts for Rickenbackerācan still be found for relatively cheap. Our Vintage Vault pick, which is being sold by the Leicester, England-based Jordan Guitars Ltd, has an asking price of 3,350 British pounds (or about 4,300 U.S. dollars), which is still well under half the going-rate of early 360s, 660s, and other more famous Ricks. Some lucky buyers have even found 481s on Reverb for less than $2,000, which is unheard of for other vintage models.
With its idiosyncratic charms, the 481 remains more within reach than many other guitars of a similar vintage.
Sources: Martin Kellyās Rickenbacker Guitars: Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo, Tony Baconās"Interview: Dick Burke on the Creation of the Rickenbacker 12-String | Baconās Archive" on Reverb, Reverb Price Guide sales data.
