ToneQuest - Dec 2011

theMountainview Publishing, LLC

TMReportThe Players Guide to Ultimate Tone

The Zen of Z

INSIDEThe Zen of Z

Hes baaaack! Ten years after his first ToneQuest cover story

Dr. Z returns with another

classic doseof the Zen of Z.

Inside

The Z Wreck inspired by

Brad Paisley&

Ken Fischer

9The inside story on

the Remedy

Our review of the ultimate cure for broken tone

The Dr. ZRemedy

11Introducing 3rd Power

Amplification

The ToneQuest interview

with 3rd Power founderJamie Scott

14Our review

of the 3rd Power

British Dream 1x12

16Cheap & Good

A meaner SG Classic We optimize

an 07 Gibson USA SG

18Brian Wamplers

Paisley Drive Overdrive

Review 18

Power Cord Review Courtesy

Gil Divine, Divine Noise

$10.00 US, December 2011/VOL.13 NO.02

www.tonequest.com

No pedal in the world is going to give you a clean tone. Dr. Z

Its been nearly 12 years since we first became acquainted with Dr. Z in preparation for his July 2000 cover story. The prelude to that adventure was getting to know one of our favorite guitarists of all time, Texan Buddy Whittington, who had embraced Dr. Zs mighty MAZ38 on tour with John Mayall. We drove up to Cleveland to meet Z at his shop and Buddy, who was in town playing with Mayall and the Bluesbreakers at a club in The Flats. We can recall walking into the dressing room above the club and meeting Mayall for the first time as he and drummer Joe Yuele systemat-ically deposited every scrap of food and drink into collapsible cooler bags to be consumed further on down the road.

Nonetheless, Buddy graciously offered one of Mayalls dressing room beers before he and Yuele could get them all packed away. Having driven six hours for this soir, three icy Hudepohl 14Ks were discretely set aside by yours truly on a window sill, and idle conversation led to a question about whether or not John had ever considered playing harp through an amp. This seemed to light a spark that momentarily distracted him from ruthlessly scavenging the dressing room of

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TONEQUEST REPORT V.13 N.02 December 2011

every last carrot stick and potato chip in sight, and he replied that he had not, preferring to use a PA.Strange as his answer seemed (Jeezus, John, have you not heard of Little Walter?), we let it go,

and the conversation turned to a logistical problem With the tour just beginning Mayall had arrived with a large box full of t-shirts to be sold, but since the band traveled in two rented Cadillacs with no support staff, who was going to sell them? The moment the question was raised Mayall turned, one eyebrow arched for effect, fixing a questioning gaze upon the guest from Atlanta. All in the room remained silent, as if the chief magistrate of the court of the blues had just pronounced sentence. Pausing for effect, the guest reflected on the memory of a bi-sexual-leaning-more-toward-gay bass player in a former band who, since he was the best looking of us all by far, would routinely be asked out by the coke whores working promotion for record companies, who also possessed the power to dictate the opening acts for the bands on their labels. The memory of the glum, hangdog expression that darkened the bass players face every time we insisted that he take one for the band now suddenly seemed too familiar, but we betrayed no such sour emotion in response to Mayalls challenging stare. Finally, the Godfather of British Blues broke the awkward silence by adding, Ill give you a free t-shirt, and the entire room erupted in laughter having fully gotten the joke. At the end of the night John received an empty box, $600 in cash, and the guest was awarded a Bluesbreaker t-shirt from a Bangladesh sweat shop that unraveled at the seams after the first washing.

This is just one of a few Z stories, although we must add that Buddy murdered em on stage in The Flats that night with his Strat and MAZ38. Hearing him live for the first time was and remains one of our fondest memories, and a testament to the stage-worthy charac-ter and magnificent tone of the MAZ38.

In this issue of the Quest it is our pleasure to present

another rare and revealing visit with Dr. Z, who can now be counted among the most successful builders of custom boo-teek amplifiers since custom booteek amplifiers have been built, and a credit to the long tradition of American manufac-turing that has defined the great immigrant city of Cleveland, Ohio. Enjoy

TQR: OK, Z, lets kick this opus off. So many boutique builders have chosen to limit the power of their amps to under 20 watts. In our world, youre still building big stage amps What has enabled you to thrive in this niche so well while others have abandoned it?

