Tonight: I will again be joining JBW aka Sway behind the decks at Firehouse 12 in New Haven Connecticut. We’ll be on from 9PM until One. Gonna try out a new concept for this set: early electronics+process music along with the obscure rock non-hits. It’ll be… something.
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Just in case you’re not quite ready to sell yr extensive microphone collection, Arthur Trauffer offers a novel way of mounting the goddamn things. I had no idea that those old Hi-Z mic jacks fit mic-stand threads; I have accumulated about of million of those useless connectors and now I know what to do with them! (scanned from Radio + Television News, September 1953)
As I mentioned on my Tumblr last year, I used the idle time during our annual Open Studios event to construct yet another Fender Champ-based guitar amplifier. I had purchased a pair of unused circa 1955 suitcase-PA speakers cabinets, along with a Shure Commando mic, as a set on eBay for a few bucks with the intent of turning them into lil combo amps.
Aside from some odd shopwear/discoloration, the cabs were very solid and the original 12″ drivers sounded good. Based on the interior space available (and the relatively low power handling of the driver) I decided to build a variation on the classic Fender Vibrochamp.
And so was born the King-Vibe. Similar in principle to a vibro-champ, the King Vibe has more power output (approx. 6 watts, courtesy of its 6L6 rather than 6V6 output section) and waaaaaaaaaaay more gain. The additional 20db of gain was achieved by eliminating the tone stack. The aluminum chassis was formed by hand; all wiring is point to point with Sprague and Solen coupling caps. I used a 6X5 rectifier tube, as the Edcor power transformer has only a 6.3V haeater winding. Output transformer is also an Edcor. The speaker is attached via a 1/4″plug at the top of the chassis so that an external cab can be easily connected. IEC mains socket is provided for convenience and a tidy appearance.
The tremolo is still fully variable and there is a lone Gain control, no bass+treble knobs. Whatever minor inconvenience this presents is more than justified by the insane amounts of distortion and fuzz that this thing is capable of. And like the early Tweed Champs (which have the same topology), it cleans up perfectly by simply backing off of the gtrs volume control. The 6L6 sees a little over 250V on its plate, which is the low end of the ‘textbook’ operating curve of that tube. This allows the amp to break up into smooth power-stage distortion relatively quickly, which is kinda the point of these small amps anyhow.
A detachable footswitch with a handy status-indicator jewel lamp completes this package.
How y’all doing… srry that the fresh content has been slow to come lately; I’ve been blessed with a full plate, production-wise, lately, so there has been little time for writing. Expect some interesting new posts + project-build-notes in early January. In the meanwhile, I wanted to take a moment to share the results of a really rewarding project that I was part of recently. The Alternate Routes have been spending some time with me at GCR lately, and while none of that material has been released yet, I did a live multi-track and mix for them at The Quick Center in Fairfield CT on October 19th and they have made a few of those tracks available on YouTube with some great-looking multicam video footage by Mike Falzone. The band hired me that night to capture a Protools session with every input iso’d, which is easy enough… the wrinkle was that they wanted to be able to sell a recording of the set at the event itself. In the lobby. As the audience was leaving the venue. So using my Mackie ONYX 1640 mixer/firewire interface and a handful of outboard gear I did a live mix and a multitrack, both to Protools, and then quickly ‘mastered’ the stereo mixes during the encore; The Alternate Routes-logo’d USB drives were then quickly made and shuffled out of my little production suite backstage and out to the merch table. It’s basically the equivalent of doing a live TV mix, but with the additional task of getting the isos. Ten years ago I think this would have required a Remote Truck, but god bless technology (yup i said it), I was able to do this, properly, with inexpensive gear that fit in one load of my GMC Sierra. The band was pleased with the results of the live mix, and so what yr hearing here is just how my fingers moved the faders while the band played. Here’s “Oh My My,” which opened the concert.
Those of you who follow my Tumblr may recall that I posted a snapshot of my lil’ setup during the event:
Pretty minimal tools; 6 channels of comps and a TC FX unit; this is actually just the outboard rack for my PA-Hire system. The Mackie was fed via a Whirlwind transformer split (thanks K!) by my usual live-sound-kit mics; basically Shure Betas with a pair of SM81s in the audience and a few special additions. On a more ‘Preservation Sound’ note, if you pay attention to Eric’s guitar sound: this actually proved to be the most difficult part of the equation to get right, and it required dipping deep into my mic cabinet for a vintage Sennheiser MD409. Nothing else that I tried on Eric’s Badcat Amp seemed to do the trick. The 409 is unfortunately extraordinarily expensive these days due its close association with both Pink Floyd and Stevie Ray Vaughan. If you have the chance to pick one up for a reasonable price, I would highly recommend you try it out. It really is a pretty special dynamic mic; certainly not for everything, but it does have a unique quality to it.
Getting back to the band: they have also posted a few other songs from the evening, including Moonshining and Stay. Check ’em out; they really are are a fine group.
Happy Holidays y’all. I’ll be joining my good friend JBW aka Sway behind the 1200s at Firehouse 12 in New Haven again this Wednesday 12.19.12. Got a whole new set ready for this one. 45 Crown Street New Haven, CT.
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Demo! (first in a series)
A Roland CR-8000, a piano, a shit-tonne of echo, and Phil Collins circa 1980. Sounds incredibly modern. Click here or watch below. I had a CR-8000 alongside my TR-606 for some years; I had it midi sync’d via my MSQ-700. I still have the MSQ and the TR, but the CR-8000 was transmuted into ‘RENT’ sometime around 2001. Miss it. I paid $25 for it at ALTEL on Main Street in Bridgeport; they are tough to find for under $500 these days.
