It’s the 133rd episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps podcast, where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all-things-tube amp!
Want to be a part of our show? Just email us a question or voice memo to podcast@fretboardjournal.com.
Some of the topics discussed:
1:14 Skip’s 1950 Ferguson tractor, the Truth About Lawn Mowers
7:28 A zebra on the loose in Washington State
9:30: This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Amplified Parts, StewMac, and Grez Guitars.
12:28 Grez Guitars sends Skip Quique Gomez & Little Charles Baty’s Cookin’ At Greaseland
16:51 What’s on Skip’s bench? A 1953 Fender Tweed Pro that needed nearly a complete rebuild
24:14 One solution for the multiple Pignose-amp quandary from ep. 132: Radial Engineering’s Shotgun 4-Channel Amp Driver (Amazon link); 100 Vintage Hawaiian Songs (Spotify link)
30:35 Tom Gunterman’s lithium battery pack picks from ep. 132, prunes
33:51 RIP Gerald Weber (Kendrick Amplifiers)
35:56 Book recommendation: ‘The Birth of Loud’ (Amazon link)
37:39 Jason has a jdflyback handblown tube amp! (YouTube link)
40:19 A Fender Vibrochamp that doesn’t like my Les Paul, volume-dropping
45:11 Anything worth rescuing from old tube car radios?
48:55 A 1569 Altec power amplifier for guitars? Grange Hall and self-published cookbooks
53:30 A Music Man 115RP with a broken reverb
59:17 An update on last episode’s 1972 Fender Princeton Reverb, a homemade signal tracer (based on this Kley De Jong video); ‘Designing Tube Preamps for Guitar and Bass’ by Merlin Blencowe (Amazon link); tahini; ‘Servicing by Signal Tracing’ by John F. Rider
1:04:24 Why can’t I pry this tone pot off of my Harmony H-200?
1:07:10 What does using a tube pre-amp unit in front of your guitar amp actually do? Tube swapping a 6V6 or 6L6 (note: we’ll get back to this next week)
1:14:09 Skip’s handiwork on the new Taylor Swift album? (Instagram link)
1:17:24 Making a closed cabinet for my Fender Princeton
1:21:19 Are amp techs divas?
Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.
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Above: Listener Drew’s Harmony with the stubborn knob. Below: The jdflyback handmade tube amp.
Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.
Want to support our show? Join our Patreon!