Yeah, 30 or 40 watt amps are con-sidered to be big amps by todays standards, and the description or defi-nition of a stage amp has really changed in the past ten years. A good, strong 18 watt

or 38 watt amp is usually more than enough to fill a small venue. Our MAZ18 could be considered the de facto Deluxe Reverb of 2010. The assault of pedals is another thing. Every 15 minutes there is a new pedal coming out, so everyone kinda needs an amp that can give them some nice clean headroom. You need power to do that, and then push it with a pedal to get all the variations in colors and tones that players want without being viciously loud like you would by just turning up a tube amp. You can take a nice clean dual 6V6 or 6L6 amp and if you build it correctly with the correct front end architecture, pedals can push it really nice and it becomes very useful. I see guys playing today with $3,000 worth of pedals in front of them and Im amazed! Oh, shit, look at that, and you only paid a grand for your amp. (laughing)

TQR: You are so right. Overdrive, boost and fuzz ped-als always sound better so much better rammed through a clean amp that has some clarity and headroom. Distortion on distortion usually doesnt work.

You cant have an amp thats going to get crippled by overdriving the front end where its going to go into this mas-sive compression and just go moosh. You have to remember too that there

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is no pedal in the world that is going to give you a clean tone. You gotta have that from base and then you can layer on top of that. If you dont have a good, rich harmonic clean tone, there is no pedal in the world that is going to give you that.

TQR: True. No one has built a clean pedal. (laughing) Now, I have a little different theory on why and how you have managed to hold down such a formi-dable presence with bigger stage amps It seems to me that you have always worked with players that need a little power, even though you originally started out with a foot in both camps. The little Carmen Ghia really helped you launch the company in a significant way, yet at the same time you were working with Joe Walsh developing the SRZ-65, and you have continued to work with him, as well as players like Buddy (Whittington) and Brad Paisley.

Steve Miller is playing Zs now, too, and Walter Becker. Right now Joe Walsh is on tour with a MAZ38 2x10 and

a Twin Reverb. Becker is playing a Mazerati GT and he just ordered a Z Wreck to take to New Zealand, but Im not going to post all of this stuff, because its here today gone tomor-row. These guys are so fickle that by the time I got something typed up theyd be playing another amp. I also try to allow them their privacy. I dont steal a feather from their pillow. I dont try to say, Oh, Billy Gibbons is playing one of my amps! So Billy Gibbons bought an amp? He has bought a lot of things. Yeah, he liked it well enough to buy an amp and he talked to me and that was a thrill, but its not like Im going to put together a list and post it on our web site.

TQR: Sure, but the more significant point is that you continue to work with such people, and those expe-riences surely feed the inspiration for the stuff you design. I guess Im answering the question for you, but it seems that stage amps will always be a big part of your future.

Of course, and you have to remember that the presence of our amps on stage with a great player means more than any ad, article or endorsement. If a player who can afford to use any-thing that has ever been built chooses to play one of our amps, to me, that was always the perfect advertisement. Another part of our success has been that our amps have always been

viewed as being relatively affordable, so that every player could use them. TQR: We addressed some things in your July 2000

cover story like the custom chromate-converted aluminum chassis, ultra-linear output transformer and Orange Drop caps that should probably be re-visited.

Well, the short answer is that yes, the custom chassis and the orange drop caps remain and are a staple of our pro-duction amps. As far as the ultra-linear output tranny, I have

a new design that hasnt been released yet. I had a prototype at last years Z Fest and Brad Paisley came and played through it and loved it, so well be putting it out. It will be another KT66 ultra-linear design that is based more on a Marshall than the Route 66, which was an original design. It will kinda be like the Remedy with KT66s and the ultra-linear tranny.

You know, before his death, Ken Fischer and I spent a lot of time talking, and of all the things I picked his brain about, output transformers were the critical thing. As you know, Kenny was so unorthodox with so many of his ideas. He was a genius and Im not, and sometimes it is difficult to work with a pure genius just because they can be a little eccentric or moody, and strong in their opinions. Kenny said a lot of things that went over my head like how different colored wire sounds different or how the dialectric influences the sound I would say, Oh my God, Kenny, if you can hear that, thats not a blessing its a curse. But he really did convey a lot of information to me about output transformers, the reason being that most of the guys that originally designed cheap transformers are all dead, and they dont teach this stuff in college anymore.

TQR: So how much of the mojo is related to materials versus design?

