The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps [with CD]

by Tom Wheeler, Keith Richards (Foreword)

(Book). From the same "dream team" that created The Fender Stratocaster Chronicles ( Vintage Guitar magazine's 2004 Book of the Year) comes this new publication covering the other side of Fender's legacy, the instrument amplifier. Revered as much as one's guitar, the Fender amplifier gets its due in this full-color, richly illustrated book. Features over 400 images, including legendary guitarists such as Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Neil Young, Pete Townshend, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters, and Dick Dale, and two CDs featuring over 120 tracks that make terms and topics come alive.

Genres: Music, Reference, Nonfiction

512 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2007

About the author

Tom Wheeler was an award-winning music journalist and guitar historian. He was also a beloved SOJC professor. He freelanced for Rolling Stone, served as editor of Guitar Player magazine, and founded Bass Player magazine. He authored eight books about guitars, including the award-winning The Stratocaster Chronicles and The Dream Factory: Fender Custom Shop, as well as a textbook on the ethics of media imagery.

Over the course of his career, Wheeler interviewed many music greats, including Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Les Paul, Leo Fender, and Keith Richards. Clapton, Richards, and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons all wrote forewords for Wheeler’s books.

After earning a journalism bachelor’s degree from the University of California in Los Angeles and a juris doctor degree from Loyola School of Law in Los Angeles. Wheeler joined the University of Oregon faculty in 1991 and taught classes in feature writing, magazine editing, and grammar at the SOJC. He co-founded the student-run magazine Flux in 1992.

Reviews

[Michael P Glasgow]

Fantastic history of the Fender company with emphasis on the amps. Leo continually tinkered with them all, sometimes changing the circuitry ever so slightly, to meet the needs of musicians. The Solid State amp too had a great history and is here shown to have been first a complete failure and later to have greatly improved. Very interesting.

[Kamlapati Khalsa]

My secret passion,nice pictures of old Fender amps!

[Jpaflas]

What makes a 52 esquire sound so kick ass through a tweed deluxe... this book will tell you. Like anyone but Nick cares.

[Clint Hardison]

500 pages of geeking out.

[KennyO]

Too little on the amps I love and too much about the amps I don't care about. That must mean the balance is about right. Great chronology, beautifully laid out and printed.