When playing guitar you want to be able to play with great dynamics, picking softly at times and other times really digging into the strings. I never had any problem with playing soft, but I needed to work on my hard picking techinque. What I found that worked best for me was to play along with some music and turn it up a little louder than my guitar. This forced me to pick harder to be able hear myself over the music. I do this for at least 10-15 minutes each practice. Then for my softer playing I do the reverse, I turn up the amp louder than the music to force me to play softer so I blend in with the musics volume. Both ways help you work on the range of dynamics in your guitar playing.

To strengthen my fingers for bends and faster playing I keep one guitar tuned up with a set of 0.13" with the strings higher off the neck. Of course its harder to play but once you get used to playing it and you switch back to a guitar with lighter strings your fingers will amaze you with more fluid bends and greater speed. Its like weight training for your fingers. playing on a guitar with heavier strings will build up the muscle in your fingers making your bends much easier. You’ll get amazing results practicing like this very quickly. You’ll notice dramatic changes in your playing within days.

I also practice a couple solos using only one or two strings. This forces me to play up and down the neck more and experiment with new patterns. I’ve noticed this has really opened up my solo playing when I play on all six strings making my playing more spontanious. I’ll also experiment with using different strings for the solo on the same song, it makes me change the fret patterns so I don’t get trapped in a rut.

Another good thing to do is to try playing along with many different types of music even if its not the style you want to master. It helps open up new ideas and break you out of playing ruts. I play mostly blues and rock but I also play some old school metal. I also try and play some country, not that I like country music but it helps me learn new lead patterns and progressions. When I am ready to wrap up my practice I always spend the last part just improvising anything that comes to mind. I’ll play chord progressions and lead patterns as they come to me. Many times I find myself playing a song I didn’t even know I knew, it just comes to me out of no where and within minutes I’ve learned most of a new song with little effort. Once this happens I add that song into my list of practice songs to refine it and then it will be one more song I can play any time I want.

If you thought a you could crank a 5 watt tube amp late at night in your apartment, you’d be dead wrong. Even through a small speaker it would be as loud as someone screaming at the top of their lungs. Most amp manufactors don’t realize that there is a large demand for very low watt tube amps. Lets face it, we love that fully cranked tube amp tone, but how do we get it at a volume you can play in an apartment?

As the owner of three 5 watt tube amps I can tell you from experience they can shake the walls when you crank them up. Even 1 watt going into a good quality speaker fully cranked would easily be loud enough to piss off the neighbors. Many musicians use small amps like fender champs in the recording studio. This way they can crank them up and get really great tube tone at a volume that won’t make their ears bleed.

Whats really great is when you hook up one of these little 5 watt beasts to a larger speaker cabinet like a 4 x 12, they roar! I have one of mine, an old silvertone tube amp that I pulled from an organ are rebuilt for guitar and its driving a 15" eminance speaker, I get some really bluesy tones out of it, I love it! Its a beast with the 15", with the 5 watt tube amp cranked it shakes walls and windows. The tone is incredible, very full and you’d be suprised at how well it handles both the hgh end and the bass. it can get very bright or thunder and growl, all with the flick of a pick.

I started the basic work. So far I’ve removed the power switch from the vibrato control and have it wired to a 250v 3 amp toggle switch that I have mounted in the old preamp chassis. I’ve also got two input jacks mounted in the chassis that re already wired on the jack end. I clipped the  wires going to the vibrato control pot and labled it with masking tape so I’ll know what it was when I wire in the new pot for the vibrato.

I’m going to disconnect the top and wiper of the "Swell Pedal" pot. and give the 6AQ5 grid a new 1Meg resistor  to ground, and the existing C5 0.01u cap from V2B. The I will disconnect the end of C4 which goes to 1meg R11 and V2B grid. C4 now feeds top of "Swell" pot. Pot wiper goes to V2B grid. Once this is done it will be a standard volume control. I’ll then disconnect "Flute/String" switch and install a standard guitar input jack(s) with a new 68K and 1Meg resistor.  This will be about 95% of a second version 12AX7 Champ with a  tremolo. The 2cnd Champ is VERY clean until the power tube in cranked hard.

I just replaced the 15k NFB with a 1.5k and I’m getting a little overdrive at full volume. Its not as loud as my vibro champ and it would be cool to be able to get some more gain. I am thinking about trying another 1.5k in parralell with the first one to see if I get more gain but I’ll wait until someone here lets me know if its safe.

I would like to keep the nice clean tones but would also like to get more overdrive when I want it. This might be a good use for the extra 12ax7, maybe I can add a switchable gain control with it. I really like the tone I’m getting from the 15". But as I mentioned before its so clean even at full volume which is about half the volume of my vibro champ, not that I mind it being quieter, but It sure will be nice to get some overdrive going on this. It does sound great with a bass too which is cool since I don’t have a bass amp right now. I’m hoping to get this to the point where it I can use it for both guitar and bass.

Here is a pic with the chassis just sitting on the bottom, plenty of room on all sides and an inch or two of clearance between the speaker and the  tubes depending on exactly where I decide to mount it.