Archive of the Live Sound Category

Remembrances of Les: Untold Tales #1 ____________ THE LES PAUL/RICHARD NIXON CONNECTION

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 7:17 pm

By George Petersen



HAVING BEEN A FRIEND OF LES PAUL FOR 25 YEARS, I have many good memories about him and I’d like to share a few of these.
I called Les up once in April, 1994 (for some reason I still don’t remember) and as we made some small talk, I asked him if he heard the news about Richard Nixon, who had passed away the weekend before. As soon as I mentioned the name “Richard Nixon,” Les suddenly became very belligerent, and started screaming “Richard Nixon—that good for nothing &%#$&#$!!!” Once I got Les to calm down somewhat, I meekly asked “so I guess you didn’t like that guy?”


In some very strong words, but in a far calmer voice, Les finally replied that he hated Richard Nixon. I asked why and he said it went way back to the days when that &%#$&#$ Nixon was vice-president—and before, when he was known as Richard Nixon, “commie fighter.”


Les explained that back in 1953, he got a phone call from Richard Nixon. Once he heard the voice say “This is Richard Nixon,” Les muttered (expletive deleted) and hung up. A minute later the phone rang again, Les picked it up and the routine repeated. Finally the phone rang a third time, with Nixon saying “Les, this is really Richard Nixon,” thinking the reason for the earlier hang-up was because Les assumed it was a prank call.

Figuring he wasn’t going to shake the VP, Les asked why he called, and Nixon explained he was calling to ask whether Les and Mary Ford could play a command performance at the White House for (the new) President Dwight Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. Although Les didn’t think much of Nixon, he was definitely in the “I Like Ike” camp, and immediately agreed to do the gig.


The day of the show came and everything went fine—at least until halfway through the show, when Nixon jumps up on stage between songs and asks Les to play a request for the First Lady. At this point. Les starts worrying, because he and Mary are playing to backup tracks with Les using a footswitch to trigger the start/stop cues on a tape recorder/amplifier hidden in a box he sits on during the show. The tape has rhythm guitar and Mary’s harmony parts sequenced on the tape. There’s no way to change the order of the songs during the show and he doesn’t want to reveal that their amazing full stage sound comes from taped tracks—a common practice now, but certainly a rarity in 1953.



Finally, Mamie Eisenhower thinks about the request and says she’d like to hear “Vaya Con Dios,” which was on the charts at the time. Les says “I think we can do that,” clicks on the footswitch and begins playing. Coincidentally, “Vaya Con Dios” was the next song on the tape! So there’s you explanation of why Les always hated that &%#$&#$ Richard Nixon.

The NAMM Connection
Flash forward 49 years later. In 2002, during Summer NAMM in Nashville, Sony was hosting a special event for a limited number of members of the music/audio press—a private dinner with special guest Les Paul. I was among those few chosen to attend, and as I was friends with Les, Sony’s Paul Foschino asked me if I would do an interview-style conversation with Les after the dinner, which everyone would listen in on. I gladly accepted the offer and also encouraged them to videotape Les’ stories for posterity, which they did.

As the moderator/interviewer, I asked Les about his early days, developing the solid body guitar and his experiments with sound-on-sound recording and multitracking. Towards the end of the evening I threw in this zinger: “So Les, I understand you once had a chance to meet Richard Nixon.” I figured that would add some spice to the conversation, but was surprised when the wiley Les—knowing the cameras were rolling—wasn’t wrinkled at all. In a very matter-of-fact tone, he calmly explained that he was very excited about the propect of playing for President Eisenhower, and at one point Mamie asked for a request, which happened to be in the order of the sequence was playing.


No screaming. No expletives. But now you know the real story.

Hopefully, somebody at Sony still has the tapes from that evening. And hopefully those tapes don’t have any unexplained gaps.


But you never know…


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—Thanks to Rick Clark for the photo above of Les and I from that Sony dinner.


