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Founded in the mid-1940s in Fullerton, California by Leo Fender, the legendary amps produced by this company have been heard on countless recordings and are influential on countless other amp makers. In the beginning Fender paired small combo amps with lap steels and electric guitars aimed at student players, but word of the superior tone and build quality quickly spread among professional musicians. In over seventy years of existence, Fender has consistently evolved and innovated its sound from the Tweed era through the Brown and Blackface eras and beyond.

Mercury Magnetics has built a massive collection of ToneClone® Transformers and Chokes for Fender Amps available from all eras of production. Answering the needs of players and amp-builders alike, our extensive catalog of audio transformers is the ultimate resource whether you’re looking to replace a worn-out transformer in a vintage Fender amp or looking to nail a vintage tone in a new amp or amp build. The engineers at Mercury have painstakingly documented every detail and nuance of the best-of-breed vintage transformers and can faithfully produce perfect clones using the same materials and methods used on the originals.

The ToneClone+ Series from Mercury Magnetics adds more utility and options without altering the original tone. Love your amp but want to change your speaker configuration? Mercury’s ToneClone+ Output Transformers give players more impedance options like alternate and multi-tapped secondaries. Power Transformers can benefit from the “Plus” treatment as well with alternate primary voltage, Higher or Lower B+ Voltages, added current capability, and more.

Fender Woodie Amp Transformers: The earliest production amps to come out of Fullerton, Fender ‘Woodie’ amps can be identified by their hardwood cabinets and fixed handles. We are proud to offer ToneClone® transformers from this short-lived and rare Woodie era including the Woodie Deluxe (aka Model 26) and Woodie Pro.

Fender Tweed Amp Transformers: The Fender Tweed era lasted from the late forties to early sixties and a vast amount of artists from all generations have crafted their distinct tone using these amps through all genres. Notable artists include: Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley), Neil Young, Larry Carlton, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards. Mercury Magnetics has the largest catalog of vintage-correct Fender ToneClone® replacements transformers for the following models: Tweed Bandmaster, Tweed Bassman, Tweed Champ, Tweed Harvard, Tweed Princeton, Tweed Pro/Dual Professional, Tweed Super, Tweed Tremolux, Tweed Deluxe, Tweed Twin, and Tweed Vibrolux.

Fender Blonde and Brown (Brownface) Amp Transformers: Sitting on the timeline between the Tweed and Blackface Fender amps, the Blonde/Brown amps of the early sixties were most noticeably embraced by surf groups like the Beach Boys and Dick Dale. Our catalog of ToneClone® amp transformers for this era includes Brown/Blonde Bandmaster, Blonde Bassman, Blonde Showman, Blonde Tremolux, Blonde Twin, Brown Concert, Brown Deluxe, Brown Princeton, Brown Pro, Brown Super, Brown Vibrasonic, Brown Vibrolux, and Brown Vibroverb. Also see our transformers and choke for the 6G15 Reverb Unit.

Fender Blackface Amp Transformers: Easily distinguishable by their black control plates and white lettering, Fender Blackface amps began showing up on stages and recordings in the early-mid 1960s. Extremely popular among musicians then, the impressive build quality and versatile tones have kept these classic amps popular even 50 years later. Mercury Magnetics has hundreds of ToneClone® and ToneClone+ transformers and chokes for Fender Blackface Amps including: Blackface Bandmaster/Bandmaster Reverb, Blackface Bassman, Blackface Champ, Blackface Concert, Blackface Deluxe/Deluxe Reverb, Blackface Princeton/Princeton Reverb, Blackface Pro/Pro Reverb, Blackface Showman, Blackface Tremolux, Blackface Twin Reverb, Blackface Vibrochamp, Blackface Vibrolux, and Blackface Vibroverb. Also see our transformers and choke for the 6G15 Reverb Unit.

We always maintain a steady flow of gear arriving for review, but sometimes we also employ a fascinating if time-consuming research strategy that involves logging onto eBay, picking a broad category such as “guitar amplifiers,” and settling in for as long as it takes to patiently scroll through every page of listings. Yeah, that’s often 50 pages or more, but since we can’t possibly think of all the items that might interest us and search for them by name, it’s far more revealing and productive to just hunker down and scroll. Rarely do we fail to find something intriguing that would have otherwise been missed, and such was the case on a morning in August when we stumbled on a listing for a 1959 tweed Deluxe. Were we looking for a tweed Deluxe? Nope. Wouldn’t have crossed our mind at the time…. We had already reviewed 5E3 reproductions from Fender, Clark and Louis Electric within the past 3 years, and we have frequently referenced our 1958 Tremolux as being our desert island #1. Isn’t a Tremolux just a tweed Deluxe with tremolo in a bigger box? No… not even close. That would be like saying you wanted to date a blonde – any blonde. For the record, our fixed bias Tremolux possesses a cleaner tone with a bigger, booming voice created by the taller Pro cabinet. The Two Fifty Nine is a completely different animal….

Sporting a February 1959 date code on the tube chart, the ’59 had been listed by a seller in Arkansas who turned out to be Tut Campbell, formerly a well-known guitar dealer in Atlanta. Still buying and selling gear, Campbell had described the Deluxe as being in original condition with the exception of a replace output transformer – a big old mono block Stancor dating to 1957. Given the otherwise original condition of the Deluxe, which included the Jensen P12R, we made Campbell a “best off” below his asking price and scored the amp for $1,850 shipped. We wouldn’t say we stole the Deluxe, but it seemed a fair price of admission for the opportunity to experience and explore still another rare classic and supremely worthy piece of Fender history on your behalf.

The Deluxe arrived with the big Stancor dangling from the chassis despite Campbell’s careful packaging. Wasn’t his fault, really – in a feeble effort to avoid any additional holes being drilled in the chassis, the fellow who installed the Stancor in the ’60s had merely tightened set screws over the small tabs at the base of the heavy tranny, which was designed to be mounted upright – not hanging upside down in a guitar amplifier. Of more concern was the fact that while the amp was lighting up, there was no sound…. Well, we’ve been here before, so we made a call to God’s Country and the Columbus, Indiana domicile of Terry Dobbs – Mr. Valco to you. We had already set aside a spare output transformer (Lenco, McHenry, IL) that had been the original replacement installed in our ’58 Tremolux when we first received it, replaced with a Mercury Magneticsfor our June ’07 review article. Mr. Valco cheerfully answered his phone and as we explained the situation with the Deluxe he agreed to walk us through the installation of the new replacement – a simple process involving four lead wires being connected to the rectifier and output tube sockets, and the speaker jack. As long as you put the correct wires in the right place, a piece of cake, and we had the new tranny in within 10 minutes. Pilot lamp and all tubes glowing, still no sound…. Valco patiently guided us through a series of diagnostics with the multi-meter and the Deluxe was running on all cylinders, pumping 380 volts. Stumped, and with the hour growing late, we called it a day. Leaving the mysteriously neutered Deluxe chassis on the bench until tomorrow.

Morning came with a whining voice delivering a plaintive wake up call – “It’s got to be something stupid and simple….” Inspired by a huge steaming mug of Jamaican High Mountain meth, we sat back down at the bench, tilted the innards of the Deluxe chassis forward beneath a bright halogen desk lamp and peered in for answers. We began slowly examining the chassis in sections, looking for broken or dull solder joints, loose or broken wires, while gently pushing and prodding wires and connections with the eraser tip of a #2 pencil as we had seen Jeff Bakos do so often at his bench. After ten minutes or so we were about to give up, when we turned our attention to several places where the circuit was grounded to the chassis adjacent to the volume and tone pots, and damned if a solder joint for one of the uninsulated ground wires hadn’t separated from the chassis. No ground, no sound, and as soon as we had restored the solder joint the Two Fifty Nine arose from the dead with a mighty A major roar.

The amp was indeed remarkably well-preserved in all respects, with the typical amber patina of old tweed. The burnished chrome control panel remained bright and clean with no corrosion, the original handle remained intact, and a couple of small ciggie burns on the edge of the cabinet added a stamp of historic legitimacy to the Deluxe’s pedigree. The top half of the Jensen’s frame was coated in a fine film of red clay dust from the Delta, and while the cone was in remarkably good shape with no tears, an audible voice coil rub called for a recone. We would send the speaker to Tom Colvin’s Speaker Workshop in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, requesting that he leave the original unbroken solder joints for the speaker wires intact if possible.

Meanwhile the first order of business was to listen to an assortment of NOS tubes from our stash, and audition no less than a half dozen speakers. Different sets of power tubes and individual preamp tubes will sound surprisingly different, so we started out with a matched pair of NOS RCA 6V6s, a GE 5Y3 rectifier, and an RCA 12AX7 and 12AY7. From there we subbed in a dozen different RCA, Amperex, Tesla and GE 12AX7s, noting varying levels of brightness, warmth and intensity among them all. For an edgier, more aggressive voice, the GEs and Amperex typically deliver the goods, while RCAs produce a slightly warmer, richer, fuller tone. We also experimented with a 12AT7 and 12AX7 in place of the lower gain 12AY7, and while those tubes ramp up gain and distortion faster and with more intensity than the 12AY7, they seemed like overkill for us. Our Deluxe possesses a tone of gain using the stock 12AY7.

Rather than repeatedly reloading the Deluxe with different speakers, we used a Bob Burt 1×12 cabinet built from 100-year-old pine for our speaker tests. The original Jensen had never been pulled from our amp, but multiple speaker replacements in an old Fender inevitably cause the speaker mounting screws to loosen in the baffleboard, making speaker swaps unnecessarily clumsy and complicated. When we do run into loose mounting screws, we simply run a few small drops of Super Glue around the base of the screw and surrounding wood. Allow to dry and your screws will stay put provided that you don’t torque the nuts on the mounting screws like an idiot with a socket wrench. Don’t be that guy,

We tested a range of speakers that included a Celestion G12H 70thAnniversary, Colvin-reconed ’64 Jensen C12N, Eminence Wizard, Private Jack, Alnico Red Fang, Teas Heat, Screaming Eagle, Red, White & Blues, and Warehouse Green Beret, Veteran 30, Alnico Blackhawk and Alnico Black & Blue. The Alnico speakers generally produce a tighter, smoother, slightly more compressed tone, with a variable emphasis on upper mid-range and treble frequencies, while the speakers with ceramic magnets possess a wider, more open sound. Higher power ratings of 75W-100W offered by the Red, White & Blues, Screaming Eagle and Warehouse Blackhawk typically translate into more graceful handling of bass frequencies, and in a 20 watt Deluxe, zero speaker distortion, for a clean, powerful voice.

Let’s cut to the chase with speaker evaluations, shall we? It has become clear to us that even after reviewing a dozen speakers in as much detail as mere words allow in a single article, many of you remain uncertain about which speaker to choose. No kidding. We would absolutely love to hand you a single magic bullet when it comes to speaker swaps, but here’s the dirty little secret about choosing speakers…. The overall character of the amp you will be installing your new speaker in is critical, and to some extent, the type of guitars and pickups you play most often are important, too. Tailoring your sound with the unique gear you play is not a one-size fits-all proposition – you have to invest some thought into the process. Are you going for a classic “scooped” American Fendery tone, or something more British, with a bit of an aggressive edge and upper midrange voice? Are you playing guitars with single coil pickups or humbuckers? Is there a specific, signature tone you are searching for, or are you playing a wide variety of musical styles that requires a broader range of tones? Do you like the more open sound of speakers with ceramic magnets, or the smoother compression of Alnico? What are you not hearing from your amp and the speaker that’s in it now? Do you want a brighter tone, darker, better bass response, or fuller, more prominent mids? Do you want to really drive the speaker and hear it contributing to the overdriven sound of your amp, or do you want a big, clean tone with no speaker distortion in the mix? The truth is, if you don’t know what you want, you are far less likely to get it. On the other hand, nothing is accomplished with paralysis by analysis. To be perfectly honest, there are lots of speakers made by Celestion, Eminence, Warehouse and, if you can wait long enough for them to break in, Jensen, that we could and would be perfectly happy with, but we would also choose them carefully, taking into account all the factors mentioned above. After a couple of days spent swapping speakers, we ultimately concluded that we preferred the ’64 C12N for a classic tweed Deluxe tone, and a broken-in Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary for the most mind-altering 18 watt Marshall tone we have ever heard. Seriously. More on that in a minute….

Having split more than a few hairs with our speaker swaps, it was time to start picking nits off of gnats with some output transformer evaluations. We first contacted Dave Allen of Allen Amplification, who also stocks Heyboer transformers built to his specs. We found a variety of appropriate output transformers on Allen’s site that offered subtle variations on a stock original Deluxe OT, and we asked Dave to describe the TO26 model we wished to try in the Deluxe:

“The TO26 was intended as a hot rodding upgrade to a stock Deluxe Reverb OT. While maintaining the stock 3-1/8” mounting centers, its fat stack of hotter core steel and multi-tap secondary make it a good choice for builders wanting to maximize the performance of a pair of 6V6s and who may also want to push the envelope with 6L6/5881s while still being able to clear the speaker in a stock cabinet. There are physical limitations in small amps, so its short low profile is welcome. The orientation of the laminations is also good for low hum pick up from the power transformer. I found that an OT mounted the tall way (like my TO30D) picks up considerably more hum simply due to its orientation to the power transformer, so, shoe-horning a ‘tallish’ OT into your amp may cause it to pick up hum from the power transformer – not much of an upgrade. “The TO26’s 7K to 8 or 16 ohm rating makes it ideal for a pair of 6V6s as well as 3,500 ohm to 4 or 8 rating for 6L6/5881s. Notice you always have an 8 ohm option with both types of power tubes. An impedance switch could be wired (I use a blackface grounding switch) as a power tube type selector for an 8 ohm speaker to go between 6V6s and 6L6s. The TO26 will typically give slightly more output with 6V6s due to its more efficient low-loss core steel and will keep the bass clean longer for more perceived clean headroom. As it takes the most watts to reproduce the bass, you notice distortion there first, and since Fender-type amps are so bass heavy, you can quickly hit the wall with headroom, so a noticeable increase in clean bass response certainly feels like a more powerful amp with the TO26. It is kind of like you installed a new speaker with a larger ceramic magnet that is more efficient than the old speaker. The amp is a little louder and the bass a little tighter or cleaner.

“There seem to be a lot of 6L6-based 5E3 amps out there now to get a little clean headroom from a circuit normally not known for much of that. The TO26 is a good choice for that type of amp as it will fit typical available chassis and cabinets. It has extra long 12” topcoat leads ready to strip and solder. I would reckon it would handle up to about 30 watts before starting to saturate and compress – plenty of cathode-biased 6L6s. I find that the Heyboer paper stick-wound and interleaved output transformers with premium core steel and heavy core stacks have typically better clarity or definition than ‘stock’ OTs. Call it fidelity or whatever you want – just clearer distorted and complex tones and better separation of notes in chords, etc. I use the TO26 in the Allen Sweet Spot, Accomplice Jr. and Hot Fudge with Nuts amps with excellent results. All of these amps can use either 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes. You know how a 5F6-A or Super Reverb has that huge 4 bolt OT for a pair of 6L6s to get the maximum clean bottom end? That is sort of what the TO26’s OT is to a pair of 6V6s. It just doesn’t even come close to saturating.

When we informed Dave that we planned to run the Deluxe with 6L6/5881 power tubes as well as 6V6s, he recommended that we try the TO26 since it had been specifically designed for such applications. He also sent a smaller TO20 transformer, described as being designed with a wider 1-1/4′′ lamination “fat stack” that provides 60% additional core mass than typical ¾′′ stack units for improved performance. The TO20 is a direct replacement for Blues Jr. and Princeton Reverb amps, and also suitable for dual EL-84 amps with an 8 ohm load.

Mr. Valco also sent us a replacement 5E3 output transformer he had bought on sale from Clark Amplification a few years ago made for Mike Clark by Magnetics Components in Schiller Park, IL – a company that has been producing transformers since 1943, having been the primary supplier for Valco and various Gibson amps in the ’50s and ’60s. A call to the company revealed that ToneQuest ReportV12. N1. Nov. 20104the transformer Valco sent was essentially their replacement for a Deluxe Reverb, model #40-18002 without bell ends per Clark’s request. We also learned that the company offers a complete range of Classic Tone vintage power and output transformers, including a reverse-engineered clone of a ’55 Triad 5E3 output tranny, model #18022.

We also contacted Paul Patronete at Mercury and requested a ToneClone “brown Deluxe” output transformer, since Larry Cragg had provided them with specific measurements from original OT in Neil’s ’61 tweed Deluxe, confirming that it was indeed a ’61–’62 brown Deluxe tranny. With a total of 6 output transformers to listen to, we took the Deluxe to Jeff Bakos, who set up a rig on his bench that enabled us to clip in each transformer and very quickly switch back and forth between them as we played a guitar through the amp. Are we having fun yet? Here’s what we heard:

Lenco – An excellent authentic “vintage” vibe for those that prefer the classic, if somewhat murkier sound of a tweed amp being pushed, lots of sag in the low end and a jangly pop in the top. And “old,” rather “lo-fi” sound indicative of the ’50s era amps.

Magnetics Components Clark Deluxe 18002 – Similar to the Lenco, but stronger and more robust, with a prominent growling character and voice. Thick, wooly and willin’ with better treble presence and clear string definition then the Lenco, yet an entirely “vintage” character. This tranny is comparable to those found in Deluxe amps from the brown era through silverface. Excellent power, punchy and fat with exceptional clarity and tone.

Magnetic Components 5E3 Clone – Percussive and dynamic with a faster attack response than the Clark/Deluxe Reverb version, this transformer was reverse-engineered from an original ’55 Deluxe OT. IT imparts an intense, throaty tweed character with enhanced mid and treble presence, remarkable clarity, and an authentic vintage ’50s vocal tone with softer bass response and slightly less volume and power than the Deluxe 18002.

Allen/Heyboer TO20 – An interesting variation with a much more modern, percussive dynamic character. The sound was not as heavy and imposing in the vintage style, and with this transformer the Deluxe reminded us of the more refined sound of a Fender Princeton, with excellent dynamic punch for slide and Allen/Heyboer TO26 – As advertised, the low end held up loud and proud with very little sag and an audibly higher threshold of clean headroom, although beyond 6 on the volume control the Deluxe was still holding nothing back. Overall, this transformer imparts a cleaner, high fidelity tone with more clarity and stout bass response than a typical stock 5E3 transformer. An excellent choice for enhanced low-end and maximum volume.

Mercury Magnetics brown Deluxe – Immediately recognizable, the Mercury displayed a trademark sound that is smooth, exceptionally musical, warm and balanced. Sounding more “high fidelity” than the Lemco or Magnetic Components transformers, but still seductively unruly enough to get yer ya-ya’s out. Sweet, rich, detailed and sticky.

Now, you may be wondering why we would bother to audition so many output transformers…. How much difference can it make? Well, forty-odd years ago when someone rigged that old Stancor tranny in the Deluxe, the only choice available to most repair shops was whatever was on hand in the scrap pile. Today we can shape the tone and dynamic response of an amp with a variety of “vintage” or more modern, custom transformers that allow us to recapture the original sound and feel of the amp, or improve upon the original design. Why did Cesar Diaz install output transformers for a Twin Reverb in Stevie’s Super Reverb amps, and Bassman transformers in his Vibroverbs? Because the first thing that chokes and overwhelms a smaller output transformer are the bass frequencies, and Cesar wanted Stevie’s amps to produce a rock-solid, thundering low end that could handle his massive wound strings. The tone we’re celebrating with our ’59 Deluxe is quite the opposite…. The raucous sound of the amp teetering on the edge is the key to it’s exploding tone, but if you wanted to go in the opposite direction with more headroom and a tighter low end, transformers like the TO26 have been specifically designed for that purpose. We once replaced the output transformer in our Pro reverb with a bigger MercuryToneClone Bassman, and the Pro grained a tone of clean headroom and unyielding bottom. Wanna make it even harder still? Use a plug-in diode rectifier in place of the 5AR4 rectifier tube. No saggy britches now. As with so many choices we make in the Quest for tone, the final decision comes down to your mission and individual taste, and Jeff agreed that between the Heyboer TO26, both Magnetic Components trannies and the Mercury brown Deluxe, the question wasn’t which one was “best” – all four were exceptional, but different. Some players would prefer one over another for different reasons described here, but all of them represent stellar examples of just how far we’ve come since the day that old Stancor tranny was used to put the Two Fifty Nine back into service.

One last detail needed to be addressed…. Could we safely run the Deluxe with 5881s or 6L6s if we preferred that sound over 6V6s? Once again, we asked the prescient Mr. Valco for some Hoosier insight:

“The impedance mismatch in this particular amp using the 6L6s is really not a big concern, it won’t hurt the amp and will either sound good or it won’t. The 6L6s draw 1.8 amps and two 6V6s draw 0.9 amp, so using the 6L6s will add about 1 amp more current draw that the power transformer needs to supply from the 6.3 volt heater windings. On some small 6V6 amps, using 6L6s can and does cause the power transformer to run hotter because more current equates to more heat. The concern is that the power transformer in the Deluxe, not being a large one to start with, has the extra 1 amp of heater current capacity to safely use the 6L6s. One way to determine if the power transformer is really stressed out with the 6L6s is to measure the AC heater voltage on pins 2 and 7 on the power tube sockets (or on the pilot lamp) and see if the AC voltage drops significantly from the reading using 6V6s versus 6L6s. It should be a bit over 6.3 volts AC with the 6V6 anyway (since the wall voltage is higher these days than in the early ’60s) and with the 6L6s you sure don’t want to see a large drop in voltage below 6.3 volts AC. If there is a large drop it means the transformer is having trouble supplying enough current for the 6L6 heaters if given enough time with the 6L6s could damage the power transformer. If the drop is only a few 10th of a volt, and doesn’t go below 6.3 AC, then it would indicate that the transformer is supplying the demand for the heater current and should be OK. Most Fender amps used power transformers that could handle some extra current demand.

And now we arrive at the moment of truth. We’ve been steadily reeling in a parade of new and classic amps for review in these pages for 12 years now this month – Marshall, Fender, Magnatone, Hiwatt, Vox, Valco, Silvertone, Ampeg, Gibson, Gretsch, Mesa Boogie, Park, Supro, Dickerson, Traynor, Budda, Western Auto, Standel, Dumble, Cornell, Clark, Crate, Divided by 132, Reeves, Bad Cat, Gabriel, Fuchs, Koch, Star, Category 5, 65 Amps, Balls, Bakos, Callaham, Blankenship, Reinhardt, Grammatico, Siegmund, Chicago Blues Box, Roccaforte, Headstrong, Rivera, Mad Professor, Talos, Maven Peal, Reverend, BC Audio, Savage, Goodsell, Fargen, Carol-Ann, DST, Two Rock, Germino, Matchless, Louis Electric, Swart, Demeter, Juke, Aiken, Bluetron, DeArmond, Carr, Victoria, and Dr. Z, with more coming. Lots of amplifiers, multiple models from the same builders, and among the foremost classics – Fender, Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt, Gibson, Ampeg and the entire Valco catalog, we have acquired, optimized and restored dozens of amps considered to be among the most desirable vintage models ever built. In the 20 watt wheelhouse occupied by the Two Fifty Nine, it has no equal by a mile. Game over.

After a lot of back and forth testing with different sets of output tubes, we became hooked on the thundering sound produced by a pair of Philips small-bottle 6L6WGBs. Thanks to Larry Pogreba’s talent for scavenging rare tubes (in Montana, no less), we are flush with several outstanding and stout pairs of RCA 6L6s, but the brighter Philips really lit up the Deluxe with a fresh and lively attitude that mirrors the bounce of a newer amp. With the ’64 Jensen C12N loaded, the Deluxe spookily nails the tones of Neil Young’s rig on Ragged Glory – a “studio” recording cut live with the Deluxe and Old Black in a barn on Young’s ranch with Crazy Horse. With the volume backed off to 4-5 a bluesy jangle emerges anchored by solid low end, rich midrange, the sweetest treble tones imaginable, and variable levels of sustain and edgy distortion that can be controlled both by the volume on the guitar and pick attack. The Deluxe does not discriminate between single coils or humbuckers, ravaging both with equal fervor, and the responsive dynamic character of this amp simply is not of this world. Rotating the single tone control sharpens treble without dumping lows or mids, while also subtlety increasing gain, as if you were using a boost pedal. A “Y” cord plugged into the Instrument and Microphone inputs enables the two channels to be mixed with great effect. As Neil Young described, bringing the mic input volume up with the instrument volume set between 6-8 gradually deepens the tone while slowly igniting an intense explosion of thicker second order harmonics and distortion as the dynamic character of the amp softens. Pushing the Instrument volume level up into the 8-12 range brings the volume up to a perceived level that exceeds 20 watts, while provoking an angry, pissed-off cascade of astonishingly rich musical distortion as the notes swerve into controlled harmonic feedback.

