“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.
MercyMe Gold Disc
It is a special thing to have the amps I build with a guitar player in a major band but it is really special to have all guitar players of the same major band using them! You know that people out there appreciate your amps when my good friends and guitar players Mike Scheuchzer and Barry Graul of MercyMe, surprised me one day with a package at my door with this superb Gold Commemorative Disc presented to myself! HUGE THANKS Mike, Barry and MercyMe folks!
Weller WTCPT Soldering Station
Many of you asked me about what soldering station am I using for my amps, so I thought of posting the info and a short review, and hopefully spare you from spending cash on cheap ones (as I did).
Live Gabtone Shop Cam
Short one here folks, to announce that the live Gabtone TV Shop Cam will resume in work days afternoons (usually at around 4:00 pm CST) for those of you curious on tube guitar amp building.
I don’t promise it will be a two way communication (as I need to concentrate at what I’m building) but I’ll read the chat from time to time just in case you have questions about what in the world I am doing!
Guitar pedal board routing
This past weekend I had the honor of meeting, hang out with Vernon Reid and witness the best show I ever saw in my life with LIVING COLOUR at the Double Door in Chicago. Also introduced him to my Gabriel V33 1×12″ Combo he absolutely LOVED! He is a master of high gain amps but very interested in alternatives for guitar tones and found the V33 a versatile guitar amp.
A new (or maybe old?) project that’s been simmering on my back burner was the building of a Telecaster given the fact that I’ve had these two beautiful planks of exotic African Koruna wood for a while now from my good friend Mark Boehm (thanks Mark!).
I’ve been asked numerous times about when will I make those Gabriel Ts available again. The task was always on my list but never got to it.
So finally here it is! The Gabriel Amps Clothing Line, a fashionable, wide variety of apparel in various styles, colors and sizes! Take your pick!
Gabriel T
From T-Shirts to coffee mugs and beyond am working on a couple more Gabriel products so check back regularly because I will be making these available as I finish them.
Show off that you are an owner (or a fan) of one of the finest hand-wired guitar amps on the market!
I couldn’t control myself. After seeing these cool demos of the Magick Eye tube, (a tube commonly used as a tuning indicator in old radios) I had to try them out in my amps. So I plopped together a quick video to see the dramatic and cool visual effect. I will probably tweak some values but overall I am very happy with the visual effect.
The circuit is nothing complicated. All you need is one of the many Magick Eye tubes existent out there, with many different beam patterns, that might need a slightly different pin-out connection, but all of them work in a main common way – it taps in the path of the signal level of roughly 10 to 25 Volts (depends on the type of tube used), and a high DC voltage of something between 200 to 250 (B+).
I used a Russian EM80/6BR5 I scored off Ebay. The EM80 tube has a “U” shaped fluorescent target and two rods connected to the anode, producing two angled shadows on the edge triggered by the control voltage (input signal).
The schematic I used is the one below, posted by Michael on the 18watt site.
I tapped the control voltage (signal) off one of the plates of the EL 84 tubes, and got the high voltage of about 250v off one of the filter caps.
Check this video out of how cool this can be!
The greatest space-eater on guitar pedal boards are the connection jacks.
Just take a look at your pedal board and imagine how much space you can free up if you can neatly align them next to each other as close as possible.
That’s exactly what I did with my guitar pedal board specially after purchasing the Pedaltrain Junior frame that’s quite small, so I had to rethink what pedal I REALLY need and need not. I like to travel light.
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