Thursday, May 22, 2008

Silvertone Guitar and amp model 200G


I'll have to keep this one short and sweet because I have to admit I don't remember much about them. One weekend I went to my favorite Sunday swap meet and came across this '60s Silvertone guitar and matching amp. I was actually kind of excited because I thought that maybe the guitar would sound kind of cool and it would become a very interesting guitar for recording or maybe a few songs at a gig. I figured the amp sucked and I was right, but when you come across a set that has been together for that many years you can't break them up. I think that should be a cardinal rule of guitar collecting. So, I forked over the money for both, which I don't remember how much I paid. Since I never take more than $100 to the swap meet I know it was under $100 and I seem to remember it being somewhere around $40 or $50 for both.

I got them home and they both needed a good cleaning. The guitar was missing a couple of knobs but worked just fine and sounded okay. I seem to remember that the action was pretty decent and the amp did work fine. I was right about it sucking though. The sound was terrible. I think we forget about how good the quality of our cheap instruments tends to be these days. If you bought a "student model" or inexpensive brand back in the '60s or '70s you were most likely getting a pretty inferior instrument. And the amps were downright awful for the most part...unless you consider a silverface Vibro Champ a student amp. But if you are talking about a solid state Sears Silvertone 200G, you are talking crap. Think about how truly usable a Squier P-Bass is these days. Or a Jay Turser Strat-style guitar.

I bought my daughter a Squier Affinity Strat for $75 NEW (with a gig bag) and it just plain doesn't suck when it comes down to it.

It's obviously not my choice for guitar of the year and it doesn't have any "vibe," but if you got to a gig and had no choice but to play it, you could survive just fine. Anyway, back to the real story here...the Silvertone. I quickly realized that it was just a guitar to put on eBay and make a little money with. I paired it up and, true to my own rules, sold the guitar and amp as a pair. I have no idea what I sold them for, but I do remember being quite pleased with the outcome. So, the moral of this story is: Sears is not a guitar store.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Grant Distortion 15 Pedal


A few years ago I read a story in Tape Op Magazine (if you don't get this free magazine you are now required to go sign up...seriously) about Jason Falkner from the band Jellyfish. They were talking about how he was able to get amazing home recordings on things as basic as 4-track cassette recorders. He mentioned that he ran literally everything through an amazing effect pedal called The Choker by a '70s company called Locobox. Of course I had to find one and it was next to impossible to do. So I checked to see if "locobox.com" was available, which it was, and I bought the domain name and started a website about Locobox pedals. I figured that if people had a Locobox pedal for sale they would Google "Locobox" and find me. And guess what? It worked. I ended up buying many Locobox pedals...not just The Choker compressor pedal. They made some really cool other stuff as well...I recommend the Locobox Tubemaniax and the Mysto Dysto distortion pedals.

What happened next was that I started finding information about other pedals as well. Guyatone, Memphis, Coron, Electra and many others. I found that some of the factories in Japan at the time would make particular pedals and put many different brand names on them, but they were all essentially the same pedal. Locobox did this with Electra and Volz. Coron is probably a more well known name, but the same people also made the Memphis, Storm and Grant brands exactly the same as the Corons. Many of these pedals sound great, many are at least interesting, and quite a few I have found to suck. Just my opinion. The one that I have found to like quite a bit is the distortion pedal made by Coron/Memphis/Grant/Storm etc.

I ended up buying a Coron Distortion 15, a Grant Distortion 15, and a Storm Distortion 15, mostly just to see if they really did sound the same.

Of course there were slight variances, but for the most part they all sounded about the same and I really like the sound. I would say they fall more in the Tubescreamer variety of distortion...more of an overdrive I guess than heavy distortion. The one I kept for a long time was the Grant pedal. It sounded the best of the ones I had, though that's probably fairly subjective. I have found the Memphis pedals to be the least consistent and quite a few of their pedals that I have found I sold right away. In particular the Freq Attack. For some reason, people email me all the time at the Locobox site wanting to sell their Freq Attack pedals.

If you happen to come across any of these I would suggest giving them a shot. It just might be that little slightly different sound that you are looking for. I ended up selling mine at one point and I really do wish I had that one back. If you want to see what all of these pedals look like, visit my site Locobox.com and scroll down to the bottom of the home page. You'll find links to all of these brands that I have mentioned and a few more.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Dickerson Lap Steel and Matching Amp


I used to work in San Juan Capistrano, CA at Snowboarder Magazine and it sat right in the direct center of about 8 really good thrift stores that I could hit at lunch time now and then. If I went one direction I could make it to Las Golandrinas for cheap Mexican food and still hit 3 great stores. The Salvation Army in San Clemente used to have an "antique" section that they would put anything that they remotely thought was worth a little more than the regular junk. It was funny what they would deem "valuable."

