so let's talk about my amp...

It's starting again

2010-02-26T11:54:00.005-05:00

Hi all,

I'm back. Just wanted to leave a quick note that we're working on the next build, a 5F4 Tweed Super, featuring Mercury Magnetics transformers & Weber Vintage Series AlNicCo speakers, which should really make this puppy sing!

I'd like to introduce Jim, who has previously helped me in the past working on the Deluxe, but has really taken the initiative with the Super build, and is already getting started on our next project, a JTM45. Jim has a lot of experience debugging and restoring classic amps, and brings a lot to the table in knowledge and excitement.

Lastly, once we get a few more models built, you'll see a proper Warktone website show up, which ordering capability, although we'll also be selling via ebay & craigslist, and buyers will be able to come to our "showroom" to try things out & take them home immediately!

Warktone Amps at The Laboratory in Deptford NJ!

2009-08-17T21:02:00.004-04:00

Warktone are now being sold at The Laboratory in Deptford NJ!

Specifically, model #2, the 5e3 featured most recently on this blog, is available for test driving and purchase! Go check it out.

For more info, here's my official blurb:

What we have here is a spot-on replica of a 1959 Fender 5e3 Tweed Deluxe 1x12. Built by hand in 2009, this amp has all high-quality, period correct components, including Sprauge Atom filter capacitors, Mallory 150 signal caps, a Weber alnico sigature 12 speaker, weber transformers, REAL VINTAGE Sylvania 12ay7 preamp tube, New J/J 12ax7 phase inverter tube, REAL VINTAGE Philco 5Y3 rectifier tube, and new Sovtek 6V6 power tubes (not pictured, but that's whats in the amp). The wiring is period-correct 18 guage cotton-insulated solid core, on a period-correct cardboard eyelet board. The cabinet is also a Weber, period-correct pine construction with an "aged-tweed/oxblood" finish.

For those familiar with the 5e3, you know what you're in for. This amp has that classic tweed deluxe sound, with early break-up that is very touch sensitive and responsive, and this is one of those amps that will let the natural sound of you guitar shine through. You can get a nice clean tone out of this amp at low volumes, but due to the nature of these amps, expect breakup to happen around 3-4 on the dial (out of 12). This amp is totally giggable, being lightweight and powerful enough to fill a small room and hold up against a drummer, although putting a mic in front of it will give you the most flexibility.

This amp was hand-built by me and Jim, and I will warranty the amp as free from defects for 1 year, and will service the amp beyond that as needed, for a nominal fee. The only fine print is that tubes are not covered, being that they wear out over time. Average tube life can be expected to be 1-2 years for the power tubes, 4 or more for the rest. Because of the design of this amp rebiasing is generally not nessacery when replacing tubes, although power tubes should be a matched pair. Because of the nature of the construction & quality of the parts, however, it is likely this amp will not need servicing for 20 years or more, just like the real thing.

The amp is currently on consignment at The Laboratory in Depford, NJ, and as such can be checked out at any time, without appointment. Just go in and ask for the "Warktone"

Ted Weber, Rest in peace...

2009-08-16T16:47:00.002-04:00

Ted Weber, of Weber Speakers fame, died on august 14th. his obituary can be seen on the the weber speakers website, www.tedweber.com

Frankly, if it wasn't for ted, I wouldn't be doing this stuff. A lot of the components from both my amps are Ted's, including the cabinet, trannys, chassis, and of course, the speakers.

Most importantly, however, he was one of the go-to guys for information when I was stuck, and in that sense i owe him quite a bit.

Rock on, Ted, you will be missed.

Warktone!

2009-04-06T21:05:00.003-04:00

Got my nameplates today, so Warktone as a brand officially exists! Sorry the pic is so washed out, I had to take it with my iphone b/c my digital camera's batteries are dead, but I wanted to share...better pics to follow...

biasing service, amp service in the future, custom kits built.

2009-03-26T00:35:00.007-04:00

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

..and we're in business!

2009-03-25T22:24:00.003-04:00

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!

I'm Back! And I have pictures of the 5E3 Deluxe Build!

2009-03-25T11:00:00.008-04:00

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...

argh...life so busy..

