For All These

I was in Ephrata, PA yesterday and had 1/2 hour between meetings so I pulled up Craigslist to see if there was anything in the area. Sure enough, there was a Peavey Rockmaster head for sale so I went to see it afterwards.

The seller was a really cool guy. Had tons of gear and basically had the PV sitting there for a while not being used. When he got it, he had it retubed with a quad, matched set of Groove Tube 6L6’s and three Groove Tube 12AX7’s. The tubes had about ten hours on them.

Here are some details on the amp:

- Single channel but with switchable gain levels on that channel (maybe like a Super Sonic?)
- 120 watts into 4 ohms. The amp has an additional output and the transformer can actually handle 2 ohms. It says 4 ohms minimum and I’ve read a lot that guys play these things through 8 ohms with great results.
- Effects loop (the guy didn’t realize that it had one. He told me it didn’t)
- Lots of tone options like bright, smooth and thick, all of which can be used together.
- presence control (important to me)
- ground lift and also a hum balance pot in the back
- MASSIVE iron. Its not a light head, that’s for sure. However, its narrower than a standard head that goes with a 4×12.

I’ve been playing it all morning and it sounds incredible. With adjustments it does Fender and Marshall very well. It’s not a high gain amp. They actually call it the Vintage Series so its not modern voiced (which is good for my tastes)

The crunch is amazing. Cleans are huge. I mean, really huge.

The only issue (which the seller showed me when I tried it out) is that the high input might have a bad resistor because its not working. The low works fine. I’m going to call Peavey on Monday and see if they can walk me through a possible fix.

Already took out the chassis because I’m going to clean the (awful) tolex/bedliner stuff they use. I will eventually change the tolex.

…since my last post.  And with good reason.

A year ago, I posted about the signs that are all around us.  Signs that point to the End Times which we are most definitely in.  It’s quite apparent that these times are as scripture said.  Examples most recently would be the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.  Unprecedented disaster falls upon a nation in natural form and then, a nuclear disaster follows with the (still unstable) reactors spewing deadly material into the air and ocean.  Material that will not go away in any of our lifetimes.

There has been persecution and martyrdom among Christians in many parts of the world.  Again, these are things the Lord prepared us for before He ascended to Heaven.

The other night, we went to the home of our dear friends for a fantastic meal.  Their parents and siblings were there and all our kids enjoyed time together.  My wife and I look at these people as family because they love us and we love them.

As we were enjoying each others’ company, I couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling of sadness that entered my heart.  You see, these folks are of the Jewish faith and scripture says that the only way to the Father is through Jesus.  I couldn’t help but imagine the result of their lack of belief.  I spoke to a buddy of mine in Texas afterwards and came to the realization that God is not done with Israel, and He is not done with His people.  I believe there will be massive changes in Israel that are direct intervention by God and that this will result in huge numbers of Jews to finally accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I pray that this happens soon because these people have souls that I want to be with when I’m in the presence of God.

Great example of God being greater than, well, everything!!!

I find that building stuff (sometimes) gives me a sense of great accomplishment and satisfaction.  Other times, it makes me want to go and buy the dang thing and just be done with it.

I’ve built a few guitar cabs in my time.  All of them I’ve tolexed except for one that I covered in canvas and then painted orange.  Not one of my greatest accomplishments.

So I had recently purchased an Egnater Rebel-20 amplifier from a friend of mine in Texas and had tried to decide what kind of cab I wanted to go with it.  Egnater makes a killer amp and a really nice 12″ cab (which I will end up getting eventually) but I wanted to see what I could do on my own.  So I had a 10″ Eminence Ragin’ Cajun speaker that I recently purchased for another project and decided to build a cab around it.

The cabinet had to somehow complement the blonde/black design of the Rebel-20 so I thought what better than a nice knotty pine look.  I picked up some 3/4″ pine from the local HD and got to work.  Used blind screws throughout the interior and also hurricane nuts for the baffle and even for the jack plate.  (Reason being is that the cabinet is sealed tighter than a drum and at high sound pressure levels, standard wood screws might eventually pull).

Anyway, here’s my creation.  Not perfect by any means but after a few worship services, a few gigs, it’s gonna build some road wear and mojo.  (Still need to put a handle on it and the grill cloth, both of which will be black.)

So many of us are afraid to “offend” others who have beliefs that differ from our own.  Well, prepare to be offended because your life literally depends upon it.

No matter what you tell yourself, there is a battle being fought right this very instance in competition for your soul.  You may not feel it or see it, but it is happening.  But where is the basis of all this?

In the beginning of time, God created us.  He did this because of His desire to have a companion, one who would be created in His image.  So He created Adam.  Then Eve.  I won’t go too deep into the details as they are found in the book of Genesis.

Now, He created us as such that translated into the most loving possible way.  He created us to have the ability to make choices.  Think about that for a moment.  Choices.  Our ability to choose, decide, reason is what determines our humanity.  We don’t act solely on instinct like animals do.  We make decisions, whether that decision is to simply get out of bed and go to work or to decide to drink too much at the bar and then drive home.  God did this because He didn’t want a bunch of robots who were programmed to love Him.  His greatest desire is for us to CHOOSE to love and follow Him.

