Music Stuff - Cool Stuff

Not Again So, there you are, a semi-pro or pro musician who owns a PA system. It has worked great for several years.  You start to notice that the speaker cables seem to be loose, or don't connect correctly when you plug them in.  And then, your speakers start to cut out in the middle of a show.   What The Hell Happened?  Several things can cause the problem.  1> a cable goes bad If you are lucky, it is just that the wire has come loose by the connector end, or maybe a wire was broken from repeated yanking of the cable out of the speaker cabinet when you are in rush to pack up and go.  Those are easy and inexpensive repairs to make.  If you are not so lucky, a wire broke somewhere in the cable other than the end, and it is next to impossible to find the exact spot, and if you did, your cable would be too short.  That sucks.  Buy a new cable.  2> a speaker-out jack on the PA head goes out This really sucks.  You might be able to open the PA head up and replace

Status Quo I think I have some really great speakers for my guitar amps.  I have a Celestion G12H Anniversary (8ohm), a Celestion Vintage 30 (16 ohm), a WGS HM75 (16 ohm) and a WGS ET65 (8ohm). The Celestion G12H Anniversary has been in my Marshall DSL 15C combo, the WGS ET65 has been in my Marshall DSL 40C combo, and the Celestion Vintage 30 and WGS HM75 have been in a 2x12 cabinet that I used with my HEAT head (a point-to-point hand-wired 50watt head based on a Marshall JCM800 2204). Changes in Amp Preferences A while back, my preferred amp was my Marshall DSL 40C.  Lately,  I've been using the Marshall DSL 15C combo a lot.  After some mods and changes in tube selection, the DSL 15C amp is dialed in.   After I added a post phase inverter volume control the HEAT head and switched to JJ 6V6S power tubes, instead of EL34 power tubes, I have excellent control of volume levels and can drive that amp harder, which delivers clean to crunchy, with a little creaminess all aroun

What Does That Mean?  Maybe I should start by telling the story about an amp that I built.  It started with a JCM 800 2204 kit and a chassis from Triode Electronics.  It was a hand-wired kit, with a turret board and silver connectors.  Triode Electronics sends a box of parts (excellent quality, high end parts), with instructions and a layout diagram.  The builder sorts through all of the parts, including a pile of resistors and caps, and a boat load of different colored wires, knobs, transformers and a bunch of other stuff.   I built a custom cabinet for the kit and branded the head, HEAT. So anyway, after putting the kit together I made a few modifications to the standard grounding circuit and dropped the white noise level down quite a bit, and changed the values of some resisters and caps in the preamp circuit to give it just a little more gain (not much more, just a touch).  After playing the HEAT amp for a few weeks I quickly learned that the amp sounded absolutely amazing.

Changes and Good Times Moving to Eugene Oregon was a major life change.  Gave up the recording and rehearsal studios in Raleigh NC and had to leave my bandmates of several years in North Carolina.  But, it has been a good change.  It took awhile to get into a groove. But hey, things are working out nice here. Now it is time for me to ramble on about a bunch of disconnected stuff. The World Has Gone to Pot It is great to live in a state with legal marijuana, and lots of competition. The prices have gone down a lot, and primo buds are only 10 bucks more than rag weed was for an ounce over 40 years ago.  And now there is super primo, I mean damn, whew.  It costs more, but OMG, you have to be careful with that stuff.  Anyway, I don't use much weed, but it is nice to have a toke in the evenings sometimes and just relax and chill at home, without worrying about the cops busting you. New Band The new band line up in Oregon is solid.  Glen Weldon on drums/vocals and T-Rex on

After more electrifying jolts and some fresh new body parts, the FrankenTele has risen again!  Yes!  Again! I have lost count, but FrankenTele has risen from the dead at least 8 times!  For those who asked, here is a picture of the latest version of my FrankenTele. This one has a maple neck with a rosewood fret board. The body is African Mahogany with a stain mixture and finish that I concocted. The rosewood fret board and the mahogany body warmed the guitar up a lot. When it had the solid maple neck and pine body the guitar was a little too sparkly for my taste (but it was a sound that many country pickers love).   The pickups are Lindy Fralin. Neck picku p - Lindy Fralin Blues Special Strat middle pickup. Puting it in the neck slot took out some of the treble spike that many Strats are notoriious for. It still has edge and bite, but no ice pick stuff comes out of it.  Middle pickup - Lindy Fralin Pure PAF bridge pickup. Just like the Strat pickup I