Ep. 152: "Gridley Bias"

Summary

The Truth About Vintage Amps (Ep. 152: "Gridley Bias")

Podcast: The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons
Host: The Fretboard Journal
Date: September 3, 2025

---

Episode Overview

This episode brings the usual blend of amp wisdom, technical banter, and friendly chatter as Skip, Jason, and Jeff field listener questions about vintage amps, restoration challenges, tech troubleshooting, and the eternal pursuit of the perfect amp sound. Along the way, there are tales from county fairs, sponsor shoutouts, amp bench war stories, excursions into food hacks, and a healthy dose of humor and humility.

The main theme circles around troubleshooting classic amp issues, amp modification questions, reconciling the desire for originality versus upgrade, nostalgic dives into gear nerd-dom, and the philosophy of music gear obsession. Listener contributions cover a wide range of technical, historical, and "what-if" scenarios—addressed in Skip’s signature style: direct, knowledgeable, funny, and sometimes irreverently honest.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The AI Episode & Skip’s Technology Woes

• The crew jokes about recording the episode with the help of AI, poking fun at technological transitions and Skip’s ongoing battle with spam calls and answering machines.
• Quote:

  “First I had to find all the cords and. And then it was at 9:30 instead of 9.” — Skip [01:32]

• Skip shares woes over robocalls, spam blockers, and voicemail, encouraging listeners to keep calling or email if they don’t get through.
• Humor moment: The group playfully blames any technical hiccups or "not quite right" banter on the AI.

2. Gear Obsession vs. Musical Focus

• Discussion erupts about Skip’s previous comment that "real musicians aren't obsessive about their gear," prompting listener outrage and correction.
• Quote:

  "What he should have said was Skip sometimes says stuff that's not the whole story or downright stupid." — Skip [04:07]

• They reflect on musicians who, indeed, are gear tinkerers (e.g., Joe Walsh) and the appeal of simple, good-sounding vintage amps.
• Cultural takeaway: The tug-of-war between modding gear and just playing music is a recurring theme for vintage amp fans.

3. Sponsor Acknowledgements (Skip to Amp Talk)

• Brief sponsor mentions (Amplified Parts, Emerald City Guitars, Grez Guitars).
• Skip spotlights longtime listener Tom Gunterman and his two Grez guitars, echoing how grassroots support and builder passion keep the vintage scene thriving ([06:40]).

4. Amp Kits & The DIY Explosion

• Conversation about the exploding popularity and availability of amp kits.
• Quote:

  “If you’re interested in building a little amp and… learning how it works, the options are just, you know, they're way up there.” — Skip [07:58]

• Caveat that you won’t necessarily get a “fabulous amp for dirt cheap,” but it’s great for learning.

5. Yellow Jacket Tube Converters & Power Scaling

• Listener question: Are Yellow Jacket tube converters effective for lowering power/output?
  • Skip: Limited direct experience but notes these gadgets are among many (master volumes, power scaling etc.) to make big amps more manageable ([08:45–10:15]).
  • Advice: Use with lower-powered amps; be cautious, as you’re “messing with power tubes.”

6. Bench Report: Standel Saga & Prewar Oddities

• Skip’s July tally: “Fixed 50 amps in July. Easy, easy.” [10:19]
• Describes challenges working on Standel amps and prewar gear—complex, fragile, time-consuming, and often lacking schematics.
  • Standel jobs require almost every component replaced; similar for prewar lion & Healey PA head.
  • Philosophical note:

    “You can see why Fender came along. So much less complicated, lighter, better, louder.” — Skip [14:36]

• Financial and practical challenges fixing rare pieces: “I can't say, here's your amp. It's $2,000 in repairs, even though I spent a week messing with it.” [15:16]

7. Listener Questions—Tech Deep Dives

a. Channel Phase Issues in Fender Amps ([17:39])

• Caller Dale: Suggests a phase-flipping AB switch (maybe Radial) to solve out-of-phase channel-jumping issues.
• Skip: Simpler methods often suffice. Neon on practical usage—most vintage Fender combos with multiple inputs can sound great, don’t sweat the details too much.
  • Quote:

    “It's not always a problem... the more primitive methods… can work really well most of the time.” — Skip [19:01]

b. Transformer Upgrades for Pedal Steel ([24:55])

• Kendall from Illinois: Built a Showman-style head but can’t get enough headroom for pedal steel gigs.
  • Wonders about swapping for an ultralinear transformer, or switching to KT88s.
• Skip:
  • Make sure the amp works “as it should” before modifications.
  • Check speaker pairing first; verify circuit voltages (plate, B+, etc.).
  • Only consider transformer swaps after ruling out root causes.
  • Building complex amps as a first project is a “big ass” commitment—better to start with simple projects.
  • Quote:

    “In general, I say don’t modify something until you've figured out that it's really working right.” — Skip [27:10]

c. Yellow Jacket in the Rectifier Socket ([29:20])

• Question: What about solid-state rectifier plug-ins?
• Skip’s advice:
  • Measure high voltage before and after; solid state can sometimes push B+ too high, which can cause issues.
  • Not all drop-in rectifier replacements affect voltage; always check the results.

d. UK Kelly Amp—Cap Trouble? ([33:55])

• Jim from Davis, CA: Kelly amp cuts out unless powered up slowly; worries about filter caps and rare Partridge transformers.
• Skip:
  • Could be power tube socket arcing or filter caps, but only replace parts with direct evidence.
  • Look for burned/charred socket material.
  • If swapping caps, use similar values to other 50W UK amps (like Selmer or Marshall).
  • Proceed cautiously, especially with rare amps.

e. Speaker Matching & Preferences ([47:59], [52:11], [54:19])

• Jeff Schick: Detailed, meandering question about matching speakers, amp power, and desired tonal results.
• Skip’s response:
  • There are endless permutations and no fixed rules.
  • Want speaker breakup? Use lower-power, smaller-magnet speakers.
  • Want clean headroom? Use robust, higher-wattage speakers.
  • Impedance mismatches are generally not catastrophic in classic amps.
  • Speaker choice is trial and error—trust your ears, not just the specs.

