The Combo Club

[SoulReflection]

Lol that’s hilarious @SoulReflection ! I don’t remember ever opening a can of Spam. I’m repressing that memory deep! I do remember the key! By the time I was on my own until I got married if it didn’t come out of a box and I couldn’t make it in my skillet I didn’t eat it!

Hey, if you never opened a can of Spam, how to you remember the key? I guess some need boxes, others are happy with cans. Doesn't matter. Whatever tasted good. Fried eggs with bacon is great. With Spam isn't that bad .

 

[SoulReflection]

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In Buffalo NY we have a thing called a Beef on Weck sandwich. Its finely sliced roast beef on a roll that has caraway seeds and sea salt on top. Most people agree it started a long time ago at this little hole in the wall. Great beef on wecks there! One of best I ever had. Ulrichs downtown used to have a great one too as does Charleys. But it became at this little dive! Cool old school atmosphere. You would never suspect you would get good food from here. Some great food comes out of corner bars sometimes!

I will pass on the caraway seeds .

 

[G-Dog]

G-Dog for me spam wasn’t a delicacy. It wasn’t a choice. We were poor. Poor people ate spam. Spam and a box of Mac and cheese and some peas. I wrote a song about that dinner lol. Or freezer Queen frozen Salisbury steak. Lol. That’s the closest I got to steak growing up. Government cheese. Mmmm. Loved that giant block of government cheese. Now spam is expensive! When did that happen?! When did it start getting served in restaurants?! I’ve done ok and eat an actual steak occasionally now. Lol. Spam? Never again!

Spam has its place. It kept many of us alive in the "good" old days .

Even in current times, I have a can of Spam on hand when camping with the "kids". They are actually adults with their own kids now but, when bacon runs out, Spam comes to the rescue .

spam can with a key - Google Search

I must have eaten SPAM as a kid, maybe a lot of it! I always wanted to be the one to open the can!! And I did it quite often. But it musta got smothered in gravy 'cause I don't remember anything nearly as salty as that Hawaiian SPAM I got.

My cousins and I, however, usually grabbed a few cans of Vienna Sausages and a loaf of bread after filling our G.I. Surplus canteens with tap water and jumping on our bikes to explore the town! Those cans had keys, too, back then, instead of today's pop-tops.

 

[Michael Favata]

Hey, if you never opened a can of Spam, how to you remember the key? I guess some need boxes, others are happy with cans. Doesn't matter. Whatever tasted good. Fried eggs with bacon is great. With Spam isn't that bad .

Well I ate spam as a kid. That’s what my mom served me. So I didn’t have to open the can she did. As far as how I remember the key I probably saw her doing it. Maybe even played with it. But like I said. That’s a deeply repressed memory
Btw I think you would love that sandwich! I’m with you generally on caraway seeds but there’s something about that combo!
Oh I forgot! Most people put horseradish on the sandwich! Miller’s…

 

[Michael Favata]

@G-Dog so reading between the lines did you grow up in England and now live in the States? And if you did grow up in England did you know Pau No never mind lol

 

[SoulReflection]

I must have eaten SPAM as a kid, maybe a lot of it! I always wanted to be the one to open the can!! And I did it quite often. But it musta got smothered in gravy 'cause I don't remember anything nearly as salty as that Hawaiian SPAM I got.

My cousins and I, however, usually grabbed a few cans of Vienna Sausages and a loaf of bread after filling our G.I. Surplus canteens with tap water and jumping on our bikes to explore the town! Those cans had keys, too, back then, instead of today's pop-tops.

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While I acknowledge that this has nothing to do with Combos, Vienna Sausage with @beans-on-toast (sorry, it had to be), is a great meal. Especially if you are camping! Try it, you may like it .

 

[beans-on-toast]

While I acknowledge that this has nothing to do with Combos, Vienna Sausage with @beans-on-toast (sorry, it had to be), is a great meal. Especially if you are camping! Try it, you may like it .

A lucked out fisherman sometimes has to eat beans and sausages. But you can’t beat any campfire meal in the great outdoors. As long as there are no bears.

 

[SoulReflection]

A lucked out fisherman sometimes has to eat beans and sausages. But you can’t beat any campfire meal in the great outdoors. As long as there are no bears.

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And he said..."so, I'm ready, where's my dinner?".

 

[Michael Favata]

I betcha that bear ate all the fish @beans-on-toast !

 

[SoulReflection]

I betcha that bear ate all the fish @beans-on-toast !

Nope, he ate all the Spam...there's a number waiting for you over at the '60s Bassists...

 

[G-Dog]

@G-Dog so reading between the lines did you grow up in England and now live in the States? And if you did grow up in England did you know Pau... No never mind lol

Well, there was a brief period in '64, after watching a certain movie about Pau..., Joh..., Geor... & Rin... and hearing how they talk, that a friend and I practiced speaking "The Scouse, mate." I've since read so much about them that I feel I know them. But that's the closest I ever got to that blessed plot, that earth, that realm, that England. Why? What "tipped you off, then?"

