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GALLERY: Gear of the Month 2012

See all 12 unique instruments featured as Gear of the Month in 2012.

Chris Kies
By Chris KiesDec 23, 2012
Chris Kies
Chris Kies has degrees in Journalism and History from the University of Iowa and has been with PG dating back to his days as an intern in 2007. He's now the multimedia manager maintaining the website and social media accounts, coordinating Rig Rundown shoots (also hosting and/or filming them) and occasionally writing an artist feature. Other than that, he enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies.
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March: 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom Reissue Black Beauty Fretless Wonder
  
"The 1969 Custom models switched to a three-piece mahogany body with a maple cap and a three-piece mahogany neck. The rest of the features on this seminal reissue are a direct nod to the 1957 Customяexcept the reissue had gold Grovers while the original у57 had Deluxe Kluson tuners, the headstock pitch is 14 degrees instead of 17, and it has amp-style volume and tone knobs. According to 1968 Gibson shipping ledgers from Kalamazoo, this model was one of the first у68 Les Paul Customs made available to the public following their introduction at the June 1968 NAMM Show in Chicago. Gibson only built 433 of these particular instruments. The Black Beauty and Fretless Wonder were nicknames given to this instrument because of its rich, contrasting body color and low, nearly undetectable frets. Its original price tag was $325яa whopping $100 more than the Les Paul. "
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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.

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Gear of the Month: 1964 Fender Vibroverb

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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.

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1967 Martin GT-70

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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.

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1971 Fender “Bullet” Stratocaster

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Since the vintage craze of the last two or three decades began, we certainly haven’t heard the highest of praise about the instruments Fender produced from late 1965 to 1985, when it was owned by the Columbia Broadcasting System conglomerate. Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Jazz and Precision basses from the ’50s and early ’60s sell for far more than CBS-era guitars—sometimes fetching as much as an exotic sports car or a comfortable middle-class home.

Perceived design flaws introduced to models during the CBS years include Strats and Teles that went from 4- to 3-bolt neck construction, and a larger headstock with an exposed “bullet” truss rod. Later in the ’70s, cost-saving measures, such as using ash rather than alder for bodies, and finishing necks in polyester, were seen as missteps. And cosmetic, finishing, and/or consistency issues such as misaligned fret markers struck many as a sign that Leo Fender’s innovative outfit had lost its way.

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1968 Marshall 50-Watt JMP and 4x12

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It all started when a drum shop owner couldn’t get rid of three pesky guitarists. If it weren’t for those meddling kids and their gosh-darned guitars, Jim Marshall might have made a name for himself selling drums. The pesky guitarists in question—Ritchie Blackmore, Big Jim Sullivan [the subject of PG’s February 2013 Forgotten Heroes feature], and Pete Townshend—were dissatisfied with their rigs. They yearned for more volume, more distortion, and the right sound. Marshall’s success in addressing those needs sealed the Lord of Loud’s legacy and forever changed the world of guitars and music.

In the early 1960s, after deciding to build handwired amps that rivaled Fender’s current stock, Marshall and his two closest cohorts—Ken Bran, a shop repairman, and Dudley Craven, an 18-year-old apprentice—began building Fender amp clones that used 5881 power tubes. Other small changes included Celestion 15-watt speakers compared to Fender’s preference for Jensen 15-watt models. After working with higher-gain preamp tubes—like the ECC83—and learning how different filters and capacitors had a transformative impact on the tone, Marshall heard a sound he knew guitarists would crave. Thus was born the iconic JTM45—which got its initials from Marshall’s son Jim Terry Marshall. A few years later, Marshall switched to KT66 tubes to create the even louder 100-watt Super Lead 1959. In 1968, the company dialed back the decibels with the unveiling of a 50-watt, small-box head that would be called the JMP—an acronym for “Jim Marshall Products.”

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