While this may not be news to some of our more experienced readers we wanted to include this basic information so that those in need would have a quick resource.

Dating Blackface, Brownface, Brown Tolex, White Tolex, Or Tweed Fender Amps From 1951 - 1969 with the Tube Sticker.

Look on the inside of the amp’s cabinet for a sticker that shows the location of the tubes. This sticker should be stamped with a two letter date code where the 1st letter equals the year and the 2nd letter equals the month of production.

To illustrate:

a “HF” date code from the table below indicates a production date of June 1958.

For Amps that do not have the tube sticker there are other ways to find the date of the amp. Here are some further resources:

http://www.tcguitar.com/articles/gagliano_pt5.html
http://www.ampwares.com/ampguide_dating_info.asp
http://www.fender.com/support/amplifiers.php

Fender Amps the First 50 Years
John Teagle and John Sprung
Available through your local Authorized Fender Dealer
pn# 099-5011-000
U.S. MSRP $34.95

The Fender Amp Book
John Morrish
GPI Books, Miller Freeman Inc. Publishing
ISBN 0-87930-345-X

The Tube Amp Book
Aspen Pitman
Distributed by Groove Tubes

To celebrate their 50th Anniversary, Vox has introduced a new line of hand-wired amplifiers called the Heritage Collection. This is no average reissue collection as Vox has pulled out all the stops fusing old with new and adding the EF86 preamp channel from 1958 along with the 1963 Top Boost channel together is a single amplifier. Here’s a demo of the Ac15 just one of these great looking and sounding reissues:

Check out our selection of Vox Heritage amps

Check out our selection of Vox Heritage amps

The Gear Mall Gear Alert - Nov 17

	Bogner Alchemist Head 40 Watt All Tube (Free Shipping) - Buy It Now $1,099.00
	Victoria Rare 35212 (Free Shipping) - Buy It Now $1475
	Robert Keeley 2 Knob Compressor Sustainer Effect Pedal - Buy It Now $200
	1967 Guild Starfire V 5 Hollow Body - No Reserve
	Vintage 70’s Marshall JMP Master Lead 100W MK2 MKII - Free Shipping - Buy It Now $968.88

Here goes a side by side demo of a original Boss DS-1 against The Keeley Modded BOSS DS-1. The difference in tone and overall sonic blueprint Is pretty amazing, to the point of being a completely different pedal. The pedals in this recording are run through a Vox as30vt with a touch of verb.

The Keeley website refers to this mod/pedal as the “Finest in Marshall amp tone in box” and after hearing this it’s pretty hard to argue with that!!!

Check out our selection of Keeley Mods & Effects

Check out our selection of Keeley Mods & Effects

Now this little bad boy looks too good to be true! The Nano is the latest release from Zvex Amps and it totally redefines the possibilities for getting a big sound in the home or professional studio.The Nano is a handmade, hand-painted all tube guitar amplifier delivering one-half watt of crushing power! But seriously, this little powerhouse will surprise you with its apparent volume. The Nano pushes out enough power to drive a 4×12 cabinet (or any 8 to 16 ohm speaker) and according to Zvex it is at least 20db quieter than a 50 watt head.

This is amp is anything but a gimmick. Anyone who has spent some time tracking guitars knows it can be pretty challenging and time consuming to wrestle out a decent tone from a 50 to 100 watt Marshall without overloading the mic. This amp is voiced to deliver classic rock tone, with a very high level of crunch available if wanted. It goes from a very quiet (1/10 watt) clean mode to a “micro-marshall” blast; Just jack up the volume to get the amount of distortion you need.

The obvious huge advantage in the studio is that the Nano is able to go into total saturation at a moderate volume so that you don’t get any microphone distortion and you get a crystal clear reproduction of the speakers sound.

Click Here To See Our Selection Of Zvex Effects

Click Here To See Our Selection Of Zvex Effects

This M-104 delivers classic, authentic distortion tones from warm overdriven lead sounds to an amazing retro fuzz with fantastic sustain. The pedal achieves a subtle tube overdriven sound at low volume / gain. Within the primary zones of the Output and Distortion controls of the M-104 are some soft, clipped overdriven tones that sound truly authentic. Add a splash of reverb and you have one classic sound!

Click Here For The MXR M-104 Distortion Plus In Our Ebay Store

Click Here For The MXR M-104 Distortion Plus In Our Ebay Store

A rectifier is an electrical device within a tube amplifier that converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), in a process known as rectification. The rectifier is not in the signal chain portion of the amp so your guitar signal doesn’t pass through the rectifier. However, the type of rectifier your amp uses does contribute to your overall sound and tone.

A tube based rectifier reacts differently than a solid state diode. When heavily loaded, a tube rectifier will produce what has commonly been called “sag” or “compression”. One of the characteristics of this response is that the amp begins to produce a compressed overdriven sound with added volume. In the 60’s with the rise of higher volume artists like Dick Dale and others, some players began to demand more tonal headroom and low-end definition. In response Fender began using silicon based solid state rectifiers in their new higher output amps like the Showman, Vibrasonic and others. These silicon rectifiers were just a fraction of the cost of their tube counterparts and they helped meet the evolving demands of guitarists.

