TONY ROBINS BUILDS THE WELBORNE MOONDOG 2A3 SET KIT
AND
TRANSFORMS HIS LIFE

As I am writing this my feet are in a bucket of hot fire coals, I am sipping on my favorite after dinner cocktail which is one third 20/50 motor oil, one third tobacco juice, and one third anti-freeze. I am smoking a Churchill cigar to help me digest the whole barbecued moose I just had for dinner, guts, hooves and antlers included, which I killed with one shot from  my Whamo Magnum sling shot between its eyes.

The really cool thing about having a web site is that I don’t have to worry about some editor gagging me and preventing me from speaking from my heart...no matter how dark, twisted, perverse or strange it may be. Give me a break...we are living during the decade of the millionaire media sleaze monger. If Howard Stern can talk about the size of his dick, why can’t I talk about my feelings about all of those “audio Nancy boys” who have to buy those big expensive solid state amplifiers to hide the gapping big hole in their musical souls?

Are men giving dogs are bad name or are we just living in a culture where we have no heroes to model our lives on?

Here is how I convinced Tony Robins, the creator of televisions most successful “self empowerment”  programs to build his first (Welborne Moondog) single-ended triode amp, and how that process transformed his life.

So let’s start at the beginning. I believed that Tony had a false piety, that he wasn’t authentic and he was into a major hustle. For the common desperate person who attends his seminars the hole in Tony’s his soul would not be apparent, but I knew it was there for all of the obvious reasons: men who listen to music with directly heated triodes...we know more than the common man. So, I attended one of Tony’s seminars, and got very upset. He wanted to impressed the audience with his “center”   so he walked barefoot over about 20 puny feet of fire coals to prove that he had found his courage and could conquer his fears...and become a millionaire .....so buy his tapes. I just knew that Tony was into solid state sound head. What a crock of shit. I was pissed at this gigantic Nancy boy,  so I publicly challenged him, took the microphone and in front of thousands belted out....

“Tony, I can slowly walk back and forth across one hundred yards of red hot fire coals, and  I bet you $10,000 you can’t”. Tony took my dare (he had no choice), and in one month time (with hundreds of people watching and a video crew recording) I was standing in front of a one hundred yard long pit filled with red hot coals. Tony asked if he could go first...a very macho thing to do, and I agreed. Poor Tony. He got about twenty feet and he had to jump off the red hot coals because his feet were turning into  barbecue. It was now my turn, and with great bravado I very slowly walked to the end...all one hundred yards and then instead of walking back I start to dance on the coals...I did the funky chicken, the twist, rumba, and to bring even greater joy to the audience I asked them to sing along as I danced. Of course all of this was videotaped. But let here be no mistake about this......every time my feet touched the red hot coals you could hear the “hiss”, but I felt no pain.

How did I master such a feat? What kind of training had I endured so that I felt no pain? What master had trained me? Let me assure you I did not listen to Tony’s tapes. How did I triumph over this giant of media hustle?

Before I answer let me tell you what Tony did after his defeat of his feet...he had the humility and courage to come over to me and shake my hand and say...”Can you teach me how I can find my deepest level of courage to do that Gizmo?”.

This is the answer I gave Tony as he towered over me....

(1) A man has not reached his power, found his center until he has been initiated, and that means he must discover the thermionic-techno-shaman in his soul.....every man has it...he has to struggle to discover it.

(1) I build a Welborne single-ended triode amplifier kit, and

(2) Attach two inch thick sirloin steaks to the bottom of your feet with Super Glue before you step on the fire coals.

(Note: When I was done with my firewalking I removed the steak and enjoyed them with a nice glass of Chianti and an avocado salad, and then finished with a lemon sorbet)

The point being...in ancient tribal wisdom brains and cunning are more important than brawn...and if you want to be cool....don’t be a fool...use your cunning...which is why I insist that instead of  wasting your time money with those stupid self-empowerment tapes, find your courageous center by building a single-ended triode amplifier....which will save you lots of money and get you superior sound, and give you a deeper richer music cream in your life.

You don’t have to fire walk on coals to prove you have courage...unless you use the opportunity to barbecue a steak. Walking on fire coals will hurt you more than building a kit....and once you build your single-ended triode amp you will never be called “an audio Nancy boy ” .....behind your back by audio salesmen.

Yes, men are tribal and need to establish their place in their tribal hierarchy, and nothing puts you lower down than JUST spending more money to improve your sound system. Let’s face it dude...we all know the truth...if money could buy coolosity, then Donald Trump would be cool...instead of being a fool.

About a month after my encounter with Tony, UPS arrived at my door with a big box that contained Ron Welborne’s Moondog 2A3 mono amps with this note.

