Friday 31 January 2014

To Tom Pope....Sincere Apologies....

My Blogging skills have been shown again to be somewhat lacking....it has never been my intention to write this blog to settle scores or slag people off....this blog is written to pass on information that I have found useful and pass on links to other site's that again I have found useful and interesting....in my piece "Fender System One Tremolo...." their should have been a few paragraphs on a site called StratConnection.com....but they were deleted in error....

To anyone who owns a Fender System One Strat or Tele....StratConnection is pretty much the only site you will find that is of any use....it is not just useful it's massive....covers most Fender Guitars and Fender history....full of photos and helpful information....it's written by a guy know as PapaTom who I have emailed on more than one occasion and found him to be a genuinely nice guy....if you do talk to him you won't get a two line response you will get a page full....and that's not really a bad thing in this day and age....

PapaTom is not hosting StratConnection to get rich....rip anyone off selling crap....he genuinely loves Fender Guitars and his site clearly shows this....and the missing paragraphs said that....but without the missing paragraphs the comments at the bottom of the piece could be read like a warning to not go to StratConnection....on the contrary PapaTom's should be your 1st stop for anything system one related....it has some really nice examples of vintage Fender guitars for sale as-well as system one parts....and not the scruffy tat you find on ebay....his prices may be high but then again he is selling vintage parts that are becoming rarer and rarer to find....

I don't know how I deleted part of the blog....it's not the first time I have done this....and have to admit that after the fifth or sixth read through and more cut and paste editing that I do to make this the professional piece of blogging that it seems....it gets a bit dull to me....


To Tom Pope....sincere apologies....Rock On....k.j.

"the missing paragraphs have now been inserted back into the blog....from memory not a back-up....the new bit is not as long as I remember the original section being"....k.j.

Sunday 26 January 2014

Living with my Evil Robot C30....

I've had my Evil Robot for a while now....so what have I found playing it over that time....


It's a aggressive S-O-B in Phil X mode that benefits from a reduction in gain that comes from changing the V1 12AX7 tube for a 12AU7. I have also placed a modded BOSS GE-7 in the C-30's loop to allow me to tweak the EQ....the C-30 has a very focused tone that sounds great with a drummer....but on its own can be a little too much....the GE-7 lets you take the edge off....and that the Vibrato only works with a 12AU7 tube....oh and that the footswitch is rather piss poor....


The C-30's cab is very tightly packed on the inside....changing the speaker for something else is going to be a challenge....I found that the magnet on a Vintage 30 too big to fit in-front of the transforms....To make the fan work better it needs something to channel the air flow upwards....


....and that White Knobs look way more cooler than the standard black one's....in the dark....black on black is really hard to see....


....not that my C-30 needs to stand out more....


My C-30 is mainly for home use and is the best small amp I've ever owned....I have played better amps....but they have all cost 5 times as much so should be better....for the money the C-30 is an outstanding little amp....

Over the weekend I started to hear a harshness in the C-30's tone....the tell tail signs that the power tubes were on their way out....I have been giving the 6L6's in the amp a real pounding and decided to try out EL34's but then found a set of 5881's I have had for years and had never used. 5881 tubes are lower powered 6L6's....6L6's give out a maximum of 30watts....24watts for the 5881....more importantly 5881's will break up earlier than 6L6's. I found that with the 5881 tubes....the C-30 became very clean....too clean with a 12AU7 in the V1 position....


With my C-30 now back in Phil X mode with a 12AX7 in V1 and with the 5881's I found I could drop the gain in the Pre Amp Channels and crank up the Master Volumes giving as near as perfect home low volume tones....the 6L6's staying clean with louder Master Volume levels you have turn up the gain in the Channels thus making standard Evil Robot tones too much for my talents....but with the 5881 power tubes I seem to have found a balance that I can work with....the C-30 still gets loud when you need loud....and now runs a lot cooler than with the 6L6's....which is cool also....k.j.

V1 - 12AX7 - ECC83 - Pre Amp
V2 - 12AX7 - ECC83 - Pre Amp
V3 - 12AU7 - ECC82 - Vibrato
V4 - 12AT7 - ECC81 - Loop
V5 - 12AX7 - ECC83 - Phase Inverter

2x - 5881 - Power Amp Tubes

All tubes are JJ's

Monday 20 January 2014

KLON or KLOT Shootout....

Over the next couple of days I am going to put these 3 pedal's....all based on the famous KLON....through a shootout to see who's pedal comes out on top....


We have....No.1....OKKO DIABLO....


If you are a fan of John Mayer....Robbie McIntosh....John Wesley....Keith Urban....or Joe Perry....they all use Klon's....Check Back for the Outcome....or just to see how many times I can spell Harmonic's wrong....k.j.