As an amp tech and vintage Fender amp collector for the last 30 years, I’ve been exposed to more guitars and amplifiers than I can possibly remember. But I do remember the best and worst ones. I’d like to share some ups and downs of my encounters with Leo Fender’s amps. I hope these examples inspire you to experiment and find your own joy with vintage Fender amps.
The Fender Super Reverb
In my 20s, I was all about maximum punch and output. I always went for efficient loudspeakers with a strong attack and a bassy punch. I still regret selling an almost-mint, transitional 1968 Super Reverb loaded with CTS alnico speakers in the late ’90s. It wasn't until 20 long years later that I started to appreciate these speakers after coming across similar amps.
My original amp, which first belonged to my brother, had a beautiful contrast between the brown, naturally aged grille cloth and the silver-sparkling aluminum frame around the speaker baffle. The CTS alnicos with the blue square magnet are famous for their low efficiency and vocal tone, with a dominant upper midrange and great touch sensitivity. They are perfect for that clean, touch-sensitive Mark Knopfler tone. These speakers, found in black-panel Supers and early silver-panels up to around 1970, are definitely worth trying out.
The Trouble with the Bassman
Next up is my complicated relationship with the black-panel Bassman. I had read a lot about it and knew it had a great reputation among both bass and guitar players. I first tried a 1964 Bassman, which was deafeningly loud. I found it almost impossible to dial in a warm tone. I thought the massive 2x12" enclosed cabinet with a pair of punchy Oxford 12T6 speakers was too much for a regular electric guitar. The attack was brutal from the diode-rectified 50-watt power amp with large power and output transformers. I also realized I’m dependent on reverb, which the Bassman lacked.
There wasn’t much I liked about the black-panel Bassman until I came across another model, an AB165, also from late 1964. I inspected the schematics and learned that the AA864 and AB165 circuits were different. The AB165’s “normal” channel uses an extra 12AX7 preamp tube, where both triode gain stages boost the signal. In the AA864, only the “bass” channel uses this preamp tube. This means the AB165 is capable of serious preamp distortion, but only if pushed hard, which still made it too loud.
“The attack was brutal from the diode-rectified 50-watt power amp with large power and output transformers.”
I then hooked up a 1x12" extension cabinet with an 8-ohm Eminence Reignmaker speaker that had a built-in attenuator. The impedance mismatch and attenuated speaker lowered the headroom significantly, allowing me to get heavily cranked tones at moderate levels—even quieter than a Deluxe Reverb, but with more distortion. With an SG plugged directly into the AB165, getting AC/DC tones was no problem. You can also push the AA864 into distortion this way, but it won’t deliver the same amount of preamp distortion.
The Vibrolux Reverb
Since I love Super Reverbs, I’ve owned and played many Vibrolux Reverbs, too. With two 10" speakers instead of four, plus smaller transformers, it’s a little brother to the tall Super Reverb. Its reduced weight and size are a big plus, but at the same time, the fewer speakers represent a risk worth mentioning. I’ve serviced several Vibroluxes with blown speakers, particularly Jensens and Oxfords, which have low wattage ratings. The weak paper cones and smaller coils of these delicate original speakers are easily damaged if you hit them with too much bass and volume from the 35-watt, 6L6-powered Vibrolux.
One time, I installed a 12" Eminence Swamp Thang along with a 10" Celestion Gold in an early-’70s Vibrolux Reverb—the original Utah speakers were too flat and bright for my tastes. I used the original baffle and simply drilled new holes for the 12" speaker screws. Those of you who are familiar with these speakers can imagine how much more powerful and punchy the amp became. The Swamp Thang, in particular, is famous for its chunky and fat tone—never muddy or brittle, no matter what I threw at it with guitars, pedals, and amp settings. When I had this amp, I used heavy .012-gauge strings and tuned down a half-step. The low-end response was impressive when I hit the bass strings and played 12-bar Chuck Berry rock ’n’ roll. I had a lot of fun with this amp, as it easily outperformed larger amps. For low-volume occasions, I simply disengaged the 12" speaker and kept my friendship with bandmates and the audience.
The Princeton Reverb
Finally, I have to mention the time I came across a great player’s silver-panel Princeton Reverb that taught me a few tricks I have used countless times. When I bought it, it had an ultra-light Celestion Century Vintage 12" neodymium speaker and a Deluxe Reverb output transformer. This Princeton Reverb was still super portable but played twice as loud as an original silver-panel equivalent. I regret selling this amp, and since then, I’ve had many Princeton Reverbs in my basement that have received the same mods for customers and friends. I’ve yet to hear of anyone who has rolled these amps back to original specs after trying these modifications.
