Bob Pletka

Bio

Been playing professionally for 42 YEARS!!!!! YIKES I just figured that out! OK, so 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.

My main duties here at Eurotubes are answering the phone and replying to email's and answering the phone and replying to email's and answering the phone... In-between all of this I try to think 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 current music project is Myra Lease which is an all original project as all past bands have been since 1980 when I vowed to myself never to play covers again. 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 man fears the government there is tyranny, when the government fears man there is liberty"

Influences

THE WHO, Deep Purple, The Divinyls, The Doors, Led Zep, Foo Fighters, Green Day

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 Custom Shop ASAT Jr with the chambered body

Takamine 80's acoustic/electric 12 sting for doing the Townshend thing

A 2002 American Strat

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.