For some players, nothing says “hot rod” like a
souped-up Gretsch, tweaked for looks and revving
to full throttle, just like a hot-rodded ’57
Chevy.
This G6120SSC Brian Setzer Tribute comes
to us from Fuller’s Vintage Guitar. One of only 59
being made, it is a replica of the hot-rodded ’59
Gretsch 6120 that Setzer used on his early Stray
Cats albums, and still uses on tour today. This
cat is Trestle-braced and almost all maple (back,
sides, top, neck) with an ebony fretboard (9.45”
radius) and 22 frets. It has a 24.6” scale length,
with a 1-11/16” width at the nut. It has Schaller
machine heads, a “chop shop” pickguard and a
bent output jack. Two TV Jones Classic Pickups
are controlled by a 3-way pickup selector and
three volume knobs (individuals and master).
The
Bigsby is a B6CB and the Space Control bridge is
custom fortified with double-sticky carpet tape.
The empty hole by the pickup selector is where a
tone knob is supposed to be. In addition to exact
replicas of the skull, black cat and “Lucky Lady”
stickers on Setzer’s original, the guitar also features
two dice for pickup volume knobs—not just
any dice, but Monopoly dice. These guitars have
been selling for around $25,000.
Before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, marketing was done through business cards. A well-done business card demands respect and attention. Case in point: Patrick Bateman in American Psycho shriveling when his business card was outdone by his colleagues. For luthiers, it’s a bit more complicated than logo placement, font selection, and what background color exudes more confidence. Their business card is their axe, and the most beneficial way for a luthier to exchange credentials is by getting their guitar directly into a pro’s hands. That’s exactly what Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars did when given the chance.
In early May, Currie received an out-of-the-blue call from friend Rob Timmons of Arcane Pickups, notifying him that Queens of the Stone Age were rehearsing nearby and he should stop over. “I couldn’t go over empty-handed because I’m a guitar builder—that’d be embarrassing—so I grabbed a few pieces that I recently completed to introduce myself and my brand,” Currie remembers. “I met Josh, we shared a laugh, and I welcomed him to try out one of my guitars.” Homme was immediately taken aback by the Downtowner Custom Koa’s beefy neck size (he has a tough time finding necks to fit his hands) and its feedback-resistant P-90s. Homme asked if he could borrow them for a few days to show the rest of the band—Currie excitingly obliged.
The next week during tour rehearsals, Homme pulled Currie aside and told him that he, Troy Van Leeuwen, and Dean Fertita were all interested in buying guitars, but only one of the guitars was available for purchase. So Currie agreed to build Troy his own model. “That’s when Josh’s eyes lit up and he asked me to build him a custom model, too.” Van Leeuwen’s guitar was fairly easy because Currie had an idea in his head and the templates were based on the Trisonic he found in Leo Fender’s shop while working at G&L. But Homme’s guitar was custom from the ground-up.
“I had no safety net or platform to go off of because of the organic nature of this build. I usually have the benefit of knowing the design and how it’ll balance tonally with all the different woods and pickups.” confesses Currie. “So other than the aged-neck timbre and the body-chambering, I had no actual knowledge of how the end result would sound, just a familiarity with all the pieces individually.”
Currie and Homme had several conversations about feel, look, vibe, tones, body size, shapes, pickups, and playability. After hearing the custom Gold Coil in the neck position of Currie’s ’59 Custom model, Homme insisted that it be part of the equation. For the bridge position, Currie went with a customwound Arcane Ultra’Tron. Homme wanted a big neck profile so Currie based it on his early ’59 double-cut Les Paul Jr.—about .098" at the nut and .115" at the 13th fret. “I like to do a 1938-style ‘soft V’ carve and roll it into a ’59 ‘D’ carve at the 9th fret so that it feels natural and fills your hand but remains playable for long gigs,” Currie says. “It’s carved from a 200-year-old piece of Honduran mahogany that came out of the Los Angeles library and the fretboard is old-stock Brazilian I had stashed.”
