About Me:
My name is Chris Bradley, and I've lived in Gastonia for all of my 28 years on this planet earth. I'm a student at UNC Charlotte, working toward a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. I hold an Associates degree in Elec. Engineering Tech.
I'm constantly working on projects, and I enjoy building my own vacuum tube amplifiers. I enjoy cranking them up for the first time, and the look on people's faces when I tell them that I build guitar amps for fun! I've built two 50 watt Marshall style amps and a 5 watt amp from the ground up, and re-wired and repaired a multitude of other tube amps. I've played around with a few fuzz pedal circuits, but I'm better at modding them than building them. I have managed to build a PNP Fuzz Face and a couple of one transistor distortions. I hate building on circuit boards. I prefer point-to-point wiring, where the components are strung out between terminal strips. One of these days I'm going to build an effect pedal this way!
I play guitar and drums, and play around with other instruments like keyboards, harmonica, and bass guitar. I'm really the only musical person in my immediate family, at least as far as playing an instrument goes. My mom sings in the choir at church, and my dad's been asked to join the choir. My grandfather was a guitar picker, in the bluegrass/country vein. I'm into rock, old-school metal, and punk. My cousins play guitar and drums, and are into punk and heavy music in a big way. Every now and then (like Christmas & Thanksgiving) we get together and trade guitar licks.
My other big hobby is muzzle-loaders. I like shootin' my smoke-poles! I've built several Kentucky pistol kits and a couple of rifles from scratch, even a 16ga black powder scatter-gun! I'm a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association and a avid history buff. I'm fascinated by the American Civil War. I've been to most of the battlefields: Antietam, Gettysburg, Manassas, Fredricksburg, The Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Yorktown, Petersburg, Mobile Bay, Hampton Roads, and Richmond, as well as many of the Civil War era forts along the eastern seaboard. I've followed in Lee's foot-steps from the trenches around Richmond to his surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomatix. One of my muzzle-loaders is a .58 caliber rifle-musket, which I've fitted with a Vernier tang-sight, kinda like what a Reb sniper would have used to kill Billy Yank with at distances of over 500 yards! Mine is only used to kill paper targets or cans at much closer distances. I thought about getting into re-enacting, but I don't know when I'd find the time.
