Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul - 12/7/10

[Peter Stroud]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Blue Dave - more about lower wattage and getting a good tone. Stage volumes industry wide seem to be a lot lower these days, large part due to use of in-ear monitors and because FOH sound engineers enforce autonomy over stage volume!

GWIF - We have the new Empire due out very soon which we've all been working on together. Our answer to the 'plexi" kinda thing at a volume you can stand in front of. IT totally rocks

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Oh yeah, jeez I dig dozens of amps old and new! Hard to say, all the classics of course, but if I had to choose a "desert island" amp it would be a toss up between my old 64 AC 30 or the 71 50watt Marshall at the shop. . . tough one!

Thats a nice pair for sure!

 

[DanBoul]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Glad you enjoy the fire!

The Empire sounds like a cool piece, I'll take a look and see what I can find.

Look on my Facebook page or 65's Facebook page and also if you search on Ustream it will show up. Don't have a link handy sorry! But let me know if you need help!

Seriously, the fire thing is off the hook! Great job!

 

[dguillaume]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Here is the link to the Empire demo on ustream

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11195039

 

[Peter Stroud]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Nice! That brings me to another question. I know a lot of players, Dave Grissom for example have said more than once that having to back off on the volume in recent years is a bad thing in his opinion...since you cover a lot of ground with a lot of different gigs and so on, whats your stance on stage volume???

in certain gigs where it applies, I'd love nothing more than to blast away at the stage volumes I prefer. But on the pop gigs I've done in recent years it's just not realistic.

However on my own gig I would take more liberties and put the term "sound reinforcement" back into the equation. ;-) I like feeling the power behind me and the interaction btn guitar and amp that you get standing in front of moving air.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Look on my Facebook page or 65's Facebook page and also if you search on Ustream it will show up. Don't have a link handy sorry! But let me know if you need help!

Seriously, the fire thing is off the hook! Great job!

Well do!

Thanks!

 

[Rich_S]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Hi, guys. Thanks for joining us today. I was very active a few years back on 18Watt.com, at a time when Dan was there a lot, too. Somehow, the result of my involvment was a single 18 Watter clone, while Dan's was 65 Amps. And so it goes.

I've always admired 65's cosmetics; the 2-tone vinyl and especially the vents on top. As a manufacturing engineer, I assume it was fairly expensive to design those vents, and have them fabricated. I've always thought it was a gutsy move on your part to put in that much work (and presumably money) up front.

How did you come up with your enclosure design, and how did you justify the expensive packaging over the typical tolex- or levant-covered box?

 

[Peter Stroud]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

in certain gigs where it applies, I'd love nothing more than to blast away at the stage volumes I prefer. But on the pop gigs I've done in recent years it's just not realistic.

However on my own gig I would take more liberties and put the term "sound reinforcement" back into the equation. ;-) I like feeling the power behind me and the interaction btn guitar and amp that you get standing in front of moving air.

to elaborate further... The ability of a good sound engineer with today's systems is such that I will always comply with his wishes for stage volume. Digidesign's new mixer essentially is the same as using ProTools with Plugin's on your guitar channels. I've come in on soundchecks and have heard the mix from the previous night blasting over the sound system and my guitar tone has been dialed to the 9's. Knowing that is the case, I will always give our sound engineer what he wants, which is why Dan and I have gone to great lengths to design our amps to have great tone at any volume.

Whenever I feel insecure about how the sound engineer will be handling our stage volumes and tone like in some club scenarios, that's when I'll crank up and rely more on controlling volume levels form the stage and using the PA to reinforce vocals and drums.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Peter. Do you find a gig supporting a piano to be more challenging than the more comfortable position of playing electric over acoustic guitar? How do you prepare for a more challenging gig like that, where the songwriting is based on piano?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

in certain gigs where it applies, I'd love nothing more than to blast away at the stage volumes I prefer. But on the pop gigs I've done in recent years it's just not realistic.

However on my own gig I would take more liberties and put the term "sound reinforcement" back into the equation. ;-) I like feeling the power behind me and the interaction btn guitar and amp that you get standing in front of moving air.

I hear ya...

Speaking of your "own gigs"...any chance of a Peter Stroud solo album anytime???

 

[DanBoul]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Hi, guys. Thanks for joining us today. I was very active a few years back on 18Watt.com, at a time when Dan was there a lot, too. Somehow, the result of my involvment was a single 18 Watter clone, while Dan's was 65 Amps. And so it goes.

I've always admired 65's cosmetics; the 2-tone vinyl and especially the vents on top. As a manufacturing engineer, I assume it was fairly expensive to design those vents, and have them fabricated. I've always thought it was a gutsy move on your part to put in that much work (and presumably money) up front.