For his custom builds, Currie uses old mahogany he amassed while working in the historic restoration of old buildings around Los Angeles and Southern California. “All of it is very old, very mature, very dry, and very bell-like,” he says. “I started using it for two reasons: One, because it was old, stable, and resonate. And two, because it was readily available and the best way to get a new guitar to feel, behave, and sound old."
The reclaimed Honduran mahogany body of Homme’s guitar is a chambered, one-piece slab. “We didn’t chamber it simply for weight-reduction. We agreed during our conversations that the tone of a semi-hollow instrument has the best warmth and growl without the howl [laughs].” The top is a 300-year-old burl walnut (the knots still have moss and earth in them) and it was outfitted with a trapeze-style tailpiece like one from a very rare ’50s Kay guitar. The headstock is made of nitrate celluloid—tortoiseshell—with a custom-made sterling silver crow skull inlaid in the center. The tuners are aged nickel, pre-war-style, 18:1-ratio Grovers.
“Josh freaked when I finally gave it to him the night they taped the KCRW special in L.A.,” says Currie. “It was great seeing him playing it that night at the showcase and it sounded better than I hoped and planned because of its round, creamy articulation. I’ve been a big fan of the band and I’m honored to get the unusual request from an artist like Josh—that’s the type of guitar building I live for.”
A special thanks to Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars for allowing us to feature this fine piece of gear and its story.
Before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, marketing was done through business cards. A well-done business card demands respect and attention. Case in point: Patrick Bateman in American Psycho shriveling when his business card was outdone by his colleague's.
For luthiers, it's a bit more complicated than logo placement, font selection, and what background color exudes more confidence. Their business card is their axe, and the most beneficial way for a luthier to exchange credentials is by getting their guitar directly into a pro's hands. That's exactly what Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars did when given the chance.
The reclaimed Honduran mahogany body of Homme's guitar is a chambered, one-piece slab. The top is a 300-year-old burl walnut (the knots still have moss and earth in them) and it was outfitted with a trapeze-style tailpiece like one from a very rare '50s Kay guitar.
In early May, Currie received an out-of-the-blue call from friend Rob Timmons of Arcane Pickups, notifying him that Queens of the Stone Age were rehearsing nearby and he should stop over. "I couldn't go over empty-handed because I'm a guitar builder—that'd be embarrassing—so I grabbed a few pieces that I recently completed to introduce myself and my brand," Currie remembers. "I met Josh, we shared a laugh, and I welcomed him to try out one of my guitars." Homme was immediately taken aback by the Downtowner Custom Koa's beefy neck size (he has a tough time finding necks to fit his hands) and its feedback-resistant P-90s. Homme asked if he could borrow them for a few days to show the rest of the band—Currie excitingly obliged.
"We didn't chamber it simply for weight-reduction. We agreed during our conversations that the tone of a semi-hollow instrument has the best warmth and growl without the howl [laughs]." The headstock is made of nitrate celluloid−tortoiseshell−with a custom-made sterling silver crow skull inlaid in the center. The tuners are aged nickel, pre-war-style, 18:1-ratio Grovers.
The next week during tour rehearsals, Homme pulled Currie aside and told him that he, Troy Van Leeuwen, and Dean Fertita were all interested in buying guitars, but only one of the guitars was available for purchase. So Currie agreed to build Troy his own model. "That's when Josh's eyes lit up and he asked me to build him a custom model, too." Van Leeuwen's guitar was fairly easy because Currie had an idea in his head and the templates were based on the Trisonic he found in Leo Fender's shop while working at G&L. But Homme's guitar was custom from the ground-up.
"I had no safety net or platform to go off of because of the organic nature of this build. I usually have the benefit of knowing the design and how it'll balance tonally with all the different woods and pickups." confesses Currie. "So other than the aged-neck timbre and the body-chambering, I had no actual knowledge of how the end result would sound, just a familiarity with all the pieces individually."
