ToneQuest Report: July-August 2022 – Vol. 23, No. 9-10

What's Inside This Issue:

The Pinecaster – After eight years of traveling around the world on an extensive passion project, Nacho Baños births a companion piece to his highly sought-after book “The Blackguard.” Nacho’s fascinating endeavor creates “The Pinecaster,” a Four-Volume Collection documenting the early years of Telecaster guitars from 1920-1955. Authored “With a little help from his friends,” we talk to Lynn Wheelwright renowned expert and collector of vintage electric guitars, Billy F Gibbons the legendary Reverend, author of the hand-drawn watercolor Art-Work, and among the list of legendary guitarist, Redd Volkaert, who plays these historical instruments in an exclusive video app. The Rev proclaims, “The Pinecaster” book covers it all— “It’s truly an astounding work of discovery of the elements and enjoyment of Fender magic.”

Coaxing A Bit More Out Of A Telecaster With Dave Boze – If you want more out of your Telecaster, it’s worth trying a wiring design that is fun and useful. Dave Boze takes us through the choices that coax a bit more out of your Telecaster with his own wiring setup for true Telecaster tones and two new unique tones that are totally stock yet reversible. It’s worth a try, especially if you like that infamous Strat clucky sound.

The César Díaz Tremodillo Tales – A good tremolo will break your heart with lilting cords and shimmering notes from the ether of the skies. The tremolo in Fender amps is certainly special, but some small batch pedals called the Texas Tremodillo have set the bar for unleashing your full glory. Our search for a Texas Tremodillo triggered a revisit to the ToneQuest August 2002 issue and how César Díaz and Stevie Ray Vaughan chased down Hendrix guitar tone. Here’s to César and contemplating the remarkable tones he created here on earth still delivering the magic after all these years.

Kashiah Hunter – Kashiah Hunter’s story is one built on faith and nurtured by the deep tradition of music borne from the sacred steel. Kashiah grew up and played church services together with the talented Robert Randolph who is responsible for taking the steel outside the four walls. A friend of Raphael McGregor and John Eichleay, Kashiah has played in Brooklyn, New York at the Steel Unconvention with some greats like Lucky Oceans, Doug Jernigan, Susan Alcorn, Travis Toy, Mike Neer and Dave Easley, just to name a few.

Full Circle With A Silverface Deluxe Reverb – Have you ever found yourself back where you started only to find how good you had it? Riverhorse and Greg Talley are at Jeff Bakos’ workshop in Little Five Points, Atlanta and in a debate voted the Blackface Deluxe Reverb as one of the “only can have three amps.” Talley’s fate is sealed and he sets out to find a BFDR, however, he recalls David Wilson saying the Deluxe and Princeton circuits changed very little from the ’60s to the ‘70s. Talley remembers his 1980 SFDR sounded pretty good and for half the price, he pulls the knob on one of the best bargain amps out there —a clean original 1977 SFDR and off to Jeff Bakos for testing and to make it right.

Oklahoma Barncaster – Eight hundred listings of guitar bodies and only one described as having come from a fallen barn in Oklahoma sparks an interest and, even better, only cost $70. We go full bore and ante up the best parts and take our best shot —including Callaham saddles, ferrules, a wicked Lollar Special bridge pickup made just for us, a custom humbucker from an underground maker, who we’ll reveal next month… a custom TQR neck from Cody Gleason and to the workbench trenches with luthier Clancey Compton to bring our guitar to life…