____ THE ROOTS OF AMERICANA____ Guitars as a consumer item

GUITARS  FOR  >>>                      

THE YOUNG  CONSUMER  

 

In the 50's and 60's the electric guitar became a consumer item. You would find them at the Wurlitzer Organs shop with pianos, and the new cheap mini organs. Department Stores like Sears had a good selection. In small towns a local Radio and TV store sold them. 

 

  The VALCO-ites,  HARMONY-ists  &  DANO-Tones

They were made by companies primarily set up to put any brand name your company wanted on the guitar. If you were small business with one store they sold it under their in house name which often changed when that company went bust and sold out to another company.

I found a video that touched on a few.

 

 

Eastwood sprung up in 2008 to bring back all these old gems. 

The idea was to make them playable but affordable. 

The Silvertone in the pic was also sold as a Wurlitzer. All were 

made with Gemini being the model. The manufacturer and 

company brand was Holman. Eastman got the rights to 

make them but they too discontinued it. 

_______________________

___________________ 

OVERDRIVE- MANLAY SOUND M200___NEW___ Marshall Major-in-a-Box

$240.00 USD

MANLAY SOUND M-200

Yes the infamous 200 watt Marshall Major used by Mick Ronson and Ritchie Blackmore. It was affectionally 

known as 'THE PIG' 

The layout is Volume, Gain, Bass and Treble. ___

           CONCLUSION__ 

Nothing not to love but the price, LOL. 

It looks dead cool!! It is fat,warm yet 

has that amps famous headroom and 

attack which gives every note definition 

and clarity no mater how much 

gain you use.  

I have the Keeley version. The Super.Bass. It is quite different with  

through the roof highs. I use it backed right off for a kind of Hendrix 

clean sound on my Strat tunes. Sweetwater sells them for $100.00 USD 

and it merits double the price. Check my Post from Dec.18, 2024.

AMPLIFIER- FOSI AUDIO V3 Mono...180 watt/$150.00 USD pedal board amp ??? could be.

FOSI AUDIO V3 Mono

This is a consumer HiFi Type D Amp product with excellent specs and considered #1 by all the reviews 

I could find. 

It has won a couple of BEST OF awards for product under $500. To get the same spec you have to spend 

a thousand or more.

The price of this is dirt cheap. $150.00 USD.

It has line level RCA & balanced XLR/1/4 TRS as well 😇

Speaker out is good ol' Pro binding posts that 

double as banana Plug inputs. 

Size  ...142mm 105 mm 35 mm    ...5.6in  4.2in  1.4in 

 

BASICS ?  

This is NOT an integrated amp. The kind where the Pre Amp & the Power amp are in the 

same enclosure. It needs an external Pre. It can be a pedal like my Friedman IR-X, or a  

studio Pre, usually in a rack, or a board, but some kind of Pre must be always on. You 

could have several and use a pedal switcher to go from one to another. You can indeed 

go straight from a modeler as they all have a pre amp. Last but not least you can buy 

a second V3 to go stereo. 

___

POWER ? 

The output is 

....240 watts into a __4 ohm load 

....180 watts into an _8 ohm load 

Guitar amp speakers are mostly 8 ohm. A few are 16 ohm like some Marshall cabs. I have never seen 

an average combo with anything but 8 ohm. In the real world with a Type D Amp expect about 80 to 

100 watts. In a real world test the amp gave out 120 watts. It should keep up with a tube amp with 

30 to 40 watts. In short it should be gigable.  

SAFEY FIRST ? 

Remember it is a consumer product. It gets around safely in a simple cardboard packing box but not nailed to your board. 

You could measure out the units box and get a plastic shallow style tool box or utility box with a lid, 

that the packing foam for the unit and it's accessories with its cut out inserts will fit. There are 

plenty on TEMU all less than $20.

  

                       3 aMPS 

...Choose one 

PREAMP- CATALINBREAD Airstrip Console Preamp ___NEW___ cool or just a 'Me Too'

catalinbread 

$265.00 USD

 AIRSTRIP   CB-Range Discrete Console Pre 

In the 60's many studios popped up in the UK and the go to board was a Trident A-Range console. It had the UREI OpAmps along with germanium transistor's and transformer with a bit of sag. Pushed past its limit for vocals etc it coud be made to clip and make a near Fuzz like sound. Zappa loved it so much he bought a board for his Studio.  

Catalinbread jumped onto the current fad with their Board-in-a-Box. 

The layout is Push, a pre OpAmp boost, Trim which pushes it harder, Filter cuts or boosts the highs and Volume.

      CONCLUSION __ 

I find these kind of pedals dead cool when you get them 

but it is like getting a whole set of spices in fancy jars for 

Xmas. A little goes a long way. These days there are more 

guys with a bookcase than a board for their pedals so this  

could sell very well. I have a friend who in the summer

would buy this to kill time on a weekend morning waiting 

his buddies to pick him up for golf. 

AMPLIFIER- TONEX CAB amplifier___NEW___ sneak peak___a game changer? ....YES!!!

ToneX CAB  AMPLFIER 

Lets get to the need to have and not the endless software bullsh@t. It is a type D amp but it is a needed 

350 watts RMS. Getting that minimum 95dB that keeps up with  drummer is assured. The speaker is a 

a full range Celestion. The thing both looks and reacts like a REAL guitar amp. Yes you can even get controllable and useful feedback from just like my Plexi!!!

