The original Golden Eagle (Vintage Guitar photo)

It’s generally accepted that, rock star-owned guitars possibly excepted, the priciest guitars in the world are 1959 ‘burst Gibson Les Pauls. Apparently they sound great, feel great, play great, and they’re old and rare – all amounting to guitars worth a few hundred thousand dollars each.

At times I’ve seen prices quoted in the half-mil range with some speculation that they would go to $1 million in the future. Silly money, but then again these are rare, collector-prized Les Pauls.

So it was a surprise to me to see that $500K figure thrown out for a Paul Reed Smith guitar – in a Vintage Guitar magazine interview with Howard Leese, one of Heart’s original guitar-slingers.

Howard said his Golden Eagle PRS, hand-made by Paul himself, has been his main guitar for about 20 years. But then when talking about his Golden Eagle #2 guitar, he said that one’s “also from 1980.” So let’s say both were built in 1980.

I believe the company PRS was founded in 1985, meaning that both Golden Eagles pre-date the company. Still, the original Golden Eagle doesn’t qualify as “vintage” by age standards, yet it is one-of-a-kind, was handmade by Paul and apparently is the first PRS with a maple top.

Given all of that, the question is:  Are guitars hand-built by Paul himself back in the pre-PRS days worth six figures – meaning as much as ‘59 ‘burst Les Pauls?

Anything is only worth what someone pays for it, so you never know. Anyhow, here’s an excerpt from the VG interview:

VG: Let’s talk about your PRS guitars.

Leese: The big daddy is called the Golden Eagle. It’s got a mahogany body with a maple top. The building of this instrument was cited as one of the defining moments in guitar history. This is the first PRS with a maple top: it’s completely hand-made. The wood came from a 300-year-old maple dresser that Paul got from his bass player’s mom. If you look closely at the top you’ll see a little dowel, opposite the knobs, where the drawer pull used to go. Paul built it for a customer in Maryland, but when it was finished, the guy didn’t want it. So he contacted me.

When I saw the picture, I couldn’t believe how beautiful the wood looked, and I sent him a check right away. It’s been my main guitar for 17 years or so. It’s been on every Heart gig and record since I got it.

I don’t think Paul was making his own bridges back then, but the vibrato on it is fantastic. There’s a song called “The Wolf,” where I made a howling sound with this guitar. This is my best guitar and my most valuable – it’s currently valued at a half million. It’s the one I am most emotionally attached to, and the best player. If I had to pick one to play, this is it.

Notable

> PRS recently announced a limited reissue of this guitar. More details on it here. The guitar is retailing at about $10,000.

Lots of slide typically doesn’t do a whole lot for me. But I do love what Duane Allman, Sonny Landreth, Derek Trucks and a few others can do with a slide. They are truly expressing themselves, not just playing the guitar. And they’ve got TONE – of a Woody nature, of course.

The June Guitar Player magazine, with Hendrix on the cover, has a good interview with Derek – who’s about to turn 30. In that interview he talks guitars, amps, amp settings – and says right at the end of the interview that he could be leaving the Allman in the “very near future.” Why? To “dig in firmly with my thing, or the band with my wife,” he says, adding: “and I welcome the transition.”

He also said this in a recent Gibson.com interview: “Now that we have the [home] studio, I’m looking forward to focusing on more recording with my band and Susan [his wife, musician and singer Susan Tedeschi]. I think we have a few great albums in us in the vein of Mad Dogs & Englishmen and Delaney and Bonnie. If we spend the right amount of time and get people like Doyle [Bramhall II, who wrote and guested on Derek's new CD Already Free] and [Derek Trucks Band singer] Mike Mattison in to write tunes, we can come up with something great.”

Anyhow, here’s what he says about gear. Info is taken from the Guitar Player interview, as well as a recent Gibson.com interview and other web sources (noted).

Amps

> He’s using a couple of the new PRS amp heads (see the video below), but not the matching PRS cabs. With the Allmans it’s a “Blue Sierra head through a Randall [yes, Randall!] 4×12 cabinet [no speakers listed].”