Ah! '64 was the year I got my first little combo (guitar) amp as a "Santa Claus" gift. There, almost back on topic.

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[Michael Favata]

My cousins and I, however, usually grabbed a few cans of Vienna Sausages and a loaf of bread after filling our G.I. Surplus canteens with tap water and jumping on our bikes to explore the town! Those cans had keys, too, back then, instead of today's pop-tops.

That sounds like a post World War II English experience. GI canteens. Vienna sausages lying around. Pau you know him and da boys talk about piles of rubble and playing amongst it after the war. It would seem natural the GIs would have left behind some canteens and cans of delectable sausages!

 

[Michael Favata]

Btw did you guys hear they are teaching a masters class on the Beatles in Liverpool at a college there now. Quite involved. It’s a year long. My wife looked at me like I had two heads. What would someone do with that degree?! Why Liverpool tour guide of course! They said in the article it was discussed renaming Penny Lane because apparently the guy it was named after was a bad dude but they can’t because of the song!

 

[beans-on-toast]

Well, there was a brief period in '64, after watching a certain movie about Pau..., Joh..., Geor... & Rin... and hearing how they talk, that a friend and I practiced speaking "The Scouse, mate." I've since read so much about them that I feel I know them. But that's the closest I ever got to that blessed plot, that earth, that realm, that England. Why? What "tipped you off, then?"

Ah! '64 was the year I got my first little combo (guitar) amp as a "Santa Claus" gift. There, almost back on topic.

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Paul McCartney can join this club. Here is his Elpico amp which he got at a young age and still has it.

Here is a close up of another AC55 Elpico.

Did I say that Dave Davies recorded You Really Got Me with the same make and model. He sliced the speaker cone with a razor to get a more distorted sound.

 

[WestyBassBob]

Paul McCartney can join this club. Here is his Elpico amp which he got at a young age and still has it.

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Here is a close up of another AC55 Elpico.

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Did I say that Dave Davies recorded You Really Got Me with the same make and model. He sliced the speaker cone with a razor to get a more distorted sound.

I’ve read about that. I believe the cone was already damaged but the sound engineer liked it so he asked him to slice it some more. “The more I sliced it the better it sounded” or something like that. Epic tune.

 

[G-Dog]

Paul McCartney can join this club. Here is his Elpico amp which he got at a young age and still has it.

Did I say that Dave Davies recorded You Really Got Me with the same make and model. He sliced the speaker cone with a razor to get a more distorted sound.

And don't forget George's big ol' honkin' Selmer Truvoice "Stadium" combo amp! "Stadium"?!? Oh, the irony!

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And let's not overlook Stu's "rig o' doom" Watkins Westminster combo amp!! (Whether it was intended for bass, or not.)

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[beans-on-toast]

I’ve read about that. I believe the cone was already damaged but the sound engineer liked it so he asked him to slice it some more. “The more I sliced it the better it sounded” or something like that. Epic tune.

A lot of stories swirl around the song. Some say Jimmy Page played on it. Their producer Shel Talmy tells the story here. It’s interesting that they plugged the output of the elpico into a vox ac30, using the elpico to overdrive the input stage of the vox. Pedals later were introduced to do just that.




Another player that fed one amp into another to gain distortion was Randy Bachman of the Guess Who. Doing this is not safe, he kept blowing his pre-preamp. When he described what he was doing to his repairman, a new device was designed to solve the problem. He basically took a Fender Champ and added a dummy load to protect the tube amp, this safer output was fed into the input of another amp. The result was called the Herzog. You can hear it on many songs by different players, including the creamy overdriven sound on American Woman.

Tech21 took a stab recreating it, the pedal is called the American Woman.

A number of companies have similar products today.

 

[beans-on-toast]

And don't forget George's big ol' honkin' Selmer Truvoice "Stadium" combo amp! "Stadium"?!? Oh, the irony!

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And let's not overlook Stu's "rig o' doom" Watkins Westminster combo amp!! (Whether it was intended for bass, or not.)

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Both George and John plugged into the Truvoice. That Selmer is a pretty good sounding amp. I never tried a Westminster amp. Those little amps back then all had a cool look.

 

[G-Dog]

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Yeah, my first bass amp, a combo, in the early '70s had a cool look, too, now that I look back at it. Though I thought it was cheesy looking at the time, since it wasn't a 7ender, or Ampeg, or Marshall (which I couldn't afford). But, it had the tones and the power and I was young enough to handle the weight, so it worked great!

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[beans-on-toast]

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Yeah, my first bass amp, a combo, in the early '70s had a cool look, too, now that I look back at it. Though I thought it was cheesy looking at the time, since it wasn't a 7ender, or Ampeg, or Marshall (which I couldn't afford). But, it had the tones and the power and I was young enough to handle the weight, so it worked great!

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Got $150 (Bloomington, IN) to relive your past?

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