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The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons


Jun 12, 2019

Twice a month, guitar amp guru Skip Simmons fields your questions on tube amp buying, restoration and repair. Co-hosted by the Fretboard Journal’s Jason Verlinde.

Special thanks to our sponsors: Mono Cases and Grez Guitars.

Submit your guitar amp questions to Skip here: fretboardjournal@gmail.com or by leaving us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848.

Some of the topics discussed on this episode:

3:27 Skip's roll call of A/B box pre-orders
5:11 We discuss episode 12's Baffler, the 3 Channel Psychedelic Control Center
9:10 This episode's Baffler
11:44 An unlikely backup amp suggestion
14:30 This episode's sponsors: Grez Guitars and Mono Cases and TAVA t-shirts
17:00 Little Charlie's recipe for Spanish rice (yes, our first recipe)
18:22 More parenting tips
19:11 A preview of our next amp schematic 101
22:34 More Champ mod talk: One difference between Blackface and Silverface Fender Champs, the Hammond 290AX transformer
27:38 Gain stage basics: What makes an amp distort? 
32:14 Bringing a Blackface Fender Tremolux with a solid state rectifier back to stock
37:21 A '60s Kay "Vanguard" 704
43:54 An amp motherlode in Lodi, California
45:35 A Princeton Reverb with a pilot light that is too bright
48:43 A Gibson GA-20 RVT found in a trash bin
54:28 Channel jumping and a vintage Airline Model 62-9013A
1:01:48 The pop you hear turning off your amp
1:07:03 A speaker dilemma on a 1962 Brownface Deluxe
1:09:28 Converting a PA head to a tube mic pre-amp
1:14:20 Turning an old tube radio into a guitar amp
1:18:18 Norwegian blues and Helge Tallqvist
1:19:11 This week's recommended music
1:20:49 High-powered tube amps and the Hiwatt 400 bass amp
1:25:32 Using a light bulb limiter instead of a variac
1:27:34 Speaker replacement on a Gibson GA-40
1:31:50 A tribute guitar repairman Glen Quan, inventor of the Badass bridge