What the .......

I´m a guitarplayer, no doubt about that. I do me best to play all kind of different tunes. to get that very special sound that i can hear in my head every now and then.  Writing a new song always mean that I know before the last word is written, last note is on paper how I want the song to sound recorded.

In hope to get the right sound I use one of me guitar´s (got a small collection by now) Each guitar has it´s own very special sound and feel.

All of us wisit´s musicshop, testing different guitar´s with dreamy eyes. "Whooow what a great sound I can get with a guitar like this!" 

Suddenly something happens that I did´nt notice before. Wisited a musicshop in Gothenburg and there on the wall was no less then three Gibson J-200!!! That´s what I call a western guitar with the Every Bros in mind. What really made me curious was that those three Gibson J-200s hade totaly different pricetags! All of them according to spec´s made in USA. Prices started with the blond one at 19000,oo skr (2100,oo euro),  next one at 3000,oo euro and the most expensive at no less the 5800,oo euro.

30 minutes later I play´d em all three, now with questions in me mind. Alright the two sunburst guitars did look better and more expense, but what about the sound? I would say they was close to the same for all three guitars. And a bit funny was the fact that just a look on each guitar I thought that the midpriced J-200 was the most expensive!

Maybe one day a guitarplayer show´s up with the 2100,oo euro Gibson J-200 and tell me it´s the 5800,oo guitar. who am I to doubt that. Problem as far as I can see is that guitarproducers make the same guitar with small differeces in hope to sell more.  Here you could buy an original Gibson J-200 for 2100,oo euro or 5800! Still it´s a J-200. the same goes for many other producers like Fender where you can buy a Strat for everything from 150,oo euro´s to 3000,oo euro´s.

I would call this a big problem as well as all those guitars made in Asia by the same producers in order to have a product that is much cheaper for all of us player´s.

Santa is back!!

Time to fool around with word´s once again, in hope to tell the latest story regarding My so called musiclife. Not that easy you might understand as I´m not born with english as my first language. Some has natuarly seen and try to understand my bad gramma.

Anyway it´s early morning 4 a clock and hopefully some have a good night sleep at this hour. Here I arrived home after Wendsday rehearsel with " The Görans Garage Band". Natuarly our sweet black fluffy cat "Mr Piiiiiiiip" hurried out after beeing kept inside for the hole evening. When I planned to go to bed He was still out and it didnt matter that i called for him. I even went out on the mainroad to look for him, he might have been a victum on the road. Well when he arrived to the house the time was 20 minutes to 4!!! 

This day started with some work on one of me cars, then a few minutes after one Santas little helper arrived with Christmaspresents.

There was a natural break in the carwork, instead I unpacked the delivered packages! And there it was just as Ive seen it on a ebay picture. A Burns Orbital De Luxe speaker cabinet and inside a 12" Orbital-FANE speaker. It did look fantastic and I was told earlier by SANTA - me freind Bill L in UK that it was working.

next step to unpack the smaller package. A few minutes later in my hands I held for the first time a genuine Burns Orbital Stage One, pa amplifier.! Today its impossible for me to tell, but as far as I know the Swedish Burns importer during the 60´s didnt import any of those amp´s. So maybe this 50 year old amplifier is the first that is in Sweden.

Natuarly I couldnt resist testing it but first I had to remove the original AC power cord and install a new one. (I dont trust those old cables). A cleanup inside and some electronic spray in  the potentiometers (variable resistors) and it was ready for action. Some black spray used on the amp cabinet made it look much better.

 

A guitar was plugged in and some kind of weird sound was heard. Well it was notes for sure but the sound was very much Heavy Metal with an extreme Marshall type of distorted sound. What was wrong. Tried every possibility but the sound coming from the speaker was bad, really bad!

So i gave up and was about to go back to my cars. But before i did that a microphone was connected to the amp. Suddenly the sound was GREAT. At this point I realised that the input impedance was made for vocal microphones and not high output guitar pickups.

Burns Amp collection. Left to Right

Burns Orbit Three, Burns Orbit Three Double 12, Burns Orbital Stage One, Burns-Baldwin Double BB 100, Burns Clone Speaker, Burns Orbit Two, and finally Burns Orbital De Luxe speaker.

more

"the Göran´s Garage Band" is slowly improving. In other word´s at this moment we will almost be able to perform at least one song. Yet another member will join the band on wednesday. Some kind of human beeing that actually know how to keep the rhytm!! hopefully this will improve the band app 40%!

