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What is the best album or best place to start?

Almost like asking where to start with Dylan. You have to pick a period.

I would recommend Mule Variations as a good introduction to his post Rain Dog works. I see it as good middle point to jump in between Rain Dogs era works and his more recent stuff. Lots of good stuff and good varieties of styles on that album too.

As for his early boozier/beatnik/hipster themed stuff, I never got into it that much to distinguish between those efforts. Closing Time, Small Change are a few to get you started.

Rain Dogs could be a good place to start between the early and late Waits styles. Good stuff on there and very little chaff -- that might give you an idea whether you want to go back or forward from there.

Can't remember the name of the lead guitar player, but he's one of my favorites. I just know he's from Nashville.

Doug Pettibone?

Death Don' Have No Mercy - Rev Gary Davis

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Y' know death don't have no mercy in this land, in this land

Come to your house, you know he don't take long

You look in the bed, you find your mama is gone

Death don't have no mercy in this land

I said death don't take no vacation in this land

Death don't take no vacation in this land, in this land

Come to your house, no he doesn't stay long

Look around the room, you see your father will be gone

Say now death don't, death don't take no vacation in this land

Death will leave you standing and crying in this land

I said death will you standing and crying in this land, in this land

He comes into your house and he don't take long

You look all around and you find your mother gone

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Death don't have no mercy in this land

Death don't have no mercy in this land, in this land

Come to your house, you know he don't take long

You wake up one morning and your whole family be gone

Oh, death don't have no mercy in this land

Go ahead with your own thread just leave us alone

Vroom, vroom

Not to condemn other viewpoints, but

If this topic is moving up, then I'm moving out . . .

I used to put 5 springs in and tighten the claw down. That holds the bridge down to the body pretty well. You could actually still use the trem that way (down only), but it's really really firm.

I recall hearing that Clapton used a wood block. I am assuming that this would allow you to keep the bridge off the body a little and stable, but I've never tried it. I don't recall how many springs Clapton was supposed to have used.

Funny thing is I decided to "float" the bridge about a year ago and I am really enjoying the sound and the ability to use the trem up and down. It's a little tricky getting all six in tune (takes a couple times through all six to get them all there), but once it;'s there, it's not too bad to keep in tune. To me the difference is well worth the tuning issues it creates (as long as you are not trying to change tunings), but I can understand where you're coming from.

Peter Green in Fleetwood Mac had some amazing tone.

Does anyone here set the bias on their tubes themselves? Just curious as to how difficult it is. It sucks to dish out for good tubes and then have to pay a tech even more for setting the bias, but I'm not sure it's something I want to mess with.

If it's not an adjustable bias amp, I think you'll have to swap out the right resistor. Can't help you there.

Let us know how your experimentation went.

Yeah, I agree that you may not see much difference with a 6" speaker. Little hard to get bass response out of a speaker that small. Maybe you consider putting a speaker jack in and using an extension cab with a 10" or 12" speaker. I think 5 watts might be enough to drive the speaker and you'll get a better range of frequencies and probably a lot more volume. If you get a big enough cab, you can just set the champ on top like an amp head.

You need to be careful to get the impedance (ohms) of the speaker right. If the impedance of the speaker is too high, the amp will not be harmed, but won't perform as well. If it's too low (or if you neglect to plug in the speaker), you may fry your amp.

Afraid im not much of a fan of those particular tubes, Tung-Sols are not made by that manufacturer anymore, new company that bought the rights to the name...Same with the mullards mentioned, except it is common for the new russian owners to spend more on the re-packaging of random, old surplus tubes and claim they are manufactured to the design specs for the mullards, clearly a scam...JJs are better in that price range...

 

I think NOS tubes (like RCA, GE/Sylvania), would be more of a value...in most cases they will perform better and far longer, and while you could pay up to $50 for a single 6V6 tube, the results would be far beyond the run of the mill russian or chinese...

 

 

 

j

I like NOS tubes too, but I think an RCA blackplate (@ $75 a piece) might be a little overkill for a $200 amp and a 6" speaker.

The Tung Sol 6V6 reissues are $15 a piece vs. $50 for a NOS tube and, I think, are superior to the EH, Groove Tube and Sovtek lines. I haven't tried the JJ's, but hear lots of people like them.

If you do go NOS, look out for scams. Ebay is pretty risky. There is a lot of relabeling going on. I really like this guy: KCA NOS. But it's sure easy to spend a lot.

