A poor man’s White Falcon? Meet this sexy limited edition Epiphone P93.
I first saw one of these about a year ago on eBay and remember drooling over it. Man, what a guitar! It seemed to have it all: cool white finish, three P-90 pickups, Bigsby vibrato, gold sparkle binding, and gold hardware. It looked spectacular.
With all its ornamentation, this Epi reminded me of a ’60s Gretsch White Falcon. The only problem was, it was also kind of pricey. These guitars were going for around $550–$700 on eBay. I already owned a similar P93 in a dark wine red finish that had set me back $325, but this white one left mine in the dust. I knew I had to own the white model, so I did a daily search for one on eBay and got outbid time after time.
The locking Kluson keystone tuners are a sweet upgrade to an already sweet guitar.
The P93 boasts a trio of P-90 single-coil pickups and an innovative wiring scheme.
This model has gold sparkle binding on both the body and fretboard.
But I was diligent and after almost a year, my daily searches finally paid off. I saw this beauty, which had two nice upgrades—a hardshell case and gold Kluson locking tuners—and a buy-it-now price of $350 or best offer, plus a flat $20 shipping fee. Even though I should have just hit the buy-it-now button for $350, I was feeling lucky that day and decided instead to offer $330. The seller immediately emailed me back with a counter offer of $340. I was lucky he was at his computer, and I immediately made another counter offer of $335. Within a few minutes he accepted and the guitar was mine! That really made my day. With shipping I got it for $355 total!
I was excited when it arrived and after inspecting it thoroughly, I was relieved to see that it was undamaged and not stamped as a factory second. There seem to be a lot of these models floating around on eBay with cracked necks and broken headstocks, likely from a cargo shipping container that was dropped by a crane.
Bottom Feeder Tip #2,793: When buying an Epiphone guitar, always check the back of the headstock and make sure it’s not stamped “Used.” That stamp means it’s reconditioned or a factory second, and typically will have a resale value of 15 to 20 percent less than a pristine model. Thankfully this guitar was not stamped with that. Whew.
So how does it play and sound? Amazing! The seller had his guitar tech set it up for him and it really showed. The action was great, nut slots nice and low, and intonation dead-on. What’s really cool about these guitars is how you can use the 3-way pickup selector switch to choose either or both of the two outside P-90s, and then gradually bring in the middle pickup with its own volume control to subtly blend sounds. With this wiring, I’ve found you can create unlimited tonal shadings. I love the sound of the guitar, the way it plays, and especially the way it looks. It’s a keeper for sure.
Will Ray
is a founding
member of the
Hellecasters guitar-twang
trio. He also does guitar
clinics promoting his
namesake G&L signature
model 6-string, and produces
artists and bands at his studio in
Asheville, North Carolina. You can contact
Will on Facebook and at willray.biz.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