Currie and Homme had several conversations about feel, look, vibe, tones, body size, shapes, pickups, and playability. After hearing the custom Gold Coil in the neck position of Currie's '59 Custom model, Homme insisted that it be part of the equation. For the bridge position, Currie went with a customwound Arcane Ultra'Tron. Homme wanted a big neck profile so Currie based it on his early '59 double-cut Les Paul Jr.—about .980" at the nut and 1.15" at the 13th fret. "I like to do a 1938-style 'soft V' carve and roll it into a '59 'D' carve at the 9th fret so that it feels natural and fills your hand but remains playable for long gigs," Currie says. "It's carved from a 200-year-old piece of Honduran mahogany that came out of the Los Angeles library and the fretboard is old-stock Brazilian I had stashed."
For his custom builds, Currie uses old mahogany he amassed while working in the historic restoration of old buildings around Los Angeles and Southern California. "All of it is very old, very mature, very dry, and very bell-like," he says. "I started using it for two reasons: One, because it was old, stable, and resonate. And two, because it was readily available and the best way to get a new guitar to feel, behave, and sound old."
The reclaimed Honduran mahogany body of Homme's guitar is a chambered, one-piece slab. "We didn't chamber it simply for weight-reduction. We agreed during our conversations that the tone of a semi-hollow instrument has the best warmth and growl without the howl [laughs]." The top is a 300-year-old burl walnut (the knots still have moss and earth in them) and it was outfitted with a trapeze-style tailpiece like one from a very rare '50s Kay guitar. The headstock is made of nitrate celluloid—tortoiseshell—with a custom-made sterling silver crow skull inlaid in the center. The tuners are aged nickel, pre-war-style, 18:1-ratio Grovers.
"Josh freaked when I finally gave it to him the night they taped the KCRW special in L.A.," says Currie. "It was great seeing him playing it that night at the showcase and it sounded better than I hoped and planned because of its round, creamy articulation. I've been a big fan of the band and I'm honored to get the unusual request from an artist like Josh—that's the type of guitar building I live for."
A special thanks to Gabriel Currie of Echopark Guitars for allowing us to feature this fine piece of gear and its story.
Blues-rock guitarists have squabbled over
the last quarter century about what
contributed most to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s
colossal tone. Some believe it was his heavy-handed
attack or the beaten-with-love Strat
with an alchemy all its own from a ’63
body, ’62 neck, and ’59 pickups. Perhaps
that’s true, but the bedrock of his signature
“Texas Flood” firepower was his two 1964
Fender Vibroverb amplifiers.
Introduced in February 1963, the 40-watt
Vibroverb was Fender’s first amplifier to feature
both onboard tremolo and reverb effects.
The first iteration of the 2-channel amp was
built with the 6G16 circuit (based on the
Vibrolux), two 10" Oxford speakers, and an
output transformer from Fender’s Super. It
used two 6L6GC power tubes, three 7025s
for its preamp and phase inverter, a GZ34
rectifier, and two 12AX7s—each controlling
reverb and tremolo. The normal and bright
channels both had two inputs and controls
for volume, treble, and bass. The bright
channel had additional knobs for reverb, and
speed and intensity dedicated to the tremolo.
Cosmetically, the seminal Vibroverb was covered
from head to toe in brown.
The following year, Fender overhauled
most of their amp models, including the
Super, Twin, and Vibroverb. (The Super
was given two more 10" speakers, the Twin
was given two 12" speakers, and both were
outfitted with reverb.) The second version
of the combo saw several modifications,
like swapping the two 10" Oxford speakers
for a single 15" speaker from either JBL
or Jensen. Power-wise, the ’64 Vibro was
constructed with an AA763 circuit, 12AT7
tubes for the phase inverter and reverb, and
the optical-coupler tremolo that replaced
the tweed-style effect. This also marked the
first year Fender’s amps were decked out in
the now-classic blackface design that incorporates
black tolex, a black control panel,
and skirted black knobs. In addition, each
channel had its own bright switch and the
second channel was now labeled vibrato
instead of bright.
