These are some restorations, repairs, custom cabinets, mods and custom builds I have done over the years. If you are interested contact me and I can give you a quote on many of the custom builds.
A Valco made Chicago 51 sold under the Oahu brand. These were made to capitalize on the Hawaiian steel craze during the 1940’s and 50’s. Stock they are little dull but with some very gentle mods they are amazing guitar amps. This amp came in need new caps and mods. It hadn’t been used very much—it still had the original tubes in great conditions.
1994 Marshall 100W RI Superlead. This one came really needing some work. At the factory Marshall picked the harshest circuit variation possible for the amp and then further modifications but someone else left it a difficult amp to love. I changed the spec to the 1968 circuit, changed the power tubes to El-34 and made the FX loop switchable. It sounds great now!
Bronson amp which was made by Valco. It had some servicing errors and factory flaw that made it very low volume and not very lively. With some mods we got it to be dynamic with a cool tweed edge to the sound.
Marshall JCM 900 with the electronics restored.
Vintage Jim Kelly FACS amp that came in for repairs. In needed new caps, one of the chassis mounts was busted, and some other things needed works as well. For those that don’t know the Kelly amps are some of the first to employ attenuators and were part of the early amp with channel switching before it was widespread. It was also one of the few amps that used 6V6 with higher voltages for more power output. This amp has quad for a whopping 60W of power. It was very cool amp to work on!
70’s Silverface Champ that the owner wanted modded to Tweed Champ specs. It now growls and sing like a tweed! Everything was left in such a way that the mod could be reversed if necessary.
Here’s really cool custom amp I built: the Astro Wrangler. It’s clean amp with reverb with 7591 power tubes and EF-86 preamp. It’s a very unique sound. the extension cab is toasted pine. Here’s what the customer wrote to me about it:
Hey Carl,
I wanted to put the amp through its paces over a couple of gigs before I gave you my feedback... Dude, this thing is absolutely killer. I ended up putting my JBL d120f in as a driver, and it sounds absolutely stellar and strident. The SAG control allows me to dial in exactly how touch sensitive I want the amp's response to be.
The EF86 in the front just gobbles up any and all effects I throw at it, yet keeps the signal so clean and dynamic.
The 7591s in there sound so beautiful when pushed just to the edge of break up. They sound and respond more like hi-fi tubes, but warmer.
The esthetics are just gorgeous.
I said I wanted to combine elements of my two favorite styles of amps, Vox and Ampeg; and dude, you totally delivered.
Thanks, Carl. Your craftsmanship, patience, and attention to detail are very much appreciated.
-Quinn
Here is Tweed Champ clone made by a famous (but will remain unnamed here) builder. The owner complained that the amp how always hummed, run hot, and never sounded quite like expected. While beautifully built the builder choose not to address hum issue and copied Fender's mistake with the filtering which caused the hum. The amp sounded flat because it was missing a cap that all 5F1s had but isn't on the official schematic. The hot running was also easily solved with correct biasing. The amp was also built with a "death cap" and the switching on the neutral side of the AC line all things that are considered unsafe today. With all these issues solved the amp sounds really good.
I thought I'd share this new custom build the "Leeds 20". I built it for Houston based performer and producer Earl Turner. It's a Hiwatt inspired 20W amp and like the big Hiwatts it used El-34s. However, I've modified the circuit quite a bit. It fuller and less harsh than a 70's Hiwatt. The voicing control gives the amp huge range of frequency response so it can sound just good with single coil as it does with humbuckers. The sound huge clear and hi-fi like a Hiwatt and can get some nice bite to it.
This Non-Reverb Fender Blackface Deluxe needed electronic restoration and for some mistakes made by previous techs corrected. It’s great example of the mid 60’s Fender sound. Today most people seek out it’s bigger brother with reverb but this model is great and well worth finding and restoring.
A Princeton Reverb Kit a customer started but had me finish
A vintage Fender Harvard 5F10 that came in for restoration . Over the years I've serviced quite a few vintage Fender Tweed amps. While I've built one before this the first vintage Harvard that I've had in the shop. It badly needed new caps, adjustable bias pot added, and few other small things. Once done I have to say it one of the best small amps Fender ever made. The circuit is similar to many other Fender amps, but it has a 6AT6 pre-amp tube that has sound of its own that has more high end and harmonics than they typical 12AX7. The amp isn't terribly loud, but the tones are clear and complex. It's heck of an amp.
The owner wrote:
"Hi Carl,
Crisp, articulate, full of overtones, fast transients, punchy - one of the best little amps I’ve ever played thanks to you. Looks like you added a power tubes bias pot into the circuit as well. That’s a wise upgrade. Gorgeous sounding Harvard. Thank you Carl!
Patrick"
The Ambassador amp is amp I’ve been building as custom model for many years. It’s a 15W version of the 70’s Orange/Matamp circuits. Powerful Rock Tones! It’s got a good amount of gain and can do British Blues, Hard Rock, Stoner Rock without any pedals. With pedals it can do the heaviest styles. I’ve added switch that lowers the gain so you can get some very nice cleans from the amp too. One of things so prized about these amps it how heavy sounding they can get with pedals. I’ve added a tube buffered parallel fx loop so delays and reverbs can be added to the sound. I’ll probably be adding this to the regular line up of amps. It sounds great!! It’s a very loud 15w.
Controls: Gain, Treble, Bass, FAC switch, voicing switch (hi and low gain settings), High frequency Boost, Master volume. The FX loop has send and return level controls. 8 ohm speaker out and ext. out.
Early 70's Hiwatt Custom 50. It had been worked by another tech who made few mistakes that left it unreliable and sounding terrible. With a little work it's amazing. The cleans are powerful and fluid. It gets nice and crunchy when turned up.
A vintage Fender 5F1 Tweed Champ. This one had the speaker and output transformer replaced and badly need new coupling caps. The Yellow Astrons Fender used are rarely good these days---they become inductive and leaky making the tone dull. Collectors get worried about replacing them but a worn-out part is not original. Many of the demos of tweed amp I hear on YouTube sound like the amps have caps that are dying. Once the caps were dealt with, I acquired an Oxford 8EV (re-coned correctly) which was the original speaker for the amp. Now the amp sounds as close to it would have when it first came out of the Fender factory.
This collection of two Deluxe Reverbs and a Vibro-Champs came in badly needing work with bad caps, bad speakers in two of the amps, mismatched tubes and other issues. Once I went through them, they sound amazing! I can’t tell you how many vintage amps that are out there need comprehensive servicing. Once done they sound unbelievable and are highly reliable.
60’s Alamo Monteclair Amp—-it’s got kind of Tweed circuit but cleaner with a tremolo. This amp had almost no volume when it came in since it so badly needed new caps. With some work it’s a very nice sounding amp. Not all Alamo amps are great but there were many that has great tone for low volume playing and are well worth getting them to restore.
A great sounding 70’s Princeton Reverb amp. We re-capped the amp and tweaked it to perfection. It had a Celestion Speaker with rub in it so we replaced it with a Weber 10A125 for an authentic sparkling 60’s tone.
Supro Spectator Restoration: It's basically Tweed Champ/Princeton type circuit but they sound a little swampier due to the lower plate voltage and smooth cone speaker. The amp needed new caps and the speaker's cone had holes in it. Fixed up it's a terrific sounding little beast.
The Road Runner 20 is a custom build I did to make an ultra-flexible Fender Deluxe type circuit. It has elements of the Tweed, Brown, and Blackface Deluxe with London Power Scaling and some other controls for lots of different sounds. It has voicing control with Full setting for Brownface/Tweed sounds, a crisp setting so the amp is less bassy when cranked up, and scooped setting to give you Blackface Deluxe type sound. It has a Negative Feedback control, Volume and Tone controls. It has SAG control that lets you dial in the amount of rectifier compression from solid-state to tube. London Power Scaling allows it to go from 20W to 1/10W and all point in between. The amp is fixed bias and uses one 6V6 and one 6L6GC which give it the creamy sound of the 6V6 and the bigger clearer sound of the 6L6GC.
Airline Amp restoration. This amp spent time in a shed. I had to use PB Blaster to loosen the hardware enough to get it out of the cab. After a total re-cap, putting in some speakers the owner had on hand, some new tubes and tweaks it's back to having its unique sound. It not really loud but it very lively sound that I'm sure lots of players would love. This amp has a rather archaic output section. Rather than using a single output transformer this and has two and each drives one speaker. It was an economic choice since it’s the output transformer Valco used on many amps with a two output tube section.
Rear view…..
Another Fender Blackface Bassman. This one came in needing new caps and some resistors, as well as some tweaks to sound its best. The Bass channel has been modified for a hotter blues sound and now has a level and gain control. The customer wrote:
“Hi Carl,
Amp arrived, plugged it in and I'm really liking what you've done!