8. Accordion in Jazz, Kale & Typewriters

• Doug Freeman calls in with tales of accordion and jazz (Joe Mooney Quartet), and a kale cooking tip.
• Side conversation on the joys of collecting and restoring typewriters, and the art of homemade labels.
  • Quote:

    “Nothing more relaxing than staring at one of those [typewriters] that you just got at a yard sale and kind of cleaning it …” — Skip [46:02]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Of course we know … that's part of it too. I probably was just trying to make the point that nothing wrong with parking all that stuff and just playing music, right?" — Skip [04:07]
• "If you're interested in building a little amp and … learning how it works. The options are just, you know, they're way up there." — Skip [07:58]
• "I tell people that all the time. ... I think that's part of this popularity of the simpler older amps—because it sure is easy to spend the only 20 minutes you have messing around with the knobs…as opposed to something that just always sounds good." — Skip [04:37]
• "You can see why Fender came along. So much less complicated, lighter, better, louder." — Skip [14:36]
• “If you want the speaker to get kind of crunchy sounding, well, something with a smaller magnet that can handle less power is going to do that.” — Skip [54:19]
• "Relax, have some red wine with the ice cube in it, junior, and don’t worry about it." — Skip [54:19]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• County Fair/Tech Talk: 00:19–03:46
• Gear Obsession Debate: 03:49–05:09
• Sponsor shoutouts: 05:48–07:42
• Amp Kits & DIY: 07:58–08:22
• Yellow Jacket Tube Converters: 08:45–10:15
• Bench Report & Prewar Standel: 10:19–16:15
• Phase inversion questions: 17:39–20:51
• Transformer/Headroom Question: 24:55–28:16
• Rectifier Plug-in Question: 29:20–31:36
• Kelly Amp Troubleshooting: 33:55–41:33
• Accordion/Jazz/Music Rec: 42:20–45:34
• Speaker Matching Deep Dive: 47:59–54:19

---

Episode Tone and Language

Relaxed, informal, humorous, and self-deprecating. There’s a strong sense of community and camaraderie—the hosts are as comfortable joking about county fair livestock as dissecting arcane electrical problems. Listener questions are respected, even when complex or rambling, with Skip always bringing pragmatic, experience-based advice. When offering technical instruction, the tone is unfussy and clear, always layered with wit.

---

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is classic TAVA: amiable, deep-dive technical advice for vintage amp hobbyists and professionals alike, leavened with storytelling, philosophy, and inside jokes. You’ll come away with a better sense of the practical challenges of vintage amp repair, the ambiguity in “rules” about gear, and the enduring importance of community opinion, experimentation, and kindness in an obsessive hobby. Plus, you’ll know several new ways to cook kale.

Don’t miss:

• Skip’s advice on starting simple for DIY builds
• The no-nonsense speaker selection segment
• Standel and prewar amp repair war stories
• Doug Freeman’s historical jazz accordion references
• The implicit message: Vintage amp culture is about both the gear and the wild community around it.

Transcript

[Jason]

You did it.

[Jeff]

How are you?

[Skip]

All right, Great. How about you?

[Jeff]

I'm okay.

[Skip]

Should I tell the people?

[Jason]

What are you going to tell them?

[Skip]

It's pretty significant. This is our first tava done completely with AI, right. So Jason is really sitting on the couch eating kale, watching tv. So virtual Jason will have to. I don't know, some things kind of hard to. I don't know if they could chit chat like we do. I. I went to join the meeting and the whole setup dealy that I have to look at looked completely different. My. My IT team was at the Nevada County Fair in Grass Valley. You. You want bucolic if you can get to that place. That's the one where there's. The whole fairgrounds is covered with huge, big, tall pine trees everywhere. It's real shady. It's 20. Well, you've been there. They've had lots of concerts and they have a killer bluegrass festival there. But this is the Nevada County Fair. So you got the. The cows and the tractors and all of that. And it's. It's pretty. It's, you know, I think county fair, like in Dixon. Right. It's flat.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

And. But up there in the mountains, it's a whole different feel. So anyway, my team was away and I wasn't sure if I could put this whole thing together. First I had to find all the cords and. And then it was at 9:30 instead of 9.

[Jason]

I know I. I should for a loop.

[Skip]

I could have looked, right. So. But we did it. I'm thrilled. I got to get. I got to get a handle on this technology thing.

[Jason]

I think. I think you're there.

[Skip]

My phone. I mean, I'm. I know it's. I answer the phone and no, it's not like a landline. It's actually some sort of home. The cell phone, but it's a Verizon home cell phone box thingy. And I sometimes get 20 spam calls a day, maybe 30 people. You know, stuff selling you stuff. And I had this. I have an answering machine where you can hear me talking, but there's also was this voicemail where you had to go back and dial up some special number in order to access it and listen to it. Well, somehow the spam, the spammers, lots of them, managed to make it so it would ring one time and there'd be Nothing but like 20 minutes or half an hour later. There'd be a voicemail thing blinking at me. And then I'd go to it. It would be the spam call. I Got a different phone and it's working okay. But keep calling me until I say this is Skip, which I do every day, all day, you know, 8:00' clock in the morning till 4 specific. Because the other thing, there's one now that says the voicemail, the mailbox is full. Which don't you hate that when you call someone and it takes a long time to go through and then at the very end they say the voice, the mailbox is full. The great Kevin in Ohio sometimes does that. Got to clear those out. So I don't want to seem like a flake, but I'm not going back to that voicemail and listening to all that stuff. And I got a new spam blocker thing. So if you can't get a hold of me on the phone, email me. Shouldn't be more than a day or two. And keep calling me in the daytime until I answer the phone.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Jason]

Kevin was upset with you.

[Skip]

Oh yeah. Is that the thing where I said you shouldn't mess around with your gear or something?

[Jason]

I think you made a flippant comment that real musicians aren't obsessive about their gear. And then he started blowing up my inbox with sites citing all sorts of musicians from our past who did care about their gear.

[Skip]

What he should have said was skip sometimes says stuff that's not the whole story or downright stupid.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

So the funny part was that for a while there he thought he had to convince us that, hey, what about Joe Walsh? He doubled the value of the bright cap on his bright switch of his fenders to make the ant more trembly. That's from the cool guitar player book, by the way. Interview with Joe Walsh. Of course we know that there's people who mess with stuff that's part of it too. I probably was just trying to make the point that nothing wrong with park and all that stuff and just playing music, right? Not even thinking about it. I tell people that all the time. I think that's part of this popularity of the simpler older amps because it sure is easy to spend the only 20 minutes you have messing around with the knobs, you know, to try to get it to sound good as opposed to something that just always sounds good. Yeah, we worked it out.

[Jason]

Yeah, Couples counseling.

[Skip]

We were at loggerheads, right?

