Never thought I'd see the day

Saw this video, at 1:45 Chris Poland makes an funny statement. "..For 85 bucks you can't go wrong.."

Has it come to this? I remember a day when rack equipment was unreachable and pedals were junk. Times have definitely changed.

Mergili innovations - Bringing art and possibly madness to the "bo teek" world

You may remember we did a post a few months back about local Austin amp builders. In that article we listed our friend John at Mergili innovations as a cabinet builder. I recently had a chance to catch up with John and in the course of our conversation I came to understand that John is and has been doing full on amp building.

I remember hanging out at john's place and playing thorough what to my ears is still one of the best sounding tweed style amplifiers I've ever had the chance to play. "The Tweed Indeed" is only one of many of Mergili's profound "innovations". Far from any black box back line, one shouldn't be thrown by the artistic quality of Mergili amplifiers. I know for fact that just as much attention is put into the circuit design as the cabinet itself.

It should also be noted I've seen Mr. Mergili in action and there are no computers or CNC machines at work here. Every one of these great designs are designed and built by hand. A testament to the talents of their creator.

Unsolicited Advice

Bleh. New band, new music, no husband. That is why this blog hasn't been updated. He is excited though. The first show is May 30th. Stay tuned for pictures. Here are some links you so desperately look forward too:

Vacuum Tube Amplifier Theory
Pawn Shop Tutorial found from Strat-O-Blogster
Gibson Sues Makers of Guitar Hero at Consumerist
Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp Review from Guitar Gear Heads
Is That a Guitar in Your Pants? via NPR [PODCAST]

Joining the Modeling Revolution

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I finally broke down and acquired a line 6 modeling product. I am a "Glass and Iron" purist at heart. I have more tube amps that you can shake a stick at. Not being a luddite, I have started embracing modern technology. After discovering that Bogner had joined forces with Line 6 I thought hey there might be something to this modeling stuff.

For remote recording I have been using a Lexicon Omega, as of late that piece of kit has been failing a lot. So it was time to upgrade the mobile recording interface. While on the Line 6 website I saw the new UX8. Well long story short I now have one.

This thing is the bomb! It does everything that they claim it does. I like the amp models alright, I will say that I put these up against the real thing... but I'm sorry but there is still something warmer and more 3 dimensional about the real McCoy. That being said a lot of the recording I do is after hours and I don't always have the luxury of putting down tracks at concert volume. The UX8 allows me to get ideas down in the wee hours that sound decent and get the idea across.

Taking inspiration from one of my favorite guitar players Johnny A. I have taken my Mesa rig and patched the recording out into the UX8 and used a vocal preset. This thickens the tone and makes it about 4 miles tall and about 8 miles wide. This alone makes it totally worth the price of admission.

I have considered purchasing the spider valve which is the Bogner / LIne6 joint venture. I have high hopes. I need to find a local Line 6 Rep that Has one in stock.