John Watts' custom electric guitar amplifier

[John Watt]

Whoa! I had to look around to be sure I was in "musical instruments".
I'm seeing a lot of postings that should be in lessons or software, whatever.

I'm going to use one photo per posting to describe it in detail.
The best way to describe the results of all these components and specs,
is to say this system is interactive with your use of string dynamics.
The panning between the stereo channels works much the same as a Hammond Leslie,
pumping harder and faster when you exceed input and output levels,
and slowing down, calming down, as you pull back into traditional behavior.
And despite what looks like extreme amperage, voltage and 9-volt battery use,
the volume range is a good mix for rock drums that aren't miked,
or have an overhead mike with another in the bass drum.
If you have to mike all the drums, you have to mike my amp.

If anyone wants to think I'm putting these photos up for future insurance use,
considering all the thefts and vandalism against me as a proper mayoral candidate,
sure, go ahead, when in all my life, I never had anything stolen out there on the road,
or in any other city than my home town, Welland Ontario.
Please, sit back and take a look.
Jimi Hendrix never even came close to an amplifier such as this.
I know it was getting off on his creativity that inspired my long-time desire,
to continue putting together amplifier systems, thinking what would Jimi do.

 

[John Watt]

You can see the fast living I'm doing, being offered shelter as much as an apartment.
The speakers are custom order S.R.O. full range speakers from Electro-Voice in Michigan.
I first ordered them in 1977 to use with a new 100 watt Marshall head I pre-ordered from England.
That's when I heard they were building the first amp that had a pre-amp and master volume.
$775 cash in advance. These speakers were $325 each plus taxes.
I asked Electro-Voice to deliver them to the music store I grew up in, not as an employee,
but almost like a son to the original owner, never taking a dollar out of the store.
The delivery caused excitement, and sitting on the floor with wires poked in,
they sounded better than Marshall, Fender and Traynor speakers in cabinets.
The sound was all around you in the air, the first time I sounded like Jimi Hendrix in Toronto.
Saying 25 pound magnets and aluminum cones says a lot.

I made the cabinets myself according to specs supplied by the manufacturer.
They could be bigger, using a back screen as a port, also wanting to have front and back dispersion.
That's one thing Marshall stacks were missing, only putting out fully frontal sound.
Using one inch thick industrial plywood, the quarter inch sign plastic acts like a baffle board,
an important element for cabinet resonance.
Marshall cabinets were made of very thin sheets of birch, being very resonant. I wanted more projection.
I made signs for a funeral home, and saw this black sheeting being installed inside.
It's the most expensive black sheeting at the time. You can try to burn a cigarette into it, but it won't.
When I went to Toronto to pick up some plastic for another sign-painter,
getting a free road trip to a city I lived in three times, only playing full-time as a lead guitarist-vocalist,
I saw some strips left over from cutting plastic for the new Toronto airport.
That plastic was used as a cover for lights in the flooring, being directional for luggage buggies and other vehicles,
that would be driving over it. They had a special saw to cut it.
As long as there is some lighting in the room, these plastic frames will glow with colour reflection.
I put the small tweeters in there just for looks, trying to impress people used to stereo systems.
Yes, I was going for the tweeter look before everyone else was doing twitter and tittering behind your back.
As a tribute to Peter Traynor, someone I knew as a music store employee,
those are Yorkville Sound speaker tripod stands, good looking and heavy duty enough for my cabinets.
Oh! My overall cabinet design emulated a BOSE design, when they had eight small deep throw speakers.

When I was on cable television onstage as a mayoral candidate,
I used one of these chains. I said this chain symbolizes the guns, knives and hypodermic needles,
that a crime family of a mother and fourteen sons used to take over this city.
When I talked about them, I would stomp on the last link to shatter it, pointing at them.
This is a Dollarama Halloween decoration.
After the debate, the cable TV show host asked if he could borrow it.
He motioned to his soundman and held the mike down to it, and stomped it,
sounding like a huge explosion echoing around the room,
and then he told off the Welland candidates and organizers much the same as I did.
As we stood outside beside the portable broadcasting truck, he said that was a lot of fun.
At the next mayoral debate at Notre Dame Collegiate, a high school in Welland,
I used another chain, describing what I did in the previous debate,
and started hitting the floor with it, singing the melody of the new Drake hit song,
an artist from Toronto, singing words relevant to the election,
and as I turned to walk back to my seat I faded the banging sound,
until you heard the chain swishing on the floor. The students erupted with applause.
I was the only candidate to get applause when I was talking, with four elected opponents.
Students watched me more than the other candidates when they were talking,
because I'd step on the chain under the table to accent their words.
My favorite moment was talking and getting a non-stop wave of applause,
talking about all the pedophile arrests and the student treatment by a suspicious school board.
I stopped my speech about downtown Welland and shouted,
"I hope you can pray for each other, because they will prey on you".

