Ep. 161: "Tremolo Thursday"

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons

Episode 161: "Tremolo Thursday"
March 2, 2026 – The Fretboard Journal

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode dives deep into the world of vintage guitar amps, focusing on the quirks, history, and technical challenges of tremolo circuits. Skip Simmons, resident amp guru, shares project stories, takes listener questions on repair and restoration, and offers insights into amp design and tone. The episode is rich in amp geekery and good humor, with detours into Western swing history, unique guitar gear, tech advice for isolated locations, and even salsa (the food) recipes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Remembering Phil Upchurch

[00:41 - 03:13]

• Skip opens with a tribute to musician Phil Upchurch, recently passed, recalling a rare kids’ book capturing Upchurch’s early career, his family, and his days jamming in his parents’ laundry room.
• “He played on a million recordings, he wasn’t super super famous, but he played on a lot of stuff...” – Skip [00:48]
• The segment celebrates musicians’ humble roots and the breadth of Upchurch’s career.

2. Tremolo Talk & Technical Woes

[03:19 - 08:53]

• Skip talks about building a scratch-made outboard tremolo unit—a challenging circuit that still isn’t working after hours of effort.
• Explains various classic tremolo designs (bias-modulated, cathode-modulated, grid-modulated), referencing Fender Falcons, Vibro Champs, and an experiment inspired by obscure circuits.
• Tremolo unit woes: “You’d think I could make an outboard tremolo unit... that sucker just does not work at all.” – Skip [03:23]
• Historical pedals mentioned: DeArmond tremolo, a mechanical volume control effect.

3. Listener Question: Tremolo in a Bassman 100

[08:54 - 09:37]

• A listener wants to add tremolo to a Bassman 100 amp. Skip points to the Traynor YBA-1A bias-modulation circuit as inspiration.

4. Amp and Guitar Store Shoutouts & Giveaways

[09:56 - 14:24]

• Multiple sponsor promos (Amplified Parts, Grez Guitars, Emerald City Guitars).
• T-shirt Giveaway: Listeners are challenged to decode cryptic “LR” numbers (hinted to be relevant for tube amp enthusiasts).
• Explains value retention in boutique and vintage gear vs. most new purchases.

5. The Roberts Mandolin & NorCal Western Swing

[14:44 - 19:26]

• Skip tells the story of a rare “Roberts” Bigsby-style mandolin built in Yuba City in the ’70s.
• The instrument’s historical backdrop: Sacramento as a Western swing hotbed due to Bob Wills’ presence, the Will’s Point club, and stories from local legends.
• Dream idea: A budget 5-string electric mandolin in the Danelectro style.
• “It’s just ultra, ultra Bigsby. And they’re called Roberts. And I’ve never even heard of one...” – Skip [16:20]

6. Tales from the Shop: Abandoned Amps and Lax Storage

[22:09 - 24:49]

• Colorful anecdotes about old repairs left unclaimed, friends with “storage problem” gear, and amps with stories spanning decades.
• Skip’s casual approach: “About three years ago, I saw a Masco and I flipped it upside down and it was signed and I'd done it seven years ago.” – Skip [23:24]

7. Listener Question: How to Learn Amp Repair Far from Resources (Guam)

[28:16 - 35:47]

• Glenn from Guam asks how to start repairing amps in an isolated setting.
• Skip’s advice:
  • Start with basic digital meters, a Variac, and DIY mindset.
  • Begin work on personal/non-customer equipment.
  • Use Jack Darr’s “How to Fix Amplifiers” as a starting text.
  • Emphasizes learning by doing, not being overwhelmed by big books, and leveraging whatever old military or audio gear may be available.
• “Don’t be overwhelmed and think you need to have a laboratory and start today with something you own, not something you’re going to take money for fixing because you don’t know nothing.” – Skip [31:00]

8. Listener Question: Johnson “Celestian” Amp Design

[36:10 - 39:55]

• John asks about early amp circuits placing volume pots before the first tube. Skip explains:
  • This layout is cheaper and less versatile, mostly found in old/low-gain amps.
  • True preamp-first designs offer better interactivity and tone shaping.
• “It just duplicates the controls on the guitar...It’s just a lot more versatile to have the guitar go into a tube and then have volume and tone controls.” – Skip [38:50]

9. Listener Question: Best 6V6 Tubes for a Vibro Champ

[40:24 - 41:59]

• Top tube picks for tone and durability:
  1. RCA (classic but expensive)
  2. GE or Sylvania (“my favorite”)
  3. Tung-Sol, Ken-Rad (rare)
• “Don’t pass up Canadian-made tubes that say Marconi 6V6...” – Skip [40:24]
• Advice: Old tubes are often more robust for higher voltages in blackface amps.

10. Listener Question: Restoring a Super 60 with Distortion Issues

[43:29 - 48:30]

• Skip diagnoses a Fender Super 60 with unwanted distortion:
  • Speaker and preamp checks indicate the issue is in the output stage.
  • Possible causes: Underpowered tubes, phase inverter tube issues, bias problems.
  • Cautions on printed circuit board amps—harder to service, run tubes very hot.
• “You brought me that amp, I’d be going, oh my God ... I’d be pushing the limits.” – Skip [48:33]

11. Technical Deep-Dive: Super Reverb Power Transformer & Bias Switching

[51:10 - 55:34]

• Franklin in Kirkland, WA describes wiring his Super Reverb for lower and higher voltage, seeking “best of both worlds” with switchable headroom.
• Skip unpacks technical options:
  • Possible but complex to switch both B+ and bias voltages, may require custom wiring.
  • Suggests targeting a “middle ground” for bias if possible, or devising a switchable dual-bias setup (advanced).
  • General endorsement of repurposing “too powerful” vintage amps by reducing B+.
• “What a nut. But you’re our nut.” – Skip [55:32]

12. Food Break: Franklin’s Salsa Recipe

[56:03 - 57:58]

• Boil or roast tomatoes and peppers, blend with raw garlic, lime juice, salt, pepper. (See transcript for full recipe.)

13. Restoring Powerful Silverface Amps

[58:12 - 59:13]

• Skip recommends lowering B+ with aftermarket power transformers to make high-wattage amps (Twins, Pros) more usable.

14. Music & Book Recommendations

[59:19 - 60:33]

• Skip endorses Proper Records’ “Hillbilly Boogie” box set for fans of ’40s-’50s Western swing and boogie.
• Jason recommends YouTube short film “The Life We Have” for an inspiring, emotional story featuring a musician/runner.

15. Listener Voice Memo: Amp Comparisons & Buffalo Wings

[61:46 - 69:12]

• Jeff Chicatano calls in about comparing Webster Chicago and Voice of Music small combo amps (similar to Fender Harvard).
• Circuit tips: 6AV6 and 6AT6 tubes can be swapped for different gain amounts.
• Bonus: Jeff shares detailed technique for the best homemade Buffalo wings.
• Skip notes these oddball amps are tricky but rewarding projects.
• “A tip of the pizza stone to Chicatana, who leaves his pizza stone in the oven all the time...swears that’s the hot ticket.” – Skip [68:35]

16. Closing Stories: Free Sci-Fi with Every Amp

[69:12 - 70:08]

• Skip now ships vintage sci-fi mags with amp repairs—retro art and pulpy stories as fun packing material.

