drmcclainphd 2 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I was born in a TV repair shop. Well, not exactly, but I grew up there. I was fixing TVs when my friends were fixing their bicycles. My first job was testing tubes for my dad. I got a dollar a week (up from 25 cents a week allowance). Six years later, at age 14, I got a job on my own at a different TV shop. I started playing guitar at the same time (age 8, 1962), and built my first amp out of a Teac reel to reel and a Karlson speaker with a single 12" full range driver. I used my dad's reel to reel for recording. Having developed the ability to talk to anything that talked with electrons, after a few military enlistments I went back to college to study psychology. Not the talking to walking emotionally wounded or scoring paper questionnaires kind of psychology. I went into neuroscience and studied brain imaging. I developed several EEG and fMRI analyses using non-linear statistics that I picked up at the Santa Fe Institute. Then I graduated and had to go to work. If you've ever seen the movie or even the trailers for "Thank You For Smoking" you might remember the part towards the end where the protagonist is being questioned by some congresscritters. One asks him what kinds of things his research company has discovered about tobacco. He replies "We've found that smoking can offset Parkinson's disease". That was my dissertation. After a stint at National Institutes of Health and another with the department of psychiatry at Yale Medical School, plus a few other professorships, I quit. I "retired" to southwest Virginia to play music on The Crooked Road http://crookedroad.org/ and to build guitars (electric 12 strings) and other equipment, as well as record my music. My speakers are all self-built. I've got towers built from 15" Trace Elliots, 12" Kustoms and Peaveys, a few TA Webers, and a bunch of GRS BOFU clones, but I've also built some detuned port towers using a dozen 5.5" Sony neo/poly drivers and a Sweet 16 array of the same with a couple subs packed inside the corner-sitting cab. For power I got a pair of Crate GLX 1200h's, a pair of Fender Frontman 65R's, a pair of Audiosource AMP100's, a Quatum Q-Tube 70, plus an original Pignose, an AXL Thinamp, and some Dayton class T mini-amps, these for truly remote work, as sometimes happens here in Appalachia (these being battery powered, I can play and record with no outside power). But in building my collection I ran across a bargain at a resale shop. $25, because it had no knobs and so couldn't be very important (an EQ sitting next to it was marked $50 because it had lots of knobs). It was a Carver M 1.5 This became the center piece of my PA. Until one night doing sound for a head banger band, some buy-out 3" drivers fried, which cascaded through a piezo horn and melted it down (the only piezo to do so in my experience and that of many others) and took out the power protection circuit in the Carver. Having paid what I did for it, it was well worth the trip to Roland at Carver Audio Repair for a rebuild and upgrade. As I write this, it's only an hour since he called to say it was done. I could hardly be more pleased. Hardly. Because he told me the M 1.5 wasn't built for PA use, but the PM1200 was. He offered to find one for me, refurbish it, and trade straight across (plus the customary charge for upgrading if I chose -- I did). He's looking as I type for a PM1200. So if you happen to have or know of one, kindly let us know. It's almost outdoor concert season here and I feel the need to make noise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddyjt 8,637 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Welcome to the site! If you enjoy audio gear and music, as well as other meaningless things, you'll fit right in!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blues Pwr 765 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Welcome to the forum, glad you decided to participate, enjoy the site, thanks for the pictures...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene C 1,745 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Hello and welcome, cool pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nahash5150 10,011 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Welcome! I love smoking, music and things that speak electrons too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zumbini 6,140 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Howdy Doc and welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your collection of er...unique musical items. I think you'll find the PM-1200 a fitting and powerful addition to your menagerie. I'm running a trio of them in my PA rack and have been very happy with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man 4,763 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Welcome to the site !! Thanks for sharing the pictures and story... If you like the PM1.5, you'll love this: A BEAST waiting for you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zumbini 6,140 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 ....He's looking as I type for a PM1200. So if you happen to have or know of one, kindly let us know. It's almost outdoor concert season here and I feel the need to make noise.... The PM1200/1201 and PM-1.5 are virtually identical pro versions of the M-1.5t. They come up on ebay pretty regularly and usually sell in the $200-300 range. Here's a few that are currently for sale: Carver PM 1201 Pro Power Amp Carver amplifier PM-1.5 Carver amplifier PM-1200 Carver PM - 1.5 (FOR PARTS) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danowood 2,167 Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Welcome to the site WOW What an impressive resume of experience you have. Good tip on the ebay stuff, but beware, many don't pack the stuff right and it gets damaged in shipping, and then things get sticky from there. I've been burnt on a couple of items. Even though you pay for the shipping, the shipper will only address retribution with the sender; so it's advisable to have the sender ship it out in your name, (as you were shipping this item to yourself to your home address). Last amp I bought had the faceplate bent on the edge and the rack handle marred, he didn't pack it right. Still having to deal with it, I probably will come out on the short end as usual. Yea, I could send it back for full refund, but will not get the return shipping cost recovered. Had that happen before with a tt that was not as described and had issues not functioning as described. I looked in my area on Craigs list, but only found a Carver PM350 available for 200 bucks. Might want to try that, at least you can check it out, and not have to ship it and chance it being damaged when received. Again, welcome to the site, there are so many here that are so full of knowledge and are very helpful. Great bunch of guys here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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