Ep. 145: "I Have a Swimming Pool"

Summary

Episode 145: "I Have a Swimming Pool" – The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons

Released on March 15, 2025 by The Fretboard Journal

In this engaging episode of "The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons," host Skip Simmons dives deep into the intricacies of vintage tube amp repair, restoration, and collecting. Despite starting without a special guest, Skip and co-host Jason deliver a wealth of technical insights, listener interactions, and personal anecdotes that resonate with guitar enthusiasts and amp aficionados alike.

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Technical Deep Dive: Pedal and Amp Modifications

Vintage MTI Pedal Exploration

Skip begins by discussing a rare pedal from the early '80s produced by MTI (Music Technology International), a company briefly owning Ampeg. This unique stomp box features a 12x7 tube and a 6 AQ5 power tube, driving a miniature speaker. However, Skip critiques its sound quality despite its visually appealing design.

Skip [00:32]: "It's like a little champ in there... It's just like a speaker driven line out setup on a little tiny amp inside a little pedal."

Determined to enhance its functionality, Skip initially gutted the pedal, adding a two-preamp, two-channel setup named the "Rock Dull." Later, he opted for a simpler approach by repurposing the pedal into a pure preamp, which yielded excellent sound quality after upgrading its components.

Reverb Unit Innovation

Transitioning to reverb units, Skip shares his project involving a vintage Premiere 90 reverb circuit. Despite their outdated and problematic design, he appreciates their unique sound. To make it studio-friendly, Skip incorporated balanced XLR inputs and outputs, a phantom power switch, and mounted a compact spring tank, resulting in a vibrant and functional reverb unit.

Skip [08:27]: "It's so compact and it works great. It was so fun to turn it on. It worked perfect right off the bat."

Capacitor Conundrums

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the challenges of sourcing and replacing capacitors in vintage amps. Skip emphasizes the importance of using high-quality, non-leaky capacitors to maintain the amp's integrity and sound. He advises against unnecessary part replacements, advocating for preserving original components to retain the amp's classic tone.

Skip [25:45]: "We don't want to change the sound of something old if we don't have to."

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Listener Interaction: Questions and Solutions

Brian's Joyo American Sound Pedal

Listener Brian comments on the Joyo American Sound pedal, noting its affordability and effectiveness in emulating classic distortion tones.

Brian's Comment [26:45]: "It can knock down the volume of your Princeton... blast audiences with filthy distortion and beautiful feedback, all for $30."

Andy’s Multimeter Hack

Andy from Chicago proposes adding a resistor in series with a transformer primary to improve multimeter readings of low DC resistances.

Andy [28:39]: "Have you guys ever tried adding a resistor of known measured value in series with the transformer primary to bump the total resistance up into the next range of your fluke."

Skip appreciates the suggestion, acknowledging its practicality and expressing interest in trying it out.

Greg’s Tube Socket Cleaning Tips

Greg shares his method for cleaning tube sockets using a carburetor cleaning kit, which proved effective in reviving his vintage amp.

Greg [31:48]: "A carburetor cleaning kit with a small wire brush set perfect for octal sockets and a tiny little wound wire set for the nine pin sockets."

Joe’s Fuzz Tone Solution

Joe reports back on his successful fix for a ticking hum issue by using a double single TRS cable, alongside his journey in building and modifying amps.

Joe [45:25]: "I was able to get some cable from Mojo Tone... my ticking problems went away."

Eric’s Tube Swap Experience

Yearn Eric from Norway describes how swapping old preamp tubes reduced hum in his Vibrochamp from 1965, highlighting the difference between vintage and modern tubes.

Eric [55:36]: "Much less hum for real... is this a thing?"

Skip confirms that using older preamp tubes can indeed resolve noise issues, emphasizing the importance of testing tubes for noise.

Skip [57:57]: "It's a thing that some preamp tubes are noisy. And again, just make sure you mark it."

Andrew’s Falcon Amp Restoration

Andrew discusses his restoration of a Crestline Falcon amp, including modifications and challenges faced during the process.

Andrew [61:13]: "...he'd never seen one and but they had rumors that models produced after 1965 had black alligator tolex and silver grill cloth..."

Skip provides insights into the complexities of Falcon amp circuits and advises caution when modifying such intricate systems.

Skip [68:39]: "There's tons of variations. And remember, these amps sound terrible when they work perfectly."

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Car Restoration: The 1961 Comet Project

Beyond amps, Skip shares his enthusiasm for restoring a vintage 1961 Comet. He details the modifications, including upgrading to a larger six-cylinder engine and automatic transmission, aiming for enhanced performance while maintaining the car's classic aesthetics.

Skip [34:12]: "It's going to cruise around at a lot more California speeds... a head turner."

His work on the Comet is a testament to his dedication to vintage restoration, blending functionality with nostalgic charm.

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Recommendations: TV Shows and Books

TV Show Highlight: "Staff Lets Flats"

During light-hearted banter, Jason recommends the British comedy series "Staff Lets Flats," praising its humor and relatable characters.

Jason [75:00]: "It's called Staff. The guy's name is Stethopoulos because he's Greek... It's just so funny and hilarious."

Book Suggestion: "Cold Glitter the Untold Story of Canadian Glam"

Jason also introduces "Cold Glitter the Untold Story of Canadian Glam" by Robert Dayton, a comprehensive look into Canada's niche glam music scene of the '70s and '80s.

Jason [71:16]: "...a book recommendation. Robert Dayton... it's the nerdiest thing in the world, but it also kind of reads like an SCTV skit."

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Other Discussions: Record Stores and Equipment

Delta Breeze Record Store

Skip recommends Delta Breeze, a Sacramento-based record store known for its vintage tube hi-fi gear, praising the expertise of its elderly repair guru.

Skip [78:23]: "There's this little record store in Sacramento that also has vintage tube hi Fi gear. Delta Breeze. Yes. And I can definitely recommend it."

Ampeg Amp Maintenance

The duo delves into troubleshooting common Ampeg amp issues, offering practical advice on cleaning pots, tube sockets, and reverb connectors to mitigate noise and enhance performance.

Skip [42:51]: "Clean the tube sockets, clean the pots, and then of course, clean the little reverb connectors where they plug into the tank."

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Personal Anecdotes and Future Plans

Car and Amp Projects

Skip enthusiastically shares his ongoing projects, including plans to create a Harvard-like reverb unit and hints at future tutorials on transforming tube amps into fuzz tones without heavy modifications.

Skip [78:40]: "Next podcast, I might tell you how to make something in about a half an hour that would turn your little tube amp into a fuzz tone."

Appetizer Recipe Interlude

In a delightful departure from technical content, Joe shares a recipe for "Kahlua Brie with Pecans," adding a touch of camaraderie and lightness to the episode.

Joe [49:35]: "It's a Kahlua Brie with pecans... it will be gone very quickly, I promise you."

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Closing Thoughts

Episode 145 of "The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons" is a treasure trove of knowledge and community interaction. Skip and Jason's blend of technical expertise, listener engagement, and personal stories create a compelling narrative that not only educates but also builds a sense of camaraderie among vintage amp enthusiasts.

Whether you're a seasoned collector or a newcomer to the world of tube amps, this episode offers valuable insights and practical advice to enhance your understanding and enjoyment of vintage guitar equipment.

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For more episodes and updates, visit The Fretboard Journal and join the conversation with fellow guitar and amp enthusiasts.

Transcript

[Jason]

Good morning. How are you?

[Skip]

Fine. You're there. I'm here.

[Jason]

Do we have a special guest today?

[Skip]

No, I'm trying not to feel depressed. And no one likes us because we couldn't get a special guest. But in tava, traditional form, we waited till the last second.

[Jason]

We did. And our friends at two Rock, including Bill Kernard, do want to be on the show. They just had some travel or something going on, so.

[Skip]

Well, people are always often amazed when I say no, we don't talk. You know, they think we're like getting together in the office or something. You know, I'm like sketching out ideas. Saturday Night Live or something. No, we don't do that. And we'd have to make a lot more money off of this thing if we did do it. So you'll have to forgive. Listeners will have to forgive the fact that we kind of do it like. Science project is due tomorrow and it's 9:00 at night. We better get cracking.

[Jason]

Okay. It's all right.

[Skip]

Yeah.

[Jason]

Questions keep coming.

[Skip]

Well, that's good. And I wanted John Vanderslice, but he was too busy recording.

[Jason]

Oh, good.

[Skip]

To be bothered with us. And I made some stuff for him recently.

[Jason]

Do you want to save that for if he ever does come on the show, or do you want to describe what you've been working on?

[Skip]

No. Okay, we'll go technical right off the bat.

