VAUGHN SKOW's blog

Amps That Don’t Exist - Part One: 1959 Brown Fender Super Amp

Amps that don’t exist, you ask?  Yea, sorta.  I’m starting out this little series with my 1959 Brown Fender Super Amp, which was featured in the October issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine, and will be featured in Dave Hunter’supcoming vintage amp book.  Fender didn’t officially release any of the "Browns" until 1960, but this one bears a 1959 tube chart circuit designation, and all 1959 dated components ... so, officially, it doesn’t exist.  Interested, then read on!

NAMM Redneck alert # 2

Dean was spotted later in the afternoon at the 3rd Power booth with WGS artist Ford Thurston.  Ford uses many different WGS speakers including the Veteran 30 and Reaper.

NAMM Redneck alert # 1

The first spotting of our WGS Redneck at this year's NAMM was at the Burriss Amps booth early Friday monring.  Burriss' is using the WGS Reaper and has some other cools speakers in the works.

Insider info: New Speakers for a New Year

Hey fellow tone seekers!  You have probably figured out by now that WGS has a philosophy of keeping the line fairly small, and having every speaker sound great.  We are definitely not one of those speaker companies that have hundreds of speaker models that all sound mediocre yet boast catchy names and gimmicks (you know who I’m talking about).  Shoot, we would rather make only one speaker and have it sound amazing than have a thousand mediocre models!  As such, any new additions to the WGS line-up are in fact big news.  So ya wanta hear some big news?  Well then, read on baby, read on...

Presenting Callie Elisabeth Skow!

Hey ya all!  Callie, daughter #2, came into this world yesterday, Thursday, January 6th.  She's a little heartbreaker, and I'm sure she'll have me wrapped around her little finger in no time at all.  Kim and Callie are both doing fine, and should get to come home tomorrow!

Meet the Wacky WGS Bunch!

Hi everybody!  Hope you survived the holidays in one piece.  My wife and I are expecting a new baby, a girl, within the next 36 hours; so our REAL Christmas present is arriving a little after Christmas!  I’ll keep you all informed as that unfolds.  Now on to this weeks blog!  I thought it would be good for all of you out there to get to know all of us in the WGS family a little better.  Daniel, the newest (and maybe craziest) member of the WGS team came up with the following bios.  In keeping with Daniel’s crazy style, I added my own to the end of the list.  Okay, ya ready to read all about this whacky bunch?  Then read on...

Vaughn’s Christmas Blog

I’m writing this Sunday eve, the night after Christmas.  I’ve been to four church services and a half-dozen or so more church events in the last week or so.  These days, a lot of the guitar playing I do is in church.  I guess that’s what stage of life I’m in; I bet some of you out there are no different, right?  I’ve come full circle.  Church is where I started playing, in a land far, far away from my current home in Nashville TN - in the frozen north; not far from Lake Wobegon, MN.  It was just before Christmas, 30-some years ago I received my first electric guitar and amp; and I owe it all to Gladys Whiskus.

God's tone?

How exactly does one go about drinking from the Holy Grail?  This is our topic this week.  A couple of weeks back, I received an email from a WGS user asking for my advice on which WGS speakers to use with his amps which are "clones of the Liverpool and Express circuits of the late Ken Fischer of Trainwreck Amps".  Though I personally have never owned one, I’ve had the pleasure of playing through one actual Trainwreck, and a couple of more-or-less Trainwreck clones.  I can say that these amps are certainly wonderful, and that they really have a unique character.  If you care about tone, and you are not yet hip to Ken Fisher and Trainwreck ... then do yourself a favor and do a little research, and then come back and read the rest of this blog.  Warning:   we might just split a few hairs here!

AMERICAN MADE!

Warning: For those of you who have been reading this blog regularly, this may seem like a re-hashing of the same old stuff.  GUILTY!  I just can’t help myself.  Yesterday I was having a conversation with some guys at the Y ... the kind of conversation that can only take place in a sauna.  As we sweated it out, we were talking about the state of America.  As always, one guy made the comment that "Until we start manufacturing products again, America will never be great like it used to be".  All heads nodded up and down.  This seems to be the feeling of Americans all over.  Okay WGS gang, can we talk about this?  Come on, humor me!

Guitar Shows are GREAT!

I’m really no different than the average WGS aficionado.  Very, very few of my guitars or amps have come to me in any of the "usual" ways.  It’s not that I don’t love music stores - I do, really!  However, most of my gear arrives having first been pawned, or set out at a yard sale.  I love a great deal, and I love used gear, too.  I like to say that I don’t feel comfortable playing a guitar that doesn’t have more experience than I do; same goes for an amp.  I love gear with "experience".  That’s why I love guitar shows.

At The Music City Guitar Show