It’s the 71st installment of the Truth About Vintage Amps, featuring noisy Fenders (and a Vingtor!), clip-on fans, more candy cigarette talk and other surprises. As always, tech Skip Simmons is here for you, fielding your questions on all-things-tube-amp.

This week’s episode is sponsored by Amplified Parts and Grez Guitars.

Some of the topics discussed this week:

1:26 Jury duty

7:14 Cool tools: Using a rifle brush to clean a 1/4″ input jack (thanks Acmeverb.com!); feeler gauges; Jay Knox’s film roll hack; Pinnochio

14:50 Skip is an idiot; a sleeper ’60s Gibson amp

19:44 Mr. Valco

22:44 Ned Boynton; variable intensity vibrato on a Magnatone

24:54 A 1967 Fender Princeton Reverb with fading volume

32:51 A 1972 Fender Deluxe Reverb versus a Silvertone Twin Twelve in a band setting; the Clientele’s ‘Suburban Light’; Ilegal tequila mezcal

40:12 Chewing matches

42:27 A damp and noisy Norwegian Vingtor amp

48:45 Instapot talk; ground switch redux; using a Variac to break-in speakers; Bob Newhart; Nelson Riddle; sweet potato fries

58:35 Grant Willis (valveheaven.com); using halogen lamp isolating transformers as output transformers

1:01:15  Restoring a free vintage Precision ES-550 oscilloscope

1:07:58 Multiple output taps and negative feedback loops on a Fender clone build

1:11:49 Fender Super Twin opinions

1:17:38 A hot transformer on a boutique tube amp in (Analog Outfitters The Road)

1:20:58 Allen Encore amps

1:23:22 A Magnatone M-12 with one channel that doesn’t work

Co-hosted by the Fretboard Journal’s Jason Verlinde.

Support the show as a TAVA Patreon patron and get bonus episodes, in-depth articles on amp circuitry and other surprises.

Have an amp, life or kitchen question for Skip? Email or send a voice memo to: podcast@fretboardjournal.com or leave us a voicemail or text at 509-557-0848.

Above: Listener Erik’s Vingtor. 

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