The black knob is a master volume for the bass channel?
This bass channel is fantastic! Not sure how it's different from the 1st amp you modded, but I really like this one : )
Also, what are these Raytheon 6l6's? Are they expensive? They've got a good sound, definitely in the same arena as my other 6l6c's which were too expensive, so I'd love to know if these are less costly ; )
Thanks again for your great work!
Hank”
A Fender Brownface Princeton transitional amp with the Blackface cosmetics. Some folks call them Tuxedo amps. It hadn't been used for decades and the owner had originally found it in a barn. It was in pretty rough shape with worn out caps, tubes, and speaker with a seized spider. After all the work it sounds amazing! Warm, sweet, and cleans with some smooth midrange.
This 70’s Silverface Fender Bassman needed electronic restoration. A post phase inverter master volume was added that controls the volume globally and the Bass channel is now a hot rodded Marshall channel with a Level control and the volume control acting as a gain control. Bass channel roars and the Instrument channel is the classic 60’s Fender clean sound.
Another Fender Blackface Bassman. This one came in needing new caps and some resistors, as well as some tweaks to sound its best. It now has that classic Bassman sound.
This 60’s Blackface Bassman came in needing some work (new caps, out spec resistors) we also changed the circuit to the earlier Bassman circuit for better sound. As per the customer’s request, we added bias pots for each tube and test points so the amp can now easily bias in just about any 6L6 type tube and use unmatched tubes. It’s a great clean sounding amp.
I thought I'd share this restoration I did on a 60's Fender Showman. It came in sounding OK but not great like it should. Once we did a full restoration of the electronics it sounds amazing. Pretty much all the early 60's Fender amps used very low-quality resistors that drift out of spec over time. Later in the 60's and 70's Fender was still using Carbon resistors but they were more stable. A large number of resistors in this amp were 20% to 50% out of specs. In the majority of the early 60's Fender amps I've serviced previous techs have paid no attention to the resistors---only replacing caps and sometime replacing film caps that couldn't have possibly been bad. To get the servicing and sound right it is important to know what ages and how it wears out. It's a lot of fun to bring a vintage amp like this back to life!
The customer wrote:
"Hi Carl,
I wanted to let you know I received the Dual Showman amplifier yesterday (Monday) afternoon in good condition.
Thank you for packing it so well!
I unpacked if this morning and set it up with the matching cabinet with the 2 D-140 Lansings.
I must tell you I was totally surprised to hear how well it sounded, especially with the ‘64 Precision bass. It has plenty of bottom, which it never had before, especially since it is a guitar amp, and the tone is rich, creamy, and strong. The vibro channel is much warmer with the bass, but doesn’t have the presence of the normal channel, which is fine with me.
So, I am very pleased and happy. I hope to gig with it soon to put this old trooper back to work and to show it off and brag about it and your superior work and talent.
I have attached a couple of pictures and tried not to capture too much mess in my workshop.
Please feel to use my photos and statement if you wish.
Thank you again so much Carl.
I will be in touch when I am ready to send the ‘59 Bassman to you for overhaul.
You are the ‘best’ Carl. I am extremely happy and satisfied.
A loyal customer!
Clyde"
This 70’s Fender Silverface Princeton was beefed up for stage use with new caps, a bias pot, a powerful Weber Alnico speaker and better output transformer. The sound is full, classic and powerful!
Dumble Style 2x10 cab with a pair of Weber Michigan 10s for a big smooth tone!
Tube matching tester I built for a customer. it can test most common tubes so you can do relative matching from their dissipation.
Mesa Boogie re-covered to the customer’s specs
This Fender Twin Reverb came in after many years of not functioning. It needed a new power transformer, caps, tubes, some resistors changed out but not it got a great warm Fender sound!
It had a lot of dangerous wiring done by a previous tech and didn't sound as it should. It now has that warm vintage Gibson vibe.
This Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe came in needing some work. It one of cleanest Tweed I’ve ever seen and it was well taken care of but many of the parts had aged and needed to be replaced and the speaker did not work. Once it done it was heavenly!
The owner wrote:
“It is an outstanding amp. Respect for Leo Fender who started off as a radio repairman, and to you for making this amp really sing. Super happy w your work on it. It produces such a pure representation of the input. It is cool that they kept innovating, as it would have been tempting to say “good enough”.
This 1960 tweed deluxe is complimentary to my other 3 amps. It is less scooped than my Princeton and deluxe reverb. The tweed deluxe is like a little brother for the club pro.
I still love my club pro though :-).”
Chris R.
Vintage Vox Ac-10! This amp came in not working. Someone had largely re-built the amp but had some critical mistakes, so it did not work at all. From the looks it sat not working for many years. We went through and got it working and then sought out to make sound really good. A stock AC-10 is rather dark and bit dull. When we finished it’s got that classic Vox vibe through the original Alinco 10s. The Tremolo is stellar.
This 1958 Tweed Super that came in for restoration. This amp came in with lots of problems: missing cap in the EQ, bad caps, damaged wiring and incorrect choke and power transformer. It sounded really terrible. We fixed those issues and addressed the little problems these had from the factory that good techs have been correcting for years. The owner was based in Canada and had taken to several techs that told him the amp was working correctly. As a last resort he sent it to us, and we got it fixed correctly. It’s an awesome sound!
The owner wrote:
“Hi Carl ,
just want to let you know how happy I am with the work you did on my 1958 Super Amp recently.
I was lucky enough to find 2 Jensen P10Q 1961 speakers,
instead of the 2 reissue I had ,and the amp smokes .
You fixed the unpleasant sound it had ,and I am humbled
by your intervention.
Your price was fair ,and your packing is second to none .
Feel free to publish my comments if you please.
Sincerely
Maurice Brossard”
This Gibson ES-124 from the 1940’s came in pretty bad shape. The field coil speaker was barely operational, the amp had the wrong power transformer, leaking capacitors, and resistors that were way out of spec. In the end I basically rebuilt it adding some tricks of my own to tune the amp to sound better for guitar and give it a little more umph. I also added a conventional output transformer so the amp can now use a normal permanent magnet speaker. The customer wrote me this after receiving it:
Hi Carl,
Just following up on the recent Gibson ES-125 overhaul you completed. I expected the amp to have that “blanketed” sound I’ve heard in newer hand wired amps; considering the power transformer was replaced and a new OT was added to replace the bad field coil speaker. WRONG! Your recreation of this ol' dog is amazing. The clarity of my 67 Princeton Reverb with the overdrive and harmonics of my 59 Princeton and the bloom of a tweed Deluxe. I love it!
Thank you for returning all the original parts and labeling the new 6SL7 tube. I attached a few photos of the amp reassembled in the cabinet.
Happy New Year!
Dave
The insider of the Gibson
This 1980 Fender Super Reverb came in after being stored for many years. The electronic were in poor condition and the speaker all needed re-coning. The cabinet was also in pretty rough shape with a broken stretcher board for the grill. The customer elected to put the amp in a 2x12 instead. The new 2x12 is fitted Weber Michigan Speaker for huge clean tone. The amp itself was re-capped, re-tubbed, modified to give it more warmth like a 60’s Fender. The poorly designed stock master volume was replaced with a post phase inverter type that can be bypassed. It’s a great sounding! It was a lot of work but also fun to get this one up and running! While the 1980 Super Reverb isn't the most highly regarded vintage Fender once modified it's a killer amp. It's full 70W due to the higher plate voltages and ultra-linear output transformer. Lots of techs look at the amp and blame its colder/harsher stock tone on the ultra-linear transformer but some other very small design choices keep it from sounding great. With a little care it will sound warm, powerful and classic. The ultra-linear transformer is very nice sound transformer and yields some really nice clear clean tones.
Vintage Fender 1961 Brownface Deluxe Amp—-this amp came in with a broken baffle, missing the back panels, needing new caps, and a speaker. When done it is one the best Browns I’ve ever heard. Clear, warm, and with perfect overdrive!
This custom head is a slightly less complex Tweed Stage Pro we christened the Tweed Stage Pro Jr. It’s loaded with London Power Scaling and matched with 2x10 cab. The new owner is very pleased with it…He WroteL Update: “ This stage pro junior is some of the best money I’ve ever spent!! Let me know if you ever make another one. Until then I’ll pride myself in owning the only one in existence!” Alan D.
Here’s a replacement head cab I did for a customer whose H&K amp’s cabinet bit the dust. Nice oak front panel!
This Vibrolux Reverb came in badly need new caps. It sounds really great now! Unfortunately, it’s of the late 70’s model when Fender began to staple and glue the cabinets together. The corner braces are holding her together.
It's a 1967 Fender Deluxe Reverb (I know, awesome!) that had belonged to the customer's dad, and it had been used a lot. We got it working again, replaced the speaker, got new back panels for it and recovered the bottom of the cabinet with tolex. It was a lot of fun to get it back in shape. After receiving it the customer wrote me:
Carl,
I don't know where to start, my friend. You did an extraordinary job on this amp, I'm blown away.