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Now, do you know what that's from? Patrick o'. Brien. They heated up tar in these big long, like heavy, like cannonball shaped looking things with handles and they used it to put the pitch in the seams of the boat. And if you were pissed off at somebody, you'd get those things and start whacking each other with it. And that's where AT Loggerheads comes from.

[Jeff]

Okay, okay.

[Skip]

There we go. Somewhere somebody, somebody said that was really obscure.

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Back to amps.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Jason]

Thanks to our sponsors, Amplified Parts, they currently have all those amp kits, the mod electronics amp kits. If anybody wants to get their hands dirty and actually build one of these things that we talk about every week. We're also brought to you by Emerald City Guitars, where here in Seattle they have a showroom filled with vintage amps, including a 55 fender low powered tweed twin conversion. They've got all sorts of black panel Fenders I'm staring at right now, including a 67 vibro champ and so much more. And then last but not least, our friend Barry at Grez Guitars. I'll be seeing him at the Fretboard summit in just a week or so. And in Chicago, if you want to see him there, please go to fretboardsummit.org and join us in Chicago. And be sure to follow Barry on Instagram because he's doing all sorts of cool stuff. He's just the coolest.

[Skip]

Longtime listener and electric violin player and fiddle player Tom Gunterman, the guy from Gridley who said Gridly Bias instead of Gridly K. He has two of Barry's guitars. I didn't even know. He sent me an email just with a bunch of random amp stuff and then he sent me a picture of two Grez guitars. So that guy does great work. And I'm. I think his early sponsoring of the podcast paid off for him. I'll just be honest.

[Jason]

And I'm glad his star has been on the rise for a while, but.

[Skip]

Maybe a little bit. Yes. Not that, not that. Not that it needed it. He would be just in the same place. But I just mean we sent some people there who really were knocked out by his stuff and quite a few of us has. Have friends that have those things and he was not giving them to people.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

You got to love it. Kind of like, kind of like a dumble. So it just shows you how cool his stuff is. And I'm glad we could help. Yeah, because usually the whole sponsorship thing, you know, they give us something, we got to give them something.

[Jeff]

Of course. Right? Yeah.

[Skip]

Amplified parts, the kit explosion and just keep. Keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. It's really. I'm not saying you're going to get a fabulous amp for Dirt Cheap, but if you're interested in building A little amp and. Or learning how it works. The options are just, you know, they're way up there. Lots.

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Jason]

We had a podcast a couple weeks ago and we both spaced on one of the topics that one of our listeners asked about. Do you remember? You said it was going to come back to you, but maybe it didn't. Somebody was asking about the yellow jacket tube converters that amplify cells and you were going to riff on that. And then we, as we often do, went on a different tangent.

[Skip]

I don't really have much experience with those things. I've. I've known a couple people that enjoyed them. I would say there's a lot of ways to make a powerful amp sound less powerful.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

That's basically the whole point of everything. You know, master volumes and yellow jackets and power scaling and whatever. Triode, pentode. But if that one sounds good to you, ideally kind of like a stomp box, it would be awesome if you could buy them and if they didn't impress you with their sound, then you could send them back kind of like a stomp box. I'm not sure if that's a situation that they can offer on something that you could easily blow up if you didn't know what you were doing. Because you're messing with power tubes here.

[Jeff]

Right?

[Skip]

Most of them convert a fixed bias amp to a cathode biased amp within that little yellow thing and dissipate the extra heat that must be generated somehow. I'm not really sure and I don't really know what's inside of them. But again I say if you found one, try it. It does something groovy. I would be leaning towards a lower powered thing like something that wasn't a 50 watt Marshall, the something that was already fairly low powered and see if you could get a cool lower volume tone by using them. How's that?

[Jeff]

That was great.

[Jason]

What's on your bench?

[Skip]

I fixed 50amps in July. Easy, easy. So I don't know.

[Jason]

I can't remember what happened with the Standell. The roadside Standel encounter.

[Skip]

The Standel thing is about done. That got we. I wonder if he'd come on. Todd Klein Smith, long suffering patient, builds copies replicas of Bigsby steel guitars in the mountains of Oregon somewhere. And one of the Standals is his. And you can imagine what kind of a guy he is if he's building Bigsby steels right? And they're pretty much done. I just have a really hard time saying, okay, that's it. Kind of like a PA head. I want to keep trying. And I don't want them to ever have any problems because it was a huge job. The great Bill Kernard tackled one because of all this Standel activity that was pretty much every single part. Like every resistor and capacitor would have to be replaced with. And schematic checked with schematics. We don't have. So the problem with those things is that when you actually get done with that fragile piece of junk, plug it.

[Jeff]

In.

[Skip]

Like I said. They're like an AC30. It's like, okay, all right. I guess we have to have this because it's pretty cool. It's definitely different than a Fender. It's just a nightmare to work on. I also have tackled a bunch of pre war stuff that's been around forever. Like that National Dobro amp from probably the early 30s. The front of it has a cover plate that looks just like a resonator. National resonator guitar on the front that you. That they use to cover the speakers. Two A3 tubes, field coil, of course. But that stuff. I gotta start turning down some stuff like that because it's so time consuming and I'm not willing to charge what it really takes to do it. And you just never know. You got to carefully rebuild the amp. Then you find out that in this case I have a bad driver transformer. So instead of a tube more common in 30s and 40s, they would use another transformer to do the phase inverting that we see done with the tube. But of course that transformers blow it up. I don't even know how to. I mean, if you looked in an old ancient catalog, you could find something. But I'm going to have to figure out what it is, you know, ohms wise and stuff like that. And try to find some sort of suitable replacement. Then you get to finally hooking it up to the field coil speaker that's a billion years old. Does it work? So then when they're all done, those Charlie Christian amps are pretty impressive. But a lot of the other stuff is. You can see why Fender came along. So much less complicated, lighter, better, louder. And of course a serviceability mentality that they didn't have much in the 30s, right? Not at all. There's an epiphone with the big E cutout scroll thing on the front.

[Jason]

Yeah, like the.

