WRGKMC

I built one nearly identical. I used a strat neck, top load and wound up settling with a dual rail humbucker which came out of a Kramer I believe. It has one volume and a DPDT On/On/On switch which allows me to wire the pickup coils for Series/Parallel/Split. The pickup is hot enough to run split without having a huge dropout and I get a decent variety of tones. The only thing I should have done is install a string through body bridge. It would eliminate the issue with the wrapped ends and loose saddles. String through will also make strings easier to bend and have fewer tuning issues with string binding on the saddles. I may still do it sometime but it's not a guitar I play alot.

Silicone bought in a hardware store used for calking or weather stripping is both weak and heavy. It will dull your sound. I suggest you buy the stuff made for speakers. There are basically two glues. The white stuff that's thin like wood glue and the stuff that's a tackey type of rubber cement that dries hard. The rubber stuff is mainly for gluing the surround and spider down to the basket. The white stuff glues the cone and coats the surround. I've also seen epoxy used for gluing the coil to the cone but I havent had to use it since the cones I've replaced had that part completed as a partial cone kit. In a pinch I have repaired cones with wood glue thinned with a little water then brushed onto the cracks. I've had some of those repairs last 30+ years without a problem but I'd never use it on good speakers because glue adds weight and kills treble. Try adding silicone to a junk speaker and hear what it does. Guarantee you'll get nothing but mud tones. Maybe in a pinch for a bass woofer but guitar, beware, you wont like the results. use wood glue if you must and apply it thin or send for the right stuff.

Ive used Tung oil on many guitars. Its surprisingly more durable than Lacquer and can be built up in layers to look like lacquer. On necks its fine too but difficult to work with on maple fretboard necks. It has to be wiped or brushed on and to get it smooth you need to apply it before fretting then apply a last coat after fretting which means you have to sand between frets which is quite difficult to get a good look like you can with sprayed lacquer over the frets. Most people use Tung for a minimal finish but I suggest they try applying it in thicker coats over a couple of weeks to get a thick high gloss sanding in between until it looks like glass. Its truly bullet proof when you're done and its excellent for a natural finish. I have also found you can apply lacquer over it or vice versa if you want. The varnish they add to most tung oils is quite compatible {Varnish is the traditional finish for orchestra violins, cellos, claranets etc and is very musical friendly} Its simply a slow process to apply but the benifits of duribility over lacquer or poly are there.

The OP might do better comparing the sound he wants by the bands he listens too. If he were to say something like Stevie Ray Vaughn for example, there's tons of documentation on his amps and how he used lower gain preamp tubes. Even there, it might not give you the same results given the fact he used super heavy strings tuned down a half step. That was mostly live too. On a recording you have Mics, EQ's and every kind of trick you can imagine, to get whatever tones you want. I Also keep this in mind. Most terms used in audio were taken from other artforms which have no connection to the science. Words like Tight, Loose, Rich, Warm, Cool, Hot, Natural, Smooth, Thick, Mellow etc are in fact Slang terms people used to communicate things. People use them without a solid understanding of their use in science much like the companies that build electronic devices and simply invent words for their own products. I've seen words like Scream, Growl as substitutes for Treble and bass and if you understand what an audio filter does it can still make sense. To understand Tightness, you should first understand its opposite - Sag. The easiest way to identify Sag when it comes to vacuum tubes is to think of a sprinkler hose. When you step on the rubber hose, there is a time delay before the sprinkler goes down. This is because energy in the form of pressure is stored in the elastic hose and that pressure takes a few seconds to go down when the hose is clamped off. Likewise, it takes some time for that hose to expand and the pressure to maximize before the sprinkler goes back up to its maximum level. In tube amps you have the same thing, in fact that's why they are still called Valves by many techs because they have similar roles as your foot on a hose acting as a valve. It's not just the tubes, Transformers and Capacitors actually cause the delay. Caps delay DC voltage changes and coils delay AC changes. Tubes themselves do not create the sag you hear and therefore aren't responsible for tightness directly. Its the surrounding circuitry that supports the tubes that cause the current to sag when you pluck a note. Of course, a tube can compress a signal when pushed but clipping isn't the same thing. You have plenty of drive pedals with no sag at all. A compressor and drive pedal together is what most closely mimics tubes. As far as a tight sound goes, the exact same tubes in different circuits will give you varying degrees of sag vs tightness. You can even have both in the same circuit. Preamp sag with a tight power amp, Tight preamp and saggy power amp, both tight or both saggy. It depends on age, components, design, operating voltage, speakers used and even the wall outlet voltage. Many players take incredibly tight sounding amps and give them a Brown Out reducing wall voltage to dim the valve voltages, much like turning the water pressure down so the hose is softer. When you step on the hose it may even cause a temporary increase in the water height as you add pressure to the hose followed by it going down. Again this depends on the amp circuit.