After that, the headstone of my parents cremated remains was dug up,
and I was told I could be eating their ashes if I ate downtown.
Music was supposed to save the world in the late sixties,
when music and music videos could be very political. I took it to the new millennium.

 

[John Watt]

This photo is about the "Redmere" name plate on the original speaker grill.
This is a Redmere road case with heavy duty casters, my previous amplifier.
That was custom ordered from Scotland in 1977, costing $2,475 plus taxes.
Scottish inventors perfected a "silent switch", and build a trade show demonstrator.
They used a 100 watt Marshall stack, a 100 watt Fender Twin and a Vox AC amplifier,
with the same effects on the floor that Jimi Hendrix used,
with a choice of a Fender Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul to play.
You could play and change amps and effects without making extraneous noise.
I read about that, phoned to ask about it, and got totally lucky.
A franchise owner in Burlington, an hour drive for me, was the shipping point,
sending it back to Scotland. I went up there to try it out and ordered one,
after I was told they were synthesizing it with some computer technology as a stand-alone unit.
It had a Marshall 120 watt transformer, and best of all, a Hammond organ reverb unit.
Fender and all other amps have a small two spring reverb that makes unwanted noise.
Hammond had the only three spring reverb units.
I could kick this amp at full volume and it sounded like low, rolling thunder, a quality sound.
I picked the specs for the built in phaser, flanger, with a couple of other adjustable effects,
that all worked in a more expressive and controllable way as being built in, not on the floor with wires.
With the Vox channel on full blast, 60 watts, using the phase shifter, flanger and all the rest,
I could start rubbing my strings by the bridge, sounding like a locomotive warming up,
and start rubbing faster and moving towards the first pickup, like a locomotive coming at you.
Playing at the Bridge Tavern in Niagara Falls, across from the first railroad station across from New York state,
people would stand up thinking they heard a train coming, or coming through the wall, knocking over drinks.
The owner said I could only do that once during the first set.
You gotta love an amplifier than can give you more of a sonic effect than your fingers can.
Yes, I could type about the Redmere Soloist all day, 18 years, but now it's just a road case and a name to remember.

If you remember "Let's Dance" by David Bowie, that's not a keyboard synthesizer,
making those cascading sounds of notes, that's a Redmere Soloist.
I could miss it, but I am Clan Watt, and put together something better.
I still have the original silent switches, but didn't have to use them.

 

[John Watt]

This is what you see when you take the lid off, and remove the now separated original grill cloth.
Everything I used onstage is stored inside, and the lid has two separate compartments inside,
one for my 25' guitar cord, an important length for proper Marshall 100 watt amplifier use,
and one for my speaker cord, always carrying my own Shure SM58 in my self-made guitar case.
yes... my experimental guitars were just as big a part of my sound.

That's a 100 watt Marshall stereo pre-amp, retail price $2,850.
A rich kid custom ordered it from England, but brought it back before he got the power amp,
saying he didn't understand how to work it or it didn't work properly.
The music store owner asked me if I would try it out to see what's happening,
saying the kid wanted to trade it in for $500 just to get rid of it,
and void his contract to buy the over $3,000 stereo power amp.
I said I wanted to buy it, getting it for the $500.

I tried out five different power amps, and this Audio Pro Mosfet did what others didn't.
Without a lot of experimentation, it was just about the sound, soft, filling the air,
giving the 150 watt, 200 watt RMS stereo speakers the input they desired. $2,450.
I say desired, because for the first time in my life,
I saw speakers begin to move by themselves according to input, a unique effect.
At the time, even if it was exciting for me... and the speakers,
this was still one-dimensional, compared to what using effects became.
The Audio Pro Mosfet is Mosfet for it's tube technology, even if it's a P.A. amplifier.
The speakers are full range, capable of broadcasting any amplified sounds,
and the music store owner who let me take home five different power amps,
thought I was going to build a P.A. system for myself, and he gave me a good price,
thinking no-one else would buy this returned unit, getting that for another $500, my offer.

It's a sad statement about society in the range of the Niagara Falls generators,
the first commercial hydro generation in the world,
but Crown and other power amps with lots of gold, costing over $4,000,
became popular and common even for bar bands.

