We asked our friend Dave Noss at Avatar Speakers which players were using the Fane Ascension Series and he pointed us to Luis Maldonado — a tasteful ripper and tone hound, who has spent 30-plus years writing, recording and performing on stages with the likes of John Waite, Glenn Hughes, Train and as a current member of Foreigner, just wrapping up the 2023 tour at the time of this conversation. We went deep on the rigors of the road and its toll on gear, going straight in and cranking an early '70s stock Marshall Super Bass and what speakers can handle that 100 plus wattage pummeling for north of one hundred dates a year. How he went about dialing in Mick Jones' tones which led to nothing more than that Super Lead, a Marshall SE-1 attenuator and a Pelham Blue Murphy Lab '64 SG that rivals his buddy's real one. We spent a little time on life in general, which revealed a deep thinker and warm soul, but here's a short take on Luis' dance with Fane speakers.
TQR: Welcome to TQ and thanks for making the time. I pulled up your tour schedule, looks pretty intense...
Well, this is our last week for the year, but we started last February and have been going pretty full on, with a week break here and there. It's been a blast.
TQR: You've been a player of Fane speakers for a while now. Take us through that evolution.
Sure. I've been a fan ever since I got my first '70s Hiwatt cabinet back in the nineties and I've got many of their speakers, both the old and current versions. For years I had been trying to get my hands on some of the newer offerings but distribution in the states was somewhat nonexistent. When I ran into my friends Neal Ostberg and Steve Fryette at NAMM back in 2011 who together resurrected the Sound City Amplification brand, they pointed me to the Fane booth that was right next door as they had been working together on developing some new speakers. I got to talking with Fouad and Neil of Fane and they were surprised at how well I knew of the company's legacy and their speakers from the '70s. That three-way conversation led to Steve offering to have me check out what they had collectively been working on.
I brought my old Hiwatt cabs and an old, disassembled speaker in a box without a cone over to Sound City, so that he could use them as further references to the old tones. Steve and Neal had to get it right as the original amps had stock Fanes and they wanted to stay true to the tradition. We went back and forth with many of the old ones and geeked out hard as we listened. They kept a couple of my old cabs to study for weeks, while I was out on tour. As things progressed, my relationship with Fane grew and they sent me a couple speakers to try out. I ended up using the F70 quite a bit out on the road and the A60 is my go-to in the studio.
TQR: What is it specifically that you hear with the A60?
For me the A60 speaker is sonically refined. It sounds like it's been EQ'd, compressed, processed and mastered, like a finished record. It sounds detailed and warm when played clean, and when pushed it maintains that same character just at a bigger scale. I'm a Jensen and Celestion fan as well. All great. However, to my ears when I listen to a Celestion Vintage 30 or H30, there seems to be something with the way they're EQ'd that leads me to having to spend a good amount of time dialing them in, and they often do better when different speakers are paired. You find these combos that work really well.
With the Fane, I never hear frequency bumps. The lows don't flub out, there's musical clarity to the high end, and it's round, not piercing. I don't know how they did it, but they sound broken in right away. As far as the F70 ceramics, that's a great all-around speaker that handles everything you give it. I play the old '70s Marshall 100-watt Super Bass, no mods, just completely stock and wide open, and I use an attenuator to knock it down a bit. With both the F60 and A60, I've found that they go hand and hand with the British circuit. My A60s currently live in an open back Rivera 2x12. It's a well-tuned and robust cabinet. The closest to the A60s to my ears are the Celestion Gold Alnicos, a great speaker, but the Fane has this detail, which doesn't mean you have to finesse it. It's more along the lines of "how are all the right sounds coming out of it," [Laughs.] if that makes any sense. Quest forth... TQ—Scott Ulrichs
Luisguitar.com
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