Bartenders

I would like to take a moment and welcome the bartender staff of this nation to the 21st century. Bars or water holes are now starting to install taps for beer that are self service. Just enter your credit card and bing-go, you have a fresh beer. No more waiting for the bar tender with an attitude for a fresh beer. Just enter your credit card number and pour your self a beer. Remember folks no body could care less when it was the manufacturing work force that were now losing jobs, well guess what? It's now you...man that sucks. I was never a part of the manufacturing community when they were losing jobs but guess what, the red flag went up for me to take note of the evolution of the world economy and my simpothy went out to them and I studied the situation, its been twenty five years now, stay tuned...love life

It's Everybody Else

When you start to think it's everybody else, there's a good chance it's you.

SP-3

Just donated a pair of old Peavey SP-3 PA speakers and amp head to a local charity that resales items. What am I gonna do sell it. Maybe $100 buxs. I could use $100 buxs but I don't need it. It made me feel good that some local teens are setting it up in a local garage and make some noise. I don't generally give money to any organization but I had no trouble doing that. I have a feeling that PA never hits the show room floor. I bet some dude or gal in the back room make some calls coming in the door Saturday morning to some pals to bring that noise maker to the garage and that's what its all about people, give to your local unknown friend.

P5K

P5K July 4, 2015, the afternoon began cloudy and those expecting a night filled with sparkles, shooting stars, colorful explosion and vivid light shows in the sky were about to be disappointed by fireworks shows not going on because of weather conditions in many towns across New Hampshire but not at Jewel Nightclub. Powerman 5000 (P5K) pulled into town and no matter what the weather condition are outside inside the club was about to explode in a theatrical or commonly referred to today as "visual metal" set by P5K. An inside fireworks show. I have been waiting for this show to happen for 3 months or what whatever the amount of time since the tickets went on sale. I was most likely one of the first to buy the tickets. I been a fan of the band for over 20 years now and watched them evolve and help create new genres of music twice now. First time in the early 90's with P5K introducing rap rock to the Boston music scene. Second in the late 90's or was it the early part of this century with the evolution of visual rock or a performance with a blend theatrics. Mainly Spider 1(founder and singer) incorporates into the show costumes and laser light show which I have never seen used in a concert mainly because of the style of music I like doesn't go for this but it works double time for P5K. I looked at P5K website just to check things out which most of us do these days with digital influenced minds. In this month of July the band has 3 days off in between show dates. An alarm immediately went off: "oh no is this going to be a burnt out metal star session? Will the band be able to perform with energy I have grow to expect from P5K?" You bet your boots they did. The set was both explosive and entertaining. Which is exactly what I expected and the band fulfilled my expectations and them some. Some of the YouTube available can help with a visual. They played this night like they apparently play every night at every show. Maintaining this amount of energy every night has got to be taxing, it must be, yet it was not evident last night. I reference my own personal work week, by the end of the week I'm beet.
I have a nasty habit of eating while typing on the my laptop. Nachos, some sour cream lodged into the keyboard and now rendered the "P" key barley functional. I have to pound on it to get it to type the letter P. This happened on my last laptop yet at that time I had not associate it with the sour cream being smeared into the keyboard as being the problem. I blamed "HP" for building cheap keyboards and trying to save money and failed. I now know it's the sour cream and not HP. I have to google weather or not I can safely lift the keys to see if it is cleanable.
Bernie the owner/ manager fooled me in a good way. The show was advertising to start at 5pm which is unusual to start a show that early. Soil and Three Years Hollow was the band to back them up as advertised. I figured this must be so people can get out early because it was the 4th of July. I have never been to a club that early ever and I have seen hundreds of shows. Not the case, Bernie had many talented local Metal heads come in and back the band to a festival level. 6 back up bands. That’s worth the price of admission of $25. My personal favorite and this is strictly an opinion was 4x4 Barracuda who play the style of metal that I love. 4x4 Barracuda play mostly in Lawrence Mass area and I have been waiting to see them. Great local band and highly recommended for Metal Heads like myself even thou I play Grunge and I will talk about this at a later date. Have no fear as reported earlier the failure of the a/c system at Jewel nightclub has been fixed and the club was comfortable to be in all night, thanks Bernie. By the way Bernie this helped me and others spend a little more money at the bar. As a side not to the club, it must be noted. The voluptuous bar tender who's name I don't know but will let you know as soon as I find out, is worth the price of admission as visual candy. She stand approximately 5'3 with a set of Double D's that makes it difficult to look her in the eye. The tee shirt she wears is much too small and at a choking level. She cuts the tee at a precise location in the shape of a football that oozes her beautification. She is a "must see." Jet black hair in which I have decided that my 3 wife must have jet black hair. My second wife had blonde and things didn't work out. Stay tuned.......

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Guitar speaker wattage

There's a lot of confusion on how many speakers with the size of amp head you are running. First off there are 2 camps. 1: is what you can afford. Run what you got. If you don't have the cash for new equipment then run what you got or were given. If you have a 100w head and are given a 2x12 cabinet to use that has 50w speakers in them it's ok as long as you don't go above the mid point on your amp.
The speakers should be 100w each in a 2x12, in a 4x12 they should be 50w speakers in a 1x12 you need 200w speaker. The confusion on the internet is that some people are afraid to say they don't have the cash to buy new equipment but would like to use the amp they have to power a cabinet they came across for short cash. The quick answer is, yes you can, just don't turn it up and most people don't anyways. How many times do you run an amp at max volume. I can across this web site that clears it all up. It's a little techy but if you read it 2 or 4 times in comes clear what you can run:(website)the short version is this: 100w head; 1x12 cabinet 200w speaker; 100w head 2x12 cabinet= 100w (each) speakers; 100w head 4x12= 50w(each) speakers. If you have a 50 watt head do the math: 50w head 1x12=100w speaker;50w head 2x12 cabinet= 50w (each)speakers; 50w head 4x12 cabinet= 25w (each) speakers, yet Warehouse is a good source for speakers and another good source with wiring diagrams and info with speakers is Orange County Speaker. I have never seen such confusion on one subject in my entire life. People mix options with facts which is or can be two different worlds.
Next up is you need to know if the cabinet speakers are wired in series(one after another) or parallel (side by side)For people trying to understand parallel imagine a ladder the vertical rungs of the ladder is the power and the rungs that you step on are the speakers, series is easy because it is wired one after the other in a row. Opening up the back panel will clear this mystery up for you. Don't measure the resistance of the line into the cabinet and make an educated guess because it could be incorrect, there are 16ohm speakers out there and if you guess that it's 8ohm speakers in series then you could be wrong, it could be 16ohm speakers in parallel. Measuring the 1/4" connector on the back will tell you what the cabinet is, lets say you measure 10 ohms this would be a 8ohm cabinet the other 2ohms are because you can't have a "perfect connection" when measuring the ohms and it will be slightly higher than expected but not always. Speakers wired in series you add the ohms together, like 4ohm speakers in a 4x12 cabinet = 16ohms at your amp output selector. Most amp heads have 4, 8 and 16ohms positions to chose from and if yours doesn't sell it and buy one that does it just keeps the available option at a maximum. You can measure the connection and determine what ohm setting to put the amp on but not to determine what speakers you have. Hope I don't add to the confusion and this clears it up or brings it down to earth for ya. Here is another good explanation of the confusion: Cleveland Institute of Electronics

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