How did this happen? Custom amp build

[TheChicagoTodd]

Hmmm…so I’ve done something interesting that I never anticipated doing.

First, a little background. I’m learning both acoustic and electric (notice I refrained from saying “play acoustic and electric” so as not to sound like I actually know what I’m doing). I’m at a point where I’ve worked pretty hard most of my life and as the old saying goes am now able to enjoy some of the fruits of my labor. I have a whole post for my NGD for my Blackbird El Capitan here that tells you a little bit of my 31 year journey with guitars.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=441978

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=450200

Guitar is currently a focus in my life, and I have been blessed to be able to obtain some very nice equipment and am having so much fun right now. I not only enjoy playing guitar (anyone could do that with a nice $200 guitar), but enjoy *nice* things and have a bit of a collector streak in me. I know, heresy in this forum right? 😉 As such, I’m currently the very proud owner of a trio of alternative material acoustic guitars: a Blackbird El Capitan, an Emerald X20-12 woody, and a Journey OF660 Overhead. The Blackbird and Emerald are customs, the Journey is my travel guitar (and is very excellent btw). I also have 2 electric guitars, a 2016 Les Paul traditional in heritage cherry burst (my grail guitar for 30 years) and an Epiphone Dot Studio (ES-335 body shape). Now I'm not a professional player and never really expect to play outside of my house other than perhaps a friend's house.

My brother-in-law who is responsible for getting me back into guitars about a year ago wanted to go visit a really great shop called the Music Gallery in Highland Park, IL. He was interested in looking at some tube amps and was very interested in amp from a boutique maker (Sonic Pipe Amps, link here: http://www.sonicpipeamps.com ) called the Tweed Tone 5 (link here: http://www.musicgalleryinc.com/Sonic...ed-p/tt510.htm ). Being the enabler that I am, I offered to go with. (Like someone needs to twist my arm to visit a really cool guitar shop). I think that I remember that was the first time that I saw something called "The Knob" (link here: http://www.musicgalleryinc.com/The-K...a100061236.htm ), but didn't really think that much about it. I wasn't even in the market for an amplifier. My brother-in-law didn’t purchase anything that day.

However, for some reason that amp called “The Knob” haunted me. I started looking up info online about it. I reviewed everything I could on it. It’s an interesting design, but maybe not for everyone. Tom Fleissner who is an Electrical Engineer by trade and the owner of Sonic Pipe amps made “The Knob” by re-purposing some Hewlett-Packard tone generators made in the 60’s. It is absolutely funky, vintage, and IMHO…very, very cool boutique and hand wired amp.

Sometimes this happens to me... I see something and all the sudden I become obsessed. This happened to me while looking at the pictures of "The Knob" posted on Instagram. That obsession kind of starts to overtake everything in your immediate sphere and is seemingly mostly what you think about. Ever happen to anyone here? 😉

So, my brother-in-law was ready to pull the trigger on his Tweed Tone 5 so I went with him back to the Music Gallery, fully ready and prepared see if I could get a deal on "The Knob". Matt, who is a really super cool dude at the Music Gallery was so stoked about that we came back to look at the Tweed Tone 5 and “The Knob”. He really likes these amps. My brother-in-law tested the Tweedtone 5 for about an hour or so in the amp test room. Finally, when he was done, I started to talk to Matt about “The Knob” and he was very excited to show it to me. In the amp test room he hooked it up to some Marshall 4x12 cabinet and started to demo it for me. WAAAYYY cool. But in all my research, something that I somehow neglected to realize was….”The Knob” was just a head. It was not a combo and had no internal speaker and had to be hooked up to an external speaker. I was crushed. LOL….somehow, I had missed that whole fact. ☹ I was so bummed when they told me that you had to hook this up to a cabinet..... I was not prepared to have that large of a setup in my house, or even have to spend the extra money on a cabinet with speakers. 😢 So I switched gears and thought I would also pick up a Tweed Tone 5, but they only had one of those in stock so I let my brother-in-law have that one. As we were walking out, I spied a small’ish Fender amp and started to talk to Matt about that. I went back into the amp test room with a Fender BassBreaker 007 which is a 7 watt Fender tube amp with a dirty side. Although not what I originally came for, I really liked it! 30 mins later I too was walking out with an amp also, the Fender Bluesbreaker 007. I’m really happy with that amp, but never forgot about the funky “Knob” that I had obsessed over.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I saw an post on Instagram for an custom amp that Sonic Pipe was doing for a friend of his…hmmm…interesting. I posted a comment about how I really liked “The Knob” but was bummed that it wasn’t a combo. In a moment of hope, I posted on the Instagram post, “It’s not possible to have “The Knob” with an internal speaker is it?”* Tom replied “Yes it is, email me!”

I think a stick of dynamite went off in my head! Holey Moley!* How cool!

Tom and I exchanged a few emails in which we talked about options and estimated pricing, and then we finally got a chance to talk on the phone. Tom’s a really cool guy and we talked for about 40 mins about amps and guitars. Tom was really trying to gather as much information from me so that he would be able to construct an amp that I would be happy with. I was really impressed with our conversation and made the decision to go ahead with the build and told Tom to send me an invoice. Tom works in what I would consider an unheard of way when it comes to these customer builds. You pay 1/3 up front and another 1/3 upon delivery. He then wants you to use the amp and make sure that you are happy with it or if there is some way he can tweak it to get the sound that you are looking for. When you are happy with the final result, you pay the final 1/3.

