By popular demand (well, at least one of you asked for it), a growing index of topics found on the Truth About Vintage Amps…
Note: This information is now compiled in an amazing Tableau page created by Ray Laliberte.
Episode 1
-Restoring a Gibson “Charlie Christian” amp from the ’30s/’40s
-Repairing amps on a drawbridge
-60Hz/50Hz hum
-Troubleshooting amps
-Solid-state rectifiers
-Recommended new vacuum tubes for amps
-The magic behind Alexander Dumble
-Skip’s influences (Les Paul, Jack Darr, Steve Melkisethian/ Angela Instruments, Earl Yarrow)
-Safe, long-term storage of tube amps
-The magic behind tube Standel amps
-Calculating the exact wattage of an amp
-Good “goos” (and how to fix a torn speaker)
-Paul Rivera-era Fenders
-The Kalamazoo Model 2
-The modern tube marketplace
-Simple tube amp maintenance anyone can do
-The limits of safely mismatching speakers to a stated amp load
-The death of guitar shows
-The Truth About Vintage Amps rant on Skip’s website
-Why you may not need a three-prong plug on your amp
-The “death cap” and the magic behind certain capacitors
-Modifying non-MASCO P/A heads as guitar amps
-Inheriting and maintaining a ’65 Super Reverb
-Amp biasing
-Learning how to read a schematic
-Different aftermarket speaker options for a Fender Champ
-The dangers of working on vintage amplifiers
-What to look for when shopping for a vintage guitar amp
-A perplexing 2000-era Gibson amplifier
-Output transformers in a Silverton 1481
-Carbon comp resistors versus metal film
-The value of an DIY amp kit
-“Converting” a Knight (or Bogen) vocal PA head into a guitar amp
-Spring Reverb, 101: How does it work, how to fix it
-Grounding tips
-Skip’s recommended multimeters and soldering irons
-Using vintage US-made amps overseas
-Making a 1968 Fender Super Reverb a little less loud
-Breaking in a new speaker
-Gigging with a ’58 Fender Vibrolux
-Octal tubes
-Skip’s thoughts on DIY amp kits
-Modding a Silverface Fender Champ
-Buying a good speaker wiring harnesses
-Keeping seldom-used guitar amps in usable shape
-Groundbreaking amplifiers through history
-The standby switch (again!)
-Craigslist shopping tips
-Replacement fuses
-A 1948 Gibson BR6 with an unusual chasis mount
-The explosive proliferation of effects pedals
-Wet/dry rigs and recommendations for an A/B box
-Tips on buying NOS vacuum tubes
-Discovering a Coastwise Electronics Model 310 amplifier
-Replacement tubes for a hand-wired Vox AC30
-Buying a transformer for a 5E3 Tweed Deluxe amp kit
-Dick Dale and the Fender Showman amp
-The differences between Fender Tweed, Brownface, Blackface and Silverface amps
-Noise floor: What’s acceptable, what indicates an amp problem
-Broken tube pins
-Using amps in stereo (safely)
-Toroidal power transformers
-Thoughts on the Universal Audio Ox attenuator and attenuators in general
-Using a Fender Champ as a tube tester
-The “bright cap mod” on a Fender Deluxe Reverb
-Skip’s mods to the Silverface Champ circuit
-Building your own kit amp
-Achieving the sound of Billy Childish without a Selmer Triumph Reverb
-Replacement bass amp speakers
-Skip replies to a critic of his WD-40 hack
-Jason’s Gibson EH-150 amp needs help
-An answer to last week’s Silverface Fender Champ baffler
-Speaker re-coning recommendations
-A buggy reissue Gibson GA-20 prototype
-Recommendations for a baritone guitar player
-Protecting an amp from the elements in damp Southeast Texas
-Running a Traynor head (or any head) on only one power tube
-Can you break an amp through loud playing/boost/effects?
-Making a reissue Blackface Deluxe Reverb sound vintage
-How to buy pre-amp tubes online
-Alternative chasis materials
-Fitting bigger speakers in a Champ cab
-Capturing the sound of Billy Childish (again)
-A ’60s Gibson Skylark with numerous issues
-A new amp baffler
-Skip takes care of a baby goat
-Who was Ray Massie (the answer to this week’s baffler)
-A Clavioline needs TLC
-Identifying a tube when you have no schematic
-The affect a speaker size has on even the smallest amps
-The Garnet Herzog mod
-The different tremolo circuit between a Blackface Deluxe Reverb and a Blackface Princeton Reverb
-Tube amp touring advice (including the often-asked, ‘Which way do I lie my amp down in the van’ question)
-Baffle board construction
-RAW switches
-Radio noise in a Fender reverb unit
-Removing tube covers
-A funky Gregory Mark XX
-Skip offers a music recommendation
:22 Skip and Jason discuss possible Truth About Vintage Amps t-shirt designs (coming soon)
2:55 Jason and Skip discuss the Fretboard Journal (modified) Fender Champ
4:26 How to install a quarter-inch output into a Champ with an RCA speaker connector
6:02 Recommended solder
8:00 Our first sponsor – Grez Guitars!
10:26 Our new Instagram page!
10:54 This week’s Baffler
12:08 A walk-through of the Fender Champ 5F1 schematic (available online, print it out)
21:10 Wall power fluctuations
26:38 Recommended tube amps for acoustic guitars
33:05 Father’s Day and the Tweed Deluxe
36:05 BB King’s Gibson Lab Series (solid state) amp
38:26 A yard-sale find pre-war Rickenbaker amp and a dim bulb current limiter
41:14 Stew-Mac’s Snufferstick, Part One
44:00 Leaning a tube amp on its stand – good or bad?
46:30 A noisy Fender silverface Princeton
49:26 Boutique amps
51:54 Recommended new components
55:22 Snufferstick, Part Two
59:40 Capturing that Champ distortion with a louder amp (and a shoutout to Tim Foster)
1:03:26 Manitoba’s Johnson Sound System amplifiers
1:06:30 Replacing old can power capacitors cleanly
1:15:15 Recommended bigger speakers / impedance for a Fender Champ
1:18:38 Converting an old Hammond AO-39 organ reverb amp to a guitar amp
1:27:15 A 1957 Fender 5F4 Super amp with an original selenium bias rectifier
1:35:13 Skip’s record picks of the week
1:38:22 Best position for the three-way ground switch on a Fender
1:40:00 Skip has to return a Weed Eater
4:00 We talk about the dramatic results of the Skip-modified Fretboard Journal silverface Fender Champ
13:17 Skip’s unusual four amp switcher / mixer / pre-amp invention
19:48 Looking at the Fender 5F1 Champ schematic, part two (listen to episode 10 to get the first part)
31:37 This podcast now has an Instagram page (please follow us)
32:30 The problem with Skip’s Ep. 10 Baffler (on Fender tremolo circuits)
34:00 This week’s Baffler: A recently-serviced Fender Princeton Reverb with noisy pots
37:08 The smell of vintage tube amps
40:42 Gibson Falcon mods
45:00 Skip’s preferred NOS tubes
51:02 Loose tubes on a Gibson GA-6 Lancer
56:38 Thoughts on vintage Magnatones and the Magnatone pitch-shifting vibrato
1:02:36 A listener with a rare Hohner Contessa CA-300 amp asks for tips on keeping terminal strip/point-to-point wiring repair tidy
1:09:44 Why the 5E3 tweed Fender Deluxe is so loud, even with the volume turned down… plus the perils of replacing vintage pots
1:13:06 More Snufferstick talk and a Fender 6G15 reverb tank that hates high humidity
1:16:38 Tips on finding a good amp tech
1:26:45 A battery-powered(!) Gretsch Safari owned by a member of the Blue Man Group (see above photo, courtesy Jeff Mezzrow)
1:29:15 Finding tube amp treasures via Ham radio enthusiasts
1:33:54 Sleuthing on the origins of a Venice-branded amplifier
1:36:06 A repaired 1966 Ampeg Reverberocket 2 with some quirks
1:43:18 A hissing 1967 Fender Vibrolux Reverb and a great Danny Gatton tale
Bonus content: Travis Wammack’s “Scratchy;” a cardiologist chimes in; Skip’s beer of choice; why you should befriend your dentist; the novels of Patrick O’Brien and much more.
2:05 Skip works on a barn-find 1960 Fender Tweed Bassman
6:10 Parenting tips
7:50 Jason confesses to Skip that he got a Stew-Mac Champ kit; DIY amp tips
12:33 Skip’s music picks of the week
16:05 Building a tube stereo amp (Dynaco Stereo 70, for music playback) versus a guitar amp
19:39 A synth repairman gets a contact high thanks to LSD residue
20:33 Disgusting things found in old amplifiers
21:16 Last week’s Baffler (a noisy Princeton Reverb, listen to episode 11) responses and answer
27:37 This week’s Baffler is the image above (and on our new Instagram page): What is the thing used for?
28:45 A listener in a hurry fixes his Les Paul thanks to Skip’s tube amp advice
30:34 Preserving (sloppy) originality on a CBS-era Fender or making it better than original
35:13 A non-reverb Silverface Fender Princeton with a weak vibrato
40:48 A reissue ‘63 Fender Vibroverb that needs more clean headroom
45:42 How do amp circuits get named?
47:40 Cleaning vintage pots
49:49: An ‘80s Tusc amp with EQ
51:06 What to do with a ‘70s Silverface Champ with no maintenance history
54:14 A ‘66 Ampeg Reverberocket with an unusual distortion sound
1:01:18 A ’69 Fender Bassman with both fixed and cathode bias
1:05:20 Rebuilding an amp found in a Hammond M-3 organ and melted wax on power transformers
1:07:52 A glimpse at the Fender Musicmaster Bass amps
1:11:40 Differences between an amp schematic and layout
1:13:24 A bargain Ampeg cabinet with four Altec 417 speakers
1:15:28 Sleeper pedal steel amp recommendations
1:17:00 An ‘80s Mesa Boogie SOB amp with a red-plating 6L6BC tube
1:20:01 Alternatives to the 6C10 tube on a ’82 Fender Super Champ
1:22:40 Negative feedback: What is it? Adjusting it…
1:29:21 A 1963 Gibson Discoverer Tremolo (GA-8T) amp with too much treble
1:32:01 Skip’s brief tutorial on speaker efficiency
3:27 Skip’s roll call of who is getting an A/B box
5:11 We discuss episode 12’s Baffler, the 3 Channel Psychedelic Control Center
9:10 A new Baffler!
11:44 An unlikely backup amp suggestion
14:30 This episode’s sponsors: Grez Guitars and Mono Cases (and TAVA t-shirts, coming soon)
17:00 Little Charlie’s Spanish rice (yes, our first recipe)
18:22 More parenting tips
19:11 A preview of our next amp schematic 101
22:34 More Champ mod talk: One difference between Blackface and Silverface Fender Champs, the Hammond 290AX transformer
27:38 Gain stage: What makes an amp distort
32:14 Bringing a Blackface Fender Tremolox with a solid state rectifier back to stock
37:21 A ’60s Kay 704 “Vanguard”
43:54 An amp motherlode in Lodi, California
45:35 A Princeton Reverb with a pilot light that is too bright
48:43 A Gibson GA-20 RVT found in a trash bin
54:28 Channel jumping and a vintage Airline Model 62-9013A
1:01:48 The pop you hear turning off your amp
1:07:03 A speaker dilemma on a 1962 Brownface Deluxe
1:09:28 Converting a PA head to a tube mic pre-amp
1:14:20 Turning an old tube radio into a guitar amp
1:18:18 Norwegian lues and Helge Tallqvist
1:19:11 This week’s recommended music
1:20:49 High-powered tube amps and the Hiwatt 400 bass amp
1:25:32 Using a light bulb limiter instead of a variac
1:27:34 Speaker replacement on a Gibson GA-40
1:31:50 A tribute guitar repairman Glen Quan, inventor of the Badass bridge
2:18 We have Truth About Vintage T-shirts (support the show!)
5:33 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars, Martin, Gibson and Carter Vintage
6:29 The Epiphone version of a Gibson Falcon
9:00 More cooking tips with Skip
12:12 Skip can’t find his schematic
12:30 Thrifty Leo [Fender]
14:12 More music tips: Bix Beiderbecke, Ned Boynton
18:00 Skip’s looking for someone to recone field coil speakers
19:35 Skip talks about his Champ mods, once more
24:45 The final Baffler
28:06 Correction re: Guitar Center’s return policy
29:28 A listener with an interesting way to use an electric amp with an acoustic guitar
33:27 The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound
37:12 Skip’s test guitar and cheap British amp recommendations
43:00 Skip’s test cabinet
45:15 A 1968 Fender Pro Reverb with a delayed vibrato
47:32 What’s a tone stack?
51:15 Pinpointing the buzz on a Silverface Fender Princeton
54:35 Class A, Class A/B and single-ended power tube arrangements
59:17 Tips on looking at vintage Gibson amps
1:02:48 A listener fixes his own Gibson Discoverer Tremolo
1:08:00 The triode mode used on high-powered amps
1:14:01 A brief chat about Dumble
1:18:44 A mid-60s Epiphone Galaxy that’s won’t turn off
1:20:23 Salvaging parts from a heavily modified Blackface Fender Bassman
1:24:30 Discussing changes on an early 1969 Fender Twin Reverb
1:29:50 Making homebrew amps sound less civil
1:33:11 Making a late ’50s Sylvania powered speaker amp work better as a guitar amp
1:42:12 Modding PA heads to work for guitars
2:40 New goats!
5:34 The search for good amp repair people (introduce yourself!)
8:10 Music pick of the week: Thee Lakesiders
9:00 New sponsor: the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery
10:15 Cooking on amps: Hot dogs and the tale of Leslie West’s meatball sub (thanks, Greg!)
12:37 An answer to last week’s Baffler
13:44 Digging deeper into the Fender 5E1 Champ schematic
17:07 Skip’s stir fry recipe
23:27 A listener searches for a vintage tube amp book [Update: It can be found online here.]
28:03 New shirt ideas; working on tube AM radios
35:32 Quieting the ticking tremolo of a Silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb
44:20 Evaluating a 1966 Epiphone Pacemaker and a National Studio 10
50:13 The tonal and volume difference between 10 and 12-inch speakers
53:20 A 1965 Ampeg Reverberocket GS-12R transformed by a replacement vintage Alnico speaker
56:20 Low-watt alternatives for a Marshall lover
1:01:51 The “thing” that Fender Bandmasters do
1:08 Pros/cons of pulling the V1 tube on two-channel Blackface amps
1:12:08 A ’65 Pro Reverb with a splashing reverb noise
1:17:08 Joshua Yenne’s Falcon shootout: https://youtu.be/I16kPtGSAFw
1:17:46 A listener avoids a bad amp trade thanks to Skip
1:24:50 Skip’s take on a kit 5E3/5E5 Proluxe
1:28:35 A sag resistor to make a Fender Pro Jr. sound squishier
1:31:32 Another music pick: Van Morrison’s “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You”
1:50 Jason starts his Stew-Mac Tweed Champ kit, Skip offers soldering tips
9:33 Skip offers some new surplus aluminum amp chassis
11:05 An A/B box update
13:50 Skip’s latest projects: A Blackface Fender Bassman and a Blackface Bandmaster
15:52 An eBay score: A bargain Park-branded Marshall JTM45
20:16 TAVA t-shirt updates
22:25 Sponsors: Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery & Grez Guitars
24:30 Any female amp techs out there? (Shoutout to @fazioelectric!)
31:20 Finding an amp’s EQ sweet spot via hearing the greatest amount of change on the knobs
41:30 Higher-wattage single-ended amps
48:30 A 1960 Epiphone Pacemaker that breaks up too soon
54:15 What type of wire(s) for a vintage-style Fender clone?
1:01:00 The next steps after building a Champ
1:10:05 The horrible distortion on an Ampeg V4
1:16:20 Damage from powering a tube amp without a speaker
1:21:28 Two amp reverb from vintage Gibson, Gretsch and Supro amps
1:28:24 Fender combo speaker output 101
1:35:47 Skip’s cheap speaker cabinet tips
1:42:24 Noisy filament wire in Filmosound conversions
1:47:48 Oldies.com
1:50:19 Digging deeper into the Champ schematic
1:57 Skip’s A/B box update
2:50 Skip’s music picks: Curtis Mayfield!, Larry Norman!, Stryper!
10:11 Skip’s video pick: Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer performing Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”
12:00 TAVA shirt updates
12:22 Skip’s amp packing recommendations
14:05 Jason asks all the dumb Champ build questions you’re scared to ask
32:33 A higher-powered single-ended amp recommendation (a contemporary Supro Comet)
39:36 The 18-watt WEM Dominator V and a plug for David Minter’s Marshall and UK Made Pre Owned Amplifiers Facebook group
45:22 The amps built inside Fender Rhodes
48:12 “Blackfacing” a 1975 Fender Bassman
51:03 A unique 5F1 build and a question about speakers with whizzer cones
58:59 A Model 21 National-Dobro-made amp-in-case
1:02:54 Cloning the DeArmond R5 amp
1:08:52 Oddball European tube amps
1:11:34 The pros and cons of FX loops
1:17:38 The sonic differences between octal and 9-pin pre-amp tubes
1:25:03 Does a 2×12 speaker need a baffle
1:29:48 Uncle Doug videos
1:31:17 Harmonic tremolo
1:34:48 The rare Fender Vibroverb
1:46:20 A terminal board rattle
2:40 Jason brings home a Marshall Mercury
13:40 Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders
17:47 A request for a deeper dive into the Fender Champ schematic
24:34 Skip sells his Fender Tremolux head; an Ampex 960 reel-to-reel for free
27:45 Pat Boone’s recording console
30:45 Putting a VU meter in a Champ?
34:10 Truth About Vintage Amps shirts update: Shipped!
34:34 This week’s sponsor:Grez Guitars
37:20 More soldering advice
38:42 Scratchy pot tips (spoiler alert: WD-40)
41:43 An ’80s Fender Concert
47:08 A Vibroluxe Reverb versus Deluxe Reverb and the sonic difference between 10″ and 12″ speakers
57:25 Ray Massie’s The Vibe amp
59:30 18-watt Marshalls and a listener’s clone attempt using a Rauland PA amp platform
1:06:34 A 1955 Tweed Bassman with nearly all-new parts
1:10:32 When to replace drifted resistors
1:12:30 Converting a Fender PA-100 into a guitar amp
1:14:16 How many watts from a 6L6?
1:17:40 The Vingtor amp from Norway (and fixing a tremolo)
1:23:53 More Champ kit tips (wiring tube sockets)
1:25:22 A proposed Skip certification program
1:26:52 Coffee advice (Amazon link for the lazy)
1:29:40 Soap advice (Amazon link for the lazy)
1:31:50 Getting a 1965 Fender Princeton Reverb reissue rewired by Alessandro
1:37:45 Bad solder joints and troubleshooting a DIY 5F1 that stopped behaving
3:06 Soup hacks
4:01 An affordable, American-made boot
5:41 Frampton plays B.B. King
9:00 Site specific amp problems
12:37 Recommended Music: Joe Craven & the Sometimers’ ‘Garcia’s Songbook,’ Aretha Franklin’s ‘Aretha’s Gold’ and Charlie Musselwhite’s ‘Stand Back’
18:36 Skip goes to Harvard
20:04 Parenting tips
30:06 Today’s sponsor: Grez Guitars
32:15 More Larry Norman talk and props to Jon Linn
33:02 Solder or “sodder”
35:05 Skip’s recommended vintage tube supplier and advice on replacing tubes
40:22 Putting a solid state rectifier in a tweed-style amp
49:00 Fixing an output transformer in a 1961 Fender Brownface Pro
56:07 Hi-fi tube amps and phono pre-amp basics
1:04:06 A ’67 Fender Bassman that was plugged into a DI box
1:09:14 More output transformer talk: Ampeg Reverberocket
1:11:26 A vintage Niviko MA120X Japanese amp
1:19:06 A 1968 Fender Super Reverb with a rattle
1:25:34 The “trimmer” in a ’60s Silvertone 1431
1:28:40 Dirty power, an electric fence and an early ’60s Gibson Skylark
1:34:33 Changing the head gasket on a Subaru Forester
1:35:25 More on the trimmer on a Silverton 1431
1:38:28 Car talk
1:43:36 A Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a busted volume pot
1:47:52 A clean, high-headroom, low volume steel amp
1:52:15 A Fender Silverface Champ vs Blackface Champ
1:50 John Lennon in Sacramento
3:17 A quick story about Earl Yarrow
12:20 Western Electric hi-fi collecting
14:40 Music recommendations: The Originals; Skip Mahoney & the Casuals; Julie London; “On the Alamo”
17:28: This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars and Mono Cases
18:15 Skip addresses the critics (grounded cords, replaced caps)
30:02 “Solder,” revisited
31:39 Removing the ground hum from two amps running together
34:50 Making an amp out of a sushi platter; recommended needle nose pliers
38:27 6L6s in a Deluxe Reverb
42:41 Skip on your voicemail
45:20 President Skip?, practicalities of running an attenuator
50:33 Acoustic tube amps, revisited
54:45 A 1968 Princeton non-reverb lacking volume
57:47 Other vintage Gibson amps
1:03:00 The truth about unmodified Gibson Falcons and Silverface Champs
1:09:41 Vox Pacemakers overview
1:12:24 The unique properties of a Fender Bassman
1:15:38 Using pre-amp tubes as a power tube
1:19:40 Learning soldering and circuits from simple pedal kits and the Little Ruby
1:24:58 Running a Champ through a Variac versus a Hammond 290AX power transformer
1:27:44 A 1963 Fender Vibrolux with treble hiss
1:35:14 Speakers for a 1965 Ampeg Reverberocket 2 GS-12R
1:39:44 Non-lead solder
1:43:54 Biasing a cathode bias amp
1:49:49 Measuring plate current
1:54:57 The Baffler returns!
8:00 Cloning vintage knobs (video link, h/t John from Australia!)
9:34 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars, Roberto-Venn
11:01 An open call for our first live caller
13:39 Bartell guitar history (site link)
14:49 Skip’s schedule
16:49 More Solder-gate
17:15 Single-ended, parallel twin power tube amps
21:18 WD-40 to the rescue, again
23:28 Unwanted noise from an Echoplex
32:02 Lower B-plus voltage on a Blackface Fender
37:38 Tweed Princeton with a choke vs a resistor
44:18 Speaker cable vs guitar cable (and a sad bird tale)
53:46 Skip’s soup tips
56:43 The story behind the TAVA intro music
57:44 Sal Trentino and a Standel 80L15 schematic
1:05:22 Asking boutique makers for their schematics
1:10:37 Dr. Z’s new Jetta amp and the story behind the 7591 power tube
1:15:25 Figuring out what’s original in a 1953 Fender Tweed Deluxe (5B3)
1:18:14 How noticeable are bad caps?