A 100 watt Marshall amp has a 120 watt transformer, why they sounded louder,
and the Audio Pro is 500 watts single channel, or 250 watts stereo.
Eventually... the Marshall pre-amp and master volume are on full volume,
and the Audio Pro is on full volume, with effects draining so much wattage,
the volume is comparable to medium rock drums if they're not miked.
That only helps to make a very soft sound, a wider range of effects dispersion,
and sounds that fill the air and fade away... a sad thing to hear.
That's what other people, more adults, had to say after hearing Jimi Hendrix.
They said they felt sad that the sound wasn't in the air, or it wasn't moving any more,
and I felt the same.

 

[John Watt]

Here's my floor effects and all the wiring used for them and the loop effects.

An Ernie Ball volume pedal, designed to be thrown and able to knock someone unconscious,
an important aspect for hard rock players in venues without security.
I could act exasperated and sweep it off the stage into chairs or tables,
something I didn't do a lot, but when I did, it never showed signs of damage.
It had the best pot for volume and didn't do anything else.
I liked the weight, using it to plug my guitar cord into.
When I felt that tugging as I moved or danced around, it held me back.

A Crybaby wah-wah, original model, because that's all there was.
Despite publicity, they don't make the original model as original any more.
I got lucky in a buy and sell shop in Niagara Falls a few years ago, seeing one,
and the owner was surprised I wanted it, getting it for $60. Now I have two.
Sure, it was used and old, but the previous owner painted the input and output white,
so I new a pro used it onstage, doing that so he could see them in low level lighting.
The pot was oiled and smooth and the slider was greased, in really good shape, as new.
Any new Crybaby can cost over $160 and not give you the same tonal range as the original.
When you have the same kind of floppy left foot that I do, that's what you want.
The original also uses Switchcraft jacks that you can exchange for left-handed use.
All new models have a one-piece circuit board with molded plastic inputs.
Jimi wouldn't like that. Jimi took an "expression pedal" from a Thomas home organ,
and changed it to be a wah-wah, something r'n'b guitar players did.
The first Crybabies were made in Italy, and bought by Jim Duncan, are now from California.
Here's a scan of a letter I got from them after I asked about a replacement part.

A Dallas-Aribiter Fuzz Face, what I had back then, now just called a Fuzz Face.
Jimi Hendrix had his built with Germanium, and "Fuzz Face" make one exactly the same.
I think they now have over fifty other models,
the only one with two 9-volt batteries being made for Slash of Guns'n'Roses.
When I'm playing lead with all pre-amps and master volumes on full,
getting this 9-volt effect going makes the stereo panning expressive by itself,
speeding up and slowing down the stereo panning in a softer way,
than turning on and off a Hammond Leslie to make it speed up and slow down,
an important sound in itself. This one is brand new, costing $180 in 1997.
The only store in Welland that sells the alkaline batteries you need to operate it,
are sold in Dollarama, the least expensive store in Ontario.
Yes, I lick batteries and rotate them between the Crybaby and Fuzz Face.
If someone asks if I'm classic rock, I say I'm a battery licker after I saw Jimi Hendrix.
The soft, puffy rubber covers for the knobs are designed to be used by your feet,
changing effects range while you played, unless you used your guitars' headstock,
or experienced effects interruption by a wandering lead singer.

Except for the factory wires for the Boss effects, I made all these guitar cords and wires.
Here's a tip for your guitar cord for this very reactive sound system.
You need to be double grounded so stepping on your cord onstage doesn't sound like a gun shot.
I liked Belden wiring the best.
Take a wire with black and white inner wires wrapped in a silver mesh.
Cut back the mesh on one end so it's not touching the white and black mains,
and solder the mesh on the other end to the ground, getting your double ground.
Jimi wore moccasins onstage so hard heels didn't make loud noises.
I did that too, visiting native reservations, and had custom dance shoes with leather soles.
Grinding a hard sole into a guitar cord did distract lead singers if they tried to talk too much.
Using a 25' guitar cord is part of the Marshall recipe for getting a softer sound,
using up wattage, and I liked lashing bass players, or whipping them if they liked it.
And no, no, never, not once, did I lash a keyboard player, especially if he had a real piano.

