Have you ever noticed, when looking at photos of ’60s guitar heroes like Eric Clapton and
Jimi Hendrix, the old-fashioned spiral cords
connecting their guitars and amps? At the
time, most guitarists used these cables not
for tonal reasons, but because they looked
cool and the choice of instrument cables
was very limited. From our modern point of
view, these cables were low quality with lousy
shielding, but back in the golden days of
electric guitar, they were it.
Wiring diagram courtesy of Seymour Duncan Pickups and used by permission. Seymour Duncan and the stylized S are registered trademarks of Seymour Duncan Pickups.
These cables had an immense influence on the tone of the day, as even short spiral cords took away a lot of top-end bite. The use of 30-foot spiral cords to connect guitars and amps result- ed in a "warmer" sound (i.e., less top end) than we are used to today. That translated into a slightly muffled clean sound, frequently leaving guitarists to crank the treble on their amps or plug in a treble booster to make up the difference. It also resulted in a monstrous overdriven sound, especially with vintage single-coil pick- ups. And isn’t that what we’re trying to achieve today when we play with distortion?
Such cables have been out of production for many years. Modern spiral cords are high-quality, low-capacitance designs that only mimic the appearance of the old cables for a retro look on stage. But it is a fact that these vintage cables are an important part of the sound we know and love from classic records. Realizing that Jimi Hendrix would sound different with a modern guitar cable, I thought it was time to figure out how to simulate these vintage cables, without unplugging our modern ones.
This seems very easy to do at first glance— simply add some capacitance with an additional capacitor. But proper placement of the capacitor is crucial for this mod. If the mod is switched off, we want it completely out of the circuit, so we can enjoy the transparent tone our modern guitar cables provide. But when the mod is engaged, we want a full simulation of that ’60s tone, warts and all.
So let’s start with some recommended cap values for simulating varying lengths of vintage coiled cable:
10-foot (3 meters): 1nF
15-foot (4.5 meters): 1.5nF
20-foot (6 meters): 2.2nF
30-foot (9 meters): 3.3nF
Ultra-long: 4.7nF
I chose standard values, so you should have no problem getting these caps from any local electronic store or online supplier. Keep in mind your cap selection can further influence the tone. Personally, I feel that the modern, cheap ceramic caps sound closest to the old guitar cables, but naturally you can also try silver mica caps, film and foil caps, or anything in between.
To perform this mod, you need one of the caps mentioned above and a SPST on/off switch (you can also use a push/pull or push/ push pot). As I mentioned earlier, it’s all about placement, so take a look at the diagram. If you want to be more flexible, you can use an on/off/on switch and choose between two caps—I recommend 1.5n and 4.7n for three completely different tones. And if you want to go wild, you can also use a rotary switch with several caps for an ultra-flexible guitar. And remember, if you use a film and foil cap, con- nect the outside foil end to ground (see last month’s column for details).
From a technical point of view, the added capacitance is shifting down the resonance frequency of the Strat pickups, so they sound fatter when using overdrive. This is exactly the reason why a lot of vintage-voiced distortion and fuzz boxes use an additional cap at the input section—the resulting overdrive tone is fat and warm. This mod works best with typical vintage Strat pickups or a typical vintage PAF. Modern high-output pickups don’t sound very good with this mod. If you want to make your Strat sound more Les Paulish, try a 4.7n for the additional cap. Your Strat will sound very muffled when playing clean, but ultra-fat and punchy when using overdrive! I wouldn’t recommend any values higher than 4.7n.
Keep in mind that only a small roll back of the guitar’s volume pot will cut a lot of highs right from the start. Additionally, if you use a treble bleed network that works perfectly with your modern cable, it will stop working with the vintage cable mod because it is now mismatched. But that’s the nature of the beast with this simple, yet effective mod. A lot of players have told me this mod is one of the most usable out there, so make sure to give it a try. Until next month, keep on modding!
Dirk Wacker
Dirk Wacker lives in Germany and has been addicted to all kinds of guitars since the age of 5. He is fascinated by anything related to old Fender guitars and amps. He plays country, rockabilly, surf, and Nashville styles in two bands, works regularly as a studio musician for a local studio, and writes for several guitar mags. He is also a hardcore DIY-er for guitars, amps, and stompboxes, and he runs an extensive webpage—singlecoil.com—on the subject.
If you’ve been on the path of this spring’s Rhett Schull/Zach Person tour, you’ve been treated to one of the coolest rock ’n’ roll double bills criss-crossing North America this year. Person, who is based in Austin, put out his second full-length record, Let’s Get Loud, in March 2024, and it was packed with alt-, blues-, and psychedelic-rock anthems built around his take-no-prisoners playing.
This year, Person is road-doggin’ it around the United States as a two-piece unit with just a drummer, and PG’s Chris Kies caught up with him before he and Shull played the Eastside Bowl in Madison, Tennessee, to see what goods Person is bringing for this spring’s shows.
Brought to you by D’Addario
Customized Custom
This Gibson Jimi Hendrix 1967 Custom SG came from Gibson’s custom shop, and for Person, an SG with humbuckers is a hard combination to beat. He removed the Maestro trem system and had a tailpiece installed for tuning stability on the road, and he subjected the neck humbucker to a “Jimmy Page mod,” which entails removing the pole pieces to get closer to single-coil tones. This SG stays in standard tuning, with Ernie Ball or D’Addario strings (usually .010–.046s). Person digs Dunlop Flow Grip .88 mm picks.
