A "Thanks" to Bob Womack!

[jseth]

Just wanted to publicly thank Bob for his article on "exercising your tubes" that he posted here some time back...

I have a fairly cherry early 70's Deluxe Reverb, replete with 70's tubes throughout. I moved in to my place here back in late June and haven't even plugged it in, so I figured the time was right to do a little "cleaning"... as I recall, the last time I had it fired up, there were some scratchy, crackly noises happening.

So, I went through it and cleaned all the inputs (front and back panels), then each tube and socket... when I had sprayed De-Oxit on each tube's prongs and worked them with a toothbrush, I fit them into the socket and out again several times... wiped each tube's glass down with alcohol and a paper towel...

And, VOILA! No noise whatsoever, quiet as a little church mouse... nice to have the old girl back in action again! Even the reverb and vibrato channel sockets and connectors were cleaned, so they are working better than ever, too!

Thanks, Bob, for all those great posts you put here and for that site of yours, The Guitar Room! It is always good to know the correct way to proceed with these things...

[Bob Womack]

I'm glad my work was of some use to you!

Bob

[Dru Edwards]

Bob provides lots of great info here, and on his website.

[Bob Womack]

Thank you! You are too kind.

Bob

[StevenL]

Verily, Verily! Bob is a fountain of information and is one of the most interesting posters on this site. He apparently has had quite a bit of real-life experience that we get to catch a glimpse of from time to time. I love to hear from people who know stuff, especially one who is humble and generous with his information.

Thanks for what you do Bob.

[muscmp]

i really enjoy bob's posts. always learn a little sumpin' thanks bob!!

play music!

[moon]

Consider an animal like the brown bear which lives a largely solitary life.

If a bear ever discovered fire, the knowledge would die with that individual. But when a human being first discovered fire, in no time at all everyone in their extended social group would know how to make fire.

In this way, it should be obvious that the social skills which allow homo sapiens to live in co-operating groups create a massive evolutionary advantage compared to other animals which do not have the same skills.

It has been suggested that this is the reason why we prevailed over other, competing hominids such as Neanderthals. Neanderthals were not the blundering primitives of myth but skilled, capable and formidable opponents who were stronger & tougher than us and who possessed some cognitive abilities (such as night vision) which were superior to our own.

On an equal footing, one-on-one, we could not match them.

However, Neanderthals lived in relatively small groups based on kinship. Homo sapiens, on the other hand, had evolved the skills to create larger-scale groupings which did not depend solely on genetic kinship. This is likely what allowed us to out-compete them: we ganged up on isolated groups of Neanderthals and never had to face them on an equal footing.

Extended social groups which are not solely based on kinship are extremely unusual in the animal kingdom. If an alien biologist passed by planet Earth to make some observations, it's probably the most remarkable thing they would find about us. Our super-power is co-operation and sharing. As a social animal, our individual success can only occur in the context of strong, successful groups.

So thank you Bob - and all you other hairless apes with an internet connection - for the gift of fire.

[Bob Womack]

Ah, now you are piling on this hairless ape. Thanks for your kindness!

Bob