One of the channel changers for the Marshall pre-amp came with the package.
The second one, brand new in the plastic?
I got a telephone call from Rick Ostanek, the son of Walter Ostanek,
a three-time Grammy winner for Best Polka Recording, three years in a row.
I was thinking, okay, it's his son, now managing the store and playing bass in a rock band,
and he's getting ambitious, calling me for the first time.
He said John, we're having a cardboard box sale and you should check it out.
That was enough to make me drive to St. Catharines, over a half hour,
and sure enough, there was a cardboard box sitting in the corner filled with unsold stuff.
At the bottom, was this Marshall pedal with a $25 price on it. Retail $160.
I flipped out a little. He remembered, he really remembered, what I said about mine.
If you remember, I got my Marshall pre-amp as a return,
and even though I fixed it, the one switch was pushed in and wouldn't return.
I always want a back-up for something that essential and only available by custom order,
so it was an exciting moment.
I paid a Marshall repairman in Toronto, mailing the cord away,
to shorten it from fifty feet to twenty five feet, not wanting to play in arenas.
I wouldn't do that with my first one, not wanting to risk any problems and not have it to use it.
The speaker wires have flexible copper end inputs, not Switchcraft quarter inch jacks.

Those Radio Shack wires, gold and silver for hot and ground, are an invasive technology.
I don't know how they got there, not using them for my amp system, for my practice P.A.
If they want to pose with superior technology, that's okay, other guitarists did that too.

 

[John Watt]

When I wanted to custom order speakers for my new 1977 Marshall 100 watt head,
the first time Marshall had a pre-amp and master volume, I never got a reply.
That's why I ordered them from Electro-Voice in Michigan.
The letter explains all of that, except it doesn't say it was my idea they used.
I said I liked Altec or Altec-Lansing for the softer sound, more for guitars and instruments,
when JBL was crisper, more for P.A.'s.
Altec is what most recording studios used for play-backs, same with Jimi at Electric Ladyland.
But Altec and JBL were doing that old Fender-Gibson American manufacturing thing,
putting out product with bi-polar specs, and Altec didn't have 8 ohm speakers,
what I needed to have two separate speaker cabinets instead of a Marshall stack.

The Jim Dunlop reply was an unexpected surprise, for free.
I told them I had already gone through four Crybabies without any problems,
and riffed off some lyrics about their use and abuse.
I also told them what their retail price was here in Ontario.

I included the reply from the owner of B.C. Rich just to show you
what I was going through as I tried to build another experimental guitar.

I also thought I'd do an easy posting and squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran down my dregs,
into a glass of all-natural lemonade carbonated water, with ice, stirred, not shaken.
I talk about Strats and Jimi, but my lead pickup is a P.A.F. Humbucker like Jimmy Page.
A Scotsman invented carbonated water, aged in oak kegs for seven years,
marketed as Vernors, now also in a diet formula that really does taste the same.

 

[John Watt]

Here's the inside of my road case, showing the three transformers from my BOSS effects,
and the two plugs for the Marshall and Audio Pro.
The aluminum strip is flexible and holds the transformers so the inputs don't get messed up.
That's an $80 power attenuator that has four-way functions.
For me, the most important is the attenuating, keeping current flow even.
I never blew the circuit breaker. I cut off the six inputs, just using the electronic section.
You can't see it, but I've got a sheet of 1/8" aluminum sheeting up there,
separating the Marshall and Audio Pro to prevent any electrical interference and uh... uh...
those annoying overheard conversations by cab drivers sitting outside,
or that noise when the glass washing machine is turned on in a smaller nightclub,
or unwanted satellite microwaves from plunging dis-orbiting failures.
Nothing can prevent damage from undesired taser use,
even if your lead singer thinks it should be part of his stage act.
Isn't my use of red plastic coming together as I build this?
Even though this is a big space inside my amp, it looks really clean and shiny,
because nothing, nothing at all, ever comes into contact with this wiring.
Don't forget, this is my portable stage amp, vans, pickups, elevators, stairs and parking lots.
All the storage compartments are lined with a tough blue material,
holding back the furniture foam I used to safely retain the components.
The oak strips used to line the face of the compartments came from a historic house in Queenston Heights.
I was allowed to be part of a dig during the restoration into a museum,
and got some original wood removed from a room that was converted to a public washroom.
yes... I did a precise job, getting it all flush.

 

[John Watt]

I'm showing you the instruction manuals for these BOSS, for me, Roland BOSS products,
more than the three half-rack, micro-digital effects themselves.
I made side plates and screwed them together so they stay that way.
These go through the loop channel on the Marshall pre-amp,
and drain a lot of wattage and voltage, with a drop in ohmage,
with their own negated amperage of creative spacial non-tube ambience.
That's why the panning comes alive with faster or slower stereo spread,
an experience that gets Jimi phasing in to hover over me as I get into it.
Some people just say they see a shadow, others say a ghost,
but I feel a left hand reaching around me.
Please see photos and videos in progressive and general rock.

