Ep. 141: "I've Got an Alamo That I Want to Forget"

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Ep. 141: 'I've Got an Alamo That I Want to Forget'"

Title: The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons
Host/Author: The Fretboard Journal
Episode: Ep. 141: "I've Got an Alamo That I Want to Forget"
Release Date: November 28, 2024

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1. Introduction and Casual Banter

The episode kicks off with Skip Simmons and Jason engaging in light-hearted conversation, reminiscing about past episodes and sharing personal anecdotes. Skip humorously references forgetting the 100th episode and expresses confidence that Chase won't forget the 200th, highlighting the show's personable and relatable nature.

Notable Quote:

[00:28] Skip Simmons: "I'm fine. Remember when I forgot the hundredth episode?"

2. Navigating Recent Weather Events

Skip and Jason delve into recent extreme weather conditions affecting their regions. Skip shares his relief that his roof repairs held up during heavy rain, contrasting it with Paradise's severe 10-inch rainfall. They discuss the impact of the "bomb cyclone" on the Pacific Northwest, including power outages and widespread damage.

Notable Quote:

[02:47] Skip Simmons: "It gave me a faith in humanity. There was a definite unifying thing about disaster like that."

3. Technical Segment: The "Alamo" Amp Troubles

A significant portion of the episode focuses on Skip's personal amp, affectionately nicknamed "Alamo." Skip describes the Alamo's complex configuration, featuring a tube output stage and a solid-state preamp with vintage transistors. He expresses frustration over its noisiness and admits his limited expertise in troubleshooting solid-state components. This candid discussion sets the stage for the episode's core technical explorations.

Notable Quote:

[05:11] Skip Simmons: "I have an Alamo down there that I want to forget. Just going to have a cymbal crash."

4. Announcements and Sponsorships

Jason and Skip take time to acknowledge their sponsors, providing updates on products and promotions. Highlights include:

• Grez Guitars: Featuring the new Grand Tour model, a 15-inch carved archtop under six pounds.
• Amplified Parts: Promoting a Black Friday sale with discounts on select items like Jensens.
• Emerald City Guitar: Showcasing their 1963 Fender Stratocaster and encouraging listeners to follow their growing YouTube presence.
• Deluxe Amplification: Introducing the El Pado amp in a can, a miniature practice amp priced at $58 US with free shipping.
• Will Simmons's Book: Announcing the pre-order availability of "Love and Degradation: Excessive Desires in Queer Feminist Art."

Notable Quote:

[09:32] Jason: "We're all used to your personality by now. Emerald City Guitar is sponsoring the show again."

5. Listener Questions and Technical Advice

The duo addresses numerous listener-submitted questions, offering expert advice on vintage amp repair and modifications:

• Half Power Switch for Twin Reverb Amps:

  • Question: Is modifying a Twin Reverb to half power by removing power tubes advisable?
  • Skip's Answer: Strongly advises against it due to increased voltage and potential overheating of remaining tubes. Recommends using custom transformers or attenuators instead.

  Notable Quote:

  [23:15] Skip Simmons: "First, don't do it at all."

• Optimal Speaker Impedance and Power Tube Bias:

  • Skip explains the technical implications of modifying speaker impedance and the effects on power tube bias, emphasizing the importance of maintaining original specifications for optimal performance.

• Using Reverb Drivers as Practice Amps:

  • A listener shares an experiment turning a Twin Reverb preamp into a low-wattage amp, receiving encouragement and further technical insights from Skip.

6. Deep Dive: Mullard 10Ms and Tube Quality

Skip provides an in-depth discussion on Mullard 10M tubes, renowned for their quality. He explores their historical significance, manufacturing processes, and why they are prized among amp enthusiasts. This segment underscores Skip's extensive knowledge and passion for vintage tube technology.

Notable Quote:

[34:10] Skip Simmons: "The Mullard 10Ms were tubes that had passed the first test and probably passed a bunch of more tests. They were a super careful selection."

7. Community Engagement: Listener Emails and Voice Memos

The episode features various listener contributions, ranging from technical queries to personal stories:

• Joe from Denver: Asks about replacing filter capacitors in a 1948 Gibson GA25 amp. Skip confirms it's acceptable to use a single capacitor in place of multiple smaller ones, advising to maintain originality.

  Notable Quote:

  [40:24] Skip Simmons: "If there's a piece of wire between the 10 and the 10, then yeah, you can use a 20."

• Steve Beckingham from Venice, California: Congratulates Skip on his new guitar with a slab board and draws parallels to Joe Bonamassa's purchases, fostering a sense of shared enthusiasm among musicians.

• R. Carson from Rhythm Restoration Rocks: Shares his experiences restoring amps and praises the show's informative nature, encouraging community collaboration.

• Marty from Italy: Discusses his acquisition of a Geloso amp, seeks confirmation on schematic interpretations, and shares a nostalgic recipe for Denver Chocolate Pudding Cake.

Notable Quotes:

[41:23] Steve Beckingham: "You have something in common with Joe Bonamassa. Who knew?"

[65:28] Jason: "I have an Ultra cool Marantz integrated amplifier on my bench."

8. Additional Tips and Fun Segments

Beyond technical discussions, Skip and Jason infuse the episode with humor and practical advice:

• Cooking Tips: Marty shares a vintage recipe, sparking a brief but delightful exchange about resourcefulness during hard times.

• Theremin Talk: Skip muses about creating a theremin pedal, blending technical exploration with whimsical creativity.

• Radio Recommendations: Skip highlights KVMR 89.5 from Nevada City, California, recommending classic jazz and bluegrass shows, emphasizing the beauty of curated radio programming.

Notable Quote:

[67:21] Skip Simmons: "It's the beauty of radio and we're lucky. And I'm sure there's others around the country."

9. Closing Remarks and Thanksgiving Greetings

As the episode wraps up, Skip and Jason extend heartfelt Thanksgiving wishes to their listeners. They express gratitude for the community they've built, encouraging further engagement through emails and social media. Sponsors are thanked once more, and the hosts tease future episodes, maintaining the show's inviting and inclusive atmosphere.

Notable Quote:

[72:25] Skip Simmons: "I'm thankful for Jason and the Fretboard Journal crew that made this thing. It would have just been me mumbling to a few friends if it wasn't for you."

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Key Takeaways:

• Technical Expertise: Skip demonstrates deep knowledge of vintage tube amps, offering invaluable advice on repair and modification while cautioning against common pitfalls.

• Community Focus: The episode underscores the importance of listener engagement, fostering a collaborative environment where enthusiasts can share experiences and solutions.

• Personal Touch: Through candid conversations and shared stories, Skip and Jason create a warm, relatable atmosphere that resonates with both seasoned amp collectors and newcomers.

• Resource Sharing: Discussions on tube quality, amplifier schematics, and practical tips provide listeners with actionable insights for their own amp maintenance and projects.

This episode of "The Truth About Vintage Amps" blends technical prowess with genuine community spirit, making it a standout installment for guitar amp enthusiasts seeking both knowledge and connection.

Transcript

[Skip Simmons]

Good morning.

[Jason]

Good morning. How are you?

[Skip Simmons]

We did it.

[Jason]

I hate those zoom updates.

[Skip Simmons]

Well, especially if you don't know anything. And it's four minutes until Jason's gonna be ready, and I'm just gonna be the big doofus.

[Jason]

That's all right. That's usually my role. How are you?

[Skip Simmons]

I'm fine. Remember when I forgot the hundredth episode?

[Jason]

It's okay. It happens. Chase, you won't forget 200.

[Skip Simmons]

That's right. And I say people have their strengths and their weaknesses, Right?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

We can't all be perfect.

[Jason]

No one is.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah. All right. Well, great rain in the west. I can't complain, although it was really gnarly. And I'm very happy that I had some work done on my roof of my house, and I didn't have total confidence in the guys that did it, but everything was fine. It's some heavy rain. I think we got 6 or 8 inches. Paradise got like 10 inches in 24 hours. Bass pond filled up in one day and not even hold a candle to what you guys did. How about your French drains? Did they drain?

