Week #3 is here! You could win gear from Carl Martin, Rockett Pedals, Origin Effects, Pigtronix, Truetone or VOX Amplification! Giveaway Ends October 3, 2022.
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Ampster
The world of music has changed and the world of guitar playing has changed along with it. It is becoming normal to not see the full guitar rigs of the 70’s 80’s and 90’s, and just see guitar players with minimal systems to achieve their signature sounds.
Introducing the Carl Martin Ampster…. from the company that has shone the single analog light down that deep digital tunnel. The Ampster, a single tube driven amp/speaker simulator that can either supplement your amp, or replace it. A fully analog unit with controls that are the same as your amplifier with the addition of a mute switch, a speaker selection switch and a voicing switch. What’s more important, the Ampster reacts to your playing in the same way your full size amp does, giving you the same organic feel with zero latency!
J. Rockett Audio Designs Uni-Verb Chorus/Vibrato Pedal
The Uni-Verb is a faithful analog recreation of the Univibe with an added 50’s spring tank reverb, expanded control section, and effects loop. This pedal runs at 24v like the original but is internally converted to 24v so you can use a standard 9v power supply. The effects loop separates the chorus/vibe and the reverb
Uni-Verb features:
• Analog vibe/chorus running at 24v like the original (powers with a standard 9v)
•Built in 50’s spring tank reverb selectable via foot switch
•Effects loop separating reverb and chorus/vibe for versatile routing options
•Expanded modulation controls for more flexibility and versatility than the original
•True Bypass
Origin Effects Halcyon Green Overdrive Pedal
The Halcyon Green Overdrive is a classic low-gain drive pedal featuring our proprietary Adaptive circuitry. This unique design allows it to adapt its voicing in response to pick attack and volume changes, making it one of the most dynamic and interactive overdrives out there. While it is based on the same green pedal that has inspired countless clones, this little box goes way beyond what the average overdrive has to offer.
Pigtronix Star Eater Analog Fuzz Pedal
Star Eater is an all-analog, dual footswitch super-jumbo Fuzz with a footswitchable booster and variable filter stage, allowing players to easily sculpt a massive array of inspiring, unique fuzz tones. On the fuzz side, newly-available, precision-matched transistor pairs are utilized to ensure that each and every unit is perfectly dialed in to “the sweet spot” that can be so elusive to find in vintage pedals. A rocker switch provides your choice of Germanium or Silicon color. Downstream from the fuzz, a powerful booster stage drives the filter in the Star Eater. Scoop and Bump voicings for the filter can be selected via a rocker switch, drastically changing the frequency response of the Sweep control throughout its entire range. Built to last and designed to inspire, the Star Eater brings a unique approach and a new standard of performance to the world of boutique fuzz pedals. Runs on standard 9VDC.
Truetone 1 SPOT PRO CS12 12-output Isolated Guitar Pedal Power Supply
The 1 SPOT Pro CS12 power supply can provide three times as much power to your pedals as transformer-based power bricks. Each of the 12 outputs are completely isolated, regulated and filtered to give you noise-free performance. With no transformer to hinder its abilities, there is never any proximity noise. And being the world’s first multi-output switching power supply for musicians, it will work anywhere in the world without modification. Quiet, dependable, affordable, and powerful!
Valvenergy Mystic Edge
Iconic amp sounds for your pedalboard. The Valvenergyvalve distortion pedals offer distortion tones based on iconic amps in a compact pedal format, powered by Nutubefor warm and responsive amp-like tones.
Fender’s American Vintage II Series
It’s a little difficult to separate fact from fiction given these guitars aren’t easy to get your hands on. Fender Telecasters manufactured in the 1950s and 1960s sell for upwards of $20,000. But old is about to become new again. Fender’s American Vintage II series features 12 year-specific electric guitar and bass models from over two decades, spanning 1951 to 1977, that replicate most specs on their original counterparts, but are produced with modern technologies that ensure uniform build and feel.
Chronologically, the series begins and ends, fittingly, with the Telecaster—starting with the butterscotch blonde, blackguard 1951 Telecaster (built with an ash body, one-piece U-shaped maple neck, and 7.25" radius fretboard) and ending with the 1977 Telecaster Custom, which features a C-shaped neck, a CuNiFe magnet-based Wide Range humbucker in the neck position, and a single-coil at the bridge. The rest of the series spans the highlights of Fender’s repertoire: the 1954 Precision Bass, 1957 Stratocaster in ash or alder, 1960 Precision Bass, 1961 Stratocaster, 1963 Telecaster, 1966 Jazz Bass, 1966 Jazzmaster, 1972 Tele Thinline, 1973 Strat, and 1975 Telecaster Deluxe. The 1951 Telecaster, 1957 Strat, 1961 Strat, and 1966 Jazz Bass will also be offered as left-handed models. Street prices run from $2,099 to $2,399.
Fender '72 American Vintage II Telecaster Thinline Demo | First Look
Spec’d To Please
Every guitar in the series sports the era’s 7.25" radius fretboard, a mostly abandoned spec found on Custom Shop instruments—Mexico-made Vintera models, and Fender’s Artist Series guitars like the Jimmy Page, Jason Isbell, and Albert Hammond Jr. models. Most modern Fenders feature a 9.5" radius, while radii on Gibsons reach upwards of 12". Videos experimenting with the 7.25" radius’ playability pull in tens of thousands of viewers, suggesting both a modern fascination with and a lack of exposure to the radius among some younger and less experienced players.