I use one unit as an always on sweetener echo, helping to sustain every note.
Playing with heavy distortion, I don't even have to push the strings down all the way,
making it all too easy to play fast and use six string transition uh... chords.
It also softens the difference between open and fretted strings,
being able to switch to finger-picking with my inventive guitar.

Going into the second unit, it's built to be an echo unit for special effects.
I turn that on when I need them. Better than an Echoplex or any other echo unit.
I can have a forever echo with no rate, or no vibrato,
where what I play first keeps going, what I play next is on top,
and what I play next starts to fade what I played first.
That's risky, because one wrong note messes it all up,
and you have to turn it off to get away from runaway noise.
It's a good thing that's something I really like to do when I'm playing by myself,
because it takes a lot of practice to get that kind of confidence going.

Both of these units have inputs for other instruments and have other functions,
such as phasing, flanging, you name it, but this is what I use them for.

The panning unit is the same, but I just use it for panning.
Why dilute the electrical strength of the effects I want by adding other signals,
when I've got the original and authentic tones on the floor?

The original owner of Thorold Music, Al, came from a very wealthy family.
He's fifth generation Canadian, his ancestor owning half of Fonthill.
He was repairing a transport truck and cut off half of his thumb,
so he thought he'd take it easy and start a music store, playing stringed instruments.
He phoned me up one day and said he had some strange equipment that was very expensive,
and he thought I was the only guitarist who might be interested.
Hey! I never did get married or have children, and I'm not rich,
but I get to spend all my money on myself... most of the time.

He just got the Roland-BOSS franchise, and felt stuck with what could be prototype models.
They were $525 each with taxes, and there was a fourth model.
It was designed to be mounted on a wall for residential applications,
turning on your TV and other components, controlling them all.
As soon as I saw what they did and how they sounded, even quiet in the store,
I wanted to try them with my Marshall and Audio Pro. Incredible, hearing them for the first time.
It's still incredible, having a sound that turns me on almost as much as my playing.
The ambient environment they create with the floor effects is a duality for stereo ears.
I have never taken these out to use for a gig, as new, with only experimental hours on them.
Now I'm ready to let loose with all of this system with my semi-solid-body guitars.
The local cable news provider said I could have two minutes of news time,
the first time I show up and play with them in public.
If you play bass onstage, wouldn't you like to share in that?
If I'm not in a band, a dance band that can jam it up, I'm nowhere.

The second photo shows the foot-switch I built for the three BOSS units.
The translucent plastic, or rubylith, was custom ordered from GM in the disUnited States.
A Ferrari dealer in Toronto found it less expensive to order this plastic from a sign-maker,
and have him make tail-lights out of it instead of ordering from Italy.
When I heard that I asked if giving me a piece could be part of the deal.
The LEDs, used to show when the function is on, light up the pedal,
so I can see it in the dark and have more red for the total display.
Those are double-throw switches that cost $15 each wholesale in 1977,
custom ordered by my friendly music store from the United States.
A product used for manufacture, I could have both effects and LEDs work at the same time.
The green light is for the panning, always on, and acts as a guide in the dark.
I've got a mike stand with tripod legs, and put this pedal up against the upright,
so it's right there in front of me, but out of the way, just using it for the special echo effect.
Being able to take them out of the case and put them on top of my amplifier,
makes it easy to change the settings for the echo onstage.
Considering what other echo effects did for recording acts I was doing songs by,
I usually just set it for ordinary echo effects and left it at that.
Doing my own soundchecks onstage let me get into the deep stuff.

I have never heard another guitarist with the same sonic and tonal effects this allows.
And I don't care if I say I can make sounds like Jimi Hendrix,
and riff out like John Coltrane and George Benson to Nicolo Paganini,
when no-one has ever disagreed,
because I don't want to waste my time recording for artificial reasons,
or have to be in bands that use presets, tapes and prerecorded or looped song parts,
because when you're dancing or moving around with the music,
grooving with the dance floor, jumping offstage to get into it with the dancers,
you want all the freedom in this whirled, this world of rotating disco balls,
swirling lights and stereo sounds... getting down and floating above everyones' heads...
turning everyones' heads... getting into their heads and panning your sounds between their ears...
as my notes disappear into the air... as my voice does...
not as delete-able as this font... but processed almost the same...
from my brain to yours... as right as rain and as left as receding tides.
Not the Axis of Sound that Jimi Hendrix stood in, with his quadrophonic P.A.,
but the eye of a melodic hurricane that you can walk inside as it travels along,
being carried up in the spirit... as the night ends and the sound rises up and away...
until another day... and another night... when your love is there for you to see.

