A bass player’s testimonial to the Rich Drive pedal

August 21, 2011

Hello readers ! This testimonial was supplied by Peter Stojkovic, a bass player from Sydney, Australia, who also has an interest in audio engineering.

HI Ivan, my band mates purchased me one of your Rich Drive pedals for a birthday gift a few years ago. I have used the pedal constantly and love everything about it. I run a Warwick Thumb Bass (4-string) through it, and it sounds like pure evil ! (We’ll take that as a compliment – IR).

I should mention that I have A/B’d the Rich Drive against a few others and there’s no comparison – for example it was put up against a Big Muff, a Rat, a Sansamp, a Boss DS1 and a crappy digital thingey I don’t recall the name of, and the Rich Drive achieves a very distinct flavour. I find that while a lot of distortion pedals destroy the detail of my bass, the Rich Drive gives it another dimension altogether.

Another trick is to turn the drive control to zero, but keep the pedal on – it begins to sound like a preamp that gives an extra warmth that’s more than just a minor tonal change (I would liken the tone to that of an old SSL channel strip). I must thank you for creating such a great pedal.

Many thanks to Peter for contributing to our blog. The Rich Drive pedal was originally created for guitarists (like me) who were fed up with overdrivers that destroyed their tone and dynamics, but has been adopted by many Aussie bass players for similar reasons. Since 1997, the Rich Drive has been purchased by the creme de la creme of Aussie music talent, including Bob Spencer, Dave Leslie, Mark Lizotte, Thirsty Merc and many more, plus sales to individual guitarists in the USofA and Japan.

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More about signal splitting

August 20, 2011

Hello ! Thanks for checking in again – this blog follows on from previous blogs re the Rich Split and Rich Switch signal routing pedals, with more suggestions especially for home-recording guitarists.

While the primary intention of the Rich Switch pedal is to switch between and/or combine a pair of amplifiers in either a stage or studio situation, the Rich Split pedal has potentially many applications. The guitarist can run FX processors in parallel with the primary guitar signal (which may be, for example, a mic’d up amp or a direct preamp), route the guitar signal to a pair (or more) of amps for tonal complexity, and keep a tuner on-line, yet out of the audio path, as running your guitar through a tuner is a sure-fire recipe for lifeless tone. No more unplugging your guitar between takes to tune up, and you’ll be forever spoiled when you experience the no compromise tone achieved by having the tuner out of your signal path.

Once you’ve experienced the lush sounds of layered processing, it will be difficult to remain satisfied with the standard effects-in-series approach ! Some real world examples of how parallel processing can work in a home studio situation, as well as on-stage for live performance:

* plug your guitar into the Rich Split pedal; connect one of the outputs to your choice of valve (tube) amplifier that powers a remote, mic’d up 1×10 or 1×12 speaker cab tucked away in a closet, etc; connect another output to your tuner; connect outputs (as required) to your choice of FX processors; connect a mono out from each processor to its own mixer channel input; including the mic’d up speaker, this provides multiple channels complete with EQ, to blend and pan;

* such a multi-signal scenario offers several choices – in one pass you could record an amp track plus an FX track, buss all the signals to one composite track, or pan them into a stereo submix; whichever routing you choose, however, the resulting sound is huge; you get the full-on guitar timbre plus layered FX – a noticeably richer sound than passing one signal through a series of stompboxes !

* for those of you experimenting with the latest guitar amplifier, guitar speaker and microphone emulation software, the Rich Split is one device you cannot live without; simultaneously record your favourite amp’s DI’d output, its mic’d speaker, and your guitar’s pickup only output; through your software, you can then easily manipulate any or all of these; this means that you have a purely analogue sound back-up, and are no longer bound by recording one option only;

* if you have an old-school 2-channel amp, you can run a direct signal to one channel and FX to the other channel, and mix the two at the front panel; the volume control of the second channel works as a parallel FX return (with EQ); the results will be dramatic – more lush and dynamic than what you’d get going through the processor into a single channel;

Important Notes !

