FedEx Mountain

Apparently, people routinely watch football games from outer space. Who knew?

One of Lori's friends at work is a Redskins season ticker holder. He's been on the list to get tickets since the park opened in 1997 (as Jack Kent Cooke stadium.) This year he finally got tickets. He offered to sell us the pair of tickets for the Redskins-Steelers preseason game last Friday. Being Steelers fans (is it possible to have grown up in Western PA in the 70's and not be a Steelers fan?) we jumped at the chance.

"I'm sorry, these lots are for paying customers only."
--Comic Book Guy

If you don't know what you're doing parking-wise, you could be in for a real treat. The lots at the stadium are permit lots only. We need to see your papers. I have visions of Comic Book Guy from the Simpson's saying: "I'm sorry, these lots are for paying customers only." (You can't buy single-game tickets, either. Season tickets only.) There are cash lots -- both officially sanctioned lots and ones run by enterprising business folk of various reputes. Some of the cash lots are over a mile from the stadium!

There are cash lots with shuttle bus service if you know where to look for them. There are signs, somwhere. But not always. Once you finally manage to find a lot, they rape you $25.00 for the privilege of parking in it.

By the time we finally got to the game (we left home at about 7:15; the stadium is about 2 miles from the house) we had missed most of the first quarter. And then we discovered that we had to climb FedEx Mountain. Into space.

We were dive-bombed by space moths.

I'm not a young person, nor am I in anything you might call "shape." (Unless that shape were something of an amorphous blob, anyway.) I gotta tell you, folks. It's a LONG way up to the cheap seats. If you can call $59.00 tickets "cheap seats."

Ultimately we reached the summit of the mountain. Lori was happy because she knew that the seats we had were in the very last row: "At least we don't have to walk down any rows -- we're already at the top." Sadly, I had to point out that we were in fact ONLY at the beginning of the cheap seats; we still had 29 rows up to climb, this time up narrow stairs instead of the space ramp.

After more tribulations, and no small amount of vertigo, we finally made it to our seats. (Well, we made it to someone's seats. That far out in space I didn't figure anyone would notice or care if we cheated by a few rows.) So we finally made it to some seats, just in time to catch the last couple plays of the first quarter. And then we were dive-bombed by space moths.

To add insult to injury the Steelers couldn't even be bothered to score an offensive touchdown. Bad enough losing to the Redskins, but to be unable to score on offense at all? Makes me wonder why I climbed into space.

Amp Woes #3

My woes in re the Goblin continue. I'm thinking it should be called a Gremlin instead.

Checked my email today after being away for a week at Gencon. (More on that, eventually, on The Elder Sign) Among the 600+ mails (90% spam) I got a refund notice from Paypal. They (Reverend) did a good job of refunding my money quickly, but for some reason Paypal charged me credit card fees! Combine that with the $20.00 I had to pay to ship it and this little fiasco cost me in excess of $35. That's obviously not a huge sum of money, but it really irks me.

Now, if I had returned the amp because I didn't like it, I could understand this. This amp was defective and that just doesn't sit right with me. In fact, I'm highly pissed off. Reverend's claim to be the "small American company that gives a damn" doesn't really hold water for me. Don't get me wrong, I like their stuff (apart from the rattling Gremlin/Goblin) but I won't be buying anything from them ever again.

Amp Woes #2

As I slowly and painfully came to the conclusion that my Reverend Goblin just wasn't going to work I started thinking about other amps I might like to take a look at. My first stop, as always, was at Atomic. They seldom have any vintage stuff but usually can get pretty decent prices on recent model stuff used.

Went to Atomic on Tuesday or Wednesday. They had a decent looking Fender DRRI (which would really bring this whole thing full circle) so I plugged in and started messing around with it. Played it with a Tele for a couple minutes then grabbed a Les Paul. Hadn't played for more than a minute when one of the owners came back and told me he'd just sold the amp! It was really kinda funny, actually.

Any amount of research at all will turn up mixed opinions on the DRRI. For many people it's "good enough" while others find it an abomination. To my ears it sounds pretty good but I'm not trying to compare it to a "real" BF Deluxe -- I'm just looking for something that sounds good. Then there's the whole PCB vs. PTP issue. (See sidebar.)

Next stop was Action Music in Arlington. Lots of vintage amps and guitars. Been there a couple times but never really found anything that suited me AND I could afford. This time they had several things that met those criteria. First thing I played was a 73-ish non-reverb Princeton. Sort of the big brother to the Champ. Love the sound, but not significantly louder than my Champ. Price was decent, around $500.

They also had a 1970 Deluxe Reverb. Cosmetically so-so, nothing to write home about. Sounded great. Couple problems, though. First, it's still got the original 2-prong power cord. Danger Will Robinson! Second, the back panels are missing. Fairly simple to replace for small $$$. Biggest problem was they were looking for $900 or so on it. That struck me as a little bit high. Especially when you consider that my first stop with it is to take it to a tech and have that power cord replaced and most likely a full cap job done on it.

