These days, while at home and off of the road, I find myself sitting in quite a bit with bands and friends at clubs. This usually means plugging into someone else’s amp that I’m not familiar with, or if I bring my own, not having a real gauge on where to set my stage volume. If it’s a channel-switching amp I’m dealing with, I’ll set the clean/normal channel to sound big and clear with a lot of clarity. Then I’ll compare that to the lead overdrive channel (and fight with a buzzy-fizzy-squeally tone that ends up sounding like complete crap with no presence or clarity whatsoever). As a result, I have adopted the habit of using the clean channel only—cranked, of course—and controlling my volume from the guitar.
In general, I’m a big fan of riding my guitar’s volume control throughout the show. I’ll set my amp volume and tone around my 
rhythm playing, with the guitar’s volume control turned down to around 3 to 5, maybe 5 to 7, knowing that when I goose it to 10, I’ll have plenty of gain and a good jump in volume for leads. This approach is the exact opposite of the usual first tendency to dial your amp tone with your guitar’s volume on 10… so when you cut the guitar down, you loose all of your tone and volume.
But what’s even more fun is to add a gain boost pedal, or better yet, a germanium transistor type fuzz/distortion box. The latter is more “old school,” but the most versatile in my book. This is how all the greats used to do it before master volumes, back when the amps mainly had a clean sound, and you’d have to crank it before it would distort.
The germanium-type transistor is what all of these pedals have in common. Vintage pedals you may have heard of—Colorsound and Vox Tone Benders, Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, Univox Super Fuzz, MXR Distortion +, and of course the legendary Electro-Harmonix Big Muff—all use germanium transistors. And there are tons of great new “boutique” handmade reissues, new designs of germanium transistor circuits, Tone Bender knockoffs like Pro Analog’s Mk I, Mk II and Mk III, and Throback’s Stonebender, Treble Boosters like the 65 Colour Boost and Robert Keeley’s Java Boost, fat fuzz monsters like Analogman’s Sun Face and Way Huge’s Swollen Pickle.
Listen to the legendary recordings by Hendrix, Page, Townsend, Ritchie Blackmore and Jeff Beck. Especially live recordings: Hendrix at Monterey Pop Festival was kicking in a Fuzz Face constantly; Townsend on Live at Leeds—you hear the Univox Super Fuzz for total gonzo leads on top of his cleaner Hiwatt amplifiers; Ritchie Blackmore on Deep Purple’s live album classic, Made In Japan—“Highway Star” annihilates (I’m not sure what he’s using but it sounds like a Tone Bender circuit); Jimmy Page on “Heartbreaker” sounds like he’s kicking in his Tone Bender Mk II for the solo all the way to the climatic riff before dropping into Plant’s last verse; and Jeff Beck on “Led Boots” from the album Wired is a prime example of kicking in a serious gain boost on top of a Marshall amp, most likely a Vox Tone Bender or something similar.
The big thing you’ll notice with all of the above is that the tone gets big and fat the more it’s cranked… and when you roll off your guitar’s volume, the sound cleans up and chimes and sparkles, almost the opposite of what you get with more modern day distortion and overdrive stompboxes—definitely not what you hear with a high gain preamp/ master volume combo on most amps!
The choice of pickups on your guitar helps also. Single coil pickups seem to react more noticeably, cleaning up enormously when you turn down your guitar’s volume control… Strats and Teles, Gibsons with P-90s. But you can get that control as well with cleaner, lower-gain humbuckers.
So, if this is unfamiliar territory to your normal routine, the big thing to learn is to “ride” the volume control on your guitar and prioritize setting your amp’s volume to your rhythm playing level. When you stop playing, immediately turn your guitar to “0.” Ride your volume when you start each song (with volume around “5,” and then crank it to “10” for your solo). If you need extra, hit the stompbox for a rippin’ good time. Also, try rolling off the tone knob on your guitar a couple of notches if it gets too bright, or tweak the amp.
Rawk on.
Peter Stroud
Peter is co-founder of 65amps.
sherylcrow.com
65amps.com
A mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups, the Musicraft Messenger’s neck was tuned to resonate at 440 Hz.
