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Fender Champ 600

Good morning, noon, or night music fans!  Thanks for coming back to The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio for yet another installment of out never-ending, musically-sensational, out-of-this-world series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  Today’s episode is for all you amazing guitar slingers out there strummin’ and pickin’ them strings ery’day. images-2  We have many great guitar amps inside The Record Shop Nashville’s hallowed halls, but amongst our larger 2×12 and 4×12 amplifiers sits the tinier Fender Champ 600 reissue.  Don’t let its size fool you; this little guy has been putting out sounds that have bewildered and inspired guitar players since the 1940’s!

A Champ’s Journey

The Fender Champ 600 was first manufactured in 1949.  It was the second Champ design; it’s predecessor being the original Fender Champ 800 amplifier that was manufactured one year earlier in 1948.  Like the 800 model, the Champ 600 is a 4-watt amplifier with 3 tubes and an angled rear panel with two inputs and one volume control knob.  It also had the famous diminutive “TV-front” look with the tweed covering, though the 600’s vinyl covering is a two-tone brown instead of the greenish tweed of the 800 .  The only significant difference in the Champ 600’s design is that it has a 6″ speaker cone instead of an 8″ cone.  As time went on the Champ was continuously redesigned with different color vinyl and tweed covering, alternate speaker cone sizes, input & volume control placement, and even being renamed to just The Champ or Champ Amp.  In 1982, the Fender Champ series was discontinued until 2006, when an updated version was released as part of Fender’s Vintage Model Line.  To see a more in-depth history and evolution of the Fender Champ from the company itself click here!

The Record Shop Nashville is glad to have added one of the reissued Fender Champ 600 amps to our gear roster.  Though it is cosmetically similar to the original 600 there are some differences in the specs listed below.Fender Champ 600

  • Available as a 6″ Combo, features an internal 4 ohm speaker output jack
  • 5 Watts RMS
  • Volume Control
  • Power Switch
  • 2 Input (high, low), 1 Channel
  • 1x 12AX7 and 1x 6V6
  • Solid State Diode Rectified
  • Class A, Single Ended

Internally, the Champ reissue has modified Blackface Champ circuitry.  The tone stack settings are hard-wired rather than adjustable via the Treble and Bass controls.  Additional resistors were also placed in the circuit to reduce input gain.  Lastly, Fender switched to solid-state rectification as opposed to the original 5Y3 tube.

We love using this amp for recordings.  Since it’s a smaller speaker, the Champ naturally sounds a little bright, but that is easily cured with proper mic placement.  Regardless, this amp can turn out classic, clean Fender tones just as well as other models.  Crank this puppy up, and you can get a unique blues overdrive tone too; however, this overdrive isn’t as crunchy as most players would probably prefer.  Either way, the Fender Champ 600 is a bonafide tone champion in The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio.  Come on in and see what this little giant can do!

That’s a wrap on today’s installment of Behind the Gear.  We can’t express how much it means to us that you decided to spend some time with us today.  If you’d like to see The Record Shop Nashville’s complete gear list here.  You can follow and chat with us any time on Twitter @therecordshop for updates on our studio projects and blogs!  See you next time.

 

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Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass

Hey y’all!  Welcome to another jazz-tastic edition of The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio’s multi-faceted, never-ending series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  Boy, Oh Boy do we have a fun one for y’all today.  The Fender Jazz Bass has been heralded as one of the greatest bass guitars ever created (read RHCP’s Flea thinks about Jazz bass’s greatness here).  That statement is hard to deny when you think about the long lists of musicians who use them like Geddy Lee, Steve Bailey, and Noel Redding.  The Jazz was also monumentally important to the development and sound of funk, reggae, blues, and fusion music.  So put on your black turtlenecks and berets, and lets dive in to the wonders of this spectacular instrument. 

