I just sold my Mesa Road-Ready 4x12 cabinet yesterday. This sale, along with the sale of my Studio Preamp and 50/50 power amp a few weeks ago, has given me some cash so that I can pick up a Mark V 35 combo.
As I watched my cabinet roll away towards the happy buyer’s van, I was suddenly overcome with a murmuring wave of loss. Not so much for the cab itself; since though I loved it, I really have no real need for it. It just occurred to me that for 43 years, since I was 15 years old, I had played guitar through a half stack of one sort or another. It started with a Heathkit 2x12 amp (and a Univox Super Fuzz!) on top of a pair of old wooden Stromberg-Carlson stereo speakers, each with 12” woofers. Then a Peavey Roadmaster head and a Sound City 4x12 cabinet. Then a Fender bassman with a Music Man 4x12. Then a Park 100W Rock and Roll head and an old Marshall slant front. Finally to the Boogie rig (which included the incredible greenbacks that were in that old beat up Marshall cab) that I bought in 1990.
I had big musical dreams in my teens, and worked like a dog to try to achieve them, right up into my late 30s. And having that roaring set of four 12” speakers at my back was like having a little army behind me, supporting me and standing up for my bold dreams. When non-musicians saw that 4x12 rig, I suddenly wasn’t just like their cousin who played in a wedding band once a month, I was a serious rock and roll aspirant. Musicians would see the 4x12 rig and assume that I might know what I was doing before playing a note. A 4x12 rig conveyed a certain belonging back in the day, a seriousness and commitment to your music. Those later rigs sounded incredible live and in the studio, and I have some wonderful, life-affirming memories of playing many great shows in front of those rigs, blasting away, playing music that I wrote; loud and proud and powerful.
When my big dreams finally died, suddenly and painfully, I still had that rig to comfort me, my little army picking me up when I was down, able to heal the pain with glorious sound and power.
Now though, my dreams are for my kids, no longer for me. I am now a musical hobbyist. I still practice and record original music in my home studio, and still share my music with a small group of friends and post it up on soundcloud for posterity’s sake. But I never play out any more. So I no longer needed that big rig - a combo will do just fine. And it will sound great, and will keep me happy and making music until I can no longer function for one reason or another.
With the sale of that cabinet yesterday, I realize that I have finally been able to truly let go and say farewell to my youthful dreams of rock and roll glory. Even though they were in fact extinguished many years ago, there was a tiny part of me that still smoldered for them; the last embers of the massive bonfire that consumed my life for so long.
But no longer. The embers were snuffed out when that cabinet rolled away with its new owner.
Now, I am free.
As I watched my cabinet roll away towards the happy buyer’s van, I was suddenly overcome with a murmuring wave of loss. Not so much for the cab itself; since though I loved it, I really have no real need for it. It just occurred to me that for 43 years, since I was 15 years old, I had played guitar through a half stack of one sort or another. It started with a Heathkit 2x12 amp (and a Univox Super Fuzz!) on top of a pair of old wooden Stromberg-Carlson stereo speakers, each with 12” woofers. Then a Peavey Roadmaster head and a Sound City 4x12 cabinet. Then a Fender bassman with a Music Man 4x12. Then a Park 100W Rock and Roll head and an old Marshall slant front. Finally to the Boogie rig (which included the incredible greenbacks that were in that old beat up Marshall cab) that I bought in 1990.
I had big musical dreams in my teens, and worked like a dog to try to achieve them, right up into my late 30s. And having that roaring set of four 12” speakers at my back was like having a little army behind me, supporting me and standing up for my bold dreams. When non-musicians saw that 4x12 rig, I suddenly wasn’t just like their cousin who played in a wedding band once a month, I was a serious rock and roll aspirant. Musicians would see the 4x12 rig and assume that I might know what I was doing before playing a note. A 4x12 rig conveyed a certain belonging back in the day, a seriousness and commitment to your music. Those later rigs sounded incredible live and in the studio, and I have some wonderful, life-affirming memories of playing many great shows in front of those rigs, blasting away, playing music that I wrote; loud and proud and powerful.
When my big dreams finally died, suddenly and painfully, I still had that rig to comfort me, my little army picking me up when I was down, able to heal the pain with glorious sound and power.
Now though, my dreams are for my kids, no longer for me. I am now a musical hobbyist. I still practice and record original music in my home studio, and still share my music with a small group of friends and post it up on soundcloud for posterity’s sake. But I never play out any more. So I no longer needed that big rig - a combo will do just fine. And it will sound great, and will keep me happy and making music until I can no longer function for one reason or another.
With the sale of that cabinet yesterday, I realize that I have finally been able to truly let go and say farewell to my youthful dreams of rock and roll glory. Even though they were in fact extinguished many years ago, there was a tiny part of me that still smoldered for them; the last embers of the massive bonfire that consumed my life for so long.
But no longer. The embers were snuffed out when that cabinet rolled away with its new owner.
Now, I am free.