Don't rule out defective tubes. Buy from a reputable dealer like Tubes and More or Tube Depot and you'll have less chance or getting a dud or someone's used tubes. Places like EBay are full of people unloading their spent tubes. Unless you have a tube tester its often impossible to know if those tubes were already used in an amp. People buy the same brand then stick the used tubes back in the new boxes then sell them as new. Some of the Music Gear places aren't a whole lot better. I was burned with two sets of bad tubes from Musicians Friend. One set popped and crackled badly, (Ruby Tubes) and the other had low gain and noisy output (JJ's) I eventually got a good set on the third try using Electro Harmonix. It could have been people returning the tubes and then they wound up back in new stock. They might have been damaged in shipping from China or Russia to the dealer or the dealer to customer. They may have been improperly manufactured. New tubes are usually tested but that's on a tube tester and a tester isnt the same as actually hearing the results in an amplifier. Because of this, I'm an advocate for better packaging. Tube manufacturers should be putting tubes in sealed boxes instead of simple fold up cardboard boxes where opening is undetectable. Tubes used to be dirt cheap, even the used ones but given the over inflation of all electronic parts now, the temptation, to rip people off is ever present. A solution would be to have boxes with a seal that indicates the boxes have been opened just like an asprin bottle has. A date stamp like some vintage tubes had would help too. Second party and middleman vendors who buy tubes in bulk would benefit too. Some tube vendors but large containers of raw tubes. They then test them to get matched sets then label them with their own name. They then box and sell them to customers or another vender for final sale. Ruby Tube does that. They buy huge lots of Chinese tubes at a discount then do everything from testing, matching, Labeling, and Boxing. They don't manufacture any tubes. You find the same thing with guitar strings. Only 50% of strings are manufactured by the label company. At they might put ball ends on or package them. Sometimes even that is done for them. When you see a company that sells limited sets, beware. Anyway, try a different brand of tubes and you'll likely be OK. I would make sure your tube sockets are clean. Heat rises and as it does it draws in cool air from the bottom just like a fireplace does and any dust or smoke in the environment gets drawn right into the tube socket. You should get some "Non-Lubricating" "Zero Residue" Contact cleaner and spray the sockets once a year. Don't use potentiometer cleaner. It has lubricants that attract dirt like a magnet and will make the problem worse. Silicone/Mineral oil in the lubricating sprays is great for the carbon sliders in a pot to prevent wear but the heat of a tube will cook that stuff off and leave a non-conductive residue on the contacts. If yourer hard up get a can of denatured alcohol at home depot then use a Q-Tip to wet the contact and wipe the tube contacts.

Thanks for that link. Those look like a good option. Yes, I would notify a buyer if I was to sell it but that one is eventually going to be inherited by my son.

