Marshall Vintage Modern amp head

I've always been one to try to find "value" in my musical instruments - trying to get good sound on the relative cheap.

When it comes to guitars and amps I have tended to buy and use used equipment whenever possible. For the first time in my life I'm actually stepping up and buying something really top notch with the Marshall Vintage Modern 50W amp head.

I was searching for tone, listening to samples/sounds coming from amps recorded all over the internet. I started off looking for a Fender Blues Deville amp with 4 10" speakers. I think I remember playing one in a store many years back remembering it as one of the best sounding amps I'd ever played. After listening to several clips though, I realized it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

So I kept doing web searches. I found amp demonstrations on Proguitarshop.com very helpful, as well as many others found on youtube and other outlets. I know it'd be best for me to go try to play all these amps myself - if I could find them - but I find most music stores are surprisingly bad places to audition amps given the noise levels. (Question: why not have better listening environments, and at least have a few tuned guitars if you're in the business of selling musical equipment?)

And I got to thinking about some of my favorite guitar sounds. There was an unsigned band named Ghotti who popped into my mind. The guitarist Ugo's tone, songwriting, and playing inspired me. He plays Marshalls. I'd always thought of Marshall amps as just too expensive, and in a strange way had considered Marshall amps too "elite" to consider playing. But they had that sound. And I knew so many rock bands I grew up listening to played Marshall's also. Maybe it wasn't all marketing.

Anyhow, after listening to lots of amps I was drawn more to the Marshall line, especially after hearing a demonstration of the Plexi model played by one of my favorites Eddie Van Halen in his early years. I kept listening and came across the Marshall Vintage Modern line of amps which was an attempt to create a line of amps with modern features but having the vintage sounds. So I found a seller on ebay and purchased a lightly used Vintage Modern 2266 50W amp head. I've never paid so much for an amp, but I'm hearing the dynamic touch sensitivity, aggressiveness and "aliveness" of sound that I'd been trying to get from other amps on the cheap - and "on-the-cheap" just wasn't cutting it for the tone I was going for. I'm looking forward to running the new amp through the paces when it arrives. And if all else fails, the used market for these seems strong.

Here's one sample video:

Bill Gates on education

Below is an advance quote of a Bill Gates letter to be released Monday at www.gatesfoundation.org (source is the NYTimes article by Nicholas Kristof)

“It is amazing how big a difference a great teacher makes versus an ineffective one,” Mr. Gates writes in his letter. “Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.”

I find this to be a very interesting conclusion drawn from his research efforts in education. Granted, my exposure educational change to has been limited, but my general impression is efforts have been made to standardize education - to standardize and make education into a standardized process - similar to running a franchise of McDonald's restaurants. Similarly, in my work there's always a push to find standardized off-the-shelf processes that can be deployed repeatedly and consistently.

This finding above that the individual teacher matters more than the process resonates with my experience. Administrative and managerial types fret over the "great person" models of success, whether its a good teacher or good employee who just seems to get things done, and try to shoe-horn activities into well defined processes that allow them to "plug-and-play" whenever employee turnover exists... but certainly in my experience it's the right people that really make things happen. That doesn't mean that great process doesn't go along with it - I'm a strong believer in process refinement and efficiency - but effective employees bring their own great processes along with them, not the other way around.

anyhow, just my attempt at reading between the lines for the day....

Sleepy dude

I don't know what it is, but I've turned into one sleepy dude. After I get home from work and have supper I sit down at my computer and have a tendency to flat-out fall asleep. Sometimes it's just for a couple of minutes, and sometimes I just catch my head falling down. And sometimes it's for extended periods... sitting upright in the chair with my head hanging there like a slack bobble-head. slobber dripping from the lower side of my slackjaw.

The odd sleepiness started 2-3 months ago when I got all out of sync and started taking naps after getting home from work - I think messing up my sleep cycle considerably. So far the best solution seems to be stand up while I'm doing stuff. I can't get my system to reset back to normal state at the moment though.

Bought some ebay stock

Haven't had much to post about in a while, but wanted to mention that I have stuck my toe back in the market waters with a small purchase of ebay stock. There's so many beaten down stocks right now, but at 9X earnings for a powerful franchise I figured this is a chance to pick it up on the cheap. In addition to the main site, I'd noticed that ebay's paypal is becoming a common payment method on many websites all over the net - and it's my preferred method of online payments. I don't know much about the prospect for their online phone skype, but I liked ebay in the 20s, so at 13 I just wanted to open a small position.

We'll see how it goes.

Anchorman

OK, so I'm watching a rerun of Will Ferrel as Ron Burgundy in Anchorman on TBS and this scene comes up. Cracked me up. It's worth repeating:

Work Ethic

I had Friday off of work and really enjoyed not going in. The more I think about it I could get used to not going into work - alot. Maybe all the time. Probably wouldn't even take me all that long to get used to a non-work routine. Kindof suits my natural tendencies.

Spent the day trying to record some loops into Ableton Live, a music software I'm learning a bit that seems to offer some very cool jamming opportunities.

Here's a little sample tune I was messing around with. Here's the download link if that works better.

Gandhi quote

I was reading a blog and came across this Gandhi quote regarding happiness. I've never really seen it put this way:

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Cool word for the day - Quintessence

I saw the word "quintessence" in a forum the other day... It was used completely incorrectly there - they meant coincidence but said their spell-checker lead them to quintessence instead - but nevertheless I thought "what a cool word" when I saw it.