[Skip]

Yeah, the bird's eye maple cabinets from the 40s. Those were designed by Nat Daniel. Right. I've had it for probably five years and I finally just said, nope, can't do it. So hard to work on Like a whole bunch of capacitors that you'd have to remove this big gigantic board to even get any kind of access to. Which means that you'd have to unsolder maybe 20 wires to move the board. And no schematics, of course. So some of that stuff would be really cool if you enjoyed doing it yourself. But as far as paying someone to do it, maybe Larry Chung could do it. Yeah, that stuff, that, that one. There's one here. It's a 15 watt amp, pre War lion and Healey, like a early PA head. It's only 15 watts. It has six transformers in it and one of them's bad. And it's one of those interstage or phase inverter type transformers like I was talking about. So I appreciate that crinkle stuff, the real early stuff. I know that's what Lloyd Lore would have been playing as vivitones through, right? Early, early electric musicians were using that stuff. But oh man, does it take it out of you. And I can't say, here's your amp. It's a $2,000 in repairs, even though I spent a week messing with it.

[Jeff]

Right?

[Skip]

Yeah, just a little glimpse into the skip world.

[Jason]

Well, it sounds like the. After all that effort too, they're not really. Are they noteworthy enough or like. I mean people love the Charlie Christian ones.

[Skip]

The EH150. Most of the versions are pretty impressive. Still way more amp for the speaker than you could ever do. But a lot of those other ones, Vegas and stuff like that, they're just. They're so fragile and they're so complicated that it's just maybe not quite worth it unless it was your granddaddy's, you know, or why build a 2000 piece puzzle if it. If that's what you want to do when you come home from work. I love you.

[Jeff]

Do it.

[Skip]

Fix it up. Send us a recording of you playing the lap steel through it or something.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

It will amplify sometimes. They have some pretty fierce hum levels compared to modern stuff too. Like, you know, that's pretty hard. Can be hard to get rid so. And I'm just a sucker who says, okay, that's how I got those standells. Louis, a guitar pig, has had one for 25 years that I've refused to look at even though it was at my house for most of the time, but I refused to touch it. That's the one that Bernard is going to tackle and actually change every single part in it. But you know, that's got to be. There better be some serious trading going on. On a job like that, I could see a couple of thousand dollars if you had to actually have somebody that knew what they were doing get in there. What lastly, did you try to reach out to Dave Britton in Nashville?

[Jason]

Yeah, we're going to get him on our next episode was did you talk.

[Skip]

To him or email him?

[Jason]

We emailed.

[Skip]

He seemed super competent. Usually I don't say that's enough to have him on the podcast. But as interesting, Standel's being a repair dude in Nashville. We'll grill him and see how he. How he holds up.

[Jason]

Yeah, for sure. You want to field some questions, I'm here. Okay, be a part of the show, everybody. Send us a question podcastretboardjournal.com could be about anything. And if you want to get to the front of line, we have a Patreon where you can support the show a little bit and we'll make sure your question is answered. Our first question is from listener Dale.

[Dale]

Greetings from Southwest Washington. Hey, in regards to the message from our friend from Colorado regarding the two channel out of phase on a Fender Deluxe, I can't remember off the top of my head. I'm out here in the middle of my farm doing chores, feeding goats this morning. But there is a company, it might be radial, it might be Morley, that makes an ABC switcher box, kind of a box that Skip was talking about where you use a foot switch instead of just jumpering the two channels. But that switcher box also allows you to flip the phase on any one of those three channels A, B or C that it allows you to use. And that way you can utilize that foot switch. You can have just your channel A, just your channel B, or both of them together and they won't be running out of phase. So if somebody out there wants to try that one out, maybe go hunting down for that foot switch, I know I've seen one somewhere on a stage. I just can't remember what company made it. So maybe someone in the hive mind can help us out with that one. You guys have a great day and thanks for all you do.

[Skip]

Good one. Southwest Washington, out on the farm. Kelso, Nice green there. I bet it's hot here.

[Jason]

Yeah, green at the beginning of the year for sure.

[Skip]

My ab box, there are people that successfully use it with amps that or channels that are theoretically out of phase. It's not always a problem. The one he's talking about, radial stuff is very high end. Flipping the phase of something, you know, you can't just Connect one thing, you're like disconnecting two things. There'd be some. Be some circuitry in there, but if it got you a better sound, then I say, great. But the more primitive methods of doing it can work really well most of the time. I mean, if you just jumper the two channels of a deluxe together. Yes, it does roll off some. A little bit of volume and some highs, but it still works. I just know that Fenders especially had. Reason why they have all those inputs is because in the olden days, the whole band would plug into that thing.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

Or at least a couple instruments. And in general, they're not likely to sound horrible when you do that. But Golden Ears or guys really into it could probably tell that it sounds better through one or better through the other when you combine them. There's a little tonal this or that that happens, but it's certainly not something we need to worry about too much, so. Especially not compared to feeding the goats or making sure they're. Yesterday I'm working and I look up and there's a goat in the yard. They're not supposed to be in the yard. Right. Supposed to be in the goat pen. Somebody who will remain unnamed had left a gate open, so had to have a little goat roundup.

[Jason]

That's fun. Are they obedient?

[Skip]

No, but they don't. But they're domesticated. You know, they don't want to go. They don't want to take off and go down the road or anything like that. They just want to hang around and they're looking for something different to eat that they don't have inside their big, spacious acre of green woodland.

[Jeff]

Right? Yeah.

[Skip]

Because they're. Because they're spoiled. But no, you get a. You get a plastic bucket and you put some grain in and start shaking it. They'll come around and.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

They like food. It wasn't too hard, but just hearing the guy out there with his goat field in his goat field, we. We always wanted to have an answering machine in Dixon that the message would be out in the sheep barn because they. They bad. Bad. We're out in the barn right now. Please leave a message now. But animals.

[Jason]

I love it. Huge thanks to our. Our listener, Brian McAllister, who's bringing a whole bunch of vintage amps to the fretboard summit that's taking place in Chicago on August 21st to 23rd.

[Skip]

It's almost time. Piling is over it.

[Jason]

It kind of is.

[Skip]

That's your own car.

[Jason]

I'm driving. I'm flying. Comedian Dave Hill is going to be rating everybody's pedal boards and we've got a, a vintage amp room, got a Pinewood derby track. We've asked a bunch of luthiers, including our friend group Grez to make a Pinewood derby car and see if they see what they come up with. So we've got all sorts of surprises.

[Skip]

Was that your idea?

[Jason]

It was all the, all the dumb.

[Skip]

Ones that should, that should be enough for like a year. Most people think of something like that once in a lifetime kind of dirty cars.

[Jason]

All right.

[Skip]

Next year you know, there's little impressive flying rubber powered model airplane kits that are made for like classroom.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

Where everything is sort of like laid out like you glue the sticks down right on the plans which turns into the paper and it's made to be made in like 15 minutes. So paper airplane contest. Model airplane contest. That's a good one.