1:26:06 A solid state Peavey Firebass 700 that won’t stop power cycling
1:29:00 An AmpRX BrownBox for a Brownface Deluxe
1:31:57 Skip’s picks: Treme; Aretha Franklin’s ‘Amazing Grace’; ‘Harlan County, USA; ‘The House That Trane Built’; the Recordium on YouTube; “Wherever You Go” by Skip Mahoney
1:37:00 Cheap Amazon variacs
1:39:41 Mystery tubes in a 1960 Lafayette tape deck
1:44:16 Putting the 5U4GB back into a 1969 Fender Princeton
1:51:29 Cooling off an amp that runs hot
1:37 Charles Baty (Little Charlie & The Nightcats! Little Charlie & Organ Grinder Swing!) joins us: Termite tales, Spanish rice hacks and amp tips from the road
43:09 Movie recommendations: ‘Wattstax’; ‘Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey’
44:16 Skip plays a gig
46:30 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars
46:55 Robert Keeley (!) calls in on Dean’s Echoplex woes (a follow-up fromTAVA #21)
50:24 A ’68 Fender Vibrolux reissue with a wonky footswitch
54:16 Replace a two-prong cord with a three-prong cord
57:29 “Getting to ‘no’ you;” “Suzie Q,” the Instant Pot, mashed potatoes and hot dogs
1:04:10 An amp with a noisy front plate
1:06:27 Instrumental music picks (Leo Kottke, Nels Cline), Skip’s early music influences
1:12:19 Future TAVA interviews plans
1:14:25 “Why we don’t replace all vintage electrolytic capacitors” video (YouTube link)
1:18:00 Robben Ford’s Dumble-modified Fender Super Reverbs
1:24:29 Why don’t amps have no-speaker protection?
1:31:53 AC568 Bassman amps, Fender grounding plates, sources of hiss, the 500 pF Baffler
1:37:55 Music picks: Erkin Koray’s ‘Elektronik Turkular’ and Bloodstone’s “Natural High”
1:39:07 Bogen PA heads and Harvey Mandel’s fuzz tone
1:43:43 Replacing drop capacitors in Victoria amps
1:49:47 Canada, part one: a Traynor YGL-3, Mark III with no input signal
1:53:14 Canada, part two: Sleeper Canadian amps (Garnet, Traynor, Johnson); check out the Corry Boys
1:57:00 An (almost) free vintage speaker (act fast)
1:58:15 Coffee in a can updates
1:05 “Naming calls” and PG&E
2:33 A/B box updates
3:00 The TAVA “book club” launches: Order the Angela Instruments’ tweed Princeton article and schematic (PDF, use at your own risk)
9:18 John Vanderslice (singer-songwriter, musician, Tiny Telephone Recording!) joins us: Living room shows, eating on the road, Gibson Falcons, mics for recording amps, Stromberg-Carlson pre-amps, surviving the music industry
1:01:40 Brian, the speaker re-coner at Weber Speakers: https://www.tedweber.com/recone-services/
1:03:03 Erick Coleman’s amp tech recommendation: Paul Schmittauer (email us)
1:04:08 Great Goo: Pepper Plant hot sauce (Amazon link: https://amzn.to/33orYLq)
1:05:40 Epiphone Pacemaker amps
1:07:23 Misspelled “Colombia” Fender amps
1:08:52 How multiple inputs work on amps
1:11:57 Using the second input on a Fender as a line-out
1:14:14 Amp builder Bob Gjika (Gjika Amplification), the mojo behind single-ended amps
1:20:09 A noisy Peavey Delta Blues 115
1:24:44 Solder in Italy (Soldergate revisited)
1:26:17 Breaking-in new tubes; upgrading parts in a Champ kit
1:32:00 What’s on Skip’s bench
1:33:01 Sano accordion tube and Audio Guild amps (see our Instagram for photos)
1:38:07 Skip on biasing
1:43:00 St. George amp heads, built by Ray Massie
1:46:50 The lifespan of tweed Fender caps
1:49:17 The “Fountain of Sound” Ampeg JS-35
1:53:02 Music recommendation: Pat Martino’s ‘El Hombre’; the Guild Double Twin combo guitar amp
1:55:43 Music recommendation, part two: The Nat Turner Rebellion’s cover of “Going in Circles”
1:56:43 Parenting tips: Classic Walt Disney movies
1:58:15 Slowing the tremolo rate in a blackface Fender
2:00:58 6973 power tubes in Supro amp
2:02:28 Replacements for a 6c10 tube found in an ’80s Fender Super Champ
2:06:38 Working on a Montgomery Ward 55 JDR 8436
2:10:49 Tube naming 101
2:13:16 Our forthcoming one year anniversary, a brief state of affairs
9:49: This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (link)
10:35 The Fretboard Journal’s Electric Guitar Annual, Vol. 2 (pre-order here)
>11:56 The TAVA First Year anniversary celebration: Win a Tweed Champ kit from Stew-Mac (Instagram link) !!!
15:26 Who wants to order a TAVA hat like this one? Email us…
18:36 Skip on our Angela Princeton reprint
24:36 Transformer 101
35:35 Amps for harp players
43:26 Building your first bass amp
51:54 Using an ART tube pre-amp in front of a guitar amp
55:18 A Traynor YBA-1 Bass-Master with a sensitive master volume
59:18 British vs. American amp tone
1:04:22 Another listener recommended amp tech: Tyler at Boss Organ in Somerville, Mass.
1:10:11 DeArmond amps
1:16:57 Bringing a Gibson EH-150 back to life
1:22:34 Kenny Burrell’s ‘Midnight Blue’
1:24:17 Craig Korth on the Fretboard Journal Podcast and the Ray Butts EchoSonic amp (link)
1:25:58 Salvaging stuff from a dead RCA film projector for a Princeton Reverb clone
1:34:32 A 1972 Fender Super Reverb with a weak tremolo; plus, what is an opto-coupler?
1:41:54 Trying different tubes on a Music Man Sixty-Five Reverb
1:48:35 KTNN: The Voice of the Navajo Nation
1:18 The TAVA Index (with a nod to Harper’s magazine)
6:55 What’s on Skip’s bench?
8:49 Speaker reconing: Scumback speakers
10:46 Skip’s Christmas wish list: A Subaru replacement, a break from phone calls
13:42 TAVA givewaway: A Stew-Mac Tweed Champ kit!
14:12 Our Angela Instruments amp project download
15:35 Manbroidery’s two-prong patch / a potential Ebbett’s Field Flannels hat
17:00 Yet another giveaway: An A/B box or $125 Skip labor credit
19:40 Skip gets a tractor
24:14 Dual rectifier tubes and Sag 101
28:40 Jason tries to get a special guest
31:29 Cabbage and mushrooms
35:00 Cabinet glue
40:49 Fender’s White amplifiers
44:09 Choosing a Fender for your band
48:12 How Skip drains filter caps
51:35 Lafayette amplifiers
54:28 A 1971 Fender Bassman (AA371) with stray voltages
59:23 Making an Ampex 602A work for guitar
1:11:32 Splitting a 2×12 speaker cab
1:15:19 Using a looper pedal to help with soundchecks (h/t Julian Lage)
1:16:50 Music recommendation: Red Norvo
1:18:12 Budweiser Copper Lager and cast iron pans
1:25:43 A Cornell Romany Pro that goes through power tubes
1:33:34 Book review: Maurice J. Summerfield’s The Jazz Guitar
1:34:32 Light bulb limiters
1:36:56 A Princeton Reverb-style amp with a pull-switch on the volume control
1:41:35 A Classic Tone 5E3 power transformer with one metal washer
1:43:35 A history of phase inverters
1:46:02 More new parallel, single-ended amps
1:46 An update on the Angela 5F2 Princeton schematic/article
4:23 TAVA Podcast Giveaways: A Stew-Mac Champ kit; an A/B box from Skip (winners to be announced during Ep. 27)
12:43 Reserve one of Manbroidery’s two-prong TAVA hats (Instagram link)
14:33 More cast iron
17:26 Triad Electronics’ return to guitar amp transformers, via Benson Amps
25:02 Charles Baty returns: Red Norvo, Tal Farlow, Chico Hamilton, Red Garland & Chile Colorado!
48:21 Gibson GA8T (Discoverer) amps
51:14 A 1966 Fender Vibro Champ with a mystery hum
57:02 Silverface Fender Champs versus 1960s Gibson Skylark / Atlas / etc.
59:11 Sonic variations between matching and serviced vintage Fender amplifiers
1:03:59 Using a Variac and a power strip to power up multiple amps simultaneously
1:07:53 Vintage guitar amps with built-in legs
1:12:25 A request for a single-episode Champ schematic walk-through
1:12:46 25uf cathode bias 12ax7 cathode-bypass caps on Champs
1:17:19 Getting up to speed on electronics basics
1:20:08 Amp class
1:23:14 Buck Nickels and Loose Change – “Makin’ Wine” (Larry Cragg in action! YouTube link.)
1:23:39 A new speaker configuration for a Danelectro DS100 cab
1:28:08 Gibson Invader amps
1:31:11 Grid leak biasing vs. cathode biasing
1:34:56 Modifying the Angela dual-singled amp with Russian 6P1P-EV tubes
1:36:35 Australia, Toyota Land Cruisers and fly fishing guides
1:38:43 Swollen caps in a 1979 Fender Deluxe Reverb; tips on drilling holes in a chassis
1:20 Skip’s A/B box setback
3:00 A winner for our Stew-Mac Champ kit
4:40 A question for our Australian listeners
6:07 A glitchy Ampeg Reverberocket
7:09 Skip heads to a vintage guitar show
12:00 @manbroidery two-prong hat update, let us know if you want one (Instagram link)
15:22 Old carbon comp resistors and Domino caps in an amp kit build
20:23 Testing caps for leakage
24:58 Running a synth through a tube amp
28:33 The timing on Kenny Burrell’s “Chitlins con Carne”
30:07 Music recommendation: The Joe Mooney Quartet (YouTube link)
31:17 The rationale for crazy amps like the Baldwin Exterminator
35:53 The sushi boat amp update; Rob Robinette’s tube amp page; micro amps
40:40 1960s Guild Thunder series amps
43:52 New cast iron (link, link, link); rum & tonic
46:24 The Big Index page: fretboardjournal.com/tavaindex
46:58 Wear and tear from maxed out amp settings
48:25 Restoring (and storing) a blown Oxford speaker
50:52 Where the magic happens in a non-master volume tube amp
59:00 Tips re: Little Charlie’s Chile Colorado
1:04:43 The speaker driven out / monitor jack on a Gibson Falcon
1:09:34 Tinkering with a one-tube reverb circuit
1:12:11 Modding a Gibson GA-5 Les Paul Jr. reissue amp
1:18:01 Thoughts on the Fender Musicmaster Bass amps
1:23:10 A cheap Variac hack with a current meter (eBay link; eBay link)
1:29:00 Safely using a ‘60s Supro Bantam “widowmaker” amp
1:33:08 Adding a polarity switch to an amp without one
1:35:36 Effects pedals between an amp and its speaker?
1:37:50 ART tube pre-amps (revisited) and Skip’s preferred tube preamps
1:42:00 Output transformer spec basics
2:13 Skip gets a $25 guitar; Jason goes to NAMM
11:05 Marc Silber’s inventory
14:16 Skip meets Grez
17:43 Tyler wins of our Union Bean Counter Tone Druid pedal giveaway (correct answer: Tom Waits)
19:17 Tyler’s fish taco recipe (email us)
20:29 A very clean Fender Tweed Deluxe
22:00 Joe Craven and Bruce MacMillan covers the Dead
23:24 Australians respond to Skip’s Robert Hughes query
23:51 More on Brent’s bargain Variac with a current meter hack
26:46 Leaving an amp on for a week
29:33 Vintage wire that just won’t solder
31:33 The Fender Greta as a pre-amp
34:02 The JHD Ice Cube Sustain Coupler (link)
37:43 The dangers of running an effect between an amp and a speaker cab
38:43 Changing a 1952 Gibsonette GA-8 from a field coil to regular magnetic speaker
42:30 Increasing the headroom on a Peavey Classic 50
45:45 Substituting a 5Y3 with a 5V4 in a 5E3 Deluxe
49:16 A 1950s Gibson GA-6 with an adapter for a 12AX7 pre-amp tube; more rectifier tube talk
51:50 Marshalls versus Fenders and the difference between 6V6/6L6 and an EL34/EL84
54:26 A Canadian Gibson Falcon that needs a massive overhaul
55:47 Choosing an amp for re-heating food
59:49 Little Charlie’s Chile Colorado, revisited
1:02:05 Export model Silverface Fenders
1:04:16 Questions on Angela’s Super Single-Ended Amp
3:34 Skip goes to see Temple Grandin
10:20 A Facebook group for the TAVA Podcast?
10:48 Manbroidery’s Two Prong Hat update
11:16 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars
12:57 A noisy reverb thanks to vintage tubes
15:55 Cooking (on amps) with Billy Cowsill; a hot Flotatone
21:41 Using DC voltage to heat tubes for quieter operation (the 2020 Soldano SLO-100, Otis amps, other examples)
26:58 Using an amp as a pedal platform (tube vs solid state)
32:39 A successful 5F1 copy and liability concerns when selling boutique tube amps
38:42 Why can’t they fit reverb into a Fender Vibro Champ?
41:51 Evolution of the Fender Deluxe Reverb reissues
45:15 Power for an outboard EQ section DIY project
48:28 A new DIY project: Changing the power transformer of a Fender Twin Reverb and modifying it for 6V6s to reduce weight
52:17 What to do with a non-working Gibson Hawk?
55:09 Why do tube amps sound better after a few hours of use?
58:59 Correct fuse for a 1973 Fender Champ
1:02:21 Replacement speakers in a vintage Gibson Skylark
1:06:18 Where to grab a chassis before removing it?
1:08:08 Laurens Hammond vs Donald Leslie
1:12:00 Tips on speaker cabinet construction
1:15:26 Discrepancies in the Angela SSE schematic
1:23:06 Listener Nate’s favorite hot & sour soup recipe (link)
1:23:36 A failing 5Y3 rectifier at a gig
1:28:51 Troubleshooting a weak channel on a 5D3 Tweed Deluxe
1:35:07 Coffee from Mechanicsburg, Ohio (Hemisphere’s Redline Roast, link)
4:10 The hillbillies from Olivehurst: A cursed Gibson GA-15RVT and an early ’60s Gibson Melody Maker
11:09 A 1951 Fender Tweed Pro with a factory field coil speaker (with one end on the B+, the other end grounded)
14:38 A TAVA Facebook group? Looking for moderators (inquire within)
18:44 Frito Chili Pie
20:42 Biasing for Class A Fixed, Class A/B and Cathode biasing; A Fender 5F2A’s inverse negative feedback
30:49 Built-in power attenuators
35:40 Installing a headphone output jack on a vintage Fender Champ
37:16 The future reputation of modern amp builders (Carr, Dr. Z, Bartel, etc.)
47:04 More on Skip’s Retropolitan amps
50:35 Breaking-in a speaker with a looper pedal
53:49 Music recommendations: Stanley Turentine, Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Shirley Scott
55:21 What’s wrong with Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s amp on his 1946 recording “That’s All Right”?
57:35 Vintage Australian amps: Goldentone, Vase & Moody
58:34 A Fender Blues Deville with too much reverb
1:00:58 The “tone expander” switch on a Gibson GA30RV “Invader”
1:02:20 Vintage Gibson cabinet talk: Redwood? Any available reproduction cabinets?
1:05:54 Music recommendation: ‘Unshaven: Live at Smith’s Olde Bar’ by Shaver
1:07:34 A John Vanderslice / Tiny Telephone update
1:09:07 Mac & cheese revisited
1:10:15 Picky goats
1:11:12 Selmer Triumph Reverb schematic
1:13:50 Grounding schemes, halloumi cheese
1:21:17 Special guest: Chris Benson of Benson Amps! (Triad transformers, new releases, granola, cast iron)
1:39:19 Replace the bypass cap on your silverface Champ
1:40:10 Rodriguez & Searching for Sugar Man
1:42:01 Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five and Hot Seven
1:32 Skip tries to stay in the middle
5:04 Little Charlie Remembered
13:47 The hillbilly amp bought on eBay by listener @scschooling on Instagram (link)
14:49 Adam Grimm (Satellite Amps) builds a motion controlled boost with a mercury thermostat
16:08 Skip on Selmer amps, again
18:42 Making a Fender Acoustasonic Junior road worthy
24:13 Play through an amp while you’re warming it up with a Variac?
29:43 Cramming a 10″ speaker into a Champ kit
31:21 A 1956 Gibson GA-40 Les Paul amp that doesn’t match the schematic
36:38 Smoked glass tubes
39:40 A project for a late ’40s / early ’50s Magnavox mono amp; plus, beans
46:38 “Why is Mesa Boogie so bloody minded and contrary?” asks an Australian listener
52:28 Special guest: Executive Chef Chris Robertson (Southpark Seafood, Portland, Oregon)
1:11:36 Harmonic tremolo and tremolo vs. vibrato circuits; Travis Wammack, “It’s Karate Time” (YouTube link)
1:15:54 Pots that say 250k, but are actually 120k
1:18:25 A Brownface Princeton with 250k volume pots
1:21:52 Breakup on a Fender Deluxe 5E3
1:28:08 Comparing a 1962 Magnatone Custom 440 to a Fender counterpart
1:33:20 A Magnatone M7 with a mysterious foil wrapping around a coupling cap
1:37:35 Don’t Be Me: A listener’s speaker-replacing follies
1:42:30 Options for replacing a reverb tank in a ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb
1:46:44 Recommending reading: ‘Shop Class as Soul Craft,’ ‘Trustee from the Toolroom’
1:52:08 Recommended watching: The Repair Shop (Netflix), homeschooling hacks
1:56:35 A 1963 Gibson GA-5T Skylark (Crestline series) with an annoying tremolo
2:02:02 Skip’s trip to Marijuanaville
2:05:27 Nesting with Netflix: Shetland; The Detectorists; Inspector Morse, Lewis; Better Call Saul; Trailer Park Boys
2:09:41 When is a vintage amp no longer a vintage amp?
8:04: Good Goo: TR3, SiliKroil
11:53 Our new Facebook Group (link)
13:13 Vacaville, CA’s hardware store (Pacific Hardware)
15:32 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars
16:44 The Fretboard Journal’s #FJFest (TAVA listeners will enjoy seeing DJLavalamp’s Treble Booster operation or TJ Thompson’s shop tour)
19:30 The lettered squares on an amp layout
21:05 Skip’s starter kit for aspiring amp tinkerers: Solder iron, solder, needle nose pliers, wire cutters, a stainless steel brush (and the Jack Darr book, of course)
26:06 Modding a 5F2A from China / Reverse Feedback
29:52 Jim Campilongo’s Silverface Princeton woes (NOS tube problems)
34:30 The Mullard Factory Tour on YouTube (link)
35:04 Damage from looping through a vintage amp?
41:40 Fixing a buzzy 1979 Musicmaster Bass amp
46:30 Skip’s desert island amp
48:25 How did Skip and Jason meet?
52:21 Troubleshooting white noise on an amp
56:40 Running a dummy load on a stereo amp to go mono
1:00:00 1974 Fender Champ with a cat in the amp
1:05:48 A new Baffler! Ralph Shine & Sylvia Massy trivia!
1:07:38 NOS tubes recommendation: Fbenkor on eBay
1:08:26 Otis Amps
1:13:41 Skip makes a service call to Roman Coppola (Story & Clark “Storytone” Electric Piano)
1:18:35 Skip’s travel toolkit
1:20:30 Sticking reverb in a Vibrochamp (link and link)
1:21:19 A Premier 90 Reverberation with stretched-out springs
1:23:58 Groovy tunes: Skip Mahoney’s “Wherever You Go;” Grant Green’s ‘Street of Dreams;’ William de Vaughn’s “Be Thankful for What You Got;” Timmy Thomas’ “Why Can’t We Live Together”
5:24 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (link)
6:01 Jimmy from the Deadlies and his 5D3 Tweed Deluxe
8:13 Rustic Kegger in the Woods origin
8:48 Recommended reading: White Bicycles by Joe Boyd
9:42 A 1960 Gibson GA-6 Lancer with inputs that keep cutting out
15:34 What’s the deal with the 1954 Fender Super?
20:02 Who was Glen Quan?
21:56 Servicing a Sears Silvertone 1482
30:05 The Magnatone 280 owner’s manual
32:23 A Fender Tonemaster with a pop
41:30 The roots of tremolo with Hammond, DeArmond, etc.
44:13 A 1987 Marshall JCM-800 2210 picking up ham radio signals
52:40 Special guest: Sam Bolle (Dick Dale!)
1:09:10 A Hammond AO-35 amp conversion project
1:14:11 Seasoning cast iron pans
1:15:18 AmpRX BrownBox attenuator use
1:19:00 A steel player’s pre-amp tube needs, spiral filament design
1:22:26 What’s on Skip’s bookshelf (Trustee from the Toolroom; All Music Guide to the Blues)
1:25:16 Cartoons that adults want to watch
21:39 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (link)
22:33 A Musicmaster Bass amp in a Vibro Champ cabinet (and vice versa)
25:19 The crest on a Gibson Crestline-era Skylark / the Gibson amp book (link)
27:49 A resistor to bias a tweed Vibrolux; power transformers in a 5F2A
38:51 Using the speaker of a Deluxe Reverb with a Quilter head
42:34 A Silverface Vibro Champ with a weak tremolo; the Capacitor Wizard
47:55 This week’s quote: “The mind that is not baffled, is not employed” -Wendell Berry
49:19 The popping Fender Tonemaster update
55:01 A gridleak bias mindworm
1:02:06 In defense of Lodge cast iron; crisper potatoes
1:07:37 Pickups and how they interact with tube amps
1:11:59 Music recommendation: Skip James’ Today!
1:13:01 Free video time killers for the DIY set: Camel Finds Water (link), Resurrection: Rescue of a 1955 VW panelvan (link), The Beast of Turin (link)
1:16:56 Rogue Hoe gardening tools (link); symptoms of a bad bias circuit
1:23:46 Dialing in your tone on a Mesa Boogie Mark IV
1:30:58 Tubes for a Fender reverb tank
1:34:33 “Chitlins Con Carne” rhythm revisited: Timmy Thomas’ “Why Can’t We Live Together,” the Police’s “Deathwish;” Gibson Falcon mods
1:39:12 Modifying a ’60s hi-fi home kit amp, plus Vinnie’s mashed potato recipe (see below)
1:48:17 Movie pick: ‘Pow Wow Highway’
2:39: Special Guest: Bill Krinard (Two-Rock Amplifiers): Troubleshooting a Fender Tonemaster that pops when turned off; Bodega red potatoes; Bill’s current projects; flipping the pilot light)
34:45 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (link, get a behind-the-scenes Grez shop tour here)
35:39 Tips on buying a tube tester (Skip’s fave: B&K 700)
45:05 Speaker recommendations for a Champ
47:58 Troubleshooting an early ’70s Fender Bassman 50 with hum
1:00:57 Choke talk
1:05:31 Cast iron cleaning
1:10:55 Vacuum Tube Valley online (link)
1:13:53 RIP Art Dudley (FJ and Stereophile contributor)
1:14:10 Skip’s hi-fi setup
1:18:14 A Garnet Pro with built-in Stinger fuzz that sounds worse as it warms up
1:22:49 Skip’s book tips
4:41 One for the Tweakers: Putting a filament transformer in a HiWatt, backwards
7:38 Unfreezing pots with rubbing alcohol
11:53 Turning a Rogers Cadet hi-fi into a guitar amp
13:19 A 1953 Massie Woody on Reverb (link)
15:59 Red lacquer on solder joints
17:30 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (check out the video with Tim Lerch and Tommy Harkenrider here)
21:27 The stereo-to-mono conversion box project
31:56 The only thing you’ll remember from this week’s podcast: How to say “Tony Cachere’s”
32:58 The Danelectro DM-25
35:56 Josh Yenne and the Gmail / Comcast guys
37:45 The hairy overdriven, brown sag sound for pedal steel (Charley Pride’s “Cotton Fields”)
44:45 RIP: Brian Dennehy (crooked cop in ‘Gorky Park’)
46:40 Lodge: The Blues Junior of cast iron pans?
