Donovan Banks

I am starting to think it is easier to get a great tonewith a les paul than it is a strat.

Go to my myspace page and listen to Leap to life (done with the Les paul) and War in the back alley (done with the strat) and tell me what you think.

2 Years ago I had a 70's Fender Bassman in fair condition but it was looking tatty. I undertook to re-cover it in white vinyl. It was a wonderful sounding amp but it was too big for me to haul around so I sold it.

This is how it looked before. That speaker was from another old valve amp that died.




It was quite old looking and had a fair amount of damage to the tolex



I set about removing the old tolex from the head

and cleaned off the remaining glue


I used the pieces I took off to cut the new vinyl and used contact glue to stick it on.


I covered the front face with the only black fabric I could find at the time using staples

After cleaning up the metal trimming I assembled it again when the glue was good and dry



The Cabinet had water damage (have no idea from where) and it was made out of chipboard. When I tried to remove the tolex it just disintegrated. I bought some pine and made a new cabinet using the same face and back board but I put castors on it this time to make transport easier....

I also covered the cabinet in the same vinyl and black face cloth


It turned out much better and even made my guitar look cooler....


I had a good time with this project and I intend to do it again some time, although not with a new amp, I'll find another old one.

I got a Fender Jeff Beck Hot Noiseless pickup for a Strat. Its supposed to be a hotter pup with more gain and stronger tone.

The result is fantastic and I also changed the look slightly of my guitar.

Before


After

I need to find a cover that fits the HN.

Inside before


Inside After


Tonally it sounds very cool. I made a video of that as well,

I made a backing track to practice my scales. The first one is a simple blues progression in C#m.
The chords are C#m and A. Then E, F# and A.
Download the mp3 from my soundclick page.

Here I was messing about with it and my Strat.


I'll be doing some more soon. Maybe some Jazz and rock soon.

Well it has been incredibly busy lately, not on the blog but in general.
I have now moved home, had to get my new Internet connection up and running, thanks to cybersmart.
I also have some new gear, I bought a mexican power strat, a Vox VT50 and a Boss BR600. I need to play with all of them a little more so soon you will hear sound clips etc.

I have to get playing soon so I'll get into this soon again, if anyone out there cares?

I was playing bass on a Fender Bassman 100 recently. It had a constant annoying hum, but when the lead was unplugged or muted it went away. I asked the owner if he knew what the problem was and he said it had been like that since he got it.

It was being used in a church. On the stage each instrument is connected straight into a DI box, the signal is then split. One to the desk, and one to the amp for monitoring.

what happens with some DI boxes is that the desk supplies phantom power. It sends 48V up the cable to the DI box. In this case the phantom power was passing through the DI box and being fed into the amp, thereby creating the hum.
when I flicked the ground switch, the power was no longer passing through the DI but was being used up instead so the humming went.


I had a Fender Bassman 50 previously and it too had an annoying hum. although I never used a DI box the ground switch on that amp too was in the wrong position. If you have a hum, check that first before you start replacing costly parts. It could save you some good time and money in the long run.

In case you're wondering I thought I'd tell you about my gear.

1990 Squier Stratocaster
I bought this guitar off a friend of mine in 1999. He had a similar design in stuck on Vinyl, i just painted it on rather badly. It needs a bit of a clean up and now that I have more guitars I can afford to "decommission" them one by one and get them up to scratch. The N Series Squiers were remarkable and the neck on this guitar is pristine. It still has the original pickups and I reckon its about time for new ones. I am thinking of the Jeff Beck Noiseless pups. I love the tone and feel of this guitar and it was my first that I bought myself.








2006 Epiphone Les Paul 100
I found this guitar online for very cheap. I had a Les Paul Special before which was absolute rubbish. The difference between the LP100 and other Les Pauls (excluding the studio) is that the body of this guitar is very thin and excludes binding. This makes it a lot lighter than a standard Les paul but with similar electronics and neck. One major flaw in these is that they are made very cheap. I am changing the selector switch as it doens't work 100% and the D and G strings go out of tune after a song or two of heavy bending. New Machine heads are on the cards but I am going for grover Rotamatics when I have the budget available. I love the tone but I don't give full credit to the pups on this baby. They are standard but sound very sweet. I may keep them on. I also like the finish on this as it looks great

You have seen my Ibanez.

The amplifier pictured with the Strat is a Fender Bassman 50, made sometime in the 70's. It was black I recovered it with white vinyl and it looks sweeeeeeeet!!! I recently sold it as it was too big for me to use in gigs and I have a small car and an even smaller apartment.

I currently use a Laney TF200 amp. I'll get a picture sometime soon. Its a standard 120W combo amp with two lead channels (that I dont really use) and a Spring reverb unit which is quite nice.

For effects I have the Boss GT-8 effects processor. I am still learning to use it but the more I play with it, the more I learn. It is a superb item and is definitely cheaper than buying even 10% of the effects it holds.

I am in the process of getting a Boss Micro BR recorder. I say in the process as it belongs to a friend who wants to sell it and I am playing with it at the moment. It is a fantastic item and I will write more about it soon.

Feel free to tell me about your gear, I love guitar stuff in all shapes and sizes.