Handwired Amps and Why People Like Them

(different but similar post from my Music Blog)

The easiest way to explain Hand Wired vs PCB is to just up and show you.

See the green board there?  Looks familiar I bet.  From the cheapest radios to the most expensive smart phone, you will find printed circuit boards(PCB) inside them.  They are cost effective, reliable, and a marvel of 20th century tech that allowed us all to have cheap, working electronics.

That tangled mess of spaghetti there is a hand wired, 18 watt Marshall clone.  As you can see, its components are bigger, take up much more room, and are all connected to each other using wires.  Someone has to wire all that up, robots can not do it yet.  They take hours of work, a skilled solderer, and use parts that aren't in ready supply any longer.  So why would anyone want to use those hand wired things?  Well, I used to think it was snobbery.  Old fashioned "they don't make them like this anymore, all new stuff sucks", knuckle dragging cave men who like to lug around 100+ pound speaker cabs and amp heads.

But now, with a broken amp, I can see the allure.  When a PCB based amp goes bad, it can burn other components and cause damage to the entire PCB. It is hard, if not impossible, to get fully working PCB's to replace old bad ones.  The components are small as well, and hard to work with.  With a Hand Wired Amp, anyone with electrical knowledge can fix them.  Hell, there's a huge "do it yourself" home movement with them where you buy the kit and LEARN as you make it.  It is like working with old muscle cars; less efficient and fancy, but you can fix them yourself.

Hand Wired amps are generally basic designs.  This can be a positive thing for some, but not if you need a "do anything" amp.  There's no way I could do all the things I have gotten used to doing with a Hand Wired amp unless I"m looking to buy one for over $2000(which I'm not).  I need effects loops, I like built in digital reverb, and an emulated line out does not hurt things either.  I'm lucky in that this newer tech also comes in at well under 1/4 the price.

April 7th, 2014

Grocery day.  For some reason I"m in the mood for lentil stew, Moroccan chicken, and a starch with lemon in the flavoring somewhere.  I don't know why, I just am.  I'm also starting to find ways to justify wanting a Keurig.  The fancy advertising never won me over.  The small brew size was a deterrent even if it meant better coffee, I've seen that thing since "pods" were the new thing over a decade ago.   The multitude of things you could make with it, again, did not get me all excited.  Now though, I'm thinking it might be a way to cut down my coffee in the mornings.  Less, but good, coffee means less milk needed.  Hell, the other day I completely forgot that I don't dislike good, black coffee.  I love black coffee if its just a tad bitter, has no acidity at all, and a nutty flavor.

Started the Brian Johnson era of ACDC.  I will start out by saying that I probably could not be surprised with how well Back in Black was made.  It is the best selling rock and rock related album of all time, and with good reason.  I can't really tell you about songs you might have missed out on, because it is damn near a greatest hits album by itself.  I read that the album was recorded so well that it became a standard for recording for all of the 80's.  Nashville clubs used to use it for sound checks because everything was mixed and recorded crystal clear.  Motorhead would do their sound checks by using the album to test the PA systems.  It is every bit the masterpiece that the albums that surround it are, both musically, technically, and production wise.  Really paying attention to the music, the riff on Have a Drink on Me is something I have always done without knowing this song.  Its a movement I did with my bass for many a year, and when I got on guitar I added a slide and bend, so its pretty cool because I had a "hey, me and Angus thought alike" moment.