The Combo Amp Project

I like playing out musically.  The problem is I don't really have an amp that's small enough (power wise) to not blow out the windows.  Marshall stacks are awesome, but you can't really play coffeehouses with them.  I could buy a small cheap amp, but cheap amps sound... well cheap. 

So I decided to make a project out of my needs.  I want a small tube combo amp that I can easily carry to places.  I liked the Epiphone Valve Jr. since it was simple.  It is a 5 watt, 1 pre-amp tube, 1 power tube amp.  It has a single volume control and that's it.  Again a very simple amp.

I received the head version for my birthday, and received the Bitmo mod kit for Christmas.  The Bitmo trio mod will add a tone knob and a three way voicing switch to the head.  I then built a cabinet to hold the amp chassis and a speaker. 

I was planning on using a 10 inch American sounding speaker but I was able to trade a WGS Veteran 30 speaker for the American sounding WGS C12 C/S speaker.  So now that I have everything, let's go to the pictures.  That way you can see what I am talking about.

First up, I built the cabinet out of some mahogany that I have had lying around for a couple years.

I used the 90 degree angle tool to make sure I had all the pieces of wood lined up correctly.  I also made sure all the holes for the head were lined up properly. 

Next I put in the support pieces of wood on the side so that the chassis can slide in on top of it. 

I then fitted a piece of plywood to hold the speaker.

As I said earlier, I was planning on using a 10 inch speaker, but the 12 inch one was too good to pass up.  As you can see, the wood on the sides of the cabinet are on the outside, and the screws go east/west.  Originally, the sides were going to be underneath the top piece, and screwed in north/south.  But to make room for the speaker I had to change it.  Luckily it worked. 

So I was able to use my scroll saw and sander to cut the hole perfectly for the speaker.  I was also very careful choosing the screws and drilling the holes for cabinet.

I had some leftover tweed grill cloth from a previous project, and it is exactly what I need for this project.  With use of some clips and a staple gun, I was able to get the grill cloth even and tight.

Next up is the electronics part.

I made sure the holes were drilled and the two switches were properly fitted before I started the electronics soldering. 

Here are pictures of my table set-up.  I wanted to use the kitchen table so I could set my computer next to me for help.  I also had my trusty lamp next to me. 

Here is my speaker hooked up to the amp.  It was fun to have my speaker pointed straight up into the air.  It was definitely loud enough. 

Here is my work.  Lots of wires everywhere, but everything is where it is supposed to be, and most importantly of all, it works. 

So I will do a "Part 2."  I will show the progress of the cabinet as I finish it, and I will include sound samples when I have it all put together. 

Anger Rising

So I've been angry lately.  There's been a lot of stupid stuff going around, and I'm a bit sick of it.  So my anger has been a bit on the rise. 

But the question I thought to myself is, "how angry am I really?"  On a scale of .... oh who cares.  Scales mean different things to different people so it doesn't really work well.  I need a better way to express how angry I am.

So I thought about the one guy who was really pissed at someone.  That would be Zeus.  Now we are talking Greek God angry. 

I am referring to Zeus' anger at Prometheus.  No, not this guy:

On a side note I still want to kick Damon Lindelof in the nuts for what he did to that movie.  They said it was one of the best scripts Hollywood had seen in a long time.  It also answered all the questions that people had from the "Alien" movies.  But then Lindelof comes along, and decides to get it all "Mystified" and stuff.  Now we are going to have to have a second Prometheus movie to explain all the stuff that the second one didn't tell us.  But I digress.

I am talking about this Prometheus:

Prometheus was one of the original Titans who gave fire to humankind, and was punished for this by Zeus.  Which leads me to one of the biggest angry decisions I've ever heard of.  Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock on a mountainside. 

Prometheus didn't get:

• Food
• Water
• Bathroom break
• Relief
• Exercise
• A Lawyer
• A one way ticket to Tartarus.
• Or anything that the U.N. would say he was entitled to.

No, he was chained to a rock 24/7.  Then everyday a giant eagle (some say a vulture) came to the rock, and ate his internal organs (some versions specify his liver.)  That's right.  Every single day that bird would come and eat all of Prometheus' guts.  Every single day. 

Why every single day?  Well, since Prometheus was a Titan that made him immortal.  So every night his wounds would regenerate, only to be ripped out the very next day.  He wouldn't die and go to Tartarus.  He could only live, chained to the rock, damned to have his guts torn out by that giant bird.

On a funny side note, it was actually Hercules that rescued Prometheus from his bondage on the mountaintop.  So Prometheus did eventually get away from that situation.

But it makes me think.  That is some serious anger.  I mean that is beyond cruel and unusual punishment.  When they said that the Gods were cruel, they weren't kidding. 

