what i use to build my amps, and why they're different from "reissues"

so far i've built two amps, the aforementioned dave-hunter two stroke, and the in-progress 5e3. in building my amps, the goal i'm striving to achieve is authenticity - more authenticity than the "reissues" that the real brands have been putting out in the last few years.

a lot of the reissues built by amp companies aren't actually that close to the original in design. in the case of the 59 bassman, for example, the amp is manufactured on an assembly line, using a PCB design (as opposed to being hand wired), and using consumer-electronics-grade parts. while the schematic is the same, inferior parts + machine manufacturing = not the same amp!

the amps i build are obviously hand-wired. in as much as its possible, i'm trying to use the same types of high quality parts that were used in the originals - for example, sprauge atom filter caps, mallory 150 coupling caps, carbon comp resistors (where signal passes, at least), etc.

i'm not a carpenter or a machinist, so in both cases i've gotten the chassis, cabinet, and a lot of the odd & ends from Weber. So far, I haven't been let down - Ted's prices are very affordable, and all the big parts have been well built and generally of good quality. Ben has been super helpful to me as well. Cheers! I have had a problem or two with some of the minor components I got from Weber, but so far, whenever there has been an issue worth mentioning, those guys have given me no problems with resolving it. as i said i've been getting my own electronic components, but things like tube sockets, power cords, etc have come from weber.

In the case of the Two-Stroke I used Jensen speakers, but chose a Weber speaker for the 5e3, as it's supposedly closer to original spec. I haven't fired it up yet since the build hasn't finished, but it certainly looks pretty...

parts i haven't gotten from weber have generally come from tube depot or classic clones - who seem to have an infinite stash of mallory 150s. the last time i ordered from them they only charged 31 cents for shipping - which is less than a stamp. win!

i'll get more into the details when i talk about each individual amp.

the best band i'm not in

action set. more shows in philly please.

everyone i went to highschool with is not, in fact, dead.

let me introduce myself. I'm this guy. I'm currently the guitarist in the silence kit, but i've also played in a number of other bands, the first and closest to my heart being dubbed in english, a band I started with some guys i met on a bbs(remember those?) way back in 1996.

anyway, being a tone-snob guitarist, and finally getting sick of the fact that nobody in south jersey can competently work on tube guitar amps i finally decided to start tinkering with them myself, and that quickly led to building my own. my first amp build was a Dave Hunter Two-Stroke, which was a great success and is now being happily played by some guy in New York. I'll talk more about that build and my experiences in a later post. i'm now working on a straight up 5e3 clone (a 1957 tweed Fender Deluxe) that i am working on with a friend, and will be posting some details on that as well.

which brings me to the point of this blog - amps in particular, and guitar tone in general. i plan on turning this amp building hobby into some sort of a semi-business, building high-quality handmade custom and cloned amps - and any thoughts i have along the way i'll be sharing here. comments are welcome.

i'll probably also be talking about bands i like (the cure, new order, joy division, faith no more, death cab for cutie, etc), and might occasionally write a crazy drunk post about how the end of mgs4 made me cry cool about video games i've played.

please to enjoy.