Ask Zac

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Shots of Jerry Jones early builds, including the original Tuff Dog Tele for Merle Haggard.

https://www.askzac.com/post/the-histo...

In 2010, Jerry Jones auctioned the entire contents of his Nashville factory. Drill presses, unused custom fabricated parts, prototype instruments, and everything that was not part of the building itself were sold to the highest bidder. For a handful of years, his website was kept up, but finally, it too came down. Now the only information that can be found is from the descriptions on completed sales of used instruments. A recent email asked me for info on Jones, as the viewer had just bought one of his guitars and there was next to nothing about the guitars on the web. My own search ended up with the same results. So I reached out to Jerry Jones through a friend of his, and I was politely told "Jerry does not want to be interviewed, as he is retired, and to talk about this would be to come out of retirement, and he has no interest in doing so."  With that dead-end, I pieced together my own past interactions with Jerry and tracked down some of his friends and two of his former employees to put together this story. I also had the help of friends that let me borrow a bevy of wonderful Jones guitars, including the original factory prototype that was used to test pickups. So to the best of my ability, here is the history of Jerry Jones Guitars.

Jerry Jones:
12-String (Black)
Longhorn Bass 6 (SilverJones)
Baritone
12-String (Bronze)
Baby Sitar
Prototype Guitar

Silvertone Danelectro 1958 U2

Amp:
Fender Blonde Tone Master Deluxe Reverb https://amzn.to/3eDEEX0.

Pick:
D'Andrea MH 351

Effects used:
Mirage compressor
Line 6 Echo Park Delay
9v power via Truetone CS6  https://amzn.to/3gnJQPW #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

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How you prepare for a gig dictates whether you will be asked to work with that client/artist again in the future. In this episode, I show how I prepare musically, what questions I ask the client, how I choose what gear to take, and the importance of having backups for everything. A very practical AZ episode.


Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with an added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Bridge pickup re-wind by Ron Ellis

Strings:
D'Addario Pure Nickel 10-45

Pick:
D'Andrea MH 351

Amp:
1964 Vox JMI AC10 with 12" Celestion Blue Alnico Speaker in a custom cab built by Kyle Bollendorf.

Effects used:
Boss DD-2
9v power via Truetone CS6  https://amzn.to/3gnJQPW #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

To Support the Channel:
Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac
Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo @AskZac 
Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com

When Leo Fender released the Broadcaster, he was laughed at by his competitors. His detractors claimed that no serious guitarist would be seen playing Fender's "boat paddle" with strings. But old Leo knew just the guitarist that could give his new plank some respect, Jimmy Bryant. What many are not aware of is that after working all day at the factory, Leo Fender would moonlight as the sound man for the popular Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree show. On a break, Leo anxiously handed his new Broadcaster to Hometown guitarist, Jimmy Bryant, who was by all accounts the hottest picker in L.A. at the time. To his great delight, Bryant loved the fast action, clear tone, lack of unwanted feedback, and the comfort of Leo's new guitar. Soon Jimmy and his sparring partner, Speedy West, had their own recording contract with Capitol Records, and their first LP, with Jimmy proudly holding his Broadcaster, acted as a huge Fender ad in record stores across the United States. The new Fender guitar now was seen as the one to have.

Jimmy was one of the finest guitarists in the history of American Music, and although he is not forgotten, he is often underappreciated. With this episode, I will do my best to rectify that with a healthy dose of his story, and a look at the gear he used to create his decidedly "Fender" tone.

In the video, I spotlight how his use of the Broadcaster, 12-52 pure nickel strings, jazz picks, and an early "woody" Fender Pro influenced his sound. Also, I discuss the blend control, and how Broadcaster wiring was different than what was later used on the Telecaster.

Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with an added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Bridge pickup re-wind by Ron Ellis

Strings:
D'Addario Pure Nickle 10-45

Pick:
D'Andrea Medium Heavy

Amp:
1959 Fender Super

No effects
#askzac  #guitartech #telecaster

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Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo @AskZac 
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I started my channel in January of 2020 with 70 subscribers, and a year and a half later have over 20,000 subs. I have gotten many questions about how I create my show, including people wanting to know the specifics of how I capture my guitar sounds. Well here it is, and even a bit of the "why" I started doing my show. And to everyone that has subscribed and supported me, THANK YOU!!

Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with an added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Bridge pickup re-wind by Ron Ellis

Strings:
D'Addario NYXL 10-46

Pick:
Fender Medium

Amp:
1964 Vox JMI AC10 with 12" Celestion Blue Alnico Speaker in a custom cab built by Kyle Bollendorf.

Effects used:
Boss RV-2 on plate setting
Amp tremolo
9v power via Truetone CS6  https://amzn.to/3gnJQPW #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

To Support the Channel:
Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo @AskZac 
Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com

Today I take a long-overdue look at questions that have arisen over the last couple of months. I cover the common questions I get about Princeton Reverb amps, the Tele body thickness question that was repeatedly asked concerning my 57 vs 67 Tele video, and I cover how Guthrie Trapp has influenced my playing, and how one of his exercises influenced the "Ask Zac" theme.

Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with an added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Bridge pickup re-wind by Ron Ellis

Strings:
D'Addario NYXL 10-46

Pick:
Fender Medium

Amp:
1964 Vox JMI AC10 with 12" Celestion Blue Alnico Speaker in a custom cab built by Kyle Bollendorf.