49:00 Tips for repairing Tolex and tight-fitting chassis
50:35 The language of amp feel
54:47 Will this Kay 703 kill me?
59:59 Ry Cooder’s Instagram page
1:00:18 The tone difference of PCB vs wired amps
11:04:25 A Victoria with a thumpy tremolo
1:08:04 An early ’60s Fender Princeton with an extraneous noise
1:13:00 Different tone controls for a Gibson Falcon (link, link)
1:17:45 Getting rid of the bias resistor in a Vibroluxe clone; super-simple, homemade hot sauce
1:20:03 A Brown Box for an Aussie?
1:25:20 ‘How to Hot Rod Your Fender Amp’ book, DLabs
1:29:40 Why Skip hates pentode triad switches
4:26 Carter Vintage’s under $1000 amp shootout (YouTube link)
7:40 Satan & Adam
9:32 Tom Ball
11:44 Updates on Drew’s Fender Tonemaster
17:54 We’re doing a good job
19:48 Phil Lee
21:00 Tube condensation during cold weather
24:12 The Fender Bantam Bass amp
26:26 Eric Johnson’s pilot light placement, redux
29:44 A 1973 Fender Princeton Reverb with a sticky speaker
32:52 Swapping out a phase inverter tube versus swapping out a pre-amp tube
35:17 Recommended tool: OXO turner for skillet cleaning (link)
37:38 The gain stages of the Fender 5E8-A preamp
42:10 Replacing the handle on a ’60s Gibson GA-5 Skylark
46:09 Footswitch 101 and an ’80s Rivera-era Fender Princeton Reverb 2
50:29 Using EQ to lower the volume on a 50-watt Mesa Boogie Mark II
56:05 A 1968 Fender Vibro Champ with a hum that goes away
1:01:56 Power = Voltage × Current
1:03:38 A 5881 or a 6L6GC power tube in a 5F1
1:05:48 Speaker recommendations for a 1966 Ampeg Gemini II
0:00 Addendum: The tubes on Springsteen’s Mesa Boogie
3:25 Why Steve Melkisethian of Angela Instruments, this week’s guest, is important
7:58 The Danelectro DM-25 reverb trick, redux
13:41 What’s on Skip’s bench?
17:02 Jason buys a Garnet
18:50 Pronouncing Tony Chachere, again; El Pato and Herdez
23:05 Speaker driven reverb schematic
29:06 Special guest: Steve Melkisethian of Angela Instruments (www.angela.com)
4:00 Satan & Adam on Netflix
5:38 How to pronounce Tony Chachere (link)
7:13 A step-up transformer for a guitar
10:54 Tubes on a drawbridge?
13:27 Reversing the pilot lamp in your amp, again
16:42 Flux remover for turret boards and PCBs
18:15 Preventing pitting on an amp chassis
19:54 Hitting a power chord to discharge the caps on an amp
22:25 Vintage Hilgen amplifiers (link)
25:32 Tiny Moore’s Music in Sacramento
26:28 A clone Deluxe that unexpectedly cuts out
30:32 A 1982 Vibro Champ with a ’60s power transformer
34:37 Increasing gain on a Valco-made Gretsch 6150 amp
37:30 Skip thanks you for all the gifts; Steve Soest and Michael Lee Allen
40:50 Chili oil from Xi-An Famous Foods (link)
41:55 A Gibson Falcon picking up radio signals
46:26 The Baxandall tone stack and a Japanese karage recipe
54:18 Sierra Nevada Summerfest beer
55:28 Lead dressing and salsas
1:00:55 A pre-amp circuit for an RCA MI-12188A theater amp
1:07:54 A Fender Vibrolux with a loose 5U4 rectifier tube
1:11:17 ‘Moby Dick,’ Tony Hillerman, ‘Bosch,’ ‘Happy Valley,’ ‘This Sporting Life’
1:18:20 A vintage Japanese “Reverb Master” tank
1:22:30 A reverb fix for Silvertone Twin Twelves
1:23:48 Skip’s grooming tips
Vintage guitar and amp dealer/repairman Steve Soest joins us for a very special Truth About Vintage Amps episode. Steve shares stories of meeting Leo Fender, Doc Kauffman and other legends from the world of electric guitars; he recounts of some of his days of vintage gear buying and selling; and he even walks us through the time he joined Dick Dale’s band. Plus: What to do with a free Hammond M-3 organ, the New Bedford Whaling Museum and much, much more…
4:46 Bill Krinard’s Silvertone Twin Twelve reverb fix (tease)
20:23 This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (watch RJ Ronquillo’s demo video here)
21:20 Whatever happened to Jason’s Stew-Mac Champ kit?
25:03 An input no. 2 aficionado
31:11 Re-gluing a Fender faceplate
34:00 A ’54 Champ and a VanAmps Reverbamate
41:11 A test cabinet for field coil speakers
44:39 A patch bay for multiple amp outputs
49:33 The magic of JBLs
56:09 A Subaru Outback with an oil leak & Toyota Land Cruisers
1:05:17 How long can an amp sit without needing a voltage ramp-up
1:07:14 9-pin or octal tubes for a Fender 5C3 Deluxe
1:14:09 Scavenging parts from an inherited Heathkit Thomas organ
1:17:59 A blonde Fender Bassman with a single 12″ speaker; the “Helmholtz Resonator”
1:22:05 Yellow Jackets converters in a 1971 Fender Vibroluxe Reverb
1:26:18 Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
1:31:08 An outboard 110 to 240 converter for a New Zealander
1:20 A request for the sold-erers
9:00 A “don’t just think about it, do it” project: A Strat pickup on an acoustic
12:37 An input 2 fan from Ireland
15:30 DIY wiring harnesses for a speaker cabinet
18:52 Extra radio interference on master volume amps
27:23 Skip’s long-awaited hot & sour soup recipe
33:00 Building a first amp with a 15-year-old
39:07 What to do with Bozak speakers
43:30 Safe to use A/B/Y to test two amp heads into one cabinet?
48:16 When to put on a grounded cord and would a polarized two-prong plug work?
53:06 What to do with a Grommes Little Jewel LJ2
59:02 Dave Miller, (check out his new video here), Newcomb PAs, and Skip on TMZ!
1:03:17 Converting a PA amp to a spring reverb
1:07:14 Circuit Corner: Leslie speaker amps
3:11 Making an amp cabinet out of a beehive, a new baffler
8:23 Winding your own power transformer (YouTube)
9:54 Flot-A-Tone Amplifiers
23:11 Octal tubes revisited
26:30 A kit Vibrochamp with an intensity problem
30:02 A one-string b-bender, the Pitch Pilot
31:32 Helping fellow pro amp techs, a motorboating tweed Bassman
38:28 A low-watt 2×12 combo amp?
41:03 Plate dissipation differences for cathode-biased, Class A and Class A/B amps
44:48 Alamo amps
48:01 Megger cables and a 1968 Fender Bandmaster for bass
50:51 “Bumble Bee” capacitors & Mass MOCA
55:42 Itemized invoices
58:45 Powering a pair of speakers with a Fender Blues Jr. IV
1:03:44 The TAVA Big Index Page
1:08:16 A loose tube socket on a homemade 5F2A circuit
1:13:05 How episodes get named
:54 A silverface Twin left on without a speaker
3:44 A tweed Deluxe with two serial numbers
5:58 Meet our new sponsor: Amplified Parts
16:57 Deluxe Amplification’s 1949 Ford and car radio reverb units
21:14 Special guest: Colleen Fazio of Fazio Electric (mid-century modern inspired amplifiers, repair tips, Vero amps, pasta sauce!) Follow her on Instagram and subscribe to her new YouTube channel.
1:03:10 Fender Vibro Champ XD pre-amp tubes; extending transformer leads
1:08:45 The tonal impact of a loose ground connection with a three-prong replacement cord
1:13:55 Free green onions forever
1:15:15 Recommended combo setup for an organ and guitar player
1:19:21 Using an extension cord with a GFI outlet
1:22:50 An underwhelming Massie 966 Squire amp
1:28:09 A Peavey Vintage 4×10 with compaction 6C10 tubes
1:31:37 Appreciating the Fender Bassman 70
10:24 Chris’ Tone Scoring System
14:12 The three colors of El Pato
17:07 Silverface vs. late Blackface Champs
21:46 A Sherwood Master 8422 amp
24:55 Installing a pre-amp switch on a pair of tube amps
30:05 A TAVA handbook?
35:32 Modding the volume on input two of a reissue Princeton
39:06 “Expansion Control” on a Knight PA amp
43:23 Dan’s summer BBQ marinade
Episode 46 (Special guest: Steve Melkisethian)
Steve Melkisethian of Angela Instruments makes his eagerly anticipated second Truth About Vintage Amps appearance and it doesn’t disappoint. Included: Tracking down vintage Marshalls in the UK, selling gear to U2, Ken Fischer, tube sockets, recommended books, Orange amps, Jesse Quitslund of Acme Instruments, Jef Brown, Steve plays drums for the Cramps, and more!
Episode 47 (Special guest: Colin Cripps)
:55 “The unluckiest dude that there ever was,” Skip’s advice to fellow amp techs
10:16 The Truth About Vintage Amps Patreon page (support the show, fireside chats with Skip, grab bags of vintage “stuff”!)
16:24 Special guest: guitarist/producer Colin Cripps (Bernie Raunig’s Filmosound amps, Johnson Amplifiers, TEX amps)
55:07 Music Picks: Emitt Rhodes, Esquerita, The Melodians
58:31 Replacement pots of choice
1:00:18 A Magnavox amp with a push-pull output but no phase inverter stage
1:02:10 What to do with a busted 1962 Fender Deluxe output transformer
1:04:39 Vibro Champs that lose volume when tremolo intensity is increased, revisited
2:55 Special guest: Greg Cravener from Amplified Parts (watch the videos on how Amplified makes can capacitors here)
33:27 Plate load resistor function
39:00 Power conditioners and vintage amps
41:23 Building a simple hi-fi from scratch
44:52 Building an amp with two different power sections and two different output transformers
3:32 A brief moment of despair
10:34 Our new Patreon page: Hear Skip’s actual voice!
21:30 Colin Cripps’ Filmosound, revisited
25:15 Skip’s chassis stand
30:37 Changing the linear taper volume pot on an early ’80s Princeton Reverb
34:53 Putting a guitar input into the pre-amp of a Hammond L-100 organ
40:33 Salvaging tubes from a free Lowry organ
43:40 The 5F10 Fender Harvard
47:17 “Peekofarad” or “pykofarad”
48:35 The light-dependent resistor on a Gibson GA20-RVT tremolo
52:30 Replacing the 6CA7/EL34 power tubes with new old stock Sylvania/RCA or brand new Electro-Harmonix
57:40 Bass cut on a Tweed Deluxe clone
1:02:20 Vibro Champ tremolo revisited
1:06:17 Boutique parts & homemade ramen
1:17:32 Patton fans
6:11 Pyko de Gallo
7:09 Deluxe Amplification’s TAVA-tribute El Pato Tone practice amp (link)
11:51 A circuit to investigate: the Kay K550
15:34 DJ Cruise Ship Derek
22:48 Hy Bloom, founder of Soundmaster, redux
28:36 Is the RCA Manual the reference for tube specs?
32:11 Can amps be cursed?
36:01 An Ampeg that gets mushy
37:39 Skip’s fallback job
38:14 Model airplanes
39:28 Netflix recommendation: ‘John Was Trying to Contact Aliens‘
40:13 When caps go on a 1964 Fender Champ; El Pato & yogurt
45:23 Win stuff from Manbroidery, Voyager Guitar Cabs and Chris Vincent of R2R Electric!!
49:44 Special guest Chris Vincent (DJLavalamp on Instagram, R2R Electric)
1:06:26 Occasionally farty bass on multiple amps
1:11:04 A Philly Roast Pork Sandwich
1:12:19 The bologna sandwich from Oklahoma
1:13:27 A Fender Champion 600 with a disconnected pilot light
1:15:55 Special guest: Matt Clouston of Clouston Amplifiers
1:31:18 Music to solder by: The Peddlers
1:33:56 Australia’s Goldentone 1750 / Broadway amplifier and the 6GW8 tube
1:37:48 Schematics in the public domain?
1:39:28 A reissue Fender Vibroverb with a reverb that rings with a C-note
1:43:09 A life changed thanks to Skip
1:46:58 Ranch Water; pico de gallo
1:48:58 Skip’s riff when testing out an amp
4:35 Soundmaster PAs, revisited
16:20 Turret boards versus freestyle wiring
21:24 Adjectives for the tones of tweed-era Deluxe and 4×12″ Bassman
27:37 Matching a 16 ohm speaker to a 4 ohm amp output with a transformer
31:20 A schematic, but no layout
33:33 Power tubes in series (Milkman amps)
35:54 A Gibson GA-15 that rattles its tubes out
40:54 Silvertone 101
45:50 Advice on a 1966 Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve: Watts, speakers, tips
52:26 A Silvertone 1474 and desoldering components from terminal strips
1:05:50 Using Telefunken EAM86 indicator tubes in an amp application
8:54 ‘Practical Amplifier Diagrams’ (1947)
17:02 The grounds on an all-original 1962 Fender Tweed Champ
22:34 Power section filtering
26:30 Special Guest: Jef Brown! (Jef’s band, Jef’s amp blog)
1:13:32 A Gibson GA-25 RVT Hawk that smells
1:19:23 Bass-ifying a single-ended amp build
1:23:00 A Silverface Princeton Reverb missing its foot switch
1:25:15 El Paso fajita seasoning
1:26:04 Turning your amps on-and-off during the workday
1:11 A new TAVA Baffler
4:41 An Angela Super Single Ended amp group build?
10:28 Mrs. Simmons’ favorite amp?
13:16 Identifying the work of Fender’s Lily, Lupe, Eileen, etc.
14:43 Strategies when you discover an amp with few original parts
19:50 Saving amps with fire/smoke damage
26:07 Driving larger power tubes 101
29:14 That tube amp fizz / hiss
34:25 Why smacking the top of your amp sometimes fixes it, microphonic tubes
39:22 Vintage Guild amplifiers and homemade taco seasoning
49:18 Why did 1955 tweed Deluxe shock me?
54:27 Sticking new caps inside of an old capacitor
57:59 New USA-made tubes, revisited
1:04:27 Cleaning the lead wires on old parts
1:07:07 Numb mouth after eating El Pato
1:07:50 Adding the tone control of a Magnatone 213 to a Magnatone M2 Custom
1:10:39 Selenium rectifiers going bad
1:13:49 Al Di Miola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucia ‘Friday Night in San Francisco 1980’
1:14:14 Sleeper amps that need a boost or overdrive pedal to shine, Harmony H415
1:16:58 Zep Smoke Odor Eliminator Pro
1:18:22 Using a 6 volt rectifier in place of a 5 volt
1:24:06 Converting the power tube bias modulating tremolo on a Princeton to the pre-amp tube bias modulation of a Vibro Champ; recommended dining: Shan Dong in Oakland, Calif.
4:12 A new Tony’s: Pappa Earle’s (link)
6:03 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars and Amplified Parts (use the discount code TAVA10 when you check out for 10% off any Amplified purchase)
7:43 Eddie Van Halen (link to Zocala Public Square video mentioned)
14:45 The answer to Ep. 53’s Baffler
18:30 A cabinet conundrum
20:23 Another Baffler!
21:36 Cleaning chrome Gibson faceplates, Metal Rescue
24:00 A Vibroverb reissue with ringing reverb… fixed
27:42 Restoring amps that have been underwater
34:17 The harmonic tremolo and pre-amp tubes in a brownface 1960 Fender Super
40:47 Hammond organ amp conversions
45:21 Taming a Super Reverb clone; Instant Pots
40:49 Skip’s traveling coffee rig
51:15 Mat’s Skip-inspired iPhone to guitar amp interface
57:08 Getting analog warmth into a digital recording chain
1:00:11 Brian’s protein-packed smoothie; Rasta Kevin; homemade tomato sauce; Burning Spear
1:03:35 Supro tube tremolo
1:08:13 “Sodder” versus “solder,” the final word
6:50 The Truth About Vintage Amps Patreon Page: New contributions from Jesse at Acme Instruments
10:00 Trusting a repair tech and what to do with old, removed parts
12:40 A driver for a horn speaker; dogs chasing golf balls, Specimen Audio
19:10 Ceramic fast-acting versus glass fuses
25:56 Putting two single-ended output transformers in series to make a larger single-ended output transformer
36:56 Solid state watts versus tube watts
39:07 A Garnet G15T Gnome with a 6V6 that fluctuates in time; the Garnet Herzog
42:56 Fender Super Reverb tremolo disconnect mods
48:09 Employing a Cetron CE-25C photocell tube to make a Theremin (or something like it)
51:40 More bean talk: Teasdale beans; Instant Pot revisited
56:57 Using two lower-value pre-amp plate load resistors in series
58:53 Pete Millett’s online tube book reference library (link)
1:04:34 Skip’s book picks: Patrick O’Brian, Tony Hillerman, James Lee Burke, Martin Cruz Smith
1:09:43 Gary Gulman’s “The Hierarchy of Cookies” (link)
1:10:13 Getting a Gibson “Charlie Christian” EH-150 amp serviced properly; Orange Drop caps
1:21:30 “Sodder” versus “solder,” yet again
2:05 Skip checks out a Paul Bigsby-built tenor guitar, free stuff sent to your favorite podcast hosts
14:06 Revisiting Grez Guitars’ pickle jar hack
15:13 Grounding 101
22:27 Antique Electronics Supply/Amplified Parts’ Tolex sample packs
26:13 Advice on Ampeg M-12 / Mercury amps
29:16 Drawing a schematic from scratch
33:30 “Two Words:” A vintage Marshall baffler
35:34 Mis-drawn schematics revisited: The UREI 1176 Compressor
39:10 A 1960s Honda 305 Scrambler project
42:42 6L6G tubes in a 5E6 Fender Bassman?
47:29 RIP: Classic Tone transformers
48:32 Adding an isolation transformer to a Harmony H400A
52:44 Meatloaf on a grill
56:23 Cleaning grill cloth or Tolex
59:07 Stokes and Paul C mods on a Fender Princeton
1:03:29 Converting a Masco MA-50 and MA-17; Skip has a Gibson Falcon for sale
1:08:28 Guitarists versus harmonica players
1:09:12 Functional differences between spade connectors and soldering for speaker leads?
1:13:36 Turning a Conn ST-6 strobe turner into an amp… or something
1:18:02 Keeping corn tortillas intact while rolling enchiladas
2:15 Baffler Corner: The power tubes on a transitional 1963 Fender Showman head; enchiladas without breaking tortillas; last week’s noisy Marshall
9:22 What’s on Skip’s Bench: A Gibsonette
14:35 The entire 1996 Angela Catalog, now available as a download! (link here, sales proceeds go directly to Steve Melkisethian)
17:29 Reversing the tube pin order in a Princeton 5F2A
19:53 Removing paint from Tolex
21:45 Recommended reading: ‘Antique Radio Restoration Guide’; shimming a speaker with a rubbing dust cap
25:00 Watkins Dominators, using a Variac in front of a step-up transformer
30:41 Plate voltages on a Deluxe Reverb AB763
32:24 Modulus Music’s free 5E3 cabinet plans; Skip’s tomato sauce; Fender Harvards
38:55 A/B box updates; HAB hot sauce
41:06 Lectrolab S600s
43:42 Modding the first channel of a silverface Fender Super Reverb
46:43 Changing the cap value on a 5F2A tone control
48:38 Wall voltage variabilities and using a Variac
54:55 Song recommendation: “Call Me” by Aretha Franklin
55:48 Enchilada talk, fast pumpkin Thai curry soup
1:01:03 Are forums useful?
3:57 Skip announces his retirement (no, not really)
10:50 The Roxy Theater’s “Wall” sound system finds a new owner
23:20 Preserving an all-original Fender 5F10 Harvard
29:05 The non-Fender amps Skip sees the most
31:05 Salvaging a submerged Red Bear amp
37:18 Special Guest: Barry Grzebik of Grez Guitars!
1:01:57 A smelly Silvertone 1484 thanks to an attenuator, hardshell taco tips
1:06:20 Decade boxes
1:10:03 Skip’s movie picks: The Straight Story, Dual
1:12:45 The hum balance pot in a 100-watt Fender Quad Reverb
1:15:29 Buying a 1952 TV panel Fender Deluxe with a replaced output transformer
1:21:06 Music recommendations: Bing Crosby with Eddie Lang; Cindy Cashdollar with Arlen Roth; Carla Bley’s “O Holy Night”
5:13 The Truth About Recording & Mixing (launching January 2021!)
9:16 Building mic pre-amps
12:42 A “ripping” overdrive sound on a converted Vibro-Champ
17:51 A Red Bear amps service warning
21:36 Dr. Z Z-Air Brake, revisited; Joel Patterson; El Pato in Maryland
27:09 Jason ponders a new Patreon tier, tortillas on a cookie sheet, un-flavored Doritos
29:26 Safely packing amps for a cross-country (almost) move
35:05 Eau de Tweed
38:15 Traynor amp values
40:35 How long does the death stay in a death cap?
44:33 What to do with a Knight PA system?
50:30 Skip’s (un-modified) PA liquidation
53:27 Oatmeal with jam
53:50 Crisped chickpeas in spiced brown butter
56:30: Book recommendations: ‘A People and Their Music: The Story, Behind the Story, of Country Music’; ‘Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Central Valley’
1:02:18 A three-prong, ground loop question with a 5E3 and a 6G15 Reverb
1:09:22 The right goo to fix a cracked two-prong plug
1:15:07 The differences between the Deluxe V1 and V2 plate voltages, redux
1:18:03 A prototype Twin Reverb
1:20:25 The white powder on vintage amp parts
2:35 Skip gets a new knife (Carter Cutlery)
6:21 Restoring a 1961 Mercury Comet
9:13 Mathew Fitzwilliam’s book on Australia’s Goldentone amps (link)
21:24 What to do with a Masco MA-35 PA head, 7-series loctal tubes
29:40 The Bogen RP-1 Mic Pre-Amp
35:39 Keith Cary’s mic pre-amp / headphone hack
38:44 Early Fender Princeton GZ34 rectifier tube alternatives
45:11 Shielded wire vs. unshielded wire in the circuitry of old PA heads
50:23 Converting a Webcor reel-to-reel into a guitar amp
59:19 Keeping a vintage reverb tank alive (Gibson Maestro M216-RVT amp, MOD tank upgrade, shortening a vintage reverb spring)
1:08:51 Skip builds a Piper Cub model airplane
1:21:28 Speaker recone kits (link)
1:27:59 Proper tremolo speed / depth on a Fender 6G3
1:32:08 Klon pedals and outboard tube-driven overdrives
1:36:52 Is my Gibson GA-9 parallel single-ended?