(Below: Sam ___  inside The Record Shop w/ his Fender Jazz)

NASHVILLE RECORDING STUDIO jazz bassAnd All That Jazz

 Every musician and music lover must pay their respects to Leo Fender for revolutionizing the bass guitar forever by making it smaller and amplified.  The Precision Bass, created in 1951, allowed the bass guitar to actually be heard amongst the Big Bands of the day.  Nine years later Fender changed the game again when they produced the first Fender Jazz Bass.  The Jazz became the new standard to which all electric bass guitars were to be compared to.  It’s tapered neck, off-set waist, and two-set pickups made the Jazz more sonically unique and allowed for faster, easier playing!  The Jazz’s sound, in comparison to it’s predecessor, is much brighter and full in the mids and treble with less emphasis on the fundamental frequency.  The the strength of the mids and treble came from the double, single-coil pickup’s having two pole pieces per string, which Fender used to compete with the famously bright tone of Rickenbacker basses.  It also made the bass perfect for slapping!  From 1961-1963, the newer Jazz models became equipped with new features like going from two control knobs to three (two for pickup volume, one for tone control) and “Spring Felt Mutes“, but the Jazz received some major cosmetic alterations after Fender was bought by CBS.  For a more in depth look at the history of the Fender Jazz Bass click HERE!

Fender Aerodyne Jazz BassEMG Jazz Bass Pickups

 

 

The Record Shop’s Aerodyne Jazz Bass!

 

The Aerodyne series was first introduced in 2004, and they are still being manufactured today!  Here, at The Record Shop’s Nashville Recording Studio, we have a 2007 model in our possession.  Like other Aerodyne Jazz models it has the typical Jazz shape but with some differences.  For one, it is much lighter than your normal Jazz bass weighing about 7lbs whereas the standard is about 10lbs.  Secondly, it is thinner than the standard Jazz because of its 39″ top radius.  Other notable design features are its 1.5″ nut, slim “C”-shaped neck, 20 medium-jumbo frets, fret markers on the side only, cream binding, and its Telecaster input jack.  A stock Aerodyne bass has the split single-coil P-Bass pickup in the middle position and a J-Bass single-coil pickup in the bridge position with volume controls per pickup and one master tone tone knob.  Our Aerodyne has been modified with EMG bass pickups (pictured above).  We also switched out the Master Tone with a concentric pot (the bottom of the pot controls the bass frequencies and the top pot controls the treble) allowing you to have more tone control! 

That wraps up another edition of Behind The Gear!  We thank you so much for spending part of your day with us here at The Record Shop Nashville.  Feel free to explore the rest of our blog, and click HERE for a complete list of our Nashville Recording Studio’s gear!  Also, don’t be such a stranger!  Follow and chat with Gio and his merry henchmen on Twitter @therecordshop!

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Furman HDS-6 & HR-6

Hey gang, thanks for stopping by The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio for another installment of our world (in)famous, heart-exploding series BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  Today we would like to give some time and recognition to one of the most crucial pieces of equipment in a studio that often gets unnoticed; the studio cue system.  Here in the our Nashville Recording Studio we utilize the Furman HR-6.  Having a good cue system is vitally important for artists and musicians because without them there would be no music for them to play along to when they track.  More importantly, these boxes allow the musician to hear only what they want to hear when they track without having to waste time yelling at the engineer which instruments they want more or less of.Furman HDS-6  So let’s take a dive into the Furman HR-6!

Furman Sound

Furman Sound has been aiding musicians and engineers alike by producing premium Audio/Visual signal processors since 1974.  That’s not all the company deals with though.  They also manufacture “energy management solutions” that use their incredible BlueBOLT® platform, which you can learn more about on their website HERE!  Furman also produces “AC conditioning and distribution” products (a fancy way to say surge protectors y’all), which is what they are actually best known for making!  Follow this link HERE to learn about why it is important to utilize AC conditioning in your power system.  Furman is now apart of Core Brands LLC, a subsidiary of Nortek’s Technology Solutions Group, which combines the product and marketing power of ten separate audio and power brands.  These kings of power supplies are also well-aware of the responsibility they have for power conservation and the environment .  A few of their “Internal Initiatives” from their website are as follows:

