Vintage Black Panel Fenders - Worth the Hype?

[jads57]

Wow I can’t even imagine any Jazz Gig needed such heavy fire power,Lol! But 40 odd years ago I saw Albert Collin’s with Silver Faced era Quad Reverb and a Fender Tele.

OUCH!!!!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Wow I can’t even imagine any Jazz Gig needed such heavy fire power,Lol! But 40 odd years ago I saw Albert Collin’s with Silver Faced era Quad Reverb and a Fender Tele.

He played with volume and tone pots fully up, too.

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

He played with volume and tone pots fully up, too.

Someone recently asked what electric blues was. That's electric blues! (I never saw Albert C live unfortunately, only BB, Luther Allison and John Lee Hooker. Especially BB was darn loud as well.)

[rpjazzguitar]

Albert Collins was a brilliant blues guitarist, singer and showman.

He played a Tele. I recall seeing him play one with an F hole.

Quad reverb amp is right.

He used a hundred feet of cable or something like that and would go out in the audience playing, with his assistants managing the cable. Buffer amp or something in the guitar to avoid losing highs?
.
As an introduction, I recommend "I Ain't Drunk" and "Too Many Dirty Dishes"

[Mick-7]

Albert Collins was a brilliant blues guitarist, singer and showman.

He played a Tele. I recall seeing him play one with an F hole.

Quad reverb amp is right.

He used a hundred feet of cable or something like that and would go out in the audience playing, with his assistants managing the cable. Buffer amp or something in the guitar to avoid losing highs?
.
As an introduction, I recommend "I Ain't Drunk" and "Too Many Dirty Dishes"

Yeah, Collins was quite the showman, I attended one of his concerts in which he walked through the audience playing his Telecaster. Sonny Rollins did that too but then he didn't need amplification.

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

Albert Collins was a brilliant blues guitarist, singer and showman.

He played a Tele. I recall seeing him play one with an F hole.

Quad reverb amp is right.

He used a hundred feet of cable or something like that and would go out in the audience playing, with his assistants managing the cable. Buffer amp or something in the guitar to avoid losing highs?
.
As an introduction, I recommend "I Ain't Drunk" and "Too Many Dirty Dishes"

In case this is directed at me: I know who he was.

I knew him already before Gary Moore introduced him into the world of world-wide hit albums and made him known outside of expert blues circles.

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

Just as an addendum regarding loud electric blues concerts: It must have been around 2010 that I did the lights at a Robert Cray concert. The concert was very quiet, it was probably after sound engineers had been obliged by law to not go over a maximum of 110 dBA measured at FOH, and I was surprised how good and well balanced it sounded without having the feeling that something was missing regarding pressure.

(One of the loudest concerts I worked at was the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion who did not even have a bass player IIRC. I was happy that they had their own lighting guy and I could spend most of the time in the cafe/bar next to the concert hall where glasses were falling of the shelves ...)

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

He used a hundred feet of cable or something like that and would go out in the audience playing, with his assistants managing the cable.

He once did this at a club in Manhattan (the Lone Star Cafe?) many years ago and walked out the front door into the street while playing. I can’t find the article right now, but as I recall he stopped traffic and NYPD was called to move him back inside.

[Jimmy Mack]

Yeah, saw him at the Bottom Line in NYC. Same thing with the cable!
But what does not get any attention is that AC played with fingerpicking only. That fattened his tone, minimized "ice-pick" tone from the Tele. And he like many others, used his guitar's volume and tone controls.

[John A.]

He once did this at a club in Manhattan (the Lone Star Cafe?) many years ago and walked out the front door into the street while playing. I can’t find the article right now, but as I recall he stopped traffic and NYPD was called to move him back inside.

This was part of his regular schtick — he used a 100’ cable and walked into the audience wherever he physically could.

Speaking of the Lone Star, I saw Buddy Guy there once with Junior Wells. The area near the stage was small and right next to the bar. A guy at the bar kept buying round after round of drinks and handing them to Buddy.

Each time, Buddy downed the drink immediately and turned his amp up a little more, until it was dimed and he was lit. By the end he was just putting on a feedback show and not really playing songs, and the band stopped playing. It was excruciating.

[DawgBone]

He once did this at a club in Manhattan (the Lone Star Cafe?) many years ago and walked out the front door into the street while playing. I can’t find the article right now, but as I recall he stopped traffic and NYPD was called to move him back inside.

Guitar Shorty used to walk down the street during the gig with his wireless and order pizzas back to the club for set break, among other wireless exploits.

[John A.]

Yeah, saw him at the Bottom Line in NYC. Same thing with the cable!
But what does not get any attention is that AC played with fingerpicking only. That fattened his tone, minimized "ice-pick" tone from the Tele. And he like many others, used his guitar's volume and tone controls.

He also used a neck humbucker which gave him a fuller sound. There was a Fender AC signature model for a while, which was a really good sounding guitar.

Edit: whoops, I see they still make it, but as a $4k custom shop model. Zoiks!

[DawgBone]

He also used a neck humbucker which gave him a fuller sound. There was a Fender AC signature model for a while, which was a really good sounding guitar.

Edit: whoops, I see they still make it, but as a $4k custom shop model. Zoiks!

Humbucker guitar into cranked Twin with the treble set at 10, Mid and Bass 1 is the magic setting for many bluesmen.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Yeah, saw him at the Bottom Line in NYC. Same thing with the cable! But what does not get any attention is that AC played with fingerpicking only.

His style is instantly recognizable because he loved to hit a note hard and let it sing as long as it would go. From watching him on videos, it looks to me like he often got the sharp attack on those sustained notes by pinching the string between thumb and index finger, pulling it up (hard!) and away from the top, and letting it snap back. When we do AC tunes, I treat my Tele right and use this trick as a tribute to his sound.

DB, I put Lace Alumitones in my Tele and use the neck PU with the guitar's tone pot fully up. I play most of our Sunday Blues Brunches through either a Vibrolux or the clean channel of an original first gen Blues Deluxe (I still can't decide which I like better for blues), with bass at 9 o'clock, mid (on the Vlux) and treble at noon. I use a Smokin' Amp Company Zensation pedal (an excellent Zen Drive clone) for smooth OD, and the tone I'm getting is a little bigger than AC's (which I prefer). Our backline is mic'ed and the house sound system is about 18,000W of triamped QSC power through 18" bass bins, midrange towers and serious tweeter boxes. My Twin stays under the piano and entertains me at home.

But there ain't no sag.....

[Gitfiddler]

Church gigs are the 'new frontier' for certain musicians. Some can crank up their amps, but most are severely limited, so as to not be louder than the preacher. :-)

[Boss Man Zwiebelsohn]

Albert Collins was a brilliant blues guitarist, singer and showman.

He played a Tele. I recall seeing him play one with an F hole.

Quad reverb amp is right.

He used a hundred feet of cable or something like that and would go out in the audience playing, with his assistants managing the cable. Buffer amp or something in the guitar to avoid losing highs?
.
As an introduction, I recommend "I Ain't Drunk" and "Too Many Dirty Dishes"

Luther Allison did that long cable stunt as well when I saw him in the early 90ies.

In the early 2000s I worked for his son Bernard who used a wireless system to walk through the room and play a solo standing on the bar vis-à-vis the stage on the other side of the concert hall. Nice concert as well.