I'm 43 now, and I used play this amp as a teenager. I never heard it in it's true form. Playing through it today was like an outer body experience, man.
The tone is beautiful. The way it breaks apart and cleans up with the volume is perfect. The reverb is otherworldly. The vibrato (which never actually worked) can't be reproduced, like THIS is THE vibrato sound of the 60s.
I love the speaker, that was the right move and I thank you for your guidance on that.
Tolex work and the back panel looks great.
Just exceptional work, man. Thank you."
Andy
This cool old Gretsch came in sound dull and having very little power. A combination of age and the circuit choices made it less desirable than other Valco made amps of similar tube compliments. With some work it now has great sound yet its own voice.
This Bogen amp was placed in this cab long ago but by the time it got to me it needded some help and some mods to sound it’s best. It primarily modded for harp but sounds good with guitar too. The vintage red Oxford (re-coned) is my favorite part. I’ve never seen another like it.
Here’s a 1957 Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe that came in for restoration. It sounded okay when came and once done sounds glorious! Tweed amp part age in a very specific way and it seems like many of the amp I see have been serviced in a way that might work for later amp but misses some major issues.
Custom build! A 150W Bass Amp with 4x10 speaker cab. Big, deep, and warm tube bass tones.
The Twin was Fender’s 90’s take on the Twin Reverb. They have not gained much notoriety by collectors but really can be good amps for players. Frankly, it’s hard get a good overdrive tone (not impossible) from the overdrive channel but the clean channel really is very nice and can be setup to sound very vintage. The monstrous Eminence-made speakers are great speakers. It’s far more serviceable than most PCB Fenders. I re-capped this amp and got it back up and running.
A Huges and Kettner Tri-Amp MK3 that came in for repair. It’s one the most complex amps out there; but not cheaply made like so many amps of this sort seem to be. It’s definitely got that German engineering thing going on.
A great Blackface Bassman that came in for restoration and mods. It was converted to better sounding AA864 circuit from the AA165 and the Bass channel was re-voiced for guitar and given some more gain for great bluesy tones. It’s a great sounding amp!
A Supro 6616 that we restored and modifed for little more volume/grit. It kind of Supro’s Champ with Tremolo. This one was in awesome shape for it’s age.
Mid 60’s Fender Super Reverb that came in for restoration. It was originally owned by the Rolling Stones and came out their warehouse when they sold off some amps. It was really well preserved but needed some work like all amp of that era that have not been serviced. We also got the speakers re-coned and it sounds amazing!
This vintage Fender Tremolox came in after sitting for many years. It had some bad work done in the distant past including a poorly replaced output transformer. After some work it’s an amazing sounding vintage amp!
This GDS 36W Marshall type kit build came in and frankly sounded horrible. Noisy with an ugly distorted tone. Pretty much usable. It also ran very hot. After doing some modifications the sound is vintage Marshall but not harsh. It’s very nice sounding amp! The customer is very happy with it.
Silverface Champ that came in for restoration and an upgraded Weber CVA-8 speaker. The customer wrote:
“Carl - The amp sounds great! I pair with a ’68 Vibro Champ Reissue or a ’57 Champ Custom Shop Reissue. Magnificent work!” Valdi
Custom built 30W American voiced amp. It got a Fender Blackface style circuit but with 7591 power tubes like many 60’s Ampeg amps. It has an added presense control and by-passable master volume. The result was a warm, clear clean tone, and some bite. Great reverb on this one! The customer wrote:
“Hey Carl, just wanted to let you know you did an amazing job with the circuit. It sounds amazing! The pots are super responsive, and can dial in so many more tones than I expected. It's doing that super clean mid scoop thing for strat stuff. But, also when I play my LP special with mid and presence at around 1 o'clock, it almost has a Jerry Garcia sound. The best way I can describe the 7591 sound, is that it's a hi-fi 6v6. I absolutely love it. Thanks so much. Can't turn this thing off. Thanks again!
Respectfully,
Quinn”
This awesome Blackface Super Reverb came in with some bias problems, and a few of or spec resistors. We fixed those issues and added bias monitoring test points and wide range bias pots for each power tube. The customer wanted a little less volume so 6V6s were installed and they sound great. They have a warmer, rounder tone than the usually 6L6GCs.
This Silverface Super Reverb came in for restoration. New caps, replacing some resistors, mods for Blackface spec, an improved bias system, and tweaks of my own livened it up! The speakers were very tired and were expertly re-coned giving the amp more volume, dynamics, and tone.
This Silverface Super Reverb came in with a poorly installed master volume, some mods that were causing blocking distortion, and a cabinet in bad shape. We housed in in new better made cab (customer’s choice or cosmetics) and repaired the amp. It' sounds great!
Carr Rambler that was modified with a bypassable master and 6V6s were installed for more managable volume.
Marshall 2203 100W amp. this amp came in after sitting for many years and being very badly serviced. After being set right it was modified for El-34s and push pull switch was added for gain boost for hot-rodded sounds. It’s a killer rock machine!
Fender 5F2A Tweed Princeton that came in for repair. This amp was in bad shape electronically. Most of the caps were bad but once restored it sounds amazing!
This Mesa Boogie Subway amp with a blown capacitor and had been in storage for long time. With some work it was fully restored electronically and is really solid loud clean amp.
This 60’s Blackface Champ needed some servicing, and it sounds great!
This was cool custom build. It’s a 5F2A Tweed Princeton Amp but 5/10W with tube swapping capabilities. The customer was really happy with it. I’m a fan of the Brown Western tolex look.
This was fun project to be a part of. The amp inside started life as a Silverface Bassman. It was too loud and heavy for the customer to use. I modified the amp to put out 20W lighting it up with a toroidal power transform. It was recapped and tweaked for better sound. Once it was sent back the customer did a great job getting into this 1x12 combo.
The customer sent me a photo of this 70s Twin Reverb I restored. I put it into a head cab and also made a 2x12 extension for the speakers. The amp had been problematic for many years and had been worked on by a number of tech who were unable to make it reliable. I did extensive work on it and now it sounds amazing. The customer wrote:
“Hey Carl-
I just wanted to let you know that I have the cab, it’s all wired up, and I finally got to try this thing out. Man it sounds great!!! Better than I could have hoped for. Just wanted to say thank you, and it was a pleasure doing business with you!
Take care- Chris”
1x10 Extension for Princeton Reverb
Custom made 10W 5F2A Tweed Princeton with a 6l6GC (it can use a 6V6 for 5W) and has onboard bias wiggle tremolo. It's got a 15" inch speaker sounds fantastic! The customer was thrilled with it. He wrote: “I love the amp. The first amp that I have played that needs nothing. No reverb, delay, pedals etc. Great attention to detail..even smells good. THANK YOU!” R.J
This is 4x10 cabinet I build and it was loaded with re-coned vintage Jensen Alnico speakers! It’s pretty much impossible to find four of them but I was able to after a few years of looking around. Really cool!
Fender 5B4 Tweed Super restored and sounding great!
This amp started it’s life as kit that came in that was beyond saving. It’s been rebuilt into my British Custom 12 and read to go into the cabinet that is waiting for it!
This Fender Bassman that needed lots of work when it came in—it’s seen some action in it’s days. After getting it to sound like it should I also installed a bypassable master volume and the Bass Channel was converted into a bluesy lead channel. The amp is really versatile now!
Here’s a Fender Silverface Bassman. It came in needing new caps and I modified to Blackface spec and added a bias pot in addition to the balance pot so now you can balance an unmatched power tube pair and properly bias too!
Check this one out! This is an 1956 Tweed Tremolux with 5E9-A circuit. A friend of mine is the lucky new owner. After it came I went through it and replace some worn out parts and did some repair work to the cabinet. It's very cool amp---a lot like Tweed Deluxe but with a compelling throbbing tremolo too! This one has really seen some action over the years but it plays wonderfully.
Silverface Super Reverb that came in for some work. It sound fantastic now! For some reason the original speakers had been replaced with blue frame Alnico Eminence Speakers. It’s a really good pairing.
Check out this restoration! This 60's Fender Dual Showman came in and got a full restoration. It had be in storage for many years and the cabinet's tolex was in tatters and even the insulation on the power cord had rotted off. We re-capped, retubed, re-covered and went through the amp with a find tooth comb. I also built a matching 2x12 open back cab for it. It's loaded with Weber's Chicago 12s for big clean but warm tones. The customer wrote:
"Hi Carl,
The amp and cab arrived yesterday just in time for me to head to my weekly band practice. It’s the best sounding amp I have ever heard or played...also the loudest! My band mates were blown away not only by the sound but by the amazing restoration you did. Thank you for the incredible work!
