One of my passions in life are Vintage Guitar Tube Amplifiers. My first amp back in 1968 was a 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb. This amp sounded so lush with its little 10" speaker. It got lots of use as I was gigging at age 15 not to mention hours jamming with Jimi and Eric by record. Never satisfied, I hooked it up to a 2x15 cabinet with horns (I had no idea of what impendence was) and I was so lucky I didn't smoke the output transformer. With my Hagstrom 12 String and Vox Tonebender I set out to make the fuzziest noises possible and often succeeded.
Soon after I took the Princeton and made it into a head (sacrilege!!) and traded the 2x15 cab to a bassist for a 2x12 Fender Bandmaster Cab. This sounded much better but wasn't loud enough. I then took the Fender head and ran it into the input of a recently acquired Silvertone 1484 - serious volume from now (2) 2x12 cabinets and lots of distortion. Again the Lord smiled on me and nothing blew up. (I don't recommend doing this as you can easily cook both amplifiers and possibly yourself, Im amazed I didn't.)
In the 70s and after I've had Marshalls, Crates, Voxs, Fenders, some were solid state amps, and hybrids. Nothing I had then or that I've heard since sounds as good as the tube amps. I'm not saying you can't build a great solid state amp - I just haven't heard one yet. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I think the tube is the right technology for this particular sound with an electric guitar - the guitar-amp combination is the instrument, not just one or the other. The best tone is reached when a great guitar meets a great amp. It isn't just only about how well you play. The greatest guitarists sounded great because they could not only play great, but had great sounding equipment. Thinkaboutit. Jimi's Strats & Marshall/FenderAmps Clapton and his Gibson/Marshall later Strat/Twin Fender combinations Beck and Strat/Marshall, Stevie Ray and John Mayer all Fender Tube Lineup - the list goes on and on. You can be the best race car driver but if you are not driving the best car, you aren't going to win. Same applies to playing the guitar or any other musical instrument.
These days, my hobby is to buy and restore old amps to their former glory and put them back into service. I currently have a Fender 72 Twin Reverb (Blackfaced), 77 Deluxe Reverb (Blackfaced), 68 Bassman Head, a GDS 18 Watt (with Presence Mod), and 2 of what I call "Disruptors" based on the legendary Trainwreck Liverpool design. All these amplifiers are used by ETx at one time or another, however the list changes as some amps are sold off to buy others to fix or build. The other amps you see were restored (with the exception of the Vox amps), used for a while, and then sold to good homes.
The following pages contain pix of the amps I've restored, built, and use(d). Enjoy the collection.
ETxMusic Restored Amps 1964 Deluxe Reverb
I was able to do this work myself and with the personal assistance of the above mentioned people and the books I read. Working on guitar amplifiers can be extremely dangerous as there are high voltages present even if you turn off and disconnect the power to the amp. Filter caps can store energy for days, even months. High voltages are lethal. I installed a GFI on my bench, rubber mats, and always always work one handed. I also monitor voltage buildups on the circuits with my meter when I'm soldering. The things I have done are NOT recommended to untrained amp-tech wannabees. I am very serious about this - don't attempt this stuff unless you are 100% SURE OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING OR HAVE SOMEONE WITH YOU WHO IS A QUALIFIED ELECTRONICS TECHNICIAN at least. This site is strictly to document my work on an amp for informational purposes or advertisement, neither the website host, ETx, or I assume any liability or responsibility for people disregarding the warning above and attempting to do this kind of work by themselves.
© Copyright Steve Dube 2006