[Jason]

Yeah, Love it.

[Skip]

I mentioned this thing before. There was a pedal made in the early 80s. Company was called MTI, like music technology International or something like that. And this was a company from Japan that for a while owned Ampeg. And they made MTI era Ampeg svt's which were big tube bass amps. And they were really high quality, even though they weren't made in New Jersey. But I'm sure it must have been the great Kevin from Ohio. Years and years and years ago, he found this thing which is a stomp box. It has a little button that you're supposed to step on and it has volume, treble, bass, master volume. But it's a little tube thing and it has a little cage over it. And they look really cool in a. In a way, but the sound of them isn't so cool. And the way they work, though, is super up to speed. Groovy. It actually has a little power to. It's. So it has a 12x7, then it goes to a little power tube 6 AQ5. So it's actually just like a little champ in there. Goes to an output transformer, goes to this Little tiny speaker about an inch inch across that's doesn't have a cone. It's all like, the back of it's all metal. And you can see the little magnets, obviously a speaker, but it's just a voice coil that doesn't really make any noise. And then they take signal off of that. And that's the output of the pedal that you're supposed to put into your amp. It's like speaker. It's like the speaker driven line out setup on a little tiny amp inside a little pedal. And you know how I know they don't sound good? It's because no one would give me anything for it.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

Right. The first one I had, I ended up gutting and building a crazy two preamp, two channel the Rock Dull. Yeah, don't patent that name. That was Kevin. So it had a octal Preamp and an EF86 preamp in the same little box. But I got another one. I forget where I got it. And I've been looking at it, looking at it, trying to figure out the coolest thing to do with it because the enclosure is really neat. And finally it occurred to me to look at the circuit and all it was was a Fender preamp. Just like, like half of that alembic preamp I talked about a while back that I saw. It's just a Fender preamp with the same value pots and capacitors and everything that went to that 6 AQ5 power tube. So rather than gut it and build a whole different thing in it, I just disconnected the power tube part of it completely and just used it the way it was as just as a preamp. And it worked great. It sounded great. And so then I went crazy and I had to upgrade everything because all the parts were kind of junky and the jacks were plastic and blah, blah, blah. But I ended up with a really nice quarter inch in and out tube preamp with volume treble bass and a master volume. And if you put it in front of a Fender, it'll overdrive it pretty good. And you could record with it, do all sorts of cool stuff with it. It came out great. Well, eventually I thought I'd be saving a bunch of time by not just gutting it and building something from scratch in there. But I probably spent just as much time as I would have and it sounded pretty cool. And then I had looked in. I've been looking in that garnet book, all y'all. Maybe it's garnet, but I don't know how we say Garnet and there's. There's some circuits in there that actually use diodes to create fuzz. And I, I had an extra little switch on this little thing that was. I wasn't sure what it actually did in the original incarnation. But you know me, if there's a switch, I gotta find something for it to do. So when you flip it up, it sounds like spirit in the sky. Like it's just like this square wave, like, like serious fuzz. Not overdriven tube stuff at all, you know, just like. Like a fuzz face kind of. And it's not ultra controllable, but it was easy and just took up one little switch. And so that's something I made for Vander Slice. And I think I saw an email that I haven't had a chance to read yet that says that works good or they like it. So that's cool.

[Jason]

Does John request, like at this point we're talking 20, 25. Is he still asking for boxes and preamps and stuff that don't exist?

[Skip]

He just. Well, I've made a lot of little one off things like this for him, for the studios, but he doesn't. He first he moved to LA and he didn't want to take all that stuff, you know, to him it should be part of the studio. So when he's off on his own, he doesn't have all as many of those crazy little things that he used to have. I think he still has a couple. He has the microphone preamps that I built so many of the RP2s. He has one of those. I know, but he just said, hey, I want some more. Well, he'd always tell me, whatever you want to make, I'll try it out and basically I'll buy it. And there's only been a couple things over the years that I've built that didn't work out. But he wasn't shy about it. He just said, nah, this doesn't really do what we want, or no, this doesn't sound tube enough or whatever. But most of the time he likes it. And for a dude like that, you just try to take it out for people, right? I know that thing's going to be on a lot of recordings. Of course it will. And the other thing I made for him is even more far out than that, by far. But the way I solved what to do with that crazy little thing, you know, a lot of you guys and gals are finding little things that have tubes in them or things that look cool, an antique radio, something like that. And building something useful into it. Really fun and enjoyable. And most of the time you just have to strip that thing down to a shell and basically build whatever you want inside of it. But sometimes you can use what's inside of it. And I do dig. I dig that.

[Jason]

Okay, Right.

[Skip]

And make something cool out of it. That little preamp came out great. The other thing is a reverb unit. Yes, I know. It took forever. I should chart.

[Jason]

What is. What is it? What makes your reverb unit different from the countless other reverb units.

[Skip]

I used a commercial circuit, okay. That you could go buy one. And they're really budget crappy, problematic, but cool sounding things called a Premiere 90. Premiere 90. They look really antique, even though they're a lot of them are from the 70s. We've discussed premiere amps. Please don't buy any. I mean, they look really cool and jazz age and all, but, man, you open them up, it's like, what the hell? Just super chintzy. So years ago at the Drawbridge, I restored one of those things. And I just love the sound of it. I thought it sounded really cool. It's not as useful as the Fender outboard reverb. It doesn't have as much controls, basically, and it adds a certain amount of gain that just makes an amp sound cool. It sounds very funky and bluesy, like you're playing an old Supro amp or Falcon or something like that. So I sat there one day, it was rare for me, and I drew a schematic of it. And then a long time ago, Vander Slice said, reverb. Yeah. Remember, these guys have all the good stuff already. You know, they don't like. When I started building mic preamps for him, he said, can you put a tone control on it? And I went, what? Because I thought everything had to be all flat and ultra high fidelity and blah, blah, blah. And he says, dude, I've got that. I want something that sounds different. And of course they have all sorts of groovy, different digital reverbs which would, you know, give you any kind of reverb you could ever imagine, I'm sure. But what he's hoping for or hope, I think he's going to get it too, is something that just sounds like, what the hell? Completely different. And that's what I try to do for him. This is like. It's like he's here now. All we're doing is talking about him. I know that dude takes a piece of gear and he sees what it'll do. He doesn't See if it will do what he had in mind necessarily. You know, he just. In other words, he could make something good out of something bad. You know, the action on this guitar is really low and it's buzzy. Well, if I lower it a little bit more, I've got this crazy sitar sound, you know. Roll the tape. Right. He can just utilize the. A flaw. So this reverb, these reverb units, they just sound like ultra swampy. They don't sound high fidelity in, you know, really, they sound like you're sort of plugging into just a really funky old amp in a giant cavernous room. Right, sure. So in order to be useful for him though, it can't be quarter inch in and out, something like that. It has to be all balanced, you know. XLRs, right? You guys know what I'm talking about. Has to be low impedance in and out. And to do that with an old, with old tube stuff, you need transformers. So you have a microphone transformer on the input side and you have an output transformer on the output side. So I made this thing with quarter inch in and out, XLR in and out, all balanced UTC transformers and stuff like that. And Phantom power switchable. That's all built inside the. Inside the preamp. And it's really small and it uses a short tank, which there's big long 11 inch spring tanks and then there's a shorter length that's like seven inches. And they make the short ones in all styles. And I like them. They sound really good. Even the new ones sound really good. And I basically used an old one on this. And I just mounted the tank on the back of this little box with the cage. So it's ultra compact and it works great. It was so fun to turn it on. It worked perfect right off the bat. Except one pot I wired up backwards. I had to switch it. But other than that it just worked exactly like I was hoping for. And it's very colorful sounding.

[Jason]

Right.

[Skip]

And I think he's going to trip out when he. When he hears it.

[Jason]

I love it.

[Skip]

Yeah. Of course, I didn't do anything else for eight days but the tiny amps and these two things. So now I'm super backed up on the regular fenders and whatnot.

[Jason]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Skip]

And I haven't done anything from him for him for years. Really?

[Jason]

Yeah. And in exchange for that giant tiny telephone ad, we just need a free place to stay when he moves to Europe. Right.