I've had really good experience with Weber speakers. I got an 8" there, an 8A125, for my blackface champ.

I'd also recommend the Tung Sol reissue tubes for the 12AX7 and the 6V6. There's also a Russian made Mullard reissue for the 12AX7 that is supposed to be good too, but I haven't tried one yet.

I've been looking for this but I can't find it. I know it's been mentioned before. It's a modified open G with some unison strings (I think there's two strings tuned to the same B, but slightly out of tune to give some dissonance.) I think it's been mentioned in this forum but the search isn't helping (since you can't use words 4 letters or less doesn't help)

I remembered that too, but it took me a while to find it. Here's the link to the old discussion. I didn't see an exact answer, but the consensus is that it's a variation of open G.

link to old discussion

You mean her?

Yeah, that's the bass player. And she was wearing hot pants like that. I remember it.

I think that picture was worse than I remembered her, though. God, now I feel like a perv.

On quick research, turns out that she's Mitchell Froom's daughter and she's now 21. The drummer in the band is Pete Thomas' daughter. You can see her in the background of this (if you can get past the gauzy dress to the background):

But I do remember the hot pants.

Who is this. I need to know.

I knew you'd ask. It was only a matter of time:

The Like (photo section)

I saw them (her) open for Muse. I think her stage name is Z or something like that. All very cute and poppy, but I thought the visual aspect of the show was most memorable. The bass player was wearing hot pants too . . .

BTW I liked the Orange amp too -- and it complements her hair.

Seymour Duncan Antiquities - both neck and bridge.

All the singles, with B-sides and previously unreleased stuff, have been reissued as bonus tracks of the original albums. A compilation is only useful for a cheap summary to start, but if you're a fan, you can buy only the original albums reissued on CD (Sanctuary 2004), since each of them features all its satellite singles.

Personally, I don't think all of the material from the singles years are worth that much investigation compared to the later albums that hold together.

And I don't think a fan needs to own every scrap recorded . . .

Village Green, Lola and Something Else are essential. . . . but don't overlook the singles which really aren't available in anything but a compilation.

I am usually not a fan of greatest hits collections, but the Rhino Greatest Hits catches a lot of the great singles and does not overlap the albums you ought to have anyway.

While they are fillers I really like the first one and it would have been cool to have had it run throughout the disc, it kind of reminded me of Steve Riech's work.

At 1:04, it's hard to make a case for Mk 1 being independent (ditto Mk 2 at :53). I thought MK 1 had definite echoes of Videotape from the first disc.

I seem to recall that this transcription started a few years ago with the version on DVD #2 on IATTBYH. I wouldn't be surprised if it changed over a few years, but I agree -- it's still pretty good work there.

Disc 1 has hooks?

 

 

 

 

 

Filler.

By "hooks," I mean pop elements that make it "catchy" or more accessible. It's a relative term to me. Disc 1 has it. Hooks in Disc #2 are harder to find. Disc #2 is more downbeat.

"Last Flowers," "Ladder" and "Four Minute" are definitely growing on me. Not filler as far as I'm concerned. I'll be listening to this some more.

Long time to get this in the heartland -- came in yesterday.

Disc 2 is not a disappointment, but it does not have the hooks that Disc 1 has all over it, so it's taking a little more time. Obviously intended as an extra since the vinyl is only disc 1 material. Definitely not filler, though.

By the way, that disc 1 material on vinyl spinning at 45 rpm sure blows the download release out of the water.

If you are looking for solo acoustic material, the choices are limited. A lot of this material is scattered through his full band albums. His recent Front Parlour Ballads is acoustic and a pretty good effort. Small Town Romance, from some solo shows following the final Richard and Linda tour, has its moments. The box set has some acoustic material too, but it's a lot to digest and is geared more toward the completist.

Your best bet, I think, would be to find some solo show recordings that are being traded out there. He reaches most of his catalog when he performs acoustically live, although one show is not enough time to cover much of what's out there.

If you ever get a change to see him live either solo or in a band, don't miss it.

He's acting innocent and proud still you know what he's after

Like a matador with his pork sword, while we all die of laughter

In his turquoise pajamas and motorcycle hat

I hope you're happy now because you'll soon put pay to that

Ditto Tom Waits' Real Gone -- loud, on a deserted two lane highway alone in the dark. Terrifying.