A quartet of T-style guitars: Each is configured with different pickups and wiring schemes to provide a broad sonic palette for stage and studio use.
Ah, the good old Telecaster. Yes, it’s hard to play—at least in comparison to some guitars—but I view it as one of the most flexible recording and gigging guitars around. Let me share my experience with four Teles I’ve collected to get my work done, and then maybe you’ll agree.
I grew up as a pure Les Paul guy. I thought a Paul’s tone, beef, bottom end, sustain, and sheer power was unbeatable. But I did have trouble keeping them in tune at gigs, they were freakin’ heavy, and they couldn’t get as funky as I needed. I still have them, use them, and love them—but I needed more. (Don’t we all?) My switch to a Tele was instigated by the need for a different sound, yet it also reflected an evolution of my playing style.
At the time that I made the switch, the bands I was gigging with were mostly groove-oriented R&B outfits, so the choice was almost a no-brainer. But my collection of Teles really grew as I began to do more TV composing. Sure, I could use the Les Paul in the studio with no problem, but I needed the sound of country, blues, rock, reggae, and even metal. Could a Tele handle all of those? Yes, but to make this happen I needed to outfit them with different pickups for maximum versatility.
All four of my T-style guitars were built by Rob DiStefano at Fret Tech (frettech.com), who I introduced you to a few columns back [“Emergency Truss-Rod Tweaks,” July 2012]. Built of paulownia wood, these Ts are all super lightweight, and when you play them unplugged, they resonate almost like acoustic guitars. But I think of them simply as vehicles for my pickups—each of which delivers a distinctive tone for different jobs.
The main workhorse (which I also play live) is a cherry burst that I string up with .010–.052 string sets. I hate noisy pickups, so it’s got Bill Lawrence L-200 Noisefree Singles. Noiseless pickups— okay, pickups with very low noise—are especially crucial when tracking in front of a computer or when recording solos through a cranked amp, and this guitar records as quietly as any 6-string I’ve ever owned. The L-200s are wired to a 4-way switch. This guitar covers clean country in position 1 (neck pickup), funky clean in position 2 (bridge and neck in series), max rock distortion in position 3 (bridge and neck in parallel), and solos that cut through the band in position 4 (bridge). I love this guitar!
My second T-style guitar is a hybrid with a Lace Sensor PS900 soapbar in the neck, and a Bill Lawrence L-290TL in the bridge. It’s my whammy guitar—it’s got a Trem King vibrato (soon to be replaced with a Bigsby B50)—because sometimes you need just a touch of trem in country tunes to get that desolate desert sound. The main thing this guitar gives me is that dark, edgy P-90 tone, and it simply sings when plugged into my vintage Gibson amps. I also string this one with .010–.052 sets.
The third T was built to be a light, highgain replacement for my Les Paul, both onstage and for studio work. It’s outfitted with a set of 4-conductor Rio Grande Barbeque Bucker pickups. DiStefano wired the guitar like my ’burst T, with four pickup positions, but when I pull up on the tone knob, both pickups run in single-coil mode for even more tonal variations. This guitar is strung with .011–.050 sets, and it puts out a very hot signal, which in turn drives amps quite hard (though I also use a pedal for extra gain). It sounds best through my Mesa/Boogie Mark IV head and is even brighter than my Les Paul—with almost as much beef. The distortion tone is quite nice, but it also gets a cool funky sound with an almost Gretsch-like quality, so it can cover country when need be. I’ve noticed that humbuckers typically don’t have as much sonic personality as singlecoils. To me, humbuckers have an edgy sound that reflects less of the guitar body’s character and instead is more defined by the amp they’re running through. But this guitar rocks hard and covers all my heavy, nasty humbucking sounds when recording away from home.
The last T-style guitar has Esquire-style wiring and a single pickup handwound by DiStefano. Featuring alnico 5 magnets and overwound with 11,500 turns, the pickup delivers a full, thick tone that makes amps sing. To keep the noise floor down, it also features a dummy coil that sits under the pickguard. It has no magnets and simply generates a signal that’s the inverse of the main pickup, which helps kill some of the hum but with minimal treble loss.
This guitar has a 3-position selector switch, where position 1 is just pure pickup—with no tone pot in the signal path—while position 2 engages the tone knob, and position 3 features a .0047 μF cap that slices off some treble. The latter sound is similar to what some players call the “cocked wah” sound—it’s as if you have your wah pedal engaged and set to a fixed position. It’s also strung with.011–.050 sets, and I keep it in open D tuning for nasty blues, open chord work, and slide.
My point for this column is that, for the most part, one guitar can’t cover all your sonic needs. But for the way I play, a Telecaster-style guitar provides a flexible platform that I can load with different pickups to get a huge variety of sounds. Sure, I have a closet full of guitars—and every single one of them gets used—but these four are my main workhorses. So if you need a variety of tones in your music, go forth and buy more guitars ... or at least more pickups!