When not working on MIX stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here ARIEL PLAYS “ARE YOU READY TO ROCK” and check ‘em out, doing an in-store performance a week ago for The Gap’s 1969-2009 40th Anniversary “Born to Play” celebration.
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THE WEIRD WIDE WEB

By George Petersen

EVER WONDER IF SOMEONE’S PUTTING YOU ON? We always appreciate getting e-mails and comments about Mix and the industry in general, but every once in a while, we just gotta wonder whether someone’s putting us on. It’s the web equivalent of the phrase “O.K., Where’s the hidden camera?”—wondering whether Allen Funt is gonna come out from behind a curtain. And sometimes, maybe it’s simply a sad reflection on whoever actually sends these things.


One time, some guy inquired, asking for a recommendation about what kind of outboard mic preamp he should buy. Someone told him his tracks would sound much better if he bought a Neve preamp. I replied that to in order for us to maintain some kind of impartiality, we have a policy of not recommending any specific products unless it is part of a written article, review, etc. But out of curiosity, I asked him what kind of mics he had. He replied he had a couple of Shure SM57s.

Believe me, there are few mics more amazing than this must-have, time-tested classic, but at this point the “Candid Camera” alarm went off in my mind. However, diplomacy set in and I recommended he could probably get more quality for his money by first getting some better mics which later—once he’s ready to invest in a super-quality preamp—would really make sense. Problem is some schmoe, an “expert,” no doubt, gave some one-size-fits-all advice that really didn’t fit his particular situation.


Another time, some guy e-mailed after reading what we assumed was a thoroughly tongue-in-cheek article I wrote on the back page of our AES issue last year with a bunch of joke press releases called “Products You Won’t See at AES”. You can check it out here: CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE.

Among other things—including gems such as “The Roach Coach Music Library,” a “Drunkulator” plug-in and a “Stoogelizer” outboard processor—the list described the “Virtual Sur-Reality” helmet, which would give users the visual impression they were mixing in Abbey Road studios or the Sydney Opera House rather than the cheesy studio or dumpy basement club they were in.


It was written in jest, yet some poor soul actually thought it was real (talk about sur-reality!) and wondered how he could contact the manufacturer. I’m sure it was quite a letdown for this person to hear the truth, but maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here that indicates there might be a market opportunity for someone to actually make such a product. Any takers? And hey, if it’s on the Internet, it’s gotta be real… doesn’t it?

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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FAREWELL, JIM

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 1:12 pm

By George Petersen

THIS HASN’T BEEN THE BEST WEEK. Jim Cowan, an old friend just passed away after a bout with cancer. Just 52 years young, he was a 20-year veteran of Neutrik USA (in fact, he was the company’s first employee), starting out as general manager and eventually becoming company president.

Jim was an amazing person who was loved by everyone in the audio industry and even though we lived on opposite coasts, seeing him at tradeshows was always a great experience. Even better was some years ago when we spent a week in Liechtenstein, checking out the sights, including visiting Neutrik’s plant and company HQ in this tiny European country of 62 square miles—barely larger than the 49-square mile footprint of the city of San Francisco. In those few days, I really got to know what an intelligent, creative and caring human being he was.

And anyone who ever met Jim would tell you he loved the pro audio industry. In a Mix interview, he talked about the satisfaction he felt from “meeting and having one-on-one conversations over the years with industry leaders and pioneers such as Hartley and Melia Peavey, Greg Mackie, Phil Hart, Charlie Wicks and Michael Laiacona—to name just a few. I have been fortunate to have met some of the most talented artists, engineers, installers and designers in the industry.” Jim also recalled that one of his most rewarding accomplishments was getting Neutrik’s Speakon connector accepted by manufacturers, users and installers. “It was a big challenge for Neutrik to create something totally new and to get the industry to like it, believe in it and support it,” he said. But Jim’s persistence and hard work paid off, with Speakon now accepted as a worldwide industry standard.

Jim was a devoted father to his sons, participating in their track and soccer programs and coaching youth basketball and Little League baseball teams. He enjoyed traveling, was a serious wine enthusiast and a proud member of the Red Sox Nation. Jim is survived by his wife Kate, sons Daniel and Gregory and his mother. As the disease that took him progressed, and he knew the end was near, he requested that friends who remembered him should donate to Ocean of Love, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children with cancer and their families. It’s no less than I would expect from a man with so much love and who was loved by so many. Farewell, friend–you will be not be forgotten.

