GoMusicSTL

From the lipstick-on-a-pig/why-not/stale-inventory-parts-blowout...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:13:59 -0500

From the lipstick-on-a-pig/why-not/stale-inventory-parts-blowout file:

Mr. Paul traded this guy in the other day (pic 1). It’s a “Legion”, some mysterious no-name Stella rip-off guitar from ’70s Japan. Ugly and not worth much.

They cut almost every corner they could when they built this thing: plastic nut, plastic saddle and bridge, all-plywood construction, and cheapy tuners. Strangely, though, the fretwork was tolerably mediocre, the neck joint was holding for the time being, and the sound was very delta blues plunk-plunk.

So I dove in. I got rid of the horrible plastic stock saddle and replaced it with a bone one (pic 2… notice where someone had superglued the bridge to the face of the guitar. Pro Tip: If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t.). Then I put in a soundhole electromagnetic pickup (pic 3) and Switchcraft jack (pic 4). Finally, I replaced the dull plastic nut with a bone one (pic 5).

It might not be the prettiest guitar in the world, but it screams for slide and works well for dirty blues when you’re running it through some overdrive. It’s also pretty comfortable to play with its sub-parlor body size.

Anyhow, thought you might dig it.

Once upon a time, Fender bought out the amplifier company Sunn...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:15:07 -0500

Once upon a time, Fender bought out the amplifier company Sunn (or is it Sunn O))) ?), and co-opted the former Sunn factory at Lake Oswego, Oregon, to build a handful of Fender amps. Among them was the Super-Amp, which you see here. Something like a Deville or a Super Reverb, this amp had some push-pull knobs on the front for added versatility, four 10” alnico magnet speakers for a bright chimey sound at low weight, and a couple of -monster- transformers to handle the 60 watts of tube power flowing through the amp at any given moment.

This amp is fairly rare, and it screams like a mofo.

Here’s another synth for your synthing pleasure: The...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:05:43 -0500

Here’s another synth for your synthing pleasure:

The Roland Juno-G. 61 keys, pitch and modulation wheels, a bunch of effects, a built-in step sequencer-style arpeggiator, and a bunch of digital analog and digitized patches. Pretty versatile.

Another synth module came in! This baby is a Korg Electribe MX1,...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:58:40 -0500

Another synth module came in! This baby is a Korg Electribe MX1, aka EMX1, and it’s a cool digital analog box with an arpeggiator, built-in effects, and so-on.

A very fun little box, especially when paired with an MPC or electronic drum.

Just in! An Akai XR-20 Beat Production Station. Like an MPC with...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:02:28 -0500

Just in! An Akai XR-20 Beat Production Station. Like an MPC with more bells and whistles. It’s a MIDI controller and module, of course, and you can save and load and all that. Pretty fun to mess with.

Come and get it!

New goodies!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:45:33 -0500

Some wild and crazy stuff came in this weekend.

The main event is a vintage Peavey Super Festival VTA-400 amp head. It’s got four 6550 power tubes (200 watts they say; in reality probably closer to 140-150), a master volume, and military-grade build quality. Made in USA, of course.

We also got a Takamine solid top dreadnought, a vintage Japan Boss tuner, a vintage Fender hard case, and other odds and ends.

Pictures to follow!

Cool new Fender loot! We now have Fender Zippo lighters, Fender...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:21:22 -0500

Cool new Fender loot!

We now have Fender Zippo lighters, Fender bottle openers, Fender vintage catalog cover magnets, and Fender shirts.

Rock. Roll.

Elektronika FL-01 flanger. Picture 1. The circuit board. Picture...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:05:28 -0500

Elektronika FL-01 flanger.

Picture 1. The circuit board.

Picture 2. The weird giant integrated circuit. No clue; probably a multiple opamp or something.

Picture 3. The transformer. This effect runs on 220V wall power, so I had to use a step-up transformer, which turns local USA wall power, 110 volts alternating current (VAC), into Euro-style 220 VAC. The pictured transformer (inside the pedal) almost certainly lowers the voltage into the neighborhood of 9 (?) volts and feeds that into a rectifier and then filter caps to give the pedal the usual direct current power supply.

До свидания, suckers.

Picture 1. USSR flangers, sent by bag. Picture 2. PE-11 PCB....

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:54:00 -0500

Picture 1. USSR flangers, sent by bag.

Picture 2. PE-11 PCB. Notice the Roman script printing on the circuit board, the 5DIN sockets, and the flat head screws. Reminds me of Electroharmonix stuff circa 1970.

Picture 3. Close-up of components. Note the Cyrillic on the chips.

Picture 4. Close-up of Soviet-style wiring harness. Done with string. Who needs ribbon cable?

My Soviet flangers have arrived! I just got an Электроника...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:14:46 -0500

My Soviet flangers have arrived! I just got an Электроника ФЛ-01, and an Электроника ПЭ-11 (Elektronika FL-01 and Elektronika PE-11, for those not versed in Cyrillic.).

They’re pretty weird, and for a variety of reasons. The most obvious thing about them is that they’re huge compared to Western pedals, and they have chintzy (though nicely retro) plastic housings.

