Daniel Spils

Brangien and I have been married about 4 weeks. So far, so great! Yesterday we went to get gym passes together at Seattle U where I get a discounted alumni rate which extends to a spouse. It was exciting to realize our first marital financial gain having just lived through the expense of a wedding and honeymoon. I pulled the paperwork together and filled it out the night before, arranged to pick up Brangien from her busy work week (it’s ship week) and headed to Connolly Center to have our pictures taken and write the check … which is where things got interesting. The girl helping us register asked if we had any proof that we live together. We were a bit stunned. I mean she was polite about it, but being 41 and recent singles we thought it was so obvious. Just look at us. We’re here together at the same time! So, I said something like “we’ve got wedding bands (we quickly flashed the bling) and we’re recently married”. Then we nervously hugged and kissed to prove the point. Crickets.

The girl asked if we had a bill or piece of mail that proved we lived at the same address. Some people, she explained, will bring in a love interest or friend and pose as live-ins or married people just to get the alumni membership (it’s a good deal). Suddenly, at a gym, we were on the defensive and feeling pretty much how you’d imagine two long-time singles, married at 41 might feel. Like imposters! Afterall, we still have separate houses, separate mail addresses, separate bank accounts and separate last names. This must be how terrorists feel when they make it through customs and airport security only to get turned in by the U-Haul clerk who, while renting the truck, catches a suspicious vibe. Ever vigilant.

We left the gym without passes, but did convince the much younger girl that we were indeed married, although in debriefing on our way out we both wondered about her intuition. Did she sense the separate houses, accounts, addresses, last names? I hurriedly dropped Brangien back at work, drove home and back to the gym with our marriage license to prove our point. The girl was very accommodating, had even preemptively made our membership cards, but still asked to make a photocopy of the marriage license (just in case). I suppose we’ll increasingly feel more “married” and I’ll develop some tone of voice that communicates to gym and U-Haul staff that we’re husband and wife, not imposters (or worse).

It would be misleading to leave the story there. We really are living together and married. Today I’m opening a joint account and we’re doing a lot of accommodating which I’m finding to be one of the joys of this first part of marriage. I’m now the proud part-owner of a cat. Brangien’s artwork is slowly filling our walls. We’re remodeling our North house a bit and thinking about changes to our Central house and where we’ll end up. For now (maybe forever?) the last names will remain separate, but that’s about it.

A picture from my walk two days ago: Mushroommates.

I’ve owned more vans than any other vehicle type:  three vans in my Seattle years, used mostly for moving musical gear around (I used to transport a Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes and various synthesizers and speaker cabs). I’ve toured a lot in all these vans. But even back in high school people used to call me “Dan the tan man in the van” after I returned to Anchorage from our annual family trip to Maui. I drove my parent’s Dodge van at the time. Toward the end of high school my dad bought the first generation Chrylser mini van. Daniel the vaniel-holic.

Fast forward to 2009 and I find myself working out of my 2003 VW Eurovan, using a small coffe cup power inverter, my laptop and an AT&T mobile internet dongle. Between the Olmstead Parks, Lake Union and a few other favorite spots I’ve stumbled upon an ideal work scenario. I’m able to meet with people and retreat immediately to a working office and living space that I enjoy. I’ve held a few one-on-one meetings in the van and people love it. Work on wheels.

One unexpected nomadic work observation: it’s hard to find free wireless in Seattle. Unless I’m missing all the known spots, coffee house wireless is unreliable or exceptionally slow. A few times I’ve lucked into a nice coffee shop session, but for the most part I haven’t found it to be a reliable way to work online. Between slow or flaky wireless (some places boot you after 30 minutes), unpredictable patrons, interruptions and milking a drink for wireless I decided to take the show on the road. I figured that in a mobile van office it would be easy to find a few go-to places in town where I could jump on an open network. I spent days driving around to parks or areas of town I like and in most cases I found TONS of networks, but all were mostly locked down. Those that weren’t usually had a weak signal or somehow didn’t work. What ever happened to the “future”!

