Hey all, just a quick rundown of the services I offer (or plan to in the near future)..
Replacing & Biasing Power Tubes - This is something everyone with a tube amp should have done when they replace their power tubes, and that should be every year or two, depending on how often you play and how hard you play the amp. This kind of job isn't too difficult, and once the parts are in, can be done rather quickly. Bring me your amp, we'll fire it up, I'll help you pick the best tubes for the amp (and at the most reasonable prices), and when they arrive, bias them properly and send you on your way.
$50 + cost of the tubes. I can help you pick a good pair of tubes if you need me to, as a free service.
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Minor troubleshooting: blown lights, power cable disintegrating? need new knobs? I can do that stuff easy, with discounted bench rate.
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CUSTOM AMP DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION - You want a real vintage hand wired custom amp for less than those exorbitant name-brand prices? Let's talk. Right now I specialize in Tweed Fender era amps - great for blues & classic rock - great for indie rock. Looking forward to adding BF era and classic Marshall's to my list once i have a reason to, though, and a custom order would be just the excuse. big discount for the first order i get of a specific model. Email me for more details.
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Interested parties email me at tjwark@gmail.com for pricing information and details. I've currently got one deluxe built now (which i would be happy to demo) and plan on building another and a 59 Bassman in short order...
I'm conveniently located right behind the cherry hill mall in Cherry Hill, NJ
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
..and we're in business!
ladies and gentlemen....the deluxe is functional!
the last little problem, the volume on the normal channel not going to zero, has been resolved! Just a little grounding problem. I'd like to give a shoutout to the guys on the weber kitbuilding forums for helping me find the problem!
what to do next....what to do, what to do....I may build another 5e3 for sale...as this amp sounds awesome, although i'm also thinking bassman or plexi...
anyway parties interested in the sound of the new amp can come see The Silence Kit play April 3rd at the Auction House in Audubon NJ!
the last little problem, the volume on the normal channel not going to zero, has been resolved! Just a little grounding problem. I'd like to give a shoutout to the guys on the weber kitbuilding forums for helping me find the problem!
what to do next....what to do, what to do....I may build another 5e3 for sale...as this amp sounds awesome, although i'm also thinking bassman or plexi...
anyway parties interested in the sound of the new amp can come see The Silence Kit play April 3rd at the Auction House in Audubon NJ!
I'm Back! And I have pictures of the 5E3 Deluxe Build!
So after what seems like forever, I'm finally writing again! A lot has happened over the last few weeks - I caught what felt like the bird flu, made some personal career changes, played a few shows, had my primary amp explode, and furiously worked on this amp to get it up and running to replace my main amp!
So this build seems to have been cursed from the beginning. It was much more difficult to get working 100% than the last one, but not all the problems were totally our(Jim & I) fault.
When I first turned it on we got power, but the signal was very strange - the two channel volumes were supposed to be very interactive, but basically one went down while the other went up! very strange...and there were other problems. Eventually I ended up ripping out the entire board & pot/jack network, checking their wiring (they were basically fine, and putting them back in. Pots were a little too big for the knobs to fit correctly, so I ordered three new knobs & replaced them while I was at it....and in the process cooked the 0047 cap off the tone knob a little...argh...
This time I tested the amp it basically sounded awesome! Although there was some mysterious redplating on one of the power tubes that seemed to come and go..odd...but it went away so I took the amp to practice last week, and WOW, did it sound awesome! Eventually the redplating did come back, only on one tube though! Swapped tube positions...check! Bad Power tube! argh....
Things were more or less ok with the circuit after that - but by this point the rectifier tube socket was starting to get loose from all the pulling and replacing of the tubes (each time i tested it, basically). So new sockets! We also pulled the v1 preamp socket and replaced it because we thought it might be related to the one last issue we are still having with the amp - and one of the bolts stripped to the point that I couldn't get it off! ARGH! So after much cursing, I calmed down and went to the hardware store the next day to buy a bolt cutter. Problems solved. Reinstalled socket, rewired, tested amp out again! Now i'm getting some weird microphonics! Probably a bad preamp tube now, from all the pulling & replacing...arghh...
Now despite all these ridiculous problems, the amp basically sounds great and works fine. But I did learn a lot of what works and what doesn't in this build, and I have a new primary amp too! The only bug left in the amp is that the normal volume channel doesn't go completely to zero volume, rather it levels off around 5 and stays put at that level, although the bright channel volume works as expected. I still have a few connections on the pot network to recheck (mainly grounds), and for all I know, the normal channel volume pot could be bad (which wouldn't surprise me, haha). Will update the status of this on the lessons learned post.