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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I’M FAMOUS!

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 10:12 am

By George Petersen

DURING MY 28-YEAR TENURE HERE AT MIX, I’ve done hundreds of interviews with people in all aspects of pro audio–engineers, producers, live sound mixers, artists, educators, studio owners, manufacturers, designers–you name it. But it isn’t very often that I’m the one being interviewed, although a couple of these instances occurred recently. One was by my old friend Alan Parsons, who was doing some kind of video documentary and talked to me about Mix magazine during the AES show. It’s too bad he didn’t interview me about the time we spent a week teaching audio seminars (and goofing off) in Argentina for some events sponsored by the wonderful Mercedes Onorato, but like the old saying goes, what happens in Buenos Aires STAYS in Buenos Aires. There are a lot of great stories about that trip, but maybe some other day…

My other interview was by the awesome, talented publicist Marsha Vdovin, who spoke to me a couple weeks ago about my work with the TECnology Hall of Fame, which I founded five years ago as a spinoff to the TEC Awards, to honor audio innovations and innovators from the relatively short (OK, 125-year) history of pro audio, going back to the early work of pioneers such as Edison and Berliner. Marsha’s project had to do with this year’s induction of Bill Putnam’s 1176 compressor—truly a classic in anyone’s book. In fact, I was equally honored to have Bill Putnam Jr. (of the reborn Universal Audio) be on hand to accept the award in the memory of his father.

The sad side of pro audio’s history is that it’s fleeting, very fragile and often poorly documented. Researching this stuff ain’t easy. Many manufacturers are long since out of business. At some companies, no one remains who has any knowledge of the original product—even a few years later. The history of pro audio—our very lineage—is woefully neglected and sources are scarce, if not impossible to find, so ANY effort to chronicle our past is a worthwhile effort. You can check out profiles and information about all of the TECnology Hall of Fame inductees to date by clicking on TECnology Hall of Fame, http://mixonline.com/TECnology-Hall-of-Fame/.

Anyway, after all these years, it was great to chat with Marsha about some of the background behind the event and recall a few highlights. But rather than spoiling all the fun, you can check it our yourself at the Heritage Section of Universal Audio’s website. These guys really understand the importance of history.

As a sidenote to this year’s TECnology Hall of Fame, one of this year’s other inductees was for the Kurzweil 250 keyboard, and although Ray Kurzweil wasn’t able to attend, we were pleased to have his daughter Amy accept the award on his behalf and keeping with the trend, Eric Blackmer, son of the legendary late David Blackmer, accepted the induction for his father’s classic dbx 160 compressor.


When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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ADVICE FROM MIX NASHVILLE

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 11:05 am

By George Petersen

LAST WEEK’S MIX NASHVILLE EVENT WAS AWESOME. Two jam-packed days of seminars, panel discussions, hands-on product demos, music performances and fun. Interestingly, one of the more unexpected highlights was a mostly informal get-together party after the first day’s conclusion. With free beer, food and cookies, it was a great chance for all the attendees to talk, do a little networking, make a few industry contacts and check out some great local talent. One of the more unexpected things was that for a “local” event, I talked to people who had come from Colorado, New England, Atlanta, New Mexico, Los Angeles and even Indonesia–and all of them said the trip was most worthwhile. For some highlights, click on MIX NASHVILLE and check it out, but the bottom line was everybody said the event was great. It’s definitely gonna happen again next year–be there.


If you wanted solid advice on recording and live sound, there was plenty to be heard at the Mix Nashville seminars. I was hosting three different panels —on using plug-ins live, studio design/speaker optimization and placement and “Recording the Band,” a panel about tracking during live shows. During the latter, veteran Robert Scovill offered this suggestion: When you’re on tour and recording lots of shows, make sure that along with your multitrack files, also include a 2-track mix with your archive. This way, weeks, months or years later, someone who may be going through dozens of shows (or more) won’t have to load and re-create an entire mix session just to determine which song performances to use. Even if you’re pressed for time, a board mix on CD-R will do as a quick reference. And make sure you label and document everything.

