Jul
27
Written by:
bcleveland
7/27/2011 9:19 AM
I got my first electric guitar and amplifier at Mid City Loan in Omaha, NE, in 1979. Mid City Loan was a huge pawn shop with rows of great guitars and amps. My dad took me there for my birthday after I somehow convinced my folks that I deserved either an electric guitar
or a go-kart. I was given the choice of a Fender Bronco, or a Gibson SG. I chose The SG of course! AC/DC was a favorite of mine, as well as Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin, and the Gibson seemed like a better guitar at the time. I tried out a Fender Princeton Reverb and out the door I went. I immediately went home and set up in the driveway to blast all the neighbors. I wanted everyone to know "I Play Guitar"! Everything sounded great: "Sweet Home Alabama," "Green Grass and High Tides," "Free Bird," and "Stairway to Heaven."
Then one day a friend told me I needed a "preamp" for my guitar. Preamp? What's that? You know, a distortion box. He brought one over, and
wow. Okay, distortion! So, good ol' Santa Claus brought me one on Christmas day. All of the sudden, my Princeton sounded like "Back in Black" and "You Shook Me All Night Long." I still remember playing those tunes and saying, "It really sounds like the record"! It was a yellow DOD Preamp 250. All was distorted, until one day—it just stopped working.
I took the MAT bus downtown to Mid City Music, which was right next door to Mid City Loan. I showed the man at the counter my Preamp and told him, "It don't work no more." He said, "Did you try the Battery?" I said, "Battery?" He opened up the back and swapped out the battery. :0)
All was distorted in the world again
until I was running across the street to catch the bus home when my DOD Preamp fell out of my coat pocket and a Cadillac full of dudes swerved and
aimed to hit my pedal. Crunch! Knobs flying, the sound of metal bouncing. It was kinda shaped like a "U" now. But, when I got home, it still worked!
michaelleefirkins.com
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5 comment(s) so far...
Re: Michael Lee Firkins: My First Distortion Box
Good story. My first distortion was the amplifier from a very old tube type Western Auto reel to reel deck. It really would overdrive that Bassman head I was using at the time. There was even output when the amp volume was at zero. Sounded nasty but I loved it. I thought I sounded like Tony Iommi but I really sounded like crap. Keep picking!
By Ken on
8/23/2011 8:52 AM
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Re: Michael Lee Firkins: My First Distortion Box
Oh, the joys of learning about distortion and stomp boxes!
By Robert Johnson on
8/23/2011 8:53 AM
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Re: Michael Lee Firkins: My First Distortion Box
Great story man, ahh the innocent days of guitar, they built those pedals like tanks back then, I remember I had an mxr phase 90 for the VanHalen stuff and forgot it on top of the car and cruising down the road I heard a thump off the trunk and looked in the rearview and that pedal was bouncing off the road at 60 mph and when I picked it up every edge was road burned and the knobs were ground down in spots but that sucker sounded just as good after as it did before..Peace love MLF's playing also..
By Gary Piela on
8/23/2011 8:54 AM
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Re: Michael Lee Firkins: My First Distortion Box
Great story! In 1966 after initially learning to play guitar on an acoustic, I got a new Kay Vanguard 3-pickup electric guitar and a used 1965 Sears Twin-Twelve model 1484 amp. The Rolling Stones had just come out with "Satisfaction", and I loved that distorted tone, so I went out and paid $35 for a new Maestro Fuzz Tone. The thing ate 9V batteries every 2-3 hours, but it was a blast to play. Talk about a garage band rig! I wish I still had the Fuzz Tone, now. I think they're going for $200-300 on eBay, if you can find one.
By Dave Ellis on
8/24/2011 1:11 PM
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Re: Michael Lee Firkins: My First Distortion Box
Ah, the days when everything was new and exciting. When I was your age ...
My first experience with distortion was courtesy of the lead player in the first band I ever joined. He hacked a transistor radio and used that as a pre-amp running into his Fender Super Reverb. It was thin, not many harmonics, but really articulate.
Thanks for the memmory.
By Gregor Stephan on
9/13/2011 7:31 AM
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