[Jason]

We had a. We had an eventful. I always do. People care about the weather reports we give I.

[Skip Simmons]

People who live where there is weather and people who have to deal with the results. You know, when you're just a young guy in an apartment, you don't care.

[Jason]

No. But if you're. What are you doing with. You're probably not listening to the show if you live in an apartment.

[Skip Simmons]

I suppose so. Well, just part of our general appeal. I'm sure you had some. Sure, you had some rough times keeping the garage dry.

[Jason]

We. We had. And I think it. The bottom end of it hit you. What was called a bomb cyclone hit the Pacific Northwest. And, you know, Seattle is always soggy and wet and gray, but it. It was crazy because it. It hit my neck of the woods right in the middle of the night, and the power went out, and so we couldn't really see what was going on outside because it was pitch black and the wind was howling. But, yeah, I mean, some. Some. A lot of trees falling on houses, a lot of trees taking out power. Some neighborhoods were without power for almost a week. And. And. And we went to the big mall to. Because we had nothing else to do. We had no power, no Internet, and it was. It was like an airport hub at 11pm where everyone was in the Nordstrom's trying to, like, charge their laptops to the department store plugs. Crazy.

[Skip Simmons]

Wow. Well, that was like the fairgrounds during our fire when we had to evacuate, you go to the fairgrounds and there's all these people from all different walks of life in line for the free tri tip. You know, one guy with the Rolex and then one guy that, you know, probably lives in a little trailer or something, but all there for the same reason. And I mentioned. I talked about that on the podcast. It gave me a faith in humanity. You know, there was a definite unifying thing about disaster like that.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

People weren't worried about their differences.

[Jason]

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, Seattle is not that rural, but there are still some stoplights out as you drive out of town, and it's. It's been crazy.

[Skip Simmons]

So what about. What about West? West, that was North Carolina that got hit so bad a few weeks, month back.

[Jason]

Flooding.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah, I bet there was some. There's a lot of instrument builders and musicians out in that area, but I don't really. Was there a situation like in Nashville where a bajillion great guitars were under 10ft of water?

[Jason]

I hope not there. I'm sure there were. I don't know that there were any huge collections that were damaged, but a lot of benefit concerts took place. There were a lot of. I got a lot of emails about various things and a handful of luthiers who I pretty well had to just relocate because they're not sure when they're going to have clean drinking water again. There's it. It created a huge drinking water issue. So, yeah, fun time.

[Skip Simmons]

Thanks for bringing me down.

[Jason]

Yeah. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American listeners.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Have you got anything more cheerful?

[Jason]

I was going to ask you.

[Skip Simmons]

I got a 19668 heath kit catalog. And Heath Kit was a company that started in the 40s making kits, electronic kits, starting out with test equipment and then later all sorts of hi Fi and amps, guitar amps. So 1968, almost all of it is solid state and therefore worthless. But there was one page of tube stuff that they still had and I'm sure lots of. I was amazed. 1968, you could buy the cool, fancy harmony guitars, the one with the Bigsby, the H78, the H56, that solid body that's called the H16. As kits.

[Jason]

Oh, really?

[Skip Simmons]

Yes. And they don't say eat kit, they say harmony. So somebody out there has probably got one of those guitars where. Oh, I don't know, the. The pots look a little botched or things put together a little bit wrong. And who knew there were kids. I didn't know that.

[Jason]

Does it look. Aside from the soldering like how much actual talent is needed to get that guitar together.

[Skip Simmons]

Apparently the bodies were already finished and all you were supposed to do is bolt all the junk together, put the tuners on, put the bridge on, mount the pickups, that sort of stuff. They were all painted, so if it was done carefully, it'd be pretty hard to tell.

[Jason]

Yeah. Wow.

[Skip Simmons]

Harmony, Harmony, Harmony, People unite. Yeah. And those ones with the Bigsby's and the three pickups, those are some money now, even though they're kind of. They can be kind of doggy because they're not Gibsons, but you know, big and cool looking and they definitely sound great. They have good pickups and stuff. So anyway, 1968 Heathcliff catalog. I'll send that along to somebody who wants to peruse it. Pretty interesting.

[Jason]

Yeah, we have a. A whole bunch of announcements, including one from former guest, your son, Will Simmons. What, what, what. What does Thanksgiving look like at the Simmons household?

[Skip Simmons]

We are pretty laid back. There might be a run not very far away to a for a little bit more family stuff, but around here we keep it on the, keep it on the downsy. As Bubbles would say, Trailer park boys. I just look forward to phone not ringing. When you work at home, it's hard to make a, you know, to take a break sometimes, isn't it? Of course, because you're always, you're always at work. So. Trying to get an Alamo to work. I got an Alamo down there that I want to forget. Just going to have a cymbal crash. Remember the Alamo Tube output stage, solid state preamp, little tiny old fashioned transistors from the 60s. And it sounds really good, but it's noisy and I'm not sure if I know how to, how to deal with it. That's the guy who has the super cosmic BnB in the shadow of Mount Shasta. Oh, that's his amp. Yeah, Adam. And by the way, he has a band called Pathfinder because he has an epiphone, Pathfinder. And they just put out a bunch. He and his wife just put out some music and I can I. He sent me a link and I heard one of the songs and it is Tremelo. I mean, like very atmospheric and I only listened to the one, but it almost had a little Velvet Underground thing. And they did it all in their little living room with Mount Shasta looming over them and pretty cosmic locale. Yes, that'd be interesting. Adam Zerbe. Z E R B E is that guy.

[Jason]

That's why it'd be an interesting list. Maybe it exists. All the bands named after amps. There's like the band Sun O. There's probably several GA20. Yeah, there's a bunch of it.

[Skip Simmons]

There's a band called the Fenders. There was a band called the Showman. Of course.

[Jason]

This is somebody's holiday project. Make that list, post it on our Facebook group or send it to [e-mail] I'd love to see it. Maybe it already exists.

[Skip Simmons]

Precisely.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

And yeah, Will, He's a flash writer.

[Jason]

Well, let's just get into it.

[Skip Simmons]

We.

[Jason]

We have so many announcements. Our. Our sponsors today. You know the crew Grez guitars, got that new grand tour, the 15 inch carved arch top, under six pounds. Yeah. It's so beautiful.

[Skip Simmons]

Don't ever go look at any of his stuff.

[Jason]

I think I might be getting one of those.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah. What did I just say?

[Jason]

I know, I know. Barry. You can also try these guitars out if you're anywhere near the NAMM show. Because he's part of the Wood wire and Volt show with Curtis Novak and Satellite amps and a bunch of other people that is taking place in Anaheim January 23rd to 24th. Our friends at Amplified Parts. You probably have loved ones asking you, what should I get you for Christmas? They're having a Black Friday sale right now. So go over there. They got the Jensens for 15 off for a limited time. And then I think it's like 10 to 25% off the entire store right now if you act fast for Black Friday.

[Skip Simmons]

So what about a gift certificate for that geeky person at home who's building junk? But you don't. You don't know what capacitors that person needs. Right?

[Jason]

Yeah, exactly.

[Skip Simmons]

What are you going to do? That'd be beautiful. And if you don't get my sense of humor, the reason why you don't want to see any Grz guitars or hold one in your hand is because you want one.

[Jason]

Of course. No, of course. It just makes sense.

[Skip Simmons]

Just. I was afraid I was too obscure on that.

[Jason]

We're all used to your personality by now. Emerald City Guitar is sponsoring the show again. They've got an incredibly fast growing YouTube channel where Trevor takes all these incredible road trips. I think he is about to post one with former guest Colleen Fazio. They've got 100% stock 1963 Fender Stratocaster in stock right now. That's probably someone out there's birth year, guitar and so much more. Tell them the truth about when a jam sent you. Go follow them on YouTube. And Instagram and all the usual places.

[Skip Simmons]

Don't go there either.

