General•
on May 3rd, 2010•
While in Chicago this week to see Robbie McIntosh play with John Mayer at the United Center in Chicago, I got up on a Saturday morning, got ready and called Make’n Music to see if it would be a good time to come by for a visit and Teddy (the owner) said it would be great. I took a cab from downtown to the shop and honestly all I could think when I opened the door was…..WOW! Without a doubt, Make’n Music is one of the top 3 pro shops I’ve ever seen. They have the GOOD stuff there! Tyler Guitars, Anderson Guitars, Suhr Guitars, Fuchs Amps and Duesenberg Guitars just to name a few. Teddy was kind enough to show me around the shop and while there, I spotted one guitar that I just had to play; the Copper Patina James Tyler guitar that is the first picture in the gallery below. What an awesome guitar. I played this guitar through a Fuchs Overdrive Supreme and it killed! I couldn’t tell if it was a great guitar or a great amp, but it was one of the most sophisticated overdriven tones I have ever heard and the guitar just played flawlessly. I really need (read want) to get another Tyler so bad!
General•
on April 24th, 2010•
Many of you might know that in addition to running Jackson Ampworks I am also a corporate pilot. Well with that in mind, I got the call a few weeks ago that I would be flying to Chicago and spending April 9-12 there so some of our passengers could attend a sales convention that was being held there over the weekend. I didn’t think much of it since I’m used to getting calls about places I’ll be flying, but the week before the trip as I was lying in bed the thought crossed my mind, “I wonder if John Mayer would possibly be playing Chicago that weekend.” Using my iPhone, a quick check of johnmayer.com revealed that they were in fact playing at the United Center in Chicago on Saturday April 10, 2010 and it was to be the final night of the US Stadium tour for the Battle Studies album!
General•
on March 12th, 2010•
Tuesday March 9, 2010 was a huge milestone for me both personally and professionally. Here is the back story. I have been a fan of John Mayer and Robbie McIntosh for years, and two years ago when John Mayer performed at the Coca Cola Starplex in Dallas I mentioned to my wife that I want my amps to be on that stage the next time I see them.
General•
on March 5th, 2010•
Well after many months of work the new site is complete. We went through several iterations of it before we settled on the current design and I have to say that I could not be more pleased with it. Special thanks to our good friends at Church Media (most notably @ismaelburciaga and @yuristar) for their help and creativity! Very special thanks go out to @BrownAaronM for his incredible photos and videos used extensively throughout this site!
Guitars•
on September 18th, 2008•
Well my week started with my dad and I flying to Lancaster, CA. (we’re both corporate pilots for a company in Dallas) to take some of our company’s sales guys to a meeting and a job site to review its progress. After spending a few hours in Lancaster, we packed up and flew to Bakersfield so the sales guys could go to another meeting and while there is dawned on me that since we would be spending the night in Van Nuys, CA, I should get in touch with Tyler Guitars and see if I could get a shop tour since I’m a huge fan of their guitars.
General•
on September 14th, 2008•
Since I last wrote I have been working on the amp and tweaking the layout to make it as efficient and clean as possible. In audio circuits, the less wire you have between components, the more toneful and noise free the circuit will be, and an amplifier is no exception. With this new updated version of the Britain, I am very pleased to say that I have tweaked the turret board until every wire that comes off of the board is as short and direct as possible! There is no extra wire in this amp at all! This update should make the updated version of the Britain as pure and toneful as possible!
General•
on September 11th, 2008•
After about a month of working on the new amp in my CAD program and ordering parts last week, I am starting to see the project come together and I could not be more pleased. Today the Power Transformer and Output Transformer came in from Heyboer and aside from one small issue with the mounting of the output transformer, I think we have found a working model. Here are a couple of pics of the transformers that I got today along with the BUD project box that will be used to build the first working prototype.
General•
on August 29th, 2008•
Well I did it. I broke down and bought the Nixie clock (see previous post) for myself and it’s as cool as the other side of the pillow! It’s the perfect little toy to accompany me on my desk. Stainless steel and glowing tubes…. Is there anything better? If you’ve seen my amplifier chassis, I think you’ll agree. 
General•
on August 14th, 2008•
This is possibly the coolest thing ever. A tube clock. If you love me, but me one. They even have them on eBay.
General•
on July 28th, 2008•
For the past couple of weeks I have been working with Church Media Group on the design of a new web site for Jackson Ampworks. The previous Jackson Ampworks site is outdated and in disrepair as a result of a hacker exploiting a vulnerability in the software I was using for such things as contact forms, newsletters etc.
