Get That Classic Fender Sound [VHS]
by Happy Traum

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VHS Movie Reviews of Get That Classic Fender Sound [VHS]

Movie Review: Not as amp-oriented as today's audience expects
Summary: 4 Stars

Despite the assumptions and expectations of today's retro amp and gear enthusiasts who were inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughn, the video isn't about how you can use your guitars, effects, amps, and related gear to get the classic Fender sounds; it's about how to play particular vintage Fender guitars with particular vintage Fender amps to get the "album sounds" that were popular during the respective vintage eras.

When asked about the problem of getting the sounds of these amps, because these amps are unavailable, Weider only reassuringly asserts that you can get the sounds, and the new amps can get the sounds -- he doesn't say how, in practical terms. Like many of the instructional books and videos about amp tone, this video tends to present and show off a heap of vintage amps rather than telling you how to effectively use your existing amp to emulate them.

The books thus come across as promoting purchase of a large number of particular products; they seem designed to exacerbate and whip up Gear Acquisition Syndrome, and rare-gear lust, rather than providing you with mastery of concepts and practical, specific skills of dialing-in your existing gear.

It this day of the collapse of the record industry and the switch from pro recording studios to home recording, it would be particularly helpful to cover swapping pickups, tubes, and speakers, together with pre-distortion EQ and amp mods and power attenuators, to address the real-world problem of how to get classic Fender sounds under extreme volume constraints and under the constraints of having limited gear.

Most people who might be interested in getting classic Fender sounds -- or rather, getting the sounds of classic Fender gear used so as to bring out desired Tone -- aren't denizens of a pro studio that is soundproofed and stocked with an array of vintage Fender guitars and amps. So in practice, this video teaches about the history of gear and playing styles and how they developed together. It leaves you to try to bridge the gap from that historical perspective to today's gear and today's home-studio environment.

The insert is 17 double-video sized pages with printed music, matching what's shown in the video.

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