Simon Campbell

Posted at 2023 hours on 31/01/10 | Posted in My 100 best things, Music

Search for the ultimate tone: part three

I have spent 35 years in search of the perfect guitar tone. This is the third, and final, in a series of articles describing the journey to date, and how I reached the conclusions about the gear and techniques I now employ. Grab a large brandy and let’s reel through the years…

My sound may not be to everyone’s taste but hopefully the following blurb will give you some ideas and pointers to develop your own unique tone learning from the tens of thousands of pounds I spent on getting here! Before you start, you may want to read editions one and two!

For those of you living the Isle of Man, I am giving a ‘Tone Workshop’ at Peter Norris Music on Sunday April 11, 2010 at 1900. I will be discussing and demonstrating all the stuff I talk about in these articles. If you fancy coming along book on the free workshop!

OK. After all the technical mumbo jumbo in the previous articles it time for a bit of fun. So we will look at where my thinking came from over the years, investigations of my previous live rigs (I have left out many of the other amps I have owned) and finally, an in depth look at my current rig…

In the beginning…

There was Wishbone Ash. Their third album, Argus, was released in 1972. I was 14 and remember listening at school, in awe, at the playing and sound. When I picked up the guitar at 16, the first thing I learned was ‘Throw Down the Sword’.

Amazingly when we recorded the Little Brother album, ‘Survivor’ in 1991, Derek Lawrence and Big Jim Sullivan produced us. Derek had produced Argus and the early Deep Purple albums – can you imagine how I felt!

My 18th birthday present was a Gibson Flying V, which I still own.

I couldn’t afford the ‘Orange 120’ that was synonymous with the band, so had to ‘make do’ with an original 70’s Marshall Super Lead 100 which was supplied with a diabolical 1 ×12 Powercell cabinet (I set fire to this in a week).

This amp was fiendishly loud but was struggling to recreate the tone of Andy Powell & Ted Turner (the guitar players from Ash): I couldn’t understand how they created the smooth tone and sustain on the records.

I was told that this was created by a ‘distortion’ pedal, so I went down to my local music shop, Harker & Howaths, in Bolton and tried a bunch: they all sounded totally shit, and to this day I don’t use them extensively.

I had also heard that amps sounded better the louder they were :-)))

Of course I wasn’t just listening to the mighty Ash! I was devouring albums like they were going out of fashion, recording them on my reel to reel tape machine and then slowing them down to half speed to ‘get’ the licks, practising about eight to 10 hours a day.

Jimmy Page, Richie Blackmore, Paul Kossoff (Free), Rory Gallagher, Alvin Lee (10 Years After), Carlos Santana, Dave Gilmour, Justin Hayward (Moody Blues), Eric Clapton, Robin Trower, Mike Bloomfield, Peter Green (in fact all the guitar players from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) and the amazing Jan Akkerman (Focus) were always on my turntable. Note: no Hendrix, never really liked him that much…

I always preferred live albums though and my collection is extensive.

Early on I had three guitar lessons by an amazing guitar player called Simon Lilley, who to this day, still teaches in Bolton. He taught me many licks that I still use.

The first gig: setup #1

Whitefire played a support at Sheffield Hallam University. By then I was using an original Marshall JTM45 and 4×12. This, with the Fender Strat and Flying V made a fearsome noise achieving the sustain by turning it up. The sound was more Blackmore / Page than Ash but pretty good.

We became pretty popular, doing bigger gigs and one amp wasn’t enough (remember PA’s were pretty poor then) and I bought another JTM45 and straight front 4×12.

I was using these on volume setting of 3-4 (which is almost full volume; any more nob rotation only results in more distortion) with the normal and bright channels linked. We were fucking loud.

I started to get into pedals at that point and my units were an MXR Phase 100, Cry Baby and a Dan Armstrong Red Ranger (pre amp which I converted to a stomp box) for solos. I also had an H&H tape echo…

Bigger gigs: setup #2

I finally managed to get enough money together to buy Orange 120’s, not one, but two of the rascals along with the Marshall 4×12’s. By this time we had the EP out, which was doing really well, we were on the same circuit as Tigers of Pan Tang and Saxon.

The excess of this era culminated at the Deeply Vale Festival where we were supporting Steve Hillage. Here I used four Orange 120’s, on full shred, two Orange 4×12’s, an Orange 8×10 and a Marshall 2×15.

My leather flares were literally flapping in the air moved by the sheer volume and when I hit a ‘big E’ it was like someone hitting me in the back with sledgehammer!

Even though I cant quite remember it too well – drugs are terrible things – it sounded tremendous!

The tone was definitely closer to my dream, but never satisfied, I purchased a Burman amp which was built like a brick shit-house and had another stage of gain in there (sadly not switch-able).