Next up was a 60-62 Tweed Harvard. Small amp but loud. Good tone, but about 2 minutes into it it started making some very odd noises. The sales guy looked quite concerned. Sounded as if the Martians were going to land any minute.

On Saturday I went out to Garret Park; they have a 69 Princeton Reverb for sale. I already knew they wanted too much for it, but I figured I'd give it a shot. It is said to be a bit louder than the non-reverb Princeton; figured I'd find out. Except when I plugged in there was almost no volume at all. Just not my week for amps, I guess.

I *did* get to try a Fulltone OCD pedal while at GPG. Very cool item, if somewhat pricey. More on that another time.

Amplifier Woes #1

About 15 months ago, I wrote about my quest to find an amplifier that suited me. At the time I thought the quest was over. Ha.

I wrote that entry while still in the first flush of love with the Mesa F-30. As always happens, sooner or later, that started to wear off and I had to admit a few things about the amp.

The problem with that is that every amp has a "sweet spot" where it sounds its best.

First, it was too loud. Yes, it has a volume knob and, yes, it does turn down. The problem with that is that every amp has a "sweet spot" (or several) where it sounds its best. For the F-30, that was too loud for me. I tried an attenuator (THD Hotplate) and hated it. Maybe I'm too picky. Stop snickering.

Second -- and perhaps a bigger problem -- the overdrive channel got too dirty too quickly. It's okay with single coils, but with humbuckers... too dirty for me.

A couple other things happened during this time that helped accelerate my waning affection for the F-30. First, I replaced the tubes and speaker in my old Crate GT-50. Surprise! It's like a whole new amp. Second, I bought a mid-70's Fender Champ on eBay for about $200. You wanna talk about Fendery? Man.

So, all things considered, the F-30 was redundant. Next stop was a Fender Blues Jr. I like the clean sound of this a lot. Sounds fantastic with a Tele, less so with my Les Paul. I've had it for about 6 months and I like it... but I don't love it. Things don't look good for the Blues Jr.

So I finally broke down and ordered a Reverend Goblin. I'd been looking at them ever since they were first announced, but I was reluctant to drop $500 on an amp that I couldn't play first. Sure, they have a 14-day money-back trial period. But after waiting 4 weeks for an amp are you really going to say "Hey I don't like this" and send it back? Read on.

After I ordered my Goblin -- but before it arrived -- I went to a jam session with a bunch of guys I "met" online. They're all Reverend fanatics; the three who live in this area own something like 10 Reverend guitars between them and at least three amps. Hearing the amp I felt alot better about having dropped $500 on one sight unseen. I could hardly wait for it to arrive.

I could tell something was wrong right away.

And then it did. I could tell something was wrong right away. There was a noticeable rattling (or buzzing, or fizzing) sound on many of the notes. I did my best to troubleshoot it: swapping tubes, tightening screws, looking for sources of vibration. Nothing. So I sent it back. (That's a whole other story.)

The entire time I was waiting for it to come back I was really worried that they would tell me that they couldn't find anything wrong with the amp. (It wouldn't be the first time that a tech tried to convince me I didn't hear something that I absolutely heard.) When I got it back there was a note with it saying they had swapped the speaker. I rejoiced! Briefly. Read on.

I had already kind figured that it had to be a problem with either the cabinet or the speaker; I was leaning towards the speaker. I ran a line from the speaker jack of the Goblin to a speaker on another amp: no buzzing. I ran a line from another amp to the speaker on the Goblin: buzzing. Seems like changing the speaker would help. Ha.

It still buzzes like crazy. I talked to the owner of the company (who also designed the amp and was the one who worked on mine when I sent it back) and he says there's nothing wrong with the amp. He said there was some buzzing when it came in but changing the speaker solved it. His exact words were: "It was negligible when I played it." Further, he suggested that it must be fret buzz (string vibrating against the fret) due to either low action or my particular playing style and technique. This kinda pissed me off a little. I know I'm a no-talent hack, but I've been one for a very long time. I've played the guitar (poorly) for 25 years; if my technique were such to inspire that kind of buzzing I'm sure I would have heard it by now.

Good news and bad news, and they're both the same.

Today I took the amp to the house of one of the guys I met at the jam session. He's got 2 Reverend amps (including an older version of the Goblin), a Reverend bass and 4 Reverend guitars. I was a little concerned that I'd get the amp there and either it wouldn't make the noise at all or it would make it when I played but not when he did. There was good news and bad news, and they're both the same. The amp has a problem. I'm hard pressed to see how anyone looking for it could miss it. It's really quite easy to hear.

So Monday I ship it back. That makes me sad; I've really been looking forward to this amp for a long time. Apart from the rattle I really, really like it.

There's more woe where that came from, but I'll save it for later.