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Notable Quotes

• “Don’t expect your first thing...to just work perfect. You think you know something, but you don’t know jack, supposedly.”
  —Skip [08:06], on the humility of learning amp repair

• “Don’t buy something that loses half the value that you paid as soon as you walk out the door... Barry’s stuff holds its value really well.”
  —Skip [13:57], on boutique/vintage guitar gear value

• “Anybody can change a resistor. It’s figuring out which resistor, that’s the thing.”
  —Skip [31:00], on the art of troubleshooting

• “If you want to select, if you want to change the actual bias supply...then you’d need another switch...Franklin, what a nut. But you’re our nut.”
  —Skip [55:18 / 55:32], in admiration of a deeply technical listener

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Phil Upchurch tribute: [00:41 – 03:13]
• Tremolo circuit woes & theory: [03:19 – 08:53]
• Listener Q: Bassman tremolo mods: [08:54 – 09:37]
• Boutique/vintage gear value: [13:57 – 14:24]
• Roberts mandolin & Western swing history: [14:44 – 19:26]
• Learning amp repair on Guam: [28:16 – 35:47]
• Amp circuit design Q&A: [36:10 – 39:55]
• Best 6V6s for Vibro Champ: [40:24 – 41:59]
• Diagnosing a Fender Super 60: [43:29 – 48:30]
• Super Reverb power modding: [51:10 – 55:34]
• Franklin’s salsa recipe: [56:03 – 57:58]
• Hillbilly Boogie box set/music recs: [59:19 – 60:33]
• Jeff Chicatano’s amp & Buffalo wings call: [61:46 – 69:12]
• Sci-fi mag freebie with every amp: [69:12 – 70:08]

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Tone and Style

The episode is relaxed, playful, and extremely knowledgeable—Skip’s “old shop guy” grittiness meets Jason’s affably nerdy hosting. The show joyfully oscillates between hard technical wisdom, funny side stories, and genuine affection for community and music. The language is plainspoken, practical, and endearingly digressive, with running themes of humility, sharing, and deep amp geekery.

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For Further Exploration

• Sponsors/Resources:
  • Amplified Parts (TAVA10MOD discount code on MOD kits)
  • Grez Guitars (affordable, custom builds)
  • Emerald City Guitars (vintage amps and instruments)
• Books Mentioned: Jack Darr’s “How to Fix Amplifiers”, Garnet book on Canadian amps
• Music: Proper Records’ “Hillbilly Boogie”, Billy Jack Wills, Tiny Moore, Delmore Brothers
• Recipes: Franklin’s fresh/roasted salsa, Jeff’s Buffalo wings

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Closing

An episode rich in technical troubleshooting, amp history, irreverent stories, and “amp therapy”—the perfect showcase for Skip’s rare blend of encyclopedic amp knowledge, humility, and humor.
Send questions, photos, and even recipes to: [e-mail] – or follow along on Instagram for news and amp oddities.

Transcript

[Skip]

What time do you call this?

[Jason]

You call this 9:07? I'm sorry.

[Skip]

Sound okay. Can you hear the washing machine and the dryer in the background? Oh, yeah.

[Jason]

Oh, because you, you. Because I was late. You got laundry done?

[Skip]

No, no, it's just like I can laundry. I just wonder. Hopefully it doesn't bleed. Hopefully it's not super noisy sounding.

[Jason]

No, I hear nothing.

[Skip]

No. Okay, good. Have I ever mentioned musician Phil Upchurch?

[Jason]

No, but I love that guy.

[Skip]

He just passed away a little while ago and if you didn't know he was somebody that played on a million recordings, he wasn't super, super famous, but he was, he played on a lot of stuff. And one day at the library book sale I saw this kid's book older kids called what it's like to be a Musician. So of course I had to grab it and it's a big hardcover, lots of pictures and it's about Phil Upchurch when He was about 25 years old and. Yes. So this author wrote a whole series of books called what it's like to be a Fireman and what it's like to do this and that. Well, he decided on what it's like to be a musician and he picked Phil Upchurch. And so the segue was that One of the many fantastic pictures is Phil at his parents house where he lived, jamming in the laundry room. Like he has this tiny little drum set crammed into the corner with like the washing machine right there. And you can see the, the circuit board, you know, the fuse, the fuse box in the background. And he and his brother are in there playing in the laundry room. A picture of his parents in the kitchen and they've got like the, the notepad to keep track of all of his gigs. And there's a really great picture of him walking down the street in New York City with. Rolling a twin with like a guitar case over his shoulder with his giant afro, his big tall boots and stuff. It's pretty fantastic, pretty fantastic book. You know, there's pictures of him. Like some days he plays with. Here he is with the Quincy Jones, blah blah blah. Later that day he played a fashion show. And there's like some socialite ladies sitting around, you know, at some little two o', clock, you know, jazz gig, whatever it took, right. So if you ever have a chance to see that book, what it's like to be a musician. There's some, some really cool stuff about, about Phil Upchurch and of course he was a great player I wish I could throw out. He played, he Played on some pretty good jazz records and a lot of recordings where there was a bunch of guitars at once. You'll find him in. In credits a lot. So hopefully you can't hear the washing machine.

[Jason]

No, no.

[Skip]

Yeah. Fill up church. Rest in peace. Wow. All right, well, there we go. We started out with that.

[Jason]

Yeah. What else you got?

[Skip]

On the bench? Yeah, on the bench. An outboard tremolo unit that I'm making from scratch for all you people. It doesn't work at all. I probably spent five or six hours making this thing, and I lit it up, and nothing. No tremolo, no oscillating, no nothing. So connection there is. I still get a lot. Well, I always get a lot of calls from people who, you know. Well, I fixed up this old RCAPA head, but it's kind of noisy, or it's not very this or it's not very that. Have you ever. How long have you been working on stuff? Oh, just since, you know, about a year. Listening to the podcast. Dudes, that stuff is tricky, man. Don't expect your first thing. I mean, you'd think I could make an outboard tremolo unit. I've been thinking about it for about a year, and that sucker just does not work at all. So hopefully at some future podcast, I'll be able to say, now it works.

[Jason]

Did you base it off of something from the past or what are you doing?

[Skip]

I based it off of something from the past. It's time for tremolo talk.

[Jason]

Yeah, it's time for tremolo talk.

[Skip]

Tremolo Thursday, Taco Tuesday.

[Jeff Chicatano]

Yeah,

[Skip]

well, it's cool sound. It's always been popular. Kind of faded for a while, but it's back, you know? So it all starts with. In any case, it starts with an oscillator that makes voltage or current or signal or something like go up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. Usually it's a tube and all the stuff we use. But the fun comes in with, where do they take that oscillation and how do they apply it to the actual sound part, the audio circuit to make it so you can hear. The tremolo, one of our favorites, modulates the power tube bias. Falcons and they go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Another favorite, Fender Vibro Champs. They modulate the cathode of a preamp tube, which basically is changing the bias of the preamp tube. I found this weird tremolo circuit that appears to apply the modulation to the grid of the first tube. So, in other words, right where the guitar plugs in. So it occurred to me that a lot of companies make stuff that's supposed to be, oh, the harmonic tremolo or the bias modulating tremolo, whatever. All that stuff sounds great, but it's a simulation because it's between the guitar and the amp and, and that's not where any of this stuff happens. It's in the preamp or in the power amp of the amp. Not between the guitar and the amp, but this one Mass. Massy. I'll let it out. One Massy circuit applies the oscillation right to the input of the very first tube, right where your guitar goes. So doesn't it seem like you could make a tremolo that work just like the actual one? Because it could be outboard, you know, in front of the amp. But that's why I picked that one. Does it work? No, it does not.

[Jason]

And if you were to guess why it doesn't work, I don't know.

[Skip]

I've only spent about. Well, it's, it's unearthing a bunch of various issues. I've got a couple of these interesting power transformers that I'm trying to use and it. How do you wire up a power transformer to get the voltages that you want, Stuff like that. Right. But I don't know really what's wrong with it. This morning I was down there and I think one of my surplus transformers, power transformers that I'm using might be bad because I'm not getting the same readings off of it as I am on the other ones I've used. So maybe it's just a bad power transformer, I don't know. But the reason why I picked it is because it seemed to me that you actually could make it be the right. The actual tremolo because it, it, it does exist right at the input of where your guitar goes in. It's not applying the, the oscillation somewhere. Later on in the amp, D. Armand made one of the very first pedals stomp boxes that goes between the guitar and the amp. And you plugged it into the wall and in it was a little motor that went and it turned this little thing that actually made a volume pot go back and forth. So it was like mechanically turning a volume control up, down, up, down, up. One of the first guitar effects, the Dearman tremolo control, but kind of clunky, you know.

[Jason]

Sure.

