In 2013 Jason Smith from the Fender Custom Shop created an oddball! A bass guitar with everything from somewhere else. The headstock of a Fender Coronado, the bridge from a Guild, Pickups from a Danelectro… combined with an offset Bass VI body. The Fender Rascal is the “Frankenstein” among bass guitars.
This weird bird was a huge success at the music trade shows and Fender decided to put it in production as part of the Mexican “Classic Player” series. It is a four string short scale bass with lipstick pickups. A bass with guitar pickups? Yes, and the sonic range is awesome! Besides the “normal” five position switch you can expand your tonal range with another two by pulling the volume knob.
I like these oddballs, they look cool, play great and sound fantastic! For the demo I plugged this one into a vintage (1969) Marshall SLP and a 4×12 Marshall cab. To my ears it sounded great. It has a very old skool sound, almost like an upright bass. As Antoine says at the end of the demo: “it is not a slapper bass”, … but for anything else it will do the job and make you look cool!
In 1972 Cigar Master Ernesto Perez Carillo launched “la Gloria Cubana” in the United States. Later on these cigars hit the worldwide market under the brand “El Credito”. El Credito is a strong tasting cigar with complex aroma’s. Definitely not a cigar for beginners, be sure you grow a pair before you start smoking the El Credito series “R” (rated R – only adults?).
In 1968, Ernesto Perez Carillo fled from Cuba to Miami and started the cigar company and created some tasty cigars based on his personal taste in flavours. The brand name “la Gloria Cubana” was dropped due to trademark infringements and changed to “El Credito. In 1999 Ernesto Carillo Jr honoured his father by creating the “Series R”. By now these cigars are on the market for almost twenty years and they are loved by “experienced” cigar smokers all over the world.
Every time I light up the Series R with the daphne blue cigar band I grab my Gretsch Anniversary G6118T. In 1958 Gretsch introduced the “Anniversary” model. Over the years the guitar underwent some changes but in 2018 the guys at Gretsch nailed it by combining old and new appointments creating a professional instrument for modern players. It has the trestle bracing, Filter-Tron pickups and a pinned rocking bar bridge. The Bigsby now has a string-through bridge so no more puzzling with the little pins and string balls as we used to do with the old style Bigsby.
The controls are changed too. No more “mud switch” (Who needs a mud switch?) just a pickup selector switch and four fancy chrome knobs with engraved Gretsch logo (volume pup1 – volume pup2 – tone – master volume). This instrument has a lot of brightness and volume. The G6118T sports a laminated maple body, a medium U-shaped neck with 12″ radius fretboard with pearloid thumbnail markers and 22 jumbo frets. The finish is a beautiful high gloss two-tone Iridium Silver/ Azure Metalic.
Azure is the color of the Caribbean sea, … Cuba, … and so we are back to cigars!
Probably the most underrated guitar amp. I own 3 of these and they are keepers! Not so successful as their smaller sisters: Goldtone 15 and Goldtone 15 RVS (stereo). The Gibson GA30RV is a vintage style amp and very very British sounding! No wonder, these were made in the UK. In the late 90’s, early 00’s Gibson acquired Trace Elliot. In fact this is a Trace Elliot. The Goldtone 15 was a straight copy of the Trace Elliot Velocette amp. The Super Goldtone range consisted of two combo’s (30 and 60 watt) and a 30 Watt head. I purchased these most priced amps in Ol’ England.
This GA-30RV is a class A two-speaker combo with a bunch of features. First thing to notice is the old style speaker configuration – a 12″ Celestion V30 and a 10″ Celestion Vintage 10. It has a luxurious finish – thick leatherette covering, brass style speaker grills and a gold plated Gibson logo on the front. This dark brown version has Gibson tophat control knobs. The earlier version amp in two tone brown finishing has the Gibson speed knobs and basket weave speaker cloth.
The class A circuitry features four EL34 power tubes, five ECC83 and two ECC81 preamp tubes. The long Accutronics reverb tank provides a lush reverb with individual control per channel. The controls are sectioned in seperate preamp channels with level controls for each and a Master Volume. Each preamp channel can be activated with the controls or the footswitch. If you can find a Gibson 5 way footswitch you can even combine the two preamps and expand the sonic possibilities of this rock- and blues machine. These rare footswiches sell for crazy prices online but if you can find a Trace Elliot 5 button bass amp footswitch it will work also, … and cheaper!
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This combo is a classic rock and blues amp. A very British tone and pairs perfectly with a Gibson Les Paul guitar. It can be clean and it can be mean. Solid as a rock, dynamic and unforgivven if you have a bad day. It does require some muscle to carry around, … so eat your meat!
In the demo clip I use a CS Fender Stratocaster ’64 with lipstick pickups. Very thin sounding pups but the Super Goldtone can make it fart! More on this guitar in a next episode. Enjoy and keep the comments coming! What is your favourite amp!
Features: Four EL84 power tubes; five ECC83 and two ECC81 preamp tubes; single input jack; preamp select switches; boost select switches; preamp one controls for volume, treble, middle, bass; preamp two controls for gain, level, treble, middle, bass; separate reverb level controls; master volume; line out; loop select; series/parallel switch for loop; separate level controls for send and return; send and return jacks for loop; three-spring reverb tank; 12″ Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, 10″ Celestion Vintage 10 speaker; footswitch jacks for preamp 1/2 Boost (two-button footswitch, included with amp).
I am suffering a severe case of GAS! Gear Acquisition Syndrome and I know I am not the only patient struck with this disease. Guitars come and guitars go… as a collector I have a constant flow of gear coming in and every now and then some things have to go. Stay tuned to this site for gear reviews, demo’s and other silly stuff. I’ll post regular updates and items I put up for sale. Please check out Pro Guitar Center on Youtube and social media:
Spring cleaning at Château PGC! Time to get rid of the winter dust and look what I found underneath: not one but two Gibson Les Paul Traditional London Fog guitars! Nothing traditional about these. These guitars were manufactured by Gibson in 2009. In fact it are leftovers from the Gibson Les Paul Dark Fire product line destined for the Japanese market. The Dark Fire was probably the nicer version of the robot guitars that were put on the market by Gibson. The LP DF was equipped with the robot tuners and a piezo pickup system. It came in a white case and a lot of batteries and cables. I assume it was not much of a success as they had some bodies left to throw them on the market as a Les Paul Traditional London Fog. I am not a fan of hi-tech guitars, like most guitar players I am very conservative when it comes to changing a proven design. Plug and play for me, I hate guitars that come with a manual. In 2009 I found three London Fogs in the UK (Where else but in London?) and brought them home. I must say! I love these guitars!
The LF is a stripped Dark Fire. These guitars have a beautiful flamed top, ebony fretboard, black binding carbon inlays. The headstock on the asymmetrical neck carries the old fashioned “flowerpot” design inlay.
The electronics are fairly simple and just how I like them. A Burstbucker Pro pup in the bridge and carbon covered P90 at the neck.
The playability is excellent. The guitar is very lightweight and very resonant due to the empty cavities and routings where the dark Fire electronics used to be. Under the bridge and the saddle you can still find the cavity for the piezo wiring.
The color is hard to capture in a pic, it changes from “greenish” over “salmonish” to “goldish”! The earliest one comes with strap lock buttons while the youngest of these sisters has the skinny Gibson strap buttons factory installed. After all, not bad for a left over Gibson. I love them!
I am not a fan of hi-tech guitars, like most guitar players I am very conservative when it comes to changing a proven design. Plug and play for me, I hate guitars that come with a manual. In 2009 I found three London Fogs in the UK (Where else but in London?) and brought them home. I must say! I love these guitars!