Thanks, Chris"
Thanks for looking everyone!
The Supro style organ build came in for work. It had wired incorrectly and was only putting out about 1/2W and the tone control did not work correctly. After some work it’s loud and proud! I also added a SAG control for added sustain and compression.
The RI Bassman was in need of new caps and some other work. Now that it’s done it sounds better than ever!
Check this restoration out: This is a 1952 5B3 Tweed Deluxe. It came in the shop for restoration after being stored for over 20 years. Before that it has had some iffy service work done. It was one of that amps that near everything possible was wrong with it! It produced very little sound and lots of hum, hiss, and buzzing. After reworking the electronics, re-coning the speaker, and fixing the baffle it was finally ready to make music again. It's great sound piece of history---warm jazzy bluesy tones. It's not very loud since it's about 12 watts and has smooth cone speaker. It was lots of fun to work on.
Here’s a Vibrasonic Custom Reverb. One of those 90’s Fender Bruce Zinky designs. They are good sound amp but noising and tend to have problem with burnt out plate resistors. The speaker is a monster! This one came in needing new power tubes, biasing, and some basic maintenance. It now ready to rock!
This Standel RI came in for repair. For those that don't know the original Standel's were the choice amp for many country, rockabilly, and steel players. Chet Atkins used play one. It's a really well built amp but came in sounding murky and strange with a ruptured filter cap and with a damaged grill. Once fixed it’s one of finest clean amps I've heard landing somewhere between Fender Tweed and the sound of the big 60's Ampegs.
Here’s Carr Mercury. When it came in it sounds muffled and weak. It turned out the it had a factory flaw in the wiring and spent the last 7 years sounding that way. It's been reborn and sounds at it should now.
A 1471 Silvertone amp that came in for repair. It had some noise issues and a stubborn jack. These are good little amps for Harmonica but would need modification for guitars to sound good to most people. The customer is harmonica player and says the amp has never sounded better!
ere's a cool custom harmonica amp I recently built. It's a 4x10 Combo that land somewhere between the fairly clean Tweed Bassman and the much loved dirtier Masco Amps. It can switch between cathode and fixed bias, it has a body control that allow the amp to go from push-pull (multiple power tube sounds) to single ended sound (like a Champ). The tubes are all NOS US made tubes and we got a thick padded cover for it. The speakers are Webers. Great big and loud harp sounds with this one!
Hey everyone! It's been awhile since wrote a post. Here's an interesting amp I've been working on. It is a 1966 Fender Vibrolux Reverb. It came to me in bad condition with lots of noise and hardly any volume. When I took it out of the box the baffle fell out! It was particle board and had only one screw left holding it in. The speakers were shot so I sent them to Alan at DRS Audio who is real speaker guru. To my surprise the speakers were not the usual model for the amp. These usually had Jensen C10Q speakers but these turned out to be rare Jensen C10NAs which were higher end speakers more common in hi fi than guitar amps. They were stock....Fender was like that those days. You never know what you'd find in their amps. After getting the speakers re-coned we built a new baffle, re-capped the amp, replaced lots of way out of spec resistors and cleaned it up. It's one fine sounding amp!
A reissue 50W Plexi that cam in for repair. We also added the Master volume some time ago. It ready to rock again!
Here’s an amp I modified. It started out as someone’s Tweed Bassman and Fusch Amps modified it into a hot rodded JCM 800. It sounded good but really wasn’t what the customer was after. I turned into slightly hotter Tweed with an effective master volume. It’s got a great blusey sound now!
Super Swamp Tremolo Unit
It’s an awesome all tube tremolo unit. I uses some new ideas to take the signal vary tremolo type found many 60’s Fender amps a step further. The result is an ultra-deep sounding tremolo. The unit also have a level control so you can use it as a sight boost to drive long cables/pedal boards or to hit the front of your amp with little juice. It comes with a footswitch. I’m listing it at a low price! The brief demos show the speed and depth range of the unit. It uses a 12AT7 and 12AX7 and the bypass is tube buffered.
A custom Fuzz and Boost pedal. The customer's last name is Lamb so we came up with some zany graphics for it. The fuzz is based on the Tone Bender and Fuzz Face and the boost is my jfet E-boost. It's a killer pedal!
Vintage Fender Vibrolux Reverb. It's only had one owner! It came in with no Reverb, about 1W of power, and a blown speaker. It took some doing but it's now playing like it came off the factory floor.
Here’s a cool Blonde Variant. It’s got London Power Scaling but no tremolo or SAG control. It it’s place is second channel primed for an acoustic instrument with a piezo pickup or a electric guitar with piezo bridge. It a clean, broad and smooth sound. The regular Blonde is there too for great electric guitar sounds.
This cool battle worn 70’s Marshall 4x12 had blown speaker and needed some new wiring. Man, it sounds good now!
A Silverface Vibro-Champ. This one came in without a working speaker and looked like has not been used in a long time. With some fresh caps, a Blackface mod, the addition of a negative feedback defeat switch, some new tubes and new Weber speaker this one is sounding great!
A great Silverface Deluxe Reverb—-it needed a little work and was moved to Blackface specs along with a better bias adjustment system to accommodate the unmatched vintage 6V6s in it. It’s a fantastic sounding amp.
Here’s an early Silverface Bassman that came in. It was the dreaded AB270 circuit with the fixed bais/cathode bias hybrid circuit. Fender only made these for few months before going back to better sounding circuit. I went through it and recapped the amp, modded it for fixed bias (with adjustments for the raw bias and balance), replaced some bad resistors and some other Blackface mods. It sounds great now!
A custom 1x8 version of my Tweed Recording Pro. The customer wrote:
“Good morning,
I just wanted to follow up on the new amp. I've had an opportunity to play around with it and even had it cranked outside. First, I wanted to comment on the construction. The moment I picked it up, you can tell it's very well built and the best term to describe it is "quality." It's certainly fun to play, and produces a nice, smooth overdrive which I've certainly been missing. I've found some nice settings for both clean and overdrive tones. The highlight though is certainly the power scaling. Per your instructions, you can get significantly more distortion or more clean tones playing around with the knobs. I've even been able to get a nice fuzz sound by setting the limit and power knobs to opposite extremes. You were certainly right about the power scaling and you've made an amp which is exactly what I wanted. For me, it's really the perfect bedroom/practice amp. Thank you.”
David Z.
Is my version of a 1952 Tweed Princeton. 5W of early 50's tone. It’s similar to my Octal Princeton but slightly mroe agressive with the grid-leak bias first gainstage. The customer choose a Wide Panel look (they were normally a TV front) and a 10 inch Weber Alinco speaker. The amp growls and sings with it's grid leak biased 6SL7 pre-amp. The customer wrote:
"I love how the tone knob actually works. I’m surprised at how it can go from super bright to super mellow with a twist.
It has lots of gain, I can almost get those Bonamassa type Tweed Twin tones out of it...I never expected that!
Thanks again! " Corie C.
This Laney AOR 30 came in for repair. It needed a a lot of work---new caps, some minor corrections of factory flaws, a new speaker and a new reverb tank. Now it sounds like the 80's metal/hard rock amp it was built to be! For those that don't know Laney Amps is a British company. It was/is kind of the poor man's Marshall. However as high gain became popular Laney took Marshall's JCM 800 circuits and expanded them in interesting ways that lots of other companies took hints from. This one has tons of gain and uses 6V6 power tubes. It reminds me of the later day Black Sabbath tones (Iommi has a signature Laney Amp).
This Ceriatone Dumble HRM kit was modded to be more like a a Dumble Overdrive Special. It’ sounds great!
This Orange Rocker Reverb came in for a checkup/repair. With little work it was sound much better!
This one is custom made 70;s Orange style amp but is 25W and has a tube buffered FX loop and London Power Scaling. It’s got some of the finest british blues rock and hard rock tones you can imagine. It’s really versatile too with lot of ways to set it up for different tones. Here’s what the customer wrote about it:
“Carl,
I've spent the weekend with the amp. It's spectacular. Truly everything I was looking for. The power scaling sounds great, the whole thing is super dynamic and responsive, the overdrive is fantastic, and it cleans up incredibly well. I haven't even plugged anything into the effects loop yet. It just rings and doesn't need reverb like other amps - even at lower volumes.
I love it. Thank you. Now I just need to save up for the next one. And a matching cab.”
Jordan
Here’s custom built Octal Princeton that is fixed bias for more cleans and is fitted with London Power Scaling! the customer wrote:
Thank you so much for this amp! HYMA Lucky Guy! My uncle confirmed 3 times do far how unbelievably incredible the tone at such low volume. This is s dream come true! Yeeha!!! I keep the scale at 6 on both and volume at 4. I haven’t been able to turn it up though. There is a Whole load of tones to dial in here!!! When you add your guitar preamp... geeze!!!! I got goose bumps the second time I played it. It was like WTF...really! No matter what settings the tone is always up Front, in your face, and very articulate!!! Always!!!The Leather handle is so beefy and tough you could use this amp as a weapon!!!