[Skip]

So I was hoping for something a little bit better than that. But moral of the story is tremolo is interesting. There's a lot of different cool Sounding ones, the classic big Fender OptoCoup or one is cool, but other ones are smoother and more swampy sound and not so choppy. And then of course you think you know something. Been working on stuff for a while. You don't know jack, supposedly. I mean, when I make a, say a preamp or something, there's no food. I could almost build it and give it to someone. It's going to work perfect. But this thing.

[Jason]

Does this thing have a. A home? Did somebody order this?

[Skip]

No, just got a hair. Someone told me it wouldn't work. Oh, that won't work. So of course I had to try it.

[Jason]

Right.

[Skip]

We have a listener who's been asking about putting Tremolo in a basement 100, which is a cool silver face, simple, not very many knobs, but four, six L6 basement head. And thank God I don't have to do it. That reminds me, for that listener, there's a trainer, YB A1A, I believe that's powerful. 40 or 50 watts fixed bias, but it has bias modulating tremoil. And that would be a circuit I think might be applicable to the basement 100 next.

[Jason]

All right, well, welcome everybody to the truth of having a JAMS episode 161. Send in your questions, comments, family recipes, relationship advice, whatever you got. Podcastritboardjournal.com Record a voice memo or send an email. We have a giveaway.

[Skip]

Cool.

[Jason]

The giveaway is from our friend Chris at Union Tube and Transistor and Exile Electronics, the guitar store up in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have two black shirts, both size large, so don't even submit if you're extra large or small or whatever. One of them says LR 21877, the other one says LR 24510. If you can send us a response to podcastboardjournal.com telling us what that actually means and why it matters to tube amp enthusiasts. You can whichever of the shirts you want.

[Skip]

Johnny Cash's number he's holding up when they've taken his prison picture.

[Jason]

It might as well be that it's that obscure, but someone's going to get this. And thanks to Chris at Exile and Union Tube and Transistor. Go follow them. Go to the Exile. It's on Main street in Vancouver, hence the name. They have a almost full set of fretboard journals you can go buy from too. One of the easier places in Canada to find the magazine. So thanks, Chris.

[Skip]

Very cool.

[Jason]

Yeah, we also. This is big news because a million of you have been asking for this forever. One of our sponsors, Amplified Parts has given us a discount code TAVA10MOD. I'll link that in the show notes will get you 10% off all of their MOD electronics products through April 11th, 2026. You can go to modelectronics.com or amplified parts to use that. They have a Champ kit. I'm sure someone out there has been listening to the show and finally wants to get their hands dirty. You can get a Champ kit without the the cabinet or the speaker for like 385 and then use the discount code. It's even cheaper. And find a soldering gun and you'll be off to the races. They have, you know everything we ever talk about Amplified Parts. But use that discount code to show them the that you listen to the show and you care. Tava 10 mod works on their guitar pedal kits as well and reverb tanks and enclosures and capacitors and all the other mod stuff.

[Skip]

So speakers the Mod Series speakers are their lowest price, but if you've got a bunch of dopey little 6 and 8 inch lap steel amps, you put one of those new mod speakers in there, it's going to sound great and they're pretty dang. I think they might be 30 to

[Jason]

$40 for an 8 even cheaper with the discount code. So there you go. And then we're also brought to you by our buddy Grez Guitars who's just making some of the coolest guitars imaginable. And Barry at Grez Guitars is sponsoring and I believe will be at the Oklahoma City Oklahoma swing the blues workshops. Swing the blues workshops.com that's got our buddy Jonathan Stout, Paul Pagat also from Vancouver, British Columbia, Monster Tommy Harkenrider. And go spend a weekend in Oklahoma City with Barry and those guys learning how to play blues.

[Skip]

There'll be there'll be a fire, a big pit outside where you can burn your guitar after you go see those guys.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah, it's depress you and inspire you. Swing the blues workshops.com but most importantly, go follow Barry on Instagram and see what he's up to and realize that those custom guitars he's making out of Petaluma, California are more affordable than you think. And tell them the truth about Minute Jam sent you if you reach out. And then last but not least, our friends here at Emerald City Guitars continue to just stock almost all the vintage tube amps that we ever talk about. I every time I go into their store in Pioneer Square, I'm in awe of what they have Everything from Dumbles to Champs and all points in between and supros and all the weird stuff we talk about. So go follow them. Follow them on YouTube as well. Their video series just continues to blow up and be totally cool.

[Skip]

So, Emerald City and Barry. One of my first rules. Don't buy something that loses half the value that you paid as soon as you walk out the door and put it in your car. Come on. Barry's stuff holds its value really well. And of course, any good vintage guitar or amp that's purchased at approximate retail is never going to be half that. Like so many other things that we buy.

[Jason]

Just saying. It's true. Better investment than buying a new car off the lot. Yeah, yeah. All right, so you've. You've been making this tremolo unit that's causing you grief.

[Skip]

Doesn't work.

[Jason]

Yeah. What else is new in Loma Rica?

[Skip]

Did I give the Electro Muse Baffler last last time? Electro Museum?

[Jason]

I think you did, and we didn't get the answer.

[Skip]

Yeah, you put a grand, it had a grounded cord on it, you plug it in and it fired up. But if you put a three to two adapter on it, in other words, you lifted the ground, it wouldn't work. And that's because it just had this horribly hillbilly replaced power transformer that was basically using the chassis as, as part of the circuit. In other words, we could have ended up having a situation where the actual chassis, like where you plug the guitar in had wall voltage on it. And if you were barefoot on a concrete floor or touching something else, it could be shocking situation. The guy that brought me that. Did I mention the Roberts mandolin?

[Jason]

Wait, now we're jumping around. I'm not sure you did tell that Baffler, but what's the deal with the Roberts mandolin?

[Skip]

So the guy who brought the Electric Muse, I thought was just a guy who found an Electromuse laps deal at a thrift store and his kids saw this Electromuse amp on ebay and bought it for him. But no, he's an old long time hot mandolin player who used to work at Tiny Moore's music store in Sacramento. Tiny Moore. About 20% of you go, oh my God, Tiny Moore. So his solo on Stardust is just out of sight. So Tiny Moore, of course, had a Bixby mandolin. And at some point in the 70s, there was a guy that lived in Yuba City, which is right by me, and he made steel guitars and he made mandolins and his name was something Roberts. So when the guy comes to Pick up the Electromus. This guy pulls out this case. It's a Bigsby mandolin. It's called the tiny Moore model and it has the big old peghead. It's. Oh my God. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. And I don't know if they're ever, if they're around anymore. Bigsby would have been dead by this point. So it wasn't like he could sue the guy. But it basically, it's just all pointy and big peghead. It's got his name on the pick card and everything. It's just ultra, ultra Bigsby. And they're called Roberts. And I've never even heard of one, much less known that there was a guy right here half an hour from me who was making them back in the 70s and some old dude you thought just got an amp from his kids turned out to be a monster. He knows Keith and Keith Carey and Lee Jeffries and he's, he's played with some of this monster western swing guys that still lived in Sacramento like Jimmy Rivers, Vance Terry. He knew all those guys. And that Roberts mandolin was really cool. I don't know if they're valuable or how rare they are, but they're undervalued, I can tell you that. So, so there you go.

[Jason]

There can't be that many of them, right?

[Skip]

I his was blonde, like a cream Telecaster color. It was started out white. He said most of them that he's ever seen are sunburst. But when he says most of them he means like two. So they're hollow body fancy two pickup electric mandolins go if that five string, right, of course. And if that appeals to you, go check out some pictures of it and maybe it'll inspire someone to build something crazy like that or My idea that I thought of the next day, okay, was a five string electric mandolin the opposite way. A Dan Electro one, you know, a little masonite and pine body just like the little Silver Tone and Dan Electro guitars that cheap with just like a little lipstick pickup and a five string neck. I'm going to try to get Keith, maybe Keith will make one. But then you could have a five string mandolin and play stardust like tiny on something that you know, you could sell for pretty cheap. Right. Sure be the Dan Electro company would make it. But that, that esthetic, you know, good action but modest materials. Pine blocks and Masonite, that's what those things were made out of. You know, all you'd really need is a neck and a pickup. So maybe That'll inspire somebody to make a five string mandolin on the cheap.

