Thursday, January 21, 2010

Random Notes

-Last night I had the chance to play through a Peavey Delta Blues amp that belongs to harp player Elwood Barrett. It was the 2x10 model, an amp I’ve tried and liked before. I didn’t have a lot of time to dial it in, but I was able to get a nice tone from the amp, even though it was completely stock. It seemed I had to dig in pretty hard to get it to crunch. Feedback was a bit of an issue. But it was fun. I played two sets with the amp at a jam at Q’s BBQ in the Cherry Creek area of Denver.

-I ordered a harp mic from
Front and Center Microphones. Ronnie Shellist raved about these mics, and I had the opportunity to review them myself. Very impressive. Wonderful tone, full and warm, and good feedback resistance. Each mic is hand carved, and Scott at F&C sent a couple of pics of my mic being built.

My mic shell will emerge from this block of Cocobolo wood.

In progress.

I ordered a mic with no volume control, but an on/off button embedded in the shell where I won’t be likely to hit it inadvertently. We discussed which (if any) capacitor to install across the NOS crystal element, and I think we made the right decision. I can’t wait to get the mic and start gigging with it.

UPDATE: Here is a shot of the shell, with the wood for the grill next to it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey thats my amp -you sounded good brother -keep honking and reeping and see you soon-one of my other setups is the pignose into a 67 Fender pro reverb, pignose as a preamp thing, but the peavey 210 is my workhorse and it sounds better than my other peavy the classic 30 so ..you know I used to love my Fender super reverb too, anyway keep up the good work-peace Ellwood Barrett

Anonymous said...

Rick, please check out www.fatdogamps.harmonicagear.com
A guy named Rob Reynolds out of Missouri makes `em. I own the 4-10, point to point wired, 45W monster and it barks with a lot of attitude. You'd love it! - Lee in Denver

Rick Davis said...

Hey Lee-

I reviewed the Fat Dog 2A 2x10 amp here:

Fat Dog 2A

I liked the amp and I'd like to try your 4x10 sometime. Do you hang at any of the great jams around town?

Anonymous said...

about the 210 again-you played thru the dirty channel with the reverb on 0 the trble on 0 and the mid and base on 10 giving a dry over driven tone -I always play with reverb about 4-5 trble about 4-5 also on the dirty channel and like a little slap back with that glassy finish on it different strokes for different folks- see ya at Ziggies one of these days-peace-Ellwood Barrett

Rick Davis said...

Ellwood- yes! Bring that Delta Blues amp to one of our jams and we'll thrash it out again. Check the Roadhouse Joe website for our schedule.