I didn’t like the way Celestions coloured the sound, too much hi-mid for me and this is still my thinking. I wanted cleaner speakers which didn’t colour the sound that much, so I had my mates Wigwam Acoustics make me 2 × 4×12’s loaded with H&H speakers which was, in hindsight, a mistake.

Anyway, the days of a heavy rock band were numbered and we morphed into a punkish, high energy R&B band, Roadrunner.

This was the same line up as Whitefire: Eddie Taylor (drums), Jim Beswick (bass) and Tim Wright (vocals), but with the addition of my young guitar student, Craig Walton.

Mesa Boogie: setup #3

Besides playing in Roadrunner, I was teaching a lot and doing loads of sessions in and around the North of England.

Playing stuff that required a deal more subtlety, I bought a new Mesa Boogie MkIIB fitted with an EVM12L: all session guys used Boogies, right?

I never fell in love with the Boogie, it did the job but it never sounded ‘right’ if you understand my drift: a bit like it was wearing an over tight corset.

At least in the EVM12L, I had found the perfect speaker! It sounded delightful and much closer to the tone I had in my head: I did however, miss the low end of the 4×12’s.

It was at this point when I started to use a separate amp and speaker for my echo return.

Enter the echo revolution: setup #3a

I used echo from the very beginning and always found they muddied the tone of the setup, particularly at high volume. I finally sussed that if you took a feed out of the effects send of the amp, you could drive the echo unit with the output going into a separate amp and cab which created a cleaner tone.

I was using a Korg SDD2000 delay, small amp and a 1×12, fitted with an ATC speaker, again from my friends at Wigwam.

Pop stars

Sadly, Tim and I parted from the rest if the guys in Roadrunner and decided we needed to become pop stars.

We formed 80’s pop band Gilt Edge that morphed into Little Brother. This band recorded the album produced by Derek Lawrence and Big Jim Sullivan (see above) for Polydor’s German subsidiary, Line records.

In addition to all the other guitar players mentioned earlier, I was now listening to Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, BB King, Alan Murphy (Go West), Albert King, Albert Collins, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Vaughan, Brain May, Scotty Moore, Prince, James Burton, Danny Gatton, Chet Atkins, Eddie Van Halen, Brian Setzer, Angus Young and Billy Gibbons.

The Fender Twin Reverb and Boogie era: setup 4

I didn’t really like the Boogie, but I wanted to give it another go: could I use it for lead only and have two amps, one clean and one dirty?

We I tried this and bought a silver-face Twin Reverb fitted with two EVM12L. It was the heaviest amplifier in the world, sounded nice but I didn’t think it suited the EV’s.

Of course now I was (actually the road crew) carrying more and more gear, wrestling with hum loop problems, tone suck, long guitar leads and other anomalies. I was now also using a Boss Chorus pedal (ahhhh) which was the de-rigour for any respected 80’s pop artist and a Samson Radio system (the compression takes all the dynamics out of the guitar – cables are far better).

I was in a tone black hole spiralling into oblivion.

The Jim Kelly and total madness era: setup #5-8

This is where the madness really started as tours were starting to happen. I replaced the Boogie with a Jim Kelly FACS Line amplifier, which was amazing, again fitted with an EVM12L. This was a real amp and I could honestly say I had (and later did) achieved a near tone nirvana with this amp alone.

There were many variations of this setup hence the #5-8…

Unfortunately, I thought a big stereo rig was required. So I developed an new system. The Kelly drove a Groove Tubes power soak, the output of which went into a mixer, Korg SDD2000 echo and Yamaha SPX90 on an aux send/returns with Rockman rack mount chorus – known as RockModules (oh dear) – out into and HH V800 power amp driving two EVM12L’s.

I also bought a Rockman Midi Octopus so I could switch everything, (including amp channel) from the front of the stage: the whole kahuna.

The final nail in the tone disaster was a RockModule sustainer as I had used one in the studio.

Tom Scholz and Boston here I come…The tone was, ‘More than a feeling’ – it was a pile of bis.

Kelly, Orange, Marshall and Fender: setup #9

My best mate and vocalist for all my music career, Tim Wright, decided he needed to have a rest from music, so I was left at the mercy of my own ambition.

Every Thursday, I stared to attend a jam night in Ramsbottom and found we had a lack of singers, so I gave it a go and realised that I could sing in tune and that was good enough!

I was doing some record production and during my session work I had come across Mike Hehir, the guitar player from ‘Sad Cafe’ and ‘Corey Heart’. We formed a band known as the Method basically doing a load of Zeppelin, Clapton and other guitar based covers.

This was great fun, doing piles of gigs, guitars duelling and general fret wanking… Mike is a fantastic guitar player and we did develop a large following of muso’s.

