World Harmonica Festival 2005 - 11/2-11/6
The mother of all harmonica festivals is next week in Trossingen, Germany. If anyone is going, please send me pictures. When I win the lotto, I'll go myself. 
¶ Friday, October 28, 2005 0 Comments

  Tube Amp WebRing
If you have a web site that includes tube amp information, you should consider joining the
Tube Amp WebRing. This is a free and easy way to drive traffic to your site. It increases your google page rank and is generally a good thing. 
¶ Friday, October 28, 2005 0 Comments

  Milbert Amplifiers Tube Car Audio
I found another Car tube amp company. I wish I could afford one of these. Milbert Amplifiers. 
¶ Friday, October 28, 2005 0 Comments

  Harmonic Links
I moved all of my Blues Harp links to HarpLinks.com, including my Harp Amplifier links. This might have been a mistake because google doesn't thing that the HarpLinks is a very good site and it's pages have low page ranks. I just realized that you can drill down right through HarpAmps.com, so check out the links.
Also, If you have a Harp relate website, make sure that you add it to the list. 
¶ Thursday, October 27, 2005 0 Comments

  Cream At Madison Square Garden
I went to see Cream. The tickets were $359 each. I think it just might have been worth it.

Jack Bruce played harp on a couple of tunes. I converted Rollin n Tumblin to mp3. I included Tales of Brave Ulysses and a video of Sunshine of my Love. Jack did not spend the last 37 years perfecting his harmonica playing. He did not do well on harp. His singing was great, though. In most ways the band played better together than they did on the live Cream album. Ginger Baker has only grown as a drummer. I never really enjoyed drum solos before. Clapton is often criticized as being too controlled, but he was relaxed and really supported the group well. He took the chance and his guitar reached for heaven.

Check out the files. They're not very good. My little $35 gadget let me down this time.

Cream: Tales of Brave Ulysses (3.5 megs)

Cream: Rollin n Tumblin mp3 (5.8 megs)

Cream: Sunshine of My Love video (20.5 megs) The video is very bad, but the sound is OK.

I saw Clapton at MSG on his blues tour and once before that, but this was by far the best large venue show that I've ever seen. 
¶ Wednesday, October 26, 2005 0 Comments

  Mable Exporting
I got this as SPAM the other day, but I thought that I'd pass it on. A company in China is making tubes and amp parts for impossibly low prices. The problem is shipping them here. I put together a package and found that it costs about 40-50% over the list price to ship. Not too bad. Nice site, but loads slowly. They take PayPal. They have 6L6's for $4.00 and 22/450 electrolytic caps for 40¢. Mable Exporting 
¶ Tuesday, October 25, 2005 0 Comments

  Cream rises to the occasion - The Boston Globe

I'm going to see Cream tonight at MSG. Jack Bruce is a decent harp player and I hear that Rolling and Tumblin' with Bruce on harmonica is a high point. I look forward to seeing if they do Spoonful with harp. I always like the 'poonful lick. Check Keith Graham's Personal Blog later this week for my review and perhaps an MP3 or two recorded at the concert. 
¶ Tuesday, October 25, 2005 0 Comments

  Retro-King Intros 18 Watt Combo Amp
Retro-King has introduced the 18-Watt Combo, the latest addition to its collection of hand-wired custom amps.
A class AB cathode biased amp, the "18 Watt Combo" is a replica of the hard to find, 1966 Marshall 18 watt lead combo amplifier with two channels (4 inputs) with a tremolo unit operating on channel two.
Retro-King Amps are hand built by Chuck Dean, a guitar player for most of his life who has owned most of the best amps made during the 50's and 60's. 
¶ Monday, October 24, 2005 0 Comments

  Collins Amplification
Collins amplification recently was added to the Tube Amp Webring. There are some pretty amps here. I haven't used one, but they are based on some classic designs. 
¶ Monday, October 24, 2005 0 Comments

  Snarling Dog Tweed Amp Stomp Box
Snarling Dogs Tweed E Dog Vintage American Tube Emulator
I got a chance to play through a Snarling Dog Tweed Amp stomp box with harp. A friend of mine bought one to use with his Fender Blues Jr. I don't normally advise people to use emulators when a pretty good tube amp can be found on eBay cheap.
This is a fair to good little box that mostly sounds like a small Class A amp with a 12AX7, 6V6 and 5Y3. These kid of little 3 tube amps, like Fender Champs or Gibson Skylarks give a snarly overdrive that's good for a dirty Chicago sound.
My friend's Blues Jr. tends to be too clean, especially at lower volumes. The Snarling Dog Tweed was just the boost that he needed. The Blues Jr, sounded nice and crunchy. I could turn the volume up a ways and I liked the way my JT-30 sounded. You can stomp a button on the thing and it boosts the volume quite a bit, but with a crystal mic, all it did was send it into feedback land.
The snarling dog tweed emulator is available all over the web and there were a couple on eBay. You should be able to pick one up about $50, maybe less, easily. 
¶ Thursday, October 20, 2005 0 Comments

  Circuit Analysis of a Legendary Tube Amplifier: The Fender Bassman 5F6-A
I just ran across this book. It tells you way too much about the classic F56-A circuit. I'm putting this one on my Christmas List. Circuit Analysis of a Legendary Tube Amplifier: The Fender Bassman 5F6-A
 
¶ Thursday, October 20, 2005 0 Comments

  Harpamps is using Blogger.com to submit content
I've decided to enter the 21st century and use blogger to update articles here. I've been careful not to loose any of the existing content. New content should be available by rss feed.
Hopefully this will allow me to update the site more often. 
¶ Thursday, October 20, 2005 0 Comments