The type of material that you use in the laminates is very important, but so is the way the laminates are stacked. The thing is, Kenny always used unique impedances. If you go to the books and read that an EL34 tube wants a 3.4K input impedance, well, thats really good for hi-fidelity, and thats what most of the stuff that has been documented was written for hi-fidelity bandwidth presentation. So they plot the power curves and plot where the power tubes optimally oper-ate, and those were the kinds of impedances that manufac-turers used. But when you vary from that, now you start to

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get the sound of a guitar amplifier. A great example is the original Marshall Bluesbreaker amp. One of the things that made that amp so unique was that

it has such an odd impedance on the output transformer from those surplus spares that Jim Marshall picked up. Kenny had that same approach. He helped me pick these impedances that led the way for a couple of new amp designs like the EZG-50, which is a dual 6L6 amp with kind of my spin on a blackface design, but I used a very unique impedance in the output tranny that gives the amp this incredibly rich, full, warm sound that is not quite as hollow as a Schumacher blackface output transformer. Same thing with the Z Wreck When we were trying to design this amp for Brad Paisley, Kenny kind of opened up the book and said build the output transformer like this. And I did, and oh my God did it open up the amp. Everybody will tell you that the output transformer is the heart and soul of a tube amp, and its true, but there are a lot of little subtleties involved, like how Kenny would stack the laminates.

You would see like 3 going one way and 3 on top of them going the other way, and you could tell

by the color on the edge alternating from lighter to darker, al-most like stripes. Thats a little secret that he did, and Stancor was probably the first company to do that. A lot of this stuff is just about being open to all different kinds of designs, seeing how they work and analyzing them, and then remembering them and using them in actual practice. Thats what Kens genius was all about. I gave his specs to Heyboer and they exactly knew what I was talking about and they nailed it. It is pretty difficult to add that extra 5 or 6 percent When it sounds so good, how are you going to make it sound better?

TQR: There are people that can hear that little difference when your hands and the guitar strings and the guitar and the amp all seem to be working in con-cert with an unbroken dynamic that allows every nuanced touch to be heard coming through the speakers. That exists. You know it when you hear it, and you know it when you dont. Speaking of Ken Fischer, lets talk about the Z Wreck.

Kenny really dug Brad Paisley, Ken was a Tele player, and he

really liked Brads stuff, which was saying a lot because he could be very critical. He even gave me a set of old Tele pick-ups to give to Brad. They kind of knew each other and I guess Brad had called him once about ordering an amp although that never happened. Lets say they were kindred spirits. Well, Brad wound up buying a Liverpool amp of Kennys from a guy that played in a band called BB and the Stingers, but he had always really wanted a Rocket, which was Kennys much rarer version of an AC30-inspired amp. Kenny wasnt able to build amps anymore, but Brad and I had worked on a couple of amps together the RX Extra Strength, and the Mazerati that he used on most of Mud on the Tires. So it got the point where we were talking about the Trainwreck Rocket and I told Brad that I would build him an amp and then send it to Ken so he could put a little of his pixie dust on it move a few wires here and there, changing a value, doing this and that and really transposing a few things to get more out of it. So Brad was ecstatic that he was going to get an amp that I would build and Kenny would tweak, and one of the things

Ken did was use 6N14N Russian military EL84s, which was what Kenny used in his Liverpool and Rocket amps. I was using JJs, which were OK, and Ken did a few other things with the design. What he did was take his amps to the hairy edge, and thats the point where he got the ultimate harmonic com-

plexity and tone out of his amps. The problem is, its hard to keep them stable. Any little change or variation and you can get parasitic oscillations. Anyway, Ken did his thing, the amp sounded fantastic, and Ken took it upon himself to name the amp the Z Wreck. We sent the amp to Brad, he just loved it and immediately asked for another one for backup. Some time went by and while Brad was getting ready to go on tour, the Nashville flood happened. Brad had apparently left the original amp that Kenny had worked on in L.A., but the others were lost and he asked me if I could build two more before he went out on tour. In the meantime, I started going through the

notes that Ken had sent me when he worked on the first amp. When he got it there was only so much he could do the chassis was built, but in his notes he said that if he were to design it he would move the placement of the tubes and transformers on the chassis and make a few

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circuit changes. Im reading this and I began to think about building another amp based on Kens notes. So I built a couple of replacement amps for Brad, and then began working on this new design using Kens notes, and one of the things I did was use multiple taps for the power transformer with a power switch so you could switch between two different plate volt-ages. When I finished it I got the amp to Brad and I asked him which setting he liked the best and of course he said both. So we left the toggled switch on the final version of the Z Wreck. It wasnt long after that before Ken passed away, and I let two years pass having only built Z Wrecks for Brad. I just didnt feel compelled to put them out for a while. Although Ken named the amp, I didnt want people to feel as if I was trying to cash in on his name, because no one would know the whole story.

TQR: And its a great story. Who knew? Thanks for tell-ing it here. Now what inspired this utterly gorgeous sounding Remedy you sent for review?