[Jason]

Yeah, you'll end up something you want. Yeah. Well, we've had a lot of listeners make the pilgrimage and it's been super cool when they write and say like, they were all so cool. They were all so friendly. I got a T shirt. It's, it's been fun. And then surprise announcements. Our buddy Chris from Deluxe Amplification, he made the Elpato can. Practice amps. The little nine volt amplifier in the El Pado can can. For holiday 2024, he's doing his third and final run with the green can. The one can he hasn't done yet. It's on reverb.com right now. It's $58 US including free shipping. It's the ultimate stocking stuffer. You could leave one in your car's glove compartment if you ever needed an amp on the run. It's, it's a great little cute little thing that pays homage to our podcast and our favorite condiment. And I'll include a link, show notes, so that's cool. And then now the hardest plug because I've been trying to read this book's title 18 times and it does not roll off my tongue. Will Simmons, your son, former podcast guest, academic, art historian. I don't know how to describe him. He's just an all around cool person. Has a book coming out on Amazon. You can pre order it now. Love and Degradation. I said it right. Excessive Desires in Queer Feminist Art. I will include a link to the pre order on Amazon. I bet a bunch of you out there either would like to read this book or know somebody who'd like to read this book. Go order it. Help Will out. Help the Simmons clan out. And I think Lana Del Rey's in it. He told us so. Yeah, it should be fun.

[Skip Simmons]

He's a beautiful writer and he has some trippy connections in, in the art and music world.

[Jason]

Yeah. Did you read this? Have you read out?

[Skip Simmons]

Not yet.

[Jason]

No, not yet.

[Skip Simmons]

No, not yet. No. But thanks for that hard plug. And you know what amp show has literature.

[Jason]

I know.

[Skip Simmons]

Really? The Golden Ocean by Patrick O'Brien. I'm always telling people, Patrick O'Brien. Well, the golden Ocean is like an introductory story, historical fiction, and also like Will this beautiful, beautiful writing. So if you've ever said, let's get talking about all, there's about 15 of these novels. It could take you a year to read them all. But an initial one, the Golden Ocean is just, it's, it's Funny, it's heartbreaking. The writing is fantastic. It's ultimately uplifting. And even if you're not really into ships and the 1700s and stuff like that, it's basically a story of a circumnavigation navigation that really happened in I think about 1730. And the things that people. The things that people did. Living on a. On a ship with like 200 people for a year or two, right?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Like 150ft long. And the decorum and the unspoken rules that made it even possible. In other words, that guy, of course hates that guy and is going to stick him with a sword as soon as he gets a chance. But when they sit down to eat every single day, no one can know that, you know, you have to be civil. And that's one of the ways those guys manage to go all over the world in ships with just the wind and a bunch of guys crammed into this boat. It's just the little. The little jokes, the little civilities, the. The little hierarchy and a little respect for each other. That's interesting. All right, so getting way out there.

[Jason]

Now, what's on your bench skip the.

[Skip Simmons]

Alamo that I'd like to forget. I don't know much about Solid State stuff and troubleshooting without just blindly replacing parts. I annoys me. I think I might have to get this chassis down to the guru. Remember, I know he won't let you ship anything, but there's a guy in Sacramento couldn't carry his volt meter. Right. He's been repairing everything since the 70s and I got his phone number. So if it's. He does music man amps, he's not afraid of Solid State. Of course. At all. If you had a nice old Marantz or Kenwood receiver or something like that from the seventies. Piece of cake.

[Jason]

You've known this guy forever?

[Skip Simmons]

Forever. I've sent him thousands and thousands of repairs. Yeah. Because I Google, you know, if you. If you just Google like amp repair and you're in New Jersey or someplace, a lot of times I'll come up. Even if you have a car stereo or so. I get calls all the time about stuff. Well, not quite a few about things that I don't understand or know how to fix or in some cases don't want to fix. Like new Fender printed circuit board tube amps. I don't like those. But this guy Patrick.

[Jason]

Oh, you're outing him.

[Skip Simmons]

He's not afraid of anything. He used to fix big screen TVs and he ran a commercial electronic repair shop in Sacramento, down by the original Tower Records, two doors up from Tower Books on Broadway for decades. And then he sold the business and retired. And all he does now is what I send him. And all I send him is audio, you know, no big screen TVs or anything goofy like that. And we don't chat. We're not like buddies or anything. But it's been a great relief to me to be able to provide an answer for somebody because you know me, they call me. Even if it's a car stereo, sometimes I can tell them what to do, like throw that thing away and get another one. But. But I've. I've. I've helped a lot of people just by sending them to him.

[Jason]

So it's like you're Santa and he's an elf.

[Skip Simmons]

Oh, no, he knows everything. I don't know anything. I mean, he. I just know this tiny fragment of tube electronics, and he knows about everything electronic. So it isn't like that at all. About going to the washing machine guru, Paradise Gym. He's found five typewriters in the last, like four or five months. Washington machines.

[Jason]

In washing machines.

[Skip Simmons]

No, not in washing. Washing machine starts leaking. He's a. He ran an appliance repair place forever. I messed with it for two or three hours and then finally carted it up to his place at Paradise. He had it figured out in like one minute. And he's been here learning about tube amps where I get to be the smart guy. And then it was fun to go to somebody and have them say, no, this isn't. It's like when somebody calls me and they took all the knobs off their fender because they think you have to do that to take the chassis out. And I go, no, no, no. So I did all this wasted time because I didn't know what I was doing. And to see somebody who does know what they're doing, just go, there you go. There's your problem. So you get out of here. It was great. Everybody, you know, people have skills, right? I didn't have air conditioning for three or four years until this guy comes over. What about this? And he pulls out this filter I didn't even know was in there. That looked like a rug. It looked like there was a bunch of dogs and cats on it. And as soon as he pulled it out, all the cool air started flowing, right? Make me some bread, baby. Stuff's not easy. And. And respect the skill, Raya. Just respect the. Respect the auto mechanic, you know, there's your problem right there. And I get to do that with amps often, but I really kind of get a kick out of seeing people do it in other ways, other skills, like the watch, like Paradise Gym. I mean, boom, boom, click, click, click. There's your problem right there. It's like, man.

[Jason]

All right, I. I think, you know, there is a Patreon for this show, which we greatly appreciate, and you can get to the front of the line with your amp questions. But I think the real money is in, like, a guided Skip Simmons tour where we go meet Paradise Gym, go take a tour bus down to the drawbridge, maybe see Keith Carey, maybe Larry Chung is waving from a sidewalk, all the cast of characters. It'd be great.

[Skip Simmons]

Paradise Jim built a brand new house where his old house was, because he lost everything, right? He had to run for his life. And paradise now versus paradise then is really. It's a whole different thing. There's a. It's. It's in the mountains, but it's right next to the valley. And it was so completely encumbered with tiny little pine trees that it was always cool and shady. Now all those pine trees are gone, and you can see the coast range, you know, 75 miles away across the valley. It just changed the whole feel of the place. And I think rich people are going to buy property there because it's close enough to Chico. It's not way out in the boondocks. It's not that far from Sacramento, but it's impressive views and, yeah, it's nice. That would be fun, wouldn't it?

[Jason]

Yeah, I think. I think we need to work that for 20, 25.

[Skip Simmons]

Road trip.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Get some Slim Jims if anyone. Some Yoohoo. Yeah. Oh, yes, actually, exactly. A little. Little Kale.

[Jason]

We could have a band on the tour bus playing through the El Pado amp that is now for sale.

[Skip Simmons]

Excellent.

[Jason]

All right. Yeah, we have lots of amp questions. Keep them coming [e-mail] you can send a voice memo on your phone, send us pictures of your amps you're wondering about. You name it. Recipes. It's. The holidays are coming up. Life advice. We'll take it all, we'll field it all, and just please, please, please keep those coming. I just want to mention on my other podcast, the Fretboard Journal podcast, I just interviewed a yogi, and it was great. And everyone should go check it out, because Guru Singh was in Haight ashbury in the 60s and knew Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin and has all these stories, but he's also, you know, A modern day yog. A lot of fun.

[Skip Simmons]

Wow.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

I'm almost afraid to ask how that came about.