Thx Carl will be in touch!
Rockit!!!
Robert J.
This Cornell Plexi came in with number of factory flaws that were causing hum and affecting tube life. After fixing those it is nice a quiet. Fixing the grounding also improved the tone.
Fender Blues Jr Rebuit into a Tweed Deluxe style circuit
This amp is Hiwatt style circuit inspired by Pete Townsend's custom built Hiwatts he used on stage with The Who. It more manageable 1x12 combo (rather than a stack. It has some mini-switches that let you tailor the gain and frequency response so you can get the sounds of lots of other HW models. It's also has London Power Scaling so normal humans an play it! Man is it loud, punchy and crunchy! The customer who got it loves it!
This older Handwired RI Vaox AC-15 come in and we did some of the same mods I do the current AC-15 models that made it quieter, more musical, and easier on the tubes.
This a 70's Marshall Master Volume 2x12 combo. This one came to me in bad shape. Someone had modified poorly it and could not figure out how to remove the board when they did it so they cut all the wire going to the tubes and used heat shrink to put them pack together! I rebuilt part of the amp and added a push pull gain mod. It need lots of work but when it was done it roars!
5F2A Tweed Princeton Style Head
Blackface Fender Style Amp with added London Power Scaling and SAG control with 2x10 open back cab. The customer wrote:
Hi! I wanted to follow up about my amp!
I wanted to take some time to get to know it before I wrote. I really love it. I can't get over the clarity - seems like with previous amps I was playing underwater. I have been learning the volume, limit, and power controls. I typically leave the volume all the way up and keep the limit and power close to one another. With the guitar volume halfway up it's a great clean tone and all the way up is nice and dirty.
I'm still fiddling with how to get the best growl and avoid the "fizz" as you called it. I'm also working on finding sustain. I could put a pedal on it of course but I'm in no hurry and still experimenting.
It definitely responds differently to single coils and humbuckers. I play single coil more often and find I usually back it off a little when playing my SG.
The reverb is crazy! Nice and deep and anywhere past 1/3 is almost a new kind of effect. Same with the vib - so many sound options.
Evan H.
Here’s a real piece of history! It’s a Fender Champion 600 build between 1949 to 1953. The customer just sent in the chassis. When it came it still had a two prong power cord and sounded weak. The filter caps were old, the signal caps were leaking voltage and the resistors were measuring as high as 50% off the stated values! After getting those replaced it sound just as should!
This cool Park amp was made by Marshall and is essentially a Marshall. It got the 2204 circuit but this particular one has an odd ball power transformer resulting in a smoother bluesier tone. The great 65W Celestions in there really rock too. It need a need gain pot and some biasing and now sounds ans works rally well.
Marshall 70’s JMP amp we recapped and got back to sounding great. This the 100W version loaded with 6550 power tubes.
This amp was designed for harmonica and lap steel with a channel for each. It has 4x10 cab that it's mate. It's also Power Scaled which is a lot of fun with harmonica because you can get power tube breakup without feedback. Great for those swampy Chicago sounds. I'm fond of the pine and oak cab and was thrilled with how that turned out. It’s 15W and can use lots of tube types.
This custom amp is one of my Blonde 20s but with a twist. It's a 2x10 version with Weber speakers and has on board London Power Scaling and a SAG control. It's got this great stinging sort of overdrive and glittering cleans. s
2x12 Ext Cab with casters and special stuffing technique for huge sound!
Weber Maggie kit build Carl’s Custom Amps style!
Classic Tweed Champ with TV Front and 1/4 power switch. While 1/4 power works well; London Power Scaling my preferred method and my newer amps use that system for transparent wide range power/volume control.
This was an old Harmony 420. Stock it's pretty horrible (it has a design problem)--plus it was in desperate need of a cap job. I changed the circuit over to Supro Thunderbolt like circuit and since I had extra room I installed a second channel that is voiced vintage Marshall. It's amazing now!
This custom built amp came in in real trouble. It’s wiring was dangerous, it had major design flaws and the tone was awful. I re-worked the circuit to make it safe and gave it a straight ahead clean Fender tone. The owner who is a pedal steel player and really likes it now.
Here’s a modified British Custom 7. It’s tricked out for more gain! The customer wrote:
“Hi Carl. I got the amp and it sounds great! Thank you for building it for me.” Eric B.
This custom Blonde 80W has the famous 6G14 Showman circuit like Dick Dale used. Huge sounding!!
The customer wrote:
“I just plugged it in and the tone is awesome! I noticed the vibrato input is much hotter than the normal. That channel also distorts really crazy and the normal channel stays pretty dang clean. It almost sounds like speaker distortion rather than power tube distortion.
I A/B-ed it next to the 6G14-A Showman and it sounds just a little more midrangey but otherwise very similar. Which is precisely what I’d hoped for. I love it! Thanks a lot sir!! Amazing work. You have a cool job man...”
Dan
Here's a custom build: It's harmonica amp made get that Paul Butterfield sound! Mr. Butterflield played a variety of Fenders but mostly a Twin Reverb for his big and clean harp sound. The customer wanted to get the same sort of sound in smaller package and I added a bunch of tricks to help prevent feedback and give the amp lots of tonal variety. It sounds great for harp and big clean and clear with guitar. The logo has a graphic of the Chicago skyline---Butterfield's and urban blues long time home. It was lots of fun to make!
Fender Silverface Deluxe Reverb that came in for restoration. With some work it now sounds great!
This 1956 Tweed Champ came after living in barn for decades due to bad power transformer. Once I fixed it up it was ready to make music again!
The customer wrote: Hi Carl,
I got the amps in their cabinets today. The 56 sounds great!
Thanks for the great job!
Best regards,
George
This is one my new favorite custom builds. I’m pretty thrilled with how the front came out. It got a unique tweed type circuit that can be nice and clean or really overdriven and gritty. It’s 30W with NOS 6V6s for big creamy tone. There are Hot and Vintage channels and the mini-switches help adapt the amp to different guitars. A SAG control give you everything from a solid-state rectifier feel to a tube rectifier and beyond. The front is oak and zebra wood and just for kicks the logo lights up! The customer loves it….
Here’s Tweed Recording Pro but got nice satin finish with a walnut stain!
Here's vintage Fender Silverface Twin that I restored. It's the 135W version with an ultra-linear output transformer. Some people find find them too cold sounding but with some gentle tweaks the can sound amazing. This amp is loud and super clean so a wonderful reverb! Around the time this amp was made Fender started lap joining their cabs and the original cabinet was a gig away from falling apart. We replaced the cabinet, restored the electronics and spiffed it up as best possible. Now it ready form many more years of action!
The British Custom 7 at top a cool 1x12 slanted cab. The slant make the cab easy to hear on a stage or standing up.
Here’s a cool vintage Traynor Reverb Master. It’s kind of Traynor’s version of the Fender Blackface series. After new caps, some new tubes, and an adjustable bias system installed it sounds great!
Here's a new custom build. It's two channel amp with a Hot-Rodded JCM-800 channel and Vintage 60's Plexi Channel. It rocks! It's 50W but with four El-34 so it feels and sound like 100W. I rarely do channel switching amps because there only certain circumstances where they can be built without the compromises that result is the dreaded "only one channel sounds good" syndrome. This one has completely separate pre-amp circuits for both channels and the gain stages have individual filter caps eliminating the veil of the inter-modualtion distortion so many hi gain amps suffer from.
Here's the new owner had to say:
"Good morning Carl.
The amp is MAGNIFICENT!!
I received it on Saturday and between having a lot of company over the weekend, and playing it I haven’t had a chance to email you and thank you for such a fine job!
The 800 side of it is off the charts! I love that it’s an 800 on steroids to begin with,,, and then I can flip the hot rod switch and it’s even crazier! Definitely no pedals needed on that channel, it has all the distortion I’ll ever need :-))
The thick switch threw me for a second because it’s such a subtle change in tone, but when I kick it in and use my neck pick ups it does exactly what you said it would do,, and those ‘Carlos Santana liquid leads’ are awesome!
As for the clean channel,, that was a perfect call on using the plexi circuit for that channel! I LOVE the sound of it!
It is so crystal clear and beautiful sounding that I can’t even begin to explain it with words but it is exactly what I was looking for!
Also, I have a couple of distortion pedals that I experimented with on the plexi channel, and when I threw those babies on it,, it was reminiscent of those deep,, ballsey, face melting heavy metal sounds I got from an old Mesa Boogie roadster amp I used to have and that was something I really missed about that amp that I never could quite get out of my Marshalls. Way Cool!!
I also noticed that you added a couple extra little bells and whistle‘s to add to the tonal possibilities of this amp and wanted to thank you for that as well.