If Zeus had a theme song for his vengeance, I assume it would be this:

I Am The Table

I was looking at my "On this day" feed on Facebook.  It's this neat feature where you can see your posts on this day from previous years.  I started on Facebook back in 2010 so I have five previous years I can view. 

One of my posts from 2011 confused me.  I was wondering if I was having one of those "Adrian" type moments that I am known for.  I mean, when I confuse even me I know I am out there.  I simply wrote:

Here's something for all my bourgeois headbangers, "I AM THE TABLE!!!!!!" For the rest of you, I'll explain later.

So what the hell was I thinking.  I then looked under the comments and found this:

Go to the 2:10 mark:

Then it hit me.  It's from the song "The View," by Lou Reed and Metallica.  James Hetfield just keeps repeating over and over that he is the table.  My thoughts on this back then were this:

 I couldn't do it. I just couldn't justify paying a total of $17 for the new Lou Reed/ Metallica album. James Hetfield may be the table, but I am not an idiot.

I then went on to say:

The songs I have heard sound like two albums playing at the same time. I just don't get it.

Also, why is James the table?

I would say that James owes us a heck of an explanation.  I suspect this would be his response.

I found this video and it made a lot of sense to me.  Watch it, and I think everything will be explained.

I got to thinking about it, and there are a few things that I am okay with James Hetfield being.

1.  The Master of Puppets.
2.  The Thing That Should Not Be.
3.  The Unforgiven.
4.  The Harvester of Sorrow.
5.  I would even settle for James being Some Kind of Monster.

But I just can not accept him being "The Table."

Now that it's four years later, I wonder if I can find "Lulu" in the 99 cent bin?  Then I might be able to give the entire album a proper listen.

Now that I have bitched about this song and album, I wonder what my next Metallica song that I bitch/blog about will be?

Here's a hint:

My Yoyo Loach Is About To Explode

I have written numerous blogs about my fishtank.  During the last 20 years of my life I have enjoyed having egg laying types of fish.  Namely, tetras, barbs, and gouramis.  But in the last year I have added a fun type of fish, yoyo and clown loaches. 

These are fun active bottom feeders that also get rid of any snails that wander into the tank.  They have really added a lot of movement into my fishtank.  They are also great community fish, and get along with all the other fish I have in there.

What's also nice is that they are egg-layers so I don't have to worry about babies in the tank.  I found out I didn't like live bearers in that, they would have 30 babies, and then die.  Then 28 of the babies would die.  It was too much dying for me.  So imagine my surprise when I look over into my fishtank ,and see this.

I mean, how can she even swim straight being shaped like that?  Honestly, it looks like I photoshopped that picture.  I can barely believe it is real.

But yes, that is one of my yoyo loaches.   Or should I say that is half a loach and half roe (fish eggs.)  I honestly have no idea why she is so filled with roe.  Usually in a tank setting they will not lay eggs. 

However, after reading on the web, the one way for them to lay eggs that will grow up to be baby loaches is to do a huge water change, and then lower the temperature in the fishtank by five degrees.  And then I have to hope that one of the other yoyo loaches in the tank is a male. 

But the thing that worries me is if she will live after laying all those eggs?  I'm worried it will be way too much stress on her. 

Raining on Thanksgiving.

As Thanksgiving is approaching, I am reminded of my Thanksgiving memories.  Namely, that the winter duck hunting season started on Thanksgiving.  It gave hunters a chance to bring home a duck for Thanksgiving dinner.

Since my Dad was a mailman he worked six days a week.  One of the few holidays he had off was Thanksgiving.  So it was the one day we could go hunting. 

We would always hope for bad weather since ducks seem to love bad weather.  Seriously, the worse the weather is, the more duck hunters show up.  It really is the opposite of good decision making. 

So a typical day would be getting up at 4 AM, head out the door at 5 AM, make it to Cockroach Bay (Yes that's it real name.  It's in Ruskin, Fl.)  by 6 AM, take the boat to our spot, and have the decoys set up by 7 AM.  Then we would sit in the rain and wind with guns on our laps hoping some ducks would fly into the decoys.

What's funny is that it was usually really active from 7:15 AM to 8 AM, and then maybe a few up until 9 AM.  Then, nothing.  It was like all the wildlife would stop from 9 until 10 AM.  Once 10 AM came around you might get a few show up until 11 AM.  But once 11 AM hit, it was over.  The ducks day was over until sunset. 

So we would then pack up at 11 AM.  We would then pick up all the decoys, and make it back to the dock at 12 Noon.  Then we would make it back to the house at 1 PM where the two of us would clean all the saltwater off of everything.  This also included making sure the guns were oiled really well.  Saltwater is really rough on guns.  And if we actually did manage to hit any ducks, this would be the point where we would clean them.