Second, they have strange Soviet components. The integrated circuits looks basically the same, but everything else looks like Western stuff, but from 20 years prior, except the resistors, which are little pink and grey cylinders with numerical resistance values printed directly on them.

Third, the language barrier: the PE-11 has English language controls, but the FL-01 doesn’t. Instead, it has wacky Russian all over it:

Main controls

фильтр - filter?

глубина - depth

скорость - rate

яркость - tone (literally, “brightness”)

эффект - effect

Inputs and outputs

вход - in

оригинал - original

выход - out

эффект - effect

сеть - network ??? No clue.

Fourth, and most importantly, they use 5-DIN cables. Imagine a regular old five pin MIDI cable. Then imagine that’s what you use to plug your guitar into your amp and effects. I opened them up, and the FL-01 is a straight-up mono input, mono output affair. Pins 1 and 5 of the 5-DIN connector are hot, pin 3 is ground, and pins 2 and 4 are not used. Luckily for me, a standard MIDI cable can be altered to work with these jacks. Sometimes you see cables wired up for this setup with three just pins, aka 3-DIN.

I have no clue what pins 2 and 4 are for on the PE-11, since they’re wired up inside the pedal, but the pedal works when you just use the same 3-DIN cables. I suspect that this is a stereo flanger, and that the extra pins carry the other channel’s output. Both channels would share a ground.

Incidentally the PE-11 sounds pretty much like a modern Western flanger, but the FL-01 sounds like crazy, washy reverb mixed with flanging. It’s, uh… like a flanger.

More pics soon!

Another Blues DeVille came in! This one’s a 60th...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:27:29 -0500

Another Blues DeVille came in! This one’s a 60th Anniversary (2006) edition, and it’s got the footswitch, manual, and dust cover with it. It’s also the 4x10 combo version (these were also made in a 2x version with the same head).

Loud as hell, and great for country and blues in particular, but sweet for rock, too.

All-tube, of course.

This is what’s inside a phaser. The circuit basically...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:18:38 -0500

This is what’s inside a phaser. The circuit basically splits the signal in two: one signal it basically leaves alone, while the other one goes through a series of identical opamp-driven phase shift networks. On this side of the circuit, the phase is shifted in proportion to the incoming signal frequency, and when the two signals are blended back together, that swirling trippy Hendrixy sound is the slight mismatch of the phasing of the two signals.

Long story short, we have not one but TWO vintage Ross (aka Kustom) Phasers, with original box and box candy. You buy now!

Turkish jazz, anybody? We have a FRETLESS Agile Les Paul....

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:11:37 -0500

Turkish jazz, anybody? We have a FRETLESS Agile Les Paul. It’s got Grover tuners and definite Les Paul heft. Incidentally, Agiles were made in the Samick plants after Gibson yanked its Epiphone line out of Korea, which was dumb in terms of quality because the Korean stuff was excellently made. Every Agile I’ve ever tried was a good guitar.

Anyway, these fretless beauties are pretty rare; they were imported for a couple of years and that was that. You can do very interesting stuff with them, though, and they work well for slide and Middle Eastern music.

Blast from the past: Boss ME-6 multi-effects unit. Made in the...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:07:22 -0500

Blast from the past: Boss ME-6 multi-effects unit. Made in the mid-’80s, so it’s about as old as I am… Anyhow, it works perfectly and has the original adapter. $60! Cheap!

An Acoustic 370 head! Sweet. This was a weapon of choice for...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:04:30 -0500

An Acoustic 370 head! Sweet.

This was a weapon of choice for bands like Led Zeppelin and Mahavishnu Orchestra.

300 watts solid state, with a parametric EQ.

Updates....

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:49:13 -0500

…so I’ve been a bit lazy about updates lately. Watch this space though, since I have some interesting new goodies in the pipeline, including and certainly not limited to a Roland HS-10 (aka Alpha Juno) formerly owned by the St. Louis Cardinal’s organist, a KORG MS2000R digital analog synth module, a Roland Juno G, a nice little used Mackie mixer, a Heineken-branded Telecaster, a Joe Strummer Telecaster, a vintage Dukoff alto sax mouthpiece, and way more.

Rock out.

2012...

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:52:38 -0500

Happy new year, everyone! Party safely, and musically where possible.

Dean VX Flying V guitar! Rock out with your organ of choice...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:34:55 -0500

Dean VX Flying V guitar! Rock out with your organ of choice out… with Grover tuners, by the way.

Take it home for a cool $150.

This just in: Jay Turser 335 copy. Semi-hollow construction,...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:28:00 -0500

This just in: Jay Turser 335 copy. Semi-hollow construction, blond finish, double humbuckers.

Come and get it! Just $250, and if you pick it up before Christmas, we’ll throw in a gig bag.

Booyah, grandma.

Come in and check out this hand-made Ison 417! It’s like a...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:15:18 -0500

Come in and check out this hand-made Ison 417! It’s like a Gibson Super 400, but handmade right here in Show-Me State. Comes with case, hand-wired pickups, cool Merle Travis-style whammy bar, and all the class you can handle.