  • RoHS compliance. Our entire 220V-240V Export product line is 100% RoHS compliant, greatly reducing the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) in our components. Further, we have been one of the leading voices in pushing overseas manufacturers to develop RoHS-compliant manufacturing and assembly facilities. Because of this, development of RoHS-compliant 120V domestic products is no longer cost-prohibitive, and we are specifying RoHS-compliant components into all new products beginning in 2009.
  • Packaging, product literature: All Panamax/Furman products are packaged using 100% recyclable materials (including recyclable foam inserts and plastic bags). Marketing materials are printed with FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) and RFA (Rain Forest Allliance) Certified Vendors on recycled paper with biodegradable inks.
  • Scrap materials at our QA and repair facility are recycled. All employees within the office are provided recycling bins and large recycling bins are placed throughout our facility.
  • Motion sensor lighting is used throughout our facillity and lighting/HVAC usage is cut back during peak power demands.
  • An aggressive paper reduction initiative has resulted in the development of a paperless fax system and a company wide intranet to facilitate paperless communications.
  • Sales trainings and offsite meetings utilize teleconferencing technologies to reduce travel and further reduce paper consumption.

NASHVILLE RECORDING STUDIOHDS-6 & HR-6 Cue System

The Cue System in our Nashville recording studio, like many other professional studios, utilizes the Furman HDS-6 Headphone Distribution System & the HR-6 remote mixing stations.  The HDS-6 is a rackmount system that is very easy to connect to your studio console or patch bay.  Our HDS-6 is plugged into our system’s patch bay, as is recommended by Furman.  These systems is designed to be a low-distortion line driver and power supply that provides signal, power, and ground to HR-6 remotes.  You can connect up to eight HR-6s to the HDS-6, and you easily daisy chain multiple HR-6s!  The HDS has several, simple features like Level Set control, Overload indicators for setting the best signal-to-noise ratio & headroom, MON/EFF pot controls the gain for the L/R stereo inputs, Ground Lift switch to switch the audio ground off the chassis ground to prevent that awful hum, and they even built in a LED light that warns you if you linked your HR-6 cables (one blue and one gray) into the wrong ports!  The HR-6 mixing station features include volume pots for each of the four mono channels arriving from the HDS-6, the MON/EFF pot controls the level of the stereo main mix, a Submixes Included/Excluded button that allows the listener to hear only the main stereo mix by muting the four mono channels, and of course it has two 1/4″ stereo headphone jacks.  For more information on Furman Sounds follow this link HERE, and for a PDF file of the HDS-6/HR-6 follow this link HERE!

Thanks for coming back for The Record Shop Nashville’s Behind The Gear!  We hope we’ve been helpful in one shape or another.  For a complete list of our Nashville Recording Studio’s gear click HERE.  And don’t be a stranger; follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop!  See y’all next time!

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Vintech Audio 273

Well hey there ladies and gentlemen!  It’s time for  another rumblin’, tumblin’, spittoon-spittin’ edition of The Record Shop Nashville Recording Studio’s BEHIND THE GEAR!!!  And boy howdy, if today’s installment ain’t a doozy folks.  We are very proud to talk to you about our lovely Vintech Audio Model 273 mic preamplifier.  Vintech Audio 273

A Little Bit About Vintech!

Vintech Audio has been producing high-end analog outboard gear since their formation in 1997.  The young company makes each of its devices right here in the United States.  Each of their products are class A, discrete transformers-balanced mic pres whose circuitry is based off of the great Neve 1073 modules (pictured below).  The names of each Vintech Audio 73 series models (i.e. the Vintech 73, 273, and 473) are named after the amount of channels each has; clearly out 273 is a two-channel with a fantastic built in EQ.  That’s it!  The 273 has no other built in effects.  Neve 1073 Module

 

Give Us The Specs!!!

The Vintech 273 has two instrument inputs on the front and XLR inputs in the rear.  The parameters of the 273 are pretty standard: there are gain, output, and two-band EQ controls per channel.  Each channel also comes equipped with a set of switches for phantom power, phase in/out, EQ in/out, and a 5k/10k shelf for the EQ.  Lastly, Vintech installed push-push pots to alter the impedance and to switch the channel from a mic to line input.  Neat and organized, the Vintech 273 has been a great addition to our Nashville Recording Studio’s rack. 

