Merde! Marshall Cabinet Casters

I would like to congratulate Marshall Amps on their big anniversary, defining the sound and look of rock for 50 fucking years. Yup, they’ve been rolling along for awhile now. That is, until their really shitty casters broke and then them shits weren’t rolling nowhere. One sentence we will never hear another company say is, “Those Marshall casters are so well designed, we should copy them!”

marshall casters

Alas, the Marshall 1960A and B are such standard and well made guitar cabinets in every other way, the minor defaults with the casters must be forgiven and dealt with. The shitty plastic sockets strip out, the poorly mounted bolts come undone, and the riveted-in wheels bust. Loading in and out of venues every night doesn’t help their longevity, either. At an unreasonable $20 a pop each for genuine Marshall replacement casters, what else can be done?

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Operating Theater: Peavey Century 200H

I almost feel guilty for writing about this, as the fix was so damn easy. Actually, that says a lot of good things about the manufacturer of this amp, Peavey. Behold, the Peavey Century (which was produced about twenty years shy of the turn of…)

Peavey Century

I had a Peavey XR 400B PA head that I used to call “the amp that will not die.” I used it as a back up bass head before I had a proper bass amp to rely on. It was about the same era as this Century, used the same solid state power amp section, and could get kicked down a flight of stairs and still work. Sure, it never sounded that great, but it was unbreakable. This Century broke when my friend Mark, after seeing a documentary on Keith Moon, decided he was in the Who and sent it tumbling. So, WTF?

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Oh, Snap! Sennheiser MZS-421 shockmount

In my Low End Theory 1 article, I expressed my overwhelming satisfaction with the Low End Theory 2 article, I explained the custom mounting of my sweet MD-421 using a Bass Hangar from basshanger.com, a common microphone gooseneck, and the Sennheiser MZS-421 shockmount. In all their wisdom, Sennheiser did not make the MD-421 fit in a standard mic clip. But at least they did make this mount that would isolate the microphone from nasty bass vibrations. It is perfect for my “on the cab” mic set up.

bass cab mic mount

That is, until one of the rubber bands broke while I was on tour. Then a second rubber band broke. The remaining bands held the mount together until the end of tour, but the shock absorption was nil. Luckily, one of the broken bands was stuck in the divots of the mount. With that and the help of some photos, I was able to trace its original path and re-thread replacements.

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Gross Anatomy: Melvins Lite Poster

Freak Puke is the debut album from Melvins Lite, a more recent power trio incarnation of the Melvins. It features old stalwarts King Buzzo and Dale Crover joining with legendary bassist Trevor Dunn. They’re as “Lite” as a joke about 9/11; it’s every bit as heavy as any version of the Melvins. They are touring to promote Freak Puke, but this time, the tour is an event of Guinness sized magnitude. 51 shows in 51 days, every state in the union plus Washington D.C. This will be a record. I was pleased as punch to be included in the tour poster series from Secret Serpents. Yesterday, they played the second gig in Seattle, Washington. I commemorated the event with this piece of Sewage-style snarkiness.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, being handed the tour poster duties for Seattle. Being that this was such a geographically consequential tour, I wanted to do something to reflect the area they were playing. I couldn’t abide by putting the Space Needle in the art, but I couldn’t think of anything more unequivocally recognizable about the Emerald City. I set about looking for inspiration.

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