[Skip]

I think like even Post World War II, I think it's easier to be A non millionaire artist. My son said, you better be making 400 grand a year to even think about living in Los Angeles, you know, really, as far as, you know, housing and stuff like that. And that's pretty tough for a painter or a poet or a artist or a guy that runs a recording studio. Right. It's tough and I could see that. And so what are you going to do? Go to North Dakota where you can rent a house for 600 bucks? You know, you can with the Internet, but I think he wants to ride his bike down to the bakery at 9am and pick up some, some fresh bread. You know, just. He's pretty urban, you know.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

And I, I think he's, look, I think he's digging something like that. I don't know if it's all just. I don't really think it's super political. I think it's more just like an opportunity. And he probably has a soft spot to land. Knowing him, you know, it might have cooked up like, oh, well, this is my best friend. So and so. Lives in this little tiny town and found me this place, you know, or whatever, some, some facilitators because he has friends all over the world.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

If we ever went somewhere odd, hopefully there'd be a fretboard journal listener within 100 miles who'd tell us where to go to eat or can we get a tail?

[Jason]

The Tava Travel Guide.

[Skip]

You just have big map with the pin stuck in it, you know? Right.

[Jason]

I would love that.

[Skip]

Yeah. People used to collect the call letters from their ham radio contacts. Right. So if you had a ham radio, you contacted some guy in New guinea, he would send you this little QSL card that shows where he lives and what he transmits on and you pin it up in your little hamshack. You know, Even when you're 16 years old, people were doing that back in the old days, and you'd have a whole bunch of them to show your contacts all over the world, swinging.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

All right. That was a quite a story. I guess we better get to work. Let's talk about our sponsors.

[Jason]

Okay. Well, we talk about them every week we do this show, but Barry at Gres Guitars is crushing it if you are not following. Barry, this Mendocino, his sort of like Les Paul Jr. Shapeish thing, it kind of looks like a Guild Aristocrat 2. It's just like a classic 50s 60s guitar shape, but it's all berries. He just did one in transparent yellow. That was beautiful. With two P90s, he could do a one pickup configuration. He can do the stick string bass thing. He does it all. Everybody should be following Barry at Grez Guitars. There's a Grez coming to the fretboard journal soon. So if anyone comes through Seattle and wants to try one out, I guess this can be the remote Grez showroom. I'll also be posting a video. I love these guitars.

[Skip]

Will you be able to sell it?

[Jason]

I mean, I want to sell it. I want to keep it.

[Skip]

No, when you're buying. Okay, so let's, let's, let's back it up. Isn't the story really that Gres is cool and Jason is buying one?

[Jason]

That's basically the story. That is the story. Oh, I know. But I'll let people play it.

[Skip]

You got, yeah, you got a while to catch up with the great Mojo Larry from Lake County, California who gigs thousands and thousands of times over the years. He's on his fourth. He. I talked to him the other day and he said he's ordered his fourth gr. Wow, he's single. Yeah, but that's, but that stuff is good. Really good. And I say from a purely financial point of view, like people asking me if they should buy this amp or the other amp either, they're never going to go down in value much. When we had that shop worn one at the guitar show, supposedly no one could find any flaws on it. When we had one that was cheaper, I had people fighting over that thing. You're just not going to see them on ebay for a third of what you just paid for it. It's not going to happen. And you know, I love value like that. That's big. Part of my amp recommendation is now what's it worth after you just put it in your car if you wanted to sell it a lot less or what? You know. Okay, sponsors continue.

[Jason]

Okay, our friends at Amplified Parts continue to be your one stop shop for all amp related things that you might ever need. They also have a ton of guitar parts. They've got a sale on their Bixby vibratos right now. They've got pedal kits. If you order from them, please type in heard about you on Tava or something. Thanking them for their continued sponsorship of this podcast. And then last but not least, our friends at Emerald City Guitars here in Seattle, Washington. Come to the Seattle, play the Gres here and we'll go over to Emerald City Guitars and you will be blown away by their amp selection. Pretty much every. I mean there's a lot of amps there that we've never even talked about. But it's just a fun place.

[Skip]

Pretty much all the cool stuff is going to be at that place.

[Jason]

You know, bunch of tweeds, voxes, an actual dumble. And you can play one of those like, what are they called? Amplified Nation Dumbles. So you could compare a real dumble to a clone dumble and old Marshalls and fenders and everything in between. And they have a bunch of car amps too. So.

[Skip]

Yeah, someone I know successfully and enjoyed building a reverb unit kit from amplified parts.

[Jason]

Oh, okay.

[Skip]

Yeah. So if you want to make your own tube reverb thingamajig might be a way, especially for somebody who's just getting into it and doesn't already have a mountain of old junk parts and stuff.

[Jason]

I love it. What are you working on?

[Skip]

Skip those two things. We just spent so much time talking about a couple of tweed fenders Deluxe and Pro, real early 50, 51. And more and more these days getting stuff like that. All the capacitors have already been replaced, you know, poorly or fine or several times. But when I get something like that lately, I figure I should just make this as cool as I possibly can, you know, because who else is? I mean, I have. I don't have. We don't have a wrecking yard. We can't go out and get old capacitors off a 1950 Tweed Pro that's out in the yard. And somehow they're good. It isn't like that. We have to optimize it. And the old red paper Astrons, they don't work. And yes, you could get the. Some of the cool replica capacitors, like the groovy Jupiter stuff. But some people want something actually old. And so I've done a lot of tweets lately where I had to replace all the capacitors that had already been replaced. I couldn't use what they actually had because it doesn't exist. And if it did, they'd all be bad too. So trying to find vintage parts that are still going to work and be reliable and be able to look under the hood there and not just have it be all yellow and blue and orange, you know, have it just be like old looking. And most customers are down with that. It's not that expensive. On tweet amps, you might spend an extra hundred dollars getting ten really cool old capacitors say, but it's still not very expensive. It just goes against my cheapskate philosophy I've had from the very beginning, which is don't change it if you don't have To. And so this tweet, I serviced it and got it going, and I didn't change all the orange drops that were in it, you know, And I called the guy and I said, well, you know, you could just run it like this. But no, he wanted me to basically do everything I could to make it as cool as I could. And since it's only going to be maybe 300 bucks or something, they're fine with it. And by the way, what was really wrong with it, what was really wrong with that is this. And I've mentioned this a bunch of times. There's two wires that go out of the output transformer of any amp that go to the speaker. Well, it's not quite that simple. On a fender from this period, one of the wires does go to the speaker jack, but the other one is soldered to the side of the output transformer frame, just like right there. Soldered on the actual metal of the output transformer. That's the ground for your speaker. So the output transformer is mounted to the chassis with sheet metal screws, which are loose. Loose. So you can just move the transformer back and forth. Then the speaker jack doesn't have a ground wire. Its ground connection is the fact that it's bolted to the chassis. So there's this torturous circuit between two mechanical connections for one of your speaker leads. Well, they were both just like. You could just turn them with your. You can move them with your fingers. So instead of two wires going to your speaker, you got one wire going to your speaker, but the other one is just going who knows where with what kind of resistance in it. And you could tip the amp over and it would probably change the tone because the output transformer was so loose that that little mechanical connection there was being broken. Remember on fenders, if he didn't have to put a wire for a ground, he wouldn't. But it depends on the mechanical connection of the parts. And that's why that thing didn't work. Not. Didn't need all those orange drops, which is something I see all the time. Don't start replacing parts until you. You got a flat tire there, dude. Don't put a new engine in it and then complain because the car still doesn't go. Yeah, very good. So. So that's what's. That's what's on the bench. I use a lot of old capacitors that I know don't leak Cornell Dupliers. I used a lot of the oil capacitors that were the really high grade military Ones that you can find. They weren't used in any old guitar amps in general, but they look old and they sound right and they don't leak D.C. and they hold up and they're cool. So most of the time on tweeds these days, I just figure make it as cool as I can. They're not going to be any more of these. Use the. Use the best parts I can find. Fix it up. Hope the guy who owns it appreciates it, which he will.

[Jason]

Yeah. Do you just have a pile of orange drops like a sculpture in the middle of your workshop?

[Skip]

I have a swimming pool. No, I probably do have a lot. If they're old enough, they're good. I mean, they were used in lots of killer stuff. Dumbles. Dumbles. So certain people that we know who are really in the know. Bill Kernard is always up for some of the really early style Sprague orange drops. They say sprague right on them. But you got to remember that they haven't been that since the 70s.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Then, you know, then they changed company, then they changed name, then they changed factory, then they changed. I mean, even the capacitors I do use that are offshore. Illinois capacitor. Been a while since they've been in Illinois. Right. And they go from country to country to country, you know, for being manufactured. So it's not the same exact thing. When you say orange drop, you could mean a high quality capacitor that they make today. That's just fine. Or you could be talking about something from 1970 and they aren't really the same thing. And the old ones are cool. My beef is that in my world of Fender amps, you get too many of them in there, it just changes the sound of the amp. And no one wants that. So I wouldn't change them on an amp that came with them. There's gibsons from the 60s that use them and they're fine. And it's just trying to keep just. We just don't want to change the sound of something old if we don't have to.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

In life sense.

