Carvin Audio is shutting down.

Wow. As of now, they've already sold out of their most popular model amps...

...The competitive pressures in the amplifier business are enormous right now - and they don't show that they're going to be abating anytime soon. Despite massively increased competition domestically, the relatively-new advent of tube amps from China and other low-wage nations, it still seems like more people are getting into the "I'm gonna build tube amps" business...

So when we last left off, we were talking about a 5-watt Natural Music Guild / Massie Amplifier called "The Vibe". Truth be told we've been working on another few projects (first was straightening the house, the other is a... another business idea and we'll leave it at that...). However, we do expect that now we should be able to update with increased regularity.

So as previously discussed, we've come to the conclusion that our "Natural Music Guild"-labeled amp is a 1959 Ray Massie creation. Here are some interesting things that we've found along the way...

We bring you the Natural Music Guild of Santa Ana / Massie Amplifiers "The Vibe" 5 watt amp.

Yes, there's been a hiatus in posting. We're pretty sure that for the most part, you don't care about the story why. Maybe we'll get to that in the coming days. It's a sad tale of a tragically flawed leader. Bye-bye KLBP.

So let's pick up at any old random spot... Actually this isn't a random spot, but it may seem that way to you... We've picked up a lot of tube amps in the past few months that we haven't shared yet. We picked up a few Marshalls. We picked up a VHT gone bad (and sold cheap!) that was going to start life as an 18-watter, but that we're going to turn into a 50-watt beast. And there are more still...

So I've spent a little bit of time trying to find this episode of Undercover Boss for you to see. CBS makes you sign up for some membership. But then so does Hulu. Hulu seems to be the least objectionable from what I found. The best solution is if you have Tivo, or a DVR from your Internet/Cable/whatever company and can manage to record it on re-run.

So the Smithsonian Channel has this show called "Rock 'N' Roll Inventions". Of course, Thermionic-Studios.com is a site where we talk about gear (mostly tube amps, and the heavy bands that play them) it seemed like something I (and you) would very much want to watch. I actually found it over the New Year's Eve / New Years Day break. As I recall, I was watching Smithsonian Channel, probably something about American History. I imagine it was either something interesting like the Civil War, or something...

Merry New Year! Happy 2017 to everyone! Did you get a chance to see the Mariah Carey fiasco on New Year's Eve?

So we went to the Los Angeles Amp Show in Van Nuys. My main reason for going was to attend the "Tone Wizards" panel where the discussion of vacuum tube amplifiers went into some interesting, if depressing, directions.

Sorry for the late posting - we were waiting for the Tone Wizards posting to go up - which it did a week ago. If you're interested in some opinions as to what's going on in amplifiers today, give this a watch.

So we were listening to Bandcamp, going through different heavy bands, trying to find some good material for a heavy music show. You may or may not know that we've been working a long-time plan for throwing a heavy music festival here in Long Beach, California. Part of getting that happening has been driving around and looking for places to actually host the event (we're thinking a warehouse somewhere).

It's been a while since we've posted here. Unfortunately, the sad truth of the matter is that we've gotten involved in a community radio project. The hope of which is to give ourselves a radio presence locally here in Long Beach, California, and also with the audio stream that will be flowing online from the station. Unfortunately, there's been some legal developments, which naturally are taking our time instead of working on actually building new content and building the business here for Thermionic Studios.

Back around in 2010, I found on eBay what was claimed to be an Randall Amp head (RG-80) owned by George Lynch on the Tooth-and-Nail tour (Dokken's second album).

I ended up having to purchase the amp when the offer I made on eBay was accepted!