Customer Reviews

The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps (Book & CD)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is really a treasure of information on Fender amps with enough pix to make you salivate.

The CD is ok but I expected more. Greg Koch's over the top playing (and commentary) can get a bit annoying.

Also, they just don't cover enough amps for my taste. No tweed pro, no tweed super, not enough time on the bassman.

The CD's are broken into two CD's. Vintage and Modern.

When they are talking about vintage deluxes, Koch decides to demo and spend most time onthe '57 Tweed Deluxe REISSUE!!!!!!!!! This to me dropped them a star since that should have been placed on the modern CD.

I guess there is not enough time to cover everything but I wish he did more.

The idea of a short clip of every Fender amp model ever made played with a tele, strat and LP makes me salivate ;).

This CD was an attempt to do that but falls short IMHO. However, it's better than nothing.

I'm gradually becoming an avid amp fan. I have a technician's training, but little hands-on electronics experience. I've been playing guitar since my early teens, so that's over 40 years, now. In the past few years, I've bought several guitars and amps, and I'm having a great time with them. For whatever reason, I'm loving the electronics side of it. And I'm absolutely loving this book. For sure, it's not for everybody, although I *can* see this as a coffee table book, for the great photos, the musicians' quotes, and because I think a lot of people are attracted to music, bands, and instruments, etc.

I'm part way through the 3rd chapter, but I see myself reading it from cover to cover, and then looking for more. It makes me simultaneously want to play music AND build my own amplifier. The writing, in describing how the whole process of guitar amplification works, is the best I've yet seen. I've read enough about how electronic components work to be reasonably familiar with them, but Tom Wheeler writes in a way that I find *very* understandable and usable. He tells you how a component works, in a way that's true to the pure electronics aspect of it, but also how it works to change the sound. Then you know why a component is located, and used the way it is. You're not going to build an amplifier, using just this book, but you're going to understand a lot more about how that sound is generated.

But, this book does much, much more than talk about electronics. It's about Leo Fender, the Fender company, the amplifier industry, the development of 60 years worth of Fender's amplifiers, and how the music they produced affected our culture. And, it does a great job of it. It's accompanied by 2 CDs with sound samples of the various types of Fender amplifiers, so the reader can hear what's being described, instead of only imagining it.

So, if you like this kind of thing, then you will love this book, because it does superlative job of what it was created to do.

This book is second to none in information about the history of Fender Amps!

There are a tremendous amount of pictures and commentary from old time Fender employees and musicians throughout and this book is a GREAT buy for anyone that is a Fender enthusiast of any level.

The Soul Of Tone is a great read, and reference guide for Fender Fanatics..lots of fantastic photos, and quotes from players, designers, and even Mr. Fender himself!...even if you think you know whole history of tube amps, you will still find information you didn't know..highly recommended!

Well I've had this book for 3 1/2 months and I finally finished it this morning. There sure is a lot of stuff in there. I can't say I enjoyed it as much as The Stratocaster Chronicles but it was still a great read. On the negative side, the chapter on electronics was a bit painful. As a 30-year electrical engineer, reading the amateurish attempts at explaining electronics made me cringe. I think the author should have gotten someone else to write that chapter. Towards the end there is a discussion of "true point-to-point" vs. eyelet board construction. What's conspicuously missing there is a comparison to PC board construction, which tends to be a very controversial topic. Also missing was any mention of the Amp Can, other than a photo.

If anything, I came away with a bit more of an appreciation for the non-vintage-style amps. Not that I would ever buy one, LOL.

I bought my first Fender amp from Robb Lawrence in San Diego, in 1973. It was a 1964 Blackface Super Reverb - and I thought I'd never need or want another amp - but it was just the beginning. I've collected Fender amps since before they were "vintage", and sold more choice pieces than I care to remember - but kept some great examples, too. My current favorite is a 1956 5E3 narrow-panel Deluxe - but about the book......

The Soul of Tone provides enough detail about the history of Leo Fender's amplifiers to satisfy the most experienced collector, in a style that will hold the interest of a casual fan of popular music and its origins. I was attracted to the book as a reference tool (I try to buy most everything published about the modern guitar, bass, and amplifier topic), but found that it also offered some great stories about the people behind the brand, relationships with competitors, and how it all fit together. The photos are clear, plentiful, and cover the amps from the very beginning. Not much is left out out.

