Mar 2008
Product Spotlight: The Victoria Regal II Amplifier
31/03/08 22:25 Filed in: Amplifiers
Our product spotlight this month looks at the Victoria Amplifier Companies new "Regal II" vacuum tube guitar amplifier. A combo amp featuring reverb and tremolo, the Regal II is a pure, single-ended class A design that utilizes a new "Adaptive Transformer Technology" that allows for the use of one or two power tubes at the same time.
Therefore, operating power is rated from 5 watts to 35 watts, and at 5 watts, it's a REAL 5 watts, not some squashed approximation of 5 watts. The "Regal II" is designed around a custom bifilar output transformer that is essentially two discrete transformers driving a common speaker load.
This allows for the use of any combination of common 8 pin power tubes - from a single 6V6 delivering 5 watts of pure class A power, to two EL-34's for 35 watts. And because each tube is relating to its own independent transformer winding and bias resistor, any combination of different tubes types can be auditioned.
Whether it be a single 6V6 or 6L6GC or a combination of the two (yes that's right, a 6V6 and a 6L6GC at the same time) the "Regal II" never needs biasing or adjustments when changing tubes. This versatility is also extended to rectifier tubes; the Regal II can accept any common 5 Volt rectifier including 5Y3, 5V4, 5U4, and 5AR4 with no adjustments necessary.
The Regal II is available in lacquered tweed or vanilla tolex with a WeberVST Custom Alnico 15" speaker standard or you can custom order with an Eminence Legend 15" or a Celestion Gold. Footswitchable, 100% tube-driven reverb and tremolo that is 100% handwired with US-made Allen Bradley resistors and custom Victoria capacitors. What an amp!
Specifications
• Wattage: 35W
• Class A, cathode biased, dual single-ended design
• Reverb and Tremolo
• Tube complement:1-5U4GB, 2-5881, 3-12AX7, 1-12AT7
• 1-Weber Custom 15" Alnico speaker
• Cabinet Dimensions (HxWxD, Inches) 20.5 x 10.5 x 22.5
Come in and hear for yourself what everyone is raving about. The Victoria Regal was recently awarded an Editors Pick award from Guitar Player magazine, the good folks at GP loved the three dimensional sounds, power tube swapping, killer reverb and tremolo, and we have to agree.
This amp puts the fun back into playing and experimenting! Deciding on the tube compliment is the hard part but you sure will have fun experimenting and your efforts will be rewarded with jaw dropping tone. The easy part? Plugging in and enjoying “vintage tones fit for a king or queen”
Therefore, operating power is rated from 5 watts to 35 watts, and at 5 watts, it's a REAL 5 watts, not some squashed approximation of 5 watts. The "Regal II" is designed around a custom bifilar output transformer that is essentially two discrete transformers driving a common speaker load.
This allows for the use of any combination of common 8 pin power tubes - from a single 6V6 delivering 5 watts of pure class A power, to two EL-34's for 35 watts. And because each tube is relating to its own independent transformer winding and bias resistor, any combination of different tubes types can be auditioned.
Whether it be a single 6V6 or 6L6GC or a combination of the two (yes that's right, a 6V6 and a 6L6GC at the same time) the "Regal II" never needs biasing or adjustments when changing tubes. This versatility is also extended to rectifier tubes; the Regal II can accept any common 5 Volt rectifier including 5Y3, 5V4, 5U4, and 5AR4 with no adjustments necessary.
The Regal II is available in lacquered tweed or vanilla tolex with a WeberVST Custom Alnico 15" speaker standard or you can custom order with an Eminence Legend 15" or a Celestion Gold. Footswitchable, 100% tube-driven reverb and tremolo that is 100% handwired with US-made Allen Bradley resistors and custom Victoria capacitors. What an amp!
Specifications
• Wattage: 35W
• Class A, cathode biased, dual single-ended design
• Reverb and Tremolo
• Tube complement:1-5U4GB, 2-5881, 3-12AX7, 1-12AT7
• 1-Weber Custom 15" Alnico speaker
• Cabinet Dimensions (HxWxD, Inches) 20.5 x 10.5 x 22.5
Come in and hear for yourself what everyone is raving about. The Victoria Regal was recently awarded an Editors Pick award from Guitar Player magazine, the good folks at GP loved the three dimensional sounds, power tube swapping, killer reverb and tremolo, and we have to agree.
This amp puts the fun back into playing and experimenting! Deciding on the tube compliment is the hard part but you sure will have fun experimenting and your efforts will be rewarded with jaw dropping tone. The easy part? Plugging in and enjoying “vintage tones fit for a king or queen”
Angus Marshall looks at the Victoria Regal II Amplifier
Guitar Videos
27/03/08 22:19
Jacksons Rare Guitars now has a site on YouTube where we will be posting many videos about the guitars we all love. They will be informational videos describing the features of some of the best guitars from the fifties and sixties, plus what to look for when buying.