[Jason]

You know, that came about. It's very interesting that you should ask. My wife has been following this guy for a long time. He is. I thought he was based only in la and he does these like, zoom yoga classes that were very popular during the pandemic. And then I ran into him. I ran into him on the streets of this tiny town called Laconor about an hour north of here. He's just walking around with his family and I introduced myself and he's a guitar. I mean, I knew he was into guitars because I've seen him on YouTube and he's got this crazy J45 that he had some guy in the 70s put this, like, pointy headstock on. It's wild. But anyways, he was signed to Reprise Records under. When he was named, his original name was Jerry Pond. Now he's Guru Singh. And you can see or tune into his two singles that he put out on Reprise on YouTube. And it's just we met on the street in LA, Connor. And then I ran into him multiple times. I see him all over. It was like, where's Waldo? Thing. And. And eventually he acquiesced and I had him on the podcast.

[Skip Simmons]

Excellent.

[Jason]

Yeah, it's fun. He's a cool guy.

[Skip Simmons]

Excellent.

[Jason]

Super into guitars. It's kind of funny because he's got a better studio than I have here at the Fretboard Journal and does all his, like, broadcasting. He's got better mics and it's just, you know, he was kind of looking around my office going like, well, where's your video switcher? I'm like, I don't have one. You know, all this stuff. So it was. It was fun. Anyways, Jim in Iowa City, subject line, half power switch to topos. What does that mean? To topos? Oh, that's tortilla chips. That's not an amp term. Okay, I see I'm getting ahead of myself. Hey, Skip and Jason, I super dig the show. Question and a food comment. The power of a push pull 4 power tube amp twin reverb can be reduced by physically removing one power tube from each pair or by lifting the cathode of one tube from each pair using a double pole switch. I have some questions about this. What power rating is needed for the switch? Do you want to. Let's do these one at a time. Go ahead, Skip.

[Skip Simmons]

First, don't do it at all.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip Simmons]

If you have a twin reverb and you think you're going to make it half power by disconnecting or taking out two power tubes? You sort of will, but it's still going to be way, way, way, way too loud. And you got to remember voltage and current, you know, water pressure and gallons. You take out two power tubes, that thing doesn't draw as much current and the B plus voltage goes way up. So the two tubes that are in there are actually running hotter than they would be with four. So quit doing that next. But go with the list and I'll try to hit.

[Jason]

Well, I mean, it was all hinging on you green lighting that. So the next question was, is the B plus voltage affected much?

[Skip Simmons]

There you go. The cool way to do lower a. Don't make 50 watt amps with a switch, so you can turn them down to 5 watts or whatever. Most of that stuff to me I've heard is it just. The amp just doesn't sound as good as it should. You're just sort of throttling it. But the cool way to do it is to have really groovy custom transformers to rock. They can lower the B plus so the amp is running like at 300 volts instead of 450 volts. Now you're talking right now you're lowering power in an organic and groovy sounding way. So a twin 12ax7 in the phase inverter instead of a 12at, that'll gain it up a little. Take out the normal channel preamp tube. It shares circuitry with the reverb channel preamp tube and that'll make it hotter. Like gain it up a little bit and then disconnect one speaker because it'll run fine on a 12. And two 12s is just. You can hear that for two blocks instead of one block and find yourself a nice groovy distorto pedal that you like and listen to some little Charlie. With just a Strat and a guitar chord going into a loud Fender amp, you're good. You can make those things sound pretty fantastic and sustain pretty well and even get a little bit of grind even though they're so powerful. Yeah, how's that?

[Jason]

There's more questions. Do you want to keep going?

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason]

Jim wants to know is the power tube bias affected much?

[Skip Simmons]

The B plus goes up, so the. The remaining two tubes are going to draw more current. And you could prove that, you know, just by checking the bias. You know, when you, when you take two tubes out, probably going to go up to maybe 500 volts from 460 or so when you take the tubes out. And that's going to make those two remaining power tubes run a little hotter. You could do it and people have done it with twin reverbs and showman heads and stuff forever. It's been a very common thing in all the books to do with Marshalls. But to me, the bottom line is you're dreaming. It's still going to be way too loud. It's not going to help. Right. And I'd rather let the 100 watt amp just run in the stock way and figure out some other little tweaks to get it to be a little bit less power. Or sell it and get a deluxe reverb which costs twice as much as a twin reverb because nobody wants those big amps in comparison to the little ones, right? True.

[Jason]

All right, we have two more. Does this alter the optimal speaker impedance for the amp?

[Skip Simmons]

Officially, when you take out two tubes, the reflected impedance on the output transformer has changed and they go into this a bunch in the groove tube books. Theoretically, you should change the impedance of this cabinet when you take out two tubes, but no one does. And if an offender, we already know they're so forgiving. So yes, it would, but not as much as disconnecting a 12 would change the sound. You know, that'll, that'll take off some of the immense amount of low end and focus the sound a little bit more because we got to remember, I can already tell the problem is, is the guy has an amp that's too loud and we're just trying to think of some organic ways of taming it a little bit.

[Jason]

His final question. Have you found the switch cathode lift to be useful?

[Skip Simmons]

I know I would never do that, but there are lots of amps over the years that have a half power switch and that's what they do. They disconnect, you know, two of the tubes just like basically like pulling them out. You know, they're eliminating them as a source of current draw. But again, show me one that is like, oh, I did that and now it's perfect. I can play in my bedroom. But I don't think so. I think even an attenuator or something like that, if you have to have even more power reduction. And again, one last good thought that I'm always telling people, no reason to buy stuff anymore. Brand new and not like it because all the bigs let you send it back. Get the, get, get the attenuator, turn it down, you'll see the, the Groovy response of the amp is lowered a bit. But if you can find a tone that makes you burn the. Burn the dinner because you're having fun in the back room jamming, I'm. That's. That's the piece of gear for you, the burning. The burning food factor. I'm always bringing that up.

[Jason]

Jim's last food is a food comment. Tortilla chips toe Toto Totopos. I've never heard him said that. That's. He's got that in parentheses. There are huge differences between makers. Yes, I can agree with this. In Iowa, I like two brands, El Milagro and El Ranchero. Both made in Chicago. Very corny and toasty thick. Excellent crunch, perfect salt. The locally made chips and food co op chips lack the toasty taste. Basic goodness. El Ranchero lists four ingredients only. Corn, corn, oil, salt and lime. That's from Jim in Iowa City.

[Skip Simmons]

Those ones that they sell that are a little bit more brown, they've got like a little bit more of a nutty thing going on than ones that are pale. And if you can find the right Mexican ones, you'll have. You'll only go back to the like Tostitos and stuff in emergencies. So. Because the other ones are just a little bit more substantial. Well, that was a pretty good question.

[Jason]

Yeah. This is from Jeff in Ohio, not to be confused with Jim in Iowa City. Skip the last two episodes. You've talked about using a Variac set at 110 volts with vintage amps. Do you think that that same holds true for reproductions jams using all new parts?

[Skip Simmons]

It all depends on what the B is. What is it and what does it say compared to what a schematic from 1959 would say? Right. So you build yourself a Tweed deluxe. Is it 350 with 125 regular? Plug it into the wall. Well, 350, 360. That's about optimal for a Tweed Deluxe. Usually old ones run higher than that. So if you build something and you plug it in and the speed plus is right on, then you don't need a Variac. But amps will start running and working at more like 100. And the ability to always provide a soft start by just slowly turning up the variac even over 30 seconds. And the ability to run an older amp on voltage closer to what it was designed for. And the fact that. Is it because of the truth about in the jams?

[Jason]

No.

[Skip Simmons]

That you can get cheap Variacs on freaking Amazon. Holy crap. We used to either had to buy the Real thing from Mouser, like American made stuff that's, you know, hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Or find a vintage one like I did, or these sort of cheesy offshore ones that were like a hundred bucks and they weren't that great. Now there's all sorts of really slick modern ones out there for down to 60. And I don't know why anyone who's into old amps. If you're, if you're working on old amps, you just absolutely have to have it, you know, if you don't have a voltmeter and you don't have a variac, you don't have nothing. So anyway, I answered that if you make something and the B plus is just what it's supposed to be, then you don't need to plug it into a lower voltage. But you can if you want. Sure won't hurt anything.