How did you come up with your enclosure design, and how did you justify the expensive packaging over the typical tolex- or levant-covered box?

Thanks for the kind words Rich!

We worked with my neighbor Bill Malone on the design. He's a horror movie director who followed the Beatles to everyone of their N. American shows on all tours. We have extensive discussions about how cool looking Vox's were the first time he saw them . . . old and new at the same time.

So we went for a design that is fresh and new, yet gives a clear "tip of the hat" to our forefathers . . . some good 60's hotrod cues as well . . . vents = 65 Mustang . . . front = split window Vette! ;-)

 

[Peter Stroud]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Hi, guys. Thanks for joining us today. I was very active a few years back on 18Watt.com, at a time when Dan was there a lot, too. Somehow, the result of my involvment was a single 18 Watter clone, while Dan's was 65 Amps. And so it goes.

I've always admired 65's cosmetics; the 2-tone vinyl and especially the vents on top. As a manufacturing engineer, I assume it was fairly expensive to design those vents, and have them fabricated. I've always thought it was a gutsy move on your part to put in that much work (and presumably money) up front.

How did you come up with your enclosure design, and how did you justify the expensive packaging over the typical tolex- or levant-covered box?

Hi Rich!
the 18watt.com site was one of real inspiration camaraderie and goodwill. We had a lot of friends who helped and as we carried further with our goals for tone and appearance we quickly decided we wanted to create something more of our own. Marketing-wise, we did not want to put out another clone series. We also understood the importance of having our amps stand out onstage for the sake of recognition. The rest was just making something we felt looked really cool.

 

[DanBoul]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

OH yes! And the covering needs to be special for something that is above average right?

 

[Peter Stroud]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Hi Rich!
the 18watt.com site was one of real inspiration camaraderie and goodwill. We had a lot of friends who helped and as we carried further with our goals for tone and appearance we quickly decided we wanted to create something more of our own. Marketing-wise, we did not want to put out another clone series. We also understood the importance of having our amps stand out onstage for the sake of recognition. The rest was just making something we felt looked really cool.

and of course.. a lot of time went into tuning the cab's for tone in conjunction with the amps. ...cabinet size, the size of the back panels, open back vs closed, etc. and speaker selection was an extensive process.

 

[DanBoul]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

How did you come up with your enclosure design, and how did you justify the expensive packaging over the typical tolex- or levant-covered box?

One more thing sorry . . .we actually never thought we were going to make more than a few of these . . . they were just for Peter's gig and then the dam broke and we were committed!

 

[Rich_S]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Peter: Please describe your favorite Telecaster.

 

[ginormous]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Hello, Pete and Dan. Thanks so much for being here.

What's your stance on "boutique" amp manufacturing? I understand that attention to detail is important for good design and construction, but is it really that necessary to get the OEM resistors, caps, tubes etc. to acheive the sound? Or is that a whole bunch of jive?

 

[Peter Stroud]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Peter. Do you find a gig supporting a piano to be more challenging than the more comfortable position of playing electric over acoustic guitar? How do you prepare for a more challenging gig like that, where the songwriting is based on piano?

Honestly, I haven't been in that situation enough times to draw a comparison. But in regard to songwriting that is based more on piano..such as in the case of Sarah M... there can be quite a lot more chordal movement and different voicings. It's all about finding which work best or learning what is there, so having my theory and voice leading knowledge acquired from college days has helped tremendously.

It's always a little more unnerving playing as a duo vs as a band. Even a trio is easier I find.

Does that answer your question?

 

[DanBoul]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Hello, Pete and Dan. Thanks so much for being here.

What's your stance on "boutique" amp manufacturing? I understand that attention to detail is important for good design and construction, but is it really that necessary to get the OEM resistors, caps, tubes etc. to achieve the sound? Or is that a whole bunch of jive?

Good question, sometimes yes and sometimes no. There's a lot of definitions of "Boutique" we only use 1 NOS part that is Allen Bradley resistors of which we have a few hundred thousand of, but otherwise it's not realistic to produce consistent gear with old parts. Some modern parts sound every bit as good as the old stuff, but most of the "mojo" comes from transformers and build quality. I can't tell you how much build quality makes a difference. It was a HUGE surprise to us when we got into this business. I could give you a list of the strangest things that make a significant difference in the way an amp sounds that have nothing to do with NOS parts.

 

[lpmarshall]

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Re: LIVE NOW!!! - Q&A with Peter Stroud with Dan Boul

Not much to ask, just wanted to say I've been using the Lil Elvis head/cab as my primary amp for the last year. Thanks for putting out such great amps!!!!