* when you try parallel processing, remember to set your FX processors to 100% wet

* always ensure your amplifiers are reliably earthed (grounded) via the 3-pin plug to the 240V AC mains earth (Australia); have this checked at regular intervals by a fully qualified electrician or service technician;

* whenever you run multiple amps, check for earth (ground) loops and also hazardous electrical conditions; for example, some persons have been known to disable the earth pins on all but one of the amp’s 240V AC plugs to prevent multi-amp earth loops; however, it is highly dangerous, massively stupid and also illegal to disconnect the earth wire either at the 3-pin plug or within the amplifier; if you injure yourself or someone else whilst doing this, you may be legally liable; think about the consequences ! the preferred solution is to resolve earth loops by inserting high-quality isolation transformers between switcher or splitter and amplifiers; this is what is achieved by using the Rich Switch or Rich Split;

* when using more than one guitar amp there is a reasonable possibility of any two models of amp being out of phase with each other, rather than in-phase; when you add the second amp, the overall volume should increase slightly, and have a much fuller tonality; if there is an immediate reduction in level, or especially a loss of low frequencies upon connecting the second amp, then it is reasonable to assume the two units are out-of-phase relative to each other; please consult your service tech, your supplier and/or Ivan Richards Audio for recommended solutions.

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Service Centre for David Eden and Nemesis bass amplification

August 8, 2011

Hey folks – just a reminder that we also service the needs of working and recording bass players, which includes not only valve (tube) amplification, which always has been and always will be our specialised area of interest, but also solid-state amplification. We have long been an authorised service centre for Ampeg and Peavey amplification, and also Marshall, Laney and Hartke. We provide non-warranty repairs to many other brands of bass amps, for example Fender, Orange, SWR, Labsystems, and more recently the products of David Eden and their budget off-shoot brand, Nemesis. We do not provide service to amps with switched-mode-power-supplies (SMPSU), or switching amps in general. Check with us first, if in doubt.

Recently a David Eden WT800C bass amp was delivered to our Wyoming workshop for repair by Grove Studios, a Central Coast (NSW) recording facility formerly owned by Gary Beers of INXS fame. Grove Studios have become a regular customer in recent times, as amps quite often choose the worst possible time to develop a fault, ie in the middle of a recording session. We always strive for the best possible turn-around time in these situations, depending on availability of parts, as required.

The WT800C in question was blowing fuses, which after initial investigation was found to be a melt-down in the left-hand power amplifier. The power amp board had some short-circuit (S/C) output devices plus some other smaller collateral damage, and worst of all there was damage to the printed circuit board (PCB), with some destroyed tracks and solder pads. This PCB damage appeared to be from a previous unknown repair and not from this particular incident. Another example of heavy-handed soldering/de-soldering technique (or lack thereof).

I had to order in the output devices which were 3 each of the Sanken 2SA1492/2SC3856 complementary pairs, which unfortunately held up progress of the repair for a few days. To ensure equal load sharing between the output devices, I never mix and match new and old devices, or different brands of the same device. That way, I know the repair will hold up under rawk’n’roll conditions. It’s also important for the same reasons to clean up the forced-air cooling system. After replacing the output and driver devices, plus diodes, etc, and repairing the damaged PCB the best way I could, ie, with wire links to replace the blown tracks, etc, etc, we powered up and readjusted the bias setting as per the sevice manual. The amp passed its power output test, burn-in test and electrical safety test with flying colours ! With one channel only driven at a time, this amp puts out approx 500 watts into a 4 ohm load, and therefore potentially delivers over 800 watts with both channels driven.

Many thanks to Markus Salisbury of Grove Studios, and Eric Grothe of Shinobi.

Posted in Amp Repair | 2 Comments »

A Dr-Z MAZ38 (Senior) major repair completed

August 6, 2011

Yes, we specialise in the service & repair of boutique, ie hand-wired, all-valve (tube) musical-instrument amplification, including Dr-Z from the USofA. The subject of this week’s amp repair blog is a Dr-Z MAZ38 (Senior) 2X12 reverb combo, shipped up to our Wyoming (NSW) workshop from Sydney by a regular customer.

This particular MAZ38 was blowing fuses. There are actually two fuses fitted on the rear panel, one is the 240V mains fuse, the other is a secondary fuse for the high voltage supply, and would normally be around the 0.5A (500ma) value. In this case the mains fuse was blowing, although when I examined the HT fuse I found an 8A fuse rather than a 0.5A fuse, which would result in negligable protection.

