Ep. 159: "TAVA, Again...Exclamation Point"

Summary

The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 159:

“TAVA, Again...Exclamation Point”
Fretboard Journal Podcast | January 17, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this uniquely cozy and character-filled installment, amp guru Skip Simmons and Fretboard Journal’s Jason Verlinde field another wild assortment of listener questions on vintage tube amp repair, restoration, and collecting. The conversation meanders, in classic TAVA fashion, between deep technical amp topics, rustic cookware collecting, small-town weather chatter, and a barrage of listener-contributed recipes and domestic hacks. Several on-air voice memos add to the episode’s atmosphere—part technical helpline, part kitchen talk radio, and, at points, relatable amp therapy session.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Weather, History, and Life’s Pacing [00:35]

• Skip reflects on California’s historical weather disasters and the relentless pace of modern life, advocating for a return to slower communication.

  "This fast communication is wearing. I think we should go back to where you have to send a telegram ... wait six months to hear back." – Skip [02:22]

2. Collecting Cast Iron Cookware [03:04]

• Skip shares a recent acquisition: an antique ‘scotch bowl’ cast iron pot estimated to be from 1890 or earlier.
• Discusses the lack of straightforward reference books for cast iron (comparing it to "the vintage guitar price guide for pans") and appeals for listener book recommendations.
• Noted the appeal and history to identifying old cookware, especially impressed by the thinness and featherweight of the oldest pieces.

3. On the Amp Bench: Rare Fender Princeton Oddity [08:21]

• Skip describes having multiple early Fender Princetons in for work, including a 1948 model with never-before-seen factory wiring:
  • A cathode bypass cap routed to the positive speaker lug instead of ground.
  • Only two filter caps, unusual among small Fender amps.
• Musings on amp circuit oddities and the historical evolution of these designs.

4. Listener Q&A and Kitchen Insights

a. Transforming Hi-Fi Amps for Guitar Use [15:19]

• Franklin asks about modding BellSound 2122C hi-fi units:
  • Skip recommends keeping two as hi-fi, using the third for experimentation only if its cosmetic or collectible value is low.
  • Offers practical advice for keeping home hi-fi systems simple and family/partner friendly:

    "If you want people to get into it, got to make it so they just go over there and go click." – Skip [19:29]

b. Preserving Fender Amp Tube Charts [25:20]

• Creston Lee is replacing a warped baffle in a ‘70s Deluxe Reverb and doesn’t want to damage the paper tube chart under a new cleat.
  • Skip: Moving the cleat is preferable, as removing a glued tube chart without damage is virtually impossible; “meditate for a few hours and it'll be all right” if you have to cover a corner.

    "I don't know how you do that." – Skip [27:37]

c. Understanding Modern DIY Tweed Amp Kits [31:11]

• Danny from Chicago wonders why kit resistors & caps have higher current/voltage ratings than vintage Fender specs.
  • Skip: Extra voltage/wattage rating is harmless or beneficial and doesn’t audibly change amp tone.
• Speaker impedance question: Running 8 ohm speakers on a 4 ohm OT tap is non-critical for low-watt Fender circuits; tweak, listen, and don’t fret.

d. Cleaning and Maintaining Rusty Faceplates [47:48]

• Drew inquires about protecting the faceplate of a barn-find tweed Vibrolux.
  • Wax or a very thin clear plastic overlay (binder divider style) suggested to lock in patina without further damage.
  • Tips: Old car restoration communities use similar tricks.

    "An old school way too, is wax. You know, a lot of those people put good quality wax over whatever patina ancient paint that they have." – Skip [55:10]

e. Two-Prong Cord Replacement in Europe [55:47]

• Yrne from Norway asks if he can just swap the plug, or needs to replace the whole cord.
  • Skip: If cord is safe, hardware store plug replacement is acceptable. If not, replace the whole cord. Offers to mail a plug if unavailable in Norway—“worth it for that.”
  • Call includes a charming, spa-like Norwegian instrumental performance.

f. Capsules of Wisdom: What Does Skip Instantly Throw Away? [40:33]

• Mark Pollock asks what Skip trashes upon arrival.
  • Junk ancient electrolytic and leaky wax caps go; odd unidentifiable tubes sometimes repurposed as boat anchors or sculpture material.

g. Rickenbacker Output Transformer Replacement [73:07]

• Richard from BC is snowed in and asks about replacing a Rickenbacker OT with a Fender unit.
  • The brand is secondary to voltage/spec match; recommends Hammond (available via Amplified Parts).
  • PS: WD-40, allegedly soothing for knee pain; “Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.” [76:50]

h. Summer Recipes and Food Chats Galore

• An unending stream of food hacks: pizza dough ball trick, Colombian bean stew, multicultural kielbasa mashups, and more.
  • The show’s unexpectedly robust exchange of food tips prompts Skip to reflect on making things at home, and buying thrift cookware ("Luster Craft" stainless steel: “Cadillac cookware,” [46:33]).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

On the value of slow information:

• "People are getting so worn down because they can’t unplug from the daily. I think we should go back to where you have to send a telegram or get the pony express guy ..." – Skip [02:10]

On DIY kit parts ‘upgrades’:

• “What’s wrong with a little bit of headroom is what I say.” – Skip [32:39]

On emotional amp work—a recurring TAVA therapy theme:

• “Part of me will always wonder. Boy, we could just sit on that for a while.” – Skip [33:45]

On keeping home hi-fi simple:

• “Make it so they just go over there and go click. We don’t sit on the couch, Pink Floyd in the sweet spot of the stereo, very often. We just want some music that sounds good as we go about our lives.” – Skip [19:29]

On junk triage:

• “Some even not electronic, but like sculpture. I’ve seen robots and stuff made with tubes in them.” – Skip [43:34]

On foreign listener serenades:

• “It was like a going to a day spa. … We could have Yrne talk about his broken two-prong cord for hours and we'd make so much money. It'd be so soothing.” – Jason [59:01]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:04] Cast iron cookware collecting, history, and identification
• [08:21] Early Princeton amp discoveries and odd circuitry
• [15:19] BellSound hi-fi into guitar amp? Keeping convenience front and center in home audio
• [25:20] Fender amp baffle/tube chart OCD quandary
• [31:11] Modern DIY amp kit parts ratings and speaker impedance matching
• [40:33] “What do you throw away on sight?” Skip's repair shop triage
• [47:48] Protecting rusty vintage faceplates (tweed Vibrolux)
• [55:47] Norwegian two-prong cord blues (with live spa uke)
• [73:07] Rickenbacker power transformer replacement / WD-40 for joint pain
• [79:30] Pizza dough hack and post-guitar show social observations

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Extra: Listener Recipes & Food Tips

(scattered liberally throughout)

• Pizza hack: Buy dough balls from a local pizzeria, subdivide and proof at home for convenience [79:30]
• Beans and kielbasa: Danny’s fast goya cargamonto bean stew with local Polish sausage [36:21]
• Cast iron restoration: Evapo-rust for ancient cookware [05:00]
• Luster Craft cookware: Thrift purchase recommendation [46:32]
• Vegetable TN ("Tian"): Bob’s ratatouille-style summer bake [70:20]

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Tone & Final Impressions

The episode radiates warmth, patience, a tactile love of objects, and gentle, wisecracking humor. The technical advice is robust but ever practical; “Keep it simple, keep your hands and family safe, and don’t stress the small stuff unnecessarily.” Listeners are encouraged to embrace both DIY fearlessness and humility—whether troubleshooting rare amp circuits, modifying cherished gear, or simply making beans or pizza at home.

Closing Sentiment:

“As long as people keep asking us, we'll keep doing it.” – Skip [85:36]

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Endnote:
As ever, TAVA remains one of the most idiosyncratic and community-driven podcasts in guitar culture—where a question about a 1948 Princeton might earn you a lesson in cast iron, a pizza recipe, and sincere advice, all in the same neighborly breath.

Transcript

[A]

Have I done it?

[B]

You did it.

[A]

All right. I had a little, a little mishap right there at the end. And technically wise. Hold on. I have to turn the heater off. I forgot to turn it down. Hold on.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

All right.

[B]

How we doing?

[A]

After six weeks, eight weeks of no sun, no moon, no stars, no sky, just gray like up there. Now it's upper 60s in the afternoon. Bright blue sky, sunny. My super tight house doesn't even need a heater. That's why it accidentally turned on because I had the door open and just flip flopped. History buffs. 18, 1861 or 1871. 30 days of rain in California filled the entire Central Valley all Marsh. And then 30 months without appreciable rain. One of the biggest droughts that we know of recently and wiped out all the livestock and everything else. That could happen again, couldn't it?