By now I had ditched the hideous stereo setup and used the Jim Kelly through an Orange 4×12. On the side I also had a Fender Bandmaster through a 1×12 EVM12L which I used for tracks with Tremolo.

Simultaneously to the Method, I formed the Disciples, again through a production connection, and was certainly the best band I have ever had. Eddie Horrox (guitar), Dave Gilmour (not ‘the’ but ‘a’ on drums) and Julian Brooks (bass). Again we did some recording, releasing a mini album and started to become very popular indeed.

Height of excess here was headlining the International II in Manchester using the Kelly, Orange 4×12 linked to a lovely 60’s Marshall JTM45 (which I picked up for next to nothing) through an old Marshall 4×12 plus the Fender Bandmaster setup (as above). No echo, no pedals, just the superb tank reverb in the Kelly.

This was an awesome live tone indeed; probably the best I had, up to that point.

The rest of the guys were young and we sadly split up. I was very upset…

During this period I did a number of Eric Clapton ‘tribute’ shows (the biggest being at the Albert Halls in Bolton and used the same gear. Great sound…

Groove Tubes and Fender Superamps: setup #10

I carried on with the Disciples name but now employing my old mate Steve Dowd on keyboards (from Little Brother), a great, young bass player, ‘Dancing’ Dan Fielden and another new face Roy Taylor on drums.

Still not satisfied (and at this stage I cant think for the life of me why), I bought a Groove Tube Trio preamp and the Dual power amp, trying this initially through two Orange 4×12’s. This didn’t work live so I sold the Dual and bought two new Fender SuperAmp’s. This was a good sound but frankly, had no real bollocks and sounded very ‘processed’.

I was now listening to Larry Carlton, Jerry Donahue (and the Hellecasters), Robert Cray, Jeff Healey, Tom Morello, the outstanding Neil Young, The Edge, Daniel Lanois, Jonny Greenwood and more Jeff Beck.

My new mate Paul Wright asked “Have you heard Talk to your Daughter by Robben Ford”. I bought the album and fell in love with his tone and playing. It was musical and expressive and really where I would have expected Andy Powell to have gone with his sound.

The TwoRock and Howard Dumble clone era: setup #11

Paul and I formed another version of the Disciples, two guitars with Dan on Bass and the very excellent Kevin Whitehead of ‘Dare’ and ‘Barclay James Harvest’ on drums.

Paul and I bought two of the TwoRock Sapphire amplifiers with 2×12’s. The first time we gigged them one of the audience said. “Wow that just sounded like Wishbone Ash” – job done…

The cabinets came fitted with ‘Tone Tubby’ speakers which sounded good but still not quite right, I swapped them fro Webbers eventually replacing them with guess what? Correctamundo, a pair of vintage EVM12L’s.

I was fired up and again started to really get excited about playing. We were at blues festivals all over the UK and felt I needed some additional effects to supplement the sound and this is where I started to build the current system.

In the previous articles you can see detail of how the setup is built.

Diving overtook my life in early 2002 and apart from the weekly jam night at the Stanley Club in Accrington and occational song-writing, I didn’t pick up my guitar in anger for a number of years.

Moving to the Isle of Man started it all off again!!!

Current: setup #12

So why do I use it and what does it sound like! If you require details of the actual signal paths and setup please read editions one and two!

The guitars

As mentioned in edition one I have a number of guitars fitted with Lindy Fralin. I have included on this shot my sons Fender 51 Custom Shop Nocaster (which I am using, it sounds great :-)

The Radial Engineering JX44 & SGI44

This a very new addition to my setup and is required as with the addition of my Van Weelden Twinkleland and Bludotone Bludodrive I will be using multiple amps again :-0

This unit switches between them in a seamless way but also allows two effects loops to be run in a clean balanced way; one remote loop to the pedal board and another local loop to the Skrydstrup switcher.

The other cool thing is you can use the SGI44 to run a line back through studio tie lines to the main studio which allows you to sit in the control room and play using multiple amps and checking the sound as you go!

In a live setup, the SGI44 drives the tuner also.

Fulltone Clyde Wah Wah Deluxe

For years I used a Cry Baby (latterly the 535Q model) that served me well, but sometimes sounded a little thin. The Fulltone has a very resonant tone which does ‘sing’. It is also very adjustable allowing you set the ‘Q’ of the boost internally and provides three settings available externally. I just like the sound of it :-)

Ernie Ball Volume Pedal

This is a lovely smooth pedal cleanly varying the volume right down to zero without loading the pickups. Very sturdy, low tech and sounds great. More accurately, it doesn’t ‘sound’ at all!

