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.