VAUGHN SKOW's blog

Latest "FREE SPEAKER" Contest Over! We have chosen "The Ultimate Story"!

Wow!  We WGS users really are a bunch of certified tone freaks, and I’ve got the stories to prove it!  Deciding on a winner for the "best WGS story" was really tough, but there was one that stood out above the others.  It proved that we, the WGS bunch, think outside the box and come up with tone solutions that are, in most cases, way better than some lame "off the shelf" combo amp.  Plus, this guy sent some great pictures, and we all know that a picture says a thousand toneful words.  So, straight from gorgeous, but often chilly Sweden (the home of my distant ancestors, BTW) comes our winner Erik Ahlqvist Loiske!  Here is Erik’s full story.  Like I said, it was a tough choice, with lots of great WGS testimonials - and so, next week I’m going to choose some "runners up", so stay tuned!  Okay, I’ll shut up now.  Here is Erik’s winning entry:

FREE SPEAKER GIVEAWAY - UPDATE!!! One week till we give away another WGS speaker!

*** UPDATE *** We have chosen a winner - THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED!

Hi everybody!

Check out my "Free speaker" blog from last week.  Our best contest yet!!  I am amending the entry rules to include EVERYONE! Those of you who have no WGS testimonial, because you do noy yet have a WGS speaker, just enter the contest anyway, and tell me why YOU should be the winner.  Tell me about the amp you want to upgrade and maybe even make a prediction of how much it will improve your life ... ah, I mean tone.  Just send me an email at Vaughn@wgs4.comwith MY TESTAMONIAL DUDE! as the subject.  If possible, include a photo of you or your rig too.  On Monday, the 4th of October a winner will be chosen.  Read on for all the pesky little details.

Like my buddy Lee Greenwood, I'm Proud to be an American!

Call me an idiot ... go ahead, everybody does, I can take it.  Or, maybe just maybe I’m a dad gum optimist that still believes in the future of the American Dream.  The missus and I just bought a new house, and we haven’t even officially put the old one on the market yet, either.  So, you see, we really are crazy!  We’ve entered the dangerous territory of officially owning two houses; by my count that’s one too many (anyone want a nice house with a studio in the Nashville area?  I can hook ya up).  The old place has a full-fledged commercial recording studio, and it’s a very nice little house.  The problem is that this place is all about ME, the new house will be all about my wife, Kim.  It’s time for her to get a little of what makes her tick.  I have a confession to make, as much as I love my guitars, amps, microphones and so on, I love my wife more.  We’re expecting our second child soon, and we’re gonna have a great life in the new place!  Look out, I’m gonna quote Lee Greenwood now:

FREE WGS SPEAKER in honor of International Peace Day!

*** THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED! ***

Okay my friends; here we go again, another speaker giveaway!!!  This time, in honor of International Peace Day, we are allowing you to choose a speaker from either our British or our awesome American line!  PAY ATTENTION!  Here is how this contest is going to work:  Email me your best WGS story - a testimonial to how adding a WGS speaker has improved your tone or even your life in general (it’s been rumored that sex lives improve after the addition of a WGS speaker to the household).  I wanta know details here, what was the amp model, how exactly did the tone improve, and of course, what kind of comments do you now get on your tone.  No fibbing here, keep it real.  Just send me an email at Vaughn@wgs4.comwith MY TESTAMONIAL DUDE! as the subject.  Include a photo of you or your rig too, if you can.  On Monday, the 4^th of October a winner will be chosen.  The winner will be chosen by all of us here at WGS based on who has the most fantastic, yet authentic testimonial.  I keep hearing from all of you out there how much you love our speakers; well here is your chance to parlay your love fest into a free speaker, cool, huh?  Read on for all the pesky little details.

The Long Awaited Fender Concert II Speaker shoot-out!

