The Amp Garage

I bought a batch of surplus 2N4416A JFETS but there were some built in protection diodes that made them somewhere in between problematic and unusable. The key word here is "surplus". My old go to surplus and salvage shops did not survive Covid19, and the subsequent supply chain shortages, and the pr...

It depends upon a lot of factors but it happened. The late Luciel Ball claimed to receive radio stations through her dental work. If you lived back when amateur radio was more popular and there were lots of high-powered homemade RF amplifiers in use, so amalgam dental fillings, duct work, and even t...

Triad still has the specs for that inductor and I have found it for sale at one or two places. You can call Triad on the phone too.

Vibrolux AA864 circuit. It is not just an AA964 with Jensens or Oxford or Utah Coil or whatever "different" speakers. I just had a 1965 in and it has a higher voltage preamp rail. Fender was NOT overly diligent about gluing in the proper tube charts either so you may or may not have an AA964 with an...

I also very highly recommend buying a decent set of "alignment tools", which were a staple item in any TV repair technician's kit. They are either nylon, fiberglass, or some other durable non-conductive plastic material. DO NOT BUY AN OLD USED SET. Digital TVs have been around for so long now that t...

An imbalance can be good a thing too, as the proper imbalance can add some nice distortion and you really need to use both your ears AND AN O SCOPE, and you "NEED" to know exactly what kind of distortion that O Scope is showing you. You also need that amp up to operating temperature before you start...

Woah, that is some super nice traditional instrument engraving! That looks great! You should try doing a banjo! There are a lot of neat parts on the tone pot to engrave and the tone ring, and....... YEAH! I bought a 12 piece graver set from an old widow who put them up in The Penny Saver ads for $25...

I have custom components that drop right over most of these, and they clean up and look better, and I appreciate 98% of the work having been done!! THANKS AGAIN! Rock On! 1957 Supro Supreme. 1960 Gibson ES 330 TDC. The Supro is a transitional amp with Supro using up the last of their 6SQ7s before go...

Here is a small example of my custom component library in one of the 4 or 5 computers I use. I REALLY need to file share! The custom components make working on vac tube schematics faster, and the end product is nice. I don't know if this will stick & stay of if there will be no attachment, but that ...

Some of the old vac tube HP signal gens would put out as much as 5 volts peak to peak. That was vacuum tube era, so those were all voltage amps. Soiled state, except FETs are mostly current amps. If you have little B&K signal gen, or Wun Hung Lo Chinese made whatever, a single chip preamp, and a mon...

Some of the mil spec wires carry number that when you look them up state the wire can be cleaned with soap and water, or is gasoline & oil resistant. Other numbers mean the wire has light weight insulation, and flux infused strands for use on The Space Shuttle, so merely having a mil spec number can...

When Eminence first started spot welding their frames, the heat was warping them, but they seem to have sorted that problem out, and I am back to using them, sometimes. I'll take not of this, and THANKS, MAN! I have some massive 150 watt cast frame EVs, Altecs, JBL D1X0, Weber, Celsetion, Jensen, Fa...

After my aunt passed away I had to throw together a portable office and hit the highway for Colorado. I knew I would probably wind up in some horrid motel, so I bought a cheap laptop with Windows 8.1 (YUCK), which was upgraded to Windows 10. Windows 10 has a new browser called Microsoft Edge. I get ...

Caps are cheaper than tubes, and Ken never used polypropylene caps. I am one of those snobs with a shelf filled with real UK, Holland, West German, East German, Czechoslovakian, & Japanese made EL34s. A 6CA7 is going to sound more 6L6ish. Well, a real Sylvania 6CA7 will. Try the PS 225 series orange...

Dynacos are good units. I think there was also a Dynaco 150 that used 6550s. The ST70 boards and parts are all over the place, so they are a very good one to build.