Books on Tube Amps
I’ve received some questions about resources for learning and building tube amps. These are the books on my list to read:
The Tube Amp Book, by Aspen Pittman
Design and Construction of Tube Guitar Amplifiers, by Robert Megantz
Designing Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass, by Merlin Blencowe
How to Service Your Own Tube Amp: A Complete Guide for the Curious Musician, by Tom Mitchell (also available at stewmac for a reasonable price)
AlNiCo Magnets in Depth
Following last year’s All About Pickup Magnets, here’s another excellent article on guitar pickup magnets, courtesy of Pete Biltoft at Vintage Vibe Guitars. Thanks Pete for the permission to post this here!
In this article, Pete consolidates his own expert research on pickups, along with a bunch of information from the Wikipedia magnet entries and Magnet Kingdom, to give us an overview of magnets in general, as well an in-depth look at AlNiCo magnets for guitar pickups.More
Ktone Travel Guitar
Ok, I admit it. I was seduced by the low low price. This Ktone travel guitar, found cheap on ebay, is apparently a knockoff of the Hofner Shorty. The Shorty gets reasonably good reviews, so I took a chance on this one. After a few minutes with the Ktone, it became very clear that the flaws in workmanship and detail far outweigh the price savings.
Turns out, sometimes you get exactly what you pay for… So, I’m now turning my attention to the significantly more expensive, but undoubtedly waaaay better Traveler Guitar Escape EG-1 Vintage. I had a chance to play it at a local GC, and this one looks to be a winner.
Here’s some pictures of the Ktone guitar, which start off promising and then go downhill fast:
Breaking in the Speaker
I’ve often heard people talk about how their headphones or guitar speakers really “opened up” or became more “dynamic and alive” after breaking them in.
I recently had the opportunity to borrow a virgin, unplayed Celestion G12M Greenback speaker, which is the same speaker as in my Vox AC15HW1 hand-wired. More
CoAxe Pickups: Interview with VOX R&D
As you can hear in my recent video review of the Vox SSC33, the Vox CoAxe pickups sound amazing. They’re dynamic, noiseless in all modes, and most importantly offer up a wide range of incredible sounds.
With the two blades sandwiching the pole pieces, you can see right away that these aren’t your typical humbucker, single-coil or P90…
Curious for more details on these mysterious creations, I got in touch with the man behind the magic- the inventor of the CoAxe pickup: Eric Kirkland, Chief Designer at VOX Guitar Development (G-Rok), in Novato, California. Read on…More