Behind my mother’s parents house was a small aluminum shed, full of packed away years of raising kids. It was a veritable treasure chest for a six year old if you will.
I discovered my uncle’s electronics kit complete with diodes, transistors and a peg board. From there I unearthed marbles, Jules Verne, rocks, tops, ventriloquist dolls, old erector sets, tubes, reel to reel tape recorders, the book of Revelation, and somehow, Lon Chaney’s ghost.

My father on the other hand was an avid mountain man, complete with razor strops, moonshine, red and black checkered wool jackets, coon dogs, traps, guns and yes, a Martin D28.
There was a big black toy box in the basement with his childhood artifacts as well.
In there I found 1950’s baseball cards, a money changer, a home made pinup magazine with images of Jane Russell and the like sewn onto the pages of a spiral-bound notebook, a chemistry set and a first aid kit with patches from WWII.

I suppose these are the things that form the skeletal imprint of our adult endeavors.

How this helped form a musical alchemy will always be a mystery, but it did and still does.

Welcome to my little myosphere, let’s talk.

Thanks Ed, I owe you one,

Matt

Quidley Amps
Several years ago a renaissance of the all-tube sounds began with the rediscovery of the circa 1966 Marshall© 18 watt “practice” amplifiers. Now, many boutique amp manufacturers are moving into the 15 to 25 watt market and developing amps that can reproduce the sounds of large overpowered and way-too-loud amps at usable volume levels. The Quidley Guitar Amplifier is the ultimate example of this revolution in tube amplifiers. It has a thickness and breadth that makes it truly unique. The amp is designed to provide harmonically rich, brilliantly clean tones when cleaned up, and thick, grinding overdrive when leaned on, and everything in between.

The Quidley Guitar Amplifier is a hand made, point-to-point wired, all tube amplifier capable of up to 22 watts of output power. It consists of a single channel preamp with selectable gain changes at three locations within the circuit and has the ability to operate in open-loop or in negative feedback modes. Two of the three gain changes are selectable with the included footswitch or front panel switch and the third is selectable via the high/low gain input jacks. Other unique features include active 4 band EQ, bypassable master volume, and parallel type effects loop. The preamp is coupled to a push-pull dual EL84 driven power section. The 22 watt output is designed to provide a perfect stage level mix at the full master setting for most live performance environments. A Pentode/Triode switch allows the amp output power to be reduced to 8 watts when lower output is desired. Many guitarists are using the lower power selection in live performances in small to medium venues and it’s perfect for the living room as well. The guitarist can get the very best achievable tube distortion sounds without the use of distortion pedals (although pedals can still be used if desired) and still clean up the amp by backing the guitar output down. Guitarists quickly adjust to the capability of having instant control of “tube burn” at their fingertips. Available in 1-12 combos or head and cabinet models. Prepare to be totally impressed by the Quidley 22’s capabilities. The timbre and versatility of this amp will quite simply BLOW YOU AWAY!

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