The fact that the mains fuse was blowing tends to suggest a fault in the power supply, and this proved to be correct. The fault was isolated in a series of diagnostic steps to the power transformer itself, which had developed an internal short-circuit. The quad of EL84 output valves was still serviceable, but the GZ34 rectifier valve was definitely short-circuit. Was the GZ34 the original problem, or the transformer ? We shall never know, but this was developing into an expensive repair job for the customer.

Removing the faulty transformer and installing a replacement was going to be a tricky operation, as access to where wires need to be disconnected and subsequently reconnected is limited. Most of the internal space within the chassis is taken up by a single large board holding the majority of the resistors and capacitors, with hand-wired connections from both sides of the board. The standard of construction as well as components is high, as you would expect, but access to some components for service is poor.

It turned out upon investigation, that the power transformer is rated at 230V AC. But, here in OZ our mains voltage is actually 240V nominal, but is often quite a bit higher than that, especially over in W.A. There was going to be a delay sourcing the original transformer from the factory anyway, and we wanted to move quickly on this job, so at the customer’s suggestion I selected an after-market replacement power transformer. I chose to install a Vox AC30 replacement manufactured in Chicago, Illinois USofA, by Magnetic Components Inc, and marketed under their “Classic Tone” series. I have sourced a transformer from this manufacturer previously with success, so I had no hesitation to use them again.

I originally read about Magnetic Components in TQR, by the way. Check out the transformer photos ! This monster is spec’d as per the original Vox AC30’s, but most importantly it is rated for 240V AC, by means of connecting the two 120V primary windings in series. In spite of the imposing bulk of this transfmr, I was able to locate it on the existing MAZ38 chassis, with a couple of additional mounting holes, and nylon grommets to feed the wires safely through the access holes. After making all the necessary connections, which included adding a pair of 100 ohm resistors to provide a centre-tapped ground connection for the 6.3V AC heater supply, and also installing a new JJ GZ34 rectifier valve (tube), we powered up the amp without any further dramas.

The amp chassis was subjected to the usual range of quality-control testing: power output test into a resistive load, burn-in test, electrical safety test (to Workcover NSW standard), and final play test into the amp’s own speakers. I was pleased to find that the new power transformer remained relatively cool during all this, one obvious advantage of bulky 50’s/60’s spec’d units with a lot of iron !

Many thanks to Shane for his continued custom and for providing us with this week’s amp repair blog. Please visit us again soon for more amp and pedal blogs, we try to create a fresh blog every week, time permitting.

Regards, Ivan.

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A Testimonial to the Richards Expressionist Series Amps

July 24, 2011

Here is a testimonial ref the Studio Expressionist model amplifier, rated at 15 watts into 4, 8 or 16 ohms, designed and hand-wired, one at a time, by the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia.

 

The testimonial was written by ARIA Award winning producer, Jonathan Burnside and is reproduced here in its entirety, without any editing. Jonathan is an American producer, has worked with Nirvana, Faith No More, etc, but has also produced a number of successful Aussie bands, including The Sleepy Jackson, Dallas Crane, Eskimo Joe, The Grates, The Living End, Dan Sultan, The Melvins, Grinspoon and many more, most recently Cold Chase. My aplogies to any names I have overlooked.

“Recently I was engineering and producing the Australian band Slow Chase at Mixmasters, an excellent studio in the Adelaide Hills. Being a lover of fine low-wattage amplifiers, I encouraged guitarist Adam Gresty to bring along his new Richards Expressionist 15W model amp head. I had heard great reports about the amp but had not yet used one. Adam was able to fly with the amp with no excess baggage charges, another perk of a low-watt head !

We were in a studio equipped with a million bucks worth of audio goodies, but the Richards Expressionist proved to be the most important piece of gear in the house. The songs were glam-boogie-rock-and-roll and I was able to dial in that fat Marc Bolin/T. Rex Les Paul sound perfectly. Some of the leads involved more of an eighties Van Halen tone, and again I was able to dial in Eddie’s famous ‘brown sound’ in a matter of seconds.

I find amplifier tube (valve) saturation generally more pleasing than pedal distortion, and the beauty of a low-watt amplifier is that you can get output tube (valve) saturation in on the game without risking permanent ear damage. The Expressionist was a champ at this (pun intended), and I loved being able to flick a switch to choose between output tube (valve) types for significantly different sounds.

