Another Campbell American Precix

Its a long time since I last posted...

A lot of guitars and gear have passed through my hands since then, including 3 more Campbell American Precix guitars. I rarely see them for sale any more but I picked mine up cheap, less than £500 each. They are excellent guitars - lightweight, gotoh hardware, seymour duncan pickups, the very best fretwork and necks with very low action and nitro finishes.

I made a mistake though - I let three of them get very cold on a frosty night and the finishes cracked. You can't see the checking in this pic but I rather like it and to complete the relic look I sanded off the finish on the top bout. It feels like a well worn in, old but fantastic playing guitar. 

Note the two Barefaced cabs. The smaller one in this pic is a 12 inch guitar cab with a V30 eminence equivalent. Its a great cab - the main feature being that it disperses the sound better than a conventional 1x12 cab. In practice, it means you can play quieter and let the PA do the work which keeps the sound engineer and the rest of the band happy.

On top of that is a Supro Black Magik head. Its a 25 watt tube head whichis supposed to be based on Jimmy Page's Supro used on the early Zep recordings. Like many 25 watt heads it is loud although more manageable (and lighter) than the bigger heads of yesteryear. It sounds good and works well with pedals. It seems very well made, it's PCB based although it uses non-standard tubes. Tube amps can go on for decades so I hope the valve supply will be reliable. 

Next to that is the other Barefaced cab, a Super Compact with a 12 inch neo driver by eminence. This cab is amazing - it can easily handle the 800 Mark Bass head and it goes really loud whilst weighing very little. Barefaced are made in Brighton by engineer Alex Clabber. Barefaced is a small company and obviously their marketing budget is limited, so you dont read much about them but they are brilliant cabs. Not cheap mind but not unreasonable. I have gigged on bass with them for years, first with a Big One - 1x15, 1x8 and horn and more recently with a Big Twin - 2x12 and horn. There is so much headroom I can go way louder then I ever need and they are light and very easy to carry.  

1979 The Paul, 2015 Les Paul Deluxe, 2007 Les Paul CR8 1959 reissue

2007 Gibson Custom shop Les Paul CR8 

Here are 3 very different Les Paul guitars:

The first is my 1979 'The Paul'. I bought this new. Over the years it has done many gigs. It is made of walnut with an ebony finger board and came with the, now very desirable, Gibson 'chainsaw case'. There were a few similar models such as 'The SG' and the slightly later Paul and SG Firebrands. The latter were made of mahogany with the Gibson headstock logo burnt into the wood and covered in odd black marks. The Paul came with Gibson T top pickups which are slightly more powerful than PAFs. It was also equipped with Grover tuners. The Paul plays and sounds great and seems to be widely recognised as great value, if you can find a good one. On mine, the nitro finish started to deteriorate badly after a few years. It was as if it was melting and it looked a mess so I refinished it in cream, as you can see, about 20 years ago. I chose that colour as it reminded me of the Les Paul Custom colour. At one point I had coil tap switches fitted but I reverted back to the original and plugged the holes when I refinished it. Although it probably isn't worth a lot, it is one of the best playing Les Paul's I have ever tried.

The next Les Paul is a 2015 Deluxe. This was from the notorious 2015 Gibson 100th anniversary year. It has Gibson G Force tuners, a brass zero nut, strange 3D silver logo on the rear of the headstock behind the nut, mini-humbuckers, battery powered 15db boost switch and a slightly wider neck. These are things most of which Les Paul aficionados hate with a vengeance! However, this is a nicely made Les Paul. The gold top finish is immaculate, the set-up is spot on with a low action. The electronic tuners work well and quickly. The pick-ups are good, bright, clear and powerful and the guitar sustains nicely. I don't really understand the horror that this guitar generates and, anyway, I could replace the tuners for a set of Kluson Deluxe for £50, take out the preamp and change the nut quite easily and I would be left with a conventional Les Paul. You know what? This guitar cost me less than £700 new... I will leave it as it is. I have seen dozens on G Force tuners up for sale on E bay so I know that lots of owners are 'improving' their guitars. In the future, original condition models will be as rare as hens' teeth.

