Finally...

Well, I finally bit the bullet and got myself a true 'boutique' amp setup. I bought the handwired 1965 Marshall JTM 45 head from CeriaTone and had Reason: amps build me a head cabinet and matching Bluesbreaker-style 2x12" speaker cabinet in green with gold piping.

As you can see from the picture, the setup is rather easy on the eyes. I had considered ordering the head and speaker cabs in black tolex with white piping which is the status quo for Marshall amps, but I always like to be a bit different from the crowd so I went with the green tolex with gold piping. I'm considering replacing the CeriaTone badge with a retro-looking Marshall badge with block lettering, but I'm still undecided. The amp was manufactured by CeriaTone to the same specs as the 1965 Marshall JTM 45 schematics. The Marshall badge would be a nod to the designer, not the builder.

As for the sound.....it's awesome! I'm hoping to post some sound clips of this baby as soon as I figure out how ;) True to the original, this amp came with KT66 power tubes, a GZ34 rectifier tube and 3 ECC83's. The supplied KT66's were Shuguang and all the rest were JJ tubes. I replaced the KT66's with the newly released JJ Tubes KT66 and am pleased with the results. I have yet to try out EL34's or 6L6's but I will soon enough. I'll be posting some more pictures pretty soon of the chassis and wiring for those of you interested in amp porn ;)

Until then...

CeriaTone JTM45

Ok now, most gearheads will agree that the holy grail of amps is a 1950's Fender Tweed, a 1960's Marshall or the rarest of all amps, the Trainwreck or Dumble. These 'point-to-point' handwired amps are the epitome of craftsmanship as it pertains to tone. Very few amps these days are built the old-fashioned way, instead manufacturers have found they can save a ton of money by using PC boards instead of having the amps handwired. While PC boards afford a great amount of consistency from unit to unit, they also have some serious problems as well. Tube amps are famous for producing obscene amounts of heat which has a way of warping the epoxy which PC boards are made from. The traces are etched onto the board and can actually pop off over time as they are heated by the tubes. When this happens you pretty much have to buy a new board, which usually ends up costing as much as the whole amp. Bummer!

The few boutique amp manufacturers who are still handwiring their amps demand a pretty penny for their wares. Most of us working 'Joes' don't have $3k-8k to spend on a single amplifier. One of the latest crazes has been 'kit' manufacturers. Basically these small companies sell you kits with all the parts you need to handwire your own boutique amp. It's a great project for those with the know-how and the determination. The cost savings are incredible and the experience is priceless. But what if you aren't up for the task of wiring one of these complicated beasts? Well, there is a solution...

CeriaTone is a small amp kit company based in Malaysia who provide high-quality amp chassis, faceplates, transformers and all the parts you need to build your very own dream amp. They have made some of the most sought-after amp models available as do-it-yourself kits. Amps such as the 1959 Fender 5F6-A Bassman, the 1965 Marshall JTM45 and the Trainwreck Express. For a reasonable amount of money they will even build the amp for you and ship it to your door ready to fire up and scare the neighbors with. Nice!

Well, far be it for me to pass up an opportunity like this! I contacted Nik at CeriaTone about which amp he thought would suit my playing style. About 20 emails later I decided on the 1965 Marshall JTM45 which is Jim Marshall's variation of the 59' Fender Bassman amp; albeit with a British twist. Nik informed me that this amp has the reputation for having the sweetest clean channel known to man, but also has the ability to break up in a very musical way when pushed. Perfect!

Lead time on these amps is about 3-4 weeks on average. That should give me time to sell some of my other musical goodies to make room (read: cash) for this new addition. I am planning on ordering a custom head cabinet from Reason: Amps to house this beauty. The standard Tolex combinations for Marshall amps is either black, forest green or purple. Black is too common and purple is too psychedelic for my style so I'll be going with the forest green with gold piping and grill. It should look quite stunning with the gold plexi faceplate of the amp. I'd like to order one of their 2x12" speaker cabinets in the same color to complete the set, but that will have to wait a bit.

I got myself on the waiting list with Eurotubes for their new JJ KT66 power tubes which are expected to arrive the beginning of April. The original JTM 45 used the KT66's instead of the more common EL34's, but the KT66's have been out of production for long enough that the NOS supply is very limited. The sound of these tubes is supposed to be very rich and complex without the harshness that other tubes produce. Being that my style relies heavily on a nice warm clean sound I am planning on sticking with the KT66's.

I'm anxious for this new beauty to arrive. I have a limited experience playing through the high-end amps that are out there, mostly because I'm afraid that they will ruin my sense of 'content'. I remember playing through the Bogner Shiva head that RKS Guitars borrowed after the last NAMM show; I was quite disappointed with everything else after that. Last week I played one of the new limited edition Marshall handwired 1974x 18 watt amps at Guitar Center and was blown away. The sound was so different from what I've gotten used to with my budget tube amps. I guess it must be like driving a Ferrari after a lifetime of commuting in a Hyundai. The sound was so warm and organic; it really made the guitar sound like a living creature with a voice all its own. THAT is the sound I've been searching for. I'll keep you posted on the outcome when that baby finally arrives...

King of the Blues

In case you haven't heard, Guitar Center is putting on their annual 'King of the Blues' contest in hopes of discovering the newest blues virtuoso. It's open to all the GC stores in the lower 48. They accept 30 contestants per store who then battle it out for the rights to move on to the regional competition and eventually the finals . The prizes get better with every contest you win. The grand prize is a 2007 Ford Mustang, a year-long endorsement with Gibson guitars, $5,000 cash, a recording contract with Little Dog Records as well as some other cool stuff.