Anyway. Pics! click on the pic below to see the whole thing...
So this build seems to have been cursed from the beginning. It was much more difficult to get working 100% than the last one, but not all the problems were totally our(Jim & I) fault.
When I first turned it on we got power, but the signal was very strange - the two channel volumes were supposed to be very interactive, but basically one went down while the other went up! very strange...and there were other problems. Eventually I ended up ripping out the entire board & pot/jack network, checking their wiring (they were basically fine, and putting them back in. Pots were a little too big for the knobs to fit correctly, so I ordered three new knobs & replaced them while I was at it....and in the process cooked the 0047 cap off the tone knob a little...argh...
This time I tested the amp it basically sounded awesome! Although there was some mysterious redplating on one of the power tubes that seemed to come and go..odd...but it went away so I took the amp to practice last week, and WOW, did it sound awesome! Eventually the redplating did come back, only on one tube though! Swapped tube positions...check! Bad Power tube! argh....
Things were more or less ok with the circuit after that - but by this point the rectifier tube socket was starting to get loose from all the pulling and replacing of the tubes (each time i tested it, basically). So new sockets! We also pulled the v1 preamp socket and replaced it because we thought it might be related to the one last issue we are still having with the amp - and one of the bolts stripped to the point that I couldn't get it off! ARGH! So after much cursing, I calmed down and went to the hardware store the next day to buy a bolt cutter. Problems solved. Reinstalled socket, rewired, tested amp out again! Now i'm getting some weird microphonics! Probably a bad preamp tube now, from all the pulling & replacing...arghh...
Now despite all these ridiculous problems, the amp basically sounds great and works fine. But I did learn a lot of what works and what doesn't in this build, and I have a new primary amp too! The only bug left in the amp is that the normal volume channel doesn't go completely to zero volume, rather it levels off around 5 and stays put at that level, although the bright channel volume works as expected. I still have a few connections on the pot network to recheck (mainly grounds), and for all I know, the normal channel volume pot could be bad (which wouldn't surprise me, haha). Will update the status of this on the lessons learned post.
Anyway. Pics! click on the pic below to see the whole thing...
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
argh...life so busy..
...so i recovered from being sick....had my computer explode...got super busy with work & finished that project...THEN poured beer all in my main amp at a show & thought I killed it (didn't though - whew!)...and now i'm super busy with recording, trying to get the guitar parts for the new Silence Kit album finished before the end of march.
Also, I got asked to help a some guys at work to a Beatles cover thing, so i've been practicing for that.
so the end result is I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the deluxe lately, or this blog, obviously. The amp technically works, but it sounds not so fresh. my suspicion is we have something crossed on the circuit board, but behind it, where you kind of just have to go on faith that things were wired right before you put it in. there is a coupling cap that got too friendly with the soldering iron, and although I don't think that's the problem, i'm replacing it anyway. i also have all new carbon-comp resistors - i figure if i'm going to pull the board, i'm going to replace all the resistors to be of the type that the original amp design used. don't ask why i didn't do this in the first place...it was just dumb.
the third lessons learned thing is that i'm now using much thinner-insulation hookup wire, as it's much easier to work with in tight spaces. the gauge of the metal in the wire is actually the same, and it's rated the same, but instead of being poly-wrapped cotton, it's just waxed cotton, so the diameter of the overall wire is about half.
so the next pic of the guts of the amp will probably look totally different. hopefully i'll have something up after the weekend. wish me luck!
Also, I got asked to help a some guys at work to a Beatles cover thing, so i've been practicing for that.
so the end result is I haven't made a whole lot of progress on the deluxe lately, or this blog, obviously. The amp technically works, but it sounds not so fresh. my suspicion is we have something crossed on the circuit board, but behind it, where you kind of just have to go on faith that things were wired right before you put it in. there is a coupling cap that got too friendly with the soldering iron, and although I don't think that's the problem, i'm replacing it anyway. i also have all new carbon-comp resistors - i figure if i'm going to pull the board, i'm going to replace all the resistors to be of the type that the original amp design used. don't ask why i didn't do this in the first place...it was just dumb.
the third lessons learned thing is that i'm now using much thinner-insulation hookup wire, as it's much easier to work with in tight spaces. the gauge of the metal in the wire is actually the same, and it's rated the same, but instead of being poly-wrapped cotton, it's just waxed cotton, so the diameter of the overall wire is about half.
so the next pic of the guts of the amp will probably look totally different. hopefully i'll have something up after the weekend. wish me luck!
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