The third guitar is an unusual chambered Les Paul 1958 reissue. This is not the same as the weight relief chambering that Gibson cut into modern Les Pauls. It is chambering on a greater scale so that the guitar weighs just over 7lbs which feels astonishingly light for a Les Paul. This is a 2007 model and relatively rare although you can find chambered versions of most if not all of the Les Paul reissues. I don't know if chambered models are still in production. You can tell them apart from the usual reissues/historics because the serial number starts with a C, so CR8 for a chambered 1959 reissue. This is a VOS model i.e. vintage original specification.

Matamp handwired turret boards

This is what the inside of an Ashdown Cotton Club Blues amplifier looks like. You may not have heard of it. It dates from around 2005. It was entirely hand made with top quality components. These amplifiers were very expensive and few were made. I was lucky to get mine in 2012 from PMT in Birmingham for under 400 pounds because it was new old stock - 7 years old! - and nobody really knew what it was. The interesting thing is that it was made by Dave Green when he was still at Matamp. In fact it is the same as a Matamp except for the name. I have a Matamp 1224 made for me by Dave Green in 2006 and the layout is almost identical.

steel chassis, four 6V6 valves and hefty transformers

Typical Matamp chassis layout

This is a beautifully made stunning amplifier based on 4 6V6 valves, which can apparently be swapped for 6L6 valves. It has a single channel with the typical Matamp rotary filter switch along with hgh and low gain inputs, trebble mid and bass controls. gain and master volume (with a defeat switch so you can run it like an old style valve head before the era of master volume amp). It also has a great reverb. Mine is in a 1x12 combo with a single Celestion Vintage 30 - there was also a head version. It runs in pentode or triode mode switching from 30 to 15 watts. Like all Matamps it has its own sound, quite unlike a Marshall or a Fender. It has an amazing warm clean sound, perhaps a bit like a Matchless. With the gain flat out the overdrive is relatively mild but it sounds superb with pedals. Also like other Matamps it is very solidly built with a thick welded steel chassis and handmade transformers. It is heavy!  It also has points and controls for valve bias adjustment.

However, do not be fooled into thinking that the later 'Hayden' Cotton Club Blues is the same. Hayden was adopted as the Ashdown guitar amplifier brand name when Dave Green subsequently left Matamp acrimoniously some 2 or 3 years later. He went on to design a range of amplifiers for Hayden although I understand that some of these, including the later versions of the Cotton Club Blues, were made in the far east and were of lesser quality. In fact the later Cotton Club Blues is a very different design with PCBs and is a cheaper amp, even using different valves. 

Here is a video of me playing bass on a composition by Dutch drummer and composer Sebastiaan Cornelissen. If you are into this kind of jazz fusiony stuff you should check out his music.

1976 Vintage Fender Stratocaster

You hear some negative comments about 70s strats. It is often said that the 3 bolt neck joint was dodgy and quality control was generally poor. This is an all original 1976 hardtail strat. Contrary to expectations, I cannot fault the build quality. The neck joint is snug and rock solid and the neck as straight as an arrow. The pickups have a bit of beef to them and they have the correct grey bases. In the mid 1970s Fender were transitioning from white to black parts although they had plenty of white parts to use up and you can see all combinations of black and white pickguards, pickups and knobs on contemporary strats. This one has black pickups and pickguard with white knobs.
This guitar has a lovely natural ash finish - most strats of the time had 2 or 3 piece bodies and often the wood was  joined off centre which can look a bit naff on a natural finish. This one has a centre joint and looks great. In fact, it is in stunning condition - it has few small scratches and dings on the body which you can hardly see from a few feet away. The neck is almost completely unmarked although the frets are low for my taste. I imagine they have been stoned a few times. On the plus side the action is very low without any buzz. This guitar is now 36 years old, many would regard it as vintage but looking at it and playing it, its hard to believe it is more than 2 or 3 years old.
I already have a few strats including a 1987 USA standard and 1987 strat plus along with a great G&L legacy and a couple of partsocasters so I may look to sell this one.