Sometimes it’s the little touches that can make your life a lot easier down the road–even when you’re off the road.


When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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BARGAIN: THE $50 NEVE

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 5:13 pm

By George Petersen

THERE’S SOMETHING COOL, HIP AND INHERENTLY GREEN about recycling and every now and then I go by this very cool (and very Berkeley) place called Urban Ore, which is just a couple blocks away from the Mix offices. This is a locale where people bring old furniture, leftover building materials and obsolete technology stuff to be resold, reused and otherwise redistributed to people in the know. It’s essentially a huge old warehouse and outdoor sales area brimming full of STUFF of every sort (and well sorted), ranging from consumer electronics, plumbing/electrical supplies, picture frames, desks, sinks, tubs, windows, doors, slightly overused–meaning really beat up–musical instruments and occasionally (but alas, not too frequently) even PRO AUDIO.

But today in the electronics section–among the piles of Kodak Ektagraphic slide projectors, 1970s-era slide programmers/dissolve units (in case anybody is old enough to remember olde-style multimedia/multimage), Mac 8600s, vintage PCs, turntables, cassette decks and piles of Jaz/Zip/Bernoulli drives–was a more unusual item.

A Neve/Necam 96 power supply.

Unfortunately, no other Neve gear was lurking about, but at a mere $50 buckaroos, you could have this monster of monsters: About six rack spaces high, it must have weighed about 100 pounds–they just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. What awesome construction!!! I was even tempted to bring it home and adopt it myself for resale or some future project, but this was like the big one you toss back into the pond, hoping that it will make someone else’s day.

But the real mystery in the back of my mind was what tales this thing could tell. Where did it come from? What great projects did it once supply (pun intended) the juice for? Some things I may never know, so if anyone DOES know, let me know and help me finish this Unsolved Mystery for the rest of the world…

I hate telling you this, because, for one, I don’t want anyone to be misled and think that among the porcelain toilet tanks, printing presses and dictaphones that haunt this place, there are boxes of dusty Neumanns in every corner–which there aren’t, although today, they had a 15-inch Peavey Black Widow woofer (untested and missing its aluminum dust cap) for $12, a solid-looking single-15 cab in faux wood finish–empty, but sporting road handles and dual front ports for $25 and an empty (but extremely heavy) dual-12 cab–it was a generic roadcase-looking box (no handles)–for $20 or so. Yet at the same time, they were trying to sell some heavy black/chrome older steel Atlas speaker stands (NOT MIC STANDS) priced about $260–I’m not sure who came up with THAT price!

So you never know what to expect. Besides this week’s Neve PS, they also had a Sony SDDS 35mm projector soundhead for $25–not bad if you need one–and an Ampex 35mm mag stripe stereo reader (the “penthouse” style) also for $25, but it will be a while before that one moves… Oh, and if you happen to need to need some 35mm exhibition reels, they have both 6,000 and 13,000 foot versions in stock this week.

Just another day in Berkeley…

Click here to visit them online: URBAN ORE.

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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THE SHOTGUN APPROACH

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 11:07 am

By George Petersen

SOMETIMES THE SIMPLE TECHNIQUE WORKS BEST. Our senior editor Blair Jackson came to me with an age-old problem. One of his kids was doing a play in a high school gymnasium and the audio was terrible. Some well-intentioned person had evidently hung some dynamic mics over the stage, which helped, but added no intelligibility and when cranked up to provide more gain, created an awful feedback problem. Fortunately, in this case, they DIDN’T have the budget for wireless mics. For some reason, every amateur theater group thinks it’s some kind of panacea, even though wireless (especially cheap wireless) often creates more problems than it solves, unless your sound engineer is extremely astute.

To make matters worse, the entire sound system had floor-mount XLR mic jacks, which were hard wired to a PA head (of unknown brand/origin) that was located in a locked closet that now one seemed to have access to. The way the PA operated was simply to plug a mic(s) into a floor jack and it was live. Blair asked what I would recommend. I loaned him a couple of Rode NTG-2 shotgun mics (the ones that can be phantom powered or run from a single AA battery) and pre-set them in the bass rolloff position.


