As many of you can confirm, we’re always on a quest for the ultimate tone, checking out all possible leads, from new modern to vintage old-school gear. I’ve had the pleasure to work along side some pretty amazing players and the people that build the gear – Brian at Top Hat amps, Mike and Bill at the Soldano factory, Victor at Mojave Ampworks and Bruce Egnater, just to name a few. This brings us to Jeff Aragaki, a friend of ours that has started up his own line of amps, dubbed ARACOM Amplifiers (aracom-amps.com), who frequently borrows me for ears, ideas and picking. He’s built up a small army of amps ranging from 6 watts to 50 watts, all Marshallbased, and left a few around for us to utilize every way possible. Every ARACOM amp sampling just gets better and better, to the point where I had to put them to the test and give his amps a real workout.
He’s making non-master volume type amps that break up nicely at bar levels, which nails the tone for blues and classic rock tunes. However, for the big gain and modern rock to vintage metal tunes our band covers, I knew I would need to rely on an effect pedal board. So I set off on an eBay GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) attack, picking up a Lexicon MPX G2 effects unit and matching R1 floor control which closely resembles the Line 6, allowing you to get inside a program and turn any effect on or off without leaving the patch. The G2 features front end and post preamp-based effects, so it’s just like using a variety of pedals like wah, compressor, EQ, to any type gain pedal, all placed in front of the amp with delay and modulation effects placed post preamp.
I prefer amps in a dry/wet configuration, allowing amp #1 to be unaffected and amp #2 to get all the effects, with its tone signal generated from amp #1. With Jeff and his ARACOM Amplifiers onboard, plus the addition of the Lexicon MPX G2, the tone started growing. The guitar plugs direct into the G2 input to access its front end pedals, then returns to the input of amp #1, using the ARACOM 50-watt as the main head. A line out from amp #1 is plugged into the G2 Post Preamp Input, with the Main Output returned into the ARACOM 18-watter as the wet head. The two heads plug into one stereo Marshall 4x12, dry on the left, wet on the right, creating a beautiful stereo image once you fire up a nice delay or chorus. In most cases your second amp will get the effected signal fed into the return of the effects loop – in this case, amp #2 is a non-master volume model with no loop, so plugging into the front end works great and allows you added tone control flexibility that isn’t available in a Power In or Loop Return.
Also, on a quick side note, a simple rule with multiple amps usually requires you to lift the ground on the second amp with the aid of a three to two prong wall outlet adapter. Just let your ears listen for any noise – add or remove lift adapters until the noise is gone. Hope the article spurs you to plug a few things in and try out some different things. As for Jeff and ARACOM Amplifiers, just keep your ears open for the new guy coming out. It’s a great time to be a player with all the killer tube amps and modern technology infused out there. We’ll see ya next month.
Gene Baker
Any questions or comments visit
www.finetunedinstruments.com
www.meangene.org
email me at b3gene@verizon.net
Fine Tuned Instruments LLC, home of his “b3” instruments.
Neil Young’s ’70s hits are some of the most recognizable radio rock jams of all time. But Neil’s guitar playing continued to grow over the ensuing decades, as he traversed styles from blues to country to electronic to rockabilly and beyond, eventually developing one of the most tonally decadent, fully formed improvisational voices in the entire guitar universe.
Like any discography that’s been growing over the course of more than half a century, it can be hard to decode Young’s work. And with such an adventurous spirit, it could be easy to make some missteps and miss out on his best guitar works. In this episode, Nick guides Jason through some of his hero’s finest moments.
More news from Neil always seems to be on the horizon, so here’s your chance to catch up.
This episode is sponsored by Gibson.
This Japan-made Guyatone brings back memories of hitchin’ rides around the U.S.
So, as I’m prone to do, I started digging around hitchhiking culture and stories. Surprisingly, there are organized groups that embrace the hitching life, but the practice remains on the fringe in the U.S. Back in the 1950s, writer Jack Kerouac wrote the novel On the Road, which celebrated hitchhiking and exposed readers to the thrill of maverick travel. Heck, even Mike Dugan (the guitarist in all my videos) hitched his way to California in the 1960s. But seeing that fellow on the side of the road also sparked another image in my brain: Yep, it always comes back to guitars.
Let me present to you a guitar that’s ready to go hitching: the Guyatone LG-180T, hailing from 1966. The “thumbs-up” headstock and the big “thumb” on the upper bout always made me think of thumbing a ride, and I bought and sold this guitar so long ago that I had forgotten about it, until I saw that hitchhiking dude. Guyatone was an interesting Japanese company because they were primarily an electronics company, and most of their guitars had their wooden parts produced by other factories. In the case of the LG-180T, the bodies were made by Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Japan. At that time, Yamaha was arguably making the finest Japanese guitars, and the wood on this Guyatone model is outstanding. We don’t often see Guyatone-branded guitars here in the U.S., but a lot of players recognize the early ’60s label Kent—a brand name used by an American importer for Guyatone guitars.
With a bit of imagination, the LG-180T’s “thumbs up” headstock seems to be looking for a roadside ride.
Kent guitars were extremely popular from the early ’60s until around 1966. The U.S. importer B&J fed the American need for electric guitars with several nice Kent models, but when the Guyatone contract ended, so did most of the Kent guitars. After that, Guyatone primarily sold guitars in Japan, so this example is a rare model in the U.S.
“Unless you are a master at guitar setups, this would be a difficult player.”
This headstock is either the ugliest or the coolest of the Guyatone designs. I can’t decide which. I will say, no other Japanese guitar company ever put out anything like this. You have to give the Guyatone designers a thumbs up for trying to stand out in the crowd! Guyatone decided to forgo an adjustable truss rod in this model, opting instead for a light alloy non-adjustable core to reinforce the neck. Speaking of the neck, this instrument features the most odd-feeling neck. It’s very thin but has a deep shoulder (if that makes any sense). Totally strange!
Another strange feature is the bridge, which offers very little adjustment because of the three large saddles, which sort of rock back and forth with the tremolo. It’s a shame because these pickups sound great! They’re very crisp and have plenty of zing, but unless you are a master at guitar set-ups, this would be a difficult player.
This could be why the LG-180T only appeared in the 1966 and 1967 catalogs. After that, it disappeared along with all the other Yamaha-made Guyatone electrics. By 1969, Guyatone had gone bankrupt for the first time, and thus ended guitar production for a few decades. At least we were blessed with some wacky guitar designs we can marvel at while remembering the days when you could play in the back end of an explosive 1973 AMC Gremlin while your mom raced around town. Two thumbs up for surviving our childhoods! PG
