A couple of weeks ago, I built an amp, start to finish, live on Facebook. I had done some of the boring stuff like installing switches, pots, transformers, jacks, and power input in advance but I left all of the electronics work to do live on air. It was quite a marathon day, stretching into … Continue reading Live Amp Build Success!
Dan DiCerbo adopted People’s Amp #402, a 2xEL84 firebreather! Here he is taste-testing the 2x6V6 prototype #501: And his run on his new baby: I’m so happy with the beautiful cabinet by Sour Mash and the righteous combination with the Warehouse Guitar Speakers Invader 50 Welcome, Dan, to the People’s Amp family!
One of the things that I’ve learned in this venture is that nothing ever goes as planned, and things always take WAY longer than I originally think that they should. After more than a year of talking about it, I’m proud to announce the arrival of the People’s Amp Combo. Here’s a little video to … Continue reading Introducing the People’s Amplifier Combo
What’s your favorite vacuum tube? What’s your favorite thing about vacuum tubes? Above is the Arcturus Type 101A radio detector tube. Arcturus was one of the earliest American manufacturers of vacuum tubes, and they favored that lovely blue glass. They made such cool looking tubes, I decided to include them twice in this list. Here’s … Continue reading 10 Unusual Vacuum Tubes
When a guitar sound is described as “British,” or “American,” what do you think the differences are? Perhaps it’s just a clever way of distinguishing between the two giants of production amplifiers, the UK’s Marshall, and Leo Fender’s American monolith. Of course, we shouldn’t forget about the amps heard on more British Invasion records than … Continue reading Either/Or?
So, things often don’t go as planned. That’s ok, though, because they still go, and for that, I’m glad. Last summer, with big ideas about new designs and a new approach to the website and social media, things were just rolling right along. I had hoped to gain some momentum that would carry through, but, … Continue reading It’s been awhile…
If you’re anything like I am, you are fascinated by tubes, tube amps, and everything having to do with how they work, how to build them, modifying them, and, of course, playing our favorite guitars through them. I also really enjoy reading about the history behind how our favorite amps came into being. If … Continue reading Tube Amplifier Resources
Continued from last week’s installment of TubeTalk: The power section is where the hungry EL84 power tubes anxiously devour the signal and then blast it out in a monstrous fury of tonal bliss. These tubes work in a pair, each amplifying half of the signal sent along by the phase inverter. This so-called “push-pull” configuration … Continue reading A Look Under the Hood, part II
I thought it might be kind of fun to take a walk through the innards of your People’s Amplifier. I’d like to do so in a way that isn’t too geeked out in terms of electronics-speak. I fully realize that most of us who use amplifiers don’t necessarily know about the precise electronics theory involved, … Continue reading A Look Under the Hood, part I
As early as 1910, companies such act the Automatic Electric Company and Magnavox were manufacturing public address systems using technology developed for use in the telephone and radio industries. Broadcast radio first hit the airwaves in 1919, bolstered by improvements in vacuum tubes. This fit hand-in-glove with the rise of Hawaiian guitar styles, Western … Continue reading In the beginning…
The People's Amplifier 