> On his new Derek Trucks Band CD Already Free [get it if you don't have it – full WoodyTone review coming soon] he uses the PRS Original Sewell head through a Marshall 4×12.

> But he still loves the sound of his SG through [an early '60s] Super Reverb. Settings: Reverb 3 (”beause I want to feel the effect, but I don’t want it to be too loose”); Treble 8; Mids and Bass 3 or 4; Vol 8.

> He also used a “cranked vintage Marshall,” apparently a 50- or 100-watt Superlead which he is said to own, for the second solo on “Something to Make You Happy” on his new CD.

Derek on PRS Amps

Guitars

> His main axe is a 2000 ‘61 Reissue SG with ‘57 Classic hums, the vibrato bridge replaced with a stoptail, tuned to open E. “On my reissues, I put in stop tailpieces. That’s what I use the bulk of the time. I love the look of that big silver plate on the front, but I found I was breaking strings and my tuning would go haywire.”

> “When I first started playing at nine or 10 years old I wanted the sound on Allman Brothers records like Live at the Fillmore. That Gibson tone is exactly what I wanted. Originally I wanted a Les Paul, but I only weighed about 80 pounds at the time, and I had a picture of Duane with an SG. So the SG had the tone I wanted and weighed quite a bit less. Now it’s years later and anything else I try to play feels foreign to me. When I pick up the SG it is second nature.”

> He also used a “funky old Airline guitar through the built in amp in its case” on “Down in the Flood” on his new CD, as well as a “beater Silvertone/Supro guitar.”

Effects

> Apparently none.

Other Stuff

> He likes glass slides, usually a Coricidin bottle per Duane.

> Strings: DRs, .011 to .046.

More: Tone Secrets

Also dug this up from thegearpage.net archives (2007), from user rockeye, a self-confessed Derek fanatic:

> His tone is the Seymour Duncan Antiquity [pickup], vintage Super Reverb loaded with Pyle Drivers, and his two main amps set up with tubes from Lord Valve. The 65 Super has: V1-empty [apparently for more gain], V2-NOS Beijing “Silver Special” 12AX7, V3-NOS PHILLIPS JAN 12AT7-WC, V4-NOS BEIJING 12AX7 (GREY PLATE), V5-ANY 12AX7, V6-NOS MULLARD CV-4024/12AT7 WA, V7 & V8- NOS PHILLIPS JAN 7581, V-9 NOS PHILLIPS 5AR4.

> His 1966 Super Reverb has: V1- empty, V2-Reflector/Tung-Sol 12AX7, V3-NOS Phillips JAN 12AT7 WC, V4-Reflektor/Tung-Sol 12AX7, V5-any 12AX7, V6-NOS Mullard CV-4024/12AT7 WA, V7 & V8-Reflektor/Svetlana 6L6GC, V9-Sovtek GZ-34.

> Another secret to his tone is changing the capacitor in his SG from a .22 to a .1. It takes some shrill away and adds some balls to his tone. Keep in mind it only really works if you have your Super Reverb dialed pretty high. If you notice he always has his Treble really high, and keeps the tone knob on his guitar down really low, about 2 or 3. This makes things pretty sensitive. That’s why he’s always messing with his knobs at shows.

There’s also the following amp info, attributed to the aforementioned Lord Valve, from this link dated 2005:

> [Derek's] main amp is a ‘65 Blackface Super Reverb, loaded with Pyle Driver MW-1040 speakers. (These are not “car audio” speakers as you may have read on the Net.) The speakers were made in 1980, same year Derek was born. The circuitry has a few minor tweaks: There is a ground lift switch on the tremelo circuit, which gives a bit of extra output on the Vibrato channel. Derek also runs the Normal channel with no tube installed, for another (very) slight gain increase on the Vibrato channel.

