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Two Photos of My Three Electrics (Some Vintage Content) BIG PIC

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
I've been meaning to post a picture or two of my electrics for some time, here they are.
I apologize in advance for the huge picture.

Exhibit A: "The British Sound"
Guitar: 1995 R9 with PAFs from a demolished 1962 SG, non original pick guard and replacement bridge pickup ring. has 50's wiring. I acquired the R9 in Boston in 1996 on an off tour day. I had to have it right then and I traded my 1986 Pearl White LP Custom and a bit of cash on the spot. the pick guard was missing and I played through the original bridge pickup ring. I think I've replaced the switch tip a dozen times.
Amp: Blockhead 1963 JTM45.
Cab: 1970-71 (as far as I can tell) Marshall B with original 25 watt greenback speakers, wired to 16 ohms. (Are these 'pre-rolas'? I wouldn't know, a Marshall nut told me everything was stock except for the wiring (I had it at 4 ohms until I got the Blockhead.)

Exhibit B: "The American Sound"
Guitar: 1959 ES345, Schaller tuners. It's an early 1959 with the black varitone ring. I loves me a varitone. Note the stereo cable!
Amp: 196? Fender Blackface Super Reverb. I don't know much about other than that it's an amazing amp - especially for small rooms. I dime it and use "right hand technique" (i.e. volume, tone, and touch) to control the sound.

Exhibit C: "The Mexican Sound" (Get it?)
Guitar: 1996 PRS Carlos Santana (OK OK OK...whatever.)
Amp: Late '80s Mesa Boogie Mark III. I used to put this on top of the marshal 4x12 when it was wired to four ohms. What a sound! Filled big rooms like no other amp. I used the lead channel and adjusted with the right hand from there. (I'm a set it and forget it guy - no channel switching for me.)

Not pictured: Huges and Kettner Roto-sphere and Vox Wha Pedals. The Roto-sphere goes in the back of the Boogie, it's the only amp with a proper effects loop.

Picture:
LP345PRSB.jpg


1995 R9, 1959 ES345, 1996 PRS Santana I
 
Last edited:

MS 57

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Oct 19, 2008
Messages
643
Damn ! you are well covered in the " great tone dept. " !!!!!!!!! Great picture and description. Interesting to see that you are doing a reverse Jimmy P. with the covers on the Les Paul. :2zone
 

Trans-Am

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Joined
Jul 15, 2001
Messages
4,686
....now that is much better, Im still waiting as of this moment for the big ones to load up?:wow

Awesome gear set-up...You are covered alright!!

Peace!!
 

brandtkronholm

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Joined
Dec 3, 2006
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2,737
Oh yeah, my #1 tour set up was the R9+Boogie+4x12. However, that was years and years ago. These days I'm lovin' the 345+ any amp. Dunno why.
 

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
And...I'm doing the "reverse Jimmy Page" on the R9 simply to protect the bridge pickup from damage. I don't notice a significant difference in sound with the cover on or off. The cover is from the '57 classic pickup original to the R9.

I have a player's perspective with all my instruments. Tone is first!
 

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
What's up with the cable set up in the #1 and 2 inputs on the Super Reverb? Is it suppose to give you some type of special tone?

Yes indeed. The ES345/355 is a "stereo" guitar meaning that the bridge pickup is dedicated to one channel and the neck to another. (It's not true stereo.) Using a regular old cable gives you the bridge pickup only. If you allow the cable to sit half-way in the guitar you get the neck pickup only. If you use a stereo-to-mono cable the guitar gets confused (for lack of a better description). This is when the tone really really sucks and every knob controls the guitar no matter where the three way pickup selector is. I suspect that this is some of the reason 345/55s have a sometimes lousy reputation. However, it keeps 'em cheap!

Here it is: The way the Fender is designed, a stereo cable from the guitar to a Y-splitter that then goes into the two inputs of one channel (reverb channel as in pic) makes the guitar work almost as intended. I say almost because the only exception is the out of phase sound when the pickup selector is in the middle position. But I (and a few others) really find this sound very cool and useful. To avoid the OOP sound, flip a pickup magnet (requires a minor bit of surgery on our cherished PAFs) , or get the proper Gibson stereo amp, or use two amps, or use two different channels of the same amp. Moreover, if playing in the middle position, the out of phase sound is maximized only when the volume controls are both turned to the same level. Simply by rolling off either one of the volumes, the out of phase sound goes away (it's still there, but only a tiny bit - still yet another cool sound available only from a 345/355 or Peter Green's LP). Absolutely no tone is lost from the 345 using this method.

One can modify the guitar to mono, but 345s an 355s are often messy to work with - even when doing a simple modification. It has been my experience playing 34/55s modified to mono that it just doesn't ever work perfectly. I have no idea why, perhaps my experience is limited. PG's LP is mono and clearly, it sounds great. I've chosen to leave my 345 as is.

The stereo cable to Y-splitter also works with the Blockhead. I plug one side of the stereo cable into the top of channel I and the other into the bottom of II AND jump the channels as in the picture. The sound amazing. Everyone should do this.

