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Fender's Don Randall Offers Revisionist Take on Leo, CBS, and the Company's Early Days
Reverb.com ^ | Nov 1, 2018 | Tony Bacon

Posted on 11/04/2018 11:52:45 AM PST by To-Whose-Benefit?

I interviewed Don Randall in 1992, when I was researching my first book about Fender. In the beginning, Don had worked for Fender's distributor, Radio-Tel, but in the early '50s he joined Fender as the head of sales, staying there until a few years after CBS' takeover in 1965.

I met Don at his office in Tustin, California, and spent a couple of enjoyable hours chatting about the old days, necessarily concentrating on his view from the business side of Fender—and, in particular, discussing the controversial CBS purchase.

Sitting in his wood-paneled office, he looked to me a little like an aging astronaut—sleek, tanned, and self-assured. He certainly helped take Fender into the stratosphere.

Read More.

(Excerpt) Read more at reverb.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: fender; guitars
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To: Drew68

Nice gear. I’d love to have a late ‘50s LP Jr. Unfortunately the cost has skyrocketed. Wasn’t that long ago when one could grab ‘em for under $1K.


41 posted on 11/04/2018 6:08:41 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
I have a 65 Deluxe Reverb where the tag on the back says ‘ ‘Colombia’ Broadcasting Company, it’s spelled wrong. Correct is Columbia. Adjust to new ownership at the time. It’s my favorite amp.
42 posted on 11/04/2018 6:14:34 PM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope.,)
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To: right way right

Maybe it was built for the nation of Colombia’s broadcasting operation. Colombia Broadcasting was well-known in short wave.


43 posted on 11/04/2018 6:21:30 PM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: jjotto

No.
But, maybe the guy who made the tag thought it. lol.


44 posted on 11/04/2018 6:28:31 PM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope.,)
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To: right way right

Different world then. Quality stuff that got individual attention, even if the spelling was wrong.


45 posted on 11/04/2018 6:30:37 PM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: jjotto
It’s one of my most prized possessions.
I bought it from a druggie for $20 back about 1984.
46 posted on 11/04/2018 6:35:08 PM PST by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope.,)
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To: To-Whose-Benefit?

Oh, man. Excellent reading. Thanks To-Whose-Benefit?!


47 posted on 11/04/2018 6:36:08 PM PST by Free in Texas (Celebrate diversity. Own firearms of every caliber.)
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To: VietVet876

yeah Beck was great. Didn’t he use a Les Paul?


48 posted on 11/04/2018 6:45:07 PM PST by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: Mr. Mojo
i worked with the sound guy at Roy Buchanan's last concert at Grafitti in Pittsburgh. We gave him a Twin. He turned all the knobs up to 10. He then went over to the board, and pushed all the sliders up to full and told us Your adjustments are: Master up, master down, wherever it feels good for you. Don't touch anything else.

Grafitti was a concrete block building. It took about a week for my hearing to come back...the Silver Face Twin puts out about 140 dB at 135 Watts.

To this day i don't know how Roy managed to control the feedback.

i had to do some customisation on my tele. Put in a DiMarzio Dual Sound Humbucker in the bridge position with a Strat non-tremello bridge (easier to get the intonation right, i HATED the Tele bridge, you could never get the D and G strings right), and a series/parallel switch between the tone and volume controls on the Tele. That thing really screams, and you can get some nice low end stuff when you drop down the tone and run both pickups with the DiMarzio in the parallel position.
49 posted on 11/04/2018 6:46:11 PM PST by Calvinist_Dark_Lord ((I have come here to kick @$$ and chew bubblegum...and I'm all outta bubblegum! ~Roddy Piper))
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To: Mr. Mojo

“Dark Star never gets old’’. No it doesn’t. It seems in ‘69 they had really perfected it. I don’t know if you’re aware of a site called “Relisten Dead’’. There’s every Dead concert from 1965 to 2015. Loads of ‘69 Dark Stars. And especially good one is from Boston on 4/21/69.


50 posted on 11/04/2018 6:48:08 PM PST by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: Calvinist_Dark_Lord

Great story about Roy. What a madman he was (in the positive sense). He’d have no doubt appreciated your custom Tele.


51 posted on 11/04/2018 6:53:00 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: jmacusa; wardaddy

Thanks for the site tip. Nope, never knew about it. I’ll try to find some Dead shows I’ve seen. One in particular stands out — Feb. of ‘82 at Golden Hall, San Diego. First night. And at Pauley Pavilion a couple days later.


