In my world, I learn´d to question a lot of thing´s. Is there a God, is Elvis realy the KING, is Volvo the greatest car ever or maybe is RR that car? Can I sail around the globe? Is my Jaguar fast enough? If I really need an anser I try to find it asnd not foolow the crowd taking everything for granted.
All over in the musicians world theres been people that claim that the Strat 62-64 and those late 50´s LP´s is the greatest electric guitar around.
All over in the musicians world theres been people that claim that the Strat 62-64 and those late 50´s LP´s is the greatest electric guitar around.
Natuarly I doubt that, and when musician freinds of mine talk about the 60´s VOX AC30 combo amplifier I see something special in their eye´s! They talk about this old amp as if it really was related to God! something Holy, like the cows in India.
Working with Stereo Hi Fi equipment in the early 70´s I learned that as long as you have a good stereo amplifier you can get the sound you want by simply adding really good speakers. Could this way of thinking also applies on Guitar amplifiers? Is it really the amplifier that make that great sound or is it the combination of a good guitar, the amp and in the end the speakers used.
To realy test the sound of a guitar amp seams like hard work. Where can I find a couple of different amp´s, set them up and try them. In most cases thats impossible, one of them is to be found in one music shop the other on at a freinds house and so on. It´s extremly rare to find all those amp´s you wanna try out in the same room, and to have such a possibility.
My little studio is looking more like a storageroom then a studio, mainly caused be me collection of amps, guitars and other nice things for a band. But when suddenly a freind brought his 1964 VOX AC30 to me in hope that I could make it work again, I did get the opportunity to compare that one with those amps that I already got.
My intentions was to make something of a Blind-test to compare three different amp´s. In order to make it possible no less then three microphones was used at a distance of app 10 inches from the speakers of amp no:!. My intention was to make a recording of a song. when 2 channels was recorded I placed another amp in front of the microphones and so with the third amp.
all amp´s was set up similar with no gadgets connected, tonecontrols was set in mid.
A ballad tune was chosen, and each amp was used for recording a rhythm track and a leadtrack of app 2 minutes. So the song was made into a 6 minute tune.
The amplifiers used was
the VOX AC30, tubeamp, output rated to 30 watts, 2 x 12" Celestion Blue
a 1963 Burns Orbit Three, 60 watts, 3 x 10" Elac-Burns speakers,
a Burns Orbit Six 1964, 80 watts, 3 x 12" Burns-Fane speakers.
What was the main difference between the three amp´s. Could I even hear the difference? One tube.amp and two transistor amp´s. No doubt about it there was a difference, Both the AC30 and the Orbit Six had a much sweeter sound, both in all registres, while the Orbit Three with its 3 x 10 inch speakers seam to need better sounding speakers.
Giving the track to some freind´s of mine proved at least that the speakers in a combo is much more important then the amplifier it self. All did agree that the Orbit Six was the best in the test and the AC30 was number 2!
Among guitarplayer´s there seam to be fashion to exchange the pickups of their nice guitars. This seam more common with those having a Fender guitar, but it also happens with other guitar brands.
As my guitar brand number One, is Burns and there is a couple of them on the wall, I play em and compare the sound of them. Realising that me new Bison with its RezOMatic pickups did sound more like a Stratocaster then the typical Burns sound.
A bit of work and the guitar had the Burns Trisonic pickups. Suddenly the original Burns sound was heard from that guitar and it made me so happy. Making me wonder why the Burns company not make the Bison that way in the first place.
It was a sucess and the guitar is me pride and joy with a sound thats amazing.
What was done was exchanging three original pickups to a set that was totaly different, not as is common among many other brands, where all pickups that is used for such an exchange are in fact similar.
During me hole life Ive been writing songs of various kind. Have to admit that I´m a succer for ballads. So when an old song thats been recorded several times as a Demo popped in to me head once again I started to think of some kind of new arrangement for the song. All in hope to make it better, cause I do think its a great song with lyrics that is a bit weird but good.
I didnt want it to sound like a rockband with only guitars and bass, so I contacted an old freind of mine in the Netherlands who is a professional Violin player if She could help me with some sweet sounding violin tracks for it. She did agree and hopefully soon the song will be ready to publish in a totaly different style. Below is a link to one backtrack made of the song.
Giving the track to some freind´s of mine proved at least that the speakers in a combo is much more important then the amplifier it self. All did agree that the Orbit Six was the best in the test and the AC30 was number 2!
about guitar´s!
Among guitarplayer´s there seam to be fashion to exchange the pickups of their nice guitars. This seam more common with those having a Fender guitar, but it also happens with other guitar brands.
It was a sucess and the guitar is me pride and joy with a sound thats amazing.
What was done was exchanging three original pickups to a set that was totaly different, not as is common among many other brands, where all pickups that is used for such an exchange are in fact similar.
about music!
During me hole life Ive been writing songs of various kind. Have to admit that I´m a succer for ballads. So when an old song thats been recorded several times as a Demo popped in to me head once again I started to think of some kind of new arrangement for the song. All in hope to make it better, cause I do think its a great song with lyrics that is a bit weird but good.
I didnt want it to sound like a rockband with only guitars and bass, so I contacted an old freind of mine in the Netherlands who is a professional Violin player if She could help me with some sweet sounding violin tracks for it. She did agree and hopefully soon the song will be ready to publish in a totaly different style. Below is a link to one backtrack made of the song.
