Naked and Dimed: My Lifelong Quest for Awesome Tone

No, Naked and Dimed isn’t the title of some naughty movie. It’s the name of the latest Psychedelic Mooj album. By “naked” we mean nothing came between guitar and amp (well, besides a cord). We didn’t use one stomp box on anything. What you hear is what we got straight out of each amp. This book documents the project and is meant to go hand and hand with the album. Although you don’t need to have the album to enjoy the book, it will allow you to “hear” what these amps and guitars sound like. The Naked and Dimed album can be streamed from any digital recording site (Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, etc.) The CD is included with the book.

In the old days, “dimed” meant loud—turned up to 10 loud. The hep-cats who came before us used a different expression because their amps went to 12. They called it “clockwising the chickenhead to the max.” Since only four of the amps we used had chickenheads, we’ll just stick with “dimed.”

In reality, only a few of the amps were actually recorded at full volume. I love playing my amps totally cranked. However, when we got in the studio and tweaked things to sound “best,” many volume knobs ended up being closer to the point of breakup (6 to 8) than 10 or 12. I guess we should have called the album Naked and Nearly Clockwise Chickenheaded and Dimed, but then you’d have really been confused.

This book is really about exploring the tones and textures of 15 vintage guitars and 14 vintage Fender amps. It contains hundreds of pictures and includes an extensive analysis of Fender amp values over the past 20 years.Quite simply, this is the best vintage guitar and amp book you’ll ever read!

The Guitars: 1952 Fender Telecaster (#5297); 1955 Fender Esquire (#09741); 1955 Gibson Les Paul (#59502); 1957 Fender Stratocaster (#15051); 1958 Danelectro/Spiegel UB-2 (#4088); 1963 Fender Precision Bass (#99112); 1963 Fender Stratocaster (#L23080); 1966 Fender Electric XII (#129297); 1968 Fender Telecaster Custom (#F250461); 1969 Fender Stratocaster (#266686); 1977 Fender Telecaster (#S728760); 1982 Gibson 30th Anniversary Les Paul (#A0040); 1983 G&L SC-2 (#G010570); 2007 Gibson Les Paul R9 (#971591); 2015 Newman 5-String (#5-0005)

The Amps: 1956 Deluxe 5E3 (#D02606); 1956 Pro 5E5-B (#S00529); 1959 Bandmaster 5E7 (#S03639); 1963 Champ 5F1 (#C20209); 1960 Bandmaster 5G7 (#00484); 1961 Concert 6G12-A (#02947); 1961 Deluxe 6G3 (#D00668); 1963 Vibroverb 6G16 (#00574); 1963 Princeton 6G2 (#P05766); 1963 Reverb Unit 6G15 (#R03863); 1964 Princeton Reverb AB-764 (#A02543); 1964 Deluxe Reverb AB-763 (#A02231); 1965 Vibrolux Reverb AA-864 (#A02128); 1967 Super Reverb AB-763 (#A25441); 1967 Ampeg B-18-N (#051966).