If a photo is worth a thousand words this may be a short story of the last week.
Last week there was a press conference for two new amplifier models from http://www.65amps.com/ There were about a half a dozen magazines at the shop and by mid week the London Pro as carried in eighteen publication mentions. In the first half of the week there were over 100 orders.
The 6th Annual Los Angeles Ampshow was held October 2 and 3. I was the moderator on the Tone Wizzards panel for the 6th year which is always fun.
These are all cellphone shots. If you want some better ones of the ampshow there are some better camera shots and some of these cell shots in the album here -
Less words ... more photos ....
Rick Benson and Maria, two of my favorite people. Rick is in the 65 Amps shirt. I have known
Ricky-b-man for over a quarter of a century. His wife said she thought she was the only one who called him Ricky. I told her I have been doing that from the days before she even knew who he was :) Maria lives in Las Vegas but comes to L.A. often. She came to be a part of the L.A. Ampshow and some of the activities that went on for a few days. He dog Rocky is very cool as a side note even though he tries to run away at any chance that comes up.
Mike Franceschini leaving the shop at 65 Amps for the day. He will return later in the evening to work most of the night on stuff from his own company - Classic Amp.
My friend Maria came out for the weekend to come to the ampshow. This is a shot of the rear of my Union Rescue Mission shirt I wore at the show.
On day two of the show - Maria and John March
Maria and George Metropoulous of http://metroamp.com/ There was an informal butt contest so there were a lot of butt photos taken. If you were at the ampshow you know that I won the male division. Guess I still "got it"
I ate some great stuff last week. I guess my weight does not increase as I walk at least a few mile each day and walk a lot a number of evenings of the week on skid row.
This is a cell shot sent to me by Ludo Pierson. Ludo is a master chef, long time friend and master amp builder - http://www.pierson-amps.com/
Faith made me dinner a few nights last week. She is Chinese but loves to cook Italian. She also loves the theater which at times has been something I have had to attend as my payment for the meal.
Dan Boul of http://www.65amps.com/ and I went out one day to Chiba in North Hollywood for a lunch. I guess it could have been a celebratory lunch based on what was going on with the new London Pro response - http://www.65amps.com/londonpro.html - but I think it was more of a craving for shashimi.
Lunch one day - the KIDS meal across the street at what we call "The blue Mexican restaurant" and there is a yellow place next door owned by the same folks.
Burger at the ampshow - my son's lunch who worked at the show.
My lunch one day at the ampshow. The burger above was better than this chicken maderia. This was not very good at all.
Another dinner from Faith. She and Ludo share the trait of presentation being a nice part of the meal.
Wonton soup for dinner one night. Once the cabbage was moved there were huge tasty wontons in this soup. Excellent.
Carl Verheyen ( http://www.carlverheyen.com/ ) just might be my favorite guitar player. He has been Supertamp's guitarist since about 1985 or so and is currently with them on tour in Europe. He sent this photo from England in Abbey Road Studios on John Lennon's birthday.
Cell shot of the 65 Amps room at the L.A. Ampshow
Crazy So Cal weather? Last week at about the same time of day this read 110 degrees.
John Levy from Premier Guitar Magazine
Mike Franceschini at the shop last week. This is where mike spends about 16 hours a day
Dan Boul's Model 52 from Michael DeTemple - http://www.detempleguitars.com/
Sean Thompson from Singapore was at the Los Angeles Ampshow and the 65 Amps parties. He took this shot of me in my http://www.urm.org/ shirt. This shirt got a lot more compliements and generated many more questions than any music industry shirt I ever wore.
With all the fanfare on the new London Pro and the new high gain amp (still no name) the Lil' Elvis and Tupelo amps are still being cranked out in record numbers. Here is one of each heading out to a dealer one day last week. Peter Stroud's current rig for Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow are an Elvis and Tupelo in a stereo rig setup.
Maria and George Metropolous the first day of the L.A. Ampshow
Dan on the left and press on the right with the London Pro in the center. In this shot Dan was actually playing the second amp that 65 Amps announced, a very high gain model that goes from Marshall plexi era on the low gain setting upward. The amp has not yet been named but many folks reading this have played the amp over the summer and were a part of the feedback in development.
Joe Bourdet on the left with a classic JB expression.
The "baboon ass pink" headshell holds one of the prototypes of the high gain amp not yet named.
Maria spending a bit of time with our troops before they head off again as they have each had multiple deployments to the Mideast.
Maria on day 2 of the ampshow. Here she is with Don Butler's guitar. Don gave her some lessons. George Metropolous also gave her some guitar lessons.
Seems like everybody wanted to give Maria guitar lessons or take her out for a drink.
I took a break one day last week to head to http://www.moorenmoore.com/ to shoot a bit of sporting clays. There had been some rain earlier in the week and the morning was fresh, clean and not hot. I decided that it would be more fun to head out to shoot than head to the shop which turned out to be a great idea.
I had a new item in my shooting arsenal. A golf towel from the 65 Amps press party. A lot of Dan Boul's friends play golf. I don't know how many of them know that Dan worked his way through college playing golf. Hopefully I have not let out some secret.
I thought that if the towel was good enough for golf it was good enough for "golf with a shotgun" which is a phrase that has been used to describe the sport called sporting clays.
Turns out the 65 Amps towel worked some sort of magic. I shot better than I had ever shot before. I hit EVERY target that was launched ... technically. I missed one on the first shot but broke it with a second shot as it moved out to at least 60 yards, with an IC choke no less. Mojo in amps from 65 Amps and mojo in their golf towel.
At the end of the day here I am cleaning. Voila ... the magic towel.
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