Some how, in fact I dont know why, my collection of different music instruments and amplifiers seam to grow. Maybe it happen during nights when I´m asleep. In my attemt to have a nice collection of Burns amplifier´s I natuarly have a look out for things that i dont alrady have. So when a Orbital Stage One PA-amplifier was for sale on ebay complete with two original Burns speakers my mind start spinning. Whooooooow! such PA is missing in me collection. But it was in England and the seller was only interessted in pick up. anyway I didnt have the money needed either.

Me freind bill won the auction at a real bargain price. A few minutes later I was offered 2/3´s of the kit. The amplöifier and one of the speaker cabinets!!

So the next item for me to dream of is yet another speakercabinet to make the PA-system complete.

A freind of mine gave me an old electric guitar, 1- he didnt like it. 2-he couldnt play it, possibly more reasons that I dont know of. Anyway the guitars was taken apart, Everything was checked out and then the kit was once again buildt to a guitar. Not very good as a player but a real Showman. Its a Teisco from the early 60´s and if you reader is interessted in the Show guitar it is for sale!

Spring time in Sweden - "Gorans Garage Band"

At last it seams that spring is on it´s way. House and garden need to be taken care of, cars need service after the winter. 

Me own band-project is set aside (as usual in constant coma) exept songwriting that seams like some kind of dicease. So I´ve been invited to be a part of "Gorans Garage Band"! First rehearsel went well so did second.

Have to admit that I´m very proud over me own very small studio, it suits me fine even if it is a mix between studio and storage room for all muysic gadgets. When Göran started his studio-rehearsel project I was partly stunned. On top of his large garage is this  6 by 8 square metres room, perfect for band rehearsal even a small party.

So I acted as an assistent to help him build this studio and so far it turned out just great.  Today it´s wednesday so it´s rehearsal evening and most of the studio is now in working order. A thought caught me mind. 

In 1963 a Liverpool band enter´d the stage in Gothenburg and play´d in front of thousands of screaming fans. the equipment used had a total of 800 watts output. Here in GGB studio we do have a lot more power output then they used at the time and I remember that during the Rockín 60´s each member had their own amplifier. For vocals an amp and a pair of cabinets was used what we today call a PA-system. 

WE are a band with our roots in the 50-70´s, also some kind of collectors. the PA-system we use must have been a dream for the Beatles. a 2 x 800 watt system, plus all guitar and keyboard amps! In total theres at least a 1000 watts of power to be used in the premesis.

In hope to save some music for the future a Stereo casette deck is used togehter with two microphones to record each session, with a bit of luck we would then find at least one song recorded with desent quality. 

So there we meet every wednesday for band rehersal. The man him self Göran who play´s his Burns guitar and enjoys singing, Kjell a master at his keyboards, Elisabeth who really enjoys singing all about everything and me who try to do what I can.

Göran the man himself with his Burns Double 6

As Kjell och keyboard player was on winter holiday way up north last wednesday, we used only guitars and vocals. One of Görans favorites was play´d over and over again. Harry Nelson´s - Everybody´s talking. In the end it didnt sound bad at all.

With the tape in me pocket I went home to me own studio, copied the tape to me computer and was able to make some kind of Master, now with some more channels included.

A couple of day´s ago I got this urge to do something about me old shitty archtop guitar. a guitar that was bought years ago for the sum of 10,oo £. Didnt even know what kind of guitar it was as every form of marking was gone. A bit of help from Facebook freinds revield that it was a Harmony. Genuine American cheap postalorder guitar but actually all those Harmony guitars was nice to play. 

this is how me Harmony look´d like in the early 60´s.

The same could be said  about my white with flowers archtop. Painted years ago with ordinary wall paint I set about to sand it down to wood.

white allpaint and flower.

Unfortinutly i took me a couple of hours to sand it down to wood. showing how they once made this guitar in the US. top is actually solid wood, but the backpanel is made out of plywood. Already when I got it several years ago holes was cut for two humbuckers. Didnt actually look at them earlier but realised that they was DiMarsio pickups.

sanded down

finally it was sanded down, leaving a layer of dust all over the basement. Next step was to give it a new paint. And as I didnt intend to make a resoration to new condition, just a nice looking player, I made my choice among a lot of different spraycans with carpaint.

new spraypaint in Jaguar Gunmetallic.

app 10 layers of Jaguar Gunmetallic was spray´d on the guitar. Both the body and the backside of the neck. I could hardly wait for the bloody paint to dry.

Di Marcio pickups, strings back in place.