One day I walked in and there was a late '40s Dickerson lap steel guitar and matching MOTS amplifier. I figured they were going to want an undeserving fortune for it. The week prior to that they had somehow received a Fender Rhodes piano and matching amp and it was sweet, but not worth the $4000 they wanted for it. I'm not joking. So when I saw the Dickerson set I figured I was going to end up arguing with the manager about the real value. To my surprise they only wanted $125 and five minutes later it was mine.

I took the set home and hesitantly plugged the amp in. If you've seen the back of one of these things you know how scary they can look electrically.

Long story short, it all worked great and sounded pretty cool. I knew, however, that this was one of those items that should be in the hands of a real lap steel collector, which I'm not. I cleaned everything up and headed down to Guitars West, an old dealer that used to be near my house that has since gone internet only or disappeared or something. They always had really cool stuff and I wanted a Strat. We struck a darn good deal and I ended up walking out with a nice Japanese Fender Stratocaster in Fiesta Red.

That's it. That's the end of the story. It's not much. Oh, a quick disclaimer: I couldn't find my photos of this set, so I have found exact matching photos on the internet of the same thing. Please Lord, forgive me for stealing these internet photos. Phew.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Harmony Lap Steel Guitar


Last year I decided, once again, that I needed a lap steel guitar. This happens to me every few years like a disease that recurs and goes into remission once I feed the need. It's usually about the time that I start recording a few songs and I think how cool a lap steel will sound. Then I get one and realize I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I've had a little success recording a lap steel...not that it sounds like I can actually play it well...just that it adds a nice atmospheric sound with tons of reverb.

So, last year I started keeping an eye out for a lap steel and eventually one showed up on Craig's List. A guy was selling an old Harmony Lap Steel along with a bunch of accordions and other interesting instruments to make rent. I always feel bad in that situation and probably try a little less to bargain if I feel like the guy is truly having a hard time. I emailed the guy and said I was interested and almost immediately got a response saying that I had first dibs and to come on down to get it. It was a long drive...I live in far North San Diego County and he lived on the other side of downtown...that's almost an hour away with no traffic. I made it there and followed his very sketchy sounding directions. "Turn left into the alley, go one block, there will be a large fenced in lot with locks on the gate. My brother will come out and unlock the fence and you can come in to the back of the warehouse where we live."

I was either going to get a smokin' deal on a lap steel or get my head bashed in and my money taken and left in an alley.

I got there and, sure enough, there was brother in the alley waiting for me. I pulled in and walked into the strangest place you've ever seen. This guy, his brother, two other super sketchy lookin' dudes and a normal looking guy all lived in the back of this old warehouse. It looked like it probably leaked and probably wasn't the warmest spot in the winter, but I guess it was better than the alternative. The place was PACKED (I used capital letters for a reason!) full of wierd stuff from thrift stores and junk shops and who knows where else. Collections of all kinds of things stuffed and crammed into every corner of the place. If he truly needed rent he could have made thousands of dollars on all the strange collections of things he had. There were old fezzes and kites and statues and books and old cameras and pottery and I don't even know what else. It looked like the trashiest antique store in town.

He pulled out the lap steel and one of the sketchy dudes...the one with only three teeth and the greasy Gibson shirt on...plugged it into an old Marantz stereo so I could see that it worked. It was one of the old models from the '40s I believe...it looks just like an old Roy Smeck model I found online, but without the Roy Smeck markings. It had three legs that screwed into the bottom so you could play it sitting down and it came with a big ol', heavy duty case that weighed a ton.

It had the "S' Dearmond pickup in it and at least one of the two knobs was original. As odd as I've made these guys out to be, they were absolutely nice guys and musicians and easy to deal with. I've got some weird old collections of things myself, so although most of you would probably be a little more than uncomfortable in this setting, I was pretty comfortable once I started talking to them. I pictured them playing some kind of weird gypsy music on street corners for change or something. Either that or old Iron Butterfly covers.

Everything worked and I paid the $150 the guy wanted and I was out the door. Once I got home I decided to put the whole thing together with the legs and discovered that one of the leg sockets had been stripped out. The next day I got together with my next door neighbor who is a master wood craftsman and he helped me (I should say he completely did it all himself) reconstruct the socket and even did a little paint and touch up and relic job to make it look completely original.

I used the Harmony on a couple of recordings and then, once again, realized that I had no business attempting to play it. I think this time I was pretty unsuccessful at even getting something useful on the recording, so away it went on eBay. It sold for a little over $250, which was a nice profit...not that I wanted to take the extra money down to the sketchy guys or anything...but I did feel a little bad. Okay, now I'm over it. Anyway, what's the lesson for today kids? Lap steels aren't as easy to play as you think they are and are often a waste of money. I'm sure I'll be looking for a new one in, oh, about 4 months.