What's in the mailbox? 📬 📦

[Harry Klippton]

Same.

Out here pogs were my little brother's thing, but I bet in CA the pog wave got to you a little earlier.

My first thought was "weren't we too old for pogs?" But I guess playing pogs necessitated interacting with other children and I sure wasn't doing that at the time

 

[Guardians of the analog]

My first thought was "weren't we too old for pogs?" But I guess playing pogs necessitated interacting with other children and I sure wasn't doing that at the time

 

[vigilante398]

Somehow mine made it 30 years, including the move from California to DetroitView attachment 111750

I'm pretty sure my parents threw mine out when I was still a kid. I don't distinctly remember getting rid of them, but I definitely haven't seen them in 25 years or so. I had a saw blade slammer, it was awesome.

And now I have a CNC machine and UV printer, I could make a new saw blade slammer with custom artwork on it.

 

[Erik S]

I'm pretty sure my parents threw mine out when I was still a kid. I don't distinctly remember getting rid of them, but I definitely haven't seen them in 25 years or so. I had a saw blade slammer, it was awesome.

And now I have a CNC machine and UV printer, I could make a new saw blade slammer with custom artwork on it.

The tragedy of adulthood.

All the cool slammers and nobody to play with.

 

[vigilante398]

The tragedy of adulthood.

All the cool slammers and nobody to play with.

I have 3 kids, pretty sure I could get them into it.

BRB, have to order blank material so I can make a bunch of pogs this weekend.

 

[MichaelW]

This actually came in the mail a couple of days ago. @bluedmc777 sent me lovely vintage NOS tested RCA 12AX7.



I decided to put it in my Friedman IR-D Tube preamp.
I already had a vintage RCA 7025 in V1. The lower gain in V1 gives me a much better clean sound from the Friedman.
And it's a gorgeous clean sound! Anyway, I popped the new RCA 12AX7 in V2 of the Friedman. It's also a bit lower gain than what I had in there.
(Shugang/Ruby 12ax7, which is pretty high gain).
I had to re-jigger my levels to make up for the lower gain but OMG it sounds SO good! Even the with the lower gain tubes, the Friedman still has a tremendous amount of gain. (Think modded JCM800). But with the RCA tubes the gain sounds smoother and more "organic" if that makes sense.

Don had previously sent me a vintage Baldwin branded Raytheon 12Au7, which is now in my SushiBoxFx/C2C Particle Accelerator tube preamp.
I use the Particle Accelerator for my "Fender clean sound" (it's based on the Alembic F2B which in turn is based on a Fender Dual Showman)

Both tube pre's feed into the EFX Loop return of my Frenzel DP525 running a pair of new production Tung Sol 5881's. I use a Joyo Line Selector to switch between the two pre-amps.

The Friedman IR series are extremely well built preamp pedals and this is my "faux" Friedman Dirty Shirley, actually more like a faux Friedman Twin Sister since the IR-D has 2 channels.


The Particle Accelerator is my favorite circuit from Nathan. Super simple circuit, yet very powerful tone shaping controls and a gorgeous big full Fender clean sound.


And this is my "amp" set up.


Thanks so much @bluedmc777 !!

 

[jubal81]

This actually came in the mail a couple of days ago. @bluedmc777 sent me lovely vintage NOS tested RCA 12AX7.

View attachment 111802

I decided to put it in my Friedman IR-D Tube preamp.
I already had a vintage RCA 7025 in V1. The lower gain in V1 gives me a much better clean sound from the Friedman.
And it's a gorgeous clean sound! Anyway, I popped the new RCA 12AX7 in V2 of the Friedman. It's also a bit lower gain than what I had in there.
(Shugang/Ruby 12ax7, which is pretty high gain).
I had to re-jigger my levels to make up for the lower gain but OMG it sounds SO good! Even the with the lower gain tubes, the Friedman still has a tremendous amount of gain. (Think modded JCM800). But with the RCA tubes the gain sounds smoother and more "organic" if that makes sense.

Don had previously sent me a vintage Baldwin branded Raytheon 12Au7, which is now in my SushiBoxFx/C2C Particle Accelerator tube preamp.
I use the Particle Accelerator for my "Fender clean sound" (it's based on the Alembic F2B which in turn is based on a Fender Dual Showman)

Both tube pre's feed into the EFX Loop return of my Frenzel DP525 running a pair of new production Tung Sol 5881's. I use a Joyo Line Selector to switch between the two pre-amps.

The Friedman IR series are extremely well built preamp pedals and this is my "faux" Friedman Dirty Shirley, actually more like a faux Friedman Twin Sister since the IR-D has 2 channels.
View attachment 111804

The Particle Accelerator is my favorite circuit from Nathan. Super simple circuit, yet very powerful tone shaping controls and a gorgeous big full Fender clean sound.
View attachment 111809

And this is my "amp" set up.
View attachment 111810

Thanks so much @bluedmc777 !!