[C]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Most of the time.

[Jason]

Most of the time, yeah. Well, do you want to field some questions? Comments?

[Skip]

I'm down. I'm down.

[Jason]

All right, folks, be a part of the show. Send us an email or record a voice memo on your smartphone and hit send. And send either of those things to podcastretboardjournal.com if you send in a question about your amp, I'd love it if you included a photo of said amp or a photo of I don't know what your view of your workbench or whatever. Just so we have something to share on the Tava Instagram page, this first question is really more of a comment. It's from listener Brian, who just listened to our most recent show, Jason and Skip. I was listening to the latest podcast on my daily run and was gob smacked to hear a reference to the Joyo American sound pedal. Fun fact, I understand it to be a very close to the original San Zamp pedal classic model. So close, in fact, it is generally seen as a cheaper shortcut to the guitar tones of Kurt Cobain during his later career. I used it for my Nirvana cover shows to this effect. And then he included a YouTube link which I'll try to share at some point. Not only can it knock down the volume of your Princeton or whatever, it can blast audiences with filthy distortion and beautiful feedback, all for $30. What a world. That's from Brian.

[Skip]

Wow. Yeah, I don't know anything about that stuff though, really, but $30? I love that. Yeah, I like junk. If it works, you know, there's nothing wrong with cheap junk as long as you know that's what it is. Oh, beautiful.

[Jason]

Another Brian. Not the same. Brian has offered up a whole bunch of vintage amps and converted PAs for the 2025 fretboard summit. And so I think we're going to have to have another vintage amp room at the. At the Fretboard Summit this year. So thank you, Brian. I will share your photos because you did send me photos, but it looks like a great collection.

[Skip]

Well, the more cool stuff there, the better. When the great Kevin brought a bunch of stuff that big box tweed deluxe PA heads that he modified maybe. Right? I'm not going to say just because you fixed up the PA head means it's going to sound really awesome. But it's cool that people. If people get a chance to show off a little of their stuff and chit chat with like minded.

[Jason]

Yeah, no takers on my pedal room that I talked about in our last episode. So crafty people. I know people are usually behind on the show a little bit. Okay, this first voice memo comes from our friend Andy. Let's see if it'll actually play.

[C]

Hi, Skip and Jason. Andy here coming in from Chicago. I was just listening to episode 144 in which Skip and Larry scratch their heads over why their fluke multimeters won't read DC resistance of certain output transformer primaries. Oh, I wanted to ask, in this situation, have you guys ever tried adding a Resistor of known measured value in series with the transformer primary to bump the total resistance up into the next range of your fluke. I've done this with my inexpensive multimeter, which starts to act a little flaky when measuring very low DC resistances. I'm not sure if that hack applies to a nice tool like a fluke meter, but it's easy enough to try. Cheers. Keep up the good work, guys.

[Skip]

That's some good stuff. Although I thought we were going to get completely schooled by somebody that really knew their electronics about how you can consistently measure the DC resistance of coils. Right. And it may be that adding resistance and blah blah, blah. I mean, my knowledge of test equipment is razor thin compared to what a smart electronics dude would know. Problem is, smart electronics dude might tell you this piece of fender is a piece of junk. We have to change all this stuff and make it a lot better. And that's when you go, wait a. Hold on, electronics dude. But if an electronics guy can tell me this is how you can solve this problem because they know Ohm's law and all the good real electronic stuff, then I say high five and a good old fashioned heath kit or Iko vacuum tube volt meter, which are still all over the place for I don't know, maybe 50 bucks at the most. By the way, sometimes they have a really nice 12ax7 in those, like an expensive one. But if you have a vacuum tube volt meter and you fix it up, they don't do that. They pretty much read all the time. And the resistance tweak, I think putting a resistance across the coil. Our, our flukes, I have to try that. Our flukes are self ranging. His fl. His meter that he was talking about has a place where you click it for this range, click it for that range, click as far as. Oh. Whereas the fancy ones, you don't have to do that. You just put it on ohms. So when it's cycling and not giving us a true reading, it's not going between ranges, it's just attempting to read that resistance. And because it's a coil of wire where all kind of crazy Tesla stuff goes on. Not that Tesla things happen and it's faking out the meters and it doesn't do it on all, but it does it on some. So. But I'm glad we had a response on that and maybe if some really smart dude Kernard could probably tell us. Yeah, we might not understand it, but we'll look into that a little more. Next.

[Jason]

Okay, Greg, in Indianapolis writes. Came across a cool tool that others may find useful. Thought I'd take a shot at a 1958 filmo sound 385. Got it and ramped it up to voltage with a little variac from the office. It worked, but the output was very quiet. Upon inspection. All the tube legs were dirty. What would skip do? Let's clean the sockets. Hmm. What to use to clean the sockets, especially the tiny sockets on the 12 AX7s. A little searching and voila. A carburetor cleaning kit with a small wire brush set perfect for octal sockets and a tiny little wound wire set for the nine pin sockets. Need to be careful and find just the right size that will fit politely into the socket. And use a little Deoxit cleaner. Guess what? She fired right up. 80 year old wax caps and all. I realized later a wound guitar string around 0.040 might have done a pretty good job too. Several versions are available on Amazon Search Carburetor cleaning kit. My next step is to cut the film projector portion of the circuit and crank her up. Hope this helps someone else. Always enjoying the show. Greg in Indianapolis.

[Skip]

Good knowledge, Greg. The thing you should do next is one, one at a time, replace all those waxy capacitors. Okay? That's what you should do next. And there can be more than one truth. I don't do any of that stuff he said. But it's still a great idea. And I. I remember when Angela sold little tiny brushes that were made to clean octal sockets. And it's. It's been around in audio. But the fact that he figured out that the little tiny jets and ports or whatever you'd call it in carburetors are really tiny little things and that they make little tools to clean that out. I say right on. I say excellent. That'd be really good tool if you were resurrecting some new old stock sockets that you found that had been in less than desirable storage conditions like by the ocean. Because you're going to have to get a lot of corrosion off of them. So I say thumbs up. I might even take. I might even take a look into that. I never thought of the carburetor deal. So yeah, high five overall.

[Jason]

Get those while people are still cleaning carburetors.

[Skip]

That's correct.

[Jason]

Yeah. Hey. Oh, that's perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Segue Mark Subject line. Skips car Restoration. Haven't heard about Skips Car Restoration in a while. All are things still on track?

[Skip]

You just can't bug people. It's Gonna happen when it happens. I. I thought it was gonna be last summer, but I don't know. I'm just waiting. Patience is its own reward. And besides, if the Comet. 1961 Comet had a little tiny six cylinder, three on the tree, 13 inch wheels and tires. But now it has 14 inch and a bigger six and an automatic from a mustang installed in it. So it's going to cruise around at a lot more California speeds. Not just 45 miles an hour, But I'll have to clean the garage, have a place to park it. So I'm trying to keep positive. Don't have to clean the garage at least. But this could be the summer of the comet.

[Jason]

I love it. It's exciting.

[Skip]

It's a head turner. You don't see very many. I mean, you just never see them. They're really rare.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Weird body style, big fins. Like a little fancy falcon kind of thing.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

We'll drive it up to your house.

[Jason]

Oh, I'd love.

[Skip]

I would. I would too. Because something like that, it's just. I mean, people have old cars like that, they just go, huh? What could ever happen to it? You know, that couldn't be fixed. You know, it is. They are kind of like fenders in that regard. You could say, well, that old piece of junk, it can't be very reliable. Well, really, some of that old stuff is. You know, my tractor from the 1950, I think it starts right up after sitting for, you know, six months. Gonna be doing that pretty soon we have a little spring rep weather here. And it is getting green and the grass is starting to grow pretty tall. And people are gonna have to wait on their amps Because I'm out on the mower that I had to go to Oregon to get.

[Jason]

Yes. Tax free.

[Skip]

Had to throw that in there. Oh, I've been reading the swamp about the everglades, and it's pretty amazing. It's pretty dry. Swamp is a bit dry.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

Like in the sound.

[Jason]

Yes. Yeah, exactly.

[Skip]

I mean, I need some kind of like a woohoo thing anyway. If you lived there, it would really, really be interesting if it was right there. You know, like, I could see. Reading more closely, A history of like the central valley, which is where I live, but the indians. And it was just this huge swamp and people since the 1800s trying to tame it by building dams and dikes and dredging and all the. And of course, almost everything they did was a disaster. Right. And of course there were people. Of course it was completely inhospitable. I mean, people would Go down there to survey, and seven days later, they barely survived. They're crawling out covered with mosquitoes and snakes and. But there were people there who'd lived there for bajillion years. Just like Australia, Right, sure. Those Euros, they were, they were just dying off. Whereas these really supposedly crude and simplistic cultures had at least figured out how to stay alive in a pretty horrifying environment. Right. So. And it was, it was just money grabbing from the beginning. You had tycoons and swindlers and people promising everything, and it still kind of goes on today. So if you're from Florida, if you're interested in stuff like that, Swamp is. It's pretty darned interesting.

