Kim Simmons, from 50 damn years ago. How the hell did he get that tone on the 1st solo?

[The Polack MSgt]

Those 1st few notes make me think it's a horn - even all these years later

Edited to add - Solo starts at 2:01.

Magic

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Sorry Sarge, Not Hearing It

It sounds nothing like a horn to me.
It's a really tasty tone, to be sure. Very round, not quite saturated but dense.
But, all I hear is guitar.

[The Polack MSgt]

4. I imagine it's a tic of my own. This band was one of my favorite Uncle's favorites

Any way - In his Javelin AMX this song on 8 track- Well those 1st 4 notes sound like a Saxophone.

50 years later it still hits my ear like Kenny G hijacked the song for 4 seconds.

[orwell]

2. It sounds like a telecaster...

...with a lot of reverb or studio echo. He is likely pushing the front end of a Fender Amp like a Deluxe.

That is pure tube tone. That is why that combination was so sought after.

I played a Tele and a Strat into a Fender amp for years. There is nothing like it for versatility, clean or gritty it always sounds right. YOu can even get their crappy spring reverb to sound good.

Tubes baby, tubes...

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I Use A Boogie

The front end gain is very signal sensitive, so the same gritty (or flat out grind) tone sounds WAY different with different pickups.
And, the full gain tone is really smooth, which is what Mesa has long been known for.
I had a Twin Reverb a long while ago. Fender hadn't completely figured out multi stage gain, so the amp only had a really cool distorted tone if it was really loud.
That's why I dumped it for a Marshall. I bought the Boogie after that. Then, sold the Marshall & bought a Marshall 2x12 combo. Those 2 are all I still have. (Not counting my bass amp.)
As to Kim's guitars, most pix I've seen of him are of a ES-335 type guitar. That said I know I've seen at least one pic of him playing a Strat. A few of him playing a Les Paul, too.
I read an article a few years back, where he was using both Fender & Marshall amps. I forget which model Fender, but he did say the Marshall was a combo.
He's probably used a little of everything over all these years.

[orwell]

6. I actually used to know...

...the guys who started Mesa Boogie. A friend of mine worked for the company. It started as a Fender Mod and turned into an amp company. The owner had a house in Marin. I went over there and met him with my friend. It was the first time I had ever seen hardwood kitchen cabinets, made out of the same type of wood they used for Mesa cabinets. Mesas were always way more expensive than anything us mere hippies could afford.

We were all either Deadheads or played in Dead copy bands. I was a Jerry Garcia clone.

I met Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia at a concert in Golden Gate Park. I smoked a joint with Jerry. When my friend told him I had copied his playing style he admonished me to stop trying to copy him and develop my own sound. He said he was trying to copy banjo and other bluegrass players and that developed his circular triplet style of improvisation. Phil came off as kind of aloof and superior. Jerry was totally cool.

The real joke was that another friend of mine at the time, a guy named Charles Cornwallis or Gruenhagen (it often changed) claimed that Mesa stole the mods from him. He was an electronics wizard in the East Bay (Lafayette), who came up with all kinds of wild amp and pedal mods. He did pedal mods for Jimi Hendrix as well as a lot of other luminaries. He rebuilt a Fender Princeton for me that was the loudest amp I ever heard at the time. It had 2 JBL 10" speakers and an ungodly amount of clean power. He also worked at Lawrence Berkeley on weapons projects. I was questioned leaving his home once by 2 FBI agents sitting outside his house asking what I was seeing him about. I told them that he was tweaking some musical equipment for me. The whole thing freaked me out.

I have to admit that the mods he made to my Princeton were light years ahead of the early Mesas, but remarkably similar in concept.
I always loved the look on peoples faces when I would drag my Frankenamp into a session and easily eclipse in both power and clarity anything that anyone else had, including Marshalls. The funny thing is I didn't really like to play too loud, having come from a background of playing in Symphony orchestras as a child.

I still have the amp, but it doesn't work anymore. It blows fuses as soon as I turn it on. I guess that's what happens when you let something sit in a damp garage for 40 years.

