VAUGHN SKOW's blog

ET-65 ... Plays VERY well with others!

Man oh man does the ET65 mate well with other speakers!  There have been a few great conversations on the Q&A forum concerning the ET-65.  So good, in fact, that I believe they warrant a quick mention and review here!  I won’t reprint the entire threads, just a summary and a link.  Let’s get started with a brand-new conversation concerning a pairing of 2 ET-65’s and 2 Reapers in a 4x12 cab. Here is the quote that sums it up: “I am blown away at how DELICATE and SENSITIVE the combination is!  Even at high gain settings, notes and chords are still articulate, and the overall tone is still touch sensitive.  Even the tone controls feel like they have more range.” I could stop there, but hey, that just wouldn’t be at all like me!

Then there is this post concerning a Marshall JCM800 combo: “So I ordered a pair of the ET65 speakers, received them yesterday and installed them today.  After a couple hours of playing...all I can say is that they are EXACTLY what I was looking for!  For my application, the ET65's gave me a more usable tighter/deeper-sounding bass, they got rid of the upper-midrange hump and they smoothed out the highs.  There's still a nice sparkle too!  Now my 50 watt open-back combo sounds like a scaled-down version of my 100 watt Superlead thru a 4x12 closed-back bottom.  I am extremely happy!”  *** We LOVE to make people happy :)

The other little feat of magic the ET 65 can perform is in taming an overly bright and/or sterile amp.  From this post about an overly-bright MusicMan 2x12 combo a user states (concerning the ET65’s) “I just installed them this past Saturday and I am very happy with them.  They have a deep, full and tight bottom end, a wide/not over-bearing midrange and a smooth high end with a nice sparkle.  They sound great with clean, overdriven and high-gain settings and they're not even completely broken in yet!”  ***Yep, that’s the ET65, baby!

Okay, I could go on and on … there is more on the forum (just search ET-65), but I’ll stop with this one concerning a 2x12 cab mated to an Egnater Tweaker: “I just built a 2x12 cabinet (vertical like the Hard Truckers JG-1) and I put a ET65 on top of a Vet 30 in it. I have to say, I was absolutely blown away by how good it sounded with my Egnater Tweaker in every mode. It is a phenomenal sounding pair of speakers and I couldn't be happier.”

See, there’s that word (happy) again!  How cool!  I think WGS’s new slogan should be "We make the world a Happier Place".  It’s Christmas time, how appropriate!

See ya nex week.  Oh, and if I don’t see ya again before Christmas:  Merry Christmas to you and to yours, be blessed, -Vaughn-

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Smooth Cone vs Ribbed Cone Speakers

Smooth or Ribbed, Where Will You Find Pleasure?

Hi-diddly-ho fair neighbors!  I’ll just bet that you all have noticed that WGS is now offering the 10" & 12" American speakers with "smooth cones".  Here is a pic of a young naked smooooth WGS gal wearing nothing but her pretty lil ohm rating.

Pretty, no?  So, anyway, if you have been wondering if a smooth-cone may be the right gal for you and your amp,READ ON!

Peace, Love, & Unicorns

Yesterday I walked into the luxurious WGS command center and found Daniel, resident guitar maharishi, drawing what can only be described as one seriously kick-ass Unicorn on a WGS shipping box.  

 As it turns out, a patron had included a request for a Unicorn to be added to their speaker order.  For any other speaker company this would be an impossible request, but not for WGS!  This proves what we all already know; WGS isn’t your typical company.  Some folks may wonder why WGS speakers consistently sound better than the other brands; well, here is your answer: WGS in no way, shape, or form resembles any other company currently manufacturing speakers.  If ya don’t believe me, just request a Unicorn from one of those other companies ...

For now my friends, I wish you peace, love and Unicorns.

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American Welterweight Match: Vintage Jensen C12Q vs, WGS G12C !

Last year I sold my early 1965 (pre CBS) Deluxe Reverb.  My amp had a factory Jensen C12Q in it, and it totally kicked butt on the vintage DR’s with the factory Oxfords.  On several occasions I’ve wished I had kept that amp long enough to compare it’s Jensen to the WGS G12C.  I actually have both a vintage P12Q (Alnico) and C12Q, but both are blown, and alas, their inch and a quarter voice coils have rendered them tough to recone.  That’s a problem with the old Jensen’s, they were never very high-wattage speakers to begin with, and after 30-50 years of service, many have thrown up the white flag and surrendered.  But last week a buddy brought me a pair of fully functioning 1965 Jensen C12Q’s.  At last the moment had come to finally do the direct A/B comparison between my old flame and the new girl.  So, for the results of the Jensen C12Q vs. WGS G12C, READ ON!