Dear Gizmo,

You were right. The courage to create art is the ultimate power. Accept these beautiful Welborne amps which I built as a token of my thanks for putting me on the right path...no more store bought amps for me ...and no more solid state amps for me...It feels so great to feel whole. My friend Bob, the solder slinger,  helped me overcome my fear of building this kit.

(Signed) Tony

What was synchronistically spooky about this note was that “Bob” was the friend who helped me in the 1955 overcome my fear and build my first Dynaco. (The Moondog is more complicated than a Stereo 70) Bob Schildkraut was the ultimate science nerd at Lynbrook H.S.(went on to MIT)  had the most expensive slide rule, zits, thick lens glasses, never talked to girls, and knew everything about tube circuits. I finally got up the courage to approach him and ask him if he would teach me how to read a schematic and master Dynaco.

Can we walk the walk and talk the talk dude? You can’t get from here to there without some brother’s help. You can’t learn how to ride a motorcycle unless you reach out to a brother. You can’t learn to shoot and hunt unless you reach out to some skillful brother. You can’t learn to fling a flyline and catch a trout unless a brother cares enough to respond to your “Will you help me”. You can’t learn how to climb a mountain unless you reach out to the master, and humbly say....” Will you help me?”. The process of mastery doesn’t begin until you grow up, become a man and have the courage to ask ..”Will you help me....I want to learn what you know”. And so it is with learning how to build a tube amplifier. You must reach out and find a brother who will share his skill.

(In Japan where there are well organized “tube audio schools” this process of bonding has become institutionalized)

Let me assure you that learning to build a tube amplifier is much easier than learning how to shoot and hunt, fly fish,  ride a motorcycle, and mountain climb...all of which are far more dangerous than soldering.

Even if you graduated with a degree from The Dumb School of Cooking, you can learn how to read a schematic of a single-ended triode amplifier. If you can zipper your fly and wank you have the manual dexterity to solder a beautiful joint....but someone is going to have to initiate  you in the process.

Does this seem complicated? Try paying someone (your local TV repairman) for their time because what ever expense you have will soon save you thousands of dollars, because once you can build your own equipment you will be able to build better tube amplifiers than you can buy in any store in America...trust the truth of that statement.

You can use the chat groups and local classified ads to find your solder slinging bro’. Here is a sample ad: Help Wanted: I want to build my first tube amp. Need training by technician who knows tube circuits, can teach me how to read schematics, soldering and how to us volt meter. Payment by the hour.

RON SAN

Most of you don’t know Ron Welborne, but if you met him you would swear you were staring at Toshuni Mifune in The Seven Samurai. Ron usually walks around in a simple Samurai robe and in the place of his sword is a very sharp and deadly wire stripper. Ron is such a skilled wire stripper that he can strip wire with his eyes closed while being attached by a transistor amp. Why does this matter?

Ron probably creates the most Japanese style amplifiers in America, and that is a very good thing for you..and by style I mean the piety of thermionic righteousness. This style is something that Americans are just beginning to get. You can observe this style in the Sun Audio products, and there may be other tube savants who are following this path of beauty, but I haven’t encountered them yet. (Nori Komura and Gordon Rankin are following this path, but I haven’t auditioned their works of art) What I am saying is what you know...parts quality and layout in single-ended circuits matter a greater deal because of these circuits ability to reveal the quality of dust on their tubes. But now we are talking about being able to buy a amplifier kit for way under $2K that will make you cream very economically.

This is designed to be an all hard wired kit (no circuit boards) and to exploit the best quality parts, and that includes Cerafine power supply capacitors, the best quality polypropylene and oil capacitors, super deluxe resistors, and a wire layout that maximizes tonal integrity. It employs, as does all of Ron’s amp kits, a choke and tube rectification, because to do other wise would be dishonorable for this, America’s Samurai of directly heated triode kits.

The chassis, because of its wood base and brass top plate, reminds me of a fine sailboat and that is very swell and separates this kit from the those kits that are the less expensive entry level products. Do you get my drift...this is a kit in the Japanese tradition of kits being designed for the man who doesn’t want the compromises inherent in store bought amplifiers.

This kit also exploits Electro-Print transformers which I can confidently tell you are superior to most transformers that are used in commercial products, and it is obvious that this is a big factor in the quality of this amplifiers aural matrix. These transformers, according to their specs, have a primary impedance of 3400 ohms which is right in the middle of the debate of 2,500 vs. 5,000 ohms...power vs. low distortion.

TALKING TO MOONDOG

I may be the only triode savant who ever talked to Moondog, who was a very strange blind musician who stood, during the late 1960s, on the corner of 6th Ave and 54th Street every day in New York City, dressed in American army blankets/pagan monk with a staff. I also owned his two records which were very strange and beautiful.

