Fertile minds abound. Some of those minds are fertilised with bullshit, others must eat a lot of fish or something. This page is dedicated to inventions and projects under way by the fish-eating minds and that come within hearing distance of Blue Ring Records.

FELIX STOMP BOXES
New on the scene: hand built Felix stomp boxes. The first of these is a compensating amp that puts back into your guitar signal the little bit of grunt lost by the electro-mechanics of volume pots, sockets, jacks and leads.  Comes with gain control, bypass switch and two parallel outs to send to different amps or amp/effects and tuner.  First man to try it out was over the moon. Sweet Baby James Meston is a convert after his first taste and helped designer/manufacturer Richard Pak-Poy fine tune the device.  It’s hand built and hand wired so you’re not going to pay ex-China prices. But then, you’re not getting a piece of Chinese junk either. For more information, email Blue Ring Records  and we can pass you on to Felix Amps.
The next device coming out of the Felix shed is a buffer preamp for piezo pickups. Currently in a testing program, the device effect is subtle but use it once and you’ll have trouble going without it. The raw and robust signal from – in this test – a simple piezo pickup jammed in a double bass bridge – gets smoothed and gently limited. Straight into a powered wedge and it sounded dreamy and creamy.  Will keep you posted.

 HE"S A LEGEND IN ADELAIDE

Don Morrison is set to release Random Notes, a new solo project from the man who’s a “Legend in Adelaide”.   Look for launch gigs at the Semaphore Workers Club and The Wheatie.

 ROBBY OUT OF THE HALL CLOSET AND INTO THE LOUNGE

Robby – singer/songwriter – comes out of virtual obscurity for a one-off show at the  Cabaret Festival Fringe to showcase new material. Worldwide success with her download weeding favourite “Can’t wait to marry you” has given impetus to the outpouring of some fine jazzy, swingy tunes from this little-heard of songbird. June 20 at the Prom is the date to look for.

DEEP SOUTH PREACHER BASS
This one is an oldie but goodie. Brian West at Fretco built for a deranged customer a Deep South Preacher Bass that is 2.5 inches longer that your regular bass and tunes D-G-C-F.  It play a little slower as the strings don’t carry the  equivalent tension of a regular scale guitar but the owner loves it.