New York January NYC Meet-Up

Fidel,

Chris donated a Besseler 100mm enlarger lens.

On my Linhofs 100mm is the normal lens focal length for 6x7. For enlargement this is what you want. Save the 80mm for shooting the square.

I'll bring the 100mm to the Meet-Up. Uses the standard 39mm lock nut.

So now I kinda have a "Camera Junk Yard" that Chris donated to me. I'll bring some of this stuff to the Meet-Up to get recycled. Some will be prizes for the February Beauty Contest. I might just bring these as a "tease."

Cal
 
Ducati has this 1200cc version of the "Monster."

Only 146 HP on a motorcycle.

I had a Ducati when I was 15 years old. My friends had Schwinn Varsity 10 speeds, but I would drag my bike from my room and through the living room, and hold it by the front fork down the steps to call on my friends. Fonzi on Happy Days copied my style. We had no garage for my bike.

Don't think my dad approved. LOL. Of course I had no license. I weighed about 85 pounds back then. My brothers would help me get it up the stoop when I was home.

Cal
 
589K followers.

"Maggie" posted a picture of me and tagged it for my birthday. I got tens of thousands of best wishes from her followers.

We went to see "Roma" which is an interesting B&W film shot digitally in medium format. The resolution was very high and really spectacular.

Put on about three pounds in water weight by having a grass fed burger and fries. Mucho salt but mighty tasty.

Gor a pair of Pumas for $10.00 new. Had a gift card that Maggie didn't use plus a $10.00 off coupon. A second gift card of Maggie's must of expired. Oh-well.

Went to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy another humidifier, but the retail store does not stock the one I wanted. In the store I ordered it online and utilized a coupon to save $48.00. I need to stabilize the humidity in my apartment before loading my "Jersey Barrier" with ink.

Cheap thrills.

Cal
 
Happy birthday Cal !

Oh BTW...insurance companies use a figure of 8 pounds per horsepower as the standard for "high performance car". The Hellcat works out to around 6 pounds per horsepower.

You're like me...I financed my first black truck in 1988. When I paid it off in 1993, I figured out I'd paid 5K in interest on a 10K sticker price truck. I swore I'd never do that again and I've paid cash on the last 3 trucks I've bought.
 
Happy birthday Cal !

Oh BTW...insurance companies use a figure of 8 pounds per horsepower as the standard for "high performance car". The Hellcat works out to around 6 pounds per horsepower.

You're like me...I financed my first black truck in 1988. When I paid it off in 1993, I figured out I'd paid 5K in interest on a 10K sticker price truck. I swore I'd never do that again and I've paid cash on the last 3 trucks I've bought.

MFM,

We old guys need to take car of ourselves. I never-ever bought a new car.

So now I have a goal to get a cool "old man's car." I was intending to keep that old Jeep Scrambler as my "old man's car" but paying to store it in Brooklyn went on for about 5 years. The transfer case had a bad bearing and was going to hand grenade on me.

I also needed a new skid plate. The transmission mount cracked the skid plate. The Scrambler without the half cab and doors weighed about 3K pounds with a full tank of gas. The horsepower to weight ratio was 8.57 pounds per horsepower.

A truck I love is the Ford Raptor. Here in NYC I have seen 3 of them "in the wild." Also I have seen an heard two GT 350's. I just love the sound of that flat plane cranked V-8.

BTW my Scrambler had two and a half inch Flowmaster aluminized custon exhaust system. Under full acceleration it sounded like a Nascar on a straightaway. I beat a SVO Mustang in a drag race. The Mustang owner was kinda pissed that he got beat by a Jeep. I even gave him a head start. My second gear was rather savage. He needed three gears...

BTW "Maggie" hated my Jeep. Don't tell her about the RS3, the GT 350, or the Ford Raptor. LOL.


