The Doom Room: ILF Edition

[new05002]

Ordered a custom made DMC controller from Disaster Area to control my two Moogs, and the BigSky + Mobius. Now I can avoid the tap dancing. Also looks like I might get Tom to make me a new pedal board

[new05002]

OK, I've been putting it off but I think it's time to retube the 1200s. When I had it in for a tune up Brian noted that they were not operating anywhere close to 100%. I think they are the originals, So what are your thoughts on 6550's/KT88's/KT90's? Looking for clean headroom and longevity mostly.

The 1200s didnt utilize the output tubes very well. Chambonino had one on his bench and even retubed it was not pulling the kind of power you would like to see from a quad of KT88s. That being said just grab a fresh set of 88s or 6550s. I would not blow the money trying to find a quad of NOS matched 6550s.

[AxAxSxS]

Yeah I dont have the money to spend on nos anyways. I think I'm leaning to Kt88's I know they are basically the same thing but aren't the KT88's rated to handle more power and therefore more durable?

[new05002]

not much different than 6550s overall esp if you are not utilizing them. In the amp you have I do not think it will make a ton of difference.

Durability has many factors such as the amps power supply design, the bias setting, type and duration of amp use, tube to tube and package to package variation, mechanical vibrations, ect. KT88s have a higher DC power handling capability according to some modern datasheets (KT88 42W vs 6550 35W for JJs) but others list them as 42W (EHX, Sovtek, Svet). 88s usually list a higher screen voltage handling.

[AxAxSxS]

Cool man, and thanks for the input. I'll see what I can find as far as value and go for the money savings. I was just messing around with it and swapping out the 12ax7 seemed to eliminate most of the hum and bring back some headroom so I may have misdiagnosed what was going on. I'm still going to go ahead and get a quad of replacement tubes.

[Kacey Y]

Do it. The money is well worth it. I always said I'd never pay over a grand for an amp and ended up paying over twice that for a Soldano and don't regret it one bit.

I've been looking around, just to see how much I'd have to scrape together. Cheapest I found was someone selling one on a forum for $2600, plus shipping and paypal fees, otherwise the lowest was around $3k. I remember the first conversation I ever had with Nick about a Dunwich build was asking him about building a plexi clone and he told me it would be the same price as just buying a vintage one, so probably not worth it. Doing an SLO clone might be worth it though, since I'm fairly certain he could hammer out something solid for less than $3k. He's still building my bass amp right now though, so that would be a pretty long term goal I think.

My problem is I have way too much gear and when I set down and think "what could I sell to finance something?"...I can justify every piece of gear for a different sound. With the possible exception of my VTM120, but I bought it for so cheap so long ago, it always feels worth more to keep. I've got 4 different basses right now, not including the weird 3 string double octave Krappy that I have, 2 guitars (fewest I've had in a decade), 7 amps for bass and guitar, including my power amp (I have preamps and some amps double for bass and guitar), 2 guitar cabs, 5 bass cabs, dozens of pedals. The pedals are a mix of clones my friend made me and only charged me for parts or just gave me (all better than what they're cloning), some boutique stuff, some vintage brand name, some pawn shop treasure type cheapies. I like variety too much, which is why I want a SLO since I don't have any really high gain amps anymore and it's kind of a unique tone, but I like that variety so much it's hard to get rid of anything. Especially hard since I play bass in 4 different bands/recording projects, they all use different tunings. I can get away with having one guitar for standard tuning/Eb and one for B, like I do now, but I've still got an itch to buy more for different tones on different projects.

[new05002]

A couple of builders I know of do SLO stuff, Granger for example. Most of the SLO stuff is quite Marshall based so its not incredibly complicated from a circuit perspective.

[amorphous]

A cross-country move is a sure cure for your gear hoarding...!

[Kacey Y]

A couple of builders I know of do SLO stuff, Granger for example. Most of the SLO stuff is quite Marshall based so its not incredibly complicated from a circuit perspective.

I'm filing it away in a corner of my brain that I'll be sure not to check for a while. Other very important expenses are coming up in about 9 months lol. I might have to start getting my ass in gear about doing side jobs to pay for new gear from now on. I need to buckle down, clean out my garage and set up my wood shop so I can build things. I had planned on starting some cabs by the end of the year, but that's about 3 things down the list now.

A cross-country move is a sure cure for your gear hoarding...!

It's come up more than once in the last decade, though didn't end up happening. My wife explicitly made plans about how we would have to pack up my gear very carefully in a POD, so it wouldn't be damaged. That's the key to a lasting marriage, a gear enabling wife.

[amorphous]

It's come up more than once in the last decade, though didn't end up happening. My wife explicitly made plans about how we would have to pack up my gear very carefully in a POD, so it wouldn't be damaged. That's the key to a lasting marriage, a gear enabling wife.

You've got a great woman there, def a keeper (with the gear)

[Kacey Y]

It's come up more than once in the last decade, though didn't end up happening. My wife explicitly made plans about how we would have to pack up my gear very carefully in a POD, so it wouldn't be damaged. That's the key to a lasting marriage, a gear enabling wife.

