Vintage Amps Forum

Jensen® Loudspeakers News Release January 2012

plexi — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:55:40 +0000

Jensen® Announces New Website

Jensen® Musical Instrument Speakers is pleased to announce the launch of their updated, more current new website - www.jensentone.com

Musicians are always looking for their true personal tone, and may spend a lifetime trying to find it. There are many ways to alter tone. Changing the speakers in your amp can alter your tone more then any other modification, bringing new life to your amplifier. You may find it so easy you will even want to change your speakers based on the type of music, gig or venue you are playing. By changing your speakers, you can make your sound similar to your favorite player or you can experiment and create your own tone.

Jensen’s new website has many tools to help you determine what speaker is right for you - the Tone Generator, the Tone Chart, sound samples, speaker reviews and videos.

Deciding which speaker to use can be a complex decision. Simplify it by using the tools at jensentone.com

The Forum is back up and running!!!

plexi — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 21:35:18 +0000

We were down for 5 days but we are now back up and running! The upgrades were successful and the board is running smooth and faster then ever. Thanks for your patience.

Victor

Basic Electric Guitar Circuits (Potentiometers and Tone Capacitors) by Kurt Prange

plexi — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:45:40 +0000

Why You Need an Intersample Meter When Mastering by: Victor Mason

plexi — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:28:44 +0000

Your mix is done but a “digital bug” lays dormant waiting to be unleashed on the listener. Unless you have taken the steps needed to check for them, odds are against you that you have them and probably don’t even know it. You’re not alone, the vast majority of commercial mixes are laden with them. What is this Bug? It’s called intersample peaks, and they are present on most mixes, yet they are chronically overlooked by many engineers. Let me explain.

Setting your Levels in the Mixer

With great tools of all sorts at our fingertips, we have a massive selection to choose from when setting up the mix on our DAWs. We use these quite often to enhance and create definition in our tracks, all competing for a space in the mix and to be heard clearly. To aid in this effort, as a good rule of thumb, channel strip levels should be kept as low as possible, between -12 and -6 dB at the most. This leaves headroom to work with during the mix for the mastering engineer, or when you’ve arrived at the mastering stage to be preformed by yourself. Mastering is the final stage where your mix is complete, gets the polish or treatment to give your mix a commercial quality for your given market, be it television, film, radio or CD pressing. Even MP3 uploads need consideration since they too have their own challenges, one of which is they very often bounce out hot and are played back off the web hot.

Continue Reading ——->

Victor Mason, Mojave™ Ampworks LLC visiting Jason Bonham, Joe Banamassa

plexi — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 01:19:28 +0000

Very Glad to have attended one of the first of a few new shows with a new band, Black Country Communion. The show was at Grove City Theater in Anaheim. Everyone was in great spirits and sounded terrific.

Mojave™ Ampworks LLC's Victor Mason, and Craig Tathwell both pictured on either side of Jason Bonham after the show for Black Country Communion

Review: Amplitube 3 by IK Multimedia: Get Great Bass Guitar in Your DAW by: Victor Mason

plexi — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:16:29 +0000

Trying to get that “Most High” Bass Guitar tone hasn’t always been the easiest feat for me over the years, especially since I use a Midi keyboard for my Bass Guitar sounds. Luckily I’ve been graced with IK’s Ampeg line of bass modules, you will be floored at how very good these sound. The New Custom Shop AmpliTube 3 is some serious bang for the buck as they say. In fact, you can’t do better since, as of the time of this review, the MIDI 101, Midi demystified by Peter Schwartz. And learn more about the EXS24 with Logic 102, Exploring the EXS24 by David Dvorin. Now, I used the EXS24 to create a bass guitar triggered by my Midi keyboard. I chose a factory setting, Liverpool Bass. This is a very un-colored bass sound but it does sound like a guitar, as is should. Just to be safe, I lowered the output form the EXS24 to -17 db, and removed the compressor and EQ from within the channel strip that normally comes included as part of the channel strip setting. Click here to Read More

Guitar Hands Cleanser Review by: Victor Mason

plexi — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:39:45 +0000

Guitar Player Hands

True Life trial using the “Guitar Hands®” lotion.

So you think this will be boring? NOT.

To cut to the quick, this product is ideal for end users who pick up a guitar or bass instrument. Guitar Hands® is a very interesting product. There are several ways you can approach playing guitar. One is, you don’t care what your hands look like and don’t care if there is oily dirt on them, your guitar probably looks the part. I’ve seen it a hundreds times. Not only is the fret board disgusting, the tone of the instrument always suffers as does the tuning. If the gunk is like a snotty tar that coats your strings and fret board, it stands to reason it will dampen the sound resonance of the fret board. All things considered, that is the wrong way to handle your ax and your hands, not to mention poor hygiene.

Next, use clean hands and keep your instrument clean as well. Good idea, Excellent for tone and keeping the guitar clean. Tough on hand skin. As with all skin, if you wash them often (as I have grown accustom to doing) your dealing with some really dry skin. so if you bother to even try using hand lotion, your back to a sticky surface when you pick up your guitar. Not the right idea. One way around it is to use talcum power. That works but it looks like your a gymnast. Your instrument is always power white and if you thought you had dry skin now, don’t dare rub your hands together or they are liable to catch on fire!

