tbonesullivan

I keep thinking about a Jazz box. My guitar teacher has a Herb Ellis and I keep thinking "maybe I should have one of those". I'd probably only put 11's on it, as somehow I think i'd end up also playing more blues stuff on it. Man these are some nice looking guitars in here.

Ahh, I didn't notice that they were stacked humbuckers. Looks like even the "vintage stacked' set has quite a bit of DC resistance. They just use a different type of design than the Dimarzio stacked single coils, which have a much lower DCR. My experience with the stacked pickups is limited to a Dimarzio Paul Gilbert "Injector" set in a G&L legacy I picked up years ago. I do think they have a really nice sound, definitely a bit more bark than regular single coils. Regarding P90s, I thought I would chime in with Lindy Fralin pickups. I picked up a set used to put in a Hamer P90 special, and I love them there. The stock pickups were the Seymour Duncan Hot and Custom P90 pickups, which are BEASTLY, but also do sound quite good. You just really need to plug into the low gain input or you're gonna get nothing but Mississippi queen all day long.

Wow, I was just checking out the DC resistance for those pickups. 17.7k for the neck and 29.2k for the neck. That's a lot of turns! I also noticed the "Hot Chicken" set with Neck: 15.8k, Bridge: 26.46k.

"As New Old Stock". Basically used tubes that still test as new on a tube tester and still have plenty of getter, etc. Often they have worn paint markings, or may be OEM supplied tubes from Mullard, Amperex, RCA, etc.

Based on the time stamps, we were literally writing them at the same time.

This is one reason I almost prefer ANOS... at least I know they work. Some dealers pretty much won't even touch / test the NOS stuff.

I mean, Chicago Music Exchange has a used one from 1994 for about 3700. I was tempted.

It definitely is reasonably priced for what it is, and now that Gibson has pretty much pulled out of that market entirely, it was time for Heritage to get back into it. Still, I'd think you'd at least be able to specify a color for that price. Then again, compared to flat top acoustics, archtops are definitely a much higher end and more limited market item. I was always amazed at how Heritage was able to offer different types of archtops at a relatively low price compared to G-brands. I wonder how it compares to the archtops that Heritage used to make like the Sweet 16. Which of them were tap tuned? I admit I never paid nearly as much attention to the Jazz Box side of things.

I'm still in mourning over the closure of the "The Tube Shop", which is where I got a lot of ANOS (As New Old Stock Used) preamp tubes, as well as some NOS rectifier tubes. Yes it was all order by email and they would get back to you, but I got some great tubes at nice prices. There's still KCA Nos Tubes out there, which has some good deals on the ANOS tubes. JJ Tubes, unfortunately are now the tube of choice for a lot of amp companies, as they can withstand high cathode follower voltages, and are rugged. My Mesa Mark V was full of them when I got it, and I think my Friedman JEL-50 probably is as well. When I get some time I've gotta get rollin' rollin' rollin'. Keep those tubes a rollin'.

I had thought that the days of the Tap Tuned Archtops was over, but apparently it's not. I hadn't heard anything about this before until I got the email. I'm glad that they are once again making them, but oh boy, that price. I'd probably rather get something truly bespoke for that price. https://heritageguitars.com/pages/core-collection-h-717 https://heritageguitars.com/products/custom-shop-core-collection-h-717-archtop-guitar-honey-burst

NICE!!! Do you have a planned home for them? Those have a maximum plate voltage of 400V, right? I only have amps designed for 6L6GCs, so they all run the plates around 450V, so 6L6WGBs would probably get toasted.

oh boy, is there a good story to go along with that? I've only once had to deal with a bad speaker, which came in a Rivera Pubster 25. The horrible wiring job should have been a clue, but man the frame was even bent. No idea how the person who sold it to me could have not been aware of that.

Guitar speakers are definitely designed to have a "non-linear" response zone, and they do break up when pushed. How much they do has to do with the design, and also how much "dope" has been put on the cone.

Yeah... this is honestly one of the reasons I love having amps with built in reverb: it covers up a lot of stuff!

