Blog
The Amp (Love) Doctor
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...
WGS at the Nashville Amp Expo - THIS WEEKEND!
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. ...
My One Day as a Metro Nashville High School Teacher
My One Day as a Metro Nashville High School Teacher
Warning: I’m pulling the soap box out, and getting ready to stand on it. Yep, I know I’m going off on a wild tangent here, but I think this is important to the audio and music community. Shoot, it’s important to us all as Americans.
If you have read the ‘About Vaughn’ page, you know that I taught audio at the college level for a decade. Well, on Thursday I began a part-time job teaching audio technology at the largest high school in the state of Tennessee. I tendered my immediate resignation the following morning. Lest you think I’m simply a loose cannon, let...
Ladies and Gentlemen ... We Have A Winner!
Ladies and Gentlemen ... We Have A Winner!
Congrats to Paul Hisel of Plant City Florida! Paul is our latest winner of a FREE WGS speaker! Paul, we look forward to hearing your plans for the new speaker. Everyone else: This contest is now officially over. I'll be giving away another one within the next 30 days - so keep reading...
Jason’s Story - Our First Speaker Winner!
Jason’s Story - Our First Speaker Winner!
"I put the Veteran 30 in my Peavey Heritage amp. It sounded good before, but now it's the best sounding amp in the world! I can't imagine an amp sounding any better! Thank you WGS!"
I had planned to simply post a little blurb and photo of our first contest winner. However, after hearing what Jason Spain had to say, I decided it was a story worthy of an entire blog. His situation, you see is exactly why WGS exists. Intrigued? Well then, read on! Oh, and by the way, if you want to be the next winner of a free speaker, you’re in luck, our...
CHECK THIS OUT - FREE WGS SPEAKER!
CHECK THIS OUT - FREE WGS SPEAKER!
***THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER *** IT ENDED ON 8-13-10 *** CHECK THIS BLOG FOR FUTURE GIVEAWAYS! ***Okay gang, I told you I’d be giving away more speakers, and here is your chance! This time, it’s going to be totally easy to enter, too! Just send me an email at Vaughn@wgs4.com with FREE SPEAKER as the subject.
On Friday the 13th of August a winner will be randomly chosen. Hey baby, I ain’t superstitious, as a matter of fact, I’m very fond of Friday the 13th; that’s when my wonderful daughter was born! So, come on and enter, your odds should be pretty darn good....
The Sensitivity-Volume Connection
The Sensitivity-Volume Connection
Okay, so we began a discussion on volume last week, and then
I went off on a tangent on transducers.
Sorry, sometimes I just can’t help myself. I’m gonna bring it all together in a
seriously meaningful way this week, I promise ...
If you haven’t already, go back and look over last weeks volume chart. Basically, the quietest things we can hear,
if our ears are pristine and undamaged (and we are in a totally quiet
environment), are just a few decibels loud.
Most of what goes on in our daily lives is in the 60-90dB range
(quietest to loudest), and hearing...
It All Boils Down To Two Things...
It All Boils Down To Two Things...
The world of sound all boils down to two things: how loud it
is and what the size (frequency) of its movement is. Let’s start with loudness (volume). The loudness of audio is measured in decibels - a nod to the original audio dude, Alexander Graham Bell. Before Mr. Bell started to experiment with
audio transmission and reproduction, there was no scale to measure acoustic
energy, so Bell came up with his own scale to
measure how loud a given sound was. He called his scale the Bell scale.
Go figure! His instruments were
crude and his 1-10 scale was not...
What "sound" is - and how we "hear" it: Techno-geek alert!
What "sound" is - and how we "hear" it: Techno-geek alert!
My next few weekly blogs will concentrate on what speaker
specs really mean to us guitar players in the real world. I wanted to jump right in to a discussion of
efficiency, frequency range, and so on - but I realized that I was getting a
little ahead of myself.
When I teach introductory audio engineering classes, I always
start with a day or so on what sound actually is and how the human ear hears
it. Since this is so basic to anything
and everything audio, I decided it was prudent here as well. I’d like to point out that the human ear is
in fact an electro/...
SOUNDCHECK
SOUNDCHECK
Today’s blog is for the benefit of all the “entertainers” out there, specifically singer/songwriter types, but if you ever take to the stage in any capacity, this is for you too! There’s an old saying that goes like this: “A bad sound-check means a good show, and a good sound check means a bad show”. As a veteran of thousands of shows, I think I might amend that to read “Little to no sound-check at all often means a great show, and a long painful sound-check usually means a sucky show. Do I sound plum loco to you? Maybe I have some explaining to do!
I’ve had the...