Fulltone OCD

This is a distortion box and if you have bothered to read the huge amount of text above, you will see I don’t use distortion boxes. So what is this all about?

Well I use this to occasionally ‘tone shape’ my ‘Fender’ style guitars. As I use to guitars with humbuckers and two with single coils, I find this rounds off the edginess of the single coils and apply a little drive. This unit does have a more ‘British’ tone which no matter what you do with the TwoRock, you cant achieve with the amp alone.

Fulltone Full-Drive 2

This unit does have a great drive sound it you need to go away without your amp. It can be set so it is touch sensitive and responds in a similar way to the Dumble style amplifiers. I don’t use this at all in my current set of songs.

TextTone FuzzNutz

Excellent basic Fuzz unit that sounds great for those Jeff Beck tones and really fuzzes like a fuzzing thing with an additional helping of fuzz sauce. Back off the guitar volume and it cleans right up. I don’t use this at all in my current set of songs.

Fulltone Supa-Trem

A very excellent tremolo unit recreating the Fender amp tremolo very accurately. It employes a photo-cell like an old American tube-amp, has a true bypass, LED status and speed indicator, half / full speed foot-switch that stays in tempo. It also has another foot-switch letting you choose between ‘soft’ smooth or ‘hard’ square-wave machine-gun effect: I use the pedal a lot and set it quite soft…

Fulltone DejaVibe

Very similar to an original Univibe. Does what it says on the tin, original sounding vibrato / chorus / leslie effects. It is stereo, but I use it mono! I have the switches set to ‘dark’ and ‘chorus’ setting. Sounds fantastic and I use it quite a bit thought the set…

Fulltone Ultimate Octave

A very fat fuzz with a very active tone control and a separate foot-switch that kicks in a searing octave-up: I use it as an ‘octave-up’ only.

I have the fat / bright switch set to ‘bright’. This changes both the distortion and octave sounds from strong thick mids to completely scooped out with no mids, lots a bass and hi-end.

Strangely, you can only use this pedal with the neck pickup (it just doesn’t work with the bridge). You can overuse this as it really sounds very dramatic!

Note to Josh Homme (he uses it extensively on the ‘Them Crooked Vultures” album): I bought mine first :-)

TC Electronic 1210 Spatial Expander / Stereo Chorus Flanger

This stereo unit can be set to two independent mono units. This is the way I use it. It’s an old fashioned analogue ‘bucket brigade’ device and sounds great: rich chorus and flange effects. I use a fast flange effect on one track at the moment. I wont trouble you with the settings as its quite complex. Get the manual and mess with it is my suggestion.

One warning though, it does suck volume out of the signal path so I switch it on with either the ‘tone defeat’ or the FET boost on the amp to bring back the volume.

TC Electronics 2290

A classic digital delay and still one of the best out there. I like it because all the controls are easy to see and operate. It also can be used as a loop switcher if required. I have a volume pedal in one of the loops to control the amount of echo return I hear. See the technical article.

A TC0144 foot controller sits on my pedal board which controls the 2290. This device then drives the MIDI for my Lexicon PCM70 and Skrydstrup effect switching unit..

As intimated earlier in this article I send the output of this delay into a small rack mount Marshall power amp then on to a 1×12 cabinet, fitted with an EVM12L, which is exclusively echo return. This, controlled with the volume control gives me a fully controllable, clean, excellent echo sound.

I have the delay set to 400ms with 30% feedback and occasionally on some tracks 116ms (slap-back) with no feedback.

Lexicon PCM70

Again quite an old multi-effects unit featuring the V2.0 firmware. Lexicon were criticised as they ‘upgraded’ the unit with revised firmware finishing with V3.0. It is recognised that the V2.0 sounds best!

Anyway, it sounds amazing and I use if primarily for reverb and favour the ‘rich chamber’ preset as a start. Again the programming/parameters are pretty complex and I don’t want to bore you (even further) with the details.

TwoRock 10th Anniversary Head

This is now my primary amp head. Previously I used the TwoRock Sapphire which I still own and did sound great, but became unreliable.

This circuit design is quite a departure from the ‘standard’ Dumble clones with more bottom end and low mids. Even though I now achieve, for my ears, a great tone (after a lot of messing and changing tubes) I am still unsure about it, hence the purchase of the Van Weelden Twinkleland and Bludotone Bludodrive, both of which are real clones.

The clean sound is really lovely; clear, shimmering and totally excellent. I set the foot-switchable drive channel so it sounds exactly the same (tonally) as the ‘clean’ sound when you play very softly. The drive and sustain kicks in when you attack the strings a little harder. Touch sensitive drive is what its al about.

The amp features a foot-switchable FET boost which has a volume control. I use this for clean passages that require a little more volume and to boost the signal when using my TC1210 (see above).