This was talked about a bit in the JEL-50 thread, but Friedman had been working on a Jose Arrendondo "tribute" amplifier, and had actually brought the family in, and had Jose's daughter Marisol with him at NAMM, talking about all the stuff that her dad did in terms of mods. She had helped out at the shop so she knew quite a bit about the different pieces of equipment he worked on, which were not just Marshall amps. Anyway, Dave Friedman had known Jose, and actually purchased a Modded amp directly from him when he was 18 or something, and also has worked on a lot of Jose modded amps. He pretty much found out all the mods that Jose did, and put them all into ONE AMP based on a Marshall 4 input Super Lead, using a more modern implementation than Jose did. It's got two different presence knobs, so you can have the original presence, as well as the Jose style one which is almost more like a negative feedback control. It's also got two different master volumes, the various different gain mods that Jose did, and so forth. While it doesn't have the word "Marshall" on it, it does have Jose's Face and signature. There are no "official" demos yet, just some videos from NAMM, but if someone was after the "ultimate modded 80s Marshall", this might be it.

Right? They were all analog with lots of filters and well-designed. Were they engineered by Scholz himself? I can't remember. They seem to have been used by a ton of people for recording during the 80s.

Well, it IS NAMM time, which means that we get stuff like this. I love Boston songs, and I especially love THAT guitar sound. The Tom Scholz sound is as distinctive as the EVH sound, the Brian May sound, the David Gilmour sound, and others. As best I can tell, with this new pedal, you can get that legendary sound in a foot pedal, which seems to be designed to run direct to board / PA. The chorus is set to mono mode by default, but a switch inside can turn it to stereo. Even without headphones, the stereo imaging of the chorus effects sounds great.

Just noticed this part. Curious, how was it "upside down"? Was the rare panel attached incorrectly? Or was the vent on the bottom?

There are some companies that have chosen to stay they size they are. The growth model is not for everyone, and also comes with a ton of risks. One of those IS the loss of that feel and work ethic. Look at Soldano amplifiers: they never really grew huge, and then joined up with Boutique Amp Distribution after they had to close the factory.

Honestly, I've never quite been able to wrap my head around fuzz pedals. So many players for decades have used them to make great music and sounds, but I often find them just too rough / raw when compared to an overdrive or distortion pedal. This stuff sounds great though, so maybe I'll have to play with my OD-20 a bit more on the fuzz models to see if I can get something I like.

Sounds great, both the guitar and the vocals! A resonator is one thing I've always loved the look and sound of, but I'm just not a good enough player to really make one sound good. Is that one of the Dual Caliber amps? I also think I spy a Fulltone pedal on top of it. Yes I am that guy who is often more interested in gear than anything else.

Around the same time the IIC+ reissue rumors started, there was also word that Mesa was also working on a "90's Rectifier" reissue. It now is out, at the princely sum of $3499 MSRP, which is quite a bit more than the Multi-Watt Three Channel Dual Rectifiers with more bells and whistles were at $2699. I guess this kinda means that the transition to a "reissue" brand is complete. It definitely DOES sound awesome. It's got a series effects loop, the clean mode on the orange channel was revoiced so it actually sounds good, and all the switching components used back in the 90s that they don't make anymore have been swapped out. Mesa has NOT said whether it is closer to a Rev G or Rev F Dual channel, though since most of the Two Channel Dual Rectifiers were Rev G, I would assume that is what this one is based off of. Still, that's a pretty steep price, especially when compared to amps that have impeccable build quality like Soldano and Friedman. You can also pick up OG used Rev G Two Channels in very good shape for quite a bit less than $3500, even ones that are well maintained and have been sent back to Mesa for servicing. Rev G's are not massively priced unobtanium like the original Mark IIC+ is, so I honestly don't see nearly the same level of demand. I guess time will tell. I've got a Dual Rectifier Tremoverb combo, so this is of zero interest to me, but I can see people who don't have an early rectifier wanting to get one with a warranty and no obsolete parts inside going for this. The Ola Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEpJrAOiLbc The Mesa Demo / Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1LQZtnjMLA

Heh. Well it's only 8 tubes, 4 matched pairs. But that is enough to last a while. Two of the pairs are matched, so I could use them in a 100 watter, but I'm not playing arena shows.

HAH! It is definitely Fridge sized. That bass stack came to PSP V or VI. I can't remember which. Maybe both. I know the rack came with me every time. I really need to get back out there.

Those are great amps though. LOUD, but great. Those early designs were the favorites of people like Santana and Keith Richards. One of the guys that hangs out in the Mesa facebook groups owns one of "keef's" former Mesas. Also seen some of Prince's old Mark IIB and Mark IIC+ coliseum heads floating around.