Who are we? Let's get to know each other!

[Mr. dB]

I'm Dave, 50 years old, live sound tech at a music venue.

I've serviced my own guitar and hifi tube amps for years, and finally did an 18-watt Trem build a couple of years ago. I love that amp (and miss the community that spawned it...). My current project is a faithful copy of the Vox AC15, but progress is moving very slowly. Okay, I haven't touched it since December. I need to get my ass back in gear, 'cause it should be a stunning creation when I'm done.

Dave,

Good to see you here. I loved the pictorial of your AC15 build. It would be a nice addition here if they decide to have a "Vintage Corner"!!! That build is spectacular!

Wow, thanks! Problem is, I haven't touched it in months. Too much overtime steals my motivation.

[s2]

This feels kinda like filling out a profile on match.com...

Steven Scott
33 years young
Divorced with custody of 1 kiddo (9)
GF who desperately wants a ring (is already an amp widow)
BS in Chemistry and Molecular Biology
MS in PA Studies
Optical Engineer / Software Engineer

Seeking a single white female of Scottish descent with whom to start a burgeoning family to tend to the family goats and sheep. Must have red hair, light freckles, and child bearing hips and must not be jealous of my relationship with the ewe...

I started messing with amps 10 or so years ago when I couldn't find a decent tech to keep my vintage amps in gigging condition. I ended building replicas of them and leaving them at home. Those amps are long-gone now...

I think I've hit the 200 mark as far as how many I've made. If not, I'm pretty close. I'm doing 60-70 a year right now.

Not currently playing much guitar (or even in the last 8 years), so my chops are embarrassingly bad right now. I only play to test amps if you know what I mean. That has really started to bother me lately, and I've started trying to make time to fit in 30 mins a day of playing something new, but I can't say I've been successful at finding that time with so many amps in queue.

Cheers!

[gtrcollectr]

Todd Jackson
30 Yrs Old

IT Support by day, tinkerer by night.

I have built lots of guitars, gadgets, and pedals but only recently started with the amp thing. Its kinda a natural progression I guess once you build guitars from scratch it only makes sense to do the amps also....I also restore vintage autos so my garage is full of project cars at the moment. I played in bands through high school but not much playing at all in the last 12 years or so. Most of my friends that I jam with have small children that prevents full volume experimentation.

I am tuning my recently completed powerscaled liverpool right now and should have that %100 done in a few weeks.

[gtrwun]

Steve Niles
42 years old
Unmarried.....planning to stay that way/no kids

My main job is Parts Dept. manager at the local Dodge/Hyundai dealership. Been their for 14 years now. I also play lead guitar in a band ive been in since 1989. Christ that makes me feel old. We do all our own stuff, and its still good times after all these years. I also do repair and maintanence on guitars, and amps locally. My electronic skills are limited at best,but I mainly do work for my friends. I wish I had more theory under my belt......perhaps in time? Ive built a Ceriatone 18watt TMB, and purchased an Express fron Nik also, that I had a really nice cab made for. Should be pics still in the Trainwreck forum someplace. My main amp right now is a Soldano HR 50 which I love. Best amp Ive ever played for what I do. I also collect older Charvels.......mmmmmm, love those necks!

[falldowngoboom4]

Devin Lasher
age 13
Modifies fx for friends
built pc
built and sold guitar
Omaha,NE(Moms)
Brainerd,MN(Pops)
wants to build amp

[falldowngoboom4]

guess i'm the youngest, 19, college sophmore, sociology major.

i build pedals as a part time job... in other words i'm a self employed sweatshop worker. (it beats a resturant job)

i'm currently building a 5e3, it's my first amp build, i'm adding a TMB tone stack and a few other mods. My next build will be some sort of ODS clone.

i've been lurking for about a week.

i have seen a 18 yr old and im 13 as of last month

[kleinm]

Michael Klein
26 years old
Neurocritical Care Researcher, going back to school in the fall
Married w/ 2 cats

I've been a lurker here for about 4 months. Just made my first post today. I'm in the process of building my first amp, a Brown Note D'Lite 22. I had been building pedals for a while (have built about 15-20 pedals, about half are my own design or my own overhauls), but I'm already enjoying amp building more. Its like heaven with all those big caps, solder fumes, and a good unfiltered wheat on the bench.

Here are some pictures of my pedals.

Big Bang - Express-inspired w/ mu-amp simulating push-pull stage
[IMG:800:600]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l84/m ... G_1656.jpg[/img]

Klein-ulator - started as a JFET adaptation of the Dumble-lator, turned into something "bigger" with Series/Parallel routing, simulated Miller capacitance on input buffer, and a full recovery stage on the output. mat here built one and seems to dig it.
[IMG:800:600]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l84/m ... G_1615.jpg[/img]

die Ziege - Engl Fireball-inspired. For the metal moments.
[IMG:800:600]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l84/m ... G_1528.jpg[/img]

Albus - Hybrid-A inspired with revamped tonestack and interstage attenuation.
[IMG:800:600]http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l84/m ... G_1434.jpg[/img]

[dartanion]

Hey Kleinm,

Nice work with the pedals! How do they sound?

Seen you posting over at Rocco's place, how goes the D'lite build?

[kleinm]

Hey Kleinm,

Nice work with the pedals! How do they sound?

Seen you posting over at Rocco's place, how goes the D'lite build?