I also favour using guitar amps for recording bass guitars in the studio, because I like the punchier, more even tonal balance they supply in comparison to a huge bass rig. The Expressionist was wonderful for this and using the tone selector I was able to come up with the perfect midrange/low frequency balance for every song. Even though I also used a high-quality direct-box for the bass as well, and phase-corrected it to the amplified bass mic, I ended up using only the mic’d Expressionist bass track in the mixes for all the songs. As we say in America, it covered all bases.

Ivan Richards has nailed down many a guitar (and bass !) sound in one classy package. In an age of anaemic digital amp simulators and cheaply constructed reissue amps, it’s great to hear this level of quality from a new (to the USA) amp maker. During the entire project, I was able to imagine a guitar sound and then dial it in easily, varying from retro to modern at will. A big win for the studio-time budget !”

Jonathan Burnside,

San Francisco, USA.

Thanks, Jonathan !! That brings this week’s blog to a close, please tune in again next week. Please check out the Jonathan Burnside/Producer website. Please also check out our earlier blog ref Aussie band Slow Chase in the studio, plus all our other amp and pedal related blogs.

http://jonathanburnside.com

http://www.mixmasters.com.au

http://www.slowchase.com

http://www.ivanrichards.com

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Bob’s Rich Split pedal returns to HQ for 18V MOD

July 16, 2011

This blog continues directly from the previous post where we discussed the Rich Switch (Active) A/B/Y pedal. The Rich Split is another of our functional, problem-solving pedals, which are intended to be as transparent as possible, rather than creating a specific sound. Not very glamorous or exciting, but in fact very important to the modern musician. This pedal doesn’t even have a fancy label (yet), but instead relies on good old Dymo tape lettering.

Bob Spencer is one of my long-time customers, and a loyal and trusted friend. Actually, quite a few of my customers end up becoming friends of mine, which is something I treasure. Bob probably bought the very first Rich Split, which actually had a fancy label, but it’s been redesigned since then. The Rich Split is custom-built to each order, but generally is built with 2, 3 or 5 splits and with 1 or 2 line transformers. The Harbuch broadcast/studio quality line transformer is quite bulky, and this dictates the size and weight of the pedal. However, the superior performance of this transformer justifies the extra size, weight and cost. See the previous post photos for a look at this transformer.

Originally the Rich Split and Rich Switch pedals were optimised for +9V DC operation, but now regulated power supplies of alternative voltages are commonly available. From June 2011, both pedals are shipped optimised for operation from a +18V DC regulated power supply (which we can supply you at cost). This provides greater headroom for the professional user. All pedals are still shipped loaded with a fresh 9V battery, for immediate use. All pedals are play-tested and functionality-tested by the builder before shipping.

So, therefore, Bob has sent his 3-way (with 2 x transformers) splitter back for the +18V DC mod and a power supply. I believe Bob has been using the splitter to facilitate live recordings of gigs of the Melbourne-based band (with singer Mick Pealing) – Raw Brit.

Well – here is the product description of the 3-way splitter shown in the photos. The Rich Split pedal is a 1-in/3-out active, buffered splitter, featuring a high input impedance and a low output impedance, which allows you to split your guitar signal, and run long cables, without sonic degradation ! The intention of this pedal is to facilitate the trend among guitarists to record and/or perform live with multiple amplifiers and/or effects chains – without impedance loading, ie sonic degradation – and resolve the problem of earth (ground) loops safely and professionally by incorporating broadcast/studio quality line transformers on outputs #2 and #3.

The Rich Split runs dead quiet and features low-current-draw circuitry with individual buffers for each of the 3 outputs. The non-signal-inverting design ensures against phase problems. Therefore, all signals routed to your chosen destination (amps, pedals, FX processors, recording desk, etc) will be perfectly in-phase, and when combined will not result in a ‘smaller’ out-of-phase sound. The pedal can be powered from either the internal 9V battery or via the external +18V DC adapter jack. For recording purposes, obviously battery operation will achieve 100% hum-free operation, but at the expense of headroom.

