Here is a great video I ran across for one method of DIY screenprinting.

Part 3 in a series.

Recently I helped a guitarist friend of mine buy his first tube amp. Not a “hybrid” amp, with just a preamp tube, mind you, but an actual tube amp. I thought a nice series of blogs on the topic was in order. We’ll tackle a few different aspects of tube amps, and my goal by the end of this series is that you would have all the info you need on tube amps to make an informed choice if you are shopping for a new amp.

Historically popular tube amps
A foundational tube amp in rock was the Fender Bassman. Although the Bassman was designed for bass, it was often used by guitarists, and even to this day is prized for its tone. Because of the continuing popularity of the Bassman, Fender has reissued the amp and Boss even released a pedal, the FBM-1, meant to model the Bassman’s tone.

(”Hot-rodding” the Fender Bassman circuit is what launched the Mesa Boogie company. Now an incredibly popular maker of tube amps, Mesa is the company behind the Dual Rectifier among various other amps. The Dual Rectifier or “Dual Rec” is a common sight in all forms of harder rock, on stages around the world.)

Of course the first loud rock amps came from UK-based company Marshall. Marshall amps are known as perhaps the standard bearer in rock, though they have recently lost some popularity. Pete Townsend of The Who, along with Marshall, is responsible for the concept of the “stack” - a 100W head and eight 12″ speakers for rock. There is an excellent article on this at thewho.net. In addition to this pioneering act of rock, The Who also were the first to use dynamite during a show and to smash their guitars on stage. Again, the first Marshall amps were modeled after the Fender Bassman.

Today, the most prized vintage Marshall amp is the JCM 800 which first came out in the early ’80s and is used by the likes of Thrice, Bad Religion, Green Day, and others. Of course, purists claim that the early models are the best. It is known as a great amp for vintage and modern high gain guitar tone with attitude.

Finally, another popular amp historically has been the Vox AC30. The AC30 is the amp popularized by Brian May of Queen, but it is used by many artists today including Brand New, Thursday, and others. The AC30 is known for its shimmering clean tone and its fluid solo tone. For bands that are more emotive or don’t need a compressed modern high gain tone, it is a good pick.

Any one of these classic tube amps will command attention on stage or in the studio and will give you a bevy of great tones. However, expect them to sometimes cost quite a bit, money-wise and time-wise as you may have to search to find one.

Next blog, we will look at some popular budget choices for a tube amp. If you don’t have a massive bank account, you’ll want to watch for that one!

In case you missed these posts, let me mention them again. I am working on making an indexed page where they can reside. Oddly enough the post on the Maxon tube screamer is the most visited of all our posts.

• Maxon OD808 = Ibanez Tube Screamer 808
  A post on how these pedals are the same, but you will save a chunk of change going with the Maxon.
• How to add a header image to your myspace
  It’s easier than it seems, though you could spend days looking for the myspace code for it.
• Downloadable tab files
• Sell your CD at your local record shop
  How to distribute an album yourself!
• The right way to grow your friends list on Myspace
  A downloadable PDF we put together that details some methods for (legally) adding tons of friends and keeping them up to date on all your shows.

I know. That is a bold claim isn’t it? The “right way?” Well whether it is or isn’t, I know my method of adding friends on myspace has been and continues to be successful for my band, so I have written it all up in an easy to print PDF for you to download. This tutorial includes plenty of screen shots and I hope it is helpful!

Adding Friends on Myspace

OK so you went through the long process of recording a demo, EP, or even a full length on your own. Now what do you do?

Well assuming you don’t skip the process of duplication where you get 100, 500, 1000 or more copies of your CD ready to sell, you probably want to get your CD out there.

The first place to start is at your local record shop. Go in and ask them if they sell CDs on consignment. This means that you provide them with a small number of copies of your CD, and they put it on the shelves for a period of time and sell it. At the end of that time, they can request more copies from you and pay you for what did sell.

Sometimes you don’t even have to call. In Seattle, I went to a couple of the locally-owned record shops’ web sites and found the information I needed regarding consignment, either directly on the page, or just through email.

One thing, though, you are still responsible for promoting your release!

A classic pedal that never goes out of style and works in all genres is the Ibanez Tube Screamer. While it wasn’t always available from Ibanez, it has recently returned under the Ibanez brand name in a number of reissues.

What you might not know is that the original pedal was actually a rebranded Maxon OD808, which have always been available and still are. You can also get the Maxon OD808 for about $40 cheaper than a reissue Tube Screamer. Sound like a bargain? There’s more. The Maxon pedal features the original JRC4558 IC chip that is often sought after by vintage pedal gurus. In the past, you would have had to hunt for Tube Screamers on eBay and match up serial numbers to make sure you got one from the original line to get a pedal with one of these chips.

Check out the Maxon OD808 and decide for yourself.  (If you have to have a pedal with the Ibanez name on it, it’s available too.)

Here’s a neat trick for your band. Have you ever wanted to add a header graphic to your myspace? My band just recently had to do this, and we found out that it takes more time to find out how to do it than to actually do it. So my hope is that this post gets you past that hurdle.

1. First, log in to your myspace, go to the Profile menu and choose “Edit Profile.” Now click the edit link next to your Bio.

2. Insert this code either after or before any text you want to appear in your “About Me” section. This code will not show up there, but it will tell myspace how and where to insert the header graphic. Note that you want to set the margin-left property to -1/2 of what the width of your banner is. The width of the average myspace page is 800px, so your banner will be the same width and so you’ll want to set this property to -400px. If you had a 500px wide image though, you would set it to -250px.

<style>
div.topbanner {
top: 5;
left: 50%
margin-left: -400px;
width: 100%;
position: absolute;
}
body
{
margin-top: 425px;
}
</style>

Where it says “margin-top” you will want to adjust this number to match the height of your image. If you don’t know the height of your header, open it up in your graphic editor program and find out. You may have to add some additional spacing to make it work. For instance, our graphic was 400px tall but we had to make this number 425.

3. Now add this code elsewhere in the bio section:

<div class="topbanner">
<img src="url-to-your-image-here" />
</div>

For this step, you’re going to have to have your header graphic out on the web somewhere. If you don’t have your own web site to upload images to, then get a Photobucket or similar account and upload the header there, then copy the URL for the photo and paste it in where you see “url-to-your-image-here” in the above code.

4. Save it and View the result! Here’s what ours ends up looking like. If yours looks weird, double-check everything and adjust the numbers.

In a later blog post we’ll cover how to make a cool header graphic using Photoshop.

Your ears are the most important instrument you have. Before you go to practice and rawk, be smart about how to preserve your hearing. We encourage you to read the awesome Are You At Risk? article over at H.E.A.R’s website. Better safe than deaf!

One great thing the article notes is that conventional earplugs will cut highs but let too much bass through, making things sound muddy. The best solution is to get custom-molded earplugs. Many struggling musicians can’t afford the cost, though, and if that’s you, check out these great earplugs over at zZounds. Both of these earplugs will provide an even cut of sound over all frequencies, meaning you can practice safely while still hearing everything.

Hearos High Fidelity Ear Plugs

Vater Safe and Sound Ear Plugs

Practice is a series of blogs devoted to helping you get the most out of your practice times, either individually or as a band.