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Should've called it, "While my kids sleep in the room above my garage studio" heh. I composed and tracked this about 5 years ago. I track and write while I record. Never know what I'm going to do until I sit in front of the DAW and start. This emerged and was hastily tracked back when I thought...

I had the sense and means to buy in bulk when regional conditions around eastern europe started to deteriorate. I was fortunate, but many are not. My distributor's supply has been wiped clean and prices for single JJ 12ax7s are going for upwards of $80 each online. I have no tolerance for...

Hi, all. Happy Monday. I'm almost finished debugging a customer's 6G2 clone and am down to two remaining issues: 1. Buzz when volume at 0 - 2 + tone at 0-9 2. Non functioning trem My main concern is issue #1 at the moment. I found and corrected a host of assembly errors and now the amp is...

I feel I haven’t been around in ages. I’ve been so busy with restorations and repair work, I’m contemplating getting a small commercial space, but love working from home to be honest and don’t think I want to get back into a commercial lease. It’s funny how certain types of amps seem to come...

I've met my match. I've got a transistory Vox bass amp from the 60's on the ol' bench and am getting no guitar signal to pass through the output found two poop caps feeding Q1/2 bases. The amp passes an injected 1khz sine with authority and ease, but will not pass a guitar signal. Any hot...

Ha what’s wrong with this pic? Did a quick job for a repeat client. His old tech tacked them in. Leads too short. I j-hooked ‘em for a little more security. Not beautiful, but they aren’t going anywhere and there’s just enough room for these to flex a bit. I also removed the 250uf first rage...

Here’s the beginning. What am I getting myself into here? The owner bought this with the matching lap steel. he was nice enough to Kick the rats out and give her a cursory cleaning, so I’m grateful. This will either be a massive money pit/stalled project or one cool Resto.

Hey guys just whipped up this quick Resto for a customer. Tolex repair, complete rewire of grounding scheme and some tone circuit tweaks. Added a fuse holder…lol the irony of installing a fuse holder next to the UL STICKER is not lost on me. Amp is now dead quiet and rocks like Zepp. I’ll post...

Storage fees are skyrocketing and i recently decided to slowly withdraw and close it down. On a recent adventure there I made my way alllll the way to the back, where I rediscovered a long forgotten treasure trove - old tube radios, car care products that have solidified, and two Peavey Classic...

Customer just claimed his amp, leaving me with a hole in my heart. He bought the amp after it had been BF’d by another tech, but brought it to me for routine maintenance and to add NFB options to the ground switch. that amp is running stock ceramic speakers on cheap tubes and it sounds...

My client searched the net looking for info on this amp prior to purchase. He said he found only one pic of it. Here’s a placeholder. I’ll be getting to this one early next week. The parts for the ‘62 Deluxe just came in and I’ve got a quick ‘65 Pro Reverb repair first.

What a fantastic punctuation in an already fantastic week at the shop. Hot off the heels of some vintage Supro, Magnatone, and Danelectro (and ADA MP-1 work gah) restorations, a couple oldies with logically engineered chassis showed up (Joke!): a '56 5E3 and '61 Deluxe. I'll cover the Tweed...

Hi, all. I never post in this area, so it's a refreshing change to have my '66 Super Reverb in the state its in where I can now focus on pedals. I've got the following lineup on a mini pedaltrain board: TU3s > Deja Vibe MKII > Fulltone 70's Fuzz > JHS modded Soul Food > Route 808 > Diamond...

For grins, I've decided to test a few reversible mods. Here they are along with my impressions: 1. NFB defeat switch - The single most useful mod I've ever implemented in a BF amp. Richer tone with immensely more touch sensitivity and smoothness into breakup. Lowers headroom just the right...

There really is a season to things -- and apparently we are right in the middle of Tweed Season, or the Ides of Tweed, as it were. Here's another mid 50's diamond in the rough. She's got her hair all messed up, but she came to party. Owner wanted some Immortal Amp mods, so I obliged and...

What a journey with this amp. My customer decided to get a refresh in his late 55/early 56 5E3 and wanted me to get rid of some hum by updating the grounding scheme. The heaters are still connected to ground at each socket, but the amp is 50% quieter now. He prefers to leave it be as is now. He...

I repaired a mint 77 super reverb last week - and I mean mint! Owner complained of high heat while playing. Red plate extravaganza! I troubleshot it and found a shorted bias supply diode (first time I’ve seen that happen) and leaky pi caps causing instability. After it was fully repaired, I was...

Received this amp today that just had a new OT installed by the owner. There's a scorch mark by the blue plate lead's spade lug connector on the PCB. He states the amp is smoking from this spot even with no power tube installed. Filter caps measure OK in my ESR meter. There's no other...

This is my second install - pardon it's on a Strat heh. I decided to age the backplate to match the rest of the guitar. This is a very straightforward and easy install if you are able to follow a diagram and appropriately wield a soldering iron. Style points for being able to not drill...

Ha! A week can't go by without a great learning experience. This one's got me stumped. I've got a '71 Pro Reverb on the bench that I can't de-tick despite having changed all the caps in the trem circuit (and trying Fender's service bulletin). The amp has been fully serviced recently and this...

Hi, all. Its been blues jr mania on the bench and I have one that’s stumped this chump. The amp arrived with one power tube that lost its vacuum and owner complaints of low volume and saturation. After inspecting the filter caps with my esr meter, I was able to move on. The tube board...

Here’s the amp that thought me the lesson about bringing old amps inside before cleaning them outside. Something with more legs than I flew out of the chassis and I can’t find where it went. Anyway I have a load of pics, but I’ll start with this one. The master volume pot that typically breaks...

Hi, all. Have a deluxe reverb clone on the bench with new tubes and a strange issue. Very low output volume and low level hum in the background. Testing the output jack, which is functioning as intended isolated from the amp, I'm getting continuity between tip and ground despite the tip leaf...

Happy new year all - hope this note finds you and yours well. A customer asked if it would be possible to add a line in to his deluxe reverb clone. He wishes to run preamps and pedals through it at line level for recording. Has anyone done such a thing? Seems like it would be easier to run...

Hi, all. If you've read the title, then you have no doubt surmised I have decided to keep and use this amp for its intended purpose. Though it's in exceptionally great shape, I am not going to sit on the fence with this thing, because it's the one amp I've owned that actually makes me get lost...