While SRV’s tech, César Diaz, heavily
modded his Vibroverbs—swapping input
resistors, coupling capacitors, and countless
tubes—the ’64 blackface shown here is
nearly mint. “I have seen some nice vintage
amps come through the shop, but the rarity
and condition of this one is unmatched,”
says Zach Smith, store manager of The
Minor Chord. “There’s not one crackle to
any knob, switch, or jack. We even had a
copy of the original bill of sale, all the original
paperwork, and the original dust cover
is still in great condition.”
Smith and his colleague Gary Supernor
test-drove the cherry Vibroverb with three
era-correct guitars—a Rickenbacker 330,
a ’66 Fender Mustang, and an original
mid-’50s Fender Stratocaster. They weren’t
surprised when each guitar sounded outstanding.
“The Ricky had a nice warm meaty
tone,” remembers Smith. “For the Mustang,
we cranked the reverb and it was surfing
time. And the each pickup position of the
’50s Strat was its own little slice of heaven [laughs]." Smith believes the amp’s
original 15" CTS speaker is what
makes the ’64 so special. The amp easily handled anything they threw at it and has a nice low-end oomph, he says, but
it can maintain a brighter, clearer crispness as
you turn up the treble.
The original Vibroverb lacked in sales
compared to other Fender amps and was
made only two years, with under 1,500
produced. The ’63 model was reissued
from 1990–1995 and the ’64 Custom reissue—designed with César Diaz—ran from
2003–2008.
A special thanks to Carl Strathmeyer and
Zach Smith of The Minor Chord in Littleton,
Massachusetts, for allowing us to feature this
fine piece of gear and its story.
Got some gear that would make a great Gear of the Month?
Then email pics and its story to us at gotm@premierguitar.com.
A name synonymous with acoustic flattop
guitars, C.F. Martin has been an
industry leader since 1833 when Christian
Frederick Martin bucked the controlling
European guild system (violin builders had
exclusive rights to build guitars over cabinet
builders) and emigrated from Germany to
New York City to start his own guitar-building
company. Five years later, Martin moved
the company to Nazareth, Pennsylvania,
where it’s remained for 175 years, producing
more than 1.25 million guitars and several
industry-shaping innovations. In the 1850s,
Martin implemented internal X-bracing
using wooden struts to stabilize the top and
back, which helped the guitar project more
volume without distorting. The first dreadnoughts
were built around 1916 and named
after the Royal Navy’s HMS Dreadnought
because it appeared so big, massive, and
indestructible that it “nought to dread.”
And during the late 1920s, Martin created
their OM body shape with a 25.4"-scaled,
14-fret neck-joint.
While Martin has been a front-running
mainstay in the acoustic world, they’ve
attempted to enter the electric guitar rat
race on several occasions to no success. First
in 1959, the company equipped their D-18
and D-28 models with exposed pickups and
knobs on the guitars’ tops. Then in 1961,
Martin built its first true electric guitar with
the F series archtops. By 1965 the F series
archtops were replaced by the GT series,
which was halted in 1968. After a decade,
Martin chased their electric ambitions once
again, this time with the launching of the
E series—solidbody guitars and basses that
were only built from 1979–1982.
Shown here is Billie Joe Armstrong’s
Martin GT-70 that he acquired from eBay
right before Green Day’s most recent U.S.
tour. It features a semi-hollow plywood
body with f-holes, bound 22-fret mahogany
neck with rosewood fretboard, two
DeArmond pickups, Bigsby-style tailpiece,
and a larger, bound, non-traditional Martin
headstock. After acquiring the eBay steal, Armstrong’s tech Hans Buscher had to heat
press some neck relief—this is done because
the truss rod is maxed out and needs to be
reset to remove the unwanted curve. He
also leveled the frets and adjusted the neck
angle/pitch so the strings weren’t too close
to the pickups. “Like a Fender, the pole
pieces are the magnets, so having the strings
too close to the magnets and the guitar will
never tune or have any appreciable tone,”
Buscher says. “The GT’s tone—with the
DeArmond pickups—is a really bright and
strident sound that needs to be matched
with an appropriate amp. I don’t think that
Martin really wanted this guitar to have
the same characteristics as their acoustics—the GT-70’s bolt-on neck, flat fretboard,
and plastic nut kind of let you know that
Martin was trying something different for
their electrics.”
