Hi all. Welcome to DR Gear! DR is a band but this part of the site is an experiment to talk about another passion of ours. Guitars, Amps, Mics, PA, Recording... I will be posting info about DR gear periodically to try and get some musings going in the forums. We will have a few useful folks monitoring the forums, i.e Dee who is an real deal EE, Jay Pro who is all around techie extraordinaire (he build my amp) and me the amateur gear head. |
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A couple of years ago I began a quest to find the sound that is in my head. This began a long search in trying to improve my tone from my trusty Peavey Classic 50 that I have been playing since the mid 90s. I searched high and low...one day while in GC I found a real, not a reissue, 1967 Fender deluxe and it was magical. Unfortunately, it was also 2k for a 40 + year old amp that I need to gig with. So the quest continued until I found the Allen Sweepsot by David Allen (a great guy btw) It is basically a 60s Princeton with a 12" speaker and some great mods thrown in by David. i.e. bright switch, rear bias measurement jacks with adjustment pot(great for trying out different power tubes), combination middle/raw control(for some tweedy like gain), extension speaker jack, choke-filtered power supply, 5 capacitor filtering bank with stainless-steel cover, fixed bias phase inverter (Paul C mod) and insulated input jacks for lower hum. http://www.allenamps.com/sweetspot.php |
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I got it in my brain that a needed a tele in my small collection of axes. So I went out on craigslist and found a 2001 black tele made in USA w/ Texas specials. The only problem is that the wiring had been modified to broadcaster spec. Essentially this was a wiring from the 50s that made the neck pickup sound like a bass guitar. It was cool but I wanted to have more versatility than that. So I purchased a new 4way switch that gave me the three traditional pickup positions but a 4th that put the pickups in SERIES. This gives it a fatter sound. Very cool mod and now it is a very versatile guitar and very fun to play. Check out the pics and please comment down in the forum if you like. |
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You know the drill – you’ve spent a lot of time setting up for a gig and when the sound check is done the vocalist can hear really well but you… not so much. Can’t tell you the number of time I haven’t been able to hear all the vocal clearly. Maybe due to time constraints or maybe due to an inexperienced sound crew. So we started looking for a way to control individual monitor mixes on stage without having to rely so heavily on the person manning the board. Here’s what we came up with: a monitor systems that, like a Hearback or Axiom system, gives each singer individual control over their monitor mix. This is a lower cost alternative solution when you are using an analog snake to carry audio signals to and from the stage. The system consists of audio splitters and three channel mixers that could normally be used for a desktop studio application. Key to success is good quality cable and good quality connectors. The entire signal path, from front of house mixer to the individual mixing stations is balanced to reduce noise. In operation each singer is assigned a specific monitor send. This signal is routed to the stage through the microphone snake. Cabling is color coded to simplify hook up. If you only need three vocals this system may be right up your alley. |
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This is another project taken on by Jay Pro. He modded his Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a kit from Fromel Electronics with very nice results. http://fromelelectronics.com/modifications/Amps-Fender-Hot-Rod-Deluxe. I was amazed at the improvements this mod made. The Deluxe is a decent amp with a nice clean and a passable OD but with this mod the clean is sweeter, he OD channel is richer (not harsh) with nice harmonically rich overtones. Check out the pics. Ask questions on the forum if you wish |
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