Thermionic Studios

The Snorkler is an amp that people talk about in hushed tones - as if it were a holy relic. It's almost mythical in the lore that surrounds it and the way in which people speak about the guitar tones that issue forth from it. It is a one-of-a-kind butchered Marshall JCM800 combo amp that, at the request of the owner, was turned upside down and converted into a custom head amp, by Reinhold Bogner. The speaker / combo amp shell was done away with and the owner (Ronnie Champagne, as referenced below) had another tech shop build him a headshell for it.

I hope I perform as strongly in my next job interview.

For a few years now, I've been scouring the Internet, looking for snippets, and bits and pieces of information - and putting them together in order to try and build a reasonable educational curriculum on how to master the building of, and the repair of, tube amplifiers. I've wanted to do it whether the amps built are for Guitar, Bass, Vocals, or public address (PA). I've bought Merlin Blencowe's books on building tube amps. I even have his out-of-print "Designing Power Supplies for Tube Amplifiers".

So about ten years ago I was working at a place where software was being written to support MP3 players and gather different forms of content into a new and daily upload for your MP3 player. There were a number of problems, not the least of which was the fact that you couldn't really control the daily feed that was put together. In addition, you couldn't advance through the songs something like more than 3 or so times an hour. The MP3 players were, for the most part, built by iRiver, which as I recall was a Korean company. I think at the time, their largest player was 4 megabytes.

Ok, so I admit I'm long to report out what happened at Doom in June. Let's just say that I have some pictures and I will report out. Long story short, I got food poisoning in Baker, California, driving from Long Beach to Las Vegas. Next time I will go to the Mad Greek in Baker and not short change that depressing town by going to fucking Burger King. Yes, I am absolutely clear that Burger King in Baker gave me food poisoning.

I happened upon Dope Flood when I went to the site Doommantia. I was reading about Ed Barnard, who started the site, and his having had a second heart attack...

I think we got Embeds working. :)

(Post was: "Stupid. Can't get the embed feature to work. Oh well. Something else to work on.

Enjoy.")

From the Doom in June Facebook page:
June 6th and 7th:

Acid Witch, BigElf, Black Prism, Christian Mistress, Deathkings, Demon Lung, Funerary, Godhunter, Ides of Gemini, Lotus, My Ruin, Night Demon, November's Doom, Pale Divine, Satan's Host, Secrets of the Sky, SpiralArms, Spiritual Shepherd, Spun in Darkness, Trapped Within Burning Machinery, Whores of Tijuana, Wounded Giant

I've been in contact with Marco who's putting on the show, and I'll post a schedule of which bands are playing in which time slots when it's made available to me.

I went to Doom in June 2011 to loan one of our amps to Kent Stump of the band Wo Fat. Had an awesome time! When it came time to see about the followup, there was no Doom in June in 2012. Being out of the loop, I ended up missing 2013. This year, I'm going!

I got two beefs with the Cheyenne Saloon as a venue:
1.) They have these inconvenient pool tables in inconvenient places that make watching the bands less than optimal.
2.) The beer is warm.

Just found this! Very pleased.

Released in 2013: Black Oath. Nice tempo. Good (not great) vocal harmonies. No banshee screaming or cookie monster. If this is their freshman effort, I expect great things from them in their future. I'll be putting these guys on the short list for my next purchase.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pGrRjBvTZo

Enjoy!