by Oliver Mitchell (photo by Barry Newman)
Copyright 2000 - Cosmic Debris Musicians Magazine - Issue #66 - May, 2000
"It's a thing of beauty isn't it", said Bill
Johnson. On his workbench stood a tattered
tweed amplifier with an array of coloured
components squirming out.
"A 57 Fender," he grinned, "belongs to Dave
Gogo."
"Wow, you must be a good technician if he'd
chose you to work on it," I replied.
"Well, I don't want to say I'm a good guitarist...
but as a guitarist I can understand the tonal
requirements of tweaking a tube-amp."
Welcome to Bill Johnson's music store,
Victoria Vintage Guitar & Amplifier, located in
Fernwood village underneath The George &
Dragon Inn.
Though small, the store shines with unusual
instruments and fair prices. If you are a blues,
roots or country player... you've got to visit on a
regular basis... and you'll find something you
need. And if you are a beginner you can get a
great secondhand guitar dirt cheap too.
Some repairs are done in the store while
others are contracted out to. For instance, Rod
Evans, creator of the famed pickups who has
been fixing amps for 30 years. Or if you want
music lessons, a Berklee music grad called
David Augustin can propell you to new realms
of guitar and bass technique. Occasionally you
will find Paul Pigat working there too.
It seems that every time I go to Bill's store I
learn something, and today the subject was tube
amplifiers!
BJ: "A tube amp is only worth having if it's
working right, and that means finding the old
components that have drifted out of value. Many
parts for these amps aren't made anymore; for
instance high-voltage capacitors. So, it has
taken me a while to source them out at this
point.
"I want to urge you to be very careful, as the
voltages in tube amps can run between 350 to
700 volts. This can blow the end of your finger
off or even kill you. So just because the amp is
unplugged, that won't protect you, as 700 volts
may be sitting in the filter caps.
"Basically, we can overhaul an amp with
quality tubes, cleaning the pots, biasing the
output tubes properly and listening to the damn
thing... because even if the meter and the scope
say it's working right, but my ears tell me
otherwise, then I'll find that bug. There's a factor
of X' there too.
"Then again there are some amps which will
never sound any better, like late 70's to early
80's Fender amps, they just sound that way. But
some of the older Fender & Marshall amps are
like the lowest common denominator or the
square root of the idea."
OM: "I don't understand."
BJ: "Well basically in the late 50's, the
blueprint was drawn up for the best amplifier...
and really, since the early 60's, we've just
modified that design. By the mid 70's it really
began to get out of hand. Diode-clipping amps
were introduced in the 80's which essentially
have distortion pedals built into them. Happily,
the 90's have brought a renaissance in tub amps
with names like Matchless', Top Hat', Clarke'
and Victoria'. Unfortunately we rarely see these
locally as they are expensive, starting at $2000.
They are designed by engineers who know what
makes an amp sound better and where the tone
of an electric guitar comes from."
OM: "This sounds very interesting."
BJ: "The heart and soul of an amplifier lie in
the transformer. In 1960 there was some old
gaffer with a pair of pliers and a roll of wire,
winding copper and insulating it with paper. The
tone produced is very different than if a machine
mass-produces and insulates the transformer
with plastic. You see, the composition is
different. It's the same with a guitar you might
buy in the 80's, made of basewood... or in the
70's, made from six pieces of ash laminated
together. The factories were maximizing profits
by using cheap materials."
OM: "A hand-wired tube amp not only sounds
great then, it must be a good investment."
BJ: "Absolutely. I've got three or four Fender
Bandmasters here from the 60's. For $300 or
$400, you can buy a good head. People should
be snapping these things up while they are
available because the Americans are buying
them up left-right-and-centre. Gear is leaving
Canada at an enormous rate and it is not coming
back in!"
OM: "Do you sell over the Internet?"
BJ: "I'm sitting on the fence between the
people selling on E-bay and the backlash
people... anti- cyberspace people who are saying
that the planet is in a lot of ways being turned
into a commercial community.
"In ten years, I think tube-amps will be seen
as collector items.
"Essentially, if you are gigging, you need a
basic tube amp. I mean, how much is a hammer
worth to a carpenter?
OM: "What about plying your trade as a
musician?"
BJ: "I at least try to break even. You can't
really make money gigging unless you have
been owning the same equipment for years and
play the same places over again. I do it totally for
the art of it, and the addiction too. (Bill laughs).
I've done it since I was nine !"
OM: "How did you start playing guitar?"
BJ: "I had an uncle who had a '61 Gretsch
Country Gentleman with lots of knobs & levers
on it, and a cool amp with tremolo. He let me
play that guitar when I was five, back in 69.
"My brother was a good blues-harp player and he tried to engineer
a little electric guitarist!
He only offered me
British blues and it
wasn't until I was about
20 that I heard the real
black blues music.
Chuck Berry was the one
that really did it for me,
and I still play Johnny B.
Good' at every gig...I
remember the first time I
heard it...driving with my
dad down the highway
when it came on the
radio. I still love the way
that guitar sounds."
OM: "When did you get your own guitar?"