[B]

I mean, it feels like anything could happen. This has been a weird winter.

[A]

Wall Street Journal note, big article about the Rancho Gordo bean guy. Oh, positive, I bet. Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

[B]

Okay, Start.

[A]

Start talks about him starting out Napa, Northern California, saying, hey, this is the stuff, right? But going to farmers markets and having people say beans, dry beans, that's for poor people. And then the hippies, it says the hippies from the health food store, like what you want, how much for beans? Because they weren't really into the whole boutique style of it. Right. But very interesting article. And you guys know that I, I love a print newspaper and it's really hard to find one. And I don't. Yeah, I read the Wall Street Journal, but I don't read all the financial junk. It's just the 10 pages. And it's. These days it's sort of middle y. It's definitely not hard one way or the other. That's for sure. And then I've also got the habit of not reading the news until it's about three days old because I can't. Oh, just. I know some. So many people are getting so worn down because they can't unplug from the daily. I think we should go back to where you have to send a telegram or get the pony express guy, you know, wait six months to hear back. You know, this fast communication is wearing.

[B]

Yeah, I'm with you.

[A]

I'm going retro, baby. I'm. I'm going to put out. I'm putting out a request. Someone tell me the author and title of a book or two about cast iron cookware, about pans. I have one from the 70s that has a little bit about pans, but it's mostly about other cast iron stuff, and I know there's got to be one out there. Wagner, Griswold, Erie. Even if it was from the 70s or 80s when, you know, everything was $6, just when did the company change from this logo to that logo? And why was I. Why am I talking about that? I think I just got the oldest one I've ever had from a online auction house that my daughter half frequents. And you can't ever really tell from pictures, but she gambled on a couple of things, and one of them is 1890 at the newest. It's an eerie, which is before Griswold and this logo that this thing has, which you can barely read because it's in pretty rough shape. A little bit of looking, a lot of dopes, you know, talking, but who knows. Who really knows what they're talking about. But this block logo is apparently only used till 1890.

[B]

Whoa. Wow.

[A]

That's getting back there, man.

[B]

Is this going to get used by you?

[A]

This thing sat outside. It's almost like a civil war, you know, battlefield thing. I'm not sure I could get enough of the pitting off of. Yes, you could use it, but you definitely have to kill what patina it had because it's. It's not smooth and beautiful like one that's. That's been not buried in the dirt. Right. She got a couple things. The other has is the classic cast iron mold in the shape of ears of corn that you put corn, you put batter in there and you make what are called corn sticks. It's called a corn stick pan. And it also had been outside for a million years. But I used some of the cool, slow working, mellow the rust stuff we've mentioned in good goo evaporust. I think that's it. You can cover it with plastic so it stays active for a really long time. And I did it to that corn thing, and it looks really nice now. And it's super old, too. You can just tell by the way it's manufactured. But of course, I don't have a book where I can go, oh, this is one of these from this period or that period. Sometimes they don't have names. A lot of times they don't have names, you know, or really logos. You got to be in the know. I mean, miss the late, great Earl Yarrow, who knew all about that. I could have called him up. And this, the oldest one is called a scotch bowl. We know that it's rounded at the bottom, not flat. And then it has a ring around that. Not three little legs so that you could put it on a flat surface and it wouldn't roll over. But it's basically made to hang over a fire, you know.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Anyway, that's, that's, that's not on the bench. That's on the counter.

[B]

Perfect.

[A]

On the counter.

[B]

I can't believe if there isn't a beautiful coffee table book about vintage cast iron man. I should do that. I don't know. Somebody should.

[A]

I just want the basic one like there is about other stuff where you can just get some basic stone age information. Even if it's from the 70s and 80s, that stuff's been collectible in a certain world forever. And something new and flashy and glossy. Yeah, I have a typewriter book like that. But I look a lot more at the one that's just more dry and just like more of a list so you can look something up really fast and. And there's more things covered.

[B]

You want the vintage guitar price guide of cast iron.

[A]

I just want to know. Well, say you take a company that you found something of Wagner, Griswold. Those are two of the huge. All you have to do is look at the logo like a Fender logo. You can just go, oh, well this, this is from 1946. This is from 1986. This is from 1880. Right. Just by some key details. But again, a lot of them don't have that. And you just have to be in the know the new pot, the scotch bowl is featherweight. The metal is so thin you can't even believe it's cast iron. And that's another thing about the really old stuff is it wasn't super thick and heavy.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Because they get heavy. That's why a lot of people don't like cast iron.

[B]

You couldn't weigh down your stagecoach when you're, you know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Coming west.

[A]

But I mean. Yes, but for us they're just heavy to lift up one handed. And it wouldn't break on your stagecoach unless you hit it against something equally hard. Cast iron. I mean you can't really like cut that stuff or do anything to it. It would eventually shatter. But you'd have to hit it really hard.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

Yeah. What is on your bench, not your counter. What are you actually working on amp wise?

[A]

I got some crazy circuitry notes. I had all the early Princetons at once. The woody one, the barn find 46. Then there was a 48, first year tweed. Then there was a table, then there was a 52. Well, the middle one, the 48 was factory. And it had something on it that no one I know has ever seen before and certainly not on any kind of Fender. And it's going to get super dry here for people that don't care.

[B]

But no, people do care.

[A]

Well, I know there are some people care that this thing is basically a champion. A 6 SL7 or 6 SC7 is the first dual triode. Basically a 12 AX7 and then a 6 V6 and a 5 Y3. Just like a silver face one, basically. So the power tube is of course cathode biased and has a resistor from the cathode to ground, which is bypassed in almost every amp by an electrolytic capacitor, a bypass capacitor for the power tube. And it's always grounded. It's basically paralleled with the resistor. However, this thing has the resistor hooked up normally, but the capacitor does not go to the other side. It doesn't go to ground. It goes to the positive lug of the speaker.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or you don't hook stuff like that up there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that is just a few Ohms above ground, like 4ohm or 8ohm speaker. But it's. It ain't ground. And what does that do? And why did they do it? Is of course our Paffler. And I'll give you a hint, it's the only print. Well, I've had quite a few early. I mean, I got a lot of notes on amps like this. I never seen anything like this. And then it only has two filter caps, which every other little amp that we deal with has three. And this one only has two. And it had this factory dealio with the bypass cap on the. On the 6V6. And I see odd stuff, weird stuff. Princeton reverb amp, silver face with the red lettering. But I say electronically. I went, huh, what the hell? And if we have time, there's another two 6v6 push pull amp. Basically a Tweed Deluxe kind of thing that I'm looking at that has an equally bizarre hookup, the power tubes. But I don't want to put everyone to sleep.

[B]

Okay. What else going on?

[A]

That was great.

[B]

What else going on?

[A]

What's going on is.

[B]

Yeah. You didn't go to the guitar show.

[A]

No, but we should. Well, we could. Shouldn't we thank our sponsors?

[B]

Yeah, let's thank our sponsors.

[A]

Who's in charge here?

[B]

Speaking. Speaking of guitar shows, was he there? No. Well, no, because you weren't there. He was. I think a lot of people heard you weren't going and decided it wasn't worth the effort, including our buddy Barry from Grez Guitars. But you can see Barry and all of his absolutely beautiful, amazing creations at the Wood Wire and Volt show, which is taking place a week from now. So the week of January 22nd, 23rd in Anaheim. It's not NAMM, it's down the street from NAMM. It's a $20 cab ride from NAMM. And it's its own little like mini version where all the cool, cool boutique makers like Barry Satellite amps, Curtis Novak, Benson, who was just on our show, will all be there. The 700 watt creation will be there as well. So you don't even, you know, you should be able to hear that within a mile or two of wood wire and volts. But go there, see Barry also follow him on Instagram, please, because you get a cool behind the scenes look at how these, you know, redwood tops get cut out and like where the raw wood came from and it's just super fun. And then of course, we're brought to you by Emerald City Guitars here in Seattle, Washington, where you can find pretty much almost every vintage tube amp we've ever mentioned, almost in their inventory at some point in time, including the things like Dumbles, including Garnets, including Benson's, tons of Fenders and Marshalls too, of course. Tell them the fretboard journal and the truth about vintage amps sent you. And last but definitely not least, amplified parts. When you place your order at Amplified parts, everybody go tell them the truth about Vinod jam sent you. So they know. And it's kind of your one stop shop for all the new stuff as well as old tubes you may be looking for. And they have amp kits too, and pedal kits. So if anybody somehow has made it to 159 episodes of this podcast and has yet to bust out a soldering iron, there's your, there's your opportunity. Get a kit. Get started. Now you'll know what Skip's talking about all the time.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Maybe. I don't know.