Those Rose Colored Glasses of Yore

There is an old saying that goes like this: "youth is wasted on the young".  And seriously, it would be awesome to have that uber-responsive 18 year old body that could be used and abused and bounce right back ... matched to a seasoned brain capable of rational thought and not subject to whims of fancy.  Or would it?  We’re going to take a trip back to my world, as it existed about 30 or so years ago, when I was a bright-faced teen just starting to chart my musical path.  Please, join me for this little trip...

(Another) Ultimate 2-Minute Guitar Lesson

Howdy folks!  I received some pretty nice emails from folks who enjoyed last weeks little quickie-lesson.  You have spoken, and I have heard you!  So, back by popular demand, is my buddy and well known Nashville Guitar Slinger Brad Sample with another installment of "two minutes to a cooler you".  This week he's talkin' about getting all them fingers on your right hand in the game, and sounding like a Nashville player.  enjoy!

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Andy Rooney 1919-2011

Friends, you probably remember that a few weeks ago on this blog I paid homage to my writing mentor, Andy Rooney. It is with a heavy heart that I add my voice to the many who are expressing condolences upon the Death of Mr Rooney.  When Walter Cronkite died last year, Rooney stood alone as a living example of the great journalists of the WWII era; now there are none.  Please take the time to travel over to youtube and WATCH THIS VIDEO (CBS dose not want it embedded).  Farewell Andy.

The Ultimate 2-minute Guitar Lesson

Howdy fellow tone affectionados! If you caught yesterday’s blog where I whined like a little girl about my current crop of audio students, consider it similar to the Beatles butcher cover.  If you got to see it, good for you!  If not ... well, tough luck ... it ain’t coming back. I decided to yank it because it might have left the false impression that ALL of my students were terrible, and that isn’t the case.  So, instead, I’m going to feature a clip from one of my favorite former students, a young man who was a blast to have as a student for three semesters: Brad Sample.  Brad has been getting a lot of attention in Nashville as a gunslinger, and rightly so.  Brad and I were doing a little recording in my new studio last week, and I had an epiphany as I listened to him play: Why not have him share a few little choice secrets with the WGS family?  I asked, and Brad said yep!  So, with no further ado, here’s Brad with his first installment of "gimme two minutes and I’ll make you a cooler player":  Let me know if you like this kind of stuff!  See ya next week.

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Amp Rx Part 2 - The Gibson GA-20RVT

Howdy do tone brothers and sisters.  This week has been really fun for me.  I recently acquired a Gibson GA20RVT amp.  Gibson has made amps with this model designation several times over the past 40 years or so; I’m talking about the latest incarnation ... from around 2001-2007.  These quality hand-built amps can be had cheap, so they qualify as a "sleeper" amp.  This model sports 12ax7’s in the pre amp and a pair of 6V6 tubes in the power section and is (very conservatively) rated at 20 watts.  She’s a real looker, and her beauty ain’t just skin-deep; when you look deep into her soul, you find even more to love.  She’s laid-out well, hand wired on a superb turret board, and has top-shelf components throughout. And the sound?  It’s thick, rich, complex, and, well, awfully dull on the top end. That’s the problem we’ve gotta fix!  Read on for the Rx.

Amp Rx Part 1 - The Peavey Windsor Studio

Hey tone brothers and sisters! I promised a guy a while back that I would do a little research and see what WGS model most improves a Peavey Windsor Studio amp.  Well wait no longer!  Vaughn’s Rx for a small, sterile and lifeless Peavey Windsor Studio: 1. Switch the EL34 to a 6L6 and 2. Install a WGS ET65. 

The result: more useable headroom and bottom end, and a much more three-dimensional sounding amp.  Here is the video, next week, we tackle another tone-challenged tube amp, the Gibson GA20-RVT (reissue).  Oh, and one update, since I did the video, I played a bunch w/pre-amp tubes and found that putting a NOS 5751 in V1 also provided a slight tone improvement - mostly a smoother, more articulate transition into overload and better clean-up w/ the guitars vol control.

See ya next week fellow tone junkies!

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