Because the EF86 pentode is such a finicky tube but sounds so wicked (once you find the right one), I thought it might be worth showing the pain I’m going through (besides replacing Fallon with Leno), to keep things quiet:
The weekly tip on how to mount (solder) the copper buss wire to the front controls (potentiometers), and a jig. The buss wire can be found at any hardware shop and the one I’m using here is 14 AWG.
If you ever tripped over certain still pictures on the Internets that creeped you out seeing that the model in them actually blinked or their hair is moving ever so slightly in the wind, giving an eerie feel about them, well, you were introduced to what they call cinemagraphs.
Cinemagraphs are still images with only a small looped movement in them. The cinemagraph concept as a photography style is attributed to Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck from New York City, who introduced the first set on From Me To You blog. In their words, the cinemagraph is “more than a photo, but not quite a video”. I have to mention that the animated gif has been around since the ’90s but the actual twist on it as a cinemagraph is not. Here’s my first try at it. What do you think?
Thought of making a quick video of this deliciously sounding Gabriel Stinger 7 watt with a Greenback G12 going to Glen. The 12″ gives a nicer more round bottom end. Enjoy!
Gabriel Stinger Rig
Played yesterday with the first Stinger Head and shot this video to have an idea of how wicked this amp sounds!! Drove it with a Gibson LP Standard, both pick-ups, and with a Weber Silver Ten speaker in the 1×10″ cabinet.
Eat your heart out, Jimmy Page!
So you finally received your tube guitar amp, you spent a fortune for it, and you love its sweet tone and all, but. . . You live in a small apartment, with sonically transparent walls, and you want to have happy neighbors. Your dilemma was addressed actually by a lot of amp builders by building attenuators that act just like a speaker load and output just enough power to the speaker that you need. But there’s an easier and more effective way of taming your amp by using a Variable Voltage Regulator (VVR) that will let you turn your amp’s Volume to where you want it, but control the overall amp output to an optimal level.
“Hey John, which one is the Volume?” said the confused guitar player starring at the amp chassis… So, you finished your amp project, sounds wicked and all that, but it sits bare naked on top of an extension cabinet or best, housed in a cabinet with Sharpie marked labels for the controls. Nice, but your amp deserves to be more elegant and sexy. After all it brews some real tone.
Paul Riario, did an exceptional video demonstration of the Gabriel V33 guitar amp, that was coupled with the print review that appeared in the Guitar World magazine a while ago (by Terry Buddingh). Paul explains in very easy terms the V33’s features as well as the footswitch functions. Sit back relax and enjoy the video!
It’s worth watching.
In guitar amps, we always battle the signal-to-noise ratio. Of course we could never have the ideal guitar amp in this life because we are limited by the components we use that will dictate the final guitar tone and noise. And to be honest we don’t even need to push for a complete noiseless amp otherwise we would slide into the Hi-Fi zone and that’s NOT a field for tube guitar amps.
Wiring a tube guitar amplifier heater can be a pain in the rear. From twisting the leads to cancel out hum, to routing the 18 AWG wire the whole operation can be a hard animal to tame.
I’ll show you a couple tricks in this video on how you can do it. Enjoy this tutorial in 3 parts!
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