Switching from the Jensen to the Celestion transforms the Deluxe into the most stunningly toneful 20 watt Marshall you could possibly imagine. To be honest, you probably can’t imagine it, because we have never heard anything like this ourselves, even after owning a couple of vintage Marshall PA20s, a rare Lead & Bass head and 1×12 cabinet, and a Balls 2×12 18 watt. We could easily live with either speaker, and the Deluxe also just kills pushing our 8 ohm 4×12 pinstripe cabinet.

For those of you who appreciate a somewhat tamer vibe, we can assure you that the Deluxe loaded with a fine pair of 6V6s is equally mind-altering. The overall sound is a wee bit smaller in girth and less imposing, yet abundantly overflowing with vivid harmonic depth, a supremely touch-sensitive response, and brilliant combination of fidelity, clarity and bloom. Compared to a black or silverface Deluxe Reverb, the ’59 presents a more musically complex soundstage, less harsh, stiff and linear, and it lacks both the sharper treble of a blackface amp, and the scooped midrange character. The tone is rounder and meatier, the treble sweeter and less dominant, with an enhanced 3-D image.

Now, if you’re the type that skeptically requires a qualifier to add a stamp of legitimacy to such an over-the-top review, here it is, Mr. Been There-Done That…. The Deluxe doesn’t and won’t spew big clean tones at stage volume. Our ’58 Tremolux produces a cleaner tone with a higher threshold of clean headroom by far at comparable volume levels, and the taller tweed cabinet encourages a stronger, cleaner resonant bass and low mid response. The Tremolux is also equipped with a Mercury ToneClone Tremolux output transformer, which creates a tone that is less wooly, raucous and indistinct.

The busted-up sound of the Tremolux above 5–6 is gloriously righteous indeed, but with more clarity and less provocative intensity than the Deluxe. Taken in context, what we’re suggesting here is that in our experience, the Deluxe has no equal as both a Fender and Marshall style 20 watt rocker (depending on speaker selection), and we’ll add “blues” to that description equipped with 6V6s and the Jensen C12N. During our 2-month test period, we also routinely used our Lee Jackson Mr. Springgy reverb, Analogman-modded Boss DD3 digital delay, and a very cool, versatile (and cheap) Flip tube tremolo pedal reviewed here. Can a modern replica of the 5E3 Deluxe deliver the same inspiring tones as the Two Fifty Nine? The closest thing we’ve heard is the Louis Electric “Buster,” but no, magical happy accidents like this Deluxe can’t be reproduced today – and that is as it should and shall always be. Quest forth…

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Category 5 is a relatively new company based in Frisco, Texas that has wasted no time in developing twelve distinctly unique, hand-wired designs ranging in power from 15W–100W, while aggressively placing amps with touring players like Joe Bonamassa, Tab Benoit, Jimmy Thackery, Gary Moore and one of our favorite Texas Burstbusters, Jonn Richardson (Otis Taylor), among others. The company’s strategy for quick and lasting growth is fairly obvious with a quick scan of their website – build hand-wired tube amps to the highest standards of custom manufacturing, and offer a range of power and tone shaping options that will meet the needs of virtually any player, from low volume home and studio applications to 100 watt pro rigs suitable for cavernous venues and big stages. When it comes to fully understanding the intention of Cat 5 amps, you’ll need to do a little homework on each model, many of which are named for famously wicked hurricanes. We’ve done all the work for you on the two models reviewed here….

We received a 1×15 version of the 40 watt Andrew, which is also available in 2×10, 2×12 and 4×10 configurations. The 1×15 is equipped with our favorite current production 15” – the Eminence Legend–along with dual 5881 power tubes and an interesting combination of two separately voiced input channels. Channel 1 is described as having been inspired by the ’61 Fender brown Deluxe. Having owned a dead mint example of this very amp, we can tell you that it possessed a remarkably toneful and middy snarl, but very little usable clean headroom, which is why we ultimately let it go. Channel 1 in the Andrew produces an equally “brown”sound – rich with midrange and none of the typically scooped tones of the black face era.

Channel 1 is designed with a single tone control to shape EQ, plus the global reverb and “voltage”controls for the internal variac circuit. Of course, the reissue Tung-Sol 5881 tubes create a much more formidable voice than our brown Deluxe could ever must, which we consider to be a tremendous improvement to anything inspired by the brown Deluxe. We all experience and embrace varying sounds quite differently, so we won’t offer this as an absolute, universal truth – but to our ears at least, we prefer the tone and attitude of Andrew’s Channel 1 combined with snappy single coil pickups that can impart a stronger attack on the bass strings and happily frolic in the midst of all that midrange. Otherwise, what you hear is the sonic equivalent of a chocolate-chocolate chip double fudge cookie in the style of a late ’50s Gibson GA40– a very good thing with single coils or bright replica PAFs. Dialed in with the sole tone control, you can create a very old-school tone in Channel 1, and that does seem to be its purpose, so mission accomplished. A more nimble and versatile range of black face tones are found in Channel 2.

Channel 2 offers a full range of tone-shaping EQ, with bass, treble and midrange controls, plus the global reverb and voltage controls common on both channels. We asked Steven Scott, head of product development at Category 5to explain….

TQR: Does the voltage control essentially function as avariac, dropping voltage to the power section, or is something else involved (most people have heard of power scaling but have no idea what it really does)? Power Scaling is another name for voltage control. We don’t use the same circuit as London Power and have not licensed the trademarked name, so we can’t call it Power Scaling. The voltage control makes the B+ voltage variable from about 60VDC to about 450VDC, which allows you to dial the amp from about 5W to about 45W. This allows you to more or less keep the same tone once you’ve dialed it in, then scale it to the size of the venue. This is the feature that our customers rave about the most. The tone really does stay pretty consistent until you take the voltage way down below about 11:00 on the dial. Then it starts to brown out as the tubes are operating well blow their intended point. Another advantage of this technology is it greatly improves tube life as the bias drops as the voltage is turned down. It differs from using a variac in that only the B+ voltage is affected, meaning filament voltage stays the same and no damage to the tubes such as cathode stripping can occur.

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Finding and restoring old amps and cabinets is a slow process that demands patience. From the time we first began trolling eBay, ultimately scoring a tweed Vibrolux and Tremolux, to final delivery of the aged cabinets and assembly of the amps, six months had easily passed.

We first found and bid on a ’58 Vibrolux in September ’06. Sold by an eBay seller in Texas, it had been recovered in reddish-brown cloth similar to the stuff used to cover hymnals or a bad ’60s pleather recliner for the double-wide. Otherwise, it was pretty straight, with the original blown Jensen P10R intact, and the original transformers, caps and resistors. The inside of the cabinet had been painted black, but the cabinet, grill cloth, baffle and control panel were otherwise intact, and the wooden tremolo footswitch was included. We bought the Vibrolux for $1,590.00 with 4 bids placed.

Inspired by Larry Cragg’s detailed description of Neil Young’s tweed Tremolux, a1958 Tremolux surfaced on eBay in November 2006, and we scored it for just $1,082.00 from a seller in San Francisco. We suppose this amp was so cheap because the output transformer had been replaced, and the cabinet had been completely stripped and stained mahogany brown. The original speaker mounting screws in the baffle board were about to fall out. However, the original Tremolux circuit was well-preserved, and a small strip of tape remained in the chassis signed in a delicate hand by “Lilly” – one of the many women in Fullerton employed to assemble amplifiers like the Tremoluxin 1958. God bless her. The Tremolux also arrived with the original wooden foot switch.

The Vibrolux kicked some serious tail right out of the box. We send the original Jensen P10R to John Harrison at A Brown Soun (www.abrown.com) for a re cone, mounting a1965 Jensen C10Q sent by Larry Pogreba in its place – a very stout choice and original equipment in early blackface Vibrolux Reverb amps. Like the Tremolux, the tremolo circuit in the Vibrolux required some TLC,with four caps needing replacement to restore the swampy oscillator circuit to full wobble-weave. We also replaced all the newish tubes with NOS RCAs, Philips and GEs. Once we had the amp mounted in the restored and aged cabinet, we were throwing down hard with our No caster nightly, wallowing in the big sound coming from such an innocent-looking little biter, when the original output trans-former gave it up in a final, glorious gasp. A quick call to Mercury Magnetics produced a ToneClone replacement within a week and we were soon back in business,sounding better than ever.

The 10 watt, 3-input ’58 5F11 Vibrolux is housed in the same cabinet Fender used for narrow panel tweed Deluxe– a fat little featherweight with greasy tremolo and a smooth bark tailor made for a Telecaster. And 10 watts may be the perfect power notch for low-volume home recording and jamming – crystal clear, bright and drenched in gorgeous Fendery overtones at low volume (3-5), and absolutely on fire from 7-10. In all respects, the 5F11 Vibrolux is a big amp in a small package worth pursuing for its outstanding tone and personality at truly usable volume levels.

We were amazed by how Gregg had managed to remove every trace of black paint that had been sprayed inside the cabinet, and his aging job, complete with three coats of amber stain and lacquer, faint water stains along the bottom,worn seams and corners, aged L&L leather handles and scorch marks from the power tubes on the inside of the back panel were flawlessly conceived and applied. Hopkins even recreated the original tube chart with a 1958 date code after requesting that we send him the chassis number and power transformer EIA code for production verification. When we brought the restored Vibrolux to Jeff Bakos’ shop (www.bakosampworks.com), he looked it up and down as it sat on the floor of his workshop, peered into the back and said, “That is totally sick.”

The ’58 Tremolux provided a further study in what can be involved buying 40 year-old amps. Upon arrival,the amp was really smokin,’ even with the Jensen hangin’ off the baffle board. The tremolo was DOA, however, so while the stripped cabinet was getting the spa treatment in St. Louis, Jeff replaced two caps in the trem circuit, we replaced the already replaced output transformer with another from Mercury Magnetics, and stored the chassis away until we received the finished, aged Tremolux cabinet from Gregg in late March ’07.

The 5E9A (’55-’56) and 5G9 (’57-’60) Tremolux are housed in the same taller, wider cabinet Fender used for the 1×15 narrow panel tweed Pro,and the later 5G9 circuit is quite different from both the 5E3 Deluxe and the ’55 5E9ATremolux, being fixed rather than cathode biased, employing a long-tailed phase inverter common to the bigger narrow panel tweed amps, and the addition of an extra filter cap and choke enabled the power to be increased from 15W to 18W in 1957.

Compared to the narrow panel tweed Deluxe and the 5E9 Tremolux, the 5G9 Tremolux develops more volume and headroom, and should you chose to replace the 12AY7 preamp tube with a 12AX7, gain is further increased (it’s already righteous with the 12AY), while the bigger 10” x22” x 10” cabinet produces a much rounder, warmer tone with superior ambience and presence. In the month or so since we’ve had the Tremolux put together in the restored cabinet, a new Tung Sol6V6 blew (after we had opted not to use a couple of spare ’50s RCAs for safety – they are in the amp now and killin’ us with bogs of good thang),and we just took the amp back to Jeff when it began spitting some nasty distortion provoked by low frequencies from the guitar. Turned out to be a few bad solder joints.

Like the Vibrolux, Gregg had stopped short of creating a “3-legged dog with an eye patch,” taking the aging to a moderate level with frayed edges and seams on the amber tweed, a single beer can ring on the top with a foam overflow stain running down the grill cloth, a slight orange stain on one side from pine knot bleed, and assorted scuffs and light abrasions. He also repaired the baffle-board, filling in the old holes for the speaker mounting screws.

We hate doing this to you (again), but truth be told, we have to give the nod to the Tremolux as the most toneful and inspiring amp in its power class (18 watts)that we have ever heard or owned. It’s ascension to Numero Uno status was a bit of a surprise, but then again, we considered the initial source of our inspiration for finding one – Neil Young, via his tech, Larry Cragg, and in hindsight we should have expected as much. With all the attention paid to the tweed Deluxe as the big time bonerizer of the tweed family, the Tremolux seems to have been overlooked for the usual reasons…. In the nose-to-butt-crack daisy-chain march to mediocrity, the masses never seem to acquire a view beyond the first lazy dumb-ass directly in front of them. In the immortal words of the great hoosier educator and smack-down artist Earl Dosey, they are “stepping’ over dimes to pick up nickels.” Let’s hope the lemmings continue to keep their heads down.

So here’s the move…. Sad as we are to share this, our strategy was as obvious as it seems. Forget about original speakers, don’t let a replaced tranny run you off (we’ve never replaced one with a Mercury that didn’t sound better than the original), and deliberately track down the fuglies told girls you can find from the tweed era. Busted baffle boards? We luv that….Ricky-ticky cabinets are good, and the coverin’ don’t matter. What you want is a beater with a totally neglected chassis and as many of the original fat Astron caps and original resist or present as possible. Yeah, some of them may have to be replaced, but it’s far better to allow a prudent and judicious amp tech determine that rather than buying an old amp that has been raped by a hard chargin’ cowboy hooked on Sprague Orange Drops.Buy one of those and your old amp will sound new,never to sound old again, and that’s most definitely not the play you want to make here. A little component drift is good.

There is luck involved, too… not all vintage amps were created equal. Some of them left the birthing bench endowed with incredible tone – a happy accident created by the melding of variable components that resulted in extraordinary sounds. Others were created by the same roll of the dice, but with a different outcome altogether – mysteriously dull, flat, or simply lacking whatever you wish to call it… that tone, mojo, bloom, the harmonic complexity of your first Schlitz, depth, fatness… whatever. To experience the blissful afterglow of unanticipated discovery, you must be willing to risk something, which is another way of saying that faith must be exercised in the absence of a guarantee. In this respect, buying old amps is a lot like life itself…. The greatest obstacle to discovery is the flawed perception of an impossible challenge. And the window of opportunity is closing on these great old amplifiers faster than you may think. Like vintage guitars, the best old amps are being taken out of circulation by col-lectors willing to pay prices that are based on potential future value (more than they are worth today, perhaps, but less than they will be worth tomorrow). For you, hombre, the time to bust a move is now.

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Brown — early ’60s — smaller size of the 125A1A with 3 1/8″ spacing

Blackface Reverb and Brown Deluxe — #125C3A  — 2″ Mounting Centers

Brown — early ’60s — lower B+ — #125P17A

Brown — early ’60s — #125P17A

Brown ’61 — larger stack — #8160

Brown — early ’60s — #125P2A — Universal Voltage Primary

Article: Let’s Ask Budda with Jeff Bober of Budda Amps

Q: I’ve got an SR Blackface ’66 amp, all original. The sound is very thin, weak and trebly. There’s nothing wrong with any of the tubes, and it has been biased correctly. I’ve tried the amp through different speakers but found the same result. The amp hasn’t been played very much over the years. Can it be old, dried-out capacitors that make the amp sound like this? Can a complete replacement of the capacitors really improve the sound – meaning to give it more twang and bottom end, or “life”? – Tobbe Sweden

A: Beautiful amp. One of my favorites… except, of course, for a Budda!

I’m assuming both channels of the amp are thin and weak. If it were only one channel that sounded bad, I would tell you that the 100K resistor in the tone stack of that channel was probably open. This would also disable the Middle and Bass control, but I’m going to assume that all the amplifier controls function properly. Since you also mentioned that the amp has been properly biased, I have to assume that the primary sections of the power supply have the correct voltages.

Considering the amp’s age and the possibility that it might have been sitting idle for some time, a power-supply cap job is probably a good idea. This might not be the source of the problem, but once any other repairs have been made it will make the amp sound stronger and tighter. Make sure the values of the power-supply resistors are checked after the filter caps have been removed. A power-supply resistor that’s substantially out of tolerance can cause degradation in tone, but usually it won’t be as drastic as the symptoms you’re describing. And don’t forget to have the bias supply cap replaced. A weak cap in the bias supply will give the amp some additional unnecessary hum. You might also want your tech to do some normal maintenance on the amp, such as cleaning all of the tube sockets and controls while he’s in there. A very dirty tube socket, especially in the phase inverter, can really suck the life out of the amp. If the amp still isn’t right after the maintenance and power-supply build, it’s time to start looking elsewhere.

Okay, let’s look at some other possible causes for an anemic Fender amp. The first thing I’d look for would be the ground connections from the circuit board. These are the buss wires that come off the circuit board behind the controls and solder to the brass grounding plate that runs under the control panel. I’d check all of these connections, but there’s a particular one that seems to be the most frequent offender. It comes off the board in the area of the tremolo and phase inverter circuits behind the tone controls for Channel 2. For some reason this solder connection tends to break, causing the phase inverter to lose its grounding. That makes the amp lose substantial power and sound thin. If any of these ground connections is broken, it takes a good deal of heat to re-solder them. So, you’ll need to use a high-wattage soldering iron or gun. If all these ground are intact, the next thing to check would be the 100-ohm (brown/black/brown) resistor in this same area. It’s the only resistor in the area that is positioned horizontally on the circuit board. It also typically suffers from a broken solder connection and will yield the same low-power situation. Re-solder the resistor, and you should be good to go. If not, it’s time to start looking at the other major cause: a bad output transformer.

The best way to determine if the output transformer is bad is to simply substitute it with one you know is okay. A good way to check it is to simply unsolder the leads coming from the original transformer and attach a replacement using clip leads. If you can’t come up with a Super Reverb transformer to try, a Twin Reverbtransformer will work well for the test. If you need a replacement transformer, I have to recommend (as I have in the past) Mercury Magnetics. Their Axiom line of transformers should have just what you need. They can be found at www.MercuryMagnetics.com.

I hope you can make your Super super again.

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/PremierGuitar/MusiciansHotline-2.htm

You plug your prized mint-condition ’51 Fender Deluxe into the wall socket and crank it up. Next thing you know, you’re blown the transformer, the caps have puked, or you’ve toasted an original speaker. And you think to yourself, “Okay, the amp is 50 years old. It was bound to go sooner or later.” But maybe it wasn’t… an maybe age had nothing to do with it.

If you plug a vintage amplifier directly into a wall socket, chances are you’re not hearing what that amp sounded like back in the day. And that’s not because the amp is old and worn out; most old amps will run forever and sound great if treated well and maintained. But they don’t, because while that old amp may have sat in a closet for 50 years untouched, something else has changed over time — wall voltages.

Amplifiers from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s were meant to run on 110 to 115 volts AC, while amps made in the ’70s are mostly rated at 117 volts. The back of an amp should indicate the wall voltage for which the amp is designed. The closer to new an amp is, the higher its optimal operating voltage. Depending on where you live, wall voltages fluctuate on a daily basis, and range from 100 to 130 volts! And that’s not taking into account the daily spies in power experienced on almost every line — power surges, transient voltage spikes, and of course that weird static sound that comes out of your amp, or the occasional radio station.

So, what does an extra 20 volts mean to a vintage amp? More bone-crushing power? More whump? Or is it a recipe for disaster? And is there anything you can do about that nasty static that sounds like you’re playing in Dr. Frankenstein’s lab?

Roy Blankenship, founder and president of Blankenship Amplification, recently sat down to offer some answers. Blankenship has worked as an amp repairman, production manager at Groove Tubes, and more recently — at the prodding of incessant customers — he began building a line of amplifiers. Today, he is one of the preeminent boutique builders (his Leeds 21 was one of the amps scrutinized in VG’s “5×18 = British Crunch Bliss” feature, December ’07).

* * *

VG: Is there a risk plugging a vintage amp meant to run on 110 volts into today’s standard 125- to 130-volt all current?

RB: Yes and no. Your power transformer doesn’t really care all that much, because all it’s doing is taking the voltage coming in and creating secondary voltages to send out. You’re probably not going to blow it by loading it with 20 to 30 more volts than it was rated for, depending on how much current is being drawn on the other side of it. Fortunately, most amps, like Fenders, had enough reserve built in that you will not be exceeding their specifications.

The problem is with an amp’s capacitors and filament voltages. The caps were rated for a certain value, usually about 450 volts. Most amps use 500-volt capacitors, so if you’ve got an old amp with original caps, you risk over-voltaging them. The collectors with pristine, all-original amps aren’t playing them, anyway. They sit in a closet or a glass case.

An amp’s electrolytics were designed for a shelf life of 15 to 20 years. So if you want to play your old amp — and you want it to sound good and not endanger your trannies — you need a cap job. Once you put new 500-volt caps in it, you’re going to be okay.

Some boutique makers now are doing what they call “voltage correction,” utilizing components so the amp will run at the original voltages. A certain percentage of my clients are concerned with authenticity, and this follows that vein.

The other thing you can do is just run the amp down a bit on a variac, which can accomplish a couple of things; it provides a safety margin, and lets the amp produce tube saturation at a lower volume.

VG: A lot of guys are using variacs to control output power, and your Variplex has one built in. Why the sudden boom?

RB: One of the original uses of a variac was as a diagnostic tool. When an amplifier is repaired, you turn it on using the variac starting at 0 volts. As you increase the voltage, the current draw on the “Amperes” meter (or ammeter) on the variac lets you know if there is a short within the amplifiers. On a tube amp with a tube rectifier, it’ll give an indication of current draw relating to the bias/voltage relationship. If your ammeter is slowly going through the roof, you have a bias problem. If you advance from 0 volts and the ammeter pegs itself, you have a shorted tranny, capacitor or power tube.

When Edward Van Halen came on the scene, he spoke of using a variac to alter his sound. Everyone wanted to sound like Eddie, so the variac became a fixture in a lot of people’s minds. While he initially claimed he increased the voltage on his amps, it was soon discovered he actually dropped the voltage to get his “brown” sound. Because musicians are so impressionable, I think it was a really bad idea to say this, because cranking an amp up to 140 volts can distress components to potential failure. As this information evolved, however, a lot of guys were discovering they could use the variac to reduce the line voltage, which causes an amp to break up sooner while otherwise retaining its sound.

Everybody knows that with tube amps, you’ve got to crank them to make them sound like they should. The sound of a guitar plugged straight into a naturally cranked up amp cannot be duplicated with a pedal. The variac allows you to get that same overdrive — that same touch sensitivity you get when the amp is dimed, but at a lower power level.

My friend, Bobby Carlos, who is a tech for Don Henley, uses a variac for small venues and says the amps sound fine down to 80 to 85 volts, then they lose integrity. When he was playing one of my amps with a Mercury tranny, he was down to 70 volts and it was hanging in there, illustrating that the quality of the transformer is also a consideration.

VG: Can a variac damage an amp if it’s running it at lower power?

RB: That’s a widely held belief, and one of those issues that does not have a simple answer. The problem is with the tubes, which were designed to operate on a 6.3-volt filament voltage. You can drop it some, but when you get too low, electron flow is disrupted; tubes work because of electron flow. So when you get below 80 or 85 volts, the amp sounds like crap. so that’s about as far adown as you can go in most situations.

Now, when you use a really robust transformer, you can take the amp down further. Mercury transformers make my amps work, in particular the Variplex, which stabilizes the filament voltage and varies the bias and the B+. Mercury trannies track perfectly as the variac is turned down — the sine wave on the oscilloscope does not change in character as you go from 60 watts to five watts.

I know people who’ve been using variacs for years and they’re still running the same tubers in their amps, and they still sound fine. My opinion is that you’re potentially going to have problems running the tubes down below 6.3 volts, but in the final analysis, when a preamp tube lasts 10,000 hours, if you get a sound that turns you on and makes you play, who cares if you have to replace a tube every 10,000 hours or so?

Some guys like running regulated filament supplies to make sure tube voltage stays at 6.3 volts, because that’s what the tube wants to see. Certain tubes may react differently to changes in the filament voltage.

VG: Will a variac work with every type of tube amp?

RB: It will, but the results will vary from amp to amp.

VG: What’s the best type of variac?

RB: Well, a variac is just a voltage regulator. It’s not a precision device. All it does is regulate the voltage from the wall to the amp’s power transformer. A decent one will probably run $50 to $75. Even the Chinese ones are reliable as long as you don’t drop them. What’s more important is that you have a good-quality multimeter, which is invaluable for maintaining gear and diagnosing problems. If you want to use a variac, it’s important to measure the actual output. Just because a variac says “110 volts” doesn’t mean that’s what is coming out. In my shop, it varies 5 to7 volts from what is indicated, sometimes dependent on the time of day. I did some measurements in a ’51 tweed Deluxe to give an idea of the differences between 110 volts and what comes out of the wall these days (see chart).

VG: What the “brown sound” the premise of the Variplex?

RB: We wanted to create a great-sounding amp that you could turn down to about 5 watts, so when you play a big room you have the power, but when you play a little room you’re not killing people in the first three rows. Really, we were trying to get a great Plexi Marshall sound, not a Van Halen sound.

Now, there are other ways to achieve distortion at lower volumes. Attenuators have become popular for achieving a cranked-up sound, as have master volumes and a process called “power scaling” invented by Kevin O’Connor. We liked the sound using the variac and chose that process. A master volume smashes your preamp tubes into square waves, but the power section really isn’t working. The great appeal of the variac is that the whole amp is balls-out no matter what volume it’s running. It sounds like a cranked amp, not an effect.

VG: What about all those awful static electricity sounds, especially with older amps that don’t have grounded cords, And also, radio signals. Is there any way to get rid of them?

