Bob Pletka

Bio I’ve been playing professionally since the Jurassic period (that would be the 60’s for you younguns) My first paying gig was in the 6th grade so I started early. Born and raised in Oregon. I've been into tubes and tube gear all my life and started Eurotubes after being introduced to The owners of JJ Electronic on a trip to Prague in 1998 where I finally ran onto tubes that could stand up to my favorite NOS tubes. In the past my main duties here at Eurotubes were answering the phone and replying to email's and answering the phone and replying to email's and answering the phone... You will still get me on the phone occasionally but since the ET crew led by my son Eddie is so good I now spend more time working on the website, planning my obsolescence and thinking outside the box when it comes to tube applications. I love trying different tubes and tube combinations in amps. Tubes are just cool. I also work closely with the good folks at JJ Electronic in the development of new products. My last music project was ‘Myra Lease” which was an all original project as all past bands have been since 1980 when I vowed to myself never to play covers again. The CD is available on Artist Direct, I-tunes, Amazon and Spotify. Although I am a keyboard player first, I write most all of what we play on Guitar and we still record to tape! Favorite Quotes "Man who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt man who is doing it!" "When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty" Influences THE WHO, Deep Purple, The Divinyls, The Doors, Led Zep, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Cold Blood Gear Whoa, this cold be a really long list. I'm a pack rat when it comes to gear so I'll list some of my favorites. GUITARS: Blond 1977 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black 1981 Gibson Fying V G&L 1998 Limited Edition Custom Shop ASAT Jr with the chambered body Takamine 80's acoustic/electric 12 sting for doing the Townshend thing A 2002 American Strat A Chery Red G&L 2500 5 String Bass My latest addition is a custom made Flying V acoustic 12 string. Yup, you read right! A local luthier named Jim Loewenherz built this for me. The body was literally hogged out from a solid 4 1/2" piece of African Black Limba. The striping in the wood you can see on the side flows right around to the back. The neck is also Limba and the top is a single piece of African Lace wood. The fret board is an old stock piece of Brazilian Rose Wood, as is the bridge piece. The sound hole as you can see in the second pic is on the top wing of the V. This worked better than expected and even though the V was designed to be played plugged in it's quite nice played acoustically. When plugged in it gets less feedback than my Tak does with a plug! The tuners are enclosed Grover's and the electronics are B-Band with an internal mic and a bridge pickup that you can mix together. The project took several years to complete but as they say, "good things take time". It is nothing short of spectacular to play and it looks pretty cool too! It plays easier than my old faithful Tak and the tone is really amazing! Soooo much wood! The mids are extremely rich and fat and really like no other acoustic I've played. The lows are tight and the high end has that 12 string "ching" but it's sweet and not thin in any way, and this thing sustains like a solid body electric! The finish is a nitro cherry burst on the front running from amber to red (the photo does not do it justice at all), the back is a very deep red. The neck is slightly burst and body is bound and the inlay work is abalone. AMPS: An Anderson 20/45 two channel, cab loaded with an Alnico Silver Bell and an Alnico Blue Dog A moderate number of Blackface Fenders including Bassman’s, Tremolux, Bandmaster etc. Old 60's SUNN amps (I collect and have about twenty pieces) A prized 1964 VOX AC50 and various VOX cabs An original Marshall 2555 Silver Jubilee and matching 4X12 Fender Prosonic A couple vintage Marshall 8X10 cabs An Orange AD30TC Head and Cab loaded with Alnico Blue Dogs Modded Peavey 5150 Mesa Dual Rec THD Univalve Me and Conrad Sundholm with                                      These three shots show most of the gear I’ve collected over the years. some of my SUNN collection. KEYBOARDS: A lovely 1957 Hammond B3 running thru two tall two speed Leslie's Roland Phantom Vintage Roland Jupiter 8 Vintage Roland Juno 60 Vintage Yamaha CP70 Electric Grand Vintage D6 Clavinet which I bought new in 1975 STUDIO and RECORDING GEAR I’ll just show a shot of my recording corner.                                                 My Keyboard rig.                                                                          My recording corner.

And then there is the PA system and lights...