RE: [Harp-L] Re: Fugazzi , midsized amp

["Mark Lavoie" <lavoie@xxxxxxxxx>]

Gary,
Your memories of being on the road with Sonny, and getting Emmas instruction
on Sonnys sugar intake bring back a memory of Sonnys stubborness. We were in
a restaurant and you know how Sonny loved sugar. Two packets was all he was
allowed. I put the packets in his iced tea and he said,"give me another," I
said Sonny, Emma gave me instructions, he reached over and grabed the glass
sugar container with the hole in the center about the size of a pencil, and
poured the sugar in his iced tea. As he was pouring he said "You young
people, your all afraid a dyin." After that I made sure there were only
packets of sugar on the table.
Stay tuned!
Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of SONNYTONE@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 10:59 AM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Fugazzi , midsized amp


Michael, I have developed that perfect in the middle amp, although it can
still crank to bassman levels. It weighs exactly 40 pounds, has a single 12
and
single 10, and you would not have to mic it in a midsized room. It is my
Cruncher model, unfortunately my cost to build is nearly $1400, and I am
selling
for $1895 as of right now. That is not a good business markup, but I am
doing
to  get them out there. Sure, you can all the suggestions you want for under
a grand  but I will put my amp up against any other midsized amp for pink
slips, winner  takes the other persons amp and light it on fire if they
want. As
far as vintage  amps, over the past 10 years I literally owned 3000 vintage
amps, I played  everything, every brand possible, I wanted to know what tone
was
available  through these so called myth tone amps. I have owned EIGHT
Danelectro Commandos,  probably illegal in some states, GA40, I could list
anything
you can name. They  only have ONE spot on them that sounds good and cannot
be
turned up louder due  to their design. Many were class A amps which are
limited,
good overdriven sound  in your house, hit the stage and you're dead. I know
many harpL guys think us  custom builders are getting rich, anyone that has
come to my house can testify  to disclaim that. Why my cost is so high,
because I
still am the only builder in  the world using true NOS paper oil military
grade paper oil capacitors, doing  side by side tests with other amps using
orange drops or mallories, I know my  sound is warmer, I spent the farm to
buy out
two old warehouses from the 50's. I  test each cap under high voltage for
tolerance and leakage, every one has Zero  leakage due to it being sealed in
a
glass like encapsulation, as the process of  being rolled and soaked in this
oil.
A vintage yellow astron, as in a 59  bassman, is just a piece of metal with
a
yellow paper jacket, as are all new  caps. True audiophile high end experts
are the ones that covet these PIO caps as  they reproduce the warmest and
truest sound possible. Having custom  cabs  built with special unique
lacquer and
clear coating where anything spilled on it  will be able to be wiped off,
along
with their beauty, are also unique, and I  gladly pay the price to continue
that. Throw in custom designed transformers,  along with me buying every
speaker on the market and testing in prototype stage  to find perfect sound,
and
being the only builder who can reproduce Big or  Little Walter's tone makes
them
that much better,  I know what people want  to hear from an amp, plus
customer
support from a 30 year pro to walk you threw,  give tips on bringing your
tone deeper in you cavity, is something no other  company can do. A fellow
bought
an amp yesterday ,  a 410, and left a 100%  better harp player as he did not
know how to even hold a vibrato. He caught on  quickly and left with tools
for
life. So I am sure you can find an amp for under  a grand, but life is short
as I know more than most living with mortality  staring me in the face,
sometimes you have to suck it up and make a move. My  amps keep their value
at least
75% due to them always being limited runs or  being coveted by many who have
been watching my site and wishing for years now,  that is what they tell me
anyway when they finally make the move. And when I  die, talk about value,
just
a fact. Anyone that buys a Cruncher from me and has  a reissue bassman I
will
also help them get the most out of it, as I worked on  them for 2 years
before
starting the 410. Working with the preamp tubes and  bias, I can make them
sing, get the most out of a hog. I just had to get this  off my chest, none
of
you see what it takes or what we go through in the design  stage of
building. I
have seen other cheap models of guys trying to hit the  midsized market, but
I still use 6L6's, I hate 6V6 sound, but did all the  necessary other
engineering to keep the 410 super tone circuit, just in a  smaller cab. The
410 with
40 inches of speaker air movement, is still the most  robust thunderdog amp
I
have played through. Side by side, the Cruncher has a  sound all its own but
can keep up volume wise. I will not disclose the speakers  I use, nor the
other
tricks I learned from legendary Sam Hutton about acoustics  and getting more
sound out of a cab to anyone but a customer. Too many copycats  out there.
I'm
done. *********  There was a great book that Kent Cooper  wrote about Sonny
Terry's style, which I found in my stuff last night and read  it,
reinforcing
what I am doing is correct from what Sonny taught me. Sonny  in his own
words
gives his life story up till 1969 when he met Emma, his wife  who I worked
with
while driving for him. There was a little record that came  with the book,
Kent actually wrote out the tablature for harp of Sonny's  chugging, then
had
samples on the record. I lost the record, if anyone has it,  for my seminars
and
just personal love for him, please email me off list, I will  borrow it and
return it unscathed, bringing it to a recording studio to pay to  have them
reproduce it on CD. The stories in this book are priceless, for a  nearly
blind
man to make it on his own, he credits Pete Seeger and Leadbelly as  two
great
men who helped him, and others like Doc who sold snake oil and kept  50% of
what
Sonny should get, from the good to the bad, these older musicians  were
taken
advantage of, needing money so never getting royalties from their  studio
work, they drank hard and lived the same way. Sonny stopped drinking  in the
mid
to late 60's when his doctor told him he would die if he did not stop
drinking and smoking. I had to watch his diet and food he ate due to his
cholesterol, he could see me taking some of the fatty stuff off  his plate.
"Whatcha
doin man", still rings in my ear. We would have some serious arguments,  but
then
it was over, he did not get to be 65 by accident, and some 22 year old
white
boy telling him what to do would raise him up many times. I had orders  from
Emma, no more than 2 sugars. Sonny could see light and darkness, make out
vague shadows, but I could hear him bumping his shins on the beds or
furniture
as we stayed in different places all the time. I went to every state except
Hawaii with him, all parts of Canada, BC, Alaska, and Japan, touring and
playing
 with Lightning Hopkins. To my knowledge they told us in 78 we were the
first
 blues musicians to tour Japan. Not many of them liked to fly, let alone 16
hours  on a plane. So many stayed in Europe as you can hear in Sonny Boy
Williamson's  words of his song, as they were treated like royalty rather
than being
 segregated and being call the N word. The story of Woody Guthrie tearing a
place  up cause they stuck S and B in an isolated corner with Woody, not
being
able to  eat with the white folks they just got through entertaining and
making them feel  good. Woody told them, wait outside, I'll be right out,
and they
could hear him  flipping over the table they put them ate and cussing at
them
for not letting  them eat with them. Sonny said if blacks killed blacks in
the
south, no one  cared, but dating a white woman was taboo, this they all
knew.
Enough. Again.  please get back to me if you have the little record with the
book. The  discography of how many albums Sonny was on, I could add to the
duo
list  probably another 10 guys Sonny recorded with, but it is impressive.
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l