It's all about the tone.......

I treated myself the other day. Call it a replacement or a late birthday present or a bonus present, whatever, I'm convinced I deserved it ;-)

Until about March of this year I owned a rather nice small (5 w) valve amp which I "played" through a Marshall 2 x 12 1936 cab with Celestion vintage speakers. it was nice but it was really loud. The tone was really good but it was basic with a lack of controls. I lived in a terrace house and that time it did not seem as if I would soon move to the lovely detached place I'm in now. So, I sold it.
Months later I'm a valve amp owner again. After much research and trying stuff out locally (I hate playing in public, especially guitar shops!) I ordered a Hayden 15 w Mini Mofo with a Vox 1x12 cab fitted with a Celestion Greenback. This thing rocks! The tones are lovely and there is lots of control, so much so that I don't think I've scratched the surface yet!

To top it all off it looks great. There were other options that sounded great but looked awful !!! I'd post a picture but really, it is all about the tone, well nearly ;-)

The 4 Muskateers in Sherwood Forest !!!

Early in June one weekend, we were at it again. This time there was no "journey" like riding the South Downs Way which we loved last year. Due to back problems and a lack of fitness all round we were off to ride the trails at Sherwood Forest. So I'd taken the friday off but being a bit of a work-a-holic-I-can't-let-go kinda guy I had a video conference with some guys in Singapore to attend first thing. All packed up I dashed out of the conference room into the Honda and hot-footed it up to Mansfield. Steve and Andy were already there with tents set up and had disappeared off to nose round the camp site. By the time my tent was up they were back and we biked the 2 miles to Sherwood Pines Country Park (very close to the Centre Parcs site). We rode the ridiculously easy green trail (3 miles) and then the almost as easy blue trail (6 miles) by which time the pace had noticably dropped. For most of the second half we were passing and being passed by a lady with two-paniers on her bike and small children with her. In the end, when Steve had a mechanical difficulty, they beat us round!!!!! The day ended with a pub dinner sat in the sunny beer garden which was very nice, followed by sweets from the shop and footy at the camp-site with Stella!!!

Sunday morning Bren arrived. With D'artagnan's presence we were the four muskateers!!! We started off round the more difficult red trail. Insted of very easy surfaces we were now on reral mountain bikers paradise darting in out of tree with some really nice switch-backs and berms. Although the pace was slow it was good fun. Half-way round Bren seem to have headed off the front so Steve suggested I go catch him and we head off at our own pace and meet him and Andy at the end. Ok, so now the real fun started!!! hitting the trail at a good pace was challenging technically and gave a real buzz. We finished off in good time and hit the cafe for an icecream. I suggested we ride more but Steve and Andy seemed very tired and Steve's back was hurting, possible from the saddle problme he's had but possibly also because of the continual bumps or the fact that he's caught a log with one of his pedals and taken a tumble. Anyway, as England were playing Switzerland we headed to the pub instead. It was a 2-2 draw but I missed most of it as I was playing pool with anybody who would take me on. the love of football that I carried deep in my thirties has sadly long gone.

Sunday morning started with breakfast at the fisherman's greasy van. Gone were last year's healthy options and we were all on the fried stuff! If I did n't know better I might have said there were a few sore muscles around the place. I asked a couple of times about riding the red route again but my questions seemed to be just getting ignored. eventually, it was suggested (not by me) that we just ride a few of the tracks around and beyond the camp site. There was a consensus and one disppointed David :-( Well, it started off easy enough but then we seem to end up on a roller-coaster of a footpath along side the river, which turned out to be great fun!!!! All-in-all, a very good weekend, nice riding, good company and good food and beer :-)