The first video we have posted is on a fabulous Fender Broadcaster, which first appeared on TV back in 2001 on The Guitar Show. Check it out below or visit our YouTube site by clicking here.
The first video we have posted is on a fabulous Fender Broadcaster, which first appeared on TV back in 2001 on The Guitar Show. Check it out below or visit our YouTube site by clicking here.
We have also added from the same TV series, the following video where Steve Jackson talks about the Gibson J-35.
We will be updating our YouTube site regularly, so subscribe or simply visit often!
AN UPDATE: We also have a presence on FaceBook where we will also be posting our videos, and if your are a FaceBook member already, then be sure to visit, become a 'Fan' of our FaceBook home, and start interacting with us and our other fans!
The 42 Guitar Index
26/03/08 22:33 Filed in: Guitar Investing
To illustrate how collectable guitars have increased in value, Alan Greenwood and Vintage Guitar Magazine developed "The 42 Guitar Index", a list of select excellent condition instruments (14 each from Fender, Gibson and Martin) made in the 1960's or earlier.
The index initially included only guitars that had a unit value below US$10,000 in 1991, with the average value being US$3,660. In '91, the 14 Gibsons had about the same total value as the 14 Fenders and the 14 Martins. The index does not include the most expensive models like the '59 Gibson Les Paul Standard, nor does it include the budget models like the Gibson Melody Maker.
The "42 Guitar Index" chart (above) shows the updated information for the index. This year's (2008) chart tracks data from 1991 to 2008. The "42 Guitar Index" chart indicates the 42 guitars once again rose in value. From 2007 to '08 our index increased by 18%. From 1991 to 2008 the average increase, year to year, was 12%, but the index does not always increase each year. From 1999 to 2001 there was no increase in the guitar index. The increase from 2006 to '07 was an attention grabbing 54%.
Beginning in 2004, The Guide displayed how Martin, Gibson and Fender were performing as individual brands. The Fender-Gibson-Martin chart (above) updates this and shows how the instruments increased in value from 1991 to 2008. We can see that the period from '91 to '97 was a 'broad' market, meaning vintage guitars of all types were appreciating equally. By '99, the chart shows the Martin group increased more than Gibson and Fender. That continued until '06, when the Fender group caught up. In '06, some Gibson and Fender solidbody models doubled in value, while many of the classic Martin flat-tops had more traditional increases. In '07, Martins made up ground, while Fenders and Gibsons grew at normal levels.
The Gibson group requires more analysis because it contains solidbody, acoustic flat-top, and electric archtop models. The Fender group is strictly solidbody instruments, while the Martin group is 92% flat-tops. So the Gibson group is influenced in a negative way by its jazz guitars, whose trend line looks more like a pancake than the mountain line of the solidbody instruments.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Vintage Guitar Magazine.
FROM FENDER FROM GIBSON FROM MARTIN 1952 Blond Precision Bass 1952 Sunburst ES-5 1931 OM-28 1952 Blond Esquire 1952 Les Paul Model 1932 00-28 special order 1953 Blond Telecaster 1954 Les Paul Jr. 1935 D-18 1956 Sunburst Stratocaster 1958 Sunburst EB-2 Bass 1944 Scallopedbrace 000-28 1958 Sunburst Jazzmaster 1958 Les Paul Custom 1944 D-28 1958 Blond Telecaster 1958 Natural ES-335 1950 D-28 1960 Sunburst Stratocaster 1958 Super 400CES 1958 000-18 1961 Sunburst, stack knob, Jazz Bass 1959 Les Paul Jr. 1959 D-18 1962 Sunburst, 3-knob, Jazz Bass 1959 J-160E 1959 D-28E 1963 Sunburst Telecaster Custom 1961 Sunburst ES-355 1962 D-28 1963 Sunburst Esquire Custom 1961 Les Paul SG 1967 GT-75 1964 Lake Placid Blue Jaguar 1964 Sunburst Thunderbird II Bass 1968 000-18 1964 Sunburst Precision Bass 1965 EB-3 Bass 1969 N-20 1966 Candy Apple Red Stratocaster 1969 Sunburst Citation 1969 D-45
The index initially included only guitars that had a unit value below US$10,000 in 1991, with the average value being US$3,660. In '91, the 14 Gibsons had about the same total value as the 14 Fenders and the 14 Martins. The index does not include the most expensive models like the '59 Gibson Les Paul Standard, nor does it include the budget models like the Gibson Melody Maker.
The "42 Guitar Index" chart (above) shows the updated information for the index. This year's (2008) chart tracks data from 1991 to 2008. The "42 Guitar Index" chart indicates the 42 guitars once again rose in value. From 2007 to '08 our index increased by 18%. From 1991 to 2008 the average increase, year to year, was 12%, but the index does not always increase each year. From 1999 to 2001 there was no increase in the guitar index. The increase from 2006 to '07 was an attention grabbing 54%.