[Jason]

Marcus. Your friend Marcus. Tell us about Mullard 10ms. I found a few off the beaten path 12ax7 etc that aren't crazy money. Thanks for the encouragement to aim high when going back to school at age 42. That is from Marcus. I have no idea what the second part of that goes to Harvard or.

[Skip Simmons]

Something now or some.

[Jason]

Oh, he does. His email is a Harvard Eduardo.

[Skip Simmons]

There you go. He's part of the Crimson something or other. But yeah, I would have had a hard time doing that in my 40s or at any time.

[Jason]

You knew him in California or you just knew him through the amp world?

[Skip Simmons]

He lived in California before he moved out there to work on the plant underground with the tube that cost a million dollars. And then after he'd been out there for a while, he said, hey man, I'm going back to school so I can get this degree and then really bank it. Right. I hope. I think, I think that's the idea. Yeah. I already forgot what we're talking about.

[Jason]

Can we all do that as. As middle aged people just like, hey, I'm going to try to apply to Harvard Even though I'm 50 years old and he had.

[Skip Simmons]

He wouldn't. The dude must have some serious education and skills or he wouldn't be working at the particle accelerator. Is that what it is? I think something very sciency. Like that. Very sciency. All right.

[Jason]

We're gonna add a Tava bus tour. It's just gonna be a really long.

[Skip Simmons]

Oh yeah, go to the Harvard yard. Touch the. I've been to Harvard yard. Of course.

[Jason]

Yeah. Mueller, 10 M's.

[Skip Simmons]

Hi Fi. Got huge. Yeah, about 1950. And I mean big. Like a Hobby like model airplanes. And by the early mid-50s, you could get catalogs and there'd be tubes in there that were specifically hyped as being better, quote unquote, like a telephone control AX7. Or better for hi Fi or low noise. And Mullard, of course, English company, they made some of the best tubes in the day. From probably the 40s up into the 70s, probably. And they had a series of tubes called the 10M, which were extra trick. Honestly, I don't know if they were made any differently. Or if they were just paired up and chosen more carefully. Right. So when groove tube started, they didn't make tubes. Well, they never made tubes, but they bought tubes and they very, very carefully tested them. Then we have to mention I've seen a picture of a tube manufacturing plant in the 40s. And behind the plant are mountains of tubes so big that there's giant bulldozers driving around on them. Because they made a lot of tubes and there's a high failure rate. Those things are so delicate that even after they made it, I don't know what the percentages are. But by looking at that gigantic pile of tubes, you know, 10% maybe, you know, don't cut it. So the Muller 10ms. Were tubes that had passed the first test and probably passed a bunch of more tests. I kind of doubt they made them any differently, but I think it was just a super careful selection. By the way, they also sold pairs of power tubes way back in the 50s. Because I'm always saying matched pairs of power tubes and big deal. But it was a thing in hi fi. And they would want each power tube to be really closely matched for the ultimate in performance in their groovy hi Fi amp. And they would sell. I just saw a pair of EL80 fours that were Amperex or mulbered. And they were in a box that held two tubes. I've never seen that before in my life.

[Jason]

That's hot. Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

By the way, I should mention that I looked in a tube caddy the other day. And there were 60 new old stock Amperex Bugle Boy, 12 AX7s in the box in that tube caddy. I'd say the most money I've ever seen in a. Because I. I don't really see, like, western electric stuff. And there's tubes that cost you a thousand dollars. Don't see that stuff too often. Those two A3s I saw a while ago, which I still have, those are pretty interesting. But as far as a stash of just instant money that you could go to the pawn shop or the guitar shop and say, I mean Those things are 100 bucks piece as far as I can tell. So. But anyway, that's the deal on the 10ms. And if you're ever lucky enough to find one and sounds good, probably a very high quality tube. It's interesting that people were tube fiends and paying for more expensive stuff even way back then because tube hi fi was a really, a really big thing. A lot of people made kits, eth kits we were talking about earlier and their own amps and you had the English, of course, and Australians who were making everything from scratch. And it was just a big old deal. If you ever have a chance to snag some electronics or hi fi magazines from back in the 50s, you'll see what I mean. You know, every issue the guy's got the pipe, you know, and he's sitting there building the amp at the kitchen table while his, you know, scrubbed kids look on smiling.

[Jason]

Beautiful. It's how I picture Marcus right now with his 10m tubes.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah, I don't think he had. I don't think he had to move to Boston. I think he's a Harvard grad in the HAR or a Harvard student on the web. Oh, I have to ask him. I don't. Because I think he's still losing, you know, like in the. Where the particle accelerator was because he had a place with horses and stuff like that. I don't think he actually had to go and live. And he has a family, so I can't imagine. Man, can you imagine how expensive it would be to have a family and live anywhere near Harvard?

[Jason]

Probably not much more expensive than California.

[Skip Simmons]

I don't know. That's some, some old money there. All right, next.

[Jason]

Okay, Joe in Denver. A lot of folks listen to this show in the Denver area and there has been talk of having a Tava meetup in Denver. So that's another reason to email me@rocky mountainway.com yeah. Subject line 1 filter cap or 2 at half the price. I have a question about my 1948 Gibson GA25 I'm servicing. It's a cool suitcase styled amp with one 8 inch and one 12 inch speaker. This amp has six SJ7, two 6J5s, two 6V6s and a 5Y3. The schematic shows a 20 microfarad 450 volt filter cap feeding the two 6V6 plates, or rather that amount of capacitance. In reality, there are 10 microfarad caps at Opposite ends of the chassis, each wired to the plate of a separate 6V6. It's worth pointing out that the tubes are about 8 inches from each other and there's a lot of wire running back and forth between them. My question is this. Can I use one 120 microfarad filter cap in a convenient physical location and in the correct location in the circuit? Or does each 6v6 need its own half size filter cap close by, so to speak, perhaps due to their distance from one another for some reason. That is from Joe in Denver.

[Skip Simmons]

Joe in Denver. If the tube with the positive filter cap is grounded at one end, the other end of them are connected together. In other words, if there's a piece of wire between the 10 and the 10, then yeah, you can use a 20. And I doubt very much that that's original. Trying to think, you know, I'm so lucky. I've actually had GA25s and that's one of the rarest Fender amps or Gibson amps. I recommend if you can find it. There is a Gibson amp book and it has production totals and stuff. And I think they only made that GA25 for one year or something. There's only a couple hundred of them. So it's very rare and unusual. Keep it original. And yes, you can absolutely use a single 20 in place of two tens. And sometimes you see two caps instead of one. I've seen it in Fenders, but I think it was because they ran out of something. I've seen blackface basements where Instead of a 500 pico farad capacitor, it has two little 250 pico farad capacitors factory. But I think that's just something where they ran out of parts rather than a, you know, some kind of electronic reason for doing it.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

And if you're on a desert island and you need a 20 and you have two tens, twist those suckers together. Right? You can do that? I mean, absolutely. I just had to replace a polar, a non polarized electrolytic capacitor. They say plus on both ends and I don't have anything like that. But the great Bill Kernard said, here's how you can make one. Take two regular ones, twist the negatives together, and now you have two positives and that'll make a non polarized cap. Didn't fix the amp, by the way, but it just seemed part of the answer there. So, yes, you can definitely use series connections or parallel connections with electrolytics. Next.

[Jason]

Okay, we have a lot oh, well, we have a few comments on your new guitar. This first one, mind blowing, is from. I don't know who it's from.

