Delmont

Thanks for the article - a good pro-and-con piece. 

In my limited experience, I've found that while it's true that PCB amps are a lot cheaper, several that I've owned have required repairs that, according to the amp techs who fixed on them, would have been considerably cheaper in a point-to-point amp.

Economically speaking, the best amps for the buck I've owned have been very used point-to-point amps that I bought cheap and eventually had overhauled by good techs. The costs ended up in the same ballpark as buying a new PCB amp, and the repair bills post-rehab have been much lower.

That's just one guit-picker's experience, of course. Love to read what others have to say. Always learning.

Good suggestions! One question about the first tip: I often intentionally bend a little flat to sound sadder or sharp to sound perkier. I do generally aim for the dead-on note to end a line or to bend a double-stop to a unison note. But inside a single-note phrase, I kind of enjoy pushing and pulling to those in-between places. Seems to sweeten things a bit and make the tune sound more conversational, more voice-like. 

Of course, it's bad to bend off-key accidentally. (I've been know to  do that too!) But what about intentionally? I'm sure I've heard a wide range of blues and blues-influenced players do that - Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, Robert Johnson, Gary Davis....

Is it my imagination?

Dendy -

I think you're batting at a staw man. You're right, of course. There will always be soulful music! But that's not the issue. The issue is that popular music sounds more canned every day. If you live near a Kohl's department store, walk through it to find out what mass-produced music sounds like. Or tune into a "new country" station. Or urban contemporary. Why has Muzak disappeared? Because it's become redundant.

Regardless of the style, most broadcast music is so mechanized, sanitized, segmentized, and osterized that any trace of human-ness has been wrung out of it.

And yes, there are exceptions. I think of - no, wait, I started to type a list, but I deleted it. We know it when we hear it. There is still musical integrity and soul. But it fights an uphill battle to get heard, and the road gets steeper every day.

Thank heaven for places like Harmony Central, where real people can talk about real music without getting screened by taste-makers, gate-keepers, market researchers, and insiders. Love it here. Keep up the good work!

"Another voice has been silenced"? Good grief, another conspiracy theory! There are no details about the cause of death. But these days, that's enough reason for some people to jump to conclusions. 

His voice hasn't been silenced. It's been lost. Big difference. Let's just be grateful for his music and leave the detective work to the pros.