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so many wires

I saw them, probably on that tour. (At Bogart's in Cincinnati) They opened for mudhoney. Absolutely worst concert I have ever been to. On purpose, by them. They essentially played one deep plodding chord for a half hour. Excruciating. But also awesome.

I was at my partner’s great-uncle’s funeral this past weekend. He was the patriarch of the clan. Heather’s family is Scottish: he came over after Korea, with his wife from Jersey (a story in and of itself). He was bigger than life in some ways, and kind and decent, and everything I’ve heard says to me that I’m sad I didn’t get to meet him. It was sorrowful, and happy in remembrance, and I got to see her family again (they have absolutely welcomed me, and I appreciate them so much). I wore my Drive Extra Flat. I wore it because I thought “boy, this watch is beautiful on my dresser, but leaves me cold on the wrist, but selling a watch is such a pain in the ass so I never have done so, so I should probably wear it.” At the wake, after, the youngest adult grand-daughter of the decedent, whom I adore (vibrant, smart, fun as hell, striking out on her own at the end of her college career in secondary education and the first openly gay member of the family) kept looking at my wrist (jacket off and sleeves rolled up). I of course noticed. She finally got around to asking what the watch was, because she just was fascinated and loved it. I took it off and handed it to her and told her what it was and said “try it on.” There have been a few times where I have seen somebody’s life just shift a little by an object. I of course immediately said it was hers. Sending the box and papers off to her tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll wear it for the rest of her life, and she’ll remember me every time she puts it on, when I’m long gone. I have a form of “seller’s remorse” now, of course: it was so damned pretty on my dresser! Thought the ‘case watch people would like the little story. Watches aren’t worth anything if they aren’t worn. [Edits because I got some of the family details wrong as I thought about it.]

a scope is a good thing to have. plenty of high voltage probes on ebay. like this Oscilloscope Scope Test Probe P4100 100:1 High Voltage Withstand 2KV 100MHz 1.2M | eBay

Houdini Melvins 1993 Example:

I'm not sure if this is really good, or a little too gimmicky. But I've been enjoying it.

Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel

Frankie and his hi-fi: I'm guessing it's a hybrid stereo/mono system vs "Dolby 3 channel." That a Mac pre, clearly. This article goes over some of the other kit. The, ahem, bowl of cigarette packs is a nice touch.

I'm sorry for your trouble. Transformers are not always nice things. When temperature rises - copper resistance goes up – power increase – transformer temperature goes up - copper resistance goes up more, as temp … und so weiter …

I thought some electrolytics looked off but can't tell with any certainty from the pics. Make sure none of them are domed or have any leakage around them.

good news, BAD news as far as i know, this is not safe.

This

Nice progress Kevin. Did this test board today. I’ve an idea (have to many ideas) to replace top el34 with CCS. Save you lots of wires. Here a CCS of 10M90S/DN2540 and +/-400V applied. Current set to 22 mA gave 400V cross tube and cathode resistor.

in the past, craig had trouble with all those white plastic connectors with poor crimp on the pins. look carefully for browning or burning on these connectors, removing them one at a time and reseating them.

Beautiful gesture, ER! You made that young lady's day, month...maybe year. HS

Moody Americana, I guess? Songs inspired by COVID lockdown marathons of Unsolved Mysteries, apparently. Always heard good things about her stuff but it never clicked for me. This album hit immediately.

A collaboration with a certain northeastern master semiretired circle hole cutter, I present a panel ammeter that has a plain, not hip rgb light source. working on a second so we can compare two different dials and will play a bit with the LED backlight placement

I've just known that Pat Martino died yesterday at 77. RIP Pat.

both transformers now have shorted primaries. And the smell of burned toast. This is just driving the filaments and every output tube was getting about 6.2 volts. (and input tubes were getting 12.5 volts) transformers are 68va and say so. each drives 4 x 6ca7/el34 plus a 12au7 and 12ax7 4 x 6.3 x 1.5 = 37.8 watts 2 x 12.6 *..15 = 3.78 watts so a total of 40 watts should have worked.