[Jason]

Okay. I love it. For folks who don't know, and maybe we presume too much every week, obviously we talk a lot about Northern California because that's where Skip is based. Where I grew up, Bob Wills, Texas swing legend, had a property, a venue in Sacramento, California. And that's what brought a lot of these western swing guys to the unlikely town of Sacramento. Is that correct?

[Skip]

Yes, pretty good. And they, and there were like a motor court, there were little apartments and stuff and, and the, the Wills Band and the Billy Jack Wills Band, his brother, the, you know, musicians could stay there and they had like a ballroom. And it made Sacramento and California in general kind of a bastion of western swing. At the very end, you know, you got, you got your steel workers who came out to work in the shipyards and stuff, and they, they could go here, you know, Vance Terry and Jimmy Rivers playing Charlie Christian stuff down at a bar, you know, loud and through electric guitar, you know, through electric instruments. And Will's Point was the name of that club. And there's very little documentation about it, there's only a few pictures, but my connection started with a guy who was 90 at the time. And this was 30 years ago. I wish we had a harp sound, you know, what a lady goes. So when we're reminiscing, you know, we can play the harp sound. I fixed something that was, that was interesting for him that no one could fix. And he gave me the PA from Will's Point, the very first one, which is homemade, and there's some pictures of it around. Years and years ago, I put an ad in the magazine, no Depression, which I'm sure you're familiar with. And it had a picture of the amp. And, you know, I think Leroy Parnell called me up about that, but he just wanted to get it and give it to the Bob Wills Museum, which is in Turkey, Texas, or somewhere out there in Oklahoma, I forget where, but once in a while I show it to people or touch it.

[Jason]

How far back are we. When did Will. Do you have any idea when Will's

[Skip]

Point would have been? I think it was over by the very early 60s. Okay. And I think it started up in the 50s, but they were still playing that funky stuff, you know, the. If you don't have Crazy Man Crazy by the Billy Jack Wills Band. Well, I don't even know what to tell you. It was recorded at KFPK Studios, so it's really, really clean. And it was early 60s, but they are playing just cool cowboy jazz. And that's the. That's the take by Tiny Moore on Stardust that I mentioned, too. We had some groovy guest who was compiling every cool version of Stardust, and I mentioned that one. And of course, of course he knew all about it because it's just soulful and cool as heck. So Billy Jack Will's band, Crazy man. Crazy. Definitely on my Billboard top 20 of stuff to hear. If you haven't heard it. Who was that guy? Was that Jim Campalongo? I think it was.

[Jason]

That was him. That was him, yeah.

[Skip]

Well, anyway, fun stuff, fun stuff. We have to cry a cry in the wilderness. Dallas Henry. Don't you wish your name was Dallas Henry? And Jimmy, I think it's Arakaki. These two guys have stuff that's here that's been here forever, like years. Like, a one guy has a really wiped out Masco, that we should build a different one, and the other guy has a cool little nukem, like the phonograph amp that I restored. But we're talking like three years. And, you know, I think Dallas Henry, I don't even have any contact information. I think he was one of those classic guys that just put something in a box and sent it to me. I'm going, what the hell is this? Like, Like I'm going to remember what we talked about.

[Jason]

Sure.

[Skip]

So if anybody knows those guys or if those guys are around, you know, reach out and say, hi.

[Jason]

Yeah, at some point you got to charge them for storage.

[Skip]

No, at some point I go, this guy's not coming back. About three years ago, I saw. I saw Masco and I flipped it upside down and it was signed and I'd done it seven years ago.

[Jason]

And it was sitting there.

[Skip]

Yeah, because the guy, you know, I remember the guy was a truck driver. And he said, I'm gonna have to wait a little while to pay. And back then I would have said, okay, wait a little while. Today I would have probably said, well, I trust you. I'll send it to you. Send me the money. But he never did. And, you know, all. All I ever have on something like that is a phone number. If I keep. If I call it 10 times. Finally I just said, well, I guess it's mine now. I have people. Oh, man. There's this one guy, I thought he turned over a new leaf and was really going to get rid of a bunch of stuff, but no, he just brought it all up here. So now I have a Trainer, Pennsylvania column that's like five feet tall. And, hey, man, do you want to sell? No, I'm not really sure if I want to sell that. So I am sort of a chump about that. I have a few old, old friends that I store things for for a long time. Sometimes I have a pro reverb silver face that I brought from the ranch. Yes. That's not mine. I'm going to give it to a friend of mine for free. And if the guy ever shows up, I'll say, hey, I gave it to that guy for free. What do you want for it? Right. So that'd be 12, maybe 14 years. And it's out in the garage.

[Jason]

Nah, it's a good thing you have a lax policy.

[Skip]

Oh, yeah. Sometimes things take time.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Gotta wait for. Gotta wait for parts to come in.

[Jason]

Mm.

[Skip]

Let's see. Cross that off.

[Jason]

Cross.

[Skip]

I guess maybe we better get to a question like.

[Jason]

Okay, well.

[Skip]

My vocal cord to rest.

[Jason]

Yeah. Please, everybody, send us questions podcastretboardjournal.com we also have a Patreon page if you want to get to the front of the line, support the show. I'll include a link to that in the show notes. And. And then we also have an Instagram page, which I have to say, not because of any magic on my part, is coming up on 10,000 followers. I don't know why, but appreciate all of you following us. So this first question. Yeah. Is that.

[Skip]

That's an FJ Instagram. You don't.

[Jason]

No, no, no. There's a vintage amps podcast Instagram that.

[Skip]

Really?

[Jeff Chicatano]

Yeah.

[Skip]

What do people do there?

[Jason]

What do people do there? They wait patiently as it takes me two to three weeks to post a picture of an amplifier with a pithy caption, and then if I'm lucky, they'll comment on it. But I don't know. People keep following it. So should I keep.

[Skip]

Should I try to send pictures of stuff if I see something? You sh.

[Jason]

You should. All the time. You should. All the time. You were going to send me pictures of something that. Never mind. We can take this offline. But there was something you were about to send me photos of that never came.

[Skip]

But there's the great Kevin from Ohio. Found this cool little brown box. It looks like a little tiny Gibson head or like a radio maybe from the 50s.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

And it's got these big illuminated dials. When you turn it on, it's got these big, like, radio dials, two on each side with big numbers that shine with light shining through them. And one knob says frequency and one knob says hearing loss. So of Course I had to make it into a little amp. Hearing loss is the volume control, frequency is the tone control.

[Jason]

Yep.

[Skip]

Of course I made a little champion 600 style amp with an EF86. And then I borrowed from the great Garnett book. August in Hawaii has had my great. My Garnet book for a year and I keep pestering him to send it back. I'm gonna have to buy another one. You know, at Garnett they have a thank you to Tava because when I first mentioned the book, I guess they sold a few copies.

[Jason]

Yeah, they did.

[Skip]

But anyway, I got. So there's a speaker jack you plug in. It sounds cool through a little speaker, like a little champ thing. Then if you unplug the speaker and you plug into this other jack, it kicks in a dummy load which is a fake resistor because you know, we're supposed to have a speaker hooked up to a tube amp. It hooks in this dummy load and this little line out thing. And it's basically the way the herzog worked, which was the distortion unit used on one of those big hits. Wasn't that the. Guess who that had all the Garnet stuff?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Anyway, it makes the super like, you know. So it's a combination head and fuzz tone.

[Jason]

And it says here Bachman Turner overdrive. Thank you, Bachman Turner.

[Skip]

Maybe it is Bachman Turner Overdrive, but you know, amp and fuzz tone, which I would have said, nah, I don't know about that a few years ago. But it works great. And it says hearing loss.

[Jason]

I love it.

[Skip]

Yeah.

[Jason]

So some of what you just said might be a clue into our big T shirt giveaway, but we'll. We'll let people figure that out.

[Skip]

Cool. All right. You were reading a question.