At last it was time to put back the stringholder, tuners, string, pickups and controls. and as far As I can see it do look nice. By then I realised it was in need of a pickguard so this was cut out from a piece of plexieglas and fitted.

finally even a pickguard.

Theres still an extra hole in  the body and it´ll soon be filled with a rotating selector, making it possible to set up each pickup as either a humbucker or as a singelcoil, or even out of phase. Somehow I do find me new guitar much better and nicer then the old one with flowers.

Back to thought´s regarding GGB, some kind of planning has to be done about what kind of tunes we should and should not rehearse. Even before that we do have a need for a Drummer and maybe yet another female voice.

To pick out our favorite songs from the 60´s isnt easy already with only three members in the band. And what songs could be performed by GGB? Should we make an attemt to maker true covers, or try to arrange our own versions of old tunes?

Last night an idea struck me, a portpuri of those early Rocktunes would be nice, three chord harmonies in the same beat! 

The first rock tune I for one ever play´d was My Bonnie! Well not an original rocktune but that one was popular. So me mix of song would be - 

My Bonnie - Varm Korv Boogie (popular Swedish rock about a hotdog salesman) - See you later alligator - Blue Suede shoes - Johnny B Good - Papa o mow mow. They might last for 3 to 5 minutes. Three chord boogie rock.

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up´s and down´s lately

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.

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!

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. 

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.

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.

 Like a butterfly

music madness!

And so its about time again, to put thought´s into word´s. As ususal this time a bit of this and that.  For year´s I´ve been writing song´s. Some may even be called good, some not that good, but then sometime´s I end up with a song written way back that seam to stuck in my head. already I´ve done several attemt´s to record the song. This time I´m gonna do it different!

Step One : enter´s me small homestudio and turn on the light´s, turn on the computer, mixer and the old trusty VOX amp, just to realise that the VOX is dead silent and dont produce anything in the form of sound. Well it does´nt matter. This recording was supposed to be different! VOX turned of a the NEW ( 50 years old - but new to me) Burns Orbit Six is turned on.  It´s red lamp glow´s like a red little star, a distant sound tells it´s working as supposed to.

Step Two : While the VOX do have an amp-output, me Burns amp´s was´nt supplied with this little gadget. The search for some proper microphone´s start´s and a pair of em is connected to the mixer. Might work?

Step Three : Me Yamaha keyboard is turned on and a drumpattern is choosed that could suit the song. Because I´m still in the Reel To Reel way of recording it take´s two recording´s of app 6 minute´s to finish the first drumtrack.

Step Four : Finally time to record the first guitar-track. The Burns Sonic is picked fot the job and 6 minutes later the first music track is ready. I normaly record the first track, just to have a track to follow.

Step Five : Time to record a Bass track. Witch bass shall be used? Among me three basses (a Burns Vista Sonic 1963,  a Asian Violin Bass copy 2010, and me homebuildt Burns a bit look a like 4 pickup bass) I end up the me homebuildt clone. Somehow I done a good job with this bass. Not that it today have a great look and finish, but it is actually a very good bass to play on giving a nice sound all the time. A couple of take´s is needed, natuarly during recording I tend to play the wrong note´s so I have to start from the beguinning.

Step Six : How does it sound? Already after a few bar´s I realise that the bass sound´s like shit. Time to make a new recording! Six minutes later I realise that I need another microphone to make it sound right. Let´s search for a microphone witch can transform lower tone´s. New mic is set up and yet another recording of the bass. Puhhh - this time the bass sound nice.

Like this everything goes on and time fly away. The leadguitar is picked, a Burns Bison with its sweet sounding TriSonic pickups. Guitar connected thrue a 1960´s tube Hagström Echo and the first lead guitar track is recorded. It does actually sound like a clean Echo sound of the 60´s. Still the sound from all channels dont sound like the perfect tune in me head. I need a more modern sounding lead guitar.

Step Seven : Up until a year ago I never used any sound gadgets exept echo and reverb on me guitars. Then the Burns Buzzaround Fuzz arrived and I loved it´s naughty sound. So yet another lead guitar track was recorded, this time with the Buzz going to the Echo and thru the amp into the recording computer.

Step Eight : Well natuarly something was missing, so some strings coming from the Yamaha was added and yet another rhytmguitar track. The first one was now deleted.

Every track was now listen to and corrcted until all track´s seamed to be okey. Finally a compressor was used on all channels and the recording of this song from 1996 was ready. This was possibly the 50´th time this song was recorded. Maybe it now sound the same as the sound I can hear in me head.