I still have the Strat. It still looks beautiful and plays perfectly. When I do play I either play acoustic or paly through a modeling amp. But thanks for bringing back some great memories.

What a long, strange trip it's been...

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I've Got 7 Electrics

The one i use most is a high end Ibanez superstrat.
But, I've got a Tele & 2 Strats. Those 2 are made of different woods, different fingerboards, & different pickups. So, they sound nothing alike.
I've also got a '62 Jazzmaster. I barely use it but i keep it for both nostalgia & vintage value.
That plus my piano keeps me busy.

[orwell]

9. Jazzmasters have made a comeback...

...I sold my tele in the early 70's to get the Black Strat. I have also owned a red es345 that I "loaned" to someone and never got back. The same happened with my black Fender Jazz bass. Needless to say I was rather cavalier about "ownership" back then. San Francisco in the 60's and 70's...

I bought a cheap Les from a "friend of a friend" and a couple of months later found out it was stolen when I brought it to a session and the person it was stolen from identified it as his. I gave it to him on the spot. I knew it was too cheap when I bought it so the whole episode made sense. Instant Karma.

I now have the Strat, a PRS semi-hollow, and a Roland synth guitar from the late 70's. I think it was called the GR-500. It still actually works but I rarely play it.

I also have a Yamaha acoustic that I got a couple of years ago that I have never gotten set up quite right. I've been too busy with the IT business now that businesses have reopened. I really am trying to retire.

I have owned Moog Synths, still have a Roland Juno, and a Yamaha Electric Piano. I am not a keyboard player but I can make passable sounds come out of them. My background is in percussion, as I was the head percussionist in a symphony orchestra from the age of 10 till my mid teens. The nice thing about learning the percussion instruments at such an early age was the great background it gives you in rhythm and dynamics.

During the Covid "vacation" I set up a computer based recording studio. It was the happiest I have been in decades. It showed me how much I missed playing music. It is fun reminiscing with a fellow gear head.

It sure beats worrying about nuclear war or the fascist takeover of the government...

That Jazzmaster is probably worth more than you think...

[ProfessorGAC]

10. It's Been Repainted

It was badly scratched up when I got it. (For $125).
The original color is still on the headstock, but I had a repainted by a friend who was a car paint specialist. He was spraying black that day (2 tone paint job). So, it's black now.
I've seen repainted JMs going for $5,000.
Everything else about it is both stock & in excellent condition.
The neck is a little chunky for a Fender, and that extra tone & volume setup on the upper bout is kind of a dumb idea.
But, it does have a one of a kind tone, especially in a clean tone. Very jangly.
I'm holding onto it because it does have some cache. Geez, it's a 60 year old guitar that still plays good.

[orwell]

7. One thing about Marshalls...

...and Les Pauls. I have heard people make that combo sound almost violin like. I knew two guys, twin brothers in San Francisco, who knew the whole Allman brothers catalog and played it perfectly. They could get that Marshall/Paul combo to sound like two violins. There was something about the early Paul humbuckers through that particular Marshall distortion that took away the pick attack and gave a bowed violin sound. It was truly magical.

I never appreciated the Marshall sound until I got a modeling amp and later a modeling pedal. Now it is one of my favorite forms of distortion. I like it far more than the sound of a distorted Fender. Where Fender's guitar/amp combos sound right is for country and certain types of American blues. They were also good for Grateful Dead covers.

Twins are just way too loud for me. I actually like modern modeling technology. While original amps will always sound slightly better, modern modeling is light years ahead of where it was 10 years ago.

[rog]

3. Sounds like he might be playing slide there? n/t

n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

11. Kim Played A Lot Of Slide

But, this doesn't sound like one of those times.
There's both a trill & a bend of one string, a partner on the other string, and the first string pitch falls back down. Can't do that with a slide.
He was an excellent slide player.
In later years, he took a mid level Ibanez, put a very high power pickup on it, and raised the action way up.
It creates a rip roarin' slide tone, for sure.