So In closing, thank you for your hard work, your time and your dedication to perfection, you have earned yet another very satisfied and happy customer!
My Very Best Regards to You!
Brian
This repair was a chore but the amp sound pretty good now! The amp had been built poorly to begin with and they used a bunch old/bad parts so the amp humed like crazy and made squealing noises. Once everything was changed out and number of signal and basic safety concerns where taken care of it’s ready to play!
This one cool custom build! It's Dumble/
Two Rock inspired amp made to do big smooth cleans and be a pedal platform. However it's far more than clone. It got Variable Power so that it can go from a full 50W to 1/10W for cranked tone at any volume. It can use most Octal power tubes for additional tonal textures. It has SAG control that allow you to dial in the feel of the amp and a bunch of voicing switches (like most Dumbles) but includes one of my own devising to allow to get more sparkling Fender sound than can be had stock. There are lots of sounds in there! The cabinet is a detuned cab with single Weber Michigan 12 which is similar to the EVs Dumble’s often shipped.
The customer wrote:
Carl I just want to say this is the most incredible amp I have ever had the privilege of playing . Thanks for taking your time with me and hammering out all the details . You went above and beyond . I never imagined a Amp could sound this good —-ERIC
Here’s a 4x10 Cab I built for harp player! Pine and oak with Weber 10A125Os!
This one was really fun to build. I did for long time customer and friend. It's my Octal Princeton but with fancy hand finished cab made of pine and oak. The front pieces on the head are salvaged from pallets. The 2x10 cab is loaded with Weber DT10s. In keeping with the look I made the baffle with oak strips as cone protector rather than grill cloth. The finish was 15 coats of a wipe on varnish I mixed up. Lots of work but I'm pleased with the result!
This custom build is Supro type circuit but fitted with Trem, Reverb, and Variable power! It versatile and great sounding machine! The customer wrote:
“Loving this amp my friend…It’s just perfect!
I can now die a happy bottleneck player!
I can’t see myself ever needing another one in this life!
Keep up the good work mate…
we’ll chat later about the great harp amp you’re gonna build for me!
All the best matey!
Kind Regards”
Mo—-Australia
This head and cab is Blackface Champ with number of mod: variable power, tube swapping capable, and eq lift. The cab is loaded with Alinco Weber California. It a small but toneful package. I built the cab myself and they hand finished with a stain and 16 coats of my own wiping varnish. It’s a lot of work man they look great!
This custom build is a Vox AC10 Super Reverb. It’s one mean sounding little amp—-kind of a Trainwreck before there were Trainswrecks. It’s unlike most vintage Vox amps. Vox basically lifted schematics off of different companies (the AC30 is a Gibson derived amp) but this one is bit of a mystery. It’s got trem, verb, and I’ve added variable power. The Alinco Weber Silver Bell ready does the amp justice!
This was awesome build! It’s a Tweed Harvard with variable power. Steve Cropper is the most famous Harvard user and this little amp definitely has that tone.
This Silverface Vibro-Champ came in and I did a bunch of little tweaks, replaced the speaker and added a load box for a line out. It sounds great now!
Blues Junior made into a Blonde 20!!! What an improvement!!
Here's a neat one! It's a 1962 Fender Brownface Vibrolux which pretty rare bird. A customer of mine found it at an estate sale (I think). The power cord had been cut and the many of the small parts were completely shot. It took some work but I got it up a running and sounding as good as the day it left the factory! Plus it's safer and can be biased! The owner supplied some NOS tubew for it so it sounded especially sweet. Here’s waht the customer had to say:
“Hi Carl, the amp sounds Great! Put it in the cab with an Oxford 12 L 6 N , a 35 watt alnico that was the original speaker in my black face 63 Vibrolux. Like a Jensen P12Q. The volume taper is typical of the brown face amps. I have several. Weak at 4 or below, 6 better but 7 and the magic happens. I’m very happy with the amp! The Vibrolux is a keeper. Sounds Awesome! Thanks for bringing her back to life..”
Cheers, Bruce.
This Fender Pro Junior was re-built in a Vox AC-15 style amp. Here’s what the custom had to say:
“It sounds fantastic! First takeaway for me is, what the heck am I supposed to do with the OD pedals now.....no longer needed:-) My first real set up was a 50W Plexi reissue/4x12 with greenbacks. It didn’t make it to the US when I moved from Germany over 20 years ago and I have been chasing what I got out of it ever since. Think I finally found it! I know the Pro JR rebuild and the plexi set up are vastly different but I’m talking about feel and how and what it makes me play. Thank you!”
Matt K
By now lots of 90’s and early 2000’s production Fender amps are badly needing new caps and other servicing. After re-capping the owner wrote to me:
“Good Gawd Carl, you are the man! This thing sounds fantastic! Quiet, compresses nicely, LOUD! I really, really appreciate this. Thanks for everything, I'll see if I can give you a Google review or something. I'll definitely be back with you in the future.Awesome!” Kim
Here’s cool old Airline amp I restored to health. It was really tough amp to work on and has a lot of inherent flaws in the design. Looks cool though!
Custom Octal Princeton with Bias Wiggle Tremolo! The buyer wrote:
“HI Carl,
Just a response to your Octal amp head you did. Maravilloso! Its really lovely. I have it on the low power tubes and it is still way loud enough for anything. Love it. “
Albert
This 1966 Fender Super Reverb had been put into a head case but came in with low power and noise problems. It took some extensive electronics restoration but now it sounds great. The owner wrote me after getting it back:
"Carl,
I am blown away over what I am hearing coming out of my amp. You have more than surpassed my expectations— the tone is outstanding! Jangly, crisp, full, harmonically rich and ear pleasing are some of my initial perceptions.You have transformed my mediocre sounding Super Reverb into something above any amp I have ever heard in this style and beyond.
Thank You so much!
This did not cost much and the results are literally to die for.
Loyal customer forever.
John"
Custom 1x15 Pine Cab!! Pretty and shipped with a nice cover.
This a great custom amp I built. It based on the 70's Orange OR series amp but with more modest 15W power section. It's got British punch and crunch!The buyer wrote:
"
Hello Carl,
I am very impressed by Your inspired work! Colors of sound. I don't need a overdrive pedal! Much Thanks!"
ROGER D.
CA, USA
This is a Ampeg Revojet....It's a bit of an odd ball but really nice sounding once we fixed the reverb and did few mods to warm it up!
This late 50's Alamo amp came in with lots of problems plus they never really sounded to great to begin with (although they look really cool!). We re-capped the amp, re-coned the speaker, replaced some tubes and modified the amp to sound more like a Tweed Deluxe. It's killer little amp now!
This vintage Fender Brownface Princeton came in badly needing work. It has little volume, was noisy, the trem thumped and it was distorted sounding. It had been worked on/worked over a few times by a tech and need bo corrections to that work and to the little quirks and flaw in how it was wired from the factory. Now it's sounds divine!
This was an interesting one off amp: the D Drive. It's Dumble inspired but a single channel (the lead channel) with more flexibility since all those gain trim pots that only tech could adjust are now on the front of the amp. I've implemented a few tricks of my own: the floor noise less than Dumble and Ive made it more touch sensitive. It also has tube buffered FX loop for modulation effects.
The buyer wrote:
"Hi Carl!
You had made me the surf-green D-Drive a few months back, and after many hours of practice and three gigs, I have to be honest...IT'S A BEAST. Thank you!!!
It reminds me a lot of an old amp that I had that I always regretted letting go of...and now it's back, but better than ever. Thanks so much for your time, Carl! And again, thanks for the D-Drive. It's PHENOMENAL. " Mitchell P.
I rebuilt this Fender Blues Junior in a cool Tweed 5W circuit with a Volume, Tone, Fat Switch and a 5W/1W switch. I also lacquered the cab. Man it sounds great! The perfect bedroom amp.
This Custom Blonde 20 was done for customer who wanted single knob reverb and no trem and custom cosmeticss.
I did this one quite awhile ago. I converted this old Dean Markley in JTM-45 style amp with single input for each channel. Great sounding amp!!
I completely rebuilt this Fender LTD Bassman and modded it for harmonica use. Nice bluesy tones here! It's now cathode biased, the tone controls re-voiced, and a body control added that allow you to go from class A to class A/B sounds which is highly useful for harp players!
Fender Pro Junior re-built in Vox AC-15 style circuit!!
This vintage Fender Tweed Tremolux came in really needing some work. After restoring the electronics and making new footswitch for it is ready for action. The Trem on it is to die for and the distinctive tweed overdrive is simply fabulous!
Fender Blues Junior converted to Supro Style Amp. This Blues Jr. was converted to a 60's Supro 1624T style circuit (not to be confused with the re-issues) I call the the JP Overdrive in honor of Jimmy Page. Crunchy, bright and a perfect for rock and roll! The trem is pre-amp bias wiggle type and sounds really great. I made cool wooden footswitch for this one.
