Ep. 27: ”A Big Grizzly Bear with a Duck Head On It”

Amp tech Skip Simmons is once again fielding guitar tube amp questions from around the world. 

Submit your question to Skip here: podcast@fretboardjournal.com or, better yet, leave us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848.

**Order a PDF download of Steve Melkisethian's tweed Princeton amp project here.** 

This week's sponsor: Grez Guitars (link)

Some of the topics discussed on this episode:

1:20 Skip's A/B box setback
3:00 A winner for our Stew-Mac Champ kit
4:40 A question for our Australian listeners
6:07 A glitchy Ampeg Reverberocket 
7:09 Skip heads to a vintage guitar show
12:00 @manbroidery two-prong hat update, let us know if you want one (Instagram link) 
15:22 Old carbon comp resistors and Domino caps in an amp kit build
20:23 Testing caps for leakage
24:58 Running a synth through a tube amp
28:33 The timing on Kenny Burrell's "Chitlins con Carne"
30:07 Music recommendation: The Joe Mooney Quartet (YouTube link)
31:17 The rationale for crazy amps like the Baldwin Exterminator
35:53 The sushi boat amp update; Rob Robinette's tube amp page; micro amps
40:40 1960s Guild Thunder series amps
43:52 New cast iron (link, link, link); rum & tonic
46:24 The Big Index page: fretboardjournal.com/tavaindex
46:58 Wear and tear from maxed out amp settings
48:25 Restoring (and storing) a blown Oxford speaker
50:52  Where the magic happens in a non-master volume tube amp
59:00 Tips re: Little Charlie's Chile Colorado
1:04:43 The speaker driven out / monitor jack on a Gibson Falcon
1:09:34 Tinkering with a one-tube reverb circuit
1:12:11 Modding a Gibson GA-5 Les Paul Jr. reissue amp
1:18:01 Thoughts on the Fender Musicmaster Bass amps
1:23:10 A cheap Variac hack with a current meter (eBay link; eBay link)
1:29:00 Safely using a '60s Supro Bantam "widowmaker" amp
1:33:08 Adding a polarity switch to an amp without one
1:35:36 Effects pedals between an amp and its speaker?
1:37:50 ART tube pre-amps (revisited) and Skip's preferred tube preamps
1:42:00 Output transformer spec basics