The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons

2d ago

It's the 157th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amps. Thank our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts Some of the topics discussed this week: :42 Atmospheric rivers 3:52 Skip's appearance at the Bay Area Guitar Show (Jan 10-11, link ) 8:46 Fretboard Journal 58 (coming soon!) 9:57 Unsung electronics hero (and possible con man) Lee De Forest (read his memoir here ); power conditioners 17:44 Skip's new trail cam 20:47 One man's trash: Repurposing the square capacitor/resistor found in a Gibson GA-19 RVT/Falcon 22:44 What's on Skip's Bench: A clean early 1969 SF Fender Vibro Champ with a trem that didn't want to go slow; an Ampeg J-20 29:11 Advice on an amp road trip (New Orleans, Phoenix, LA, and Denver) 34:25 What's louder: Two 50-watt halves or one full 100-watt stack of amps 37:29 Using the potentiometers in hi-fi speaker units from the 1950s; the Christmas Jug Band; ukuleles 42:10 What's up with this Winson combo amp? EL84s vs 7189s; garlic bread; Roy Buchanan's The Messiah Will Come Again ( YouTube link ); Roy Clark and Joe Pass; Van Morrison's "You Are My Sunshine;" The Fretboard Journal's You Are My Sunshine project ( link ) 50:29 Gigging a 1947 Fender Deluxe 5A3, Brookwood leather 55:40 6L6s in Deluxe Reverbs and Princetons? wild mushrooms 1:00:43 Are all trebles created equal? 1:05:38 Greetings from Canada; Slow Horses (redux); Life on the Line featuring John Travolta ( Wikipedia link ); chicken curry 1:13:26 Questions re: a Knight 93SX670 PA amp and the phono wiring 1:17:23 WD-40 musings 1:19:33 Just completed my Mojotone Tweed Princeton kit, but what's with this hum? 1:22:50 An RCA MI12155 PA head with no output; Chuck Prophet; Mosquito Coast cocktails; recommended book: 'The Night Train to Nashville' ( Amazon link ) 1:26:40 The Whole Earth Catalog; Stewart Brand ( Amazon link ) 1:30:30 Vacuum Tube Valley Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Nov 26

It's the 156th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amps. This week: Special guest Jack Weston joins us with a great Allman Brothers story. Thank our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts Some of the topics discussed this week: :43 What's on Skip's Bench: a Fender Princeton with reversed input jacks 5:41 Special Guest: Jack Weston, author of 'The Allman Brothers Band: Classic Memorabilia, 1969-1976' ( Amazon link ) 46:17 The Magnatone Triplex; ultralinear output stages, redux; Bob Wills' The Tiffany Transcriptions 47:35 Raising kids and running a small business; tractor rollovers 51:13 A cooking baffler: Potatoes cooked in resin 52:30 Will my Airline 9003 amp kill me? 55:11 Traynor YGL-3A amps 56:43 Is it possible for a fuse to blow when the amp is fine? Best-case scenarios for a speaker mismatch? Jerry Portnoy's autobiography, 'Dancing with Muddy' ( Amazon link ) 1:03:02 Movie recommendations: Come See Me in the Good Light; The Lost Bus 1:05:28 The greatest Thanksgiving side dish of all-time? A corn-bread concoction; the 2026 Fretboard Summit ( www.fretboardsummit.org ); the TAVA Cookbook ( Dropbox link ) 1:07:37 Good goo: Oxalic acid/wood bleach ( Amazon link ); Permalac sealer 1:10:43 Using a 6SL7 as a long tail pair 1:13:03 Amps made with 6N2P pre-amp tubes and 6N6P power tubes? Ashen amps 1:15:16 The resurrection of Australia's GoldenTone amps? https://goldentone.com.au/ 1:18:39 What should I do with this West Mini IR combo amp? 1:23:37 Hopefulness and despair with a reissue Twin Reverb and a Silverface Champ 1:31:06 What should I do with my Wilcox Gay Recordio recorder 1:38:31 A Califone SP-30 powered speaker; chili Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Nov 1

