Out with the old, in with the... well shit

Today I sold my trusty Fender TB-600 rackmount to Heather Webb of Adrian and the Sickness.

It had to go, as it's too powerful to use with my 400w main bass cab. So in a sense I've been lugging it around for nothing for quite some time. And since I was dealing with "family" I gave Heather a really good price on it. Has served me well in The Mother Truckers and Eric Tessmer Band. But time for it to move on to someone who will use it.

So I then went and bought a voltmeter so I could attempt biasing my SVT-II in the garage. Success!!! Very simple procedure. Sounded great, non of the snap/crackle/pop from when I first fired it up un-biased with the replacement tubes. OMG!!! Is this amp finally going to be back in service? Will I not have to use the money Heather gave me for the TB-600 on a suitable backup now?!?

Fat fucking chance. Stuck it into my rack case with power conditioner and wireless unit. Thing weighed TWICE as much with the added tonnage of the SVT-II. Fired it back up and...

DAMMIT

Started making that same Goddamn crackle noise which originally grounded the amp from gigs a few years back and resulted in numerous fruitless tech visits. Shit shit shit. Unless there is a miracle, that thing is officially a doorstop once again. *sigh*

Day wasn't a total loss. Passed on a very good amp to a very good friend. Finally changed strings on Cate Blanchett and woodburned fret markers onto the neck with a soldering iron, like what I did with Minnie Pearl a few months back. Makes the fret markers easy to see, they can all but disappear in certain stage lighting conditions.

Now to find a suitable rackmount backup amp. And to buy a new tire for my van, which will cut into funding for said backup amp.

"At last, my arm is complete!"

Sweeney Todd quote. That's kinda how I feel.

Anyway, got my Marshall JCM800 back from South Austin Music. The first time in at least a year and a half it's been fully functional. Retubed with JJ E34-Ls which I wisely bought before the ETB summer tour when I could afford them. Been sitting on them for 6 months til I had time/funds to take the amp in.

Played it in the garage, swappin pre amp tubes to dial it in. Don't have my main stash and all my NOS Mullards have long since gone squeally. Best results from what I have: V1 a nameless 7571, V2 a Groove Tube 12ax7R, V3 a Ruby 12at7. So far so good.

Also as an experiment put the somewhat used Winged C Svetlana 6550's from my SVT retube into my SVT-II and scrounged for appropriate pre amp tubes to see what would happen. Results: loud pops and willy-inducing crackles. Well shit. Would love to bring that amp back into service but alas it keeps setting itself back.

Anyway. 3 shows in last 4 days, no wonder I'm a little drained today. All ETB residency shows, bi-monthly fri/sat at Friends and BD Riley's respectively, and our weekly Monday residency. So today is Saturday for me, heh.

All good shows, and a fairly profitable work-week. Friday a 3-hour set, no break. Saturday we had the time change to contend with, but another 3 hours w/no break. Last night we played 2.5 hours til we finally took a break. Damn.

Friday/Sat packed downtown with spillover from Fun Fun Fun Fest on Auditorium Shores, just across the river. At Friends, our friends Kelly and Michelle came decked out in their Eric Tessmer Hallowee costumes: Castro hats, a wig if needed, mirror shades, fake nosering, and a little guitar with blood and severed fingers hanging from it. Awesome!

Saturday Rob saw Kerry King from Slayer walking down 6th Street. Also awesome. I joked on the mic that we'd have him sit in with us but he's fucking Kerry King and doesn't play blues. Good times. Good crowds both nights, still warm in Nov and sweated by butt off.

Monday was also good but took a long time to fill in crowd wise. When people finally did they were so into it that we just kept playing long after we usually take a set break. Monitors were not functioning that night and Eric having voice issues, so we did best we could vocal-wise. Played "Taildragger" twice and ended with "Smokestack" by Doyle Bramhall II rather than "Vooodoo Child." Mixing it up. I like how we don't use setlists. I still need to woodburn fretmarkers on Cate Blanchett tho I only play her on "Taildragger" (diff tuning.)

In other news got 3 sets of strings in the mail from DR to try out. Fuck yeah! But of course I have no shows until Monday next week, not counting the Jonestown blues jam Eric and I are going to tomorrow. Well poop, heh.

Will post my findings.