[A]

That seems easy.

[B]

It's just a kit. It's just a kid away.

[A]

Exactly. I, I, I think, I mean, it's a golden age. I mean, you can poo poo stuff however much you want, but the fact that you could pick up the phone and have all the parts brought to you in a little pile, I mean, what's not to like? It's fantastic. Imagine dads making or moms making giant organs or TV sets from heath kits, right, where you just worked on It a half an hour a night, like for a year. Yeah, people did crazy stuff like that back then.

[B]

Those were the good old days. The world was a calmer place.

[A]

Yeah. All right. In a way.

[B]

Well, the way this show works is we get questions and emails and voice memos sent to us from around the world, most of which involve tube amplification and how to fix whatever is on somebody's bench. Anybody listening to this show, please be a part of it. Email us podcastretboardjournal.com with your question for Skip or occasionally a question for me. We have a patreon for the show for anybody who loves it and wants to get to the front of the line. And I often try to share some behind the scenes stuff. I need to get better about that for 2026. And Skip, do you just want to field some questions?

[A]

I'm ready for a question.

[B]

You're ready for a question? Well, I'm going to go back in time to the oldest question sitting in my inbox because there is a little bit of a method to the madness, but not much. Franklin writes after listening to Skip Talk about the BellSound 2122C hi Fi amp in the podcast. Recently, I have ended up with three of these on my bench for restoration.

[A]

It's not my fault.

[B]

I want to restore two of them to stock and use them as a stereo pair. But my question is for some ideas on what to do with the third one. Should I make it into a guitar amp? Any other cool mods or projects? No recipes this time, but if there's interest, I'll share one of my family's homemade salsa recipes. Franklin, thank you for the question. There is interest. Go ahead and send us your salsa recipe. Skip, what do you do with the third wheel of the Bellsound 2122C hi Fi collection you've amassed, as usual.

[A]

Well, not usual. Often the case. That's not the question. How are you going to get all the other people in your life to move out so you can have a hi Fi in every room, right? Or okay, so are you single here or what? You can't have too many of those. Really? I'm impressed that it got. They're not the easiest thing to work on because they're pretty small inside and there's a lot of parts in there. It isn't just a tweet deluxe, you know, there's a lot more junk going on and you know, the great Kevin from Ohio would just say, what are you talking about? You have one out in the garage, you have one in the laundry room with a little speaker for when you're in there folding clothes, right?

[B]

Yeah. One in the car.

[A]

If one was really rough and not super beautiful, you could go and build a different amp in there. Normally I say don't do that. Don't modify hi fi stuff into a guitar amp. But the third one, especially if it wasn't super showroom or anything, you could take it all apart and using the transformers make something else. So that's a thought. And then I'd also find out there might be an application that this particular person would have that we're not really thinking about. I really like something that's just right there. Like right where you're. Where you sit. For some people it's by where the computer is. I like the couch looking out this big window I have into this big open space with trees. That's right. That's where I sat when we did it on the phone. But something that you can just reach over and go. I'm a big fan of the Bluetooth thing because it could be anywhere in the room and you could get on YouTube. You could play that Bob Armstrong and Beatty thing. Did you post that?

[B]

I. I did post it on our, our Facebook.

[A]

Did you listen to that? A little bit, yeah.

[B]

It sounded great.

[A]

That thing that was a like a hundred dollar digital recorder just sitting in the right spot in front of that band outside with just those trees behind them.

[B]

And I'll include a link for anyone who's going what the hell are these guys talking about? I'll include a link in the show notes saying with the YouTube link to this video, we're talking. It's just audio.

[A]

The bottom line is that Keith Carrey, Robert Armstrong, Charlie Beatty, this people I know, Lee Jeffries.

[B]

This is a treats about Vinny James all star group.

[A]

Yeah, they play. They played some backyard party down the street from Keith's house. For whatever reason, Keith put the mic in the right spot. But then five guys who, you know, I used to play with those guys but only on drums. Right? These guys, duh. It's just beautiful. And it points out that you do not need to get too bogged down. And if you're interested in a recording, you can start tonight with a hundred dollars because there it is for you right there. Now what? The music you're going to put out is going to be that. But you'll see that it's that. That's all it really takes. That's the WD40 clean your tube sockets. Instead of something Way more complicated, like shopping for a compressor, you know.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And if you really are interested in recording rather than just recording gear, then that is an amazing advancement right there. If you have an extra 2122c, you get it somewhere close, you get a dinky ass little speaker. I like the Radio Shack Minimus Sevens. Affordable, Old good. I think they're about 100 a pair. They're from the 80s and 90s. Stick one of those real small like, like maybe a few hardback books is all, and stick it someplace where, especially if you can get it a little away from you so it's in over and up in a corner or someplace like that. They sound really good. And you'll just have a little hi fi that maybe the other people in your life won't want to throw you out for. People like stuff that's easy to operate. That's one thing that got me into the Fisher stuff when I was first starting out is I'd have a cool thing that I put together from stuff, you know, preamps and power amps and Mrs. Simmons could never figure out how to turn it on and really make it work. And so she never used it. Duh. So if you want people to get into it, got to make it so they just go over there and go click. And we don't sit on the couch. Pink Floyd in the sweet spot of the stereo very often. We just want some music that sounds good as we go about our. Our lives most of the time. How's that?

[B]

That was great. 2 comments about 2 comments to your point about Keith Carey recording the Backyard Jam. The very first video I ever shot for the Fretboard Journal was Jackson Brown performing Something Fine at his studio in Santa Monica. I think all of that gear, everything I use, you could buy on eBay now. 12 years old, 15 years old for probably under $300. And people say that it has this like great audio fidelity. Maybe they're just being nice to me. But yeah, it was all super at this point. Like stuff that would find in a thrift store almost. Second question. I'm looking at a picture of this Bell 2122C and it's adorable. It's got the transformer popping out, it's got some tubes. It's all the things we like. Shiny faceplate. When you see these old hi Fi things and obviously keep them as hi Fi as if you can, but if you're like our buddy Franklin and have a spare or three, when you see things that have like the 78 switch on the dial versus the LP or you see a high filter. Is any of that stuff ever anything you want to keep if you're going to use it as a guitar amp? Or do you kind of gut all that kind of 50s, 60s, hi fi fidelity shit out of it? Is there anything applicable or make a. Make a cool like, oh, I should keep this high pass filter that Bill put in this thing or whatever.

[A]

In general.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You get your reissue Strat and you start plugging it into any. All these millions of amps that just happen to be in a room, even if they're. And they're all hooked up to the same 12 inch open back cabinet. You start plugging into hi Fi amps, you're going to find a very limited pallet and a lot of controls that don't do anything with the guitar. That part of it. But that. But the circuitry is not goofy or lame or unexpected. It basically is just a lot of that stuff is a special preamp that you don't actually even have to use in a lot of these amps today. That was for phonographs, for turntables and different curves and different settings for different cartridges and stuff like that. None of that's going to do anything for a guitar. It just. It's made for hi Fi. Now you take a Bell 2122C, you got your 5Y3, your two 6V6s, you got a phase inverter. If you stopped right there and cut off everything in front of it and made your own guitar preamp. Right. You'd be getting more into the ballpark. Just take your schematics out and start looking at it with your highlighter pen and start comparing the crazy simplicity of any kind of guitar circuit with the crazy complexity of that stuff. And we'll say hi to the great Bill Bernard, who would say, eh, that stuff never works really for a guitar. This is a guy, you know, who worked repair in solid state hi Fi for years and knows a lot. Just we're looking for something with guitars that reacts to how you hit the string. And hi fi is more like reproducing something that was already done. You want to hear the cymbal crash when Miles starts the song, you know. But guitar stuff is kind of evolved to where it really needs to be control. You can control the sound more by how you play the instrument. Just different. Right? It's kind of vague. Wheel me back in here.

[B]

Okay, let's play our next voice memo. You can be a part of the show. All you got to do is grab your smartphone that's sitting in your pocket, hit the voice memo app, hit record, say something. Send it to podcastritboardjournal.com Undoubtedly, if it's not gibberish, I will play it on a future episode. Someone who did just this is our buddy Creston over in Vermont. Here we go.

