GEAR LUST #1: AC30

this is my work-a-day 1964 1/2 Vox AC30 T guitar amplifier (i have two..the '62 mintmuseum one NEVER sees daylight). it is the best guitar amp i have ever heard.

i spent years developing my one single musical talent - i could make any electric guitar sound like suck. one day in the '80's, i was in a studio demonstrating my skill at this when the engineer suggested that i try an amp that was parked over in the corner....a hammered, old AC30 that had been dropped so hard once that it now had a 30 degree list to port. i plugged into this ugly trapezoid thing and...ummmm...golden tones came out and i was hooked. i spent a good part of the late '80's going to England, buying AC30's and evangelizingselling them to friends (Freedy Johnston, Chris Whitley were happy customers). they were cheap & plentiful then, and as yet undiscovered by the Guitarilati/vintage gear investors...and every single one was claimed by the sellers to have been owned by the Beatles ("me kid was in 'amburg in '61...'is amp blow up, so he borrowed one off The Beatles'...they never took it back").

after removing 40+ years of bad UK maintenance (thank you Roy Goode & Matt Wells), adding a Top Boost circuit to the vib/trem channel instead of the usual Brilliant channel (thank you Bruce Bennett & Matt Wells again), i had an extraordinary tool for recording and gigs.

but it's as heavy as a Fender Twin, and so i decided to look into adding some trolley wheels to make schlepping it around easier. problem: getting the wheels was no problem (North Coast Music makes quality repros), but where to drill the holes? i had no template to follow. one day i was looking inside the back with a flashlight, and the right angle of light revealed that there were 4 tiny pilot holes already drilled into the amp's sides at the factory, as guides should the amp's purchaser want to add wheels at a later date.

epiphany: "they" really DON'T make 'em like they used to...or more accurately, 40+ years ago some underpaid, anonymous geezer at Vox took that little extra step in the manufacturing processes to add pilot holes. Can you imagine that happening today? not likely, some bean counter would bug about the extra expense/lost production time/fuck the customer anyway...

thank you, anonymous factory person...your foresight is much appreciated.

NP: archived Erie Effusion show on the web. thanks for playing my song

PEEVE DE JOUR: horny. and wasting two hours of my life that i'll never get back last night on the Prairie Home Companion movie. a pointless exercize in pointlessness.

N.B.A.T.W.P.:

Nine Inch Nails/Bauhaus
Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Tue, Jun 27, 2006 07:00 PM

i've got rehearsal tonight. would've really liked to see this...'bout time i heardsawfilled this hole in my musical edumacation...

ROSATTI'S FLAVOR-OF-THE-DAY:

(June 27th)

German Chocolate Cake

(Pecans, coconut, caramel in chocolate custard)

http://www.rosatisfrozencustard.com/

cb...where are you?






OHIO