Dr Tony Balls wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 2:21 pm

cakes wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 2:17 pm Eastwood makes good guitars

ahem?

I got my wife an electric tenor from them that is pretty nice. A million years ago, I had an Eastwood bass I used in a band (borrowed from my bandmate) that was fun to play. They also had some Eastwood copies of some old guitars, they sounded pretty good. Overall, I never had a bad experience with them.

Bad first impression from them in their earlier days for me. Several of my weirdo friends got one of their weirdo reissues and would have loads of complaints within weeks about them kinda falling apart. Maybe they've gotten their shit together since then?

I've never felt a worse production fret job than on an eastwood. Still, I would gladly refret and play the shit out of a Wurron Ellis tenor

Any Eastwood guitar I've ever played has been garbage. Bad build quality and bad parts.

They started the "Jerry" TB500 a few years agp to tap into the Dead thing (they also do their own version of Wolf and Tiger guitars), and I guess decided to go for the Wedge for a laugh.

If you want a guitar that looks like a boat paddle and doesn't sound like a Bean, congrats, that'll be $1400.

I find the lack of shame quite charming.

Someone's Eastwood opinions from the OSG forum. I thought it was a nice recap:

They 'reissue' guitars and imply approval or association with the original manufacturer who is usually long gone (hence they feel comfy that they won't be challenged in court). They usually use photos of an original guitar and are very loose with the disclaimer that the final product may not look like the photos. For example: their Acoustic Black Widow 'reissue' is a completely different size to the original, with a completely different headstock and completely different hardware. See also their Travis Bean TB500 (called something like the JG500), their Mosrite Bluesbender, their Mosrite MkV Gospel, their Wandre. It's all very unspecific and alludes to a legitimacy that isn't really there. The Hi Fliers especially - they're cool looking guitars and after all a Hi Flier is a sort-of Mosrite copy - but to call them a reissue (or imply it) is nowhere near accurate and the finished article has very little of the character of a real HF.

Well, they seem to be way overpriced these days. I recall them being pretty cheap, because they were pretty cheaply made. But they were fun, cheap guitars. I don't think any of us who used them 20 years ago considered them authentic copies of anything, if they were supposed to be. Still, the tenor my wife has is pretty nice for what it is.

cakes wrote: Fri Aug 29, 2025 9:52 am Still, the tenor my wife has is pretty nice for what it is.

That's what I'm talking bout. It's the only thing they make of interest to me.

Looks like the pickup height is adjustable, at least

I'm having a 1200W@4ohm power amp put together. For bass.

A large percentage of the lil Class D bass amps on the market use similar power amp modules.
They're made by ICEPower (unfortunate name, but it's an old company also Danish).
Used be part of Bang & Olufsen.

That's why a lot of those amps are rated at similar set intervals like 500 or 700W.

Anyway, I just figured this out.

I don't use the preamp in my Aguilar Tone Hammer--I use a pedal for that--and...
I can actually make the Tone Hammer's power amp shut off if I push it a little too hard into 4ohms.
I can do the same thing with the Demeter Minnie I bought.

If I run them both...splitting the load into 8ohms each...I can get same volume or a little louder, with no overload conditions.

So I thought...
maybe my guy here can make me a power amp out of another ICEPower board...
and that can be my one box, instead of having two boxes, one of which has preamp stuff I do not need.

I got a 1200AS2, two-channel ICEPower module from Parts Express:
1250W/ch @4ohm when driving ONE channel
670W/ch @4ohm when driving both channels
610W/ch @8ohm when driving both channels
That's at 1kHz, so bonk things down a bit.
But...it's enough, in other words.

I'm having it wired up for (2) speakon outs for each channel and (2) 1/4" inputs.
I can run it mono at a lower overall level on the volume knob...
or in stereo into 8ohm loads that won't be pulling too much current relative to source...
or in stereo into (2) 4ohm loads (four 1x15s) which will probably sound great.

If I do two channels (v likely), I'll use the EA passive splitter that Greg makes.
It rocks and there's almost no insertion loss (Jensen transformer in it).

After spending way too much time looking for enclosures...
I found a dude in Latvia (!) who has an enclosure kit that he makes specifically for this board.
What are the odds?
People use 'em for home hi-fi and theater, esp subwoofers and shit.
Anyway. Enclosure will be pretty ez to mod (not that I'm doing the work).

The gamble is that there's probably some buffering/filtering going on with what I use now.
I'm positive there is for the Demeter Minnie--it has a deeper, darker sound, and they've done something to juice the output slightly.
So maybe the unfiltered amp will sound different/worse. We'll see.

If it works it'll probably cost less than a new Tone Hammer.
Certainly less than a Tone Hammer and a Demeter Minnie (even used ones like I bought).
And it'll be enough power for any application.
And it will take up less room than using two lil power amps.
And the fan is much larger than the ones in the Tone Hammer and the Minnie--they seem pretty puny for what they have to deal with.

I will write more on here once I get it, probably.