Many years ago when I first start-ed, I went to a lot of venues in Cleve-land and became kinda known with the sound guys. In my mind, I needed to get my amps on stages where pros were playing them so I could get their

feedback. This might have been around 1989, Buddy Guy is playing in Cleveland and a friend of mine is playing in the opening band. I got back stage, Im there for the soundcheck, and Buddy has this kid playing guitar in the band who was from the South somewhere and hes playing a 100 watt Mar-shall modified for four 6V6s. Man, did that amp sound good! He didnt have to crank it up to blistering levels to get it to break up, and it had this really sweet top end with none of that 6550 or EL-34 bite. It was just the sweetest sounding amp, and the 6V6s took out some of that bulbous Marshall midrange. Plus he was playing through a sealed 4x12 cabinet so he had this great low end that 6V6s arent really known for So I was really blown away by that amp and I kind of put the idea

away and never really acted on it until one day not too long ago when it came back to me in a dream or whatever and I started thinking about it. I decided

Id build an amp with a Marshall front end, Id jumper the two channels internally like a four input Marshall but with a single input and bright and normal volume controls Id do the standard Marshall EQ, the cathode follower, the basic front end, but on the back end Id do this 6V6 design that will be cathode biased, and Im going to do it split-load cathode bias, and because of that, Im going to be able to do this true half-power switch. And it really is half power without chang-ing the tonality or feel of the amp at all. I probably should have patented it, but you know, thats expensive, and then Id have to spend time enforcing it.

TQR: I can think of better ways to spend your time.

Believe me.

TQR: So the amp is running on two or four power tubes

Yes, and I played the game with the output trans-former and split

the difference between the 8K and the 4K ohms so it works very well with 4K and with 2K. Thats the problem when you go to half power. Like in a Twin, if you pull two tubes you should actually increase the speaker impedance load by half. The same thing with a Marshall, but my amp does that inter-nally. So I built the Remedy and we had Z Fest and thats what Z Fest is for it enables me to run things up the flag pole and get opinions from people I trust. The whole thing is, you have to be innovative, because I dont do clones, but lets remember that this is 50s technology. There isnt anything really new that hasnt been done. You just have to learn how to season the gumbo. TQR: How well do you know Anson Funderburgh? We

heard him play a couple of shows with a MAZ38 Invasion and his tone was unbe-lievable.

We met a couple of times, but we have talked a lot, and one of the reasons we talked a lot is because my dad was a golfer and he would often get invited to the Firestone course here in Akron. Anson is also an avid golfer, and he would ask me if there was any way he could play that course. He came to the

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TONEQUEST REPORT V.13 N.02 December 2011 6

shop a couple of times, and all I can say in describing his playing is smooth and fluid. The thing about Anson is true about Joe Walsh, and I told him this when he was at the shop. Ive seen Joe play oh 20 or 25 times, whatever. But Joe would be on stage with someone like Ringo Starrs All-Stars all these great fing musi-cians, and Joe would be in the center of it and you wouldnt even know that Joe was there, and then all of a sudden hed unleash this hair-raising solo, and then come right back into the pocket. Thats the thing that Joe always did. He just knew how to do ar-rangements, and how to be a bandmate. Thats why people loved playing with him, and the same thing is true about Anson. His sole purpose is not to show you what he can do, but how he can contribute to the song, and to me, thats a true musician.

Now back to the MAZ 38 Its actually in its third gener-ation. The first was the MAZ that we called the Senior and the Junior. The Invasion was the 2x12

version. The Studio Deluxe was the little 1x12 that Buddy Whittington made famous on so many John Mayall records. I had a Bluesman that was a 4x10 and a Studio Lead that was a head. My thought at the time was to be Leo Fender, and have one chassis and all these different configurations and models. It was designed in 1988, and the way you can identify it is by the presence control, which tells you that there is negative feedback, because thats how the presence control works off the negative feedback and the output transformer. It has a long-tail phase inverter, a presence control, and the MAZ was a little bit cleaner, because negative feedback makes whats coming out of the amp sound more like whats going into the amp. By controlling the amount of presence and the amount of negative feedback, it made it more of a relatively cleaner, Fender-sounding amp. Guys liked it, and especially guys like Anson because it wasnt as toothy. Blackface Fenders are won-derful sounding amps, but when you try to push them a little bit sometimes they kind of show their bite. EL-84s are a little different more compressed with that midrange chewiness to them. Then all of a sudden you get a guy who has been play-ing a scooped blackface Fender who has gotten into the habit of being kind of careful with his treble strings, put him into a MAZ with the same type of tone stack, and now the back end is four EL-84s and they smooth everything out.

Another thing you may not know is that Anson never liked 12 inch speakers until he played the Invasion. He was always a 10 inch guy until then and I can remember him telling me, Ah never thought Id ever like 12s Dr. Z. (laughing)

TQR: And that was your standard combination of the Celestion G12H 30 70th Anniversary and a Vintage 30

Yeah. You cant go wrong. The sad thing is that in their 70th anniversary year Celes-tion made them, and then they

stopped and I kind of pleaded with them to make that speaker again. The second version didnt sound quite the same as the original 70th Anniversary speakers according to my memory, but they still sound pretty good.

