Tony McPhee

A certain "Anje" was the owner of theMcPhee's "MK1 Supergroup" 100W ampilifier with a custom covering, as featured in a November 24, 2004 The Les Paul Forum post, a August 1, 2005 The Les Paul Forum post, a July 30, 2020 The Gear Page reply, and a May 26, 2021 The Gear Page reply. Another in a standard covering can be seen in the background of this photo. The amp is also mentioned in the following sources, among which is the "Any Questions?" column of the June 5, 1971 issue of Melody Maker, which specifies that the amp was modified.

ZigZag, March 1971, "Tony McPhee... Groundhog" by John Tobler

Let’s get onto your equipment....why the change to Laney gear?

Well, I liked the stuff we used to have but it just literally became obsolete. I built my own amplifier and it was what I wanted, but I never got round to putting it in a cabinet and people used to drop it because it was just mounted in a sort of rabbit hutch thing and wasn’t screwed in properly. But I couldn’t replace the broken parts because they were so old, and we had to think about some new gear. We shopped around — looked at HiWatt and Marshall, but eventually settled for Laney. There’s not really much to choose between makes, but this Laney stuff gave out what it claimed to give out and seemed OK....though I’ve made some alterations to improve the tone, because I’m as interested in getting a good sound as I am in volume.

What do these watt ratings mean? Can you give us a layman’s definition?

The wattage is an electrical term, but sound power is also termed in watts. Ten watts of audio power, acoustically, is a very large orchestra; but when you say 10 watts electrically, it’s 10 watts that the amplifier gives out....and any speakers are, at the most, only ten per cent efficient — so the sound power given out is only one watt. You can go up to about 30 watts, and each step of 10 watts is about twice as loud. But above that it gets a lot more complicated, and to get twice the volume of 30 watts, you’d have to have about 200 watts....and to get twice as loud as 200 watts, you’d need about 2000 watts. But it’s the quality that’s important rather than sheer volume.

[...]

I’ve also got an octave splitter which sounds great through the Laney gear [...]

Beat, May 1971, "Groundhogs' 'Split'" by T.T., pg. 17

The amps that Groundhogs favour ('our old stuff was great but it was falling apart and it was all different plugs anyway') is Laney, which, says Tony, is the best deal in gear they could find. He and Peter each have two stacks of Laney equipment—'it gives out what it claims'—and are very satisfied, although there are some longings for their old gear (sentimentality, possibly).

Melody Maker, June 5, 1971, pg. 34, Any Questions?

I use a Laney 100-Watt stack, [...]

Hogwash liner notes

3 Laney 100 watt. Amps

Beat, March 1976, "Tony McPhee: The Hogs Return" by Chris Simmons, pg. 25

Amps

In the amplification department, Tony is still undecided as to what he will use for the gigs. "I used to have a big Laney cabinet, and I'll probably end up using that. I have been in the studio with a Davoli amp (with a 15" speaker) which is great for straight things, but as soon as I put my Hi-Fli through it it just breaks up. Perhaps I'll end up driving the Davoli through the Laney cab, but I'll have to experiment more fully first. Actually, the real problem is not amplifying the guitar but my synthesizer.

Distort

"You need a system that won't distort the sound and still has enough poke behind it to carry. On certain gigs you will find that the set-up you have is perfect and on others you will hate it. Then, another problem is that I need a whole lot of top as I use my fingers instead of a pick. Recording is obviously a different bag; I use a pick in the studio to pick out definite notes clearly. It doesn't matter on stage but when you use your fingers some notes are a little down on others. Anyway, if one note's a bummer so what? The main thing is feel."

Anje, The Les Paul Forum, November 24, 2004

I've just got this cute little baby :

[Laney.jpg]

It's a nice Supergroups from about the late 60's (that was owned by Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs BTW)

Anje, The Les Paul Forum, August 1, 2005

here's my played collection, splitted on 2 continents for now :) :

[...]