Ok, here comes the Guitar Hands® Lotion. This is a unique product created by a one Doctor Randy Jacobs. Dr. Jacobs is a guitar player. He is also a Dermatologist. Great, fix my hands and help me keep the guitar clean!

That’s the result if your trying to do both. Dr. Randy Jacobs had created a lotion especially for guitar players. Here is the low down. Your hands are clean, you put the lotion on and rub it in. Wipe off excess with a dry towel. Wait 3 mins if that, your hands are now in great condition skin wise, but even better, they are dry and slippery like you wouldn’t believe. Think Grizwald sliding down the mountain with his new teflon coating on the bottom of his sled. Yep, lightening fast and no gunk on the guitar. Very cool. More over, you hands look healthy, your calluses are strong and do not peel. Your hands stay in great condition, while your playing is easy without the typical resistance.

I find this product to work especially well with Lacquer based guitars. Lacquer is tacky if your hands build up any sweat. Guitar Hands® seal your skin so this is not a problem. The skin cleanser as it is refereed to, does something I cannot explain other then to refer you to Dr Jacobs website, www.GuitarHandsLotion.com where Dr. Jacobs explains things well in detail.

So, in conclusion, this stuff in the bomb. I STRONGLY recommend this product as I have used it for a month, and the results are tremendous for a seasoned player, helpful for a beginner needing to prevent skin from tearing while building up calluses and finally, your guitar stays very clean and sound better without that build up if you had not used this product. One final comment, I found myself using this product when I do not play the guitar. It really is great for making your skin healthy but without residue. I can promise, it is a real trip to put a lotion on, wipe it off and your hands are dry and super slick. Really cool and great for those who are in dry climates or just dry skinned.

For you swamp hand players, this is your one chance to stop spreading the swamp. clean your guitar, clean your hands and apply Guitar Hands® lotion. Wipe off excess and you can now pick up the guitar, (yours or a friends) and not leave behind a slimy sticky swamp mess. NICE.

Guitar Hands® Hand Care is three hand care products in one, and is specially designed for the hand care needs of guitar and bass players: A. It cleanses. B. It moisturizes / conditions. C. It decreases friction

Check it out

www.GuitarHandsLotion.com

Until Next time.

Victor Mason

Phase Correction Using Logic’s Sample Delay Plug-In by: Victor Mason

plexi — Wed, 04 May 2011 02:32:10 +0000

Article I wrote for Mac Pro Video.

A while back I was wrestling with trying to correct phase for my microphone set up. The microphones all had a different distance between one mic to another. This would not have been such a big deal with only two mics, but I have 5 microphones in use. That tends to “complicate” things, just a little bit. The end result is, if you have more then one mic and they are not in exactly the same position, you’re most likely going to experience some phase distortion. The farther apart your microphones, the more time lag and thus more phase distortion.

New Kit from ModTM Kits DIY, the ThunderDrive

plexi — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:20:19 +0000

The ThunderDrive is an overdrive pedal kit that provides a strong clean signal

boost in the early gain settings and smooth distortion at maximum gain settings.

Adjusting volume and gain controls provides a wide variety of tones in spite of its

simple construction. It is capable of overdriving the preamp section of your guitar

amp or adding its own layer of distortion at lower volume. The current draw of

this pedal is very low at 1.3 milliamps, allowing for long battery life.

MODTM Kits are designed to give novice and experienced musicians the

opportunity to build their own amps and effects pedals. All kits come with easy to

follow instructions and use point-to-point wiring. A pre-drilled enclosure and all

parts are included. All you need to provide are hand tools, a soldering iron and

solder. The effect pedals operate on a 9V battery; for a longer lasting option, a

9-volt adapter can be purchased separately.

For a complete listing of kits available from MODTM Kits DIY visit

www.modkitsdiy.com

Mastering for the Masses by: Victor Mason

plexi — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:28:40 +0000

Using the T-Racks Stand Alone Plug-ins without Mastering experience.

Mastering. The post production phase where a completed mixed down track or CD album is treated through a processes performed by a “Mastering Engineer”. The Mastering Engineer readies the mix for wide scale reproduction and or broadcast.

Less Is More!

Mastering is a bit of an elusive art since it’s typically done without the artist or mixing engineer present at the time of post production. Mastering is also a phase of the production cycle where the term “Less is More” is the gold standard. Check out Logic 401: Logic’s Mastering Toolbox, by Steve Horelick for an up close and thorough understanding of what “Mastering” really means.

In layman’s terms, the mastering of your final work, after the finished mix is completed is the final Polish. You may be asking yourself at this point, why did I just say “finished mix” is completed and “Final Polish” in the same sentence. Isn’t the final completed Mix just that, the Polish so to speak? Well I asked my long time friend and colleague Steve Ouimette that same question. I got some surprising answers. The first answer was that “the Mastering Engineer makes the mix just feel right”. He actually said “they impart a kind of magic to the mix where you can A/B the mix with and without a mastering treatment and feel the difference as well as hear it.”

What if your not able to send your work to a “Mastering Engineer” , basically, you’re on your own. Steve told me, he does his own mastering quite often. To accomplish the task Steve uses the IK Multimedia T-RackS Mastering suit. According to Ouimette, “T’RackS is “an amazing tool” which he uses in just about every mix.