1:44:01 Doing the Vibro Champ mod to a Stromberg Carlson Model 290, Doris Troy’s “What’cha Gonna Do About It” (link), and stuffed eggplant with crispy beef (link)
1:45:40 Mike enjoys the podcast (Mike’s band: the 6L6s)
2:06:16 The Art of Basque Cooking by Clara Salaverria Perkins
6:15 Jason gets a Martin 110 amplifier
13:24 A DeArmond amp anomaly
15:47 The Truth About Recording and Mixing Podcast! (Apple Podcasts link)
16:15 Skip’s speaker-driven reverb / speaker-driven line out schematic (see below)
39:19 Figuring out the distortion profile in a scratch-built amplifier
43:39 Skip makes a tube fuzz; Rustoleum Hammered paint
45:12 Updates on Skip’s model plane, gopher bait
47:37 Herniating amps via speaker changes
53:17 The mystery oil in a Standel echo unit
57:44 A 1967 Fender Bassman that keeps shattering tubes
1:05:05 Saving a cracked two-prong plug
1:00 California weather and old dogs
3:08 Sharpening knives, Carter Cutlery (link)
8:51 How not to ship amps and amp parts
13:09 SAMS Photofacts and obscure schematics
18:36 Making the reverb in a Fender-style amp less bright
23:05 Why are boutique amps so expensive; the Benson Chimera; improving an amp’s tone by unplugging the reverb tank; a DYI Ice Cube; El Pato
30:58 The layout of Skip’s workspace
37:00 Building an amp out of a tape deck with 250k volume and tone pots, redux
43:21 An Ampeg M-15 with a thumping tremolo
46:36 A vintage Weller 8200 solder gun with a smelly tip
49:41 Adding speaker-driven reverb to a 5E3 clone without using a second amp
52:13 Converting a Kalart 7015 projector into a guitar amp, 6973 tubes, Filmosound conversions, Tex Amps
58:19 Recommended reading: All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr (Amazon link, thanks Brian in Seattle)
59:40 Recommended watching: Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself (on Hulu)
1:02:14 British amp heads at 16 ohms, Rick Beato’s YouTube channel (link), leftover holiday spices
1:04:59 What to do with a Wurlitzer 920 combo amp?
1:09:22 Preserving a completely original 1953 Gibson GA-20
1:15:35 Sweet potato fries
1:16:05 A Masco MA-35 powered up with no speaker, dried white onions
1:23:46 The grounding switch on a Fender, spiking store-bought ranch dressing with Balsamic vinegar, death caps
1:31:44 Slowing down the vibrato of a vintage Magnatone 440
1:13 Three nightmares left
7:17 Sam’s Wurlitzer 920 combo amp from Ep. 62, revisited
9:14 Special guest: Ian Moore (Austin, Vibroluxes, Deluxe Reverbs, Marshall mods and salsa dona!)
44:26 What to do with an unusual 1968 Gibson Falcon chassis missing a cabinet?
48:48 Building a clone of Ampeg R-12-R Reverberocket
56:21 A vintage Jenson P-15Q with a quarter inch jack mounted on the speaker frame
58:14 Mary Halvorson
59:31 A Dukane PA with a low B+ voltage
1:03:21 How did Skip accumulate a barn full of PAs?
1:09:09 “Historic” or “historical;” a Bogen Challenger CHA33 with pitting on the chassis (pictured above)
1:15:00 How to properly use an ESR Meter; the Anatek Blue ESR meter (link)
1:19:00 The dwell on a reverb tank
1:21:02 Where does distortion come from; author C.J. Box
1:23:12 Testing a vintage power transformer before you install it
1:26:46 Mathew Fitzwilliam’s Goldentone Amp book, revisited (link)
1:27:15 Restoring a Goldentone 1761 Soloist; ozvalveamps.org
1:30:33 Chris from Deluxe Amplifications’ amp chassis holder (YouTube, blueprint available on our Patreon)
1:33:39 Guitar Shorty
1:36:36 The smallest mountain range in the world
1:37:32 Installing a separate filtercap eyelet board in a BF Fender
1:41:19 Using a vintage Jensen C12S speaker in a Princeton Reverb clone; bean pasta
1:49:15 Shrunken model airplane tissue
Episode 64
1:36 What’s on Skip’s Bench: A Magnatone / Estey T-32 amp; Digs of Marysville, Calif.
7:51 The TAVA Patreon page
11:04 The TAVA Index Page: See nearly every topic we’ve ever discussed (link)
15:28 Tolex tips
20:52 Gibson EH-150 vs. EH-185, Larry Chung, trebuchet hobbies
26:01 Changing the tone of a reverb tank on dual-channel Fenders, speaker-driven reverb
30:54 Going two-prong on a 1963 Fender 6G15 reverb tank, re-installing carbon-comp resistors
35:21 Baffler! Why don’t reverb units have a death cap?
38:04 Making reverb less bright with a volume pedal hack
40:45 A DeArmond’s volume controlled via a pedal
42:30 Skip’s cocktail sauce, Jason’s kale (h/t Frank Prisinzano on Instagram)
46:37 Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary
49:29 What to do with an Epiphone Futura and speaker reconing, Ted Weber recone parts (link)
56:03 Removing extraneous parts in a PA conversion, making an Ampeg B-15 clone
1:00:00 Sticking an amp in an old Conn StroboTuner, power cords, amprepairparts.com (link)
1:05:41 The tone of a 1959 Bassman, without the Bassman
0:12 Special guest, Nels Cline! Amplifiers (Webster-Chicago, Milkman, Studious, ZT Lunchbox), hot sauce (Mellow Habanero), and music (Wilco, resonator sextets, Oregon, Ralph Towner, Weather Report, Ohmme, and more)
45:01 Today’s sponsors: Amplified Parts and Grez Guitars
46:07 Poll: Skip walks you through Tweed Deluxe and Brown Deluxe differences OR Fender Princeton iterations
47:59 Schematic Heaven (link)
49:49 The answer to last week’s Where’s the Fender Death Cap? baffler
51:10 Fine tuning the reverb on a Gibson-made Maestro Reverb Echo
57:58 Marriage advice
1:02:53 What to do with a 100-watt Lafayette PA with the expander circuit? Make a Sorrel cocktail with old holiday spices (link)
1:09:21 How to determine when capacitors need to be replaced
1:15:06 Fixing a Gibson EH-150, in pieces, with a bad field coil speaker; putting a field coil speaker in a non-field coil amp
1:22:02: Is a Gibson EH-150 Class A Push-Pull? What is Class A?
1:24:34 The Country Side of Harmonica Sam (YouTube link)
1:25:52 Streaming radio stations on the internet
1:27:15 Why do so many amps in the Jack Darr book have the volume in the front of the first stage?
1:33 Skip and the haystack
5:30 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars, Amplified Parts (Watch Josh Yenne demo a Grez Mendocino here.)
9:57 Jason’s new podcast on makers and creators: Sweep the Floor (Apple Podcasts link); plus: The Truth About Recording & Mixing podcast (Apple Podcasts link)
12:35 The new issue of the Fretboard Journal (link)
16:54 A 1965 Ampeg G-12 with screeching reverb; a Silvertone 1484 with a rusty transformer, eddy currents
26:59 Is it worth restoring a Tweed Tremolux that works but has all-new caps and resistors?
34:34 The Johnson Silver Minnow
36:12 Putting Bozak audiophile speakers in a guitar amp, making a hi-fi into a guitar amp
43:06 Taming a Bogen PA head-turned-5C3-Deluxe style amp
47:33 Is canned salsa the circuit board amp equivalent of Mexican food?, Diana Kennedy
53:06 Two nearly-identical 1960 5G9 Fender Tremolux amps… one sounds way better. Why?
1:01:13 Potential guest: Roy Rogers
1:02:39 What to do with asbestos in your amp?
1:05:50 Goldentone amps, redux, and a music recommendation (Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s “That’s Inside of Me” Spotify link); get Mat Fitzwilliam’s Goldentone amp book here
1:08:27 Taming a Fender Blues Deluxe reverb with a reverb volume control box
1:13:05 Baxandall tone stacks in a 1972 Traynor YGM-3
1:18:26 Skip’s Deluxe schematic walk-through, part one (Robrobinette.com has the 5C3, 5E3, etc. schematics you may need here)
1:31:52 Skip’s literary pick: Tim Gautreaux’s ‘Same Place, Same Things’
:29 Colleen Fazio’s YouTube channel (YouTube link; listen to Colleen on TAVA 44)
:40 Recommended amp tech in Seattle: Jesse at Acmeverb.com
3:07 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars, Amplified Parts
6:12 Taming the reverb in a combo amp with a tone circuit, redux
10:39 The ’68 Custom Line from Fender
16:14 Vintage capacitors in Fenders: Myths and realities
20:26 What to do with leaky caps that sound great?
25:24 Replacing electrolytic capacitors with exact value matches or close enough? Plus: Eric Johnson’s pilot lamp hack returns!
31:08 Skip’s “George Thorogood” story
35:05 Skip finds a Red Foley cowboy / stencil guitar
36:55 Can too much boost hurt your amp?
39:39 Special guest: Marty from the Oregon Coast (Martin Bills, Director of Brewing Operations, Pelican Brewing)
1:13:00 Ampeg B-15/B-12 reliability, blackened cabbage
1:18:43 Putting a 6SL7 tube in a Gibson BR-9
1:22:35 Taming the “Traynor tang” on a YGM-3
1:26:04 The two-amps-in-one Hilton HP-95
1:28:56 Turning a low-watt amp into a harp amp, Kalamazoo Model 1s
1:31:48 What’s going on with the Geloso G-18R; 6N7 tubes
1:35:16 Test equipment for grabs: a Ballantine volt meter; a Hickok 532 tube tester
7:30 The details you should never annoy your amp tech with
12:23 El Pato references, explained; the El Pato-Tone practice amp; Knorr bullion cubes
19:19 A reissue Fender Twin Reverb with an irritating noise floor and vibrato
23:42 What to do with old 2 ohm Rola speakers; funky capacitors from a vintage Yamaha organ
30:96 Special guest: Jef Brown (leightonamplifiers.blogspot.com) with more amp hacks and troubleshooting knowledge: The 3.3 meg resistor mod to 5E3s (revisited); Southside Guitars; Gibson KEA amp hacks; chokes in a power supply; a Super Reverb soaked in WD-40; new parts gone bad; a buzzy Princeton Reverb; a Fender Tone Master with misplaced grid stop resistors; a Marshall Plexi with a bad LCR filter cap; lead dress; filter caps on a clone Princeton; when to move on from a new speaker; using Fela Kuti/Burning Spear to break in a new speaker; the proper way to wire a three-prong cord to an amp with a fuse.
3:09 Skip gets his Caddis readers
5:52 Skip’s $260 Ampeg Reverberocket 2; vintage mono hi-fi speakers
11:53 Skip’s Champ mod, redux; radial caps instead of axial caps
16:37 A Gibson GA-5 reissue with extra stuff between the coupling capacitor and the second stage of the 12AX7
22:32 Wandering Boy Guitars (link
29:00 Why velcro on the speaker grill cloth? John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series
35:07 Jason’s new podcast: Sweep the Floor
35:42 Presence control versus top cut control
42:10 The Gibson Hawk’s one-tube reverb circuit
46:29 Mismatching speaker impedance on a 1959 Gibsonette GA-8; Roald Dahl’s ‘Kiss Kiss’
51:37 Maximum efficiency speaker mismatching with a Supro 1610RT and a Dr. Z Maz 38 S; washing white rice
55:58 Music recommendations: Blackalicious’ “Feel That Way;” Steve Wonder’s Talking Book, Sam Plecker’s “Mr. Gray Cloud”
1:00:50 Using keyboards and synths with vintage tube amps
1:05:00 All-Clad’s factory second website (homeandcooksales.com)
1:05:42 What to do with 100v line output transformers in old PA amps
1:09:49 Filter cap values in relation to power transformers; Arnica gel
1:15:44 The three pillars of BBQ sauce; basquecompany.com
1:19:25 Bulging caps in a Bogen DB-130 amplifier; La Costena Salsa Taquera
5:04 7199 to 6GH8 tube adapters from Amplified Parts
14:34 Customer Tom picks up a Fender Bassman with a 1949 Beechcraft Bonanza
20:08 Herbie Mann and Duane Allman
20:44 Deluxe’s 200th El Pato-Tone practice amp (farewell video here)
21:40 Special Guest: Audiophile writer Michael Fremer (analogplanet.com!): Michael’s lefty Strat; Max’s Kansas City; tube vs. solid state audiophile gear; vintage Saabs, CDs vs. vinyl; Elac speakers; AR turntables; Schiit SOL turntable; U-Turn phono pre-amp; A/C cords; double-blind tests; Quincy Jones vs. Michael Jackson; the size of the audiophile industry; recommended records (Herbie Hancock’s ‘My Point of View’, Duke Ellington’s ‘Masterpieces’, ‘Plastic Ono Band’); cocaine; reel-to-reel players!
1:21:24 Skip’s book pick: ‘Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss,’ by Brad Matsen
1:26:27 Aftermarket transformer picks in a post-ClassicTone world
1:33:14 How to test a bunch of tubes, easily; old tubes in new amps
1:38:03 Using a loop pedal to voice amps
1:39:30 When Fender eyelet boards go bad
1:44:31 A Magnatone 480 baffler
1:47:07 “Medical grade” 12AX7s?
1:52:13 Amp packing 101
1:26 Jury duty
7:14 Cool tools: Using a rifle brush to clean a 1/4″ input jack (thanks Acmeverb.com!); feeler gauges; Jay Knox’s film roll hack; Pinnochio
14:50 Skip is an idiot; a sleeper ’60s Gibson amp
19:44 Mr. Valco
22:44 Ned Boynton; variable intensity vibrato on a Magnatone
24:54 A 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb with fading volume
32:51 A 1972 Fender Deluxe Reverb versus a Silvertone Twin Twelve in a band setting; the Clientele’s ‘Suburban Light’; Ilegal tequila mezcal
40:12 Chewing matches
42:27 A damp and noisy Norwegian Vingtor amp
48:45 Instapot talk; ground switch redux; using a Variac to break-in speakers; Bob Newhart; Nelson Riddle; sweet potato fries
58:35 Grant Willis (valveheaven.com); using halogen lamp isolating transformers as output transformers
1:01:15 Restoring a free vintage Precision ES-550 oscilloscope
1:07:58 Multiple output taps and negative feedback loops on a Fender clone build
1:11:49 Fender Super Twin opinions
1:17:38 A hot transformer on a boutique tube amp in (Analog Outfitters The Road)
1:20:58 Allen Encore amps
1:23:22 A Magnatone M-12 with one channel that doesn’t work
2:46 Sam Plecker from Pulga (check out Sam’s EP here)
4:51 Skip’s music recommendations: Jim Hall & Paul Desmond; Chuck Wayne; Kenny Burrell; Luiz Bonfa; Phil Baugh; Pat Martino
8:24 Skip’s Red Foley Guitar, a Vox book giveaway
16:06 Analog Outfitters, redux
17:11 Funky tremolo on a 6SL7 Ampeg Rocket
23:44 Vingtor amps, Part Fire (that’s “four” in Norweigan); East German PAs
27:45 What does the cathode follower do?
31:20 Magnatone 480 reverb fix , NPN transistors (thanks Chris at guitaramptech.com.au)
34:40 Premier 100R; Vega and Ampex amps
37:12 RIP Ned Beatty, Fat (not Short) Monroe
37:38 The magic of Kalamazoo Model 2’s, Fender-style inputs
41:37 A 1970 Traynor YGM-3 with howling reverb
47:01 Why the plus in B+ voltages
50:35 Recommended reading: Allen Furst’s Night Soldiers
51:50 Skip needs an horologist
53:20 WD-40, again; moisture on a Mesa Boogie PCB board
1:00:39 The Oroville McDonalds
1:03:11 A Yamaha EM-100 mixer (free), a Remington Model Five, California Typewriter
1:07:08 An in-person taping of TAVA? Jason heads to California; the Crumb Brothers from Reno
1:10:21 Booze talk: Leblon Cachaca from Brazil; caipirinhas
1:13:17 Recommended replacements for Astron caps; Mallory 150s; regional cheap beers
1:17:23 Josh Yenne’s extended family?
1:01 UFOs and Art Bell
8:01 Our Patreon page: Now with new updates and articles from Acmeverb.com!
12:05 Jason gets a haircut, learns how to use epazote in beans
16:59 B+, revisited: B is for Battery
18:02 Medical grade tubes: Still in production!
20:46 Princeton tone stack and the TAVA community, tips for Variac hunting, Mount Olive Pickle Salsa
26:32 Skip’s movie picks: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Nomadland
29:49 A clone Tweed Princeton success story; vintage Jensen P-15R speakers; Amplified Parts’ NOS tube sale
37:38 WD-40, again
41:00 Skip’s Chile Colorado
42:03 Field coil speakers for a Gibson EH-150/185-style amp (and what’s the deal with the echo speaker extension cabinet?)
48:18 The Vox book gets a new home; acidfuzz.com (for Vox guitar onboard fuzz schematics)
50:06 The TAVA Facebook group (Facebook link)
51:25 Another movie tip: The Straight Story
51:50: Twin mod revisited: Changing two 6V6s to rectifiers; a TAVA meetup?; music by Joe Policastro Trio, Colin Stetson
58:25 Single-ended amps with a 6V6 tube with and without a cathode bypass capacitor, Skip’s toothbrush hack
1:04:46 Testing a cabinet design with a crappy amp
1:07:27 Bruce MacMillan’s Princeton Reverb; Joe Craven & The Sometimers’ Garcia Songbook
1:12:05 “It’s about to get boring…”
1:15:14 Primus’ “Over the Electric Grapevine” (Spotify link); RIP Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab
1:16:48 Which power tube blew my Mesa Boogie Mark I’s fuse?, checking a tube’s filament with an ohm meter
1:22:26 Skip’s TAVA 60-second challenge: How does Bitcoin mining actually work?
1:27:08 Who wanted the Epiphone Pathfinder?
1:30:58 Making the amplifier in a 1960s Mechanix Illustrated How To Do It encyclopedia (email podcast@fretboardjournal.com if you want the scan); advantages of a two-chassis layout; octal tubes; Silvertone/Sears’ 40XL amps and more
5:53 Old typewriters, again (‘The Typewriter Revolution,’ thanks Doug F!); a Canon amplifier from Australia; Monkey Shoulder Scotch Whisky
9:35 Bitcoin mining, explained
12:44 Recommended reading: ‘The Birth of Loud’ and testing amps with full volume
15:40 Recommended reading: ‘The Unidentified’ by Colin Dickey; Bitcoin as casino chips; a DIY trem?
20:56 Bitcoin mining, again; powering a tube amp with a battery/generator; a 15″ speaker cabinet for a Masco MA-17
29:39 Sierra Nevada’s Summer Break beer
30:35 Using a Fender’s second input for speaker-driven reverb
33:36 Best uses for a Masco EMM-6 pre-amp mixer
37:03 B+ on listener Geoff’s tamed Fender Twin
41:20 Can you source amp hum just from hearing it?
45:35 Building a Princeton clone with not-quite-exact capacitors; cleaning pots
56:56 Skip is angry; ‘Sessions with Sinatra’
1:06:13 Fixing the reverb on a Gibson Falcon; Bobby Charles; the California Honeydrops; Eddie Hinton
1:13:46 John Fogerty replies
1:00: Weird California geopolitics
4:10 Recent Northern California barn finds: ES-335, a transitional Marshall, a 1955 Fender Tremolux with the original instruction page, an Epiphone Emperor Regent; Paul Chandler
14:36 A pre-war Vega amp gets fixed (almost); the humbucking coil on a field coil speaker
19:33 Reading from the 1955 Tremolux instruction page
22:45 Seeking information on Aztec Recording Studio
24:44 Venice, California’s Harry Perry
25:28 A Hammond amp and test equipment preservationist speaks out
31:32 Troubleshooting a noisy hybrid Standel amp
38:19 More typewriter talk, forger Mark Hofmann
42:51 What’s the deal with a 1966 Pro Reverb with a 1971 power transformer and various other oddities?
50:46 A Weller 8200 soldering gun that keeps shutting off, identifying good vintage 8200s
55:45 A 1977 Silverface Champ with a shocking three-prong plug
3:45 What’s on Skip’s workbench: A 1955 Tweed Tremolux with a Tartak transformer
7:12 An obituary for Tweed amps and a challenge (and a TAVA meetup idea)
13:23 Free or cheap stuff in Loma Rica: Couch Potato stuff (taken!); a Lab Series L3 amp; a Hickcok 532 tube tester; “English”
21:10 Bob Armstrong, Mickey Rat (visit his site/store here)
24:30 ‘Murder Among the Mormons’; ‘Sour Grapes’
26:18 A 24:1 scale Blunderwood typewriter project (YouTube link); Sweep the Floor podcast (link)
27:54 Two different pre-amps running in parallel to a single power section; what to do with a car tube radio with loctal tubes and a vibrator
35:14 A Masco MA-17 with a $129 buy-it-now price
39:53 Polarity checking plugs for the working musician
41:32 Getting a brighter clean tone on a Bell & Howell Filmosound 202 conversion; brussel sprouts
50:34 The TAVA Big Index page
51:09 ‘Morse’ and ‘Endeavour’
52:43 Peter Guaralnick’s ‘Lost Highway’ and ‘Feel Like Going Home’; Matthew Crawford’s ‘Why We Drive’; Lonnie Johnson; Big Mama Thornton; the other Lonnie Johnson
56:41 Replacing a transformer on a Silverface Vibro Champ that keeps losing its volume
58:55 Falling in love with a logging truck (a 1970 Traynor YBA-1 with a 2×15 cab and an 8×10 cab); attenuators
1:07:18 The Mason Model 6’s big transformer; the forthcoming TAVA 100th episode commemorative amp collaboration with Gibson
1:16:36 A rusty EH-150 in Norway, revisited: a Rola speaker swap, choke vs. resistors, 6F5 vs 6F5G tubes, etc.
1:23:59 Chipotle + Hernandez, Mrs. Renfro’s green salsa; hotwiring your tractor; a cheap TEAC reel-to-reel; moving goats
1:28:34 A Bardwell & McAlister PA amp that glows in the dark
1:30:19 Converting a 1957 RCA Model SHF67 phonograph into a Fender Harvard-style amp; adding a bass control
:23 Skip has no electricity
3:52 Jason does a video shoot with David Grisman
4:17 The “Amigo SoCal” vintage guitar show (August 28-29, 2021); a Massey amp with reverb and tremolo
6:06 Alamo Paragon Special
8:01 Skip’s tips: Vintage guitar show wheeling & dealing
10:23 Grez Guitars
12:10 Amplified Parts, Pro Co guitar cords
12:57 Jupiter Caps: Bumblebees, Red Astrons, Cosmos caps
20:45 The TAVA Patreon page
25:17 The TAVA Index on Tableau!, Goldentone Amp book
28:51 Cleaning the crusty corrosion on a Fender silverface faceplate
31:34 Making a lower-power Vox clone?