[Jason]

So we do have this Instagram page. I'll include a link in the show notes. If anybody who ever sends us a question or has anything interesting wants us to include a photo on the feed, I will tag you and all that good stuff. Glenn on Instagram writes, I operate a small retail musical instrument and gear shop on Guam, a small US territory island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We currently have no one on this island that repairs amps. If someone were to want to learn how to fix amplifiers, what would you say is the best way to do it? In a place with limited resources and access, sending amps out to the States for repair is really expensive and just to ship these days and a huge gamble of not getting lost in the mail. So that option is off the table.

[Skip]

I would give the Same advice as I would to anyone, no matter where they lived. They wanted to learn how to work on stuff.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Skip]

Yeah, I got Mike from Ecuador. He lives at 8,000 or 9,000ft. Customer. I had a customer from Point Barrow, which is as far as you can get north in Alaska. And week or two ago last week I think the lot maybe the longest drive. This guy lives on an island in Alaska and he drove down here starting with a two and a half day ferry ride to Washington state. So he shows up here, shows up here with the mud crusted like big four wheel drive like Ford van with the, with the tires because he lives on some island with hardly any paved roads or anything. And he brought a Gibson GA20 and he had relatives down in Sacramento and I fixed it up while he was here. But that's a, that's a haul from, from Alaska.

[Jason]

Your advice is not for the guy in Guam to drive to you. No, that's get on.

[Skip]

You drive your car and wrote it on the ferry and six to eight weeks later you come over here and no, it's all about the jack. I mean even solid state stuff, jackdar is where is where it's at. And you don't, you need, you need a good fluke. I mean you need a digital volt meter. If you're just getting into it. Don't get into vintage test equipment because that's something else that you have to fix. Start with some new stuff that works. Right. I suggest a good digital volt meter, a Variac especially even in solid state and you know, a few other little things. Jug of wine, pocket knife. And you can start figuring out how stuff works. That's isolated Guam.

[Jason]

It is.

[Skip]

And salt too. Well, you guys got to clean those tube sockets when you're that close to the ocean and, and just come at it. I don't know if I ever really put this together quite like this. But the beauty of the Jack Dar is he's not really trying. It's just trying to kind of get the job done. You know, you're, you're fixing something, you're not designing something. So you don't really need to know what it looks like on an oscilloscope. You just need to know that this product once worked and some aspect of it doesn't work now. And troubleshooting and figuring out which thing is the thing. Anybody can change a resistor. It's figuring out which resistor, that's the thing. So for the Guam crew, don't be overwhelmed and think you need to have a laboratory and start today with something that you own, not something that you're going to take money for fixing because you don't know nothing. Right. Start. I mean, in the old days we would buy crappy guitars. I mean really crappy and really crappy amps and try to fix them. Might not have access to much of that there in Guam, but I bet there's still a lot of vacuum tube stuff there.

[Jason]

There's a huge military presence.

[Skip]

Yeah. Just because the huge military presence. I'm sure there's. If it hasn't all rusted away, there's still some, you know, some parts there. I would think

[Jason]

so. The Jagdar book, obviously you can order it. You can also. I know the. From our sponsor floating around. You can get it from Amplified Parts,

[Skip]

tube manual, if you're into tube junk.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Solid state, you know, any kind of book.

[Jason]

Gallons of WD40 for your salty tube sockets.

[Skip]

Well, you could do a lot worse than that, I'm telling you. And, and just any kind of electronics books before it became a hobby are going to be fine. Another. Another absolutely true thing. I still have gigantic books that I've only sucked a couple pages worth out of it. But those couple pages are good, right? So you get a big old book and it's 3 inches long, 3 inches wide, and you open it up and you're just going, oh, my God. Don't, don't bog down in that. Try to find the answer to the one question that you have. And I've also had books for years and years that I never even cracked because my knowledge wasn't up there enough to. Right. Book in French. You better learn a little French before you crack the book on French. So the more you learn, the more stuff you can understand. And the problem with the 90s and 2000s and on up stuff is it's so opinionated. I guess people would say, dude, you're opinionated. I guess I am. But we just want. We don't. We want some knowledge and some wisdom. We don't just need a whole bunch of information.

[Jason]

Right.

[Skip]

Just to get. Just to get started and service people. AI can't do it all. Yes. Your washing machine guy can whip out his phone and buy the part or even see a video really quick. But. But you still have to get. Put stuff in your hands and just start. Even if. And in Guam. Hi Fi stuff. Anybody have a tape recorder? Any kind of guitar stuff? Of course, because those are just simple amplifiers. Anything like that you start working on, just start doing it slowly.

[Jason]

Glenn could go to our Mod electronics website and use the discount code and maybe buy a handful of speakers that would be commonly used.

[Skip]

Yeah, parts would be a bear there. I bet you there's old parts there.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

You need to find out what you need to haunt those places where that stuff might show up. Remember the listener, San Clemente island off of the California coast that's completely owned by the military. And he sent us pictures of these big concrete bunker things that were just filled with tube stuff just sitting there. You could find some of that on Guam. You probably find some good sources of parts.

[Jason]

Yeah. I guess the question for Glenn is do you find the old grizzled military vet who used to do electronics to be your chosen 2 map person, or do you find a young person and force them into a life of two man prepare? Both.

[Skip]

Yeah, both. Definitely both. Old timers who know tons more about electronics than I do can fall into the trap of looking at some classic thing and saying, dude, this is junk. I could make this way better. And that's not our goal as maintenance people. We just want to fix it. Right?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

So keep us posted on that.

[Jason]

Yeah, keep us posted. Glenn, send us pictures of your shop. Happy to promote it.

[Skip]

And ask me questions. I, I, I tell people the answer to a lot of questions now that I never would have in the old days. I would have said, yeah, well, bring it over here and I'll fix it. But now if I have an idea that I think might help, I'm usually happy to share it.

[Jason]

I love it. All right. From Guam to the wilds of North Vancouver, British Columbia. Hey, guys. FGA reader since issue one. Thank you. Recently started listening to the podcast and love it. Drive all day for work and have committed myself to listening to every episode currently on episode 39 and reliving the pandemic. Please excuse if these questions have been answered 100 episodes from now. So this guy doesn't even know that around what episode 50, things get Technicolor and the, the, the scratches goes away.

[Skip]

The microphone. Thanks to our friends at shure Microphones,

[Jason]

which, you know, in this divided society, it's quaint to say people were really were really upset about for a while there that you got a real microphone, but he has no idea. Anyways, two questions.

[Skip]

Call me on the phone. I'll, I'll talk to you anytime on the same crappy old cordless phone I used to use.

[Jason]

We'll do a throwback. We keep threatening. We'll do a throwback episode one day.

[Skip]

That sounds good.

[Jason]

I'm currently working slowly On a Johnson Celestian from Manitoba. That's a phrase that was found in my grandparents barn years ago. Love that. Skip has mentioned them a few times so far. This amp has the volume pots in front of the first tube. I get why this is a bad. I get why this is bad. But I'm wondering why it's so common in old amps. Was there an upside for manufacturing? I don't really see any cost saving in parts doing it this way. My working theory is that you're able to put two volume controls for two separate inputs into the first triode of the first 12AX7. I've attached a schematic to clarify my rambling. What do you have? Do you have any thoughts on that?

[Skip]

I didn't know Johnson made any amps like that. Of course, I've only ever seen a couple and they weren't like that. They had a 12 inch speaker and they were more like a deluxe type of thing where the guitar signal goes to the tube first and the guitar signal going to the volume and tone controls first. Is not that common. It was more common in the 40s and 50s. Probably just because when you have a gain stage and then volume and tone, you can run into problems. Like if I turn the volume up too loud, it oscillates. If I turn the thing too bright, it whistles. You know, higher gain and more frequency response means more careful layout and more potential problems. If you use a real low gain circuit and you just put a volume control in the front. I think it's just cheaper to make. And I don't know. There's a few good amps that sound pretty good with that setup. That Electro Muse sounded okay, but realize that it's just exactly the same as the knobs on the guitar. It's just at the other end of the guitar chord, you dig, is all passive before your sound even really gets to a tube. So it. It just duplicates the controls on the guitar. Whereas real amps, you know, there's a lot of variation going on between how far you have the volume on the amp and how far you have the volume on the guitars. Like guys like B.B. king and Tebow and Walker, they're constantly messing with the guitar volume and tone controls. But having another set of them down there at the other end of the cord right in front of the amp, it's like. Yeah, you know, it's like a little passive two. Two pots that you plug into and then that plugs into the amp. It's just a lot more versatile to have the the guitar go into a tube and then have volume and tone controls, so never seen a Johnson like that. They can still sound pretty good. I wouldn't attempt to change that until you get the amp working great. Then you might think about changing it.

