Amps
1973 Fender Super Reverb
My #1 Amp! There is nothing like the sound of a Super Reverb, and this one has it in spades! I purchased this amp about 1 year ago and have spent a lot of time tweeking it to get the best sound possible. I converted the circuitry to Fender Blackface specs ('64-'67) to get that classic Blackface tone. The stock CTS ceramic speakers that were in this amp when I purchased it were very weak and didn't really have a great clean tone, so I replace them with a set of Celestion Vintage 10's. This amp currently is tubed with NOS RCA blackplate preamp tubes and Svetlana 6L6 output tubes with a GE 5U4 rectifier. For more details on this amp and mods that have been done to it, visit the tubes page or click on the picture.
Custom 1965 Fender Showman
A real Blackface Fender! 85 watts of tube power with 4 6L6 stock. It is now in a Custom built cab with a single Weber C15CH. I have owned this amp for nearly 20 years. I bought this in high school and will probably never get rid of it. They day I bought it, I was comparing it to a real 1964 Super Reverb. The Showman head was $125 and for the Super Reverb they wanted $350. I really loved the Super Reverb, but my paper route at the time would not support the $350 outlay, so I went home with the Showman head and a Kustom bottom for a total of $200. This is the first amp I ever repaired. About 10 years ago, the amp became very scratchy and it's sound wasn't what I remembered, so I took it apart and wrote down the value of every resistor and capacitor on the circuit board and went to the local electronics store (NOT Radio Shack) and bought all new components for about $50 and spent an entire weekend doing one for one component swaps. When I was done it actually worked! Recently I have converted the amp to run 4 6V6 tubes to lower the power to around 40 watts and get a Fender Deluxe style of tone. For more details on this amp and mods that have been done to it, visit the tubes page. Click on the picture for more pictures and details of the mods to this amp.
1976 Marshall JMP 50 Watt Head with Reissue 1960 TV Cab
The Classic Marshall Rig! Wow, is this thing LOUD! I have converted the head to plexi specs and put EL34's back in it. Gets that Marshall Vibe and sounds like Hendrix cranked. I can't hear the monitors at all! The 1960TV cab has 4 Celestion 25 watt Greenbacks inside. I rewired the cab with 12 gauge wire, and it greatly improved the sound. The stock wiring was about 22 gauge! The bottom speakers were loose in the cab when I got it, too. So much for quality control!
Electar Tube 10
This is my bedroom practice rig. It consists of a HEAVILY modified Electrar Tube 10 and a early 90's Squire II Strat with a swamp ash body that I picked up off of eBay. The pickups in the guitar are Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Blues. The Tube 10 is available from musicyo for around $120. I purchase mine for $89 on sale with a coupon, which is an incredible price for a real tube amp! The Electar Tube 10 is basically a Korean Champ knockoff. The stock tone is average at best with the stock speaker and low grade Russian tubes. For details on the modifications that were performed to this amp, please visit the tubes page, or click on the picture.
Other Amps
Over the years I have owned several other amps. My first amp was a Peavey Backstage (YUK!). That was followed by the Fender Showman I currently own. I have also owned a 1973 Fender Champ (great little amp), a Marshall JCM900 (where's the clean?), an Ampeg Reverberocket (a great value!), a Holland Magma Head (awesome '59 bassman tone) along with numerous others. I currently am working on converting a mid '70's Silverface Bassman into a British style amp with EL34's and cascading gain stages.
Stay tuned for pics and a review of my newest amp, a Trace Elliot Velocette. This think sounds awesome for the steal that it is!
