Ep. 76: "Eliminate the Impossible"

The Truth About Vintage Amps with Skip Simmons

It's the 76th episode of the Truth About Vintage Amps Podcast. After a long buildup, Skip is back and fielding all of your guitar amplifier questions.

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

Some of the topics discussed this week:

3:45 What's on Skip's workbench: A 1955 Tweed Tremolux with a Tartak transformer

7:12 An obituary for Tweed amps and a challenge (and a TAVA meetup idea)

13:23 Free or cheap stuff in Loma Rica: Couch Potato stuff (taken!); a Lab Series L3 amp; a Hickcok 532 tube tester; "English"

21:10 Bob Armstrong, Mickey Rat (visit his site/store here)

24:30 'Murder Among the Mormons'; 'Sour Grapes'

26:18 A 24:1 scale Blunderwood typewriter project (YouTube link); Sweep the Floor podcast (link)

27:54 Two different pre-amps running in parallel to a single power section; what to do with a car tube radio with loctal tubes and a vibrator

35:14 A Masco MA-17 with a $129 buy-it-now price

39:53 Polarity checking plugs for the working musician

41:32 Getting a brighter clean tone on a Bell & Howell Filmosound 202 conversion; brussel sprouts

50:34 The TAVA Big Index page

51:09 'Morse' and 'Endeavour'

52:43 Peter Guaralnick's 'Lost Highway' and 'Feel Like Going Home'; Matthew Crawford's 'Why We Drive'; Lonnie Johnson; Big Mama Thornton; the other Lonnie Johnson

56:41 Replacing a transformer on a Silverface Vibro Champ that keeps losing its volume

58:55 Falling in love with a logging truck (a 1970 Traynor YBA-1 with a 2x15 cab and an 8x10 cab); attenuators

1:07:18 The Mason Model 6's big transformer; the forthcoming TAVA 100th episode commemorative amp collaboration with Gibson

1:16:36 A rusty EH-150 in Norway, revisited: a Rola speaker swap, choke vs. resistors, 6F5 vs 6F5G tubes, etc.

1:23:59 Chipotle + Hernandez, Mrs. Renfro's green salsa; hotwiring your tractor; a cheap TEAC reel-to-reel; moving goats

1:28:34 A Bardwell & McAlister PA amp that glows in the dark

1:30:19 Converting a 1957 RCA Model SHF67 phonograph into a Fender Harvard-style amp; adding a bass control

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

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