Two CDs are included with the book. One included provides (really well-played) examples of the sounds of the most commonly agreed-upon "choice" Fender amp models, by era and style. A second delivers a good representation of the current (modern and re-issued) tools available.

Anyone interested in having a guide for identifying and appreciating the nuances of the finest instrument amplifiers ever made must have this book. It's the best there is - so far.

If you're reading reviews of this book, then I can already tell you: you are going to love it.
If you're a guitarist and/or Fender aficianado, you will obviously like it, in fact probably already own it.
But even just a casual interest in Fender amps will be enough to pull you in. Lots of period pictures, lots of history and great writing. Even the technical explanations are downright interesting. You may not know or care about cathode follower tube circuits, or solid state vs. tube rectifiers, or tone stacks, or cabinet coverings, but you'll still enjoy how the author presents all this...and then suddenly, one day, you'll discover that not only did you understand it all, but you now have strong opinions about all these amp components. This is as fun a read as I've seen.

One warning: if you don't already own a Fender tube amp, after you read this book you will. So consider the purchase price of the book just a down payment on your new obsession.

A couple words about the included CDs: They're pretty enjoyable, especially CD2.
CD1: Greg Koch plays a somewhat eclectic combination of vintage amps and guitars. They are mostly historic pieces...sort of. For example he's doing demos of historic Fender amps for this 60 history, a significant book, and yet he's using a pieced together Bassman transplant head of dubious origin in an aftermarket cabinet. The Bassman is a landmark Fender amp. They can't locate a reasonably original one to demo for a few minutes? Seriously? Also Mr. Kochs' personality and junior high sense of humor get old really fast. He's a helluva guitar player, but it's like he can't stop himself from talking. He just needs to play, not talk.

CD2: This is really a fun CD. It's various guys from Fender (mostly marketing, engineering, and project directors) playing through modern and reissue amps that they were involved in seeing to market. These guys seem to get along great, and they can all play. So here you've got guys playing the amps that they delivered to the market, their "babies". It's fun to hear them talk about and play these amps.

Like I said, if you don't own a Fender tube amp (or even if you do) and you read this book...beware your bank account.

I've had this book for a couple of weeks and I've picked it up almost everyday and enjoyed reading various portions. It's not really the type of book that one would read straight through. Instead it's an interesting, colorful reference.

Two things lowered the rating. First, despite some great photos there are several images that are blown up low resolution images that looked terrible. Second, the vintage CD was very disappointing. The commentary was so annoying as to make it almost unbearable.

Leave out the bad images and remove the commentary on the vintage CD and it would be 4 stars.

This book is beautifully photographed and well writen.

This book is more of a chronicle of what was going on at Fender and how that determined how the amplifiers they made looked and sounded. Fender was really about the people involved. The stories about people make this book what it is. From the 1940's though the recent times, it's all here.

If you are looking for an analysis of the minute details of each amp and all the little variations thereof, this is not your book (yet almost every amp model ever made by Fender is discussed at some point). If you want to know about the Fender company and why they came to make the amplifiers that we know today, this book does that very well.

There are a few chapters in the beginning of the book to give you a understanding of the electronics that the amps use. These explanations are intended to bring non-techies up to speed so that some of the amp design discussions later in the book make more sense. Don't be concerned if you are not a tech person, these chapters will help you enough that you will get the gist of what is going on. More tech minded people will probably find these chapters disappointing.

If your a Fender freak and need to be in the know about Fender amps from the beginning until the present this is the go to book. I have found the web to be full of confusing or misleading info and have found those that put their information in book form have a tendency to be accurate in what they report. This book is well organized, complete and full of nice pictures from each era.

I find everytime I consider another amp this is my reference book for all things amplified from Leo. It covers the early years, the CBS years and the rebirth of Fender amps and most everything in between and does it well.

I recently came across a 65 Fender Vibro Champ for sale. In referring to this book I found out everything I needed to know ( the pictures in the book are well done although I wish there were a few more back shots...)to determine the amp was legit and I should purchase it which I did. I even have friends borrow it so they can use it to verify information on an amp they own or wish to own...

Another plus is the attached CD which gives you a tone taste of some of the amps highlighted in the book. You can read about it and then hear it. How cool is that?

For me this is a super reference source & I highly recommend it.