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| Reeves Gabrels | Audio kitchen amp | Messa Boogie speaker cabinet and Reverend Guitars 'Spacehawk'. |
REEVES GABRELS electric, acoustic; six-string bass guitar | 2012 to present
I first came across Reeve's work when he was a member of TIN MACHINE, in the late 1980s and after which, there was the next decade, with his work along side DAVID BOWIE [RIP], throughout the nineties.
He first worked with The Cure on their 1997 single Wrong Number single in 1997 and Robert Smith sang on the song Yesterdays Gone, from his solo 1999 solo Album ULYSSES.
There is his solo body of work [Including his band REEVES GABRELS & HiS iMAGiNARY FR13NDS .
It was through a comment on my Facebook Album Photo, was made aware the the amazing AUDIO KITCHEN AMPS and especially, what goes into their being made. I looked a little deeper and found a video on their website: http://www.audiokitchen.co.uk/about-us/ and this resonated not only because of the clear passion the maker[s] have for the amps they make, but also its strong connection with musicians, but it also reminded me of my past.
Growing up at home, there was always soldering irons, wires, printed circuit boards, along with, screw drivers, pliers, stripping and cutting tools etc, around the garage/workshop. I even worked two summers*, in last two years at school, at the Electrical Engineering faculty, of The Institute of Technology, Sydney [aka UTS], where my father was the Lab manager.
A few years later among other projects, I built a 2 RCA in 1 out RCA 'mixer' which combined with two cassette decks, became my first attempts at recording 'multi-track' music. It may have sounded rough, at the end, but it was a lot of fun!.
Bespoke amps I think this is why, coming across such beautiful, hand made amps and where the sum of the parts, literally and figuratively speaking, become greater then the whole. Sometimes perhaps, its not just the music, but also what surrounds it, that can connect with the past, especially if you play, write, perform music yourself. Coincidentally, it was taking a few test shots, before the band came on stage, that I captured a shot of the amp [see below]
Who knows, all these years later, as I finally re set-up my little home studio, might put some things together myself, what's the worse that could happen? Soldering iron on standby!
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| AUDIO KITCHEN AMP |
The CURE | BAND MEMBERS | REEVES GABRELS Part 2 COMING SOON
[*Excerpt from Institute of Technology, Sydney Reference}:
Electronics workshops: assisting in the fabrication of connecting leads, of various types, decade capacitance boxes, power supply units: and construction of transistor curve tracers. Assembly of several types of laboratory trainers for student experiments. Mechanical Workshop: assisting with sheet metal fabrication for laboratory equipment and fitments. Teaching Laboratories: assisting with annual check, repair and calibration of equipment and instruments. Assisting with laboratory alterations.
Blog coming SOON!