[Skip Simmons]

Hello, Skip and Jason. This is the lonesome captain from Venice, California. I listened to the last podcast and Skip was talking about his new guitar with the slab board. And as I was squandering my precious life, the next day on Instagram, I noticed on Joe Bonamassa's feed, he bought a pair of a 66 Mustang and a Deluxe, which also had a slab board. So, Skip, you have something in common with Joe Bonamassa. Who knew? I don't really have a question. Maybe you got this news somewhere else. Anyways, love the podcast and big fan.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip Simmons]

Steve Beckingham. Yeah.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip Simmons]

Another guru guy.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Was that, was that. Ophir said that late, very late 65 and very early 66 for a couple of months. The 24 inch scale rosewood Fender necks, which would have been Jaguar Bronc, Mustang, and this thing, the Duosonic, had slab boards. And if you're not sure what that. What I'm talking about, it's just a big, thick chunk of rosewood on top of the neck. And traditionally we only see that around 59 and 60. And after that, Fender Rosewood fingerboards. The rosewood is actually curved. It's like a thin veneer that's attached to a curved surface. So the rosewood is the same thickness across the whole thing, whereas the slab board is big and thick in the middle and thinner on the sides because it's glued to a flat neck. And why they did that, I don't know. When I saw the guitar, I said, whoa, what's with this slab neck? Maybe it's an old neck, but when I took the, the neck off, it had the early January 66 date code on it. So that's just something that they did for a little while.

[Jason]

Yeah, don't ask.

[Skip Simmons]

Don't ask me why. Maybe they had some wood left over. I don't know. I just don't. It probably was. I think they sold more of the guitars with the short scale, like the, the little, you know, music masters and the regular duo Sonics, they're short scale, whereas the one I got was like a Mustang or a Jaguar. It's a little shorter than a strat. It's 24 instead of, what is it, 25. Yeah, so it's a little shorter, but I can't play the dinky necks. And that's one reason why I was, I was anxious to get this thing is the neck is big enough that I can get something out of it with my fat fingers.

[Jason]

Are you having fun with it?

[Skip Simmons]

Did we talk about this? A guy playing a Fender and a guy playing anything else. Playing through the identical amps at a gig, you can hear the guy with the vendor more than you can the other guy. He just. The purity of the tone. Leo said like a steel guitar. That's what he was trying to get it to do. And. And after the big old noisy trash box that I've been using for 35, 40 years. Right. That thing's a hollow guitar with a derment in it. And it has so much low end and rattles and resonances that it's not even funny. And you hit a string on the Fender, it's just like the note, the fundamental, you know.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

So after I fix up a PA or something and I check it out with old Trusty. I've been plugging in the red guitar and going, wow, different, A lot different. And it's something that other people sort of have. It's. You know, nobody has a crappy guitar like my test guitar, but most people have something that sounds kind of thundery.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

So I'm. That's how I justified it.

[Jason]

No, it's great.

[Skip Simmons]

It was 500, I think she was gonna try to give it to me, but it's refinished. Wrong tuners, wrong pickups. So, you know, wasn't like I was robbing the blind widow or anything. But no case. But it's been fun to have it over there. And I also gave away the other guitar that used to be in the same guitar stand, which is an old Dan Electro one pickup guitar that I got from Louis. And I just. I don't deserve two guitars that like that. One's. One's gonna do. And I. I didn't use the Dan Electro much as a test guitar because it had such a unique, lightweight, kind of microphonic, low output pickup, you know, that it just wasn't. Didn't really seem viable. So I gave that guitar to Bruce McMillan, the guy that played on that record with the hot fiddle player from Dixon. Oh, Joe Craven. And I'm sure we'll hear it on a record because he had borrowed it for a long time and one of his friends who passed away said spent a bunch of time setting it up and getting it to play really great. So when I got the red guitar a couple days later, I called him up and I said, hey man, I'm sending you this guitar. You can have it for free. And he was happy. And I'm sure, I mean, he can Play the guitar. Remember people, I can't play the guitar. So now we got the old beater guitar and the duosonic two. 66. I was six.

[Jason]

I was six years old there. There's more duosonic news because John from Riverside, California writes, I hope you are both enjoying the cooler fall weather here on the West Coast. I want to congratulate Skip on his new ax and give him a few relev musical recommendations that showcase some great duos sonic tones and playing. Oh yeah, the great John McLaughlin used a 66 Dakota Red similar to yours on the classic electric Miles Davis records In a Silent Way and Brew what the track Spanish Key is a particular highlight and the seminal Tony Williams Lifetime debut album. Oh, and on the Se Tony and Williams Lifetime album, Peter Green also favored a mid-60s duo Sonic after his return from hiatus in the late 70s, using it on the criminally underrated in the skies from 1979. Pretty good track record for Leo's little student model guitar. That's from John.

[Skip Simmons]

John, you rock. Yeah, that's some knowledge right there. And I've, I've heard that in a silent way. I listen to that quite a bit and I'm going, wow, really? I wonder what he wonder if it had the same pickups in it or if he had modded the hell out of it or what? And what did he like about it? The 24 inch scale is really comfortable for some people. You know, it's a, it's a pretty cool neck. Pretty nice. That is some good duosonic knowledge right there. I feel even more fortunate.

[Jason]

Thanks, John. Tell us more. All right, this next voice memo is from listener Nate. You can be a part of the show. Send us a voice memo or email to podcastretboardjournal.com please.

[C]

Hey, this is Nate in Vermont and I just wanted to follow up on something from the last podcast. I had asked a question about a reverb driver tube and it prompted Skip to throw out the idea someone should hook up a speaker in place of the tank because that, that reverb driver transformer is really like an output transformer and I will say that it works. I've got a twin reaver preamp I made a while back and so a couple alligator clips to a speaker cabinet and my preamp instantly became an amp. So that's pretty cool. I would say pretty usable for like a late night quiet playing. You're only going to get so much power out of it. It's actually only a fraction of a watt, but you know, with an efficient speaker, it's surprisingly loud and usable. Definitely worthy of some more experimentation. What this means though is that anyone that has a Fender type amp with reverb can very, very easily turn that into a low wattage practice amp. So if you're one of those people that wants to turn your logging truck into a go kart, I say go for it. You know, if you pull it out of the cabinet, then you know, a couple alligator clips like I said, where the tank would go and you're in business. I'm even thinking you could do an RCA plug wired to a speaker cable and that would be a real easy way to go. Wouldn't even have to take it out of the cabinet. So give it a try. You will have to mute the output of your amp. So if you have, you know, like a silent attenuator, that'd be great. Or master volume. Otherwise you need a dummy load or some other way to mute the output. Side note, it made me realize that I always have to have the tank connected if I'm sending signal through an amp with reverb. So, you know, if you got one on the bench or whatever, keep that tank connected or put a resistor in its place. But thanks for the idea, Skip. Always enjoy when you throw things out that we can experiment with and hope everyone has a great upcoming holidays. Thanks.

[Skip Simmons]

That's why I get the big bucks, right? And I'm glad I get I only have to think of it and I don't have to do it, right? Somebody else. Somebody else did it.

[Jason]

How are we still finding out stuff about this 70 years technology?

[Skip Simmons]

There's just always more to go. By the way, I'll point out something that I hadn't thought of for a long if you take the phase inverter tube out of that thing, then it won't play really loud. This to be a little bit of hum in the speaker, but it won't play. And then if you did this crazy, use your reverb circuit to drive a little speaker, then you could use your twin reverb as some sort of little dinky half watt little bedroomy thing without harm to anything. And. And do it in 10 seconds, right? Just unplug the reverb tank, take the reverb output, no reverb in reverb input jack because they're labeled weird. And hook that thing up to a little speaker so that the reverb transformer is actually driving a tiny speaker instead of the tank. Remember, speaker driven reverb? That's why this all works is because those little metal boxes with the springs in them were originally made to be driven by a speaker, which means a tube with an output transformer. And that's why it worked. Wow. Sherlock Holmes has a smarter brother, but the different. Smarter than him. But the difference is he just sits in a chair and thinks about how to solve the crime or whatever. And he doesn't have Sherlock's energy to go out and actually do it. So I'm. I'm more like Mycroft Holmes, the brother, you know, he thinks of stuff, but he's too lazy to go out and actually solve the crime like Sherlock would. So I say, great, thanks for trying it and thanks for letting us know that it worked. And those are some. That's some fun ideas.

[Jason]

Yeah, thanks.

[Skip Simmons]

I'm gonna make an outboard tremolo pedal.

[Jason]

Wow.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah. You know, it's going to be different. I've been thinking about different ways of doing it, talking to some of my circuit buddies and there's always. It's like cooking, you know, it's always another way to make something and try something different.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Might not know, might not work, but nothing wrong with trying it.

