Guitar for Worship

So, the only thing that stands out more than the consistency of U2 songs
in this picture is the fact that it is just that…….a picture. I have no idea
how to take a screenshot, so I took out my camera and took a picture of
the screen. Yep. See, I’m not bothered by little things like, ‘How do I do
that’ or ‘What’s the best way to do this’. Nope. I want a screenshot. I
pull out my camera and make it happen.

So, those are my top 25 most played songs on itunes. The only name
not widely recognized is probably Jeff Victor. He’s a composer of Irish
ambient pieces. I’ve never heard anyone like him. It’s exciting to see
Moby, Jeff Buckley, and Allison Kraus make the list. Makes it look like
I actually listen to something besides U2. And no, I didn’t doctor the
list…….too much.

See, some might say I listen to U2 a little too often. And I usually
deny it. But then I found these pictures. These both confirm that
the U2 man-crushes have gone a bit too far, and that I should
probably step out of the computer stone age. Remember in elementary
school, after you were done with your typing exercises, the teacher
maybe…..just maybe…..might let you play…….

Oh, yes. Oregon Trail. Nothing, and I mean nothing beats the original.
Except for the fact that both the guitarist and singer from U2 were in
my wagon train. Hey, come on! I just wanted to play the game and it
won’t let you play unless you type in like, 5 names of people to go with
you on your wagon train. So I just typed in the first people that came
to my mind. Hmmm…..that might be worse.

And yes, they are camera pictures of my computer monitor again.

The other awesome thing is notice in the third picture the thief that
is stealing boxes of oxen.

And lastly, in the last picture, that’s how trading is on this game. I
needed a wagon wheel, because mine broke and I was unable to repair it.
But you can’t request things to trade for in this game! You just click ‘trade’.
And then someone offers you one random thing per day. So I sat there
for a year (on the game’s calendar) until someone finally offered me a
wagon wheel. Ya, it was boring.

So, that’s the documentation on what I’ve been listening to, doing, and U2.
Yep. U2 is so awesome, they allow you to be grammatically incorrect. It
has been a pretty sucky last 2 months. I’ve been in a car accident and had
two unrelated surgeries. So I’ve been stuck around the house for a good
portion of those two months to heal, and as my wife will tell you, I’m not
the best patient. I don’t do too well with not being able to just take off
and go places and do things. So I’m stuck at my computer, healing and
killing off members of U2 in my original Oregon Trail wagon train.

Oh, and by the way, for all you tech guys out there, I actually had to
download an Apple II simulator to play that Oregon Trail game.

Splendid. Kind of. I need to get out of the house.
Karl.

a) I could hopefully sell for the same price
b) I could hopefully sell for more than the price I paid so I could use the extra
cash to pay for the repair to my other amp
c) I had wanted to try out

So I ended up with this Vox AC15 handwired reissue.

I got it at Buffalo Brothers down in Carlsbad, which, incidentally, is a really
cool place. I had kind of forgotten about them because when I first went
there I was still playing a bright candy apple red Ovation and a deep black
BC Rich Mockingbird. Oh, ya. It was all about the metal and Yngwie Malmsteen.
It still deeply saddens me to this day. Which is possibly the reason I am such
a gear hound now…..I am trying to distance myself from my past musical
inclinations (read: metal is life) as far as I possibly can.

So, the price was totally right on this thing. They’re pretty new (they just
came out within the last 6-8 months) so with the price I paid, I can most
likely sell it for more than I paid for it.

Now, all I needed was a fairly warm-sounding tube amp to run my loops
through. So, as far as how it sounds live, it sounds perfectly fine. Nice and
warm, with a fairly low noise threshold. But, the real test was to play my
rig through it, and A/B it with the Holland. So….

The findings:

Tonally it’s very good. It honestly surprised me. See, Vox (now owned by
Korg) markets these as being handwired, but actual photos of the circuit
show that it’s a mix of handwired and printed circuit board. Kind of wierd.
Not just an eyelet board, it looks like there is some printed board wiring
going on in there. Probably cheaper. But the wiring looks pretty good anyway,
even though I’m no tech. At least the tubes aren’t wired onto the board. And
they are made in China. But it sounds very good. The EF86 channel probably
sounds the best and the most Voxy.

But the problem with this amp is that it sounds like rather than just building
the AC15 classic circuit, they added in some ‘tone circuitry’ that tries too hard
to emulate the jangly AC15 and AC30 sound. It’s a little bit fake to my ears.
It makes an otherwise really good sounding amp at low volumes really start
to thin out as you turn it up. It’s like, at low volumes it’s warm but not very
clear, and to get the clarity you have to turn it up higher. But then you also
lose some of the warmth.

It has a master cut control, which is actually very sensitive and does work
well to dial back in some of the warmth. And overall it’s a very tight sounding
amp….very little flab in the tone. But just a bit too thin and jangly for my
tastes.

The cab has 1 12 inch Celestion Alnico Blue, and the speaker does help the
amp a good deal. Gives it clarity and highs. For an amp like this, though,
maybe a speaker change would help it to be more warm. Although, that does
sound kind of funny, seeing as Vox were the ones to pioneer the Alnico Blues
originally, and they usually just kill in an AC15 or AC30 type amp.

So, it sounded much better than I expected, and it’s a very good sounding
amp. Upsides are the Alnico Blue speaker, EF86 preamp on two of the channels,
good cut control knob, tightness of the tone, and the ability to half power
switch to 7.5 watts if needed. Oh, ya, and I seriously love the Fawn color on
Vox amps and nothing can beat that classic Vox logo and grillcloth. But it fell
just slightly short of my standards for keeping, with the thin and jangly sound.

So, that’s the Vox review from the guy who’s far from an expert. Hopefully
this helps a bit.

Splendid.
Karl.

Here ya go!

Fourth place goes to:

(That strat second from the left has a killer finish. Although, I’m not so
much envious of this guy’s guitars as I am of where he lives. That’s like,
my lifelong dream to have that many guitars and live in a place that looks
like where Braveheart beat the English.)

Third place drum roll:

(Props for so many guitars and so much glamrock goodness…..and
Spiderman is definitely crawling towards me on the Les Paul in the front.)

Second place is:

(This was a total toss up between first and second place. The best part
about this picture is the three guitar ornaments hanging at the right middle
of the picture.)

And the grand prize:

(And that’s in his house. Let’s try to keep the saliva off the keyboards.

Licking the screen is fine, but the keyboard can’t be cleaned as easily.)

So, that’s it, ladies and gents. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief that
our gear problems aren’t that bad. And then, of course, we’ll realize that
now armed with these pictures, we can probably get away with a few more
guitars, and then just keep these pictures in our cases to whip out when
someone asks why we have so much gear. See? I’m providing a service to us all.