Vintage Gear Tour with Endika
Recently, Endika contacted me, a guy who likes blues, rock, hard rock, pop… with substance. He contacted me because he’s thinking of renting several amps to have good presets for his Kemper. The fact is, he told me he was pretty sure he wanted the original ’63 Vox AC30 and the original ’68 Marshall Plexi that I have for rent. I told him that was fine, but that maybe he should see what each one offered firsthand, and he told me it seemed like a perfect idea.
So we got down to business and made an appointment, as I always do at Kitarshokak. As soon as he arrived, he told me it was exactly what he was looking for, exactly what I offered, and his girlfriend told me that the most important thing, besides having everything I have available, was the knowledge I have about it—the know-how, as it is said these days. As you can imagine, I was super happy to have people who appreciated what I do, and thus, encouraged to continue providing this service.
The experience was very pleasant. Endika tried the aforementioned amps and two others as well: the ’79 Fender Deluxe Reverb and the ’90 Fender Bassman, all loaded with vintage tubes and incredibly powerful.
Endika’s playing experience, along with the feedback and magic created by playing the amps on-site, was just that, magical. Tones identical to John Mayer’s with different textures, Steve Ray Vaughan’s, classic rock, and so on, immediately emerged.
These amps, along with their dynamics, are very good friends when you have a touch and know how to use them. They take the musician and their music to the maximum expression. Needless to say, no pedals were used in this first foray. We’ll leave that for another chapter. What I offer at Kitarshokak, as one customer told me, is that you won’t finish it in a lifetime.