The Cats Made Valentine Cards For Lynne!

Fred Kunz Is A Custom Builder That Specializes In Remodeling Rooms. We have Worked Together On A Book And On Fred’s Web Page. Fred Is Working On A House In South Haven And He Invited Us Up To Take Some Photos. South Haven Is Beautiful! When We Arrived It Was Late Afternoon And The Light Was So Nice. Enjoy A Few Of Our Favorite Images.

Fred Added This Sun Room To The House. Very Nice!

Looking At Chicago Over Lake Michigan. Seemed Like A Million Miles Away

South Haven Light House

Really Cool Tree Near The Lake. A Vortex Is Good Luck And Brings Peace.

Back Of The House

The Pursuit Of Great Tone Has Been My Holy Grail For Years. Being Able To Hear The Difference Between Great And Many Times Better Than Great can Be A Curse. After Leaving Maken Music In Chicago A Few Years Ago, I Stumbled Into Schroeder Guitar Repair. Now Schroeder Audio. Tim Schroeder Has Repaired All My Guitars And Amps At One Time Or Another And Every Time I Get Something Back From His Shop It Played And Sounded SO Much Better. A While Back Tim Introduced The DB7. We Have Similar Tastes In Music And I Toyed With The Idea Of Getting A DB7. Finally Ordered My DB7 And Could Not Be Happier.

The DB7 Is Hand Made With The Best Stuff You Can Make An Amp With. (If You Want A Technical Explanation, Call Tim Schroeder) Quality is Beyond Superior, However, That Is Not The Most Important Factor In Choosing This Amp. The Sound Is So Wonderful. Clean, Punchy, Rocks, Smooth, Creamy, Chimey. Usually When I get A New Amp It Takes A few Hours Over A Few Sessions To Get The Mojo. The DB7 Responded Exactly As expected From The First Cowboy Chord I Played. My Initial Session Went 3 Hours Because I Was Floating On Tone Clouds From Heaven. Played A Little Wes Montgomery, A Little Jackson Brown - David Lindley, A Little Neil Young, A Lot Of Duane Allman (This Amp Loves Slide Guitar) A Little Zepplin, A Lot Of Santana, A Little Beatles, A Little Who (Live Magic Bus). The Les Paul Has Never Had As Much Clean Sustain. Even At Loud Volumes When I Went From Playing A lead To Chords, I Can Get Clean Chords Without Dialing Down The Volume, Then Get A little Dirty By Attacking The Strings Harder.

My Gang Of Electric Guitars Have All Been Played Through The DB7. Some Amps Sound Better With Humbuckers, Some With Single Coil Pups. The DB7 Sounds Great With Both. I am Look Forward To Many Years Of Playing The DB7 With A Big Smile On My Face.

In The Photo Below Tim Schroeder And  Myself. I was Thinking, Wow, Is This What It Was Like In The 60’s When You Went To Jim Marshall Or Leo Fender To Pick Up Your New Amp? Enjoy A few Of My Favorite Photos Of The DB7!

Blue Is My Color And Tim Nailed It For Me. Does The Color Or The Look Of An Amp Make A Difference To The Sound? Yes Because It Makes Me Want To Play It More.

The Sidecar Speaker Bottom. This One Has An Alnico Speaker And Something Else In It. 2 12s That Just Rock!. Like The Handle Built In. This Is A Ported Cabinet That Adds To The Chimeyness.

Get The Better Cables. Clean Power You Can Hear.

Very Simple Controls. I Played For Over An Hour With These Settings And The Tone Was Excellent. Then I realized The Bass Was On Zero And That Tim Told Me That The Magic Starts When You Play With The Boost Lever. YES IT DOES!!!

The Back. Simple And Easy.

The Bias Pot Is Adjustable For All You Gearheads That Go Under The Hood. Very Handy. Note That I Have #35 And It Is Hand Signed.

This Was A Great Surprise. I Never Know What Ohm Rating My Cabinets Are. Schroeder Must Have Done This With People Like Me In Mind.

