OK, two stories from Cesar....
I asked him about the chicken wire Faraday cage at Kiva Studios that Jim Gaines built. He said Jim was an idiot and, when he got the call to go down there, he walked in the room and threw that f'n thing out (he cussed a bit). Here I asked him how it might have been grounded (because the Farady cage needs to be earth grounded), and he said it wasn't grounded - it was just sitting in the middle of one of the rooms. I laughed and then asked him about the jumper boxes that he made to hook up all the amps (33?). I was curious because I know about ground loops and you either have to cut one end of the ground sleeve of every cable but one (and this one goes into an amp that needs to be grounded via a three prong AC cord). (Or you can lift all the multiple amp grounds except for one - or make the multi box out of plastic so that the grounds are not connected and then don't wire the grounds from the jacks together.) Anyway, here was what he said: I didn't lift the grounds, I just drilled out a BUD (metal) box and put as many jacks in as I could fit. ......?? So basically the amps were producing 60 cycle hum, even after Cesar got done with them. I know, I was amazed to hear this from him because I know better and I never worked for SRV.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
OK, the other story...
Cesar had loaned SRV his very clean, original Tweed Bassman for recording (and there are magazine articles about this loan). Stevie loved it, but make note, Cesar did not GIVE SRV the amp - it was just a loan. Fast forward to Stevie's untimely passing when Cesar eventually calls Jimmy Vaughan to get the amp back. (Jimmy was the main Trustee of SRV's estate, that's what Cesar told me.) OK, this is what Cesar said - and you will probably do a double take when you read this but these are Cesar's words to me. He said, 'I called Jesus's brother to get my Bassman amp. I told him it was mine and I wanted it back. Jesus's brother told me it was being 'held by the estate until a time when things could be sorted out'. Cesar expressed his thoughts on the subject to Jimmy (some profanity), but Jimmy stuck to his guns saying there was nothing he could do. Obviously Cesar was incredibly mad about this and felt betrayed. I get it. And in fairness to Cesar and the Jesus comment, I understand this too. He was saying that to him, Stevie was a normal person, a friend, someone Cesar helped along the way, and then suddenly he was exalted to god status. Imagine you loaned a friend your prized amp (and Cesar played with Bob Dylan on the road among others - he could have used the amp) and then you discover that you have no way to get the amp back. That the friendship that existed was not being honored. It would vex me, too.
OK, chew on that for a while. And if I didn't say it, I enjoyed my exchanges with Cesar and miss him. He was very unique.