Hey everyone, haven't logged in in a few months by now, with 2020 being as effed up as it is a lot of stuff has happened. Just wanted to give you guys a little update and also make sure every single one of you is fine Here in Austria we went through a first lockdown in March, then during the summer things seemed normal again until the country was put on the red list and everything went to shit again. We had a terrorist attack in Vienna about 2 weeks ago (thank god we were late half an hour cause my new girlfriend needed too long in the bathroom, otherwise we would have been at the exact place where the asshole shot 4 people), start of November we went into a second lockdown again. I still have my job so things could be worse but still, fuck 2020. I'm finally taking music theory lessons at the age of 28 and progressing very well, dunno why I was scared to learn that stuff earlier. Broke up with my girlfriend, have a new one as of recently. Trying to stay positive, use my time, stay fit and play guitar as often as possible. My comissioned custom built Les Paul is unfortunately delayed since my luthier has been hit hard by the whole situation as well but we already selected the woods for it and 2 days ago I played a guitar he built for another customer just to be reminded that it'll be worth the wait. Rehearsals with the band are on hold and I'm afraid we are inofficially done anyway (my bassist and my drummer are scared shitless), we were supposed to play at least 7 gigs this year, so I picked up my DSL 100 and my 412 from the rehearsal space and I'm greeted by this sight every morning: The "Marquis" amp you see in the picture is a Marshall Plexi clone from Germany, built in the early seventies. My luthier gifted the fullstack to me as his (and my) amp tech is retired and I started tinkering with amplifiers. The thing has huge transformers, it came with Mullard EL34s in the poweramp section and Siemens 12AX7s in the pre. It's gonna be a project that'll probably take a year or longer but I'm in no hurry. Unfortunately there are no schematics to be found. Take a look: How have you guys been? How's the situation in your country? Gimme some updates, I've been away for too long! Hope you are all fine, cheers!
Welcome back! We are back to full lockdown mode here in CA, but now we will have curfews on movement outside our homes (waiting to hear what that is). Masks mandatory, unless you're driving in your own car, outside your house. No inside dining at restaurants, and only 25% capacity outside, if the news is correct. All of CA went this way Monday except for 1 or 2 isolated counties, with updates of further restrictions coming on Friday. Needless to say...we're all thrilled to death. LOL Love that Orville LP Custom, I have one just like it but with gold covers on the pickups.
Welcome back, and thanks for asking! Right now it's a shitshow in Montana, to put it mildly..Our hospitals have so many covidcrap cases that they're overflowing and having to use other parts of the hospitals to try to give the sick a place to stay. Our next door neighbors have just tested positive, and are in quarantine. This is a rural part of the country with a low population, but what's happening is people are fleeing here from cities in places like New York and California, and bringing the virus with them. The Gov. has FINALLY got off his ass and is putting restrictions back in place, but it may be too little too late. We're just staying at home, voluntarily quarantining so to speak, and trying to ride the storm out. Good luck to everyone out there, and stay safe!
Welcome back and glad you are doing OK. Im doing well but we are headed into another lockdown...phucking chinese virus!!!! Rehearsals are also stopping eeerrrr and of course here in the USA we have this pathetic political shat going on
Imagine that, NY and CA infecting other areas of the Country!! I have always said these two states are to blame for most of the issues in this great Country and I can say this because I sadly live in NYS!
Well, I'm not singling them out, and of course that's not the only places people are coming from..And I can't really blame them for being scared, but at the same time there should be some personal responsibility for trying to contain this crap and running to another part of the country ain't the answer IMO.
Wow, I had those Marquis amps on my to watch list, because some of those cabs came originally with greenbacks! Did you take a look already what's inside?
By the way, to the OP..That's some nice gear! That Marquis amp, pretty cool! 50 watt? And if it's a Plexi clone, couldn't you just use Plexi schematics and wing it?
As a matter of fact I just put some water on the stove and I'm melting some wax to install some gold covers on the pickups and pot em The guitar is acoustically very loud and the sustain is ridiculous... a keeper for sure I did and the speakers are the original Marquis branded ones... unfortunately they sound like a broken AM radio, but the cabs themselves are well constructed and sturdy, so I might throw in some Celestions one day The Laney sounds great, it has that hot rodded JCM 800 flavour going on. Very Marshallesque, maybe a tad darker. The one thing that it suffers the most from is the fact that it's only 15 watts and sounds whimpy on the low end compared to the 800 and the DSL. I'm sure the 60 and 120 watt versions have more punch I try to stay productive, yes It's a 100 watt head and yes, I've been told that it should pretty much be identical to Plexi specs apart from a few little spots in the circuit. I will have to drive over to my retired tech and take a look together, I'm sure it'll sound massive once it's restored, especially with those huge trannies! Happy to hear you guys are alive and kicking, stay positive and make music! It's the only thing left that seems to make sense right now
Cool, glad to hear it has your respect after all the other great gear you have. I have one too and agree about the whimpy low end. I hated it a first and then rebiased it finding it was supposed to be biased at 28 and it was at 18. Made a big difference but still a bit whimpy in the low end. I use an EQ in the loop to give it some thump but it is a nice sounding amp at bedroom levels.
As said, I'm sure with a proper power amp it rips even more. I gigged with it, played rehearsals, recorded and at home it's perfect to give a good tone without killing the neighbours with volume. I should probably check the bias as well Pickups are potted and I'm happy to report I have no microphonics whatsoever:
You can't blame NY and Cali for the pandemic. Literally every state in the union is going off the rails....but this exactly what the experts told us would happen- second wave in fall and winter. On top of that Americans are idiots which doesn't help. lol. Hell, we have people still claiming it's a hoax. How dumb to you have to be to believe that? Here in Michigan we are at our worst point ever. Some new restrictions went up this past Wednesday but I doubt it's enough to change the trajectory.
Im not saying these two states are to blame for covid, the blame there is one Country that starts with a C. I am saying that it seems most bullshit crap ideas values beliefs laws and things I cant mention on this Forum seem to generally start in one of these two states them slowly spreads like cancer to other states. I have unfortunately lived in NYS all my life. And yes, its a beautiful state and the weather is no wheres near as bad as the idiot media makes it out to be but politicians have ruined the economic conditions in so many ways, have enacted so many pathetic BS laws, have created enormous debt (even before covid hit), have created some of the highest taxes in any state (and still in debt)...its just unbelievable and people are leaving like crazy to get out. Now enter covid and so many that live in NYC have left to escape with a high percentage change of taking covid with them spreading it to other areas. Other states should ban them from coming in! I speak with far too many examples of everything I mention, facts not opinion, and it would be far too much to list out but I will me mention I personally know of 28 house holds of family friends and neighbors that have relocated to other states in the last 8 years just because of the reasons above and thats just in my small walk of life.
One thing's for sure, all this crap is hurting live music and bands BIG-TIME. It sucks, I had hoped to be able to get out, find some musically like-minded folks and do some gigging after I retired mainly just for fun. I never had the time before, then roughly two months after I took the plunge this covid B.S. happens! Oh well, at least we're not sick, at least not yet. And I DO have my gear and can work on my chops..Also, there's talk of a vaccine available in the very near future, maybe things will get back to normal soon..We can hope.