BUILDING THE MOONDOG

Ron San is probably right when he says this shouldn’t be your first kit, but then again, if you have bonded to your solder slinging bro’, who is guiding you, this amplifier is very simple to build because of the very open mechanical layout. But most importantly is the quality of Ron’s instruction manual which is the best kit assembly manual I have seen since the Dynaco 400 Kit instruction manual (Does anyone remember that?). There are beautiful clear drawings, colored lines and precise check off instructions. My only complaint, and this is serious, is that there are no instruction on what type of cigars to smoke, what kind of brandy to sip and what kind of music to listen to while working on this project...and...this is very peculiar for such a Samurai....no purification ceremony is indicated before the work begins. But I can forgive Ron San for these omissions, which I know he will correct in his instruction book after he read this criticism.

And the best news of all...if you should fall in love in the middle of this process with a Cameron Diaz look alike and loose interest in finishing, you can always send the unfinished kit back to Ron for completion for a very reasonable fee. I really don’t suggest this because very soon you will loose interest in the faux Cameron and your priorities will get back on target.

Ron San is also treating you like an adult intelligent human....he announces what we all know...you can tune a single-ended amplifier very simply by changing the type and brand of coupling capacitors or some strategic resistors, and even encourages you...(the man whose IQ that is above normal) to experiment. Bravo Ron San. Personally I think that anyone who manufactures a single-ended tube amp that employs RC coupled circuits that doesn’t encourage this activity has chicken shit for brains..oops....I slipped and talked like a biker...forgive me.
 

WHY SAVOR 2A3 CREAM?

There are three 2A3 paths...

(1) You have ascended to the 300B path and have been enjoying the taste and aroma of this cream and you are now, like all restless artistic men, wanting to experience something new. It makes sense to ascend to more micro power which is ascending to less power.....and yes it is absolutely true that we are talking about an extremely refined form of directly heated triode cream.

On this path you have the opportunity to experience the wonder and mystery of the KR 2A3, which is in league way above the Chinese 2A3 in its ability to put on a magic show. Again I am at the frontier of my linquistic ability to describe the ineffable beauty of this KR tube realized in the Moondog circuit.

On this path you may have reached the spiritual maturity to dive into a tube crossover and have decided to use your 300B on the woofer and 2A3 on midrange/tweeter, and this is a stunning combination and the Moondog is one of the best ways to implement that strategy.

(2) You are intrigued by the Lowther driver which can only be used with a 2A3 or 45 amplifier...according to the collective wisdom of the tribe, and based on my limited experience with this driver...right on! What I like about this combination is that it is exactly the right formula for lasting love, which always demands equal doses of suffering and pleasure...just like a horn loudspeaker. Lowthers are all about commitment, tuning and spending hours enjoying their spookiness...high efficiency, alnico, no crossover, which may be the only way for a reasonably sane man to experience the alchemy I have been preaching.

Check with Ron on the special package he offers of Lowther drivers and amplifiers...very smart....and remember you can tune this amplifier many different ways which is part of the joy of Lowtherosity.

(3) You just want to be cool. I never sit in judgment of my fellow dude, and I understand the pressure that we are all under. This is not an easy time for men, where most men are giving dogs a bad name. It may make sense to buy these amplifiers, even if you can’t use them, just to tell your friends that you are using a 2A3 amp.

WHAT IF YOU ARE TOO BUSY WITH YOUR BOWLING LEAGUE?

As of this moment these are the most refined 2A3 amplifiers I have auditioned and Ron San is prepared to sell them to you at $2,000 per pair fully assembled with Chinese tubes, making these amplifier still a bargain. If you can’t afford the KR tubes now, save your money and buy them later...they transform this amp to a higher dimension of cream. I also suggest using NOS RCA 6SN7s, and using 5U4 rectifiers....but remember experimentation and tuning rules!

WHY THE GUILDMEISTER IS LOVED AND DESPISED

It is increasingly apparent that the edge of the audio arts is not being dominated by the big tube manufacturers but by the passionate thermionic artisan, like Ron Welborne, who gives you the benefit of extremely high quality circuitry of enormous refinement, without having to pay the retailers profit margin.

Building a single-ended amplifier kit is an important initiation because it totally alters your relationship to the audio arts, and Welborne kits, as far as I can tell is the best America has to offer. Go for it. Check out Welborne Labs web site for more information.

Tune in for more of my experiments with Moondog.

LET ME KNOW YOUR 2A3 EXPERIENCES

Anyone who has some creamy info about the joy of this tube let me know...especially what speakers work well.

Yikes! I made a mistake. The fully assembled Moondogs with KR tubes sell for $1999, and $1599 with Chinese 2A3s, making them an even greater bargain.

 

Back to The Triode Guild©               Back to Meta-Gizmo   

e-mail Dr. Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg: drgizmo@meta-gizmo.com

Copyright© 2005    Meta-Gizmo.com™ and Dr. Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg      All rights reserved.
All the material contained within the above articles may not be reproduced without his express permission.