35:21 Grid bias vs cathode bias on a pre-amp tube
38:50 Why does Skip have an oscilloscope and why doesn’t he raise his prices?
41:14 Can you use a field coil speaker to drive speaker-driven reverb; voicecoils on a field coil speaker
45:07 Will the bigger vintage Fender amps ever go up in value?
49:32 Pinpointing note-triggered noise / rumble in an amp cabinet
52:55 A Lab Series L3 goes to a good home; Robert Moog; English muffin pizzas
55:12 What’s up with the Fender Tremolux Model 6G9 with EL84 power tubes? Aspen Pittman’s ‘The Tube Amp’ book (Amazon link)
58:15 A 1955 Montgomery Ward-branded amp with a wire from the speaker frame to the chassis
1:01:14 A one-way speaker mismatch on solid state amps?
1:02:54 Water kefir (recipe here)
1:04:30 Replacing the multi-cap can on a Fender Bassman 20
1:06:54 Using a pressure cooker for dried beans or potatoes
1:08:40 Poking a hole instead of solder wick
1:09:01 Vintage pencil sharpeners; Nelson Riddle
1:11:32 Any grads from the Red Wing Electronic Music Technology class?
1:12:32 The magic behind an early 1960s Ampeg M-15, vintage Jensen P15N speakers
1:15:30 What to do with a cheap Aerco-branded PA amp built by Atomite Electronic & Radio Corp?
1:21:35 Midwesterners: Skip is seeking Heileman’s Special Export, Augsburger or Little Kings beer
:41: Lots of cool amps at Skip’s: The 44th Fender Tweed Tremolux, a Twin Reverb with a 7355 tube chart
2:46 Putting a tremolo circuit in a Masco MA-25N PA head
6:16 A pre-amp for a pro harp player with high-and-low impedance in-and-out
6:57 Shure sends Skip an MV7 USB podcast microphone (link); this week’s sponsors: Amplified Parts, Grez Guitars, Jupiter Condenser Co.
10:25 Get an old typewriter
11:43 The TAVA Patreon Page (link)
12:57 Special Patreon guest: Mike Watson of the 6V6s (Ep. 60, Chris Siegmund, Signal Corps. Amplifiers, Western Electric 100F, Garnets, Marsland speakers, putting two Filmosounds in a Gibson GA-79 cabinet, speaker-driven reverb, Fender VibroChamps, mojo, Swampdonkey amplifiers, a Stromberg Carlson AU-33 with reverb and tremolo, Albert Johnson of Johnson Amplifiers).
[Editor’s note: It looks like Chris Siegmund passed away last year.]
37:42 Fretboard Journal refrigerator magnets (not happening); TAVA t-shirts (happening!)
40:48 Favorite good goo for getting wax off early ’70s Fender eyelet boards
42:02 Replacing caps on an Ampeg Rocket R-12/J-12
46:34 #mywifehatespodcasts
48:17 A 1993 Fender Blues DeVille that needs a new input jack
51:30 British rock connections, the Stones and Muddy Waters, Selmer Futurama amps (link)
59:17 The Bardwell & McAlister PA gets a new home
1:00:14 DIY: A Gibson Vari Tone circuit in an El Pato can (Make magazine)
1:00:57 Tips for amps flooded in Hurricane Ida
1:03:57 Lab series amps / Dan Pearce
1:04:29 Speaker installation tips
1:12:04 A 1978 Fender Champ with red plating tube and a solid state rectifier for the 5y3
1:22:38 Pillsbury Pizza dough, Nic Grabien
1:27:07 A solution for the loud Traynor YBA-1: the YBA-1 Tribute and the YBA-1 Mod 1; the Traynor Bass Mate
1:31:15 Ampeg Reverberocket R-12 R with 120k phase inverter plate resistors; Bunnahabhain 12 year Scotch; Little Kings beer
:59 Reverb tank bag surprises
2:09 Recommended NYC repair techs? the case of the missing Telefunken GZ34
3:52 Dickey Betts’ Bassman head
6:39 Schroeder’s Shoe Repair in Sacramento
8:31 Skip’s old band, New Departure
14:38 The Truth About Vintage Amps Patreon page; Discord coming soon!
19:07 The TAVA Big Index Page
19:14 Amp horror stories for our Halloween episode?
22:13 What to do with a busted Blues Junior? Dumble’s Tweedle Dee amp at Emerald City Guitars
27:22 How does Fender’s 6G15 wet signal work?
30:24 What to do with a 1983-ish Fender Concert 2×10 and a ‘81 Pro Reverb?
38:04 A Fender Twin Reverb with one red-plating 6L6
42:27 Masco MA-25N tremolo idea: A Danelectro/Silvertone 6AU6 circuit?
44:49 ’50s Fenders with underpowered power transformers; clipping the C3 cap in a Blues Junior, soldering guns, and single-amp speaker driven reverb
1:01:11 A Hickok tube tester up for grabs, still; a TEAC A7010 reel-to-reel
1:02:56 Negative feedback on a 1968 Fender Princeton
1:07:57 An Ampeg Gemini II roadtrip; troubleshooting a rattle
1:16:03 The soundman’s pencil hack; Make magazine; Rust magazine
1:20:10 Don’t listen to Neil Young; the interactive volume control on a Tweed Deluxe
1:23:00 Re-creating the Louisiana Hayride in Norway: What kind of PA should I get? (YouTube link)
1:29:36 Skip’s Bob Will’s PA
1:32:29 Tommy Tomlinson’s mystery amp, a Rickenbacker M-15; Ray Massie; Baxandall circuits; Magnatone Triplex
1:37:37 Insulating input and output jacks on builds (and when not to insulate)
1:41:43 A Stage Right tube amp blowing a fuse; replacing diodes
1:45:37 Putting a Tweed Vibrolux circuit in a non-reverb Silverface Princeton
1:48:00 Getting Earl Yarrow or Louie Garcia on TAVA
1:54:25 Amps with a pre-amp tube mounted to a circuit board and power tubes mounted to the chassis; Gibson GA-20T, Epiphone Century
1:56:33 Replacing a broken tone pot on a Filmosound 385
2:02:55 The end of our lo-fi era; Skip’s new Shure MV7
2:04:48 Mike Watson’s 6L6s (link)
1:32: Skip says thanks, Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey
2:44 John Bachigaluppi of Tape Op magazine
4:37 TAVA t-shirts! Pre-order yours here.
5:33 Jupiter Condenser Co. discount: Use the discount code TAVA to get free domestic shipping on Jupiter speakers at https://jupiter-speakers.com!
7:03 Our listeners are amazing: Shawn’s 3mg Filmosound resistor, Oystein gets a PA amp, Robert Knetzger’s pencil resistor (YouTube link)
8:51 Hum on a modded 1979 Fender Musicmaster Bass amp
12:38 Getting more headroom out of a Silverface Fender Twin
18:02 A goat mule in a minivan
23:54 A speaker-driven reverb on a single, Champ-style amp
28:31 Pickled zucchini
32:32 A 1978 Fender Champ that runs too hot (Australian / import version); new tubes, DC voltages
40:36 An Australian amp tech chimes in
44:55 Dumble’s Tweedle Dee circuit (5E3 variations); GZ34 rectifier tubes
50:56 Call-in guest: Sam Mollica (https://www.mollicaamplifiers.com); the 12AX7 in Fender standalone 6G15 reverb units; the dry signal in an Ampeg Reverberocket
1:04:10 Output jacks on Gibson Falcons versus modern methods; speaker-driven line out revisited
1:10:09 A ’67 Fender Pro Reverb with a cracked screen grid resistor
1:13:40 Converting a Conn Strobotuner into an effectless Princeton; pentode pre-amp tubes (5879 tubes)
1:19:11 How to replace the speaker and move the output transformer on a Kay Model 503A; cleaning typewriters
1:27:48 A Silvertone Twin Twelve 1484 with a steady hum
1:31:54 Standalone reverb/trem unit projects; Gibson 1RVT
8:40 Special guest: Musician/producer John Vanderslice returns! dEATh bUg, CRYSTALS; running Tiny Telephone studio during COVID, getting double-vaxxed, staying motivated, tape vs. digital recordings, Forssell converters, the four-track pre-amp used by Mk.Gee on Dijon’s new song (YouTube link), Ritchie Blackmore uses an AKAI tape deck, Gibson Falcons, Peter Jensen’s Magnovox speakers, Schoeps CMC and MK4 microphones, Neve 31102, Shure 565, Bogen RP2 mic-pre, Stromberg-Carlson AV38, Yamaha NS-10s as mics, Frank Sinatra, Vanderslice’s Spotify Playlists (link)
1:06:43 Recommended Reading: They Might Be Giants’ BOOK (order link), “I Broke My Own Rule” (YouTube link); Warren Ellis’ ‘Nina Simone’s Gum’ (Amazon link)
1:11:38 How to interview prospective amp techs
1:19:32 Making a copy of a Magnatone 210 with a jack socket on either side of the vibrato circuit; Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise
1:21:56 The Fender Champ 12’s speaker-driven reverb (revisited), peppers in a cast iron pan
1:27:42 Bridging a Fender tube amp
1:30:46 Optimizing a Stromberg-Carlson AU-42 for guitar; ‘Look Me in the Eye’ by (Amazon link), old olive orchards
1:38:49 Fixing goop’d amps (Joe Bonamassa’s Instagram link)
1:42:24 Eric Daw (Fret Files Podcast, luthier, Gibson handle MacGyver)
1:43:56 Blown Marshall output transformer (JCM800 2303)
1:46:09 Outboard reverb and trem units: Weber’s ReVibe and TorVibe
1:47:47 Jumpered Marshall amps and La Costena & El Pato Frijoles (email us for the recipe)
1:52:08 Steve Dawson (Music Makes & Soul Shakers); a 1953 Fender Deluxe (5B3) with a sweet spot at 4; troubleshooting a dud Deluxe clone
1:58:57 Ohsawa organic tamari; availalbe: An SVT bass amp in Oroville, California, a single-ended Knight PA head at Skip’s, and a Vox Cambridge Reverb
:31 Skip puts the trem in the PA head
1:50 RIP Pat Martino
4:08 Green El Pato enchilada sauce
6:19 Swapping the 6C4 for a 6J6 on a Bogen CHB-50
10:05 A Magnatone vibrato pedal
12:58 A Princeton Reverb clone with a single-note rattle
16:00 Glossary according to Skip: Bypass cap; Baxandall, bright cap
23:17 A late ’50s Epiphone Century aka Gibson GA-20T in disguise (see our Instagram)
26:23 More on amp hum
28:21 A ’56 Fender Champ or a ’60?
31:07 Shoutout Bob at Brookwood Leather (link)
32:14 New boutique amps worth seeking; McClostone; Hamstead
37:23 Typewriters, again
38:24 Giveaway: A La Tosca accordion
39:36 Jason’s plan to keep the typewriters typing (free business idea); They Might Be Giants ‘Book’ (redux, link)
42:48 Finding a clean tone American amp in Norway; silverface Twins
45:49 Why does the primary impedance run high on 6L6 tubes on PA heads; repairing vintage transformers
50:45 Why amps in the ’80s and ’90s got power transformer replacements; Gibson GA-1RT (YouTube link)
55:10 Looking for a Danelectro Virtuoso schematic; what to do with an butchered amp with no available schematic; Sierra Nevada Old Chico beer
59:36 Guitarist Bobby Eli; the sound of Philadelphia; Vinnie Bell; ‘A House on Fire’ (Amazon link)
1:02:18 What happens in a tube amp?
1:05:57 Guitarist Pasquale Grasso
1:56 The TAVA Cookbook (coming soon, email us if you want it)
5:15 Skip’s real voice or a young Jerry?
7:56 Interactive controls on amps, Neil Young’s Whizzer, an Epiphone Blues Custom 30, roasted pickled onions
14:06 Old filter caps in PA conversions; Pelican Bay Brewing
17:59 1957 Tweed Deluxe with all original caps; a chassis-only Tweed Deluxe on eBay; Ampeg M12
20:15 Skip’s philosophy on replacing caps in a customer’s amp
22:30 Illinois capacitors; a Marshall JTM45 that pops when you turn it off
27:40 Even more capacitor talk: Orange Drop capacitors, Illinois MWR capacitors, Jupiter capacitors, Blue Drop caps
35:03 A Rickenbaker M-8E with modified output transformer wiring; Ethiopian ful beans
41:54 TAVA Big Index Page (link)
43:04 Wiring a new home for a vintage PA
48:44 Recommended book: ‘Grateful Dead Gear’ (Amazon link)
50:44 Washable Crayola on the Mona Lisa; an owner’s manual for a 100-watt Multivox P88?
53:42 How to get better at diagnosing amp problems?
55:21 First 5E3 clone upgrades, even more capacitor talk (disc capacitors), CTS metal-shaft pots
1:01:11 Overview of a push-pull circuit, single-open ended; mountain pie makers
1:05:25 Cast Iron Revival (Portland, Oregon; Instagram link)
1:09:13 Gibson GA-17RVT Scout oscillations
1:14:06 What to put inside a Gibson GA-15RVT?
1:17:50 Polarities revisited and rice water soup
1:52: Full transcription of Ep. 83 on our Patreon (yay or nay?)
4:14 Skip’s recommended gifts: Jack Darr, Joy of Cooking, the Gibson amp book, the Ampeg amp book, Fender Amps: The First 50 Years; El Pato
6:57 A new baffler: 1964 Super Reverb with a three-prong cord
10:10 A pristine 1956 Fender Pro that needs TLC
14:42 An Audio Guild Bonham 120 with low vibrato intensity
20:34 Taming a Fender Twin Reverb reissue by pulling the 12AX7 on the normal channel
27:27 ID’ing the oil for a Tel-Ray oil-can echo unit / Ucon LB-65
29:55 How to find replacement 1″ diameter Mallory can capacitors for a 1950s Valco with 1″ diameter Mallory can capacitors, re-using old funky wire, the Fender 5E5 Pro input, adapt-a-cap.com
40:36 A 1965-ish Princeton Reverb that makes wave crashing sounds
42:31 PSA on three-prong power cords: SVT or SJT jackets
45:46 Finding time in your busy life to work on amps
50:57 Changing the circuit on a late 1940s Harmony Model 200; Mr. In-Between; Pig
57:51 Fender Concert IIs: Any good?
1:01:07 Resistor’s influence on tone?
1:06:10 Ledaig single malt scotch, Jameson’s Black Barrel whiskey, and other stuff sent to Skip; Body and Soul Pedals by listener Yann (bodyandsoulinstruments@gmail.com, available at Real Guitars in SF)
1:12:02 A recently shipped tube amp that lost its volume
1:16:53 The unique field coil wiring on a Hammond M-3 organ
1:24:19 Some Leslie 147 amp discoveries
1:33:47 The answer to this week’s baffler
1:35:08 A Tweed Bassman clone with a loud squeal
1:59 El Pato hot sauce in a bottle
3:13 Nothing but cans: Skip’s recent meal
9:58 Update on the amp that lost the majority of its volume during shipping (ep. 84)
11:24 You think this gig is easy, part 7: A Fender Reverb unit with nearly every part replaced
17:42 The tone of the Fender Twins in the Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ documentary
23:41 Special guest: Calvin McCormick (McCormick Analog / Hiwatt / @ampfreek): Meeting Hy Bloom, founder of Soundmaster; Hiwatt today; a new Hiwatt fuzz pedal announcement, Grand Funk Railroad, Garnet Herzog, MTI tube stompboxes and lots more.
1:03:23 Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ
1:08:02 Fender 5F2 vs 5F2A fuse specification
1:11:37 The input pre-amp on tube PAs, 12AX7 versus 12AT7
1:14:58 What makes a good steel amp; Steelin’ Home by Noel Boggs (YouTube link)
1:22:12 Reforming NOS capacitor cans: Trash or Treasure?
1:24:39 Fitting a reverb tank with space constraints, cooked salsa
1:27:53 Skip needs an Ampeg Gemini II trem module (TM-1), running an old rotary phone into a computer
1:29:45 Skip’s new name
1:30:38 Adding a cut control to a single-ended Vox style amp; cheese dip; Pat Martino’s ‘Live at Keystone Korner’
1:39:47 Replacing the V1 on a two 12AX7, two 6V6 amp to a 12AU7
4:37 The business of cheese, the Prudence Penny Regional Cookbook, mead
10:34 Custom can capacitors from Hayseedhamfest.com
12:00 Skip re-builds a hacked 1961 Fender reverb unit; half-wave rectifier circuit vs. bridge rectifier circuit
16:38 Special guest: Joe Halliday from Hello Sailor Effects (Instagram link) Building amps and pedals while at sea with the British Navy, a love for old parts, octal pre-amp tubes, dummy loads (mini Wall of Sound), Free, Gibson Melody Makers, PA heads, Watkins Scout, etc.
40:48 Replacing a 6EU7 on a Gibson Falcon, DangerUXB
46:49 A Gibson GA-80T Vari-Tone with the push button tone selectors
50:46 Beginner’s Corner: Guitar-amp feedback
52:01 A Silverface Vibro Champ with a bypassed can capacitor, Ooni pizza ovens
59:55 Restoring a 1958 Fender Bassman estate find
1:10:46 Garland Jeffreys’ “Wild in the Streets” (YouTube link), a Vespa car (shell)
1:13:56 The caps in a vintage guitar
1:19:17 Vibro Champ hum since a speaker upgrade, and a 80uF 450V cap from pin 8 of the 5Y3 to ground
1:24:40 The Benson 300H, Howard Roberts, and the Fender GA-50
1:27:04 Are all AB763 Fender amps made equal?
1:30:15 Starting a ’70s Carlsboro 50 Top Head that has been dormant for decades
1:35:47 Vox AC-4 vs AC-15; DIY Fender Bassman kits
1:43:54 $325 into a 1965-1966 GA-15RVT Explorer
1:49:16 Skip says “thanks” to Joe; a vintage porcelain grilled cheese sandwich maker
:54: RIP Alexander Howard Dumble
1:58 The TAVA Big Index Page (link) / Tableau Index Page (link)
2:21 Jason attempts to finish his Champ kit project
4:05 A Massie-built Electro amp on eBay (link)
8:05 Beginner’s Corner: Speaker cables versus guitar cables
9:41 The capacitors in our brain
11:19 A replacement optocoupler for Gibson GA-20 RVT?, tremolo circuits
16:02 A tip for pros: Max-Pro.com
18:18 Frank Sinatra’s ‘Songs for Swingin’ Lovers;’ cleaning and retensioning tube sockets, redux
27:10 Music recommendations: https://www.wwoz.org; typewriters; The Deputy featuring music by Jack Marshall (YouTube link)
32:37 The dual fixed and cathode bias circuit on a Fender AC568 Bassman
37:27 Mother of toilet seat amps; Skip’s preferred wiring, tube sockets and more
50:00 Fixing a vintage tube with a broken guide key, aftermarket tube bases
54:42 Fender Deluxes: 5E3 vs 6G3, roasted brussels sprouts
59:16 Skip’s speaker picks; Skip’s reference cab
1:04:31 How to make a lot of mead; the Prudence Penny Cookbook
1:07:09 Ampeg Gemini I reverb tank
1:10:32 The tone control circuit of an Ampeg M-12 Versus Tweed Deluxe; Kenny Burrell’s ‘Bluesin’ Around’
1:17:00 What’s up with my early ’60s Ampro combo amp?
1:22:09 Amps for steel players, revisited
1:30:22 Interviewing a tech before you let them work on your amp, a lazy guy’s lo-mein
1:38:05 Anyone need an original NOS car radio potentiometer?
Episode 88
2:31 Before you start charging people to fix amps…
5:57 RIP listener Bill Eldred; happy birthday, Clayton
7:04 John Vanderslice’s new podcast, ‘Keep the Dream Alive’
9:09 Skip’s music recommendation: Brave Combo
10:24 economycandy.com for all your vintage candy needs
12:02 Live taping of the TAVA’s 100th episode at the 2022 Fretboard Summit? (Chicago, August 25-27)
13:22 Skip sounds like Jerry Garcia, redux; Jerry Garcia Funny Story (YouTube link); what to do with a busted Monoprice Stage Right 15-watt, 12″ combo?
20:35 How did Fender circuits get named? El Pato red enchilada sauce (in the big can)
24:36 Tweed Deluxe vs. Ampeg M-12, redux; replacement reverb tank for a Gibson Falcons (4FB3D1B)
27:02 Chokes: What are they, why and more? henrys; scalloped potatoes
34:34 A Cromwell lap steel and matching amp; pre-servicing an amp to clean out pests, etc. before you send it to a tech; more scalloped potatoes; Aleene’s Tacky Glue
39:34 Recovering old cloth-covered wire; Otis Amps on the Sonic Artifacts Podcast
43:18 Boutique builders: Vintage 47 amps (link); Swart amps; Dr. Z; BC amps (link)
46:53 Kalamazoo Reverb 12 revisited; 5E3 vs. 6G3 (Deluxe) schematics
50:01 Phase inverters in the 6G3, 5E3 and Ampeg M-12 amps
51:02 A typewriter baffler from listener Bob K.
54:25 Phase issues with different sized speakers?; using a 9v battery to test the phase of a speaker; Nashville Amp Works
58:49 The Beginner’s Corner for Tone Geeks, by Marty from the Oregon Coast; Sarno Music Solutions Earth Drive pedal (link); Neil Young’s ‘Live Rust’; non-alcoholic hoppy water
1:11:30 The Ampro combo amp revisited
1:15:33 Recommended reading: the Ampeg book, the Gibson amp book
1:16:54 The TAVA Angela Super Single Ended amp group build… happening soon (we hope)!
1:18:27 Simple recipes: Cast Iron Roast Chicken (link), Herb Salad (link); an Ampeg flip-top B-15 with replaced coupling capacitors; Cornell Dubilier capacitors, mylar versus polyester; Johnnie Taylor “It’s Your Thing”
1:33:52 Recommended sources for good resistors and caps for new builds; Skip still has a TEAC a7010 reel-to-reel tape deck available
1:40:32 A circuit for weirdos: Epiphone EA-70 with tube compression
1:41:10 Recommended reading: Trustee from the Tool Room
2:30 Putting the old Astron Minimite capacitors back inside a Vibrolux… in Thailand
6:22 Special guest Max Hart: Melissa Etheridge, touring through COVID-times, Hammond B-3 variations, Max’s pedal board, Leslie 147s vs. 122s, touring with a vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb, in-ear monitors, Eric Gardner, living in Woodland, CA, his guitars of choice, Klon clones, Boss RV-6 reverb pedal, click tracks, Gruene Hall
45:00 Too flippant about chokes: Skip revisits last week’s chokes question.
46:28 Baffer: A Chris Stapleton model Princeton with a tube rectifier that won’t work
50:40 Skip’s #1 Retropolitan amp for sale (sold, Instagram link)
53:51 Testing the pulled / bad caps on a serviced Fender 1962 6G4A
55:57 Quick and easy crispy corndogs; bacon bourbon; did Tool’s Adam Jones really freeze his amplifiers?