Ace Frehley, the Kiss guitar legend whose fiery playing and pyro-laden guitar tricks influenced and enraptured generations of players, died Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey, following complications from a fall in his home studio last month. He was 74.
“We are completely devastated and heartbroken,” Frehley’s family said in a statement. “In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth. We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”
Frehley's former Kiss bandmates, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, released a joint statement, writing: “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley. He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of Kiss’s legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette, Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”
Over the course of five decades, Frehley's Les Paul-fueled riffs and solos helped to define not just Kiss’ music, but the very sound of arena rock guitar. His influence stretched far beyond the makeup, from Tom Morello calling him his “first guitar hero” to Dimebag Darrell having Frehley's face tattooed on his chest.
Born April 7, 1951, in the Bronx, Paul Daniel “Ace” Frehley got his first electric guitar as a Christmas gift in 1964. A self-taught player, he drew early inspiration from Hendrix, Beck, and the Stones—and in particular the Who’s Pete Townshend. As he told Premier Guitar in 2010, “I used to sit next to the record player and figure out every Who song. Playing a lot of Who music really helped develop my right hand, which helped with not only my rhythm technique but my leads, too.”
In 1973, Frehley auditioned for a band seeking a “hard rock guitarist with balls and flash.” After hauling his 50-watt Marshall up a flight of stairs and jamming on “Deuce,” he landed the gig, forging Kiss alongside Simmons, Stanley and Peter Criss.
As Kiss’ lead guitarist from 1973 to 1982, Frehley’s smoking, rocket-shooting, levitating Les Pauls became as iconic as the music itself. These stunts also carried genuine risks. As he told me in 2014, “One night [my flying guitar] hit something and slipped off, just grazing my shoulder. Imagine [a Les Paul] with a battery pack and a box to protect it from the heat of a smoke bomb.”
Frehley's unique picking technique, where his loosely-held pick and thumb simultaneously struck the string, created what he described on Shred with Shifty as “a sound just shy of a pinched squeal, but more spunky.” This approach, combined with the fact that he ripped his solos through a “dimed Marshall stack,” powered the licks in Frehley-composed songs like “Cold Gin” and “Shock Me,” as well as “Rock and Roll All Nite,” Love Gun” and other Kiss classics.
Frehley's 1978 self-titled solo album went platinum, with his cover of “New York Groove” reaching No. 13 on Billboard's Hot 100—the highest-charting single from any Kiss member's solo effort. His recording philosophy, as he explained to Premier Guitar, involved tracking basics with Les Pauls, then “doubl[ing] stuff up with Fenders because they have a different sound.” He'd layer acoustics underneath electrics, he said, because it “adds a fullness that you don't really hear until you take it away.”
After forming Frehley's Comet in the mid-'80s, Ace returned to Kiss for their massively successful 1996 reunion tour, remaining until 2002. His late-career solo work demonstrated continued vitality. From 2009's Anomaly through 2024’s 10,000 Volts, Frehley’s output was well-received by fans, and he toured steadily behind the records. His 2016 effort, Origins, Vol. 1, and 2018’s Spaceman, featured collaborations, respectively, with former bandmates Stanley and Simmons. Despite public animosity over the years (Frehley was not involved in the band’s 2019-2023 End of the Road farewell tour) he recounted to me that working together again, at least at that time, was simple: “We all have the other's cell phone numbers and we just call each other!”
As a player, Frehley opted for feel over technical dexterity. But never stopped learning. When I asked him in that same interview if he was still discovering things at 67, he laughed: “All the time. Half the stuff I do, I don't know what it's called. But you know, if it sounds good, I do it.”
This intuitive approach defined his career. As he told Premier Guitar in 2010, “I pride myself on thinking outside the box, and I'm probably like that because I'm not a schooled musician. To me, there are no rules, and there never were.”
Do you feel like your solos lack focus or that there isn’t any underlying structure to your lines? Does it seem that you are wandering around the neck, hoping that what you are playing “looks like it sounds cool”? Would pushing peas around a dinner plate with a knife be more riveting than the last lick you played? If any of these statements are true, then you need some guide tones, my friend.
