The Amp Garage

I've got a Benson 300 (serial # 37) on the bench. All original caps, tubes, the works. Ron Benson replaced the old 2 wire AC cord with a new 3 wire version a couple of years ago and added a new reverb tank but left the rest of the amp alone. The owner want's to keep it "as is" (he was friends with H...

Oh, it's offset for practical purpose? That's just weird, everyone knows you put handles on where they LOOK best, it's a style thing.... I mean, did you ever pick up a Showman head? The handle is way off balance but it looks right. BTW, if you spaced out the transformers better, it wouldn't be so he...

The Rocketdog looks totally cool, but if you use a ruler, you can get the handle a lot closer to the middle. I'm guessing that you put the handle off center to match those covers with the off-center handle slot, right? You probably get those covers at a big discount. Or maybe it's just hard to put a...

Google "guitar amp chassis stand", there are dozens of images of stands to see. I can't imagine working on an amp without a stand these days.
Just having the tubes out of harm's way while you work on the other side of the chassis is worth the price of admission.

Thank you. I think the Jensen Jet 12 is a bit better (more range and tighter bottom-end) than the Jensen Classic C12N, although it's not as dramatic as I had suspected it might be. I will compare them at higher volume. I found a lot of the noise issues I was having was from the relay switching of th...

aaaahhh...really? RCH labs? You guys never worked in the film business, huh? (at least that's where I learned it) Let me say RCH is a very small unit of measure (a few microns).

Thanks for the comments and kind words. I ordered and received an Eminence Delta Pro 12A (as recommended) only to discover it's too large for the cabinet. I also tried a '61 Jensen P12N (like new, out of an organ), and it wouldn't fit either.... so, I tried couple of different Jensen ceramic speaker...

Almost finished with the 86 Special x 2. There is a slight 120Hz hum that increases when I plug in the 2nd EL-84 power tube and decreases when I add more filtering. This hum is not effected by any control setting changes or by plugging in or removing a signal. Is the best way to deal with this hum b...

I was feeling all proud of myself for coming up with the relay "stick", only to discover that Mojo and SkipzCircuits already have them available. The SkipzCircuits is especially cool with 2 channels of FET switching on a tiny board.

Over the past few years I have covered a dozen or so cabinets with various recommended Tolex adhesives. Over time, many of the lap seams (tolex over Tolex, in the Fender style) come loose. Also the back panel Tolex begin to lift after being warmed by the amp tubes. After the glue lets go, the adhesi...

I added another EL-84 in parallel with the original one, it sounds great, I was not expecting such a significant improvement in the OD sustain. I like SE, cathode biased amps. The Eminence Delta Pro 12A arrived but it won't fit in the cabinet (bummer). With the Jensen, it seems to be on par with the...

I decided to add relay footswitching to the PAB and OD switches. In laying out the 2 switch relay board, I found that I might be able to make it a relay "stick" with the Cliff jack attached to the PCB and the whole board mounted to the chassis via the isolated jack. I will post the layout soon.

OK, great....Thanks!

I'm really liking my recently completed example of Mat's 86-Special, rather than build the "duet" PP version with 2 El-84s, I'd like to try a double SE version with parallel EL-84s. I know there won't be a big boost in output but I hope it will sound as sweet as the single tube SE version. I added a...

Assuming it's an Eminence manufactured "Special Design" speaker for Fender, you can pull the rubber ring off the side of the magnet (it's easy to put back on) and find the manufacture's code, impedance and date it was built. Eminence may or may not give you more details about an OEM speaker.