2009-03-11T10:32:00.004-04:00

...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!

my computer exploded!

2009-02-18T23:10:00.003-05:00

argh!

so about a day after i posted that last post, my main computer inexplicably died. and not in an interesting sort of way, i turned it off one day and now it would boot - no bios screen either, just nothing, so it's probably the motherboard. boo! anyway the upshot is no updates, and no pictures until i figure out how to get pics onto my laptop without a card reader.

but i do have an update!

the amp is done - and making noise! and good noises too. after a few hours of debugging i basically figured out that the pot network was wired wrong. also, there might be a misprint in the weber 5e3 layout. all's well that ends well, as i finally got it working, but in the process of debugging i disconnected 3 of the 4 inputs, so i gotta reconnect those. also, the volume pots behave oddly, but i don't know if that's because i don't have the whole thing wired right, or if something else is weird, or if deluxes just work that way. Basically, the volume for the channel that's not connected causes the volume to go DOWN as i turn it up! strange....

updates as things get finished....

Haven't posted in a week...

2009-02-16T13:12:00.002-05:00

sorry I haven't been posting - a lot has been going on in TJ land. I cought the worst cold ever last sunday, and have been sick all week. Then my computer exploded (it's dead, i need a new one. i'm typing this on the laptop i got from trav - thanks action set!), so...yeah.

anyway. over the weekend jim & I were able to finish building the deluxe! I'll post pics just as soon as i figure out how to get them on this machine without a card reader (I suspect it involves downloading a driver & attaching a usb cable). Of course, it doesn't work. Problem is very similar to what happened to my first amp when i first turned it on, there's a stray ground somewhere that's sucking the signal out of the preamp. shouldn't be too hard to fix, just tedius. more updates as i fix it.

5E3 is like 80% done...

2009-01-19T22:48:00.002-05:00

...jim did a great job wiring up the preamp tubes - new pics once the rest of the soldering is done, hopefully this weekend.

The Silence Kit - A New Disappointment - @ The Clash Bar

2009-01-19T00:00:00.003-05:00

From our show at the clash bar. enjoy.

some high quality low-budget tube amps.

2009-01-15T15:30:00.004-05:00

Not everyone can afford to drop $1000 or more on a handmade tube amp, or even $500. If you're one of these people, are you relegated to crappy solid-state tone? Fortunately, not anymore!

Here are a few of my favorite sub-$500 tube amps....

Epiphone Valve Jr Halfstack - $249 - I don't even know how this price is possible. This amp rocks. A little thin sounding out of the box, but if you're going for that John Lennon Revolution sound, this'll do it. Also comes in a 8" combo version, but you know how i feel about 8" speakers...The halfstack uses a 1x12, btw...

Blackheart Little Giant 5-watt Combo - $349 - another amazing buy. This combo is actually the same as its half-stack model, but costs less and is more compact. There's also a 15 watt model for $449. Both are a little meatier sounding than the epiphone.

Fender Blues Junior - $479 Another cool amp. Between this and the blackheart-15 i'd say it's probably more a matter of personal preference, so try them both out.

Even though these are all 5 and 15 watt amps, you'd be surprised how much volume they actually produce. If raised to roughly ear level with an amp stand, you can easily reherse with any of these and be loud enough to be heard, and they also work fine as montitors at shows, as long as the entire band is miked. Also, there are some cool handwired refit kits for the epi and blackheart 5 watt units, so for another $100 or so, you can vastly improve the quality of the amps.

biasing your amp

2009-01-14T18:40:00.005-05:00

...or rebiasing, depending on your point of view.

anyway - this is something that you should only do if you KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Your amp has big capacitors in it like old TVs that can hold a charge long after you've unplugged your amp, and that charge is enough to KILL you if you're unlucky. so don't do it unless you've been shown how to properly discharge them. if you don't want to do it yourself, i can do it for you ;-) if you're brave enough to think about trying it though, read on...

that being said - most of what i can say about it has already been said here, but i can add a few additional pointers.

#1 - if you check the amp's bias current several times over the first 15 or 20 minutes it's been on, it'll continue to creep up - so to avoid biasing too hot, you're probably better off letting it warm up that long before taking a measurement.