RB: There are numerous devices that will get rid of what’s called electromagnetic interference (EMI), and radio frequency interference (RFI). These include ETA Systems, Furman, ART, Juice Goose, Tripplite, Atlas, etc. These companies specialize in products that “clean” electrical current. And there are some amplifiers that have an EMI/RFI filter in the AC input. And remember the old Acoustic 270? It had a little resistor/capacitor network on the output as an RF filter. Any of those I’ve seen that have been in some kind of city environment have burned out from too much “dirty” electricity.

A lot of times, radio signals through your amp means you have a grounding issue in the input section. It needs a ferrite core or a .1 capacitor to the chassis at the input jack. A lot of houses, especially older ones, will get rewired with three-prong plugs in the wall sockets, but they’re not grounded. There’s a circuit tester that tells you what’s going on just by plugging into the wall. They let you know if polarity is reversed, whether there’s a ground, etc. Sometimes, this can be a lifesaver. I know guys who have played clubs where one of these tools has saved them a lot of grief because they found out the club owner allowed the bouncer to come in and rewire the place. They would have gotten the shock of their lives if they’d plugged in and played.

Another solution is to call the power company and say, “I’m getting 130 volts out of the wall, and my light bulbs are lasting six weeks.” Sometimes they’ll send a guy to diagnose and help regulate it. We had big-time noise when we moved into the our building, and they came with some cool diagnostic equipment.

VG: What else?

RB: We should talk about old speakers. The formers (the round tube the voice coil is wound on) and the cones in old speakers are almost always dry-rotted and fractured. When you find that collectable old amp, be aware that the original speaker is going to expire within a few minutes when you crank it up. So it’s better to replace an original speaker and save it — and its original cone — for when some collector is going to pay you a fortune because the amp is all-original. You may get away with it for a while — but you’ve been warned! And luckily, there are many great re-coners out there.

VG: So, in summary….

RB: Remember that everything coming into and going out of an amp makes a difference in sound and quality of sound. A lot of guys don’t think about something as seemingly minor as electricity. But it makes a huge difference. And before you jump to a variac, you might want to get any old amp a tune-up. Sometimes just changing the caps and out-of-spec components can make a real difference in sound. The bottom line is finding a sound that turns you on and makes you play, because when you’re playing through an amp that really delivers, things come out of your fingers you didn’t even know were there!

David Jung is a professional writer/screenwriter and vintage guitar enthusiast living in Los Angeles, where he hangs with some of the best amp techs and collectors in town.

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/VGmag/VGFeb08-RoyB.htm

Amp Transformers

Guitar amp articles

Amp Transformers, Output Transformers & Chokes

Somewhere along the way, guitar amplifier tone got carelessly shoved into two broad categories – American and British. Fender being the quintessential American tone and Marshall being the obvious default for midrangey and reverb-less British tone. Within each, of course, there are distinct variations… Ampeg, Magnatone, Valco and Gibson, for example, are also American through and through, yet they remain distinctly different in sound and construction, and would rarely be mistaken for a typical Fender. Among British amps, Hiwatt, Sound City and Vox present equally diverse varieties of “British” tone that won’t be confused with a classic plexi Marshall head. But simply adding reverb or delay to a British amplifier will often throw listeners completely off as to its origins, while plugging into the Normal channel of a vintage Fender brown or blackface amp with the right guitar can produce an exceptional “Marshall tone.” Our recent experiment with our ’62 brown Vibrolux and a Goldtop Deluxe Les Paul with Lollar mini humbuckers rammed this point home with alarming clarity…. The point is, labels don’t always serve creativity and discovery well, and in the realm of supposed “vintage amp tone” where different examples can vary so dramatically, labels are worthless in generating much more than “skull chatter,” to quote Kye Kennedy. But, we still crave “Marshall tone,” whatever our individual perceptions of that sound may be. Well, since you asked….

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!Yes, Gear Page wankers, we just did it again. Careful you don’t get a scab on that thing… it might get infected and fall off. We’ve unearthed two alternatives that will give you the bigger, bolder version of Marshall tone that you remember from your early Jeff Beck Group, Zeppelin and Cream albums, but at a volume level you can easily live with and actually enjoy in 2008.

A reader alerted us to Roy Blankenship, oh, about a year ago, and it took that long to get an amp shipped for review and develop an interview. It was worth the wait. Blankenship builds a manageable range of custom amps in Hollywood, and he seems more interesting in building what he wants, the way he wants, than going big time. We like that. So here’s an introductory dose of Roy Blankenship – an entertaining and frank fellow to e sure. Our review follows Roy’s interview.

TQR: Can you summarize your experience with electronics and guitar amps? How did you get started initially with mods and repairs, and how did that evolve into actually building your own amplifiers?

RB: First, I was born in California. My father worked for North American Aviation, and was transferred to Columbus, Ohio when I was 6 months old. Therefore, I was born crazy, but grew up normal. My father was a genius – he could build anything, and, in fact, he built my first guitar amp. It was a single-ended 6L6 design and had a field-coil speaker. It wasn’t loud enough to play in a band, but I still have it and it still works. I later discovered the cabinet he used was the extension speaker for an old film projector.

I started playing piano when I was 3, and played brass instruments in the school band. When I was a Junior in high school, I bought my first guitar. A Kent solid body, for $49.95. I finally convinced my dad to let me buy a Health kit 2×12 solid-state kit so that I could play out, and that was my first experience with electronic assembly. I was the guy in the band who would dick with all of the equipment. We bought some PA cabinets that had JBL’s in them, I refinished and rewired them, having no idea what I was doing, but it always worked. My dad had a whole workshop including lathe and drill press, so I often did small projects and repairs, like building my own speaker box to house two Jensen 6×9 speakers for the car. I wish I would have had the vision to go into production….

I was a hobbyist for the next 20 years, getting into tube hi-fi and going through a dozen Dynaco Stereo 70s, not knowing anything about them, but doing little stuff like biasing and tube exchanges. I was employed in the music biz as a sales rep for four different firms, and the pinnacle of my career was as national sales manager of Symetrixin Seattle, WA. In 1991, I had a three-state sales territory selling body shop equipment. I stopped to see my friend, Dan Abell (of Abell Audio, 909 King Ave., Columbus, OH), best tech in the world, and drop off some octal sockets my dad had left me. Dan was all upset and expressed that his assistant had quit that day and he was in a bind because he had so much work. On a whim, I said, “Hire me. I have always loved this stuff.” “Can you troubleshoot a circuit?” I said, “Not yet, but I have people skills and can do any number of things so that YOU can work.” I knew his assistant wouldn’t answer the phone or wait on customers, so, after the first day, Dan said,“Man, I can’t believe how much I was able to get done. You’re hired!” Within two weeks, I was repairing circuits. The info that opened the door was the difference between negative and positive polarity transistors. We worked together for the next four and a half years, never an angry word between us. At one point, I wanted to live in California, so I went to a NAMM show and was hired by Groove Tubes as production manager. The learning curve was straight up – there is an incredible amount of information in that place. From there I started my own place in Santa Monica. To escape the chaos that is L.A., I moved to Florida to escape. I realized the repair biz was not a big money maker, so when two clients started encouraging me to build my own designs, I was up for it. We beat it around fora while, they finally ponied up and I built two EL84 amps.They loved them, I was shocked (they were nothing special),but they were the start. I still have number 1 that I bought back from the third owner. My experience with amp repair changed when I came to L.A. People in Ohio and Florida were happy when their amps worked… players in California wanted their amps to sound good. That opened a whole new area of learning. About the same time, I was running into a lot of overly-modified amps that oscillated themselves to death, so I added “demodification” to my business card. People would call me back and say, “Man, this amp really sounds great now,” and I would reply, “Yes, I made it stock.” The only mods I deem worthy are tone-stack bypasses on Fenders and one of two master volume circuits that actually work well. They each allow you to attenuate volume without losing everything, and they both originated with Ken Fischer, amp guru, God rest his soul. Tube amplifier technology stabilized in the mid ‘60s, and very few amp builders have done anything innovative since that time. In order to separate myself from the pack, I wanted to improve on the existing circuits. When these amps were made, people were playing clean, now everyone wants to crank them up,and in order for them to deliver, my belief is that they need a stiffer power supply. I get a lot of comments on how “loud” my amps are for a given wattage rating. One client said, “I have played a lot of these amps, they give up when you hit them, but yours sounds like a big amp.”

TQR: Describe the different models you build in terms of features, construction and tone, how they differ from vintage or other custom built amps, and what you specifically wanted to accomplish and/or improve on with each model.

RB: I build my own take on American and British circuits,and I employ a stiffer power supply than most. I am currently using turret and eyelet board construction, but a printed circuit board can be useful if made properly. The compromises made by volume manufacturers is where the “circuit board-is-bad” myth started. Proper CAD design can lend itself to a quieter, more reliable product as long as the bean counters don’t try to take a nickel out of it at every turn. All of my current product is hand-wired, and as you know, there is a lot of snob appeal and dick-measuring in this business. For example, some of my clients wonder why I do not use Clarostat potentiometers… I have tested all of these devices, and I have never had a bad Alpha pot, but the Clarostats I ordered for testing were 50% defective!

In the Leeds amp, I went with different trannies than most and a stiffer power supply; this gives it more beef. In the Fatboy, I discovered an output tranny that would allow me to use 6V6’s (for 15 watts) or 6L6’s (for 25 watts) without changing the speaker load. Though the tranny was originally designed for an 8 ohm load, it actually worked more efficiently at 16. Overall, using Mercury trannies has been one of the best decisions of this whole venture. Now when I hear an amp with any other tranny, they sound flat. I took one of my amps to visit a friendly competitor, he played it and enjoyed it, then fired up his own amp, and it sounded flat. He was looking at his amp as if,“Hey, what’s going on here?” I think that was his first side-by-side comparison and he could hear the difference, much to his own chagrin.

TQR: What inspired the use of a Variac with the VariPlex? Why not just build a master volume circuit?

RB: We wanted to create a cranked-up Marshall sound at lower volumes, but people have time and again expressed their dissatisfaction with the attenuators on the market and the smashed sound of a bad master volume circuit. I credit Dave Friedman of Rack Systems with the concept and the prototyping. We tried five different kinds of coupling caps, different types and brands of resistors, different trannies…you name it. Eddie Van Halen popularized the whole Variac concept, so we modified the circuit so you could go from full tilt boogie down to 1 watt and the amp would not shut off. We have sold 40 of those amps with no marketing other than clips on a forum. We are now introducing a similar amp with a master volume for those who want it whisper quiet, but saturated. There are two master volume circuits that I know of that sound great even when turned down to speaking levels. We are using one of those and a few other mods in the new model, the Custom 45.

TQR: You describe a process on your web site in which you A/B’d the VariPlex with a friend’s ’68 Plexi and you didn’t stop tweaking the design until 10 out of 10 guitarists chose the VariPlex in a blind test. Can you elabo-rate on how those tests progressed and the changed to the circuit that you made to achieve those results?

RB: I could, but I won’t.

TQR: In your experience, how much variation in tone and component values, including transformers, have you observed in vintage Marshall amps? Isn’t it necessary to listen to a lot of different examples and then choose an exceptional amp as a benchmark?

RB: Yes. We already had “the Holy Grail” plexi in house, so we compared to that one. Most amps will respond to love, but there are some that are just exceptional. The reason for this amp-to-amp variance is manufacturing tolerances. If your trannies are built with plus or minus 20% tolerances, that means your amp could vary as much as 40% from sample to sample.

TQR: The VariPlex doesn’t sound “new” in the sense that it isn’t shrill or bright and sharp like some replica Marshall amps. How did you accomplish this?

RB:That’s my secret.

TQR: How long is the wait for one of your amps once it has been ordered?

RB:We have Carry-Ons in stock for the first time. Generally, we like to say 3-4 weeks just to be safe. Most of this is the gray area of vendor delivery on cabinets.

TQR: What’s ahead? What do you want to accomplish in the future?

RB: I want to be a thorn in someone’s side so they will offer a butt load of dough, I will sign a non-compete, and go away. Then, I can sit on the beach and light my cigars with $100 bills and sip pina coladas. The funniest thing about that picture is that I don’t drink OR smoke. Actually, we are introducing a bass amp shortly. As we gain more exposure, I am sure we will have enough to do. I am happy with people’s response to my products. I do not want to get huge, and I will probably not offer many more models – it gets too confusing. But thanks for considering me as a worthy contributor to your magazine. www.BlankenshipAmps.com (818) 530-8853

Our experience with “vintage Marshall tone” was formed with two stout examples that we were fortunate enough to own and play for years. The first was actually a late ’60 Park ’7550 watt head, followed by a metal panel 1969 Marshall50 watt. Both amps displayed the classic tone, smooth distortion and touch-sensitive dynamics we love to love and eagerly oozed the warmth and dimensionality that reissues lack. This isn’t complicated…. We’d simply drag a newish Marshall clone of some sort into the music room, compare its sound to the old one and invariably say, “Not bad, but this one sounds and feels better.”

When we fired up the Blankenship, however, not only did it sound richer and fuller with more depth than our old Marshalls, but the tone controls actually produce changes in EQ that allowed the amp to achieve a level of versatility that has always been sorely lacking in the originals. And then, of course, there is the nifty Variac that allows the VariPlex to be played at nominal volume levels with no audible deterioration in the responsiveness or tone and the amp. Essentially equipped with features that mirror an original Plexi, the VariPlex is a 2 channel/4 input design with presence, bass, mid and treble controls. Channel 1 is the bright input; channel 2 is more bassy, and the two can be jumpered and mixed to taste.

We took our time developing an impression of the VariPlex, playing it for over two months. Bottom line – it produces an authentic, old-school Marshall voice with better EQ, clarity, and fresher, more vivid harmonic content. Its voice is exceptionally smooth, yet capable of acquiring the melancholy edginess of an early Clapton recording by simply managing EQ, and the Variac as a master volume control works brilliantly. The VariPlex impressed us as a near-perfect example of an overbuild, hand-wired, low-production amp inspired by arguably the best efforts of Jim Marshall and company, circa 1968. Just as the Balls M18 became our modern benchmark for low-powered, classic Marshall tone, so goes the Blankenship VariPlex in the 50-watt range. If there is a better-sounding modern alternative toa vintage Marshall, we have yet to hear it.

We also admired the neat, clean and easy-to-read design of the VariPlex silver control panel, somewhat reminiscent of our old Park. Among all the clones being cloned with Mojo boxes, this amp is a visual standout. And as far as internal build quality is concerned, let the pictures speak for them-selves. In all respects the VariPlexis a solid piece of work,returned to the builder with as much regret as any amp we have ever reviewed. In fact, we’re still thinking about it. Plex forth….

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Brown — Early ’60s — 4, 8 & 16 Ohm taps

Fender designed and built more than one transitional, non reverb blackface combo amp that would soon acquire reverb and a new name, including relatively small numbers of blackface Princetons, 4×10 Concerts, 1×12 Vibrolux and 1×15 Pros. We acquired a 1×15 blackface Pro, and while it ultimately proved to be an extraordinary exceptional amp, we were also reminded of the potential pitfalls that exist when buying old amps sight-unseen, as well as the potential rewards.

We found the ’64 Pro listed on eBay and bout it from a dealer after requesting a detailed photo of the chassis and circuit. Proudly described as “the best amp in the store, “the rare ’64 blackface Pro is essentially a blackface Vibroverb without the “verb.” Do we have your attention yet? Three caps had been replaced, the original baffleboard had been professionally converted to plywood with the original grill cloth remaining intact, and an on/off pot had been installed for the tremolo intensity control that bypassed the tremolo circuit when rolled to “1” with a click, adding gain that would otherwise be missing in the Vibrato channel. We pulled the JJ power tubes and assorted Russian pre-amp tubes and replaced them with lightly used,“test new” RCAs from our stash, rebiased the amp and fired up the Pro….

Sounded like shit. We had been here before with a dead-mint ’64 Vibroverb bought years ago that had passed through a certain amp guru’s hands in Pflugerville, Texas.How could a vintage Fender sound so bad we wondered? Turned out that the value of the bright cap on the Vibrato channel had been changed on the Vibroverb, rendering a thin, scalding tone that would have given Ed Jahns fits, as it did us. Changing the bright cap back to spec immediately restored the Vibroverb to its rightful pace in history, but the Pro had other problems….

The baffleboard swap and added switch on the tremolo intensity control were clues that someone had also spent time troubleshooting the amp, probably trying to detect the cause of the Pro’s weak output, thin tone and curiously harsh edgy distortion. The amp just didn’t sound right. We pulled the original, reconed Jensen C15N dating to 1964 and subbed in an Eminence Legend, but the Pro still sounded choked-off, linear and wrong, so it was off to Jeff at Bakos Amp works on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend in a frog-chokin’ Georgia thunderstorm. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro…..Now, this is the difference between someone who really knows his craft and a hack….Jeff plugged his bench guitar into the Pro, hit a couple of chords, issued a single grunt of displeasure and caustically observed, “Something is definitely fucked up.” With the chassis on the bench, Jeff scowled at the choppy sine wave the amp produced on his scope as he checked voltages with his multimeter. “I think the output transformer is going down slow—it measures 11 volts and it should be reading 16….” He clipped in a substitute OT from a stout old Fisher hi-fi, plugged in and hit a chord… “That’s closer to what it’s supposed to sound lie….” And sure enough, the missing lows and mids were present, the raspy treble tones were subdued, and for the moment, the Pro showed promise. We called Paul at Mercury Magnetics and ordered a black-face Pro Tone Clone replacement trans-former, shut it down and wished each other a good holiday. A week later the Mercury Magnetics replacement output transformer had arrived. Jeff wired it up, and then turned his attention o three silver mica caps that had replaced the original ceramic caps in the phase inverter and tone circuits. Jeff: “Somebody probably read an article about how these would bring the high end up, but I prefer the ceramics—always have. Besides the effect of the voltage from the old output transformer being low, these silver mica caps were contributing to that brittle tone we were hearing. They are the wrong value, and they changed the entire sound of the amp.” Jeff pulled all three silver mica caps and replaced them with the correct ceramic disc caps, and since an on/off switch had already been installed for the tremolo, we mounted the 25K mid range pot in the back panel hole for the extension speaker jack. With the Pro now thoroughly put right and the midrange pot added, Jeff hit a few chords, moved the EQ and volume settings around a bit in both channels, smiled and said, “That sounds really good. Yeah, that’s it.”

Back in our music room, the final step was to re-bias the Proat 34mA with an AmperexGZ34 rectifier and our last pair of vintage RCA black plate 6L6s, which in unused, new old stock condition have soared to $400/pair. The re-labeled Tube NOS Phillips JAN 6L6 WGBs we had tried sounded good—but the smooth warmth, exceptional musicality and deep harmonic content of the RCAs just can’t be beat, and it is a difference you can definitely hear. Smoke ’em if you got ’em….

We lit up the Pro with the ’63Fender Reverb unit and reverently smiled at the jaw-dropping tones pouring from the big Eminence Legend 15. Imagine the sound of a slightly kinder, warmer sounding 40 watt Super Reverb void of the sharp, penetrating treble presence that has sooften left our ears ringing for hours after a tumble with a blackface Super. The sound of the ’64 Pro is all Fender, with solid bass that doesn’t fall apart at high volume as the smaller blackface combos can,sweet, singing treble tones, and now… a mid range control that can gradually push the amp beyond its original, clear and liquid “scooped” mid range voice to an exceptionally thick, “mid-Atlantic” roar that unleashes heavy sustain and rich, musical distortion as only a Fender can. The Pro brilliantly complements every guitar we own, producing the essence of classic Stratocaster, Tele, P90 and humbucker tones with clarity, depth and lush fidelity that literally fills the room. Yes, there are different and equally worthy tones to be had from the British classics,but we have never heard a more beautiful sounding or versatile Fender amp—one that can range from crystalline, blackface clarity to the full burn of an early blonde Fender Bassman at much friendlier volume levels. The Pro can get plenty loud, but it’s a loud that doesn’t kill you in the style of a Showman, Twin or a Super Reverb.

The irony in this unexpected discovery has not escaped us,and perhaps the weight of it is now becoming clear to you, too. This project did not begin well, and we confess to experiencing some remorse when the Pro arrived with a few bad mods, weak and thin from the original output transformer going down, and generally just sounding very wrong. Our dismay was soon displaced by genuine enthusiasm; however, as we were reminded that this is indeed what the quest for tone is all about it. We’ve acquired absolutely bone stock amps in perfect working condition that just couldn’t tote the note, so why should we expect to buy a 44 year old amp that’s been played without it needing a little repair and restoration work? The end entirely justifies the means.

Having finally experienced the Pro’s singular, exceptional sound, we wondered what had caused it to be relegated to such obscurity among all the Fender black face amps. Like the Vibrasonic and Vibroverb, perhaps it was doomed by the presence of the single 15” speaker. Like the Pro, the blackface Vibroverb 1×15 was produced for less than a year, and with the introduction of the 2x12Pro Reverb in 1965, Fender would no longer produce a 1×15 combo until the introduction of the silver face Vibrosonic in 1972. Yet, the earlier 1×16 Pros had been Fender’s flagship amps during much of the tweed era, and in 1960 the 1×15 brown Pro ranked second only to the1x16 Vibrasonic in the Fender catalog. Somewhere along the way, the 1×15 combo had clearly fallen out of favor with Fender, guitarists, or both, and given the short life span of the Vibroverb, even the addition of reverb couldn’t save it.

Twenty years later, Stevie Ray Vaughan elevated the Vibroverb to hall of fame status, otherwise, the 1×15 com-bos seem to have been perceived as “uncool” for anything bug jazz and blues, as if wearing a jacket and tie were required to play them. The Pro is a great blues amp, but it’s also a great rocker, and equally well-suited for jazz, pop and country. With far more clean head room and power than any tweed Pro and much stronger distortion, sustain and dynamic character than a brown Pro, the blackface Pro reflects Fender’s ongoing pursuit of more powerful, cleaner sounding amps, but unlike the black face Bandmaster, Tremolux and Showman, and Pro can really rock the house cranked. We suspect it’s a single 15 and missing ’verb that throws people off today, yet in’64 Pro shares its DNA with the ’64 Bassman and all the highly prized blackface combo amps, including the Deluxe Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Super Reverb and the heavily prized and hyped Vibroverb.

The contrast between the Vibroverb’s Holy Grail status versus the lowly blackface Pro simply underscores how easily we can be blown off course by what isn’t hyped on the Internet or in print, and by the powerful logic that suggests if anything 44 years old is truly noteworthy, “we” would already know about it. Well, apparently “they” don’t. But you do. Blackface Pros can be found for $1 500–$2,000,with originality and overall condition driving prices accordingly. Like the Deluxe, we wouldn’t buy one that has had all the blue molded capacitors or Allen-Bradley resistors replaced, but the transformers available today from Mercury will sound every bit as good or better than the originals, and as we have said so many times in the past,the Eminence Legend 15 is spectacular. Add some good,current production or NOS tubes and you will have been delivered to a place well beyond the common man’s limp and shriveled imagination. Now Quest forth….

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Brown 2 x 10 — Universal Voltage Primary

Brown, Blackface & Silverface Spring Reverb Transformer — #022921

Brown 2 x 10 — #45216 — single 4 ohm tap

Bolt hole spacing is 3 9/16″ center to center

Brown — 4Ω — #125A6A

Early 60’s Brown amp — #125A7A — 3 9/16″ mounting centers

Brown era — Smaller size: 1-1/8″ X 1-1/4″ Mounting Centers

Brown — 8Ω — #125A7A

Early ’60s Brown — #125P1A

’60s Brown — 220V, 230V & 240V primary

Brown Era — 4, 8 and 16 Ohm Taps

Brown — 2, 4 & 8 Ohm taps

Brown — 125P6A — slightly higher B+ voltage

Brown — 125P6A — 320-0-320 volt B+

Brown — Single 120V primary tap — low B+ voltage 278-0-278 unloaded

Brown — Reissue — 2 & 4 Ohm taps — Upgrade!

Brown — 220V, 230V & 240V primary — #68249-EXPORT

Brown — 220V, 230V & 240V primary

Rare! Brown/Blonde Twin amp — #125P7A

Flat mount — bolt hole spacing is 2 3/4″ x 3 7/16″

*Also used in 6G6-A Blonde Bassman

Brown — 220V, 230V & 240V primary — #68249

Brown — Reissue — 4, 8 & 16 Ohm taps — Upgrade!

Brown/Blonde — RARE! — #125P7AX — 220, 230 & 240V primary

Flat mount — bolt hole spacing is 2 3/4″ x 3 7/16″

Brown — Reissue — 4 Ohm tap — Upgrade!

Brown era– Early ’60s — Flat mount — bolt hole spacing 2 1/2″ x 3 1/8″

Brown — single 4 Ohm tap — Upgrade!

Brown — 4, 8 & 16 Ohm taps

Brown, Blackface

Calabasas, Ca (October 20, 2010) – Vintage guitar collector and reseller Fretted Americana is now in the electronic production business with the release of its new Evil Robot guitar amplifier. The first production run of 100 pieces, all made by hand in the USA, are now available for order.

