VAUGHN SKOW's blog

My One Day as a Metro Nashville High School Teacher

Warning: I’m pulling the soap box out, and getting ready to stand on it.  Yep, I know I’m going off on a wild tangent here, but I think this is important to the audio and music community.  Shoot, it’s important to us all as Americans.

If you have read the ‘About Vaughn’ page, you know that I taught audio at the college level for a decade.  Well, on Thursday I began a part-time job teaching audio technology at the largest high school in the state of Tennessee.  I tendered my immediate resignation the following morning.  Lest you think I’m simply a loose cannon, let me explain.

Ladies and Gentlemen ... We Have A Winner!

Congrats to Paul Hisel of Plant City Florida!  Paul is our latest winner of a FREE WGS speaker!  Paul, we look forward to hearing your plans for the new speaker.  Everyone else: This contest is now officially over. I'll be giving away another one within the next 30 days - so keep reading...

Jason’s Story - Our First Speaker Winner!

"I put the Veteran 30 in my Peavey Heritage amp.  It sounded good before, but now it's the best sounding amp in the world!  I can't imagine an amp sounding any better!  Thank you WGS!"

I had planned to simply post a little blurb and photo of our first contest winner.  However, after hearing what Jason Spain had to say, I decided it was a story worthy of an entire blog.  His situation, you see is exactly why WGS exists.  Intrigued? Well then, read on!  Oh, and by the way, if you want to be the next winner of a free speaker, you’re in luck, our current free speaker contest is underway. Read on baby!

CHECK THIS OUT - FREE WGS SPEAKER!

***THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER *** IT ENDED ON 8-13-10 *** CHECK THIS BLOG FOR FUTURE GIVEAWAYS! ***

Okay gang, I told you I’d be giving away more speakers, and here is your chance!  This time, it’s going to be totally easy to enter, too!  Just send me an email at Vaughn@wgs4.com with FREE SPEAKER as the subject. 

On Friday the 13^th of August a winner will be randomly chosen.  Hey baby, I ain’t superstitious, as a matter of fact, I’m very fond of Friday the 13^th; that’s when my wonderful daughter was born!  So, come on and enter, your odds should be pretty darn good.  Read on for all the pesky little details. 

The Sensitivity-Volume Connection

Okay, so we began a discussion on volume last week, and then I went off on a tangent on transducers.  Sorry, sometimes I just can’t help myself.  I’m gonna bring it all together in a seriously meaningful way this week, I promise ...

It All Boils Down To Two Things...

The world of sound all boils down to two things: how loud it is and what the size (frequency) of its movement is.  Let’s start with loudness (volume).  The loudness of audio is measured in decibels - a nod to the original audio dude, Alexander Graham Bell. 

What "sound" is - and how we "hear" it: Techno-geek alert!

My next few weekly blogs will concentrate on what speaker specs really mean to us guitar players in the real world.  I wanted to jump right in to a discussion of efficiency, frequency range, and so on - but I realized that I was getting a little ahead of myself.

When I teach introductory audio engineering classes, I always start with a day or so on what sound actually is and how the human ear hears it.  Since this is so basic to anything and everything audio, I decided it was prudent here as well.  I’d like to point out that the human ear is in fact an electro/acoustic transducer, just like a microphone or speakeris; I’ll get to that in a moment.  Let’s start with what "sound" is.  Warning: this is some seriously techno-geeky stuff!

SOUNDCHECK

Today’s blog is for the benefit of all the “entertainers” out there, specifically singer/songwriter types, but if you ever take to the stage in any capacity, this is for you too!  There’s an old saying that goes like this: “A bad sound-check means a good show, and a good sound check means a bad show”.  As a veteran of thousands of shows, I think I might amend that to read “Little to no sound-check at all often means a great show, and a long painful sound-check usually means a sucky show.  Do I sound plum loco to you?  Maybe I have some explaining to do!

Congrats to Jason Spain - winner of a free WGS Speaker!

Hey everybody,

What better way to celebrate the 4^thof July than with a free speaker - made by a great American company!  Our first contest is officially over, but don’t worry!  There will be more to come.  You already know how awesome WGS speakers are; getting one FREE is off-the-charts awesome!  Keep reading this blog; I’ll be giving more away soon.  I promise.

In case you are wondering just exactly what all those amps in the contest were, well read-on for the list:

A Perfect 10?

Would you like a free WGS speaker?  Well, we’re still looking for a winner!!  Whoever correctly names the most amps from blog #1 wins a free WGS speaker!  So, check out blog one and give it your best shot.  We will be giving away a speaker on the Fourth of July (we are, after all a very patriotic bunch).  So far, your odds look very good, so come on troops, hit me with your best shot!!!  Now, on to this week’s blog.  Some of you might have caught my brief review of the WGS American 10’s in the May issue of Vintage Guitar magazine.  I thought you all might be interested in reading the entire, long format review.  I’ll warn ya, it gets pretty in-depth.  Only true tone seekers should continue beyond this point!