Scratch build head(s)...

[Marcel]

3D sculptural boards... that would be interesting... I can't see much application for it in an amp build but my imagination is certainly having a party using the technique with a bunch of coloured LED's....

[Marcel]

Just for interest, and a carry on from an earlier post in this thread.... we only took a small trailer of "throw a ways" to the tip last Saturday.

A few plasmas, a dead OLED screen and a bunch of LCD's .... Electronics might be getting smaller but our fascination with bigger screens is endless....

[Marcel]

It's amazing how much time you spend browsing catalogues looking for parts when doing a scratch build project. And then you spot something and your thinking takes a huge leap sideways and the need to re-visit every catalogue and some forums strikes again...

So, as it stands, my next scratch build, will be...
EF86 input pre-amp, with possible 12AX7 alternate switching (similar to a Morgan 20).
6L6 finals, most probably a 40W hot rod deluxe inspired formula.
Most probably a JTM45 style chassis...
Best price so far just for transformers and chassis is just a little over AU$400. Add to that tubes and every other knob, pot, resistor and capacitor.... I think I need to lay down for a while... (quietly strums acoustic while pondering options)....

Distracting myself from the amp build with YouTube... I happen by chance to watch that German Dude trolling that Canadian sound guy over the Line6 Spider V, plus a few of the Canadian dudes rants on certain gear.... And I couldn't stop myself from remembering what it was like for me as a budding young teenage guitarist in the late '70's and comparing that to what is available today.
Back then I had a solid state 5W (if that) Princeton amp with tremolo and a 8" speaker and it was great (Actually I still have it in my shed). It was mine and it made noise, electric guitar noise at that. Today, up against a Line6 Spider V it's crap, utter unadulterated garbage. Seriously why bother even turning it on type crap!! I was in the school band and had a school owned JC120 and a Fender Jazz bass in that rig that I got to take everywhere, but at home in my bedroom it was a 'cheapest in shop' Strat copy and the Princeton and that's what I learned on, and the teenage world I lived in was marvellous. I had all I needed and learned everything Beatles, Rolling Stones... etc..etc...etc... everything I could get my hands on up until the end of 1979 when I left my guitars at my parents home an set off for a career in the big bad world...
So after my time in the Air Force for a few years I did the roadie/sound guy touring thing for dozens of nameless bands plus that gig called Expo 88, got into commercial radio and worked a few shows with people like LRB, Warren Zevon and NoiseWorks... Jumped ship to TV and saw what Leilah, Lisa Miller and the Stefanovic brothers do off camera... and, anyways after many years in various professional arenas with the kids all having departed the nest here I am the last couple of years relearning what the 'guitar world' has to offer and I must honestly say that there is an unbelievable amount of good, great, and unbelievably fantastic gear around today, and the Line6 Spider V as a home bedroom practice amp is a far better stating point for a beginner than I ever had. Kids (and us oldies) learning guitar never had it so good...
I have to agree with Henning that it's not a gigging or studio amp (which upsets Glenn so much in that some people think they are studio grade amps) but it is a great starter amp to learn on ... As is the VOX VT, or the Katana or the Mustang, or any of the myriad of modeling amps... None are perfect yet for what they are they're great. Great tools to learn (or re-learn) on.
I don't understand though why some professionals get so butt-hurt when confronted with someone who is inexperienced. Some un-learned dude fronts up with what they think is their best only to be shouted down by the Pro for no other reason than a prejudice held by the so-called Pro... It may well be a well founded prejudice but there is nil reason to go nuclear about it. Or is it all just an act? An act of 'going postal' simply to score views....

You can go back to sleep now... My rant is over...

[dave.king1]

Nice rant Marcel and right on the money.

[Dedman]

I actually stopped watching both those guys. One has become a "look at all my famous friends and watch my reviews on stuff I'm getting paid to promote" and the other is just an ego driven mucho fest aimed at 18yr old metal heads.
I will say it easy to get drawn into that rarified world of high end gear. I have a friend who runs a very successful mastering studio (Casey Barnes , Amy Shark) and I have learned NEVER to ask his opinion on gear. it usually goes something like "Oh yea, you can pick up a cheap one for 2 or 3 K", or "really you bought brand x? They always crap out on tour" Yea, but I play in my lounge room! He asked why the hell I bought a valve amp in this day and age...........

[Marcel]

Yep, can totally relate to your comment there Dedman. I do watch quite a bit of content from both these guys and on some things they are exceptionally correct, but their presentation is all too often tainted to score views. Although there are exceptions I suppose the same could be said for most of those 'content providers' ...

As for tubes.... they have their issues, but damn there is nothing better in certain situations... The trick is in knowing which situations...

[Simon Barden]

The mastering studio chap might have been referring to the drift of session musicians away from valve amps and to the good modern modelling amps like the Kemper, Line 6 helix and Fractal Axe units. Personally I'm still in favour of using real amps, but I don't need to play several types of music styles in a day, every day.

[Marcel]

Actually Simon, I think the Canadian had a gut full of young kids coming into his 'Pro studio' with tiny practice amps to record Metal sessions, so in disgust and in a release of frustration put out a video of him destroying a Line6 spider using actual explosives at a firing range. He has since done similar to a Marshall Code25 by throwing it off a building and then taking to it with a sledge hammer. All done under the banner that neither is worth of being in a Metal type song....

The essence of the German dude was to rebut the Canadian and make a (pretty good) Metal type track mostly only using the Line6.

I will say that the videos were entertaining though at the same time very annoying... Anyone with nil brain can destroy something, but it does take a little of that something special to be able to truly create something. And in creating it if other people wonder and guess in how it was done then you certainly have something special in your grasp. There are few with ears so Golden that they through listening alone can tear apart any musical track and then advise the world the specifics on how each sound within that track came into existence. Most just listen and indulge in the experience....