Deluxe Reverb VS Harvard + Viewer Mailbag for April - ASK ZAC EP 22

oh hello friends and welcome to another
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Ask Zac this is our April viewer
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mailbag episode where I answer your
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questions so first off I want to say a
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big thanks to Keith Williams with five
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watt world Keith has not only been a dear
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friend to me especially in the last
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couple months of you know of less
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contact with people and have enjoyed
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phone conversations with him we've been
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able to kind of influence each other and
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he's kind of mentored me going from
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doing like the interviews with the true
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tone lounge to doing kind of my own page
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and in Keith's jazz master episode he
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gave me a big you know big kind of shout
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out a big plug so I want to thank Keith
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just for that and for his friendship and
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his help because I've learned a lot from
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him and he has a great page and most of
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you probably already aware of him but if
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you're not go check it out any of his
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episodes are great he tends to have
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episodes that are short histories or
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these more philosophical ones about how
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many guitars is enough and you know what
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do I need and things like that and I
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enjoy you know both both types of
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episodes but you need to go and check
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him out so back to answering questions
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actually one more correction and this is
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in the the nickel the pure nickel
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strings episode I kind of got
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extemporaneous and and started talking
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about Battle Creek Michigan and then
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maybe that ghs was making fender strings
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at some point no that's not true there
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were actually two factories in in Battle
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Creek and one was GHS and the
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one was VC Squier and I knew about VC
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Squier and so I wish that I would have
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double-checked that first but anyway but
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Here I am correcting that so VC Squier
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supplied Fender with string starting in
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the 50s and then they were bought by
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Fender in the 60s and then they were
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final and they made all of fender
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strings up until 1981 and that's when
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the factory in Battle Creek was
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shuttered in 1981 then of course they
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owned the Squire name and again note the
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spelling squ
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I E R which is not of course the spelling
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if you were having a knight and a squire
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and but because they owned that already
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that's why they used that for the squire
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line so that way they didn't have to buy
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another trademark so they had Squire all
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right on to the questions so this is by
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Aaron booth and he asked on the maple
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cap Telecaster episode he said what made
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you choose steel saddles versus brass
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well of course that 67 tele originally
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had steel saddles it had the threaded
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ones on it and I really liked the sound
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of it and I tried brass on there and the
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brass really darkened it and kind of
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took away the liveliness and so I ended
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up I wanted compensated saddles and so I
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ended up going with C&J tooling saddles
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which unfortunately are not made anymore
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because the the owner of the company
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passed away but there are all parts tons
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of companies make you know steel and
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brass compensated saddles the one thing
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I would say if you are going for that
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old steel saddle sound try to find a
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lighter set of steel because that was
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kind of my battle when I was working on
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my 67 tele was going from those original
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threaded saddles and they were
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lightweight they weighed next to nothing
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and then a lot of the replacements were
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very heavy steel and they changed the
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tone of the guitar and I didn't like the
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change
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and so it took me a while to find some
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really light steel and the cmj tooling
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did that yeah
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brass tends to be darker and more
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compressed and less lively sounding and
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it just depends on the guitar so I will
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use brass or steel sometimes I'll throw
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on a set of brass
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you know onto a guitar and see if I like
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it or not
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I think Leo kind of got it right in the
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beginning with you know using the brass
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saddles with the flat pole bridge and I
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think you know the staggered pole with
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the steel saddles is a really good
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combination but you can mix and match
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into whatever you want alright any this
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is from Michael flowers and it says any
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guidance on acquiring an inexpensive
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tele Fender or not that gets that spanky
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tone well I really like as far as I mean
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one you just got to go and play a bunch
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of guitars the best thing you can do is
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find a place it has a bunch of guitars
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and and play a bunch of them you know
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you could find a good you know
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inexpensive you know Indonesian squire
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that that has a good sound to it as far
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as just a kind of general purpose you
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know not overly expensive guitar that i
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found that has a good traditional kind
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of vintage Telecaster type sound or this
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Spanky
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as Michael refers to I would say the old
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Road worn series that they just stopped
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it recently but those road warns that
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were made in Mexico the the kind of
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blackguard or white guard version they
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started those in 2009 and they just
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stopped production on them last year
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there's tons of them out there some of
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them are kind of climbing in price but a
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lot of them you can still find in 600
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range and those are great guitars the
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most you'd need to do to those is maybe
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change the pickups out maybe change the
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pots but they're they're great guitars
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here's another one this is by Cass Zach
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can I ask an unrelated question Keith
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Williams from five watt world tells me
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you're the one to ask why do strats
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until he's have slightly different neck
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pockets from what I can gather of Leo
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that's not what I would have expected
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well that's a great question you're
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talking about the the heel of the neck
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how on a Telecaster or Esquire or
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whatever it's squared off and then on
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most other Fender instruments it's it's
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curved so I'm still in the process of
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doing research on this but I talked to
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nacho who of course wrote the blackguard
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book and he's one of the foremost
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experts on early fender stuff he said
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that he felt like Bill Carson had an
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influence on that in that you know
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making the room going from the
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Telecaster to the strat that there was a
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lot of push by him to make things have
