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

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?