Effects used:
Boss RV-2 on plate setting
9v power via Truetone CS6  https://amzn.to/3gnJQPW #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

To Support the Channel:
Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo @AskZac 
Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com

Fender tweeds are some of the most desirable vintage amps, especially the late 50s designs, which are considered by many as the pinnacle of Leo Fender's work. Today, I look at 2 of the most revered of the smaller tweeds, the 1959 Harvard, and the 1960 Deluxe. The 2 amps are similar in many ways, sharing even some of the same iron, yet different in their cabinet size, speaker size, and perhaps most importantly the Deluxe having cathode versus the fixed power tube bias of the Harvard. From clean to cranked, you hear it all paired with my 1957 Esquire.

Vintage Amp comparison - Tweed Shootout

Gear used:
1959 Fender Harvard with stock Jensen P10R
1960 Fender Deluxe with Jensen P12Q

1957 Fender Esquire with added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Bridge re-wind by Ron Ellis

Strings:
D'Addario NYXL 10,12,16,24,34,44

Pick:
Medium

Effects:
None - though a Live Wire ABC switch was used to select each amp. #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

Check out the opening Squier Bass VI lick played with Fuzz!
 
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Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
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Did you know that the fuzz pedal was born because a Danelectro Bass 6 was recorded using a faulty channel on a studio mixing console? The part, played by the great Grady Martin, was a hit for Marty Robbins in 1961, and the requests to replicate the sound led the studio engineer, Glenn Snoddy, to design the Maestro Fuzz-Tone for Gibson in 1962. Unfortunately for Gibson, the pedal was not a hit right away. They had to wait till Keith Richards used one on "Satisfaction" in 1965, which led to them quickly reissuing the product. To boot, Keith had used the device only to mimic a horn, as he thought his fuzz guitar part was just a guide for the horn part to be overdubbed later. The horns were never added, the fuzz part was kept, and the fuzz craze was born.

Marty Robbins "Don't Worry About Me."
   • Marty Robbins - D... 

Grady Martin on "The Fuzz"
   • 1961 Grady Martin... 

James Burton on Bass VI with fuzz
   • Jimmy Burton - Ji... 

More of what Keith envisioned for "Satisfaction."
   • [I Can't Get No] ... 

Gear Used:
2018 Fender Squier Vintage Modified Bass VI
Strings: La Bella Flatwound 767-6F  https://amzn.to/2Wio3iu

1957 Fender Esquire with added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Bridge re-wind by Ron Ellis

Strings:
D'Addario NYXL 10,12,16,24,34,44

Pick:
Medium

Amp:
1965 Deluxe Reverb with Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, and bright cap clipped on the vibrato channel.

Effects used:
Analog Man Sunface 2N
#askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

To Support the Channel:
Patreon  https://www.patreon.com/AskZac
Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo @AskZac 
Or check out my store for merch  - www.askzac.com

Fender has made the Telecaster for longer than many of us have been alive. The elegant, yet simple instrument has evolved and had many variations over the past 70 years. Today, I take a 1957 and 1967 Telecaster and show how the instrument changed from the heart of the Leo years, to firmly in the CBS era. From headstock to pickups, the comparison is quite enlightening, and I finish the video with head-to-head tone examples. To finish the video, I give a quick lesson on the playing examples I used for both instruments.

Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with added vintage neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain. Rewind of bridge pickup by Ron Ellis.

1967 Telecaster - stock except for steel compensated saddles, and the tone control is wired to the bridge pickup only.

Strings:
D'Addario NYXL 10,12,16,24,34,44

Pick:
Danocaster Medium

Amp:
1965 Deluxe Reverb with Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, and bright cap clipped on the vibrato channel.

Effects used:
amp verb #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

To Support the Channel:
Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo - AskZac
Or check out my store at  - www.askzac.com

Learning to play guitar in the 80s, my only reference to fuzz was articles about Jimi Hendrix, SRV, and Eric Johnson in either Guitar World or Guitar Player magazines. When I finally got to play the fuzz pedals that became available in the 90s, like those made by Fulltone, they were just not to my liking. They seemed way over the top, and not useable in the music that I was playing. I lost interest in fuzz until my good buddy Austin showed me his Analog Man Sun Face Fuzz, and I immediately ordered one from Mike. Besides fuzz, I also hit on some pointers on using capos with electric guitar after pushing them in my John Leventhal episode.

Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain.

Strings:
Gabriel Tenorio NíquelPuro Pure Nickel Strings 10-46

Pick:
Blue Chip TPR 35

Amp:
1965 Deluxe Reverb with Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, and bright cap clipped on the vibrato channel.

Effects used:
Analog Man Sunface 2N #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show

To Support the Channel:
Tip jar:  https://paypal.me/AskZac
Venmo - AskZac
Or check out my store at  - www.askzac.com

John Leventhal is a favorite, and his work in the early 90s acted as a musical roadmap for a young Texas Honky Tonk guitarist trying to stay afloat in the world of pop/folk/singer-songwriter music. In this episode, I look at 7 concepts that I have stolen from Leventhal, that are very worthy of checking out for yourself.

Print interview with JL
https://www.askzac.com/post/john-leve...

Truetone Lounge video interview with JL
   • John Leventhal | ... 
 
JL Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/68D...

Gear for this video
1957 Fender Esquire with added neck pickup. Restoration and aging on the body by Dan "Danocaster" Strain.

Strings:
Gabriel Tenorio NíquelPuro Pure Nickel Strings 10-46

Pick:
Blue Chip TPR 35

Amp:
1964 Vox JMI AC10 with 12" Celestion Blue Alnico Speaker in a custom cab built by Kyle Bollendorf.

Effects used:
Mirage compressor pedal
Line 6 Echo Park
9v power via Truetone CS6  https://amzn.to/3gnJQPW
Amp Tremolo #askzac #guitartech #telecaster

Support the show