On Sunday, the might of my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amplifier dropped a notch from face-melting to face-simmering.
Predictably, we inhabitants of the House of Rock gather in the living room on a somewhat regular basis to engage in musical rockery. With Kevin at the drums and Shaun and I working the guitars, we tend to generate totally rockin loud music.
Recently, we were playing around with Them Bones by Alice in Chains. I’ve been encouraging Kevin, a recent recruit to the drums, to try some off-time tunes and this one seemed like the ultimate choice. In Them Bones the verses consist of ear crushing distortion in 7/8 time over an involved, yet straightforward, drum rhythm.
I was in the middle of cranking out second inversions (the most brütal of the inversions), when my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier suddenly cracked and buzzed with a drone that can only be likened to the desperate bleat of a dying mule. Deep within the depths of its holy sanctum, my Mesa Boogie suffered a blown vacuum tube.
The vacuum tube is the heart of the amplifier. Its life force. Its passion.
Without this particular vacuum tube it was all my little amplifier could do to sputter out folk songs at low volumes. Praise heaven I didn’t lose more tubes! I heard that Slash once lost two tubes mid-concert only to find his November Rain solo sounding alarming similar to the chorus of Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. The Horror! Worse, rumor has it that the Jonas Brothers purposefully play with three blown tubes. The Shame!
Replacement of this vacuum tube stands at the top of my to-do list.
“I heard that Slash once lost two tubes mid-concert only to find his November Rain solo sounding alarming similar to the chorus of Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.”
Mike D, you have crafted the day’s finest sentence.
Thanks!
After googling I was extremely disappointed to learn that the song “honky tonk badonkadonk” exists.
Wow, I had to listen to it after I found out it was real. I’m scarred a little.
Watch the video. Far less scarring.