Custom Designs

Although repair work is the bread and butter of this business, custom work is where all of the fun is. This can be as simple as tweaking your existing amplifier a bit or as complex as a ground up, from scratch, design. The amp pictured at right started life as a Marshall 2203X; supposedly a re-issue of an early '80s JCM800. This one's got a new hand-laid board that includes a tube buffered effects loop. It also sports a new choke and output transformer.

Given all of the folks out there offering to build or tweak an amplifier, how do you decide who to work with? The unfortunate truth is that many of these self professed titans of tone are either copying designs they've found on the web or cloning old circuits. These tend to be the same people who, when hit with the mathematics behind the circuit, tell you they design with their ears -- quickly followed by long rants about failed brainiac engineers whose designs looked great on paper, but ultimately failed to satisfy in the player's hands.

The first rule is to design both with your ears and what's between them. The second one is no bullsh*t.

Taken as a pair these mean that anybody with even basic skills can clone an old tweed Fender design. Why you'd pay $2K or more for it is a mystery. Anybody can search the web for Marshall or AB165 Bassman mods (and there are tons of both) and solder them into your amp. Even if this leaves your amp unstable or the various mods don't work well together. I'm constantly amazed at the number of amplifiers in fancy cabinets being sold as "unique", "custom", or "proprietary" that are part-for-part Fender, Marshall, or Dumble clones under the hood. I could rant for hours about special "musical" film capacitors selling for ten times the price of their more pedestrian counterparts that are provably no better than the less expensive part.

Instead, I'd suggest you look for a combination of knowledge and relevant experience. Above all else, find someone who listens to how you play, what you want, and can then translate that into circuitry. Give me a call and we'll see if I fit the bill.