New Amp!

A week ago yesterday, I received my latest amp. It's a new Vox DA5 that I bought from a member of one of the forums I belong to. It's a small, portable, 5 watt practice amp. I had been wanting a practice amp with an earphone jack and an AUX input for a while now. This little amp has those two features plus a whole lot more! It has 11 amp sounds/styles and 11 effects, with some being multiple effects. It also has a separate MIC input with it's own volume control AND it can run on batteries! If that wasn't enough, it has a power select switch which allows the output wattage of the power amp to be adjusted. The switch can be set to 0.5 watts, 1.5 watts, or 5 watts. I am currently using it with batteries, so I have the switch set to 0.5 watts to prolong battery life. The switch can also be used to control the volume of the amp. If I had the switch set at 5 watts, and I wanted to turn up the volume to the maximum to drive the power amp, the resulting volume would be too loud. With the power select switch, I could lower the volume without losing tone by setting the switch to 1.5 or 0.5 watts. The parameters of each effect on the amp can also be adjusted via three edit modes and a 'tap' button (used to 'tap' in the desired speed of certain effects).

I compared my new Vox to my Fender Champ 600 tube amp, which is also 5 watts. The Vox compliments my Fender very nicely! Even though the Vox is a digital amp, I can get it to sound very close to my Fender tube amp. This Vox amp has a very nice tube-like sound to it. It sounds better than my previous solid state amp. I have been experimenting with the different settings and have been able to get great tones out of it for different types of music. Needless to say, I am very happy with my new little amp! I'll try to record my next sound clip with it, but for now, back to 'experimenting'!

My Solo Turned Into A Song!

My Blues solo turned into a complete song this week! I started working on the solo with the goal of being able to play for the duration of the backing track, which is over three minutes in length. I started out playing licks that sounded good together a little at a time (BTW, I actually ended up using both box 4 and box 5 of the pentatonic scale in the key of E.). I continued building my solo this way, increasing the duration of it as I went along. I got to the point where it sounded like a complete solo, but the time it took to play was only one minute! As I played it over a few times, I realized that my 'solo' sounded more like the melody of a song instead of a solo. I started trying to think of lyrics that would fit my little tune/solo. I ended up working into the wee hours of the morning, writing lyrics down as I played little bits of my composition. I finally got through it, creating a pretty good song (IMHO)!

I have written lyrics to three songs in the past, but this is the first time I write the lyrics based on a tune that I came up with. Now I have to put it all together so it will sound good. I have to figure out how to sing it and where to emphasize the lyrics with different phrases (something that might be tougher for me, because I am not a singer!). Needless to say, it will be a while before I post my song here! Stay tuned!

Solo Time On Another Great Guitar!

This week I have been working on my Blues solo. I am playing it using box 4 of the minor pentatonic scale in the key of E. All this means is that I am playing it in the middle of the neck, between frets seven and ten, instead of playing it in box 1 (between frets one and three plus the open strings). The minor pentatonic scale and all five 'boxes' or 'positions' are explained very well by Justin Sandercoe in his website, so check it out. I got the idea to play my solo in this key and in this 'box' from the intro. to 'Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)'. I am also using a backing track in the key of E that I got from Scott Grove. It is one of 30 backing tracks that I got from Scott. They are all great tracks, in different keys and different tempos and styles. Check them out at his site if interested. The track I am using is over three minutes long, so it will be a challenge to play a solo for that amount of time without getting too repetitive or too boring. A challenge like this is always fun!

This weekend I am rotating guitars again. This time I am going to be bringing out my Epiphone ES-335 Dot. It is the guitar I have in my profile photo. It is also my favorite, along with the Jet King I have been using until now. The Epi Dot is one of the best values out there. It sells brand new for $400. It's a great instrument, and I highly recommend it. My Epi Dot is a 2001 model (made in Korea). I believe all current Epiphones are made in China, but isn't most everything made in China these days??!! Bottom line: Great guitars for the price. Get one!