Rich Tozzoli is a
Grammy-nominated
mixer/producer/composer who has worked with artists ranging from Al Di Meola and Ace Frehley to David Bowie and Hall & Oates. A life-long guitarist, he’s also the author of Pro Tools Surround Sound Mixing and his music can be heard on such shows as Fox NFL, Pawn Stars, American Guns, and more.
Gibson originally launched the EB-6 model with the intention of serving consumers looking for a “tic-tac” bass sound.
The Gibson EB-6 was announced in 1959 and came into the world in 1960, not with a dual-horn body but with that of an elegant ES-335. They looked stately, with a thin, semi-hollow body, f-holes, and a sunburst finish. Our pick for this Vintage Vault column is one such first-year model, in about as original condition as you’re able to find today. “Why?” you may be asking. Well, read on....
When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye. The real competition were the Danelectro 6-string basses that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere and were suddenly being used on lots of hit records by the likes of Elvis, Patsy Cline, and other household names. Danos like the UB-2 (introduced in ’56), the Longhorn 4623 (’58), and the Shorthorn 3612 (’58) were the earliest attempts any company made at a 6-string bass in this style: not quite a standard electric bass, not quite a guitar, nor, for that matter, quite like a baritone guitar.
The only change this vintage EB-6 features is a replacement set of Kluson tuners.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
Gibson, Fender, and others during this era would in fact call these basses “baritone guitars,” to add to our confusion today. But these vintage “baritones” were all tuned one octave below a standard guitar, with scale lengths around 30", while most modern baritones are tuned B-to-B or A-to-A and have scale lengths between 26" and 30".)
At the time, those Danelectros were instrumental to what was called the “tic-tac” bass sound of Nashville records produced by Chet Atkins, or the “click-bass” tones made out west by producer Lee Hazlewood. Gibson wanted something for this market, and the EB-6 was born.
“When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye.”
The 30.5" scale 1960 EB-6 has a single humbucking pickup, a volume knob, a tone knob, and a small, push-button “Tone Selector Switch” that engages a treble circuit for an instant tic-tac sound. (Without engaging that switch, you get a bass-heavy tone so deep that cowboy chords will sound like a muddy mess.)
The EB-6, for better or for worse, did not unseat the Danelectros, and a November 1959 price list from Gibson hints at why: The EB-6 retailed for $340, compared to Dano price tags that ranged from $85 to $150. Only a few dozen EB-6 basses were shipped in 1960, and only 67 total are known to have been built before Gibson changed the shape to the SG style in 1962.
Most players who come across an EB-6 today think it was a response to the Fender Bass VI, but the former actually beat the latter to the market by a full year.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
It’s sad that so few were built. Sure, it was a high-end model made to achieve the novelty tic-tac sound of cheaper instruments, but in its full-voiced glory, the EB-6 has a huge potential of tones. It would sound great in our contemporary guitar era where more players are exploring baritone ranges, and where so many people got back into the Bass VI after seeing the Beatles play one in the 2021 documentary, Get Back.
It’s sadder, still, how many original-era EB-6s have been parted out in the decades since. Remember earlier when I wrote that our Vintage Vaultpick was about as original as you could find? That’s because the model’s single humbucker is a PAF, its Kluson tuners are double-line, and its knobs are identical to those on Les Paul ’Bursts. So as people repaired broken ’Bursts, converted other LPs to ’Bursts, or otherwise sought to give other Gibsons a “Golden Era” sound and look ... they often stripped these forgotten EB-6 basses for parts.
This original EB-6 is up for sale now from Reverb seller Emerald City Guitars for a $16,950 asking price at the time of writing. The only thing that isn’t original about it is a replacement set of Kluson tuners, not because its originals were stolen but just to help preserve them. (They will be included in the case.)
With so few surviving 335-style EB-6 basses, Reverb doesn’t have a ton of sales data to compare prices to. Ten years ago, a lucky buyer found a nearly original 1960 EB-6 for about $7,000. But Emerald City’s $16,950 asking price is closer to more recent examples and asking prices.
Sources: Prices on Gibson Instruments, November 1, 1959, Tony Bacon’s “Danelectro’s UB-2 and the Early Days of 6-String Basses” Reverb News article, Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars, Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars: An Illustrated History, Reverb listings and Price Guide sales data.
Originally released in the 1980s, the Victory has long been a cult favorite among guitarists for its distinctive double cutaway design and excellent upper-fret access. These new models feature flexible electronics, enhanced body contours, improved weight and balance, and an Explorer headstock shape.
A Cult Classic Made Modern
The new Victory features refined body contours, improved weight and balance, and an updated headstock shape based on the popular Gibson Explorer.
Effortless Playing
With a fast-playing SlimTaper neck profile and ebony fretboard with a compound radius, the Victory delivers low action without fret buzz everywhere on the fretboard.
Flexible Electronics
The two 80s Tribute humbucker pickups are wired to push/pull master volume and tone controls for coil splitting and inner/outer coil selection when the coils are split.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Gibson Victory Figured Top Electric Guitar - Iguana Burst