Cal
 
I've only paid interest on one car, a 1995 Thunderbird V8 which I never should have bought. Only car I ever lost money on. What a POS. They stuck a V8 on a Mazda transmission which was taxed even by a V6. Every single one of those cars had transmission problems. I sold it to my brother for the balance on my financing in 2003. He got rear ended then signed the car over to mom and dad who donated it to a children's hospital charity. So it all worked out in the end but now if I don't have cash in hand, I don't buy it. Unfortunately our economy is largely based on healthy debt and all based on trust. Paying in cash doesn't help my credit rating and I want to buy a house in 2-3 years...
Phil Forrest
 
I've only paid interest on one car, a 1995 Thunderbird V8 which I never should have bought. Only car I ever lost money on. What a POS. They stuck a V8 on a Mazda transmission which was taxed even by a V6. Every single one of those cars had transmission problems. I sold it to my brother for the balance on my financing in 2003. He got rear ended then signed the car over to mom and dad who donated it to a children's hospital charity. So it all worked out in the end but now if I don't have cash in hand, I don't buy it. Unfortunately our economy is largely based on healthy debt and all based on trust. Paying in cash doesn't help my credit rating and I want to buy a house in 2-3 years...
Phil Forrest

Phil,

The only way to establish good credit is to ring up some big bills and pay them down.

Way back when George Bush got selected as President in 2004, I used Zero APR to open a Scottrade account to daytrade energy stocks. What was really crazy is that I did this in a margin account, and the only difference was a zero, where I used 3 to one leverage and hedge funds enjoyed 30 to one leverage. Pretty much we were doing the same thing, playing a game of "Musical Chairs" and gaming the market.

So pretty much I was gambling during a bull market and playing against hedge funds using pretty much all borrowed money. I made lots of money for 3-4 years, and sold all my holdings and closed my margin account when oil first hit $135.00 a barrel. Later that very same day oil hit $147.00 and then blew its top. The Credit Crisis, the collapse of Lehrman Brothers, and the housing crisis would follow.

Pretty much during the credit crisis I was sitting on a pile of cash. I bought a lot of expensive luxury items that I thought have enduring value. Bought a huge diamond for "Maggie" even though we live in sin. Bought expensive watches and a few diamonds for me. Bought some Leica lenses (75 Lux version 2 and 35 Cron V.4) and didn't but my Wetzlar M6 until about a year later. Bought gold and some collectible guitars as investments and "hard assets."

At one point I had so many credit cards that my credit limits were so crazy high. Somewhere a long the way I got A-listed. I got 4 invites in a year to meet Mayor Bloomberg. I met with him only once on the porch of Gracie Mansion. While all the other men wore suits I was comfortably dressed in a Hawian shirt and shorts looking very much like a surfer. BTW Mike Bloomberg is a very short Billionair.

I also got an invite into the "Hudson Society" where I could socialize with all the elites and meet heads of state, prime ministers and the like. I kinda find it funny that they were inviting a hose-bag like me. LOL.

Pretty much a case of mistaken identity.

Cal
 
**January Gear Alert**

Last week I went to my local Salvation Army and picked up a Epson V500 Scanner for
a price of $12.50. Received the power cord and supply today and it works been making
a few scans and it looks good. Well more time at the computer, Happy New Year!
 
I'm in tone heaven playing my Tele's into a 1960 Brown Super. My guitars all seem to favor input 2 on the "Normal" channel that attenuates the signal and is the "Low" input.

I get a sweet spot of touch sensitivity and a smoothness that is more like playing a horn rather than a guitar. The amp with two ten inch speakers and 35 watts kinda growls and has a vocal quality I desire. When I play a chord it sounds like a piano and is kinda percussive.

Went on EBAY to check pricing. Original brown Fender Super amps are priced with $3.4K BIN. I bought mine for $1.1K from my friend/brother Cris. I just happen to be in his shop when this customer of his dropped it off.

Buying the amp was a "No Brainer" because of the price. Even though the cabinet was a "Rodgers" replacement, the trannies were Mercury Magnetics replacements; and the Jenson P12R speakers were brand new reissue replacements the value was still there as a player amp worth about $2.5K. For my purposes it is better to be a player rather than a collector.

My forensics indicated that the ground connections were performed with a soldering iron that was too low powered and one of the problems was cold solder joints. Another was cutting in and out due to using lugs instead of soldering the speaker connections. Vibrations caused intermitent electrical connections.

When I dug into the electronics it was wonderful to see that the amp had never-ever had been serviced and had all the original electrolydic caps in the power supply and all the waxed paper signal caps that are key to that old retro sound and smoothness.

