Tone is brought to you by:

Edison's light bulbs employed a conducting filament mounted in a glass bulb from which the air was evacuated leaving a vacuum. Passing electricity through the filament caused it to heat up enough to become incandescent and radiate light, while the vacuum prevented the filament from oxidizing and burning up.
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Edison continued to experiment with his light bulbs and, in 1883, found that he could detect electrons flowing through the vacuum from the lighted filament to a metal plate mounted inside the bulb. This discovery subsequently became known as the Edison Effect.
In 1875, American, G.R. Carey invented the phototube.
In 1878, Englishman Sir William Crookes invented the 'Crookes tube', an early prototype of cathode-ray tube.
In 1895, German, Wilhelm Roengten invented an early prototype Xray tube.
In 1897, German, Karl Ferdinand Braun invents the cathode ray tube oscilloscope.
In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invented the first practical electron tube called the 'Fleming Valve'. Leming invents the vacuum tube diode.
In 1906, Lee de Forest invented the audion later called the triode, an improvement on the 'Fleming Valve' tube. Lee de Forest introduced a third electrode called the grid into the vacuum tube. The resulting triode could be used as both an amplifier and a switch.

These type of dudes don't usually get mentioned when people talk about electric blues but they are the ones that first made it possible.

It is a shame that Ben Franklin never got to play an electric guitar. I am sure he would been a real head-banger.

I don't really have a great understanding of how amplifers and tubes work. I am able to make repairs on my amps by looking at them and finding bad connections and re-soldering them. I gennerally have this problem with my Fender Blues Junior which is a relatively newer amp that I bought at Mars Music when they were going out of business. It is a 15 watt tubecombo with a 15" speaker. A "combo" is one where the amplifer section and the speaker cabinet are all in one unit. The problem with this little amp is that the solder connections don't seem to be as good as in the older amps. Basically, "They don't build em like they use to" .

Also, It is a pretty hot running amp for a 15 watt. As far as watts, Tube amplifers are generally more powereful or louder than solid state. This particular amp is set up with the power tubes (EL84's) are being pushed pretty hard and they run pretty hot. This will cause the tubes to wear out quicker. For a 15 watt amp, It can get pretty loud and is powerful enough to use at small to medium size clubs. The problem with a combo amp is that the vibration from the speaker (since it is in the same unit) can cause connections to rattle loose. The tubes also get vibrated and will be more sensitive to becoming "microphonic"

On the Blues Junior, I wonder if the heat from the power tubes causes the solder to fail or if it is just the poor design of the tube socket holder or just a cobonation of several factors including vibration from the speaker.

I have had to open up the back and re-solder the power tube connections several times and also one of the connections on the reverb tank.

I also do have a couple of older Fender amps and have not run into this problem. They also used metal in the input jacks instead of the plastic used on Blues Junior. Still, I do think the Blues Junior is a great amp particularly considering what they cost.

One of the things about tube amps is that when you get the tone you like, It is best to leave it alone until something breaks or wears out. You can replace the tubes with the exact same brand and not get the same sound. That is one thing that I like about the "Groove Tubes" which are tested and rated. You can buy a matched set with a numbered rating (from 1 to 10) and get pretty close to the same tone. The other advantage is that if you use the same number/rating, you don't have to have to have the amp re-biased (if it is not self biasing)


Tubes are only part of the equation when it comes to tone but they are a big part. Another big variable is the Guitar Pick-up not to mention the equipment operator.

You may be asking "What is your point Marc?"

& if so, I would like to ask you something:


What is the cross between an Elephant and a Rhino?


The answer is NOT "What is on second"

Sad News

I heard some bad news. Benny Valerio has passed away.

He has been around playing Texas Blues for a long time. You can find out more about his music on his web site http://www.maneevents.com/texasthunder/


I knew Benny from his Blues jams that he would host out here on the west side of town. He was a hell of a guitar player. As a guitar player and also a person, he didn't hold anything back. You always knew exactly where you stood with him.

Benny and his brother Danny had played music togeather for quite a few years. Danny is a bass guitar player and whenever I saw them on stage, I would always get a mental picture of them playing as teenagers. You could just see it. I don't know the exact way to explain it but it was something of a happy moment each time. Just great to see two brothers who had played music togeather so much of thier lives.

Danny is a great guy and I wish him the best. I know this is a tough time for him.

The Service for Benny will be at 1:00 this Friday the 20th at Houston National Cemetary on Veterans Mermorial.

Telephone pole blues

When the last hurricane was passing by, I noticed that the phone pole behind my next door neighbor's house was damaged. It was rocking back and forth in the wind. I called the power company and they finally came out (today) and replaced it.

They shut down the power for several hours while they did the repair.

I passed the time by playing acoustic guitar. I have the window blocked off in room where I practice to block out the sound so it is pretty dark even in the daytime so I lit a candle to have a little light.

It made me think about what it must have been like for the old blues dudes that didn't have electricity. Also, since I wasn't able to watch TV, Check Email, or listen to the stereo, It made me realize that they probably spent a little more time playing guitar just to pass the time. There wasn't much else to do so I played longer than I would have if the power had been on.

This wasn't like Huge revelation for me but it at the same time it did make me think.

I always assumed that musicians nowadays had an advantage because of all the technology available but it made me wonder if technology isn't more of a distraction also.

I ended up getting a work related call on my cell phone and it blew the whole mood.

The Revenge of George Lucas

I watched most the final Star Wars movie (Episode whatever) on DVD last night & I think it was eve worse that the last two.

