Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons


Sep 21, 2023

It's the 121st episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amp. 

This week: Special guest Jim Kelley joins us (around the 28-minute mark)!

Want to be a part of the show? Keep the amp questions for Skip coming to podcast@fretboardjournal.com! Voice memos or emails are welcome.

Don't forget we now have a Patreon if you'd like to support the show featuring weekly installments of what's on Skip's bench, random eBay finds, and surprise content: https://www.patreon.com/vintageamps

Some of the topics discussed in this episode: 

5:31 What's on Skip's bench: A Bogen mixer from the 1940s

6:35 What to do with a vintage MTI Tubes overdrive preamp stompbox

10:02 What's the deal with Fender Ultra Linear amps?

14:33 Australia's National Vintage Guitar Show (link, October 7-9, 2023); the Amigo Bay Area Guitar Show in January (link; Skip will be there!)

17:26 Repurposing old power transformers

22:16 Jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein; Russell Malone; Adam Levy; RIP Sammy Ash

23:17 A "brown" Deluxe that needed repair from San Quentin State Prison! 

25:56 What to do with a 1973 Fender Princeton Reverb ground switch?

28:39 Special guest: Jim Kelley! 4x6V6s, plate voltages, Fortune Amps, Line, using a great reference speaker; Dumble; the Kelley prototype head at Emerald City Guitars; Jim's preferred parts; Vince Gill

1:26:00 Tubes for a Marathon amp clone

1:27:50 Building a point-to-point wired amp inside of a PCB Vox AC15VR chassis

Our sponsors are Emerald City Guitars, Amplified Parts, and Grez Guitars.

Recorded September 20, 2023. 

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