#2 - the ted weber bias-rite is a handy little device, especially if your amp doesn't have a bias point built into it - but i've found that the reading coming off of a single "head only" bias-rite (the thing that just has leads coming off to plug into a stand alone multimeter) seems to be a little low - at least when dealing with an amp with more than one power tube. My guess is probably that the value at the plates doesn't quite sum to the value at the bias point, at least in the case of my deville - but it's something to keep in mind. Not sure how that compares to the actual 2 & 4 head bias-rite device...just keep this in mind - although you shouldn't be biasing at the absolute limit of the tubes anyway.

#3 - biasing too cold causes the amp to buzz and give you flabby lows. biasing to hot causes you to distort quick. both are bad for the tubes, and possibly the transformer. too hot is probably worse than too cold, though.

#4 - replace your power tubes after about 2 years of use if you use the amp 'regularly'. you'll be amazed at the difference in the sound. replace the preamp tubes every 4-5 years, or when they start to go microphonic. if you hear weird rattling when you play the amp, or weird out-of-key harmonics, that's microphony. chances are this is how your preamp tubes will go. they're relatively cheap, and don't need to be biased, so this is always a good first thing to do.

#5 - speaking of microphony, DON'T ROLL YOUR AMP ON BUMPY CEMENT if you have coasters on it. this is the quickest way to develop microphony and ruin otherwise good tubes. this is why 50-pound tube combos don't come with coasters on them.

ok so you can actually comment now...

2009-01-14T18:36:00.001-05:00

so it just occurred to me that you needed a blogger account to actually comment. I think i fixed that - so feel free to test that out.

Amp #2 - 5E3 Tweed Deluxe

2009-01-14T18:01:00.004-05:00

Some pics of the 5E3 currently being built. Observe the cleaner layout - this is partially due to the diligence of my assistant Jim, and partially due to lessons learned from build #1. Can't wait to finish it and hear how it sounds. Also, I'll make sure I use it on one of the songs I'm recording with my band and post it for all to hear. Click to make the picture bigger.

hey all you people from craigslist...

2009-01-14T17:18:00.002-05:00

I posted a response to someone looking for amp tech advice today: Hi. I understand your dilemma - there are no good amp techs in south jersey. I'm not really looking for amp repair business, although I wouldn't turn any of you down if I can help you. Feel free to email me questions, or better yet, post comments on my blog (which I will respond to!)

If I can fix your amp, I'll be happy to - I won't do it for free, but I also won't charge a ton to do so either - again - this isn't a business venture for me. That being said, i'm still learning myself (hence the point of this blog) - although I probably know more than most, seing as how I built my own amp already - and I'm working on #2.

Anyway - here's a list of things I can definately do:

* Install new tubes/bias an amp. - $75 + tubes - either bring them yourself, or pay me a deposit and i'll order them for you. I'm not in the buiness of making a killing off ripping people off for tubes, so if you just tell me what kind of amp you have, I can probably tell you what to order, and even give you a link so you can get them yourself and bring them to me. Oh look, I just put the link on this blog. See? Now tell me your amp and i'll tell you what to get. For free. You should still have someone bias it for you though - it's not safe to do yourself unless you know what you're doing.

* Replace a blown speaker/transformer/other big part. Deposit required for parts, labor charged after the work is done. $25/hr labor.

* POSSIBLY troubleshoot your amp. As I said, i'm still learning, so I may end up telling you to "contact an authorized technician". At any rate I can't make the problem worse - and if i can't fix it, I won't lie to you and tell you I did, or charge you for not fixing it. I also won't sell you parts you don't need. This is all stuff I've had happen to me - and I definately won't do it to someone else. I'm not an asshole. If the problem's out of my league, i'll let you know up front.
Cost: Free if i can't find the problem. Same as above if I do.

