TUBE AMP CORNER
O bla Di Oh Bla da
David Brand G-manmusic Dec2001
Copyright 2001 - Cosmic Debris Musicians Magazine
Lots of changes. That's what the past couple of months have seen. As I am writing this we have lost our
second Beatle. The world is drawn into war and fear and uncertainty are on the horizon yet here on our
little island we are so far removed from these events and places it all seems vague and unreal.
O bla Di Oh Bla da Life goes on. So it goes.
A few weeks ago I went to the Queens to see the final show of Citizen Strange. Aaron Grant opened more
zany then ever, followed by Vancouver band Catapult. I enjoyed both act 's Catapult has a good stage
show good tunes and knew how to rock. However most of the audience were there for Strange.
For me it was sad event, these guys had been together a while and have some damn good songs.
I don't think I ever heard them sound better than that last show. The main reason for the split was
Ryan McMahon's desire to take his music in a new direction, good luck to all of you.
You can check out Ryan solo in Ladysmith on the 23rd of December at the Aggie in Ladysmith.
Chaos to Catalsyt I'm not Frank and Focus will round out the show.
One of the new Groove tubes that I checked out lately is the GT KT66. This tube is a replacement for
6L6, 5881 or KT66 used in Fender amps and early Marshall JTM 45 amps. The claim that these tubes are
about thirty Percent more powerful was easy to hear when plugged into my 64 Bassman head. At 5 on the
volume I had that American Woman singing sustain. Only trouble with these baby's is the size,
I had to whittle a little wood so they were comfy.
If you are thinking that your amps distortion is a little on the harsh side you may want to check your
preamp tubes to see if they have gone microphonic. If you tap on the tube and hear kind of a boink or
echo than chances are its microphonic. What has happened is that some of the internal elements of the
tube are vibrating. Replacement with a new tube usually cures that problem. Two different Marshall
amps this month with similar problems. One a JTM 30 and the other a JCM800 would fade out and lose
volume. One problem two different causes. In the first case the bridge rectifier supplying the
filament circuit had was intermittent so the preamp circuit would lose its poop. In the second case a
switching fault occurred so that the amp kept trying to change channels and was stuck on the
distortion channel most of the time. Both amps left happy and hopefully will stay that way.
Oh yeah, I have moved. My apologies to anyone who has tried in the last month to find the G-man.
Moving combined with a virus on my web sites server left me incommunicado.
New phone number 250-7227396 new email g-manmusic@shaw.ca
Website: www.g-manmusic.com
Back To Tube Amp Corner
Website by: Guy Langlois - Webmeister/Publisher Cosmic Debris, 610 Lambert Ave, Nanaimo, BC, V9R 3N8