IT IS ALIVE!

Remember that Pat Metheny concert I'd blogged about a while back? Well, a buddy of mine stiffed me for a ticket -- I fronted the money, and then he backed out at the last second. Nice. In exchange for this minor misdemeanor, he offered me this old Gallien Krueger 250-ML guitar amp. Quick history lesson: this little 2-channel, stereo amp is a mini-powerhouse -- it was a GREAT amp back in the 80's, and was the choice of such guitar greats as Alex Lifeson of RUSH and umm-, well, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme. I figured it'd be great for jam sessions and small gigs, so I took it. The only problem was that the speakers were rotting out -- guess that's to be expected, as the amp IS 20 years old...

This led to much research online, to find replacement speakers for an amp that is no longer in production, as well as a little mechanical advice from my future father-in-law, Al Corp. Al schooled me on Kepps nuts, 6-32 phillips heads, and various flavors of thread lock. Then came the good part -- disassembling the entire amp, just like those walkie-talkies I had when I was 7 years old... and hoping that I'd be able to get it back together again when I was finished (the walkie-talkies weren't so lucky)! Fired up the old soldering iron, and I was off!

After a thorough once-over with a dustrag and bottle of compressed air, I'm happy to say that this amp is back in business and it still ROARS. It's got a very distinct 80's sound -- back when solid-state and spandex pants were totally rad. The onboard chorus is super-syrupy smooth, and it's also got this digital reverb that was state-of-the-art 20 years ago (now it's rather quaint, but it's nice to have the option!). But I think the coolest thing is that I brought this sucker back to a musical life, after being an oversized, musty-dusty lunchpail that was going to waste in somebody's closet.