Billy Gibbons & Blackberry Smoke

How did I miss this band for so long? Just great music.

Nick en Simon - Vrij - 12-4-2012

The bass player is using an Otentic Bass with my P-bass pickups. There's a good bottom end out of the guitar. Very smooth. That's the straight vintage wind with heavy formvar wire. I also do an overwound version with plain enamel.

Joe Bonamassa Visits Rumble Seat Music

Nice trio of vintage 'bursts. I have never heard of the amp he's playing through but it is sweet.

Vintage Premium P.A.F. Soundclips

I have added new soundclips to my site done by Dom Polito of Classic Albums Live. The pickups in the clips are V-59 Premium Vintage using butyrate bobbins, PAF correct alloy screws, other specific alloys and magnets gaussed to vintage specs. I will offer all my vintage winds as Premium Vintage.


You can get to the soundclips by clicking on the link for my site to the left or by clicking here.

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Fuzz: The Sound That Changed The World

Excellent documentary about the fuzz pedal, from the early days to present. There's a few familiar faces in there as well.

Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl

No explanation needed.

Newtone Strings

Now I'm torn. The Newtone strings I put on my R8 are simply the best I've ever tried. Let me qualify that: they are the best round core pure nickel strings I've ever tried. I think the hex core are neck and neck with Snake Oil strings.

The round core are nice and percussive, very round sounding. Not dark, not overly bright. I was concerned I would lose volume with these as opposed to hex core but I have not found that to be the case. I have found these strings to be a must for that late 60's, early 70's guitar tone.

Newtone Strings

Joe Banamassa's 59 Les Paul up close

This actually isn't directly about his original burst, it's about his new album and the equipment he used, but he's playing it throughout the vid.

Joe Bonamassa plays Paul Kossof's 59 Les Paul

Unbelievable tone. This is everything a vintage burst is supposed to be. Recorded at a live gig in Newcastle.

Phil X Jams - Cheap Sun Glasses

Another video with Phil and Freiheit guitar. Plus my pickups!

Oustanding Music blog

I've spent the last two hours reading through some of the posts on this blog. Written by Jas Obrecht it has interviews with many of my favourite musicians. Especially notable is the series of interviews with friends of Duane Allman, including his brother Gregg. Here's the link:

Jas Obrecht Music Blog

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Mike Bloomfield website

I'm fairly certain I visited this site a couple of years ago but there wasn't much there. Now there's a two parts of a documentary plus other videos and pictures. It's really grown in the last little while. There's a great section on his guitars and amps. I also found out there is a feature length documentary scheduled to be released in 2012.

Mike Bloomfield

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Phil X Jams - Highway to Hell

So here is Phil X playing a guitar made by Brad Freiheit with my pickups in it. A Black Widow in the bridge and a V-1 in the neck.

Phil X - 1953 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top 01130

There really is nothing like a wrap tail gold top. Beautiful example of the species with great tone.

Blackie Replica

A friend of mine has been making a few guitars lately and has become quite good at the relic thing. Here's one of his latest, Clapton's Blackie.








Those are my pickups as well. A slightly modified Superstition set.



I like the way he got the exposed wood to look old. One of the great failings of other relic jobs is that the wood looks too fresh. But this one really looks the part. I deliberately didn't show a closeup of the headstock but it has all the cigarette burns of the original.
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Douchebag meter

I truly wish they made one of these. It would sure come in handy even just to confirm your suspicions.

Jeff Beck - She's A Woman

Live from 1974. Playing his converted and re-finished '54 goldtop.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Now here's someone I haven't listened to in years. I forgot how amazing SRV was when he hit the scene with the first album. Still an incredible guitarist.

First Video of the new year with PHILX ! 1954 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top 01093

I don't think this needs any explanation. Phil gets to play some of the finest guitars know to man. Bastard.

1950's National Amplifier

Here's a rare one. A Valco made National brand amplifier. The Two 8" speakers are the original Jensen Alnico's.





The cabinet is in pretty good shape considering the age of the amp. The top and sides have some water damage from sitting in an attic for years.




Here's the chassis unloaded from the cabinet. You can see the really small output transformer as compared to the power trannie. That's a 5Y3G rectifier next to the PT. Lots of squashy tone there. There is an added master volume ( not really needed and I didn't do that, it was already done when I got it) and extension speaker jack. That black thing with the metal cap is actually a tube. It's a 6J7 and is the gain stage for the amp. The tube behind that is a 6SL7G and does the phase inversion. Two big bottle 6L6G's for output. I didn't pull the control panel out and a friend of mine has a suspicion there's another tube hiding up in there.



Here's the money shot. You can see the old waxed paper in oil caps. It's had a cap job done and the two prong cord has been replaced with a three prong. Which is necessary if you don't want to suddenly die of electrocution.



And the original RCA branded tubes. Still going strong after all these years.