Brown Sound
Person brought this 1967 Gibson SG Special back to life with a list of modifications and upgrades, including new pickups and a refinish, but its wood, neck shape, and original frets all made it worth it to him. The neck shape is narrow but chunky in Person’s hands, landing somewhere near the feel of Tyler Bryant’s 1962 Stratocaster. The pickups now are OX4 P-90s, and like the Custom, this one’s had its Maestro system amputated.
Jeannie Comes Alive
One Thanksgiving at his in-laws’ home in Dallas, Person mentioned how badly he wanted a Gibson LG-2 acoustic. As it happened, his father-in-law suspected his mother had one, which had been relegated to storage in a shed. Person and his wife’s father ventured through rain to dig it out, and sure enough, a very beat up LG-1 was withering away in its case. No local techs in Austin thought it was worth saving, except for Elaine Filion, who was used to taking on bigger restoration projects. Filion succeeded, taking the top off and installing an X-bracing system to turn the LG-1 into an LG-2-style guitar. Now, it’s got an L.R. Baggs pickup and bears the nameplate “Jeannie” on its headstock to commemorate his wife’s grandma, the original owner. Jeannie usually stays home, but Person brought her out specially for the Rundown.
Marshall Muscle
This Marshall JTM45 MkII is Person’s usual go-to. It runs just at breakup volume and gets pushed with some variation of a Pro Co RAT, his favorite dirt box.
Supro Signature
This Super Black Magick Reverb, Tyler Bryant’s signature, is along for the ride as a backup to the Marshall.
Zach Person’s Pedalboard
Person has done tours with just an overdrive pedal and nothing else, so by comparison, this two-tiered Vertex board is luxurious. Still, it’s compact and carries all he needs at the moment. The JHS Pack Rat is the core sound, set fairly heavy and dirty. The rest includes a Boss TU-3, EarthQuaker Devices Double Hoof, Vox Clyde McCoy wah, Boss BF-2, DigiTech Drop, Strymon El Capistan, and an Interstellar Audio Machines Marsling Octafuzzdrive. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic rides along as a vocal effect so Person can keep control over his voice from night to night.
This is perhaps the most rare Iwase guitar: one volume, one tone, and a quality adjustable bridge, plus a raised pickguard and some beautiful shading on the burst.
And then my mind wandered to my college days, when I was an English major. I got to read and write every day, and I thought I was getting good at it until a professor raked me over the proverbial coals for using the word “unique” incorrectly when describing a local band’s sound. He really tore me up, because if I describe something as unique, it should be like none other—like a snowflake.
So, what about guitars? Is a custom-shop model unique if it has the same pickups and same scale as many others? Even if the body is shaped differently? Seriously, that professor would hand you your butt because, in his mind, you didn’t just choose words unless you understood their real meaning. Consider the super-rare Teisco T-60 … the model that Glen Campbell loved and played for much of his early career. I know of only four in existence. There are some Japanese collectors who own hundreds of guitars but don’t have a T-60. Does that make the T-60 unique, or simply rare? I mean, they were all hand-made and featured that original hole-in-the-body “monkey grip” … but unique? Talk amongst yourselves for a hot minute.
“In my waning days of collecting, I just want to have Voice stuff, because I met Iwase and connected with him immediately.”
I recently wrote about the passing of the great Japanese luthier Yukichi Iwase, whose small company (basically just him) produced some of the finest guitars and amps and carried the “Voice” label. A friend in Japan, along with his daughters, were in the process of clearing out his old workshop, and I’ve been trying to acquire everything from it that I can. I used to collect just Teisco stuff, and then I had a passion for the old Intermark/Pleasant guitars. Then I wanted to get all the old Yamaha stuff I could find. But now, in my waning days of collecting, I just want to have Voice stuff, because I met Iwase and connected with him immediately. He was a peach, and, yes, he was unique. Aside from being one of the earliest employees of Tesico, he was a brilliant fellow who could make just about anything from scratch, including guitars and amps. Left in his workshop were a few unfinished T-60s, some pedal steels, some amps, a really cool bass, an unfinished double-neck guitar, and a tiny guitar that is also truly worthy of the term “unique.”
“I know these pickups well enough to understand they are loud, crisp, and offer a full range of sounds,” our columnist says.
The latter is a small powerhouse of a guitar. It has one of his amazing pickups that looks like a big block engine stuffed into an AMC Gremlin. He somehow squeezed out a 23" scale, but the rest of the guitar is like a child’s 6-string or a travel guitar. I believe he only made one of these. The body design has an ocean-wave type of flow, and the guitar is very balanced and not hard on the eyes, even with the exaggerated features. One volume, one tone, and a quality adjustable bridge plus a raised pickguard—the only time I’ve seen this design on his guitars. His finish work was really nice, too, and he was able to get some beautiful shading on the burst. The headstock has a figured overlay and the neck profile is so sweet—curved perfectly with some fine wood.
To me, it seems to have been built around 1966, based on the tuners he used. I don’t have the heart yet to plug this into an amp, but I know these pickups well enough to understand they are loud, crisp, and offer a full range of sounds. So, what do you think? Rare? Truly unique?