[Jason]

I love it. That was recommended of episode or two ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Skip]

I think somebody recommended it to me and then I went out and got it.

[Jason]

Yeah, you're quick to, to get all the stuff that is mentioned on this show. It's great.

[Skip]

Sometimes. Sometimes I don't, but sometimes I do. And my better half is capable of doing that easily, whereas I would have had to, you know, drive to a bookstore and see if they have it, for instance. Right.

[Jason]

Yeah, I, I know she used to run AV for you, but does she actually listen to the show?

[Skip]

Hell no.

[Jason]

Okay, good. I was gonna, I was worried.

[Skip]

I mean, unless she was, like, working on something in the same room.

[Jason]

Yeah, no. Okay.

[Skip]

Oh, yes. We all gather around the fire on Sunday evenings and we listen to the last podcast and we say, wow, I really sound like an idiot when I did that. Or. No, we talked about how we don't prep and we don't look back. Hopefully you don't have to spend much time editing or messing with it either, because we don't, we don't, we don't want to spend any more time than we already do unless someone's going to pay us a lot more.

[Jason]

You know how sometimes you hear about something when you're like a teenager and it's totally trivial, but it just stays in your brain forever? I, I once, I mean, I must have been 20 years old or younger, I was watching some documentary on Benny Hill and they were talking about how he had, like, an early version of a VHS whatever player and he would just watch to, like, scrutinize his own skits and stuff. And sometimes when I'm listening back to my intros to podcasts to make sure that I've given our sponsors credit well enough and everything, I think about Benny Hill.

[Skip]

So we'll overlook the weirdness of watching a documentary about Benny Hill. I mean, watching Benny Hill is one thing, but a documentary, that's. I know, that's pretty obscure. One of the things often mentioned in the Typewriter Revolution book from writers is that there's no delete. So you're typing on the computer, you tie and you slap. It's all gone. If you type it, you can just leave it. You just leave it there and move on. Maybe it is the germ of something good, right? And not just something that should be instantly deleted. So what are you gonna do?

[Jason]

That's a Mitch Hedberg, one of Mitch Hedberg's classic jokes. Do you know who Mitch Hedberg is or what?

[Skip]

But let's hear the joke.

[Jason]

Mitch Hedberg was basically the equivalent of the modern day Henny Youngman. He had these incredible one liner jokes. He unfortun also had a really bad heroin habit. I saw him once and he's no longer with us. But he had a joke about how he was typing a letter to his father and it said Dear Dad. And then he wanted to type I really. But instead he typed rarely. But he didn't want to correct it, so he said, dear Dad, I rarely drive steamboats. You don't know a lot about me. And then he kept Right, it's just had to keep the sentence intact without corrections.

[Skip]

Had to keep it intact. Yes, indeed.

[Jason]

So, Nathan, I don't know why we're rambling about Benny Hill and Mitch Hedberg, but apparently I'm a little loopy on this Friday. Sometimes we get questions that are. They've probably been addressed before, but it just shows that our listeners, you know, they're at all levels.

[Skip]

Nathan, the same questions every day?

[Jason]

Yeah. Nathan and Brooklyn. Two questions on a 65ampeg reverber rocket. It's. It crackles like crazy when I turn it on, but it goes away once it's warmed up. I assumed it's just a tube sputtering to life as it warms up, but. Any other thoughts on what's going on? Any cause for concern? 2. It's pretty hissy in general, doesn't usually bother me, but I notice that if I turn the tremolo intensity all the way down, the hiss goes away. What gives?

[Skip]

Ampegs like that still represent if, if you got served, if you, if they're serviced, you know, represent a great deal. They're usually not that expensive. I. I still see that stuff at a thousand and less and they sound fantastic when they're working. How many people in class have their hands up saying, dude, clean the pots.

[Jason]

Clean the tube sockets first get a carburetor kit.

[Skip]

I don't use that, but that's a. That's a. That's a worthwhile thing. I say also remember, tube amp is on. Wiggle those little tubes around in their sockets. They're not that hot. Get over it. Take the metal covers over it off of them if they have those. But you're going to find one or two or five that every time you touch it, the amp makes noise. It's not the tube. It's not the amp. Clean the tube sockets. I also say you should clean the pots on that old of an ampeg. However, unless you're pretty handy, taking an amp. Ampeg amp chassis out can be challenging and make you just all the more glad that God gave us Leo Fender. Because they didn't really make it easy to do. Some of them have these weird rubber shock mounting things that are always broken. A lot of them have a tin plate underneath the top that's like a shield, but it gets warped and bent when you're trying to pull the amp out. It catches on the chassis and it won't come out. You've got to have like a really long pallet knife to get in there and manipulate this plate out of the way. They can be challenging. But clean the tube sockets, clean the pots, and then of course, clean the little reverb connectors where they plug into the tank. Since it's a crappy ampeg. They don't plug into the amp, they're hardwired in the amp. But they do plug into the tank and they have to be clean and they have to be squeezed tight so they grip on those little RCA jacks when you plug them in. Now increased. What was that? Reverb tremolo intensity affecting noise.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Do what I said and pray and hopefully that'll do it. I don't really know why the tremolo circuit in an AMPEG would cause noise like that. It's a pretty crazy circuit that tremolos. It's it. It create the oscillation is applied to a preamp tube. I. I'd be hoping that if you got rid of a bunch of the other noise, that noise would go away too. And do so by cleaning the tube sockets first. Then if you're feeling patient and stuff that you could tackle getting the chassis out, which is what it would take to clean the pots and report back.

[Jason]

I love it. Joe in Culver City sent us a voice memo. Here it is.

[D]

Jason. This is Joe in Culver City. I'm calling to report back that Skip's advice for my ticking foot was absolutely spot on. I was able to get some cable from Mojo Tone. They called it double single and it's, you know, one conductor inside the shield, one conductor out, and hooked up a little TRS cable and my ticking problems went away. So thank you very much for that. Since my last call, I completed my 5F 2A build. Turned out absolutely fantastic. Didn't die doing it. Bonus. I think my wife was happy about that one, but it did inspire me, which she's not so happy about to go buy a a real vintage amplifier. I got a 1961 64A Brown Panel super, the one with the harmonic tremolo. And man, that is a sweet amplifier. It started its life as an export model, so at factory it had been modified to diode rectification and a different set of transformers. On its arrival back here in California, the previous owner took it to Bob Dixon at Ample, who happens to be my tech of choice as well. They decided to revert the amp back to tube rectification and put it in a different set of transformers. They're Mercury Magnetics, which wouldn't have been my first choice. But who am I to complain because it sounds great. The only quibble I have is the harmonic tremolo. While it sounds absolutely fantastic, it doesn't seem to go quite as deep or intense as some of the recordings that I've been listening to as a reference. So I pulled out the schematic. Well, I didn't pull out the schematic. I downloaded it from Schematic Heaven and wow, this thing is a doozy. Trying to get my brain around this harmonic trem circuit. But There's a couple 12 AX7s involved in the modulator circuit and they seem to lead up to a 8.2 mega ohm resistor. Then a couple caps, then it hits the intensity pot. So I'm wondering if I lower that resistor value, will that increase the amount of LFO hitting the intensity pot? If so, how much can I drop that value without getting into some kind of grid current popping problem? If I'm on the wrong path or in way over my head, please let me know and I'll. I'll take it back to Bob. Very much appreciate the help. I have a recipe for you today which is not booze related this time. This is a dead simple appetizer for all my cheese heads out there. It's a Kahlua Brie with pecans and you get yourself a wheel of Brie. Just go for the cheap Stuff like President or something. You don't need something expensive, some whole pecans, brown sugar and Kahlua. Now, you put the Brie in the oven at 350. Actually, before you do that, slice the top off of it, but leave it on. Then put that in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350. Oh, and I should have said you should leave it in that wooden ring. If it's got one. It'll help it maintain its shape. Anyway, while that's going on, go to the stove, put in a cup of brown sugar, a cup of Kahlua in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, and then let it simmer after that for about 10 minutes or so until you get that nice, thick, syrupy consistency. Then you throw in the whole pecans, let those heat up for about 2, 3 minutes. When the Brie's ready, pop that sucker out, put it in a casserole, round dish, you know, something size appropriate, and then pour that Kahlua pecan mixture all over the Brie and serve it with some table crackers or, you know, whatever your favorite cracker is. And it will be gone very quickly, I promise you. Anyway, boys, thanks again for all you do. Hope you enjoy your Valentine SL President's weekend. If you haven't already by the time you hear this. Cheers.