Thanks, man. I think they sound great. They use the triode-to-JFET adaptation method as popularized and tuned by runoffgroove. In my opinion, they sound and respond more naturally than a production pedal.

The D'Lite is going swimmingly. I just need more hours in the day to work on it. As it stands, I'm getting ready to connect V1-V3 to the main board. I won't get a chance to work on it much until next week, though.

[David Root]

Hi, I'm 62, semi-retired, living in sunny, warm Tucson the last three years and kicking myself for not moving here years ago. Married, no kids.

Completed the guitar to your left in '02. Built the pickups in it too. Have built and sold about 250 pickups over the last five years. This led me to amplifiers and I'm currently on number five, which is a 50W SLO-inspired head variant using 6550s with a full FX loop and toroidal iron.

Previous amps include:

Tweed Harvard using all 7-pin tubes, 6BF6, 6AT6, 6AV6, 6AQ5, 2-6X4s in parallel.

12-octal tube head with reverb, 4x6V6GT, 5x6SL7GT, 6K6GT, 2x5AR4.

Single ended E34L fed by paralleled Plexi preamp, Sozos, tonestack defeat pot, no NFB, 15W in a BF Princeton Reverb cabinet with a Weber 10. Sold it to my dentist for $1,200, he loves it.

Brown Vibrolux w/reverb, crammed into a BFDR chassis and cabinet with a Tone Tubby Alnico 12.

Planning a JTM 45 with toroids and different preamp, 2-KT66, followed by a blues harp amp, probably a 3x10 tweed Bandmaster cabinet with a 2-channel preamp.

[FE911]

Ed Rogers
Age 39(for another month)
Coffee Roaster, Cafe Owner

I used to be an avid collector/player until about 7 years ago when I had a freak Softball accident, and lost the ability to play guitar with my left hand. Multiple broken bones. Almost instant pain when trying to wrap it around a neck until the last six months. During that time, I ended up selling all of my gear. I had a girlfriend living with me at the time, and she needed the room. Funny thing is that I kicked her out just a little while later! Spent all the money on her-of course. Which was a considerable sum! Kept only one strat-should have kept one of the Gibsons, finding a good one is harder and more expensive than it used to be!!! And don't even let me think about my super reverb that I bought from a guy in Texas that had "Double Trouble" Stencilled on the road case! Noisiest, smelliest, nastiest looking thing you ever saw. Priceless!!
Now I'm starting to play again. Lost all interest in the vintage stuff. It's tough, I can't even remember AC/DC riffs. And the left hand doesn't do anything automatically, like it used to. Chord progressions with these torn up tendons is a time consuming process. I look like a five year old that has never played! Kind-of emberrassing to play in front of anyone right now!
Many years ago, I started fixing my amps. And I built a few from kits, simple fenders. And not the greatest results. But, when you are comparing newly hack-built tones to the truly awesome vintage stuff I had, of course there will be a little dissapointment.
So, here I am, a couple of guitars. Working in an industry that doesn't pay very much, and a champagne taste for tone. That's why I'm here with you guys. Built a couple of dc30 clones. Partially from Nik and partially scratch. And realised that there is a whole lot of my old '66 top boost in there somewhere. Actually more than most, since I kept a box of Mullards that I forgot about!!!! Those lit a fire in me, because I've made my own amps that I would be proud to play. Man, that clean channel with mullards makes me want to cry.
Those got me going. I've built a few others since then, express, tmb. And Like them all. Thank god for craigslist. I've just gotten 3- marshall cabinets for a song. Forgot how good those big sealed cabinets sound. The 4x10 with the g10l-35's I highly recommend for the express.
Now, I'm to the point where I realise that I know nothing, and if I want to really make a good amp. I've got to learn. So, here I am. I want you guys to know how much I appreciate forums like this. Where people like you are almost too generous with help and information. Any time any of you are near downtown Denver, I'll buy you a cup of coffee. Ed

[skyboltone]

Ed Rogers
Age 39(for another month)
Coffee Roaster, Cafe Owner

Well, welcome as all get out Ed. You sound like one heck of a fine human being to me. Just tell the girls you're a hell of a lot closer to 29 than you are to 19. Works for me.

[6G6]

Wild Bill the Bassist
55
unemployed electronic tech
bass player/band leader/band "fixit guy"
Fort Worth, Texas
I have been know to repair a few amps and occasionally bastardize a classic...I do own an original 6G6...that is no longer original, but with a pair of 6550s running 540V on the plates, it does a better job of being a bass amp.
I can also be found hanging out at Hoffman's forum and the FDP.

[mooreamps]

...

[Jack]

Sebastien Roy

Physics Ph.D. (recently graduated; looking for a real job but temporarily working as a post-doc for my Ph.D. supervisor)

29 years old

Not married but engaged for 10 years. 3 kids: 5 yo daughter and 1 1/2 yo twin boys.

Playing in the same band for 10 years which broke up a year ago. (looking for a new band)

2 plexi builds, one silver jubilee build, modded JCM900 SLX, superfuzz build.

Beside the aforementioned, own R7 LP, 1956 gretsch streamliner, 1992 gretsch 6120TM, 2x12 marshall cab and '66 fender tremolux. Effects include modded 80's crybaby wah, vox valve-tone and verbatone verbafuzz.

Next builds in line: trainwreckish build, revamping of the SLX as some sort of super plexi, rack mount tube wah (gotta get a job first.)