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more curve to it such as the contoured
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body the more contoured headstock the
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tummy cut the forearm cut the double
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cutaway not saying that Bill Carson did
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that but there was a lot of his
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influence and again it's like somebody
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saying hey mom I'd like a chocolate cake
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well Bill Carson didn't you know didn't
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create those things leo fender and
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Freddie Tavares are sorry I'm
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pronouncing his name wrong and those
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guys are the ones that actually you know
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did the handiwork and made it but Bill
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Carson was definitely influential as far
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as a taste tester and you know somebody
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asking you know for four features on
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guitars so I'm still trying to find out
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more information on that but that's what
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the answer is at this point this is from
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Tim do Bravo and he says that he wants a
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be vendor tele but doesn't want to drop
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three grand or more on lon
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yeah you do not have to you know spend
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three grand on a Telecaster by any means
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as I mentioned before you know those
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rode Warren Telly's are great you know
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you can find those used and then it cost
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about $500 to have Abbey
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put on there are a ton of guys I'm gonna
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have to say my favorite is the Glaser
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type and Joe Glaser has just you know
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kind of retooled his bender and made it
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where he can install it even you know in
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less time than ever before he can do it
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in like three or four days and I don't
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think anyone else has that short of a
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install time so you know of course
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there's guys doing Parsons white vendors
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and other types of you know vendors but
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I would recommend Joe Glaser yeah so I
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think if you got a road warren and had a
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bender put on it you'd probably have you
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know $1500 or less in the guitar next
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people you know some guys will van Han
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Solo my friend and who I can have
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publicly congratulate and congratulate
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here because he's been if you're not
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familiar with Tom Tukovac Tom Bukovac
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of course is a famous Nashville session
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guitar player and he has his own YouTube
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channel now and he's been posting stuff
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every day and if you haven't seen it you
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need to check it out anyway he had a
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contest and will van Hong Solo made it
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to round two so let's hope that he he
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wins at all but will ask to hear the
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Daniel Castro guitar which I have right
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here into the Harvard and also had the
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people wanted to hear the Harvard versus
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the deluxe reverb alright so now to do
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this so I have an a/b switch so I can
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switch between seamlessly between the
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deluxe and the Harvard I will have to
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add that I had to put in a isolation
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transformer on one of the amps to keep
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it from from buzzing because whenever
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you connect two amplifiers to each other
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they just tend to start making noise and
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I like to have a pretty low noise floor
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you know so I have a Mario at access
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electronics made me this really nice box
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many years ago when I was working for
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Brad Paisley and
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a single input and then it has two
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isolation transformers for two the
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outputs and then it has a straight out
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and so that can I did that because I
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needed that when recording multiple amps
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at the same time with with Brad Paisley
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so I'm using just a good ol ad box and
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yeah and so I'm gonna go switch between
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the two and I'm just gonna let I'm gonna
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start with the harvard and every time i
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click which you'll be able to hear this
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foot switch you know click you'll hear
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as i go back and forth and you'll know
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when it's the deluxe because i chose to
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leave the the reverb on because that's
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part of the amp sound so yeah so the dry
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sound is the harvard and the sound with
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with the touch of a verb is the is the
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deluxe and and again just so you know
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i'm starting with the harvard and every
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time i click I'm switching to the other
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amp and here we go i'm course got my
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handy dandy danocastor and yeah
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medium pick using their rounded in
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starting on the neck pickup here's the
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harvard let's see
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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of course that ended on the on the
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deluxe reverb go to the back pickup
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[Music]
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so there you have you know kind of the
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the difference between the the deluxe
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and the and the Harvard I think you can
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hear that obviously the mid-range is
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very different on the two you know the
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the tweed has a little more you know
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kind of compression again I'm not using
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any effects at all you know you have a
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five tube amp with a ten inch speaker
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and you have a nine tube amp you know
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what the 12-inch speaker in a bigger cab
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so I mean part of the difference you're
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hearing is speakers and cabs but you
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know this has a very very simple circuit
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and this has a more complex circuit and
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this tends to have a little less
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mid-range this has more mid-range
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they're both great sounds again the
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deluxe is a little bit you know is my
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favorite but the Harvard is a close
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second and they're my my favorite guitar
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amps so there was one other question and
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it was oh also the Harvard compared to a
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tweed deluxe so I don't you know of
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course right now is not a great time to
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try to borrow an amp from a friend but a
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friend of mine had a 59 tweed deluxe and
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we did a head-to-head between the
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Harvard and the tweed deluxe and the
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Harvard had more clean Headroom now but
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the deluxe got louder but it got
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distorted faster also the deluxe had
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more compression to it and it was a
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little softer sounding a little squishy
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ER and the the Harvard had firmer lows
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to it so in the end I prefer a Harvard
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over a tweed deluxe but you know it
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depends on what kind of guitar you play
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and what kind of style you're into and
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things like that all right well that's
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it you know for today I hope you enjoyed
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the little the Harvard and deluxe reverb
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shootout answered some questions keep
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the questions coming also note that I am
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be watching out because I am getting my
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website ask Zack dot-com I am
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in the process of revamping that and
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will hopefully be launching this soon so
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thanks a lot hope you have gone down in
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the corner and subscribed I hope you'll
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comment and I'll see you next time
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Thanks bye bye