It also features a foot-switchable ‘bypass’ switch which in traditional Dumble clones simply defeats the tone circuit giving a very ‘fat’ sound. This amp is little different as it appears to provide a driven ‘Fender Tweed’ type of tone which I do use on its own occasionally but more often in conjunction with the ‘drive’.

I don’t use the nice built in reverb when utilised in this rig.

Sounds good, but…..

On the list

There is always stuff on the list :-) As I am not using the Fulldrive 2 in the current set, I am thinking of replacing the with an excellent MoonPhaser

I am also thinking of trying a Zendrive Overdrive for gigs when I cant take my own amp and have to rely on a rented Fender Twin, which is my weapon of choice in this situation.

So that’s it, the full story. I hope you have enjoyed the three articles as much as I have in writing them. Of course I will now keep my blog updated with changes and additions as I continue my quest – I am sure i have a long way to go yet :-0

Finally I would like to thank those who have helped me over the years in developing my technique and sound. Obviously the host of superb guitar players mentioned in the text but in addition some very good friends and fantastic guitar players.

• Simon Lilley
• Paul Braddock
• Derek Lawrence
• Rob Livesey
• Big Jim Sullivan
• Paul Wright

To see some of the photos taken over the years, go to my Flickr and of course, if you have any questions why don’t you contact me or post a comment below!

22 comments

1. Simon Campbell on 21/03/10 at 1128 hours

   For more info on the ‘tone workshop’ see John Gregory’s article in the Isle of Man Independent.

2. Group Captain Kebab on 21/03/10 at 1518 hours

   Haven’t finished the whole article yet but I agree with your comment, the Disciple were the best band! our wedding reception rocked thanks to you guys!!!

3. Jeremiah on 24/03/10 at 0938 hours

   So what you are saying is you still aspire towards the Wishbone Ash sound? Surely that would mean you have not expanded your musical horizons since day 1? I mean, I like Ash too, but not to the extent I would want to copy or emulate their sound. Why not try going back and looking at their inspirations, as I recall Andy Powell is a massive Who fan, on his web site, after answering in a poll for the British Q magazine, he said “for me, the Who were THE shit, the songs, the performance had a power and strength we knew we could never come close to. On the numerous occasions we supported them, we would watch from the side of the stage in absolute awe, we would later write songs about and in their style, I’ll always love Pete Townshend, which surprises some people because we’re a lead guitar band. But I’m an old rhythm player, and on our first tour of the States we opened for The Who. So watching him closely every night made a huge impact, though an unusual one for me It was Pete Townshend who encouraged them to keep at it. Andy recalls, “It was the third tour of the States. Things had been pretty tough and then we were booked to support the Who on two dates. We played for about thirty minutes before they came on and it was after one of the gigs that we were sitting in the dressing room. “Pete walked in and someone said we should give up and concentrate on Britain and Europe. He looked at us and said “Don’t give up. It’ll take a couple more tours before they begin to accept you.” We took his advice and this last tour has proved him right.?”   

   Even a song on Argus was wriitten in Who style, “The album opened with “Time Was” - a song in two vastly different sections, both of which would later be performed independently during concerts. The opening acoustic section opened the album in peaceful, reflective style, with Ted and Martin’s vocal harmonies backed by Ted’s acoustic guitar picking. In direct contrast, the second part of the song was a straight forward rock outing, with a feel similar to much of the Who’s early seventies work. Andy Powell would later admit that, having supported the Who on numerous occasions, their style had an enormous impact.”

   What would have made your account more involving woud have been sound samples, it is sound and tone we are talking about here. In the very first part you say you sound might not be to everyones taste, but how do we know if we have not heard it yet, how do we know we want to use the information to try it out?

   Interesting read, thanks for putting it up.

4. Simon on 24/03/10 at 0953 hours

   Jeremiah, thanks for the detailed response.

   I have moved on and have very much my own sound but it still resonates with the clean clear sound of early Ash. That was my original inspiration but as you can see above, I listen to lots of guitar players and they have all added (and more importantly) taken away, some elements. I listen to the track and choose the sound I require for that but overall it is clean and sustaining so I am not sure who I sound like nowadays - probably me…

   With respect to clips, I am starting to record the album shortly and you will be able to hear it then: much better in a real environment :-)

   In the meanwhile, take a listen to some of my very old stuff on Reverbnation

   Thanks again for your post.