The transformer-isolated outputs #2 and #3 make it possible to use two or three amps simultaneously, without having to lift the earth (ground) on any of the amps. This potentially lethal ‘earth-lifting’ was the usual solution (in the bad old days) for eliminating hum introduced by earth (ground) loops when connecting two or three amps in parallel – definitely NOT recommended, plus its illegal. With the isolation provided by outputs #2 and #3, all earth (ground) loop problems are eliminated.

Thank you, Bob, for providing us with the subject for the 2nd of this week’s blogs. In another blog to follow, we might consider some of the issues that arise when hooking up multiple amps.

www.ivanrichards.com

www.bobspencer.com.au

www.greatergroovemusic.com.au

www.myspace.com/bobspencermusic

Posted in Friends of Ivan Richards Audio, Pedals | Leave a Comment »

Head Gap Studio add the Rich Switch (Active) A/B/Y pedal to their equipment inventory.

July 16, 2011

Head Gap is a purpose-built recording studio located in Preston (Melbourne), Victoria. Head Gap was designed by renowned Australian acoustician, the late Richard Priddle. The principal producers/engineers are owners Neil Thomason and Brent Punshon.

We were recently contacted by Neil Thomason regarding one of our problem solving product offerings, the Rich Switch (Active) A/B/Y pedal.

Far from being just another passive A/B box, the Rich Switch pedal utilises low-noise active (buffer) circuitry and a Harbuch broadcast/studio quality line transformer. The size of this transformer can be judged from the photos – it is definitely not a cheapo component sourced from the far east, but manufactured over a period of many years here in Sydney, Australia, by the fine Harbuch transformer company.

The pedal offers a pair of low impedance outputs to drive long guitar cables without degrading your tone. A pair of 3PDT metal footswitches changes the mode of operation between ‘A or B’ and ‘A + B’. Status is indicated by a blue LED for channel A, a green LED for channel B, and a red LED for A + B. The non-signal-inverting design ensures against phase problems. The Tuner jack provides a direct output enabling permanent connection of a tuner, regardless of whether ouput A or B is selected.

The transformer isolated channel A makes it possible to perform and/or record through two amplifiers simultaneously, without having to lift the earth on either amp. This potentially lethal ‘earth-lifting’ was the usual solution (back in the bad old days !) for eliminating the hum introduced by earth (ground) loops that occur when connecting two amplifiers in parallel (definitely not recommended, in fact it’s illegal !). With the isolation provided by output A, all earth (ground) loop problems are eliminated. Obviously, the transformer-coupled output A can also be used as a DI for recording.

**From June 2011, this pedal is shipped optimised for operation from a +18V DC regulated power supply, which can be supplied by us at our cost price. This provides greater headroom for professional situations. All pedals are still shipped loaded with a fresh 9V battery, for immediate use. All pedals are play-tested/functionality-tested by the builder before shipping.

Here is some feedback we received from Neil Thomason after delivery of the Rich Switch to Head Gap recording studio……..

Hi Ivan – package received at this end, great packaging and presentation, appreciate the supplied documentation. The unit is bigger and heavier than your website picture implies, it really feels great, and seems built to last. Look forward to giving it a run over the weekend. Thanks so much for putting it together for me in the time frame I requested, your service and communication has been excellent and it’s really appreciated. All the best, Neil.

and…….. Thanks again for the Rich Switch, it went straight into sessions over the weekend, and also this week, and has delivered on all accounts. Cheers, Neil.

www.ivanrichards.com

www.headgap.com.au

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A Richards ‘Expressionist’ amp with very expensive mics in the studio.

July 10, 2011

Here we have some photo’s of the 15-watt Studio Expressionist model amplifier (head), one of the range of hand-wired, all-valve (tube), custom musical-instrument amplifiers from the Richards Amplifier Company – Australia. The photo’s were taken by Adam Gresty, during the recording in Adelaide, South Australia, of the debut album by Slow Chase.

Slow Chase are a rock-band from Melbourne, Australia, featuring drummer Emily Shaw and singer/guitarist Adam Gresty. The band’s sound has been described as T-Rex meets The Pixies, but has also drawn comparisons to modern British rock-band Kasabian, and West Coast hard rock bands like Spinnerette, Sweethead and Eagles of Death Metal.

