The Velvet Forum

iaredatsun wrote:Lou Reed Remembered on BBC 4 from this weekend.

Can't remember which film these shots are from - or whether I'd seen this sequence of Jack Smith, Gerard Malanga, Edie Sedgwick with VU playing in Factory before...

Grabbed from the TV

what's up with lou's guitar in bottom left picture.......he got a treble booster plugged in at the guitar jack?

For easier viewing:

You may be right about the Vox treble-bass booster. It doesn't look quite the same but may be a different model/age. They were sponsored by Vox around the Banana LP so they were almost certainly lent/given gear.

wasn't this discussed before? including the conjecture that you can hear the "screech" of Lou switching it (or a similar unit) on and off during "I Heard Her Call My Name"

bleach wrote:You may be right about the Vox treble-bass booster. It doesn't look quite the same but may be a different model/age. They were sponsored by Vox around the Banana LP so they were almost certainly lent/given gear.

first was the V816 distortion booster - 1965 or 6


then the 2nd generation V8161 and the treble/bass booster, 1967

. . was this maybe the 'booster' refered to in the lyrics of Sister Ray?? . . .

bleach wrote:You may be right about the Vox treble-bass booster. It doesn't look quite the same but may be a different model/age. They were sponsored by Vox around the Banana LP so they were almost certainly lent/given gear.

thanks, never seen the treble booster with the jack on that side, only seen the other vox ones that wouldn't have looked like what was in the picture, sticking straight out of the guitar.

to be specific, it's the V840, here, which was first: http://www.voxshowroom.com/us/misc/treb_boost.html

can probably make one super easy with the schematics. anybody got them?

. . I've often thought of building a Lou Reed signature model Ostrich guitar - Gretsch (probably have to be a look-a-like) semi acoustic with an extra set of pick-ups wired for stereo and the plug-in Vox booster and the 'caution K-9 corps' sticker . . . has anyone ever done this?? . .

Eddie Sedgewick wrote:. . I've often thought of building a Lou Reed signature model Ostrich guitar - Gretsch (probably have to be a look-a-like) semi acoustic with an extra set of pick-ups wired for stereo and the plug-in Vox booster and the 'caution K-9 corps' sticker . . . has anyone ever done this?? . .

I'm pretty sure Lou did.

Eddie Sedgewick wrote:. . I've often thought of building a Lou Reed signature model Ostrich guitar - Gretsch (probably have to be a look-a-like) semi acoustic with an extra set of pick-ups wired for stereo and the plug-in Vox booster and the 'caution K-9 corps' sticker . . . has anyone ever done this?? . .

You would need a strat pickup and the Vox repeat percussion built in, and a distortion booster too i think. Nobody has done this to my knowledge, mainly because there are no clear photos of that guitar to see how they are arranged. But to be picky, this wouldn't be the Ostrich gtr, which was probably the Kent Copa that Lou has in the pics above, with all the strings tuned to A.

btw - here's the treble n bass booster schematic

http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/001/schem ... sBoost.gif

I haven't built this, but i have made both versions of the distortion booster - they are unspectacular silicon transistor fuzzes, but of historical interest obviously.