5. Seth on 25/03/10 at 2058 hours

   Simon, I could use some advice, and believe you might be able to assist? I found your site, and this article via Google. Basically, I have been offered a Two Rock 10th Anniversary Head and 2x12 cab at a very good price. The previous owner traded it in to a shop I have used before, it is about 6 months old. The shop owner told me he was not getting along with it, as it was noticably diifferent to other Dumble alike amps, even to the Two Rock he had before. I asked the shop owner what tibes it had inside, he said a bunch of Chinese preamp and poweramp stuff. The shop owner said the original owner has not been able to get new old stock power tubes, as they were extremely rare, hard to find in quality or any other form, and very expensive when you did, he had tried current production Russian power tubes on advice from TR, but was not happy at all with the sound he was getting. I know the shop owner reasonably well, he knows it is a 9 hour drive from where I am to San Francisco, so he was trying to level with me as best he could.

   Some questions now, can you assist? Could I enquire what preamp and power amp tubes yours came with, and whether you have changed them, and if so for what? Did you find new old stock power tubes to fit?

   Also, and I know this is a subjective one, but you seem to know your stuff, how does the amp sound, are you happy with it, does it really sound like a Dumble copy, or is it a significant departure, in your opinion?  My options are to go for this at that very nice price, or go directly for a Bludotone Bludodrive. Which brings m to my next question, how does this compare to the TR, do you have a preference. What tubes do you have in the Bludotone?

   I plan heading up there on Saturday 27th March, so if you see this in time, I would very much appreciate your assistance here. Reviews on the TR and Bludotone are impossible to find, so I was very pleased to see your article. Made me think that we all have a similar story to tell, and that it only differs in some of the details, but that makes each path unique. My type of topic, as you can prolly tell. Thanks, Seth

6. Simon on 01/04/10 at 1759 hours

   Hi Seth, thanks for your post…

   I am sorry I haven’t been back to you as I have been recording the new album in the studio this last week.

   It has been an illuminating experience as I have the benefit of listening to these amps in the cold light of a great studio, Gracielands without any EQ or processing. They have a superb engineer in Steve Boyce-Buckley (the finest engineer I have ever worked with), an excellent Neve console, very high quality microphones and fantastic Dynaudio monitoring.

   This brings me nicely to the TwoRock…

   It is not at all like the standard Dumble clones, but it can be made to sound great with careful setup and changing the standard tubes. It does have the touch sensitivity and more tonal / dynamic variation between clean and overdrive due to the two ‘contour’ controls. This of course can be bad and good, depending on how you set it up! I don’t use the speakers in the Anniversary cab as I much prefer the EVM12L…

   If you asked me if the TwoRock was worth buying I would say yes, but it would not be the ultimate answer to your tone quest. What style of music are you playing?

   I can obtain NOS tubes from Watford Valves in the UK and am sure there are vendors in the states that can do the same; take a look at the details of my tube selection.

   Afraid I can’t comment on the Bludotone as I haven’t received mine as yet, but the Van Weelden arrived and I used it about 75% of the time.

   I think the problem with guitar players is that that they try to emulate the tone of others, which you can never do: the vast majority of the sound comes from the fingers and they way you play. I tend to listen to the song and what I am trying to achieve with the tone, then select the guitar amplifier/cabinet/guitar combination to suit.

   If you buy a copy of the album when it comes out you will hear the difference as what I am using at the time is specified :-)

   Come back…

7. Simonski on 07/04/10 at 1016 hours

   For more info on the ‘tone workshop’ see John Gregory’s article in the Isle of Man Independent.

   Thank you

   Simonski

8. Kyle on 13/04/10 at 1225 hours

   Simon, I concur with many of the other comments, very interesting and absorbing reading. Thanks for sharing, and being brave enough to tell it like it was!
   In the same spirit it deserves some forthright, hopefully constructive feedback that others may also find illuminating. I would like to know a little more about the Tube selection over time. You must have had ready access to some great British tubes over your time, and at regular prices back then, unlike the “NOS” stuff these days! What did you use in other older Marshall/Orange? The Fender Super is a great amp, did you get some NOS stuff in there, I find that mine has real bite when the right tubes Mullard front end and then RCA are used. What tube readings did you look for?  The current account almost makes it look like the amps were “unexploited”, whereas I know that is not the case, because you do say you fiddled around with tubes and settings, that some may have missed. The Two Rock sounds much better with NOS front and back end too, real NOS,  the Philips 5751 were made mid to late 80’s and have quite a harsh sound, being made for Philips for their military contract for use in planes and ships, many do not really count them as NOS. I personally stopped using the 5751 “clean up trick” a while back, there is such a thing as too clean, and it was removing all the life you get from having some of the designer’s gain on tap. You don’t use those in every preamp position, right?  I was also surprised you went for current production Russian tubes in the power section. Interestingly I also played a Burman way back, imported from England, well built but it sounded just awful, could not get a good sound out of it,  guess that may explain why they went to the wall real fast. I have seen Bonamassa 9 times now, he gets a real great sound out of his 2 Marshalls, I talked to him and he said his core sound comes from them, he could easily live without the Two Rock and Van Weelden as he barely touches them live or studio! He told me overly clean Blues has no balls, so he steers well clear of that sound! Like you he seems to want a good core sound with some occasional options on hand.