52 posted on 11/04/2018 6:55:21 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
Yeah, to get good power amp distortion out of Blackface or Silverface Twins you need to play a very, very large venue. And wear earplugs to boot. So one either has to get a good distortion pedal or get a smaller, lower-wattage Fender like a Deluxe Reverb to get the nice natural distortion. So much easier to haul around too.

Right now i'm working on an analog universal filter/preamp setup. When i get it done, i'll be able to shape the sound spectrum of the guitar any way i want it with the filter, and have a nice preamp for the guitar when i don't want the filtering. The filter will have all available shapes (low pass, high pass, band pass, notch), and independently adjustable bandwidth, center frequency and gain.

Maybe i'll market it in the future. i can add a feature where all the parameters are controlled by a foot pedal.

53 posted on 11/04/2018 6:57:17 PM PST by Calvinist_Dark_Lord ((I have come here to kick @$$ and chew bubblegum...and I'm all outta bubblegum! ~Roddy Piper))
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To: Mr. Mojo

They’re there .2/19 and 2/20. Google relisten dead and it’ll go to the site. At the top of the site you should see The Grateful Dead/Relisten. Click on that one.


54 posted on 11/04/2018 6:59:56 PM PST by jmacusa (Made it Ma, top of the world!'')
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To: Calvinist_Dark_Lord

RE: ‘78 Twin, Breakup.

If you’re having this work done by someone else anyway, pass him along this list.

Cut that Negative Feedback Wire off the speaker jack inside it.

It takes the signal and re injects it out of phase to tighten and brighten the signal at the phase inverter.

That nonsense belongs in stereo gear and PA/Mixing etc, not in a guitar amp.

Next, IF you 1st discharge the Electrolytic B+ supply filters under the can beside the Output transformer, re regulate the plate voltages on the preamp tubes starting with the Phase inverter backwards to input tube 1 by substituting the dropping resistors between them.

Ph Inv. should be apx 245 VDC with your input tubes at appx 190 VDC.

THEN, lose the JBLs. Emminence, Celestion, whole Bunch of better choices for guitar.

If you still want more breakup, rewire you speakers at 16 ohms instead of 4 (stock) and pull the 2 Outside pwr tubes out of it. (6L6 #1 and 6L6 #4). That’ll cut the pwr in HALF. It’ll break up just fine then.


55 posted on 11/04/2018 7:23:22 PM PST by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: Calvinist_Dark_Lord

With those mods alone you shouldn’t need anything more than the vol and tone controls on your guitar.


56 posted on 11/04/2018 7:25:30 PM PST by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: To-Whose-Benefit?

Or you Could have your tech put in a half pwr switch that cuts off the screen supply to those 2 output tubes.

If you go with the switch,leave the speaker impedance wiring as is.

Fender OP transformers are very tolerant of up to 100% mismatches either way.


57 posted on 11/04/2018 7:30:45 PM PST by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: Mr. Mojo

“Nice gear. I’d love to have a late ‘50s LP Jr. Unfortunately the cost has skyrocketed. Wasn’t that long ago when one could grab ‘em for under $1K.”

You might consider a used 2018 SG Jr. Those can be had for not much over a grand.

I just bought one without a mark on it for $900.

And I’m lovin’ it.


58 posted on 11/04/2018 7:37:51 PM PST by To-Whose-Benefit? (It is Error alone which needs the support of Government. The Truth can stand by itself.)
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To: To-Whose-Benefit?

Thanks. Just checked out the ‘18 Junior online. Looks just like the early ‘60s vintage.

https://reverb.com/item/14755968-gibson-sg-jr-2018-cherry?gclid=CjwKCAjwsfreBRB9EiwAikSUHUtVlTLOQnbdkK1tulia_5X3eDRNUUe9z9m9tLcTsHqad-GymQ5lXRoC7EgQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&pla=1

Congrats on the new axe. Love the shape of that old style pickguard. And you can get so many sounds from just that one P-90 just by adjusting volume/tone and right hand position. Hopefully the (somewhat) local Guitar Center will have one to try out. My second electric guitar was a ‘75 SG Standard in Alpine white.


59 posted on 11/04/2018 8:03:03 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: jmacusa

Huge variability in SQ from show to show, I see. That date at Golden Hall was almost unlistenable. But some others are pretty good.


60 posted on 11/04/2018 8:04:53 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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