Hi everybody,  a couple of weeks back someone emailed me asking about speaker choices for their Rivera era Fender Concert II.  I promised I would do a fairly extensive speaker shoot-out for them.  Well, it took me a little while, but I’ve made good on that promise. A couple of apologies up front: 1. I just went with the mic built into my little flip web-cam - so the audio is not great, sorry!  I had grand plans of miking it up in ProTools properly, but just couldn’t make that much time available.  2. Because of youtube’s time limit policy, the total affair is in seven installments.  But it’s all there - almost 45 minutes total!  Hope someone out there appreciates my little labor of love.  Here is the first one ... read on for the links to all of them!

Peace, Love, and the FrankenStrat

My main axe garners a lot of questions and double-takes.  I’ve begun referring to it as my FrankenStrat.  I’ve been inflicted with the need to hot rod guitars since before I could grow hair under my armpits.  My first guitar surgery was done in my middle-school days. Armed with a rusty old screw driver, a hammer, a kitchen knife, and a two dollar Radio Shack soldering Iron, I proceeded to install Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups (complete with phase reverse switches) in me and my buddy David Ellefson’s cheapo Hondo strat-style guitars.  Some of you may know of Dave, since he went on to co-found the metal band Megadeth, but that’s a story for another day!  I know I’m not alone; plenty share in my affliction and have torn into perfectly good guitars only to do a little tweaking under the hood.  Let’s talk about my 4 pickup frankenStrat...

Happy Labor Day!

This Labor Day finds me in a reminiscing mood.  I grew up on a family farm perched on the Minnesota-Iowa border.  I’m talking about a real working farm with cattle, hogs, and acres and acres of corn and soybeans.  As a kid, I was kind of a screw-ball musician type, but my dad saved me from a demise of my own making.  You see, he impressed upon me a serious old-world work ethic.  Later in life, I came to realize what a valuable gift he had given me.  His generation of Americans, like those before him, were workers.  If you look around you, almost everything you see that has any level of manufacturing excellence was probably made prior to about 1960, same goes for any endeavor that required serious sacrifice.  Okay, if I’m not careful, I could easily spiral into a "they don’t make ‘em like they used to" fissure.   Fact is, there are a few American companies that really do make em like they used to, and I’m proud as heck to say that WGS is one of them!  I wanta tell you about it.

Ya All are Too Cool!

WGS customers are a very cool bunch, and you have some seriously cool and extremely varied taste in amps, too!  Since we launched this new website, and of course this exceedingly exquisite blog, we have received a few really great questions concerning speaker choices.   We really care about you, and we always endeavor to provide the guidance you need as you maneuver down the path of your individual tone quest.  Some of the questions are so darn good that it would be a shame not to share them, in hopes that others of you out there will benefit from being included in the conversation.  So, here are a few email conversations I’ve recently had with black-belt level tone-seekers.  Okay, let’s get right to the good stuff.

The Amp (Love) Doctor

The proper mating of a speaker to an amp, especially a tube amp, really is like the making of a good marriage.  They’ve gotta be compatible in a number of ways.  Choosing a speaker on specs alone would be like choosing a wife based on her dimensions alone.  Speakers, like people, have personalities ... some good, and some downright ugly. Okay gang, I promised to get back on track this week, and dad gum it, I’m gonna keep that promise!  You may remember back a couple of blogs, we were talking about speaker specs.  We talked all about the speaker personality trait (spec) known as "sensitivity".  Today I want to talk about what to look for in a gal ... uh, speaker when you are seeking the elusive "holy grail" tone.  Ya ready?  Let’s dive in!

WGS at the Nashville Amp Expo - THIS WEEKEND!

A quick shout out: Yaall be sure to check out the WGS booth at the big Nashville Amp Expo in Nashville this weekend, August 20-22.  Check the show’s official web-site for all the details.  It’s gonna be a tone smorgasbord the likes of which you’ve never seen before - a tone-seekers dream event.  Rest assured, there will be gear for days, but it’s not just about gear; there will also be oodles of clinics, concerts, and seminars -all seriously cool, too!

Make plans to attend, and when you do, be sure to swing by and say hi to David and the guys at the WGS booth.  As for me, I’ve got a big-time prior commitment, so you won’t see me there.  Bummer, huh?