It's the 155th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amps. This week: Barn finds, lost dogs, an extra-grounded Jason (amp pun intended) and more! Some of the topics discussed this week: 1:05 Skip gets the new Fretboard Journal ( link ); do banjos belong in the Fretboard Journal? 5:16 Recommended music: Ned Boynton's 'The North Beach Sound;' The No-Mads ( nomadsband.com ) 7:54 Our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts (and Mr. Microphone) 18:12 What's on Skip's bench: A Bogen GA-5; a Realistic Carnival; Masco C-6; 6AQ5 tubes 22:53 A listener baffler, answered (speaker re-coning); Vintage 47 amps ( link ) 26:18 Skip's ep. 154 baffler, answered: What does Skip do when he's modding the second input of a Fender Champ? Supro Spectators 32:51 New Accutronics reverb tanks by Revisit ( link ) 34:52 What's the low input doing in a Marshall JCM800; green chile on everything 39:20 Lowering the B+ on a 1971 Fender Bassman 10 project; ultralinear transformers; cactus salad 48:43 The long-awaited dog story 51:35 Colin Hay's "Overkill" with Choir! Choir! Choir! ( YouTube link ); Traynor amps 54:52 Should I treat the pitting on a Soundmaster 600 PA? 1:00:17 Lab Series amps 1:03:39 Smoke-damaged MusicMan HD-130 1:09:20 The dangers of old tractors (and drawbridges) 1:15:34 Modifying the power section of a Twin Reverb for lower volume playing; fixing a Filmosound 385 with hum; Evan Crafts ( Instagram ) 1:21:26 TAVA listener spotlight: Children's book author Matt James! (Order his new book, The One About the Blackbird ( Amazon link ) 1:23:56 How to raise kids and run a small business; Mae Ploy curry paste 1:31:16 Barn finds: Spring-loaded input jacks; a 1947 Fender Princeton amp and matching lap steel Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Oct 17

It's the 154th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps, the call-in show where amp tech Skip Simmons fields your questions on all things tube amps. Some of the topics discussed this week: :42 Skip is back on the Ferguson TO-35 tractor; Roy Clark & Joe Pass 7:04 What's on Skip's bench: A Marshall Plexi Super Bass, Marshall bright caps, the Pet Shop Boys 11:43 Our sponsors Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts; more Fender Champ mods; a Champ gain input baffler; Soursound transformers 23:51 200 more power cords; IEC hijinks; Steve Soest 28:13 A 1954 Fender Tweed Twins and the low-powered versus high-powered Twins; Tweed Pros; Fender Champion 600 amps 31:49 A Lafayette PA with ECL82 tubes ( watch on Instagram ) 33:45 A 1960s Airline 62-9021A amp; how to tell a Supro/Valco from a Danelctro amp 37:33 Skip's advice for a future repair business; liability insurance; the Boilermaker; the amp that couldn't be fixed 49:06 A listener-submitted baffler: A Supro that needed a speaker recone? 52:29 What should I do with my new Knight 93350 PA head? 58:03 Should I build a 6G4 or a 6G4A in this Northern Electric PA-20 with six pre-amp sockets? 1:04:28 Wiring a Danelectro DS-100 speaker output for use with other cabs 1:11:10 Recommended media: The Birth of Loud; The Sweeney; Taggart 1:12:52 Burning up chokes in a Princeton Reverb 1:14:13 Listers on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-wAqplQAo 1:15:18 ESR meters and ceviche Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Sep 18

It's the 153rd episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps and Skip is having a happy day fielding your amp questions. From cleaning tweed to Magnatone varistors and all points in between, it's 90 minutes of tube amp knowledge, laughs, and some serious California trivia. Some of the topics discussed this week: 1:27: The 2025 Fretboard Summit; the importance of repair tags 6:55: Thanks for the mangos, John! And a food preservation tip 8:30: Our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts ! 14:15 What's on Skip's bench? 60 amps in August; great Loma Rica deals; far out tubes 23:29 The big TV tubes in Standel amps (6DQ6 tubes, regulator tubes) 25:49 Skip's near-death experience; The Edwin Hawkins Singers' "O Happy Day" ( YouTube ) 31:05 Colman's Hot Mustard 31:49 A giant yard sale in Dixon 34:23 More TAVA t-shirts; whatever happened to Jason's Honda Scrambler? 38:04 An antique radio museum in Marysville, California 41:38 Calculating output transformer primary impedance 47:37 Cleaning tweed 49:58 Replacing the varistors in Magnatone/Americana amps; luthier Ken Bebensee; North San Juan, California; the Malakoff Diggins 56:53 Going to Guitar Center, a Gibson GA-20...or was it? Sierra Nevada Brewing Oktoberfest beer 1:01:20 The Rustic Kegger community on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tavapodcast 1:02:51 El Pato in Alaska 1:03:41 Fender Tone Ring cabinets 1:05:54 A brown 1962 Fender Super with an 8516 transformer from a TV-front Super 1:11:01 Building a shell for a Falcon chassis 1:12:55 Building a Deluxe 5E3 clone in Brazil 1:20:17 Verellen's solid-state Octal tube ( link ); how power attenuators work; Benson's Monarch Plus power scaling 1:24:41 Recommended music: Texas Alexander & Lonnie Johnson's "Crossroads" ( YouTube ); KZFR; Julian Lage; Bill Frisell 1:26:19 Noel Boggs and his Day Sleepers' "Steelin Home" ( YouTube ) 1:27:16 Recommended reading: The RCA RC-30 tube manual ( Amplified Parts link ); California's two Sebastopols Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Sep 3

