Zander's blog
Iron Maiden Trooper Beer
Posted by Zander on Sunday, 20 March 2016So I went to Beverages and More last Sunday. Not being a religious man, Sunday is a "sacred" day for me. It's a "me" day for me, and exactly the kind of day I want to be buying liquor. While I was wandering around in BevMo, I saw this 4-pack of 16-oz cans of "Iron Maiden Trooper" beer. At first I thought, "Hmmm... Is that cool? I guess that's cool. I'll give it a try..."
Instruments and Gear of Lemmy Kilmister - Motorhead
Posted by Zander on Wednesday, 24 February 2016Hello everyone! This is a new sort of article for us here at Thermionic Studios. We've joined in collaboration with http://www.onlinebassguitar.com. We welcome them to Thermionic Studios and are excited to be able to provide a much longer, and we hope, a much more meaningful presentation of style, technique, and setup information.
Guitar-making and the State of Ebony in our World's Forests Today
Posted by Zander on Monday, 1 February 2016Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars made a video back in 2012 - we just found it at Reverb.com.
If you have 15 minutes available, please take a look at the video made by Bob Taylor and listen about the use of ebony and the changes that humanity has made of the earth.
Goodbye Lemmy
Posted by Zander on Monday, 28 December 2015On December 26, two days ago, Lemmy Kilmister was notified of a particularly aggressive form of cancer.
Today, December 28th, two days later, Lemmy died.
Lemmy first got his start as bass player for a band in the 60s called the Rockin' Vicars (now found as "Rockin Vickers"). He then graduated to 70s space rock group, Hawkwind. Here's Wikipedia's profile on him...
Scott Weiland with The Doors
Posted by Zander on Sunday, 13 December 2015Amazing. Scott Weiland channeling Jim Morrison...
History of the ProCo Rat
Posted by Zander on Monday, 30 November 2015Everybody seems to know about the KitRae Big Muff Pi Page, which, admittedly, is probably the most authoritative page on the internet about the history of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff distortion pedal .
It includes all the different versions, and each of the permutations of parts within each version.
What we didn't think there was an equivalent for, as the title of this article makes clear, was the same kind of page exulting the ProCo Rat... But there is!
Do It Yourself Online Pedal Merchants
Posted by Zander on Tuesday, 10 November 2015Hello Team.
Once again, I made the trek to Santa Monica - and this time the $30 Dunlop GCB-95 I bought arrived. Unlike the last time I made the trek to Santa Monica, I wasn't listening to any KCRW or being thrown into horrendous confusion with southbound 405 traffic to Long Beach backing up for miles. No, today was different; and the traffic was surprisingly easy.
But, it did give me a chance to muse on some pedal things...
Grandpa Rocks Out, Stunning Store Staff
Posted by Zander on Friday, 16 October 2015Posted by our friends at the Society of Rock. Video of 81-year grandfather showing everyone how it was done when he was a young lad.
So, "rocks out" as a description is probably a bit strong, if only on two accounts:
1.) He's 81 and probably doesn't move so fast any more.
2.) When he was 18 in 1951, "Rocking out" probably meant something different
Planet Caravan Reworked / Stairway to Heaven on the Gayageum
Posted by Zander on Sunday, 20 September 2015Here at Thermionic, we're not always open to new interpretations of heavy songs, however, the past two days have been interesting. Yesterday, driving back from Santa Monica I was listening to KCRW. DJ Raul Campos played a tastefully remixed version of Black Sabbath's Planet Caravan.