[Jason]

The possibilities are endless. Yeah.

[Jeff]

All right.

[Skip]

Not quite endless but, but the Pinewood derby car, that just takes me back. I know there's going to be some people that it'll be a art piece.

[Jason]

I know I've already seen one that was a little over the top from Acoustic Builder.

[Skip]

Now you're just showing off, right? Totally. But that's okay.

[Jeff]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason]

Speaking of Illinois, this is from listener Kendall. I've been learning about amp building and repair the last couple of years. I don't particularly know much, but my good buddy Mike Womack at Mike's Amp and Guitar Repair in Effingham, Illinois is my guru and he lets me bug him with all sorts of dumb questions and far fetched ideas. Just wanted to give him a shout out. Here's my question for Skip. Last year with a lot of guidance, I built an AB763 twin clone in a head. So I guess it's a dual showman. As a dual purpose six string and pedal steel amplifier. The amp sounds great with my mongrel dog of a parts telly and my 1971 show Bud Professional. But I'm finding it's lacking in headroom as a pedal steel amp for club gigs with Bad or no pa we've tried a couple of different things on the normal channel like swapping out the mid slope resistor and mid pot and had some success but still tinkering with the circuit. While discussing my dilemma, we hit on the idea of swapping the transformer with an ultralinear transformer like what Fender was using in the Silver Face twins of the mid-70s. Thought I'd reach out to get Skip to Skip to get his thoughts on that idea and if we're on the right track, thinking I might be sacrificing some tube life from my 6L 6s and wondering if modding the power section to run on KT88s might be an idea worth exploring. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm just shit kicking mid level hockey talk, rock and roll, bumming around the Midwest, guy that likes to use cool gear when I can, and trying to learn a thing or two. That's from Kendall.

[Skip]

Kendall. Good one.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Skip]

So a guy who's never built an amp ever builds an amp, right? And now you're asking, could have been a car. And now you're asking me, why doesn't this thing idle? Right? So the question really is, is the amp really a hundred watts Fender showman head? Are they really getting it or is there something wrong with it? In other words, would a real showman head be loud enough and have enough headroom for this dude? Yeah, because if it does, if it is, then there might. It might not need modifying. It might just need fixing. You in the back with your hand up. Yes. I hope you tried some different speakers, right? I mean we, I say that every day. Have you hooked it up to a different speaker? Why? Because that's what we hear. And any problem with it is going to make everything sound shitty. Your guitar sounds bad. Have you tried a different speaker in a way? You know what I mean? Just kind of makes. And I'm not saying that the speaker's bad, I'm just saying, boy, you better start at the end just to make sure you don't do a bunch of stuff, only to find out that, say, in this case he's got some little dinky Jensen Al Nico speakers that can't handle the full tilt of that thing, right? That, that thing should be driving two 15 inch speakers in a sealed cabinet. And I don't really know what he's rocking with it or not, so. Also, it didn't slow the pros down. Lloyd Greene, he was into those kind of amps. He was good. But the thing to determine would be, is the amp work? And it'd be nice if somebody just had a regular old 70s twin reverb. If it sounded a lot better than this thing that, that, that you built, then you gotta keep diving into it, modifying it until you've determined that it's working right. You know me, I'm not, I'm not usually down with that. Ultralinear twins are way cheaper than the older ones once nobody is really Freaked out on it. Theoretically, it would add a cleaner. It would add clean sound to a certain part of the amp. But if this distortion problem is coming from the phase inverter or coming from the preamp, it's not going to help if you put a different output transformer on it. In general, I say don't modify something until you've figured out that it's really working right. So how about this? You let us know the stuff I want to know, which is how about what's the plate voltage? What's the plate current? You know, what's the B plus? What kind of voltages are you getting in the preamp stage and the phase, all the plates and cathodes. If there's something that's way, way off, several times off, then that could be why you're not getting the sound to clean. You're not getting a clean enough sound out of the sample. How's that? Am I going over and over?

[Jason]

No, that's great, Kendall. Write us back podcastreportjournal.com and don't feel bad.

[Skip]

I mean, that's a big ass amp to start as your first project. I've never built anything that complicated from scratch. And I wouldn't be surprised if I did it that it might not work perfect the first time. Well, a, I wouldn't do it. It probably would, but I've been doing stuff for years to build it just straight off the bat. That's why we tell people to build a tweed Princeton, because that's a lot simpler. Yeah, you see that? The potential spam. But now I've got the call block and then it makes this. It makes this cool sound. See if we can get it. Oh, yeah. Did you hear it?

[Jason]

No.

[Skip]

What was it? It made a little bring sound, which is the sound it does when you, when you have blocked. I'm afraid this thing's going to get full and then it won' work anymore, man. I've had hundreds. I don't know what to do about that. I don't. I don't want to have a cell phone on me every second. I'm always dropping it and running the lawnmower over it, stuff like that. All right, next.

[Jason]

Well, I should have read through these questions before because we just talked about yellow jacket YJRS from Amplified Parts and Bruce in Seattle has a whole email about it. In one of the last episodes, Skip mentioned working on an amp where previous tech had changed the rectifier from tube to solid state, which changed the voltages. The tubes in a bad Way. I purchased a yellow jacket YJR from our friends at Amplified Parts. It's a plug that goes into the rectifier tube socket and converts a5AR4GZ34.5U4.5Y3 tube socket into a solid state rectifier. What warnings would you give anyone thinking about using one? And then there's a food hack.

[Skip]

Okay, that's not really the same thing.

[Jeff]

Oh, okay. Sorry.

[Skip]

The yellow jackets we were talking about before go in the power tube sockets of your amp and allow you to use a power tube that's less powerful. The one that he's talking about that goes into the rectifier tube socket. It sounds like it's a solid state one that will substitute for any tube one. And the only thing you'd want to check is light that thing up with the tube. Measure the high voltage center top of the output transformer. The first filter capacitor, either of the plate leads on the 6L 6s. These are the highest voltages in the amp. Measure that, turn a thing off, put your solid state gizmo in there, fire it up, measure it again. If it's way higher, I generally don't recommend that. Usually they need to go lower to sound better. So. But that's. But that's how you find out. Just make sure that by using a solid state rectifier, you're not cranking the B up real high. These, these, you know, that's realistically, that's just two little 10 cent diodes. That's all that is. And a two and a tube base. But I'm pretty sure that the yellow jacket people, they have some sort of circuitry in there. And it may be that it won't change the high voltage even though it changes its solid state. And that could be true too.