Thought I'd throw this one in too. I bought a Gibson LP 40th Anniversary Model new back in 1991. A few years after buying it I was doing some electronics repair cleaning pots and the nozzel on the can was twisted and overshot the amp chassis. Wouldn't you know it shot onto the Headstock of that beautiful Paul and caused moon craters all over the headstock. The Contact cleaner had denatured Alcohol in it and it instantly melts the Lacquer finish. I didn't even notice it for a few days. I tried buffing it out using polishing compound and all but never got rid of it completely. I was afraid of removing too much and destroying the LP logo which was under the finish. I had always planned on fixing that with an overspray and finally got around to fixing it a few weeks ago. I figured it won't be too long before this will get handed down to one of my son who plays and want to restore its value which has more than doubled in 22 years. I removed the hardware, prepped it, taped everything off and gave it a few coats. My plan was to build it up, sand it smooth then give it a high gloss topcoat, buff out the flaws wax it etc. All was going great till I did the sanding. After a week's drying the new finish just peeled off taking the gold spaghetti logo with it. Man was I pissed. I hate doing finishing to begin with. Its really and artform unto itself, and if you don't do it all the time, the smallest mistake can lead to disastrous results. I determined the problem was the temp and possibly the lacquer I used. I had a half can left over from another job and I did the job in the basement. Its dry don there so Moisture wasnt a big issue, but it was much cooler being air conditioned which extended dry time between coats. The directions said 15 minutes between light coats and I gave it 2 Hrs or more between medium coats. One of the coats was still soft and sanding caused the finish to simply peel. As a fix, I found a place that sells a decent replica of the label. It may be slightly off sized, I really couldn't tell without having the old one there. It looked spot on to me so I proceeded in doing the Decal and overspray. It wouldn't be bad looking without it but I'm glad I used it. I got it all done, let it dry 2 weeks then put the guitar back together figuring job finished. Looked great again, and it played as good as it ever did. Put it on a stand in the studio for a few weeks then decided to restring it. To my horror, I saw the finish had cracked where I had torqued down the tuners. That LP model uses Hybrid Tuners that look like the old Klusion type with Pearloid buttons except they also have 10mm threaded bushings much like most modern tuners do. For some reason these caused the finish to crack at each tuner extending out a millimeter or two in all directions. I thought to myself will this figgin nightmare ever end. So once again I had to pull the tuners off, and start over again. I sanded out the cracks top coated it again, the let it dry 2 weeks again. In the process I discovered the cause of the cracking. In the prepping process I had been using a wad of paper towel in each open tuner pressed down to make a slight depression. This insured the finish came up to the hole but didn't coat the hole inside narrowing the hole requiring it to be removed installing tuners. What happened was the paper ntowel got a little saturated and upon removal I had some paper towel sticking to the inside. When I installed the tuners it pulled on the finish stretching it towards the holes and eventually cracking the finish. What I did was take a file and remove all the overspray into the holes which seemed to do the trick. The tuners still compressed down on the finish but at least it didnt pull it twards the holes so no cracking. (Lacquer is a resin that can remain semi fluid for many months before it dries into a hard crust. Its why you want to avoid putting a freshly lacquered guitar on a guitar stand because dents can appear where it sits). I'm still debating on doing a fret job. It still has some meat on the frets so its not critical right now. Gound gibson necks are the toughest to do too. Luckily, I recently got myself some needed fret tools. I got a fret bender and made myself a new fret press. I bought a set of cowls and the mount and fitted them to a screw type wood clamp. Best you can do without a drill press and I'm likely going to try it out on a spare Tele neck I have. Anyway, Here's the after shot. Looks good enough to me.