[C]

Hi Skip and Jason. It's Creston Lee calling from Burlington, Vermont. I'm calling because I have a early 70s deluxe reverb and the original MDF baffle has puckered a bit with time. And though it sounds great, it's pushing the removable grille out in a pretty ugly way that I'm no longer able to ignore. So I'm considering cutting out the original baffle and replacing it with a floating birch plywood baffle attached to cleats in the style of an older Fender amp. I've done that before without any problems, so that's no big deal. The reason I'm calling is because one of the cleats would run right over the tube chart inside the amp. And I'd like to pretend I don't care about that sort of thing, but it just seems wrong to do it. So Skip, do you have any advice on how best to remove cleats, paper tube chart from the inside of a Fender amp so that I can do this whole thing and then glue it back in? Any advice would be gratefully accepted. Thank you very much.

[B]

Bye.

[A]

And I was getting cocky on this one and then right at the end I just.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, we've done 159 of these. I don't think we've talked about this.

[A]

Well, I got to be a lot more concise than that last answer. You let the leash way too long on that.

[B]

I'm sorry.

[A]

That'S notable. He's basically replacing the baffle on a Fender amp where the baffle is glued into the cabinet and the grill cloth is removable. It comes off from the front via Velcro. Older Fender amps, the grill cloth was actually stapled to the baffle, which is held into the cabinet with screws. So he's going to cut that old baffle out flush and install the older style little cleats of wood inside so you can have a new baffle and have it screw in the way the old amp did. Most commendable.

[B]

Typical OCD luthier move. Kresten makes beautiful electric guitars.

[A]

If was the guy with all the 2122 C's, was that Franklin in Up by your house?

[B]

I don't know that he Lives in my neighborhood.

[A]

But Franklin Munoz is.

[B]

Yeah, that was Frank.

[A]

Oh, he's gone off the deep end.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I would have said hi to him if I'd have known it was him. No, he's awesome. He just sent me a little care package, too, with some cool stuff in it, so had to mention him. So the tube chart usually is in a position where this operation wouldn't affect it at all. I'm not sure how he got one with a tube chart that's so close to the grill cloth that he's going to cover up the tube chart with one of his cleats. How do you get something paper. How do you loosen glue from paper and wood? Oh, dude. I mean, you could try something, but I would think as soon as any adhesive got loose enough to lift off the paper would also be done. You know what I mean? I don't know how you do that. How about just move the. Move the. The little cleats aren't going to be original anyway. So maybe just move them or split them or just somehow hillbilly it so you can preserv the tube chart or just meditate for a few hours and it'll be all right. And cover up a little corner of the tube chart on a 70s deluxe reverb. But he is admitting that that might give him sleepless nights forever. In which case, better not do that. Better think of some other plan. But I don't know how you'd get something. Paper off of there. Like, that'd be like.

[B]

You've never had to do that.

[A]

I've never dared to do that. And I'm not sure why anyone ever would. Except for this case. Right?

[B]

I can imagine.

[A]

Like, yeah, maybe an art restorer or a book restorer would know how to somehow apply. I don't know. Yeah, Would he? And it would depend on the glue. I bet you by the 70s, they were using some pretty sticky stuff. And if it's all real, even, or if it's just stuck down at a few spots, Might try a heat gun just to see if it would soften the glue behind. Just thought of that. But anything else I would say risks obliterating the tube chart, which, of course, you can buy fake ones now, you know, that look just like old ones.

[B]

But. But he would know it wasn't the real one.

[A]

I know. Think of this. Think of the tossing and turning at night that that would cause. Hey, at least our kooks admit they're kooks, right?

[B]

Yeah, that's true.

[A]

There you go.

[B]

We all have Each other.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

This next one is. I'm gonna have to read this. This is from a longtime listener, first time asker named Dan. Dan included a recipe. If you're somehow stumbled upon this podcast for the first time. Sometimes people do share food tips, but I'm just gonna have to. I guess I'm not gonna read all this out anyways. Amp part out. This is Danny from Chicago, the windy, wintry wonderland. I'm a devoted listener and appreciate the ideas, opinions and advice in all aspects of this podcast. Thanks, Danny. My question is a two parter and pertains to modern DIY tweed circuit kits available everywhere these days. Some years ago I assembled a 5F 2A Princeton, and after just recently comparing the schematic provided by the seller to the old Fender schematic, I noticed that other than some capacitors and resistors provided on the DIY kit having slightly higher voltage and wattage ratings, the kit is spot on in your estimation. Might these higher values be factored in for these kits to contend with the higher wall voltage of today? That's part one. I guess.

[A]

He'S saying that the schematic of his kit is the same as an old Fender schematic except for the wattage rating of the resistors.

[B]

Some capacitors and resistors have slightly higher voltage and wattage ratings. Yes.

[A]

Okay, so that just means that let's say the old schematic shows a.02 at 400 volts and he's got a.02 at 600 volts. Everything makes a difference. But you'd have to pile up a lot of that to make a, you know, a significant difference that you could really hear. I'd say absolutely not. And the bottom line is what's the B plus? What is the high voltage in the amp? And that's what higher wall voltage is, you know, connected to. Honestly, these days they figured it out. And modern amps don't run screaming hot on 120 volts like a lot of stuff from the 70s 80s does. And so that's the bottom line. If the, if the listener wants to light that thing up and tell me what's the plate current on the 6V6s, what's the high voltage, the B plus, and what's the cathode voltage on the Cathode of the 6V 6S, then we'll know something. Or then we could talk about it some more.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

In general voltage and wattage ratings, the wattage is for resistors. If it can handle one watt or a half Watt, I always use one watt, even if they're. They were half watt originally. When I'm building junk that's new just because they're new ones, 1 watt is plenty small enough. And what's a. What's wrong with a little bit of headroom is what I say.

[B]

Yeah. Part two of his question pertains to output impedance. When assembling the 5F 2A kit, I wired up the 8OHM tap to of the output transformer to an 8OHM 8 inch speaker rather than going with the usual 4OHM. My logic at the time was that I wanted an 8 ohm load so that I could drive different 10 or 12 inch speakers with the amp without too great an impedance mismatch. My question is, since the 552A was designed to see a 4ohm load, have I done a disservice to the performance of the amp because it's not seeing four ohms? I think it sounds and plays great. So this may be a total non issue, but part of me will always wonder.

[A]

Part of me will always wonder. Boy, we could just sit on that for a while.

[B]

We should do an entire. Before you answer this, here's a thought. We do an entire episode where people just call in and they talk about like Creston beating himself up because he moved the tube chart or slightly covered it up.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This emotional stuff, it's just emotional things you did to your amp that still haunt you even though everything is perfectly fine.

[A]

Mrs. Simmons has been watching this really hokey soap opera, but It's English called EastEnders. Yeah, it's been on for like 40 years or something like that. It's just. It's like General Hospital. I can't bear it. But it's, it's always. There's always something very emotional going on between this person. That person. Just have to let people call an emote. Right? Oh, you just drove me right off of that. Let's see. Okay.

[B]

Did Danny do himself a dissertation or the amp a disservice?

[A]

No, no, but hook it up. Like how many times do I have to tell people Tweed champ. Old ones I had just. I remember when they were 125 bucks. One day I said, let's unhook the speaker and play it through this old tweed deluxe amp speaker. A P12R8OHM Tweed Deluxes were, you know, 3, 350 and very common. So the bottom line was the 12 inch 8OHM speaker in a deluxe just absolutely crushed the little original 4ohm speaker in the champ Box just in every way. So what, what does that all mean? Hook the dang thing up. If amp has inverse feedback, which is signal taken from the speaker and fed back into the circuit to reduce distortion and volume. If it has that, then changing the impedance is going to affect, conceivably affect the sound. Whether or not you be able to hear it, I don't know. But I'm sticking with my 100% up or down. Anything good, anything built good fender pa heads, stuff like that. And the only time I'd really worry about perfect matching would be if you just decide you have to play your Marshall, you know, full tilt. Go ahead, put her on 16ohm. But make sure that junkie impedance selector thing isn't bent and broken before you start doing your Angus Young impersonation.

[B]

Okay. The Part of Me will Always wonder episode will be later in 2026, so send in your questions. Maybe you removed a band sticker from your amp and you've now regret that you did that. All that stuff. We want to hear about it. His food contribution is a recent discovery. He says, I'm not going to read the entire recipe. It's not that complicated though. The gist of it is he says, I found Goya cargamonto beans on the shelf at my local market. Cargamonto beans are a popular variety in Colombian cuisine and the canned beans are quick and convenient. The recipe that he went for, that I will include in the show notes at the very bottom went called for crushed tomatoes, but he substituted one can of El Pat because of course you do. Onion, green pepper, the cargamano beans, rinsed el pado, some spice. It's vegetarian as he wrote it. And then he says this serve over rice. This is great, but carnivores may want to add some meat. Living in the Polish neighborhood that I do. I sliced up and brown some fresh made kielbalsa from the local smokery and put it aside before softening the veggies in the fond, then adding it back in again during the simmering process. Multicultural chef's kiss. That was Danny in Chicago. Danny, come to The Fretboard Summit August 20th in Chicago School of Folk Music. We'll have a vintage amp room. You should be there.