[Jason]

Love it. Bruce also has a food hack. Eggs in ramen.

[Skip]

Oh yeah.

[Jason]

Once you've finished cooking your ramen, beat one or two eggs thoroughly in a coffee cup. Stir the soup in one direction so you have a little whirlpool action going on. And then pour the beaten eggs in a thin stream into the soup. This will instantly cook and turn your eggs threads like you see in hot and sour soup. That's from Bruce.

[Skip]

Nice. I've done that with rice. Have gotten into making fried rice. Well, rice in general, but you have a little bit of egg in there and the green onions and stuff like that. I'm also on a slaw bender. I've been making my old coleslaw. I could see some kale in that.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

The good mayonnaise. The Duke's mayonnaise, lemon juice, black pepper.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Skip]

Might have to move that phone. Too loud. Slaw is really good. Hold on. I'm going to put the phone down and move that thing. Hold on.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Skip]

That's just too loud, Junior. I'm doing. I'm doing the podcast. I'll see you after 11.

[Jeff]

All right.

[Skip]

Wow, it's tough. Gunner, man.

[Jeff]

Whoa.

[Skip]

That was crazy. Oh, it was Tom Gunnerman. I forgot he was coming.

[Jason]

He heard. He heard you talking about him.

[Skip]

I don't. Well, he couldn't have because it's not live on the thingy yet. But I will tell him that I was talking about him.

[Jason]

Yeah, it's pretty weird.

[Skip]

Yeah, he's a good gardener. He brings up his. He. He makes. Is actually his wife makes fab preserves, you know, like jams and jellies that are just. Once you open it, you eat it. Like, by the next day it's gone really good. So maybe he'll bring us some of that.

[Jeff]

Love it.

[Skip]

Yeah. Now, where are we at?

[Jason]

We're going to take a couple more questions.

[Skip]

Oh, coleslaw. Yeah, keep moving.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Jason]

This next voice memo is from listener Jim. Again, be a part of the show. [e-mail] include a picture of the amp. We'll post it on our Instagram and our Facebook group.

[Jim]

Hi, Skip and Jason. Jim calling from Davis, California. Right in the heart of Skip country. Calling because I got John I E not Jim Kelly amp from Angela Instrument a couple of months ago. The ad said that the amp had been serviced by Jeff Bober when it was brought over from the UK in 1994, and then again when Steve put it up for sale, which I think was a couple of years ago. When it arrived, I turned it on and gave it 110v directly out of my brown box. And it just sounded fantastic, bright and beautiful for about five minutes and then emitted this sort of lightning strike, zap. After which the volume was drastically reduced and a loud hum appeared. The ad mentioned that Jeff Bober had had to reform the cap. So I thought, well, I better. I brought this up very slowly on the Variac again, 210v, and played it for a couple of hours. Same beautiful tone and no zap and hum. No failures at all. It was fine. I just turned it off. I've since repeated this a couple times and really does seem that anytime I don't bring it up slowly, I get the zap and hum. If I do bring it up slowly. It almost always works, but will fail, say, once in 10 times. So first, do you think that this really is maybe filter caps, just given the service history and the behavior, then? If so, then I have the problem that I can't find a schematic for this amp anywhere. And I've looked pretty hard and there's nothing written on the caps telling me what I need to provide for capacitance and voltage. So I'm wondering what to do. I mean, can I just take another 50 watt UK amp like a Selmer or a Marshall as a guide to what to put in for the cap cans? Or is it going to be super sensitive to the precise capacitance and voltage values? Should I try to open the caps and see if maybe the stuff inside has some markings? And then the other question is, I mean, I can just continue to bring this up slowly and most of the time get away with it, but I'm kind of worried that if I do that and that 1 in 10 failure rate might damage these lovely Partridge transformers that the thing has inside that probably make it sound so good, at least in part. Anyway, thanks for any information you can provide and thanks for the podcast and the many long hours that you've kept me awake on long drives. Although Miller says in Repo man, the more you drive, the less intelligent you are. I think that's less true nowadays with you all around. Thanks. Take it easy.

[Jason]

No, that was sweet.

[Jeff]

Whoa.

[Skip]

Very erudite. It almost sounded like he wrote some of it down. Yeah, very impressive. And Davis, close to my old house, so he's talking about a Kelly brand amp from England.

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Proud that I can know that. I've only ever seen a couple. They're really obscure. Of course, the late, great Steve from Angela Instruments knew about him way back in the eight nineties, and in his catalogs he would say, you know, Kelly amps, you know, these are cool. They have Partridge transformers. They're kind of like a poor man's Marshall. You know, they're 400 bucks a piece or whatever. So that's what this thing is. But now, once again, we're really just boiling it down to a what's wrong with this amp? It's not somebody's amp that they built from scratch, but it is an old English amp. Now, the fact that it once went through Angela's service, guy who's a guru for sure, is absolutely a benefit. But the real thing would be, what is this? What's wrong with this thing? You know, what really, is it a sharp Snapping and popping and that's never good.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

A big loss of volume. When he first started, I was going to suggest that what happened was he had a bad power tube because it runs those EL34s pretty hot. You're supposed to have mullards at, at like $250 a piece.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

So I think what I do.

[Jeff]

I.

[Skip]

Think I'd take the power tubes out and I plug it into a speaker cabinet and I would just turn it right on up to maybe 90 volts and eliminate the power tubes from. From the issue. And see, you know, sound like that, like a cracking sound. You could almost visibly see that. I'd be also looking at the EL34 sockets themselves really closely on both sides to make sure there's no sign of any arcing that's been happening. It'll turn the plastic into sort of like this charcoal stuff. And you can get intermittent connection between pins that aren't supposed to be connected, of course.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

I would examine those real closely. Another good move when the amp was off would be to try an ESR or capacitance meter on all the filter caps and see if wiggling the ends around or anything. You might have a capacitor with like an internal poor connection. On a Kelly. It wouldn't be the end of the world to just replace the. The electrolytics. But you know, I hate to. They might be fine. It might be something else. I don't know of any Kelly schematics. There is a Kelly here as a matter of fact. I bet you that it probably uses 50, 50 at 500 volt clamp lock clamp cans like a Marshall. And you could replace them without the amp gods going nuts as far as originality. But you would just be guessing. So it really should be looked at by somebody that knows a little bit about what they're doing. But even then, if it's really inconsistent, gotta make sure that a technician type person can actually see what's going. You know, can actually have the problem occur. That's a tough one. Look at those tube sockets, look to see the EL34 sockets. Look to see if there's any arcing or burning either side, the tube side or the wiring side. Look close with a flashlight, get a scraper in there, see if any of it's sort of charred. That indicates the potential to be causing. That was a tortured sentence. That could be the problem. And that'd be something that you could clean up real easy and fix. But I go, I go slow on replacing the filter caps even though it's not such a valuable amp that we have to worry about that lower in the value of it. But it's just not certain that that would fix it. Especially if you don't really know what you're doing. I try to look a little harder. And you're welcome to call me in the daytime on that one.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Skip]

I could look at the other Kelly and at least tell you what the values in that one are.