BJ: "I was lucky. Someone gave me one when
I was ten years old. Here's a funny story I can
tell you because the guy has passed away. The
principal, of the school called me via the
intercom to attend his office and I was anxious
as to what trouble I might be in. Upon reaching
his room, he asked me, "where is your guitar?"
"It's in the music room," I replied.
"Go get it", he said.
Then we jammed... with him playing banjo.
After a while he gave me an electric guitar that
he had bought for his son. And he gave me an
old Gibson amp. I still have my first acoustic
guitar, but that electric Woolco guitar has long
since gone.
"John Meares at Soft Sounds later convinced
me to change the pick-ups to get a better sound.
So here I was a little kid with a diamond-
encrusted turd. (laughs.) My next guitar was a
Gibson Les Paul which I played for years."
OM: "Who did you admire as a guitarist?"
BJ: "Bob Belknap is an excellent guitarist and
we actually grew up together...virtually as
neighbours... so I tried copying his chops.
There were hardly any older kids in Brentwood
Bay into psychedelic music at age twelve or
thirteen. There was a band living next door to me
and I heard them playing in the basement. That
was such a coincidence living in a farming
community and having a rock band next door,
what are the odds, eh?"
OM: "What music were you digging?"
BJ: "The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The
Who. By the time we were doing shows we were
playing Leonard Skynard, Bad Company, Neil
Young, BTO and Beatles.
"I didn't think there was such a difference
between blues and rock back then. The music
available to me was mostly rock and the
transition between British blues and rock
appeared seamless to me. By the time I noticed
the difference and realized I didn't like the
direction, it was 1984 with metal bands and I
really wasn't interested in playing like that
anymore. It seemed to be a contest who could
play faster, who could copy a Bach lick and
classical Gothic kind of music.
"Then I discovered BB King and the black
blues thing and I was trying to figure out what
the heck was the difference between the way
they played and the way I did and I couldn't
really figure it out at that point. I had gone to
Vancouver and done the Top-40 circuit and
played with my group called Tyro' which
eventually became Roxxlyde'.
"I was actually quite good at playing this
Rawk' music because I had this smoother blues
sound than some of the more angular and rough
guitarists of the time.
"But I wasn't interested in the big-hair thing
and the glam of it all. We had a kind of high-tech
artsy band called Cinema' which folded and I
went back to Victoria.
"There I played with Flux'... a bluesier band
with Norm Piercey (bass) and Brent
Hutchinson (sax). And I also played with 'The
Jimmy Lincoln Band' in 86, which was Jim
McCullough (bass) of the Bucca Kings.
"It was fun doing 50's and 60's rock 'n' roll
and I made some decent money for three years.
I met my first wife around that time... in 91 our
son was born. And I worked as an electrician for
eight years.
"Our next band was the Tomcats' with Jim
(bass), Don Peterson (guitar) and Ron Flatman
(drums), but after about six months I quit, sold
my amp and bought a mandolin and violin and
learned "bluegrass".
"I didn't play any more gigs until about 92
when Doug Cox called, asking me to join the
Sidewalk Blues band'.
OM: "How did the Bill Johnson' band start?"
BJ: "One day I got a call from Rob Cheramy
asking if I would like to play at Jazz Fest. Well I
had been talking to Casey Dennis (bass) and
Joby Baker (drums), so in 94 we opened for
Delbert McClinton as my first gig fronting my
own band. Later Kelly Kruse became the
drummer and we really got into the blues.
"Then in 95 I went to Denmark with the
Lebeau-Petersen Band' for a great festival and
in 96 my partner Sue and I left for Calgary
where we started The Blue Cat Club. I met a lot
of happening bands that were touring and I
jammed with Dutch Mason, Johnnie V, Harp
Dog Brown, amongst many.
"When the club closed, I played with Don
Johnson and Bill Dowie, who hosted the
hardcore blues jam at the King Edward, where
they have phenomenally good music.
"It was a great experience to learn from many
Prairie bands as they are influenced
predominantly by Chicago blues and country
music. They by-passed the glitz of the West
Coast to some extent.
"So I replaced Greg Demchuck, (or Junior'
as they call him) in the Bill Dowey band when he
moved to Vancouver to play with The Twisters'.
Greg is now playing with the Rocking
Highliners'. I'd say that he is the rising star on
the Canadian Blues scene right now... he plays
absolutely fantastic guitar, harp and vocals."
OM: "You moved back to Victoria recently?"
BJ: "Yeah, my Mum and Dad live here by
themselves and they are getting on in years and
so me and Susie enjoy being here again very
much. She's got a full-time job as a school
teacher now, after years of subbing and
waitressing at Hermann's. And I opened the
shop here and keep very busy."
OM: "Are you writing songs?"
BJ: "I'm working on my own CD every spare
minute I have. Also, I'm collaborating with Ken
Hamm and hopefully we will do a CD this year."
OM: "Thanks and good luck!"
"It's a thing of beauty isn't it", said Bill
Johnson. On his workbench stood a tattered
tweed amplifier with an array of coloured
components squirming out.