[A]

Except he'll have to come the night before so he can start soaking his Rancho Gordo beans, right?

[B]

Well, no, he's doing cans. He, he's got the hack.

[A]

No, I know, I, I, I know. And reading about the Rancho Gordo guy makes me feel guilty about using the.

[B]

I interviewed him once he was interesting.

[A]

It was 25 years of saying, I think people will buy super expensive beans. And he finally got it. And one of his big things it said in the Wall street article was the club, 200 bucks a year. And you just don't think about it again, like getting dog food. And jillions of people have signed up for that. And that's what. Oh, and the pandemic, because everybody was going to stay home and cook and now he's doing fine and has employees and of course the product is fabulous and, and canned is fab. I've seen the Goya brand, but I haven't seen that type. And I like the La Castania whole pintos with their sauce, that's. But the other ones, buy whichever ones you want. And I'd suggest like this guy did rinse them carefully a lot because sometimes the juice isn't really what you want in your stuff. Right. So he said, he said his first bowl, the, the bean grower says his first bowl is always going to be lime juice and onions, fresh onions. Then he talks about later on in the week. Yeah, he makes a bowl, a big pot of beans like once a week and like eats it every day for a while. Right. Making different stuff out of it. Check it out. I'm sure you. I don't think you'd have to subscribe to see the Wall Street Journal ad after or article after a day or so. I think it was a couple days ago. Or I'll cut it out with scissors and I'll mail it to you.

[B]

That guy is a music lover. I don't know if that was covered. And I interviewed him for that Sweep the Floor podcast that was very short lived during the pandemic that I did. And he had some. Even by truth about vintage AMP's early episode standards, he had some incredible glitch going on on his audio. So we talked for like an hour and there was no way I could make it listenable for anybody. And it. And it was interesting because he was actually like a big, if I'm remembering correctly, like an exotica lounge music guy and wrote about, you know, Les Baxter and Esquivel and all that stuff back in the day. And then he found the beans after the music chapter of his life. So, I don't know, kind of interesting.

[A]

Definitely. Can we get him on the podcast?

[B]

Well, we try. I mean he needs, he needs one of your. Sure. Microphones. I don't know. So anyways, this next question is from listener Mark.

[D]

Hi, Skip. Hi, Jason. It's Mark Pollock here. Skip, I'm the guy that comes with Keith Carey, brings you coffee and has a high tolerance for junior. I had a real simple question for you, Skip. What is something that when you see it, when it comes into your shop, you immediately throw it in the bin. Either a part or a whole device. Something that comes in and you just immediately know, Nope, not dealing with it, not keeping with it. You chuck it out. And if a customer says, no, keep it, you say, oh, it doesn't work. I had to throw it out. Thanks guys. Have a great day.

[A]

Guys. Got the DJ tone, but he had too much background noise. He needs a better microphone.

[B]

Yeah, he does. He's like.

[A]

And he is a friend of Keith. He brought beans that he roasted himself.

[B]

What's the deal with all these? Oh, we're talking about coffee beans now. Why is this the bean episode?

[A]

Yeah, sorry about that. Veer into the coffee region. And of course it was a super caffeinated compared to what we drink. Because, you know, I guess should say I even wrote this down. New favorite on the coffee. You know, I drink already ground vacuum packed little cubes of span Italian style Bustello. Right. Is one of the kings or La Yave. L L A V E. I always said La la, but I think it's actually La Yave and both of those are excellent. But Mrs. Cinnamons found cello rojo S E L L O R O J O And it was like four, four dollars and something. A brick. And it's, it's even darker. It's more like an Italian style. And dump it into a, you know, airtight thing. It's a small can, 10 ounces. And it don't get stale in the time it takes us to drink that much, which is, you know, eight or eight days or something like that. And it's excellent. I'm having a hard time even getting her to go back at all. Somehow it's even darker, which of course lower caffeine. Whereas Mark, Mark's stuff is like, whoa, I think I better rake the leaves, right? What do I get that I throw away right off the bat? You just. Stuff comes in junk that people bring me. I look at it, I. First thing you decide is really right to the garbage or is there somebody, you know, that wants it like a tube that doesn't fit anything. I've given away thousands of tubes to people who just like the looks of them or just want to make crazy junk. Some even not electronic, but like sculpture. I've seen robots and stuff made with tubes in them. And I don't throw away that much ancient capacitors that are electrolytics. I mean, talking like stuff from the 40s and 50s, even if they're new, old stock. Nah. Lots of wax type capacitors that we know aren't really going to be used. Some of that stuff maybe, but if it's small enough like a component, then I can just keep it and wait until the time comes. You know, I've had books, I've had pieces of gear for a long time before I was able to unlock or do something, you know, with that thing, the writer book, the big writer manual. I had that thing for eight or ten years and all I'd ever do is open it up and go, whoa. And close it. Then I became, you know, got to the point where I could learn something from it.

[B]

So you have mentioned that, like certain capacitors and certain amps, you just throw them all away. I feel like that's been mentioned.

[A]

If it, if it comes out of a customer's amp, I go old school automobile auto mechanic with, here's your starter. And I took out a big greasy thing in a bag. Right. It also helps me keep track sometimes a long time later what it did. Because you guys. Well, customers know I don't do the, the Unabomber screed of like sitting there and writing down all this stuff. I just basically put a list of parts that were replaced. And if I have those all in, in a bag, then when we're out in the driveway, I'll go, well, these came out of this amp. That one's original but useless. And this isn't original. And you can do whatever you want with it. Some people take the bag and put it somewhere, and some people just go chink into the circular file right there in the driveway either way. So some stuff's useful. I save old Astron and Mallory capacitors so I can disassemble them and put new parts inside electrolytics. But that's just only a certain type. With a certain type of cardboard jacket. Sometimes you have to throw away transformers, especially if you don't know what they came from. People sometimes, oh, I saw these. They're transformers. And you're going, what is this even for? You know, like maybe not even audio at all. And sometimes you got to throw stuff like that away. We have a. I have a transformer that is actually used as an anchor for our boat that we fish for bass in the pond across the street.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

It's a rope tied to. Tied to a. A transformer. Yeah.

[B]

Can we get a photo of that.

[A]

Yeah, Maybe we could. It's truly a boat anchor.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah. Cello rojo, man. If you guys like the dark dark that. Gotta use a port. Gotta use a melita. Right? No press. It'd be super fine grind. But if you like that, it's good.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, here's another. Here's another kitchen tip, since we're on it.

[B]

Yeah, we got a ton of those.

[A]

There's a pot. There's a pot I don't use too often, but I used it the other day, and it's made by a company called Luster Craft. L U S T R E Craft with a C. Probably from the 50s. This is like Cadillac cookware. Luster Craft. So if you were starting out and you needed to get some pots and pans and somebody on ebay or wherever. Luster Craft. They're stainless, right. But they are so well made. They just look like they cost, you know, hundreds and hundreds of dollars per pot, which they would today and pretty mind boggling. And that's the kind of thing that's still totally thrift storable. And it'll be right next to the garbage aluminum pot that you don't want. And they'll both be a dollar. Right? Luster Craft. Yeah, you just pick it up. It's like quadruple layers. It's like copper with stainless on both sides. And it's really thick. And that's something super cheap or free. Something you don't throw away, right? Yeah, exactly. Next.

[B]

All right, this next one is from listener Drew.