Inspiration for the new Evil Robot comes from the 1959 Tonemaster Troubadour 214 amplifier, built by the Chicago-based Accordion Company. Originally produced for accordion amplification, it quickly became a favorite of guitar players, sought after for its tone and its ability to create a controllable vibrato. An original Troubadour found its way to Fretted Americana through guitarist Phil X and it quickly became a favorite of customers. After receiving countless offers on the amp, Fretted Americana made efforts to not only to duplicate, but to improve upon the original. This work led to the creation of what is now, the Evil Robot.

The Evil Robot is a Class A, 18-watt, 1×12 combo guitar amplifier constructed of Baltic Birch. The cabinet is a semi open back and houses a 16 gauge steel chassis and one 12” 8 ohm handmade speaker. Internally, all assembly is point-to-point hand-wiring and includes hand-wound, ear-tuned transformers made exclusively in the USA. Cosmetically, the amplifier features a custom vintage brown vinyl, classic gold mesh grille cloth and a heavy-duty, vintage style black handle.

Keeping with the vibe of the original, the instrument control panel has two separate high and low gain inputs with individual loudness controls and a master tone knob. The foot switchable vibrato utilizes two separate potentiometers: one controls the speed and a second controls the intensity. Completing the panel is the on/off switch, red LED power light, remote speaker jack, screw cap fuse holder and a three way slide switch for additional tone control. MSRP $1595.00 USD

As acknowledgement for his contribution, each Evil Robot bears the name of Phil X, silk screened onto the control panel. Phil works extensively with Fretted Americana as the host of over 250 videos produced to demonstrate, promote and sell the inventory of Fretted Americana. As with the walk-in customers, viewers were often inquiring about what amplifiers were used in the videos and where they could get one for themselves, further prompting the development of the new Evil Robot.

Fretted Americana is now seeking to establish domestic retailers and international distributors.

For more information
Fretted Americana

Source: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Fretted_Americana_Releases_First_Amplifier_the_Evil_Robot

We told this was coming.. Tes, when readers ask us to review something, we do our best to respond, and thanks to RedPlate founder Henry Heistand, we received two RedPlates for review. We’ll start this episode by telling  you that Henry Heistand appears to be a very clever fellow who is not working in the shadows of that past, which is to say that he builds feature-rich amplifiers that in no way pretend to be vintage knock-offs. Play a RedPlate and you’re firmly treading in the present, rather than mining tone out of a dusty box built by a dead man (or woman—sorry Lily). And that’s fine. There is certainly ample space in these pages for the living, and RedPlates are in fact very lively tools indeed. We asked Henry to give us a glimpse into his background and motivation, and our reviews of the TweedyVerb and BlackVerb follow….

TQR: How and when did you initially become involved in electronics and amplification?

HH: Starting around age 12 playing to the radio and jamming with friends, my first build attempt was a speaker cabinet made out of ½ plywood and covered with yellow carpeting. It had a leopard (spotted) grill cloth and contained 6 speakers recycled from various old TVs and stereos. My first real amp repair was replacing a screen resistor in a Fender Bassman in 1970. I went to college for a year and then played guitar full time until 1979 when I attended electronics school (they still taught tubes). To pay for school I got a part time job at a church organ repair shop that had a “combo” repair department and still played in club bands on weekends. Attending electronics school in the morning and repairing gear in the afternoons was a great way to instantly translate the classroom to the real world. Compared to the tube TVs and tube broadcast transmitters, the tube musical amplifiers were relatively simple. Besides Fender and Marshall, tube amps by Sunn, Ampeg, Gibson, West, Park, Hiwatt, Sound City and all the Supro/Kalamazoo/Dan Electro stuff. If I only had a nickel for every good tube I tossed in the trash back then. Many of those same companies had solid-state amps too along with companies like Acoustic, Kustom, Peavey, Randall, Lab, SG and Roland. It seems like the ’70s was the golden era of guitar amp designers. Although most tube amps have a similar topology, the differences between brands in those days ranged from truly innovative to laughable. On a few occasions when a solid-state repair would come in that was totally fubar, one of the church organ repair guys would show me how to design a new circuit right over the top of the problem area, teaching me the value of having a few simple circuit designs at the ready for emergencies. In late ’82 I got a career job in the computer field, and by ’86 purchased the part of the church organ repair shop that repaired the “combo” gear. The new company was named Music Mechanix and kept the warranty contracts with all the majors for amps, keyboards and P.A.s.

TQR: As you became more familiar with various amp designs of the past, what were your favorites and why?

HH: Thinking back to the tonal memories accumulated during those years spent repairing amps, the most musical of all of them were probably the early ’60s Fender tube amps. In addition to repairs, Music Mechanix did all the popular mods of the day (anyone remember the original Train Wreck Mod pages for Fenders?), many times we would redo almost everything inside but keeping the exterior unchanged. Most of my playing back then was strictly radio cover songs so the quest was always to find the one amp that could imitate everything. Music Mechanix was continuing the warranty station status from the previous owner (established in the ’50s) so every original manufacturer’s amplifier schematic ever released was available as a reference source, residing in 16 large file cabinets. On the side, I kept a little notebook of circuits and mods of interest to use as building blocks.

TQR: Can you describe the lasting impressions created by your study of the experiences with classic amps that have most affected your own design philosophy and preferences?

HH: As a service to friends and regular customers Music Mechanix would take a classic amp (at the time it was easy to get something like a used Bassman for $100) and do Frankenstein amps that were Fender this, Marshall that, with a sprinkling of Vox and Ampeg thrown in depending on the customer’s needs. On the weekends I was doing gigs using a pair of modified Ampeg VT-40s in stereo until somehow I ended up with a Mesa Boogie S.O.B. that had a really innovative phase inverter section controlled by a “LIMIT” knob. A bizarre variation of a PI section’s constant current source, the circuit was not in the RCA manual or on any other schematic. It sparked something in me and from hen on I started doing creative amp mods that were not copies of things I had seen on schematics.

TQR: When did you first begin to sketch out the concept for RedPlate amps, and what did you want to accomplish that would be unique and different?

HH: I had always been fascinated with “sleeper” amps that looked small but sounded big. After selling the repair business I used my free time to do a lot of experimentation on point-to-point builds in a Fender Camp sized chassis, eventually working out how to do a 7 tube, large transformer build in a Champ chassis without noise or oscillation. My favorite guitar tones were the recorded sounds of the Mesa Boogie/Dumble ODS type amps (even before I even knew what a Dumble amp was). A clean singing tone with a hint of character that sustains and blooms is my idea of the ultimate tone and the design goal of all the RedPlate models.

TQR: Can you briefly describe the unique features and differences among the current line of RedPlate models?

HH: RedPlate probably has too many models because we treat the sections as modular building blocks. We start with one of the 3 chassis sizes:

CH1. 15” width with four 9 pin sockets and two 8 pin sockets, transformers up to the 50 watt size.

CH2: 17” width with six 9 pin sockets and two 8 pin sockets, transformers up to 80 watt size.

CH3: 19” width with five 9 pin sockets and four 8 pin sockets, transformers up to 160 watts

Then we use different combinations of the building blocks with the only limitation being the number of controls (physical knob space) and the number of tube sockets available. Building blocks currently in use:

BB1. PREAMP1—Tweed—A single tone knob preamp (Tweed style).

BB2. PREAMP2—Blackface—A Treble, Middle, Bass Preamp (Blackface style).

BB3. DRIVE1—A three knob overdrive section (Gain, Drive, and Level).

BB4. DRIVE2—A six knob overdrive section (Gain, Drive, Level, Treble, Middle and Bass).

BB5. REVERB—A single knob tube reverb with medium decay tank.

BB6. EFFECTS LOOP—A fully buffered serial loop, return level is the master volume.

BB7. PHASE INVERTER—Standard Long Tail pair, very similar to the early ’60s designs.

BB8. POWER AMP #1—40 watts cathode bias (6L6GC).

BB9. POWER AMP #2—50 watts fixed bias/40 watts cathode bias (6V6GC)

BB10. POWER AMP #3—80 watts fixed bias (KT-88).

BB11. POWER AMP #4—45 watts fixed bias/18 watts cathode bias (6V6GTA)

BB12. POWER AMP #5—100 watts fixed/50 watts fixed (6L6GC).

TQR: Both of our review amps are loaded with Warehouse speakers from Kentucky, which we have reviewed before. How extensive are your evaluations of various speakers when creating a new model? Does the same process apply with transformers, tubes or other components?

HH: The current lineup is using WGS Retro 30, WGS British Lead 80 and Eminence Swamp Thang speakers in the combo amps. The decision to use these was based on side-by-side comparisons with other brands (an ongoing process).

Tube selection is mostly based on reliability (as long as the tone is still there). The current production amps use Svetlana 6L6GC, SovTek 12AX7LP (PI tube), and Electro Harmonix 6V6GTA and 12AX7s (preamp).

Selecting individual signal path components is more difficult because side-by-side comparisons can be misleading (no 2 amps are exactly alike). The signal path in current production amps use PS series Orange Drop capacitors and carbon film resistors based on low noise and musical warmth in the tone. RedPlate Amps has a good relationship with Mercury Magnetics and I like to use their transformers in most models.

TQR: How does the half power switch function in your amps, as well as the “mode” control and various voicing controls?

HH: Depending on the output section, 3 methods are used:

1. 6L6GC 100 watt/50 watt—The switch lifts two of the four tubes by 10K so they are effectively out of the circuit yet the impedance selection is still valid.

2. 6V6GTA 45 watt/18 watt—Full power runs two of the tube in cathode bias and two in fixed bias, the switch lifts the fixed bias tubes by 10K to effectively remove them without changing the output impedance.

3. 17 Watt (Hi/Lower)—This switch just lowers the voltage to the phase inverter tube so the amp breaks up sooner. There are two different styles of mode switches. On the Tweed style preamps the 6 position mode regressively reduces midrange and preamp output to imitate a Blackface style amp. On the Blackface style preamp the 6 position mode switch progressively fattens the midrange to imitate a Tweed style amp. Most of the models also include a Humbucking/single coil switch to set the amount of bass gain in the input stage.

TQR: How much individual customization or voicing do you offer for specific models when working with an artist?

HH: Unlimited customization is available, although most of the professionals that use RedPlate Amps are content playing standard models.

TQR: We noticed that you include the owner’s name on the back panel, correct? A nice touch…

HH: Yeah, the front and rear panels are done in-house, we could even put pictures of your dog on there.

TQR: What do you want to accomplish in the future? New models?

HH: “Amps that sing” being every guitar player! Going forward, curiosity and customer feedback will continue to drive the evolution of current designs and the development of new designs. For example, there will be a “shredder” amp in the near future (The ShredPlate) and possibly a bass amp. As RedPlate continues to gain name recognition with the music industry, models like the BlackVerb, MagicDust and TweedyVerb will hopefully be taken for granted as standard amplifier types.

The front and rear panels on the BlackVerb reveal an impressive array of controls, push/pull-knobs and switched pots. In fact, the printed operation guide includes a signal path diagram on the front page with a welcoming invitation to skip an in-depth review of the manual and just set all the knobs at 12 noon and play, which we did, consulting the manual as needed as we spent more time with the amp. So, is the BlackVerb too complicated for you “plug & play” guys? Not really, but the control panel is best reviewed in sections. You’re essentially working with a clean preamp circuit and a Drive section that includes Gain, Drive and Level controls for variable levels of distortion overdriven tones, but there are still many more additional tweakable features lurking within…

The first control adjacent to the single front input jack is the miniature Bright switch toggle with the center position OFF, Down producing the sound of “new strings” (an accurate description we might add), and Up rendering a brighter tone that will be familiar to those of you with a Fender Blackface amp with bright switch. We usually use the bright switch to put a little extra shimmer and spank on humbucking pickups, or neck pickups on single coils.

The Volume control includes a pull switch to engage a midrange boost that increases upper mids. The Middle control does what you’d expect, with a pull switch for a “Deep” setting that scoops mids and boosts bass frequencies—an excellent change-up for clean tones. The Bass control handles low end quite well, and it can be clicked OFF to be removed from the tone stack. Try that with a neck pickup and it produces the odd and very different EQ found in some old Valco and Gibson amps.

The Mod Selector is a 6-position rotary EQ switch that gradually produces a fatter, thicker tone as you rotate left to right from the “Funk” setting, to “Normal” and “Fat” (tweed). All this pulling and turning may sound complicated, but you’ll have it thoroughly digested in 5 minutes, and most importantly, these extra EQ controls expand the tonal capabilities of the BlackVerb in a clever and creative way that really is worth using and exploring. We have bitched about such bells and whistles on other amps having limited value, but no such questionable affectations plague the BlackVerb. Like we said, Henry is a clever fellow. On the Drive section…

This is where you mine and manage overdriven tones and distortion. The Gain control can be bypassed by clicking fully left, otherwise, you’re setting the amount of signal being sent to the first gain stage, which produces variable levels of smooth growl and grunt. The Drive control further ramps up distortion through two gain stages, and a pull switch on the knob serves as an afterburner for maximum burn and rip. At this point you will be channeling Metallica at full husky, so hide the dog. The Level control sets the output volume for this section, resulting in a progressively bigger, thicker, bolder voice. Of course, the big selling point for the BlackVerb is how all of your clean, moderately busted up and filthy dirty tones can be deftly tweaked and the volume managed with the Volume and Master volume controls. At the full power setting, you really can get this thing to sound like a 100 watt high gain amp on “7” at low decibel levels suitable for home recording and friendlier sound pressure levels.

The reverb control is what it is, and you can turn it off fully left and it’s out of the circuit. The Presence control is described as using “global negative feedback to remove low frequencies which frees up bandwidth for more midrange and highs,” and it can also be turned off when rotated fully left. Frankly, the appeal of this control escaped us, but we can imagine how it might be useful in a live situation where you may want to avoid too much low end muddying up the mix with bass and drums. The Master volume works very well without producing the dreaded master volume/low volume faux zizzz when you’re trying to light a fire at low volume levels.

One of our favorite features is the 50 watt/40 watt switch on the back panel that changes the boas from fixed to cathode for a completely different feel. With the 40 watt cathode biased setting you can also change the 6L6 output tubes to 6V6s, transforming the BlackVerb into an 18 watt cathode biased flame thrower, or bypassing the Gain section for a more tweedy character and voice. The Hi/Lo power switch changes the voltage on the input stage and the threshold for clean headroom.

The back panel Smooth switch is just that, adding slight compression in the clean preamp, and the Humbucker/Single Coil setting sets the amount of bass gain in the input stage, relieving you of perhaps resetting EQ when switching from single coils to humbuckers.

Additional utilitarian features on the back panel include a handy bias adjustment and test point, speaker impedance selector, main and extension speaker jacks, FX send and return, and footswitch jack. The footswitch gives you the capability to get in and out of the Tweed, Drive and Boost circuits. Tweed boosts upper mids while lifting the midrange control on the front panel for maximum push in the frequencies where the guitar really lies on stage. Drive engages the Drive feature, bypassing it when off at the footswitch. Boost makes everything sound bigger with a partial tone stack lift.

And now for the bottom line…. It seems to us that the intention of the BlackVerb is to be as tonefully versatile as a 1×12 combo amp can possibly be whether you are playing small clubs, bigger rooms or wide open outdoor stages. You could play nothing but smooth, clean jazz through this amp without ever venturing into the gain stages and be perfectly happy. Or you could do nothing but feast off the considerable gain and distortion lurking in the heart of the BlackVerb and be equally happy. Most gigging musicians want to range between such extremes living somewhere in the middle, and you can do that, too. Like most feature-rich amplifiers, you’ll find certain favorite settings that will be revisited with specific guitars, and after a few days you’ll have no trouble quickly accessing those settings, although the control panel is a bit difficult to read until you no longer need to read it at all.

The standard Warehouse Retro 30 speaker is a brighter version of the Veteran 30 we have favorably reviewed in the past. Given the considerable range of overdrive and distortion available in the BlackVerb, the Retro 30’s clear, articulate character and exceptional capacity to handle low frequencies makes it an excellent choice for this amplifier. Even at extreme gain and drive settings, the BlackVerb produces a rich and musical burn that does not mask or obscure essential overtones and harmonics. The clean tones are equally strong, powerful and clear, and the amp will nimbly spill into overdrive played clean at higher volume levels that can be managed with the volume on the guitar. The BlackVerb impressed with its ability to embody many different styles of amplifiers in one compact box, limited only by your capacity for experimentation and your imagination. Imagine that.

We were particularly anxious to experience the TweedyVerb because it seems to fit the power and volume requirements of so many players today, and it is a very straightforward and versatile 1×12 combo that is a breeze to hump to the next gig. Got your attention there, did we? We finally figured out why vintage blackface Pro Reverb amps have remained relatively underpriced… just pick one up.

The TweedyVerb is a cathode biased dual 6L6 amp with reverb, loaded with an 80 watt Warehouse British Lead 12” speaker. You won’t find a bad tone in this amp, and the controls are very intuitive, delivering outstanding “blackface,” “brown” and “tweed” tones via a 6-position Mode switch. The Bright switch is identical to the BlackVerb (you’ll love the “new strings” setting), with a single Volume control, simple Gain control, and a Tone control that can be clicked off fully left to bypass the tone stack for a very heavy and thick does of overdriven tones with excellent dynamic feel and touch sensitivity. The spring reverb is good—delivered form an original new old stock Accutronics pan made by Cary, IL, and the Presence control is identical to the BlackVerb, using global negative feedback to remove low frequencies and emphasize mids and highs. It also seems to decrease volume and gain, best used in our opinion for clean tones.

The 40 watt/17 watt switch on the back panel changes the voltage on the phase inverter. We preferred the sound and girth of the 40 watt setting, which still allows plenty of room for managing volume and variable distortion with the Gain and Volume controls, but the 17 watt setting is fine, too for close quarters. 6V6 power tubes can also be used at this setting without re-biasing for lower power output and volume. A footswitch is included to access both the fat Tweed setting on the Mode switch on the fly, and the Boost function, which acts as a tone stack bypass. Despite its compact size and relatively light weight, the TweedyVerb is a big-sounding amp that produces outstanding clean tones at usable stage volume, yet it can also be gradually pushed into the familiar sound of a Deluxe Reverb on “6” or even a vintage Marshall head at higher volume and gain settings. It’s a right fair chameleon, this one.

The Warehouse 80 watt British Lead 12 gracefully handles the power output of the TweedyVerb with excellent clarity, sold bass, vivid mids and a sweet and chimey top end. Like the BlackVerb, the TweedyVerb offers the sound and feel of several distinctively different amps in one box via the Mode switch, and we liked them all, from the rough and tumble Tweed, the slightly less raucous, smooth upper mid voice of the Brow, and the more scooped, open and airy Black settings. Both RedPlate models reviewed here clearly share the same DNA, which is to say that they possess a remarkably rich and music character, whether you choose to stroke big clean tones through them or dial up a tone that would make Billy Gibbons proud. Douse that light, and Quest forth….

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Like the pedal business, the number of amplifiers being built by smaller builders has mushroomed into a garage and basement Skunkworks industry that is constantly changing. New guys pop to the surface and ride the momentum created by chat rooms and social media, while others quietly slip beneath the surface in an unfortunate imitation of Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, never to be heard from again. The desire amongst certain guitarists and collectors to own the latest, supposedly greatest new amplifier is a power drug, and for some, a hard habit to kick. We enjoy discovering small batch alternatives to familiar archetypes and affordable production amps, too, but since we’re doing so on your behalf, our initial evaluation process lacks the unbridled enthusiasm of a new owner who has already made the plunge financially and emotionally. Still, when a giddy reader calls or writes asking us to review their new killer amp, we routinely hit the builder’s website, send an introductory email and wait for a response. Such was the case with the Tungsten Cremawheat and builder Adam Palow

Ultimately, the Cremawheat turned out to be another exceptional amplifier as our review reflects, but as is so often the case, the story behind the name on the face plate is as interesting as the amp. Listen….

TQR: You mention on your website that you were inspired and intrigued many years ago by your first tube amp. Do you recall what it was?

It was a 1965 Fender Vibro-Champ that was missing the face plate, and the grill cloth had been replaced with a red and black check material that looked like it had been on a sofa. I think I was around 16 when I got it, and no matter what I played through it, the amp sounded very musical compared to the solid state practice amps had used before. It was the beginning of an obsession. I started chasing down vintage Fender amps wherever I could, and I met a guy who showed me how to safely drain the stored voltage in an amp, how to use a soldering iron, and he explained how bigger caps produced more low end. From that point forward I was on my own, and everything I have done since has been the result of trail and error and experimentation. I’m limited in some areas because I don’t necessarily understand all the theory, but in another sense it’s empowering because I am chasing feel and working in an intuitive way rather than strictly by the “book.” My favorite part of the build is constructing the board and wiring the chassis. If there is any artistic expression in building an amplifier it’s in the way the board is constructed. Of course, in the larger picture, it’s completely meaningless.

TQR: What were the most significant things you learned through hands-on experience working with guitar amps, and the five years you spent working on Hammond organs with Bob Schleicher?

The thing that blew my mind the most once I had acquired multiple identical models of the same amplifier like the Fender Blackface Bassman and Bandmaster was how different they could sound from each other even though they were built with the same components. That also carried over into my work with Hammond organs, because every large Hammond console also had its individual voice, and I attribute that to the accepted variance in parts values, and individual and very unpredictable drift in these values over time. You also see random parts stacking where some of the capacitors may have been oriented the correct way and others not. When all the caps are pointing the right way you can have an amp that sounds faster, and when they are oriented the wrong way the amp can sound slower. On the old caps there was usually a band marking the outer foil, and whether or not they were oriented correctly often just seems like chance. Some companies paid strict attention to that and others did not. Even if I am building ten identical amplifiers in my own line, there are going to be variances between them – not only in the tolerance stacking, but in the way the tubes bias to the cathode resistor. I have an absolute minimum standard – it has to inspire me or I’m not going to ship it out, but every once in a while you drop in the right rectifier and the right power tubes and they just match up perfectly with the cathode resistor and it makes your hair stand up on end. Magical. Yet that same amplifier with a different set of tubes may not do the same thing.The Hammond organs are unique because not only do they have an extremely rich and harmonically complex signal, but they have infinite sustain with no transient attack unless you’re using the percussion feature, so when you’re dealing with Leslie power amplifiers you’re not dealing with sag. You’ve got compression going on because you’re driving it with a very wide band signal, but because there is no transient, you’re not experiencing sag, compression and release in that order. I spent a lot of time rebuilding Leslie amplifiers, and there was a very specific type of distortion coming from those 6550 Tung-Sols – a low, grinding, wooly distortion kind of like the Marshall of the organ world in a lot of ways, and I caught that sound in my head. It was very musical, and it had a lot of clean qualities, but also an outrageous amount of overdrive on tap, and even when it was driving hard there was still enough clarity to retain a musical quality in the distortion. You could really hear the notes and the intervals between them, and that’s the complaint I had with a lot of amplifiers outside the vintage world…. They swung so far into breakup and distortion that you lost the clarity of the notes. There was more noise than tone, and the place I’m coming from is a more musical place. The other aspect of my work with Hammonds is that I gained a huge amount of experience with vintage Jensen Alnico speakers.

TQR: We have always wondered if the Jensen speakers used in Hammond cabinets were similar to those made for guitar.

In the Leslie, the Alnico P15LL and later C15NLL bass driver that shoots down into the rotating horn were definitely not guitar speakers by any stretch. The 12 inch Jensens I’ve seen bear all the same markings as standard Jensens for guitar, the differences being that they have black frames with no Jensen sticker, and the Hammond code starting with the letters “AO” have been silk-screened on the frame. I have pulled P12Ns out of old Hammond A100s, as well as P12Qs, and if they were specifically designed for organ, they are also the best sounding guitar speakers I have ever heard, and I have used them to base my own speakers on made by Weber.

TQR: Which prompted the development of your own line of proprietary speakers?

Yes, and I didn’t really have to start from the ground up because they had already come close to the mark, but I wasn’t hearing the same extended frequency response that I was hearing from the vintage speakers, and it was just a matter of developing a different recipe. Fortunately, when Ted was still alive we went through the process of mixing and matching components, just trying to get that sound. I didn’t care if the parts were period-correct – I just wanted them to sound right. I tried to do the same thing with the ceramic line, but we just never nailed it and I never put them into production. Of course, the goal in developing the Alnico speakers was to produce the low-wattage, medium fidelity, $6 replacement speakers that they were originally.

TQR: Looking at the different models you build today, it’s obvious you prefer the sound of tweed-era amplifiers.

Yes, I cut my teeth on blackface amps, but when I built my first tweed Champ I became one of those guys that ditched my pedalboard and plugged straight in. For me it’s all about that very alive midrange, and the dynamic response you get out of the power section. I was instantly hooked. I also have a fondness for the lower power brown amps as well, but when it comes to what I personally want to plug in to and play, I really need to feel the response of a tweed power section.