For this one It was both cosmetic and tone. I switched from a Tortoise Pickguard to a Whit Pearloid which also has the Hendrix style reverse route angle for the bridge. I though the reverse angle might tame the bodies brightness but that was pretty much a fail. I tried the pickup in another Tele too and wasn't overly impressed with its tone there either. I'll likely go back to the right-handed version at some point, but I'll wait till it gets beat up. Pickguards are incredibly inexpensive and its a mod any player can do when changing strings for a change of pace. Again, I Tried the Vintage Alnico V style pickups which aren't bad. The Pick compression was pretty good as were the clean tones, but It seemed to sound too generic to my ears, especially cranked up. I couldn't tell much difference between any of the selector positions and felt I could do better. I Eventually came up with the idea of using Mustang/Duo Sonic pickups instead of the same old strat pickups. I remembered how great my buddies vintage Mustang sounded through his Tweed Bassman and was looking for some added midrange to the pickups. I'm glad my 40 year old memory of that tone was setup was still valid because that was in fact what I got. I couldn't afford to buy actual vintage Mustang pups, but I did find a vender who makes excellent replicas for $35 a set. They even have the right wire, magnets and gray fiber bobbin material. The Mustang pickups are only a 2 pickup set so I figured I'd try them in the Strat temporarily along with Strat neck pickup. I left the Classic Alnico I had in there and it balanced pretty good volume wise. The big difference between the Mustang and Strat is the poles are Flush on a Mustang pickup and the covers have no holes. The Pickups came with nice solid Cream covers but I decided to switch to all gold hardware and bought a set of 3 Gold metal covers instead. I had Gold tuners and knobs already and rounded it out with a new gold bridge. The bridge holes and bevel were botched. Cheap parts often have flaws you need to watch out for. A flat metal file for the bevel and round needle to widen the holes and I was in good shape. As a note, a stock Strat whammy should float like butter and return to pitch if its installed right. Often times they hang up on the screws or lack lubrication. A file and graphite grease can make they work as well as those expensive monsters ant 1/15th the cost. Anyway, the tone I was getting from the Mustang pickups in the bridge and mid positions were really good. Not only was the mix of both warmer than most strat pickups I've used but they sound great running single. I've always been a fan of a strats #2 & 4 position but this was definitely an improvement for this guitar. I always been able to judge a Strat's tone by how well the single pickups sound. If you can play both lead and rhythm on any pickup it's a winner, especially the middle pickup which can often sound wanky. I played it several months with a strat pup in the neck. It wasn't that bad considering but even though the poles were flat they extended beyond the bobbin by a couple of millimeters so it was thinner sounding compared to the others. I do have at least a half dozen other sets of strat pickups in my parts bins but given the hassle of pulling the pickguard and trying them out its at best a hit or miss way of doing it. I opted for buying a second set of Mustang pups to replace the one oddball. I would have the one problem involving pickup polarity and phasing to deal with. The Mustang comes with a north bridge and south neck pickup with one also reverso wound so they hum buck with both on. Original strats were either N/N/N or S/S/S when they only had 3 way switches, and later switched to N/S/N or S/N/S when they started using 5 way switches so they would hum buck in switch positions 2 & 5. When I got the second set of Mustang pickups I had an issue. Should I use a Bridge pickup in the neck position so I has a N/S/N humbucking config or should I try a Lead in the neck and middle and use the rhythm in the Rhythm giving me a N/N/S configuration. (Or two Rhythm S/S/N) Given the fact Mustang pups had a simular signal strength in the neck and middle, I figured I'd try the Lead, Rhythm, Lead configuration first. It wound up being a good choice. I simply adjusted the neck pickup down a little and they balance out fine. If they were a custom strat set, where they had different magnet strength or string spacing issues, I might have had to try something else but as is the coil difference was only a couple of hundred ohms different so adjusting the height down a millimeter did the job to balance them out nicely. I think I'll leave it as is now and declare it a completed build now. I may do some more body work at some point. The Tung oil finish is a little wavey due to the wood grain. I may sand it smooth and put a few more layers on at some point, but its perfectly good for now. It definitely gets those Jeff Beck tones using the Vibrato. As a note, The neck was a basket case when I got it too. The fretboard was much wider on one side near the nut making it impossible to level and it had thin banjo frets. I had to pull the frets and level the fretboard then refret and refinish it. Came out really good too. Never had a strat with a wide thin neck like that. I've had boat necks but this one is super comfortable playing chords or lead. Anyway, this is what I wound up with. I think the gold worked out really nice on this one and I think the whole thing coat me around $200, less than an Affinity Strat costs now. Plus its light as hell. I can play this thing all night and not feel fatigued.

Hey guys. It's been a while since I checked in here. Been busy after the move from TX to VA which was a nightmare moving all the gear I had collected. Between the home furniture and the gear, it filled the largest moving truck the moving company had, and the cost was close to 10K just for the move. Everything made it OK without damage. That was mainly due to the way I packed everything. Some of it got pretty creative. I had 25 guitars and basses to ship so I took the necks off most of them and crated them up in bubble wrap. In fact everything was pretty much bubble then shrink wrapped. Since they charged by the number of square feet, I packed a lot of gear inside the speaker cabs too. I knew I had a lot of stuff, but you don't appreciate it till you pack and unpack it all. Anyway. I have Two builds I spent quite a bit of time experimenting to find a good setup. Both have bodies made of sycamore which is exceptionally light wood. They weigh maybe 4 pounds each unloaded, and the tone is also quite different from a normal Strat and Tele which made finding a good pickup choice difficult. I started with Vintage spec alnico 5 pickups which weren't bad but given the brightness and lack of wood density I still wasn't satisfied. Since I already have a half dozen other strats and several other tele builds, I wasn't afraid of trying something less traditional seeing I had that covered already. First major change to the Tele was to try out the Keith Richards Micawber mod putting a full sized PAF in the neck position. I first tried several hotter pups, but it caused an imbalance with the single coil bridge. Richards used a hot would pedal steel pickup in his tele and I don't have any bridge pups worth rewinding to compensate. I instead switched to an Epiphone PAF which came out of my EPI Dot. I had put some 57 style PAF's with Alnico 7 magnets which have more gain than the stock DOT PAF's which have Alnico 5's. That wound up being an excellent choice for the neck, except for the added bass which made the blend of the two pickups a bit rough. I gave each pickup its own volume pot which helped blending but I still wasn't thrilled. Maybe it's me getting older but I prefer a set and forget setup that requires minimal tweaking. 2 or 3 great tones using the switch and a single volume is my thing. After doing several recordings I realized this thing was still a basta*d for tone and playability. At the same time trying to get the right pickup tone I was also trying out all the different possible bridge types. I started off with a Classic Stamped steel 3 saddle bridge, went through all the adjustable types and was into my third version of 6 saddle bridges and it was still coming up short. I needed more mass to get the kind of sustain and pinch harmonics a tele in noted for. I eventually tried the last option which was to install a PAF tele bridge with a 6 brass saddle bridge. The bridge was only $12 from China and I swapped the cheap potted metal saddles for some chrome covered brass saddles from another bridge in my cab. I put another EPI PAF in the bridge. I had a second set of those EPI pickups that supposedly came out of an EPI Les Paul. The bridge has a good bite to it so I suspect it might have an Alnico 7 instead of a 5. The ohm meter test is nearly identical to the stock Dot but its slightly hotter so I can only surmise by the way it plays now. In any case, it wound up being an excellent balance and I now have something that sounds close to a Tele Custom. I may eventually try some wide range Fender style pickups to get a broader response but I'm in no rush. I'll do a separate post for the Strat. Thanks for reading.