This Is My Number One Electric Guitar. Best Les Paul I Have Ever Played. Went Through 6 To Find This One In 1972. This late 50’s - Early 60″s LP Has Had A Lot Of Modifications Including WCR Pickups. I could Not Stop Playing The Les Paul And The DB7. What A Combination. Got The Best Duane Allman Sounds. Great Sounding Slide Guitar Amp.

63 Strat With Lindy Fralins. Got Everything From Clapton To Country To Jeff Beck Sounds With The DB7. Very Clean And Chimey!

This Is The Last PRS Santana I Made. It Has Great Sustain And Loud Pickups. The DB7 Brought Out Sounds I Have Not Been ABle To Produce With My Other Amps. Great Combo.

My Test Lab With The Shameless Studio Promotion On The Wall. Note My Pedal Board. Never Used A Pedal. They Say That The DB7 Is Pedal Friendly But The Sounds You Get Will Make You Think Twice About Adding Pedals. My Late 60’s Marshall 50 Watt And Early 90’s Vibro King Thought They Were Up To The Challenge.

Memorial Day Is A Special Day To Remember Veterans. We Remember “Our” Veterans Every Day And Miss Them So Much. Thank A Veteran Every Day.

We Got To See Jimmy Webb At SPACE In Evanston, IL. This Was A Special Experience. In My Teens I Had A Few Classic Guitar Song Books That Had Songs From Various Pop Artists. Jimmy Webb Wrote So Many of The Songs. We Had General Admittance Seats And Wound Up Sitting 3 Feet Behind Jimmy, Stage Left. Best Seats In The House.

Between Songs Jimmy Told Stories About The Songs, His Life As Songwriter To Everyone From Frank Sinatra, Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstand, Glen Campbell And So Many Others

A Little Rock And Roll

Jimmy’s Vocal And Piano Style Is Described As “Ragged” Hear Him Perform His Classics Was So Emotional. Give Me Emotion Over Technical Expertise Any Day!

Jimmy’s Note Book Had The Set List For The Show And We Were Reading It All Night. How Cool Was That! He Did Not Play MacCarther Park, Lynne’s Favorite JW Song. Jimmy Said His Voice Was Not Up To It.

Encore!

Rachel Had A 5th Birthday! Her All Too Brief Visit Was A Highlight For Everyone!

Loose Tooth

Zu Zu Pet!

Reading The Card

Frank Says Happy Birthday Too!

The Highlight Of My Summer Was Playing In The BMW Celebrity AM At Cog Hill, Dubsdread On September 6th. The Golfer On The Far Right Routinely Hit 350+ Yard Drives Which Allowed Us To Tie For 1st Place In The Tournament.

The Western Golf Association Charities Benefits The Evans Scholarship. To Win An Evans Scholarship Is Quite An Honor. All The Caddies At The Tournament Were Evans Caddies. As A Former Caddy I was Both Proud And Humbled To Be In The Presence Of So Many Talented, Special Young People.

We All Had Such A Great Time!

On The 13 Tee Box An Official Photographer Took Photos Of Each Group And Each Player With The Celebrity Player. The Celebrity Was Asked To Autograph An iPad. At The End Of The Round, Each Player Had This Framed Plaque. Amazing Turn Around Time. While Getting Photographed I Was Just Itching To Ask The Photog Questions. Our Celebrity, Reg Kerr, Former Chicago Blackhawk, Was The Nicest Guy And Great Golfer Too.

We All Got Hats And Golf Shirts That Were Exactly Like The Marshal’s. Tempted To Act In An Official Way!

Got 2 Passes For All 4 Days Of The Championship. Very Cool Seeing The Top 70 Golfers In The World Compete

Cool Blackhawk Golf Jacket by 2R

Every Player Got 2 Dozen BMW Balls.  12 Callaway Tour iS And 12 ProV1

Got An Opportunity Top Be Fit For A Putter At Bettinardi Golf In Tinley Park, IL. I was Treated Like A Tour Pro, Got A Great Putting Lesson, Cool New Putter That Fits Me, Great Putter Head Cover, Golf Towel, Met Robert Bettinardi. He Got My Autograph, But I Did Not Get His. Today Was A Very Cool Day!

I Did Not Know I Would Be In A Photo When I Left The House. Thankfully, I Am More Skilled AT Photoshop Than Golf.