As humans with choice, and as our original representatives, Adam and his wife, Eve, chose to disobey God.  They chose to listen to the tempting, cunning words of Satan rather than the simple direction of God. 

Before this happened, the earth was a paradise of unspeakable beauty and perfection.  Nothing died, nothing decayed, things didn’t wear out and there was no pain of any kind.  God created this for His companions.  When they decided to disobey Him, He responded.  Not with rage or harsh anger, but rather with a lesson, like a good Dad would do.  He actually allowed Adam and Eve to “have it their way” by now knowing all of the things of an imperfect earth.  They now felt shame, they understood pain and understood exhaustion in work.  As descendants, we also know these things in this now imperfect world.  A world where Satan is now reigning because he was allowed to enter.

—————————

Jesus Christ : God Shows Ultimate Love

In the many generations after Adam and Eve, the earth knew a tremendous amount of disobedience towards God.  In fact, throughout the Old Testament, you can easily understand the heart of God and how His patience is constantly tested by His people.  Finally, He fulfills His plan to intervene, literally, in the flesh by taking on a human presence as Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  Oh, you may be confused as to how God can be God but also be Jesus??? God is not limited to a single existence.  In fact, He exists as Father, Son and as the Holy Spirit. (I’ll get into this in a later blog).

Think about it.  God literally showed Himself to us in Jesus Christ so that we His people would finally come to have the relationship we were designed to have.  Some believed, some did not.  Choices.

In fact, He went the next, ultimate step which was to allow Himself to be killed by crucifixion in order to pay for every one of our sins.  Think about that level, that desire to show us His absolute love.  We as humans don’t genuinely have the ability to grasp that intensity, but by design, that shows us.  Then, He showed us, by accepting His gift of love and following Him, the wonderful mercy that follows our time here by raising from the grave.  We as followers of Jesus Christ are guaranteed real life, new life after our earthly bodies die and that life is eternity, praising and being in the presence of God.

In the presence of God.

Now, Jesus stated that He is going to return to earth so that He can harvest all of His followers.  Why wait?  Simply put, again, in His incredible mercy, God is giving us yet more chances to finally have that relationship with Him.  He’s giving us time and our job as Christ Followers is to help as many of His people as we can to understand this.  He even gave us hints as to what will happen before He returns.  Imagine that, HINTS!!!  It’s shown in the Bible.  And there are many.  Frequency of earthquakes, the formation of the nation of Israel, increases in knowledge and communication, increase of false teachers/prophets…

There are more.  Read the Book of Revelation.  Seriously, read it.  I promise, reading it won’t kill you.  Not reading it will.

—————————

Timing.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE who claims to know, predict, envision, etc. when Jesus Christ will return is a complete liar and may in fact be working for Satan, either knowingly or unknowingly.  The Bible states, very clearly, that ONLY the Father (God) knows when this will happen. 

I do know that I will not ignore what the Word of God says and I also don’t believe in coincidence.  There are no coincidences.

There are signs that even non-believers are questioning.  There is an alarming increase in people following false teachings like Islam and Buddhism.  Why?  Because there’s a battle going on for your soul.  Satan is your enemy and he will use whatever he can in order to keep you away from accepting Jesus Christ of Nazareth as your Lord, your Savior.

Yep, I know I’ve offended and probably angered people with this.  I fear NOTHING because I am protected.  I have the full armor of God.

It’s pretty simple.  Not only in words but in your heart, simply tell Him.  Tell God that you accept the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you genuinely are allowing Him in to guide your life.

By making that committment and by MEANING it, you have received the gift of salvation.

Nothing else is gonna get you there.

God bless you for completing this post.  I’m praying for you.

When you find YOUR amp, things just seem right.  Thankfully I found the Laney VC30 212.

My VC30 212 was manufactured in 2006 in the UK (where I believe they are all made).

This is a very versatile amp in that you can really do a ton of different things with both the clean and drive channels.  It can serve well as both an acoustic and electric gtr amp.  I’m using mine with a Fender Stratocaster, single coils.  As well, I’m using a Line 6 M13 stomp in the front end input (non effects loop). This setup works well and the amp handles the M13 signal beautifully.

The power of this amp is more than anyone would ever need, including those who play arenas.  It’s 30 watts of class A power (meaning, there’s absolutely no tube sag… the power section is always “hot” or “on” so what you play automatically comes through as signal).  Many amps are A/B or “push pull” design which is simply a property of their specific architecture and they have a different “feel” than class A.  I particularly enjoy class A architecture because I tend to use a lot of time based effects.

Preamp section is as follows:  Valve 1 is you main input signal (and your clean channel).  Valve 2 is your drive channel and Valve 3 is the phase inverter.  All three of these valves are 12AX7’s.

Power stage is made up of EL84’s (four of them).  There’s so much power on tap that you’re going to stay clean for a long time on that normal channel.