$700.00 USD

Reasonably compact, as it is slightly smaller
than a 42 lb. Fender Deluxe Reverb amp
and the CAB's weight is 28 lbs./12.7kg,

 

CONCLUSION ___

According to Tonex they have used software to emulate a real amps response so the amp has a 'feel' and does not have that placid thing you get from studio speakers where you feel like you are miming a guitar part instead of performing one. 

For now it is a wait and see. It will not arrive until April.

Definitely worth whatever it takes to try one before you buy.  

The ONLY VIDEO check for updates below 

UPDATED  

WITH NEW VIDEOS ASAP                                                                    

                                                              

OVERDRIVE- 68 PEDALS Dyna Red Distortion... what's old is new, as per again & again

 68 PEDALS

dyna red DiStoRtioN 

$65.00 USD

___ 

Bjorn Juhl invented this pedal in 1999. He has since changed it every few years. First with a reason to improve it and then because he admits being board with it. He wants to reinvent the wheel when it comes to gain. He wants transparency even at full throttle. 

He openly admits to all the above, adding wanting to be famous, LOL

He once made all his own pedals but now licenses them out. Onecontrol in Japan simple gives each a slightly different name and also offers mini pedals of the least popular. The current version is the $240.00 USD 

Dyna Red 4K which has a presence knob. 

The layout is a basic, Volume, Tone and Gain. 

    CONCLUSION ___

Well it nothing else it is back in fashion. Well I have to agree. the Presence makes a big difference. I find the 68 far too dark. In fact muddy by comparison.

 

OVERDRIVE- CLIFTON GUITAR WORKS Torque Converter ....dead cool? ...or not?

Clifton guitarworks

TORQUE CONVERTER

$240.00 USD

The company is a father and son who make guitars from recycled wood. They have one pedal, In an interview they never mentioned they even had one. I get the impression their focus is 99.9% their guitars.

The pedal is a medium gain hardclipper with what they call a Plate Reverb. 

The Verb sounds very much like a chip that is made by Accutronics who are the decades old Spring Tank makers who supply Fender and 99% of the market with their real old school reverb tanks. The chip is mounted on a tiny board so amp makers can dead easily deal with it like it is one of their spring tanks. A guy who only understands basic analog pedals can use it. No need to hire a engineer/programmer etc.  

The layout is the usual Volume, Tone and Gain. The Reverb section has a control for the wet/dry Blend and for the Decay. 

 ___

     CONCLUSION ___  

I expect this has been made for years. It even has an effects loop that a few builders toyed with before Switchers came along. It has wonderful funky earthy sound. There has always been a niche of weekend warriors playing small clubs doing a Blues/Americana mix of tunes with cool old gear that they bought used decades ago cheaper than cheap that keeps a pedal like this selling by word of mouth. If just the OD side came in standard Hammond B box and sold for around $150 I would be very tempted.  

 

OVERDRIVE- WHITMAN AUDIO Decoherence___NEW___ new pedal from a new kid

WHITMAN AUDIO

DECOHERENCE

$195.00 USD

__  A new kid from Seattle is on the block with a couple of pedals. At first glance we see a sophisticated look that suggest a high tech masterwork in the WTF price range. Fortunately it is under $200 and for handmade with quality parts it is a reasonable spank.

A lot of blah on the site about vintage germanium and silicon diodes tells us we have another OpAmp wonder as there isn't a whisper about our old true friend the tube like FET. In short it is in the family of Tube Screamers and Boss pedal classics. 

The layout is Volume, Treble, Bass and 2 Gain controls. Gain B for hard clipping (think Rat-ish) with a toggle to choose Germanium or Silicon diodes, and Gain A with soft clipping (think Tube Screamer) 

     CONCLUSION __ 

Oddly it reminds me of a Klon. On a Klon the Gain control brings in a low gain clean boost like sound that by 9 o'clock blends into a medium gain. This pedal gives you 2 gains that let you decide on the blend. 

Overall it has a very even mid sound from the low mids straight across the highs. This 

makes it it very full sounding with a sizeable breadth. This can be tricky as it can make 

the sound if not muddy a bit soupy. In short one can dial in a very good sound but 

such flexibility can allow one to dial in crap. The bottom line is this pedal indeed 

is different in a good way but it is not idiot proof, 😇

REVERB- KEELEY Soft Reverb___NEW___Spring & Plate + Star Wars with reins

$100.00 USD
only @ Sweetwater

 K E E L E Y

SOFT R e v e r b

Yes the $100 says ''buy me"! You get a basic great for an always on Spring, plus  Dave Gilmour's always on, a Plate, and a 60's trippy sound called Soft. Pulled back even the Soft can be a big plus to add a bit of theatre for a solo. The layout is your basic Dwell ...the duration of effect, Level which balances your wet/dry signal and a 3 way toggle to chose 

your preferred verb. 

   CONCLUSION __ 

If you think of the word 'Need' this covers it. 

You could go a lifetime with just this. Anything 

more is indulgence. Nothing wrong with indulgence. 

I only mention it so you can get some perspective. 

In short this is NOT a dumbed down make do unit.