New songwriter 30 video

[Teleguy61]

I'll just step away as I figured out who OP is.

[Hogy]

Come on man, don't start throwing bricks at the regular posters here on your 16th post.
Not cool!

I'm doing no such thing. Just providing some actual facts before phantasy becomes internet truth.


Btw, I've been a member here since 2006. Carry on, gentlemen!

[dobbhill]

Hogy: thanks for chiming in. I would love to hear more about the Songrwriter evolution process with Ken. I'm sure you have great memories of that relationship.
I do trust your ears. I have see/heard you play live (in the 90's).
Just my opinion.
D

[DocJames]

Yes, thanks for replying to this topic. I never imagined that I'd get a response from you on this subject. It has to be a very near and dear thing for you, as this is your baby, so to speak. Maybe one day I'll get to hear one of these things live. One can only gleam so much off a youtube clip, however it's better then nothing!

So that all being said, I'm curious as to what qualities of the sound that the songwriter 30 has, that make it such a great amp. Is it the sustaining clear notes that Randal was talking about, or something else. I'd love a little bit more from you on that subject!

[Hogy]

Thanks guys.

What makes me like the SW so much? It is a very pure, very natural, imminently musical sounding amp. No weird artifacts, nothing that bugs me after playing it for hours. It's brutally honest, but not hard to play in that you don't have to work around its shortcomings.

This stuff is so hard to put in words...

Ken named it "Songwriter" because of this uncanny thing it does, leading you along to come up with musical ideas. It's the way the right harmonics seem to line up.

I don't know. You just have to try one. It'll click, or it won't.


Hogy

[Blackburn]

I want to know more about the octal version. I do like the clip on the Komet website a lot, but I'm a sucker for octals... I'm especially curious about that extra bass cut switch.

[M Fowler]

Hogy can add or delete here but I've attached some stuff from past posts from other forums Hogy has noted on the subject.

Mark

[selloutrr]

Yes I will have to take time to sift over my emails in regards to the rocket you are referring to and post the receipt so you can see it. As well as my notes that offend you so much.. so we can separate the fact and fiction. Going from the notes I have in Ken's hand writing is the best I can offer. Not saying your wrong but i have nothing to gain from being right or wrong. Infact all I have is the trust of those who shared in confidence to lose.

I never had the opertunity to meet Ken so the best I can do is piece it together with what he left behind.

I completely understand the songwriting nature of that amp it's the same principal of playing a song on an acoustic. If it holds up its good.

I will keep my opinion to myself about the tone.

[Hogy]

I want to know more about the octal version. I do like the clip on the Komet website a lot, but I'm a sucker for octals... I'm especially curious about that extra bass cut switch.

Ken called and said he wanted to build an amp for his birthday, but he wasn't feeling up to punching a chassis, etc.

I had the first Komet Constellation prototype sitting around. On that amp, the clean and gain channels were reversed from the final version, with the octal channel being closest to the power section. This caused problems with the stability of the gain channel. I had already fixed that issue by building a second amp with the channels reversed.

I sent Ken this "reject" Constellation for his birthday project. After all, it was a complete amp he wouldn't have to do any fabricating on.

Ken was in close touch with Mark Knopfler at that time and had been talking about making an amp tailored for him. That was his inspiration for the new amp.

After Ken got the donor Constellation reject, he called and said he was going to use the octal for the phase inverter, since it was really close, physically, to the power tubes. We talked about octals for a couple of days. I had a nice stash of military 6188s I really liked, so I sent him a few of them.

Next thing I heard from Ken, he was gushing over this new amp he built. He played it for me over the phone. It did this beautiful thing where clean notes would just hang there and flip into harmonics, and all the harmonics were in tune.

Not long after, Alex Garcia visited Ken, played the new amp, and freaked out.

Ken really liked and respected Alex, so he decided to surprise him.

He called and asked for another project amp like the first one I sent. Well, the only one I had at hand was the newest Constellation prototype with the octal as V1, which was stable and sounding great. So I sent him that one. Ken turned it into the second Songwriter ("Bree"), but this time he used a 12AX7 PI, since that's how the chassis was laid out.

Alex visited Ken again a couple of months later, having no idea that Ken had an amp ready for him.

Ken asked Alex to pick one of the Songwriters for himself, Alex picked Bree... And that's the production Songwriter 30.

A few days later, Ken was gone.


Hogy



If you want to experiment with the Bass Cut Switch, look at the JMI AC15 circuit and tweak from there.

[Blackburn]

Thanks for sharing, Hogy! That's a real nice story of Ken's final offering. I didn't know that the 6188 came from you. I figured it was something Ken just had lying around.

I'm pretty familiar with classic Vox schematics, so I'm not sure if it's something I've missed, or maybe I'm just not familiar with the one you're specifying.

[Colossal]

Great story Hogy, thanks a lot for sharing it.

[passfan]

Thanks guys.

What makes me like the SW so much? It is a very pure, very natural, imminently musical sounding amp. No weird artifacts, nothing that bugs me after playing it for hours. It's brutally honest, but not hard to play in that you don't have to work around its shortcomings.

This stuff is so hard to put in words...

Ken named it "Songwriter" because of this uncanny thing it does, leading you along to come up with musical ideas. It's the way the right harmonics seem to line up.

I don't know. You just have to try one. It'll click, or it won't.


Hogy

Well perhaps then I was closer , with my prototype , than I thought. It seemed like I was following a bunch of harmonic spots around on my neck and before I knew it I was creating melodies based around them. I'm almost sure I threw all that stuff away , darn.

[M Fowler]

Hogy thanks for the information always great to read about Ken from people that knew him.

Mark

[redshark]

Hogy thanks for the information always great to read about Ken from people that knew him.

Mark

Yes, Hogy thanks a lot!! I agree!! It's very good and positive to hear from people that knew Ken, but even more, from people that worked with him developing amps. That helps to the cause of not letting the internet urban legend be more important than reality.
We all have heard about his idiosyncracies and that he was a very unique man with unorthodox ideas about stuff but many things have been misinterpreted or taken out of context. Posts like this or the recent ones @ the gear page about wood cabs really help open minded people understand more about such ideas.
At the end, everything has a logical explanation!!

[wsaraceni]

thought i'd add this. not sure if you guys have heard it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sxgE1ocYTM

probably the best songwriter video there is out there