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The Truth About Vintage Amps, Ep. 101

Episode 101 of TAVA: Gain, flux, gochujang and more!

This week’s episode is sponsored by Calton CasesJupiter Condenser Co.Amplified Parts and Grez Guitars. You can also use the discount code FRET10 to save 10% off your Izotope purchase.

Support us on Patreon.com for added content and the occasional surprise and don’t forget to get a subscription to Jason’s magazine, the Fretboard Journal (link).

Some of the topics discussed this week:

12:00 Building a 5F1, Little Charlie’s Spanish Rice and the impact of TAVA

14:13 Listener Mitch’s landline USB phone!; weirdest thing found in amps; frozen kale crumbles; Angela caps; gochujang spice

21:00 Do EL84s sound different after being on for a half hour?

23:27 What’s the difference between volume and gain?

25:47 The Trainwreck Type-3 master volume, redux

27:34 Tad’s Bell & Howell amp; maple syrup from New Hampshire

28:24 Clean flux or leave it on?

29:55 An Australian barn find: A 1960 Moody 17/12 amp; fixing silkscreening on a control panel; a 9-pin triode pentode (6BL8); Dynaco ST-70 amps; adding avocado to vegemite toast

35:56 A barn find Filmosound; what to do when starting up a long-dormant amp, checking capacitors for ECR

47:22 Electrolytic bypass caps on preamp tubes

51:50 Frozen fruit instead of ice cubes in cocktails

52:33 A silverface Fender amp with a conductive part board; moisture in a part board?

58:57 Does anyone like amps with combination fixed and cathode bias?

1:01:56 Buying a 1960s Gretsch 6152 as your first vintage amp

1:05:54 What’s the difference between all the input jacks on a 6G2 Princeton vs a 5F11 Vibrolux

1:07:04 Book recommendation: Please Kill Me: The Uncensored History of Punk (Amazon link); music recommendation: Balsams by Chuck Johnson (Bandcamp link); the trem circuit in a Victoria Victorilux

1:13:05 Yank, the Army Weekly magazine

1:15:11 Bill Orcutt’s Music for Four Guitars (Bandcamp, FJ Podcast appearance)

1:16:12 Rust on transformers and how it affects performance, eddy currents, Plush amps, Metal Rescue

1:20:17 A Stromberg Signet 22 PA head converted into a two-EL84 Matchless DC-30 that makes lightsaber sounds

1:26:54 The typewriters of the Beat poets; the Beat Museum in SF (link)

1:30:12 An Eico 950 Capacitor Tester

1:35:44 Brew 102 beer

Submit your amp questions, recipes and life hacks to the podcast via podcast@fretboardjournal.com and don’t forget to share the show with friends on social media.

The Truth About Vintage Amps is hosted by amp tech Skip Simmons. Co-hosted and produced by the Fretboard Journal‘s Jason Verlinde.

Want to see all the former topics discussed on the TAVA Podcast? Click here for all the show notes on one page.

Above and below: Listener Tony’s new Moody amp, as discussed on this week’s show.