Music + Technology = Pete Lacis

This past weekend I had the priveledge to attend the Egnater amp building seminar outside of Detroit, MI. It was an amazing experience to build my own JTM 45 – inspired amp, let alone to learn about all of the theory behind how and why these things work. I was amazed at seemingly how few of the amp’s components actually let to it sounding like a Marshall, Fender, Vox, etc. The amp sounds great as is, but I’m psyched to get back under the hood and start some tweaking!

In related news, Premier Guitar Magazine’s Joe Coffey was in attendance to participate and document the class. Afterward he asked be to demo my completed amp (with my Suhr Standard). I just learned that the magazine decided to put that video up as a feature on their site! Check it out:

amplifiers, audio clips, music, musical instruments, pete lacis, technology amp building class, egnater, pete lacis, premier guitar magazine, suhr

I received an interesting lesson regarding free syndication of content today via Google Alerts. Apparently Blabbermouth.net chose to post some of my videos from my NAMM coverage. Fine, but not only did they not give any credit, they even posted my descriptions verbatim from my YouTube entries. I set the content up to be freely distributed in an effort to help spread the word about certain artists and manufacturers. That said, posting someone else’s content without citing a source or giving credit is totally wrong in my book.

music, musical instruments, technology blabbermouth.net, content, NAMM, pete lacis, videos, YouTube

While I’m still combing through all the footage, I’ve compiled a playlist on YouTube of some of my favorite Suhr Reb Beach moments from the show (c0nvention at Tone Merchants party).

amplifiers, music, musical instruments, musician NAMM, playlist, reb beach, suhr, tone merchants, YouTube

Highlights:

• Suhr Modern – new 24 fret model with new body shape, neck joint and neck carve – will own one!
• Suhr Badger 40 watt – with EL34′s  -  different “flavor” of the original badger – less chime, more midrange snarl – has a solid state rectifier (original Badger has tube recifier)
• Custom Audio Amplifiers – OD100 Standard and OD100 SE Plus – now I understand what all the fuss is about regarding the current version of the standard.  The SE Plus is certainly an improvement over the SE, put I think that the current standard suits my tastes better.  Still love my OD100 Classic Plus
• Scott Henderson playing in the Suhr sound booth.  That was a  treat!  Scott’s a cool, wacky dude.  He brought his Suhr SL100 and played that and a Maxon overdrive to get his sound.
• Reb Beach playing in the Suhr Booth.  He actually wound up using Scott Henderson’s amp for his demo.  Wild hearing those two players through exactly the same gear!  No surprises though in that Scott sounded like Scott and Reb sounded like Reb.
• Enjoyed hanging with John, Steve, Ed, Mike, Chris, Josh and Jarod.  These guys are up to something good.
• Soloway Swan – hung with Jim Soloway and got to play one of his Swan guitars at the Fargen booth.  Really cool long-scale guitar and great sounding amps.
• Tomo Fujita playing at the Fuchs booth.  Always a treat to see Tomo.  Need to spend more time at that both on Friday.
• Tim Pierce at the Anderson Guitarworks booth. In speaking with Tim, he revealed the fact that he owns 60 guitars and really doesn’t know what woods are in which guitars.  He doesn’t even think about that.  He just grabs some guitars when he’s working on a project and sees what works.  That surprised me!
• Anderson has a new “thicker” version of the Atom.  Looked beautiful.  Hope to play it tomorrow.
• Alleva Copolla Guitars – Jimmy Copolla has a beautiful display of his fine craftsmanship.  Expect to do a video interview with him tomorrow as well.  His bass pickups are sick.
• Diamond Amplification – never tried the amps but the girls were ridiculous.
• Paul Reed Smith – saw David Grissom, the DGT and the new McCarty II.  Not quite sure that its all about (PRS booth not demo friendly).  Their product line appeared somewhat scaled back.  Did get to hear a bit of Johnny Hiland.  That guy smokes!
• Marshall Randy Rhodes limited edition amp.  Looks cool, never got to hear it.
• Ernie Ball Music Man – nice representation of existing line.  Nothing new other than nice display of Family Reserve guitars.
• Saw lots of seemingly foreign vendors.  Most looked unhappy that their booths were empty.  Saw one guy asleep in his booth – his product was a PA speaker that you could slide a pull-out car radio into.  I think that product might be about a decade too late.
• Tone Merchants showcase and jam – Jose Decastro, Robert Marcello, Guthrie Govan and Reb Beach.  Each were amazing in their own right.  Jam with all the above plus Nick Sterling was total fun!  Got to hang with all of them – good times!

I have an extensive amount of video from the day and the Tone Merchants show that I’ll edit an post once I’m back in the office.

amplifiers, music, musical instruments blog, coverage, guthrie govan, january 17, NAMM, NAMM show, pete lacis, reb beach, suhr, suhr guitars, tone merchants

Today marks the beginning of coverage of Winter NAMM 2008.  Stay tuned for all the latest and greatest news.  Quick updates will be posted via Twitter  with daily wrap-up articles posted here, complete with photos and video.  Stay tuned!

musical instruments, technology blog, coverage, NAMM, NAMM show, pete lacis

Well, this isn’t the first self-tuning system to be available to the public, but its the first made available from a major guitar manufacturer. Since Gibson and Fender are essentially the GM and Ford of the guitar industry, I’m quite skeptical as to the level of quality made available through these mass producers. Then again, after many years of searching for a quality Les Paul I did purchase a 1960 VOS Les Paul Standard within the past year and absolutely love the instrument. I’ll reserve my opinion to when I actually have one in my hands.

Source: Engadget

music, musical instruments, musician, pete lacis, technology Gibson, les paul, self-tuning

After about a month in the shop, I received my newly modded Custom Audio Amplifiers OD100 Classic Plus (+). This is actually the third time this amp has been modded (was originally an OD100 Standard, then SE, now Classic Plus).

My first impressions on this amp are as follows: the character of the gain is still 100% Suhr. It lives in the same family as the SE version of the OD100, however through the conversion to the plexi transformer and the EL34′s some things have really changed.

Normally I would associate sustain with compression. The SE was pretty compressed, but only in boost mode, IMO. The CAA Classic Plus is a much easier to play amp. Notes just seem to sustain without sounding compressed. Everything just oozes out of this amp while still retaining the sound of the guitar/pickup. That’s how John’s described the amp and that’s why I went with this version. So far, I’m totally digging the change.

Special note should be mentioned about the DEPTH and FEEBACK controls. The tonal shaping that can happen as a result of these additions is really something else. If you want to have that “rounded” Dumble style tone, you can roll off the Feedback entirely.

One other thing that should be mentioned is that this is the first of the OD100 series where I feel the amp works equally well for single coils and humbuckers. That, to me, is one of the best parts of this amp. I just works!

Here’s a little sample of what the amp sounds like:

http://www.petelacis.com/clips/od100classicplus.mp3

Custom Audio Amplification OD100 Classic Plus through CAA 1×12 Eminence Governor mic’d with a SM57 just off center. Guitar is a stock Gibson Les Paul VOS 1960.

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