Welcome to the 73rd episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps Podcast, the bi-weekly show where amp tech Skip Simmons answers all of your pressing guitar amplifier questions. No topic is too basic… or seemingly too complex!
(Banter hater? The actual amp talk this time around starts at 17:00.)
This week’s episode is sponsored by Amplified Parts and Grez Guitars.
Some of the topics discussed this week:
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
Co-hosted by the Fretboard Journal’s Jason Verlinde.
Support the show as a TAVA Patreon patron and get bonus episodes, in-depth articles on amp circuitry and other surprises.
Have an amp, life or kitchen question for Skip? Email or send a voice memo to: podcast@fretboardjournal.com or leave us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848.
Want to see all the former topics discussed on the TAVA Podcast? Click here for all the show notes on one page.