TQR: What’s your approach to specific types of capacitors used in building your amps?

You have to let your ears be the guide, and everyone hears things differently. Every quality capacitor has its place, but I personally prefer the sound of Mallory 150s in tweed amps. Other people feel that they are too bright in the upper mids until they break in. I tend to break in my amplifiers for 72 hours and when I take breaks from building I’ll plug into every amp that’s burning in. The truth is, everything matters. In the Cremawheat, for example, there different capacitors are used in the tone circuit to color the tone in a certain way. It’s one recipe. I also use custom-wound Mercury Magnetics transformers in everything. Some of them are custom-wound because I wanted a different gauge of wire, and others because I wanted a different secondary voltage. When we’re talking about power transformers, voltage that you’re sending out to the circuit makes much more difference than the brand you’re using. With output transformers it becomes more critical. Some people want to hear a darker transformer, others high-end clarity…. Some people want a smaller core so it saturates sooner, and others want enough iron so that it never saturates. All of those factors play not only into the sound, but they hugely affect feel.

TQR: Can you briefly summarize each model you build?

The 8 inch version of the Mosaic comes with either the stock 5F1 (Champ) output transformer or the oversize version, which nets you perhaps an additional 2 watts. You get more punch rather than volume. I also build a 12 inch Mosaic Mark II with an additional tone knob, which gives you more bass.

The Cortez was intended to be my flagship model until the Cremawheat came out. The name was inspired by Neil Young’s Suma album – you can just hear the tweed all over it. Its 12W-15W with 6V6s and it bumps up to about 18W with 5881s or 6L6s. It’s basically a straight-ahead 5E3 design.

The Cremawheat is my attempt to retain the tone and feel of a great 5E3 Deluxe, while giving you the dynamic range that would otherwise be lost in the output transformer and speaker with that amp. Those were two choke points on the 5E3, and the third being the massive amount of bass that’s being sent through the circuit, which causes it to distort so early. The other significant feature in this amp is the British-voiced Scumback speaker. It adds punch to the dynamic range, and enough bass, but not the ragged and loose 5E3 style low end.

The T35 covers the 5F4, 5E5-A and 5E7 circuits for the Bandmaster, Pro and Super. They were basically the same chassis with a couple of minor resistor changes and three different speaker configurations, and I tend to prefer the 1×15 and 3×10 versions. It’s the only fixed bias amp I offer. I like the T35 series, but I tend to gravitate toward the cathode biased amps and most of my customers seem to as well.

If you took the 2-input ’55 Bassman, which shares a lot with the Super, Bandmaster and Pro amps of that era, and cathode biased it in a 2×12 speaker format, that’s kind of where the Blue Point sits. When you pay it clean, it sounds very American in the style of a mid-’50s Bassman, and as you turn it up, you get more coloration from the British-voiced speakers. It starts to cross the Atlantic into that early JTM-45 Bluesbreaker tone, but stops short of a later Plexi amp.

The Buckwheat is the follow up to the Cremawheat. It’s a 6L6-based, 30 watt with the Scumback H-75, which is their version of the pre-Rola G12H. It has a significant amount of headroom over the Cremawheat, and the speaker produces a glassier, high-headroom tone with a bigger transformer and a larger cabinet that leaves more air around the notes. If you’re a Telecaster player, for example, who wants more headroom with just a little hair, this is that amp.

TQR: Will you build specific amps with different speaker configurations as a head or combo, and what is the current lead time for an amp?

Sure, I’ll absolutely build variations on the stock models – I actually really like the 16 inch Mosaic and I have built several of them. I want to know that I’m building exactly what a customer wants. The lead time right now is eight weeks, and I always try to keep it under three months. I sell direct, and through a small dealer network, but I do enjoy working directly with customers. Depending on what a customer wants, I may suggest a specific change to the stock circuit, and I find that interaction very rewarding Introducing another 15W–20W amp in these pages is nothing new – in the past year we’ve invested a log of ink highlighting amps like Jeff Beck’s choice of a Pro Junior, our vintage ’59 Deluxe and ’76 Princeton Reverb, the Retro-King 18W and the Trace-Elliot Velocette. Why? Because we understand that such friendly decibel levels offer adequate volume for use in small clubs, mic’ed on bigger stages, yet till fill your house, studio or practice room with a mighty roar when needed. Small amps just make more sense today for most players, but like us, you might be wondering just how many ways a smallish guitar amplifier can be designed and built to produce a genuinely unique voice and vibe. You know what you’ve already got, but what might you be missing, and at what point does your quest to discover the ultimate low power amp become redundant, at best? A fair question, and given the nearly infinite variables created by the marriage of different components within different circuit designs, we are happy to report that we haven’t reached the end of the road in the quest for tone quite yet.

Viewed within the board context of the booteek amp landscape, the Tungsten Cremawheat emerges from the box as an uncommonly attractive natural blonde. Offset with gold grill cloth, it scores big in style points without even being lit up. Nor will you find any self-conscious bells and whistles added to an otherwise classic design, as if the builder wanted to get noticed by adding the kind of stuff we seldom really use – like Selmer-style rotary tone switches, pentode/triode modes and toggled boost switches (although Carr has always done those right by bypassing the tone stack). Indeed, this amp is so outwardly attractive, approachable and comely that pulling the back panel off might inspire distant memories of an anticipation experienced in concert with a one-handed thumb and forefinger bra removal technique. (We now pause to allow a moment of fond reflection. Please take your time.) Adam Palow’s skill in assembling and soldering up a circuit board culminates in nothing less than a work of art. Flip the chassis over and the custom-wound Mercury Magnetics trannies provide further evidence of Palow’s commitment to following his muse. In practical terms, you get four inputs into two channels (bright and normal), volume/volume and tone, plus a standby switch and extension speaker jack.

Our first session with the Cremawheat was agreeable enough, but repeat visits left us with a nagging impression that something was either missing, or perhaps technically present, but not being fully reflected in the sound of the amp. Naturally, we used our tweed Tremolux and Deluxe for benchmarks, and the Tungsten sounded subdued and restrained by comparison. We tried different tubes first with no appreciable change, and that’s when we focused our attention on the Scumback speaker. Admittedly, we had suspected it from the beginning, so with the original tubes back in the amp, we connected the Celestion G12H30 70th Anniversary in our ’59 Deluxe cabinet to the Cremawheat, fired it up, hit a big E chord raking a heavy Pyramid pick over the strings slowly, followed by ten minutes of unbridled delirium. Paired with the Celestion, the Tungsten bowed up with increased volume, clarity, dynamic punch, and a gloriously rich tone that easily rivals that of our Deluxe, but with a little more added sparkle. Swapping the stock Electro-Harmonix 6V6s for a pair of RCA 6L6s brought the Cremawheat to climax with an even bigger, more imposing voice, precisely in the style of our ’59. If anything, the Tungsten offered a slightly more defined and chiseled tone as a new amp should when compared to one that has undergone a half century break-in period.

To be fair, we called Adam Palow to inform him that while we absolutely loved the Cremawheat, we were not feeling the Scumback. He agreeably acknowledged that the Scumback was indeed somewhat more subtlety endowed than the Celestion, which is why he offered the G12H as an alternative for players desiring maximum girth, power and growl. Any number of modern speakers would surely sound outstanding in the Cremawheat – but we clearly preferred the more vivid soundstage created by the Celestion when the choice is narrowed to one of the two stock speakers offered. Would we buy and play the Cremawheat? Absolutely. It now reigns among the best on temporary boutique twenty watters, and in four important respects (tone, overall clarity, availability and price), the Tungsten impressed us as an irresistible alternative to a vintage Deluxe and any and all modern replicas

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The en vogue status of low-wattage combo amps remains a boon for any guitarist on the lookout for a compact amp. Just about every major amp company and most boutique shops are offering at least one model in the 12- to 18-watt range and that’s a great thing. What’s not to like about an amp that you can push hard without blowing out the windows or that you can throw in the front seat of your car for a gig?

Nolatone Ampworks — and the work of Paul Sanders — are already standouts in this fast-growing amp category. Hand built by Paul in Raleigh, North Carolina, using only the highest quality parts, Nolatone models like the June Bug and Chimey Limey have already made a mark for their interpretations of Fender Tweed and Vox tones. They might also be some of the sharpest looking amplifiers available today. And on both the sound and visual front, Nolatone’s 15-watt Rotten Johnny is every bit as spectacular a performer as its cousins in the Nolatone line.

The Dirt
Weighing in at a very reasonable 28 pounds with dimensions similar to a Fender Blues Junior (18″ x 16″ x 10.5″), the Rotten Johnny is an open-back 1×12 combo constructed of solid dovetail-jointed pine. Our review Rotten Johnny came in covered in two-tone brown and crème vinyl with basket weave grille cloth, and sported the signature Nolatone “V” panel TV front design. The 12″ speaker is a 25-watt Warehouse Green Beret, which is designed to sound like a broken-in Celestion greenback. The circuit is built around two JJ 6V6 power tubes (you can also request EL84s) and two 12AX7s. Everything under the hood is top-notch, including custom Mercury Magnetics iron, 1-watt carbon film resistors, F&T filter caps, Switchcraft jacks, and Carling switches laid out on a hand-wired turret board.

Unlike many lower-wattage amps, the Rotten Johnny offers far more control options than a single volume and tone control. The top panel consists of a unique 3-band EQ (Bottom, Mid, Top), as well as Pre- and Post-Gain controls and a Master volume. A Mid Lift switch (which can also be activated by a footswitch) effectively works as a boost for solos. Power and standby switches reside next to a red jewel power indicator.

The EQ section is a little more flexible than what you’ll find on a production-line low-watt amp. The Bottom control is a 6-way switch that progressively rolls off bass. The independent Mid control is not part of a typical tone stack configuration — dialing it down extends the highs and lows to create a very Fender-like mid-scooped tone. The High control, meanwhile, is a Vox-style top-boost reverse-wired to enable players to move from chiming to much darker tones by backing off the control. Borrowing a move from Nolatone’s June Bug design, the Pre- and Post-Gain controls work in tandem to control the amount of gain to the second stage and phase inverter respectively.

Rockin’ the Filament
With a Godin Icon Type 2 with Duncan P-Rails in hand, I got right down to the business of exploring the wide-open voice of the Rotten Johnny. With the Godin set to the humbucker position, I cranked the Master to full, set the Post Gain to around noon and brought up the Pre Gain until I got a rich, full distortion. The sound was raw and thick, but I wanted a little more clarity, so I dialed back the Bottom knob by a few clicks, scaling down the thickness a touch, but opening up the sound considerably. The combination was reminiscent of Frampton’s Rockin’ the Fillmore-era Humble Pie tone — a pretty huge sound for a 15-watt 1×12 combo. And if I closed my eyes, I’d swear I was listening to a full stack in miniature. For years, I’ve tried to harness 100- and 50-watt amps with attenuators and master volumes and never been totally successful. Needless to say, I was stunned when two 6V6s pushing a single 12″ gave me what I’ve been looking for—and then some.

Wielding my ’74 Les Paul Custom and with the Mid control set to the non-lift position, I was able to dial in AC/DC rhythm tones with just the right amount of kerrang and chime to create the illusion of a blaring baby JTM45. And setting the Pre Gain to noon and ramping up the Post Gain added gobs of thick, juicy crunch with just enough bark to cut through a mix. This is where the Top control really shines — pulling the Top back just a touch takes some of the edge off without muddying the tone. It’s voiced for just the right amount of sheen and clarity without ever being brittle or ice-picky. The top-cut configuration also makes the effectiveness of the Mid control’s sweep range very apparent — enabling boosts in presence that aren’t too brittle.

The Mid control is almost like another gain knob, delivering more distortion and dimension the more you crank it. And with the Mid Lift engaged Rotten Johnny turns into a roaring fire-breather with more gain than most of us would ever need. I’ve rarely heard a 6V6 amp sound this way — often assuming some of the tonal qualities of EL34s and EL84s. Though it only takes cutting the Mid and backing off the Pre Gain to get back to more blackface-like territory that was a perfect match for my Strat.

For a 15-watt amp, the Rotten Johnny doesn’t lack headroom. Because there is so much control via Pre and Post gain over how hard you hit the tubes, I found myself digging deep into the wealth of Strat-friendly clean sounds you can get with less aggressive use of those controls. It was easy to conjure thick and chewy cleans with just a hint of grind by pushing the Post Gain and leaving the Master wide open. Even with the Mid Lift engaged I could still hit the guitar hard without harsh sounding breakup. And I was always able to shape the thickness with the Bottom switch, which I used extensively to match individual guitars to the amp.

The Verdict
It’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited about a new amp. The Rotten Johnny has a huge range of brilliant tones in a compact design that, at $1399, doesn’t break the bank. For bedroom or studio musicians, it’s a dream because you can coax out cranked stack sounds without knocking down walls and get the most beautiful cleans with the twist of a few knobs. The construction is top notch and the styling is classy and cool. For an amp that’s roughly the same size as a 1×12 cab and weighs less than 30 pounds, it has the sonic personality of something much larger. I only wish this little guy was around when I first started playing guitar. Thankfully, I’ll have the chance to make up for lost time — my own Rotten Johnny is on the way and I can’t wait to cut loose.

Buy if…
you want everything from Brit aggressiveness to blackface tones in a compact package at a fair price.
Skip if…
you actually need the power to blow down barns.
Rating…

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/PremierGuitar/PremierG-30.htm

Something very cool is happening the basement of Mr. Music, Boston’s favorite family-owned music store in Allston, Massachusetts.

After a lifetime of gigging, amp repair, studio building, and tone tweaking for stars like Joe Perry of Aerosmith, master technician Rob Lohr is building some of the finest boutique tone monsters to come along in a while.

I have always been impressed with anything I heard that was built in his shop, located in the basement of Mr. Music. Rob is a person of great detail. A technical question put forward to Rob usually yields a tutorial on the workings of electrons with respect to our favorite instrument, the guitar. Through the years, Rob and I  have had many conversations about what a practical amp should sound and look like. A veteran of the gig scene himself, Rob understands what the working artist needs. In my world, 50 percent of the reason why something sounds good is because it does not need a crew of roadies to transport it, set it up, and break it down. These days, as indie artists, even for high-profile shows in theatres, we usually show up with our own favorite rig. It had better be light and tone-worthy!

When I heard Rob’s Dumbalina, an amp inspired by the legendary Alexander Dumble’s Overdrive Special, I was instantly hooked. Here was an amp the size of a Fender Princeton Reverb that was a very high quality, point to point, hand-made tone machine that had a kick like amps twice its size. Rob Lohr had somehow managed to pack all of the essential features of the best Dumble-inspired amps into a space the size of a Fender Princeton Reverb. He did this with no sacrifice in power (45w) and the highest quality components!

There are many other great D-Style amps whose components are a cut below Dumbalina’s. Yet Rob charges a modest $1800.00 for the basic amp, with additional costs for any custom work. Okay, yes, I did have to pay extra for him to add my name to the front in vinyl lettering with Fender-style script. Don’t be confused though, this is not the “Thaddeus” amp!

With a switchable  4, 8, 16 ohm extension speaker output, the amp offered everything you might need to grow your rig. Small gig: use the onboard 12-inch G12-T75 and walk in with the amp in your right hand and guitar in the left. Large gig: take an extension cab and utilize all of the 45 available watts to rock the stage with two or more 12-inch speakers.

The footswitchable Overdrive channel sounded like the mating of a Dumble Overdrive Special and a Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature. Overdrive that sings without over-saturation and responds to tonal tweaks on your guitar or subtle finger ornaments. The quality of OD of this amp, I will testify, is simply one of the best I have played. The clean channel can be crystal, but if you push it, you can get a singe on the top notes and a roar on the power chords.

The +4 effects loop provides you with the opportunity to use the highest studio grade effects in the loop. Aside from being whisper quiet, plugging in a high-end effect processor seems to lend a three-dimensional quality to the amp that makes it sound much bigger than its physical proportions might suggest. Of course, you can use a dumble-ator or clone thereof to use line level floor pedals, but why not use some of the high-quality studio grade pedals that are coming out these days? TC Electronics makes a couple and so does Eventide. More and more pedal manufacturers are giving you the option of the studio level +4 signal, ready to plug into your D-style effect loop. (See previous post on Effects Loops).

The three switches that you normally find on D-clones for Bright, Mid, and Bass are neatly hidden in Dumbalina: Each  tone knob (Bass, Treble, Mid) has a hidden, whisper quiet, pop-less pull-boost feature which takes the whole thing up to a different kind of 11 heaven. The Volume knob has a presence boost. When the Tone Bypass is engaged (often called Pre-Amp Bypass or PAB in other Dumbl- inspired amps) the treble pull pot doubles as a bass boost. The result is the most useful “PAB” option that I have ever seen with a corresponding increase in low end that makes this feature a very practical and useful option for me. Usually I shy away from PAB because it might sound a little gnarly, or less friendly in lower volume settings, even though it works wonders for cutting through in the heat of the mix at high volumes.

My most recent gig was a power trio gig, a Hendrix tribute concert. I used Dumbalina’s overdrive channel for the solos that were not over-the-top, so to speak. When the band started really bashing, I could get away with using my Tone Bypass to cut through the mix. Really very flexible tones on this puppy! The 45w is just what you need to sing at lower volumes. Push the envelope a bit and you get great power amp overdrive without scaring the non-guitarists out of the room. In addition, there is a master volume/loop send level that allows you to get the tones you are using at lower volumes without changing the character of the settings. A well thought out amp for the working musician. At 34 pounds, the amp is welcome at any gig that I play!

In the studio, Dumbalina reigns supreme. I have just completed tracks for a tribute cd. R&B versions of Jimi Hendrix tunes. I used Dumbalina for many of the guitar solos and rhythm tracks and, well, tune in next year in the Spring to hear what I think are pretty amazing guitar tones.

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Rob builds every aspect of the amp. From the cabinet and grillcloth to the faceplate (painting and vinyl lettering)

the meticulously wired components inside this amazing amp.

Current wait time is only something like three months, since Rob is building each one by himself. I am sure as the word gets out, that list will grow and grow. It will still be worth the wait, I promise!

Here is the icing on the cake: roughly six months or so after you get the amp, after the amp has been broken in. Rob will sit there with you and do the final tweaking of the components WHILE YOU ARE IN THE SHOP! He will look at the levels and settings that you choose and tweak the internal components so that a great amp becomes an even greater amp, tuned to YOUR signature style of playing. This is an amazing benefit and it is the feature that pushes Rob to the front line of amp builders. (Isn’t that why Dumbles became so popular and expensive? Alexander Dumble would tweak them to the playing style of the owners). Rob recently spent 10 hours—yes folks, 10 hours in the basement at Mr. Music—tweaking an amp for client Alex Potts, so he could have it ready for his move to LA. In my Berklee Online course, Funk/Rock and R&B Soloing, I talk about signature tone. Folks like Robben Ford, who within a couple of notes, announce their presence on the recording whether or not you are even close enough to read the album credits. I believe that this amp can open a door to this concept, and with the post-build tweak, you just might be creating some new history.

Here is the latest version of Dumbalina that Rob is completing, with a couple of new tweaks and slightly different cosmetics on the faceplate, which include corresponding faceplate lights for the lighted footswitchable Overdrive and Tone Bypass features: Sweeeeeeet!!

Here is the scoop on Dumbalina, from the hand of the builder himself, Rob Lohr:

CABINET-The cabinet is Grade “A” pine joined with machine cut half blind dovetail joints and internally braced with poplar. I will cover the cabinet with any available tolex and grille cloth, and you have your choice of appropriate loudspeaker*. The standard faceplate is brushed aluminum with black letters, but I can do colors for a small upcharge and you have your choice of knobs**. The handle is a good quality faux leather that comes in brown, black, or blue, and I use 1″x2″  heavy duty rubber feet and stainless steel cabinet corners and hardware.

*speaker must be of appropriate power handling.

**knobs must fit 1/4″ shaft and comply with existing chassis hole spacing.

CHASSIS– The chassis is steel with welded joints and all hardware is stainless steel. The transformers are MERCURY MAGNETICS FBFVL-P 120v power transformer, FC-VIBROL choke and FBFVLR-OS Fatstack output transformer(4,8,16 ohm selectable). I can do selectable AC input for a small upcharge. The tube compliment is: 2x 12ax-7(pre), 1x 6sl7(PI) 2x 6L6GE(output) and a GZ34(rectifier). I use Belton tube sockets and retainers. I use a combination of Alpha, Clarostat, and Bourns potentiometers, Cliff and Switchcraft jacks, plugs and switches. All shielded leads are Mogami console cable. All unshielded signal leads are teflon coated solid copper core silver clad. All power supply wiring is PVC jacketed stranded copper.

ELECTRONICS– 100 percent hand-wired point to point construction. Hand made 1/8-inch fiberglass turret board, a combination of Metal oxide, metal film and carbon composition resistors, Oil and foil signal capacitors, and high quality electrolytics. There are some other solid state components, but they are related to the switching circuits and are not in the audio path.

LIMITED LIFETIME WARRANTY– I don’t warranty speakers, tubes, or output transformers for obvious reasons …but if anything else ever breaks I will fix it for free for ever and ever. Or until I die, which ever comes first.

Here is the bullet list of Dumbalina Specs:

Output power———–45 watts

Tube compliment——–2x 6L6GE, 2x 12AX-7, 1x 6SL7, 1x GZ34

Output Impedance——4,8,16 ohm selectable

Effects loop———— post pre/ pre power half normalled break out with send level.

Foot switches———-Over-drive and tone bypass(PAB). Both can also be controlled by front panel switches and are indicated with both front panel and foot switch mounted LED’s. The footswitch over-rides the front panel switches.

Controls—————-Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Overdrive, Level (ratio), send level.

Pull Pots:

Pull Volume————-Bright

Pull Treble————–Hi mid boost

Pull Mid—————–Lo mid boost

Pull Bass—————-Bass boost

Speaker Celestion G12T75, 8 Ohm

Rob Lohr can be reached at Mr Music in Allston Massachusetts at 617-783-1609 or at  robmadoak@hotmail.com

Here are few demo videos that I just did:

OVERVIEW:

In this issue we are dealing with a subject on which I have received many inquiries in the past. It is about the selection or matching of tube amps for the best possible Jazz sound. Amplifying acoustic or semi-hollow-body guitars has always been a huge challenge because most jazz guitarists are very demanding in terms of sound and simultaneously fight against unwanted distortion and feedback. In the following article I would like to summarize some tips and tricks that get  great tone and how to avoid distortion.

When I started getting involved with jazz sounds, around 1977, most guitarists in this genre used transistor amplifiers. George Benson played a Polytone, Pat Metheny an acoustic amp with a 4×10” speaker cab and Volker Kriegel and Michael Sagmeister used a Gibson LAB L9 with 15” speakers. Such examples can be found very often from that period. Although all of these guitarists had indeed very good tone, the typical depth and openness of a tube amp sound could not be reached however in its wider spectrum. Still the transistor amps had some advantages over tube amps: They sounded very compact and linear, were less prone to feedback and offered a relatively balanced frequency spectrum and a nice sustain, which was the ideal sound of many jazz guitarists. A Gibson L5 played through a LAB or a Polytone is completely convincing – even today.

One disadvantage that the transistor amps had in particularly was its dynamic behaviour, in their relatively poor response and in their tendency to not let the individual character of a particular guitar fully unfold. You could also say: Transistor amps tend to standardise tone.

I do not wish to start a discussion about tube versus transistor because transistor amplifiers will continue to play a rightful role in jazz. It is more about ways to show how one can get the typical warm jazz tone with a tube amp without all the disadvantages.

Above all I am thinking of the sounds of the early sixties, which were marked by numerous jazz guitarists including: Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, the early George Benson, Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Grant Green and Jim Hall. All of these guitarists were playing tube amps on their early recordings and getting fantastic sounds. Today tube amps are celebrating a renaissance with jazz guitarists.

Let us first take look at the most popular models from the distant past. In the fifties the combos from Fender (Tweed), Gibson, Standel or Flot-A-Tone were especially loved by jazz musicians due to their sound and their small size. These amplifiers were sufficient for jazz guitarists because they were usually accompanying musicians and they performed as a soloist only in rare cases. They often stayed in the background and did not play very loud.

Even back then, most jazz guitars were equipped with a tone control that made it possible to filter out unwanted peaks and thus to form the typical dark jazz sound. But soon the guitar became a solo instrument. Just think of the impressive sound of a cascading Les Paul, who at that time had good reason to play on a solid body. The traditional jazz players remained with their hollow bodies and now had to fight against all the disadvantages of the electrification of their sounds. Recently I read in a retrospective of Wes Montgomery that he alleged that during his entire career he was unhappy with his sound because he simply could not find the perfect amp. One might even go so far and assume that the dark jazz sound is actually created only (and eventually cultivated) because the amount of unpleasant highs tube amplifiers have, are rather imperfect sounding and also quickly led to feedback. Most guitarists wanted more of a linear and natural reproduction of their beautiful instruments that already sounded great acoustically.