> The 5AR4 rectifier feeds a 50uF input capacitor, rather than the stock 35uF value. The EXT speaker jack has been converted to a line out, using a 20-to-1 resistive voltage divider. Tube compliment is as follows, looking at the amp from the REAR and numbering the sockets from RIGHT to LEFT:

1) No tube installed (Normal channel preamp)
2) NOS Beijing-production Silver Special 12AX7 (Vibrato channel preamp)
3) NOS PHilips JAN 12AT7WC (reverb tank driver)
4) Reflektor-production Tung-Sol 12AX7 (reverb recovery/mixer)
5) Any 12AX7 that still lights up (tremelo oscillator)
6) NOS Mullard CV-4024/12At7WA (phase inverter)
7) NOS JAN Philips 7581A (power tube)
8) NOS JAN Philips 7581A (power tube)
9) NOS JAN Philips 5AR4/GZ-34 (rectifier)

> Lately, Derek has been runing two BFSRs in larger venues, set up in a V configuration with the speakers firing across each other at about a 90-degree angle. When this is done, the line output on the ‘65 feeds a Behringer volume pedal, the output of which is plugged into the Vibrato channel input on his ‘66 BFSR. The ‘66 has the same circuitry tweaks, with no line out jack installed. It runs a different tube set, as follows:

1) No tube
2) Reflektor-production Tung-Sol 12AX7
3) NOS JAN PHilips 12AT7WA
4) Reflektor-production Tung-Sol 12AX7
5) Anything that still lights up
6) NOS Mullard CV-4024/12AT7WA
7) Reflektor-production Svetlana 6L6GC
8) Reflektor-production Svetlana 6L6GC
9) Sovtek GZ-34

> This amp is outfitted with a custom speaker made by Ted Weber, called the DT-10 V1.1. This speaker was originally developed for use in the custom design Super Sixes I built for Derek to use with the Allman Brothers. It’s essentially a clone of the 1980 Pyle Driver MW-1040. The ‘66 BFSR is occasionally used as the number one amp in venues with live acoustics, as it is a bit darker than the ‘65. When both amps are run together, Derek uses the volume pedal to add in as much of the ‘66 as is necessary to produce his feedback effects. (Stage level for the DTB has been creeping upward lately, what with the larger venues they’re working, hence the extra amp.)

Notable

> Derek played drums on the track “Sweet Inspiration” from his new CD.

> One thing he found enlightening when playing with Carlos Santana was that Santana “would show up an hour before his band trying to improve his tone.” Yeah!

> Here’s his website:  www.derektrucks.com

No Les Paul for the Dead

Gibson.com continues to make every effort to do justice to musicians who play their instruments, the latest being an interview with Warren Haynes. Warren, as we all know, is a player’s player – meaning a working musician with lots of talent, a thirst for playing and an ear for WoodyTone.

Did I mention a thirst for playing? Warren is now in three well-known bands: the Allman Brothers, Gov’t Mule and the Grateful Dead. In the Gibson.com interview, excerpted below, Warren talks about which gear he uses for which bands.

“I use different guitars and amps with each band. In the Allman Brothers, virtually no effects. In Gov’t Mule I tend to use more. Some of the amps and guitars overlap, but there’s a lot of differences as well.

“And in the Dead I tend to use completely different gear, because I’m paying homage to someone completely different, Jerry Garcia, and my sounds have to blend in with what’s going on around me. If I walked on-stage with the Dead with the same sound I use with the Allman Brothers, it’d be inappropriate.

“[With the Dead] I’m not playing any Les Pauls. I play an SG, a ’61 ES-335 and recently had Gibson build me a Firebird with two of the mini-humbuckers in it that I’ve been using a lot in the Dead. It fits in very nicely. We’ve done 11 shows with the Dead so far this year and I’ve yet to pick up a Les Paul.”

Gibson.com asks what of his gear is common to the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule.

“The one common element amp-wise is my Ceasar Diaz CD-100 prototype amp. In the Allman Brothers my other amp is a Soldano SLO-100 that’s been modified or a 100-watt Marshall Plexi or my 50-watt Marshall sometimes. In Gov’t Mule the Soldano and the Diaz are my two main heads.

“In the Dead I’ve been using this Paul Reed Smith amp I got recently, a Dallas [fellow Allmans guitarist Derek Trucks uses PRS amps now – more on those amps in a future post]. I’m exploring trying to find different sounds that work in each band.

