Getcha Some Productions Podcast Episode 37

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Book Club: Unlocking Creativity by Michael Beinhorn https://amzn.to/3B9f458

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A podcast covering all things related to music production: from the first note to the last fan and everything in between. We create music and inspire others to do the same. Every episode is a live business meeting between me and Dan (me and Keith) as we build this media empire right before your very eyes/ears.

In this episode we discuss:

This episode features: https://www.mendittoamps.com

Mike and I met in 1989 in Dyker Heights junior high school otherwise known as I.S. 201 or Intermediate school number 201.

Mike talks about how he got started on guitar. It was during grammar school where they had optional classes you could take and one of them was guitar. The school had a collection of mostly unused three-quarter size classical guitars for the students to use.

The rest of the school was falling apart. They had asbestos and lead paint but they did have brand new guitars.

Mike recalls the story where he played Dracula in a grammar school play which was also musical and where he got into singing. The snippet of the play was featured on eyewitness news seven with Ernie Anastos. The video is floating around somewhere and Mike says he thinks it’s on his Facebook page.

At the time his teachers wanted to send him for vocal lessons but he didn’t want to be just a singer. HE WANTED MORE!!

Mike throws some shade on singers. Then he goes on to describe how, when singing, he didn’t know what to do with his hands so he figured that the needed to be holding something. Hence, the guitar.

Mike shows his new American standard fender Stratocaster in Lake Placid blue.

Mike remember specifically that it was 1990, one year after we met, that we played music together or at least I picked up one of his guitars and started learning or got interested.

We talked about my old Cort guitar. It was a wine red transparent finish Les Paul Junior style guitar. With zebra pickups.

We talked about the olden days where he and I would play Led Zeppelin tunes and we crank our amps up all the way to the max but we put them in separate rooms and sometimes even closed the doors when it was too loud and we would stand in the hallway with our cables underneath closed doors jamming. We forgot to mention that we used to make recordings and we would hang microphones over the showerhead in the shower and put amplifiers in the shower. And I believe Mike used to sing in the shower with the microphone hanging down off the showerhead sometimes.

We start talking about amplifiers. This was almost a professional level segue. Mike starts talking about the unique quality of power tube distortion and tube amplifiers.

Mike shows his Bugera power soak.

Mike gushes a bit about the sound of an old Stratocaster into a tube amp and how great that is.

The thing that we’ve been getting to the whole time is that Mike builds amplifiers now. https://www.mendittoamps.com

Mike built amplifiers now.

https://www.mendittoamps.com

We talk about midlife crises and the types of guitars we each got for our midlife crises. I got a Guitar for my birthday when I turned 40 but Mike went out and bought himself a EVH 5150 guitar which is the red guitar with the black and white stripes. So, quite conspicuous.

Mike reminds me that we both worked at the musicians general store on Court Street in Brooklyn. Cobble Hill. I guess we did that in the early 2000s.

Mike busts out his old Tiesco baritone guitar. Which brings him to how he met his friend uncle Doug. Uncle Doug had the same guitar and was able to identify it for Mike.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuR4hQTXkG_KxozLxwPzEjQ

Uncle Doug is a key player in the story of how Mike got into building amplifiers. He saw what uncle Doug was doing and then he joined a Facebook group of amplifier builders and he decided that he could do it and maybe do it even better. So he decided to try his hand at amplifier building.

Mike shows his handmade hand wired amplifier. The Uncle Chico.

My (Keith’s) amplifier is over at Mike Maggio‘s place and he’s trying it out. One day I will receive delivery.

Mike talks about how the basswood plywood that the face plate is made of is stuck together with urea formaldehyde so when he cuts and etches it with his laser engraver it stinks up the whole house.

Even though it may seem like a fender champ in many ways (from the outside to a professional amp builder) it’s actually quite different. It’s actually a very versatile amp. There are many additional controls accessed via push poll knobs that can change it into a much more British sounding amp if you want.

Mike says that he believes the Fender Champ is the gold standard for the best sounding studio amplifier.

I wish I would’ve asked Mike why he set up his amp with a stiff capacitor rectifier. He always used to go on and on about how great the tube rectifier is.

This episode features: https://www.mendittoamps.com

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