Thursday, March 29, 2012

Amazing Auto Body Repair

A few days ago my car was parked.  It was damaged by another vehicle who was parked behind my car.  The owner of the car who caused the accident was very nice and put me in contact with Jesse Anguiano at
http://ultimatefinishesmobileautobody.com/

Jesse and his crew arrived at my house at 11am.  They were done in less than 30 minutes.  My cell camera does not do justice to their work which is superb.

Very cool folks.  Terrific work. If you are in the So Cal area these folks should be your first call for any body repair requirement.

Before

After (in less than 30 minutes)

Thanks again to Ultimate Finishes Mobile Auto Body.  You can also find them on facebook at

www.facebook.com/pages/Ultimate-Finishes-Mobile-Auto-Body/158125687608086




Thursday, March 15, 2012

A bit of amp blueprinting from the past

I was going through some records on some customers amps from the past.  I came across one blueprinting session that was a little different than most as these were preamps which contained eight tubes.  There were also multiple units that were very different as the model had changed in revision levels over it's production life. 

I thought that going over some of the data would shed a little light on some of the process of blueprinting and some of the ways that tubes are very inconsistent.

Bogner Fish Preamp - 8 12AX7 tubes.

Click on "read more" for the complete story.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

3-13-12 - A day at 65 Amps


It has been a while since I wandered around the shop over at www.65amps.com and took some snapshots. 

Today seemed like as good of a day as any. Activity is on the increase with the Producer, the Empire and the Ventura amps in production added to the continued requests for amps like Lil' Elvis, Tupelo and Soho. 

These shots are raw format. There is no cropping here. No photoshop, color enhancement or alteration of any sort. I just walked around the shop and took about 110 snapshots in less than 15 minutes. If you have issues with my composition that is part of my snapshot style. If I wanted terrific shots I would call in one of my great photographer friends :)

If you look around the shop you will find Lil' Elvis hiding all over the place. 


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Vacuum Tubes Today and NOS

Vacuum tubes continue to be used today in high end audiophile equipment in the recording industry, home and in music instrument amplification.  Guitar amplification utilizes the highest percentage of current vacuum tube production.

I have been publishing test report results on the subject of vacuum tubes since 2002.  The news is not good news.  The trend is not a good trend.


If you click on the above image it will enlarge to a more readable size.  I will refer to this image later in this piece.

For more just click on "read more" below