Since acquiring the semi-hollow Martin,
Billie Joe has made this GT-70 his unofficial
hotel and backstage guitar.
A special thanks to Billie Joe Armstrong’s
guitar tech Hans Buscher for the opportunity to
feature this fine piece of gear and its story.
Got some gear that would make a great Gear of the Month?
Then email pics and its story to us at gotm@premierguitar.com.
The 1969 Summer of Love is often
remembered as a time of classic
music, flower power, and few inhibitions,
all of which was epitomized by
the 3-day Woodstock Music & Art Fair.
For the Rolling Stones, however, it was a
tumultuous year of firsts and lasts. It was
the last year Brian Jones contributed to a
Stones album (two tracks on 1969’s Let
It Bleed) before passing away that July.
Consequently, it was the band’s first year
with guitarist Mick Taylor, who hit the
ground running and contributed parts on
two songs for Let it Bleed and performed at
the band’s November concerts, which were
released on 1970’s Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out. And
1969 was also the first and last year of the
Altamont Speedway Free Festival—which
was headlined and organized by the Stones,
and billed as “Woodstock West.” Sadly,
it’s primarily remembered for its fatalities,
including the infamous scuffle between a
Hells Angel and a murderous meth user.
Gear-wise, 1969 was the birth of
Ampeg’s SVT amplifier—the backline
choice not just for bassist Bill Wyman, but
also for Mick and Keith Richards during
the band’s 1969 U.S. winter tour.
Ampeg’s Bill Hughes and Roger Cox
designed the “Super Vacuum Tube” amps
with help from Bob Rufkahr and Dan
Armstrong. They debuted at the ’69
NAMM Show in Chicago. The 95-pound,
2-channel, 300-watt head was originally
loaded with 14 tubes, including six large,
volatile 6146 power tubes. A year later, the
6146s were switched out for more reliable
6550s. The earliest “blue-line” SVTs like
the one shown here (which has since been
updated with KT88 tubes) had control
panels engraved with blue lines and text,
though Ampeg later switched to a more legible
black format.
SVTs of this era had volume, treble,
midrange, and bass knobs for the first
channel, while channel 2 only had volume,
treble, and bass. Extra flexibility came via
the five rocker switches along top, which
engage ultra-hi and ultra-lo boosts for each channel, and a 3-position mid-tone control.
There were also four inputs, normal and
bright for each channel.
The Stones’ 1969 U.S. tour, their first
since 1966, was the group’s seminal run in
American arenas—up until then they’d been
playing smaller theaters and auditoriums.
The need to move and groove fans in the
nosebleed seats made the powerful SVTs
a perfect choice. The amps were so loud
they came with a Surgeon General-esque
warning: “This amp is capable of delivering
sound pressure levels that may cause permanent
hearing damage.”
During rehearsals, the band reportedly
pushed the prototypes to the brink of
meltdown. Production models weren’t out
yet and backup rigs weren’t an option, so Ampeg’s Rich Mandella joined the tour as
the official SVT babysitter.
Today, Ampeg builds recreations of
this beloved behemoth in the Classic and
Heritage lines, both of which mix vintage
SVT soul with modern needs such as cooling
fans, tube-bias controls, Neutrik connections,
and direct outputs. The SVT Pro
series has models with more modern voicings,
solid-state and class D power amps,
graphic EQ, and power-reduction circuitry.
And Ampeg’s recent GVT amps are specifically
voiced for 6-stringers looking to emulate
Ya-Ya-era Keef.
A special thanks to Jeff Sadler of Rock N
Roll Vintage Guitars in Chicago and Ampeg
for the opportunity to feature this fine piece of
gear and its story.
Got some gear that would make a great Gear of the Month?
Then email pics and its story to us at gotm@premierguitar.com.