Well that wraps up today’s Behind The Gear.  We hope we’ve given you a little bit more insight into the wonderful Vintech Audio model 273 mic preamp.  Be sure to check out The Record Shop Nashville’s complete gear list.  And don’t be a stranger y’all; follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop for daily updates from your friends at The Record Shop!

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Taylor Guitars

Hey there music fans!  Did ya miss us?  Well don’t worry, The Record Shop Nashville is back to bring you another segment of our Nashville Recording Studio’s series BEHIND THE GEAR (and the crowd goes wild!!!).  Today’s BTG is about not one, but three of The Record Shop’s favorite pieces of gear; our beautiful Taylor Guitars.

 We are all aware that music and sounds are subjective.  Each person has their own personal tastes.  The man, the myth, the luthier legend Bob Taylor acknowledges that not every one is going to prefer the sound of a Taylor guitar over other guitars, but there is no denying that a Taylor guitar plays well; which, we all know was Bob’s ultimate goal.  Taylor Guitars: Bob TaylorHe is a personal hero to us at The Record Shop because of his dedication to the design and advancement of guitar manufacturing.  Typically when you think of a product going into mass production, the quality tends to get worse as costs are cut to make profit.  Bob understood that mass production meant that Taylor Guitars had an obligation to their new customers to make the quality of his guitars even better than when he was making them individually by hand.  So, as the legend goes, he and a team began designing his own factory machines to supplement the increase in demand.  Taylor Guitars developed things like their own steam presses whose heat is adjusted depending on wood type, assembly lines of saws and files to cut the neck and head stocks, and even lasers that can make cuts thinner than a stand of hair!

!!!! L-A-S-E-R-S !!!!

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Bob’s humility.  Most companies try to keep their trade secrets hidden, but Bob has always been animate about sharing his process and knowledge.  You can watch his great factory tour videos at Taylor Guitar’s website here!Nashville Recording Studio  Taylor Guitars, along with many other guitar manufacturers, also have a strong passion for the preservation of the world’s forests so they can keep building guitars out of the best woods from around the world.  One last great thing about Taylor Guitars is their effort for obtaining ebony for their guitars by only ethical means.  Have we mentioned the lasers yet?!?!

For these many reasons, and simply because we love the sound, we have acquired our Taylor Guitar Triple Threat! Nestled in the halls of The Record Shop Nashville you will find our Taylor 914c, Baritone, & T5!  The 914c is a special edition, made out of cholla wood, and can achieve any genre-defining sound for your track.  Have you ever played a Baritone guitar before?  The tonal depth that this unique design creates is unparallelled.  Lastly, the T5 is electric-acoustic powerhouse of tonal versatility with two sets of humbucker pickups, a body sensor, 5-way pickup switch, and 2 preamp tone control pots.  Playing these Taylor guitars is one of the most addictive things in the world.  It’s a miracle we get any work done with these beauties batting their eyelashes at us all day. Nashville recording studio

Thanks for tuning in to this session of Behind The Gear!  Feel free to peruse our Nashville Recording Studio’s complete Gear List, and don’t be a stranger!  Follow & chat to us on Twitter @therecordshop.

 

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Preamplifier: Avalon VT-737

We have a tasty treat for y’all in today’s installment of our Nashville Recording Studio‘s series Behind The Gear!!!  The Avalon Vacuum Tube 373 preamplifier, the world’s first Direct Recording Channel, is hands down one the greatest Microphone Pre-amps to have ever graced the walls of a recording studio.  Everyone who is anyone in the recording biz – like Abbey Road Studios, Prince’s Paisley Park, and Walt Disney Imagineering, just to name a few – have used this preamplifier to record hit after hit.  This preamplifier can make any voice or instrument sound absolutely unremarkable.  Here, at the Record Shop, the AD VT-737 has done just that time and time again.   Sound Engineer Rick Camp & his AD VT-737 preamplifier