TQR: You also dabbled with building your own speakers for a while, and I can remember you sending a Z28 4x10 with your speakers down here. Can you com-ment on that experience?

It went kinda easy for 10s, because I was very focused on what I wanted. Basically, I wanted a 10 that sounded like a 12. I wanted a 10 that gave me the pop of a small

cone speaker like a 10, but with the low end and fullness of a 12. So I incorporated the smaller size of the cone to get the dynamic response, and I increased everything on the back end to give it better lows and fidelity. But when I went to design a 12, I just couldnt find one speaker that could do everything I wanted. I mean. I like Vox blues in some amps, I like Vintage 30s I like Greenbacks in some amps. There wasnt one

speaker that had the beauty of a Greenback and its low efficiency that almost acts an attenuator that enables you to crank an amp up and get that woody, reedy tone Or youre on stage with a Vintage 30 and its just cuttin through the band like a f ing hot

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knife through but-ter And the 70th Anniversary with its beautifully balanced tone and musical response Or the Alnico Blue with that brilliance that just screams the first Beatle records I just couldnt get that in any one speaker

without building two or three, and I just decided to screw it and stick with Celestion. You know, instead of fighting it Im the kind of guy that will write things down and if they dont make sense, Ill walk away. Some guys are so fing hard-headed. Im going to be right, dammit. Life is too short. Enjoy your successes, learn from your failures and move on.

TQR: Over the years you have waded through many, many pallets of Celestion speakers in produc-tion Have you noticed any difference between the British-made speakers from Celestion and those made in China?

Well, I dont want to insult anyone from England, but I gotta tell ya, when I first began getting the speakers that were made in China it was obvious to me that they were meticulously built. There wasnt glue all over the frickin

spiders as if someone had spent the afternoon at the pub and then went back to make some speakers The quality of the build was much improved and I had a way lower percentage of failures and rejects. But I will qualify that with this state-ment: Celestion is still supplying the parts to China. I believe that perhaps the baskets are made in China, but the cones are still from Mueller, I believe, and all the parts are still the originals sourced in England. Lets see what happens when full production of the parts is moved to China maybe things will change, but as of right now they actually do a nicer job of assembling the speakers than they did in England.

TQR: You are also building a tube reverb unit now, which is a very useful and cool tool. How does your reverb unit differ from a vintage Fender or one of the modern reproductions?

Its kind of in between the PC board ver-sions that are built now and the vintage ones. Like you, I have

access to a lot of vintage gear, and there is a dealer here that had three really nice Fender reverb units from the early 60s that I used as a benchmark, and I designed what I did using some modern techniques. Its grounded properly so you dont get any hum or ground loops, but I built it close to an original. I used a smaller 3-spring, long delay reverb pan with the original Dwell, Mix and Tone controls. It certainly produces the kind of Dick Dale-approved boing, and Brad Paisley uses one with his Z Wreck and loves it. But you know, there isnt a huge margin in them because they cost as much to make as an amplifier. People look at it and they think its only a little box, but its got a power supply and a rectifier, tubes, pots and knobs Its not a big sell for me, but another nice thing about it is that Ive got a couple of junior builders here that do other things in the shop

and they can put one of those together. I taught them how to do it and they can put one to-gether in a day. Its like an Air Brake, a simpler kind of device compared to the more complex and sophisticated stuff that more experienced guys have to build. How do guys get experience? So I dont make a million dollars building reverb units, but it serves a purpose for me as a manufacturer more

so than it does as a product, and they are pretty cool. Some-where there is a Youtube video of Brad playing his Z Wreck with the reverb unit, so you can hear him play it if you have the time to research it.

TQR: Just a touch of reverb can make a big difference with so many different styles of music Now, way back in 2000 you made the statement that success can be more difficult to deal with than failure, and how exceeding your 2000-era production level of 35 amps a month would potentially introduce some quality control challenges. Fast forward to 2011 and its clear that you have far surpassed building 35 amps a month. How has your success required you to change or alter the way you do things today compared to ten years ago?

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We now ship about 150 amps a month.

TQR: So its not 3 guys and a dog anymore.

No its not. We have 15 employee, and right now given where were at I could probably make that exact same statement again. Its funny I did a television interview with a station that came here one day to tout Cleveland businesses and you know me, I kind of tell it like it is and wear my heart on my sleeve. In the interview I made the statement that I really didnt want to grow any more, and one of the newscasters made a sarcastic comment about

that when it was aired and I felt kinda bad, because I really didnt get to fully explain myself. I think it also came across as if I thought my guys were all pains in the ass, which isnt the truth. I mean, 15 employees is difficult As much as I love them all, they all have their lives, they have their good days and bad days

TQR: Its a second family.

