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Hi,
Anyone know what Amps Johnny Smith used? I know he endorsed several brands and models, but does anyone know what he actually used? When he recorded, did he just plug directly into the soundboard?
Thanks!
Sam
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06-21-2017 07:52 PM
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Scroll down and a details discussion if his gear including amps.
Johnny Smith | Vintage Guitar(R) magazine
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This link has lots of good information on Johnny Smith as well as his guitars and amps.
Johnny (Still) Be Good
He didn't like the 'normal' amps of the day- ie. Fender etc.
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There was recently one of the Ampeg "fountain of sound" amps mentioned in that article for sale on Reverb.
Originally Posted by entresz
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Hi,
Has anyone actually played one of the Fountain of Sound Ampeg's? I wonder what they sound like. I've often wondered about putting some legs on my underrated little Marshall AS50R. But the idea of pointing your Amp up toward the heavens never caught on with any other manufacturer. I wonder why? Vinnie Corrao told me that he, my dad and Mr McLean (my guidance counselor in grammar school) would go to the old Birdland and watch Johnny play. He used the fountain of sound because he didn't want to blow away the customers in the front row, in front of the stage. But I just wonder how it actually sounded.
Joe D
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Never got a chance to play a Fountain of Sound, but I would like to. It's on my bucket list. My expectation is that it will have the usual Ampeg baxandall front end coupled to a power amp that produces good, clean power all feeding a 15" alnico magnet speaker. In a word, this is sort of a G-15 Gemini II-ish amp that points upward.
You'd be very hard pressed to go wrong with a '60s Ampeg amp in the mid-power range that is in good shape. They sound terrific. They control tone in a way that favors a flatter response than Fender/Vox/Marshall amps of the era. For snappy country, pop, or rock a Fender amp is just about unbeatable. For jazz, however, you can wallop a Fender (IMO) with an Ampeg every time.
Say, I've been going back and re-listening to all my Johnny Smith albums. OMG, I'd forgotten just how good JS was. He was the king of the smooth, long arpeggio. His chording is uniquely pianistic for a guitarist, too. Nothing new, here. You guys knew all this. Sorry for blathering on...I'd just not revisited Johnny Smith recently. What a monster.
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the fountain of sound was in answer to johnnys live performances...playing clubs...in a pre sound system/monitoring era...and being loud enough to hear yourself over the drummer, but without interrupting the first three rows of 2 drink minimum table chit-chat...they were glass clinking smokey clubs, not concert halls
i highly doubt he ever used it in the studio..why would he??...not to say those old ampegs (with their unique electronics) dont sound good....but aiming up???...i can see van gelder frowning..tssk tssk...haha
johnny smith was one of those guitarists with a very high percentage of his tone in his hands...not to say he didnt strive for great gear tech (look at all the different johnny smith models there are) ...but he was always chasing the sound in his head...wrong turns and detours be damned!
cheers
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no such thing as blathering on when you are so beautifully singing the praises of the great Johnny Smith. 4-1/2 octave arpeggio up and back down. He kept it so precisely clean. For the period of time he did it, he left a legacy that will live on as long as I'm alive. Originally Posted by Greentone
Thanks GT.
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I can just lay my Ampeg Gemini II on the table and practice for the next 40 or 50 years!
Thanks john
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Johnny Smith, in my opinion, is in a league of his own. I struggle to think of a more melodic player. His version of "When I fall in love" will forever haunt me - as close to perfection as I'll ever hear.
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careful!! those tubes need air!! haha Originally Posted by powerwagonjohn
cheers
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An Ampeg JS-35 Fountain of Sound sold on ebay this spring for $5,369. It seemed to be in very good condition.
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A little off topic but Grammatico Amps recently built a "Fountain of Sound" Bassman style amp for Jimmy Vaughn:
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Does anyone have any favorite Johnny Smith albums they'd like to recommend?
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Originally Posted by Max405
JS is great, but 4.5 octaves?
If I bend really hard on my Tele, I can get to 4 octaves from the low E! I'm just kidding though; you must have meant 3.5.
I'm on YouTube cracking out on JS now...
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js tuned his low E to D...for a little extra!! hah
2 prime js starters-
cheers
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I play 4 F's Starting at the Originally Posted by billyguitar
JS is great, but 4.5 octaves?