I figured this was probably the safest choice, and with the non-access to the mixer/PA head/whatever, would safely skirt any “but there’s no phantom power” issues. I suggested placing them on boom stands located just in front of the stage, and raised a couple feet above the floor level–to avoid emphasizing foot noise.

After the gig, I asked him how everything went, and he replied “it was fantastic” and mentioned that several people sitting in the back said it was the first time they could ever make out the dialog from the cheap seats. Anyway, it just goes to prove that sometimes a simple approach is best.


When not working on MIX stuff, George Peterse n records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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GOODBYE, LES LEWELLYN

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 9:28 am

By George Petersen

I MET HIM ABOUT A YEAR AGO–FOR THE SECOND TIME. Actually, I wrote a blog in this space about 12 months ago about a wonderful coincidence that led me to rediscover Les Lewellyn, and now he’s gone, having passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 12. You see, I was originally searching on the web for his older brother Bob Lewellyn, a guitarist I was in a band with back in 1968–in Naples, Italy, my home town. The only reference I found to Bob was something about him playing a session on one of Les’ recording projects, for his band Preying Lizard, but I also discovered that Les was somewhat of a messiah for independent music, offering help, guidance and exposure through his #1 rated web music podcasts at PreyingLizardMusic.com.

Les loved music of all kinds and did much to help so many independent bands. He will certainly be missed, but I find at least some solace here in the knowledge that Bob Lewellyn will be taking over the site and podcasts, a lasting tribute to the great work begun by a true music hero named Les Lewellyn. He will not be forgotten.




When not working on MIX stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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SO LONG, JOE

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 1:07 am

By George Petersen

IT’S JUST SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS AS YOU GET OLDER. Your friends start dying. I’m just returning for a funeral for a good friend Joe Desmond, a well-known industry figure with more than a quarter-century in pro audio and M.I. sales. Joe passed away on January 16, after being diagnosed with liver cancer last fall.
After college, this native Bostonian went west to California for his first job as a Guitar Center salesman. Moving rapidly he soon had opened and managed stores in California and Illinois before starting his own company, which exported rare guitars to Japan. In 1987, Desmond went to work for Furman Sound in Northern California, and during his 17-year tenure there, becoming a major force in bringing the company from “Furman-who?” to a position as an industry leader.

A couple years ago, he left Furman to found Joe Desmond & Associates (www.jdagear.com), a rep firm and import business located in nearby Rohnert Park, Calif., handling top suppliers such as Adamson, Aphex, BBE, Danley, ETA Systems, FBT, G&L Guitars, Nady Systems, One Systems, Raxxess, Rolls, sE Electronics, X2 Digital Wireless and others. Joining Desmond in the operations at JDA was his wife Pam, who he met at the NAMM Show in 1982, back when she was working as an ad executive at BAM (Bay Area Music) magazine.

Held in Joe’s local church, his memorial service was packed with friends and and an impressive turnout of industry associates–many of whom traveled quite a distance to attend. Among those were Bob Reardon (of SE Electronics), Marvin Caesar (of Aphex), Dave Angress (Guitar Center), Lynn Martin (American Music & Sound/Allen-Heath USA/Focusrite USA/Hagstrom guitars/etc.) and many others. The service was beautiful, with great music and clean audio from the system Joe had donated/installed in the sanctuary. One memorable moment was a moving poem written/read by Joe’s daughter Jillian and a wonderful eulogy by one of Joe’s friends, who recalled that in his final days, Joe talked about the fact that his spirit will always be with us. And somehow, I think Joe was right on this one…

When not working on MIX stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com/ariel.html and check ‘em out.
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WHAT I REALLY WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS

Filed under: — Gpetersen@mixonline.com @ 6:11 am

By George Petersen

I FIRST GOT A REAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE back in the early ‘70s, when I spent a lot of time troubleshooting gear. I finally managed to destroy it (it essentially was worn out to the nubs) after it saved my butt about a thousand times, repairing hundreds of pieces of A/V gear, from simple P.A. rigs to elaborate 70mm projection systems with 6-channel Dolby playback. I even filed down the flat screwdriver that stuck out of the side of the knife body at a 90-degree angle so it would fit those reverse-threaded XLR set screws that holds the connector into place. That same attachment also made for a pretty formidable brass-knuckle effect, although that particular usage wasn’t mentioned in any of the official Victorinox literature.

