Random Junk

This is a view of the rear of my old Peavey Mace guitar amp head:
I bought this while a sophomore in high school and used it for my entire career as a guitarist in metal bands. Great thick chunky tone and was louder than the Marshalls everyone else used. Also more durable, never spent a minute in the shop.
If you have that great Lynyrd Skynyrd live album, you can see what the front looks like.

Fired it up a few months ago after 15 years in a closet, and while there was some guitar coming out, there was a LOT of ugly noises, too. My diagnosis is that most of the capacitors and tubes (6 x 6L6GC!!) need replacing, and all of the volume and tone pots need cleaning.
Also, every single solder joint needs to be re-done--WHAT FUN!?!
If I could get it to work again it would be a great bass amp with a few simple tweaks to the tone circuits, but I'm scared to trust anyone with it and am also leery of tackling the repairs myself. Tube amps are very dangerous--one wrong move and the big filter capacitors can discharge enough voltage and amperage to drop you like a sack of potatoes that are dead and on fire.
ABM's lead guitarist (John B) hand-built his tube amp from plans and it's awesome, but he lives in Kerrville so getting his help isn't convenient for either of us.

Guess there's nothing to do but start the research and dive in, but at this point I need a bass amp by the middle of March so I might need to buy one to use until this project is done, then sell it when the tube goodness is up and running. Decisions...



Got a $25 Wolf Camera gift card for Christmas and this is how we used it:
For the month of January Wolf/Ritz ran a special on their prints on canvas.
This 11x14" is usually $60 but at 50% off and with the card we were only out about $8 which is awesome.
The print wraps around the sides of the frame so it looks good hung naked, it's sturdy and has nice backing and hanging hardware, plus the colors look correct.
Very pleased.

I decided on the San Fernando Christmas card photo because a ton of people have bought one from me or been gifted with this print, yet I didn't have a copy of my own.
If you have a photo that you think would have made a good painting, I recommend having Wolf/Ritz set you up. They are available in some pretty big sizes, like 2x3 feet or thereabouts, but be advised that it's a pricey deal.
Makes a great gift, and I'm always available to take the photo if you need help.


My new blog for A Beautiful Mess Featuring Natalie Rose is online now.
It's the top link over on the right--->.
The older posts have been seen here already, but in the future I'll only be showing rare glimpses of that stuff on Views Of Texas.