I paid my first 1/3, and then started thinking about the details of the design that I would be able to request. Tom provided me some different speaker options; 1 - 12”, 1 - 10” and 1 - 8”, or 2 – 8”.* After speaking with Tom about the pro’s and cons, and the fact that I wanted the amp to be as compact as possible, I chose the 2 – 8” speaker options. The amp will be 18 watts, with a ½ power switch which brings it down to 9 watts. Tom will also be adding an effects loop for me in the rear of the amp. There are a lot of little options that you wouldn’t think about normally when purchasing an amp, but when it’s a custom build, you have those options. For example, I added a jewel to the control panel. There are handle and feet options, covering options (or bare wood), and grill cloth. We are even playing around with a custom nameplate. Lot’s of fun little stuff. Tomorrow I’ll post my very crude design that I provided to Tom as a basis for the amp.

What a crazy fun project!

Cheers…

Todd in Chicago




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[Song]

I get you on the haunted by tone thing.
I want a comet...

[TheChicagoTodd]

Originally Posted by We Walk in Song

I get you on the haunted by tone thing.
I want a comet...

That sounds pretty sweet...very cool demo! Sounds like this would be a good choice...so many options out there.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago



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[TheChicagoTodd]

Originally Posted by We Walk in Song

I get you on the haunted by tone thing.
I want a comet...

We walk...

I see Musicians Friend has this on sale today for $1,349.

Cheers..

Todd in Chicago

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[TheChicagoTodd]

So going through the process of a having a custom amp built is pretty cool. Most of the technical bits I’ve left up to Tom. The power section will consist of 2 x 6V6 tubes and I’ve opted for 12AU7 tubes for the pre-amp section to get a little more gain. Tom sent me a pic of the control panel which is 6 inches high and 19 inches across.

As I mentioned previously, Tom gave me some speaker options, a single 12”, 1 10” and 1 8”, or 2-8”. I chose the 2 8” speaker option and Tom recommended a nice Eminence “Patriot” 8” speaker that I opted to go with. Tom will also be building in a ½ power switch to go from 18 watts to 9 watts. Cool! I’ve also asked him to add a jewel to the front panel for some extra bling. ;-) Tom will also be adding an effects loop in the back for me.

Given the size of the control panel, and two 8” speakers, I started creating a crude mockup in Excel to figure out what final dimensions might look like, and to be able to play with options. Tom had asked if I wanted the cabinet covered or to have an exposed wood cabinet. I once saw one of those 80 proof Fender blues juniors in person (they only made 100), thought those looked really cool. After talking with a friend who does woodworking, I decided to not go down that route for fear of it being too pricey and not getting that look nailed. Tom has a cabinet maker make the cabinets for him, but I didn’t really care (my own personal taste) for some of the examples of previous work done just in wood. So I started looking at traditional amp coverings. After playing with a few combinations and thinking about the retro nature of the control panel, I chose a cool wine Taurus tolex and Oxblood with gold stripe for the grill cloth. I know my “mockup” totally sucks, but I’m thinking this will just add to weird cool vintage vibe. What do you think?

The amp will have rubber feet and for the handle I chose a Marshall burgundy leather strap with gold hardware. This is going to be fun!! I’ll be posting more pics throughout the process.

Cheers…

Todd in Chicago

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[TheChicagoTodd]

First step in the amp build is remove components from the original chassis
and start the cleanup process.* These parts are vintage!* 50 years old!

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

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[redir]

Very cool project.

[TheChicagoTodd]

Originally Posted by redir

Very cool project.

Thx! Its been really fun thus far!

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

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[TheChicagoTodd]

The cabinet has been completed.* It is 17.5 tall, 20.5 wide and 11.5 deep.

The control panel has some "patina" on it, but as mentioned since these are over 50 years old, it is what it is.* We are actually going to put a logo plate starting from where the little logo plate is to the far right side. It will be about 1.25 inches high and should cover up most of those scratches.*

Those look like the effects loop jacks on the back.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

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[TheChicagoTodd]

Here are some shots of the chassis. Things to note, the red and white twisted wires are done that way deliberately to reduce noise and hum.

Fun stuff!



Cheers....

Todd in Chicago

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[LSemmens]

Is Todd doing the building or are you doing it with his guidance? It sounds like a brilliant concept. We do have a mob here that offer a supervised build at their premises called the The Amp School. If I had the time and money, I'd love to do it.

[TheChicagoTodd]

Originally Posted by LSemmens

Is Todd doing the building or are you doing it with his guidance? It sounds like a brilliant concept. We do have a mob here that offer a supervised build at their premises called the The Amp School. If I had the time and money, I'd love to do it.

Lsemmens....

I'm "hands off" in the process, and am more or less choosing cosmetic options. Tom did talk to me for quite a bit to gather info on what I like so he could build me something I will love. Funny you mention that, as I just saw an amp building class in Chicago.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

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[TheChicagoTodd]

We have power!!

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[TheChicagoTodd]

This is the pre-amp stage of the build. There are 2 shots of Tom's workbench here. Comparing the two, you will see one has a larger amplitude as indicated the larger sine wave on the scope and the higher reading on the voltmeter. This is a test of the last two gain modes (this amp will have 4). The other critical aspect of this part of the testing is no 60hz hum, no distortion at low signal level input, and no instability.

Woot! All tests passed! Amp may be complete in another 2 weeks or so!

The next step will be to build the PI and the Power amp, and then to integrate the effects loop, and final testing.

So Cool!

Cheers....

Todd in Chicago

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[TheChicagoTodd]

It's getting pretty awesome!

The cabinet with the wine Taurus tolex and oxblood and gold stripe grill cloth. Loving it!

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

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