Since we’re on the subject of antique hi-fi installs… download a three-page article from RADIO-ELECTRONICS, April 1950, on the subject of the burgeoning custom-installation business for hifi equipment (via opportunities-await-you). Author is one William Rivkin.
DOWNLOAD: CustomHiFi_1950
When I was a child my family moved into a circa 1930s home (renovated circa 1965) that had one of these custom installs. I can’t recall what brand of drivers were installed, but the amp was a Harmon-Kardon, stereo, with (I think…) 6BQ5s. The Ttable was likely a Garrard. I really think that the particular smell that the amp made was one the things that fascinated me the most about it; shortly thereafter I picked out my first guitar amp (thanks Mom+Dad), an excellent-sounding brand-new Fender Champ 12. I remember the gtr-store salesmen being completely shocked that a child wanted a tube amp, rather than something with Mega-Distortion and Chorus; perhaps I should have told him that I was attracted to the smell. The Harmon Kardon, I believe, I gave away to a high-school classmate named Matt Tebbe; Matt, if yr still out there, drop us a line and let us know if you stuck with the tube thing. I definitely have…
Recently shipped this bespoke four-channel unit to customer P.G. PG sent me a pair of UTC A20s and a pair of Triad HS-66 600:600 transformers; he wanted a finished piece that would allow him to switch the transformers in-and-out of a signal path easily.
For an explanation of the ‘transformer-as-signal-processor’ concept, see this previous post concerning a similar custom build. P.G. wanted his unit built as a two-space chassis so that he could add a third pair of transformers in the future if he wished; the front panel was precisely measured and punched so as to allow this to be done in a visually harmonious manner.
Above, the inside of the unit. Belden 9451 wire and the same 12,000 watt (no typo) 4PDT toggle switches as the prior build. So how does it sound? For those of you who are curious about commissioning or DIYing a piece like this, here are my impressions.
First, the ‘hard facts,’ measured using sine waves at +10db.
UTC A20: Insertion loss approx. 0.2 db. down 1 db at 12hz, down 1 db at
65khz. Otherwise flat.
Triad HS66: Insertion loss approx. 0.1 db. down 1 db at 10hz, down 1 db
at 60khz. Otherwise flat except for a bump up around 10k.
As fast as listening test (with music, not test tones): and this is obviously very subjective: the UTCs are very very subtle. Bass is little more organized but it’s really hard to say. They are just too perfect I guess. If they are run them at full protools level (+22) the user will likely hear some color, as it is outside their stated linear range. But at +10 there is little effect.
On the other hand, the Triad HS-66 definitely have a sound: at first I thought that they were bass shy, but the sweep test denies that. To my ears, they make everything sound more forward and aggressive.
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Phono Equalizer Design Circa 1950
Download a two-page article from RADIO ELECTRONICS, April 1950, on the subject of Phono-EQ design:
DOWNLOAD:PhonoEQdesign1950
These are not phono preamps, so-to-speak; they lack sufficient voltage gain to bring phono-pickup-level up to line level. Nonetheless some interesting info in here which might be useful to those of you DIYing tube EQs out there. An interesting artifact from the era prior to RIAA standardization.
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There is still more work to be done
As I was packing my belongings for a new, quieter life in the Eastern Atlantic, I came across this curiosity. A Blade-Runner themed guitar. But. Not even the ‘famous’ (relatively speaking, of course) Guild-Brand Blade Runner Guitar. Close analysis of this obscure piece of content revealed a deep truth: there is still so, so much to be learned from digging thru endless piles of ancient audio-themed papers. I cannot stop. Yet. There is still more work to be done. Let us now examine the facts.
The Guild ‘Blade Runner’ (at left; source) utilizes the actual Blade-Runner-Film font on its body, suggesting that the Guild guitar was actually licensed by the film’s producers?
Initially, it seemed incredible to me that a second guitar-maker would enter the market with a guitar named after the film Blade Runner; which, as great a film as it is, features neither a guitar nor any guitar-music for its duration. What could explain this seemingly totally unnecessary redundancy in the guitar marketplace? Perhaps the answer is more complex than we have yet realized. Perhaps the ‘licensed’ GUILD-brand Blade Runner Guitar was all too content to align itself with the orthodoxy imposed by the film’s producers (the same producers, naturally, that insisted on the inclusion of the humanizing ‘voice-over’ in the film’s theatrical release). Perhaps the ARIA-brand Blade Runner guitar was part of an alternate explanation of events, one that perhaps comes closer to the truth?
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Above: at left, Daryl Hannah as the character Pris in the film Blade Runner. At right: Some Model as Some Future Lady in the Aria Pro advert. The similarities beg the question: Is the man holding the guitar a surrogate for Roy Batty, the character with whom Pris was aligned in the film? Or is the man-with-guitar intended to represent Deckard, the protagonist of the film?
He definitely seems to have a stronger resemblance to Harrison Ford’s Deckard than to Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty; yet the sunglasses are a confusing and highly suggestive twist. In the grand tradition of Blade Runner Conspiracy Theories, I would like to put forth the following thesis:
In the so-named ‘Aria Thesis,’ Deckard is the 6th Nexus replicant; here he is shown, before the crash landing, with Pris; Batty was in fact an interloper who usurped Pris’ affections after attempting to kill Deckard prior to the crash, in fact causing the crash. Batty attempted this murder by his indicated choice of killing technique: crushing the eyeballs into the brain. The Aria corporation signals this violation by covering Deckard’s violated eyes with their branded eyewear, eyewear that appears nowhere in the filmed narrative. In the Aria Thesis, the police force discover Deckard’s near-dead body; re-suit him with replacement eyes and unicorn dreams, and then set him to the task of capturing his former associates.
Please direct all question and/or comments about this post to these guys.
Good luck.