GEAR

I love valve amps. Look at the pictures to know what I am babbling on about below...

Marshall 1987X 50w Plexi Re-issue - Current Family

After playing my Ceriatone Plexi for so many years this Marshall is like a breath of fresh air. It is a one-trick pony, but when I plug it in, that famous 'chiming' Marshall Plexi tone is instantly there. I crank it up and it distorts and sings. I control the output level with my send level control on my Intelliflex so I do not blow my head off. I use a Fender Malmsteen pedal or my Maxon OD to melt things.

Marshall 1987X 50w Plexi Re-issue

Engl Blackmore 100w Amp - Current Family

If you ever want a failed example of buying something on ebay without trying it out, then this is it. I plugged it in and it did not work. I contacted the private seller, but as I had not paid with PayPal I could not get my money back. eBay has no legal obligations in such a sale. eBay does nothing for you unless you buy per PayPal. It proved to have some very unpleasant issues and in the end it was repaired in a very expensive professional repair shop. I even spent a small fortune on a new badge and a fullscale pedal board. However, it turned out not to be what I thought the sound would be.

Engl Blackmore 100w Amp

Jet City 333 H100 - Current Family

This cheap China amp produces a lovely warm harmony-rich distortion, like the F.U.C.K van Halen sound. It is the 2nd JC amp I have had (a long story). It has a clean channel, but forget that, the Soldano gain channel is what we want. I play a note and it bleeds with that glorious harmony-rich Soldano-compression. With the the Maxon o/d pedal this Hong Kong Swinger is even wilder!

Jet City 333 H100

Honest note: although these amps sound really good, some of the parts inside are absolute cheap shit e.g. the loudspeaker sockets are crap. The power lamp on the front is not reliable enough even for one day on your xmas tree... Mine has stopped working and there is no replacement part for it in the EU. Great...

Ceriatone 1987 Plexi (sold)

My bad boy or bad decision. I bought my Ceriatone 1987 Plexi to get an authentic looking and sounding old Marshall for Cheap Turtle. I built the head cabinet myself. The Marshall 'Greenback' box looked perfect for 'old vintage' vibe. This 'fake' bad boy was a champ over the years. Ok. the power tansformer blew at one point, but Bernd replaced it. However an amp does not always sound good just because it is loud, and it was loud. I fought for years to get a usable good distortion sound with 1001 overdrives and I gave up. I settled on a Vox Satchurator pedal as it covers everything in a live situation very well, especially when cleaning up with the volume control. I finally sold both amp and pedal in 2019 (because I do not need a loud Marshall - mark this spot...) and I went out and got a real Marshall Plexi (???), which had all the sex, magik and glory instantly. Damm! I wish I had just paid the difference and bought the Marshall back in those days...

Ceriatone 1987 Plexi Clone

Marshall 100 Watt DSL 2000 (sold)

This 2000 amp model is still very modern sounding today. I used my Maxon OD808 to get it to sing as they were never a truly responsive amp. I played this a lot live and it was always spot on. The only gripe I had was the original pcb boards had an over-heating issue with BIAS when the material became older and brittle. They would carry a runaway voltage across the tubes and burn out. The fix was either to drill holes and pass insulated wires thru them to re-route the current (yep, a hole is a good non-conductor of heat and voltage...) or order a replacement pcb-board, which in just a few years, would go down the same path...

One day my tubes started playing up and arcing. This insider knowledge must have plagued me so much, that I sold mine for a stupid loss, and then immediately regretted it.

Peavey I 5150 (sold)

My 5150 was the King of harmony-rich distortion. Wonderful overtones. However, one of the aged pcb boards burnt out and Peavey could not deliver for 4 months. In this time I needed to get another amp and once this was working again it was sold. I still have a twinge of regret. My dear old mother smuggled this into Holland to me in a Dutch flower transporter... I later had a midi channel switcher built in by TAD in Worms.

My Marshall 300w cab update

I replaced a standard 75w speaker with a Celestion V30 speaker in my Marshall 1960A 4 x 12. The V30 is heavier built than the 75w speakers and has a deeper cone. I can even tell a slight difference, and the mix is fine.

Insulation tomb

I built a insulation box to record in my cellar. The door fits like a plug in the bath (lying on top of the picture above). Look at the Marshall box to the right and you see how big this monster is!

EFFECTS - More Toys!

No guitarist wants to be without a few effects and I need a few basics too.

Rocktron Intelliflex LTD fx-Loop Unit

This old faithful fx-loop unit (the lower one in the pic) is my Rocktron Intelliflex LTD which gives me 3 or 4 echo sounds with different volume levels plus, pretty chorus sounds, a harmony octivider (which is great for Brian May but I can't get to do what I want) and a noise gate. I prefered this unit to the Alesis unit in those days.

The Granddad.

Pedal Box of Tricks

I built a pedal board from an upside-down telecaster guitar case. I have had a small number of my main pedals for some time now. You can see a few old gems in the picture, but here is my list of museum pieces:

- a Fender Malmsteen OD
- a Freqout pedal
- a Jimmy Hendrix Cry Baby which is more 'vocal' than a normal Cry-Baby (which has a stupid + weak power connector - moan...)
- a Dunlop Uni-Vibe for the full unadulterated Hendrix/Trower sound (which sadly is not full-bypass and sucks - tone - moan...)
- a Paul Gilbert Flying Machine which is a great flanger with some special effects
- a Boss chorus
- a MXR Phase
- a Maxon OD808 for solo overdrive or even for just a gentle push
- a Zoom G2 Ritchie Kotzen fx unit which I use as a tuner or for quick recordings
- a Whammy 4
- a cheap Behringer tuner

GUITARS