[Skip]

I never would have thought of that.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Sweet and cheese.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Your thoughts?

[Jason]

I don't know. It's a lot of Brie.

[Skip]

Brie is good, but I like just a little plain cracker, you know, I like a Triscuit. It's one of my favorite crackers. Or rye crisp. Yeah, you don't see rye crisp much anymore, but I like that, too. The amp part of this story, an early chocolate brown, early 60s super amp that had factory different transformers. I would never change that. I don't get that a one of a kind Fender thing that you can legitimately say this was done at Fender original, even though it's different than everything else. Remember that guy, the great Robert Sidwell? He's a hell of a Blues player. Twenty years, 25 years ago, he brought me a black tolex tweed twin, 1954, 55 twin amp, but it was covered in black Tolex. And he didn't know me, just said, you know, I want to get this fixed and I want to get it recovered. Because it's obviously been recovered. It's supposed to be tweed. It's from 1954. I took one look at it and I just went, what? It had been at Ernie Ball's Music store as a rental. And he took it back to Fender in 1964 and had the tweet amp recovered at Fender in 1964. And all the black tolex and everything was all done at the factory. Did I let Robert Sidwell retweet that amp? No, I did not. It just like, it's. It was cool. It's cool that way. So I wouldn't have done all that stuff. And now we're getting to why isn't the crazy harmonic tremolo as strong on this amp as he's heard before? That amp would have had the yellow Astron capacitors most likely. They sound great when they work, but they often leak dc. And is the tremolo circuit working or not? The guy he mentioned, unfortunate moniker. But Bob Dixon has been doing stuff for long. I think maybe longer than me. I mean, I think he knows what the hell he's doing. Right? So it could still be something wrong with the. With the tremolo. Don't forget that Fender junked that crazy circuit right away because it's really problematic. It's. It's different. Tubes can make it sound different. It's, you know, it sounds really boss. But if you turn the intensity up too high, they start thumping like. And obviously Fender had enough trouble with it that they got rid of it within. I think that's what we. About six, three years at the most of amps that use that. And then they went to the far more simpler but less cooler sounding ways of doing tremolo. Not the harmonic. There is. If you're going to be modifying that thing, I would have to consult my printed authorities. But I believe there are some versions that have a series resistor of 10 meg compared to some that have a series resistor of 5 meg. And you might experiment with that to see if you could increase the intensity. But I'd be doing it really discreetly. Maybe a small trim pot that you buy and you turn it to a value that you measure with your ohmmeter and then use that as a little substitute resistor and mess with that resistance a little bit with the trim pot. But don't do anything crazy on an amp that cool. And that tremolo is tricky. Bob Dixon may have well approached it like I did, which is. It works. It's fine. Leave it alone. Quit changing part. Which I could see. Right. But first you got to make sure the oscillator that every tremolo has is working strong. But after that comes this insanely complicated circuit that I. I don't Understand it. I don't even know how it works really, but it does give you a much more Leslie style complex vibrato ish tremolo than the later styles.

[Jason]

Love it there. Okay. Yearn Eric in Norway. Skip and Jason. I just had an epiphany or delusion. Who knows. Some years ago I bought a 70s Fender tube reverb unit. It was totally quiet except for the lush reverb and sounded beautiful. After some years I got convinced I needed to replace some tubes. This was before Tava. So I changed the tubes with newer ones and the reverb became noisy. I changed it back to the old ones and the reverb was back to normal. I talked to the guy who sold it to me and he said he used some old 12 AX7s in the preamp stage that had a bit less output. And he claimed that many of the new tubes generate too much gain and therefore add noise. And he gave me one unlabeled 12ax7 he said was good. This was maybe 2015. So fast forward to 2025 and I've recently acquired a vibrochamp from 1965 that has a bit too much hum so I can't record with it. Yesterday I looked at it and Suddenly remembered that unlabeled 12ex7 the guy gave me 10 years ago. Swapped the brand new TAD tube that was there. I bought it from someone who had put new tubes in it and voila. Much less hum for real. So is this a thing? I have noticed that single ended amps often have some low hum with no volume on or anything connected. But can this be the solution to. Skip and Jason, thanks so much for being here. It means a lot to us and thank you for all the people out there making and sharing your art and music. I think it's more important than ever. Music unites all human beings. Peace and love from Yearn Eric from Norway.

[Skip]

Wow.

[Jason]

Yeah, I'm.

[Skip]

I'm waving my candle. Peace and love for everyone from Norway.

[Jason]

And nos tubes.

[Skip]

Mm. Wow. Norway. Did you realize that we're. That the United states is only 47 miles away from Russia?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Fun. Fun fact, right? Like that bearing straight. Wow. All right. Norway first classic story. My amp's noisy. I changed the tube. Now it's great. Then Skip says, put the tube back in it. That was in there before. So the guy puts it back in there and the amp's still great because he cleaned the tube sockets. Not that it was a tube. Right. Just the physical movement of the tubes in and out of the sockets cured the noise. Many modern production 12ax7s have more gain and are louder than old ones. I think they did it on purpose so they could say look at how much louder my Marshall is now, dude. But if you looking for more of a traditional thing, not all, but some of the modern tubes are deliberately, I think made to be a little high, higher gain than any old one. And yes, that could add noise. But I would just say that the individual tubes he replaced were noisy. So the double check would be if you've got a champ and every time you put this 12ax7 in it, it's noisy. And every time you put this other 12ax7 and it's not and you test it a couple times, well that's 112x7. That needs to probably go in the garbage can. Right? So remember, that's a champ is the best 12ax7 tester in the world. You can tell the gain, you can see if it's noisy, you can just tell everything about it. A tube tester will only tell you what it says on the meter, but it's what it sounds like is the important thing anyway. So it is a thing that some preamp tubes are noisy. And again, just make sure you mark it. It's a drag to keep putting a tube that sounds bad in other amps because it'll sound bad in other stuff in general too. I kind of got lost in there. Did. Was that. Was that what he wanted to know?

[Jason]

Yeah, I just want to know if using an old preamp tube it solves the noise with single ended amps.

[Skip]

Oh, the little amps like that do sometimes have a bit of background hum that doesn't get louder when you turn the volume up. But it's. They're not completely silent. Like if you get down by the speaker, especially if you have it hooked up to a big speaker, you can hear some boo. Not always. I've had tweed Champs that you couldn't even tell were on even though the reason why they hum is because they didn't want to spend the money and go through the time to do it more complicated so that they. So that it doesn't hum as much. The ones that hum use a very simple heater circuit usually and don't improve it. Just the Angela article on the Princeton haven't thought of that for a while. But he said hey man, these amps have a little background. Tom, don't be a weirdo and try to do a bunch of stuff to get rid of that. You know, go build a metal detector instead of an Amp. Metal detector.

[Jason]

Do you see that weird amp on reverb? I sent you that. Dane sent us a link to just recently. Yeah, like yesterday.

[Skip]

No, I didn't. I. I didn't. I. I looked at.

[Jason]

I.

[Skip]

No, I didn't. Okay, tell me. Can you tell me enough about it to make it interesting or should we just save it for next time?

[Jason]

Well, it looks like a. The back of a champ, but then where the speaker is, it's like some guy decided to make a harp guitar or something. And there's strings running across the back, probably touching the speaker. I don't know.

[Skip]

So some sort of electromechanical thing where an amp is also driving springs.

[Jason]

One of a kind. 12 sympathetic strings that are sensed with two humbucker pickups inside this guitar cabinet. It's a vulture amplification. Sympathetic guitar cabinet. Yeah, I said I'll. I mean, I don't know what the hell's going on here, but somebody will. There's a lot going on.

[Skip]

You have to stand by for a bong hit for me to even wrap my brain around this. But it sounds like a comp.

[Jason]

I wonder. There's a 400 price drop. It's on sale.

[Skip]

Well, there you go. No, I'm just trying to see. It sounds like there's an amplifier that you play your guitar through, but it also, instead of just a speaker, it's also vibrating. This big old thing full of strings and wood and stuff. Right?

[Jason]

Kind of like it's just a. It's just. It's a separate cab that's got two. There's no amp pickups in it. No, there's no. I mean, there's something's gotta. I don't know what's going on. Never mind. Never mind. We're boring.

[Skip]

Let me go look at it. We'll talk about it next time. For sure. I'll figure out what.