[Jeff]

Oh, that'd be good.

[Skip]

They're rare here on this side of the pond. 2. I am rambling today. Can't keep that. Need more coffee. It was at half an hour. I thought it was a half an hour earlier. I peaked too soon. Like you in the Golden State or the. What's it called? What's that huge. What's that run called?

[Jason]

Golden Western State.

[Skip]

Western Stay. Yeah. Yeah. Peaked too soon.

[Jason]

Well, I didn't run it. I just watched it.

[Skip]

Well, you're thinking about it. Don't at any point.

[Jason]

That's true. That's true in life.

[Skip]

Exactly.

[Jason]

Okay, we'll do a couple more and then let you take a nap.

[Skip]

I gotta go the other way.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Jason]

All right. This one is from our dear friend Doug.

[Doug Freeman]

Hey, gents. Doug Freeman here in Los Angeles. Following up on your recent conversation with Jim Campalongo. He talked about playing with accordion in one of his groups. I've done a fair amount of that myself. First with a western swing band called Radio Ranch Straight Shooters. We played once in the early 90s at Demarcos 23 Club in Brisbane, which Jim talked about, and later in the early 2010s with a band of mine called Doozy, which played 20s and 30s era pop music and early jazz, along with some French musette stuff. Accordion is such a cool and fun instrument, capable of dynamic melodic flourishes, rich harmonic colorings and mind blowing rhythmic jabs and stabs. In the mid-90s, a fine jazz guitarist from Philadelphia named George Paracis turned me on to the Joe Mooney Quartet. Mooney was a pianist, accordionist and arranger, blind since the age of 10 from a car accident, and his quartet from 1946-49 included himself on accordion along with guitarist Jack Hotop, playing the rare Gibson ES250 with Charlie Christian pickup through an EH150amp, Andy Fitzgerald on clarinet, and bassist Gate Frega, who left the group in 1949 to become a priest. With Mooney's killer accordion chops and breezy lead vocals, backed with unison vocals from the group and with elaborate instrumental interplay and head arrangements. Never committed to paper, these Guys created a modern hip combo that swung like crazy. Think the Benny Goodman Quartet and Nat King Cole Trio. They never had huge commercial success, but were widely admired among other musicians and entertainers. The Hep label in the UK put out two compilations on CD in 1999. Do you long for Oolong? And Joe breaks the Ice? Which I believe are still available on Amazon. Check them out and be enlightened. Finally, a food tip. Collard greens. But instead of collards, substitute our beloved kale. Shorter cooking time than collards, but mixed in with all the typical down home greens ingredients, you'll never know you're eating kale. So that's it. Onward and upward from ice cream trucks to logging trucks and everything in between. Cheers.

[Skip]

Wow, that guy must be a writer. It sounded like he was reading the liner notes that he made for that record.

[Jason]

Well, he's the. Isn't he the typewriter guy?

[Jeff]

He probably.

[Jason]

Probably used a typewriter to type it all out.

[Jeff]

Oh, and then read it. Yeah.

[Skip]

That is beautiful. Well, that is a smoking hot band that I haven't thought of for a long time. And it's not cocktaily at all. And the accordion in that context is almost like a little Hammond organ or something. You know, it's just like he said, you can get such a wide variety of sounds out of it, and that that band was. That's definitely something that you'd enjoy hearing a few songs on YouTube by, because they're. They're really hot. And if you put enough pork sausage in with your kale, then I'd eat it too.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

Sure. A pig knuckle or something like that.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

So. So you say he's a tech writer?

[Jason]

No, he was. He's the typewriter guy, Doug Freeman.

[Skip]

Oh, typewriter guy. Yeah. Yeah, he probably did type that thing. Yeah, I. I gave. I got rid of another one recently. I just want you to.

[Jeff]

No, I.

[Jason]

How'd it happen?

[Skip]

Well, I mean, there's. I think I have 15. So, you know, got to distribute them. You can't just keep getting more and more and more.

[Jeff]

Yeah, right.

[Skip]

Because that's some point. That is Anybody. Well, a certain type of person. Nothing more relaxing than staring at one of those that you just got at a yard sale and kind of cleaning it, oiling it up a little bit and pushing the little things and taking it a little bit apart. Not much, just. They're complicated, but they're so mechanical that a brain like mine, just half an hour goes by and got it all cleaned up and it works really nice. Very satisfying.

[Jeff]

Yeah. All right.

[Skip]

I'm still waiting for Trump to call for the one I have. That's all caps that he hasn't. Yeah, Gotta find somebody who yells all the time for that one from a telegraph office. That's what, that's why it was done that way, because on telegrams they were all caps, you know?

[Jeff]

Right.

[Skip]

Arrive 12pm Stop. I don't know what I'm going to do with that one, really.

[Jason]

I mean, you got to keep that one.

[Jeff]

That sounds cool.

[Skip]

Yeah, right? I'm never gonna want to do that. I want, I want the. I have one that types italics and it looks, it looks just like the volume, treble bass and stuff on those standouts. It's kind of like a cursive. And I'm going to make some labels with that.

[Jason]

That's pretty fun.

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Nothing like some cool visuals. Tin Can Valley. I'm almost out of everything that guy sent me because anybody who comes over just like grabs a little notepad or some tags or something because all of his art is really cool. Tin Can Valley, love it. One of our secret sponsors.

[Jason]

All right, speaking of sponsors, thanks to Amplified Parts, thanks to Emerald City Guitars, and thanks of course to Grez Guitars. Hope to see a bunch of you at the Fretboard Summit 2025 in Chicago. Hit me [e-mail] if you have any questions or if you have a question for Skip. And we'll make this our last voice memo for this episode. This is from frequent frequent contributor Jeff Shicatano.