Guide tones, also known as target notes, are commonly used in jazz improvisation and usually refer to only the 3rd and 7th of a chord. But, for our purposes, we’re going to apply a more generous definition where all notes of a chord can be used. There are two benefits to using guide tones: They create a predetermined melodic structure that serves as a framework for your solo, and they provide an inner melody to your lines that carry the sound of the chord changes.
The first two examples show a couple of possibilities when building a guide tone melody over a ii-V-I chord progression in the key of C major. The only requirement is that the guide tones should be played on the strong beats of the measure (beats 1 and 3). Next, spell each chord to see what notes you have to work with. For our progression, our choices will come from Dm7 (D-F-A-C), G7 (G-B-D-F), and Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B). Since these examples have one chord per measure, I have chosen to use only one guide tone in each measure. But, I could have used two guide tones in a measure, one on beat 1 and the other on the beat 3. Other than what has already been discussed, there is no right or wrong way to do this. Basically, pick some chord tones, put them on the strong beat(s), and see how it sounds. Change or edit as you see fit!
Take a listen to Ex. 1. The guide tones create a descending melody that leaps up at the end. Using one note per measure, the line starts with C (the 7th of Dm7), then to B (the 3rd of G7), to G (the 5th of Cmaj7) and finally E (the 3rd of Cmaj7). Ex. 2 has a guide tone line similar to the first example, descending for the first three measures and a leap up at the end. It begins with F (the 3rd of Dm7), to D (the 5th of G7), to B (the 7th of Cmaj7), and then to E (the 7th of Cmaj7).
Ex. 3 is an eight measure progression, similar in structure to a popular jazz standard. Harmonically, the first half is a ii-V-I-IV in C major and the second half is a ii-V-i in the key of A minor. In the first six bars, there is one guide tone per measure, and then concludes with two guide tones in each of the last two bars.
Once you have decided on a framework for your solo, use scales and arpeggios to add notes before each guide tone. By doing so, you create motion in your line that sounds musical, and not like you’re choosing notes at random. Listen to Ex. 4 where each guide tone is approached from above by a scale step. Since all the chords are in the key of C, my approach notes are from the C major scale. I can also think in modal terms, where I would use D Dorian in bar 1 to approach the G7 in bar 2. Then, I can use G Mixolydian in bar 2 to approach the Cmaj7 in bar 3, and C Ionian to approach the next Cmaj7 in bar 4. Ex. 5 is the same scalar concept, this time approaching the guide tones from below.
Ex. 6 and Ex. 7 use arpeggios to approach the guide tones from above and below, respectively. I prefer to do this by using the arpeggio of the chord I am going to, not the one I am playing over. So, when I am playing over the Dm7 in the first measure, I will use the G7 arpeggio to approach the guide tone in bar 2. Then, when playing over G7 in the second measure, use the Cmaj7 arpeggio to approach the guide tone in bar 3. This concept is a little easier to see in Ex.7. Dm7 is the chord in bar 1. You approach the guide tone in bar 2 with a G, which is not in a Dm7 chord, but it is in G7.
To get longer lines, use two, three, or more notes from the scale or arpeggio when approaching the guide tones. Ex. 8 approaches the guide tone from above and below, using two and three notes from the scale. Ex. 9 shows the same approach methods, but with notes from the arpeggio.
After you get a handle on the guide tone concepts, experiment with rhythms, rests, and an ever-increasing number of approach notes. Check out Ex. 10 as an example of what is possible. It’s the guide tone line from Ex. 2 fleshed out with a mixture of scale and arpeggio approach notes of various lengths. Ex. 11 is an expansion of the guide tone line from Ex. 3. I used an increasing number of approach notes in the first half of the line. The second half is more rhythmically complex, ending with the triplet figures in the last two measures.
Applying these concepts to something more familiar, Ex. 12 is one possible guide tone melody over an A minor blues. Give it a listen to hear how the first two phrases are relatively scalar, but the last phrase has more of a “sawtooth” vibe. Ex. 13 is the completed solo, using the ideas discussed previously. Throwing everything into the guide-tone blender yielded different types of approaches combined with a variety of rhythms and rests.
Once you get a foothold, substitute different modes, scales, arpeggios, chords, and time signatures to achieve some different sonic flavors. Remember that you are restricting yourself to these few concepts in order to get a more melodic and meaningful solo. If you practice it enough, your brain will start working this way on its own!
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