When I lived in the middle of nowhere in the 1990s about 40 minutes from Hamilton I came into Danny Lanois’s orbit and asked if he would play on my record. He drove out and brought a small amplifier which an awesome sound. A local electronics guy converted old 16 mm film projectors into guitar amplifiers using their tubes. Sort of thing guitarists freak out about. Bernie Raunig was his name and so were the amps but later for short they were called Bernies. I bought one. Over time I learned of about a dozen other musicians who also owned a Bernie including Gord Downie and Maxine Pountney, later he left Hamilton for another city.
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One day in the mid 2000s while touring western Canada my amp started to fail. Some buzzing and intermittent sound. Tried replacing tubes using extras I wisely bought earlier but no difference. Can I find someone to fix an amp made from a 16 mm film projector only an hour out of Osoyoos? Good luck. I made some inquiries to an old Hamilton friend, word got back he actually moved to BC near Castlegar and I was 2 hours away. Found him in the phone book. Before you knew it I was in his garage, Bernie was repairing a Bernie, top 10 fave encounter with surrealism.