Gold took a fall after that new Intra-Day high. Although it made a new higher-high it has been trading in a range.
Will the government have to give back tariffs it collected?
I’m still decompressing from the intense two months of radiation treatment. Also “Maggie” and I talked today about endings and beginnings. The ending of radiation treatment is a transition of sorts. I feel a bit lost and depressed… I don’t do so well with beginnings and endings because of having a rather disheveled life with too many beginnings and endings.
I’m doing little things to move forward, but it still does not take much to fatigue me.
Been plugging in a lot. Pretty much I am learning how to play the amp. In a ways it is like a second instrument. Lots of playing around and getting a grasp and my own feel for this universe I’m making.
I am also digging into videos involving guitars, guitarists, and amps. There is an amp maker called Dr Z that makes some amps that use an EF-86 pentode tube as a pre-amp. Usually this pentode is used in microphone amps like with ribbon mikes. Very-very high gain. Counterintuitively though these amps are very simple.
In my tube collection I have these British Brimar EF-86 tubes that are of UBER high quality. Thinking I want an EF-86 amp.
Dr Z (Mike) is a college educated electrical engineer who had a career at GE Medical. He also is a drummer, but one day when his kids graduated high school he began building guitar amps. This is still a small shop, made in the USA, and the amps are kinda novel.
By luck he met Joe Walsh and Joe asked him to build an amp. This amp went on tour with the Eagles and kinda was a lucky break.
By chance he met a guy who was a Hammond organ Guru and he secured some surplus chassis for a reverb unit that could be easily made into 18 watt EL84 amps. Then lightning struck twice, and at a guitar show this guy carefully studied one of these 18 watt amps known as a Dr Z Carmen Ghia.
This viewer/inspector inquired if the Carmen Ghia chassis was in fact a recycled Hammond organ reverb chassis, and when Mike said, “Yes,” he was offered two pallets stored in a warehouse.
Anyways this led to growth and eventually having enough capitol to design and make his own Carmen Ghia chassis. This first early model is still very popular and is still made today. 35 years have passed.
So now I have a bug. I like a new model amp called a Z-28 Mark II. The first version (Mark I) used 6V6 output tubes and made 22 watts (now discontinued), but the new version, the Z-28 Mark II uses 5881’s for 30 watts.
There is a Stang Ray: EF-86 pre-amp, 12AX7 driver with four EL-84 tubes (30 watts) that has a VOX sound and vibe, and there is a Route 66 which has the same front end and driver, but uses KT-66 output tubes (32 watts).
The Stang Ray and Route 66 are available now as “Legacy” amps new sold with a non transferable warrantee, but I favor a used one for saving money.
The Route 66 kinda has that ballsy sound of the “Beano” album (John Mayo with Eric Clapton’s Bluebreakers). Very thick sound. Hmmm… In my basement I have a Marshall 4x10 2038 cabinet that has a checkerboard grill and is stuffed with four 10 inch Celestian Greenbacks that are rated for 15 watts each. This is an interesting cabinet that is rare and was made for only one year: 1972.
This Marshall 4x10 would be a great blues rig. The cabinet is only slightly smaller than a Marshall 4x12.
I know of a shop across the Hudson that has a Mark I Z-28. It is the 1x10 version. Hmmm.
Problem is I have to wait till the new tax year, January 2026, for the cash flow…
Anyways been dialing in tone on my amps. Fun and brutal.
I watched a Brad Paisley interview. He collaborated with Dr Z and co-designed 4 amps. The trend is use small amps and mike them, but Brad mentioned how it is easier to hear your playing from a bigger amp. He mentioned seeing a guitar player carrying a 50 pound 2x12 cabinet, and then the head (amp) is a separate 50 pounds.
Then the comments were made because this was in a bar in Nashville, and the amp was kinda large for the venue. The gigging musician said, “I may get a bad back, but at least I’ll hear my playing.” “BTW I see what you use on stage” was said to Brad.
Understand Brad saw the red Dr Z cabinet and head. They understood, and I learned a lesson.
So today I played with my 1960 Fender brown Super.
I could sell this amp for around $5K to the right buyer even though it is just a “player” meaning not original enough to be a vintage collectible. The cabinet is a re-pro, the output tranny is a Mercury Magnetic’s re-pro, and the speakers are Jensen re-issues.
Bought the amp for $1100.00, but it cut in and out, had wonky things going on, and from experience I suspected bad solder joints and/or bad connections. At home I trouble shot the amp, and found a bad ground and intermittent speaker connections, but not before red plating a pair of 6L6’s that became destroyed.
Evidently Todd did not have a 1000 watt soldering iron so I resoldered a chassis ground for a tranny. Then a el cheapo, likely made in China, crappy 1/4 inch right angle jack made the speaker connection wonky. Know that operating a tube amp without a load destroys output tubes.
So pretty much Todd dropped all the cash to fix the amp and bought all these new expensive components, and could not finish the job. He lost a lot of money, but it was my gain. Problem is that if I ever sold this amp, pretty much it would be mucho difficult to replace. This was a once in a lifetime deal/steal…
The brown amps are kinda in between the 1960 Blackface amps and the 1950’s tweed amps. Brown amps were kinda transitional and their era was limited to about 2-3 years perhaps 4.
Anyways some compare the brown amps as having a Marshall/British flavor. They surely have a unique sound. So today with my tweaking I really found out why. So I’m playing a 35 watt amp that is a 2x10 combo. The Jensen’s are Alnico P10R’s that have smooth paper cones and small voice coils that are low powered.
Later brown Supers came with Alnico P10Q’s that had ribbed cones and could handle a bit more power. My amp was a transitional Super, so it could of come with either speaker, but I kinda love the early smooth breakup. The trade off is loss of headroom and also tighter bass. Oh-well
The normal channel I set the volume at 6, and the Vibrato only at 4 because it has more gain. After dialing in the bass and treble of each channel independently, I then use a short jumper to connnect the two channels. Pretty much the inputs get processed and then blend into the driver.
Three-D sound and a layering that is complex that blooms and swirls. Very touch sensitive also. Pretty much I fall in love…
So Brad was right. My Friend Dave bought a Fender Princeton that was modded with an addition of a 12 inch speaker. This is smaller than his drip-edge Fender Deluxe (only 20 watts). I think 2x10’s fills a room better, and 35 watts is not so much.
I’m not driving the amp hard anyways. The brown Super is only turned up about halfway, I have tight bass, and I enjoy clean headroom with a wonderful edgy breakup that is not overly distorted.
Know my guitar studio is only a 10x10 room. This is my small universe. BTW The sound in my head is emerging and the tone is great. Pure plug and play, only natural distortion, and not forced distortion.
Cal
