Here's an old photo of a small portion of my collection. I'll get around to most of them here. Oh, and that's my '59 Tele.
Here's a couple of amps I built. 1 is kind of a copy of a Fender 5E7 tweed Pro, the cabinet is a little larger than a real Pro, and the TV style front is not accurate, but electrically it's pretty much spot on with just a couple of modifications (like a master volume). The other is my own circuit design loosely based on a Fender 5E3 tweed Deluxe. I'll post more about both later.
I may have a date or two incorrect, so forgive me - I wasn't there at the time! This is my uncle, in about '65 or '66. I think he may have been on leave from the "Police Action" going on at the time. Pictured is an original Ampeg B 15 N flip top bass amp, and a Lumanog Fender bass. Lumanog was a knock-off of sorts, made in the Philippines. For those interested, do a google search of Angel Lumanog. I "played" on that bass and amp as a wee lad, but it never took. Fast forward to about 4 years ago; I found the bass in his basement, in pieces and in very rough condition. I had it restored to its present-day condition. Also pictured are the amp and bass today; bonus points for the coiled instrument cable that can be seen in the original pic.!
I just got my '65 Princeton Reverb back from a Skip Simmons tune up. I'm planning on selling it if anyone is interested. Send me a message and I'll give you the details.
'67 Guild Starfire. I swear it was purchased, stuck in the case, and never saw daylight again. Not a scratch on it.
... Just got lucky as hell and found a vintage case that was made for my Rickenbacker ... and it fits perfectly! ...
I'm not musically inclined whatsoever, but I've got a good friend who makes tube amps. He has some gorgeous builds. This stack he built belongs to Jeremy Von Epp. He's been chasing tone for a LONG time, and has done a great job of building bespoke amps and guitars for many musicians. His amps do have a nice vintage look, and from what I've heard personally, he's onto something...they sound awesome!
Don't know how I missed this one. Been playing for 50 years. Own three old Gibsons: 1961 hot rod Melody Maker, 1965 ES-125TC, 1978 ES-335 Pro. A few acoustics and basses but not vintage. Owned a few vintage Fender amps; 1964 Vibroverb, 1968 Bandmaster, 1973 Champ. Here's a pic of the MM, ala Pat Travers I restored. Picked it up in '82. A pic of my 1961 Gustav Ficker upright- Joe
Cool! Stereo set-up. I have a late '70s PA 135 I would like to modify into a Blackface Showman but the schematic blows my mind every time I look @ it. Would be lighter than my '65 TRRI. Joe
My old Princeton Reverb. I've done some light modifications over the years. It has a custom Deluxe Reverb output transformer from Allen Amps to increase output; I've modified it for higher voltage to the phase inverter, which gives it a little more headroom; and I modified the phase inverter by giving it a fixed bias, which improves the balance (i.e. it drives the power tubes more even, for smoother distortion when it breaks up); and it has a custom made (by Weber VST) 12" speaker, made to my specifications. Great little amp, set up for gigging with a band (I got tired of getting swamped by the other guys when trying to gig or jam with it). Princeton Reverbs sound great, and this one is special.
Anything is possible, but I wouldn't try to make it into a BF Showman, I'd just clean up what's there and use it. For one thing, it has an ultra linear output transformer, there is no way to black face that. But that's alright, UL output is just fine, but I would disconnect the negative feedback, because with UL you don't need the nfb. I might tweak a couple component values, but you could always plug in and try it as it is and see what you think. Be aware though that at this time, if it still has the original filter, biass and cathode bypass caps, they are well past their design life (~15 years) and will likely need to be replaced. I just did that on a 135 watt silver face Twin Reverb, and with a couple of new pre-amp tubes it sounds fantastic! Also, that master volume Fender used, yeah, that's a p.o.s. But, it's easily converted into a very useable post PI master volume that works very well. So, you got a cool piece of kit there, it can be easily converted into a very cool guitar amp head, and like you said, much lighter than the Twin. Damn those things are heavy. Just try setting it up on the work bench and pulling the chassis! I just went through all that, it's a work out. Either these amps are getting heavier, or I'm getting older...
Wrenching on cars and packing amps wrecked my back! Yep, the UL circuit is hi-fi for crystal clear, clean & LOUD sound. It's a great PA head running through the Acoustic cabs you see in the upright pic. It's hitting on all 8 now. Would love to sell it but shipping costs are too high. Sold my Marshall Jubilee bass head, needs $$ to pick up a class D Aquilar. I digress, back to the geetars, here's my '65 ES-125TC jazz box- Joe
Here's my ES135. Not quite the same, the 135 is semi hollow, with a wood block running down the middle, like an ES335. The pickups are P100's, dual coils stacked to cut buzzing. I turned them into P90's, so to speak, by clipping the wire to the bottom coil. Really, it sounds really good.
Really cool. I'm on the fence about selling my Princeton Reverb after getting it back from Skip. Sounds so good. Perfect amp for home or gigs when mic'd
I posted earlier that I would add photos of the tweed amps I built. So here's the first one, which is an amp of my own design based on the Fender 5E3 Deluxe from '59. But mine is powered with a pair of 6V6 tubes, plus a pair of 6L6 tubes (I originally set it up for 4 x 6v6's, but I ended up changing out 1 pair of those for 6L6GC's). Also, the preamp uses a 6AU6 pentode for one channel, a nd a 12AX7 for the other. You can use either one, or both and blend the two together to your choice using the Volume controls. The Tone control effects both channels. The speaker is a 15" Weber 15A150, about as close to an old Jensen P15N as you can get. I have a lot of amps, but this one here is probably my favorite and the best sounding amp I've ever played through, simply amazing. Here it is when it was first completed, all fresh and new. All hand wired, JJ's 6V6S & TAD 6L6GC-STR power tubes, and an old 5U4 rectifier I [icked up somewhere. Cloth covered wires. I love working with them. The switch allows me to turn off the 6L6 power tubes for "half power" for smaller venues. I cushioned the socket for the 6AU6 with orings, to reduce vibrations from rattling the grids. Pentode tubes tend to be susceptible to microphonics, vibrations can cause them to be noisy. I wenth through a bunch of tubes to find a low noise tube, and I've had to replace it a couple of times because even a god tube can become microphonic over time due to the vibrations from the speaker. Good thing they're cheap, I have a large stash of them, some given to me for free. I have a few amps that use these tubes, I love them. Much higher gain than the typical 12AX7 triode used in guitar amps, with a wider band width. Here's the tag I came up with, trying to emulate the style of the old tweed Fenders.
After more than a few years of using the amp on countless gigs and jams it started looking really rough. I had left the tweed bare, natural, because I thought I mistakenly thought that's what Fender did back in the 50's. I was wrong, and over time it started looking really crappy. So I stripped it down to lacquer it. Here is the bare cabinet getting ready to apply the lacquer. Actually, I didn't use lacquer, I used polyurethane, Minwax PolyShades Honey Pine to be exact. And here it is 4 coats later and put back together Leaned back and ready to rock
Glad you found us and welcome aboard. You have some cool stuff! Thanks for posting. Man I love this shit as much as I love old hotrods.
Thank you! Yes, hot rods and guitars are my two passions, seem to go together. Worked 38+ years in engineering field, musician my second profession to help pay the bills. It's all math. PM me if you're interested in an Echoplex. Joe
Nice work, Blues. Looks very similar to the Victoria Vibroverb clone w/ extra features. Swapped my Vibroverb back in the '90s for $3K worth of gear to a dealer who sold to KW Shepherd . Working guy needs a lot of tools. Joe
The Jalopy Journal