It's the much-delayed 152nd episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps! Thanks, as always, for being a part of the world's finest call-in tube amp repair show. Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Some of the topics discussed this week: 3:53 Real musicians ARE gearheads (redux) 5:47 Our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts ! 6:40 Tom Gunterman gets two Grez's 8:21 Yellow Jacket tube converters 10:27 Standel amps (redux); Todd Clinesmith; National Dobro amps; driver transformers and pre-war amps 17:35 Using an A/B/C switcher box to flip the phase on amp channels 21:45 Thanks to Chicago's own @vintagetubeamplifiers for stocking the TAVA room at the Fretboard Summit 23:28 Building a clone AB763 with more headroom, ultralinear transformers 29:20 Yellow Jacket YJRs; eggs in ramen 32:42 Tom Gunterman, redux! 33:43 Finding joy with a John Kelly amp, until a loud zap and hum; the Western States Endurance Run 42:20 Playing guitar with accordion; the Joe Mooney Quartet; collard greens with kale 47:59 Speaker-to-power ratio on speakers; classic rock; album covers Note: This was supposed to come out in mid-August (pre-Fretboard Summit), but your overextended co-host messed it up. Sorry. We'll get back on schedule. -Jason Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Jul 25

It's the 151st episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps! Thanks, as always, for being a part of the world's finest call-in tube amp repair show. Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Some of the topics discussed this week: 1:03:05 What's on Skip's bench: A pile of Standel amps; Vacaville's Pacific Hardware (redux); a baffler of sorts 8:28 Tom Gunterman ( Instagram ); Kevin from Ohio; Joe Walsh 11:30 Our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts ! Marshall Capris; Christopher Guest 19:07 Julian Lage and Leo Kottke (tour dates here ) 22:45 The Fretboard Summit August 21-23, 2025 in Chicago: https://fretboardsummit.org 23:57 What to do with the unused bass control on a modded Vibrochamp? 31:38 Weak tremolo on a late 1970s Fender Deluxe Reverb; optocouplers 36:36 The Bastard Instrument ( Amazon link ); the Ampeg book 44:57 A Teisco Melody amp; Takt amps; installing an isolation transformer 55:49 ESR / Multifunction testers 59:51 Channel jumping on a black panel Fender; Yellow Jacket tube converters ( Amplified Parts link , we'll revisit this on our next episode...sorry) 1:05:30 The Soundmaster 600; Traynor YGM-3; Fender PS-400 and the Allman Brothers Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.

Jul 5

It's the 150th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps! How did that happen? Thanks, as always, for being a part of the world's finest call-in tube amp repair show. Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Some of the topics discussed this week: 1:26 The Esparto fireworks storage facility explosion ( link ); salvaging organ pedals 6:22 Jason's life updates: Issue 57; Fretboard Summit ( link ); trail running; watching the 2025 Western States Endurance Run 11:46 Standel amplifier quirks, voltage regulator tubes, Dave's Hot Chicken kale slaw 16:36 Our sponsors: Grez Guitars ; Emerald City Guitars and Amplified Parts ! Amplified Parts is having a Fourth of July sale right now (act fast) 19:17 The Fretboard Summit Pinewood Derby race 22:03 Honorary sponsor: Tin Can Valley Letterpress ( link ) 23:10 Recommended reading: Matthew Zapruder's 'Story of a Poem' ( Amazon link ) 25:22 An Ampeg V4 / V4B bias circuit baffler 28:07 Single-ended amp 101; Stouffer's Hotel cherry chocolate cake 41:19 Channel jumping on a Silvertone 1482 and other amps; Neil Young 46:00 Music recommendation: Round Eye from Shanghai 47:11 Why do these homebrew 5F1 clones have blackened input jacks? 49:31 The Fender 400PS schematic 54:18 Harmony 420 amps, making a pre-amp out of a Heathkit volt meter 1:00:05 The Fretboard Journal's Dumble short film with Ben Harper ( YouTube link ) 1:01:46 Dave Hill at the 2025 Fretboard Summit! 1:02:34 Redwood cabinets on Gibson Falcons; Lima, Peru's Los Saicos band 1:12:21 A-Z Darts in Sacramento ( link ) 1:16:04 Getting a mono tube hi-fi for music playback 1:23:56 Listener Yann at Body and Soul Instruments ( Instagram ); the new Robert Johnson book ( Amazon link ) 1:25:24 Keeping the 12v DC power supply on old PA amps? Doug Hoffman 1:30:54 How far should I mod this 1980 Fender Deluxe Reverb? 1:37:24 Ishi in Two Worlds ( Amazon link ) Recorded July 4, 2025. Want amp tech Skip Simmons' advice on your DIY guitar amp projects? Want to share your top secret family recipe? Need relationship advice? Join us by sending your voice memo or written questions to podcast@fretboardjournal.com ! Include a photo, too. Hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons and co-hosted/produced by Jason Verlinde of the Fretboard Journal. Don't forget, we have a Patreon page . Support the show, get behind-the-scenes updates and get to the front of the line with your questions.