I added a three prong power cord and got rid of the "Death Cap." Did the maintenance and replaced the dry electrotytic caps in the power supply, and discovered that a power tube octal socket needed to be replaced because it caused loss of bias and the power tubes were "Red Plating."

The forensics of what Fender did about 60 years ago was maddening, because evidently I have a transitional amp that is neither a 6G4 or 6G4A. The layout did not match and neither did the schematics.

Only parts resembled what I had, but then I discovered in doing my data mining that half way through 1960 Fender released a Brown Fender Twin, and the layout and the schematic matched a brown Fender Twin on the inputs and vibrato, but had the older 6G4 output section with the 6G4A vibrato circuit which has an additional sixth tube that is also more highly reguarded.

The 6G4 uses the same trannies that the earlier tweed amps used and the sound remains somewhat tweed like which is good for me. The Vibrato pre-amp and the vibrato are more modern and higher gain, so pretty much I luckily have an amp that straddles two eras: the 50's and the early 60's.

Understand that later 60's amps had more headroom and were cleaner. Brown and tweed sound is more "throaty," more touch sensitive, and kinda had this built in compression that chops down the higher frequencies. The voicing is more focused on the midrange and the sound is warm.

So finding/getting this amp by chance seems like divine intervention. I think this amp was cannibalized. The power supply tranny likely was taken because it is the same one used on a rather expensive and collectible Fender Tweed 4-10 Bassman, and over time the cabinet and other parts were salvaged and sold off.

I believe the prior owner likely bought the carcuss and spent mucho dinero trying to reassemble an amp that was stripped down. The prior owner likely spent close to $1K on new speakers, tranies, and th new cabinet alone. He just didn't have the proper background and skills to make this amp whole again.

******************

Today I should be getting a new Boneco humidifier to replace the one that is struggling. I need to maintain 50% humidity minimum before loading the "Jersey Barrier" (Epson 7800) with ink. I figure I'm a few weeks behind with my printing. Oh-well: no stress.

***************

Monday will be a video shoot for the big tech company that is a household name. This one is for social media and will be released inconjuction with the TV commercial. The Superbowl is Sunday February 3rd.

***************

On Thursdays I grab a guitar and am banished to the "Community Room" in our building because "Maggie" is using our apartment to teach an online class doing a zoom call.

All kinds of connecting the dots is happening musically. I have graduated up to a 12 guage on my strings which are kinda heavy for an electric guitar. On my acoustic I use 13's. This Santa Cruz OM has old growth Brazilian and has a huge loud sound that is so rich and full.

Things are starting to evolve at an accelerated rate. I am pleased.

Cal
 
Today "Maggie" has a video shoot and interview for the tech comp that is a household name that she did a L.A. studio commercial that has yet to be aired.

Today's video and interview involves a crew and is still a pretty big production that likely will be all day. Today's video and interview will be for social media and the Internet.

All the timing still makes me suspect a release during the Superbowl.

592K followers.

A personal set back is that the new Boneco Humidifier arrived Friday, but it only sometimes spikes to 50% humidity. It is rated for 650 square feet and is maxed out. Sometimes it struggles to get over 40% humidity.

Something is up with climate change. The recent high pushed the winter storms to the south, and the air in the northeast is drier this year. My older Boneco was experiencing the same problems, but also was showing its 4 year old age. It was not a bad idea to replace it, but now it seems I need to double down and buy a second humidifier.

I'm not so pleased with being locked into buying online, even though I get free shipping. I'd rather not have to wait and drag out a purchase waiting for delivery. I need to maintain the humidity at 50% as a minimum, not only for my printing, but also for my guitars and overall health.

So before I can load ink I need to get the correct humidity I require.

Tweaked my guitar controls, dialed in the 1960 Brown Fender Super Amp. I got a lot more depth and less compression from changing the output tubes from 5881's to 6L6's (both matched pairs are NOS). I also lowered the gain on the vibrato channel by replacing a 12AX7 with a 5751 pre-amp tube for less gain. The result is more smoothness.

How crazy is that when Maggie is not around that I can play a 40 watt amp at about half volume. The wood shedding is causing lots of growth. In a way guitar amps and music is not so different than photography.

