I started as a bass player about 30 years ago. I played quite a few live gigs and spent many hours jamming in basements. Over the last few years I decided to start playing guitar. I started with electrics and quite a few effects, my favorite was a rack mount effect made by Rocktron called the Voodu Valve. After a few years I realized I wasn’t really getting much better, sure I learned some new things but I wasn’t improving as fast as I wanted. Then I learned something that really changed everything for me.

I got my hands on an old acoustic, I’m talking over 50 years old, a true vintage acoustic just like many of the old blues players used. The tone isn’t sparkling and clean like on a Martin acoustic, it was raw like you hear on old blues records from the pioneers of blues. The action isn’t super low, and it takes some effort to do bends, yet this guitar has improved my playing more than any guitar costing thousands of dollars. The neck is slightly wider than most of my guitars, the action a little higher and the tone much less forgiving. You can’t hide mistakes on this guitar like you can on an electric using effects and distortion. You have to play it right or it sounds like crap. Once you can make it sound good on this guitar you can make it sound incredible on any guitar. I now play this old warhorse at least one hour a day and its made more improvemts in my playing than any other thing I’ve tried.

Many people playing guitar can’t afford to get all the gear they would like to have. I’ve managed to find great buys and incredible values on guitar equipment just by knowing where to look. For one thing, I’m not a brand name snob, if it plays good and sounds good, it is good. A great example is Squire guitars, they are low priced Fender guitars. If you take the time to look and play a few you’ll find many of them play as good and sometimes even better than the higher priced Fender guitars. On the lower priced Squire guitars they normally skimp on the electronics, cheaper volume and tone controls, cheaper switches and tuners. Even though some of the parts are cheaper, they are still quite functional and easily upgraded for a few bucks.

I also eagerly shop garage sales, pawn shops and used sections of local music stores. Many times music stores have no idea what they really have and mislable guitars with prices that are much lower than what they are really worth. A good example is a vintage Made in Japan Fender Stratocaster I found at a Guitar Center. One glance and I knew it was one of the vintage reissue models and they had it for sale used for $225, I snapped it right up, played it for about a month and then sold it on ebay for more than twice what I paid for it! I would have kept it but I didn’t like the vintage frets. 

Here is just a few of the deals I’ve found:

1964 Gibson Kalamazoo Model Two Guitar amp - I paid $5 for it at a garage sale and it only needed about $5 worth of parts to get it working perfect again. This sweet old tube amp has an 6AQ5 power amp tube and a 12AX7 preamp. This amp screams when plugged into a 4×12’s speaker cabinet. It is easy to work with, simply turn the amp up to full volume and then dial in the amount for overdrive you want with the volume knob on your guitar. This is nice because you can control it right from your guitar without having to go anwywhere near the amp. If you want clean guitar tones simply turn down the volume on the guitar. if you want crunch and overdrive, just turn up the guitar volume. This amp is all hand wired, point to point wiring, no circuit boards. This makes the amp very easy to work on and very reliable. Great for blues and rock music.

1973 Fender Vibro Champ. Another vintage tube amp I picked up cheap, $75 at a flea market. This amp is mint! Incredible tone in a small package. Its another amp that really shines when pushing a 4×12’s speaker cabinet. It has lots of clean headroom, very sweet tone and doesn’t start breaking up until I hit about 7 on the volume. This is another tube amp that I turn up to full volume and adjust it using the volume knob on the guitar. This amp is also great for blues and rock music, but its also good for country and even jazz.

50’s or 60’s SIlvertone Tube Amp. I got this amp out of an old silvertone organ that I got for free from a garage sale. I pulled the tube amp out and modified it slightly for guitar. This amp is an EL84 (6BQ5) based amp with a 12AX7 preamp tube. It has a second 12AX7 that was being used for the vibrato circuit but I’m having it modified to remove the vibrato and add more gain stages. this tube amp is another very sweet sounding amp. Its also another hand wired amp with point to point wiring.

Indiana Scout Acoustic Guitar - Very pretty guitar in a blue burst finish. I got it for $20 at a garage sale with a gigbag. The guitar was mint and appeared to have been played a couple times and kept in the gigbag ever since. They sell new for about $100-$150, so its not a top quality guitar. However the fit and finish was flawless and once I lowered the action a bit it plays incredible. It doesn’t sound like a Martin Acoustic, but it does have a very nice balanced tone and its fun to play. It stays in tune great and the neck feels really nice. I considered selling it but realized I’d probably only get about $50 for it and there was no way I could find a better acoustic for $50 to replace it quickly. So I’m keeping it until I find a better one and even then I may not sell it. $20 for a good playing guitar makes it perfect to take with me camping, to the park or just to pick on the porch on summer evenings.

