The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps Details
(Book). From the same "dream team" that created The Fender Stratocaster Chronicles ( Vintage Guitar magazine's 2004 Book of the Year) comes this new publication covering the other side of Fender's legacy, the instrument amplifier. Revered as much as one's guitar, the Fender amplifier gets its due in this full-color, richly illustrated book. Features over 400 images, including legendary guitarists such as Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Neil Young, Pete Townshend, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters, and Dick Dale, and two CDs featuring over 120 tracks that make terms and topics come alive.
Reviews
If you're reading reviews of this book, then I can already tell you: you are going to love it.If you're a guitarist and/or Fender aficianado, you will obviously like it, in fact probably already own it.But even just a casual interest in Fender amps will be enough to pull you in. Lots of period pictures, lots of history and great writing. Even the technical explanations are downright interesting. You may not know or care about cathode follower tube circuits, or solid state vs. tube rectifiers, or tone stacks, or cabinet coverings, but you'll still enjoy how the author presents all this...and then suddenly, one day, you'll discover that not only did you understand it all, but you now have strong opinions about all these amp components. This is as fun a read as I've seen.One warning: if you don't already own a Fender tube amp, after you read this book you will. So consider the purchase price of the book just a down payment on your new obsession.A couple words about the included CDs: They're pretty enjoyable, especially CD2.CD1: Greg Koch plays a somewhat eclectic combination of vintage amps and guitars. They are mostly historic pieces...sort of. For example he's doing demos of historic Fender amps for this 60 history, a significant book, and yet he's using a pieced together Bassman transplant head of dubious origin in an aftermarket cabinet. The Bassman is a landmark Fender amp. They can't locate a reasonably original one to demo for a few minutes? Seriously? Also Mr. Kochs' personality and junior high sense of humor get old really fast. He's a helluva guitar player, but it's like he can't stop himself from talking. He just needs to play, not talk.CD2: This is really a fun CD. It's various guys from Fender (mostly marketing, engineering, and project directors) playing through modern and reissue amps that they were involved in seeing to market. These guys seem to get along great, and they can all play. So here you've got guys playing the amps that they delivered to the market, their "babies". It's fun to hear them talk about and play these amps.Like I said, if you don't own a Fender tube amp (or even if you do) and you read this book...beware your bank account.