Right, and the more extended it gets the more challenging it is for me to try to deal with them all, but thats not the problem. The problem is with the supplying of parts. As we grew, it was wonderful because I

was able to buy more and more parts in column, which meant that our margins got better as we were able to purchase and inventory larger quantities of parts at a lower cost. But then I kinda reached a point where I dont need to order 1,000 of some part when I will only use 500 a year, and its silly to go to that next column to save a marginal amount. Where the problem comes in is the quality of the parts that Im getting. The biggest concern are tubes, and my biggest surprise is JJ. They were always rock solid, if not the best sounding tube Their EL-84s were a little harsh at times maybe thats a kind way to put it. Their 12AX7s were a little midrange heavy they werent the greatest, but they were rugged, they were durable, and they lasted a long time in an amplifier. As a

manufacturer I love that. I may have to compromise a little bit sonically, but Im giving a guy a good quality part in his amp. You know, you gotta remember that there are players and maybe the last tube amp they had was this Fender their father gave them and its still loaded with original RCA tubes 40 plus frickin years old and their amp might sound better with new tubes but it still sounds pretty damn good with 40 year old, worn out RCAs. Guys like that are not used

to tube failures So now Im shipping tubes in our amps and a tube blows and these guys call asking me what kind of shit were putting out cause they never had a tube blow in their old Fender. Im ten times more frustrated than they are, because Im buying hundreds and hundreds of tubes a month and throwing out hundreds of tubes a month and absorb-ing the cost of the shrinkage. Not only is it the cost of the shrinkage, but I have a dedicated QA guy whos got incredible ears hes an experienced engineer who spends hours tubing up an amp in a combo checking for rattles and all of this shit that he can hear that a guitar player would also hear So it isnt just costing me money in supplies When I wrote up what we need to charge for this amp and I accounted for the cost of a tube, well, in reality maybe its now two or three of each tube to get it out the door, plus the cost of the guy doing QA. All of that stuff just adds to the cost, and if I get bigger and bigger its just going to get worse and worse. Parts arent getting any better the reverb tanks are for shit, the tubes

are terrible. Caps arent like they used to be they arent like the old Mallory caps. I can kinda hear the dryness in a lot of these current production filter caps and coupling caps. Resistors are OK, boards and chassis and cabinets we have a lot of control over. I would die for some old Jensen speakers, but youre never going to get them again. So it does seem difficult to get much larger than where we are today because of the supply factor. You know, you wanna have a fine restaurant, you gotta have fine ingredients, and if you cant get them, youre gonna end up making fing pizzas. So thats where I am with growth.

Another thing we did was to get our amps certified. How do you grow? Well, exports are probably 30-35% of our business including Canada. You talk about building 35 amps a month and now 150 a month where are you selling all of these amps, because were not just making them, theyre all paid for when they ship. In Europe, they view American amps as quintessential, steeped in the history of Leo Fender and all of that, and rightfully so. Its like a German car.

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TQR: But getting certified for international distribution caused you to jump through all kinds of flaming hoops

Oh, I had to do all kinds of things and spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on certification testing. I had to supply them with four amplifiers that you dont get back because they are destructively tested. I have to have an inspector come here quarterly to verify that we have remained compliant. Canada was really the driver in all of this, because we have a very big distributor in Canada, Long & McQuade, and Canada would really prefer that every guitar player in Canada play a Traynor. They make it difficult to import if they can cite safety concerns about an amp, so it has to have the CSA certifica-tion. Long & McQuade were pretty cool about it, and they had all the Z amps they had in stock inspected, and they agreed to continue to carry our amps as long as we agreed to get certi-fied. Now its a wonderful thing, weve got our certification, and I suspect that the same kind of thing is going to happen in Europe. Imports are going to get tighter with whats hap-pening with the Euro. We also went through the certification for Japan. One thing that was bad is that we got stuck with a thousand back panels at $8 each that we couldnt use anymore. You have to use IEC connectors you cant use a power cord running through a chassis. You have to have that trip point so if you trip on a cord it is pulled out rather than the whole thing falling over. So all those back panels we had ordered were use-less. In the long run, I think I can proudly say that I may be the only boutique amp builder who has acquired full certifica-tion. I guess its reassuring to know that a little kid isnt going to burn his tender little finger on a smokin hot tube.