Neatcustom 2x12 Cab with Weber Blue Dog and Silver Bell speaker. The cab is pine with floating baffle lots of great character! Cab like this run about $645.
The Clean Machine 40 inwooden cab. I built this custom version of the Fender Blackface Bassman's instrument with added touch sensitivity and mids control. It's great for blues, country, or rock and takes pedals nicely!
British Overdrive Custom Plexi! This is one of very coolest custom amps I've ever built and I'm going to start offering them to other customers soon. It's 20W Plexi with a 67', 69', 71' mode, tube/solid state rectifier switch, a power control so it can go down to 1/10W. It can use any common power tube in either a pair or mixed pair. Endless tone possibilities yet completely familiar and classic!! Finally a Plexi anyone can play.
The buyer wrote me:
" Carl, I could not be happier with this amp!! Hands down the most versatile amp I've ever owned or played. I've never been able to achieve these amazing Marshall tones with any modern Marshall I've owned or played. It's like I've got Hendrix and Page in a box! Now if only I could play!
Thanks again for the amazing amplifier, thank you for your patience in dealing with my multitude of questions and above all thank you for a superior product and your excellent customer service. I will be sending everyone I know your way when they ask about an amplifier.
-Nyles Reynolds
This was cool amp I did a little while ago. It started it's life as Mesa Boogie Blue Angel which was frankly noisy and rather dead sounding. I built a Vox AC-30 with master volume and reverb and numerous circuit improvements to give off the classic jangle and crunch but with less harshness. The speaker was replaced with Weber Alinco Blue Dog. The result is classic!
2X12 Pine Extension Cab. It's loaded with Weber 12F150s for great 60's American tones. The new owner plays surf with vintage Blonde Fender Showman. He wrote:" 2 by 12 cab sounds fantastic. It's a wonderful match for my amp. Crystal clear tone. Perfect for surf tunes. Thanks Carl"--John
I restored and modded the electronics on this 70's Silverface Bassman with he original 2x15 Cab. It had the dreaded transitional Silverface Bassman circuit that Fender quickly abandoned since sound so bad. I modded it to 60's Blackface specsand she sounds sweet!
This Blues Junior was converted in 60s Fender Bassman Circuit with some of Dumbles and my own tweaks. Nice and clean with bluesy smooth overdrive when pushed!
Fender Champ 600 modified with a hand wired circuit with grid leak biased octal 6SL7 pre-amp tube. The customer wanted a 40's Jump blues type tone and this delivers!
Natural Finish Tweed Super! I can handfinish most of my cabinets for small upcharge. Except in Dec-Feb.
My CPC-40T Tweed Bassman Amp but in a 2X12 Combo Format. Lots of volume and punch with special sweetness from the Weber Alinco 12A150Ts in there.
The 1964 Tweed Champ (in a transitional black tolex) came in needing restoration and the speaker needed re-coning. Sounds just as it should now: Awesome!
This 60's Fender Bassman came in needing an overhaul. Sounds great now!
Fender Vibrochamp Restoration! This Silverface VibroChamp was in bad need of new caps, some new tubes and cleaning. All fixed up it sounds terrific!
I made this Ampeg style head for a player wanting smooth Jazz tones. It's got a wide range tone controls, octal 6SL7 pre-amp and 7591 power tubes. With few special touches of my own it yield smooth round vintage sounds and overdrives nicely when cranked.
I restored this Mesa Boogie Mark II B. It's an interesting amp and gets that Santana kind of sound as well as Fenderish cleans. The Electro-Voice speaker serves up great sound and can double as a boat anchor. It's certainly it's one of Mesa's better models. It's ridiculously compact and difficult to service due to it's construction.
This Octal Princeton was fitted with Power Scalling/VVR control. It can go from 10 w down to 1/10W. There's huge variety of tone with it on board and now you can get power tube breakup at really low volumes!!
I recently restored the Silverface Twin and modded it to Blackface Specs. Great 60's Fender sound!
This 60W Tweed Deluxe!! This custom order Double Deluxe was made for 4 x6l6GC. It got lots of volume, punch and most importantly great tweed tone!
This amp is the protoype for the the British Overdrive Series. Housed in a plywood it got that great 60's Marshall crunch! the buyer wrote:
"This is the amp I've been looking for, sounds amazing, a 15 watt plexi with a master volume. 2nd amp I've bought from Carl, I hope he gets as big as he deserves to be one day..and glad i bought a couple amps before he gets discovered and is able to charge twice as much.
The Texas Tremolo Amp! It's another one of my tweaked versions of the Fender Brownface Princeton circuit. beautiful warm cleans and great dirt too! I built it with a vintage 60's Conn Organ output transformer. 15 Watts with bias shifting trem.
The buyer wrote: " I could not be more pleased with this purchase. My expectations in both tone and quality were greatly surpassed, this is an outstanding amp head! I actually wasn't expecting tubes, so that was a nice bonus. I am a new fan and WILL be a repeat customer for certain. Thanks Sir, you are a true craftsman." Robert
I built this little 5 Watt Octal Pre-Amp Head a while back. It's got a cool rustic look and great overdrive.
I restored and modded this Silver Face Fender Bassman. It has a transitional circuit that Fender never even published a schematic for!
Octal Princeton with Custom Cosmetics! Cool right!
This Bugera was completely re-built into my CPC-5 circuit but with a Wattage and Limit control allowing the amp to go from 5 Watts to 1/10 Watt. You could crank it up and play ultra quiet with very little change in tone!
Silverface Super Reverb fully restored to working condition and modded to Blackface specs. Awesome sounding!
I called this one the Foxy 15. This chassis uses a slightly modified Vox AC-30 Top Boost Circuit, that's 15 watts and bit smoother. It has a Blues Junior transformer set. It's also got switch that shifts between a tube and solid state rectifier sound which gives you a bit more compression with the amp turned up. Chimey and crunchy!
This cool 70's Acoustic 406 2x15 Bass Cab came in needing new speakers. The speaker were replaced with Weber Bass 15s and I added stuffing to the enclosure since they came without it and it a more of a necessity for bass cab. The result: Great vintage bass punch. Great sounding cab!
The 1959 High Power Tweed Twin came in for repair. It had some issues but fixed up it's probably the best vintage Fender I have ever played. It's got some strange mistakes made in the factory that give it it's own sound. It's owned by the fantastic Josh Hyde (http://www.joshhyde.com/) who is great player and guy. I was honored to work on it. Be sure to check out his music! Josh also owns my version of Tweed Twin as backup for his touring rig.
Fender Custom Shop 57' Low Power Twin that we modded. The circuit has lots of flaws and cheap filter cops that really keep it from sounding good. Fender almost verbatim copied the old schematic without solving all the little problems good techs have been solving for years with these. In addition the voltages were way too high making it really harsh. With some work that map now sounds just as it should: warm, responsive and killer!
This custom build features a 30 Watt Brownface Princeton circuit minus the trem with lots of improvements including a fat switch. The amp can use 6L6GC, 5881s, or 6V6s. Killer tone! Here's what the customer had to say:
"Carl, gave it a full out run thru last night, and as expected it sounded fantastic! I can't thank you enough for working with me to get the tone I was after. Your recommendations were rights on point!
It sits in that perfect zone for me, more articulate / cleaner than tweeds, but not uber clean with scooped mids like blackface. The clean tone has great vintage vibe & character, and when cranked it has a creamy breakup that never gets ratty or muddy.
I really preferred 6L6's as I thought I would, but 6v6 is still really nice. It's going to be loud enough with a 1x12 cab to play with any band I'm in, but not without the ability to turn it up to that sweet spot (2 o'clock for me) and have that "clean with character" tone. Dead quiet, and great natural sustain...no compressor needed.
I now need to send the family out for a day trip so I can try it with all my guitars and pedals and really woodshed!
If I ever get around to treating myself to another amp (plenty already, but we guitarists all want more) I will hit you up. I've wanted an octal amp for quite some time for harmonica, slide and just straight out of the amp crunch.
Thanks again!
Brian"
Tweed Bassman Reissue that came in sounding harsh and hard. The amp was rebuilt with a Classic Tone Output transformer and high quality caps. The voltage was dropped and output tube changed to correct 5881s. The speakers were rewired to play forward like the original Bassman. Now it is warm smooth and musical sounding!
Cool 40W Blackface Bassman Style circuit I named the "Clean Machine". It has some tweaks that make it more responsive to the touch. I used some extra large transformers which gave the amp great low end.
The British Custom 18 Prototype! 18 Watts of hot roded JCM 800 tone. Really a great amp for hard rock and heavy blues soun€€€ds.
Cool old Bogen amp converted to Valco/Supro Supreme!!! It's good a little fat/thin switch and sweet cleans and gritty overdrive. A local player owns this one and regularly gigs with it.
