James has now started a company with the idea of getting the customer involved with the design where he takes players ideas, and implements those ideas married with his vision and skills to make pedals and amps.

James Brown “I’ve just launched a new chapter in amptweakdom…..I’m still working part-time at Kustom Amps as their Chief Engineer, but I’ve started a new company with the intent of building handmade pedals and custom amplifiers: Amptweaker.

James Brown ”

Sounds like a very cool idea. I wish James best of luck in his new venture.

You can find out more info and order Richie’s new CD here on his web site: Richie Kotzen Official Site

Check out this video the shows what a great multi-intrumentalist he is.

Be sure to check out the new live DVD of the recently reunited Mr. Big “Budokan – Reunion Tour 2009″ in Japan.

Get more info on the CL45 and the other models at:

CHANNING Amplifiers | Hand Built Classic Guitar Amplification

We made our way to Landry’s room where I met Bill who was a very gracious host from the very beginning. He gave us a quick run down of the features then began to give us a sonic demo. First let me say Bill can really play but I was really impressed with the tone coming from the amp. The clean channel was nice and full but had good top end sparkle. When you turned on the gain for this channel you were met with a nice classic crunch. On the gain channel it took over from where the clean left off. I’d say here it’s more Marshall in flavor with a touch of Hiwatt. Overall the amp is a really cool mix of classic and modern. The amp really responded like a classic amp to pick dynamics and the volume knob. Even with the gain up there it still cleaned up really well with the volume knob and when picking the notes a bit harder there was a nice snap. The two gain knobs also gave you the ability to not only change the gain levels but allowed you to change the feel of the amp a bit as well as the tone. The EQ had a very nice usable range and with a depth knob on the back you can dial in some extra low end if you feel you need it. Bill is a big fan of Warehouse speakers as am I and he had three cabs there where on was loaded with “Veteran 30’s”, one with “Green Beret’s”, and a 2×12 with “ET 65’s”. For me I liked the Green Beret cabinet. After the demo we sat with Bill a bit to talk and when I asked about how he got into building amps I learned that it came from the desire to find the right gear but having a hard time finding exactly what he was looking for, so he decided to build gear to fit what him. That began with his guitars which he built from the ground up and now his amps. Bill is definitely passionate about the gear he builds and that shines through when you look at the build quality and hear the tone.

If you need and amp that will cover a pretty wide range from clean to scream then the Landry is worth checking out.

Go to Landry’s site for more detailed info: Landry Amps . . . Handcrafted All Tube Guitar Amplifiers

I didn’t get around to all the exhibitors due to an injured leg so walking around was harder and pretty tiring so my apologies to those builders I didn’t get to. I’m really hoping this will happen in Nashville again next year and I’ll be able to cover everything.

That said, here is the first post about the gear that to me was some of the highlights of the exhibitors I got to visit.

I had heard of Bob Reinhardt and his amps through the various guitar forums and let me say he lives up to his reputation. Bob is a very cool guy who you can tell takes pride in what he builds sells to his customers and in my opinion offers some really great sounding amps. I had before getting a chance to play his amps bought one of his 2×12 slant cabinets like the ones you can see in the picture above which was built perfect and sounded great. Overall Bob was a real pleasure to deal with.

I’ll classify most of his amps as more “classic” in flavor but he does have a couple of models that cover a little more modern vibe and in gain levels. Bob builds a pretty wide variety of models ranging in power from 18 watts up to 100 watts with various options like “power scaling” and for some models an effects loop. I’d say most of  his models are the more British camp tone wise but he does have his own take on a “Trainwreck” style circuit and now a Dumble style amp which I’ll mention a bit more about later. You can visit Reinhardt’s Site for more info on models and clips.

Since I didn’t want to hog  the room for hours on end I focused on a couple of the models to review here that had caught my attention from clips and reading on the net. These were the Storm 50, an amp that Bob built for Mark Knopfler called the Strom 33 and the Vintage 50.

First I tried the Storm 50 and from the first chord I was hit with nice rich classic tone. It had that classic British punch and clarity that keeps you an honest player. When you picked every note in the chord it just jumped out and rang clear. The single note leads were thick, full, and just sang and evolved nice into musical feed back. I remember just turning and looking at my friend with a big grin on my face and he mouthed back under the riff I was playing “That sounds really good.” As for features there is a foot switchable gain stage, so what you really have is a nice plexi without the extra gain and a nice thick JCM800 tone with it in. One thing I noticed was when adding the extra gain it didn’t compress the amp a lot nor did it change the feel or the overall tone at all. I really liked that because I’ve had amps that when you add extra gain,  sometimes you lost something in feel and or tone. Another feature was the “power scaling” that allowed you to dial down the power the goes to the tubes. This knocks down the volume but helps keep the feel and within reason the tone. I’ve found that it doesn’t matter if it’s a master volume, post phase master volume, attenuator, or power scaling…. you drop the volume or amount of power pushing the speakers the tone is going to change. There is no way around this as guitar speakers aren’t designed to stay the same at all volume levels like hi fi stereo speakers. All that said I did think it worked well for keeping the feel where as some masters and attenuators I’ve used really affected the feel.