Until its untimely end, Musicraft made roughly 250 Messengers in various configurations: the mono-output Messenger and the flagship Messenger Stereophonic, both of which could come with the “Tone Messer” upgrade, a built-in distortion/fuzz circuit. The company’s first catalog also featured a Messenger Bass, a wireless transmitter/receiver, and various models of its Messenger Envoy amplifier, very few of which have survived, if many were ever made at all.
“To this day, even fans will sometimes call the decision to use DeArmonds the Messenger’s ‘Achilles’ heel.’”
Upon its release, the Messenger was a mix of futuristic concepts and DeArmond single-coil pickups that were more likely to be found on budget instruments than pricier guitars such as these. The Messengers often featured soapbar-style DeArmonds, though some sported a diamond grille. (To this day, even fans will sometimes call the decision to use DeArmonds the Messenger’s “Achilles’ heel.”) The Stereophonic model, like the one featured in this edition of Vintage Vault, could be plugged into a single amplifier as normal, or you could split the bridge and neck pickup outputs to two separate amps.
One of the beloved hallmarks of the guitars are their magnesium-aluminum alloy necks, which continue as a center block straight through the tailpiece, making the guitars relatively lightweight and virtually immune to neck warping, while enhancing their playability. Thanks to the strength of that metal-neck design, there’s no need for a thick heel where it meets the body, granting unprecedented access to the higher end of the fretboard.
This Stereophonic model could be plugged into a single amplifier as normal, or you could split the bridge and neck pickup outputs to two separate amps.
The neck was apparently also tuned to have a resonant frequency of 440 Hz, which, in all honesty, may be some of that 1967 “whoa, man” marketing continuing on through our modern-day guitar discourse, where this fact is still widely repeated on forums and in YouTube videos. (As one guitar aficionado to the next, what does this even mean in practice? Would an inaudible vibration at that frequency have any effect at all on the tone of the guitar?)
In any event, the combination of that metal center block—resonant frequency or not—the apple-shaped hollow wooden body of the guitar, and the cat’s-eye-style “f-holes” did make it prone to gnarly fits of feedback, especially if you engaged the Tone Messer fuzz and blasted it all through the high-gain amp stacks favored by the era’s hard rockers.
The most famous devotee of the Messenger was Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner, who used the guitar—and its Tone Messer circuitry—extensively on the group’s string of best-selling records and in their defining live shows, like the Atlanta Pop Festival 1970 and their sold-out run at New York’s Shea Stadium in 1971. But even Farner had some misgivings.
The Messengers often featured soapbar-style DeArmonds, though some sported a diamond grille.
In a 2009 interview, he talked about his first test-run of the guitar: “After I stuffed it full of foam and put masking tape over the f-holes to stop that squeal, I said, ‘I like it.’” He bought it for $200, on a $25-per-pop installment plan, a steal even at the time. (He also made it over with a psychedelic paint job, befitting the era, and experimented with different pickups over the years.)
When these guitars were new in 1967, the Messenger Stereophonic in morning sunburst, midnight sunburst, or mojo red would have run you $340. By 1968, new stereo models started at $469.50. Recent years have seen prices for vintage models steadily increase, as the joy of this rarity continues to thrill players and collectors. Ten years ago, you could still get them for about $1,500, but now prices range from $3,000 to $6,000, depending on condition.
Our Vintage Vault pick today is listed on Reverb by Chicago’s own SS Vintage. Given that it’s the stereo model, in very good condition, and includes the Tone Messer upgrade, its asking price of $5,495 is near the top-end for these guitars today, but within the usual range. To those readers who appreciate the vintage vibe but don’t want the vintage price tag, Eastwood Guitars offers modern reissues, and eagle-eyed buyers can also find some very rare but less expensive vintage MIJ clones made in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Sources: Reverb listing from SS Vintage, Reverb Price Guide sales data, Musicraft July 1, 1967 Price Schedule, 1968 Musicraft Catalog, Chicago Music Exchange’s “Uncovering The Secret Sounds of the 1967 Musicraft Messenger Guitar,” MusicPickups.com article on the Messenger.