I find the out of phase sound so useful that I have had two amps modified to properly accept the stereo cable. The single input on my Boogie and my Fender Pro Junior (tweed!) have been modified to a stereo input WITH EXTRA THINGYS that make it behave exactly as the two inputs on (one channel of) an old Fender amp (having reverb). The new stereo jacks in these amps have two tiny little gray do-hickey-thing-a-ma-bobs attached (on the inside - you have to take the chassis out to see it - I must take a picture of this at some point.) that make it work perfectly, and again, NO TONE LOST at all! My tech told me they were less than .001 of a electro-technical-term apart from one another in value. I can't hear anything. It cost $25 for each amp - cheaper and quicker than wrangling with the guts of a 345/55 for sure!

Here's the extra cool secret about a stock Gibson stereo guitar and stereo cables: Wha pedals for each pickup. No joke. It's how I roll and it is so cool. Imagine the sound of being in the middle position, both pickups on, bridge volume and tone on 10 the neck volume rolled back just a bit to 8 so there's a tiny out of phase tone still in there, the neck tone at 0 AND the neck wha (Vox, please) on and in 'heel' position. Whadda noise! It's like woman tone only stranger. I don't use it (hardly ever) but I will often use variations of this configuration with great results with all my amps.

Lastly, switching from 345 (stereo) to Les Paul (mono) between songs is as simple as swapping guitars. There is absolutely no fuss with cords whatsoever!

Tone lost due to the varitone is a different discussion and in my opinion not only overblown, but also misses the point of the 345/355 sound.

I own my 1959 ES-345 because it has the Varitone and the out of phase.
 

brandtkronholm

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Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
Does that boogie of yours come with an EV?

Yup, the Black Widow.

Funny thing about those speakers, no matter what amp you put into them, it still sounds like a Boogie. (It's not a terrible thing.)
 

Odin1

New member
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
4
Yes indeed. The ES345/355 is a "stereo" guitar meaning that the bridge pickup is dedicated to one channel and the neck to another. (It's not true stereo.) Using a regular old cable gives you the bridge pickup only. If you allow the cable to sit half-way in the guitar you get the neck pickup only. If you use a stereo-to-mono cable the guitar gets confused (for lack of a better description). This is when the tone really really sucks and every knob controls the guitar no matter where the three way pickup selector is. I suspect that this is some of the reason 345/55s have a sometimes lousy reputation. However, it keeps 'em cheap!

Here it is: The way the Fender is designed, a stereo cable from the guitar to a Y-splitter that then goes into the two inputs of one channel (reverb channel as in pic) makes the guitar work almost as intended. I say almost because the only exception is the out of phase sound when the pickup selector is in the middle position. But I (and a few others) really find this sound very cool and useful. To avoid the OOP sound, flip a pickup magnet (requires a minor bit of surgery on our cherished PAFs) , or get the proper Gibson stereo amp, or use two amps, or use two different channels of the same amp. Moreover, if playing in the middle position, the out of phase sound is maximized only when the volume controls are both turned to the same level. Simply by rolling off either one of the volumes, the out of phase sound goes away (it's still there, but only a tiny bit - still yet another cool sound available only from a 345/355 or Peter Green's LP). Absolutely no tone is lost from the 345 using this method.

One can modify the guitar to mono, but 345s an 355s are often messy to work with - even when doing a simple modification. It has been my experience playing 34/55s modified to mono that it just doesn't ever work perfectly. I have no idea why, perhaps my experience is limited. PG's LP is mono and clearly, it sounds great. I've chosen to leave my 345 as is.

The stereo cable to Y-splitter also works with the Blockhead. I plug one side of the stereo cable into the top of channel I and the other into the bottom of II AND jump the channels as in the picture. The sound amazing. Everyone should do this.

I find the out of phase sound so useful that I have had two amps modified to properly accept the stereo cable. The single input on my Boogie and my Fender Pro Junior (tweed!) have been modified to a stereo input WITH EXTRA THINGYS that make it behave exactly as the two inputs on (one channel of) an old Fender amp (having reverb). The new stereo jacks in these amps have two tiny little gray do-hickey-thing-a-ma-bobs attached (on the inside - you have to take the chassis out to see it - I must take a picture of this at some point.) that make it work perfectly, and again, NO TONE LOST at all! My tech told me they were less than .001 of a electro-technical-term apart from one another in value. I can't hear anything. It cost $25 for each amp - cheaper and quicker than wrangling with the guts of a 345/55 for sure!

Here's the extra cool secret about a stock Gibson stereo guitar and stereo cables: Wha pedals for each pickup. No joke. It's how I roll and it is so cool. Imagine the sound of being in the middle position, both pickups on, bridge volume and tone on 10 the neck volume rolled back just a bit to 8 so there's a tiny out of phase tone still in there, the neck tone at 0 AND the neck wha (Vox, please) on and in 'heel' position. Whadda noise! It's like woman tone only stranger. I don't use it (hardly ever) but I will often use variations of this configuration with great results with all my amps.

Lastly, switching from 345 (stereo) to Les Paul (mono) between songs is as simple as swapping guitars. There is absolutely no fuss with cords whatsoever!

Tone lost due to the varitone is a different discussion and in my opinion not only overblown, but also misses the point of the 345/355 sound.

I own my 1959 ES-345 because it has the Varitone and the out of phase.


Sorry im a few years late on this subject. Thanks for all tips. I usually play my 345 through two amps. One clean/dry, the other a little dirty with a wha (Vox). Although lately for conveyance I just plug in half way into my pedal board and play mono. I'm going to try the double wha thing.
 

brandtkronholm

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Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
Cool! :hank
Post a report after you've tried the double wah-pedal trick! I'd like to know what ideas you come up with.
 
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