Avalon has been known for making fantastic Microphone Pre-Amplifiers since its founding by Wynton R. Morro.  The company proudly boasts that each of its products, “…utilize 100% discrete, high-bias pure Class A audio amplifiers. These pure Class A amplifiers are incorporated into minimal signal path designs which include sealed silver relays, balanced DC coupled high-current “outside-world” drivers, fully discrete linear DC regulators, low noise toroidal power transformers and selected high quality active and passive components.”  In our Nashville recording studio, we love using this beast to get that classic, warm tube sound when tracking, especially on bass and vocals.  It has come to a consensus that female vocals are probably our favorite thing to run through with this preamplifier.  Personally, day dream about how heavenly the world would sound if every persons’ voice was put through the 737.A Front view of the Avalon VT 737 preamplifier

What’s so special about it already!?!?

Okay, okay, sheesh.  This baby packs a punch into your recordings using a combination tube preamplifiers, opto-compressor, sweep equalizer, output level and VU metering.  It has three, count them 1-2-3, different input selections; 1) a microphone input transformer with +48v phantom power, 2) an instrument DI input with jack on front panel, and 3) a balanced line input. The opto-compressor has amazing dynamic range.  You can obtain everything from soft compression to hard knee limiting with the threshold, ratio-compression, attack and release controls. The 4-band EQ control on this guy is bananas. You can also enhance mid bands with the X10 frequency multipliers.  The multipliers ever-so-sweetly enhance the high and low ends too!  One of our favorite features are the high-voltage circuits inside of the 737.  They reduce the amount of noise tremendously (-92dB) and leave you with ample headroom (up to +30dB).  Rear View Panel of Avalon VT 737 PreamplifierYou can go here to see ALL the specs & features of this incredible piece of machinery.

Thanks for checking out this segment of Behind The Gear!  If you’re interested in learning more about the rest of the gear at The Record Shop click here to view out complete gear list!  Don’t be a stranger; you can follow and chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop!

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Marshall Silver Jubilee 2553

Here at The Record Shop we aim to make musical greatness with each project that gets brought to our Nashville Recording Studio.  What better way to make history than to use a guitar amplifier that has been used, almost exclusively, with guitar legends like Slash, Joe Bonnamassa, & John Frusciante?  Let’s take a look at our Marshall Silver Jubilee 25/50 2553 head; proof that not all that glitters is gold…sometimes it’s silver.

Slash and his Silver Jubilees

 

The Marshall Silver Jubilee series was introduced in 1987, to commemorate both their 25th year in the amplifier game and their 50th year in the music industry.  These limited edition, valve amplifiers were heavily based on the Marshall 2203 & 2204 master volume models and the Marshall JCM 800s but were designed with their own unique features.  Besides the illustrious silver vinyl and chrome-plated controls, these babies have a valve output stage that you can be set to either 25 or 50 watts (you see what they did there?!) to get real output-valve distortion at lower volumes, a great effects loop, and they have a preamp circuit that houses three gain modes. The Record Shop's Marshall SJ 2553 The Input Gain pot varies the amount of gain in each mode; if you set this low you get a clean tone, you may find that it is too low when you switch to a lead tone.  No prob Bob, pull on that knob and you’ve switched into the second gain mode called the Rhythm Clip, which gives you a distorted sound.  Mode 3, the Lead Channel, can be switched to via footswitch or by pulling the Output Master knob.  Marshall placed a Lead Master control knob as well to balance the volume of the Clean, or Rhythm Clip, with the Lead volume.  Let us not forget that these amps are also Tonal Beasts that changed the sound of Rock N’ Roll forever!

The Record Shop's Marshall SJ 2553 Amplifier

 

 

 

 

 

When the Jubilee Year ended, Marshall continued to produce more of the JS series in 1988, but replaced the silver and chrome with the standard black and gold look Marshall is famous for.  So, if you want your guitar tracks to sound like they came to Earth from the Rock Gods in Valhalla…you know where to find us.   Thanks for tuning in for this edition of Behind The Gear.  Feel free to check out the rest of our blog and follow/chat with us on Twitter @therecordshop!