Beginning in 2004, The Guide displayed how Martin, Gibson and Fender were performing as individual brands. The Fender-Gibson-Martin chart (above) updates this and shows how the instruments increased in value from 1991 to 2008. We can see that the period from '91 to '97 was a 'broad' market, meaning vintage guitars of all types were appreciating equally. By '99, the chart shows the Martin group increased more than Gibson and Fender. That continued until '06, when the Fender group caught up. In '06, some Gibson and Fender solidbody models doubled in value, while many of the classic Martin flat-tops had more traditional increases. In '07, Martins made up ground, while Fenders and Gibsons grew at normal levels.
The Gibson group requires more analysis because it contains solidbody, acoustic flat-top, and electric archtop models. The Fender group is strictly solidbody instruments, while the Martin group is 92% flat-tops. So the Gibson group is influenced in a negative way by its jazz guitars, whose trend line looks more like a pancake than the mountain line of the solidbody instruments.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Vintage Guitar Magazine.
Australia's First Stratocaster
05/03/08 10:06 Filed in: Fender Guitars
Back in the summer of 1979, I placed an ad in a local magazine for a guitar player. I got one call, from a guy named Steve Jackson. After some discussion on the phone we realised we had a common passion, Fender Guitars.
At the time I had a 1960 Candy Apple Red Stratocaster, and Steve had a 1959 Sunburst Stratocaster. We regularly got together with friends to compare our collections and discuss vintage guitars. Amongst us we had a variety of sixties Stratocasters and Telecasters, but no one had a maple neck fifties Stratocaster.
He was glad to hear from me and agreed to have me come down to look at his guitar, which amazingly he still had. I arranged a time and then called Steve Jackson and told him what I had possibly found.
We ventured down to Ashfield in Sydney's inner west, met Johnny Wade and upon entering his unit, we were struck by the collection of vintage guitars and amplifiers all over the apartment, from a Gibson L-5, to a Gretsch guitar amp with speaker grilles on all sides and bulls horns painted on the grille, stuff we had never seen before basically.
However, there was no Stratocaster any where, so we asked cautiously, "Where is the Fender?". "Down the back in the garage" he said. We were amazed, it was the most valuable of all of his guitars and it was unused in the garage.
We went down to his garage, opened the door and walked to the far wall where a work bench was stacked to the ceiling with box after box of old sheet music. "It's under there somewhere" he said. Yes, it was crushed under the weight of boxes of sheet music...
After ten minutes, we had cleared the workbench to reveal a 'tweed' case, the first we had seen at that point. We knew we were onto an old Stratocaster! We carefully laid it on the floor of the garage and slowly opened the case.
Right there in front of us, was the first ever maple neck fifties Stratocaster we had ever seen, and likely, the very first in Australia. It was all there, totally original and in pretty good shape.
It was well played of course as Johnny used it for many years after selling his Gibson Les Paul Goldtop because he did not like the way it dug into his ribs, and the appeal of the contour body was just too tempting. It features bakelite pickup covers, tone and volume knobs.
(At the time, Johnny had a friend who played on a cruise ship which sailed between Sydney and the U.S.A. He asked him to pick up a Stratocaster for him on his next trip, and he brought this guitar back to Australia for him.)
One peculiar thing about the guitar, was the lack of paint on the top horn of the body which was out of place considering the condition of the rest of the guitar. When asked, Johnny replied: "I had a residency at the Brighton Hotel and left the guitar leaning against the wall in the Manager's office next to the Hotel's safe. Every time the manager opened the safe, the door would bang against the guitar, and over time it removed the paint."
"I am going to get a friend to French Polish it" he says. "No!" I said, for obvious reasons, and thankfully he did not. I asked if he would sell me the guitar, but he refused and offered to leave it to me in his will. Sometime later I asked to bring another friend to see the guitar, and on that second visit he asked me if I still wanted to buy the guitar. After a short negotiation, I bought the guitar for $1500
I played the guitar regularly around the Sydney circuit for a couple of years, until that day when Steve Jackson rang me to say he had a collector interested in obtaining a fifties Stratocaster. Needing money at the time, I sold the guitar for $6500. It's new owner kept it for a couple of years, and then sold it on to Midnight Oil.
This guitar is now known as the 'Johnny Wade' Stratocaster, and in retrospect it is amazing to think of the Australian music history this guitar has been a part of. Recorded many times with both Johnny Wade (Pictured at left, who recorded over 70 records!) and Midnight Oil, it has appeared all over Australia at various gigs, and it must surely be the only Stratocaster with it's entire history known, right down to how it's paint was scratched off!