One issue I’ve had with other valve amps in the 30 watt range has been their incredibly touchy volume control.  The Peavey Classic 30 and the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe would go from silent to loud, all within the first notch on the volume knob.  This amp has a more gradual volume control so it’s well managed.

The only issue I have with the amp is the effects loop.  It’s a parallel loop which basically means that not all of the signal is hitting the loop.  Rather, it’s taking some of the signal and applying it to the loop and the balance of the signal is directed to the speakers.  The result is that when using the 4 cable method, coupled with delay effects, there’s a phasing issue with the signal.  It’s enough to where I won’t use it.  Tus, going straight to the input (which isn’t bad at all but IMO, a parallel effects loop is a design flaw).

The VC30 212 has quite possibly the perfect tone for my needs.  There have been may who say that this amp is a “knockoff” of the Vox AC30 but I disagree.  True, it’s very similar in design and in some ways, tone, but the VC30 stands on its own.  Such a beautiful, clear full clean tone and a wonderful, gritty but not harsh drive tone.  Everywhere in between, the amp gives me a lot of variables and, coupled with headroom, there’s not a lot more I could ask for.

Standard Accutronics spring reverb that has a great range and is never mushy.  Again, useful on all counts.

I’ve been through a lot of amps recently and without question, there is nothing better than the VC30.  Again, I like a lot of clean headroom and clarity and this amp provides it but with a warmth than you can only get from a quality tube amp. 

The drivers are Celestion Seventy 80’s and are well voiced for this amp. 

After taking a look inside the chassis, I found that there is a combination of PCB and point-to-point wiring, which was a nice surprise.  The most inportant aspect of the wiring IMO, which is the valve sockets, were entirely point to point hand wired. 

The cabinet is very solid, not too heavy for a 2×12 tube combo.  Overall, I’m extremely confident that this amp is durable.  The back panel has a thick cage to protect the tubes and speakers.

As for support, I’ve found that the value of a product also sits with the support from the manufacturer.  I’ve asked questions and Laney reps in the UK have always answered within 24 hours.

These are not inexpensive amps and they’re not exactly easy to find on the used market.  However, if you can get your hands on one, it’s a worthy purchase.

If anything ever happened to it, I’d replace it with the exact same amp.  Not something I can say about a lot of other pieces of gear I’ve owned.

Joe Faraldi
http://joe.faraldi.com

As the proud owner of the new Apogee ONE converter, I got a little inspired and recorded “14th Street”.

Quick story behind the vibe here…

Growing up in the shadow of NYC, we would try to get over there as much as we could in order to simply “do the New York thing”.  So, when my friend Dave got his license at 17, we started making fairly regular trips across the bridge… just to try to get in clubs that always kicked us out, or to simply hang with the natives.

Because of the fact we didn’t really have believable I.D.’s we spent more time outside than inside.  Somehow on one of these nights we migrated downtown to the west side, over by the meat packing district and quickly found out that pretty much all of the small bodegas didn’t really give a damn about selling us beer.  So we’d ret our regular buzz going with Grolsch (with those cool ceramic bottle caps).  Two for each of us in brown paper bags and we’re golden.

Some nights, we’d hang with the prostitutes, admittedly in the hopes of… well, hey we were teenagers with beer.  It got to be that some of these girls were really cool and a couple of them would give a big smile when we’d visit.  (oh, and now we realize that some of them just HAD to be dudes.  All I can say is thank God we never found out for sure.  May have never recovered from that.)  I look back now and think we probably dodged a few bullets back then, but the experience, the environment, the sounds and the people stuck in my mind.  ”14th Street” lays down those days in music.  Enjoy.

This is an instrumental track that I recorded using my Epiphone AJ200SCE acoustic through a condenser mic into GarageBand.  The only added effect is a bit of reverb on the second guitar track.

Kind of a Latin feel.  If you’re wondering, Il Sangue means “The Blood”  Enjoy and let me know your thoughts.

Saturday morning with Sofia.  She’s made for the camera!!

I knew this day would come.  Thank God I’m still here to see it.

I hit 40 in June last year and have always had an issue with not only weight, but being out of shape as compared to when I was at Marist.  Many folks blame “getting married” and “getting comfortable” as the reason and that might be true.  However, when it comes right down to it, the body is a temple and the Lord exists there so it should be taken care of.

That said, I always tried things like lo-carb which would work for a while but they didn’t have any staying power.  So last week, I downloaded a free calorie counting app on my iPod Touch called MyFitnessPal.  After going through it and then finding out that it had a site (duh) I started using it.  To my surprise, it’s been fantastic.

Also got some good advice from some new friends on TDPRI who have done similar things (or are DOING similar things) which has been cool.  So here’s where I stand right now…

• Daily calorie allowance:  1680
• Daily water requirement:  8 glasses
• Current weight: 271 (I’m 5′10″.  A friend of mine thought I was 200lbs.  I hide it well)

I will continue to update as I go.  Best part about it is that my love Ally, my sis-in-law Kim, bro-in-law Dennis have all joined.  Peace! (and put down the ring ding!)