Soulful Strut

Yesterday, I recorded a version of an old tune called Soulful Strut,  also known as "Am I the Same Girl". Here is the YouTube link: 
http://bit.ly/sJ0lP4

Playing a Bongo 6 with Hunni and the Wasps

It was written by Eugene Record and Sonny Sanders. First recorded in 1968 by Barbara Acklin, it charted most successfully in the US as a 1992 release by Swing Out Sister. Also recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1969 and George Benson in 1979, the song was a 1968-69 instrumental hit single by Young-Holt Unlimited under the title "Soulful Strut". 
I recorded into Cubase 6. For bass I played my old 1987 Warwick Streamer 4 into an EBS 650 head which I DI'd into my little Mackie 1642 VLZ3 mixer. Guitar is a Campbell American Precix into a Boss GT10 processor into the Mackie. Dums are from BFD2 with a tambourine from Stylus RMX. All other parts are from Native Intruments Kontakt 4.
The track isn't quite finished, I am think about putting a short solo just after the key change but haven't decided whether to play it it on keys or guitar. I was hoping to persuade my band to play it  because it has a great feel and would go down well with the audiences we play to.

 

Rant 1 The cult of the tube screamer

Ibanez TS9

You know, there is nothing special about a pedal just because it is 25 years old. Its not like it was an antique. Most people have all sorts of crap lying around at home which is that old and not worth anything, even though it functions as well as it did the day it was made. A few electronic components in a metal box don't suddenly become magical so why do people spend so much money on old Ibanez TS808 and TS9s? TS-808s can sell easily for $450. It's commonly thought that the secret was in the JRC4558D chip. Analog Mike of analogman  is one of the leading pedal designers, builders and modifiers. As he points out, 'NOS' chips can be bought cheaply as can nearly all of the original components. There are hundreds of TS clones out there. Why not buy a new one like the Maxon OD9? - actually the Maxon is not a clone: after all, Maxon made the Ibanez original tube screamers - you can see their name on the circuit boards. OD9s sound great and if you want you can get them modded to the EXACT same spec as an original TS9 or 808 from the 70s or 80s. Analogman and Keeley and any number of others will do the mods for you at a reasonable price. Then you get the original sounds without the worry of having a rare pedal stolen.
Actually, the merits of many old guitars are doubtful too - they often look cool but prices have become ridiculously over-inflated.  Fenders were relatively simple, production line instruments. There are some dodgy old instruments out there amongst the nice ones. Perhaps sometimes magic happens as the wood dries, the finish cracks and the magnets weaken. It's hard to see why this would improve anything but I do accept that it could happen. However, I have never heard anything particularly different or special from an old pedal. They might crackle more. Some pedals were made with  parts that were substituted in later versions for cheaper or different parts that affect the sound but there are many pedal builders making TS clones with the best NOS parts which are every bit as good as the originals. I would prefer to spend my money for example on a new Maxon pedal which is hand made in Japan rather than take the risk of having an elderly pedal fail on stage.

Maxon OD9

For more info on tube screamers see an excellent article by Stinkfoot
http://stinkfoot.se/archives/713

I have 2 modded Maxon OD9s - One has the so called 'brown sound' mod along with a socket so I can swap chips - whilst this is interesting, the differences in sound between different chips is subtle. The other is an Analogman Silver mod pedal http://www.analogman.com/ts9silv.htm.

I also have a Maxon OD9 pro+ which is a modified and updated OD9 with a boost switch for more gain and the ability to run at 18 volts rather than  9 volts in the original, allowing more dynamic range and headroom along with higher output and less emphasis on the midrange. I like this pedal.