Recorded with ARIA award winning producer Jonathan Burnside (The Living End, The Sleepy Jackson, Fu Manchu, The Melvins, Grinspoon and more), Slow Chase are due to release their debut The Blind Spot EP during 2011.

This is what Adam had to say:

Ivan, I’ve just got back from recording my band’s debut album in Adelaide. I’ve attached some photo’s I thought you would like to see. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take the Richards 1×12 Tone Cabinet with me, but the Studio Expressionist head did make the journey and I’m very pleased to tell you it was an absolute bloody triumph. The photo’s show the amp with, oh, y’know about $15k-$20k worth of microphones on it.

*Mic details:  AEA A840 large diaphragm powered ribbon mic, plus AEA R92 large ribbon studio mic, plus Royer SF24 phantom-powered stereo ribbon mic, plus a vintage Neumann U67 for room ambience !

The story continues:

My producer Jonathan (I think I told you he’s an American guy, worked with Nirvana, Faith No More, etc, but has also produced a lot of successful Aussie bands, and received the Aria awards for The Sleepy Jackson, plus Dallas Crane, Eskimo Joe, The Grates, The Living End, Dan Sultan, Whitley and loads more), well, Jonathan was completely enamoured with it. Couldn’t get over how easy it was to dial in a killer tone and the flexibility the different voiced channels plus the switchable output valves (tubes) in the power section offered. From vintage to modern. We even used it for doubling up DI’d bass parts. It was the only amp we used on the album. So thrilled I managed to get it to the studio and it’s now the heart and soul of the first Slow Chase album ! Jonathan christened the amp Jagger, which I thought was hilarious, ref Jagger/Richards. Can’t wait for you to hear the album, although it will be well into 2011 before it’s been mixed down and mastered.

Well – many thanks to Adam for that great story which now features as this week’s Blog. I’m sure that list of mic’s will make many a home-studio owner envious. In a forthcoming Blog, we will feature a testimonial from producer Jonathan Burnside, so watch out for that. Until next week, thanks for checking out the Blog and please feel free to contact me by email re any enquiries.

http://www.ivanrichards.com

http://www.slowchase.com

http://jonathanburnside.com

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A tale of two “Champs”.

July 2, 2011

A pair of Fender “Champs” arrived at the workshop this week for servicing. Actually, one of them is a Silverface Bronco amp, which to all intents and purposes is a Fender Vibro-Champ. The other is a current manufacture (ie, China) Champion 600 amp. Both amps have very similar electronic design excepting that the Vibro-Champ has valve (tube) driven Tremolo, and a valve (tube) rectifier, whereas the Champion 600 has solid-state rectification, printed-circuit board construction and a preset tone-stack so there is only a volume control presented on the front panel. The Bronco has a much larger cabinet, which helps enormously to develop a bigger sound.

The Bronco needed a fairly comprehensive service. This not only included replacement of all valves (tubes), but also damaged pots (potentiometers), ageing electrolytic capacitors, and a 9-pin valve socket which was no longer providing reliable connection. Our usual electrical safety standards inspection and testing revealed that the 240V 3-pin plug was due for replacement, too.

The Chamion 600 was powering up but nil output, ie the lights are on but nobody’s home, as they say. The cathode-bias resistor for the 6V6 valve (tube) in this amp is a little under-rated for the job, especially if the 6V6 suffers a catastrophic failure, so I replaced it with a ceramic-body 7 watt resistor intended for the most demanding environments. I use these resistors where appropriate in my own Richards custom amps. The 2 x boards checked out OK, as did the jacks, interconnects, and so on, but the 2 x valves (tubes) were cheapo examples of Chinese origin, and the volume control was very scratchy indeed, so these items were replaced.

Both these amps have small, very cheapo speakers, so naturally the amps sound much bigger and better through a decent quality external speaker. However, many people love how compact and lightweight these amps are, and of course 1000’s of recordings over the decades have been done with the Champ amp. So in the final shoot-out, how did these amps compare ? The basic tonality is very similar. They common circuit design is quite low gain, so you have to turn up the volume control most of the way to get much of a vibe happening. The Bronco/Vibro-Champ has a bigger sound with greater prescence and throw, and the advantage of 2-band EQ, but most of all it has a great valve-generated tremolo which is superior to any stompbox tremolo that I have heard so far. The tremolo is of the direct-modulation configuration, which varies the bias and gain of the 2nd stage of the preamp 12AX7 valve (tube). For tremolo lovers, it doesn’t get much better than this.

