Tap Tone - from a Baby's Mouth (May 14, 2007)
I was messing around with my newly acquired 2003 Brazilian fingerboard Historic 1958 Reissue (R8) Les Paul – my friend Koji Mori at Ishibashi Guitars in Tokyo had set this one aside for me when it came in, but, me being in the UK, it took us literally years to hook up and for me to pick it up from his shop in Tokyo. I hadn’t bought a brand new guitar for some ten years previous and it was a treat. I love the playability of this new guitar as the fingerboard is dead straight and it has the right sort of tonal colour. I personally think, although it is a matter of personal opinion, that the fingerboard wood has something to do with the acoustic tone of a Gibson solidbody electric guitar. My hunch is that that is the reason why (a) a ‘68 Les Paul Custom with its maple top acoustically sounds very different from a Goldtop from the same year; and (b) ‘50s Les Paul Customs with their mahogany body still have those tight treble harmonics. Sound is something totally subjective and it may be my ears are deceiving me – but that is my humble opinion on which I base my personal purchase decisions...
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The Vintage Pignose Amp (May 7, 2007)
I have recently been collecting vintage Pignose amps. They are pretty much the only vintage amps that are actually affordable to the extent that I can have a half dozen of them in a row, compare the sound and choose the best one or two to record with. I probably should not be writing this piece just in case some collectors are reading this and decide to to stock pile on them and push the market price up. The thing is, either not many people latched on to the fact that the ‘70s made-in-USA Pignose is a wonderful amplifier that was used on many classic recordings (the modern made-in-Hong Kong reissue versions don’t record like the old ones at all or I have no ear), or the sound of the vintage Pignose (which is a transistor amp after all) is rubbish and does not deserve to be revered. It's a matter of opinion, of course, but I certainly have recorded with them through a vintage AKG tube C12 microphone and surprised the engineer and others with the sound I got out of this little amp...
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