[Jason]

Yeah. All right, we got. We'll keep it on the reverb sort of front. With this next one from Bruce, we got a couple more. He is curious about how the bomb cyclone affected us. Thanks, Bruce. I think we already covered that. Jason and Skip. Why do some reverb tanks have bags and others don't?

[Skip Simmons]

Moisturizer Fenders do. Because he didn't mind spending a minute to make things more protected. Gibson didn't because they're idiots and they thought, you know, you shouldn't even look back there. So there's no difference. The tank will work fine either way. It's just that Fender was smart enough to take heavy Tolex and make these little bags and slide the tank into it to keep it from getting dirty and dusty. And then the bag is held down with two little screws which provides a little bit of shock mount for the tank. Whereas Gibson's and a lot of other amps, they just screwed the tank down to the bottom of the wood. And if you kick it, it's even more likely to cause the crash. Thanks for a little chuckle on my first answer. Moisturizer. I was afraid that was going to go right over everyone's head. But.

[Jason]

Bruce. Bruce continues. How about a non alcoholic drink for kids and adults that looks right at home at the holiday dinner table? I believe this vintage recipe comes from the back of the label. Fill your glass with equal parts chilled ocean spray Cranberry cocktail and chilled Canada dry ginger ale.

[Skip Simmons]

Oh, it's a classic.

[Jason]

I experimented using higher quality ingredients with negligible results. The tried and true is simple and delicious. I am thankful for being part of this wonderful group you two have created that brings everyone joy. Happy Thanksgiving, gentlemen. I wish you and your families well. That's from Bruce in Seattle.

[Skip Simmons]

Perfect.

[Jason]

Thanks, Bruce.

[Skip Simmons]

And out here is it world? Is it nationwide? But Martinelli's sparkling apple Cider. Yeah, it looks like it's in a champagne bottle and it's very dry and very good non alcoholic fizzy cider. And as kids we thought that was the right or just that was like so very sophisticated. So if you got like a 8 year old or a 10 year old and you want to get them something special for Thanksgiving to drink, if you can find it. Martinelli's sparkling apple Cider. Looks like a champagne bottle has a cork. I think. I think it does, doesn't it? Yeah.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

And it's delicious. I think that's from Washington. Isn't. Isn't that where Martinelli's is from Northwest somewhere? Yeah, I think it is. All right.

[Jason]

Okay, this next one's kind of long and includes some illustrations that I neglected.

[Skip Simmons]

The jelloso. Is that the jaloso?

[Jason]

No, we're going to get to that last. We're going to end on that Italian dessert. Jason, I am not subject line Tava. I give a crap and don't know everything. Okay. And then he says, I also smile at pretty soldered joints. Jason, I'm not sure how I stumbled onto your podcast with Skip even further. I need to get out from the giant rock I must be under. I started episode one to three on Monday, then 140 to 138, and have gone back and forth from the oldest episodes down to the newest episodes. Honestly, listening this way is extremely entertaining. You have stayed true to the mission and still reference the early episodes I'm hearing back to back. When I fired up episode 140, I initially wondered who was talking to Jason and where Skip went. Man, the cell tech was a cool feature. Then someone called in about it just a few episodes down the list. And the call was from a cool analog studio up in Vancouver I'd never heard of 50 miles from my house. Okay, now he's just talking about your new microphone. That's not new anymore.

[Skip Simmons]

That was a hundred and we did 140 on the phone.

[Jason]

No, we've did. It was like around 80. I think we're up to 140. He's bouncing. He's ping ponging back and forth. Sure. MV7? Is that what it's called? Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Thanks. Thanks to our friends who listen at the Shure company and you know, a quality American product for a long time.

[Jason]

You can get here. I'll just tell you, you can get the Shure MV7 on Amazon right now for 250 bucks. So if you want to sound good on your Zoom calls or wherever. They're on sale now. Like everything else in the world. Going back to this email, after listening to episode 135, I felt the need to reach out as I thought I interpreted a request from a fellow tribesman. You guys speak my language and I agree with Skip's guiding principles. I am pretty new up in Bellingham, Washington and would love to come down and talk. Sounds like you get people from all over sending stuff in and I'd like to be more involved in the community. I felt the best way for me to step outside my comfort zone and break the ice is to ask if you would review my portfolio of work and see if a meeting could be beneficial. And there's a link which I guess I. I'll share with the world. And then he said I knew these things were. Oh, it's. It's a link to like schematics and stuff. I knew these things were cool, but didn't realize how rad this stuff was. A lot of the amps you and your listeners talk about have come through my basement shop 40s Gibson Music Man. I know why this scares skip. Basement 135. Beautifully simple. And appreciate all the reasons Skip doesn't like to work on some models such as ampegs with PCBs. Geek speak warning. They do intentionally have asymmetrical distortion in the phase inverter. The 12 AU7 is set up as a common cathode amplifier and a voltage divider off the tops triode inverted output is fed back into the grid on the lower triode as the local feedback loop for the output signal that is in phase with the input signal. Does that make sense to you?

[Skip Simmons]

I'm gonna have to take his word for it.

[Jason]

Okay, yeah. I didn't set out to repair instrument amps. I've been restoring and working on record consoles in my spare time for over 10 years. But recently last three years when the word spread, I could work on tube amps. I no longer have time for console work, but have a total blast meeting all the interesting musicians in the area. It's easy to see why your listeners get long winded when they call right in. It's a beautiful thing I've tried to celebrate in my entire life. This email is way longer than I anticipated. What's currently on my bench Ultra cool Marantz integrated amplifier. Earlier today, while heading home a thousand miles away between drafting this email and hitting send, I worked on a mid century record. Junk box. It was, I think junk box. Jukebox. I don't know. It was in an old restaurant bar.

[Skip Simmons]

Gonna say jukebox?

[Jason]

Yep, jukebox. Of course. I was in an old restaurant bar and the owner was showing me around and I spotted this thing in the back. And then she mentioned that her dad said it doesn't sound right. And if I could a couple service checks, exercise some switches, twist a couple pots. Sounded better than when I left. It's a funky restaurant that he was in. I see pictures. I look forward to getting some constructive feedback. This is from R. Carson, the chief engineer at Rhythm Restoration Rocks. I'll include a link to his site in the show notes so that people in the Bellingham area can connect. And you can look at it too. Skip. Skip is just so you know, listener. Skip is in California. I'm in Seattle. I'm closer to you than he is. But there's a fair number of amp people in Bellingham, including the amazing guitar maker Fletcher Brock is. Is working on tube amps up there all the time too. So I think you'll find a community if you want to.

[Skip Simmons]

Ruby.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Super groovy.

[Jason]

Yeah. And now I'm losing my voice. Skip, we got one more. This is the Italian PA from Marty.

[Skip Simmons]

I'll. I'll talk about it for a while and then you can get some tea with honey in it.

[Jason]

Do you want me to read the question first or.

[Skip Simmons]

No, I can go. I looked.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip Simmons]

Dear Jason and Skip. You guys are fun. I was in Europe, in Italy. Even though I live in America. And I wanted to get something cool to bring home.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

But apparently he couldn't find anything because he bought a Geloso G E L E S O amp. Which is Italian, but it was in America.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

So he came home from Italy and it was waiting for him. And he included this schematic which keggers are going to want to see because it has a bunch of crazy features. We'll start with a power transformer that has so many primary windings. It looks like you could hook it up like, I don't know, Antarctica or it just has a jillion primary voltages and something I've never seen. Instead of a common negative it has like four negatives where you can have like an additional 10 volts or. Or cut it 10 volts. In other words, a power transformer that you can manipulate all these primary leads and end up with a B plus of wildly different, you know, amounts. Right. And so you could take it and plug it into the wall anywhere in the world and have a tap that would work at that voltage whether you were in Japan or Australia or whatever. So that's pretty far out to sea. And he mentions that it has a DC filament supply for the preamp tubes, which is pretty unusual for a tube amp and Kegr's. Look at that schematic. There's a diode bridge and a choke that create the negative voltage because this is a fixed bias amp, not cathode bias. And that that DC negative voltage is also applied to the preamp tubes. Fisher. Fisher receivers and Fisher hi Fi in the 60s did that. But here's some crazy Italian kind of crappy quality in some ways, PA head that has this really sophisticated, you know, few things about it. And that's one of them right there. So now you can read it if you're ready.