For all owners of small valve (tube) amps such as those described above, I offer world-class professional amp repairs from my workshop located in Wyoming (Central Coast) NSW. We have couriers delivering and picking up to this site every working day, so please consider the level of service and value add that we can supply. That’s all for today’s BLOG, please check in every week or so for more news and info. regards – Ivan.

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Do we cater for the jazz guitarist ?

June 19, 2011

Yes !  It’s not just about rock’n’roll, we offer our repair services and custom-design/custom build services to every type of musician who is reliant on some form of amplification/sound-reinforcement. This would include jazz, jazz/rock/fusion, country, alt-country, folk-rock, pop, blues, soul, rhythm & blues, roots music/world music………………..the list goes on and on.

Actually, the Richards family has always been into jazz, swing, big bands, hawaiian steel guitar, etc,  all the way back to the 1930’s. I am the black-sheep of the family, I am the one who was seduced by the music of the British Invasion bands from the mid-1960’s onwards. I just couldn’t get enough of The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Animals, Cream, Hendrix, The Who, The Small Faces, Led Zep, Jeff Beck Group, Jethro Tull and many more, and I’m still hooked !

However, getting back to the jazz musicians out there – we pretty much have the cream of the Australian contemporary country music scene resident here on the NSW Central Coast, but we also have a few jazz orientated players here as well. What kind of equipment issues do they have ? Getting a warm, satisfying tone is a prerequisite as is having enough headroom to voice those complex chords with clarity and authority. Getting a balanced tone and levels across the 6-strings and in fact the entire guitar spectrum is another major issue, particularly if you are playing a hollow-body instrument, eg an arch-top.

Most jazz guys would probably favour a guitar amplifier that is light and compact. A valve amp of something in the order of 20 watts with a single 10-inch or 12-inch speaker would seem a logical choice. For whatever reason that I don’t yet understand, there is a trend among jazz guitarists towards the Rivera amps from California, USA. Perhaps an influential player chose one of these amps and then others followed his example.

A customer recently brought a Rivera Clubster 20 watt 1×10 combo to the workshop. The amp had certainly been reliable and is commendably light and compact. However, the tone was very thin and also lacking in headroom. The overdrive channel was really too high gain to be useable, and did not lend itself to modification, so I concentrated on the improving the clean channel in whatever way I could. I substituted another brand of output valves which gave slightly later break-up, ie more headroom. However, the biggest limitation of this amp is the speaker unit itself. If you are going to have a 1×10 combo, then that 10-inch speaker needs to be a good one ! The stock speaker does not have a good, balanced tone across the guitar spectrum, in fact it is rather thin and generally lacking in tone and dynamics. The biggest possible improvement to this amp was always going to be upgrading the speaker.

I have had some experience with the Jensen NEO speakers, which unlike some of the various Jensen alnico and ceramic magnet reissues, have a very full balanced tone, without particularly favouring any frequency over another, and also good sensitivity. In other words, both the 10-inch and 12-inch Jensen NEO models are well suited to low powered amps, even though they are rated for 100 watts. After installing the NEO-10, both the customer and I agreed the tone of the amp was greatly improved as also was the sensitivity and headroom.

I would like to also remind jazz players that I custom design and build valve amps for guitarists of all persuasions. Not as light and compact as the amp described above, I must admit, but designed and built to last the distance and achieve the desired tonality and performance levels. Possible design criteria might include the use of 6V6 power output valves for their very sweet tones, optional valve-driven reverb, and baxandall e.q. for a more balanced frequency response.

For distortion tones that complement those jazz/fusion explorations, you won’t find a better overdriver than our Class-A Distortion pedal, which achieves a very natural, very organic quality of distortion, with fine control over both level and tone. It never sounds harsh ! In fact, one of the first guitarists to purchase this pedal was Carl Dewhurst, a player and teacher well known on the Sydney jazz scene.

Please take the time to check out our website: www.ivanrichards.com and please feel free to contact us if you have any suggestions and/or useful comments about any issues in the preceding paragraphs. Your own experiences in the world of jazz guitar amplification may well assist other players.

Regards,

Ivan.

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