[Jason]

It sounds interesting, I'll tease it, and maybe somebody will buy it in the interim.

[Skip]

Okay, Sounds really interesting.

[Jason]

We have one more voice memo. And this guy was nice enough to warn me that it's a long voice memo. So this is from Andrew. And you all should be a part of this show by sending in your short voice memos or emails to podcastrepboardjournal.com and here we go.

[E]

Hey, Skip and Jason. This is Andrew calling from sunny and cold northern Vancouver Island. I'm the guy who sent you guys the Garnet books. And for the record, I'm not affiliated with the current Garnet company. I just thought you all needed the books in your hands.

[Skip]

I do.

[E]

I was going to call and ask Skip about Gibson Falcon mods, but I think he's kind of let let on as much as he wants to in the in the pre previous history of Tava but I was fortunate enough to pick up a Crestline Falcon this past summer here on Vancouver Island. One came up for a decent deal and I managed to grab it and then I was on my way to Vancouver at the time so I lent it to a friend in Vancouver who was keen to try it out and he kind of when I got it back from a month or two ago he said it was kind of underwhelming and buzzy and he wasn't too excited about seemed to be working all right when I got it but I just gave it a quick test out anyway. When I got it on the bench somebody had been into it and taken out the I knew it had been worked on previously. They'd taken out the three legged spray component that causes trouble and replaced it with a capacitor, a coupling cap. But at some point in time it had had a cap job and somebody had also replaced the first dropping resistor in the power supply which is supposed to be 470 ohms with two 82ks in parallel so 41 kilo ohms. So the screens and the preamp or the grids anyway sorry in the preamp were all running on really low voltage like between 90 and 115v. I put the resistor, the proper resistor in and and redid the cap job because I didn't like the look of the work that was in there anyway and kind of futzed around with one or two other things but didn't change it too much. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but I guess my question is more not a repair question. I just I was also fortunate to get the Gibson AMP book recently which is in print with Blue Book Press. I don't know if people know that because it comes up for 150 on Amazon used but you can just buy it from Blue Book Press which I had done recently and they mentioned in there for the Falcon that they'd never seen one and but they had rumors that models produced after 1965 had black alligator tolex and silver grill cloth which happens to be what the AMP I have now is or you know has on it. So I was curious if Skip's ever seen one like that. The parts date codes in the AMP mostly date to 1965. It has a CTS speaker Not a Jensen, but it's all original other than the work that's being done on it. And yeah, it has the cool black tolex and the black tolex is inside the clear handle and silver grill cloth. Unfortunately, the little crest on the crest line part is worn off, but still a pretty groovy amp. And that coupling cap that had replaced the three legged part was a 50 volt disc cap. So maybe somebody knew what they were doing. Anyway, when I. When I set the power supply straight, that blew up, so I had to replace that with a. I put in a mustard cap that I had here. Anyway, yeah, thanks for the podcast. Curious if Skip's ever seen a black falcon and I was relating to all his comments about jobs that are boring as hell most of the time. I'm a flight service specialist here in Canada, which kind of looks like an air traffic controller, but it's at a smaller airport and this time of year our job can be boring as hell most of the time. So yeah, gotta, gotta amuse ourselves yet. Stay alert for anything coming up and it gives one some time to read some books about tube amps. So thanks again for the podcast. Love it. Keep it going and we'll talk to you again soon. Thanks, bye.

[Jason]

Wow.

[Skip]

Well, he's in the Tava hall of fame and can send as many rambling long voicemails as he wants. Because I wouldn't have the Garnett book unless somebody gave it to me. You know, I wouldn't have just said, hey, I heard there's this Garnet book, but the fact that I got it.

[Jason]

Yeah, Andrew's the best.

[Skip]

That's why you guys all have it. And it's a valuable tool to the right person as, you know, as part of a library for people who are not half of our listeners, but that other half or even a third who are just really teched out, gotta have it. So I kinda don't want to give up the secrets. All my secrets of the Falcons, kinda. But it's not just that. It's because I. It's because there's so many different ones. There's four or five variations, you know, of what Gibson did, and they're not all in the schematics. They're not. In fact, there's only two. There's really only one schematic for these things and there's tons of variations. And remember, these amps sound terrible when they work perfectly. I mean they work, but they just. Dude, is that it? So that's unusual. In our world, we're usually Dealing with something that when it was new, it was cool. So I will say make sure you check all the low voltage electrolytics. Hopefully they've been changed in this so called recap. But if it still has any of those little black original bypass caps is what they are in the preamp or the tremolo. They're bad and they gotta go. You took out the crazy little filtery thing between the volume and tone controls or from in the first preamp. And that's one thing that kills the. The tone a lot in those. And everybody kind of knows about that thing. And a lot of people have figured out how to take that little part out, which is basically a capacitor and a resistor to ground. Capacitor and a resistor to ground. And if you replace it with just a capacitor, the volume and gain of the thing comes up quite a bit. Sounds a lot better. But after that they just did all sorts of difference. Some of them have inverse feedback, some of them don't. So maybe look into that, see if yours has that. The first ones were tweed, kind of plasticky tweed. And they used a circuit that sounded great. That's why they've always been expensive. Then came the brown ones, then came the black ones. He just has the last version with sort of a thatched looking black stuff on it. Yeah, I've seen quite a few of those. I'd say the brown ones are probably more common, but great amp. And I. It's not just that I want to keep all my Falcon secrets to myself, it's that I just can't be sure what they have. You know, like I could say, oh, I always disconnect this capacitor. Well, not if it's one of these. You know, you just have to keep looking at it and comparing it to the schematic and hopefully you should be able to get that thing to have a lot more volume and tone, a lot more volume and gain than they do when they're stock. How's that?

[Jason]

That's great. Andrew's. You just. All you had to do was move a bridge while you were fixing amps.

[Skip]

Oh yeah.

[Jason]

He's got to worry about like small planes landing in a meadow or something.

[Skip]

But he's got the same kind of thing. There's jobs. I don't know how many there are anymore. You can't sleep, you know, that's. But. But on the other hand, sometimes the Drawbridge would open 50 times in a day and sometimes it wouldn't open for days and days and days and It'd be foggy and you couldn't see out and it's just like, now what? Right. So those kind of gigs are fabulous for good hard reading and learning and in my case, taking time to just try stuff and also learning how to do things without all the proper tools. Right. I couldn't have every single resistor, so I figured out how to take a potentiometer, put alligator clips on it and turn it so that I could use it to substitute for a resistor when I was at the bridge because it couldn't go home. And that kind of stuff is useful too, so. But hipping us to the Garnet thing, that's beautiful. And I'm sure some of the stuff in there is, you know, not going to be helpful for you or maybe doesn't sound all that great because it's all just sort of personal. And not that many Garnet amps are super highly regarded. Not really, really, really collectible, but still as a collection of, of ideas and things to try, I found it mucho valuable.

[Jason]

Have you seen many of the black falcons that he was referring to?

[Skip]

Yeah, I've seen black falcons.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

Yeah, lots. That's just the last covering on those things.

[Jason]

That Garnett book was. It's not inexpensive, so. Thank you, Andrew. And it reminds me of another extremely niche book on Canadian culture that a friend just wrote. And I'll offer it as a book recommendation. Robert Dayton, formerly Vancouver based artist, actor, comedian, I don't know what else to describe him, just put out a book called Cold Glitter the Untold Story of Canadian Glam. And it's like 400 pages. It goes Canadian province by Canadian province and talks about all the little like micro glam bands that formed in the 70s and 80s. And it's the nerdiest thing in the world, but it also kind of reads like an SCTV skit. And I'm sure somebody listening to this show is. Wants to know about this book, so I'm sharing it now.

[Skip]

Wow.

[Jason]

I didn't even know glam Canadian glam bands.

[Skip]

Wow. So New York, New York Dolls, but.

[Jason]

From Ottawa, from, yeah, Flynn Flan or wherever.

[Skip]

And there's a Moncton music scene.

[Jason]

Yeah. And it goes province by province and I don't have the time, but if one wanted to, and maybe some Canadian will, like, you could go on to YouTube and like probably find all these bands as you're reading about them and it'll be like a whole nother portal to a music universe you had no idea about. But, but kudos to Robert for For doing the, the, the work that no one else would do.

[Skip]

Fantastic. And word here in the word here on the street is that a lot of places in Canada are a little bit behind the times compared to other places. Like compared to New York City or something like that. A little bit more old fashioned. And so if you're going to be, you know, wearing some fishnet stockings and, and lipstick and being in a, in a crazy glam band, I mean it'd be one thing to be doing it in, in Brooklyn and Manhattan and another thing to be doing it in Moncton.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Or someplace out there in Saskatchewan where you know. Right. Ian Tyson was not in a glam band.