For those of us who missed the opportunity to enter the contest (I only just stumbled on the competition the other night when I stopped in at GC for some weekly gear-lusting) there is still an awesome prize for us too. Guitar Center recruited veteran producer and ace string-slinger Pete Anderson to write/produce the backing tracks for the competition. There are 22 tracks in every conceivable blues style from which to choose and they are offered either as a CD (only at GC stores) or as downloads from the KOTB website. The best part is that they are FREE!! Yup, now you can practice your blues licks while being accompanied by some of the best session players the world has to offer. Thanks Guitar Center!

Rock n' Roll: It does a body good...

This is Eddie Van Halen at age 52.

Need I say more...

How to cook a tube amp?

I recently read a great article on the Barber Electronics forum entitled "How to cook a tube amp". It describes how to use a clean boost pedal to "cook" the front end of your tube amp. A clean boost pedal provides up to 30dB of clean boost which drastically increases the touch-sensitivity of your amplifier's preamp section, making both clean, rhythm and lead sounds much fuller and more responsive.

Barber makes the Launch Pad specifically for this purpose (plus the added A/B switching capability). There are other pedals out there which do basically the same thing, such as the Fulltone Fat Boost, MXR Micro Amp or Jack Orman's Mini-booster pedal. I'm currently building a clone of the Mini-booster and am anxious to try it out.

While I was reading a review of clean boost pedals on the AMZ FX site I noticed that they listed the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive as a great clean boost pedal. I own the Sparkle Drive and have used it as a high quality substitute for the Ibanez Tube Screamer, but I never thought to use it as a clean boost pedal. I'm always one to experiment with new ideas, so this weekend I was playing a gig with my trusty Fender Blues Deluxe and decided to try "cooking" the amp. I placed the Sparkle Drive at the end of my signal chain just before the amp and cranked the Clean and Volume knobs on the pedal (which disengages the Gain and Tone controls) and adjusted the amp's volume accordingly. WOW!! I was so amazed I almost lost my cookies. The touch sensitivity was unbelievable. I had a friend play my guitar while I felt the cone vibrations on my Eminence Red Fang speaker and I gotta say, it felt like a cat waiting to pounce. The amp was set dead clean with the volume around 2.5 and I could feel the speaker responding to his every move. Even if he wasn't playing notes, just sliding his hand lightly up and down the strings the speaker responded to every minute detail. This is what I've been looking for forever! Anyhow, I recommend that you give this a try as soon as you can. You'll be amazed at how different your amp sounds. Have fun...

The sound of Mississippi...

I've always been attracted to the sound of slide guitar and blues harp ever since I saw the movie "Crossroads" way back in the 80's. I'd never gotten any closer to "The South" than Las Vegas until I visited my wife's family in Biloxi, Mississippi a few years ago. I've got to tell you, it really changes you. The whole area feels, well.....old. I mean, here in California everything is bright, shiny and new, but in the south time seems to move so much slower. You can just tell by breathing the air and walking through the dirt that so many important things have happened there. The music of the south has a purpose much deeper than fame and fortune. History has been preserved and recounted, passed down from generation to generation through song. This is what draws me to the blues, bluegrass and folk music. It's storytelling at its best.

Anyhow, I've finally committed myself to learning to play slide guitar and blues harp. I found some great videos on YouTube of people teaching the basics and it inspired me. I bought a DVD by one of the posters, Ronnie Shellist, on how to learn blues harp (a.k.a. Mississippi Sax). I ran down to the local Guitar Center and picked up a Hohner Special 20 diatonic harp in the key of A and away I goes...

The DVD, entitled "Harmonica Foundations" takes a totally green beginner like myself and teaches you the in's and out's of blues harp. I've seen the Mel Bay books that try and teach you how to play 'Kum by Ya' on the harmonica, but that's not for me. I've only gotten through the first half of the hour-long DVD and already I've learned some very important things.

I'm a firm believer that if there is something you want to do or learn in this lifetime, you'd better get to doing it. Who knows how long you can put it off before it just slips away from you. I don't want to be a senile old fart pushing my walker around the halls of a hospice gumming my harmonica and playing nonsensical squeaks and honks. Damn! I wants to blow some HARP!! Yesssum...

Another great speaker...

I just received my new Eminence Red Fang 12" 8-ohm AlNiCo speaker and installed it in my Fender Blues Deluxe. I had recently swapped out the stock speaker for a Weber Blue Dog (see previous post) and was quite pleased. However, I've been really curious what difference there would be on the tone with an AlNiCo speaker instead of a ceramic magnet. The Red Fang is a 30-watt speaker compared to the 50-watt Blue Dog, so there will be some difference there as well.

First off I noticed that this speaker has much more bite than the Blue Dog and more pronounced bass and treble frequencies as well. The notes sound more rounded and warm with the Blue Dog, but still very good to my ears. I've only played the Red Fang for 2 hours so far, so I'm going to give it some time to get into my head so I can put the Weber back in and compare. I noticed that Eminence has a new sound clip page on their website of all their guitar speakers. They used a loop pedal to record 3 different guitar parts (clean, overdrive and heavy) and ran the loop through each of their speakers. It's a great way to hear the tonal differences of each speaker.

My Fender Blues Deluxe tends to be a very treble-heavy amp on its own, so the Blue Dog did a great job of taming the extended high end frequencies, but the Red Fang also lends itself well to this amp. Because the amp is a 40 watt all-tube amp and the Fang is only 30 watts the touch sensitivity is really there. I can hear every nuance of my playing with great clarity. It's especially nice at lower volume levels when you simply can't crank the amp up enough to get the speaker to move air.

So far I'm really impressed with the Red Fang, but I need to play with it awhile before I try the Blue Dog again. Either way I'm sure to have a winner. Next I'd like to try the Eminence Cannibis Rex hemp-cone speaker to compare yet another driver. Ahhh...the possibilities are endless (unlike my wallet).