Glenn Explains Loft And A Bunch Of Other Techno Golf Stuff While I Pretend To Understand

Glenn Zagorski Fit Analyzed Me And Then Bent The Shaft To Fit My Putting Stroke. Daunting Job, Well Done.

Studio Stock Grip

I Had Everything Set Up Fort A Real Photo Shoot And Frank Decided He Likes The Towel

The B

The Face

Frank Loves the Head Cover. A Lot!

I Putt On This Rug

Bettinardi Rocks!

The New Invaders Rocked Me! They Play 60’s And 70’s Music But are Not An Oldies Band. Oldies Bands Are Hokey, Predictable And Boring. Not The New Invaders! Every Song Ripped Like It Was Brand New! All Six Members are GREAT Singers, Many Play Multiple Instruments, Many Of The Songs They Played You Will NEVER Hear Played Live! The Hollies, Look Through Any Window Had Me Floating About 3 Feet Off The Floor!  I had Last Heard Jim Herter At The White Elephant Or A Bar On Western Avenue Playing With High School Buddies In The Wooden Planet. Off They All Went Mid 70’s To LA To Make Music. What A Treat It Was To Listen To This Band. As A Guitar Player And Former Band Member I know How Much Is Put Into The New Invaders Performances. Vintage Instruments, Learning Difficult Music, Singing With 6 People Can Be A Challenge, But These Guys, And Gal, Pulled It Off Magnificently. The New Invaders Cover 80 Bands. 80! Every Great Band Needs 2 Leed Guitar Players And A Girl Singer. Wow Can She Sing!

If You Get A Chance, See These Guys. They Have A Web Page. Google Them!

Sharing A Microphone Ala Paul McCartney And George Harrison. Lefty Bass Player, Jim Playing a REAL Gretch Country Gentleman. George Harrison’s Favorite Guitar In The 60’s.

The Talented Jim Herter Also Plays Sax And Harmonica

Seat Sounding Les Paul Deluxe! I Had The Humbucker Version, 1972. This One Has PAFs! Very Nice!

I Had A Travel Voucher To Use So We Went To Scottsdale In April Just Before It Got Hot There. We Had A Great Time! Enjoy A Few Favorites!

Lynne Arrives In Arizona. She Had To Haul The Bags Because I Was Taking Photos

There Were Plants And Birds And Rocks And Things

We Rented A Really Cool Car!

Lynne Made Me Bring “The Big Camera” Only Condition, No Complaining. Always Bring, The Big Camera

Tim

The Incredible View From The Lounge At The Four Seasons Shot At 6400 ISO on The Fabulous Nikon D700

Lynne Shot This While I Was Golfing

On The Grounds Of The Four Seasons Scottsdale

Golfed Troon Monument Course. Was Paired With 3 Nice Guys Who Insisted On Playing From The Tips. Yikes! This Is A Typical CLimb To A Tee Box! Shot 102

Long Par 3. Loved Playing Here! We Were The First Foursome Of The Day. Smooth Sailing

Shopping Mall Fake Indian Building

Mandatory Shopping Included Photo Window Shopping

We Stayed In A Second Floor Casita So There Was Absolutely No Chance Of Snakes Coming Into Our Room

The View From Our Patio

Our Casita In The Background

This Car Was Built To Transport 3 Presidents, Hoover, Roosevelt and Truman. When I Worked At Pullman In Chicago I Photographed Thousands Of Rail Cars. This Brought Me Back.

Lynne Shoots The Mountains Through The Windshield On The Way To Sedona

This Is In A Church In Sedona On Top Of A Hill That Lynne Insisted On Going To. There is A Funny Story Here. Anyway, You Have To Pay To Light A Candle So I Shot Them All For Free!

This Guy Followed Us Everywhere

My New Car! Yes We Bought It With Money We Won At A Casino! And I Am Entering NASCAR Next Season. Look For Number 3

See The USA In A Chevrolet

The Best Steakhouse Ever! They Are Coming To Chicago This Summer!

Continuing The Restaurant Tour: This Place Is Fabulous! Best Italian Egg Drop Spinach Soup Since Uncle Rocky

Did A Prince Appear? Ribbit, I Mean Yes!

The Pool Was Cool