The path to madness

The simple, sad, truth is that I can’t play guitar.  I’ve owned three four five guitars and at least three amps over the years.  But no matter what the guitar or amp, I can’t really pull it together.  Tone, they say, comes from the fingertips.  And the memory.  That’s where the problem lies, I don’t have a good memory for sounds so learning guitar is as difficult for me as learning a foreign language.  I can go through the movements—learn scales, progressions and arpeggios—but when it comes to really playing, I’m workman-like at best.

When I sold my VHT Pittbull Ultralead and PRG EG-3 back around ‘98-‘99, I said that was the end.  No more throwing money out the window on gear and lessons when it was painfully obvious that I would never be a descent player, let alone a good one.  Yet, I find myself back at the window, cash in hand, staring down the path of madness.  I don’t have any delusions; I know I’ll never be a great player but I really want to be able to strum out some songs for my kids and give them an appreciation of music as something you do, something you make, rather than as something to which you’re only a bystander.

Thanks to my new-found interest in all things DIY, I’ve started tracking down small, low-wattage guitar amplifiers that I can build.  They’re powered by vacuum tubes of course, just as god, James Marshall and Leo Fender intended.  I don’t need, or even want, nose-bleed-inducing volume levels, just great tone in a small package.  Turns out that this is easier said than done.  There are plenty of great-sounding amps that are in the 15 - 18 watt range.  Just look at some of my current favs, the 18watt clones, Mark Huss’s Plexi 6V6 and the AX84 October project.  Any of them would be a killer amp project.  But I think they would all be too loud to play at home while the kids sleep and the wife watches TV.  Sure, I could add some attenuationion but they might still be too loud.  Now I’m wondering if Doug Hammond’s Firefly might be a better place to start.  The Firefly uses a 12AU7 preamp tube as the output, so it will only put out 1/2 watt or so which would be plenty.  There’s also an interesting derivation that uses the front end (preamp and tone stack) from an 18 Watt Lite coupled to the 12AU7 output stage.  It might be a little louder, but may also have more of the early Marshall magic.  Either one in a little 1x12 combo might just be the ticket.

I’m less convinced about DIY guitars.  I’d still try my hand at making a Tele, Strat or some other bolt-on design, but my woodworking skills aren’t up to a high-quality set-neck design and I can’t track down any kits.  So… I’ve been hunting around the used market for a clean Yamaha Weddington Custom.  Yamaha made these LP-like guitars back in the early ‘90s.  The quality is reputed to be top notch, as is the sound with a variety of solid humbucker and single coil tones.  The Custom and Classics both featured bount maple tops and bound ebony fingerboards with real (?) mother of pearl inlays.  This is a guitar I’ve wanted for years but they’re somewhat scarce.  I blew my chance at one on eBay tonight and was really angry with myself.  I had two browser windows open—one with the auction and one with a bid confirmation.  When the auction was down to 10 seconds, I flipped over to the bid confirmation and clicked on “confirm” only to be rewarded with a message that the auction had ended.  Damn.  Damn.  Damn.  This was the only nice Weddington Custom I’ve seen on eBay in a couple years.  Here are a couple of pics:

After the auction ended, I decided to contact a guy who was advertising one for sale about six months ago.  Maybe he still has it.  Maybe he wants to sell.  Maybe I’ve just taken a step further down the path to madness.  Maybe.

Comments

Commenting is not available in this section entry.