I have a couple of amp projects kitted out that need to be built. I'm being creative in making an 80-100 watt Ampeg Portaflex head. Somehow I bartered for a surplus Mercury Magnetics output tranny for a Fender Blonde Twin, and I bought a new/surplus Matchless tranny that weighs about 12 pounds for the power supply.

All those James Jamerson Motown bass lines from back in the day were recorded in the studio using 40 watt Portaflexes that have that warm smooth thump from a single 15 inch speaker. These amps are still highly regarded and are still used for recording. Too underpowered for use today to gig out.

So I have all these Mil-Spec parts from when I worked back at Grumman that I'm incorporating into this amp. A while back I cut out a caged Hammond chassis, mounted the controls, the tranny's and the tube sockets. I have all the parts to build out and complete the amp, but I put this project on the side for about 8 years. Getting back into this project is like returning to a pleasant daydream.

The speaker I'll be using won't be a bass reflex 15 like the originals, but I'll be using a 12 inch folded horn enclosure with a 12 inch "Wizzy" made especially for amplified upright bass. Pretty much exploiting Lowther folding horn technology to go low. I have two of these folded horns made by Euphonic Audio: one is stored at a friends house out on Long Island; and one is still in the box in Public Storage.

Understand that I have a five string electric upright bass with a low "B" string. When I lived in a loft in Williamsburg this tenant that lived above me played a lot of devil thrash music at high volume, and I would plug in a bass and this 200 watt Aguilar tube amp to rattle the building. I'm sure his two pit bulls did not like my sonic attack either.

As all of you can tell I can enter a different universe of my own creation to explore on a very personal level. Back at Grumman I built electronic prototypes, and made a lot of stuff that never existed before, some things I helped build went into space.

The real satisfaction here is solving all these problems alone, and knowing that I created some wonderful things that perhaps no one else will fully ever appreciate.

Cal
 
Great to hear that your Tele guitar you built is doing well, when I finished the
1953 Fender Deluxe I rebuilt is like your brownface both are something special,
the sound that comes out of those are a bit darker and warmer than today's bright
amps. I would like to hear that amp with Weber speakers in it or original Jensen's
that came with it, the reissue Jensens (the ones made in Italy) are known not to be
the best, just a thought.
 
Great to hear that your Tele guitar you built is doing well, when I finished the
1953 Fender Deluxe I rebuilt is like your brownface both are something special,
the sound that comes out of those are a bit darker and warmer than today's bright
amps. I would like to hear that amp with Weber speakers in it or original Jensen's
that came with it, the reissue Jensens (the ones made in Italy) are known not to be
the best, just a thought.

Bob,

Is your wide panel Deluxe a 5B3 or a 5C3 circuit? I had a 54 5C3 that had raggy tweed that I bought as a car-cuss for $200.00 about 15 years ago. It came with a missing speaker and a blown power tranny.

Back then Mercury Magnetics was kinda new, unknown, and not many people knew that cloned trannies were available. I ended up rebuilding the Deluxe as a 5B3 with the grid leak bias inputs on the pre-amp.

This type of input clips the leading edge of the attack, and kinda creates a slight time delay in the response. The effect is playing a guitar is more like playing a sax. The tone I would say is mighty throaty and pretty much the amp is very touch sensitive.

I miss this amp and on my list is to build a clone. This amp I bought from Main Drag Music in Williamsburg when they first had a small store front on Bedford. When I sold it back to them nearly a decade later they had a monster loft on Kent Avenue, and they sold my amp north of $2K. My friend Pat the amp tech replaced the intact circuit I removed as an assembly.

Funny story is when our loft was broken into they left the amp behind thinking it was a ratty piece of junk.

The original Jenson P12R was only rated for 15 watts and the reissue is rated at 25 watts. My friend Richie has an original 4-10 tweed Bassman. Pretty much it was re-tweeded (new covering), had the power supply caps replaced, and reissue P10R's speakers installed.

Richie is a great player and he played loud. The old speakers pretty much had been played out. The cones were so soft and mushy that the bass was kinda farty and not so tight. The headroom also was lower.

I'm under the opinion that for a "player" amp that reissues with modern kapton voice coils that can handle higher power is the way to go. For a recording amp in a studio though I would favor original vintage speakers.

These tweeds are great amps for players that want to just plug-in and play that just use their hands to get their sound. The more modern higher gain amps I find rely on processing (effects) and layers of distortion for their voicing. Not all players favor touch sensitivity, but for me a guy who is not a speed demon, I rely on great tone and dynamics.