* Build you one of my amps - Gladly! It's a process that will take a few weeks, and I will require a deposit for parts, but the end product will be a better product than you will buy at the store (hand built vs circuit-board, better quality components, etc), and often a lot cheaper than the current "resissue" models sold with the name brands on it. I will also stand by my own products. I -am- an "authorized tech" for my own amps, heh. My focus is on tweed clones right now, but my next product is supposed to be a plexi clone. Plus, if you don't like what I've built you - i'll happily refund your deposit in full and keep the amp - so no loss on your part if you don't like it. Cost is by-amp, with the average being around $1500 for most models - yes that includes a plexi (just the head though - cabs cost so much to construct you're better off buying one off the shelf).

What I -can't- do:
Warranty work - as I said, i'm not an "authorized tech" for any of the major amp companies - yet - but for now, if your amp is under warranty - take it to someone who can do the work for you for free.

Mods - i don't do mods. one of these days i'll post why a master volume mod is stupid - the short version of the story is you get the same effect by using a tube distortion pedal (that uses an actual tube, at any rate). The slightly more involved version of the explanation is that all it lets you do is overdrive your preamp - you're not getting any power tube distortion by pushing your gain up - and anyone that tells you otherwise is lying.

I'm thinking that since i'm new at the whole amp-repair thing - if i 'm gonna do it, i'm going to charge an extremely competitive bench rate. $25/hour seems fair to me, especially when you compare it to what the 2 other people in the area are charging.

yet another new blog title...

2009-01-14T01:16:00.003-05:00

this one being, perhaps, the most appropriate, and rather humorous to the 3 other people in my band. speaking of which, hey Pat, how can we go about changing the player from just playing Sea of My Discretion to some other random song?

The Silence Kit - a player...

2009-01-12T18:25:00.002-05:00

Ok so i'm attempting to stuff our media player in a blog post...i'd put it on the sidebar but it doesn't want to play nice with blogger and although I could put up one that was it would require more work - and work is for losers.

Picks of the Dave Hunter Two-stroke

2009-01-12T17:55:00.007-05:00

As promised, although somewhat delayed, here are some pics of my first amp build, the Dave Hunter Two-Stroke. Click on one of the pics for a closer look at it.

This amp is based off a tweed Fender Princeton (5F2A schematic), but with a couple of changes. For one thing, there's only one input input, with the space for the second input instead used to house the boost/voice switch. The boost/voice switch is itself an addition, and accomplishes it's magic by changing the cathode bias of the preamp to one of three different values.

The two other major changes include using two 6V6s (although ran in parallel, so the amp is still single ended. There's no PI) and using two speakers, a 10" Jensen and an 8" Jensen. This is the original design of the amp that's in Dave's Book The Guitar Amp Handbook - and NOT the version currently being sold as a kit from Victoria, which uses a single 6L6 and a single 12" Jensen.

The main differences being that with being wired for 2 tubes instead of one, you can still use a single 6L6 with the amp (or a few other tube configurations for that matter), but are not limited to single tubes. Having two independently wired speakers allows for multiple impedance/cone combinations for achieving the sounds of different tweeds, or a blend of the two - although during the short time I had the amp I tended to just have them both going as it generated more moving air and therefore more volume. I followed the original plan of the amp mainly because i wanted to follow the book to the letter and learn, but in retrospect I probably should have used the single 12", or used a bigger cabinet and built it with a pair of 10"s. The 8" is a little too farty for my tastes, although everyone who heard the amp agreed that overall it sounded sweet. I do wish I had at least had the sense to record with it a little before I sold it however...

Anyway, that's my first build!

renamed the blog.

2009-01-07T10:16:00.001-05:00

i know i know, now the name is all topical and generic, but in case anyone important comes along and sees my name attached to this, i don't want them thinking i'm a sociopath....

epiphone blues custom 30 vs. an actual custom build amp

2009-01-07T09:34:00.005-05:00

This is an email i wrote to a friend the other day. we were talking about the epiphone blues custom 30, which is an excellent amp at its price range, btw. Don't take what i'm saying here as trying to trash it, they're great little amps - but like anything coming out of china often need a little TLC right out of the box to make things sound & work right....

i apologize in advance for the format and spelling errors, it's an email.