When Midnight Oil eventually off loaded the guitar it was back at Jacksons Rare Guitars, and offered to me by Steve. So I bought it back again for a considerably larger sum than I sold it for! Again I kept it for a few years but as I was not playing and thought that guitars had reached their peak in terms of investment value, I sold it again....yes I regret that decision for more than the obvious reason. This is a very special guitar, and those who play it fall in love with the sound as it is one of the best sounding Stratocaster's you're ever likely to hear, and then, there is all that history....
At the time I had a 1960 Candy Apple Red Stratocaster, and Steve had a 1959 Sunburst Stratocaster. We regularly got together with friends to compare our collections and discuss vintage guitars. Amongst us we had a variety of sixties Stratocasters and Telecasters, but no one had a maple neck fifties Stratocaster.
In late 1980 I had a discussion with my father about my 1960 Stratocaster, and he recalled the very first Stratocaster he had ever seen. "My cousin Johnny Wade used to have a brown one" he said, which confused me at first, but he continued, "It sorted faded from black to brown". I asked, "Like a sunburst you mean?", "Yeah like a sunburst", he said. "Any red in there Dad?", "no" he said.
It occurred to me that this had to be a 50's Stratocaster, so I went through every 'Wade' in the phone book until I found 'the' Johnny Wade. (who incidentally was really Charlie Wade, 'Johnny' was his stage name and he was very well known in the 50's as a 'Hawaiian' style Jazz guitarist/singer)
We ventured down to Ashfield in Sydney's inner west, met Johnny Wade and upon entering his unit, we were struck by the collection of vintage guitars and amplifiers all over the apartment, from a Gibson L-5, to a Gretsch guitar amp with speaker grilles on all sides and bulls horns painted on the grille, stuff we had never seen before basically.
However, there was no Stratocaster any where, so we asked cautiously, "Where is the Fender?". "Down the back in the garage" he said. We were amazed, it was the most valuable of all of his guitars and it was unused in the garage.
We went down to his garage, opened the door and walked to the far wall where a work bench was stacked to the ceiling with box after box of old sheet music. "It's under there somewhere" he said. Yes, it was crushed under the weight of boxes of sheet music...
After ten minutes, we had cleared the workbench to reveal a 'tweed' case, the first we had seen at that point. We knew we were onto an old Stratocaster! We carefully laid it on the floor of the garage and slowly opened the case.
Right there in front of us, was the first ever maple neck fifties Stratocaster we had ever seen, and likely, the very first in Australia. It was all there, totally original and in pretty good shape.
It was well played of course as Johnny used it for many years after selling his Gibson Les Paul Goldtop because he did not like the way it dug into his ribs, and the appeal of the contour body was just too tempting. It features bakelite pickup covers, tone and volume knobs.
(At the time, Johnny had a friend who played on a cruise ship which sailed between Sydney and the U.S.A. He asked him to pick up a Stratocaster for him on his next trip, and he brought this guitar back to Australia for him.)
One peculiar thing about the guitar, was the lack of paint on the top horn of the body which was out of place considering the condition of the rest of the guitar. When asked, Johnny replied: "I had a residency at the Brighton Hotel and left the guitar leaning against the wall in the Manager's office next to the Hotel's safe. Every time the manager opened the safe, the door would bang against the guitar, and over time it removed the paint."
"I am going to get a friend to French Polish it" he says. "No!" I said, for obvious reasons, and thankfully he did not. I asked if he would sell me the guitar, but he refused and offered to leave it to me in his will. Sometime later I asked to bring another friend to see the guitar, and on that second visit he asked me if I still wanted to buy the guitar. After a short negotiation, I bought the guitar for $1500
I played the guitar regularly around the Sydney circuit for a couple of years, until that day when Steve Jackson rang me to say he had a collector interested in obtaining a fifties Stratocaster. Needing money at the time, I sold the guitar for $6500. It's new owner kept it for a couple of years, and then sold it on to Midnight Oil.
This guitar is now known as the 'Johnny Wade' Stratocaster, and in retrospect it is amazing to think of the Australian music history this guitar has been a part of. Recorded many times with both Johnny Wade (Pictured at left, who recorded over 70 records!) and Midnight Oil, it has appeared all over Australia at various gigs, and it must surely be the only Stratocaster with it's entire history known, right down to how it's paint was scratched off!
When Midnight Oil eventually off loaded the guitar it was back at Jacksons Rare Guitars, and offered to me by Steve. So I bought it back again for a considerably larger sum than I sold it for! Again I kept it for a few years but as I was not playing and thought that guitars had reached their peak in terms of investment value, I sold it again....yes I regret that decision for more than the obvious reason. This is a very special guitar, and those who play it fall in love with the sound as it is one of the best sounding Stratocaster's you're ever likely to hear, and then, there is all that history....