And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
White toggle selects Bridge p/u, neck p/u, or both. Each p/u has its own volume and tone control. The big metal selector is a stereo variac for certain 'canned' tones...but players frequently had it disconnected. This is a Gibson ES-355, probably from early 60's. Goetz
It's Varitone, not Variac. Variac is a different device entirely.
Varitone: Below that chicken-head knob lies a notch filter with six separate capacitors soldered to switch decks. The first position (1 on the dial) is true bypass, allowing the signal to go straight to the volume pot from the pickup, with no resistors or capacitors in the way. The other five steps on the switch remove certain frequency ranges of the tonal spectrum, creating different EQ maps for each.
There are no specific names for these maps, leaving players to use terms like squishy, underwater, and guitar-in-a-box.
The exact frequency slices taken out at each step vary by company (Gibson or Epiphone) and era (the '70s produced notably different circuits), but the basic idea has always been the same: the Varitone allows for pre-set frequency "scoops" that you can dial in with the flip of a switch.
Lovely collection. I would take any or all.
ReplyDeleteLooks like from Mark Knophler's sound studio.
ReplyDeleteI think that the one white switch is the distortion sound. Then the four black knobs. But then, what is the last one, the one that looks like a dial?
ReplyDelete"These go to eleven."
DeleteProbably a selector so you can choose the pickup. Bridge, neck or both.
ReplyDeleteEach pickup or combination of pickups has a different sound.
Al_in_Ottawa
White toggle selects Bridge p/u, neck p/u, or both. Each p/u has its own volume and tone control. The big metal selector is a stereo variac for certain 'canned' tones...but players frequently had it disconnected. This is a Gibson ES-355, probably from early 60's.
ReplyDeleteGoetz
It's Varitone, not Variac. Variac is a different device entirely.
DeleteVaritone:
Below that chicken-head knob lies a notch filter with six separate capacitors soldered to switch decks. The first position (1 on the dial) is true bypass, allowing the signal to go straight to the volume pot from the pickup, with no resistors or capacitors in the way. The other five steps on the switch remove certain frequency ranges of the tonal spectrum, creating different EQ maps for each.
There are no specific names for these maps, leaving players to use terms like squishy, underwater, and guitar-in-a-box.
The exact frequency slices taken out at each step vary by company (Gibson or Epiphone) and era (the '70s produced notably different circuits), but the basic idea has always been the same: the Varitone allows for pre-set frequency "scoops" that you can dial in with the flip of a switch.
The ES345 is the stereo version - 2 cords out.