   Most Tone Hounds know by now that any amp worth it’s salt lives or dies by the tubes inside, I would just like to hear that side of your Tube journey looks like? Thanks again, I read this through from end to end, all 3 sections in one go, just could not stop!

9. Simonski on 13/04/10 at 1535 hours

   Wow Kyle, thanks for the post.

   The Superamps I was using were new ones I am afraid (that’s about 10 years ago). They were not really nice at all!; that’s why I used the GT Trio preamp with them.

   Correct, I don’t use the 5751 in the preamp section. I use the green GE and old Telefunken, there is more detail in my part one article.

   I have to say the power tubes in my old Two Rock are original Svetlana’s (again about 10 years old) and they sound fine. The newer ones sound good to me and much better than the original ones they fitted.

   The Van Weelden has JJ tubes, which do sound great in that amp.

   The Burman was probably a bad one; I remember it sounded great (having said that, a drug fuelled great :-)

   Doesn’t Bonamassa use one Marshall and a ‘Category Five’ Marshall clone?

   Anyway, I am not trying to emulate anyone so I sound how I sound: buy the album and find out!

   Simonski

10. Kyle on 13/04/10 at 1622 hours

    Simon, thanks for that super fast response! Bonamassa currently uses 3 “Marshall” amps, seems to be venue dependent, a Silver Jubilee, infrequently a DSL and as you point out, the Category 5, which is a Super Lead clone JB Model,  with his mods on to increase the gain of what otherwise is a very clean sounding amp! The Silver Jubilee the only one that is always on, sometimes with one of the others, often alone, it sounds great at the front of the stage. Bit surprised you don’t use Mullards at all, being a Brit! They seem to suit guitar amps much better than Telefunkens, which are very highly regarded in hi-fi circles, smooth plates preferred there, I think they tend to be quite low gain, pushed back mids, much darker tonally than the Mullards. Telefunken in V1slot , GE in V2 I take it?
    The Burman was a beaten up one on the outside, electronics look fine, could not get on with it though they are very rare now, never seen another. I do not emulate either, there is no point, as we all have our own built in signature sound at any time in our development, but I do pick up influences gearwise over time.
    When is your album coming out, is it a pressed CD? Hope so, as my ears get older, mp3’s tend to hurt them more! Count me in for one, my tonal appetite is whetted! Good luck with the release.

11. Simonski on 13/04/10 at 1645 hours

    Thanks for the Bonamassa info.

    Yep, never recently used Mullards (except in the very old Marshall / Orange amps I had). Isn’t typical though, you lot love Mullards & Celestions and we love GE/Sylvania and EV!!!

    It will be a pressed CD and I am writing an article on the recording as we speak. I may even offer AAIF downloads for the audiophiles. It is sounding great already. Be ready for the post!!

12. Kyle on 13/04/10 at 2023 hours

    You are so right on the money there! I just love Celestion Blues (UK made ones), Greenbacks and Vintage 30’s! Also Mullard, Brimar, GEC tubes, Marshall amps! Actually money may be a connection, or at least perceived value, all of these are far more expensive in the US, but when ya just gotta have a piece of gear, what the hell. Seriously I would try a NOS Mullard in V1, it really does enhance Dumble clones, adds a certain refinement. Hope you don’t mind but I checked out the studio you used for the recording the CD online, very impressive and all analog, so even more reason to get it, yes do keep me posted, and again all the best with it.

13. Simonski on 13/04/10 at 2056 hours

    Did you find Gracieland? It has a Neve board and even though we are recording onto pro-tools, we are mixing to 1/2 tape: nice…

14. Simonski on 13/04/10 at 2058 hours

    Incidentally, I will try a Mullard ECC83 and get back to you!

15. Greg Dyer on 16/04/10 at 1459 hours

    Nice, organic account of your own tone quest. Have to agree with some of the other comments, it does leave you with questions, essentially because you want to hear more of the story, which is actually a great compliment! Some details or even just conclusions of the tube rolling exercises you refer to would be a great addendum. Also useful and fun would be the items that got away, we have all let some fine gear go in our times, know I have! Would you consider yourself mainly a lead player, as your older recording suggest? There must be problem with your TC1210, it has a 1:1 input/output circuit that ensures the same level goes out that comes in. The analogue design, which gives it such a great sound, can drift over time, also can be eventually susceptible to bangs it gets on the road. I just checked mine out, and there is not volume/signal loss. The input on the TC, like a lot of Lexicon devices is very hot, so you have to be careful to get full deflection on the input meter to get the best out of it. 

