Desert island albums, #12

Tom Waits, Mule Variations, 1999.


His masterpiece, in my humble yet entirely correct opinion.

6S-7 amp update

Okay, I decided that the amp was way out of control, overdriving too much too soon. Two preamp stages was overkill. So I replaced the first 6SL7 (two triode sections) with a 6SJ7, a single triode. (Click below for a bigger picture of the schematic.)



I also simplified the power supply rail, cutting way back on the capacitance. (Again, the original concept was overkill.) Also added a unique midrange switch and a bright/presence switch.

I quite happy with the sound. It's surprisingly loud, and it gets a little raunchy when cranked.

Desert island albums, #13

The John Prine Anthology Great Days. (Are anthologies cheating? Yes, but I don't care.)

New amp project

This is a little amp that uses two 6SL7 tubes and one 6SN7. (Both of these are twin triodes.) The two sections of the (new Chinese) 6SN7 are used as a push-pull pair, a la the "October Studio" at AX84. The 6SL7s are old tubes; one's a Tung-Sol, the other an RCA.

The power transformer is an old Triad that I have had for years. Can't remember where it came from, but I used it long ago on a crappy attempt at a Champ-like amp. (It's rated at only 40ma, so I'm pushing it pretty hard here.)

Here's the schematic. Click on it for a larger, readable version.

The amp sounds good. It breaks up at a reasonable volume and gets real nasty when you turn it all the way up. But I'm still trying to wrap my head around the sound of it.

Bass porn

1940s Epiphone B5

Desert island albums, #14

Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life, 1976, ECM.

Trio of Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, and Bob Moses. Wonderful Metheny compositions and blissful Jaco.

Desert island albums, #15

Arvo Pärt, Tabula Rasa, on the ECM label, 1999.

Moving, mesmerizing, almost perfect.

Arvo himself:

Thankful

Today is the first Thanksgiving Day in 10 years on which George W Bush has been neither president or president-elect. Ten years. I want my 40s back.

More Kinkiness

Desert island albums, #16

Jack Bruce's Out Of The Storm, 1974.


This seems to me the pinnacle of Jack's post-Cream solo career. He did, however, do some extraordinary stuff later as a sideman, specifically with Kip Hanrahan.

Desert island albums, #17

Cocteau Twins' Treasure, 1984.


Cocteau Twins when they were still goth-tinged post-punk. More edge and less, uh, you know, less like what you'd hear while shopping at Gap in 1993. A close second to Treasure is 1990's Heaven Or Las Vegas. Elizabeth Fraser will always be one of the great vocalists ever.

Extreme Awesome

(via Dr. Bérubé’s joint)

Bad kitty

Desert island albums, #18

Together Alone, Crowded House, 1993.


I'm conflicted on this one; otherwise it'd be higher on the list. I couldn't live without any of the Crowded House catalog. I settled on this one (okay, it wasn't that hard) because it really is their best album in that from start to finish every song works within the whole -- and it contains so many great Crowed House tunes. Pineapple Head, Fingers of Love, Distant Sun, Nails in My Feet, Private Universe, In My Command, and Walking On the Spot are among Neil Finn's best compositions. Any four of those would have made any album great. Here, you get them all and more.

Aging a new pickguard

Okay, so I bought this old Mosrite "Joe Maphis" double-neck guitar. (Pictures coming soon.) It had a not so well-made replacement pickguard on it; so I decided to make a new one myself, which turned out quite well. But the new white plastic is WHITE, which is fine, but it looks out of place on a vintage guitar. So I wanted to give it something approximating the yellowish patina that the original would have acquired from 40 years in smokey nightclubs.

Now, you can Google up lots of suggestions for how to do this; e.g., soaking the pickguard in hot coffee, lacquering the pickguard and putting it out in the sun, and burning a few cartons of cigarettes in a homemade cardboard smoker. But nothing is as effective, quick, and non-stinky as spraying with amber-tinted lacquer.

Before I go into details, here's the result atop the remainder of the white sheet from which it was cut.



Now for the details. For lack of spraying equipment, I am restricted to good old "rattle cans" of lacquer. You can get cans of amber-tinted lacquer from Stewart-MacDonald or Guitar ReRanch. But it is impossible to get the right tint with these, because it takes several coats to make the color uniform (not splotchy), and by that time the color is way too deep (i.e., orange). Basically, these lacquers are just too dark for the job, and you need to mix a much lighter tint. So what's an amateur to do?

To the rescue comes the Preval sprayer, which costs $6.75 at StewMac. What you see below is the (detached) spraying unit with reservoir bottle containing some leftover lacquer from the job.



The stuff in the bottle is probably 2/3 lacquer thinner. The rest consists of a mix of clear lacquer and amber-tinted lacquer -- from spray cans -- with a very tiny shot of tobacco brown lacquer (from StewMac). It looks about like a nice amber beer. After a few light coats of this, I got the color I wanted. (Actually I wish I had left off the last coat, so it would be just a touch lighter.)