Plug your guitar into my amplifier system and generate your own cloud pattern...
let your riffs create your own lightning... let the motion of your guitar create more sound...
and... and... guess what?
With all amplifier volumes on full, standard operating procedure,
with my guitar volume off,
I can hold my guitar up to a speaker and not hear any sound at all,
and playing onstage, it was weird at first, that total silence, until I turned it up.

there once was a boy whose heart was a frown,
'cause he saw Jimi Hendrix and couldn't afford all that sound,
until one day, when he decided to try...
so he took his guitar to a big music store,
and to his amp he said you won't disappoint me no more.
But suddenly, some effects he never seen before came his way,
making him jump up and riff away,
and they didn't have to stop, they just kept on going...
and so hassles of left hands slip into the scene... eventually.

May All Peace Be Upon You.

 

[John Watt]

Thank you, thank you very much, for the as-yet-untitled Frederik Magle,
for this freely offered opportunity to spend as much time as I have here this Saturday night,
as thoughtfully administered as these forums are...
for my time spent here has been as meaningful as playing onstage somewhere...
and I can only wait until I can provide some audio-video when I start to play again.
Right now, your domain is as close to being a symphonic-electric guitar virtuoso as I can be.

This article was taken from the Niagara Falls Review.
Other band members with day jobs couldn't make the interview.
Paul Smith, mentioned as being a temporary drummer,
is the cousin of Neal Peart, the drummer for Rush.
Neal Pearts' first wife managed a Sam the Record Man in Welland where Paul worked,
and Neal spent time there when she was working.
This article was okay, but the writer had too much of her own perspective.
Imagine a gig where you could walk across the street between sets,
and see the Niagara River Gorge and watch the water that generated your electricity.

When I drove to Burlington to pick up the Redmere Soloist, with my drummer at the time,
Joe DiLeo, we had the doors open on the older step-van and our hair blew up.
Joe went to a music university in California, and after graduating, was offered a job teaching.
I lose more drummers that way...

 

[John Watt]

Why is my post count stuck at 2,831?
I hafta have more postings so I can increase my use of photos.
Jus'sayin'.

 

[John Watt]

You're messing with me.
Now the post counts say 2,832.
Only a jealous exotic dancer or an unpaid male stripper,
would do something like that from backstage.
add it up admin... again'n'again...

 

[onacarom]

Great Post!!

Thanks for sharing

 

[John Watt]

onacarom! Don't tell me you read all that!
I was having a bad, bad day, and then I was stuck here alone all night,
so getting into my amp, even if I wasn't plugging it in,
was good enough for me.
Unfortunately, no poetic music with expressive video was involved.

 

[John Watt]

Despite all my high and getting higher technology, I just made my first electric guitar video.
I told alcaponedudu, Eduardo from Brazil, I would record one of me playing along with his video.
After too long a time, this is me breaking through my shelter existence and making one.
My previous Sony camera was stolen weeks ago, so I'm doing a first time attempt with another one.

I gave this a difficult title so others can't search for it, needing to use a Magle.dk link to find it.
At least that's my logic right now.
I might go back, set the camera up higher, and try to play some lead.
I had to call the police this evening and wait with two witnesses,
so I'm wound up. I decided to do this instead of watching DVD TV episodes.
Here's two photos of the equipment I'm using.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksA41bSi2oc

 

[John Watt]

Maybe I shouldn't have got on admin about the post count.
I now see the totals have changed to a more accurate count,
even if all the postings have the same number.
I did do these all in a row, so that might have something to do with it.
I don't know if new members know,
but the more postings you have, the more photos you can use.

 

[John Watt]

I really am breaking through the technological impositions I have imposed on myself,
for my entire life. I never had a credit card and don't want a cell phone,
and turned down every recording opportunity, from studios to offers of free recording devices.
This video is better... not that it's good, and I'm playing lead guitar without warming up.
I just started playing electric guitar again, recently, and my weakest ability is hammer-ons and offs.
I always like it when a violinist holds his bow up in the air and just plays with the fingers of one hand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksA41bSi2oc

 

[John Watt]

I'm just a video, and everywhere I go, the people all stop to watch me.