[Jason]

Okay, I love that. His second question. Yeah, well, speaking of rare, his second question is if I'm going to dabble in spare 6V6s for my black panel Vibro champ can skip give me a quick Holy Grail top five list of tubes to watch for. So many buzzwords out there to sort through. Trying to not slide down the slippery slope of buying every tube by sea. That is from John in North Vancouver, British Columbia

[Skip]

in bc. You'd want to not pass up any of the Canadian made tubes that say Marconi 6v6s. You see a lot of European mullard and amperex tubes in Canada too because of trades and tariffs back then. But I don't think they ever made a 6V6. Viso V, I S, S, E, A U X. That was a French one that you see in Canada a lot. Again, probably because of trade, you know, laws and tariffs and junk. If you get on the computer, it's the Lord God, rca, whatever, right? And they are great. And if you have a deluxe reverb, they run those tubes way too hot. So you need the 6v6s that can handle that. My favorite would be GE or Sylvania. Less expensive. Also awesome rare would be tung sols, kenrads, stuff like that you don't see as often, but any of those are fine. But if it really is a deluxe reverb that runs 400 plus on the plates, you really need the late style. You know, you don't want 6V6s from the 40s, you want the GTAs, right? Because they can at least hang with the high plate voltage. And again, I say for deluxe reverbs, I've been pointing people towards 5881s American made military ones. They're still pretty affordable. They sound good in deluxe deluxes and deluxe reverbs. 60s, right? Not tweeds, but later ones. And they hold up better.

[Jason]

Perfect. I'm gonna plug my other podcast, the Fretboard Journal podcast. We just did an episode with the contributor to the magazine who wrote about micro frets guitars and our buddy Jesse Quitzland got many mentions on that episode.

[Skip]

So if anybody, he was a guy who was smart a long time ago. First first heard about him in the Angela catalogs.

[Jason]

Yeah, so Seth, the author of the Microfreds Story, who now lives in Portland, grew up in the D.C. days during the punk rock scene. And he talks all about that. Was in a band with Jesse. And so the Orbiter. Right, The Orbiter was a micro frets with the radio thing.

[Skip]

Yeah, with the radio that would send it to your. You could get a popular electronics in 1950 and it would have a little plan to make a little electronic gizmo, and you could plug your guitar into it and it would send the sound to an AM radio and you would tune the AM radio to the right frequency and it would play your guitar through it.

[Jason]

Early wireless, that's all you need. I mean, that would put us out of work because then there'd be two amps.

[Skip]

Exactly.

[Jason]

Okay, moving right along. Subject line. I don't know if you're even gonna. You'll tackle this one. I'm sure you will. Subject line, 1990 Fender Super 60. That's the first in our 161 episodes. I know this is a reach for you as far as the scope of vintage amps and understand if you can't use it on your podcast.

[Skip]

Recently.

[Jason]

I got this amp in a moment of nostalgia because the Fender Super 60 was my first tube amp when I was a kid. Plugged it in and found unwanted unmusical distortion when playing the lower strings of the guitar. I've tried a different speaker, different power tubes, and running the preamp out into another preamp and speaker configuration. It still has that unwanted element to the sound. I want to restore it to its former working condition. Really just for a super clean sound with a little reverb. He adds the sound was as it should be when using the preamp out into a separate power amp and speaker. So what do you think is going on here with this valuable Fender Super 60?

[Skip]

Well, we could start with stuff that would apply to any app. Okay, he did the first. Okay, my amp sounds distorted. He did. The first thing is he tried another speaker.

[Jason]

Right.

[Skip]

Solid plan right there. Then he did something else, which was that crazy thing has some sort of effects loop or. Or a preamp out and power amp in setup. So he used the preamp and went out of that into another amp and it sounded good. I think that's what he said. So what does that tell us? That tells us there's something distorted in the output stage of that amp that's making it sound distorted because you check the speaker still distorted. Now, basically you substituted a different power amp by taking a preamp out on this Super 60 and running it into something else. Sure seems to Me like it's the output stage, the power amp now. Two 6L6s, super reverb, basement head 40, 45 watts. The super 60. Two 6L6s, 60 watts. Fender even did an even worse one called the Fender 75. Two 6L6s, 75 watts. So how are they getting it more and more powerful? Well, they're hammering the hell out of the tubes, that's what. And what kind of tubes did they have in 1983 when this thing came out? American made, killer Big Sylvania 6L6GCS that cost, I don't know, at least a hundred dollars a piece now, because that amp probably runs 500 volts plus on the power tubes. So on top of all that, it's printed circuit board. So not that you shouldn't fix it up if you can. Not that it doesn't have a great clean sound. It probably does. The built in distortion of that period of Fender amps doesn't have too many fans yet. The printed circuit board construction makes that a lot harder to work on. And it runs the tube super, super smoking hot. You better keep one hand in your pocket when you're measuring voltages on that thing because it runs really hot. Right. One other thing that comes up would be the phase inverter tube is in the output stage. And it is just a 12ax7. And you better have tried another one of those because that would make the output stage sound bad. If the 12. If the phase inverter tube was bad. So you've bitten it to me, that's an extension cabinet. You know, just take the amp out, give it to somebody to strip for parts and make it into a cool cabinet with a, you know, simpler amp. But if you insist, judging by what you've said, and you're welcome to call me, there's something up in the output stage of that amp. So do you know how to check the bias? Is there one power tube that's running like 10 milliamps and the other one's running 75 milliamps? That could cause that. And then we're just getting into some classic basic troubleshooting voltages, you know, things like that. What kind of current is that output stage really drawn? And if you don't know how to do that, that's fine, but learn some of that before you throw the thing away. Or there's only so much we can tell about the engine when we're just standing outside the car. We have to be able to pop the hood. And in a modern car, we stick the computer thingy in there that says, oh, you've got a O2 sensor problem. In the old days, you could at least see it. But. But this guy probably doesn't have quite enough knowledge to really accurately do much more troubleshooting. But hey, in six months maybe. So maybe make yourself a bias probe setup so that you can see what each power tube is really drawn current wise. That'd be a good call. And you could buy that from our sponsors or you could make it if you want to learn to solder and want to, you know, do a project that's going to help you with your amp learning. How's that? I was looking.

[Jason]

That was great.

[Skip]

A little vague, but that's good.

[Jason]

Thank you, Hunter.

[Skip]

I'm always a little vague.

[Jason]

It's fine.

[Skip]

I'm. I'd be pushing the limits. You brought me that amp, I'd be going, oh, my God. I'd start with checking the output stage and seeing if the cap. If the. The power tubes are still hanging in there. And of course, it better not have any, like, really low budget, you know, offshore 6L6s, because they'll just go poof in that thing. Poof. Could be running on one tube. You know, 1 6L6. That sounds pretty amazingly good at low volume, but when you turn it up, it's like, oh, what is that weird distortion? And could be something like that.

