Welcome to the 76th 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!
This week’s episode is sponsored by Amplified Parts and Grez Guitars.
Some of the topics discussed this week:
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
Co-hosted by the Fretboard Journal’s Jason Verlinde. Above: Listener Mat’s Mason Model 6 amplifier stash.
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.