Let’s now take a look in the interior of a tube amp and consider certain circuit characteristics which can be modified for a better jazz tone. The objectives of these measures are the reduction of distortion and the high frequencies, improving the mid-range and increasing the linearity of the sound.

First, a list of known suitable amplifiers for conversion to a “jazz box”: Fender Tweed Fender amps from 1956 and Brownface, Blackface and Silverface combos. Examples from this list shall be explored in following issues.

Let’s start with a Tweed Deluxe amp replica from Cream which I have converted for jazz sounds. These amps are known for their distortion when left stock and therefore not ideal for a clear jazz tone. But they are very small and handy and with around 15 watts of power ideal for use in a club. In addition, these amplifiers are connected with a so-called “split-load” phase inverter which is appropriate for our purposes because of its low gain. The only drawback is the two coupled volume pots, which restrict the volume control range on the one hand and deliver too much gain in the preamp. The aim is to reduce the gain in the preamp and increase the output power and stability of the amplifier. Only then we get enough headroom for a clear sound.

Just this once, I should like to “put the cart before the horse” because there are a number of measures to improve the amp without intervention on the circuit.

First, these amplifiers usually have an inefficient speaker. Powerful speakers with a good efficiency rating are especially suitable for jazz sounds. Those who love the Alnico sound can search out an old JBL D-120 and replace the aluminum dust cap with a counterpart out of fabric (available from Weber VST). The speaker can be helped dramatically in the highs and we get a warmer, rounder tone. Excellent was also the old Fane Crescendo Heavy-duty speaker, which is also suitable after the removal of the aluminum dome making a perfectly clear and powerful sound. These speakers were also used by David Gilmour. Another excellent choice is also an Electro-Voice 12L or a Jensen C12K with 100 watts. All these speakers better the sound of the Tweed Deluxe significantly. You only have to watch out for the thin baffle-board because vibration during transport could for example pull heavy speakers from the screw holes.

A further stabilizing method is the conversion of the power tubes to 6L6 or 5881, which I recommended at this point several times. Although the amp has only about one or two watts more output, the increase in headroom is very clear. You get more clean reserves and dynamics. Here I recommend changing the cathode resistor of the amplifier from 250 (typically with 5 watts) to 330 ohms with 10 watts. If you play a jazz guitar with humbuckers, we recommend the low input of the normal channels. Here there are less highs and the output signal of the guitar is more attenuated. It should be noted that the volume pots affect each other on the Tweed Deluxe. By turning the unused channel by not more than 70 percent, the tone is much cleaner, but also quieter.

If you don’t wish to utilize this trick, you can simply remove the cathode of the second stage capacitor (Elko 25mF/25 volts) and reduce the gain of this stage substantially, which in turn increases headroom. The amp will be clearer and somewhat linear, but also a touch softer.

Even more clear sound can be obtained by replacing the output transformer. Something I always do in such tuning. In this case I choose a Mercury Magnetics Tweed Pro Axiom FTPRO-O transformer (available at Tonehenge Amplification) with 8 ohms, which gives much more stability to a small tweed amp.

If you want to use the amp only for jazz, you can also decouple the two volume controls from each other and only one channel and a tone control remain. Now you can adjust the volume much finer and linear. The circuit can be found at www.schematicheaven.com under Fender Deluxe 6G3. Here the channels are completely separate, each with their own volume and tone control. It’s only after the volume knobs on the channels that two 220k ohm mixing resistors are mixed together again.

Since the Tweed Deluxe played with humbuckers has in general somewhat bassy sounds, I also reduce the value of the coupling capacitors from 0.1mF to 0022mF. This makes the sound tighter and more mids. Sprague “Orange Drop” P715-type fit perfectly here.

Finally we get to fine-tuning via preamp tube placement. With a good 12AY7 and a 12AX7 of your choice, you can continue to shape your favourite tone. For those of you who have not had enough, you can play with the value of the capacitor on the tone-pot. The Deluxe was originally installed with a 0005 UF capacitor but also possible are values such as 0.01mF or 0.02mF (as in the 6G3) for a slightly warmer tone. If you want to darken the sound one can bridge one of the anode resistors at the 12AY7 with a 0.003mF capacitor (as in the normal channel of the Brown Vibrolux).

The result is a truly compelling jazz amp for small clubs, feeds back less, offers more clean reserves and could compete with any Polytone but all the benefits of dynamic and harmonically rich tube sound can be enjoyed. Diana Krall’s guitarist Anthony Wilson often used a Tweed Deluxe replica from Clark and his blond Gibson Byrdland in the studio. This sound is very reminiscent of Kenny Burrell and offers a wonderfully unique character. Have fun experimenting!

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In 1963, the Silvertone 1484 or “Twin Twelve” was top-of-the-line among the amplifiers offered by Sears, Roebuck and Co. It debuted with a whopping catalog price of $149.95 (the equivalent of $1000 today)! Though once headed north of $800 on the latter day collectible market, the economy has seen these tone bandits recently dip back under the $500 mark. The 1484 is one of tone expert Andy Brauer’s all-time favorite amps, and rightfully so, since this baby can rock the socks off the meanest swamp alligators!

Every time someone asks you about sleeper amps, you bring up the Twin Twelve and how it’s one of your favorites. What’s the deal?

Twin Twelves are killer – really magical. Back in the day, you could pick one up at a garage sale for $25 or $50! People sold them as speaker cabinets; they didn’t even know it was an amplifier because the head sits underneath in the cab. It’s an innovative design feature for which we can thank Nathan Daniel; he developed and supplied them to Sears.

How long ago was it they were going for $25?

In the ’70s. But even today, these amps remain very undervalued. Most I see are fairly unmolested and still have the original tubes. They’re clean, or easy to clean because for some reason they weren’t as used or abused as other amps I see in my shop – most have remained closet-classic clean.

Their values jumped, though, when The White Stripes became popular and players learned Jack White’s killer sound was through Silvertone amps.

I agree. He was using a 1485 – the 100-watt version of the 1484, with six 10s. It’s much cleaner-sounding, with more headroom, punchier, with big, tight low-end. Jack liked the clarity – the chimey highs, the thick midrange, and the whoompf on the bottom.

What makes up the heart of the 1484?

It has two 6L6s for power, three 12ZX7s in the preamp, two 6FQ7s for the phase inverter and reverb driver, and a solid-state rectifier. And there’s a funky little reverb tank in them, but most I see are broken.The example on my bench at the moment is from early 1964. Some of the post are ’63, but most are ’64 and the speakers are ’64, which leads me to believe it’s an early-’64 model. The speakers are Jensen C12Qs, ceramic, with 20- to 25-watt capacity. Their small magnetics tend to break up faster and be a little honkier.

Funny, it doesn’t sound like a modern 50-watt amp. More like20 watts.

That’s partly because the voltages on the power tubes – the first-stage plate resistors – are 229k. First-stage plate resistors on the typical Fender amp are 100k.

So the Fenders’ allow more current to flow?

Yes. This results in a lot more headroom, a lot more clarity, and more overall punch. Most modern amps run their tubes, and their entire circuit, hotter than vintage gear. They try and squeeze more bang for the buck out of their amps, sometimes mistaking louder for better.

The nice thing about Silvertone amps, and the Twin Twelve especially, is that by raising some of the resistance, and the way Nat Daniel developed the circuit, results in a very nice note compression that isn’t found in many other amps. The hard edges are taken off the notes. Also, the Twin Twelve’s tone controls are interactive – the more you turn up the Treble and Bass, the more gain you get. So if you want it real clean, turn the Volume to 3 or 4, turn the tone controls down to 2 or 3 respectively and you can get some clarity out of it. But after 3 or 4 on the dial, the amp gets gainier and gainier.

I noticed that the tremolo and reverb affect gain, as well. If you turn everything up, the amp turns into a real monster.It’s not a multi-tasking amplifier. It likes to do reverb, or it likes to do tremolo. If you do both, it gets fussy… but it sounds great, by the way! The 6L6 screen voltage is about 150 volts below plate value, so these amps are not pushing the tubes much at all. When you’re that conservative on the wattage, you reduce headroom. It’s almost like talking a Variac to the incoming voltage. When you Variac it down a touch, you lose clean headroom and get more overdrive.

These amps are not extremely loud, but what they do have is a instantly likeable, friendly tone that really grabs you and kind of encourages you to play with it. It’s very bluesy. It’s aggressive, and it’s compressed, but without the drawbacks of compression. It’s not like a 6V6-driven amp that squashes the sound, it’s more of a high-fidelity sound. It compresses the sound like an LA2A limiter – almost limiting the compression versus squashing it like a 6V6 Deluxe or like a brown Deluxe. The tone stack enhances the tone and adds gain, versus cutting or boosting lows and highs.

So, do you like to just turn everything all the way up on the Twin Twelve?

Who doesn’t like to do that every once in a while on any amp? But no, not as a general rule. Amps that I like, I set the tone controls to five, to start. From there I play with the Volume. And then, believe it or not, I’ll go around the amp with a screwdriver and a socket wrench, and start tightening bolts on the speaker, or tune the cabinet to a certain frequency to get the amp to ring. The Twin Twelve has a ported cabinet with a back panel that’s open on the bottom. One can play with the screws inside the cabinet to torque them all to the same tension, so that sound reverberates off all parts of the cabinet at the same pressure.

Kind of like tuning the head on a drum – you want even tension all the way around…

Exactly. When I do that to a cabinet and the speakers, I hear a difference.

These amps came with 25 feet of cable to separate the speaker from the head. The old Sears catalogue claimed that this was to eliminate feedback. Is there any truth to that?

That was a marketing gimmick. They wanted the musician to be able to place the head near where they were standing, and place the cab away from them, with the idea that the further the cab was from the pickups, the less chance there was for feedback.

Who are some high-profile players who use these?

Obviously, Jack White brought them into the spotlight. But I’ve seen many players – Dean Parks, Ronnie Woods, Keith Richards, Lyle Workman, Josh Homme, Ry Cooder, and David Lindley – use them. It tends to be a staple in major recording studios, so music fans have heard them on countless albums, though they may not be aware.

Do a lot of these amps come in for repairs and such?

I see the 1×12 version, the 1482. And I’ve definitely worked on my share of the 1484s. When I’m servicing a Silvertone, nine out of 10 times it’s merely pitted and dirty and just needs its pots cleaned, and maybe tension the tube sockets or re-solder something for good contact. Generally, the tubes are pretty good, and many Silvertones have original tubes.

Were the Silvertone tubes in these made specifically for Sears?

There were OEM. I’m not sure if they were RCA, GE, or Sylvania, but they were definitely American manufacture. Vintage RCA and GE tubes are considered some of the best, and the tubes in these are terrific. Consider it’s possible to purchase a Silvertones for a few hundred dollars. If original tubes are in there, that’s at least $100 just in tubes!

Are they good for mods?

Not that I’d recommend. Just restore them back to stock.

Other good Silvertones?

The bass version, the model 1483, is pretty awesome. It’s the same circuit minus the reverb and tremolo, and driven through a 1×12 cabinet. It’s 50 watts, as well. Most Silvertones were given numbers as model names, but the Twin Twelve was branded because it was top of the line. The only other amp Silvertone branded was the 1434, which was dubbed the Medalist.

How do the tremolo and reverb sound?

The reverb isn’t the best, but it’s not bad – it’s fashionably anemic. The tremolo is great – very surf-sounding and muted, in a nice way, unlike a Gibson tremolo, which is bright and pingy.

Are there a lot of Twin Twelves out there?

Yes. They were manufactured only form 1963 to ’66, but were apparently churned out in large numbers. There’s almost always one for sale in online auctions, and I often see them in music stores. As I said, they tend to be in fairly good shape, though if exposed to moisture the particleboard tends to fall apart. Aside from that, there are no major issues. They don’t always ship well, though – the reverb tanks can get messed up. But there’s nothing that can go wrong on these that can’t be fixed; all the parts are readily available. If you blow the transformer, a Mercury Magnetics replacement is available.

Another interesting feature is that if you open up the back panel on the speaker cab, you’ll see there’s a hidden shelf. It’s a baffle.

What for?

It’s a bass trap, for lower frequencies. When the bass comes off the back of the speakers, the baffle catches it and sends it forward again. You get a little bit more of a thump than with most open-back cabs. It was really kind of a revolutionary design Nat Daniel came up with, and I don’t know of any other amps that employ it. (Ed. Note: Daniel had a patent on the speaker cabinet design with inclined baffles called the “acoustical case”.)

Sonically, what would you compare this amp to?

Probably a Fender, as it has a really nice twang. But it’s a bit darker. It offers a terrific Dick Dale surf tone as well.

Cranked up?

Well, listen to any White Stripes album!

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Amp Transformers, Output Transformers & Chokes

For all you know-it-alls and music gurus out there who pride yourselves on your vast knowledge of musical fact, know the name Glen Morris. If you have not yet heard of him, you have at least heard him.  He is the brains and elbow grease behind Morris Amps, the brand gracing the airwaves behind guitarists like Dallas Green of Alex is on fire and James Black of Finger Eleven.

You’ll hear a Morris Amp on the latest release by the Cancer Bats and in countless studio albums from Canada’s top studios. But who is Glen Morris really? What makes him sound so good?

To understand why these artists are swearing by a Morris amp you have to understand the man, Glen Morris. He says it all started for him when he was a boy.  He and a friend overloaded an old fender amp with the output of a small DeArmond amp by disconnecting the speaker and attaching it into the front of the Fender.

“It was the most amazing sound for about 10 seconds.” He says, “Before the amp exploded.”
~Glen Morris

He had to crack it open and study its glorious brains. This was his first rebuild. From that moment on, the sound and structure of an amp has been his passion.  He picked up bits of knowledge wherever he could. Enough for friends to dub him Glen “Can’t-leave-it-alone” Morris.

His father was the head of the Electronics Dept. at the Stelco Steel Co. and worked with Radar  during the Second World War.  From him, Glen learned how to properly saturate a tube to make it sing like a rock and roll song bird.

Now he’s not all wires and solder.  Glen is first a guitar player.  The final sound of his amps starts at the fretboard and works its way through a patiently obsessively built hand wired circuit board before it gets the Morris brand.

“The layout,routing of the wires, is an extremely important factor in an amp,” he says. Not every guitar amp builder is a guitar player and it really shows.

Glen is a graduate of the Electronics program at George Brown College.  While there, he admits that he picked the brains of one special teacher every chance he was given. This teacher was originally from the Ukraine and taught Radio/TV classes. He taught tubes and valves and knew them inside and out, right from the old school. Glen spent countless hours in the library reading old manuals and schematics.

So what’s in a Morris Amp today?  Well, Glen has a longstanding relationship with Mercury Magnetics. They supply his transformers and are a vital part of his sound. Some are made exclusively for the Morris brand.  He says the defining part of a sound is in the transformer.  If any of you readers out there are going to start messing around inside your amp, make sure you don’t skimp on the transformer.

Lately, able artists have enjoyed the sounds of the Morris XSII and XSIII,  both versatile amps for the modern rocker. Morris amps are hard working machines and most sell accordingly.  He has recently designed two tube distortion pedals under his Morris brand “dismorrtion”.  They imitate his bigger sound and are still hand built with tubes at a lesser price.

His new designs are an all steel cab amp head that is specially designed for the boutique pedal players.”So many guys today love to buy and swap pedals all the time. So I designed a very affordable 30-watt single-channel amp that the tone controls work mainly on the harmonics, allowing you to really dial in a great distortion sound with the pedal,” says Glen.

Sound samples and prices are all available on the Morris Amps website, www.morrisamps.com.

Source:  https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=237680760133

It was originally built around the design of one of Jim Marshall’s favorites, the Fender Bassman; like the Bassman, the JTM45 was actually a fantastic guitar amp. Because of its consistent popularity, Marshall has offered a reissue version of the head — more than 20 years after production of the original JTM45 ceased. While the reissue is built with modern components and assembly techniques, it retains much of the tone, responsiveness and character of the original, hand-wired versions of the early days. No wonder builders today still carry on the tradition of the JTM45, and guitarists continue to seek out the pure simplicity and touch response of this tone machine. To celebrate the JTM45, I got together with my Sunday afternoon amp group, after contacting a handful of respected amp builders who sent us their versions of the amp. We fired them all up alongside an original and a reissue JTM45 to take a listen — and to enjoy one of the best amps ever designed.

About the Authors

About 5 years ago, while playing a 9/11 benefit show, I had the good fortune to meet two people who would not only profoundly impact my life with tube amps, but would become lifelong friends. John Rossi and Tony Burns were there that day; Tony, a killer player and a regular on the Tempe/Phoenix music scene, and Johnny, his friend and amp tech, making sure Tony’s amps were running well in 115 degree heat at the outdoor amphitheater. When I saw Tony’s wall of Marshalls next to my backline of Marshalls, it was an instant conversation starter.

We spent time between sets that day discussing the various finer points of our amps and gawking at each other’s rigs. The show went great but my ’67 Super P.A. felt a bit stiff, and wasn’t reacting in the most flattering way. This incident proved to be the catalyst, as Johnny was an underground semi-retired tech and ultra-fanatic Marshall enthusiast, and he had some ideas that he wanted to try out. He invited me over the following Sunday to check out the amp, and to experiment with various preamp and power amp tubes while BBQ-ing and having a beer. Tony was there, and it became clear that we all had a deep respect for these amps; rather than modify them, we wanted to bring them back to their former glory. After five years, and dozens of hacked-up Marshalls coming back from the dead, here we are. Over that time we’ve learned more about these amazing amps than any of us ever anticipated, and we’ve have had a blast in the process. I have no doubt in my mind, based on my readings of the various amp forums, that there are plenty of groups just like us all over the world doing the same thing.

The Lineup

The lineup consisted of our own 1965 original and 1990 reissue heads, two MetroAmp JTM45s (a kit version as well as the GPM 45), a Germino Classic 45, a Wallace Amplification BKW45 and Mojave Ampworks’ new Special Edition Plexi 45 head. After searching through our collection of cabinets, we settled on both an eighties Marshall JCM800 4×12 with black back 25s, and a Mojave 2×12 cab with 1963-era Celestion Alnico Blues. It may sound strange that there were no pinstripe or basket weave cabs used for the roundup, but that wasn’t for lack of trying. Among all the members of the amp group, we actually have a pinstripe, a basket weave and a variety of Marshall 4x12s, but for some reason we always come back to the early-eighties JCM 800 cab with black back 25s.

That particular cab has more clarity, tone and authority than any other, and it remains our favorite in the bunch — despite the cool factor of the older cabs. The 2×12 with Blues was a natural choice, as that flavor shares similarities with the mid-sixties Marshall cabs and is also a popular speaker configuration for Bluesbreaker combos. The guitars we used were our standard array of Les Pauls from the ’70s, ’80s and 2000s, as well as a newer 2008 Fender Strat and two early-seventies Strats. With everything in the room (it was quite a sight!) we were ready to begin.

Original 1965 JTM45

To get our ears accustomed to the JTM45 sound, we began by firing up our ’65 head with a Les Paul. Normally, this head has EL34s in it, but we borrowed the Genelex KT66s from the Mojave and biased the amp to accommodate them. It made sense to us to use KT66s, because they were what the amp was designed for. With everything looking good, we flipped it from standby and beheld the beauty of this vintage masterpiece. It’s no wonder players and collectors are paying big bucks for these amps; everything we played through it sounded incredible.

What was amazing was how much of a rock ‘n roll amp this really is. Considering how long it’s been since it was conceived, the amp’s sound remains surprisingly current. The distortion is organic, full-bodied and earthy, and it allowed the personality of the guitar and player to shine through. While it was very easy to play, this is an amp that still requires a level of discipline and control to fully harness its capabilities. It makes sense that players who want to be heard would play on this style of amp, because like it or not, whatever you play through the amp is… well, amplified. It just comes out better.

We played through it for a good long time, switching guitars and speaker cabinets to hear it in as many different configurations as possible. Whether it was a Strat, a Les Paul, a 2×12 or a 4×12, the sound was always remarkable — perhaps the very definition of great tone. Subjective? Yes. Brilliant? Absolutely. Rolling back the volume on the guitars exposed a beautiful clean tone that was harmonically rich and defined, never muddy or dull. Even with the guitar’s volume knob all the way up, the dynamic response of the amp, and the way it musically fed back, was awe-inspiring.

Once we had established a base tone for comparison’s sake, it was time to play and listen to the other amps. Before I break down each individual amp and builder, I must observe that each and every one of the amps had ridiculously good tone, and they all sounded like JTM45s, but each had its own unique voice. Aside from the reissue Marshall, all of the amps are hand-wired. The reissue Marshall was of PCB-construction, and used the standard parts and components that Marshall was building their amps with during that era. I spoke with Mitch Colby from Korg USA (Marshall’s US distributor), who told me that the reissues have not undergone any significant changes since their reintroduction 20 years ago. While they are using the components that Marshall builds with today, they should yield very similar tones to the earlier reissue amps.

MetroAmp JTM 45 Kit and GPM 45 Custom Build

George Metropoulos is no stranger to the world of Marshall amps or to the online amp building community. Having run MetroAmp for some time now, George offers everything from fully built replicas of many classic Marshalls to ready-to-build kits and hard-to-find replacement parts for vintage Marshalls. A player, George honed his amp-tech skills by adopting a DIY approach, taking care of his own amp repairs on the road. This extended into repair work at home, and then really took off when amps began coming in for restoration rather than simple re-tubing. After his ’73 Super Lead was stolen from a gig, he realized it might be best to leave the valuable amps at home, and so he embarked on a never-ending quest to replicate the tone of the old Marshalls.

Like all the builders in the roundup, George is passionate about vintage Marshalls and obsessive over the details that make these amps so coveted. We received two amps from Metro: the JTM45 kit (which can be purchased already assembled for an additional $400) and the GPM45, George’s custom-built JTM45 using NOS vintage parts. When we fired up the MetroAmp 45s, it was clear that they both came from the same camp. Both amps were meticulously built and incredibly precise in their layouts. The main physical differences between the amps came down to the caps, resistors and tubes. Both amps shared the same iron and layout, so they also shared a lot of the inherent tone in their circuits. As George is a fan of the mid-sixties JTM45s, Metro’s transformers are based on the Drakes, rather than the earlier Radiospares iron [editor’s note: Kit also comes with optional Mercury Magnetics transformers]. Still, there was no question that the GPM45, which included NOS Phillips mustard caps, Allen Bradley carbon comp resistors and a gorgeous set of Genelex KT66s, was sweeter sounding.

While those differences accounted for a tonal upgrade, what made the differences even more compelling was the way they affected the touch factor of the amp. Much like our ‘65, the custom-built Metro had an ease about it that felt like a broken-in vintage head, making it a breeze to dig in, or to lay back on the strings and feel the amp act as an instrument. It was truly inspiring. Of all the amps in the roundup, this amp sounded most like our ’65 — frighteningly close! I should mention that the Metro kit version was actually plugged in first, and before comparing it to the GPM45, we all agreed we’d be thrilled to have one in our collection. We may be splitting hairs here to some degree, but knowing that anyone can buy a complete kit for under a grand, and have that kind of quality and tone — that says a lot.

Metro’s JTM 45 Kit:

Metro’s GTM 45 Custom Build:

Wallace Amplification BKW45

www.WallaceAmps.com

Brian Wallace has electronics in his DNA. His father, an electronics engineer, and his grandfather, an RCA tube repairman, were both instrumental in his early education and development in tubes and electronics. When he was young his father gave him a 75-in-1 electronic projects kit and further encouraged Brian by letting him watch as he built his own projects. Like all of the builders in the roundup, Brian is a player. He began modifying amps in 1974, when he removed the speakers and baffle in his Checkmate amp and replaced them with a baffle he created and some purchased speakers — altering the sound of the amp and thus beginning his lifelong journey. In 1995, he was approached by Guytron Amplification to help out while they were getting started. A positive experience, it propelled him to the next level and led to the creation of Wallace Amplification, which now offers several amp models as well as replacement transformers under the Marstran name.

Wallace’s first amp is the BKW45, but he is more than a clone maker. Recently he introduced the Abaddon, which is a 50-watt master volume head consisting of four gain stages in the preamp. There is much more to come, including a line of pedals and a reissue of the Fuzz Ace pedal he made back in the early ’90s. The BKW45 is a unique flavor of JTM45. A hair darker in tone and possessing slightly less gain than all of the other models, including both the vintage and reissue Marshall, it yielded enormous bloom and a bold, thick, sustaining quality. Even though there was a little less gain, it didn’t affect playability, and we never struggled with the amp. It was one of the rarest qualities I’ve experienced in an amp, and certainly an unexpected bonus.

The Wallace had a magical ability to push notes through loud and clear while still being able to dish out gritty and harmonically pleasing chords that didn’t fight the non-perfect intervals they were built on. This all came out of an amp that was using tubes you can buy today without breaking the bank.

