The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 146

Episode 146 of the Truth About Vintage Amps: Troubled drummers, bulk Gatorade, more typewriter and Rockford Files talk, and a bunch of amp questions. Reminder: Our friends at Amplified Parts now offer tube amp kits!

Thanks, as always, for being a part of the world’s finest call-in tube amp repair show.

Want amp tech Skip Simmons’ advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Include a photo, too.

Some of the topics discussed this week: 

:43 The Ampeg book (Amazon link), George Barnes and ‘Guitars Galore’

3:43 A 1982 black panel Fender Champ

4:43 A Super Reverb that sounds like a dying motorcycle

6:09 Jason goes to Peru, vicuñas, alpacas

10:23 Some TAVA announcements: Sam Plecker has a new album (‘So True’); congrats to John Vanderslice; RIP to Michael Hurley; thanks to Tin Can Valley Letterpress printing (link)

14:37 Ep. 150 idea: Skip’s amp guru on the podcast?; servicing a hybrid Standel

18:24 Our sponsors: Save $20 off Amplified Parts’ new MOD vintage amp kits with the discount code TAVA20! (expires April 30, 2025); Grez Guitars; and Emerald City Guitars

25:40 Recommended pedal: The Catalinbread Topanga reverb pedal (note: Skip said “Tropicana,” but it’s the Topanga)

27:45 Replies to last week’s Rockford Files Baffler; Jim Gordon, ‘Drums & Demons’ (Amazon link); Hal Blaine’s ‘Buh-doom!’ comedy album (it’s on Spotify) and other Hollywood gossip; more Rockford Files (and letterpress!)

35:46 Accidentally injecting positive feedback into a Precision single-ended amp; tools for measuring plate current

40:23 Cleaning motor oil off of tubes and a vintage microphone; Gatorade and Tang; running a Traynor off of a gas generator

47:37 A smoking 1980s Fender Super Champ and fried resistors

52:51 A 6-watt Princeton Reverb / Vibro-Champ clone in a custom beetle-kill pine tree cabinet

59:02 An amp cabinet with sympathetic strings (Reverb link), explained! Vulture Amplification video one and two; Treehaus field coil speakers (link)

1:05:08 Hooking something up: Experimenting with a speaker outside of a cabinet

1:06:29 Servicing an all-original Vibrolux Reverb to sell

1:09:58 Giving the gift of an El Pato Tone practice amp (order yours here); Typewriter Revolution; typewriter ribbons from Baco Ribbon & Supply Co.

1:18:52 Reverse audio taper potentiometers

1:22:37 Come get a free SVT speaker

1:23:13 Sacramento’s Delta Breeze record store, redux; not all capacitors are created equal; always use a test speaker; Amplified Parts’ Hammond enclosure for short reverb tanks

1:27:22 Recommended reading: Hampton Sides’ ‘The Wide Wide Sea’ (Amazon link)

1:28:51 Homework: Check out the Maestro GA-2RT schematic

Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon page. Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Above pic: The sympathetic strings of Vulture Amplifications amp cabinet.