82 PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2009 www.premierguitar.com
How’s it going? This month we’re going to
look at the effect that treble frequencies
have on guitar amps and just why they’re so
important to the overall tone you’re seeking
in an amplifier, to begin with. The desire for
more treble in guitar amps started way back
in the infancy of tube amplifiers designed
for electric guitars. In the beginning, and
throughout the evolution of his amp line,
Leo Fender was always asking working
musicians what they thought of the amps
he manufactured. It turned out that most of
them wanted a brighter, snappier tone to suit
the musical styles of the day (e.g. the type of
popular “country and western” music heard
back in the late ‘40s). The first Fender amps
were voiced directly from the opinions of
the musicians who played them. Eventually,
Fender amps found favor as the perfect
match for the Fender Broadcaster (and many
other brands of electric guitars). This increase
in brightness worked well for country and jazz
styles alike, where there was a need for more
definition of tone.
As American music evolved and rock and
roll was invented, ears all over the globe
heard and embraced this exciting new form
of musical sound. You could say that our
ears had become “biased” toward what we
were hearing over the airwaves, and this was
certainly the case in the United Kingdom
and Europe as well. Listeners the world
over were hearing for the first time that
pleasingly bright tone from the imported
American records they bought from their
local record shops. But there was a slight
problem with amplifiers made in Britain—they
were too dark sounding when compared to
the American sound that was being spun on
the turntables across the Atlantic. In Britain,
and Europe too, it’s very conceivable that
the first guitar “effects” units were the treble
boosters made by a few companies in Britain,
like Dallas Arbiter and Hornby Skewes, to
name only two such manufacturers. The
reigning king of the treble boosters is most
likely the Dallas Rangemaster unit. However,
there are some others that are equally
engaging in tonal quality.
There is also quite a list of top British
guitarists who used treble boosters in
conjunction with a variety of English
amplifiers, such as Eric Clapton’s Marshall
2x12 combo (recorded using a 1960 Gibson
Les Paul during his seminal stint with John
Mayall and The Bluesbreakers on the Beano
record from 1966) and Ritchie Blackmore’s
vintage dot-neck ES-335, which was plugged
into a Hornby Skewes treble booster seen
sitting on top of his VOX AC30 during the
“Double Concerto” footage from Royal
Albert Hall. I believe that Ritchie’s solo on
Deep Purple’s first hit single, “Hush,” used
this same rig. It sure has the same tone
and attitude! This rest of the list includes
everyone from The Shadows’ Hank B. Marvin
to Ireland’s Rory Gallagher, from Black
Sabbath’s Tony Iommi to Queen’s Brian May,
and pretty much everyone in between.
I’ve found that the vast majority of players
who favored original Vox AC30s actually
plugged into the Normal channel rather than
the brilliant, but louder, “Top Boost” channel.
What could be the reason? If you’ve ever had
a chance to plug into the Normal channel of
an original AC30, one of the first things you
noticed is that the sound is indeed darker, and
yet it has much more girth than the brighter
“Top Boost” channel. In order to bring out
that girthy tone you have to add just a bit of
optimized high end from a treble booster—
to give it a bit of clarity and definition. The
Normal channel is dark sounding because in
the actual layout of an original AC30 the drive
tube (V4) is split between the two channels,
and the Normal channel side doesn’t include
the treble and bass controls. Instead, only the
“Top Boost” channel inputs have full control
over these two tone controls—and the “Cut”
control as well. By the way, the “Cut” control
does work with the Normal channel, but even
so, it’s best to use a treble booster here and
set the “Cut” control where it sounds good to
your ear and simply leave it there. Your choice
of instrument will also guide where you set the
“Cut” control.
Okay, so now you can really listen to those
old classic records and know why they
sounded so great to start with. There are so
many tones you can pull off from those old
records with some careful tweaking of the
proper instrument and amplifier, along with
a few well-chosen stompboxes. And, you can
get very close to the original if you choose
the right stuff. Remember, this stuff doesn’t
have to cost an arm and a leg. I get a pretty
convincing VOX tone from my old beloved
Peavey Classic 30 combo. Next month, I’ll
tell you how you can nail this great old sound
with a wonderful pedal that I’ve recently
discovered. See you next time.
Treble in Mind
DEAN FARLEY
SIGNAL CHAIN
Dean Farley
is the chief designer of "Snake Oil Brand Strings"
( sobstrings.net) and has had a profound influence
on the trends in the strings of today.
If you’ve ever had a chance
to plug into the Normal chan-
nel of an original AC30, one
of the first things you noticed
is that the sound is indeed
darker, and yet it has much
more girth than the brighter
“Top Boost” channel. In order
to bring out that girthy tone
you have to add just a bit of
optimized high end from a
treble booster—to give it a
bit of clarity and definition