Speaking of breaking, check out the sidebar on what the BKW45 was subjected to by UPS en route to our roundup. In spite of the gorilla treatment it received, the amp arrived without shattered glass and performed flawlessly throughout the entire set of three sessions of playing and listening. That’s a testament to a solidly built and roadworthy piece of equipment. And one look inside the amp will show what a dedicated and precise builder Wallace is. In tone and build quality, the amp is a work of art.

Ever wonder what could happen to your amp in shipping? In the case of Brian Wallace’s BKW45 amp, UPS had a field day, and decided it would be a lot of fun to throw it around. When the amp arrived, it was packed neatly in a new cardboard box with padding inside suspending the padded road case that housed the amp. That’s double-boxed and protected by a case built for heavy abuse. Sadly, it took one good slide down the end of a ramp and collided with either another box or the wall of the truck. Though the box didn’t show any signs of abuse on the outside, it was clear that something had shifted when I opened the case. Take a look at this picture of the damage and the way the entire amp was shifted to one side because of the impact. Believe it or not, the tubes didn’t shatter and the amp worked fine, but it was cosmetically damaged by a broken front Plexi panel. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it happen with this type of road-worthy packing. Let this serve as a reminder to always insure your amps, as the shipping company can’t tell if you’ve got a bag of peanuts in a box or an amp that was lovingly built by somebody like Brian.

Germino Amplification Classic 45

www.GerminoAmps.com

Greg Germino is another lifelong guitarist who was bitten by the tube-amp bug after catching the Allman Brothers Band back in 1972. He was so inspired by that show that he switched over from acoustic to electric guitar and began taking electronics classes in high school. In 1979, he requested schematics from both Ampeg and Unicord (Marshall’s US distributor at the time) and began his hands-on education with tube amps. He spent the ’80s at an electronics job, and by the early ’90s he was moonlighting doing tube amp repair for a few music stores. He continued to play live with both 50W and 100W Marshalls during that time and moved to Durham, NC to work at Bull City Sound — working on tube amps from the big-name amp companies.

This led to Greg’s being commissioned by Mojo Musical, where he built their Tone Machine amplifier. The following year, 2002, he began work on the prototype of his Lead 55 amp, which debuted in May of 2002. The Classic 45 model is based on the earlier Radiospares-style output transformer, rather than the Drake 1202-103used in the ’65-’66 era, and the circuit is exactly what you would find in an earlier original. The Radiospares-style OT is supplied by none other than Chris Merren, who is highly regarded in the world of Marshalls, and known to make some of the most accurate transformer replicas out there.

The Classic 45 was the only amp in the roundup that used 6L6 power tubes. Greg’s decision to use them was a combination of staying true to the earliest tubes Marshall used on the original JTM45 amps and his belief that the current crop of 6L6s sound and perform better than newer KT66s. NOS and vintage 6L6s are also less expensive and more plentiful than NOS KT66s. Our immediate response to the Classic 45 was that it was a lively and aggressive amp, with tons of power that made the pick explode off the strings. In ways it reminded us of our favorite ’67 Super Bass in its volume and attack, but it still retained the sound of a 45. It may very well have been the loudest amp of the bunch, and that volume translated to a feeling of excitement that made the amp extremely fun to play. It was present without being shrill and had a super-tight bottom end, no matter what guitar we played through it. While the Classic 45 had tons of natural gain on tap, it also cleaned up nicely when rolling back the volume on the guitar, revealing a bright and sparkly chime. This amp is a real beast, and it could hold its own against 100W amps without flinching.

Mojave Ampworks Special Edition Plexi 45

www.MojaveAmpworks.com

Anyone familiar with the JTM45 would surely be jealous of Victor Mason. Not only has he seen more than his fair share of vintage Marshall, Vox, Hiwatt and other rare treasures come through his shop, but Victor recently acquired 26 of the all-time greatest JTM45s ever assembled via the Kronemyer collection, and he’s got the pictures to prove it! This is just one of the factors contributing to the obsessive nature of Mojave (and the associated Plexi Palace). Having been around for over a decade on the internet, Vic has been repairing, restoring, buying and selling vintage Marshalls for quite some time now. Stemming from his early desire to find out how EVH created the classic brown sound, Victor embarked on his journey through countless hours of digging into vintage amps and learning where their strengths and weaknesses lay. Mojave now offers an entire line of amps to serve the classic Marshall tones and well beyond with innovative features and designs. The Mojave Plexi 45 also has two very unique features over a stock JTM45. First is a simple feature to allow volume control by way of throttling the power level. Second is a line level output, which is adjustable and incorporates a ground lift.

Standing apart cosmetically from the rest of the amps, the Special Edition Plexi 45 is built on the same footprint as the Coyote and Scorpion designs, with a white-and-black color scheme and chrome hardware. The head is built with an open grille cage that allows for maximum airflow to keep the set of completely NOS glass cool. The 45 supplied for the roundup consisted of a pair of 1970 NOS Genelex KT66s, 3 Mullard 12AX7s and a Mullard GZ34. Like the Germino, the Plexi 45 is based on the Radiospares transformers, which are custom wound by Mercury Magnetics.

The chassis is a thing of beauty; the .09″ thick aluminum, with a high tensile strength and welded edges and seams will ensure it will not flex, bend or develop fatigue, like the early, folded, softer chassis, and will prevent the heavy transformers from causing the chassis to sink in and sag. Mojave deviates from the original JTM45 by using modern, tight-tolerance parts. Custom manufactured caps and metal film resistors allow each amp to sound as close to the one built before it as the one after it. Consistency is something that Vic definitely strives for, and it shows in the build quality and attention to detail, and the desire to add convenient functionality to his amps.

We found in testing that not only did the amp have an extremely low noise floor, but that it was an authoritative and powerfully voiced amp. There was definitely something different in the tone of the Plexi 45; it was cleaner sounding, but still very bold. Having been to Vic’s shop, I was fortunate enough to play one of the 26 JTM45s he had acquired, and I’m positive that the experience with those amps had more than a little to do with the design of the custom Mercury Magnetics’ Radiospares transformers made for his Special Edition model. The amp is built like a tank.

Marshall Reissue JTM45

www.MarshallAmps.com

While the reissue looked very similar to the ‘65 on the outside, especially due to the fact that it’s already 20 years old, the differences on the inside were quite pronounced. Assembled with more modern methods, and using a PCB rather than hand-wired turrets, you could easily be fooled into thinking that it wouldn’t perform like the others. This particular amp was the only one in the bunch to use EL34s rather than KT66s or 6L6s, so the sound was definitely different. It was incredibly loud and focused sounding, and actually had many of the characteristics of a Super Lead. The sustain and power of the amp was incredible, and for an amp that can be found used for around $1000, this is a sleeper bargain. Marshall has taken some flak for their amps sounding stiff and cold from the factory, but with a little attention — slightly hotter bias and good tubes — this amp is a monster. And just because it says it’s a 45-watt amp, don’t harbor any illusions that it would be a good bedroom amp. This is a loud and powerful beast, and a tone machine as well.

The Blindfold Test

As a final, fun test, we did a blind study, to see how accurately I could identify each of the various amps in the roundup. Johnny and Tony set up the group of amps, and I sat in a chair with my back turned away from them. With the guitar plugged in, they began to fire up the various amps, and we got rolling. Out of all the amps, I was always able to distinguish the Wallace BKW45, due to it’s slightly darker sound. The Metros were also fairly easy to spot, but I ended up guessing the kit as the custom build and vice-versa. The ‘65 was also an easy amp to recognize, but as ear-fatigue set in, the lines began to blur substantially. Pretty soon, I was confusing the Germino for the reissue JTM, the Mojave Plexi for the Wallace, and the Metros for the real JTM. It just goes to show you that all of the amps performed remarkably well, and you can be fooled when you’re not seeing what you’re playing, so never discount a PCB reissue head as a second fiddle to the real thing. In the mix of a band, these differences become small, and any one of these amps would hold their own any day of the week.

Wrapup

To have the opportunity to play through so many variations on a classic theme was not only fun, it was educational. Each one of the builders excels in creating their own unique version of the great rock and roll amp that Ken Bran, Dudley Craven and Jim Marshall built back in 1962. While like all Marshalls, the JTM45 went through changes in tubes, components and designs over its lifetime, there is a trademark flavor and color that still can be found in all of them. Not everyone can afford a vintage 45, but with the help of these builders we have the opportunity to get into that sound and have build quality that will last for years.

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/PremierGuitar/PremierG-20.htm

HISTORY TELLS US THAT Leo Fender wasn’t much for “fancifying” things. More meat-and-potatoes than chicken and walnut curry, Leo was a simply guy, and that ethos carried over to the goods produced by his company, whose early amps were covered in tweed or plain black Tolex (for flavor, sometimes brown) and guitars were mostly slabs of wood cut with no fancy arches, curves, routes, or headstock angles.

So it’s no surprise that Fender’s’57 Amp looks nothing like anything created by Leo – and why the company touts it as something he might have built if one day he’d had a little too much coffee, caught a glimpse of a passing Caddy, and suddenly developed an eye for design. We kid, of course….Conceived by Fender industrial designer Shaw Greene and design engineer Nick D’Amato, along with Shane Nicholas, Marketing Director of Fender guitar amps, the ’57 Amp is a limited-edition, hand-wired 1×12”combo that boasts several distinct features that separate it from the company’s standard amps. If you like, call it Fender’s“boutique” amp!

From the fancy, auto-inspired split grille to its piano-black-lacquer finish, knurled control knobs, sleep billet-cut-aluminum “speedboat”handle, the black grille cloth, in terms of aesthetics this is truly a custom unit. Inside, the ’57 Amp sticks to what works – its chassis is the tried and true Fender 5E3(the technical designation for the circuit, referring to its rectifier tube)Deluxe, with top-shelf components and hand-wired construction. One of the darlings of the vintage world,the Deluxe was introduced in1948. It used on 12AX7 and one 12AY7 in its preamp, running into two6V6GC power tubes. The combination delivered some of the most harmonically rich, slightly compressed sounds ever produced by thermionic valves (AKA vacuum tubes). A medium-powered amp, it was designed to give guitarists enough volume to compete with drums and other instruments. And because it so adequately handled virtually any playing style, from clean country background strumming to all-out blues and rock, it has been used by players of all genres.

In the literature and a nicely produced DVD packaged with the ’57Amp, D’Amato talks about listening to vintage ’50s Deluxes and newer clones as they searched for a shining example on which to base the sound of their concept.

For the sake of testing the sounds of the ’57 Amp, what could serve better than a trusty Fender guitar from back in the day – perhaps a ’59Esquire? And for serious head-to-head fun, why not a gen-u-wine Deluxe from ’67? To establish a reference, we first plugged into the ’56. At low volume and playing a traditional bouncy country rhythm on the Esquire, the elder amp offered the trademark uncompressed clean tone that earn edits reputation – big on the bottom, crystal clear on the top. Really nice,and really mellow – fun… for a while. But for most players, the amp starts to groove for real when you take its Volume and Tone controls up to where the 6V6s start to growl (about6). Strumming a second-position G chord (alternating with an open G and D strings for flavor – think“Honky Tonk Women”), the Esquire teams with the amp to give all the“Ahhhh, yeaahhh” tone you could imagine, its stock Jensen P12Qspeaker dancing in the pine cabinet, delivering all of the Deluxe’s 12 punchy watts. Classic, unmistakable, with glorious overtones and just the right amount of gain and compression.

Sitting next to the ’56, the ’57Amplooks shiny, new and other-worldly, its glossy piano-black exterior in stark contrast to the aged tweed of the ’56. Its split grille does look like a badass old car rollin’ in your direction, and its old aluminum handle, cap-head screws, chrome-plated tube covers, and custom-engraved big-burl knobs lend obvious custom touches.In terms of circuit and tubes, the amp has much in common with the’57 Deluxe Amp tweed

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Mark Dewey is a former hair-rocker who’s graduated to the corporate world and Gibson Custom Shop Les Pauls. We were impressed by his collection of reissues, and intrigued by his custom-looking Strats, so we talked a little further with Mark about his collection and playing history. Here’s Mark’s collection, in his own words.

“This shows pretty much my backline of amps. All of my Marshalls have been modified by Alan Cyr of the Amp Exchange in Woodland Hills, California. He is the best amp guru alive for Marshall amps. They all have Mercury iron and just blister like nothing I have ever heard. I also have a Divided by 13 FTR 37 that Fred Taccone built for me a few years ago. His stuff is very unique — super big clean sounds and a Marshall-Vox-like kind of brown sound on the click channel.

“I still pretty much plug a guitar directly into a Marshall and use the volume as a gain control for my main sound. Sometimes I will Y two amps together and have one DSL 100 with a slight delay and the other 59 HW head or 50 watt JCM 800 as pure tone.

“In the first photo, you also see a bunch of Gibson Custom guitars and a lineup of custom-built Strats. I got a little carried away with finding the best body wood/neck combinations last year so I built 15 of them. I also have experimented with a ton of pickup manufacturers like Seymour Custom winds, Suhr, DiMarzio, Nordstrand and a few others. My favorite pickup is pretty much a BurstBucker in a Les Paul Historic. They just sound like an open vowel waiting for your strings to vibrate. They are open, airy, clean, crunchy, stingy and have a ton of balls and low end while still being very clear and well-balanced.

“I have tried most [pickup] manufacturers cold and hot. For singles I like Seymour Duncan Custom calibrated set of Alnico 2: 6.5, 6.5 (RW Middle), 6.5. MJ knows what she is doing and is great to work with. The John Suhr v60 LPs are equally as awesome for single coils. I have never tried a BurstBucker in a Strat, so I stick with Seymour or DiMarzio humbuckers. I like the five-way Superstrat wiring where you take two humbuckers and split the north coils on position 2 and the south coils on position 4. Since the pickups are reverse of each other this makes all five positions humbucking. I usually use a hi-pass filter on the volume so it rolls down clean and sparkly.

“Most of the guitars in my Gibson Custom Collection are newer reissues from 2001 to 2008. I made the jump and bought my first ’59 from Willcutt’s guitars for $4000. It was a lot of money but quite frankly once I got the guitar, I realized I would rather have the guitar than the money so I was hooked and now have quite a few of them. The sound of a Custom Shop Les Paul is just so much better than anything else for rock guitar. I pretty much only play a Strat every now and then, especially for whammy bar gymnastics.

Ice Water Mansion (Mark is second from left).

“Here are a few of my prime Custom Shop Les Pauls a few years ago. These are some of my favorites actually. However, I have never found one guitar or amp that does it all. There is no true “favorite” — they are all different. I have never had a guitar I thought was “the one.” Perhaps this is the devil’s snare for materialism. I also could not fathom buying a real ’59 because I already worry enough when I put a ’59 reissue in the back seat of my car. Imagine getting a $300,000 guitar stolen?

About Mark

“In the eighties I was in Ice Water Mansion – a hard rock eighties hair band from upstate New York. I used to use BC Rich (USA high end), Dean (USA), Fender (USA) and Ibanez, but never liked seventies or eighties Gibsons. I bought an ’84 Explorer that just sucked. I only wish they had the custom shop of today back then.

“This was a song I wrote about being scared of the dark — “Ghosts in the mirror.” I used my Marshall JCM 800 with a Fender Strat loaded with a humbucker with a boss compressor as a boost for lead schwing.

“I don’t play in a band at the moment but I certainly play about two hours every day and all weekend. I have twp boys, ages four and five who both love guitars. My four-year-old plays drums like a man and also loves his plastic guitar collection. He has about ten, which makes me wonder if we are teaching him the sin of excess which I never meant to do myself.

“I guess at 43, I am done trying to make it big so I just focus on playing for the soul and the enjoyment. When you play a guitar, you forget about the wood in your hands and just kind of get “out there” and that is my bliss.

“I have also really enjoyed building, testing and working on gear too. I never thought I would even play guitar past 25, but I guess it now plays me!”

Listen to Mark’s Guitars

Mark was nice enough to share some YouTube clips of his guitars in action. Says Mark, “These are by no means anything but my wife holding her Sony camera sideways but you can sure hear the tone….”

• In this clip you can hear that ’59 Les Paul (Reissue) just bites like heck: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FbQjSUWh3fc
• Here is a Strat that I built which bites pretty good with Seymour Duncan Alnico 8s: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_EQy_T9Vvnk
• Here is a ’58 Korina Explorer (Reissue) playing “Watchin over You,” one of my songs: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0SUMT_Wwz3I

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/PremierGuitar/PremierG-14.htm

Quietly, outside of Los Angeles, Steve Trovato has been leaving blazing guitar everywhere he goes.

Currently, he is a full time instructor in the Studio Jazz Department at the University of Southern California. In addition, Steve has found the time to author over 20 instructional books for Warner Brothers and Hal Leonard, produce over 50 instructional videos for the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert, and has even starred in five of them. His students have achieved major success and include Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, Paul Gilbert and Norman Brown. He has performed with Chet Atkins, Albert Lee, Robben Ford, Jeff Berlin, Jerry Donahue and Scott Henderson, and contributes to five international music publications, including Guitar Player, Guitar One, Axe, Guitar Club, Guitar World and Chittar, as well as recording for too many studio and motion picture projects to list. We caught up with Steve as he completed his new release, Country Jazzmaster.

One of the things I have always wondered about is who or what influenced you to start playing guitar?

Well, I think you’ll hear this from a lot of guys; it was the Beatles. I think I was six years old, and I had been playing the piano. I did my piano recital and played “The Blue Danube Waltz.” Then I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and I thought, “Wow, girls never screamed for me playing piano.” So that was it and I started playing the guitar. That was pretty much it, and I have never looked back.

Did you come across a single moment that it finally hit you? This is it, this is what I want to do the rest of my life?

I’ve never been asked that before; that’s a really good question. I would say that there were three pivotal moments: one of them was when I saw the Beatles, the second was when I heard Chet Atkins for the first time, and the third was when I was up on stage and I got a chance to play with Albert Lee — that was when I really knew I wanted to do guitar. For some reason those guys hit me hard — they played melodies — and I always loved the way I could track it even though it was guitar playing. It was really very sophisticated. When I heard Chet Atkins play, I could hear the melody. Even with all the notes that Albert Lee plays, I can still keep track of it– that’s what attracted me. I think since I’ve been playing, if I have anything, it’s the ability to play a melody.

You’re originally from New Jersey. How did you end up on the West coast attending GIT (now the Musicians Institute)?

Like every guitar player on the East Coast, we were always hungry for information about the guitar. I used to get this magazine and I saw an ad for this place called GIT in California. I saw pictures of Larry Carlton, Tommy Tedesco and other people that I didn’t know, like Don Mock and Joe Diorio, and they were starting this school. They were sort of advertising it being for studio musicians, and that was what I wanted to be.

Now that you already have one CD under your belt, you’ve gone into the studio a second time with some outside input. How are you achieving your tones with the studio?

When I did my first album, I just took my rig into the studio with the thought that if it sounds good live, it will sound good in the studio. I’ve found that not to be true. I also realized that amps that are made specifically for recording don’t necessarily sound all that good in the studio. It really depends on the studio, the mics, and everything else. I brought every amp that I had down there — I even borrowed some amps. I ended up with five or six different amps and I had to just go through all of them to find out which one sounded the best in that studio — with that particular set up of room and microphones. I wound up actually using a boutique amp from a company in Virginia called Talos. I love those amps. It’s a 60-watt, one-twelve, and it just has two knobs on it, drive and gain.

“Well, I think you’ll hear this from a lot of guys; it was the Beatles. I think I was six years old, and I had been playing the piano. I did my piano recital and played ‘The Blue Danube Waltz.’ Then I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and I thought, Wow, girls never screamed for me playing piano. So that was it and I started playing the guitar. That was pretty much it, and I have never looked back.”

What about guitars? Did you find that’s the same scenario to be true?

It’s something I suspected, but I never really had the chance to put it to the test. I usually use my G&L Legacy live, with the Kahler on it because it sounds great. You’re playing loud enough where if there’s a bass, drums and everything cranking you lose the nuances and the subtlety. But in the studio you retain those nuances and subtleties because everything is under a microscope. I found that using different guitars expresses that better.

If I want to play a sensitive, sort of Chet Atkins jazzy piece, the Legacy wouldn’t work because it sounds too thin, but with a loud phrase it will sound fine. For a quiet passage, I decided to use a Gibson — a Howard Roberts with two old humbuckers that I had. Of course, for the Straty-sounding things I used my red Legacy with a Kahler on it, which I absolutely love. For the rest of the stuff I used one of two Teles: a Fender solid body Telecaster and a G&L semi-hollow. None of them are stock. Seymour Duncan custom built the pickups for both of them.

What amps do you prefer for live performances?

I play rock, I use my Dumble. That, of course, is Alexander Dumble. It says “Built to win” and it really does, it’s just really something. I put a pedal in front of it to make sure it’s got enough overdrive. In the country bands I use a ’65 Pro Reverb, which Dumble rebuilt for me.

What do you use on the jazz side?

I use my Talos.

Throughout your time as a guitar player, you’ve been labeled as the chameleon of guitar. Do have a huge arsenal of guitars at your disposal that you have hiding in the back room to take out whenever you need to?

For the live work I pretty much grab whatever is nearest to the front door on the way out. I was never really one to take ten guitars to a session because I figured that one guitar would sound just as good as 10 guitars, but when you really start to do this seriously, there are subtle differences between all guitars that may or may not sound better for the tracks. You really have to have an arsenal of quite a few to do the job right.

What would be an ideal arsenal?

I would have to say you have to have a solid body, Strat-type of guitar with single coil pickups, a single coil Tele-type, a Les Paul-type solid body with humbuckers, a thin semi-hollow body sound, like a 345, and a jazz box, then, of course, steel string acoustic and a nylon string.

You mentioned putting a pedal on the floor in front of one of the amps.

Live I use a Boss GT-6. I use it for time delay effects such as reverbs, delays and chorusing. It sounds great for that and it’s also great on the floor. For distortion I’ve been using the AC Booster and the RC Booster by Xotic Pedals.

The Xotic pedals are fairly new. Can you tell us some more?

Oh, I love them. Those are the kind of the boutique pedals that all the guys in town are using. Scott Henderson told me about them. Studio guys like Michael Thompson are using them. Basically, the RC Booster is a pre-amp boost that keeps it clear, but gives it a little oomph. The AC Booster is an overdrive — basically a really high-end Tube Screamer with a bass control on it. Everybody loves Tube Screamers, but it takes the bass away from it; this is a Tube Screamer that sounds a lot more transparent and smoother than normal. You can also roll the bass back in because it has bass and treble controls.

You mentioned the Kahler Tremolo on one of your G&L’s. What do you like about it?

The thing I love about the Kahler is its flush and mounted solidly on the guitar body, versus another one. I won’t mention any names, but the initials are Floyd Rose. It is not really mounted on the body of the guitar as solidly and or as flush as a Kahler. With a Kahler, the tone sounds pretty darned good. I really like that about the Kahler. Since you have that big plate to rest against the body, you get more natural wood resonance, it doesn’t sound thin and small. The other thing that I like is the adjustable string spacing. I don’t think other bridges can do that.

On the first CD, About Time, you cover a whole spectrum of guitar playing. You do a dedication to Danny Gatton, you’re hitting a little Django, you’ve got “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from Harold Arlen, and then you even do Billy Joel’s “Root Beer Rag.” What can we expect hear on the new CD?

When I spoke with Steve Vai, he was saying the last CD was really good but I needed a little bit better recording quality. He said the problem with the first CD, as far as marketing, is that I don’t know where to market it stylistically; it’s all over the map. I came up with this concept in my mind called “Country Jazzmaster,” with Jazzmaster being one word, like the guitar. I kept that thread in my mind as I was recording this album, and all of the songs leaned into that concept. Everything that you’re going to hear is country-jazz. Western swing, country jazz — that sort of a thing.

There’s a thread of continuity running through the whole album that you will hear. I recorded everything from the old Jerry Reed tune, “Guitar Man,” to “Back Home Again in Indiana,” “That She Could Ever Be,” “Panhandle Rag” and my ultimate version of “Ghost Riders in the Sky.”

I still remember this vivdly: a NAMM show where you, Steve Vai and I were standing around talking, and Steve hailed you as, “One of the greatest Tele players of all time.” Will we hear evidence of this on the new CD?

That was very nice of him. But, yeah, that’s what I’m hoping for, and I think that it’s really extremely well played, if I can say so myself. We all worked really hard on it.

Trovato Gearbox: Here’s what Steve is plugging in, when it’s time to shine.