[Jason]

Yeah, sure, go ahead. You summarized it quite well, Skip and Jason. I spent a month in Rome in the summer and wanted to find an old piece of gear to bring home. After getting some recommendations from keggers and having no luck, I found an early 60s Geloso 215A on eBay in the States. The tube lineup is two 1287s, two EL84s, and an EX81 and fixed bias.

[Skip Simmons]

It arrives home EZ81. So that's the rectifier tube. So it's a two EL84amp with 212AX7s. Just like a Vox AC15.

[Jason]

Yep. Okay. There was a typo there, and it said it arrived home before I did. In the meantime, I found the schematics which showed that it has a DC heater supply for the preamp. So Marty was in Italy, and instead of enjoying being in Italy, he was looking up schematics for the thing he bought on ebay in America. Okay. I have basically restored it to stock, and it has a great sound that is distinct from my other amps. I found that there's DC on the grid of a cathode cathodine phase inverter.

[Skip Simmons]

There we go.

[Jason]

This is a new one for me and struck me as wrong at first, but after some research, I see that Brown Princeton and the Princeton reverb schematics also show voltage on the PI grids. Is this correct? Please either confirm that this is normal or set me straight.

[Skip Simmons]

Easy. Normally we don't see voltages on grids of preamp tubes. It's normally zero. Or in the case of a. A fixed bias amp. It might be a negative voltage, but not a positive voltage. But there's a phase inverter that only uses half a tube. Paraphase, I believe that's what it's called. And if you look closely, you'll see that one of the grids has a resistor that goes to the cathode. And since the cathode has voltage, there's positive voltage on that grid. And there are quite a few amps that have that. And that's how it goes. If you. If you see positive voltage on a grid, it. Look at the amp or look at the schematic if you have it. If there's no way there can be voltage there other than a leaking coupling capacitor, say, for instance, then you got a problem. But if you look at that grid and see that it's only 470k away from a voltage source, well, that's why there's voltage on it and it's perfectly fine. How's that?

[Jason]

That's great. Marty also has a cooking tip.

[Skip Simmons]

Oh, yeah, that's. Go for it. Read that.

[Jason]

Okay. No pictures of the cooking tip. I will include the photos of the gelloso and the schematic on the Keger Facebook group, as well as very interesting.

[Skip Simmons]

Very interesting things to look at on that schematic.

[Jason]

Oh, yeah. For a cooking tip, look up a recipe for Denver Chocolate Pudding Cake. My dad made this on cold nights when we were kids. I think the recipe developed during World War II to conserve ingredients so there are no eggs or butter. The process is unique and cool. If you haven't seen it, you make a batter similar to a brownie and spread it on the bottom of a pan, sprinkle a mixture of cocoa and brown sugar over it, and then cover with a cup of hot water. As it bakes, the starch rises to the top and forms a crust while the inside stays gooey like a pudding. Delicious. Serve it hot with ice cream. Thanks for everything and happy holidays, Marty.

[Skip Simmons]

Oh, beautiful. Yeah, that's very. Love that old stuff. Love ancient cookbooks to look through and read what people made when they didn't have anything else. You know, things you can do with kale, say, for instance, other than just, you know, rake it up and put it out in the street for the trash man to come and pick up. No, this is what people ate when, honestly when, when times were hard, you know, and that's, that's a pretty cool one. That's. I think that's a. Might be a Depression era or World War II. You know, save on eggs. You know, victory over, you know, the axis. Everybody pull together. Save aluminum foil and string and don't use eggs.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

So. Good one. Like it?

[Jason]

Yeah. Denver chocolate pudding cake.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah. I've got an article from back in World War II on how you can take blown transformers and still use them for something.

[Jason]

Oh, what would you use them for besides like a paperweight?

[Skip Simmons]

Nah, if there's still one winding in. You know, a lot of transformers have multiple windings. Well, if this one goes out, you can still use these. You know, an output transformer you could still use as a filament. It's just all sorts of crazy things that people did when they didn't have anything. Like stuff in your tire full of, you know, newspapers and sawdust to get your car out to California during the Dust Bowl. Just, just if you've got absolutely nothing, you can still do it this way. And I kind of dig that because most of us have most things, but, but being aware of it and being able to do, you know, that we were just stuck in some. Out in the middle of a boat in the ocean for very long. First no Internet, and then after that would be like, does anybody know how to make a net and catch some fish or are we just gonna die? Old skills. Good job.

[Jason]

Thanks to everybody. Thanks to our sponsors. Grez Guitars Amplified Parts. They're having a big sale. Emerald City Guitars. Thanks to Deluxe Amplification for bringing back the El Pado amp in a can. Thanks to Will Simmons for writing a book that I hope some of you check out. Love and Degradation Except Excessive Desires and Queer Feminist Art. Available soon. But you can pre order it now on Amazon and I don't have any other updates. Get a subscription to the Fretboard Journal for your loved ones. If you're buying something for somebody during this crazy holiday season, it would mean the world to me. That's all I got.

[Skip Simmons]

That's. That's a good one. I say some Saturday morning, 9:00am, 8:00am West Coast Time. Get on your little computer. KVMR 89.5 from Nevada City, California in the foothills by me. You just put that thing on at 8 o'clock in the morning and turn it off about 5 and you will hear Billy Strings, you'll hear Honky Tonk, you'll hear bluegrass, you'll Hear new bands that sound like they're from the 40s. You. Bands from the 40s. A show called Hard country is on every other Sunday. You can imagine what that is. Like Waylon Jennings and stuff like that. Right. So it's so fun not to have to decide what to play. And you. It's the beauty of radio and we're lucky. And I'm sure there's others in around the country. Maybe that'd be a good recommendation for other people to say, yeah, yeah, classic jazz on this station at this time every week. You know, no excuse. I mean, you don't have to have a shortwave radio or anything anymore, right? Yeah. And maybe next time the theremin.

[Jason]

Yeah. I saw the picture you sent with the T and the V. Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Whoever can convince me that they'll actually make that can have that. That's a construction article that has an actual physical drawing of all the wires and connections and parts. It has a schematic but as an actual physical hand done drawing. Kind of like the Fender layouts that popular electronics would always do to inspire people. Because they can say, well, I see there's the part. It's soldered right there. And it's soldered right there. Even if you don't know how to read the schematic, you could still build it and then you could do some scary stuff or Good Vibrations. Probably the most famous but real ancient RCA tube theremins are really, probably really expensive and really complicated. But that's the simplest tube one I've ever seen. It's from the mid-50s. And if somebody really gets. Wants to get down, I have the early 60s article written by Robert Moog on how to make a solid state theremin. Oh, what seems to be the hold up? I don't know, to your reverb because.

[Jason]

You'D have a whole theremin choir playing Christmas music.

[Skip Simmons]

Oh my goodness, those things would be so hard to play because there's no. It's like. There's not worse than steel guitar. Worse than. There's just like the trombone. There isn't any note on it that you can just hit. You have to make it, you know, you can't just put your finger down on a theremin. It's. It would be. Call me after a week that you've been practicing. Maybe, maybe then you could play a simple melody. There's a fabulous documentary about there.

[Jason]

Yes.

[Skip Simmons]

Out there that I've seen that's pretty amazing. You can see that lady who fell in love with the inventor and she's playing it and she could play, like, anything, but Claire was something.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip Simmons]

Yeah, that takes some practice. All right, well, we did it.

[Jason]

We did it.

[Skip Simmons]

And thanks to everyone, and happy Thanksgiving. Yeah, and I'm thankful for Jason and the Brett board journal crew that made this thing. It would have just been me mumbling to a few friends if it wasn't for you. You so thankful for that. And we'll be back sometime between before Christmas, right?

[Jason]

Oh, yeah. We got one or two more before the end of the year. Thanks, Skip.

[Skip Simmons]

Thanks, everyone.