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Read About Us In Mix Magazine

The Record Shop Nashville is honored to be mentioned in the latest issue of Mix Magazine, which features many our recent studio sessions!  Read what they had to say here!Blurb about The Record Shop in Mix Magazine.

 

 

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Rick Monroe EP Release & Summer Tour

 The Record Shop is proud to announce that Rick Monroe is hitting the road this year as part of Jagermeister’s 2014 Ultimate Summer of Music Tour with the Eli Young Band AND is releasing his new EP, “It’s A Love Thing” that was recorded at The Record Shop Nashville recording studio!

 “It’s A Love Thing,” is a product of love and labor for Monroe, “a tireless worker, strong songwriter, and relentless performer”.  This new MRG release will be made available to the public Jun 3, 2014, and though this EP has six incredible tracks, three of the songs have had particularly more emphasis put on them.  These three songs – “Small Town”, “Fire’s Out”, and “ Great Minds Drink Alike” – were produced by The Record Shops’ own Sean Giovanni who said about the project, “We had a blast working on Rick’s record. He does a an incredible job of straddling the line between traditional country, pop country, and southern rock, in way that is sure to please fans young and old.” 

 What does the man himself have to say about these three great songs?  “In the case of Small Town (5/20 release date on iTunes) Kenneth Duncan and I were stuck on the song we were writing and he just happen to play the first part of “Small Town” for an ear break… and that was it! We shifted gears immediately and boom. The one thing I’ve seen in all my travels is people are people, with the same basic wants and needs. We all love and we all struggle. I really feel we struck the perfect balance. With a basic chord progression & direct lyric I believe we’ve captured the large & small view of the world in simple song.” Rick continues, “Fires Out (5/27 release date on iTunes) was inspired by trying to mix a different flavor into country. Recently there’s a lot of country rap going on and I wanted to see if we could take from the groove/pop side of things ala Maroon 5/Bruno Mars. I know it’s pretty different, but I think it’s like a good gumbo you need to add a little kick of spice sometimes and not be afraid to try something new.”

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TISH LYNDSEY TESTIMONAL

Over the years, I’ve worked with a slew of musicians and producers in more studios than I can remember. I don’t care how talented you are, how creative your vision is, or how much money you have to spend on your project – if you’re working with people who don’t care as much as you do, you will not be satisfied with the final result.

Gio cares about what he does, and it shows. We’ve worked together on several projects at The Record Shop, and I never doubt how great it’s going to turn out. It’s rare to find people who humbly listen to the artist, and interject their ideas without minimizing or discounting the person’s artistry.

My latest project, an EP we’re completing, is no doubt the closest to my heart. The songs are quirky, frank, and by far, the closest glimpse of my insides you’re gonna get without being a mind reader. The only person I’d trust with them was Gio. Not just because I like him as a person (and we both rep Detroit, yep yep), but because I knew he’d “get it”. I don’t believe in genres and I don’t believe that popular music has to be ‘Cookie Cutter’ pop. (Once the EP is released you’ll get why that last sentence is super clever and funny.)

Anyway, we started with me very simply singing the songs with just piano, and I explained the direction I wanted to go in. He instinctively found the perfect players, and wisely knew how to shape the songs to make sense commercially, while keeping the unorthodox sound I wanted.

During one session, before laying down vocals on a pretty dark track, I had this sudden, primal need to scream at the top of my lungs… I guess to put myself in the state of mind I was in when I wrote the song. I went into a little booth by myself and screamed like a maniac – pretty sure everyone in the room thinking I was crazy. Not funny crazy – crazy, crazy.

Well, Gio told me to do it again, skillfully placed it in the intro, and it turned out being the dopest, most perfect way to set up the song. That ability to sense exactly when it’s fitting to leap outside of the box is what has made this project so special and so much fun.

Love & gratitude to The Record Shop & Gio!

Tish Lyndsey

tishlyndsey.com

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