My next wah
I think that the Voodoo Lab Wahzoo is going to be my next wah pedal. It has several effects built-in: vintage wah, auto wah, and step wah. The step wah is kinda like the ZVEX Ooh Wah, except that you can adjust the speed on the fly via the treadle or with an optional tap tempo pedal. It’s inductorless, which means that it won’t hum when placed next to a power supply. Rather than rattle off all the details, I’ll let you check out this video from ProGuitarShop.

Gig Bags vs. Cases
What do you guys use? I typically use cases, simply because I don’t have a gig bag that I trust to carry my guitars in. However, I would prefer to use a bag since you can strap it on your shoulder and still have both hands free to carry a pedalboard or whatever. I recently came across this bag, and it looks awesome. It’s the MONO M80 Dual Electric Case, and it (obviously) holds two electric guitars. It is supposed to be ext

Stuck
I’m in a rut lately. Part of the problem is that I’m not in a playing situation that really excites me. I play at church, but the music that we play is not music that I really get excited about. I don’t listen to David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong United, Steve Fee, Charlie Hall, or whoever in my car or on the treadmill, so it’s not music that I’m really interested in playing. Leading worship is a good thing, but it’s not a very satisfying musical experience for me. This dissatisfaction led a few friends to form a band. We were all excited and practicing a lot, but then our drummer backed out on us. That kinda took the wind out of our

[sigh of relief]
I’m pleased to report that the problem with my amp seems to have been a bad power tube. I got a replacement set of Sovtek KT88s from Tubedepot.com this afternoon and replaced the old ones. I fired it up, and it sounds like it’s supposed to sound. Actually, it sounds way better than it did when I first got it. I would like to put some real playing time on this thing, but I just don’t really have the opportunity right now. Anyway, I’m glad that it was a $50 set of tubes rather than something ridiculous like a power transformer.

Redplating
I’m pretty sure that my amp’s fuse problem was caused by a bad power tube. After I replaced a fuse and fired the amp up again I smelled something burning after about 5 minutes. I hit the power and looked inside the amp and one of the power tubes was glowing bright orange. Apparently, this is known as redplating. It happens when one of the power tubes goes bad and the other tube tries to handle everything on its own. The remaining tube draws a huge amount of current which exceeds the rating of the fuse, causing it to blow. Anyway, I ordered a pair of Sovtek KT88s from Tubedepot this afternoon. Hopefully, they will rectify the situation.