T.J. Osborne of the Brothers Osborne picks an American Vintage II 1966 Jazzmaster in Dakota red.
Bringing back the polarizing 7.25" radius across the entire series is a gamble, and it’s been nearly five years since Fender released year-specific models. But Fender executive vice president Justin Norvell says that two years ago when the Fender brain trust was conceptualizing the American Vintage II line, they decided the time was right to “go back to the well.”
“We’ve been doing the same [models], the same years, over and over again for 30 years,” says Norvell. “We really wanted to change the line and expand it into some new things that we hadn’t done before and pick some different years that we thought were cool.”
“It takes a lot of doing to go back in time and sort of uncover the secret-sauce recipes.”—Steve Thomas, Fender
To decide on which years to produce, Fender drew from what Norvell calls a “huge cauldron of information” from Custom Shop master builders to collectors with vintage models to former employees from the 1950s and 1960s. The hands-on manufacturing of Fender’s golden years meant guitars produced within the same year would have marked differences in design and finish. So, the team had to procure multiple versions of the same year’s guitar to decide which models to replicate. Norvell says some purists would advocate for the “cleanest, most down-the-middle kind of variant,” while others would push for more esoteric and rare versions. Norvell says that ultimately, the team picked the models that they felt best represented “the throughline of history on our platforms.”
Simple and agile, the Fender Precision Bass—here in its new American Vintage II ’54 incarnation—earned its reputation in the hands of Bill Black, James Jamerson, Donald “Duck” Dunn, and other foundational players.
Norvell says the American Vintage II series was developed, in part, in response to calls to reproduce vintage guitars. Just like with classic cars, he says, people are passionate about year-specific guitars. Plus, American Vintage II fits perfectly with the pandemic-stoked yearning for bygone times. “For some people, these specific years are representative of experiences they had when they were first playing guitar, or a favorite artist that played guitars from these eras,” says Norvell. “These are touchstones for those stories, and that makes them very desirable.”
Cracking Codes
Fender’s electric guitar research and design team, led by director Steve Thomas, dug through the company’s archive of original drawings and designs—dating all the way back to Leo Fender’s original shop in Fullerton, California. They found detailed notes, including some documenting body woods that changed mid-year on certain models. Halfway through 1956, for example, Stratocaster bodies switched from ash to alder. That meant the American Vintage II 1957 Stratocaster needed to be alder, too. That, in turn, meant ensuring enough alder was on hand to fulfill production needs.
Among the series’ Stratocaster recreations is this 1973-style instrument, with an ash body, maple C-profile neck, rosewood fretboard, and the company’s Pure Vintage single-coils.
Thomas and his team discovered another piece of the production puzzle when researching how pickups for that same 1957 Strat were made. “We realized that if we incorporated a little bit more pinch control on the winders, we could more effectively mimic the way pickups would have been hand-wound in the ’50s,” says Thomas. “It takes a lot of doing to go back in time and sort of uncover the secret-sauce recipes.”
Thomas proudly calls the guitars “some of the best instruments we’ve ever made here in the Fender plant,” pointing to the level of detail put into design features, including more delicate lacquer finishes which take longer to cure and dry, and vintage-correct tweed cases for some guitars. New pickups were incorporated in the series, like a reworking of Seth Lover’s famed CuNiFe Wide Range humbuckers, which were discontinued around 1981. Even more minute details, like the width of 12th fret dots and the material used for them, were labored over. Three different models in the line feature clay dot inlays at unique, year-specific spacings.
Ironically, modern CNC manufacturing now makes these design quirks consistent features in mass-produced instruments. While the hand-crafted guitars from the ’50s and ’60s varied a lot from instrument to instrument. “Everything needs to be located perfectly, and it wasn’t necessarily back in the day,” says Norvell. “Now, it can be.”
Don’t Look Back
With this new series so firmly planted in the rose-tinted past, Fender does run the risk of netting only vintage-obsessed players. But Norvell says the team, despite being sticklers for period-correct detail, sought to strike a balance between vintage specs, practicality, and playability. The 1957 Stratocaster, for example, has a 5-way switch rather than the original’s 3-way switch. Norvell also asserts that the “ergonomic” old-school radius feels great when chording. “It might not be [right for] a shred machine, but it feels great and effortless.”
The 1966 Jazz Bass is also represented, shown here in a left-handed version.
Norvell also pushes back on the notion that Fender is playing it safe by indulging nostalgia and leaning on their past successes. He says that while the vintage models are some of the most desirable on the market, the team “purposely did not stick to the safe bets,” citing unusual year models like the 1954 P Bass and the 1973 Stratocaster.
There’s a good reason why anything that hails back to “the good ol’ days” hits home with every generation. We’re constantly plagued by a belief that what came before is better than what we’ve got now. But with the American Vintage II series, Fender makes the case that guitars from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s can very easily be a relevant part of the 2020s.