By the way, I recommend a few coats of clear lacquer as a base -- lightly sanded with 400 grit paper, just enough to smooth out most of the orange peel. And lightly sand the plastic first, too.

If I had it to do over, I'd probably replace much of the thinner in the mix with clear lacquer so it would flow a bit better. Again, ideally you'd want to mix the stuff up like a pro -- not from rattle cans. But this got the job done. This time.

Desert island albums, #19

Bill Bruford's Feels Good To Me, 1978.


A rhythm section of Bruford and Jeff Berlin, some of Allan Holdsworth's best early-mid career wailing, and sublime appearances by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and singer Annette Peacock. What more could anyone want?

Hagstroms with cat

Final AC15 update

Well, I couldn't help myself. I rearranged (almost) all the ground connections so that they all connect to a bus that connects to the chassis at one point. It worked! The hum is gone. There was also the problem of a noisy volume pot, which turned out to be caused by a leaky coupling capacitor. (Because of the specific design of this amp, there's one place where a capacitor cannot be leaky. And guess where I thought it'd be cool to use an antique cap.)



It's now quiet as a little mouse. It's so cool that I replaced the ugly old cement power resistors with pretty new ones and gave it a sexy blue pilot-lamp jewel -- just to see it smile.

Desert island albums, #20

Fleetwood Mac's Then Play On, September 1969, featuring the sadly ill-fated Green-Spencer-Kirwan triumvirate. Very little Spencer though, which one might say is a good thing.

Speaking of which... The Peter Green Story.

What it's really all about

Shorter Orrin Hatch:

Republicans cannot allow Democrats to pass health-care reform because that would cause people to vote for Democrats in the future.

Deep thought

Today is the first George W. Bush-free Halloween in 9 years.

Just wow

Brother Ray

Beautiful.


I ask you: Who else would rhyme "tequila" and "disappear"?

Fusion gem

Early Return To Forever, pre-Al Di Meola. Dig that NCSU shirt on Bill Connors. And Stanley Clarke's Rickenbacker bass!

Good kitty

Faux AC15 approaching doneness

I'm mostly finished with the faux AC15. Here's the amp in cab, pre-tolex.



Here it is with tolex, corners, handle, face plate, and spiffy walnut front panel with pilot lamp. (I'm probably going to drill a few holes in the front panel for ventilation.)



This thing will peel the paint of the walls. Its only fault is a very slight hum. I tried everything within reason to get rid of it. Maybe someday I'll rewire it using star grounding.

Brian Blade's Fellowship Band

I am loving these guys more and more.



Discovered Brian Blade last spring when I saw the Corea-McLaughlin Five Peace Band. (Blade had replaced Vinnie Colaiuta mid-tour.) That just shows how out of the jazz loop I was for years. There's a whole new generation of leaders now.

How did we miss this?

Via destination-OUT, I just learned for the first time about guitarist Ray Russell.

His early 1970s album Rites & Rituals is a gem of the era, an odd concoction of distorted solos, freakbeat swagger, and punchy swing. Most of the songs are extended multi-part suites, confidently segueing between various modes and styles. Russell brings the noise and the strum, along with compositional deployment of horns, drifting sections of lovely stasis, and outright hard swinging pomp.

Check out the song Sarana that's posted there.

There is a light, and it never goes out

There's lots more groovy Marr on YouTube. I especially like this one, embedding of which is disabled.

Apropos

Winton Marsalis joins Jerry Lewis as winner of France's Legion of Honor.

Gigantic

Absolutely one of the coolest vids on YouTube.

Rebranding

This is a refinished Aria Jazz Bass copy.

BoBo

This cat is a union thug.

How is this possible?

Whoever had the good sense to make this video back in 1981 (there are several on YouTube) and to do it with such skill deserves an award of some kind.



I was fortunate to see the Replacements at Cat's Cradle a couple of years later -- much drunker and sloppier.

BooBoo

This cat is a liberal fascist.

Latest Amp Project

A few weeks ago I got it in my head that I had to build a replica of the famous VOX AC15. I was already thinking about buying new parts when I realized that an old Silvertone mono hifi amp that I had found on eBay months ago had the right output tubes (a pair of 6BQ5's) and nice hefty transformers. So I ripped its guts out and converted it to something close to the AC15 (normal channel only).



Actually, I more or less followed the circuitry of the Rikstone C15. For the preamp tube I used a (Brimar) 6BR7, which is supposedly quieter than the normal EF86 but essentially equivalent, other than its different pin-out. Plus, they're cheaper.



The sound of this thing is incredible. Super bright, and loud as all get-out for a 15 watt amp. Total cost so far: somewhere between $100 and $150. (Can't remember exactly what I paid for the Silvertone.)

Now I need to build a small box to house the thing. Stay tuned.

Inaugural Post

I hereby stake claim to this lonely outpost in the nether reaches of the internets.