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The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons


Nov 5, 2021

Tune in for a new chapter of TAVA, where Skip and Jason Zoom through your tube amp and cooking questions with our highest fidelity yet (thanks to our friends at Shure for sending us that MV7...and to Mrs. Simmons for figuring it out). 

This week's episode is sponsored by Jupiter Condenser Co.Amplified Parts and Grez Guitars.

Support us on Patreon.com for added content and the occasional surprise. 

Special podcast offers: Use the discount code TAVA10 to get 10% off all orders at  amplifiedparts.com through November 13, 2021.

Be a part of the first-ever, last-ever TAVA Cookbook: Email us your favorite recipe ever and we'll add it to our forthcoming, free PDF eBook, just in time for the holidays.

Some of the topics discussed this week:

:31 Skip puts the trem in the PA head

1:50 RIP Pat Martino

4:08 Green El Pato enchilada sauce

6:19 Swapping the 6C4 for a 6J6 on a Bogen CHB-50

10:05 A Magnatone vibrato pedal

12:58 A Princeton Reverb clone with a single-note rattle

16:00 Glossary according to Skip: Bypass cap; Baxandall, bright cap

23:17 A late '50s Epiphone Century aka Gibson GA-20T in disguise (see our Instagram)

26:23 More on amp hum

28:21 A '56 Fender Champ or a '60?

31:07 Shoutout Bob at Brookwood Leather (link)

32:14 New boutique amps worth seeking; McClostone; Hamstead

37:23 Typewriters, again

38:24 Giveaway: A La Tosca accordion

39:36 Jason's plan to keep the typewriters typing (free business idea); They Might Be Giants 'Book' (redux, link)

42:48 Finding a clean tone American amp in Norway; silverface Twins

45:49 Why does the primary impedance run high on 6L6 tubes on PA heads; repairing vintage transformers

50:45 Why amps in the '80s and '90s got power transformer replacements; Gibson GA-1RT (YouTube link)

55:10 Looking for a Danelectro Virtuoso schematic; what to do with an butchered amp with no available schematic; Sierra Nevada Old Chico beer

59:36 Guitarist Bobby Eli; the sound of Philadelphia; Vinnie Bell; 'A House on Fire' (Amazon link)

1:02:18 What happens in a tube amp?

1:05:57 Guitarist Pasquale Grasso

Co-hosted by the Fretboard Journal's Jason Verlinde.

Email or send us a voice memo to: podcast@fretboardjournal.com or leave us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848. And don't forget to share the show with friends.