Early "50’s Oscar Schmidt Parlor Guitar. I picked it up for $2 at a garage sale, It didn’t have strings, a bridge or tuners. But one look and I knew it was worth fixing up. it has a very nice vintage sunburst finish that is very similar to the Gibson Heritage Cherry Sunburst used on some Les Pauls. It looked like it had been played a lot by a previous owner and then left to sit in a closet for probably about 50 years. I put a decent set of open back tuners on it, a floating rosewood bridge and a new set of Martin Acoustic Guitar strings on her and then spent the next day or so making adjustments and cleaning her up. She now plays very well with nice low action and no fret buzz anywhere on the guitar neck. She has a nice "old school" blues sound just like what you hear on vintage blues records. Many of the original bluesmen played on guitars just like this because they were inexpensive and easy to get. Its a great guitar for playing on the front porch or even while watching TV. The smaller body size make it very comfortable to play too.

Fender Squire Butterscotch Blonde Telecaster. I piad $99 for it new because it had a couple chips in the finish.The fit and finish on it was perfect (other than the chips) the neck was nice and tight in the pocket and has realy nice wood grain on the maple fretboard. The neck feels great and the frets were well done right from the factory. I did some minor adjustments on it and replaced the pickups with some real nice AlNiCo magnet pickups from GFS. This guitar is now one of my favorite players and has incredible tone.

Fender Squire ‘51 Moddified Telecaster - Musicians Friend was blowing these out on sale for $99! I got one in a nice vintage sunburst. this guitar comes with a tele style neck on a strat style body. It has one single coil pickup in the neck and a nice hot humbucker in the bridge position. The humbucker was already a great sounding pickup so I only replaced the neck pickup with a vintage AlNiCo strat pickup. This guitar rocks! It is a great playing guitar and It can easily play anything from country to heavy metal and anything in between. I play mostly blues and rock on it and its a real workhorse with great tone and a great feel. A very fun guitar to play!

If you look at everything I have you’ll see I spent about $300 and got three tube amps, two acoustic guitars and two electric guitars! I play all of them almost every day. I’d say it was $300 well spent and the best part is some of the pieces will continue to go up in value! The old fender amps are going up and up in price, so are the old Gibsons and Silvertones - A great investment in guitars and amps!

Fender made the blackface bassman amp between 1964-1967. The bassman was designed as a bass amp but very quickly became a favorite of many guitar players. I’ve read that the original Marshall amps were designed based on the Fender Bassman circuit. The Blackface bassman was designed as a piggy back setup with a seperate head and speaker cabinet. Fender used three different circuits in the bassman depending on the year it was made, they are the AA864, AA165 and AB165.

Specifications:
Control Panel: Black forward facing w/ white labels
Front Conrol Layout:Bass: In, In, Deep Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass - Normal: In, In, Bright Sw, Vol, Treb, Bass - Pilot Lamp
Rear Conrol Layout: AC Outlet, Ground Sw, Fuse (2A), Power Sw, Standby Sw, Speaker, Ex. Speaker
Knobs: Black skirted w/ chrome center, numbered 1 - 10
Head: 8" x 22¼" x 9" (20.3 x 56.5 x 22.9 cm)
Head Hardware: Black strap handle, 4½" chassis straps, corner protectors, cab hooks
Cabinet: 64-67: 21" x 32" x 11½" (53.3 x 81.3 x 29.2 cm) Late 67: 40" x 29½" x 11½" (101.6 x 74.9 x 29.2 cm)
Cab Hardware: 64-67: Black strap handle, 16" tilt-back legs, corner protectors, knurled studs, glides. Late 67: 3 black strap handles, corner protectors, knurled studs, casters
Head/Cab Covering: Black Tolex
Head/Cab Grille: Silver sparkle grille cloth
Logo: Grille mounted, raised, chrome & black, script "Fender" (head and cab)
Weight: Head: 30 lbs. (14.5 Kg) Cab: 52 lbs. (23.6 Kg)
Speakers/Load: 2 x 12"/4 ohms total (8 ohms each in parallel)
Speaker Model: Jensen C12N, Oxford 12T6 or Utah ceramic 12"
Effects: None
Output: 50 Watts
Preamp: Bass: 2 x 7025, Normal: 7025
Power: 2 x 6L6GC
Bias: Fixed Bias, adjustment pot (AA864) or balance pot (AB165)
Rectifier:
Phase Inverter: 12AT7 (long tailed)
Comments: Fender bassmans are well known for incredible guitar tones. They overdrive perfectly for rock and blues and original blackface bassmans command top dollar even in poor condition.