Mountainview Publishing, LLC INSIDE the Mambo Sons Tom Guera… 20 Years of Rockin’Tone on stage The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone & TM studio $10.00 US, April 2007/VOL.8 NO.6 Report Reviews – 9 The rare Digging for Tones Bassman you really want… the blonde Fender ‘61 6G6 “There’s a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music – kind of an unwritten rule. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve got it.” - Ron Wood The ‘64 AA864 blackface Bassman… affordable, portable, and It is fundamental to the human condition that we constantly strive to improve our lot in life, and still plentiful guitar players are not immune to such urges when it comes to choosing what we play. But how many players possess the confident independence and vision to clear their own path in the quest 11 for tone? It certainly is easier following a clearly marked trail left by others, but the old trails The $400 hybrid blazed by the true pioneers in musical instrument manufacturing have swelled to super highways Marshall 3203 30W… clogged by timid tonefreaks clinging to the middle of the road. And while the aptly named “infor- mation highway” has vividly enhanced our fantasies of perfect tone, it has also fostered a “me 12 too” culture in which individuals seek security and validation in numbers. New from Lindy Fralin, RS Guitarworks & Greg Martin… “Psychebilly” humbuckers & wiring kit inspired by Greg’s ‘58 Les Paul! 15 The Stellartone Tonestyler… 16 tones from a single tone pot! 16 New from Fender… the American & vintage Hot Rod Stratocasters Like the old Tower of Power song, “What Is Hip?” our perceptions of what may indeed be hip 18 are constantly assaulted by stale myths, giddy sycophants drunk on the kool-aid flavor of the Step on this… month, and well-greased marketing campaigns that promote exclusionary images of what is Voodoo Lab essential, cool and bleeding edge. It is definitely tougher to be uniquely different today… to Micro Vibe stand out from the crowd in a good way and create your own voice… but this has always been our wish for each of you. Never shall you speak with a mumblin’ word. The Quest for Tone is T Rex all about unearthing sources of inspiration that will ultimately encourage the discovery of your Room-Mate Reverb voice – not someone else’s. www.tonequest.com cover story To quote the title of a long forgotten song by one of the most electric guitar in the popular power trios to have ever plummeted into complete first place, even oblivion… “Are you ready?” Ready to open your mind to before I played, was possibilities that may have escaped your attention? Are you the sound. As a kid, I willing to revisit places perhaps briefly skirted in a different remember hearing time, and in a different frame of mind ( ). Well, of Led Zeppelin I and II course you are… it’s why you’re here in the first place and and just falling in love others aren’t (except perhaps the cheap bastards that read with the tones, think- your copy of the TQ every month). ing that if I could even come close to My, my, heh, heh – how we are beset with curious choices the sounds that Jimmy today… The stuff people used to put out with the trash or sell Page was capturing, for $10 at a yard sale is hundreds now and climbing. The I’d be happy. By the stuff that used to be a few hundred is now a few thousand, time I turned 14, I’d and the really fine, high dollar stuff of yesterday is untouch- built my own guitar, a able. Then there’s new stuff… some of it truly outstanding Flying V copy with Gibson mini-humbuckers which I played and priced accordingly, other stuff less expensive and pretty through an old stereo. One day, a friend of mine was at my solid, if less than spectacular. But most of the gear made house, and he seemed impressed that I had built the guitar, today is simply something made to be sold, and people buy it and generously offered to give me his 1967 Gibson SG because it’s cheap enough not to matter. Special. Not having a dime in those days, I was ecstatic. A life changing event indeed, as having such a nice guitar made Still, there are me want to learn as much as I could. Within a year or so, I plenty of worthy was gigging in bars using the SG through a used Ampeg VT- tools that deserve 40, and it sounded great, just like the Rolling Stones’ “Love your attention, You Live,” which had just been released. I really didn’t use and not a week any pedals back then other than my Thomas Cry-Baby, and to goes by when we this day, nothing sounds better to me than a good guitar don’t get a call straight into a good amp. Soon after, I added a matching asking if we have Ampeg V-4 to my setup which made things sound even big- ever reviewed ger. One day after school, I dragged the stack out into the another new front yard and actually played “Name That Tune” with a gizmo that is get- schoolmate who lived across town! Keep in mind, this was ting heavily the late 1970s, and everyone played at stadium volume. greased on the Gear Page. How to sort through this mess? Consulting an experienced, hands-on guitar player with taste, My goal from the ears and a track record decades long works – super star sta- beginning was to tus not required. We began this edition of the Quest getting to play a good sounding know a guitarist that may be unfamiliar to most of you living guitar within the con- west of New York – Tom Guera, founder of the Mambo Sons. text of a good tune, Tom is here because he is one of us… a lifelong musician and I initially with influences we can call our own, and a reverent apprecia- admired people like tion for guitars and amps that create and inspire memorable George Harrison, tones. He is also remarkably articulate – a wonderful attrib- who seemed to play ute when you are dealing with the written word. Enjoy… exactly what fit the song. At the time, TQR: Tom, you are the first player we have interviewed Ampeg VT40 Eddie Van Halen was whose press kit includes a summary of the gear you huge, and while most every other guitar player wanted to have used on recent recordings, track by track. Can play that stuff, for some reason I didn’t, although he’s cer- you describe the evolution of your choice of gui- tainly a giant. tars, amps and effects, starting at the beginning of your professional career? A few years later, the SG finally gave up the ghost, having developed the ubiquitous headstock and neck joint cracks. Designed for guitar players by guitar players! (laughing) Right after this, in around 1981, I found an old beat Les Paul Going way back to the beginning, what attracted to me to the Junior for $125 with a single P-90 and started a band with -continued- 2 TONEQUEST REPORT V8. N6. April 2007 cover story (future Mambo Sons singer) Scott Lawson called Black Cat Bones. I kept the Junior for a year or so, and then traded that plus $250 for a beautiful 1976 Les Paul goldtop with stock P-90s on it that was marked “2” for factory second. To this day, I cannot figure out why it’s a second – perhaps because it was so unlike the garbage that Gibson was churn- ing out at the time. After Black Cat Bones split, I played the Paul with The Dirty Reverb II, a Paul Rivera design. This was a great little Bones Band, a amp that sure made my bandmates happy. I installed a 5-piece group Celestion 12 which improved the low end, and it made which soon quite a difference. The year was 1984, the height of the became known MTV craze, and The Bones were really going against the for our raucous grain as we were playing “grime and gristle” blues and live shows. It rock and roll, as one reporter said. Because we were such was not uncommon to have gigs turn into drunken brawls, outsiders, we did everything ourselves – the booking, pro- and one night in I almost got killed trying to save the goldtop motion, even buying the booze at times… We’d blow into from flying tables, chairs and bottles that were being thrown town, do the show at a VFW hall, party a bit with our new around. How that guitar survived those crazy days I don’t friends and then leave. It was hard work, but it paid off, know, but I still own it and it’s in remarkably good shape for as we developed quite a big following, and I learned a lot all it’s been through. about the business end of things. Another life changing moment In the mid ‘80s, I started occurred in 1983, while I was playing Stratocasters exclu- rummaging around the basement sively, and I soon started to of Caruso Music in New buy and sell guitars, keeping London, CT. In between a stack those that felt good to me. of cases, I found a beat up, Around this time, I began stripped, maple capped Fender using twin halfstacks, an Telecaster for $275 and I had to amp that is a sort of sleeper have it.