'69 Laney Supergroup 100 (belonged to Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs, who did a little custom psyche tolex job, nice :) )

Anje, The Gear Page, Jul 30, 2020

Echoplexi said:

Man, makes me miss my old Klipp 60! These old Laneys are so cool.

I think the dude from The Groudhogs (Tony McPhee?)was a Laney player back in the day too. Great player

Yes I can confirm that:

That's my old one I mentioned before, former Tony's / The Groundhogs's; miss it too.

[https://i.imgur.com/Wu7DT8b.jpg]

[https://i.imgur.com/WvcedrV.jpg]

[https://i.imgur.com/XhmKJVI.jpg]

Anje, The Gear Page, May 26, 2021

I remember visiting Roger Daguet 15-20 years ago (to buy one of former Tony McPhee's late 60's Laney Supergroup, but that's another story) [...]

Discussed at length on pg. 18 of the June 1978 issue of Beat Instrumental and listed among McPhee's equipment on the back cover of Back Against the Wall.

Beat Instrumental, June 1978, "Don't Mention the Gr**ndh*gs! says Tony 'T.S.' McPhee. Peter Douglas apologises" by Peter Douglas, pg. 18

In line with this begin-all-over-again approach Tony has ditched a lot of the equipment he accumulated with the old band through some remains. "I'm still using the EMS Hi-Fi, mainly because I use it as a power supply. Let me explain: when this band got together, I thought right — I still had the Laney cabinets and all that sort of stuff I used to use — you can't walk into a pub with that stuff. So I thought I'd look around for some smaller gear. I'd got a fifty watt Marshall, but I found that was too loud — I couldn't get it to scream without It deafening everybody. Anyway, I was round at a friend's house and he brought out this amplifier — it was an old Guild, circa 1960 I should think. He said it didn't seem to work, and I didn't have any tools with me at the time, so I couldn't look inside it.

He told me he'd had a bit of an accident with it — he'd plugged it in and smoke had poured out of the back. Apparently there was a fuse missing and they'd forgotten it was a 110 volt amplifier. It had never been changed from the American voltage. So I walked off with it, bought myself another transformer and a few resistors, stuck 'em all in, and it worked fine. It's the sort of amp where the inputs are marked 'organ' or 'accordian'!

"I took the speaker out, 'cause I blew it. Anyway, it was obviously quite low sensitivity, so I knew I'd have to have to put something in front of it to wind it up. Now for some time I'd been using a transmitter/receiver, and that boosts the signal up a bit, but with the receiver it was always awkward to know exactly where to stick it. So I stuck the receiver on the pole of the Hi-Fli and plugged it into the Hi-Fli using the power supply. And the Hi-Fli boosted the signal up a bit more so I can get a raw sound at quite a low volume. I just plug it in, turn it right up, and away it goes."

A more involved way of raunching up the sound of a guitar could hardly be devised. The obvious question was — why? What was wrong with getting one of the new amplifiers on the market that can deliver everything from a slight bite to a fuzzy buzz?

"Urm . . ." A pause. ". . because whenever I've gone out and got a new amplifier they've always been a disappointment after a while. The only amplifier that I really liked was one I built myself a long time ago. It was the only one that would do everything that I wanted it to, and some time ago I got hold of the parts again — and transformers for valve amps are pretty rare now. I've still got these parts at home, so I must make another one up. But in the meantime this Guild functions well. It's just the right sort of sound. I think it was intended to be about fifteen watts, but the transformer I put in it gave it a bit more H.T., so it'll probably go to about twenty, twenty-five. It's just got one very old 12" Jensen loudspeaker in it — which blew, but I had that rewound with a heavier coil. At the moment I'm running it into the speakers of the Marshall — just using the speakers of that, 'cause it's handy just to sit on the top."

