ToneQuest Report: December 2024 – Vol. 26, No. 2

What's Inside This Issue:

Interview With Lou Rosano – Louis Electric Cobra 183 – Friends and longtime readers of ToneQuest are clear about our affection for Lou Rosano and his finely built and tuned Louis Electric Amplifiers. Over the years, we’ve milked the goods and blasted away with six Louis Electric amps: Lou’s Buster (Tweed Deluxe-inspired circuit), the KR-12 higher-powered, 40-watt head (November 2009), the 2×12 Big Bluesbuster combo (December 2005), its smaller cousin, the 2×12 Baby Bluesbuster (September 2007), the 2×10 Tornado combo(November 2018), and here we are, a couple decades on from our first encounter to explore with Lou his take on a specific Dumble Overdrive Special (ODS), in this case, serial number183 and how that came to be. Does it seem that Dumble is bigger than ever and everywhere builders and players seem to want a piece of his seemingly magical touch? It sure does, to us. With the real thing now fetching north of 200 large, the appreciation runs wide in our universe. While most of us will never have a chance to dig into one ourselves, there are alternatives out there—more than ever, actually. We may affectionately refer to this as Dumbleitis and Lou’s Cobra 183 feeds the fever. —Scott Ulrichs

Review: Louis Electric Amplifiers Cobra 183 – Snake Don’t Taste Like Chicken – It has to be said that the graphic on the front panel of Lou’s Cobra 183 reminds us of Nag, the five-foot-long black king cobra who plays the antagonist along with his snake wife Nagaina in the 1894 Rudyard Kipling children’s short story: “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” scared the livin’ shit out of us as kids. Those haunted whispering voices cast a spell, much like this amp, the seventh of Lou’s with which we’ve had time to dance. We played the hell out of the Cobra 183 like always, and seeking sweet spots was an enjoyable endeavor. There is nuance to be explored, with many different levels of clean to very mean and a load of gain on tap, more than you might imagine. It was a sad departure when we had to box it up and send back to Lou, but we will forever remember our time with his take on arguably the most mysterious and coveted amps out there today. This is a grandiloquent and distinctly different-performing amp than those we’ve had in the stable of late, and we expect that offerings of similar circuits at less than 100 watts of badassness just won’t do the do. Dumbleitis: Bring it! —Scott Ulrichs

Interview With Gordon Kennedy – The Wizard Of Nashville – Gordon Kennedy was born to play guitar. As a multi-Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter, and guitarist for Garth Brooks, Kennedy has done it all. From his early days growing up in the music industry with the Nashville Cats to producing Peter Frampton and co-writing Eric Clapton’s hit “Change The World,” Kennedy is a creative talent who continues to evolve, especially when it comes to his gear and the sound of his guitars and amplifiers. Here, he discusses his new relationship with Wizard Amplification. Gordon’s main amp since he bought in 1992 had been a Matchless—“The thing that I always felt about the Matchless was that it sounded like it wanted single-coils over humbuckers. That amp has done everything I have ever wanted it to do. It works. But there’s something more user-friendly about the design of this Wizard.” Gordon is happy to spread the word about the fantastic sound of Wizard Amps and Rick St. Pierre, the great guy who builds them. —Oscar Jordan

Nash T-52 HN – A Player’s Perspective – At some point, most guitar players crave a “blackguard” Telecaster. Fender’s iconic blonde is the original, and arguably definitive, solidbody electric, a design that causes many of us go weak in the knees. Similarly obsessed, I began my own hunt, fully aware there are endless Telecaster permutations out there–and not all of them good. After considerable research, I grabbed a used Nash, which also provided an illuminating journey into the heart and soul of this American archetype. Here’s a TQR player’s perspective, along with comments from the builder himself, Bill Nash of Nashguitars. For this player, my research paid off and the T-52 HN delivered on Nash’s solid word-of-mouth reputation. I play weekly in a fusiony jam band, and even my discerning bandmates are pleased by what they hear. It might be heresy, but I’ve put a few nicks into the finish myself, adding “relic” spots here and there. I’m going to own this T-52 HN for a long time and wanted to put my own stamp on it, musically and otherwise. A scrape here, a ding there. As all guitar players know, there’s nothing like a beautifully bruised “blackguard.” —Pete Prown