Next was the Storm 33 where I was again met with the same richness of tone and features but with a slightly different feel and tone in that the mids seem to sit in a little different place. But really it was not much different than the Storm 50 except you could open this one up a bit more and not have it be really super loud but still plenty loud.

Lastly, I tried the Vintage 50 with his Willard pedal which is Bob’s take on the classic Rat pedal. First, the amp still had that same nice tonal richness I found in the Storms but a touch more classic in tone and of course doesn’t have the gain of the Storm models. Kicking in the Willard gave me that classic Rat distortion so if you are looking a good pedal that is in that vibe I can highly recommend the Willard.

Since I was needing an amp that covers the ground the Storm 50 does and it did it so well the Storm 50 came home with me. So when I went back to Bob’s room to get the amp we bumped into Jeff Cease who was in the original line up of the Black Crowes from 1988-1991 and is now playing with Bucky Convington on the road. Jeff and a friend were in there jamming. Jeff was playing a strat through Bob’s new amp that’s a take on the Dumble style circuit. Let me just Jeff is such a good player he can make a lot of amps sound great but the tone that was coming from that amps was so thick and rich but it also cut. Bottom line… it was just flat out nice. If you like that Dumble flavor you might want to contact Bob and try what he has to offer in that vein. Also I’d like to mention one of Jeff’s buds was on bass playing Bob’s bass head and it had a very warm, fat, tube bass tone. I wish my brother who plays bass could have heard it. I think would have been all over it.

Bob is making some great stuff  that left an impression on me and my friends who went with me. For us we think they are very much worth checking out. Here is Bob’s site in case you missed it earlier… Reinhardt’s Site

Be sure to check back later for clips and demo of the Storm 50 later on this month.

I’m not sure everyone who isn’t a guitar player knows how much this one man brought to the guitar world, let alone to music and the recording of music as a whole. Les was a great musician and an innovator in every since of the word. When it comes to the electric guitar and the recording of music, one of the men blazing the trail for innovation was Les Paul. Les may have gone on today but his legacy and contribution to music will live on as long as there is music. Rest in peace Les, you’ve earned it. Let’s crank the amps tonight in honor of a one of the greats!

All Secrets Known
Check My Brain
Last Of My Kind
Your Decision
A Looking In View
When The Sun Rose Again
Acid Bubble
Lessons Learned
Take Her Out
Private Hell
Black Gives Way To Blue

Smith tells Billboard.com: “Everybody was like, ‘Y’know, I really like having this time off, not being a Chili Pepper and doing other things… It’ll be two years in September, so now we’re ready.

“You can’t force people to play when they don’t want to play or aren’t ready to play or whatever – not in our band, anyway.”

Time to be “Talkin’ ’bout my buddy’s funk it up fish bone!”

Trust me this is one of best live bands you can go see.

August 10 | The Highline Ballroom | New York, NY (w/ The Roots)

September 1 | The Birchmere | Alexandria, VA

September 2 | Bottle & Cork | Dewey Beach, DE

September 3 | World Cafe Live | Philadelphia, PA

September 4 | The Crazy Donkey | Farmingdale, NY

September 6 | Infinity Hall | Norfolk, CT

September 8 | Tupelo Music Hall | Londonderry, NH

September 9 | FTC @ Stage One | Farfield, CT

September 10 | Johnny D’s | Somerville, MA

September 11 | Mexicali Live | Teaneck, NJ

September 12 | Rams Head Tavern | Annapolis, MD

September 14 | The Loft | Atlanta, GA

September 15 | HOB Orlando | Lake Buena Vista, FL

September 16 | Jannus Landing | St. Petersburg, FL

September 18 | Emo’s | Austin, TX

September 19 | Granada Theatre | Dallas, TX

September 20 | Warehouse Live | Houston, TX

September 23 | Canes Bar and Grill | San Diego, CA

September 24 | The Key Club | West Hollywood, CA

September 25 | Regency Grand Ballroom | San Francicso, CA

September 26 | Berbatis Pan | Portland, OR

September 27 | Studio Seven | Seattle, WA

September 30 | Fine Line Music Cafe | Minneapolis, MN

October 2 | The Magic Bag | Detroit, MI

October 3 | Lee’s Palace | Toronto, Ontario

October 4 | Double Door | Chicago, IL

October 5 | The Grog Shop | Cleveland, OH

October 30 | Highline Ballroom | New York, NY