Vintage Guitar - July 2016 - Open - 20
VaN Wilks Stormin' out of Austin T exas-born guitarist/vocalist Van Wilks' first new album in a decade, 21st Century Blues, is full of loud Texas tones. Born in Galveston, he grew up in Lubbock and Brownwood, "...and I'm still growing up in Austin!" he laughed. In 1964, Wilks' father and uncle bought him a Tulio guitar and Alamo amplifier (with a Jensen alnico speaker) from a Lubbock pawn shop. Later acquisitions included a Fender Mustang, a Gretsch Tennessean ("because it was close to George Harrison's Country Gentleman"), Fender Princeton, and a '66 Bandmaster as well as a Kustom tuck-and-roll amp with two 15" speakers. His ultimate guitar was acquired more than 45 years ago. "In early '69, I got dad to stop at Strait Music in Austin," he recalled. "Somehow, we walked out with a black Gibson Les Paul Custom - $500! I didn't know what a Fretless Wonder was at the time, but I quickly found out! 'Mona' is still my main piece. She's a bit road-worn but I'm proud to say every mark on her was made by me." Vintage guitar 20 July 2016 ask zac WiTH ZaC CHilDs Don Bouque's Gretsch Clipper. I have a Massie squire 1263 amp and am trying to find out anything I can about it. on the back, it indicates it was "MFG Massie Electronics Los Angeles, Calif." It has two 6V6 output tubes, three 12AX7s, and a rectifier tube, and the front has a Normal channel with Volume and tone, and a tremolo channel with Volume, tone, speed, and Depth. - Preston Stedman In the '40s, amp builder Ray Massie worked with leo Fender at Fender Radio Service, and helped design early Fender amps. By the early '50s, he'd left leo to open an amp repair shop, and eventually to begin making amps under the Massie moniker. The amp has similarities to Fender designs (the brown Deluxe, in particular) due to the men having worked together. I have a '57 Gretsch in sunburst with a single pickup, t-roof logo, white rectangular label, and serial number 21819 or 21849. Can you identify it? - Don Bouque We asked Gretsch expert Ed Ball, who told us, "This guitar is, in fact, a Clipper (model 6186) from the 1957 model year. The 218xx batch is a 100-unit group of Clipper models (#21800-21899), of which I've documented 15 examples. This batch has the slightly evolved headstock overlay that lacks the 'Electromatic' tag that earlier Clipper iterations possess. These also pre-date the introduction of the cutaway body, which occurred prior to the end of the '57 model year on the Clipper. This specimen has an aftermarket refinish and changed pickup." Zac Childs is a guitar tech in Nashville. If you have a question about guitars, anything from nuts and bolts to historical or celebrity-related inquiries, drop a line to him at zac@askzac.com or visit facebook.com/askzac. Van Wilks: Dave Pedley. He also has a '57 Fender "Mary Kaye" Stratocaster, a PRS Custom 24, '67 Gibson ES-335, a Collings City Limits, and a Scrotchtone Lurktamer built by Jim Hamilton with a lipsticktube pickup and given to Wilks by Billy Gibbons in '79. He uses vintage amps and effects. "I began playing Austin in 1971," he recounted. "Tommy Shannon and I formed a band called Fools, which toured all over the country before he joined Stevie Vaughan." Several years ago, Wilks played onstage with ZZ Top and keyboard player Mike Flanagan at the Montreux Jazz Festival; the performance appears on ZZ's Live at Montreux DVD. "It was the first time ZZ ever played as a 'little fivepiece band from Texas!'" he laughed. 21st Century Blues includes "Drive By Lover," co-written by Wilks and Gibbons, and "There's a Sin in There Somewhere," with its ancient-sounding intro that features a '29 National Duolian tuned to an Open G and capo'ed on the fourth fret. The electric rave-up on the song is Wilks' Les Paul capo'ed on the second fret, running through a '64 blackface Fender Super Reverb and a '71 Marshall 50-watt head with a model 1959 Marshall cabinet. Two other Austin musicians appear. "My longtime friend, Christopher Cross (VG, October '11) wrote 'She Makes Me Crazy' for me and did all the rhythm-guitar parts at his studio," Wilks said. "Then I added a heavy rhythm and recruited Malford Milligan to join on the vocals. The PRS Custom 24 is exclusive to this song and has a major role in the defining sound of this record. The vibrato system is far and away the smoothest I've ever felt." "Midnight Crossing" is an ethereal instrumental with spoken-word Spanish, a Danelectro baritone, the PRS, and eBow. Wilks plans to tour Europe and hopefully, the U.S.- "...the same as the last many years! Just pick up that guitar and play and keep searching for that elusive tone! I've got a guitar if you've got a stage!" - Willie G. Moseley
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