When I was in high school I had a cousin named Bryan. He had issues with telling the truth. But while I didn't trust him I loved the cat anyway. He wasn't a blood relative, just my god brother.
One day he showed up to my house with a Fender Showman, property of the Baltimore City Public School system. Yeah, he stole it.
But whatever. I'm sure they didn't notice it. The amp was missing tubes, badly neglected much like Bryan and that school system. It just needed help.
I was fascinated with the thing. I just wanted to get it working. I opened it up and shocked the hell out of myself on the still charged filter caps. It had power just no sound.
So I found a few tubes for it at Radio Shack and got some resistors that matched. I'm not sure if I even knew what a resistor was in those days. One just was burnt so I had to match it. Yes, Radio Shack in the Columbia Mall sold tubes! Good tubes. Not the crap made today.
I got it working. I remember it sounding like it was underwater, not in a bad way, it was just so warm.
Thus started my fascination with tube amps. And my fascination with the Fender Showman. I think I traded that chassis in on something I bought at Angela Instruments a couple years later. Early on when Steve had his shop in Savage Mill, or maybe in his house. Those were the days!
I did buy a working one when I was in Berklee. I used it for a while. I think I was fascinated as well cause a Marshall Plexi was intimidating to me. A Marshall seemed like an exotic nuclear power source. Yet, when I watched Jimi play Monterrey in the film, he had his Marshall and a glorious Showman amp too. Seemed more manageable to me.
So this one was from Indigo Ranch and had been sitting neglected for a couple or more decades. Simple re-cap, re-tube and there you go. I replace the (either 500pf or .1000pf) cap that feeds the phase inverter with a .002-.005. We're using the amp for a clean 80 watt bass amp. The Showman is 8 ohms, whereas the dual Showman is 4. I prefer these.
Such a beautiful sound......
Old caps. It's dumb but on an amp like this I re-use the sleeves cause they have the dates on them. But folks, do change the filter caps. It's just stupid not to!
Did the usual. New grounded cable yadda yadda..... Transformers are all original and this amp is no longer sad and neglected, its cutting tracks once again at Sonic Circus in Vermont!
J
One day he showed up to my house with a Fender Showman, property of the Baltimore City Public School system. Yeah, he stole it.
But whatever. I'm sure they didn't notice it. The amp was missing tubes, badly neglected much like Bryan and that school system. It just needed help.
I was fascinated with the thing. I just wanted to get it working. I opened it up and shocked the hell out of myself on the still charged filter caps. It had power just no sound.
So I found a few tubes for it at Radio Shack and got some resistors that matched. I'm not sure if I even knew what a resistor was in those days. One just was burnt so I had to match it. Yes, Radio Shack in the Columbia Mall sold tubes! Good tubes. Not the crap made today.
I got it working. I remember it sounding like it was underwater, not in a bad way, it was just so warm.
Thus started my fascination with tube amps. And my fascination with the Fender Showman. I think I traded that chassis in on something I bought at Angela Instruments a couple years later. Early on when Steve had his shop in Savage Mill, or maybe in his house. Those were the days!
I did buy a working one when I was in Berklee. I used it for a while. I think I was fascinated as well cause a Marshall Plexi was intimidating to me. A Marshall seemed like an exotic nuclear power source. Yet, when I watched Jimi play Monterrey in the film, he had his Marshall and a glorious Showman amp too. Seemed more manageable to me.
So this one was from Indigo Ranch and had been sitting neglected for a couple or more decades. Simple re-cap, re-tube and there you go. I replace the (either 500pf or .1000pf) cap that feeds the phase inverter with a .002-.005. We're using the amp for a clean 80 watt bass amp. The Showman is 8 ohms, whereas the dual Showman is 4. I prefer these.
Such a beautiful sound......
Old caps. It's dumb but on an amp like this I re-use the sleeves cause they have the dates on them. But folks, do change the filter caps. It's just stupid not to!
Did the usual. New grounded cable yadda yadda..... Transformers are all original and this amp is no longer sad and neglected, its cutting tracks once again at Sonic Circus in Vermont!
J
No comments:
Post a Comment