    Note to Jermemiah, hope he sees this! You missed and even bigger Who influence - one of Ash’s keynote signature tunes is Blowin’ Free - which Ted admits was a rip from a section of Townshend’s masterful Tommy. No shame in that, it will probably be one of the works that are most remembered from the Rock era in times to come. Ted tells the story:

    That first album was followed by Pilgrimage in 1971, and Argus in 1972. The British music magazine Melody Maker awarded Argus the accolade of “The Best British Album Of The Year.” “Blowin’ Free”, Ash’s signature tune from that album, came together as an exercise around the “D” chord. Ted Turner called it “a rip-off of a bit in “Tommy” that I put in a different time.” Wishbone Ash toured with the Who on their “Won’t Get Fooled Again” tour, and “you can imagine how inspiring that was”. Powell said that “Time Was” was another Who-inspired song, “probably the most of any we’ve ever done. There was a lot of Keith Moon in Steve’s drumming.”

    So, there you have it!

    Thanks for your willingness to share, I too will look out for your new album.

16. Simonski on 16/04/10 at 1520 hours

    More great comments…

    I will be adding to this over the next few months combined with an account of the recording process!

    In answer to some our questions.

    Most of the recordings you hear are all me on guitar, no other players, so I am a guitar player who does everything really!!! I don’t like working with other guitar players as they are just too noisy! Notable exceptions being the Disciples, where Eddie Horrocks played some of the rhythm tracks, the first solo on ‘Still got time’ and the final one on ‘Preacher’.

    The 2290 is not a problem as it’s in a a totally separate loop. The output goes straight to a power amp / speaker combo hence isolating the ‘delay’ signal from the ‘dry’ one. I run it hot, never fear :-)

    With respect to ‘Ash’, I have heard this before!

    Thanks for your input.

17. Donny on 01/07/10 at 1302 hours

    Simon - did you include the MXR Distortion+ in you trials, I wonder? I am guessing that this would have been around the early-mid 70’s - I distinctly recall that was the only one worth having at that time. The name is a misnomer, it could be used as an incredibly transparent, high power booster for quite a range of the lower end settings, then the overdrive type ‘distortion’ started appearing as you dialled upwards - it was never intrusive or over the top. Back then, I used it to effectively control a Marshall 1959 100W head in all venues, all levels, worked well with the whole mess of Fenders and a Vox AC30 I used after that too, incredible device, the old script logo one was the best. Incidentally it was the only one Larry Carlton would use back then, he used it for a decade or so, I know this because I helped set up his gear on a number of occasions back then!
    Enjoyed reading your set of articles. One thing I would add is that the actual NOS tubes used in amps need to be understood in specification terms, there is generally a huge variation, even between the same brand, type, this may explain why some try the same valve in the same amp as their ‘current heroes’ and get disappointed fast! Same applies even when replacing a valve in your own amp - unless you understand what you are doing, and that includes testing the replacement, as well as some knowledge of the old, if you are looking for the same sound, the sound is going to change and not always for the better. Astonishing that some makers charge a fortune for boutique type amps and then sell them to players (I willingly plead guilty as charged, your honour!) then neglect the final, vital details, its like putting paraffin in your Ferrari’s gas tank as the first free refill!

18. Simonski on 01/07/10 at 1311 hours

    I never owned an MXR Distortion+. I know loads of people who had them though, and yes, they look cool!

    Totally agree about the NOS stuff. I have a box of them and try a number just to get a great sounding tube in that particular amp. Its the mechanical nature of the device that makes them so interesting!

    Thanks for your comments: they are greatly valued.

    What are you doing now?

19. Sean Whittaker on 30/08/10 at 2355 hours

    Hi Simon, Sean Whittaker here. Good to see you are still at the music. Hope you and the family are well. I am still in touch with Dave and Eddie. All the best with playing

20. Simon on 03/01/11 at 1653 hours

    Hey Sean. I missed this!!! Great to hear from you please send my regards and buy the album when it come out!

21. Clive Kay on 21/04/12 at 0844 hours

    It is nice to see that like all of us on the road to trying to get that tone, you have, nay I say stumbled, into the same darkness as the rest of us !!
    I have had a Bludo , Ceriatone, Custom Reverb Sig2 etc. I now have a Custom Reverb Sig 3 and a Two Rock J2 with the POD tone stack that does it for me.
    Pedal-wise , an Ethos OD, Zendrive and a Plextortion ( for that Marshally sound) works at the moment.. Unfortunately I am sure I will try summat else !!

22. Simon Campbell on 22/04/12 at 2334 hours

    Thanks Clive, sounds great. Do you have anything I can listen to?

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