59:41 A Bogen Challenger 35A making demonic sounds with no speaker hooked up
1:05:13 A heartwarming tale: Milling old Sacramento trees
1:08:28 Portobello mushrooms and a blown-up Orange OR15
1:14:40 The rectifier tube in a ’50s Magnatone 213, fixing a rotten cabinet
1:16:43 A modified tone stack on a Weber Deluxe Reverb kit
1:23:02 Old business: Preferred Gibson Falcon reverb tank (4FB3D1B)
1:25:04 Farmers Brewing; Secret Trail Brewing Co.
1:25:20 Skip gets a package for Russell Simmons
1:26:57 A Silverface Champ with a 250k pot instead of a 1mg pot
1:27:59 A Magnatone Varsity project for sale
4:57 What’s in a blue molded cap?
6:17 Our Patreon page and a Patreon-only giveaway
8:14 The Ep. 89 Fender Chris Stapleton amp baffler answered
13:03 Burning Spear, Marysville postcards, and electric trains
13:55 Beginner’s corner: Basic servicing on a Traynor YBA-1 and a 1968 Fender Deluxe Reverb; Alex Shultz’s ‘Think About It’
18:27 A Peavey Classic 30 with a sibilant buzz
23:11 Why are vacuum tubes called valves; eggs with smoked paprika
26:35 Grez guitars; a 1978 Deluxe Reverb with a microphonic channel 1
33:07 Rewinding transformers: worth it?
37:33 A Fender Musicmaster bass in Daphne blue up for grabs; a memorial for Little Charlie
39:47 A blackface Fender Vibrochamp with a bad hum; artificial center taps and various other mods; Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five (YouTube link); Weller 8200 for chassis ground connections?; Weller 550
48:42 The sound coming out of your tubes; Universal Audio OX; Steven Spielberg’s Duel
54:05 Thanks, AmpsAmps
55:13 Two Craigslist finds: Cutting the cord on a free Hammond M-111 and a what to do with an empty 2000 Fender Twin Reverb shell
1:00:51 Steel players and their quest for more headroom; overdriven steel artifacts; tips and tricks for getting more headroom from an amp
1:06:39 John Smith finds tube amp happiness with Benson Nathan Junior; chorizo lasagna (with El Pato); watch John Smith on That Pedal Show (YouTube link)
1:10:50 Has Skip ever been shocked?, signal bleed on a PA amp; Jeff Healey’s trumpet playing
1:14:51 The most sought after Masco PA heads
1:20:56 Turning a Knight 93-360 into an octal Gibson GA-20s and what to do with the phono input?
1:25:25 Speaker efficiency and sensitivity
1:28:26 Why new crock pots suck
1:31:03 Filter cap changes on classic Marshall circuits
1:37:26 Theoretical circuit splicing
1:40:26 How does Skip desolder a connection?
1:42:38 Making Filmosounds safe, Cheesy Hammy Eggy
1:46:52 More good goo: S&F Smothered Cajun sauce (link)
1:48:38 A microphonic 1966 Fender Bassman head; can high humidity make a fiberboard conductive? leaving an amp on to dry it out
1:48 O.W. Appleton and the APP guitar (link)
7:09 Should we be freaking out about the 2022 vacuum tube shortage? Western Electric getting into guitar tubes (survey link)
19:50 An Australian PA amp with EF86s; when did solid state rectification begin?; For The Term of His Natural Life, by Marcus Clarke; congee
26:22 Hab Spicy Sweet Soy Sauce (link)
26:46 Blue molded caps in a Tweed Deluxe clone
31:00 Changing the voltage dropping resistors in a Silverface Champ where the B+ is super high
34:27 Extending the leads of pots and a jack so that you can fit an amp inside a vintage radio cabinet
37:18 The remote controls on old Bogen PA heads
45:39 Pedal steel amplifiers, redux; Fender Tweed Pro; beer bread
48:59 A pause for others who know what they’re doing: Earl Yarrow, Terry Dobbs, Jeff Bakos; a shout out to the USPS
53:44 Working with a transformer that doesn’t have a filament center cap; RIP El Charritos
58:32 Building a 5F2A vs. a AA764
1:03:16 Thanks to Kevin in Ohio; the TAVA Patreon Page (link)
1:03:57 Why are boutique amps so expensive, revisited; point-to-point wiring versus turret board; CW Stoneking’s Gon’ Boogaloo
1:12:16 Baked kale chips; Irish colcannon; skillet Brussels sprouts; carrots in garlic oil
1:17:30 What’s the deal with the 1955 Les Paul Jr. amplifier; making room for filter caps
1:20:17 Taming a Fender Champ; more parenting tips; Song Exploder (“Closing Time” episode link)
1:30:46 More book recommendations? Geoff Farina of Karate
1:39:57 Skip’s Music Master bass… sold; K + M Chocolate (link)
1:42:25 What happens to your guitar signal when you split it with a Y cord? Voltage amplifier or cathode follower; Donny Hathaway (“Jealous Guy” on YouTube); 6CM6 tubes
1:47:19 What to do with a 1967 Kodak Pageant movie projector? Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery’s ‘Dynamic Duo’, The Meters; Trustee From the Toolroom; Fluke TL71 Premium Test lead set; Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce, “the tweed Champ of pasta sauce” (recipe link)
1:57:57 Skip has a McIntosh MR71 tube tuner for sale; independent radio; the Heptones “I’ve Been Trying” (YouTube link)
2:19 The great tube shortage on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, Western Electric 300Bs, a million dollar vacuum tube
11:39 Good goo for repairing rotten cabinets
13:59 A Precision Electronics PA amplifier with no model number; the rising prices of vintage PA heads
21:37 Recommended reading: Garrett Hongo’s ‘The Perfect Sound’ (Amazon link)
22:43 Mic pre-amps at Tiny Telephone, RP2s, the Tiny Telephone podcast, Keep the Dream Alive (link)
29:42 Drawing layouts and schematics with DIY-fever.com’s app (link); National Geographic’s ‘The Rescue’
32:29 A 1950 Fender Deluxe signed “Lilly” (Instagram link)
34:40 A bunch of tweed amps at Skip’s; a 1953 Fender wide panel Tweed Deluxe score at an estate sale
38:54 Good-All branded caps vs blue molded caps
40:01 Harvesting old coupling caps: Which brands are worth saving?
43:27 Building an Angela SSE amp with a few mods: The cathode bias on the second half of the 12AX7, experimenting with a Variac to lower B+, Zener diodes to a center tap, repurposing an old jukebox amp, recommended book: ‘A Fortune Life,’ by A. B. Facey (Amazon link), vegetarian congee
50:46 Recommended music: Fred Astaire’s The Astaire Story; Fred Astaire and Barney Kessell
52:44 Lesser known vintage amp brands with surprisingly good tone
56:32 Bahamas plays “All the Time” on a Skip-modified Fender Champ at the Fretboard Journal (YouTube link)
56:59 Buying a new boutique amplifier to get a modern reliable tweed sound
1:01:19 Strain relief for the power cord in a Gibson GA88s, Grandma’s Smoked Country sausage from Broadbents Hams (link)
1:05:12 Skip is taking visitors again; Loma Rica Mexican cuisine; lots of disc capacitors up for grabs; a Heathkit SA-3 integrated stereo amp
1:11:00 Daisy chaining amps, a Bugera BC30-212, and a desire to make a foot switchable daisy chain through the effects loop
1:15:08 Running a guitar into both channels of a Northern Electric PA, redux
18:11 Reusing the factory solder during a Fender Champ fix
1:20:17 A silverface Fender Champ with an annoyingly loose can capacitor
1:22:36 A 1967 Deluxe Reverb with a broken reverb tank
1:26:07 Fixing a Gemini VI project; Texas breakfast tacos
1:30:35 Early electrics at MIM.org; the Appleton guitar APP guitar (link)
1:32:25 An antique building with a buzz and/or ghost problem; “Be Thankful for What You Got” (YouTube link)
:50 Amplified Parts now carries PSVANE tubes; tube brands
6:51 Nate’s maple syrup
7:50 Garrett Hongo’s ‘The Perfect Sound’ (Amazon link)
10:19 A Silverface Champ, Little Charlie’s Spanish rice, Trustee from the Tool Room, the novels of Charles Portis, the Kalamazoo KEA’s unique push-pull circuit
17:06 Making the two channels of a reissue Fender Vibroverb in-phase; learning soldering as a blind person (link: https://lighthouse-sf.org/tag/soldering/)
24:56 Putting a few select vintage parts in a new Princeton 5F2A clone
31:35 @nocoastsaint’s tractor tire-as-speaker-cabinet experiment (Instagram link)
32:52 The Fretboard Journal, TAVA, Doug Sewall’s amplifiers (Wampus Cat), getting rid of intermittent noise by moving an amp, cheap surge protectors, Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder’s ‘Get On Board’
43:01 A 1965 Fender Vibro Champ that’s with a squeal on its vibrato, Capacitor Wizards, bypass cap orientation
48:11 A new transformer for a Victor projector amplifier and matching speaker
50:25 Overheating parts during soldering, using a heat sink?
53:38 The MTS modular tube preamp system
55:53 Strain relief bushing tips, Pro’s Kit, blanched kale with toasted sunflower seeds, madsenamps.com giveaway (coming soon)
1:01:51 A stiff 5E8A clone with two game changing mods
1:06:13 A reissue tweed Champ that sputters for 30 seconds every time its turned on
1:08:12 A Randall Century 3000 solid state amp that decides to change its own volume
1:11:00 What to source for a cheap but defective 1965 Gibson skylark GA5
1:16:22 Music recommendation: Jim Hall & Paul Desmond
Tex Amps: Filmosound conversions; the magic of Bernie-built amps, Tex’s own circuit designs and a lot more.
1:32 Econco, the giant tube rebuilding place in Woodland, California (link); h/t www.reelaudio.net
3:16 Cordless yard tools
4:31 What’s on Skip’s bench: A Charlie Christian-style amp head for Todd Clinesmith; John Munnerlyn’s Magnatone-inspired guitars, the power transformer from a blonde Tremolux head; blue molded caps
9:56 The Truth About Vintage Amps Patreon page (link); congrats to Patreon supporter Josh F. for winning the Body and Soul fuzz pedal (Body and Soul on Instagram)
14:18 Nate the syrup guy’s 1965 Vibro Champ, redux; inverse feedback; reversing the primary leads on the power transformer
20:31 Beginner’s Corner: Cathode bias vs. fixed bias vs. grid bias
25:07 Find this guy: Ham operator Armond Noble, the Kon-Tiki, World Radio News
27:00 A 1964 Fender Super Reverb with a strange volume taper
30:57 A tuxedo Princeton going to the Los Angeles Guitar Show
31:45 Mid-’60s Ampeg B-18N with a weird noise and a single glowing power tube that fixes itself with the standby switch
37:32 A loose rectifier tube in a 1968 Fender Deluxe Reverb
41:32 Fumes from soldering
43:35 Fixing the polarity at a local dive bar
50:38 The goat murder trial is over
53:25 Sourcing the washer behind the jewel light on a Silverface Champ
58:04 Schematics for a Webster TP12-1 PA, making a Blackstar cleaner by swapping the pre-amp tube
1:03:44 A smoking 1973 Earthsound amp
1:11:20 A Harmony H400 combo up for grabs; the Fender Bantam Bass schematic
1:15:09 Replacement output transformers for Fender Champs, Princetons, and Deluxes; rewinding output transformers
1:26:37 Literary recommendation: ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies’ by Jared Diamond
:00 Defensible space, making electricity
5:40 What’s on Skip’s bench: Old Supros; a late ’20s Lyon & Healy amp sporting the Matchless/Vox treble cut tone control
9:59 Silverface jewel light washers (coming soon); pre-order TAVA t-shirts and help support the show (link)
11:12 A Harmony amp with a buzzy volume control; another Harmony with overreacting tone knobs; kale “vodka,” bias resistors
19:42 New KT66 tubes for a 1966 Marshall JTM45 100-watt clone; restaurant-quality french fries; 807 tubes
28:46 Pastorelli pizza sauce; tinkering with a ’90s Marshall-made Vox AC-15’s static; plastic PCB mounts
37:19 Fixing a vintage Gibson Les Paul amp by cleaning the tube sockets, what’s the deal with Fender PA100 heads?; a Sano amp and McIntosh tuner up for grabs
46:45 Soldering fume dangers and keeping your workspace clean
49:50 A Larry Chung sighting; an Epiphone Zephyr (a GA-40 with a 15″ speaker) and an Epiphone Century (a Gibson GA-20T)
50:58 Recommended movie: the original Pinnochio, Aladdin, and Little Miss Sunshine; recommended music: Eli “Paperboy” Reed; seeing Merle Haggard at the Sacramento Western Swing Society
56:46 The naming of tubes; how to find usable tubes at a garage sale; undercooked ramen with peanut butter and chilies; dog harnesses for your amp in transit; tube substitution books (‘The Receiving Tube Substitution Guide Book’ by Middleton, PDF link)
1:02:47 Is my Peavey Encore 65 vintage? Working around its finicky solid-state distortion
1:09:53 Filet mignon with bacon and vodka
1:13:08 A 1972 Traynor YGM-2 that turns everything to fuzz after 1/2 second
1:15:50 Should I mod a Silverface Champ when I already own a 5F2-A?
1:21:00 The Call (“Let the Day Begin,” YouTube link), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
1:22:22 Forming filter caps with a Variac?
1:27:44 A 1979 Fender Pro Reverb that changed for the worse after a power outage; William Penn & His Pals – “Swami” (YouTube link)
1:38:15 Modding a boring 1966 Fender black-panel Princeton with no reverb?
1:42:11 Why is there a jumper on the 12AX7 of my SF Fender Champ?
1:44:44 Are 1968/1969 Fender power transformers lemons?
1:51:14 Mexican pork stew
1:54:23 Tubes for a Bell 3715 PA conversion
:27 A cool guy’s Traynor and tube stuff from the Forest Service in Chester, California
1:47 A ’60s Heathkit IG-5237 still sealed in the box (stereo FM signal generator)
4:07 The Fretboard Journal’s 50th issue, the Fretboard Summit in Chicago, the legacy of Dumble
10:08 This week’s sponsors: Amplified Parts, Calton Cases, and Jupiter Condenser Co.
11:12 This month’s Patreon giveaway: A Fuzz Face from Hello Sailor! Effects
13:17 Fire season in Northern California
14:53 An Ampeg B-12XY with an internal 5-watt amp for speaker-driven reverb, Guild Thunderbird amps
18:26 Reserve your new TAVA t-shirt (link)
19:26 Tube naming, revisited
20:41 Last episode’s smoking Earthsound Research G-2000… fixed?; more fuse talk
23:34 Skip explains his WD-40 stance; Red Green
27:53 Kevin from Ohio, eBay score Patreon perks, EIA codes
32:49 Special guest: Thomas Cravener, V.P. Sales and Marketing at Amplified Parts: Russian/Chinese tube supply; Amplified Parts is still buying/selling NOS tubes; Psvane tubes; building Mallory Capacitors (YouTube link)
56:59 Gibson GA-8; do I need a matched set of 6V6s in a parallel single-ended amp?
1:02:34 Using alcohol in cooking; kale as shoe repair
1:05:57 Building a Masco Audiosphere A-8 off the schematic (6V6 or 6L6)
1:10:15 Jupiter caps at Amplified Parts; the low acceptable DC voltage on leaky coupling caps
1:12:57 A Flot-A-Tone with a howling problem
1:15:36 A Masco head from the 50/50 Club gets reunited with its cab
1:18:00 Trying to match the dynamics and distortion of an Ampeg B-25 and a Marshall Plexi clone; post-power inverter master volume mods, buying pedals off Amazon
1:23:51 What would Skip buy: A silver-paneled Princeton Reverb, a high-quality clone, or a new hand-wired one from Fender?
1:27:20 Howling Flot-A-Tone revisited, 6SC7 tubes
1:27:10 1966 Fender Pro Reverb with a big increase in plate voltage right after using the standby switch; standby switch 101; GZ34 vs 5U4 rectifier tubes; roasted potatoes
1:37:29 Taming the treble on a Marshall Mercury (we’ll attach the schematic to the fretboardjournal.com show notes page so you can see what we’re discussing)
1:42:16 Skip’s learning curve: Did he work on ultra-collectible amps when he was still starting out? a ’53 Tweed Deluxe with no original parts; William Penn and His Pals’ “Swami” (YouTube link)
:54 The Fretboard Journal 50 (link) …and issue 1; NAMM Shows
6:15 Our 100th episode giveaways: Win a Grez Guitars Mendocino Junior; a Madsen Electronics GE Fuzz; or a First Coast Amplification Masco – 5F2A Princeton conversion… plus, Josephine Baker was a spy
11:57 What exactly does a Variac do on a dormant amp?
15:43 A super microphonic Deluxe Reverb
17:33 Screen resistors on power tubes: 1-watt resistors vs 3-watt resistors
22:10 Center taps on power transformers: Grounded, tapped-off, or artificial?
26:29 Replacing the rotary off-on switches on Gibsons; Carling rotary switches (link)
29:45 What inspires Skip
35:23 Skip and the Reserve Champion goat
47:09 How important is the orientation of film capacitors?
53:20 A 1974 Fender Pro Reverb with a hissing problem that goes away with the vibrato; rosemary seasoned foil-wrapped corn on the cob
59:08 Voltage on the chassis of a two-pronged Harmony H-195
1:03:50 Replica cabinets from Lightning Music in Marengo, Ohio; Electro-Harmonix Hum-Debugger pedals, Bruce Forman, James “Blood” Ulmer, the Westerlies
1:07:48 The Fretboard Summit at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, August 25-27, 2022 (www.fretboardsummit.org)
1:09:18 Ananyo Bhattacharya’s ‘The Man From the Future: The Visionary Life of John Von Neuman’ (Amazon link), vacuum tubes for computer memory, Nixie tubes, Fender Dimension IV Sound Exploder / Tel-Ray goo
1:12:26 The tone of Orange Drop capacitors: polyester versus polypropylene; spaghetti bolognese with a slug of El Pato
1:19:25 A Carl’s Custom Amps Octal Princeton that can use either a 6L6, EL34, KT77, or 6CA7… and the difference in wattage
1:23:24 Musical instrument insurance; Heritage Insurance (link)
1:26:25 Do you need an insulator board on a turret board amp build? How to find time to work on amps when you have a busy life and family and other parenting tips.
1:36:22 Homework: How to add a tone control to a Gibson GA17-RVT?
:23 The Fretboard Summit Chicago: Come see Jason, Larry Chung, Grez Guitars, and more August 25-27 at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music (link)
7:02 One more prize for our 100th episode giveaway: A 1971 Skip-modded SF Champ
10:30 Skip is headed to a guitar show… in January (link)
12:55 A 1928 National Squareneck Tricone Style 1 for sale; a Recording King amp
17:56 One thing we’ve learned about vintage amps over the course of this podcast
23:55 Choosing the ultimate pickup-testing amp
28:13 Isaiah Mitchell; bias or no bias
32:54 A twin Reverb with a dying sound on the vibrato channel
38:50 Goat judging, redux (Instagram link)
44:39 Reverb without transformers, ie the Ampeg GU-12
46:34 A Traynor YGM-3 with an overly metallic reverb
48:38 Is an amp a signal pusher or a signal sucker?
51:03 Music Man amps, keeping a 12AX7 from failing, 6CA7 tubes, Johnny Winter’s burning Music Man (YouTube link)
53:43 Could Gibson successfully reissue a Crestline-era style amp? schematicheaven.net
58:54 How important is an original output transformer?
1:01:18 The high-pitched ringing of a V2 (12AX7) on a 5F4 clone
1:03:23 A 1968 Fender Bronco vs. a ’75 Vibro Champ
1:05:55 The Gibson GA-50, thoughts and maintenance; another way to ground your amp (non-three prong plug)
1:11:00 Giving yourself more spacing in an amp build to accommodate bigger hands
1:13:26 B+/power transformer questions on a 1977 Vibrolux Reverb
1:18:30 Peavey Encore 65 footswitch, redux
4:48 ‘California Burning’ book (Amazon link)
7:05 Special guest: Nels Cline: Daybreak Seaweed Flakes (link)
8:26 Our TAVA 100 Giveaways: A Grez Mendocino Junior; a Skip-modded SF Fender champ; a Madsen Amplification GE Boost (use the discount code TAVA 20 at madsenamps.com); a FirstCoast Amplification-modified Masco-turned-5F2A Princeton (FirstCoast’s Reverb store); Eric Daw’s new book ‘Solid Sound: 23 Schematics for Wiring Vintage and Modern Single-Coil, Solid-Body Guitars’ (order link)
11:01 Special guest: Barry from Grez Guitars
11:23 Special guest: Jesse Quitslund (acmeverb.com)
17:55 Special guest: Steve Melkisethian (Angela Instruments), a rough tomato season, the Angela SSE amp project
21:52 Special guest: Colleen Fazio (fazioelectric.com)
26:35 Marty from the Oregon Coast
28:05 Carlsbro amps, haunted amps
33:38 What does a wattage rating really mean?
38:29 Derek the Cruise Ship Guy’s ambient TAVA remix; increasing the tremolo on old Fender amps, pulling the tremolo pre-amp tube to increase gain, McGohan PA amps
48:14 Building the Angela SSE amp (link to order the catalog/schematic)
53:35 Favorite speakers for black panel Fenders, Colleen’s test cabinet
56:26 A philosophical question: What if the modded vintage amp you bought was modded by a genius?; homemade hot sauce, mica caps, replacement Fender Silverface pilot light washers
1:07:19 The amp that Barry at Grez puts all his guitars through
1:09:06 Was the Vox AC-30 circuit inspired by a Gibson design? EL34s in early AC-30s
1:12:19 Music recommendation: Billy Jack Wills’ Crazy Man Crazy (YouTube link), Bob Wills’ 1941 Martin D-45 (catch Jason in this Emerald City Guitars’ YouTube video)
1:13:54 How to tell a tube’s origin from its appearance?
1:18:06 Thoughts on putting a vintage transformer in a Champ kit; single-ended Hammond output transformers (125 BSE, ESE, etc); 5932 tubes
1:33:52 TAVA’s most boring or brilliant moments; laptop-to-tube-amp connections (speaker-driven line out from a headphone jack?)
1:36:22 The differences found in top boost and bright switches
1:39:22 The Coriolis effect on electrons in a pre-amp tube in the Southern hemisphere, the Goldentone amp book (link)
1:40:51 Grid leak bias amps and giving an amp more headroom
1:46:57 Barry describes the Grez Mendocino Junior that we’re giving away
1:48:08 Special guest Nels Cline joins us, again! Nels’ touring amp with Wilco, eating on the road, Standels, hot sauce, and more
2:00:39 Homemade coconut rice; Hank Mobley’s ‘Roll Call’ or ‘Soul Station;’ Dexter Gordon; Wynton Kelly’s Piano with Kenny Burrell; the best progression for a Champ clone to a Filmosound; ‘Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns’; Fripp & Eno; Bill Evans’ ‘Live at the Village Vanguard’
2:08:23 More advice for those wanting to build a Champ
2:10:15 Adding a speaker jack to a Tweed Champ; balanced power? homemade hot sauce
2:13:53 One last “giveaway”
12:00 Building a 5F1, Little Charlie’s Spanish Rice and the impact of TAVA
14:13 Listener Mitch’s landline USB phone!; weirdest thing found in amps; frozen kale crumbles; Angela caps; gochujang spice
21:00 Do EL84s sound different after being on for a half hour?