[E]

Hey, Skip and Jason. This is Drew and Winston Salem, NC fretboard subscriber, Patreon person, yada, yada. Happy New Year's to y'. All. I'll get to the point. Well, I've got a Tweed Vibrolux here, 5F11, and it is a barn find. Long story short. Well, not that long. I'll just tell you what I know. But someone was buying a bunch of Harley parts, and the people selling them says, oh, we got this guitar amp, too. And obviously they don't know what they have. And then the person buying all the parts says, yeah, I'll sure throw that in. He didn't know either. And then this guy sees a friend and says, oh, they threw in this guitar amp, too. And then that guy was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. So that guy brings it to the guitar shop here that I do some repairs for, and this thing's just rusted all to hell. What I want to know, Skip, is. And I'll send pictures, obviously there's A lot of rust on the chrome faceplate. And not that I'm going to go, you know, rubbing my fingers all over this, but I know that if I put the knobs back on here when all said and done and you're turning one of them up, you're gonna smudge some of this paint off the chrome. What's the goo to. Is there anything to put over the chrome to kind of plate it or protect it from fingerprints and. Or whatever? I know how to get the rust off. I was just wondering if you had any experience with putting any sort of protector or lacquer is not the right thing to say. But yeah, I'm sure they have something smart to say.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

And now this thing was never really touched. All the parts are there and I've even in a little bunch of rust and crap and poop in the bottom of the chassis. I found the tag that has either Lupe or someone's name on it. And I'll send a picture of that too. I have in a little, little baggie. You can kind of see some writing on it, but not really then. Okay, second part of my call is I had a West Laboratories amp that I fixed last summer that was found in a church basement in the town next door called Greensboro, North Carolina. And I know there was a caller that called in about the transformers on it. Well, I looked back at my pictures and this was a 2EL34 or 6 CA7 whatever amp. Yeah, it looks like a big. Looks just like a big sun amp a head. And the power transformer was a grand brand power transformer from Grand Haven, Michigan. And the output transformer just said West Mo 50. I'm going to assume it's a Michigan company. They got the power transformer from Grants. So the output transformer is probably also grand. And then I'm poking around the Internet and I'm sure you know Haybower is based in Grand Haven, Michigan, so that's that. Nothing was wrong with this amp. Just had a rat or something that chewed up on the two prong cord. So I put a three prong on there and brought it up slow and yep, that's it worked great. Loud and clean. No food or music suggestions. This is already pretty long, almost four minutes. So y' all just have a good one. Thank you. Bye.

[A]

I guess we did have to have one proof today that you don't edit or listen to any of.

[B]

I mean, I screen him a little bit, but yeah, we don't have quite the show doing it.

[A]

What was he doing at the End with all the little noises. Sounded like he was like scratching a note on the back of a shovel with a piece of coal, something like that. If Habor Co. Was once called grand and was in grand something or other, Michigan, wherever the heck that was. That's interesting. West Amplifiers, small production, east coast, big old Loud, the Fillmore. I think they made one that was like maybe 150 watts or something like that. But I do feel for the tweed Princeton, like that stuff is the last thing that should be discussed. The first thing that should be discussed is I hope somebody that's a cool amp. It needs to be made the best it can. Normally, I would say even today. Yeah, yeah. Well, you just send me the chassis of that thing and then I'll know it's fixed up. Because how often do I see that stuff that's really done right? Not very often. So my only idea for his problem, which is the control panel's all rusted out. I mean, sure, you could take the rust off, but then there's just going to be pitting. Right.

[B]

And.

[A]

That rust off stuff I was talking about earlier today, someone told me they used it on a Falcon and it worked pretty good. Just. But just light rust. I.

[B]

This is pretty. I didn't send it to you, but it's pretty rough.

[A]

You could paint some kind of goo on it, but that's going to look stupid. And the only thing I came up with during that whole long thing was how about getting some really thin plastic. Stiff but thin, 32nd of an inch, you know, almost like the stuff in binders or whatever. And cutting out a little control panel and putting it over the top of it. At least it wouldn't get any worse. It would. And it would just, you know, be under like a very thin sheet of. I'm not exactly sure what kind of plastic you'd call that. Something you could cut with scissors.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

But that was maybe, you know, clear. I think there's. I think they make dividers for binders that are clear like that so you can see through them. I don't know. Find something like that. Not thick, not like a pick guard material, just something real thin and put it on there and at least it won't get any worse. It would make it more kind of giggable. And I could see coming up with that idea for a normal person, like somebody that had a old tweed that they wanted to gig the heck out of and just didn't want it to completely disintegrate away. I'd say yeah, a little cover like that could work.

[B]

What about. Well, I guess you have to apply it with water. I was going to say the stuff they put on cars, like car wrap, whatever that stuff's called.

[A]

There is a world of people who are into old, like driving around cars that look like they're like they just came out of the desert, you know, with like super patina. They put stuff on that to keep it from getting worse and just leaving it.

[B]

Find those people.

[A]

An old school. Yeah, an old school way too, is wax. You know, a lot of those people put good quality wax over whatever patina ancient paint that they have. If you look in the Resto mod world or the patina crowd and that of cars, you'll see products. But you'd be able to tell, right, that it had that stuff on it. But it probably would lock it in place.

[B]

Yeah, I don't know.

[A]

Yeah, next.

[B]

All right, another one that I probably haven't screened. This is from. Well here. Who? It's from Yearn.

[F]

Hey, Skip and Jason. This is Yonerik calling from Norway. Icy cold Norway here in Europe. Hope all is fine over there. I just broke my two prong cord on my 1965 vibro champ and I'm not sure what to do now. It's, it's got American voltage, but I need to change the two prong cord. It's just disintegrated when I tried to put it into a new socket. So should I, should I just change the plug itself or do I have to change the whole cable? Yeah, that's my question.

[G]

And.

[F]

I have a good experience with a book I want to share with you. My 12 year old son, he really wants to see it. The movie it. And I hate those movies so I'm not gonna see it. I tried once so I'm not doing that. And he's 12 years old so I thought like, well, you can wait but we can read the book. So every night now I've been reading it of Stephen King for him and it hits me. It's so well written like old Stephen King and he's really enjoying it. You know, the anticipation that Stephen King builds up with everything and with all these beautiful paintings of, of like what is happening in the book. You know, in the beginning the child is so happy and running with his newspaper boat. So I just want to recommend books, books for kids. That's good. Okay, I'm gonna practice now. Thank you for having the best podcast in the world and.

[A]

See you soon.

[B]

By.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

With the noodling in the background, that was like ASMR as if I knew what that was.

[A]

I was gonna say something about like, the guy must be like a, you know, a healing massage therapist. And that's the music that he plays while he's doing his thing with the crystals and stuff. Right.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

So what. What instrument was that? The Norwegians something or other.

[B]

This is Yearn's invitation to call back and tell us.

[A]

I thought it was a recording, but it's pretty obvious that he was playing it.

[B]

He was playing sound. It was so soothing. It was like a going to a day spa. We could have. You know how they have some of those YouTube channels that are just a fireplace that goes for 12 hours? The people are making millions of dollars a year. We could just have. You're in. Eric. Talk about his broken two prong cord for hours and we'd make so much money. It'd be so soothing.

[A]

I'm having a hard time just getting. Getting back into the groove after that. Right.

[B]

Need some like, water with slices of lemon in it or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cucumber.

[A]

Cucumber water for customer only. That's from Better Call Saul.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Cucumber water for customer only. Because his office is in the back of the place where they do your nails. Right. Okay. Fender mid-60s, smaller amps, especially the ones with zip cord, not round power cords. Had this two. Two prong end that's like made out of this ultra brittle plastic. It looks like. Almost looks like like toffee or something. And they often crack and break here. An option would be to whack the broken end off and go to the hardware store and get a good old fashioned end that goes on the end that has two prongs and call it, leave the cord, change the plug.

[B]

Do you think you could do that in Norway, though?

[A]

I don't know about it in Norway. I wonder what the plug looks like there. Darn Norwegians.

[B]

Can we just send him one yearn? We'll send you one.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

It even could be a. A cord with a plug on it. And all you'd really have to do is just get like wire nuts or something and just twist the wires together and wrap it with tape. If you wanted to be really a hillbilly. But a regular two prong they still sell here in hardware stores. A plug that you can put on any lamp cord that looks fairly old still, you know, and that would be ideal year.

[B]

And we'll send you one if you can't get one. If it's not legal in Norway, we'll send you one that would be awesome. Let's do that.

[A]

It was worth it for that. How many strings does that thing have right at the end? There are some low notes that I hadn't heard before when he was talking.

[B]

Yeah, it was sort of like. Yeah, it was kind of like a ukulele, but then it wasn't. I don't know. Yeah, he was doing. He was doing well with it, whatever it was.

[A]

Yeah, very cool.

