John Hendow

In a previous post I outlined the need for some maintenance on my Fender 65 Twin Reissue. This amp is the workhorse for my gigs with The Dudley Manlove Quartet. Over the past year I’ve noticed that the tone seemed less dimensional than before, and that I seemed to be lacking clean headroom at gigs. I bought this amp used and had a simple shop inspection as part of the purchase.

I recently discovered there is a great electronic repair shop right in my home town of Burien, which is much more convenient that driving all the way into North Seattle for routine service. The shop tech and I discussed the work I wanted done, and he really did a nice job. All of the tube sockets needed tightening and cleaning, as did the jacks in the amp chassis. Once this was completed the entire chassis was inspected, and then the amp was completely retubed with new Groove Tubes.

The first post-spa gig was Saturday 2/12 at the Tulalip Casino. This is a big stage and gives me an opportunity to really check out the sound of the amp. It sounded much better than before. There is a lot of warmth and big tone that was not present before the tune up. I know the power tubes were previously mismatched, and I suspected the preamp tubes might have been getting pretty tired. The sound of the freshly retubed and tuned amp is inspiring, and I look forward to many years of using this amp. Based on the recommendation of my tech, I’ll probably do a full retube every three years on this unit from now on.

On Friday 2/11 the 1 Uppers performed at Conor Byrne in Ballard, along with our friends Ranieros and Side Saddle. We’ve performed at Conor Byrne many times and we’re getting to have a good solid following in that club. The staff is always friendly and supportive of bands, which makes it all the more fun to be there.

The stage at this venue is pretty small, and a significant portion of it is occupied by a piano (which I have never actually seen anyone use). So as a six-piece band we have a fit ourselves up there like a puzzle, but once we’re in place it works reasonably well. Another interesting aspect of the Conor Byrne is that since the club is small, we usually do not put microphones on any of the drums or instrument amplifiers. The only microphones onstage are for vocals and everything else is just adjusted by the musicians onstage  based on instinct and the occasional feedback from audience members (can you hear me now?). We played most of the original material from our recording project and threw in a few favorite covers as well. The band seems to be developing a decent following, so we have some faithful friends to let us know how things are going out front.

At this show we had a solid crowd from the beginning of the night. I went up to the front door right before we went on stage to add a friend to the guest list, and the door man informed me the show had sold out already. Good thing they had space to fit one more person in the room! Another very good show with this band. We look forward to getting more shows in the area soon.

On Saturday 2/5 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at The Showbox in Seattle. This shows was a double bill with our friends Super Diamond, and held a lot of promise for being a popular event. About four days before this event we were informed that all advance tickets had been sold, and that the Showbox would be releasing the remaining tickets usually held for day-of-show sales. This certainly indicated the level of interest that was being generated for the performance.

We arrived for load in and discovered there were already some brave people standing in the rain waiting to be admitted. Between our equipment and Super Diamond’s the stage was pretty well packed. We completed our soundcheck and trotted across the street for a quick dinner. Looking down the street we could see there were now several hundred people waiting in line to get in. We finished dinner and returned to the venue which was now fully at capacity with people still arriving for admission. Off to a great start!

Because my main DMQ amp (a 65 Twin reissue) was in the shop this weekend, I used my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for the show. It sounded great even if it slightly edgier with the crunch channel breaking up at stage volume. I thought it was a good driving sound for the show.

The night was easily one of the best DMQ performances to date. We played a powerhouse set of hits with our horn section providing their big sound. It’s the biggest audience reaction we’ve gotten in quite a long time, and we’re looking forward to doing more shows in the near future.