“I’m using a Tone Tubby cabinet and a Marshall cabinet in the Allman Brothers and Gov’t Mule. In the Dead, it’s a PRS cabinet.

“When it comes to speakers I’m usually a Vintage 30 guy, but — although none of my cabinets are equipped with them right now — I do also like 25s. Every time I play through a Marshall cabinet with 25-watt Celestions I really enjoy it, but I always find myself going back to the 30s.” [Why?!]
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That’s all the tone info in the interview. If you’re wondering who Caesar Diaz is, click here for more info about him (more info about the CD-100 here). Caesar is a well-known vintage tone connoisseur who has helped Stevie Ray Vaughan, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton and many other well-known axe-slingers with their sounds.

In the interview, Alex talks about why he’s back to Les Pauls now, among other tonalicious scraps. Here are the highlights. For the full interview, definitely worth a read, click here.

PG: Before the Snakes and Arrows tour, you were primarily using Paul Reed Smiths.

Alex: Yeah, they sent me a couple of guitars in the early ’90s. I think I was using a Signature at the time, which was made here in Canada. They had active pickups, and just the kind of a sound that I was going for in the late ’80s. But when I started playing these PRSs, they were fantastic! They came out of the case and they were still in tune and they were set up perfectly, just the way I wanted. And for a long time I used them probably more than anything else on stage.

And really, I don’t have a problem with them. I love the instruments; I still have all of them. In fact, I’m sitting here in my office, and they just sent me a 245 to check out. But I just wanted a change. I wanted to go back to a more classic sound and a classic feel on stage. I wanted to go back to Les Pauls. That’s really the only reason. In the studio, I use everything.

In the making of the Snakes and Arrows documentary, I think every time I saw you playing it was a Tele.

Yeah, the Tele is the one I really gravitate to in the studio. It’s my favorite writing guitar. That Tele is a ‘59 reissue, but we changed a few small things on it like brass saddles, and we took the finish off the neck so it just feels really different. I love it. And for me, writing on that guitar is just a very natural kind of thing. It just feels like the right instrument for me to be writing on.

In the studio I like to incorporate that sound against something like a Les Paul or a PRS. I find that it provides a really nice contrast on top of the thickness of that humbucker sound.

What pickups are in that Tele?

Just the stock pickups.

And on the Gibsons?

On the Les Pauls that I have, I switched over to the Jimmy Page wound versions. They’ve got a nice, smooth top end, and the bottom is nice and tight. And my 355 has the same [stock] pickups that have always been in there.

There’s some debate going on about the “Swiss cheese” body Les Pauls versus the chambered body Les Pauls, do you have an opinion?

They sent me [a chambered] one and I checked it out, and it is nice to have a lighter Les Paul [laughs]. I would have to say it’s lacking a little bit, but really, I would want to spend a little more time with that guitar and put it through its paces. I got it when we were on tour, and I’d like to see how it reacts in the studio. It is kind of nice to have that little break for your shoulder, but I’m not sold on it yet.

Here’s Alex’s full list of gear (thank you, Premier Guitar, but we want full pickup info, and any info on Alex’s tube and speaker preferences). And here are a couple more interesting Qs/As:

How loud is Rush on stage?

You’d be shocked! I’m sure your stereo at home is louder. The loudest thing on stage is Neil’s drums, acoustically. There are no monitors on stage. Geddy goes direct so there’s no bass rig on stage. My amps are down very low, just loud enough so that I can get some feedback if I step right up to them. And the reason we do that is we want to have a nice, manageable sound on stage that we can pump clearly through the PA.

How much guitar is in your in-ear monitors?

My mix tends to be pretty representative of the whole sound. I have a nice, full drum mix and keys in stereo, and vocal and bass up the middle. I probably have a little more ride cymbal, hi hat, snare and kick, in the whole balance of the drums. The guitars I typically have on the left side, and then I do a short eight-millisecond delay on the right side, just so I can get guitar hard left and hard right.

Tone-wise, my favorites are the Wizard amps – I believe Wizards are made by Angus Young’s roadie and are sometimes used by Angus live – and Michael Lee Firkins’ Tele sound (see the link at bottom because the vid can’t be embedded).