If you only roughened the finish you won’t need to do anything else. If you’ve cut all the way through, you can develop problems with moisture getting in the wood and softening the wood. This can cause acceleration in warping/twisting the neck, and constant action/tuning problems. It doesn’t occur overnight of course. It typically take a few months for the wood to turn a nasty gray color which gradually gets deeper into the grain. After a year or more you may have to sand off a lot of wood to get down to healthy white wood for refinishing. I deal with this problem a lot when regretting guitars. What can make it even worse is when you get any kind of oil on the bare wood. Many polishes have lemon or mineral oil in them which makes maple look nasty as hell. Once it leaches into the wood, it’s stains the wood permanently. The only fix then is a tinted or solid coat to mask the problem. I’ll also say refinishing a neck and getting a good factory look isn’t easy. It can be downright frustrating in fact. My advice is just leave it alone and play the instrument. If you’re focused on the feel you’ve lost focus on the music. If your hand sticks to the neck get some corn starch (baby powder without the fragrance) and put it in a small cloth bag. Tamp the back of your neck down to keep your hand dry and your hand won’t stick.

I get that quite often. It’s typically the wound strings. if the frets and setup are good and it’s strings are relatively new, I suggest you check and see if the strings are twisted. twisted strings can cause you a whole lot of head scratching with the oddball buzzing and intonation issues they cause. there are three parts to this that you should watch out for. First is avoidance when you install the strings avoid adding twist when you wind them on pegs Second is diagnostics You can identify strings twisted end to end Third, correction. The sooner you fix the twisted string the less permanent damage is done. when installing new strings - before you connect the string to the tuner - grab the string at the bridge and use your thumb and finger and draw the string towards the nut allowing the wire to untwist and stand upright When you do put it through the tuner avoid twisting it after you tune to pitch seat the string by stretching it till it quits going flat in pitch pulling up on the string at the 12th fret Next this is the tough part, take the low E string at the 12th fret and twist it cylindrically between your thumb and first finger. You should be able to twist it in both directions the same amount with the same resistance with strings that are twisted you may be able to twist it one way and not the other If there is no twist it will turn quite easily on the low E string. The A and D are a bit tougher but can still be detected using sensitive fingers You can even tell if they are twisted clockwise or counter clockwise undoing the twist consists of listening the string and untwisting the string at the ball end 1/2 or 1/4 turn if typically all you need to correct the worst erratic vibrations I’ve done it on unwound strings too but given the thickness twisting doesn’t cause as much of a problem with buzz I will also note besides buzz there can be a dramatic improvement in string tone when there is no string twist the string vibration is more side to side vs elliptical or erratic Chords are more ch more solid with fewer oddball oscillations occurring. Better intonation can be achieved as well. Check it out. Thick strings like on a bass can have this problem too. It’s not the type of thing you think can make that big a difference because you simply aren’t aware the problem exists.