While the solid state rectifier did help to create more clean headroom and a more articulate low-end response, many players still sought after the signature, compressed, overdriven tones found in the old Fender Champs, Tweed Deluxes and a number of vintage Gibson Amps. Up until the 60’s, electric blues, jazz and early rock & roll was played through these amps which had a big effect on the tonal character of the music. Many felt that tube rectifiers were better suited for blues based styles because of the touch sensitive dynamics which yielded more to a player’s attack. Many also felt they sounded warmer and less harsh and served up compression and sustain in a much different way than their solid state brother.

While the debate rages on the choice is ultimately a subjective one, and this article was just meant to point out some of the more general characteristics found in both types of amps.

From old Les Paul records, to T-Bone Walker, Grant Green and Pete Townsend, the P90’s characteristic tone has helped to shape diverse musical styles. In this article we will look at the background of the P90 as well as compare some of the modern boutique P90 makers around today.

First some History:

The P-90 is a single coil electric guitar pickup first produced by Gibson in 1946. They were introduced to replace the “bar pickup” (aka the Charlie Christian pickup) in models like the ES-150. Towards the end of the 40’s P90’s were the main pickup used on all models, including the Les Paul introduced in 1952. The introduction of a new “humbucker” (also know as PAF) pickup in 1957 curtailed the growth of the P90.

Types of P90 Pickups:

“Soap Bar” P90’s most likely take their name from their rectangular shape and proportions, and the fact that the first P-90s on the original Gibson Les Paul Model of 1952 were soap white.

“Dog ear” P90’s have a casing with extensions at both ends that kind of resemble dog’s ears. These extensions of the rectangular casing encompass the outlying mounting screws. You often find Dog-ear P-90 pickups on semi-hollowbody guitars like the Gibson ES-330 as well as on solid-body models like the Les Paul Jr.

P90’s with a “Humbucker Casing” evolved to fit the needs of guitars that don’t conform to the unique shape of the standard P90 derivations mentioned above. To fit a regular P90 in a humbucker routed model, the body would have to have the routes widened to make the pickup fit.

Tone

The P-90 is brighter and more transparent than a humbucker. They are heavy on the mid-range and share the twang of Fender single coil pickups but with more output and fullness. Typically P90’s are clean at low volumes and have a biting overdriven sound when pushed. One downside to the P90 is the 50 Hz / 60 Hz cycle “hum” which can be caused by external electrical and magnetic fields. Several of the modern boutique P90 makers, offer a reverse wound version of the pickup, which doesn’t hum when the guitar is kept the middle position.

Boutque P90 Pickups:

Lollar

Jason Lollar has been a professional luthier and a noted authority on nearly everything related to electric pickups. Lollar makes handwound Soap Bar and Dog Ear vintage style P90 pickups with Alnico bar magnets. They sell the pickups separately or in matched 2 or 3 piece sets. These P90’s are reverse wound for hum canceling operation and feature single conductor braided shield lead wire. They are available in black or cream pickup covers. Prices are about $90 for each pickup new.

Click here for more info on Lollar P90’s and sound clips:

Fralin

Fralin’s P90’s are fashioned after Gibson’s classic single coil known for big mid-range when used clean, and chainsaw grind when pushing an amp hard. This pickup comes with adjustable poles, ALNICO bar magnets and a choice of covers: Soapbar or Dogear, Black or Cream. These P-90’s are reverse wound bridge for hum cancellation. Prices are around $80 for each pickup.

For More Info On Fralin P90’s Click Here

Vintage Vibe

Vintage Vibe offers P90’s in both Dog Ear’s and Soap Bar styles. These pickups deliver the classic P-90 tone and have grounded shielding to reduce noise from external electric fields. Adjustable height nickel plated pole pieces, twin bar magnets (your choice of AlNiCo-II, AlNiCo-III, AlNiCo-V or ceramic-8; one set will be installed as shipped and one extra set of magnets will be included) and 3-conductor output leads. The magnet assembly can be removed from the pickup with ease allowing one to change magnets in just a few minutes. These pickups ship with two complete sets of magnets; please read the description on the order page for a full description of the magnet types available. Covers in black or crème are included as are the mounting screws.

For more info on Vintage Vibe P90’s click here

Re-live the sounds of the past with Homebrew’s Psilocybe all analog Phase Shifter. Get that classic 60’s psychedelic vibe and 70’s funk, to the classic Eddie sounds. The Psilocybe features Regen and Speed controls as well as shift 1 and shift 2 Toggles to Further Tweak the EQ and intensity of the phase effect. Check the demo out below:

Click Here For The H.B.E Power Screamer Overdrive In Our Ebay Store

Click Here For The H.B.E Power Screamer Overdrive In Our Ebay Store

Here’s a quick demo of the 1965 Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue. The 65 Princeton Reissue is an authentic tube reproduction delivering 15 watts through a single 10″ Jensen Special Design Speaker and housing 3 12AX7’s a 12AT7, 2 Groove Tubes 6V6’s and 1 - 5Ar4 rectifier tube.

Jim Campilongo really brings out the best of this amp, which to my ears sounds pretty fantastic. It comes in at interesting price point $899.00 which puts it at about half the cost of most boutique amps and twice the cost of something like a blues jr. I will definitely be considering this amp for myself and will be posting a follow up to this after I give it a test drive.

Here are two amazing new options from Bogner Amps demoed by Reinhold Bogner at the NY amp show. The Alchemist and The Duende run the gamet of tones from vintage clean tones, to subtle overdrive to British Gain. The amps are a perfect synergy of high fidelity sound and vintage sensibility. Here are some the features of both:

Click Here To See Our Selection Bogner Amps

Click Here To See Our Selection Bogner Amps
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