Country Gigs

Guitars

• G&L ASAT Tele stock
• G&L ASAT semi hollow body w/Seymour Duncan P90’s

Amps

• Groove Tubes Trio Pre amp
• Groove Tubes 75-watt power amp
• Groove Tubes 2×12 cabinet w/Celestions

Effects

• Boss GT-6
• Keeley Compressor
• Xotic RC Booster
• Xotic AC booster

Rock/Blues Gigs

Guitars

• G&L Fullerton Red Legacy with Kahler and custom Seymour Duncans
• ‘69 Fender Strat (stock)

Amps

• Early ’80s Dumble Overdrive Special
• Two 1×12 Dumble cabinets with Mojo Tone Speakers
• ’65 Fender Pro Reverb with Mercury Magnetics Bassman replacement transformer and 2×12 Mojo Tone Speakers modified by Dumble

Effects

• Boss GT-6
• Maxon Tube Screamer
• Fulltone OCD pedal
• Zendrive Pedal

Steve Trovato: It’s About Time and the new, Country Jazzmaster, are available at: cdbaby.com / myspace.com/stevetrovatomusic

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/PremierGuitar/PremierG-07.htm

Following up on the successful introduction of 65 Amps’ flagship London 18W, the company has launched its second model — the Marquee. Named for the legendary Soho music venue where every ’60s British band of note once honed their craft, the Marquee is a bigger-sounding, louder version of the London 65 in some respects, endowed with great headroom and presence. We asked co-founder of 65 Amps and Sheryl Crow guitarist Peter Stroud to describe the musical intention of the Marquee, and our review follows….

TQR: What inspired the development and design of the Marquee, Peter? What did you want to accomplish specifically?

Peter Stroud: We had guitarists loving the sound of the London, but still needing either more volume or clean headroom. Personally, I wanted an amp to replace the Super Reverb in my live rig with that Fender clarity, but more of the openness and touch sensitivity of an amp like the London. Our initial idea with the Marquee was to create a more powerful version of the London 18 watter using 4 EL84s. But we also wanted something with the midrange clarity of the British amps and the clean sparkle of the American Fender Blackface sounds — just not as hard sounding as the 6L6 cleaner tone can be. On top of that, it has a higher gain tone that really roars.

TQR: To what extent were some of the design features in the Marquee such as the cascaded twin-triode operating in pentode mode and the 6-way Color control inspired by vintage amp designs?

Peter Stroud: Our initial intention for the Cascode (note spelling) configuration in this amp was to find a sound similar to the pentode type EF86 tube we use in the London, but more quiet. Due to vibration and noise issues inherent with EF86 tubes, we were apprehensive using it in a higher powered combo. The cascode circuit, which utilizes a 12AX7, was popular in early hi-fi preamplifiers. It has a harmonic content similar to the pentode circuit but produces more even-order harmonics. Randall Aiken helped us greatly with this circuit and we’ve continuously tweaked it’s current configuration in our amp. The end result is a distinctly different sounding channel from the Treble-Mid-Bass channel — very warm and rich sounding. It sounds beautiful with single coils and 12-string electrics. So, the Marquee initially came from many inspirations. Dan (Boul) and I are big fans of the Selmer amps. A few years ago while on tour in the UK I had picked up a Selmer Treble & Bass 50 MkIII, which is the early ’70s silver metal front — the ugly one. But that amp sounds awesome, like a “British Fender Blackface” with two EL34s. We’ve since found a Mk I Treble ‘n Bass from the first year they were built.

The font end of the Marquee Treble-Mid-Bass channel was initially inspired by the Selmer, but it branched off quite a bit. We just aimed for that sound. There are also similarities with the Selmer front-end circuit and the early ’60s brown-Tolex Fenders. I know one of your favorite amps is that killer Vibrolux 1×12 you have. The (Marquee) power stage is a fairly typical British-style 4-EL84 circuit. From there we spent months tweaking the tone circuit. We wanted the Treble-Mid-Bass tone configuration for more control with a higher powered amp.

TQR: You’ve played just about every conceivable guitar amp and for years your rig consisted of a Super Reverb and Marshall 50W. To what extent does the Marquee succeed in giving you both the clean and overdriven tones you need at usable state volumes, and how do you use it specifically?

Peter Stroud: On the latest tour I used both a London and a Marquee and A/B’d between the two. The two together worked perfectly for our stage volume. I’d set the London for a slightly driven rhythm sound playing through an EF86 channel and would use the gain boost for leads. The Marquee took the place of my Super Reverb as my clean sound, and it proved to be better since the mids are more pronounced and you get the nice dynamic saturation of EL84s. It’s much more touch sensitive, which is hard to get with a clean sound without using a compressor. The only time I’d kick on both amps was for Led Zep’s “Rock N Roll,” which we play as an encore. I’d crank the Marquee to 6, hit the gain boost and boost the mids. It totally hit the “Pagey” kind of sound. You can dump the mids and boost the bass and highs and get a chimey sparkling clean tone — settings around 4 on the volume, treble and bass around 6 to 7 and midrange around 4. For a cranking rhythm I’ll set the volume around6, boost the mids to 8 or so, drop the bass around 4, treble at 5. There’s also a footswitchable gain, like on the London, so you can set a rhythm tone on the T-M-B channel and kick in the boost for lead. If you turn the amp up to 10, look out!

TQR: You mention “mustard” caps on your web site being used throughout the amp — are these modern reproductions of the original “mustard” caps used by Marshall in the ’60s?

Peter Stroud: Yes, we use the SOZO caps made by John Gaynor. John’s a Marshall enthusiast who has totally nailed (and surpassed, in our opinion) the “mustard cap” tone where you get the nice smooth mids and bell-tone clarity.

TQR: What else are you working on?

Peter Stroud: We have two new models in the works — a smaller “grab n go” 1×12 combo which actually incorporates a master volume with two EL84s. It has a great sounding master volume that has a sound of its own that can be disengaged so that the amp ha a non-master function. Sort of a “British Fender” vibe again. The thing screams, it can get chimey clean, and it’s incredibly versatile. And over the past six months, we’ve been developing a KT77 head using our Marquee as the springboard with a KT77/EL34 power stage. We had a handful of pro level artists who wanted extreme volume and headroom, where they were used to their 50 and 100 watt EL34 hears and quite a lot of volume. Plus, Dan is a big fan of the Vox AC50 and I’m the Marshall fanatic, so we got into that mindset again. We sent a prototype out for a test run with Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes and he ended up using it as his main amp for the entire last month or so of their tour. When we got it back, all the knobs were dimed. Couldn’t ask for better testing in the field! We’ll introduce both of these amps at Winter NAMM.

REVIEW — 65 Marquee

We spent a lot of quality time with the 35W Marquee Club, and it impressed us as a feisty chameleon that can gracefully move between big, jangly clean tones and an impressive roar with a deep palette of voices available from two very different input channels.

EL84 amps typically produce a distinct, musical compression characteristic that is absent in amplifiers using 6L6 output tubes, yet the Marquee produces gobs of clean headroom — albeit British headroom rather than the trademark 6L6-fueled fidelity of a Fender amp like the Twin or Super Reverb. As far as we’re concerned, British tone in an amplifier denotes rich harmonic depth and chime, often augmented with a dominant midrange emphasis, while Fender amps (Blackface models in particular, sound scooped in the mids by comparison with a wider, broader, looser feel and toner not unlike the difference between the sound of oooh and ahhh. In the Marquee, individual strings seem “closer together,” yet still well-defined throughout its range of clean settings. EQ coloration is accomplished in the “Classic” Channel bass/mid/treble/cut controls, and in the “Normal Channel via six EQ presets on a rotary switch. This “color switch” progressively thickens tone with gradual increases in lows and mids, but the Marquee’s chime and sparkle remain audibly preserved in every setting.

The Marquee produces moderate levels of smooth, overdriven tone at higher volume settings (+6) in the Normal Channel that can be neatly managed from the volume on your guitar, while the footswitchable Boost feature in the Classic Channel yields scorching distortion and sustain that nearly rival that of a Marshall JCM 900 Series Mk III. However, the Marquee delivers a chimier crunch rather than the more linear and cutting, laser beam focus of a high-gain Marshall. It’s a prettier brand of mayhem, if you will. And unlike many vintage British amps, the Marquee succeeds in delivery an enhanced range of both clean and overdriven tones, as well as a more versatile and varied range of EQ emphasis. Overall, we found it to be an inherently bright amp with the EQ controls in neutral settings, but you are also given plenty of room to shape the voice of the Marquee, from brilliant and clangy, to thick, heavy and imposing. We had no trouble dialing in great tones with all of our guitars — thickening the Teles and Stratocasters, planting a wet kiss of treble emphasis on the humbucking Gibsons, and alternatively mining the jangly clean chime and perfect meltdown of P90s. A potent rock amp that can cover a lot of ground, the Marquee is handwired with point-to-point construction that meets the high standards we have all come to expect from custom builders today, the transformers are custom-made by Mercury Magnetics, and the fit and finish of the cabinet work were flawless. As the name implies, the Marquee is steeped in the tones that defined modern rock & roll, viewed through a properly British perspective. And as Fender’s Ritchie Fliegler is fond of saying, “If this is what you like, you’ll really love this!” Quest forth, mate.

Source: https://mercurymagnetics.com/pages/news/ToneQuest/_2007/TQRJan07-2.htm

It’s no secret to any of us that Fender’s Deluxe Reverb has long been considered the guitar player’s ultimate desert island amp. It’s lightweight, compact, incredibly sturdy and dependable, and it captures the essence of classic ’60s Fender tone. Blackface models built between 1964 and 1967 can cost as much today as a clean vintage Super Reverb, and Silverface Deluxe reverb amps built from 1968 through the mid ’70s remain a bargain, selling for $600-$900. There is very little difference between unmodified amps built during the two eras, except for a couple of caps connecting the output tube grids to ground in the Silverface amps, and a variety of stock speakers, including Jensen, CTS and Oxford. There is absolutely no reason why a Silverface Deluxe Reverb can’t sound every bit as wonderful as any Blackface amp, and some of the Silverface amps will sound better than some Blackface Deluxe’s you’ll find. Local amp wizard and advisory board member Jeff Bakos has observed that some of the exceptional Deluxe Reverb amps he’s heard (and he’s heard hundreds of Deluxes) seem to have “hotter” power transformers, and the slight inconsistencies in the way some transformers were wound can make a big difference in tone. Earlier today we heard as much in Jeff’s shop in a ’66. Unfortunately, it all comes down to the luck of the draw when finding those special amps. If there is fault to be found with the sound of a Deluxe Reverb (and it really isn’t a fault), it’s the speed at which the amps begin to break up. The clean threshold of the Deluxe is pretty low, and while this characteristic feature is an irresistible attribute to many players, we wondered what could be done to make the Deluxe Reverb even more versatile without losing its unmistakable tone. The modifications we describe here are very simple as modifications go, and all of them are easily reversible. We encourage you to try some and let us know how you like the results.

We started with a beautifully preserved ’68 Deluxe Reverb acquired on eBay for $900.00. The owner had replaced the original particleboard baffle board with pine, recovered it in vintage Blackface-era grill cloth, and installed a repro Blackface plate. We also received the original baffle board covered with the original blue and silver grill cloth, the aluminum trim, and the Silver face plate. We had acquired a replacement output transformer from Mercury Magnetics, and although the original transformer seemed to be working fine, we wanted to see what we might hear by swapping transformers. The Mercury ToneClone series transformers is the result of years of testing in which Mercury blueprinted some of the best sounding output transformers that could be found in vintage amps and painstakingly reproduced them in every detail. At first, the new transformer didn’t sound starkly different from the original – it sounded exactly like the original. But over time, it became increasingly apparent that the amp was behaving with more dynamic response. Notes and chords were imaging differently than before. Individual notes within chords were better defined, the amp responded faster to touch, and harmonics were more pronounced and complex. We’re the first to subscribe to the “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” school of amp maintenance, but in this instance, the fix was a good one.

One of the easiest things you can do to Deluxe Reverb amps is rebias them for 6L6 power tubes. The outcome is predictable and sublime — more power, more headroom and better lows that won’t fall apart. Call it the “Beano”” treatment for your farting Deluxe. Jeff Bakos rebiased the amp after we had installed a pair of RCA black plate 6L6s, and we were mighty pleased with the results. You lose some of the compression and darker character of the 6V6 tube when you switch to 6L6s, but there is very little downside to the trade off — just big, bloomy 6L6 tone, and lots of it.

After installing the RCA 6L6s, we opted for an NOS RCA 5751 rather than the 12AX7 in V2, and it really smoothed out the tone to silky perfection. We also experimented with a Chinese 5AR4 rectifier tube, a new Sovtek 5AR4 and a Mullard 5V4. The Mullard pulled the volume back down ever so slightly, but it also seemed to sweeten the tone, rendering a throaty voice that fell nicely in between the “old”” amp with the 6V6s and the “new” one with the 6L6s. Either tube is a good choice — you’ll just have to decide which sound you prefer. Among the 5AR4s, we actually preferred the sound of the Chinese tube over the Sovtek, although the Chinese 5AR4s aren’t quite as robust. Our Deluxe came with an absolutely dreadful (recone?) non-original Fender “blue label” Oxford ceramic magnet speaker that was commonly used in the Bassman, Twin and Pro Reverb. We replaced it with n Eminence Legend V12, and this speaker turned out to be a “best buy.” The V12 features a British cone, and the tone is extremely round, well-balanced, and warmer than the Jensen C12N. It’s rated at 80W, and as usual with Eminence products, value and tone are absolutely unmatched for a speaker that sells for under $50.00. Jeff also likes the Legend 125, which is rated at 50W and built with a 1.5 inch voice coil and a slightly lighter magnet. As we observed in Eminence founder Bob Gault’s interview, the low price of an Eminence speaker is no indication of cheap construction or tone. The speakers rock, and they are voiced to appeal to a wide variety of players. We continued experimenting, and our next choice was a new Jensen C12K. We had seen this speaker in Victoria and Fender Twins, and it’s a massive thing. Built in Italy, and rated at 100W with a 2 inch voice coil and 50 oz. magnet. The C12K in a Deluxe with 6L6s yielded huge clean tone from top to bottom, with more high frequency emphasis than the Eminence speakers, and no speaker distortion whatsoever. The Jensen C12K in a Deluxe won’t be everybody’s idea of the perfect match, but it you crave a wide-open, big sound with nothing but clean speaker, the Jensen is a worthy contender at $90 retail. The last speaker we installed was a paper (not hemp) Tone Tubby from A Brown Soun. The paper-cone Tone Tubby is voiced a little brighter than the hemp cones, and we were floored by its rich, smooth character and charm. Jeff described it as being “silky smooth,” and just what he expected, with great lows, stout midrange, and creamy, creamy highs. Now, do you really need a $200 speaker to sound great? Of course not, and the price of a Tone Tubby is not for everyone. But if it’s the speaker for you, you won’t rest until you get one, and nothing we’ve heard can touch it. Enjoy yours, Eric, and enjoy milking some more of the good thang out of your Deluxe, gang. Hey… if not now, when?

Blonde, Brown, Blackface, Silverface

Brown — single ended — 2.6Ω tap

Brown, Blackface, Silverface

Brown, Blackface, Silverface — 3 Henry / 200 mA Choke — Original Fender Part #125C1A

2 13/16″ mounting centers

Brown, Blackface

Brown

Brown 2 x 10

Brown — #68249

Brown — 220V, 230V & 240V primary

Brown reissue — use with solid state rectifier — Upgrade!

Brown reissue — use with solid state rectifier — single 240V — Upgrade!

Brown — #67233 — 6G7 version

Brown — Single 2Ω tap for 4×10 cabinet — #45249

I have always had a passion for music and audio. Guitar tone through an amplifier aroused my curiosity early on because many of the design rules for hi-fi equipment didn’t apply to producing great guitar tone. In the case of vacuum tube amplifiers, transformer design has a significant influence on the characteristics of tonality. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of reference material available and many of the original designers have either retired or passed away. In the early 1980s my partner and I purchased Mercury Magnetics, a transformer design and manufacturing company, from one of the early pioneers who founded this company in 1954. Our close proximity to the Los Angeles recording industry gave us access to studio technicians and many well-known musicians. Out of necessity, and to meet the demands of this level of clientele, we had to develop precise, “no compromise” methods of documentation and assembly techniques to rebuild and replicate these transformers to exacting specifications. A past example of this was when a legendary guitarist sought our services to help solve a frustrating problem. A technician had replaced the original output transformer in his amp with a generic copy, which resulted in completely changing the character of the amp. Several breakthrough albums from the late 1960s and early 1970s were recorded using this particular amplifier, and the sound of that amplifier really had helped define his signature tone. Needless to say, most musicians are very concerned about maintaining the character and unique tonality of their amplifiers. We ended up rebuilding his original output transformer and we provided two additional clones as backup.

TQR:Are you referring to all types of guitar amps, or more specifically British amps rather than, say, vintage Fenders?

I think that in all guitar amps, regardless of origin or brand, you also supplying custom transformers to amplifier manufacturers. Our extensive collection of vintage transformer designs really began to take off at that point in time. The ongoing accumulation of the finest sounding examples we could find inspired our line of ToneClone® transformers.

TQR: What is it about those particular transformers that make them so special, and how do you evaluate them? Do you install them in an amplifier and A/B them, or is it done more or less on paper?

We do have the necessary test equipment and software to check various parameters, but ultimately the ear has to make that decision. We also plug in, play, and conduct A/B testing at our facility. I have a dedicated sound room at home that has been tuned for the purpose of testing and evaluating audio equipment. We are lucky, because the Los Angeles area offers us an amazing amount of guitar playing talent that continues to help us maintain a level of objectivity. Also, some of our best listeners are avid tone enthusiasts who work in and for the local studios. These people understand good tone and give us their experienced opinions.

TQR:And can you describe what it is that makes these transformers special? What would we hear, specifically?

Having a detailed transformer spec is only the beginning. Breaking down into fine details what materials and assembly techniques were used decades ago helps us assure our customers an accurate reproduction of vintage tone. We have carefully selected the best of new and old technology to put performance and quality ahead of economy. Our transformers are hand-wound and the cores are hand stacked. Some materials we fabricate in house, and others, like our steel laminations, are custom ordered. Because we build them one at a time, the Axiom and ToneClone series are only available in limited quantities. Consequently, there is an audible difference between a budget transformer and an Axiom or ToneClone.

TQR:Can you describe the audible differences?

A good output transformer should go beyond its job of impedance matching, and an amplifier’s overall personality depends on it. A desirable output transformer’s distortion has more detail. The harmonics seem even and smooth. Played clean, the transformer should sound natural without harshness, obviously within the boundaries of the authentic tone characteristic the player is eeking. Better said, we still can’t make an apple into an orange.

TQR: What are some of the comments that you hear from players when they hear the Axiom or ToneClone transformers that you build? Is it a matter of touch dynamics, harmonics, all of that?

Yes, and let’s not forget musicians’ colorful tone speak, such as: The amplifier sounds more open, glassy, sweet, brown, fat, with more notes perceived. Barred chords are not muddy or squashed. Chimes and bell tones are much more apparent. Good note separation, sustain improved, more definition, etc…

TQR:And these things can all be affected by the output transformer in some considerable detail….

It is pretty much the last tone filter in a series of components. Other factors like tube quality and speakers can play an important roll as well. Also, if you were to look at an amplifier circuit as a modulated power supply, then the quality of a power transformer and choke, if a choke is used in the circuit, also affects tonality. The ghost note phenomenon would be an example.

TQR:Like a few amplifier builders we know, you have taken the direct route of precisely replicating the materials and tolerances that comprised the industry standard decades ago…

I remember having a conversation with Leo Fender a number of years ago and getting a chuckle out of him as he told me how amazed he was that so much scrutiny was being given to how things were done in the early days of Fender. He said that they had taken what they were doing in the ’50s and ’60s so matter of fact back then. They were hardly thinking at the time that they were building future classics. They were trying to make an affordable, good sounding, quality amplifier while still trying to make a buck. Leo also mentioned that for reasons of cash flow and/or inventory problems, they would resort to using alternate vendors from time to time. They kept a careful eye on cost of materials, and their supply, rather than hand picking components with alleged magical tonal qualities.

TQR:They weren’t matching tubes, either. All of this can and does get out of hand, but when your rig sounds so good that you can get lost in the magic of it, as a player, wonderful doors can be opened.

Years of research led us to the conclusion that not every aspect of a vintage transformer needed to be copied. There were problems and limitations in their day, so why repeat them? We achieved better results by combining old and new technologies. Making the math work for the best tone characteristics together with improved consistency and longevity is the formula we chose to follow. There are a lot of vintage amps today with transformers that are going bad simply because they have aged. The tonal quality of the amp is deteriorating along with the transformer. Paper and certain types of varnishes used in these transformers tend to have hygroscopic properties. Moisture is absorbed over time, affecting the insulation system and increasing the chance for high voltage breakdowns. To make matters worse, the primary winding voltage is high enough to produce a corona effect whose ions help oxidize this insulation. Over time, reliability and tonality will suffer. Do you believe in transformer cancer?

TQR:That leads us to an interesting situation in which the original output transformer in our ’60s Pro Reverb died, and we noticed how much better the amp sounded when we had installed a new transformer, which was a commonly available unit sold by MojoTone. Now, the amp sounded great before the old transformer went out, but it sounded significantly better with the new transformer. I asked our tech and advisory board member Jeff Bakos if it was possible for an output transformer to gradually decay over time, dying a slow death while you continue to lose ‘tone’ in a very subtle fashion over years of use. Is that possible? It seems as if that was the case with our amp, which we had always considered to have a rather legendary vibe.

Not only is it possible, it is probable. Keep in mind that if high voltage insulation breakdown has started, there is no reversing it. Assuming that the transformers insulation system is intact, we have in the past reversed some tonal degradation in original transformers under controlled laboratory conditions. I’ve proven that point with my more cynical, high-end customers. One example of this is an amp (a Marshall JTM 45 or a Plexi – I forget which) that had been used in England for years and then brought over to the United States. The owner felt that the tone had decayed over time, seeming darker, lifeless, and the higher frequencies were less pronounced. We asked him to remove the transformer and all we did when he brought it in was to re-bake it in an oven to drive out the moisture. We then vacuum impregnated the transformer with our proprietary resin to hermetically seal it before the final bake. He put the transformer back into the amp and the results were pretty amazing… it became a lot brighter and more detailed from the upper midrange to the upper frequencies. I’m not recommending that anyone start baking their old transformers, however….

TQR: No, but it seems to be a fair statement to say that it’s possible that your good sounding old amp might sound significantly better with a new output transformer. At least that was our experience, and in hindsight, we didn’t realize what we had been missing.

That’s true. The tonal degradation I’m speaking about is very slow and gradual. Your results would be even better if you had used ToneClone transformers. Any of our transformers should outlast older vintage transformers because each are put through the same process during production.

TQR:Doesn’t it become particularly more problematic with amps like AC30s and Hiwatts, where repro transformers have typically been poor compromises at best?

I believe that Marshall, Vox and Fender, to name a few, are doing an outstanding job of building affordable vintage reissue amplifiers. When an owner of one of these fine amps wants to take his/her tone to the next level, they will usually consult someone like a Don Butler (Toneman) for example. Don is an expert in the field of amplifier upgrades and the art of tonal improvement. Don is also one of the key figures in this mini industry, which is similar to the aftermarket for automobiles and motorcycles. Much like an engine tuner, Don will replace transformers and other components in the signal path to give the customer an upgraded, outstanding sounding amp that comes much closer to capturing the original tone they were seeking.

TQR:Your website seems to be very comprehensive, but can you be contacted over the telephone for customers that either don’t see their amp listed or perhaps have additional questions?

Yes! Paul Patronete, an accomplished guitarist who has a good ear for vintage tone and heads our MI division, is happy to help those customers when I am unavailable. Our website is constantly being updated with vintage and modern transformer versions. We will probably always be two or three pages short of having all of the various models listed that people may be interested in. Of course, we can’t possibly list every one-off we’ve done. Another cool thing we offer are modern, updated versions of many of the classic transformers. We have added output impedance taps for many of the classic Fender transformers, which were never originally offered. For any make of amplifier, we offer various mounting styles from the original. We can, in addition, alter tonal characteristics to fit the unique needs of each customer.

TQR:Are you building transformers for many small builders?

Yes. If you own a high end, small production amplifier, there is a chance you will find a Mercury Magnetics label on the transformers. Some exceptions are when certain amplifier manufacturers remove labels in an effort to keep us and other vendors a secret. We do maintain a confidentiality agreement with all of our customers if this is their desire.

TQR:Schumacher was a primary supplier to Fender during the tweed era, and they are still operating, although we understand that you generally have to be capable of placing a fairly large order to get geared up. That seems to be a significant barrier to many would-be amp builders.

That company is doing a good job of supplying inexpensive transformers to a high volume market. When a lot of emphasis is placed on meeting price points, something has to give. The cost of labor and materials are logically their first consideration. The end result is a compromise, and who could blame them? Ultimately, end users will determine if the resulting tone is adequate. Someone who has paid several thousand dollars of their hard earned money for a “high end” amp is expecting to have something that excites their senses along with a build quality that justifies their investment. This is where we can assist the amp builder. It goes beyond Mercury Magnetics “sending in the clones.” We have made every effort to break those barriers by eliminating minimum buy requirements. We work closely with today’s designers and builders to provide them with a thoughtful, next-level approach to their signature tonal requirements.

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Early ’60s Brown

Brown — single ended — 8Ω tap

Brown — single ended — 8Ω tap — UL tap