Leveling the fretboard steins on vs strings off can be answer. Strings add at least 100 lbs pull and getting a light weight maple fret board level before you level the frets can be a real challenge. it doesn’t take much to botch a instruments fretwork either. I was reminded of this recently with one of those cheap Chinese necks. The original frets were so bad I decided to regret it before mounting it. Did a really good job too. As it was I had a lot going on and I didn’t finish the build for several months. Necks without string tension to tame them can do strange things. I leveled that sucker 4 or 5 times and no matter what I did it kept moving and wouldnt settle down. After a years worth of fighting that thing I figured I’d redo the frets one last time. I also decided to fix the issues with the fret board. It’s thickness in the nut area was too thick and made the whole leveling by process problematic. Like a house, you have problems with the foundation anything built on it will never be right. Anyway I used a radiuses beam to level the fret board and used the right fret saw and depth gauge and the fret jab was dam near perfect I had one fret above the 12th that didn’t seat properly so I pulled it and redid that one before getting to far along leveling I use super jumbo frets for a fluted neck feel. The less leveling needed the better also leveling is typically the easy part crowning and polishing is the part that takes a lot of elbow grease As a tip, use a black magic marker and color the frets before you level and then again crowning with a fret file As you file through the painted surface it highlights how far you go removing metal If one fret is too high it’s easy to bring those down to match the others. If one is low all the others must come down to match sometime it’s easier and faster to bring one up by replacing it then to bring all the others down It’s simply one of those calls you make based on an experienced eye supported by careful measurements

It looks a lot like the Univox guitars made in the 70s.

Back when I first started playing electric (late 60s) with experience and gear choice limitations You would dial in whatever sounded good. Typically pushing the limits to match the loudness of a live drummer. You’d be lucky to have a decent amp no less pedals that weren’t readily available. Today the gear limitations simply don’t exist like that. Not only do you have accessibility to decent quality low cost instruments but nearly endless pedals and amps. Anyone who can’t find a multiple variety of decent tones simply isn’t trying very hard or lacks the experience. playing live doing cover tunes in a band should force a player to seek out the best tones for the role you’re playing I know I spent countless hours helping others to dial up the right sound Dow whatever songs we played. You quickly learn everyone cannot dial up lead tones and expect to be heard when playing with other guitarists. Even in a trio with a single guitar you still have vocals to be considered. If a bridge pup selection doesn’t mask the vocals go for it. Typically I would tame the rhythm back when I’d sing so both could be heard equally. Leads had a higher energy level so you wouldn’t be sucked into a sonic hole in the soundscape during a solo. The experience I gained recording teaches you much about these finer details. Playing live you can get away with a lot especially if you use a good sound man doing all the tweaks. You only need a sound that allows you to play well. Recording you have to target the right tones from the start because you learn there are definite limitations to how much you can tweak tracks and still sound as good as good as possible.

There are several different versions of Marshall amps. If you're looking for a Plexi Tone, 80's Marshall, or New metal you need a different box for each of those tones. You typically need to compensate for whatever tone your amp produces too. Some pedals "might" be able to make a Fender amp sound like a Marshall if it has enough high end midrange to change the amps voicing. An amp (and speaker) with a wider Fidelity tone may need more compensation then another. Besides having several actual Marshall amps I have at least a dozen different single, multi effects and rack effects units with marshal tones. I can say some do a better job then others. When you play through an actual Marshal amp its not just the tone that's important, its the string sensitivity and attack that makes a huge difference. You may be able to get close to the tone using only a pedal, but it doesn't compare to the real thing. I typically use two amps, recording and performing and I'll use a marshal pedal to get the non Marshall amp to match closer the real thing. I can typically get a Governor to match the drive and tone of the actual Marshal drive channel quite well. Tone wise I may not bother as much. I often want the second amp to widen and expand the range of the Marshall instead of cloning it identically. Besides getting all the notes on the guitar to match may not be possible. There are too many differences not only in the frequency curve of the amp but the speaker too. You may get an open chord to sound identical, but as soon as you move up the neck some tones will drop or boost in loudness due to these frequency response curves. I will say I doubt any audience will know or care about the differences, but they typically aren't musicians with a set of advanced ears and finger tips either. The rule of thumb is, if it sounds good its good enough. It may be hard getting a pedal to match the real deal if you have no A/B comparison to work with. Some pedals have too much range and never really nail the tones to begin with. If I were to recommend pedals, I'd give thumbs up to the actual Marshall pedals. They manufacture the amps and who would know better. The Governor is great for the 80's tone. The Blues Breaker is excellent for getting a Plexi or OR/20C tone. I haven't owned a Jack Hammer but they supposedly nail the New Metal and grunge tones. The vintage Black box version of the Governor is supposed to be very good too. There are many other pedals which nail the tones, and you simply have to buy them to try them and hope its a good choice. Another option I've used is a bit different. Joyo and a few others make units designed to act as a voiced preamp. You put these boxes at the very end of your effects chain and tweak them as though you're tweaking a Marshall head. You leave the amp after this box set for maximum clean fidelity and use the box for dialing in drive tones instead of the head itself. Then you'd use your other pedals as if you were driving a Marshall head. I have several of these Pedals and I'm able to nail a Vox, Fender or Boogie amp as needed. I simply dial up the clean tone first then dial is a small amount of drive, always 50% or less drive. I'm able to get a really nice clean tone which sounds like the speaker is being driven hard. I'll use my other pedals to gain full saturation in steps as they are turned on. Here's an example of that box. $39 new is well worth the cost. Amazon.com: JOYO JF-16 British Sound Guitar Effect Pedal Amp Simulator - Bypass, DC 9V and Battery Supported : Musical Instruments I can say this pedal can be used before others like reverb and echo or even placed as a normal drive pedal but I recommend you use it at the end of the chain. Then switch it on and off so there is no bump in volume, only tone and whatever gain you want as a backdrop to your other pedals. Get one of these then use a Governor before and you'll have two of the most favored Marshall tones nailed. Amazon.com: JOYO JF-16 British Sound Guitar Effect Pedal Amp Simulator - Bypass, DC 9V and Battery Supported : Musical Instruments

