One again, amp tech Skip Simmons is answering all of your pressing amp questions on the Truth About Vintage Amps podcast, brought to you by the Fretboard Journal. Submit your question to Skip here: podcast@fretboardjournal.com or, better yet, leave us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848.
This week’s sponsor: Grez Guitars (link)
Want to see all the former topics discussed on the TAVA Podcast? Click here for all the show notes on one page.
Note: We now have a private Facebook group for TAVA listeners: Search for “A Rustic Kegger in the Woods” or click here.
Submit your question to Skip here: podcast@fretboardjournal.com or, better yet, leave us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848.
Some of the topics discussed on this episode:
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?
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Above: Hillbilly amp project, purchased on eBay by listener @scschooling on Instagram.
Special thanks to the presenting sponsors of the Fretboard Journal: Gibson, Martin and Carter Vintage Guitars.