TQR: Well, the more important point is that you have remained successful, you are adhering to your own standards, youve done the work to insure that your international markets remain viable, and most importantly, youre still very hands-on and in the shop every day. Youre not calling in for this inter-view from a yacht, puffing on a Cohiba.

Right, and Im not sending everything to Korea to be built. There are builders who are doing that having stuff made overseas while maintaining the appearance that their products are being made in the USA. Its gonna bite them in the ass, but I do believe that Im giving people safety and affordability in a product thats been tested. Not only are they looking for the risk of burned fingers, but every component that I use was scrutinized and 2 or 3 times rated all of the transformers, all of the caps and resistors, and nothing had to be changed for compliance. Every design had to be rated and everything passed. I was very proud of that, but not so surprised because I am, afterall, an engineer.

TQR: You always used to say that Nashville was your

best market, and you described yourself as an underground guy. In hindsight, your success does seem to have been driven by word of mouth rather than heavy advertising and schmaltz.

I think so, and it helps to see guys playing our amps on stage, whether its at a concert or a Youtube video. Believe it or not, I was contacted about one of our amps being featured in a Prius commercial, apparently because they liked the logo. You know, if I were to have started my company today, I dont know that I could make it to the point were at now. A big part of my longevity and success was a matter of timing. When I started there were maybe five guys doing this and I have out-lived almost all of them. To start a company in the economic environment today is tough, and my hats off to anyone who tries. But I gotta say that there are still people that call me who have just played a Dr. Z amp for the first time. An old black guy left a message just the other day who had played Ansons amp and he said, I got to have one of these amps like Ansons. (laughing) We have 8,000 people on our forum and if someone has a problem or concern I answer them, and I think that means something. Im very grateful, and when people call me, I try to answer the phone.

Having now entered our 13th year of the Quest, we can still recall wasting no time tapping into Dr.

Zs orbit during our first year of publication in 2000. Well before the idea of a ToneQuest had ever occurred to us, we had been rabid fans of Buddy Whittington, who capably set the record for having lasted the longest as a guitarist in John Mayalls Bluesbreakers. We had rediscovered Mayall on his landmark 1993 album titled Wake Up Call featuring Coco Montoya, Mick Taylor, David Grissom and a guest appear-ance by Albert Collins, and when Whittington replaced Coco on subsequent albums, we were dumbstruck by the unfamiliar Texans touch and tone. We tracked Buddy down with assis-tance from Dr. Z, visiting him at his home outside of Dallas, and later recording a 2-part interview featured in his April

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Dr. Z RemedyDr. Z Remedy

Buddy Whittington

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2000 cover story and May 2000 issue. Since then we have watched Zs pres-ence grow substan-tially with new models steadily added to the line. Not long ago a reader beseeched us to review the Dr. Z Remedy, and after 10 years it seemed like a

good idea to not only review the amp, but reacquaint you with Dr. Z as well. Just understand that the driving force behind our deep appreciation for Zs amps must be attributed to Buddy a truly amazing guitarist whose luscious chops first guided us to Dr. Zs doorstep in Cleveland If youre curi-ous to hear a sample of Buddys extraordinary playing, try Dead City from Mayalls Blues for the Lost Days album. Buddy recorded that track with a 58 Les Paul and a Dr. Z Prescription head and 4x12 cab, and the result will hurt you.

Now, our review of the Remedy may seem on the surface to be just another amp review, but the Remedy is anything but just another amplifier While Z has faithfully served the bedroom market with some very toneful and diminutive

little Class A blasters in the past, the Remedy isnt one of those. Designed for a full quad of 6V6s that can be powered down using just two, the Remedy easily rivals our op-timized 66 Deluxe Reverb in power, temperament and tone using the half-power switch, and at full power it gracefully morphs intro the rare air filled by our equally optimized 66 Pro Reverb. Both Fenders are equipped with 25K midrange pots, otherwise they would

be entirely incapable of producing the lush midrange tones oozing from the Z. The closed-back 2x12 Z Best cab loaded with a Celestion Vintage 30 and G12H30 70th Anniversary also capably pushes solid low frequencies that the Fender blackface amps could never match.

The Remedy impresses us as a deftly contrived hybrid housing two amps in one box. Youll hear the brilliant treble presence of a Fender and the more assertive midrange voice of a Mar-shall anchored with outstanding bass response on the wound strings that doesnt fold up or yield to a heavy pick attack. As such, the Remedy offers a unique blend of the best of both heavier Marshall and brighter Fender tones that can be mixed

and tweaked via the High and Normal dual volume controls.