1959 Fender Jazzmaster – Surfin’ The Bebop – There it was, a beautiful 1959 Fender Jazzmaster staring at us from its well-lit perch. We made a mental note that we should play this guitar at some point every time we laid eyes on it over the last couple of months, and finally, we couldn’t take it anymore. A pilgrimage to Music Villa in Bozeman, Montana is an important part of our life, and we are led there from time to time to see what may have wandered in. Each visit has the potential to lead to the formation of a new friendship, an impromptu jam, and occasionally the introduction to a well-known musician on guitar safari while out on tour. Jared James Nichols and Andy Timmons are within weeks of returning to play clinics in this intimate setting, and we’ve gleaned wisdom from Bugs Henderson, Steve Morse, Daniel Donato, and Brent Mason, who’ve entertained these same small gatherings. We asked our friend Paul Decker if we could take the Jazzmaster home for 24 hours, get to know it, and describe that experience for our family of tone fiends. As always, he didn’t hesitate, and after quickly walking us through the fragile state of the original case latches, we were off. Oh, boy. A match made for the times and undeniably vintage in sound and response. There’s something uniquely intoxicating about the way the notes hold and feel when you really dig in with an old Jazzmaster. —Scott Ulrichs

Interview With Bart Postlewait – Echoplex: The Legacy Continues – The spacey sounds of Les Paul, Scotty Moore, Ritchie Blackmore, ELO, Joe Walsh, The Scorpions, and Andy Summers came from somewhere, and that was the Echoplex. Designed by Mike Battle in 1959, it set the standard for tape delay and is still a highly sought-after guitar effect. Battle passed away in 2008 at 90, but his innovative legacy lives on through his grandson-in-law, Bart Postlewait at Hartville Music, in Hartville Ohio, a guitar player/teacher and a pedal guy. Some of his favorite customers include producer and songwriter Gordon Kennedy—”He had four of them when I first met him, and I fixed all of them over the years. Ricky Skaggs is another gentleman I’ve worked with, and I’ve serviced all of his Echoplexes. One of my favorite moments was when his family asked me to service one of Tommy Bolin’s old Echoplexes. Tommy passed away in 1976, but the machine was still floating around and needed service.” Bart is unwavering in his confidence that a good Echoplex is one that’s beat up and has the vinyl falling off it. “You have to bring it in for a case repair because it’s falling apart. Those are the good ones, not the pristine ones.”—Oscar Jordan

The Treasured Echoplex: It All Starts With The Tape – (((Mr. Echo))) Journal Entry 2 – Tape: the guitar string of the Echoplex. In this the 21st century, we musicians have held onto many things that the rest of time has forgotten or just plain abandoned. We call those things requirements, and standards. Spring reverbs, germanium transistors, vacuum tubes, and most definitely, tape. At least records are currently highly prized again. But tape, why? So primitive, so 20th century and so are some of the best songs ever recorded. Nothing sounds like physically moving analog stuff. Wah-wah pedals, Leslie speakers, guitar strings, an Echoplex tape loop passing over the heads creating a rhythm that only it can. I have met so many different Echoplexes in my lifetime, most of them a treasured possession of its owner. So many different perspectives of what “good” is. I love it. Owners trust me to repair their “baby”, not hotrod it. And it all starts with the tape. There are a couple of standard things I want share with you when it comes to tape. —Bart Postlewait

Review – Keeley Electronics Zoma Stereo Reverb And Tremolo – Two-in-one pedals are all the rage. For gigging guitarists, combining multiple effects within a simple control layout that doesn’t require an engineering degree is a dream come true. Compact stomp boxes that don’t take up a bunch of real estate get major points, too. Keeley Electronics continues this concept with a pedal that combines three awesome sounds that sound even more incredible together. The Zoma embraces the grit and brings a luxurious fullness to the demo rigs. It’s perfect for roots, country, rockabilly, blues, psychedelic, or ambient music. The functionality is as simple as it gets, and having the sounds run independently with the ability to switch the order of effects is a handy option that affects the output. The Zoma Stereo Reverb and Tremolo is the sonic cherry on a user’s unfinished rig. It induces sonic pleasure when enabling over-the-top settings but gets down to business for straightforward coloring, atmosphere, and aural richness. —Oscar Jordan

The Ultimate Book Of Blues Guitar Legends – The Players And Guitars That Shaped The Music – Longtime guitar author Pete Prown has just released an amazingly comprehensive book covering over 150 artists in the blues and blues rock genres, spanning the past 100 years. Prown, a virtuoso guitarist and music editor for Vintage Guitar magazine (and recent TQR contributor), has been writing about guitars and music for nearly four decades. Guitarists will love this book because the author details the instruments, amps, and (in some instances) effects that helped to define the tones of each player. Anytime you hear a singer or instrumental note bending, that goes back to the blues and its cousin, gospel music. If you hear “modal” music—based on the seven-note scale—that’s from the European classical tradition, but from the five-note pentatonic universe—be it blues, R&B, soul, or funk—that’s the blues. Records and radio cross-pollinated it into every other 20th-century style, so, literally, the blues is everywhere. Just look at the popular and orchestral work of George Gershwin; both “Summertime” and “Rhapsody in Blue” are awash in blues from the American South. TQR caught up with him as he was beginning his promotional activities surrounding the new book. —Tom Guerra