If I bend really hard on my Tele, I can get to 4 octaves from the low E! I'm just kidding though; you must have meant 3.5.
I'm on YouTube cracking out on JS now...
1. 3 fret D string, then
2. 8th fret A string,
3. 10th fret G string,
4. 13th fret E string
up to a C 20 th fret E string and back down to where I started.
If you want, watch it to the end. That's what I am talking about.
Thanks Joe D
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Try the 1960s Roost albums "The Guitar World of Johnny Smith" and "Kaleidoscope." These albums represent Smith at his peak abilities, IMO.
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JS only used his "Fountain of Sound" amp in clubs. My old friend, the bass player Roy Salanitro played with JS at a club, and JS had the FOS.
According to the JS bio, JS used various Ampegs of the 1950s when playing with his quartets.
When he played the solo things that Joe D. plays, he plugged in directly to the board.
IMHO, his best LPs were made before he had the accident in his airplane that severely injured his LH pinky.
The two foursome LPs are his best, IMHO.
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This is as good as it could possibly get right here..
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Great picture. I'm trying to figure out the amp. The control panel looks like an early BA-1 Ampeg "Bassamp." The original, three-knob version with a toggle switch and pilot light on the right and two input jacks on the left. I haven't seen a true JS-20, so I don't know what the control panel looked like. (I've only seen pictures of the JS-35 "fountain of sound" amp.)
Anybody know what amp is in front of Johnny Smith?
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My favorite has always been, and remains, The Sound Of The Johnny Smith Guitar. Originally Posted by GregMath
I keep my eye on ebay for the 8 CD box set, but they always got for over $100. Why will whoever owns those not digitize them??? (I realize the sound quality won't be as good, but at least it would be AVAILABLE)
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From an interview with J. Smith.
“So the first amp that I used for many years was not a guitar amp—it was an Altec-Lansing amplifier with an Altec-Lansing speaker. And then Ampeg’s Everett Hull built me an amp I could use, and I think they called it the Fountain of Sound as it stood up on its legs and pointed straight up. But it had a much flatter frequency response than the commercial amps, such as the Fender which were much more suited to solid-body electric guitars.
“I like an amp that has a pretty flat frequency response, without too much gain in the treble or bass. The best way I could explain it is forget the treble and forget the bass and concentrate on the midrange, which is where, speaking only for myself, the guitar really sounds. I’m not criticizing anyone; your sound is a very personal thing, and whatever sounds the best is the way it should be. To give you an idea, Gibson made the amp I used for many years (which I latter gave to Chet Atkins’ son), and even with the bass control full on, it still had less bass than a Fender amp did with the bass full off. And the Fenders seemed to have too much of a treble sound, instead of a rounded sound in the high registers.
Johnny With His Benedetto Cremona
“Finally, some years later, I asked these folks from a company in Denver called M-Rad to make me a transistorized amp with the same flat frequency response as the one Gibson had made, and they were nice enough to humor me and design the circuitry. And I used that on the Verve things. And in latter years when I traveled with Bing Crosby, I had a little cabinet built for just for the amplifier part, and then I would have them furnish me with a speaker on the gig, so I could just plug my amp in wherever I went instead of hauling around the whole enchilada. In fact, when I was still performing, I would keep my settings on that amp exactly the same, all the time, and could get my sound to project just the way I wanted it whether I was accompanying a singer in a small room or on stage with a symphony. Isn’t that something?”
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That would be Mosaic Records. You can get quite a bit of Johnny Smith music on iTunes; I don't know about other digital resources. Originally Posted by ruger9
I have that set and it is superb. The recordings are remastered for CD and modern sound systems so they sound pristine. Part of the set is the very extensive multi-page liner notes which details each track- when and where it was recorded, the personnel on the track are, etc.- and biographical and contextual information.
I have three of the Mosaic boxed sets: Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow and Joe Pass. All of them are outstanding and in my opinion very well worth having. $100 for those sets is a very reasonable price.
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I'd pay $100. I've been watching ebay for years, and I haven't seen a set go for less than $200 yet; and usually more. Originally Posted by Cunamara
I wonder why no one has taken to getting them up on itunes?
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