[Jason]

Let's just say no.

[Skip]

Right.

[Jason]

I'm going to Canada next week. I'm excited. Yeah.

[Skip]

Not very far though. You'll be getting pretty close to Russia too.

[Jason]

So I'm, I'm going to Vancouver and then getting on a plane. But I don't think Andrew's going to be helping it land.

[Skip]

So I'd love to go to Canada. I'd like to see the big empty wheat fields parts of it and.

[Jason]

Oh, that part. Yeah, yeah, that's like that. Garnet was right.

[Skip]

Winnipeg.

[Jason]

Yeah. I think that's wheat fields, right? Yeah.

[Skip]

That's a big. That's a big place up there, man. There's a lot of room up there.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Well, here's my baffler that I don't know the answer to. Now I'm hoping someone will tell me. Classic. Great. Love it. TV show called Rockford Files with James Garner of course. The hat, the ner, the ne'er do well. Private detective. Is that really David Lindley playing a lap steal on the Rockford Files theme? Is it? I swear I read it. I swear I read him saying it. That he did. But the theme has this neen it. I just go, I wonder. So does anybody really know if David Lindley, who I know did all sorts of film work with Mike Post and those guys, you know, in la, did he really play the steel on the Rockford Files theme or not now. Pretty amazing.

[Jason]

Makes me sad we can't call him up.

[Skip]

No. Or, or James Garner for that matter. Yeah, duh. Geez. Yeah. Okay, thanks Skip. Obscure TV recommendation for you that my wife found. Why do the English have all the best tv? It's like almost everything they have is better than most.

[Jason]

They're all like Benny Hill. They're re watching their earlier work and making it better. And there you go.

[Skip]

Better.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Refining it. It's a goofy, sweet comedy kind of Thing, and it's called Staff. The guy's name is Stethopoulos because he's Greek. Staff lets Flats because he's a guy who rents apartments. He works for his dad's little business and they have. And they connect renters with apartments and it's called Staff let's Flats. And it's just so funny and hilarious and so many great characters and it's very easy to watch and relaxing. And when you don't want to think about the world today, you might try a little stat let's flask. They're very. He's very Greek and he really wants to be like, not Greek. And he's kind of like a Michael Scott character. He's always saying stuff where you just go, oh, ouch. Did you really say that? And it's just. It's just a ball. If you like English comedy, I think you'd get a kick out of it.

[Jason]

That's great.

[Skip]

Yeah.

[Jason]

Where do you find that show?

[Skip]

I'm sure knowing her, it would be Brit Box.

[Jason]

Brit Box. Yeah, probably that. All right.

[Skip]

We basically want. We watch. We've watched pretty much all of the cop shows that are either based in England, Scotland, Wales. I like that one in Wales. Oh, my gosh. That. The stone house out on the cliff over the ocean with like no trees and stuff. Right. Just beautiful environments. Right. And their. Their copy shows are a lot more mental and less, you know, high speed chases. And of course, every episode I go, my God, don't these people have guns? You know, the cops are always walking into some horribly dangerous situation and they don't have guns. Whereas here we would. Right. So that the English cop shows are pretty hard to beat, if anybody cares. I could give them a long list of classic ones. And of course they'll suck you in because there's several seasons of most of them, and the next thing you know, you've blown most of the Saturday afternoon or watching tv, making popcorn.

[Jason]

All right, when I get back from Canada, we'll do a Patreon only episode where you just go through your favorite.

[Skip]

British cop shows or those Norwegiany Denmark ones too, where no one ever takes their coat off, ever. Even inside the, you know, inside the precinct or wherever everyone has like a sweater and a coat. Right. Because it's always cold and the Volvo is out there driving on some road that just looks like, oh, my God, I hope your cell phone works out here. We like that stuff.

[Jason]

Amazing. All right, Keep the questions coming. [e-mail] thanks to our sponsors, Emerald City Guitars, amplified parts and Graz Guitars. Thank to. Thank you, Skip. And thanks to everybody who keeps sending in questions. We're gonna get on the every other week schedule here, which will be fun.

[Skip]

Yes. And NorCal, people, I want to say thanks to a record store in Sacramento called Delta Breeze. And if you lived in Sacramento, you would know that term because it isn't just sort of a generic thing in the summer. If you live in Sacramento or nearby, when it's hot, all of a sudden at some point the cool air moves into San Francisco Bay and you get the Delta Breeze. And it'd be like the south breeze that deplowing like 20 miles an hour, even though it's in July. And it's just fantastic. And there's this little record store in Sacramento that also has vintage tube hi Fi gear. Delta. Delta Breeze. Yes. And I. And I can definitely recommend it. And the guy is super nice. So shout out to Delta Breeze.

[Jason]

Where in second?

[Skip]

Downtown. Old downtown Sacramento.

[Jason]

And you, do you work on these pieces of gear that are for sale?

[Skip]

I probably shouldn't even say this, but a lot of people know because I have a guru in Sacramento.

[Jason]

I know you reference this guru all the time, but we've never heard this person's name.

[Skip]

Well, he doesn't. We don't out him. In fact, he meets his customers at Delta Breeze, which is how I learned about the place. So I have a guru who can fix anything. I could barely tote his volt meter. I could maybe hold a piece of test equipment in front of him so he could use it.

[Jason]

Is this person younger or older than you?

[Skip]

Oh, he's older. He's in his 70s. He ran a repair shop for decades. He. If a TV is repairable, he could fix it. Realtor reels, solid state old Kenwood and Marantz receivers, stuff like that. And he's just this quiet little guy. We don't talk. But there's been times. I mean, I've sent him a thousand repairs. I Google, right. If you just Google amp repair, you find me. So I get calls from people that have stuff that I don't know how to do, and if they're. He won't take anything shipped. But if you're willing to take him something and if it's in his ballpark, which is good quality audio, then he's just great. He's real reasonable. So that's how I discovered Delta Breeze. Oh, I keep getting. I keep hearing from people who met him there and said, yeah, there's this cool music store. And then our friend George Danger UXB went there, and he is a podcast listener. He goes, what? Skip Simmons?

[Jason]

Wait, the Guru is a podcast listener?

[Skip]

No, the Delta Breeze proprietor.

[Jason]

Oh, the Delta Breeze guy.

[Skip]

The Guru does not listen to podcasts of any kind. I wouldn't think, you know, or he doesn't care. He just wants to. He just fixes stuff. And we recently had a scene with him because, like, happens with me so much. He called me out of the blue and said, customer of mine died. His wife called me, I got 33amps. What do I do? And I said, what kind of amps? He goes, I don't know. So we gotta go find out if it's, you know, like a solid state PV or a Tweet Deluxe or what. I said, you know, who you ought to get is George, because he lives in Sacramento. He's had. He's had the Guru repair lots of stuff for him. So I put those two together, and he and George went down to this guy's house where his relatives were and went in this room and there were all these amps, and they helped to figure out what they were. Some were good, some were bad. As a side note, I have some Silver Face Champs.

[Jason]

Oh.

[Skip]

From that. From that deal, I mean, if somebody wants one, I'm even thinking about making a Harvard like I did for Mojo Larry, out of one. And I want to make one with a reverb tank in it. So you can use it either as a Silver Face Champ, or if you already have an amp, you can plug it into that one and make reverb speaker driven reverb. In other words, take a little Champ and make the commercial product that Gibson and Supro made that was like a little standalone reverb unit that was speaker driven. So I want to make one of those. And next podcast, I might tell you how to make something in about a half an hour that would turn your little tube amp into a fuzz tone.

[Jason]

Whoa. It's not that Joyo pedal, is it?

[Skip]

So stay tuned. No, skip the skip way.

[Jason]

Wow.

[Skip]

Yeah. Buzz tone.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

Not that you'd want to do that, but so many of our peeps have so many amps that they go, hell yeah, let's try. And I don't mean solder and stuff. I mean a thing that you make that you can just go, tink. And now your amp is a fuzz tone.

[Jason]

Wow. This is like those cop shows. It's a cliffhanger. You could hint.

[Skip]

Sure, yeah, go ahead, Garnett. There's your hint right there.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

Steady, steady. Up on it. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for being patient in the future when I got to start riding my lawn mower all the time. And thanks for all the calls and groovy stuff. And I think there was somebody else I was supposed to thank for sending me something neat, but Swamp guy, the guy that sent Swamp. Thank you, Delta Breeze. Thanks to the sponsors, and thanks to you, Jason, for making it happen.

[Jason]

Thank you, Skip.

[Skip]

Okay, we'll talk soon.