BTW I watched an episode of "God Friended Me" that used Main Drag Music as a shooting location. When I lived in Williamsburg Main Drag Music was just two blocks away, and the result is that I would buy gear all the time.

Photo related I have a 94-95 Matchless Spitfire and a 94-95 Matchless Lightning in "Shower Curtain Black" (Mark Sampson era) that I bought long ago. These hand built amps were really the start of the boutique amp market.

Interesting back story is that Mark Sampson was a drag racer, and the reason why he started building Matchless amps was because Vox AC-30 amps had a reputation of catching on fire. He started building amps as if they were military black boxes with mil-spec materials and severe overbuilding.

Matchless amps were in very high demand at the same time there was "Stratmania" when Japanese collectors hoarded Fender strats. That all ended badly with the Asian currency crisis in the later 90's. I bought my Matchless amps around 2004 for little money. Today these amps are infrequently listed around $2.5K, but as of late I see none listed for a while.

Matchless was restarted and survives today. Pretty much they are still the same high quality amps. Mark Sampson went on to for another amp company called "Bad Cat," But I don't think it survives today.

Because of the mint condition of these amps, they are of investment value and are "hard assets" that I expect will continually appreciate in value. Kinda like having a boxed M3 and a boxed M2, both in mint condition. The Brown 1960 Super is my player.

So your post is timely. I realize today that I'm kinda at a saturation point. As far as guitar amps, guitars, bass's, cameras, printer, and bikes I'm kinda fully stocked. I don't really need any more, and to be truthful I have more than is practical, yet all these treasures could fit in say two mini-vans if I had to. Any more and it becomes a liability and becomes senseless.

Now I have to find something new to obsess about. LOL. Perhaps it is anti-social behavior to place so much identity and value into in-add-I-mate objects?

It seems its all "Rock and Roll" except that I don't share the wear and tear of say Keith Richards.

Read a feature about Rob Lowe and how he hasn't really aged much in 3 decades. Formally, when young, he was an alcoholic, but he left that behind. He claims he maintains his youth by a low carb diet, strength training, and cardio workouts.

I would say the article is a bit conflated because the boyish body he once had in say "Youngbloods" is now a thicker and broader older man's body. Don't get me wrong, he looks good, and certainly is fit and well cared for, but the body does age and change over the decades. The other day I measured my chest and fully inflated I'm approaching a 39 inch chest. I never use to be so big. The drop (Proportion/differnetial) remains about 8 inches for Paul Smith clothes, but my chest and waist are getting thicker.

Cal
 
For Bob and for people looking for something new to obsess about:

www.Angela.com

www.ampwares.com

The first link is for tube amp and Hi-Fi supplies. A good supply of retro electronic components.

The second link has schematics and histories of Fender, Ampeg, Marshall, and Vox.

Cal
 
Klompching Gallery in Dumbo is having another "Gallery Workshop." The cost is $550.00, up about $100 from what I paid. This is a two-day weekend event February 9th and 10th.

I learned a lot about marketing, the importance of record keeping, and establishing a brand. The most important thing I learned though is that pretty much what I do does not fit in.

So the net result is to keep doing what I do and if I try to sell my work it is likely best for me to go "rogue" and represent myself when I decide to put my work out there.

I did learn a lot about the business side of things and an understanding of pricing was very useful. Pretty much never fully developed the marketing and sales part of being a photographer before. Also it is great that I have not distributed my work and that its availability has been rather restricted, otherwise I would have a handicap and restrictions to deal with.

I say you kinda do get your money's worth, even if the commercial gallery route is not for you. It grounded me and my work, allowing growth.

Cal
 
I'm back from my 6 country European tour. I'm seeing the sun again for the first time in a month!
I'll be there on the 20th. I don't mind having a rummage through the surplus bag if there is anything in it. I may see if I have any items I can add to it. I've started the year in cleanup mode, so that is appropriate.

Fidel, I have a rodenstock 135mm enlarging lens. It has severe separation, but I've not noticed any negative effects from that. I can bring it in if you are interested.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm back from my 6 country European tour. I'm seeing the sun again for the first time in a month!
I'll be there on the 20th. I don't mind having a rummage through the surplus bag if there is anything in it. I may see if I have any items I can add to it. I've started the year in cleanup mode, so that is appropriate.

