Music Stuff - Cool Stuff

Tubes Tubes Tubes For many years I used TungSol 12ax7 tubes for pre-amp and phase inverter tubes.  I loved the sound of my amps.  Somewhere along the line i started using JJ 12ax7, JJ ECC823 in pre-amp slot V1, and JJ 5751 for the phase inverter slot.  The reason for switching to JJ tubes was the reputation as being super tough and very road worthy.  I even had myself convinced I liked the tone.   After a few years I noticed a few things about the JJ pre-amp tubes that I had been ignoring.   First, my guitar sound had a strong midrange tone that overpowered some areas of tonal harmonics and sustain.  No matter what I did I could not dial out that tone.  There was also a high edge that almost screeched sometimes.  I had to be very careful.  It got to the point that it irritated me.  Next, I noticed that I was replacing the phase inverter tube more often than before, and the 12au7 half of the ECC823 (use...

Chicago Blues is Dead?   I almost laugh when someone claims to be an expert on Chicago Blues, and insists that Chicago Blues music is almost dead.  And then they go on about how they are going to resurrect Chicago Blues.  And then they try to tell you exactly what Chicago Blues is, as if Chicago Blues music is one specific style.   GIVE ME A BREAK. Chicago Blues has so many different forms and styles that is impossible to say Chicago Blues is any one thing.  Say What? You heard me, or, you read that right, there are many different styles of Chicago Blues, not one distinct thing. Think about some of the great Chicago Blues artists and think about the significant differences in many of their Blues music styles.   Listen to their music. Here is a quick list off the top of my head. Big Bill Broonzy Sonny Boy Williamson (not Rice Miller) Junior Wells Magic Sam Little Walter Bo Diddly Willie Dixon Muddy Waters Hubert Sumlin Howlin Wo...

This well be short and sweet.  FrankenTele first came to life back in 1980, and it has seen some major changes over the years.  The only original parts are the control plate and the jack plate, that were from an old Aims Tele. After countless lives and new parts and pieces, FrankenTele has survived another major operation.  This time, a Lindy Fralin Hot Vintage Stratocaster neck pickup was added, and the Lindy Fralin Blues Special Stratocaster pickup was moved to the middle slot, bumping the Lindy Fralin Pure PAF humbucker out of the middle slot.  The Lindy Fralin Pure PAF was removed and will be looking for a new home in a future project.  Why was the Pure PAF pulled?  Well, it just didn't work out.   The Lindy Fralin hum-cancelling P90 is still driving the bridge pickup slot. Now the FrankenTele is more like a Strat, with a funky, quacky P90 in the bridge.   But... overall the rosewood fret board on the maple neck, coupled wi...

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....

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 li...

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 t...

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...