[B]

Yeah, thanks. Thanks for your question. Let us know about all the other facets of your amp that are broken and just keep sending us soothing voice memos. And everyone else, regardless of what your voice sounds like or the fidelity of your playing. [e-mail] I've been dreading this one because I have to read a crap ton, but here we go. Bob subject line Premier B220 custom bass amp by Multivox I know, get used to my voice everybody. I have a premier B220 custom bass amp that I got from a friend that was in poor shape from the start. The grill cloth was gone. The Jensen 15 inch ceramic speaker needs a recone. The point to point components were covered in grime and dust and one preamp and power tube were missing. I have looked for a schematic but couldn't find much on this amp, so I started with replacing the speaker with a fender labeled CTS 15 inch ceramic. I cleaned the tube sockets, I tested and replaced the power and preamp tubes with good 7591s and 12 at 7s, cleaned the pots and performed a general dust grime removal from inside the chassis. The amp has two diodes for the rectifier and while I was cleaning the dust off them, the black coating peeled off without force leaving the interior of the diode looking more like an LED bulb without the light. After cleaning and initial service I brought it up on my Variac with current meter and tested the B on the 75 591s which were spot on with the RCA manual specs. I slowly brought the volume without input signal and it had normal hiss. Volume, bass and treble controls all appear to be doing their jobs. All other voltages and current draw tested well so I plugged in a guitar but the amp instantly went quiet. I tried other cables and both inputs seemed to do the same silencing to the amp. First pair of questions Are the diodes fine to keep in the circuit without that black coating and if not, what are the typical replacement diodes on this configuration that supplies a can capacitor with 40, 40, 10 microfarad at 400 volts with a similar tube lineup. We'll stop there.

[A]

You're getting ready to go do your. Your century run in the mountains. And you look down, you look down and there's just like blood pouring out of your leg. And you go, should I run or should I try to see what the generally speaking electronic component that physically looks really different has had a hard life. And a 1N4007 diode, which costs pennies, is a standard rectifier. And a couple of those to replace the one that. Sometimes you'll see some parts that look like they've overheated but haven't. There's certain 70s ampegs have these coupling caps that. The finish is a really hard polyester, almost like orange drops, but it gets these little cracks in it. I found out after messing with a bunch of them that it's just cracks that form in the finish. But a diode or any generally any electronic part that obviously could have been overheated should be replaced. So just start there and then premieres. Complicated, weird, hard to work on. Even if you've done a few fender things, you could be going, huh? Schematic. You got to be able to tell by looking if it's original or not. The only time you'd really need a schematic is if a bunch of parts have been replaced and you can't tell if they're the right parts. But there's some. I'm not sure there's that premier schematic, but you might try Schematic Heaven, a free really fast place where there's a million schematics. I've given him a shout out a bunch of times. I'd like to. If I knew what his name was, I'd tell him how cool he is. So replace those diodes and report back. Right.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Get a doctor to look at that leg before you take off. Ryan.

[B]

Let'S just keep going.

[D]

We.

[B]

We've got more questions on.

[A]

Okay, so first we solve that. Yeah, but then we still could. Then we still could have all sorts of problems which you basically like. I have to do every podcast. I got this old crazy thing. I kind of know what I'm doing, but I'm not super experienced. What do you think's wrong with it? Right. And that can be tough because for one thing, most people assume that the stuff they did was great and Right. And so do I. Except when I go, wait a minute, that's not a hundred ohm. That's a hundred thousand ohm. Put your glasses on, right? I mean even people with a ton of experience make mistakes. So it can be pretty hard to troubleshoot something like this, right? Take your car to the shop, ask them what's wrong with it, then admit that you and your brother in law who has like a computer reader tried to alter the mixture in the fuel injection and you know, right? Anything could be wrong with it. But keep going. Let her rip.

[B]

Second pair of questions. How often do the input jacks on these old grimy amps and poor storage fail? And if they typically don't, what would be a good place to start troubleshooting to get input signal into the circuit?

[A]

Real switchcraft quarter inch jacks are almost lifetime. They generally are lifetime. I've seen a few that have been mangled so badly that I ended up having to replace them. But in general you're not talking about a part that you'd ever have to replace. Now it is a part that you have to keep really really clean and shout out to the unnamed buddy of the great Louis Garcia who decided a 22 rifle bore brush available at any hardware store. Little brush, you run that thing in, in and out of a jack and it cleans everything perfectly and keeps it all nice and shiny. And then a lot of input jacks have that third connection that's a little switch, little switching device. You got to make sure that's clean and tight too. For that I use a feeler gauge mounted in a in a wooden handle because you don't really want to remove metal, you just want to shine it up like it's called burnishing. And that's what I use for the little switch next.

[B]

Lastly, the coupling caps are marked with values 0.047, 0.02, et cetera, with voltages labeled but not marked with anything else. They are a cyan, seafoam green in color and of mid-60s vintage based on the date codes within the amp and the original speaker. Have you had experience with these and if so, who is the manufacturer? And are they reliable or are they something that should warrant replacement without cost? Question.

[A]

Have had lots. Premier used them a lot, don't know the brand, very high quality. But what do we really want to look for before we start changing parts like that? We want to see if it leaks voltage. Capacitor leakage in coupling caps isn't goo coming out of it, it's the fact that capacitors can allow DC voltage to pass through them, which they shouldn't because it's two wires going, a wire going in and out of a capacitor. But those two wires don't touch, ever. But if they do start to touch, then voltage can get through it. And that's when you have to replace a capacitor. Me, after all these years. There are certain kinds that you just go, don't even bother. These all have to go, but they tend to be really old wax ones, early Japanese amps, hi fi tube stuff where the capacitors say oil filled. Those all have to go, but others really need to be checked. And of course, if it's bad, it's got to go. But you're not going to find any leakage, I don't think, on these premier caps, but you should check it. And if you don't know how, get your jack dar out because there's a big old drawing biggest stink showing how to do it and they're fine. Don't change them, especially not on a weird amp. Don't change anything until you get the thing going at least. Right. Otherwise you're just opening yourself up to more heartache.

[B]

Something's in the air. People keep sending us recipes again. After many months of no recipes, Bob concludes apropos of nothing with a recipe for summer vegetable. Is it TN t I a n the. You know, it kind of looks like a ratatouille thing. I'll just include that on the Instagram. I don't want to read this whole thing. But. But yeah, thanks for the recipe.

[A]

Yeah. Thank you.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Here's something vegetable related.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Due to the crazy weather we had this year.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

My. Where I live, especially my yard, because I'm here all the time, absolutely inundated with mushrooms.

[B]

Oh, nice.

[A]

I mean, 20 or 30 different kinds. Giant ones, orange, white spots, you know, Alice in Wonderland looking stuff. Right. And. And little brown ones and different green ones and it's just everywhere.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I've seen a few in the. You know, usually in the winter we see a few here and there, but this was unbelievable. I had big old circles around certain trees. There'd just be this huge, huge. It was wild. And those things are crazy, man. Like spores live in the ground forever and missions have to be just right.

[B]

I know I've mentioned it on this podcast, but if you have not seen the movie Fantastic fungi, go stream that now because it'll blow your mind whether or not you're on drugs.

[A]

Yeah, I just. I just figured I'd eat a little bit of each one, see what happened. No, I just.

[B]

I wouldn't do that.

[A]

I just stared at him and some. You didn't even want to get close to. They just looked screaming like, I will kill you. Well, there were some actual. The real. There was some real death cap, you know, not the one that people think is in a Fender amp and Amanita. That's a big orange one with the white spots. That's just. Some people eat it, but I'm not gonna. Right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Vegetable talk. A little vegetable sideline.

[B]

Yeah, that was great.

[A]

If you knew what you were doing, I'm sure you could make some fabulous something great with mushrooms. But you better know what you're doing, baby.

[B]

All the characters that come to you on a weekly basis, I'm sure one of them's a forager.

[A]

And you just take a picture with your phone and the AI blah, blah, blah, and tells you everything.

[B]

You get some guidance to bring you some mangoes from his farm and then walk you through the mushrooms you have and then let him eat them first. And then if he said, oh, well.

[A]

These are all blah, blah, blah, these are great, then I had to leave them. Right. Otherwise. Okay, next.

[B]

All right, this one is from Richard.

[H]

Hello, Jason. Skip, this is Richard from the Great.

[B]

White north.

[H]

In the middle of British Columbia. Just listening to your coyotes and deer episode. You guys really helped the time pass when you got three hours of drive. But if you don't have any snowing in the Washington area, I. I know where it is. I found it here. Snow banks are over 7ft high. That's 2 meters if you speak the other language. And it makes me think about electronic units. Is it all in metric system? Except for horsepower, which is more of a motive term. Just a little question there. Recipe, suggestion. You want it to be simple and quick. I don't know if you have it down there. We call it craft dinner. Put in the bowl, boil the water, you're done.

[B]

Anyways.

[H]

All good. I got a 50 watt Rickenbacker that we want to fix up. Blown transformer. What is Skip's thoughts on putting a fender transformer in a Rickenbacker?