You've got a great woman there, def a keeper (with the gear)

When we first moved in together, we were out running errands or something and I wanted to stop in a guitar shop. They had a 1980 Gibson SG Standard, someone had painted it yellow and the frets were almost flat, for $600 out the door. I remember saying something like "Oh man, that is a great deal, I could fix that thing up and it would be a great guitar...I probably shouldn't though". Her response..."Why?! Just buy it". I don't think she's ever given me a hard time about buying ANYTHING since we've been together. Then again, I'm really responsible and we've never missed a payment on bills/rent/mortgage/whatever in the last 13 years. I'm not into cars, clothes, sports, gadgets...just music. I'm pretty cheap about everything else lol. So she always enables my gear purchases, especially since I tend to save up for them instead of just randomly spending money all the time. She's definitely a keeper, in more ways than one. Whenever I read threads on forums like "how can I hide this new (insert piece of gear here) from my wife?" I find it really sad and confusing. Ironically though I don't think my wife would even notice if I bought a new guitar, bass or amp...she never sees half of them anyway.

[Barnhard]

I'm seeing SUNN O))) on the Friday the 13th...

[crohny]

Skullservant can appreciate my excitment for ordering a TC Trinity reverb pedal off Ebay. I ripped myself off, and paid slightly above what it would have cost me new when they were still being sold at PGS but whatever. If it works and sounds as good as the rest of my TC pedals then I can't complain.

[chillerthanmost]

Ugh, watched Church Of Misery last night and I've never wanted a Ric bass this bad. And I've even played one (Corey Y's) before, plus have heard so many mixed feelings about them from previous owners that have steered me away.... but... Church Of Misery was so fucking good.

[AngryGoldfish]

Had that happen to a friend of mine. We spread a rumor that she had gotten chlamydia when she cheated on him and that's why they broke up. No one dated her for the next 2 years.

I'll be honest, to me that doesn't sound like a fair thing to do to anyone. One lie doesn't correct another. I never condone infidelity. If you can't keep your dick in one vagina or your vagina wrapped around one dick then you shouldn't be involved in a relationship. You obviously don't take it seriously enough and you should remain a free agent. The same applies to when people say, if you don't know how to use a gun, smoke weed, or bench press 500lbs then you shouldn't do it. Still, forcing someone into that situation is not fair. They should decide that for themselves. If they don't, if she doesn't, then you can respectfully warn potential partners in advance that she has a history of unfaithfulness. You're both telling the truth and offering a choice. You don't want people to get hurt, which is the same thing as telling everyone she has an STD, but lying to get that is not right, in my opinion.

Skip or Skully....

I was reading a thread last night on the Jet City with Verellen mod and it made me wants to get one even more; but Skip, you mentioned that it lacked bottom end. I'm wondering, given I'm looking at the 50w or 100w heads which come with 6L6 rather than EL84's, would that bottom end come back or you think or it would still be a little thin?

I also noticed that there is the 100w hdm, which has a depth knob, which may help with the bottom end and fullness of the tone.

The Jet City HDM100 I tried in Israel had plenty of low-end (funnily enough I tried it with the bass player from Dukatalon). Sonically and in the way it felt under the fingers it was strikingly similar to my old Soldano Avenger and was an excellent amp. With that said, I sold my Soldano for as low as €850 or around £750. The HDM100 is only half that price so I'd say you should swing for the real deal if you can. If you require two channels then that's different, but the single channel Hot Rod Avenger 50 I had was loud and mean. The Low Input channel is something I miss. I didn't use it to its full potential and probably should have given it more time before selling the amp. But then again, it was never used when I bought my Fryette because it didn't take pedals well and I wanted a drum kit.

i want that dog.

i'm kinda with angry on this one. i think it's important to realize when you judge someone by other standards than the ones you hold yourself to.
for example, i'm not anxious to hit triple digits but i wouldn't mind - i would however not make a girl that had had sex with 100 dudes my wife. that's about as correct as i can go, i'm not gonna force myself into believing that if i do it she can do it because i know honestly i can't live with that shit.

TL;DR i'm aware of my issues

oh and i'd never be with a girl that'd been around my close friends.

There is something that I think people across the Internet don't understand, people that force those with any sort of emotion that is even remotely un-PC to feel inadequate as human beings. I'm not sure if this lines in with your comment as much as I think it does, but I want to say it anyway because it's on my mind and has been for many months. There is nothing wrong with only wanting a girl who's led a monogamous life or has only slept with a few men in her life. There is also nothing racist about not being attracted to black people, nothing homophobic about finding men kissing weird, nothing transphobic about being confused by the idea of a transgender man or woman, racist about being conditioned to think that a black man walking down the street is peculiar, or lazy and uncaring of you to not want to protest for important things. We are made to believe that every gay joke makes you homophobic, a rant about Hispanics doing a poor job makes you racist. Not everyone does this, but some do: they make you feel like there is something wrong with you for having feelings that were born from conditioning non-reflective of the current iteration of appropriateness and political correctness. It's important to learn and become better and more understanding as human, but it's also important to accept everyone's inhibitions, much of which cannot be controlled.