Fidel, I have a rodenstock 135mm enlarging lens. It has severe separation, but I've not noticed any negative effects from that. I can bring it in if you are interested.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Christian,

I'll bring the "Grab-Bag" for you to look through. I also have a shopping bag full of 3880 supplies. Included are two waste carts, a complete set Piezoflush carts, another set of carts, and a 3880 instruction manual. Perhaps bring a knapsack.

Also I'll bring some of the donations that will be reserved as prizes as a tease.

Now that I've thought about it my new obsession is practicing guitar which requires an obsessive amount of memoriziation, especially if you are an improvisor like me who wants to be like Charlie Parker or John Coltrane except on guitar.

So I kinda maxed out the bike part stockpile for gearing out bikes. No buyer's remorse, and I think I did a smart thing by locking into nine speed Dura-Ace and 11 speed XTR in a big way at great closeout pricing. I'm cool with sitting on my stash, even if it takes a few years (perhaps two years) to actually utilize or begin to tap into this said stockpile.

In looking in the mirror I can tell by the development in my arms and legs that I train for strength and endurance on an elyptical. Not a popular exercise machine in my building because it is a tough workout to put in an hour. It gets reinforced that I have the excessive sweating gene, but luckily I also have the gene where my sweat does not smell.

Overall I need to focus some strength exercises on my upper body to get back proportions. Nothing more than pull-ups and push-ups required.

Maybe I'll bring out a baby Linhof and a FP 100 pack film to blow 10 exposures. That Polaroid back you 3-d Printed is now light tight. I have to come up with some project to use the over 20 packs I have in the fridge. Only paid $20.00 a pack and now the cheap price seems to be $35.00 a pack. I have over 200 shots left.

I have some great shots of Bob.

Cal
 
Christian,

I'm in a funny mood.

I'll bring one Ektar that Chris donated. I was thinking of keeping this for myself. The shutter speeds seem to be spot on, but sometimes it hangs up. The glass is clean.

From what I glean that this is a highly regarded lens.

At the meet-up we can fight over it. Seems like a good portrait lens for 4x5.

There is also a second Ektar that is on some shutter that lacks an aperature.

Gear Alert: Chris says he has another box of gear that he was suppose to bring to work and drop off at my lab. Perhaps he will bring this box to this Meet-Up so we can have a "Battle Roy-L."

At the December Meet-Up Ignacio took home a free Leica point and shoot.
How cool is it to get a free working Leica.

Philippe donated a working PEN-F half frame camera as a prize for the February Camera Beauty Contest. This is a very cool prize. Remember our only rule that is strictly enforced: "No Biting."

Cal
 
Alright, forgot a new obsession. I got a GoPro Hero 7 for Christmas, and now I have a body-cam.

I expect to record some of the strange New Yorkers that I seem to draw out, like the guy walking two turtles on leashes in Central Park.

"I have owned these turtles for over 15 years, " he told me. LOL.

Oddly it seemed like these turtles were trying to escape from this owner.

You can't make this stuff up. I have some film negatives of this man and his turtles in Central Park. Still strange in a Diane Arbus kinda way, but likely would go viral as a video on the internet.

Snarky Joe gave me some good advice about waiting until the off season to buy a new helmet. So this new red Giro helmet has a GoPro camera mount intergrated.

Not so sure which will draw in people as far as drawing in all the weird, cool and odd people that already seem to get drawn to me, and I guess the old days of being a reformed performance artist/drama queen will come out.

I have a chest plate so like a cop I can wear my GoPro, and even bolder I imagine wearing a red Giro bike helmet around walking NYC should draw out the "crazies" as Joe calls the people that I draw out.

The Hero 7 has an advanced image stabilization that i mighty good. The sound is good enough for the Internet and the FOV is like a 24mm ultrawide.

Cal
 
Snarky Joe,

If you make it to the January Meet-Up I'll have with me this book by a famous/legendary bicycle wheel builder to gift you.

I bought this book for myself so this is a "regifting."

Every few cubic inch counts when you live in a 650 square foot one bedroom apartment in Madhattan.

Cal
 
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