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so i looked into the epi amp we were talking about - it's definately a "feature-packed" amp, for the price they're talking, channel switching, 15/30 watt pentode/triode switching... it certainly does a lot. and of course, reverb.
the question becomes, of course, do you need all this junk? what kind of a tone are you really going for? channell switching is a definately something i've come to rely on over the years but since i've been playing with the vintage amps i've been learning that you can really control that kind of stuff in a much more fluid sort of way with a highly-touch sensitive amp, and get a much more fluid distortion out of it too, as you would be mainly using the power tubes.
the thing about the epi is i get the impression it's trying to be a sort of a cross between a tweed and a low power "poor mans" fender blackface twin. by using only two 5881s they're trying to really hit those tubes hard (5881 are mil-spec 6l6s, so they can be ran hot - lotsa power outta two tubes, and lotsa distortion). the tube powered reverb is definately a nice touch. of course its foot scwitchable, and you can run it in triode mode for even earlier onset of distortion (15 watts).
The tradeoff for all this fancy functionality of course is complexity of the build. and inevitably, the cheapening of the internal parts - look up a few reviews on harmony central and you'll see people talking about bad fuses and rectifier tubes right out of the box. and of course the factory speakers are shit.
now, it's $650. that's f'ing cheap. cheap enough to justify spending another $400 having someone get it running in prime form? i'm sure you won't get it biased right (out of the box. for that matter i'd be surprised if the stock tubes were even matched -ed.) and if the fuse and the rectifier tubes (among others) need to go right away, that's a few more bucks. just something to think about.
now, forgetting about cost for a second, thing about what an amp is supposed to be about - sculpting your tone with its inherent voicing. bells and wills will add to or detract from that basic done - but if the fundamental tone is flawed, you'll never get around that. this is why i've become such a fan of the classic builds. it's like a car. build the engine right, and the rest of the car will work itself out.
now, just knowing your sound and why you're leaning towards the blues custom you're attracted to that low-fi gritty down the tweeds are known for, but you mentioned you liked the reverb. well, if these were your primary requirements i'm sure i could accomodate them. personally i would reccommend you look at a medium powered tweed amp - something like the tweed 5E8A '57 Twin-amp (check out the reissue on musicians friend).
Tone-wise i bet that'll take you where you want to go - hands down. go down to guitar center and try it out!
now here's the neat part. if you like it - i can build an ACTUAL 5E8A with authentic premium parts, and the only difference you'd notice would be the fact that it says Wark on it intead of Fender...and it would sound even more authentic than the 'reissue'...and get this - i could do it for $1400!
not to mention the little things like, becuase the guy who built your amp is a friend of yours and some dude in china, some more care may in fact to into the biuld process, and the amp wouldn't get handed off to you sick out of the box.
now i know there will be some questions (what about effects, reverb, echo, switchable distortion, etc - what can be done)...the answer is everything - certain things we have learned to do over the years are actually rendered moot points when you get your first tube rectified classic amp - the whole going from clean to dirty becomes a matter of playing more than a matter of stomping...although tube screamers still might help get that last nail in your tone if you need it. but i've done entire rehersals with TSK and am completely confident that i could play an entire set on a single channel amp when the time comes, and i will, once i have the right amp built.

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a few corrections: $400 for immediate nessacery service might be an overstatment - but all new tubes, and a biasing could cost $150. New speakers could cost (up to) $400 and would make this amp sound much better, however.

Also, i got myself a little confused in that email - typically, more power in an amp means LESS distortion, not more - so mil-spec 5881s will definately raise the power rating beyond what a pair of 6l6s will put out, and that means more headroom, not less. The amp will break up more or less the same way, just at louder volumes. This may or may not be preferable, depending on what you are trying to do.

I rebiased my amp tonight.

2009-01-06T22:13:00.005-05:00

So currently my main amp is still my Deville 4x10, and lately it's been sounding not so fresh. Well, now that I know how amps work, I figured rebiasing it wouldn't hurt. Well, sure enough, it was biased a little cold - I couldn't really crank it to get a feel for how it sounds now because i'm doing this in my apartment, but from what i could tell it sounds a lot warmer, which makes sense. Next practice will tell...

anyway, this brings up another point - when i had the tubes replaced on this amp, i took it to a prominent local tube amp repair place to have the work done. Now I won't name names, but the place is in south jersey. when i got the amp back, one of the speakers was blown. Now i'm not saying they did it, but they definitely should have caught it. Anyway, one of the things I paid for at the time was for them to put high-quality tubes in the amp - and i paid $100 extra for this.