Anyway, it’s too late for Christmas now, but I just heard about a slick new entry in the Swiss Army line—even cooler than the company’s Cyberknife of a couple years back, the one that even included mini Torx drivers for repairing PCs.

Although it’s a whopping $1,200 retail, Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife™ V1.0 #16999 certainly tops anyone’s gift list—or for those companies looking for the ultimate in tradeshow swag—this one’s the ticket. At an actual size of 8.75×3.25-inches (WxL); and weighing in at 2 pounds, 11 ounces, it’s a bit large for the average pocket. However you get a lot here…

It touts 85 implements with 110 functions in all including a 2.5″ 60% serrated locking blade; nail file, nail cleaner; corkscrew; adjustable pliers with wire crimper and cutter; removable screwdriver bit adapter; 2.5″ blade for official world scout knife; spring-loaded, locking needle-nose pliers with wire cutter; removable screwdriver bit holder; phillips head screwdriver bit 0; phillips head screwdriver bit 1; phillips head screwdriver bit 2; flat head screwdriver bit 0.5mm x 3.5mm; flat head screwdriver bit 0.6mm x 4.0mm; flat head screwdriver bit 1.0mm x 6.5mm; magnetized recessed bit holder; double-cut wood saw with ruler (inch & cm); bike chain rivet setter, removable 5mm allen wrench, screwdriver for slotted and philips head screws; removable tool for adjusting bike spokes, 10mm hexagonal key for nuts; removable 4mm curved allen wrench with philips head screwdriver; removable 10mm hexagonal key; patented locking philips head screwdriver; universal wrench; 2.4″ springless scissors with serrated, self-sharpening design; 1.65″ clip point utility blade; philips head screwdriver; 2.5″ clip point blade; golf club face cleaner; 2.4″ round tip blade; patented locking screwdriver, cap lifter, can opener; golf shoe spike wrench; golf divot repair tool; 4mm allen wrench; 2.5″ blade; fine metal file with precision screwdriver; double-cut wood saw; cupped cigar cutter with double-honed edges; 12/20-gauge choke tube tool; watch caseback opening tool; snap shackle; mineral crystal magnifier with precision screwdriver; compass, straight edge, ruler (in./cm); telescopic pointer; fish scaler, hook disgorger, line guide; shortix laboratory key; micro tool holder; micro tool adapter; micro scraper–straight; micro scraper–curved; laser pointer with 300 ft. range; metal saw, metal file; flashlight; micro tool holder; philips head screwdriver 1.5mm; screwdriver 1.2mm; screwdriver .8mm; fine fork for watch spring bars; reamer; pin punch 1.2mm; pin punch .8mm; round needle file; removable tool holder with expandable receptacle; removable tool holder; special self-centering screwdriver for gunsights; flat philips head screwdriver; chisel-point reamer; mineral crystal magnifier, fork for watch spring bars, small ruler; extension tool; spring-loaded, locking flat nose-nose pliers with wire cutter; removable screwdriver bit holder; phillips head screwdriver bit 0; phillips head screwdriver bit 1; phillips head screwdriver bit 2; flat head screwdriver bit 0.5mm x 3.5mm; flat head screwdriver bit 0.6mm x 4.0mm; flat head screwdriver bit 1.0mm x 6.5mm; magnetized recessed bit holder; tire tread gauge; fiber optic tool holder; can opener; patented locking screwdriver, cap lifter, wire stripper; reamer/awl; toothpick; tweezers; and of course, a key ring—you won’t lose your keys if this sucker is attached—guaranteed.

Of all these functions, my fave would have to be the “12/20-gauge choke tube tool” (some of use work some pretty tough gigs), but the “shortix laboratory key” sounds intriguing as well…

Wanna check it out? Just click here…


When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Click here www.jenpet.com and check ‘em out.

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