So far there´s never been any real success as it do sound much better in me head then on record. There always seam to be a huge demand for a female voice in the songs instead of yours truly who enjoys singing very much but should do something else.

Other nonsens!

As you all could read earlier the new addition to me Burns amplifier collection has been resored to a very good and useful condtion. It´s not like new, at least not on the cabinet outside, but it´s amplifier section today works in the way it was intended. The original front badge was missing but a Badge is posted and on it´s way to Sweden, Bill told.

Me freind Per Gjörde came up with the idea to improve a Burns Bison-62 reissue guitar with a RezOTube tremolo, the finished product look´d great! Such a guitar should be a sucess! So when Bill told he did have a set of TriSonic pickup for me, the dream design was ready. Me Bison-64 is going to loose its Rezomatic pickups in favour of the Trisonic. Hopefully it will then sound even more like a Burns. In my oppinion the RezoMatic pickups sound to much like the Fender Stratocaster pickups, and on my behalf I dont want a Fender, I want a Burns!!

There may even be a chanse that I use the RezoMatic pickups in me Rämje Stratocaster!

By the way, my latest recording is´nt ready. Thought so, but when listening to it in me homestereo I could with ease hear someone singing out of key! That´s me! So the vocal tracks have to be done once again in hope to rectify this problem.

Orbit SIX history

the Burns Orbit SIX was possibly the biggest Combo amplifier on the market during the 60´s. With its power of no less then 80 watt´s thrue either 6 x 10" ELAC-Burns Orbital or 3 x 12" FANE-Burns Orbital spekers it was a true beast!

Three channels where one of them was intended for use with a bassguitar.

Up until a few week´s ago Ihav´nt seen any of those amp´s, and as far as I know the Swedish importer of Burns at the time "Boosey & Hawks" never sold a SIX.

My amp come´s from Brittain and me freind Bill. But what was its story before that. Another fellow in UK had it for a year or two, without ever using it, until Bill took it over. But before that? Who had the need of such a huge powerful amp during that time, and who could afford it? Thousand´s of questions pop up in me head. Is it possible to find an answer?

So the restorationwork on me SIX contintued. Everything electronic was set back to original standard, and the amp really show´d it´s hidden potential. The outside of the cabinet was not good at all. It was RoadWorn!! Looked like shit. Parts of the black nagahyde was slized, but could be glued back. Lower front looked extremly bad and a new strip of similar material was glued and rivetted in place. Suddenly it started to look at least fair. 

Biggest problem to solve was the green cloth in front of the speakers. I already knew that it would be impossible to find the same aluminium mesh that once was original so after consultation with a steelcompany I found a mesh in aluminium that could serve as a substitute. I think it do looks okey.

At the backpanel of the amp the original production badge was still intact, even it the numer was extremly hard to read. With the help of a lens this minor problem was solved. Number 2388 was back. At least a small clue to it´s story. Yet another part of the story was found inside the amp in form of a output transformer unit.  On the badge "RINGWAY MUSIC" could be read, and with that beguins the history of this amp! 

There was for sure not that many band´s that bought and used the Orbit Six combo, even in the UK. It was huge, it was expensive - way to much. Then again a few bands used it like "the Ramblers" on picture below with no less the two SIX´s at back. I´m pretty sure they used one of em as a Bass-Combo.

the Rambler - London

Another band "the Volume Four" had a SIX model with 6 x 10" speakers. Shown here on the pic with an Orbit Three on top.

then I suddenly remember a pic showing "the Spencer Davis Group" outside a musicshop in Birmingham.

In 1965 the band went into the shop mainly selling organs, and bought not only a SIX but also a Burns Buzzaround Fuzz box. the Fuzz was used of one of their first hits "Keep on running" together with the Orbit Six. Steve Winwood vocal-organ and his brother Muff on bass.

Might be that the brothers bought the huge SIX with 3 x 12" speakers to use it as both an organ-amp and bass-amp. I will for sure try to find an answer to that.

this picture at least tell a little about the size of the amp.

A contact gave some extra help! (the Burns freak world is fun and helpful) as far as He told there was only two Orbit Six Combos sold by Ringway Music Birmingham, and one of em was equipped with 6 x 10" speakers!!

Well, in no way I can prove today that my Orbit Six is the same as on the Spencer Davis picture outside the shop, but it seams to be the right answer. If so the beguinning of it´s history is known, now there´s only some 30 years of that missing... What happened after SDG?