[Jason]

All right, keep the Questions coming, everybody. Podcastritboardjournal.com this next one is a long one that I will read to save your voice. This is from Franklin in Kirkland, Washington, with a question on one of Skip's favorite topics. Bias. I have a 1968 super reverb that I've mentioned in the past. When I got it, it had all transformers replaced with underpowered ones by a former owner. I don't know the reason and it didn't sound right. So I brought it back to spec by getting new Hammond replacements from our friends and sponsors at Amplified Parts. Mention Tava in the order. Franklin wrote that, not me. The power transformer is a Hammond 290 D2X which has dual HT secondaries at 710 vac and 610 vac. So I decided to wire it up for the 610 as an experiment. I had to adjust the bias resistors to get the 6L 6s in the right spot. The result is that it sounds great with early breakup at home. Friendly volume. It's great. The problem I have is that now it doesn't have enough clean headroom at volume. So I'd like to wire the 710 and 610 secondaries of the power transformer by replacing the standby switch to an on off on. So the right secondaries are selected and the middle is standby. In order to get the best of both worlds, my question is, how do I deal with the bias circuit? I think my options are one, wire up two separate bias circuits and add those to the same standby Switch and have two preset biases settings using 3 PDT instead of a 2 PDT switch. Or two, change the bias circuit to derive it from B so it would scale with the B secondaries. Or three, choose a middle ground bias that may not be the best for either, but would work for both. What would skip do? And then there's a salsa recipe.

[Skip]

Franklin, he better be making some good salsa.

[Jason]

It's pretty simple.

[Skip]

So, first of all, most money ever spent on a silver face super reverb. It's hard to. Hard to even get a grand for one of those things. Really hard. Because even though it's an absolutely fabulous amp, they're too tall and they're too heavy and unless you're 6ft, it's hard to even pick one up and move it around. But it was the amp of the gods. You know, twins and supers. I mean, I am a little concerned that it has great breakup at home volume. I wouldn't have thought that he. That doesn't seem quite right. It still shouldn't. It still shouldn't be breaking up. But what he's got going on now in this wonderful world of transformers and parts we have today is he bought a power transformer where there's two sets of high voltage leads coming off of it, basically so that you could have an amplifier that runs where the high voltage in it is 460. And you could use maybe these other wires and have it be 360 or 400 or something. I'm not exactly sure how it would work. The amplified parts Champ power transformer that's made by Hammond has that same setup with two sets of high voltage leads. If you, if you use the lower voltage ones on a Champ, it brings the B plus down to 360, 380 and a silver face Champ sounds way better. In fact, I might not have ever learned to modify them. But it's that high voltage where they're 420 on a little one little 6v6 that makes them not sound as good. So he's got the bigger one for a super reverb which is giving you the same two Cool choices. If you were a really groovy boutique amp company like our friend T Rock and you could just blow money like crazy. You know, they can, they can do things like have a high and low power switch that isn't just jive. In the old days, the high power, low power switch would like disconnect two power tubes out of four. Or it would just be something that made the amp run too hot. But if you have a power transformer that lets you select two different sets of high voltage windings. Now how to wire that up so you could go back and forth between the two. I don't know. I'd have to look. I'd have to really look at it. I'd have to think about it. But it would be possible to do. Just don't do it while you're playing the amp. Right. Should. You should be able to have an on off switch. With a high powered switch where the B plus is 460 and then in the middle maybe have the whole thing be off and then the bottom click would be the other two wires. And you'd need double pole double throw switches to do that. But it would be possible to do it. Don't do it when it's on you. If you raise and lower the B plus, it is going to change the bias of the output stage. I think I'd start by seeing if I could find a common spot like make your bias supply. Have a potentiometer, put your switch in so you can pick the high voltage secondaries or the lower voltage ones. And then carefully with a variac, you know, and a fire extinguisher, see if you can say, okay, if I, if I make the power tubes run 35 mils and I put it on low, they run down, they go down to 20. Well, that's going to sound fine. You know, it'll be somewhere, somewhere in the 20 to 40 range on those power tubes is going to sound fine. If you want to select, if you want to change the actual bias supply, then you'd need another switch that would kick in like probably an extra load resistor that would change that bias supply from negative 55 down to negative 48 and have it be independent of the switch that you're using to change the high voltage. You might have to drink and drill or you might have to use an extension speaker jack or something like that. And Franklin, what a nut. Yeah, but you're our nut. Yeah.

[Jason]

You are not.

[Skip]

Yeah, I like the idea of taking those big powerful amps like supers and twins, changing the power transformer to bring the B way down. That lowers the power of them, and they still work great. Our listener, who put two rectifier tubes in a twin reverb and changed it to two power tubes plus two rectifier tubes got it way down there, you know, like a lot less powerful. And that could be a good thing for some people. A lot of people.

[Jason]

You don't have to be like Franklin and modify a Super Reaver, but you can make his salsa, which is.

[Skip]

Now we're talking. I bet he could cook.

[Jason]

This is his homemade family recipe. Here are the ingredients. Two to three cloves of garlic, one lime, five tomatoes, one or two poblano or pasilla peppers. Salt and pepper. That's it.

[Skip]

That's it.

[Jason]

Directions. Boil the tomatoes and peppers in a pot until the tomatoes start to split and the pepper is soft. Tomatoes usually cook faster. Put the hot tomatoes in a blender. Clean and remove the seeds from the peppers and toss them in the blender, too. Add the raw garlic cloves and the juice of the lime. And to the put it in the blender. Add salt to taste and a dash of pepper. Blend it to your preferred consistency. Enjoy. You can eat it with chips or use anywhere. You would use something like El Pado. P.S. for much improved version that takes a bit longer to prepare, roast the tomatoes and peppers on the grill instead of boiling. It'll be much tastier, but takes a bit longer.

[Skip]

Smoky.

[Jason]

P.S. number two. If you want it spicier, you can leave the pepper seeds in or experiment with serrano or jalapeno peppers. That was from Franklin and Kirkland, Washington.

[Skip]

That's the stuff I usually. Mrs. Simmons usually makes that, but doesn't blend it or cook it. Just the. What's that called? Salsa. There's a corsa. There's one just where you just chop everything up. Right. But having it blended like that, I wouldn't have thought the raw garlic. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah, I'm down. It'll be a few months before we have any good tomatoes. Don't want to be using some old, funky old tomatoes from the greenhouse, but thanks, Franklin. I can tease you. I know he's. He did something really nice for me. I can't remember what. Sent me some sort of really cool gift pack with some old parts and stuff in it. So we'll cut him some slack if

[Jason]

anybody wants to really go back in time. When we had Ian Moore on this podcast, he had the salsa matcha, which I believe had peanuts in it, which was a Different kind of salsa. That was that turn. I did that once. It was good.

[Skip]

Well, he has a good idea. That pro reverb that I've had for 15 years is one of the really late 70s ones that runs smoking, high voltages. If you look at the back of a fender with two power tubes and it says, what do they say, 70 watts? Yes, 70 watts with two power tubes. You want to avoid those. Those are the ones that run way too hot. But the guy I'm going to give it to. Now all we have to do is buy the right power transformer, take the old one out, stick a new power transformer in. Presto, we have it way back down. We could run it down to like 400 volts. It would be like a little fiber lux reverb or something like that. And as the big amps languish, more and more of them probably will have that done to them, which would have been really hard in the old days. But now it's pretty easy. It'll all work just perfectly fine. But you'll have a 30 or 40 watt amp instead of a 60 or 70 watt amp that burns through tubes like crazy.

[Jason]

Yeah, it's great.

[Skip]

Yeah.

[Jason]

All right, we got one more.

[Skip]

One more.

[Jason]

Yeah. Unless you have some music or book recommendations.

[Skip]

There's an English company called Proper Records.

[Jason]

Oh, yeah, they're great.

[Skip]

Good and proper. Right. The great Earl Yarrow, who I've been thinking about a lot lately. I did get some cast iron books recently, Mrs. Simmons found I've been enjoying looking through those. Speaking of Earl Yarrow. But there's a set that they put out called Hillbilly Boogie. And it's all different bands. Lots and lots and lots of different bands. Whereas I have, of course, the, you know, the Hank Penny Said and the, you know, the Mill Brown and his Musical Brownies set. Those are all like really great if you're into western swing. But the Hillbilly boogie one is all these different bands, all from the 40s and 50s and 60s, some famous, like the Delmore Brothers and stuff. But it's all just. There's this shotgun boogie and the hillbilly boogie and the this and that. And it's all just great and fun to put on when you are cleaning the house. And sometimes I see those proper sets for really affordable. Like I think that one's four or five discs and a book, you know, a booklet inside that talks a lot about the artists. And I can definitely recommend that. Okay, that's a good one.

