Nick Vassilev's Place: Cleaning etc.

I was amazed to find out my new Slash Signature AFD100 amp possessed features I wasn’t aware of.

A few days ago I switched on this lovely beast to play some guitar. To my utter amazement in the intervals between riffs I could hear a strange noise. It wasn’t a humming noise… I could hear a clear human voice talking on a TV (it must have been a TV I was getting because I could hear the sounds of an old western movie later on )!!!

While I was glad it wasn’t a fault with the amp (hummmm) I was getting annoyed by the strange sound coming out of my 4×12 Marshall cab. It must have been the neighbours TV I am receiving.

I hope I won’t have to pay double for my TV license

Despite the annoying sound obstacle (only heard when not playing) I can confirm that I continue to rock on!

Hell yeah!

Rispek!

Happy New Year to everybody!

Finally took delivery of the long awaited Marshall AFD100 Slash signature amp. Beautiful brown cardboard box with Slash’s trademark name on it. Inside are: Slash signature vinyl cover, Marshall AFD100 black t-shirt, certificate of authenticity, owners manual, cab connection lead and a mains lead.

On the outside the Marshall AFD100 looks like a 70′s plexi with a silver front panrl and silver knobs. It is kind of cool though.
When I plugged this guy into a 4×12 Slash signature cab and a Gibson Slash Appetite For Destruction Les Paul into the Marshall AFD100 it was a pure tonal heaven. I don’t know if it was the right guitar but I finally found the tone I was searching for.

The best feature on the amp (apart from it’s beautiful voice) is the “Power”
knob. It allows you to crank up the power amp of the Marshall AFD100 and in combination with the “Master” knob you get a fully
overdriven amp at bedroom level volumes. In my opinion It couldn’t get any better than that.

You get a switch to change between the two channels on the AFD100 – one gives you the modded JCM800 tone of the #34 amp Slash has been using since the late 80′s and the other is the revered Appetite For Destruction killer tone.

This amp is great for any kind of music including blues, nu metal and anything in between. If you are one of the lucky 3000 owners
worldwide, then you have purchased one of the best amps ever made. Whether it is “The Best” – only time can tell.

I have reasons to believe that Slash’s playing stands a few galaxies ahead from my guitar skills, as brutally confirmed by the latest assessment of my command of the 6-string instrument.

Rispek, man!

Slash with the original Apetite Les Paul copy

Well, this guitar surpassed my expectations!!! I expected a good quality Gibson Les Paul (don’t we all expect this from Gibson?) and this instrument simply blew my mind away. What a tone, what a great feel to it! Needless to say the AAA figured  maple top is amazing.

As all Slash and GN’R fans know, the original guitar used to record Appetite For Destruction (and Slash’s last minute guitar tone saviour) was actually a Gibson Les Paul copy. So now Gibson have made a copy of this famous copy . Wow, what a copy!!!

I believe big part of this amazing Slash tone was produced by the great Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups and the Marshall Silver Jubilee head I had it plugged into. Excellent work, Mr. Duncan.

I subscribe to the school of thoughts that the fact the original Appetite guitar has such popularity and great tone and was even copied by the company whose guitars it was meant to be a copy of,  means that no matter what guitar you’re playing, you can create masterpieces as long as you play with your heart and soul. Well, a little bit of luthier craftsmanship would make your job easier, but it doesn’t have to be a 1959 Burst to play heavenly tones.

This is what I think. I may be wrong. But in any case the Appetite guitar rocks hard and kicks some serious ass.

These videos below prove my point:

Slash is such a funny guy. He didn’t stop laughing during the whole meet & greet thing while Duff was all grumpy and bored. Matt and Dave were very cool guys too. They laughed and posed for photos during the whole thing no matter how boring that may have been for them. Hey, they are doing this every night on the tour and after the first couple of days I guess it becomes a boring obligation. It is moments like this when the real person comes behind the rock star façade. A good guy who really cares for his fans will never disappoint them.

At the end of the day it is his fans money that has brought to him stardom, fame and riches.

Well done, Slash! Funny, all down to earth cool guy.

Respect, man!