repair - Gary Mullins - Professional Guitarist

Blues Junior Rebuild

April 29, 2015PermalinkGuitar Repairs, Miscellaneousamp, amps, anniversary, beds, blues, bucks, cabinet, celestion, combo, edition, fender, g12h, herts, junior, keynes, milton, oxford, point, rebuild, repair, repairer, to, valve, vyse, wiring, wycombe Leave a comment

This month I spent a couple of days rebuilding my poorly Fender Blues Junior with the chaps at Vyse Amps in Pinner, London.

The amp has been my go-to combo for 8yrs, and being 12yrs old and seeing a lot of action, it has had a lot of heat cycles through the solder joints which is the root of the problems coming through. The power amp valves’ solder was beginning to crack, and the tracks on the PCB were lifting and ultimately breaking.

The solution to this – which would become endemic throughout the rest of the amp in time – was to remove all of the original components, and replace with a new circuit built in an old-school ‘point-to-point’ fashion which would enable me to make modifications or replace any faulty components much more easily for the life of the amp.

Since completely changing everything except the cabinet and reverb tank, the amp has taken on a different character, but is a beautiful alternative to the Blues Junior I knew and loved. It’s now got a Celestion G12H Anniversary Edition speaker, and in conjunction with the up-rated electronics is more articulate as a result. I’m still getting to know the amp, but can’t wait to see how it performs on gigs and shows as they come in!

’13’ at the Radlett Centre

Last week I played guiyar for the ‘Sticks and Stones’ production of ’13’ – a youth show about a Jewish lad moving from New York to a sleepy town, and the trials and tribulations of coming-of-age and making friends in a new place.

The music is very eclectic, covering a number of different genres including Death Metal, Reggae, Funk, and beautiful acoustic ballads.

Electric and acoustic guitars are required for this show, and quite fortunately there are not many rapid guitar changes as these are mainly done between numbers.

There are two guitar parts, and as on similar shows I had to compile both into one, reading from both pads and using a series of post-it notes to indicate what to read from which pad. It’s pretty rapid at times, but I relish the challenge to concentrate so much throughout a show. I also really enjoyed the diversity of the music and trying hard to play as authentically as possible with the tools at my disposal.

Most of the sonic variation was was modified via the selector switch on my electric guitar. The switching on the Ibanez RG3120 is really versatile, giving you power and delicacy with ease.

I did the show a few years back and really enjoyed it, and it’s nice to get my hands around it again with more experience under my belt. I look forward to doing it again too!