23:27 What’s the difference between volume and gain?
25:47 The Trainwreck Type-3 master volume, redux
27:34 Tad’s Bell & Howell amp; maple syrup from New Hampshire
28:24 Clean flux or leave it on?
29:55 An Australian barn find: A 1960 Moody 17/12 amp; fixing silkscreening on a control panel; a 9-pin triode pentode (6BL8); Dynaco ST-70 amps; adding avocado to vegemite toast
35:56 A barn find Filmosound; what to do when starting up a long-dormant amp, checking capacitors for ECR
47:22 Electrolytic bypass caps on preamp tubes
51:50 Frozen fruit instead of ice cubes in cocktails
52:33 A silverface Fender amp with a conductive part board; moisture in a part board?
58:57 Does anyone like amps with combination fixed and cathode bias?
1:01:56 Buying a 1960s Gretsch 6152 as your first vintage amp
1:05:54 What’s the difference between all the input jacks on a 6G2 Princeton vs a 5F11 Vibrolux
1:07:04 Book recommendation: Please Kill Me: The Uncensored History of Punk (Amazon link); music recommendation: Balsams by Chuck Johnson (Bandcamp link); the trem circuit in a Victoria Victorilux
1:13:05 Yank, the Army Weekly magazine
1:15:11 Bill Orcutt’s Music for Four Guitars (Bandcamp, FJ Podcast appearance)
1:16:12 Rust on transformers and how it affects performance, eddy currents, Plush amps, Metal Rescue
1:20:17 A Stromberg Signet 22 PA head converted into a two-EL84 Matchless DC-30 that makes lightsaber sounds
1:26:54 The typewriters of the Beat poets; the Beat Museum in SF (link)
1:30:12 An Eico 950 Capacitor Tester
1:35:44 Brew 102 beer
Special guest Bryan Sours (Soursound transformers) joins us for an epic talk all about transformers!
:00 Skip has COVID
4:49 Temple Grandin in the Wall Street Journal (link)
7:18 The top boost circuit in a Vox AC30 from a Gibson GA-70? (link)
8:40 What’s the deal with all these PA head and Filmosound conversions?
13:39 Special guest: Bryan Sours of Soursound: Making transformers, working with Benson amplifiers, rewinding transformers, custom transformers, and a lot more. There’s a steak recipe toward the end, too.
Special guest: Mason Stoops.
:47 What’s on Skip’s bench: a Mesa Boogie Mark I
2:21 Kevin in Ohio has joined the Rustic Kegger in the Woods (Facebook link), nasty old pine trees
7:53 Eric Daw’s Solid Sound book (order link); Daniel Petrzelka’s replacement pilot light washers for SF Fenders (contact him via Instagram)
18:42 Easiest way to date a Fender amp; Portland, Oregon’s Cast Iron Revival (Instagram link)
22:55 Music recommendation: Sonny Burgess
27:22 A Blonde Fender Bandmaster with failing volume; Nic Grabien
31:09 Gain vs volume, redux; Hotchpotch / hutspot potatoes with kale
38:14 Alternatives to a Fender Champ 12
42:39 Shorting jacks to reduce hum in amps? Mexican gumbo soup
50:32 A 1968 Fender Bassman head with two chokes and a non-original power transformer
54:25 A 1959 Gibson GA-9 with an erratic distortion once the volume is turned up
57:00 Taming the boost on 1979 Fender Princeton Reverb with the pull-boost; original Fender-branded tubes
1:01:34 Alternatives to a Music Man RD-50?
1:03:28 Special guest: Mason Stoops! Stoops’ live rig touring with Marcus Mumford, Austen Hooks-modified Filmosounds + “Space Heater” amps, Kalamazoo Model 2s, a Peavey Studio Chorus, LED lights, playing with Jackson Browne, and so much more.
1:03 A 1954 Fender extension cabinet (tweed, but spray painted black); Fender Amps: The First 50 Years (Amazon link); asbestos in amps
7:04 Why are the PA amps I’m restoring so noisy? Masco MA-25; Stromberg-Carlson AU42
12:49 Resistance versus impedance; the functions of a choke in an amp
18:37 What happened to the quick & easy recipes? Canned soup hacks; replacing a broken terminal strip
23:13 Putting a three-prong plug on an old Variac; movie recommendation: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (link)
27:08 A one-tube reverb circuit (link); Kodak projectors; a voltage doubler
30:15 Getting your kids interested in electronics; paper airplanes; candle-powered boats (Amazon link)
Amplified Parts pedal kits (link)
35:21 Working on early Carvin tube amplifiers
39:09 Jack’s Darr’s Fender schematics
40:48 A 6G3 clone with a tube rattle; tube rings; goats
46:59 A Vega Commander Fidelity Amp Model No. 51; 1273 tubes
52:57 A “pop” whenever you turn your pedal on
57:15 Why don’t more players use an A/B/Y and play multiple amps at once?
1:00:02 The bass control on a Gibson EH-185 schematic, amps that don’t use the Baxandall tone control
1:03:03 What is the amp that came with my lap steel, what’s with the 80 tube, how do I find a schematic for it, and what do I do with it?
1:09:20 Metal tubes versus glass tubes
1:11:50 The history of Rogers hi-fi’s; beer bread pizza
1:14:58 Recommended: The Computer Clinic of Chico, California
Special guest: YouTube’s jdflyback on building your own tubes at home and so much more.
1:01 It’s good to be anxious
4:18 Any interest in a Seattle amp swap meet / hang on December 31? Message me at podcast@fretboardjournal.com.
4:49 Deluxe’s TAVA-tribute El Pato-Tone 9-volt practice amp: Now available in the green El Pato can! (Reverb link)
7:51 Music recommendation: Thee Sinseers (NPR Tiny Desk concert link); The “5” Royales (YouTube link)
9:23 How is amp output affected by adding speakers?
12:39 Impedance vs resistance, revisited; phaser analysis; chicken curry
17:27 The Soursound transformers episode (link); when does the speaker deep dive happen?; amps with hybrid circuits; harpist Emily Hopkins (YouTube link), 8417 tubes
27:38 Netflix’s new documentary, ‘Travelin’ Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall’
30:45 Harp player Paul Oscher; Jontavious Willis’ interview with Oscher on the Diddie Wah Diddie podcast (link)
33:34 Tips on extending wiring; a Western Electric Slice
37:06 Safe long-term storage of vintage amps; a Falcon discovered in the trunk of a car
40:23 What’s the simplest tube reverb circuit? the Boss FRV-1 ’63 Fender Reverb pedal, vintage Premier 90 Reverb tanks
45:38 ‘The How & Why of Guitar Tube Amps’ by Gar Gillies (order: http://www.garnetamps.com/book.htm)
50:57 Now you have a third salad dressing
51:31 Is the speaker switch I made safe to use? Grits with smoked gouda
1:00:07 Buying a second-hand Mesa Boogie amp
1:04:02 What’s the CSA Thermal Protector on a Fender Musicmaster Bass amp?
1:06:52 An Australian Philips PA conversion that won’t stop popping and crackling; cathode resistors and plate load resistors
1:09:17 Three Marshall Super Lead heads, one that has ghosting; filter capacitance
1:18:35 Soup with kale and white beans
1:21:01 Yank magazine; a fancy tube tester (and a Heathkit signal generator) still available at Skip’s; Rabbit Hole bourbon (link); Sherwood (British TV show); see Skip at the Marin Guitar Show (January 2023, link)
3:00 Deluxe Amplification’s El Pato Tone Amp (Reverb link)
7:19 El Pato, cottage cheese with salsa, Sacramento’s music instrument lending library “MusicLandria” (link)
11:09 Silverface Champs: Change just the tone stock or also increase the value of the plate resistors, the Garnet book (link)
17:23 Speaker load revisited
21:25 A 12AU7 instead of a 12AT7 in a Princeton Reverb; gochujang Korean pepper paste, kimchi
26:45 Fender reverb unit controls, explained; hybrid Vox 7-series amps; the Aclam Dr. Robert pedal (link); impedance redux; the life of a vacuum tube
34:45 What’s oozing out of Magnatone M-9’s wires?
42:29 Why does my Pepco (Garnet! Canada!) amp use two 6AV6 tubes and only half a 12AX7, instead of a whole 12AX7 and a 6AV6?
46:18 Vintage bass amps for actual bass players?
56:01 16 or 18-gauge zip cord for speaker wire? heat shrink for splicing
2:53 Does Skip want to see your amps right now? See Skip at the January 14-15, 2023 Amigo Bay Area Guitar Show
4:59 A Tweed Pro with a variable inverse feedback control knob
5:45 Lee Jeffriess in the Fretboard Journal’s 51st issue (link); check out Jeffriess and John Munnerlyn performing “Blues for Earl”
11:22 The December 31, 2022 TAVA Seattle meetup (thanks for organizing, @liquidnyo); YouTube’s jgflyback shows off his tube-powered clock (shaky Instagram Live footage)
13:50 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars has a new long-scale bass!; Amplified Parts (Hammond products are currently on sale!); Iztotope (use Fret10!); AND Stringjoy Strings. Plus…Josh Scott (JHS) is coming to TAVA to talk Kemper, the TAVA El Pato-Tone Practice amp (Reverb link), and our Patreon page
20:56 The resonance of a fully loaded turret board; mounting components in a head vs. combo; goop
28:25 Microphonics in a tube amp (the good kind); David Lindley (support him via t-shirt sales here)
30:04 Why were so many power transformers changed in the ’70s and ’80s?; Spokane, Washington; Jason’s favorite noodle place in Spokane, Washington (link); a very-modified Gibson Les Paul Junior with a cooling fan
36:03 Typewriter keyboards; ’80s Scottish cop show, ‘Taggart’
39:58 Should I change the transformer on my Bruce Zinky Fender Prosonic head? the effect of an output transformer on tone
45:46 What’s the deal with the Fender Bantam bass amp?; the oven instead of the range; ham and bacon end pieces
50:39 Reincarnating a dead Peavey Deuce II; putting a Vox-style preamp circuit on an amp with 6L6s; cheese quesadilla hacks
54:06 Fixing the uneven distortion on my Dad’s Gibson GA-9
56:53 Why isn’t my 1967 Fender Twin Reverb as loud as my other Twin Reverb?
1:00:05 Arts & Humanities corner: The Albert Barnes collection of post-modern art, ‘Art of the Steal,’ (link); Skip goes to Harvard, again; RIP poet Charles Simic (read “Stub of a Red Pencil” here)
1:04:06 Chopped onion, chickpeas, and black beans sauteed in a pan
1:06:18 What would you do with my Bogen CHA-33 PA head? coffee-roasted carrots (link)
1:12:13 Changing the pre-amp tube (and speaker) in an Epiphone Model 101
1:19:47 What to do with this 1953 Revere T-100 reel-to-reel?
1:31:48 Skip likes the new Fretboard Journal (issue 51, link)
:34 Meet Junior
5:59 Skip’s report from the 2023 Bay Area Amigos Guitar Show; Dr. Elmo buys a Grez (Wikipedia link); the dangers of parking at a produce stand
23:26 This week’s sponsors: Grez Guitars; Amplified Parts (Hammond products are currently on sale!); Iztotope (use Fret10 as your discount code); and our Patreon patrons.
24:38 Listener Nate sends Skip an autographed copy of the Jack Darr book
26:01 Why do we twist lead wires?, a 5U4 rectifier in a 1965 Deluxe Reverb, ‘Heartworn Highways’
35:02 Fixing a broken, grounded plug
37:49 Seamless Joe from Italy, “Nature Boy” (Wikipedia link)
44:39 A Super Reverb with dying tremolo
48:20 5G cell tower interference and ferrite beads
52:14 Getting the sticker back on a vintage Fender footswitch
53:51 Improving the tone stack on a Harmony 420
59:42 Transformers for a 5C1 Champ build; to choke or not to choke
1:06:53 An EL84 Filmosound with a buzzing transformer
1:09:08 Junior has an accident
1:09:45 Why doesn’t my Knight 93-320 PA head have a fuse?
1:11:32 Actual logging truck tales on ‘Odd Lots’ (Apple Podcasts link)
1:12:06 A Teisco/Checkmate/Northland Baffin III
1:15:35 Why is there an angry crackle on my Magnasync Moviola 1800 whenever I touch my guitar?
1:18:29 Toots & the Maytals cover “Country Roads Take Me Home” (YouTube link)
1:20:06 Why is my Bassman’s plate voltage so high with this GZ34 tube?
1:22:33 Dolly Sinatra’s pasta sauce (Edit: Duquesne is a town in PA, not a PA…stupid autocorrect!)
3:56 Skip’s decision to quit being a drawbridge operator, Skip visits Eminence
8:58 Austin Ribbon Mics, the Hot Holder Pro (link); book recommendation: ‘How to Read Schematic Diagrams’ by Donald Herrington
11:36 The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, by George Plimpton (New Yorker link) 12:22 Roqsolid amp covers (link); Vengeance
13:52 New to our Patreon: Listener Nick reads the Jack Darr (link)
15:30 The use of ferrite beads, redux; inductors versus capacitors
18:20 A love for logging trucks; the Gretsch Fury, a not-quite-stereo-amplifier
24:00 The amp-related plotline on the fourth episode of Poker Face on Peacock
25:10 Polarized electrolytic caps; using a dual-shaft concentric pot on a ’65 Gibson Scout GA-17RVT to avoid drilling a new hole; musician Seth Walker
30:21 Installing a switch to bypass the whole reverb circuit on a clone 1965 Princeton Reverb clone
34:12 Ampeg VT-40 60 cycle hum, even in standby 39:40 Skip’s steak street tacos; Tortillaland tortillas; Rancho Gordo beans (link)
46:19 SOLVED: James’ 1967 Twin Reverb with diminished volume, could this mistake be a desired mod?
53:38 Whacking a transformer with a hammer
55:40 Could you build an extension cab with a field coil speaker that has its own power supply so you can use it with any amp?
1:01:31 Seeking a budget hi-fi rig for classic country; Mezzetta garlic-stuffed olives; cream cheese-filled eggrolls, Granzella’s Restaurant in California
1:08:08 Dutch kale in heavy cream; using a thermal camera to diagnose faulty amp parts, puppies as relationship testers; thermometer guns
3:26 A pro chef hack, Rancho Gordo beans redux (link to the beans)
4:34 A ’64 Princeton Reverb clone with a switch that can convert it to a stock Princeton, redux (thanks Emcee Amps of Montreal); the Tweed Vibrolux tone control
7:44 What’s on Skip’s bench: A Stromberg-Carlson PA head
9:52 What did today’s vintage amps sound like new? Pizza with an egg
19:00 A tornado-damaged 1967 Deluxe Reverb with a loose reverb wire
23:38 A 6G3 with a glowing power tube, when good power tubes go bad
28:41 Why does my hand-wired Vox AC4 hum more than my PCB version of the exact same amp?
32:18 Making a ’63 Vibroverb reissue quieter; the Crazy Tube Circuit’s White Whale reverb pedal (link)
42:13 Baffler: The usefulness of a 6AT6 preamp tube in old radios
46:16 What Skip’s reading: Garrett Hongo’s ‘The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo’ (Amazon link), a 12-volt powered dynamotor
51:57 A psychologist chimes in; B+ voltage
Episode 112
7:42 David Lindely on Dumble: Audio interview on our Patreon (link)
8:07 Shoutout to August from Otis Amps
8:46 Rancho Gordo Beans, redux (link), Herdez Salsa Casera, Juantonio’s chips
11:42 What’s on Skip’s workbench: A Stromberg PA head; a 1910 Hammond Multiplex typewriter
16:39 More on David Lindley
19:31 A muted Tweed Bassman with a hiss in V2, testing test equipment; a brownface Deluxe at the flea market
27:15 What’s the difference between silverface ’60s Fender Pro Reverbs (drip-edge or not); the Cars; is the Pro Reverb the beginning of “logging truck” status
33:53 Amps that use 2A3/6A3 triodes as power tubes
40:01 ChatGPT wrote a poem about TAVA
43:11 Rob Robinette’s recommendation to put a 1N4007 diode in series after the Secondary AC High voltage and the plate of the rectifier tube; ‘Junior Bonner’ with Steve McQueen; Better Call Saul; Hollywood gossip
47:49 Lighting your workbench, a dedicated filter circuit for testing amps?
50:39 Waking up amps that have not been used in a long while; using multimeters for the first time; inconsistencies in the volt readout on a variac
56:12 Does a variac provide the same shock protection as an isolation transformer?, the Silvertone 1485 circuit, the Hillbilly Rueben recipe
1:02:52 Hearing Skip’s voice in your head while you’re at your day job; a 1940s Navy sound system with a dynamotor
1:06:15 Fixing the crack in a 1972 Fender Deluxe Reverb cabinet, troubleshooting amps that have been dropped, index pins
1:13:13 The sound of octal tubes; the Baxandall EQ circuit explained; why did my Ampeg start smoking with an acrid smell when turned on?
1:17:38 A Fender Hotrod Blues Deluxe that is muted until it has warmed up for 30 seconds, input jacks
1:22 Kenny Burrell’s ‘Soulero’, a 2006 Fender Tweed Twin (no reverb) with an intermittent volume drop
1:28:46 Balancing family life with amp projects, redux
4:11 Announcement: The Truth About Vintage Amps at the 2023 Fretboard Summit (www.fretboardsummit.org); Chicago’s Kale My Name (link)
14:14 Should you use better or same-quality replacement parts when your amp needs a repair?
18:52 A real rustic kegger; Skip’s favorite amp
25:20 Beginner’s corner: How many speakers can my amp run? Cast-iron griddle grilled cheese
32:50 B+, redux; benefits of a separate filament transformer; UTC transformers; HAM radio transmissions
38:17 6X5 rectifier tubes
41:48 A HiWatt clone that keeps blowing fuses
47:17 Thank you for the coffee, Kevin!
48:26 Running an acoustic guitar through a tube amp (Bogen Challenger); El Pato’s neighbor; cleaning tube sockets
52:54 Mistakes made while swapping tube sockets on a Fender Bassman 50; frozen Arby’s french fries
59:53 The tornado and 1967 Fender Deluxe Reverb story, redux
1:05:12 Convincing a store to ship you a Gibson EH-150; Carter Cutlery (link)
1:11:23 Special thanks: Max in Spain; Bill from California
1:13:00 Need your reverb coil rewound? Check out Tom Brantley (@tombrantleyrewinds)
1:15:39 Help me pick out speakers for my tweed Twin; parallel vs. in-series speaker wiring, sleeper vintage 12″ speakers, Weber speaker’s grades of doping
Episode 114
3:49 Skip gets more gifts (thank you); Studio Slips (link); Dragonfly USB-stereo connection; Connie Converse (Bandcamp link)
9:41 The Truth About Vintage Amps Patreon (link)
9:54 Josh Scott (JHS) plays the El Pato Tone practice amp (Instagram link), which you can buy here on Reverb; the 2023 Fretboard Summit featuring Jeff Parker, Jorma Kaukonen, JHS, Tommy Emmanuel, vintage amps and much more! (register for the Summit today: fretboardsummit.org)
10:59 Electrolytic bypass capacitors in Marshalls?
15:58 Spicy popcorn; best speaker load for a Black panel Fender Dual Showman head
21:05 The return of Leo Quan?
21:53 Standel has a new owner, Owen Duffy
22:49 What to do with a Matchless DC30 that sounds great, but runs really hot
32:33 A Princeton Reverb with weak reverb
35:54 Why you shouldn’t use a Variac as an isolation transformer
38:40 GZ34 rectifiers and standby switches
46:24 Grounding issues on a hand-wired Fender Tweed Twin reissue, redux
48:56 What to do with an Aireon Model 1221A juke box amp with 6SK7, 6J5, 2x 6L6, and 5U4G tubes?
51:10 Preferred plate voltages on a 5F2A build; 5F2A vs 5F2 circuits
55:05 How would you measure an output transformer to know its preferred speaker load?
59:54 I built a 5E3 clone but there’s no volume until I get to 2 1/2
1:01:11 Why does my 1967 black panel Deluxe Reverb have a tube chart for an AB165 Bassman and why is it so gainy? A narrow panel 1952 Fender Deluxe
1:11:16 Pancakes with goat cheese
1:12:58 Tips on accessing the underside of a ’40s Stromberg-Carlson AU-33 PA’s terminal board; isolation transformers, redux
1:19:07 https://worldradiohistory.com/
1:21:04 Repairing the plastic on an Ampeg footswitch; E6000 craft adhesive; http://schematicheaven.irridia.com/
1:24:16 A 1950 Gibson GB-CB with a power cord touching a tube
1:29:23 1957 Fender factory tour, narrated by Richard Smith (YouTube link)
1:31:14 Skip’s voice cloned via AI; a 5F2A with weak volume
Episode 115
2:07 This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars (check out the Jim Kelley prototype), Stringjoy Strings (use the code FRETBOARD to save off your first string order), Amplified Parts, and Grez Guitars. You can also use the discount code FRET10 to save 10% off your Izotope purchase.
6:58 Listener Matt gets the Heathkit Stereo Signal Generator kit
9:27 Skip sees a Bald eagle
11:33 Waking up a 1980 Musicman 112 RD after a long hibernation
14:05 Acceptable DC leakage in capacitors, puppies attacking sprinklers
17:11 Epiphone Pacemaker desirability versus its Gibson Skylark counterpart
20:04 How to blow up an amp, heating tortillas, and Masco ME-27s
32:31 A Weber Proluxe 5E3 amp kit and reducing hum by changing coupling cap orientation; Leighton Amps/Jef Brown’s blog post (link)
43:33 Octal 6F5 tubes
38:55 An Operadio Model 1030
45:34 An Orange AD-30 with an EL84s that run hot; Servisol Super 10
51:07 A late ’80s Fender Vibroverb with a burning smell and a glowing 6L6
56:47 Thoughts on a Symphonic MA7-1?
1:00:51 Thoughts on modern reverb tanks
1:04:06 A really quiet Frenzel HBX-AC30
1:10:42 What to service on a recently-purchased 1968 Univox U235?
1:17:18 Changing values in the preamp of a SF Champ to reduce bass
1:26:09 Non-stick pans
Episode 116
1:02 Making amps out of little intercoms, redux
4:01 Amplified Parts’ Potentiometer Adapter Sleeve (link)
8:34 Join our Patreon and hear a lost episode with Steve Melkisethian (Angela Instruments): https://www.patreon.com/vintageamps
9:19 What’s on Your Bench: A 1952 low-powered Tweed Twin found on eBay
12:00 Retiring the word “blackface” when describing amps
16:10 Coupling capacitor orientation, redux
20:28 Jonathan Stout (check out ‘Pick It and Play It‘); “For the Good Times” by Al Green
26:19 Sellers turning vintage amps on with no speaker load
29:55 The best DIY Fender Princeton kits around; roasted cauliflower with curry powder, Soursound transformers (link)
40:28 Does a lower B+ keep an old amp happier?
