. Pictures are large, estimated at 2 minutes @ 28.8, Some pictures are old now, Guitar seen in some pictures has been sold. ( it's a Ibanez 540 LTD with Seymour Duncan's ).
I have actively played music all my life, since I was eight anyway. I started with a snare drum and a cymbal, but there wasn't much I could do with that, so I joined the school band in the 4th grade and picked up the saxophone. That was a fun instrument. Mom and Dad bought me all kinds of Boots Randolf 8-track tapes (Ha! Ha! Yes, I said 8-track tapes!) Due to a ill-mannered band instructor who was very b@#chy and yelled a lot, by 6th grade I'd had enough. It was then I decided I wanted a guitar, and I asked for one for my 12th birthday.
Just before my birthday, Dad and I built my first guitar amp. Dad bought the kit from Heathkit, a mail-order electronics outlet, and we had to put it together. It took Dad a month of working on it, with me by his side playing with the parts. After hours of soldering, we finally put the amp in the cabinet, wired up the speakers, and inserted the A/C plug into the wall for the long-awaited test. Alas, success! No smoke! (My father is VERY amazing with electronics!) Then we flipped the power switch.. click... and on came the green light! I was SO excited, this meant I could jam! (Not that I knew how yet.) In order to test the amp, I had to borrow a guitar from a neighbor. I plugged it in and twang twang--I was making noise! Well OK, really weird noise! So I pulled out the Mel Bay Basic Guitar Manual and learned to play "Happy Birthday". I still remember working out on that first string! Then the test run was over until my birthday arrived. Chomping at the bit, I played every guitar I could find or borrow until the day of delivery. Finally the big day came! I received a purple SG body style " Kay " guitar. Kind of like Angus Young's from AC/DC. I cranked it up, made that baby distort, and soon Dad was sorry he ever built the amp so well. I don't remember if it played good, but I had a blast! I never could blow that amp up. I added speakers, effects, and man! It held up with everything I threw at it for years to come. Dad, you do great work! ( Dad was a 22 year Electronics Guru for the Military, Ret. Master Sargent.)
Finally the day arrived when I could afford a BIG AMP! At the age of 18, I got a tax refund of $1,400. WOW! I immediately ordered the BIGGEST AMP I COULD FIND! A Carvin X-100B 100-watt head with two 4x12 cabinets. I turned that baby on and cranked it to 8, thinking it would be a just a little louder than the 25-watt solid state amp dad built. HA!! One stroke of the strings and I felt like Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future" -- I was blown away! It was so loud that I jumped, and Mom and Dad came running down the hall yelling, "TURN THAT THING DOWN!!!" Man oh man, what a trip! I knew I had some power then! Of course Dad had an idea how loud it would be, since the amp had four 6L6GC power tubes, and he knew tubes would kick a solid state amp by 50 times!! What he didn't realize was that " I "had no idea of the raw power it really had! After stacking this amp together, it was taller than I was! This amp and speakers was about 6'5" and looked mean! AND IT WAS! I have been told by people that I have been heard six miles away while playing a outdoor gig. It still Amazes me! YEAH!!!
The Room!
25x25 with wet bar! Nice jam room on Friday nights! NEW Pictures!
This Guitar's are "2" Ibanez JS1000BP's, These are my main guitars. Also shown is a Mackie Mixer, Carvin DCM-2000 PA amp, Carvin 1503 PA speakers with 1801 subwoofers, Behringer EX-2100 Exciter/Enhancer, Audiotron, Peavey EQ, Digitech Quad-4 Effects, Shure Mics. The Computer you see is for Digital recording (Yes, I'm a computer geek!) using Cakewalk 9.03 software with a MIDI Man 2044 (4 in 4 out) 20-bit analog converter for audio processing, SoundBlaster Live with LiveDrive II, Roland MGX-64 dual channel MIDI Expansion unit for those MIDI files. Other equipment includes a Rocktron R50C More below!
Two Marshall 1960 cabinets (1960av and 1960a ) connected to a EL-34 50/50 Stereo MonoBloc amp. Driving this small array of amps and speakers is a Rocktron Voodu Valve, using a Rocktron All-Access Remote Controller.
One of two 2000 year JS1000BP's, These things play great with a few modifications.