This is a long way of saying I suggest nomadic nerds make the $60/mo investment in mobile wireless from one of the big carries. Not super zippy, but it’s reliable and allows you to go most anywhere in town. We’ll see how well this works when the winter months roll around, but I like touring in the van at the moment. If things work out I can extend my given title to Dan the tan man with a plan or some such thing.

Never do I recall having as much change in such a short period of time. I’m getting married, looking for  new work, selling a house, moving into a house and helping out with a couple albums. Oh, and I just changed my blog! Change to spare.

Below is a slideshow (click the right arrow at the bottom of the slide) that describes the issues I’m having with my home studio – specifically the firewire driver compatibility between Mac OS 10.5.5, Logic Pro 8 and the Mackie Onyx 1200f. I’d love any tips or suggestions … and, yes, I’m obsessed with making this work.

I can’t write a review about my new Verellen AC30-style guitar amplifier (spoiler alert: it is AWESOME!) without talking a bit about Ben Verellen. I first met Ben at his home/workspace in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. He was running off to class at UW where he’s finishing a degree in electrical engineering. But before he hit the bizooks, we spent a good deal of time communing on the perfect amp that he would build for me. It was one of those rare meetings where I knew this fellow musician / ampsmith / future electrical engineer thought just like I did about everything that makes a tube guitar amp a modern wonder of vintage science. The amp I commissioned from Ben is as simple as the best amps get. It does one range of sound but it does that sound very, very well.

Amp Specs

* 40 watt
* volume knob
* on/off switch
* standby switch
* low, mid, high EQ
* 2 Celestion Vintage 30
G12 (8 ohm) speakers

The volume knob is the key  feature of the Verellen amp. With my Telecaster in single-coil bridge position I get a gorgeous full clean tone around 25% volume, warm growl when I’m digging in to the strings at 50% volume, nice chunky classic rock at 75% volume and full-on sustainable single notes at 100% volume with just enough feedback to please but not enough to crash the party. Switching pickup positions and guitars does pretty much what you’d expect – it makes every guitar sound it’s best and reveals it’s most unique tonal qualities. This is an all tube amp, built entirely from the ground up. It has many of the qualities of the classic Vox AC30 but with it’s own signature Verellenian sound. It’s simple, solid, aesthetically pleasing … and it’s completely awesome.

If I were a professional amp reviewer (spoiler alert #2: I’M NOT!) I’d get into the detailed minutiae of gain structures, EQ charts and exactly how this thing works. Instead I’ll try to get at why I love this amp through a story from my past.
The Brown Amp
When I was growing up in Anchorage, Alaska in the 1980s my mom and dad returned from a trip to the exotic land of Los Angeles, California with a 1976 Fender Lead II – my first guitar! A friend gave me their throw-away amp head and I somehow drummed up a free 2×12 cab. The amp was a 70s Fender Bassman head. I knew nothing about guitars or amps so I quickly tore off the tattered silver grill cloth and painted the amp head and speaker cab with the only paint we had in the garage: exterior brown house paint from our very own split level home.

The only sound I knew was that 70s Bassman amp through a 2×12 cabinet with a Fender guitar, more often than not with amp and guitar volumes dialed to ten. It was a pure and awesome sound. With little knowledge of how an electric guitar or amp should sound, I naively assumed that all guitars and amps sounded this great. The  amazingly warm, rounded distortion and growl this amp and guitar produced set me on a lifelong path of tinkering with guitars and amps.
Fast forward to 2008. My new Verellen amp is easily that good and, coincidentally, it’s stained brown walnut. It does what I learned at an early age an amp should do: one sound, but one sound very well. The brown amp is back,  but this time designed and hand-built by ampsmith Ben Verellen of Seattle, Washington. No need to turn it to eleven, this amp already goes to Verellen.

Contact info

Verellen Amplifiers website

Facebook

A few more pics