Get ready for one of Americarsquo;s great untold stories: the true saga of the Louvin Brothers; a mid-century Southern gothic Cain and Abel and one of the greatest country duos of all time. The Los Angeles Times called them ldquo;the most influential harmony team in the history of country music;rdquo; but Emmylou Harris may have hit closer to the heart of the matter; saying ldquo;there was something scary and washed in the blood about the sound of the Louvin Brothers.rdquo; For readers of Johnny Cashrsquo;s irresistible autobiography and Merle Haggardrsquo;s My House of Memories; no country music library will be complete without this raw and powerful story of the duo that everyone from Dolly Parton to Gram Parsons described as their favorites: the Louvin Brothers.
#386883 in eBooks 2011-02-03 2011-02-03File Name: B004ZQG1T4
Review
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful. Excellent guide for NoviceBy William H. BarberI have a 68 Twin and decided to dust it off. and see if I might "fix it up". I never really liked the tone from it and it was always very noisy -- hums and crackles. Research told me to Blackface the circuit and replace the capacitors. Problem: I had never opened up an amp before. So. I called two reputable amp techs to do the job. One quoted $1000. Another $600. And. that was way too much dough for me. How hard could it be to do it myself. I mean. its soldering. right? So. I got a Gerald Weber video -- highly recommend. by the way -- cool guy and theres nothing like seeing someone drain the caps. clip and solder to get over the initial butterflies. But. I needed more. I needed someone to explain and show me things in greater detail with photos and diagrams. Give me more options. For example: I can change a few resistors on the board to make it a blackface circuit -- but what about the resistors that are immediately opposite or adjacent? Should I change them as well? And. if so. then where do I stop? And then there was the problem that had caused the Twin to be closeted in the first place -- I was never thrilled with the tone. Well. this book answered all of my questions and opened up some exciting possibilities for getting mobetter tone out of this amp: brownface or tweed tone stack mods. marshall preamp mod. dual reverb. different caps and values for different channels. channel bridging. which types of tubes to consider for more warmth. And all the while. Im learning how an amp actually works. How a dual triode works. How resistors and capacitors work together. These circuit boards are really not that mysterious after all. The author goes through the entire silverface circuit. resistor by resistor. cap by cap explaining what everything is. what ought to be changed. what should be left alone and how to choose the parts I need. For example. theres a photo of the shielded cable I need. along with a suggestion where to buy it. Also. the book is very well written. Surprisingly well written. One might expect that a tech-book might be a bit clunky. This book is engaging. Ive read it cover to cover twice and marked it up with my own notes. If you have a silverface. then this is definitely the book for you to understand and mod it or have it modded by someone else. The color layout of the AB763 board is. strangely. (almost) worth the price of the book to me. Thats helped me more than any schematic or layout to understand all the components and values -- and its where Ive made my notes for changes. What Ive learned from this book: how to read a schematic. how to test resistors and caps. what is impedance and how it relates to voltage. how to make my amp fixed-bias and how to adjust the bias. which mods would give warmer tone. And how to do them. Lastly. ts full of photos -- every page has photos or diagrams -- every single page. There are beautiful photos of guitars and amps and the photos of the boards have arrows and circles to identify the pertinent parts discussed. The book is made very well -- a large book with quality paper that doesnt stain or rip easily. NIce margins to make notes. And the highlighter doesnt soak through the page. To the author and photographer: awesome job. thanks so much.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Best Bang for the Amp Book Ever!!By Student_of_LifeThis is simply got to be the "best bang for the buck" tube amp book ever written. Its filled with pictures. illustrations. and information. While other books are dry and disjointed. this book is actually a pleasure to read. Years ago. I bought Jack Darrs book and it sits on a shelf. I paid twice as much for that book. Do yourself a favor and buy "Hotrod." If you spend $20 and dont like it. youve not broken the bank. Every time I look at this book. I think to myself. "Im really grateful Jeffrey Falla wrote this book and Im really glad that I own it.Others sing praises of this book (and rightly so). Ill just add: Just go ahead and grab yourself a copy and prepare to experience a smile coming to your countenance. (And while youre waiting for the book to arrive. google: Rob Robinettes 5e3 Mods and How Amps Work. This has got to be the single best website for amp novices and amp lovers Ive ever seen. Enjoy!16 of 16 people found the following review helpful. A must have for tube nutsBy T. WagonerIm a tube amp tech myself and I found this book to be the best Ive ever read on servicing/ modding your amp with no technical knowledge. Its incredibly simply written and thorough enough for the subject. Each idea is easy to do and explained step by step. Sometimes the pictures dont exactly match the text but the result is the same. I knew about most of these modifications and have even tried a few. All the advice is very sound in my opinion and he does a good job of debunking myths and also verifying others. He has great advice on tubes and speakers and when a modification may just be a waste of time and money.If you are one of those non-tech guys constantly reading online forums about how to get more out of your amp then you need this book. Im certain it will save you far more money than it costs in the long run.Id also like to note that although this is written for Fender tube amps. theres no reason to think that these ideas cant be applied to about any tube amp. The only advantage to Fender is that they have built everything the same for decades and its easy to work on them. This makes it easy to write a step by step book that translates well over many models. This is a brilliant book on this subject.On the down side this book will have little to offer a 30 year veteran tech but its likely he already knows most of it. Although I knew many of the tricks in here I hadnt even considered them all simply because Im more of a restorationist and we tend not to modify vintage amps as it will lower its value. All of these mods are reversible to make that clear.Thank for reading and buy this book.
