RatingsPros:Classic, expressive filter sounds with extra flexibility. Plays well with other effects. Cool octave effect. Cons: None. Street: $200 Tsakalis Audio Works Phonkify tsakalisaudioworks.com | Tones:  Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: 
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Imagine, if you will, a world in which an envelope filter didn’t immediately conjure visions of colorful dresses swaying to guitar solos in the key of Jerry Garcia, or Bootsy on a funky bass roll. For many of us, it’s hard to separate the effect from those sounds. Enter the Phonkify, an envelope filter crafted by Greek manufacturer Tsakalis AudioWorks. It’s created to deliver sounds beyond the archetypical funk and jam palettes, and has a whole lot going on in the spaces between.
A Fitter Filter
The Phonkify provides a lot of tone tailoring options. For starters, the filter can be operated in two distinct modes: smooth and nasty. These are selected by a toggle switch. The smooth setting gets tones more akin to the traditional filter effects of yore, offering a bubbly attack that is lyrical and funky. The nasty setting makes the attack edgier and provides an almost synth-like envelope. This is where I found the most inspiring Phonkify sounds.
The inclusion of an octave effect, which has a dedicated footswitch, further separates the Phonkify from the garden-variety filter-effect pack. The octave section can be placed before or after the envelope filter in the Phonkify’s signal path, which produces many different textures but also extends Phonkify’s utility when working with overdrives and fuzzes. With the octave circuit engaged, especially before the filter effect, this box of bubbles turns downright mean—blooming into a tone giant that begs for big ’70s funk riffs and burning Paisley Park leads. The octave is tweakable, too. With the octave knob turned fully counterclockwise, the Phonkify’s filter effect is melded to a suboctave, producing a dense upper octave squawk as you twist it to the right.
The Phonkify has an input gain in addition to the master volume, which means you can tailor the effect’s sensitivity and responsiveness to different guitars, pickups, and upstream effects. It has a way of lending the Phonkify extra definition in dense effects mixes. And I really enjoyed using the Phonkify to boost the front end of an amp and compound the meltdown when the filter and octave were activated. Using that Phonkify recipe with a dirty, overdriven tube amp summons even more menace. Using this same setup with the neck humbucker of my Les Paul brought out robotic analog synth sounds that are extra-killer when doused with delays and/or reverbs.
While the Phonkify is great as a sonic freak machine, it’s a remarkably flexible effect and could serve as a worthy wah replacement for many players with cramped pedalboards or those disinterested in the ballet that treadle wah work requires. Turning the Phonkify’s sensitivity knob all the way down makes the effect less bubbly and effectively turns it an auto-wah, which I also loved for adding boost, subtle movement, and colorful midrange honk to leads. That said, the Phonkify does work with any expression pedal should one want to control the filter manually.
The Verdict
With a small enclosure, top-mounted jacks, its many unique and exaggerated octave/filter combo sounds, and subtle-but-useful auto-wah and classic envelope filter tones, the Phonkify is a total winner. At about $200 street, it’s also a great way to explore vintage Mu-Tron-type sounds with extra flexibility that few conventional envelope filters offer.
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.
Billy Gibbons is an undisputable guitar force whose feel, tone, and all-around vibe make him the highest level of hero. But that’s not to say he hasn’t made some odd choices in his career, like when ZZ Top re-recorded parts of their classic albums for CD release. And fans will argue which era of the band’s career is best. Some of us love drum machines and synths and others don’t, but we all love Billy.
This episode is sponsored by Magnatone
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