[Jason]

If anybody needs to cry their face off, there's a beautiful movie on YouTube. It's like 24 minutes long called the Life we have. I started watching it because it was about a runner who's battling cancer and I'm a runner. But a guy actually also looks exactly like the late great Bill Collings of Collings Guitars and he is a musician and so don't you know if, if anyone's already depressed, don't watch it. But it is very beautiful and life affirming. So it's on the REI YouTube channel. The Life we have and all right, we're going to end on a lighter note which is our buddy Jeff Chicatano with what he's already warned me about a super long voicemail. You can be a part of the show like Jeff or anyone else.

[Skip]

No, he can't be a part.

[Jason]

Well, he can't. He's banned. We've had to ban a couple people but you can send a voice memo to podcastritboardjournal.com or an email and be a part of the the next 160 episodes of this thing.

[Skip]

That's right. And here's share the enthusiasm. Just like Jeff Chicatana.

[Jason]

Yeah, he's.

[Skip]

He's just don't try to spell. Yes, that's a tough one.

[Jason]

Yeah. Okay, here we go.

[Jeff Chicatano]

Skip Jason, Jeff Chicatano here. Happy New Year. If you can still say that.

[Skip]

Maybe sounds like he has a microphone but either way.

[Jeff Chicatano]

Hey, to comment on that last caller with the pizza hack. Boy, that one sounded awful familiar, right? Copycat caller. Ah, just kidding. I know you mentioned it.

[Skip]

We gotta nudge this guy along but

[Jeff Chicatano]

yeah, well done Mr. Make Pizza at home. You can't beat it. And don't forget the Don Pepino shameless plug there. Skip calling about a couple of amps. Sent some an article on the one and some schematics to the email here to Jason. But it's one that you're just finished up for me. The old Webster Chicago 166 1. And compared to that another amp by Voice of Music 1 the model is 160. Right. So they look alike, right? I mean physically they're almost identical. The shape and the size 10 inch speaker combo tube complement little different. The Webster Chicago 166 there, that's like a tweed Harvard 6 at 612 AX7 in the preamp two 6v6 push pull and a 5y3. But according to that article in Vintage Guitar man, it's. It's a hell of an amp.

[Skip]

And

[Jeff Chicatano]

yeah, just curious on a couple of things with that compared to the Voice of Music 160 because that's very similar. But 212x7s up front and 5y3 6v6 same push pull. I'm just trying to understand and looking at the schematics, what, what may be the big differences even that you see in that and are they, are they very similar? And then when you go back to that model 166, you know, especially for us harp players, being able to lower some of the gain in the preamp stage, I guess a six at six is a lower gain tube. Right. But I guess if I wanted to step that up a little bit, what, what would that be? A6AV6, which I think is half of a12AX7. But thoughts on that one, you know, and, and, and, and how these two amps really, really differ. You know, they're way differently. Also, it's cold as hell here. If hell's even cold. By the time you guys play this podcast, the super bowl will have been completed. But you know, Super Sunday and chicken wings, they, they go together. And boy, unless you're up along that I90 corridor between Buffalo and Syracuse, you're probably not going to get a great wing. Unless you come to Old Shick's house. Because we fry the living out of them. Bought a fryer from Walmart. Use it in the garage. Holds a few quarts, I guess. Get that oil up to365,370 and then go buy, buy the whole wings, right? Don't buy frozen wings, don't buy pre cut ones. Try to find a whole wing, cut them up yourself, make sure they're not too big. Right. You don't want too big a wing. You want a nice size, nice and crispy. 18 minutes in that fryer, maybe a little less, depending on the size of the wing. And then you let them hang for a little bit and you make up your, your wing sauce, which consists of butter and hot sauce. And the hot sauce that I pick and found the best is made by Red Hot and it's their Buffalo style. Yeah. So maybe has a little butter in it already. It's not too hot. You can cut it with some more butter, but man, that works great. You toss those wings in there and then let them hang a little bit. Right. Kind of. Not that they're degassing, but they're drying off. Right. And you probably have yourself some of the best chicken wings that, that, that you have in your area. You won't get them from a restaurant, not bringing them home. They get too soggy. All right. Enjoy. Thanks for what you guys do, Tava. Take care.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Could we play like you play the 33 and a third on 78? We could get through it quicker, right?

[Jason]

We could next time.

[Skip]

No, he's just thoughtful and enthusiastic and I would eat the chicken wings, but I probably wouldn't make the chicken wings. But. But that sounds good. He's definitely a foodie. What he's really talking about are these similar but not similar in many ways, little gizmos that were sold with tape recorders. They're basically a powered speaker. Like there's a little tiny speaker and it's a little case. Sometimes there's a microphone input, sometimes they're made just to accept the output of the tape recorder. And he got one called a Webster 166 that if you do look at the schematic, you'll see it is a very classic traditional circuit that is very much like a Tweed Harbor. And yes, there's a seven pin tube called A6AV6 and one called A6A T6. Harvard's used them. They're half A12AX7 or half A12AT7. And you can substitute either one. The V is louder and the T is quieter. The Voice of Music amp that he's talking about, I couldn't really compare unless I was looking at the schematics exactly at the same time. Yeah, they're 2 6v6, so they're 10 watts. Lots and lots of amps were made like that. But I'm not exactly sure all the similarities. Both of these amps are still kind of sleepers compared to PA heads that people have figured out. So if you see a little Webster Voice of Music, I'm trying to think of another company that made. I don't know if Masco ever made one, but they're kind of low powered. Little 8 or 10 inch speaker in a little case. They're worth fixing up. It's just. They're a nightmare. That one he. When I fixed up for him, they just. You get used to fenders where it's all open and you can see everything. But a lot of other manufacturers, they didn't worry about that at all. They never thought about anybody ever having to replace the coupling caps. So things are just buried in there, you know, A lot harder to do, but still super worthwhile. Okay, so a tip of the. A tip of the pizza stone to Shikatana, who leaves his pizza stone in the oven all the time. All the time, yeah. So every time he uses the oven, he's eating up the Pizza stone, even if he doesn't use and not making pizza swears that's the hot ticket. Tin Can Valley printing got to say hi to. He sent me a box of neat stuff and I've been giving it out all the time. People really like it. If you haven't anything you want to print it that you want to have a really cool organic look. Tin Can Valley. And then Dave Trout, his last name is not Trout, but he came here to fish for Trout from la. And I fixed a bunch of amps for him while he was up here. He brought a big stack of old science fiction magazines, like, you know, Amazing Stories and stuff from the 50s with this crazy lurid art on the front. And so what I've been doing is reading them and then when I get done with one, I just it put, put it in a box that I ship an amp in.

[Jason]

Oh, that's great.

[Skip]

So I've been distributing them. So, you know, I don't, I don't just have a big monster stack of them and some of them are just, you know, we're talking pulp science fiction, you know, from the, from the 40s and 50s. And some of the artwork with the crazy rocket ships and guys with ray guns and stuff on the front are just fantastic. So if you get an amp shipped to you from me in the near future, you'll probably get one. This is thanks to Dave Trout.

[Jason]

Yeah, this is like Sweetwater giving you a scent of candy, but you get an actual keepsake that will hold its.

[Skip]

Kind of like that.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Skip]

Or just, you know, read it, pass it along to some other freakazoid, you know. Or if you really like the COVID picture, you can always, you know, put it in a little frame because some of them are pretty wild looking. You know, they, they, they got some like comic book artists to do the, a lot of the illustrations, really good artists. So a lot of the times the covers are really cool looking.

[Jason]

I love it.

[Skip]

Well, we did it.

[Jason]

We did it. Thanks everybody for tuning in. Keep the questions coming. [e-mail] thanks to Amplified Parts. Use that discount code. Thanks Emerald City Guitars. Thanks to Grez. Thanks to all of our Patreon patrons. And thank you, Skip.

[Skip]

Well, thank you. Although I'll know I'll never get that seven minutes pack that I set. Stairs. Computer screen. I think it aged me.