CPC-80T Tweed Twin Head in smooth brown tolex by request!
Old 60's Alamo amp rebuilt to the CPC-5 circuit. The amp was basically falling apart when it arrive. Now it's a really awesome practice and recording machine.
Custom Made Ampeg/Vox Hybrid. Definitely a cool mixture!!
Blues Junior turned into Carl's Custom Amps Octal Princeton!!
Blues Junior transformed in a Octal Princeton!!! Now it's an amazing amp!
I built this one a while back. It's Blackface Vibroverb in Tweed! I used a bias wiggle trem on it instead of the opto-trem. The trem works for both channels!! It's got a Weber Alnico 15" Speaker. Sweet Cleans and deep lows!
This Master Volume Silverface Twin Reverb came to me needing some help. I re-capped it, cleaned up tube sockets, and modded the circuit to Blackface Twin specs. I also made a few little changes of my own that I do to all Twins that people rave about. The owner was very pleased with his new amp!
I did this one a while back . This little amp was built out of and old Reel to Reel tape recorder. The Tape player did so I converted the amp over to a 5 Watt Tweed Princeton with an El-84 and added an 8 inch speaker. The Meter lights up and moves.
Finger Jointed Pine 1X12 Cab. The front and back panels are reclaimed oak!
Custom Blonde CPC-40 Amp! 2X10 combo!!! The customer wanted a Blonde 40 Watter but with a custom Oxblood Grill and Alinco 10s. Great Vintage Tone and tremolo.
This custom build was really neat. The customer wanted the amp to be aged with a beer ring! It's got modified version of the Blackface Champ (more bite!) in there with a mids control and three way tone switch.
This was one really cool one off....It's got a Tweed Circuit that has Volume, Tone, Reverb, Trem and Fat switch. It can use pretty much any power tube. Way Cool! Black Tweed/Vox Grill Cloth
This Bogen Head was rebuilt into Dr.Z Route 66 style amp! Big cleans---very neat!
I restored this old RCA Tube amp for customer, housed it in a pine head cab and built a custom made extension cab with one 10inch and one 8 inch Weber Speaker!!! Very cool and gritty!
Blues Junior Converted to Brownface Princeton minus trem. This one rocks! Warm and clear with great overdrive when turned up!
Here's a Vibro-Champ style amp I made custom for customer. Very nice indeed for someone wanting low wattage amp with killer trem!
This was really cool build. In fact at some point I'm thinking about making it a regular model. It's 15 watts with a Tweed and British Plexi Channel! Volumes for each chanel, Treble, Mids, Bass, Presence round off the controls. Two 6V6s, a GZ-34, three 12AX7s and a 12AY7. It's got great sounding Weber Sliver Bell in it.
This was a really cool amp! It's a Supro Supreme Style circuit with octal preamp tubes but with the ability to use 6L6 and 6V6 tubes, a on board power attenuator, a Weber 15" 15F150-O.
Fender Pro Junior Rebuilt into a Vox AC15 Style Circuit!
This Custom Bass Amp is based around the famous Ampeg Portaflex but with a 100 watt power section, a mid shift control, bypass-able Master Volume and Fat Switch.
I hardwired this Princeton Reverb RI upgrading the parts, adding a master volume, adding a extension cab to make cool mini stack! The customer really loved it!
The one and only "Lambinator" Amp
This one was built for a customer that wanted to get a Blues Breaker sound and trem without too many knobs. It has high and low gain settings, tone, volume, master, speed and depth controls, a built in attenuator plus some great looks! 40 watts with KT66's this thing has plenty of power!
This Fender Super 60 (horrible sounding) was converted into a Jim Kelly Style amp. The Owner loves it!
This Bandmaster Reverb belonged to a customer's grandfather. It was in really rough shape with the cab falling apart. It took lots of TLC to restore but it was well worth it. Great amp!
This custom amp was built for the band King Salamander. Unique improved Fender Blackface circuit with reverb. The cab has a pair of Weber Speakers
This Bogen PA was once used as a school intercom. Where the bolts are now had buttons for different class rooms. Funnily enough the inside was a lot like a Champ. I made it in a Tweed Princeton with a 6L6 output!
Vintage Fender Super Reverb that I worked on. It was in desperate need of of new caps and tubes. Gorgeous clean tone through those Alinco Speakers.
Bogen Deluxe/Supreme Conversion Amp. This one has a 6 way voicing switch that goes fro slicing treble to Bassman thick!
Valco Supreme Style amp. 15 Watts. Great gritty blues tones from is all octal tube compliment. Nothing quite like it!
Inside of the Custom Supreme. True point to point wiring.
Custom built 3x10 combo amp. It's a hybrid of JCM 800 and Tiny Terror circuitry with some twists. 2XEL-34, a GZ-34, and 2 X 12AX7s. Mean British Punch!
I built this 3X10 cab custom for guy who tours with a Fender Super Reverb that was converted into a head. It's got two Weber 10A125 Alnico speakers and a Ceramic WGS. Very cool looking and sounding!
I converted this old Kodak Slide Programmer pre-amp into a high quality bass and guitar pre-amp. It has volume, tone and bass boost switch for controls. The new owner hooks it up to old solid state bass amp and was thrilled at the great tone!
A customer brought in this vintage Fender Vibrolux for restoration. When it arrived it really sounded poorly. It was re-capped, re-tubed, a three prong cord added and few resistors changed. Now it sounds amazing!
This Robert's Tape Recorder Unit was turned in a Tweed Princeton style head but with El-84 power tube and 6X4 Rectifier. Tweedy but with Jangle!
Custom Classic 5F1 Champ with Snake Skin Tolex and Salt and Pepper Grill cloth
This Mike Matthews Freedom Amp came in. The Cab was shot---and the caps were bad. I built a new cab and re-capped and voilà better than new!
Thundergod Head with Natural Finsih
Magnatone Custom 280 that needed lots of help. This amp had true pitch shifting vibrato! Working Great now!
Fender Brownface Pro. It came in as just a chassis and a non-original cab. Once a few components were switched out, it was re-tubed, the grill cloth was replaced, casters were added and a Weber 50 Watt Alnico Speaker was put in. Man this thing was cool!
Gibson GA-35 Restoration!
Epiphone Valve Junior Cab/Chassis with Supro Style Harnd wired Circuit
The inside of the Valve Junior
I installed a no loss FX Loop and corrected a few mistakes in this custom made Marshall Plexi Style amp. The owner now loves it!
This Silverface Princeton Reverb came in and looked as if it had been under water! I stripped it down and built a new circuit to Balckface Specs!
Here's the amp complete in cabinet!
Custom 5C2 Octal Princeton in Marshall Style Chassis with Mercury Magnetic Tranformers
Custom Made 5F9 Tweed Tremoluxe with British and Tweed Channels
Custom Thundergod With Tremolo and Marshall/Supro voicing switch
Custom made head with 20 Watt Blonde Bassman Circuit with bias shifting Tremolo. I made the cabs too!
This was another custom build. The customer wanted a Supro type amp but with more power and more versatility. This one has a Valco Supreme channel with a 6J7 and a mid fifties Valco channel with a 6Sl7. A 6SL7 was used for the phase inverter and a 5U4 was the rectifer. Also has a gain switch. Very cool amp with sweet cleans and beefy overdrive.
Octal Princeton with Natural Finish TV front Pine Cab.
This vintage Supro Thunderbolt came to me completely trashed. The owner had found it. After hearing about my Thundergod Amp he sent it in to be restored!
Fixed up and ready to rock!
Inside of a non-working Supro Thunderbolt!
Resurrected T-Bolt gut shot!
Blues Pro Junior Cab retro fitted for a 5F1 Tweed Champ Chassis!
If you have played a Pro Junior they are kind of disappointing. If you've played a Champ you know no one walks away unimpressed! Lame to insane!
Another Pro Junior Retro-Fit. this time it has Supro style circuit with single 6L6 for 10 watts of power. Crunchy and mean sounding!
Trainwreck Liverpool style amp! 30 watt of twang and crunch!
Pine and Redwood 1X12 this one had a Weber Signature 12 B
18 Watt Lite prototype in a Pine head cab!
Ampeg B15N single channel style amp. Its the perfect bass recording and small gig amp. I has two 6Sl7s, Two 6l6s and a 5U4 rectifer.
This Silverface Champ came in badly needing a re-cap. I also removed the tone sucking snubbing cab this model had. Interestingly the transformers are much nicer than the Blackface ones. Really sounded great when I was done!
This amp was once a Fender Pro Junior. I stripped it down and built a single channel version of a 1624T Supro. Great overdrive from those 6973 power tubes!
Gut shot of the rebuilt Pro Junior!
2X10 Solid Pine Cab with Amber Finish
1X12 True Tone Cab!