Here's dictonary.com on on quintessence. there are lots of definitions given, but the common theme is one of "the purest and most concentrated essence of something."

Historically it seems to have roots as the 5th and essential element that permeates everything - after earth, air, fire, and water.

op-ed by Willaim Ayers

I found this interesting. The "Bill Ayers" from the political campaign - violent Vietnam war protester on relationship with Obama from the New York Times. It's the first comment I've seen from him.

From the op-ed:

There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.

President-elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn’t pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better.

For reference if interested: Here's Obama's website's statement on Ayers along with lots of press sources cited.

Jupiter and Venus

If you're like me, leaving work sortof zombified and staring up at the night sky as you walk out to your car in the dark, you've noticed these two really bright stars up in the sky. Turns out they're Venus and Jupiter and there's this very cool photo on astronomy pic of the day showing them with the moon actually passing in front.

Additionally, you've probably heard about the meteor that lit up the sky over Canada that was caught on film. Here's the video. Way cool.

Depression talk

Economic depression that is...

There's lots of discussion of the 1930s and the great depression as folks muster comparisons to the current economic situation. What I find interesting and don't quite "buy" is the conclusion that somehow a war is the way out of a depression.

I find it hard to understand how if we put all our efforts into a bombs that explode, into machines that destroy each other, into lives that are extinguished - that somehow all that destruction equals good news for the economy.

I guess essentially I'm questioning the statement repeated over and over that reinforces the view that war is good for the economy, and that WWII actually brought us out of the depression.

The Danger: If it is widely believed that war spending - or any kind of spending for that matter - produces economic benefits, then we're likely to not require spending to be tied to "productive" spending or spending that is expected to have positive economic benefits.

I can fill up canisters with gunpowder all day, and sell them to someone who blows them up at the end of the day - and I've created economic growth, but I haven't really produced anything. Similarly, I'm afraid we can bail out companies all day, we can cause alot of activity, but if they all disappear at the end of the day have we really produced anything? (or even worse - what if these hulking dying companies survive only to prolong a death whose time has come?)

I hope the large economic federal spending that we'll be injecting into the economy in the coming year or years tries to remain focused on "productive" outcomes. Whatever we spend it on, make sure it exists in a viable way at the end of the day. And I'm not necessarily sure I'm against large upheaval and turnover in the economy. Creative destruction can be good and often is necessary to clear the landscape for new ideas. The dinosaurs had to go before I could be here to write this. (and I'm not making a value judgment here - maybe the dinosaur's blog could've been far more interesting if he'd have survived instead).

Ableton screenshots

Here's my arrangement view. (note some of the loops don't end nicely at the end of the 8th bar due to where I punched in/out on the loop record - hope this isn't issue)



Here's my current session view. (note no loops showing in the scenes currently)




Here's where after positioning I think I can see what you're talking about, but maybe I need to upgrade so I'll have enough to scenes to make that work. It is pretty dang slick if it'll do that.

The year in movies - 2008

I'm not a big movie goer, but 2008 may have a set a theatre viewing record for me - 4 movies! I'm highly selective - so pay attention! This is movie news you can use!

Iron Man. Pretty good super hero movie - especially the first part. The end gets a bit crazy, but character development in this is better than you often get in these type films. It won't make you think, but it has it's moments.

Wall-E. This is a movie I actually wanted to go see based solely on the trailers. The movie is way-good. One of the better I've ever seen. Here's a post from earlier in the year.

Juno. I saw this movie this year, and I think I saw it in a theatre, so I'm counting it. A really good film. Off-balance but memorable for the quirky characters and qualities they have.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I really didn't know what was going on, but my wife wanted to go see this. Don't be surprised if you don't understand why everybody's fighting. (My theory: they needed an excuse for action scenes). I remember watching the cartoon version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was little and this is a sequel set many years later. It just didn't make any sense to me. My suggestion: watch a rerun of something else on cable instead.

Not seen in the theatre, but one more I'd like to see: I've asked my wife to request Tropic Thunder from Netflix. Seems hard to go wrong with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, and Jack Black.

So there you have it. That's pretty much all you need to know about movies over the past 12 months. Not much else worth mentioning from what I can tell.

Try this for a Chili recipe

Talked to my Dad and he said I needed to post some. I haven't had much to post about recently so I thought I'd put a chili recipe up. I made this for work the other day and at least some of the folks in the office ate it. It's a variation on my Mom's base recipe.

1 lb ground beef
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato soup
1 can black beans
(if you like more beans, add 2nd can of red kidney beans)
small can mushrooms
2 teaspoons of chili powder
couple stalks of diced celery if you have fresh, if not a healthy does of celery flakes will work. I like what celery does for chili
small diced onion
some shakes of crushed red pepper (the stuff you sprinkle on pizzas) for a little bite - suggestion from my Aunt Helen
spaghetti if you like spaghetti in your chili.
a shot or two of ketchup

I think that's about it...

Brown the hamburger, with the onions mixed in. Throw the mushrooms in too at this point if you have them (and celery also if you're using the celery stalks) and fry them up so they're softer.

When that's ready add the other stuff to the pot. When it starts bubbling, turn the heat to a lower setting and let it simmer for a while, maybe 30 minutes to an hour. If it's too thick add a bit of water.

That's pretty much it. Add some cheese and Zesta crackers and eat it. Maybe dunk in a grilled cheese sandwich or pimento cheese for accompaniment.