Back Against the Wall back cover

Guild 20watt circa 1958

Although the model is not specified, it can be deduced. In the 1958 Guild catalog for the United Kindgom, the 66-J is the only one of the three amps listed that is rated at twenty watts. The 1960 Guild catalog further specifies that the 66-J has a "remote speaker jack" and that its twelve-inch speaker is by Jensen.

McPhee used a homemade amplifier head with Truth, Herbal Mixture, the John Dummer Blues Band, and The Groundhogs until the recording of Split, by which time the unhoused amp was irreparably broken due to fall damage and obsolete components. It is attested by the following sources:

Melody Maker, December 14, 1968, "Out of the Groundswell the New Groundhogs" by Max Jones

He tried a few more things when the Truth folded, then formed his own group, the Herbal Mixture, with Pete Cruickshank (former Groundhog bass player) and drummer Mick Meekam.

"The psychedelic scene was blossoming," says Tony, "so I built a fuzz into my amp and, wearing bizarre garb, we played the Electric Garden, Roundhouse and other feedback clubs."

The Mixture recorded for Columbia and, at this time, McPhee began singing. Then this group separated and, earlier this year, he joined the John Dummer Blues Band, and, in his words, "felt my way back into blues again."

Disc and Music Echo, June 6, 1970, "Me and My Music: Tony McPhee", pg. 9

Plays a Gibson SG, a Framus 9-string, a Harmony Sovereign acoustic and builds his own amplification equipment. Uses a 30-watt amp with eight speakers in two cabinets.

ZigZag, March 1971, "Tony McPhee... Groundhog" by John Tobler

Let’s get onto your equipment....why the change to Laney gear?

Well, I liked the stuff we used to have but it just literally became obsolete. I built my own amplifier and it was what I wanted, but I never got round to putting it in a cabinet and people used to drop it because it was just mounted in a sort of rabbit hutch thing and wasn’t screwed in properly. But I couldn’t replace the broken parts because they were so old, and we had to think about some new gear. We shopped around — looked at HiWatt and Marshall, but eventually settled for Laney. There’s not really much to choose between makes, but this Laney stuff gave out what it claimed to give out and seemed OK....though I’ve made some alterations to improve the tone, because I’m as interested in getting a good sound as I am in volume.

Beat Instrumental, June 1978, "Don't Mention the Gr**ndh*gs! says Tony 'T.S.' McPhee. Peter Douglas apologises" by Peter Douglas, pg. 18

The only amplifier that I really liked was one I built myself a long time ago. It was the only one that would do everything that I wanted it to, and some time ago I got hold of the parts again — and transformers for valve amps are pretty rare now. I've still got these parts at home, so I must make another one up.

Blues.Gr, "An Interview with Tony "TS" McPhee of The Groundhogs: A Legendary Artist of British Blues History" by Michael Limnois (June 28, 2013)

What do you miss most nowadays from the 60s and your first steps in music?

The thrill of getting my first guitar and amp & modifying them to my own requirements, these days guitars and amps are factory set-up, I used to have to stone the frets on all my guitars and modify my amps, maybe change the pre-amp wiring.

London, Reign Over Me: How England's Capital Built Classic Rock (2020) by Stephen Tow, Chapter 6, pg. 171

In 1966, the Groundhogs would morph into the psychedelic Herbal Mixture in 1966, but that fizzled out after a couple of years; they eventually re-formed the Groundhogs as a power trio by 1969. By that time, the blues boom was in full force. What distinguished this generation of blues from the earlier R&B boom? One word: “Heavier,” McPhee exclaimed. The evolving equipment, including the Marshall Super 100 head featuring 100-watt power, had something to do with it as well. “With the invention of the fuzz box used on the Stones’ ‘Satisfaction,’ [plus the Taste’s] Rory Gallagher had used a treble boost for ages, so changing or modifying the guitar sound was necessary even in the ’60s,” McPhee wrote me. “Heavier sounds was the next step, so amps and speakers had to get louder and bigger. I made or modified my own amps and made my own speaker cabinets. I made [bassist] Pete Cruickshank’s cabinets also.”