[A]

All right.

[H]

Cheers.

[A]

Oh, hey.

[H]

Postscript. Alternate alternative use for WD40. It's good on joints. Not the kind of joints that Joseph likes to use, but you're actually like a. Like your knee joint. That's what an old PE teacher told me once. All right.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

There is a picture of the snowbanks. I have no idea where this. This guy must be north. Because I. I have friends. There's not a lot of snow in southern British Columbia, but. Okay. Anyways.

[A]

Well, started with one of our hallmarks. Which is tava. Better than nothing, right? That can be the next shirt.

[B]

It's keeping this guy awake on the Alcan highway or whatever.

[A]

And I could just hear. I could just see the windshield wipers and the big flakes and like, man, Rickenbacker, good luck. That's going to be really weird and complicated. Doesn't matter what the brand of the transformer is. It has to be the right specs first. So you better know what the hell you're doing so that you can get a power transformer that puts out the right high voltage. Enough heater voltage. Maybe that thing has a rectifier tube. Kind of doubt it. And then ideally it would mount the same way or close. Some of them mount in big gigantic rectangular holes called chassis mount. No, that's called horizontal mount. And some of them sit up on the chassis with just four screws. Those are the only holes and you'd want to keep that the same. Our friends at Amplified Parts have the full line of Hammond, which is pretty hard to deny. And there's probably something in there that would be fine. And there's other, there's other ones. You know, there's other transformers. It's probably a pretty straightforward thing, but you don't want to do it if you don't know what you're doing. Like picking mushrooms. Don't. Don't eat, don't eat the mushrooms. And then I believe we heard put WD40 on your knee.

[B]

Now this is like awesome.

[A]

I believe it is a fish based oil. Okay. But just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do something. Well, you can do amp maintenance, knee maintenance, kind of all at once, right? But if it works for someone and they really feel like it, who am I to say you're a lunatic? Right? Stranger things have been known to happen. I have. I have a hard time with the whole putting something on your skin that's supposed to go into your knee or wherever and make it better. It just seems like you're not a.

[B]

CBD guy or any of that stuff.

[A]

No, no. And I also don't like taking a pill because that goes in every cell of your body instead of just in your sore knee. I've been, I've been taking one aleve a day for a few months now because I had a shoulder that was just so sore and it just wouldn't get unsore. And I have to say that it's helped quite a bit. But I'm not ready for wd. But again, who am I to judge if it works. If it works for you, go for it, brother. And. And in a way, I'm kind of not surprised. I'm not so sure about the solvent that's in there.

[B]

We have thousands of people listening to this show, believe it or not, around the world. Somebody has a sore knee or elbow right now and a can of WD40 right next to them. Try it out.

[A]

Report back maybe once, it seems.

[B]

Don't drink it.

[A]

That's what. That's what those guys used to embalm someone as. They just like fill them all up with LPD for. All right, well, that is. That will top the year's best WD40 reference.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And from the frozen tundra. That was pretty atmospheric.

[B]

This is great, Richard. Thank you. Please let us know how it goes. Let's end with one more food. I think there's no amp question with this one. It's just a food thing. Again, thank you to everybody who has tuned in. Happy New Year. Wherever you are, keep questions and voice memos coming to podcastritboardjournal.com consider joining our Patreon. Consider coming to the Fretboard Summit in August in Chicago. Already talking to Brian McAllister who stocked the Tava Amp Room last year about ways to expand it. And we'll end with listener Jack.

[G]

Hey, Skip and Jason, it's Jack from San Rafael. No amp question this week, but I did go to the Amigos guitar show for the first time ever this year and didn't see Skip, but I met Louis Garcia, who's a really sweet, cool guy. Hope to talk to him again sometime soon. If you've never read his business card, it says until there is a cure. I need acoustic and electric guitars and basses, amplifiers, parts, effects and accessories. Please help. So Skip has definitely portrayed his collector mentality accurately. Anyway, this time I just have a little recipe time saver hack. And this maybe was contributed in the past, but maybe not. But the whole thing is make pizza at home because it's really fun. The hack is to go to your local pizza shop and buy dough balls from them so you don't have to mess with making your own dough from scratch. And not all the places will sell you dough balls, but most of them will. All you need is a pizza stone and a wooden paddle. My pizza stone is probably only like 14 inches or so and I like a thin crust pizza. So usually these dough balls are too big for what I'm looking for. So I'll bring home the dough, cut it in half, maybe even thirds if it's a lot of dough re roll them into smaller dough balls, cover them with flour, stick them in Ziploc bags, and toss them in the fridge. You gotta let it reproof for a day or two. Usually like two days after you re roll them. Honestly, come back a couple days later when it's time to make your pizza, turn the oven up to like 500 or 550 if it'll go that high. Let the stone get hot in there the whole time. Put some flour down on the paddle, slap your dough down, roll it out, make a little crust, toss it in the air, stretch it, whatever you need to do.

[B]

If you don't want to do all.

[G]

That, just drape it over your knuckles and kind of go around the pizza to stretch it out. Get it to the size you want, put whatever toppings you want on there, toss it in the oven. If you struggle getting the pizza off the paddle into the oven, just lift up a corner of the pizza, blow a little air under there, and if you get a little air pocket going, it'll slide around real easy if you got floured on the paddle too. But yeah, just kind of jimmy it back and forth, slide it off and do it. Make pizza. It's really easy. It takes like five or 10 minutes in the oven, probably like eight or so. Turn it while it's cooking, cook it real even, and yeah, easy dinner. Anyway, I hope some other listeners have better questions about amps this week, but, yeah, love the podcast. Stick with it. I'll keep listening. Thanks, guys.

[A]

Okay, well, next time will be our pizza guys segment where we get this guy and Jeff Chicatano, who went to my pizza place and got them to give them dough, even though they don't give people dough, and sent me a paddle and a stone. And when. When, yes. And when you do it upright, it is. They probably would have some point of doctrine that they disagree on. It'd be fun to listen to them argue about optimum temperature or whatever. I think Shikatana leaves his stone in the oven all the time. On a shelf, I think. All the time.

[B]

I think that's what you're supposed to do.

[A]

He would know anyway. And guitar show. We don't have time, but it is. It's a social event. It's kind of like it's. It was packed with people on Saturday, like it always is. Sunday is usually quieter. I was going to go Saturday maybe because I was so burned out from the rain. And George was gonna go. George wasn't gonna go to sell tubes, but then he was gonna go. But then at the last minute he got sick and he couldn't go and I didn't go at all. So we'll just leave you with this. I have a ton of stuff that I fixed up that I fixed to take to the show. Weird Skip stuff. Not all of it I would ship, but I had two. I even got a guy to take a couple of Silver Face champs down to George, who at that point was gonna go to the show and drop them off with George so he could take them down there for me. But then George got sick. So I have a ton of stuff that I fixed up for this show. And it's. If you think you're gonna sell your guitar, maybe, maybe not. If you think you're gonna buy a guitar, maybe, maybe not. But it's. It's quite an experience. And your average guitar fiend could last a couple hours in ours and. Or more. And it's. You just never know who you're going to see there. And it's. I don't know how long it's going to go on as it gets more and more and more expensive to put that thing on. But it's still quite an experience that you can't really duplicate. It's more. More guitars and amps in one room than. Than you've ever seen. Even in the biggest stores, it would take three or four Emerald Cities to fill the guitar show. So it's, it's, it's worthy experience. And not going was a buttload of work because I had millions of people calling me and stuff, of course, like the day before. And I stayed. I stayed away this time. But I'll pretty sure I'll be back next time. And weird as it is, who pays to go into a store? Says John Vanderslice. But it is, it is an experience. Just don't take anybody with you that don't take little kids or people that aren't interested in it because loved ones don't take love. Have I ever seen some people that just kill me now at being dragged around by the person who wanted to go to the guitar show? Yeah, right.

[B]

Don't do that.

[A]

Well, we did it.

[B]

We sure did, Skip. And I don't know, this episode had a unique character to it. So I don't know.

[A]

It was Tava again, exclamation point. Don't forget. I don't know.

[B]

I'll get more clever with my Zoom titles.

[A]

All I do is you is you call me or email me and we just do it again. And so as long as people keep asking us, we'll keep doing it.

[B]

Nothing we say on this podcast should be used for medical advice, but if anyone is hurting and has a can of WD40, we want to hear about it.

[A]

And find me a good cast iron book.

[B]

Do something if not. Yeah, yeah, eat your beans or drink them and keep the questions coming. Thanks Skip.

[A]

Thanks everyone. We'll talk again.