Playing-wise, Johnny Hiland is a monster. I wish we could see his fingers in the vid, but not sure if it would help much.

It’s also cool to hear how Paul Gilbert’s new three single-coil “flipped” Iceman guitar was inspired by WoodyTone master Frank Marino.
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Johnny Hiland – About all you can say about this one is, “holy crap!” Check out the galloping horse and dirt bike noises about halfway through. That’s also about the best PRS sound I’ve ever heard.

Steve Vai talking about his new Legacy II amp.

Paul Gilbert on his new signature guitar.

Wizard Modern Classic amp, two-parter:

Big Jim Wright on the Hammond B-3 (’nuff said).

Michael Lee Firkins doing some Jeff Beckish stuff, and then with a mean Tele sound. Criminally, the video craps out only a minute or so into Firkins’ slide rendition of Voodoo Child. Go to the bottom menu of this page, and scroll down (a video about the Yngwie Malmsteen “Play Loud” replica also is there).

Reminds me a lot of Extreme, so Nuno Bettencourt obviously borrowed liberally from Pat.

Back in the day Pat used a Gibson Melody Maker with full-size Gibson humbuckers. In an old guitar Player interview he said, “Melody Makers are great guitars because they stay in tune, and you can bend the necks and do all kinds of things to them. I don’t like wham-o bars [vibrate bars] because the tuning problem just drives me up the wall, so I just got into bending the necks.”

His guitars were strung with Dean Markley 9s, and did not have any tone controls. “I basically just have two volume controls, one for each pickup,” he said. “I set the rhythm volume at 8, the lead volume at 10. The 8 setting seems to drop the guitar down quite a bit in volume, and it also changes the sound slightly. You lose a lot of your top end. But then if I back it down even more for some real quiet stuff, down to about 2 or 3, it seems that the top end comes back again. I don’t know why.”

On his effects chain, he said: “First I have the Phase 100. I’ve had the controls sawed off it with a hacksaw because I got fed up with either knocking them with my foot or having people readjust them. They have slots in them and can only be changed with a screwdriver. I set the phase cancellation control on the left to the most extreme setting, clicked all the way to the right. I run the speed about a little right of midway position. I’ve had this effect for about three-and-a-half years.

“From there I go into an MXR Blue Box, which adds a second pitch two octaves lower than the note you hit. I set the output control up full, and I vary the blend control between having it full right, so it gives me almost a distortion box sound, and blending it with the lower octave. You can’t play real, real fast with that thing at all because it’s just so noisy, fuzzy. I use that for real slow, sort of growly things on the low strings. It only works well in conjunction with a phaser; you really have to have the two together.

“After that 1 go to the Cry Baby wah-wah.

“[When] I come out of the pedalboard [I] go to a 50-watt Marshall, out of the 50-watt Marshall to two Maestro Echoplexes. I adjust one for whatever the tune is; usually it’s sort of on a long repeat. The next one is set on a real fast repeat, the closest one I can get. And that goes from there into my A/DA flanger so I in effect flange my echo repeats as well. So if I hit something, I’m not only flanging what I’m playing at the time, but also the repeats, so you get a spacey, ethereal sound. But because the repeats only go into the two 100-watt Marshalls I use, I get a nice stereo effect on-stage, especially on the real short delay. I also go into a Leslie, but that’s a separate output from the pedalboard. That’s on all the time; it’s just part of the overall sound I get.”

Wow. Sounds similar to Edward Van Halen’s re-amping technique to me (this interview was done in 1980).

Pat added that he also used a 100-watt Altair power attenuator.

Now Pat plays a PRS through a Marshall JCM 900 (yes, 9, not 8!), plus he has several rack effects that can be seen here. Doesn’t sound like it would be Woody at all, but in his hands it is, as you will see and hear below.

Pat’s website is www.pattravers.com.

Here’s another good, recent version — possibly better — but it can’t be embedded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpQ2BjtdMvM

Here’s Paul Gilbert and Nuno Bettencourt doing a version of the tune: