Tube Socks

Enough about iPods. Let’s talk about a truly durable technology. I bought a guitar amplifier this week, even though my previous two amps are still going strong. The 40-watt Crate amp I got for my high school graduation present almost (gulp) twenty years ago still works as well it did that first day. It played a role in most of my playing out days and survived countless beer spills, drops, and sarcastic comments about its red trim and prickly black fabric coat. Sure, its two sounds are crunchy-nasty and bright-brittle, but I never did hock my Crate amp.

My Fender Deluxe Reverb is older than I am. It rolled out of the Fender factory in January of 1967 and, after forty years, Fender’s best little amp is probably the Deluxe Reverb mid-60s reissue, a replica of this little guy. Mine takes almost a full ten minutes to warm up, and it truly warms up—emitting a distinct but mellow burning smell, the scent of overtaxed vacuum tubes flush with electricity. But it’s not just the romance of “vintage” things at work when I praise my beloved Blues Jammin’ Mama. This little 20-watt doohickey has moods—bad days and sore throats and coughing fits and unnecessary trips to the doctor. But it is also offers direct access to the non-verbal part of my mind, settling—if just for a moment—the turbulence created by my brain pistons and those almost incessant words. My lovely wife depends on meditation and yoga to pull her away from life’s ragged claws; I spend time with what Jimi Hendrix called the “sowwwwwnnnnnnddddsssss.” (He also called headphones “ear goggles.”)

My new, smaller, more versatile solid-state practice amp (a Fender Princeton) offers a reasonable facsimile of the matriarch’s moxie without all the negotiations. I sacrifice plenty of mystery, but I can get on without horrifying the neighbors. We’ll see how it works out.

But I miss playing with others. Doesn’t anyone want to swap GarageBand files and work on a collaborative something? I can (probably) do more than just circular Jeff Beck-isms. I used to know some chords.

Another technology note: “Tacking” is only just barely indexed by Google at this point. I wonder if/when we’ll get the full treatment.