About 10 years ago I saw a listing for old tubes on Craigslist. It was a son selling stuff for his dad, who was an appliance repairman in the 60s. I managed to snag a small pile of those RCAs and they definitely have a "sweetness" to them. I've been meaning to run them through a tube tester and have never gotten around to it.

I'm curious how the swap goes in the Friedman. It doesn't look like there's much room to wiggle those out without removing the PCB.

 

[MichaelW]

About 10 years ago I saw a listing for old tubes on Craigslist. It was a son selling stuff for his dad, who was an appliance repairman in the 60s. I managed to snag a small pile of those RCAs and they definitely have a "sweetness" to them. I've been meaning to run them through a tube tester and have never gotten around to it.

I'm curious how the swap goes in the Friedman. It doesn't look like there's much room to wiggle those out without removing the PCB.

There's enough room. Just slow wiggling and it has plenty of clearance.

 

[Guardians of the analog]

About 10 years ago I saw a listing for old tubes on Craigslist. It was a son selling stuff for his dad, who was an appliance repairman in the 60s. I managed to snag a small pile of those RCAs and they definitely have a "sweetness" to them. I've been meaning to run them through a tube tester and have never gotten around to it.

I'm curious how the swap goes in the Friedman. It doesn't look like there's much room to wiggle those out without removing the PCB.

I'm running the same RCA in V1 of my dirty Shirley build and can confirm it sounds great

 

[jessenator]

I'm just confused about how old you are now.

Rig says boomer, but pog collection says you're like two years younger than I am...

If the pog kids are boomers now, what they hell does that make me??

I'm almost on the wrong side of my 40s

Yeah we're in that weird in-between they label x-ennial. It's compounded when you have older sibling(s) who are firmly in the genX bracket; constantly living with their tastes, but scrambling to play catch-up with your peers.

Also I got diddly squat in the mail.

 

[Joben Magooch]

I really need to try one of those Friedman IR preamps. They sound super good whenever I've heard them.... although the Tone King might be a little more my pace

 

[Erik S]

Yeah we're in that weird in-between they label x-ennial. It's compounded when you have older sibling(s) who are firmly in the genX bracket; constantly living with their tastes, but scrambling to play catch-up with your peers.

Also I got diddly squat in the mail.

I'll accept that I'm right on the cusp, but I'm claiming X

 

[Guardians of the analog]

Yeah we're in that weird in-between they label x-ennial. It's compounded when you have older sibling(s) who are firmly in the genX bracket; constantly living with their tastes, but scrambling to play catch-up with your peers.

Also I got diddly squat in the mail.

my entire adult life has been one "once in a lifetime" event after another. How many disasters can we take
I did get some pcbs from @szukalski via @MichaelW and some ppcb boards from @Robert

 

[Guardians of the analog]

I'll accept that I'm right on the cusp, but I'm claiming X

View attachment 111822

GenX doesn't care and is indifferent to your claim

 

[vigilante398]

I really need to try one of those Friedman IR preamps. They sound super good whenever I've heard them.... although the Tone King might be a little more my pace

I also have an IR-D, it's excellent. Incredibly easy to dial in a very usable tone going direct to interface of FOH.

 

[MichaelW]

I also have an IR-D, it's excellent. Incredibly easy to dial in a very usable tone going direct to interface of FOH.

Haven't you traced it yet? C'mon get with it dude.......

 

[vigilante398]

Haven't you traced it yet? C'mon get with it dude.......

Actually part of the reason I picked it up was that I'm working on an IR loader design that can be implemented with a tube preamp, and I wanted to open it up and see how they interfaced the preamp to the DSP input. I haven't actually done that though

 

[MichaelW]

Actually part of the reason I picked it up was that I'm working on an IR loader design that can be implemented with a tube preamp, and I wanted to open it up and see how they interfaced the preamp to the DSP input. I haven't actually done that though

Well whatever you wind up doing, make sure you address the one complaint I have about the IR-D and the other Friedman preamps. There's no bypass. So in order to take it out of the signal chain I have to use a loop switcher/Line selector.

 

[bluedmc777]

@MichaelW My pleasure brother! Everyone’s been so giving to me here since I joined it’s just nice to give back. Plus I’ve about built a wall of tubes between myself and the outside world lol! What I DIDN’T tell him was the Raytheon was in fact a 12AU7…I wanted to see if it sounded as good to him as it did to me!

@jubal81 How many do you have? I can run them over to TubeDepot and have them tested and verified for just $2 a tube on a Maxi Pre and TV-7

 

[RetiredUnit1]

So a couple years ago I bought some used focusrite stuff with great specs and could never get it to play nice with the rest of my setup. Drivers, O/S, etc etc. {grumble}

Last year I bought a new iMac mini M4 with logic pro and final cut pro so that takes care of that side of the equation.

Just bought this last night and today the price went back up to $750!¡!¡ This just kicks the ever loving cr@p out of the older equipment. Looking forward to recording using my ribbon mics with the proper high gain needed...