Ep. 108: "Put a Pot Under It"

The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons

Episode 108: It's like a best-of episode, but totally new! Pre-amps, typewriters, too many kitchen hacks, transformer talk, Jason reads the tubes wrong, and we even get a little artsy!

Some of the topics discussed this week:

2:53 Does Skip want to see your amps right now? See Skip at the January 14-15, 2023 Amigo Bay Area Guitar Show

4:59 A Tweed Pro with a variable inverse feedback control knob

5:45 Lee Jeffriess in the Fretboard Journal's 51st issue (link); check out Jeffriess and John Munnerlyn performing "Blues for Earl"

11:22 The December 31 TAVA Seattle meetup (thanks for organizing, @liquidnyo); YouTube's jgflyback shows off his tube-powered clock (shaky Instagram Live footage)

13:50 This week's sponsors: Grez Guitars has a new long-scale bass!; Amplified Parts (Hammond products are currently on sale!); Iztotope (use Fret10!); AND Stringjoy Strings. Plus...Josh Scott (JHS) is coming to TAVA, the TAVA El Pato-Tone Practice amp (Reverb link), and our Patreon page

20:56 The resonance of a fully loaded turret board; mounting components in a head vs. combo; goop

28:25 Microphonics in a tube amp (the good kind); David Lindley (support him via t-shirt sales here)

30:04 Why were so many power transformers changed in the '70s and '80s?; Spokane, Washington; Jason's favorite noodle place in Spokane, Washington (link); a very-modified Gibson Les Paul Junior with a cooling fan

36:03 Typewriter keyboards; '80s Scottish cop show, 'Taggart'

39:58 Should I change the transformer on my Bruce Zinky Fender Prosonic head? the effect of an output transformer on tone

45:46 What's the deal with the Fender Bantam bass amp?; the oven instead of the range; ham and bacon end pieces

50:39 Reincarnating a dead Peavey Deuce II; putting a Vox-style preamp circuit on an amp with 6L6s; cheese quesadilla hacks

54:06 Fixing the uneven distortion on my Dad's Gibson GA-9

56:53 Why isn't my 1967 Fender Twin Reverb as loud as my other Twin Reverb?

1:00:05 Arts & Humanities corner: The Albert Barnes collection of post-modern art, 'Art of the Steal,' (link); Skip goes to Harvard, again; RIP poet Charles Simic (read "Stub of a Red Pencil" here)

1:04:06 Chopped onion, chickpeas, and black beans sauteed in a pan

1:06:18 What would you do with my Bogen CHA-33 PA head? coffee-roasted carrots (link)

1:12:13 Changing the pre-amp tube (and speaker) in an Epiphone Model 101

1:19:47 What to do with this 1953 Revere T-100 reel-to-reel?

1:31:48 Skip likes the new Fretboard Journal (issue 51, link)

Recorded January 10, 2023.

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