43:58 How quickly could you build a Champ? The Fretboard Summit (August 24-26 in Chicago) and JHS’s Germanium Chef competition (attend by registering here: www.fretboardsummit.org), wiring a part board before you put it in the amp
46:59 Chris at Deluxe Amplification (deluxeamplification.com)
50:08 A horse-powered IBM Selectric typewriter (Facebook post link)
52:06 Silvertone 1484 amps; in defense of metal film resistors, a forthcoming Ampeg documentary, Ampeg Jets and Rockets, the Jackson Audio 1484 – Twin Twelve pedal (link), a Guild 66-J amp with a Pyle Driver speaker
1:09:20 The Fret Files podcast capacitor test (link); the terminology of pickups
Episode 117
1:18 Jason goes to NYC (and Montana)
4:43 Special thanks: Listener Doug, QSL cards, Micah
9:18 Skip’s movie, music and book picks of the week: ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ an Arhoolie Records box set (link), “A Hero’s Death” by Fontaines D.C., “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” by Eminem; ‘Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests’ by George E. Gruell
16:34 The amps Skip has seen the most often and why
21:51 When to NOT just service it first, should I gut this Stromberg Carlson AU-42? Daniel Romano; Premier Amps
29:45 Can I actually use the AC outlet on the back of my vintage Fender?
32:43 Extending the leads on a Mojotone Tweed Princeton kit, what are turret boards made of?
38:08 Do I need to replace all the resistors on my 1953 Gibson GA-20?
42:52 Coupling cap orientation, redux
44:30 Sourcing a parts kit for vintage amp servicing
51:17 John Vanderslice visits Skip, Gibson resistors again
54:02 Using the vintage speakers found in the walls of my midcentury modern home’s intercom system
59:06 Hope for the Fender Musicmaster bass amp, GSS Speaker Repair Services in Los Angeles
1:05:50 Plate voltage versus screen voltage on a power tube; @thevalvinist on Instagram; a Hohner / Sano combo amp for sale; the 2023 Fretboard Summit (link)
1:14:14 Modding the tone control on a Silvertone 1482, using a tip ring sleeve jack to bypass a cap
1:22:40 Fat Tire Amber beer
:34 Special thanks to Shure for that MV7 that Skip uses; the Fretboard Summit (August 24-26 in Chicago; www.fretboardsummit.org)
1:51 PSA: Skip is retired through September
2:23 A forthcoming Danelectro documentary, early Nat Daniel-built Epiphone Model M amps
15:32 This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Stringjoy Strings (use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first string order), Amplified Parts, and Grez Guitars.
19:05 Peter Jensen’s Magnavox 12″ speakers
20:54 Don Pepino canned tomato sauce (thanks, Rob), Remington Model 5 typewriters
22:27 A 1964 Fender Vibrolux Reverb with a replaced power transformer…but not really; Skip gets a visit from Larry Chung
29:46 The dangers of playing a bass through a small guitar amp; Versatone amps; Los Hernandez tamales in Union Gap, Washington (https://www.loshernandeztamales.com); Bruce Harvie & the Sound Flea’s ‘Overhead at Darrington’ (Bandcamp link)
38:47 A humming Ampeg GS-12 Reverberocket: Was the speaker affecting the reverb spring?
43:26 Changing the tremolo depth on an Ampeg Jet
46:12 Skip’s favorite trem circuit; a Massie that modulates the guitar signal; Chris Vincent (https://www.instagram.com/djlavalamp/)
51:03 Tube amp kits (Mod 102 and Mod 102+ from AmplifiedParts.com https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products/amp-kit-mod-electronics-mod102-guitar-amp ); grilled asparagus; the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast
59:54 The rising cost of everything
1:02:17 Speaker impedance for a Gibson Falcon GR-19RVT Crestline
1:02:53 What to do with the reverb on a Silvertone 1484; JHD Audio Ice Cubes
1:06:09 Special guest: Ben Harper! Forestry; a vintage Weissenborn spotted on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride; Ben’s new Two-Rock Bloomfield Drive (link); Marcus Eaton; Jimmy Page seeing David Lindley’s Kaleidoscope; Liuteria Guarnieri guitars (https://www.liuteriaguarnieri.com/en/acoustic-guitars/); Dumbles are like Basquiats; skateboarding before a concert; kicking Princeton Reverbs; tech Bill Webb; and vintage Gibson amps
2:32: This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Stringjoy Strings (use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first string order), Amplified Parts, and Grez Guitars.
4:27 Special call-in guest: TAVA listener Brian McAllister (vintagetubeamplifiers.com, @vintagetubeamplifiers): Finding TAVA while hospitalized; amps on Brian’s bench; tips on making a pre-amp out of a Conn Strobotuner (or a Bogen PH10); Skip is building a tube pre-amp for the Chicago Fretboard Summit!; what’s the most improper fuse you’ve seen in an amp?
29:00 Using magnifiers / magnifying glasses while working on amps
33:19 Installing a fuse in a 1973 Fender Musicmaster Bass amp; preventative maintenance on replacing electrolytic caps that work?; using an audio transformer as a phase inverter instead of a tube; Datsun pickups; what happened to the Ford Aerostar?
46:51 Are all Selenium rectifiers bad?
50:34 Hand-painting the value onto Domino Mica caps
55:43 Best way to test speakers on a Gibson GA8 and RB17T Scout
58:06 Handling unused taps on a power transformer
59:38 An all-tube tremolo circuit: the Tone God’s Bullit (link); removing the skin on salmon
1:01:18 How do I reduce the B+ on my Dynaco ST-35 clone project?
1:05:27 An Amaro cocktail for the TAVA set
1:08:46 Recommended viewing: The Pharmacist, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Hidden; The Art of the Steal
:00 Fretboard Summit recap (thanks, Kevin!); a gift of Del Cabo mangos; Rob Abernathy’s robots (https://rodabernethy.com/); our sponsors (Emerald City Guitars, Stringjoy Strings (use the code FRETBOARD to save 10% off your first string order), Amplified Parts, and Grez Guitars.
10:30 Donny Hathaway plays “The Ghetto” (YouTube link); Skip brings a Tweed Deluxe back from the dead (and possibly a Princeton Reverb), lousy amp repair people
16:22 A Fretboard Summit recap; a transitional Gibson Falcon find
21:40 An Ampeg SVT CL that sounds sort of like the opening to the Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic” when you turn it on
24:46 Offshoot amp brands we can spot in the wild
26:43 Magnifiers, redux! Recommended: YOCTOSUN Head Mount Magnifier on Amazon (link, on sale for just 16 bucks right now); LED garage lighting (Costco link)
29:55 How do self-split output stages work? Kalamazoo KEA amps
32:30 Help me make sense of this Bell PM33 Pacemaker schematic
37:53 Speaker-driven line out and reverb, together; a Seattle TAVA meetup?; an Oregon Coast TAVA meetup at Pelican Brewing?
41:01 Skip’s contraband riding lawn mower
49:01 Is this the Fender Yale? John Peden’s Sidetrack Liner Notes podcast (Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sidetrack-liner-notes/id1162344630)
53:05 Kate Wolf; Eminem
56:25 Transformer windings and tomato gravy
1:02:12 The Silvertone 1484 TwinTwelve input section; Fender Musicmaster Bass amp mods
1:06:17 The Gibson tone-sucking circuit in the GA19RVT Falcon (Instagram link)
5:31 What’s on Skip’s bench: A Bogen mixer from the 1940s
6:35 What to do with a vintage MTI Tubes overdrive preamp stompbox?
10:02 What’s the deal with Fender Ultra Linear amps?
14:33 Australia’s National Vintage Guitar Show (link, October 7-9, 2023); the Amigo Bay Area Guitar Show in January (link; Skip will be there!)
17:26 Repurposing old power transformers
22:16 Jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein; Russell Malone; Adam Levy; RIP Sammy Ash
23:17 A “brown” Deluxe that needed repair from San Quentin State Prison!
25:56 What to do with a 1973 Fender Princeton Reverb ground switch?
28:39 Special guest: Jim Kelley! 4x6V6s, plate voltages, Fortune Amps, Line, using a great reference speaker; Dumble; the Kelley prototype head at Emerald City Guitars; Jim’s preferred parts; Vince Gill
1:26:00 Tubes for a Marathon amp clone
1:27:50 Building a point-to-point wired amp inside of a PCB Vox AC15VR chassis
:00 Skip’s son, Will Simmons, joins us! Tales of growing up alongside a bunch of amps; Skip’s parenting style; Will’s love for art; and his his current work as an art critic. Also discussed: Drawbridge tales; photographer Laurie Simmons (Wikipedia link); Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture (Wikipedia link); Wynton Marsalis’ “Blood on the Fields” (YouTube link); Brice Martin; Lo Moon (link); “Are You Awake?” by Lauren Mayberry (YouTube link); Wood Belly (link); Dean & Britta; Lady Gaga vs. Lana Del Rey; and so much more.
1:19:27 Soursound transformers
1:20:09 Are there any classic Fender amps that Skip hates?
1:21:51 Congratulations, John Vanderslice!
1:22:34 MTI Tubes effects unit, redux
1:26:55 A Peavey Mace 2×12, what are matched tubes?
1:32:31 Recommended: Replica tweed cabinets by Armadillo
1:43 Thanks to you all, our Truth About Vintage Amps just hit a million downloads!
2:21 Our millionth download giveaway: Voltic Electronic Devices DTF fuzz (Instagram). Enter by November 1, 2023!
4:17 Special guest Larry Chung: Getting electrocuted on his first amp repair; Skip’s OG appearance on Fretboard Journal Podcast #224 (link); a love for ’30s and ’40s PAs and amplifiers; the intrinsic joy of working on amplifiers; ‘How to Repair Small Appliances’ by Jack Darr; 6N6/6B5 tubes
29:43 Radio’s Master and the hidden value of old catalogs
33:12 Why was the dark art of speaker reconing never documented?
35:20 Larry’s unique approach to components when it comes to antique amplifiers; not rushing amp restorations
40:54 A not-so-stock blonde Tremolux; a White amplifier found at the dump; Soursound transformers (link)
48:08 The tone circuit in Gibson EH-150s with the high/low settings, collecting amps as a reference library
51:03 The sound of a field coil speaker vs. a standard speaker with the same amp
53:17 Do field coil speakers need maintenance beyond the actual speaker? the upper response of field coil speakers
57:58 Field coil into ground amplifiers
59:07 A Skip-serviced Masco Audiosphere 10 for sale in Amsterdam
1:00:15 How to dry out an amp that’s been soaked by a storm; Kenny Vaughan’s “Mysterium” (YouTube)
1:04:23 A Precision Electronics PE-25 PA head that sounds terrible
1:15:04 What is this Marshall 100-watt head?
1:19:17 Do I need to replace all the resistors on my 1940s Masco MA-25; SF’s Kilowatt Bar (link)
1:24:45 Baking butternut squash as per the ‘Joy of Cooking’
1:25:54 The magic of vintage pots, Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series; the Bros. Landreth ‘Let It Lie’
1:32:31 Adam Levy’s ‘Spry’ (link)
1:35:28 Troubleshooting a Masco MA-25/ME-27 with a loud hiss
1:44:13 Larry’s book recommendation: Norman Maclean’s ‘Young Men and Fire’ (Amazon link)
:57 Skip works on a Jim Kelley Amp
6:30 Rancho Gordo beans, redux
7:49 Converting a SF Champ to the Princeton schematic and recommended plate voltages; Skip makes a tweed Harvard out of a Champ; pilot light washers from Daniel Petrzelka (Instagram: @dpetrzelka)
13:39 The 1970s Whole Earth Catalogs are now online (link)
15:21 What makes a great A/B box?
17:24 A ’55 Tweed Bassman with a replaced output transformer and 7025s; Skip finishes the Tweed Deluxe overhaul
25:41 Impedance mismatches in 1950s Fender amps, using the external speaker output
31:26 Did David Lindley play on the Rockford Files theme song? Toots Thielemans
33:43 Eminence, Kentucky and Colonel Sanders
35:07 Can anything other than tubes be microphonic; the one-wire mod to have the reverb and tremolo on both channels on a Fender
37:12 Fuse-eating rectifier tubes on a Victoria Bandmaster clone; 5U4 vs GZ34 tubes
39:38 Converting a ’50s Philco record player console for guitar use; Commander Cody; the Louvin Brothers’ ‘Satan Is Real’
43:26 Bringing up an old amp on a Variac
48:49 Experiments with conductive paints
52:36 Very loud noise floor in a low-wattage amp
56:21 A tube amp setup to compliment the Fender Tonemaster Pro
1:00:00 Biasing an old record player amp
:51 Skip works on a Jim Kelley Amp, built-in attenuators, the magnetic field caused by a Tweed Bassman speaker
3:30 Skip needs an RCA MI-12155 schematic
3:56 Making stuff for the Bay Area Guitar Show
6:51 Our sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Amplified Parts, Stringjoy Strings, and Grez Guitars.
8:12 The Dad joke that won the Voltic DTF pedal: Keith F with “Why did Skip have to marry Mrs. Simmons? From the day he solder, he couldn’t resistor.”
9:34 A basic servicing check-list of what to do when you get a vintage amp
15:36 An early 1960s Tweed Princeton branded Harvard, tensioning the input jack
22:22 Modar-branded guitar amps; tube lineup of EF86, 6BQ5, EZ81
23:51 Trainwreck amplifiers; the tone difference between a single 8 ohm secondary winding vs four separate 1 ohm coils wired at 8 ohms
25:47 Should I buy this Peavey Triumph 120 combo?; five-pin footswitch replacement
28:15 Dummy load vs speaker when working on amps
30:55 How to replace the battery circuit on a Bogen E66 portable PA, ice cream truck-specific amps, the Fretboard Brewery
35:45 5Y3 rectifiers, demystified
39:00 Rancho Gordo beans, redux
39:46 An inspiring 1966 Champ and a vegan pumpkin pie
45:24 A hi-fi Eico ST-84/Dynaco ST-70 with the balance way off, RIP Earl Yarrow
55:22 Servicing a Carr Mercury; 12AT7 versus 12ZX7 pre-amp tubes
1:01:04 What to do with a 1980s Fender 30 with a weak second channel? a rare Ampeg B-15N
:48 Skip types out a tube chart
3:16 This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Amplified Parts, Stringjoy Strings, and Grez Guitars; the art of bargaining at a guitar show; the Bay Area Vintage Guitar Show; Premier and Alamo amps
7:43 A Marshall Major PA-200 head at Emerald City (link)
11:48 What’s on Skip’s bench: an RCA PA head; Bill Krinard’s return to the podcast?
15:08 RIP Earl Yarrow & Shep the dog
18:26 Junior Bonner
21:40 More Earl Yarrow
23:50 Brandy and soda
24:30 What to use in my Princeton Reverb clone: A Soursound 12-watt transformer or a Hammond 14-watt?
28:01 What to do with one single can of El Pato; avant-garde guitarist Havard Skaset; Los Pericos Quadradas chips (link); Norwegian goat horn player Karl Seglem’s “Mytevegar” (Bandcamp)
33:23 Help my humming Vintage 47 Mini
37:52 What to do with a 1964 Magnatone 401, one-to-three input transformer, how to not get shocked
42:43 Should we be burning-in our amps after repairs?
46:21 Converting a Bogen MO30 to a Fender Pro circuit
51:44 Recording a tube amp at low volume by pulling the phase inverter
53:21 1952/1953 Fender Tweed Deluxes with low gain instrument jacks, input impedance
55:44 Armadillo Amp Works cabinets
56:20 Is this serviced 1970 Fender Bassman head still a Fender Bassman? gifting a tweed Bassman to your nephew
1:01:25 Thanks for the TAVA show notes; what’s the deal with my one-knob, early 1960s Gibson Skylark GA-5?
1:06:50 What output transformer to use on my Trainwreck clone? Dynaco transformers
1:09:03 Heritage Auctions’ typewriter sale (link)
1:10:49 Spaghetti carbonara; gutting a Peavey VTX Heritage 130 to build a bass amp with an ultra-linear transformer; Sunn amps
1:14:40 The magic of Soundmasters; Sacramento ska band Filibuster; how a family of amps can basically have the same pre-amp circuitry; 807s vs. 6L6s or EL34s
1:24:43 Thoughts on the 2024 Vintage Guitar Price Guide
1:27:57 What could cause DC voltage to build up on the grid of a power tube aside from leaky coupling caps
1:35:10 Shoutout to the Fender greats: Richard Smith, Bruce Zinky, Lynn Wheelwright, Terry Foster; a circuit baffler of sorts!
1:37:47 Spaghetti carbonara & Los Pericos Quadradas redux
Bill Krinard of Two Rock joins us at 5:36 and fields a bunch of listener-submitted questions on transformers with dissimilar primary windings; Two-Rock’s design process; how he uses oscilloscopes; Ampegs; Filmosound mods; potentiometers; harmonic content; and more.
2:10 Skip goes to the Bay Area Guitar Show: Fancy Gibson ukes, a Martin 00-28, lots of amps, a shopworn Grez, Jimboys Tacos, the bar on San Clemente Island (Yelp), pupusas
33:46 Gibson reissues the Falcon (link)
40:03 Skip fixes a refrigerator
43:51 Skip loses his dentist and finds Trader Joe’s; musician/illustrator Robert Armstrong (link)
48:52 A 1961 Harmony H322 bass amp that isn’t loud enough
53:38 A vintage Gibson Falcon with a flickering pilot light; D-cell batteries
56:18 Using a thermistor to slowly ramp up voltage on old amps, the new Toyota Landcruiser
59:17 Do you want to be an old car guy? Skip’s 1961 Mercury Comet; Jason needs a body shop
1:04:17 My house’s dimmer switches are driving me nuts
1:07:47 Why did Fender change the plate resistors on the Bassman?
1:11:44 Using the signal from just before the phase inverter on a push-pull amp to drive another amp
1:15:31 Skip sees a bobcat
1:15:58 Draw differences between matched pairs of the same tubes
1:20:41 Distortion on the Normal channel vs Vibrato channel on vintage Fender amps
1:23:51 How to expand the volume range on a Masco PA; the Necromancer cocktail recipe; Groove Tube tube adapters
1:31:22 A low-watt amp for bedroom playing; power-adjusting amps; music recommendation: Issa Juma And Super Wanyika’s ‘World Defeats the Grandfathers’
1:36:39 A push-pull output transformer in a single-ended amp
:44 Jason goes to the NAMM Show
4:20 Skip is fixing his 1961 Comet
9:04 What’s on Skip’s bench: Three Fender Concerts; 5C1 Fender Champ circuits; a 5-watt Oahu with a 40-watt transformer; a silver panel Fender Champ for sale at Skip’s
14:27 This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Amplified Parts, Izotope, and Grez Guitars.
20:36 Ceriatone amps; Divided by Thirteen Amplification gets acquired by Two-Rock
25:20 The art of drawing your own schematic; Robert Kidney’s ‘Jackleg’
29:56 Increasing gain on a Fender Princeton AA964
33:02 Isolated input/output jacks
35:45 A 1979 Fender Vibrolux with warped MDF baffle board, baffle replacement; good goo wood hardener
42:53 Should I recone the CTS alnico speakers on my rusty Fender Super Reverb or get new speakers? Slovakian Bwoop; Solfood’s hot pepper sauce (link)
51:37 Why do my tubes have this crusty stuff around the base? Don Pepino pizza sauce; The Mob Run Pizzerias of NYC, N-Men: The Untold Story (link); Lake Berryessa’s glory hole; Ben Harper (redux)
59:07 Help me understand why a tube amplifier needs a load?
1:03:11 The all-Fender episode
1:05:09 What’s a good cheap alternative to the Fender Musicmaster I am looking at? Ampegs
1:09:20 Tweed Princeton kit woes … new Champ speaker
1:06 Jason is heading to the Phoenix MIM Museum (link); the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota (link); the American Banjo Museum (link)
3:20 This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars, Amplified Parts, Izotope, Stringjoy Strings, and Grez Guitars.
6:05 Canadian amp builders worth following: Gary Economy (Instagram) & Lo-Fi Electronic Instruments (Instagram); Stromberg-Carlson 207; Pepco Riviera 725; Lifco Cobra Mark 2; how to make an amp less bass-y; Frazey Ford’s “U Kin B the Sun” (YouTube)
13:10 The Velvet Touch
14:31 Our Facebook group (link); how did Skip first notice Johnson and Soundmaster amps?
20:18 Garnet quirks: What’s up with the tone stack on this Garnet Revolution II?
23:22 Ted Weber speakers, field coil reconing
23:51 Niagra Falls
25:01 All things poutine; Suuns (link)
30:25 Special guest: Calvin McCormick of Hiwatt! (link)
53:01 Regional Canadian foods: Ketchup chips, coffee crisp, beaver tales, peameal bacon on a kaiser, Newfoundland Screech; the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist
58:23 Outside foil cap orientation on Soundmasters; DC leakage in grid leak bias input caps
1:03:10 The Kahayan 8×4 Selector (link)
1:05:30 What’s the deal with this Soundmaster 086 schematic?
1:11:31 Slowing down the trem on a Traynor Custom Reverb YSR-1; Kevin O’Connor’s books; Pepco amps
1:17:51 Reducing the noise on the Fretboard Summit Microtone pre-amp; Traynor YGM-3; El Pato chicken
1:23:07 Special guest: Mike Watson of the 6L6s; Lifco amps; Keil Amps; the Velvetone amp; Turner amps; Swampdonkey amps; amps with 6Y6 power tubes; Acrosound
1:43:23 Jimi Hendrix on a Marshall amp
1:38 NOS military-grade green pilot light jewels from Gary Economy (Instagram); leave us an Apple Podcasts review and take a screenshot to enter to win one!; 5879 tubes
3:03 Where is George? (Danger UXB on eBay)
4:48 Rick Estrin and Dennis Gruenling’s harmonica workshop, March 16 (link)
6:43 This week’s sponsors: Emerald City Guitars; Amplified Parts; Izotope; Stringjoy Strings; and Grez Guitars. Ordering from StewMac? Use this affiliate link to help us out!
11:26 The 2024 Fretboard Summit, August 23-25 (link)
11:49 What’s on Skip’s bench: A PA head; blown power transformers
13:44 A discount on Eric Daw’s amazing Solid Sound guitar wiring book (use TAVA when you check out): https://www.solidsoundbook.com/
16:19 Taming the bass frequency on your amplifier
23:15 Resistors: What does Skip use?
27:27 Special guest: Illustrator/musician/friend/Mickey Rat & Couch Potato-inventor/record collector Robert Armstong (link)! Early Hawaiian guitar recordings; growing up in Fender country but gravitating towards the banjo; Coulter guitars; Hugo Ernst guitars; John DeLapp guitars; playing saw on the ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ soundtrack; animator Ward Kimball; ‘Man in Space’ (YouTube link); not working at Disneyland; seeing David Lindley at the Topanga Banjo & Fiddle contest; coining the term “Couch Potato;” Bob’s tweed Fender Deluxe; Supro Dual Tones; Pee Wee’s Playhouse; playing with Sourdough Slim; sheepherder conventions; touring Japan; Ben Pollack’s “Two Tickets to Georgia” (YouTube link); playing 78 records today; Al Dodge
1:38:10 John Sebastian gets his dad’s PA head back; a Disneyland tube PA
Bonus episodes: Larry Cragg (12/10/19); Adam Grimm (Satellite Amplifiers).