[Jeff Schick]

Skip Jason, Jeff Schick here, coming in Live, Kennet Square, PA Lear Addition at Tava.

[Jason]

Gotta love it.

[Jeff Schick]

Love you guys, man. So a couple of things here. Let's start with the amp stuff. Speaker to power ratio, right? 15 watt speaker, 10 watt speaker, 2025 watt, 50 watt El Nico ceramic. How do you know what to match up to the single ended amp that only pushes 5 watts to the push pull one that maybe goes 45 in a big old basement.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Jeff Schick]

And maybe that matters when you've spread it across four speakers or one or two. But I guess it, it's a matter of preference when it relates to. Do you want it to break up early for the harp gods?

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Jeff Schick]

Do you want that clean Charlie Christian, right? Pedal steel type? I know he didn't play pale steel, but.

[Jeff]

Oh well. Yep.

[Jeff Schick]

Or even the hi fi, Right. How do you choose that? Super efficient closed cab, lots of insulation direction when it comes to sound. Well, I'm all in, man. About all of it. I'm very interested in trying to build a little cab and put one of my PA heads in it and making it sound great. Thank you, Skip. At the same time, let's switch gears to the music that kind of. Maybe that did shape our lives. That made an impression on all of us. Whether you were born in the 40s, 50s, 60s, like me. Great year. 69.

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Jeff Schick]

Maybe the 70s or 80s. Well, I have to thank my brother Michael that introduced me to a lot of stuff.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Jeff Schick]

From the who that we're here now. Yeah, little Floyd, little Zeppelin, all that classic rock. How about Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush? Acid rock.

[Jeff]

Oh, right. I don't know.

[Jeff Schick]

I heard it all as I learned how to clean weed in an album cover.

[Jeff]

Oh, boy. Yep.

[Jeff Schick]

Gotta love those old album covers, man. I used to stare at them for hours, check it out and pretend I was a rock star.

[Jeff]

Whatever. Oh, well.

[Jeff Schick]

Go get it, keggers. Reach back and listen to the music that we all loved. From the roller skating tunes of the Little River Band reminiscing.

[Skip]

Really?

[Jeff Schick]

How about Daryl hall and John Oates and Soul of Billy Where I Live Now. And then let's not forget the likes of, I don't know, Molly Hatchet and the Southern rock stuff, man. So much good music out there. Dig, dig, dig. And, you know, maybe introduce your kids to it and play it at the family barbecue or the family reunion or just hanging out here in your basement or the Stu Stu studio and looking at a bunch of amps that you don't play. But, boy, you sure do love to look at. Thank you, Skip and Jason. T A V A Keggers. Happy summer, boys and girls. This is Jeff Schick, over.

[Jeff]

Wow.

[Skip]

If you ever needed any proof that we don't edit.

[Jason]

No, I know. We got to cut that guy off.

[Skip]

The only problem is he. He always touches on some good ones. Molly Hatchet, Flirting with Disaster. Hall and Oats, Yacht rock. But of course, amazing as it seems, the answer to the speaker question would take even longer than that question, which you'd think would be measured like. Like a glacier, you know, there's all kinds of speakers. There's all kinds of rules. There's all different ways to use them. There's all sorts of stuff that's quote unquote, best for this and best for that. And the books are lined up on the shelf for 25ft. All that really matters to us. What is what something sounds like. I play a speaker that's rated at 100 watts in my test cabinet with little tiny amps that put out three watts and it sounds okay. Some sounds fine. Some speakers need more juice to get them loud and some don't. But any sort of defining rules about it, forget it. Like, if you want to buy a speaker, the only thing you want to think about is do you want the speaker to add to the distortion of the amp or not really? If you want the speaker to get kind of crunchy sounding, well, something with a smaller magnet that can handle less power is going to do that. If you don't want the speaker to add a bunch of distortion, the guy with his homemade twin reverb thing there, then you want something where the speaker has a lot of headroom. And that's like I said, the real answer could go even longer than Jeff Schick's question, which was really long. But that's it. It doesn't really matter that much unless you're going down that road. Like building your own hi Fi speakers at home used to be a thing too. And I say more power to you. But most of the classic stuff in the guitar world isn't really a speaker cabinet at all. It's just a box most of the time without even the back on it.

[Jeff]

Right?

[Skip]

Marshalls 412 sealed up, Ampeg SVT 810s all sealed up. But a lot of the lower volume classic stuff is all just a speaker or two in a box without even a back. And the dimensions and those sorts of things don't really matter that much. And then speaker preference, whatever you like is just fine. Just don't use a speaker where the amp is way quieter than it ought to be or something like that. You know, as long as the amp seems happy with it. And we all know because I say it all the time, good amp, 100% mismatch, impedance wise, up or down, usually no problem. So just relax, have some red wine with the ice cube in it, junior, and don't worry about it. We did it. That was pretty fast. It's only 10:30.

[Jason]

It's a fast one, Jeff. You need your own drive time radio show or something. But thanks for the question.

[Skip]

I know. And he's not really like that in real life.

[Jason]

Oh, he hams it up for our podcast.

[Skip]

Well, he's. He's not like a DJ or anything. He's in. He's in sales, where he works on really exotic equipment, where he travels all over the place. I forget what it is. It's some type of where you go to big factories, like huge factories. But he's not like that when he's just standing there. Or when he's talking to me on the phone, sometimes he gets a little bit wound up, but.

[Jason]

Okay, well, I think he just.

[Skip]

He just enters a slow pace. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason]

All right, well, be like Jeff, send us questions for future episodes. Podcastournal.com. yeah, shorter, shorter questions.

[Jeff]

Right.

[Jason]

And thanks.

[Skip]

Follow up on anything from previous shows. We'll try to get that Standell guy. Maybe Todd Kleinsmith who builds the Bigsby guitars.

[Jeff Schick]

He'd be.

[Jason]

That'd be fun. That would be really fun.

[Skip]

Have a great time at the fretboard summit. It'll be. I know it's a ton of work, but you get a lot of love from it, from people, I'm sure. And it'll be over until the next year. You have about eight months off before you have to start now, six months off before you have to start planning the next one.

[Jeff]

Right?

[Jason]

Totally.

[Jeff]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Well, you rock. And thanks to all our sponsors. And remember, if you. If you're not getting a hold of me, just. I'm here. I know we're to going anywhere. Just keep calling me or email me and we'll get to it.

[Jeff]

Okay.

[Skip]

All right, thank you.

[Jason]

All right, bye.

[Jeff]

Skip.