Recently I’ve been absolutely obsessed with my guitar rig. Maybe a little bit too much. Actually, it’s probably been definitely too much. I’ve been searching everywhere for little bits of secrets here and there and whilst doing that I stumbled on a book released by Fender, The Soul of Tone, which was published to celebrate 60 years of Fender amplifiers.
Now, I’m not going to pretend I know anything about writing books and review but this book is absolutely lovely! It’s how a book is meant to be! It’s got some incredible photography of some extremely beautiful Fender amps in there and also comes with 2 CDs. The first takes you through Fender’s Vintage amp range and the second takes you through Fender’s Modern range. Both of these CDs are absolutely fantastic and give a really brilliant sonic insight to what are quite honestly some stunning amplifiers. The CDs complement the book extremely well making this one of my favourite guitar books.
It’s been fascinating for me to read about how something we take for granted, the sound of the electric guitar, was almost entirely crafted by Leo Fender and his teams 60 years ago. It truly is phenomenal that these 60 year old beasts still sound so incredble. These amps are still copied today.
Be warned, if you read this book and listen to the tone demos you will want to get your mits on a vintage Fender amp!!
Highly recommended and not just for Fender fans but rather for anyone with an interest in understanding guitar tone.