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
A few more pics
I try to pay less than $200 for cheap guitars, but this one was around $220 because it’s a proper American made Fender Stratocaster w/ a fancy pickup and hardware. I think it would retail used for about $700? But this looks like a shop project for the last owner. It appears s/he tried to sand off the finish, got into trouble when they started gouging the wood and then applied some bondo to build it back up. The net result is a fugly guitar with bondo, but in great working condition. Sounds great, though.
I kind of like the messed up bondo job so I’m leaving it as is. I believe it’s of the late 90s or early 00s. Anyone know how to tell?
That’s what I learned yesterday making a couple loaves of banana bread with my mom (she’s visiting). If you toast good walnuts just right and chop them up a bit (I don’t like them too big in the bread), they taste wonderful.
I used the Cook’s Illustrated recipe and it worked nicely.
I’m boarding an early flight tomorrow for Anchorage. I plan to head down to Alyeska the following day for 3 days of skiing with my brother and his family. I can hardly wait. I understand there is a lot of new snow and the weather is warm. Glorious skiing awaits.
Before this week I’d never been to a chiropractor and quite frankly I felt there was a strong likliehood it was a bunch of bullshit. But late last week I pinched a nerve in my neck, it got all tight and was hard to sleep comfortably. I’ve had worse in the past, but my days were filled with robotic full-torso head turning when people called my name. I bumped into a chiropractor while at the gym and he said “come on down, I’ll have you in and out in 15 minutes”. Well, it took about 45 with paperwork but I had my first neck-cracking session two days ago with an x-ray followed yesterday by an x-ray review and 2nd neck cracking. The popping of the joints , particularly the neck, freaked me out. But I exhaled and let him do his thing.
So, I have to say that it worked. I wanted to be a disbeliever (and I don’t know that I’m a convert) but it really did seem to alleviate the pinching altogether. It’s a bit tender as the area of my left shoulder was pretty well seized up and it may take a couple days to come down. But the pinching is effectively gone and everything feels loosened up. Is this coincidence (would my body have arrived here on it’s own these past 3 days) or did it really work? It feels like the adjustments really did the trick but I don’t fully understand what’s going on.
This wikipedia article is an interesting read on the history of chiropractic care. I didn’t realize until reading it that it’s largely a Canadian/US form of health care. I’m thankful I’m out of pain and the gent I went to is suggesting 2 months of adjustments to fully address the curve of my neck (I’ll give him credit for a low pressure pitch). I’m probably like most people—the pain is gone and I’m fine going about my business without further adjustments but who knows.
Has anybody had any good or bad experiences with chiropractic care in the past? Is it a bunch of hooey or do you think it’s the real deal? Has anyone done a full set of adjustments like the 2 months I’m being offered?