Then it would be time for Thanksgiving dinner between 3 and 4 PM.  That would be the perfect time to eat, and start watching the Detroit Lions get their butts kicked on TV. 

So you can see just how eventful Thanksgiving was for us.  And for the photographic evidence, feast your eyes upon this:

Yep, that's me in 1991 with a blue wing teal.  I was 15 at the time.  And I still use that same shotgun to this day.  In fact, I still have that same coat.  It's the coat I use when it's just a bit cool out hunting, but not overly cold.  Although, I do have better choice in headwear these days.

Unwind

You may want to read this to understand this post a little better.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-worst-ripoff-my-musical-failure.html

I've been thinking about this song I wrote this past week called, "Unwind." It's not my usual kind of song, but maybe I'm mad because it's a bit "too true" to what's been going on in my life.

Maybe I'm also mad because it actually seems to be a well crafted, and above average song to listen to. I'm just not sure I should play it out. Of course, what's the worst that could happen? People ignore it or gently clap?

I mean, I'm glad I finally wrote a song after not writing one for a long time, but this is not the song I expected to write. Maybe I just need someone to play it for. That's what was so great about Josh. He could see what was good and bad in a song. He could pick up on a song, and know where to go with it.

John C. was also like that. He was a bit more finicky, but he was kind of like my creative writing teacher, in that, he wanted to do repeated drafts, which is what you are supposed to do.

I remember reading that Professor Dumbledore once said, "People can be madder at you for being right than being wrong." Well, I think I'm madder at myself for the fact that I wrote a song calling me on all my bullshit. Which makes me think....

Lady Gaga once told Howard Stern that it was completely nerve-wracking for her to make a song public. She said (her words) that, "It was like showing my vagina to everyone." And I get that. I don't have a problem showing my giant scar on my stomach to everyone. However, showing my soul? Well, that's another story. That's a bit difficult.

Since I have been sick for the pass two months, I have basically dropped all human contact outside of the house, and that's not good for me. I don't have a realistic measuring stick of reality.
Now that I am checking this post over, I probably should have added it to my blog instead of posting here. But, oh well. It's not going to hurt anything.

Maybe I need to write a new song. The problem is I haven't been getting out, and I get my best ideas from weird things that happen to me. Maybe I need to join a support group for weird people, and ask them about things that have happened to them for song inspiration?

(Side note:  This post is kind of split into two parts.  Kind of a before and after.  What I wrote above is the "before."  And the next part is the after.)

So, I finally got to play my song "Unwind" for a person/victim. I got to play it for my friend Danielle. 

She gave me some really great feedback. Namely, people know that I do silly, "out there," songs, as well as some serious songs.

Since this is a serious song, I was not sure how it would go over. However, Danielle felt this was a personal and honest song, and she liked it better than my silly stuff.

Maybe it comes off as a more "professional" song? Maybe it "speaks" to people? Or maybe it's just honest? Either way, I'm going to have to play it out to get more feedback.

Songs In The Key Of C...anadian

Back in 1987 I was 10 years old (going for 11) when an interesting song came on the radio.  Now you have to remember this was the 1980's, and radio was probably the strictest it had ever been in what songs were actually played on the radio.  This song was about sex.  And you have to remember it was released years before George Michael's "I Want Your Sex," which was pretty darn controversial.  Some radio stations wouldn't even play it George Michael.  So imagine my surprise when I hear a song with the following lyrics, in 1987, and on radio.

Boom, Boom, Boom
Let's go back to my room
So we can do it all night
And you can make me feel right

The song was called, "Boom, Boom (Let's Go Back To My Room) by Paul Lekakis.  Have a listen to it right here:

Again at the time I was 10 and my sister was 7 when we heard this.  So, we had to ask our Father what the song was really about.  He said that he knew (he knew!) that "Boom, Boom" meant "watching TV" in Canadian. 

This made perfect sense to me as far as I knew.  Remember, that we lived in Florida and the country of Brazil was closer to us than Canada was.  Canada might as well have been on another planet.  I wasn't sure what language they spoke in Canada, but it was all starting to make sense.

So years later I was listening to the 80's station.  I'm pretty sure it was Sirius Radio's 80's channel as they play more deep cuts.  It brought back the memories of my Father telling my Sister and I what the song was about.  So I asked my Father about the whole, "Boom, Boom" thing.  He just kind of laughed, and that's when I remembered that my Father comes from a long line of smartasses. 

And here's the weird part.  Even though "Boom, Boom" on went up to #47 on the U.S. music charts, it went to #2 in, get this, Canada.  True.  Look it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_Boom_(Let%27s_Go_Back_to_My_Room)