The Original Star Wars was one of my favorite all time movies and also the next two in that series.

The acting was much better. The characters were much better and the overall feel of the movie. It was a little bit Disneyish and they had Harrison Ford and Chewbaca making it kind of comical. They Would be about to get shot out of the sky and trying to get the ship in to hyperdrive but it was still not that serious a moment in the movie. It would get a little more serious when Darth Vadar was in a scene but at the same time it was more like Cruealla Devill from 101 Dalmations.

The one I watched last night was all special effects but didn't have any interesting characters and no scenes even close to the Cantina Scene in the first movie and no characters like Jaba the Hut. The Aniken Skywalker Character (Who became Darth Vadar) is not even an actor. I can't believe they used him again after his sorry performance in the last movie.

The other thing that sucked was that even though they went back in time to before the time Luke and Lea (sp?) were born, it seemed like there were more advanced looking robots than in the first movie which was supposed to be chronoligically later. It seemed like they were just trying to make it fit at the end by having the babies born and being named by the dying mom just so they could connect the dots & also the way they handled Darth Vadar becoming Darth Vadar was lame also. The viewer knew the whole time that he was going to fall in the burning lava or what ever it was and get deformed.

There were so many lame things that I don't want to take time to list them all but one thing was when they had the scene near the end with Darth Vadar and his new Master Dude looking out into space and what looked like the frame of the Death Star in it's initial construction stages was out there. It doesn't make sense that it would take the same amount of time it took Luke and the princess to grow up as it would take to build a Death Star. Especially if you have the Dark Lord himself overseeing the project.

There was no art in this movie.

But it is Star Wars so I will probably watch it again some time.

"Retail is for Suckers"

I have found that every thing that you buy at a music store can be discounted.

Even guitar picks.

The thing for me is that I don't like feeling like a mooch for asking so I will try to go back to the same sales people if they treat me right with no hassle.

There is one store close to my house where most of the guys working there will look at me funny when I ask for a discount. There is one dude there who always works with me but I have to individually ask on each item. Last time I went there I bought several items. A drumhead, a set of strings for my acoustic, A package of guitar picks, A key for adusting drums, & something else but I don't remember what.

When I checked out, I asked the dude: "Are you going to take care of me on this stuff?" & he pointed out that he always did (which was true). I started asking about the different items and he said just check the receipt when he was done. Since he had always been good about it before, I didn't want to ask about it anymore.

When he rang me up it seemed kinda high but I just paid him & then he gave me the receipt. It turned out that he had charged me full retail on everything exept the set of strings. I was so irritated that I just decided not to say anything.

Last week I visited two other music stores. I went to one place to get some tubes. I found a guy there who had helped me several times before and always was good about the pricing. This time I felt like he tried to get to me by actually overcharging me on the tubes. I bought a couple of EL84s and also a 12ax7. I was just buying some back up tubes & on the one 12ax7 it was the Silver Series which is cheaper than the ones I usually get & he tried to charge me $14. I told him it sounded a little high and asked him what it listed for & he punched on his computer and said $10 and said he had made a mistake and then he ended up selling it for $8.

I really felt like both of these guys trying to take advantage of fact that I trusted them.

I am not someone who is going to argue about price or feels like anybody owes me a discount. I just happen to know that a person can get a discount at a music store if they ask & at the end of the year it can really add up.

Fast foward to last Friday when I was up on the north side of town to play in Conroe. I took the day off work and went drove up early to miss the rush hour traffic. I took the opportunity to visit a couple of music stores by 1960 & 45. First I went to a big guitar store that is part of a chain where I had bought my tubes that I talked about a few paragraphs up. I asked the sales dude there if they had the Groove Tube EL84s that I was looking for and he found a set. I told him I was a working musician and asked him what kind of deal he could give me. He sold me the "Duet" which is a matched pair for $25. Just a few days earlier at the same store but the other location, The other dude had told me that Groove Tube had raised the prices and the best he could do was $30 but it turned out he was out of them anyway.

I still had some time to kill and was looking for a particular Harmonica that they were out of everywhere so I went west on 1960 about half a mile to check at one other large music store. They had the Harmonica & I told the guy I was a musician and asked what kind deal, etc. and he sold it to me for $18 which was a good deal.

I think part of the problem for me is that once I get to know a particular sales associate, I don't feel as comfortable making a big deal about the price but at the same time it is disapointing that I can get a better deal from strangers.

I guess I could avoid all this and just buy stuff on-line but I have been going to music stores since I was about 13 years old it is something that I enjoy doing. I love it when it is busy and there are several different dudes "testing" out the new guitars playing thier best guitar store riffs.

I did try to give something back to the one guy who did give me the better deal on the tubes. I have been working in Sales a good part of my life. I asked him how long he had worked at the store & he said "3 years". I asked him if he had ever marketed himself? & he just gave me a puzzled look.

I told him that he should consider developing an email list of working musicians (people who buy music stuff) and send them an email letting them know he was the dude to see if they wanted to be treated right. Promise low prices with no hassle.

I told him that my site had been listed on Houston Bands dot NEt and several other sites and no one had ever sent me an email like that & I was assume that no one is tapping into that opportunity.

He did tell me "Thats a good Idea"

I told him "Hell Yeah it's a good Idea"

I don't know if he will do it but he is in the wrong business if he doesn't.

I don't begrudge anybody for wanting to make a living and nobody owes me a discount. If anyone ever really did give me consistant deals at a Music Store, that would be the first place I shopped & I would tell other people about them also.