The tubes in my amps are regular Sovteks. Nothing special, and $24/pair tubes. So not only was this guy incompetent, but also dishonest.

Let this be a lesson! Know your amp tech, and get some background information on them if you can! If you're replacing your power tubes, you DO need to have the amp rebiased. This is NOT something you should do if you don't know what you're doing because we're talking about serious voltages that can kill, but if you want to here's a link that explains how to do it.

Of course, I'll be happy to install your tubes and bias them for a nominal fee, and I also won't rip you off on the tubes. I'll even give you a link to a place to check the prices on them.

Home from Clash Bar, good guitar cables, etc...

2009-01-03T04:31:00.007-05:00

The show up at the clash bar in clifton new jersey was great! show was a lot of fun, i hope The Silence Kit gets to play there again soon. Also, look forward to some possible new videos popping up real soon!

anyway, one of the conversations i actually had up there was about guitar cables and how they can fall apart over a while because of abuse, and really don't last very long, mostly. or they just suck anyway and ruin your tone. Like Samson branded cables. screw samson! Sure you can get two twenty-foot cables for $10, but if they short out in a week, what's the point?

BUY THESE: CBI Braided Guitar Instrument Cable

the braided outer shell does more than look nice, it protects the entire cable and the ends of the cable are rubberized and sealed which goes a long way towards keeping the weakest part of the cable (the solder connections in the jacks) together longer. All my cables have been these basically the whole time i've been in The Silence Kit and i've never had to replace them, while a lot of the cables the other guys in the band have used have crapped out.

If you need short patch cables, or midi cables, or any kind of a weird cable type at all - Hosa is the place to go. Hosa sells everywhere, generally in the pro-audio sections - but i'm telling you, their cables are also rock solid, and often times only cost 25% what anyone else wants. For short patch cables between effects pedals, or if you need something weird like a stereo guitar cable (like I do for the strat - long story I'll explain later) - this is what to get.

Happy new year - don't watch I Am Legend at 3am before going to bed.

2009-01-01T05:28:00.003-05:00

i love post apocolyptic movies where 99% of the population is dead. i also love zombie (and zombie-ish) flicks, and i will also confess having a soft spot for the fresh prince and his roles in cheesy sci-fi ever since independance day.

queueing up i am legend as something to watch while i fall asleep tonight was dumb. I had this terrible nightmare where I was living the experience in that movie - except there was this weird videogame overlay (i remember pressing f7 to get a map screen which displayed in mid-90s style blocky-computer graphics) and f8 to save, but other than that, everything else was happening in realtime. also, it was happening in my hometown of audubon - and my safe house was the house i grew up in - although it wasn't that safe in that i didn't have the luxury of the armored windows and doors the character had in the movie. so seriously, it was really fucking scary.

my only solace was the knack i have for lucid dreaming. about the time i had to press f7 (with mind powers?) to see the map i realized i was probably in a dream, and hey there's probably a compelling video game design here once i escape this twilight nightmare. i pulled my self out of it as soon as the sun started to come up in game and i was able to 'save' - but now i'm too tired to go back to sleep or something. i almost want to go back in and continue my adventures, although with a few additional power ups. (fortified home base, for example)

anyway, weird dream. i have that love hate things with zombies. i love them mostly in romero films and resident evil games but i definitely don't love them in my head which is the first place they go upon playing said game.

oh well. to happiness in the new year. what movies have watched (or games played) alone that you wish you hadn't? I'll freely admit the gamecube remake of Resident Evil scared the piss out of me on summer - but i couldn't put it down because it was so compelling. i've never seriously played it again since beating it because it was too damn disturbing.

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

2008-12-31T15:59:00.008-05:00

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

2008-12-31T15:37:00.001-05:00

action set. more shows in philly please.

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

2008-12-31T14:40:00.002-05:00

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.