The 40 watt/20 watt power range also delivers clean head-room that is more than adequate at stage volume levels with

a band, yet at half power, it is the consummate playmate for home use. The Remedy gradually begins to spill into overdrive at around 11 oclock on the volume controls, and by 2 oclock the 6V6s are producing thick sustain with the airiness, bounce, and open character that are so unique to these tubes. Of course, with this much power available you can roam between cleaner tones and heavier distor-tion merely by rolling volume off from the guitar. The beauty of the Remedy is that the essential character, tone and dynamic feel of the amp doesnt change when switch-

ing from the full power to the half power setting. Its not quite as loud, but the available ratio of clean headroom to overdriven distortion isnt altered, and the ability to mix the warmer, cleaner Normal volume with the brighter, ballsier High channel really offers a lot of possibilities with dif-ferent guitars. We also find the paucity of pots and knobs adorning the front panel to be both charming and comfort-ing. Call us old school, but the simple layout of Bass, Mid and Treble controls with the internally jumpered Blend volume controls relieved us from the task of fiddling with too many options. Truth be told, if you cant make yerself sound better than just good with the Remedy, the problem isnt with the amp.

Tone OK, so the Remedy is a nifty little head with a big voice, further enhanced by the 2x12 Z Best cabinet, which can be stood up on end or laid down low on its side depending on your mood. To buy the head without the cabinet would be a mistake. Dont even think about it. But the overriding justification for staking a claim on your own Remedy is this: you own nothing that sounds like this amp, and in our opinion

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it is one of the most richly toneful and vocal new pro-duction amplifiers we have ever heard or reviewed, en-dowed with an unmistak-able personality that will be revealed to you in the first chord. There it is stunning clarity throughout the entire frequency range of your guitar highs that

vividly reveal second-order harmonics and subtle overtones without sounding shrill or harsh a sonorous midrange voice that lends animation and a vocal human quality to the notes, and rich low end anchoring the choir with confidence, strength and amazing depth. All this, and the speakers arent even bro-ken in yet If you live anywhere near a Dr. Z dealer, we urge you to fire up a Remedy at the first opportunity. And for those of you who dont, we can assure you that the suspense and an-ticipation of awaiting the arrival of your new Remedy will be entirely justified by hopeful expectations gloriously surpassed. If ever there was a time to Quest forth, this be it.

www.drzamps.com

Visual Sound founder Bob Weil suggested that we consider developing a review of an amp built by 3rd Power Amplification, a fairly new player in the boutique market based in Nashville. We contacted found-

er Jamie Scott, and we received a British Dream 112 combo for review. As we researched the entire 3rd Power product line of combo amps, heads and their innovative Switchback and trian-gular HLH 312 speaker cabinets, it became apparent that 3rd Power was working from an entirely unique perspective that has been enthusiastically embraced by players like Lenny Kravitz and Simon Townshend. We asked Jamie to describe the inspira-tion for his company and his unique design approach, and our review of the British Dream follows our interview

TQR: How and when did you first become involved with music and gear, and what kinds of sonic space did you naturally gravitate to as a player that continues to influence you today?

I remember being exposed to music and sound at a very early age. My mom was hippie and always had the record player going. As a child, my favorite song was Boris The Spider by The Who as op-posed to something like Old McDonald! I recall mimick-ing the guitar riff on George Harrisons version of If Not for You on an old acoustic guitar using a nickel as the slide. During the summer of

1969, my mom took me to the Seattle Pop Festival. I saw Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Bo Diddley. What I remember most of that weekend was sitting on the front of Bos stage and him pointing at me a couple of times while singing.

As a working musician I focus on writing guitar parts that complement the song and particularly the vocals. Sonically speaking, I find that the texture of the guitar sound and how it holds together the whole song to be pretty amazing. It doesnt matter if its U2, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, Hunter Hayes, Paramore or Taylor Swift, the guitar is binding it all together and allowing the vocal melody to be the center-piece of the song.

TQR: How did your initial interest in amplification progress in terms of acquiring practical, hands-on experience from the perspective of a designer and builder?

I took electronics and computer programming classes in school. This provided me with the fundamentals as well as the understanding that electronic devices work the way they do for a reason. People had to design it and build it before it became something someone could use. Later, I worked and taught guitar at a local music store. It became my responsibil-ity to maintain all of the guitars on the wall and eventually that led to doing guitar repairs and customizations. When it came time to tweak my old Marshall amp head, a friend rec-ommended I go see a guy named Dave Ray. Dave had a shop across the street from the local rehearsal hall in San Rafael, CA. Over the years, I would book time with Dave and wed just dive into my amp and see what we could come up with. Dave really made an impression on me as he passionately helped me chase the tone in my head. He taught me patience and the understanding that, with regard to electronic compo-

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3rd Power AmplificationREVIEW

TQ

3rd Power Amplification

Documents

ToneQuest - Dec 2011