Ever try and kill the volume of two independent volume controls at the end of a song? It can be like a one legged paper hanger in a kicking contest as you fiddle your volume down and feel like a fool as your instrument overshoots the song ending which should cut to dead silent. Having the ability to cut the volume using a single knob is a reason why many prefer Fender guitars. Of course what they never get to experience is all the subtle tones as you blend the two pickups at different levels. One way around it is to use one of the tone pots as a master volume but having two pots in series can suck some serious tone on an instrument which tone is typically dark enough to begin with. Rickenbacker uses this method. They wire the volumes to work independently then use a master volume. I suppose this helps control their Rick-O-Sound, stereo pickup wiring for running two amps. You could adjust each amp separately using either pickup volume then adjust the overall with the master volume. I can say, wiring them independently does make for a slightly brighter tone. You sacrifice some bendability however. When you adjust one of the two down it quickly disappears in the blend after you go down two notches or so. I have one Tele build where I used a treble bleed cap on the bridge pot and none on the rhythm. The rhythm gets darker as it attenuates and the bridge brightens. It gives me an expanded range of tone when both are turned down a bit. Which wiring scheme is better? That's something you simply have to try and decide for yourself. I do recommend using a volume pedal if you go independently. By the way I believe its the tone caps which are wired differently in LP's not the volume. There may have been an exception some place, but the wiring in a 50's vs Modern LP was strictly a difference in how the volume tapered with the tone caps connected to the center volume vs the output. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegearpage.net%2Fboard%2Findex.php%3Fthreads%2Fwhy-50s-wiring-on-les-paul.1617639%2F&psig=AOvVaw04oY7EyT-5hCUFf4QAhrVv&ust=1631098157374000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAgQjRxqFwoTCLCDqaTY7PICFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD If course this doesn't stop one from rewiring the pots, but I'm not sure the taper is all that good for independent wiring. The last time I tried this on my DOT it didn't work so hot. With the normal combined wiring the taper is ideal for working the pot between 7~10 for blending the two. Independently, the second pot disappeared completely within that range and dialing back using distortion often required 3/4 of a turn down on a single pup. As others said, you simply need to try it and use it awhile that way. Personally I think the normal combined wiring is genius for tone and control. Like I said, I do have several instruments with the volume independently wired but these were exceptions based mostly on tonal considerations. Since I mostly record now I'm not worried about blinding stage lights and fiddling to find the knobs. I can use whatever wiring that provides the tones I want. You want something really complex. Wire a strat with three independent volumes. Cool blends but its an ass for live work.

With the type and size of the signal feeding most inverter tubes, balance isn't an issue. The tube is there to invert the wave so you have a separate Positive and Negating moving waves which drive a push pull power amp. If the inverter was pushed to saturation then the resultant squared wave might have an issue with size, but Inverters typically work within their clean range (even though they might be passing a squared wave from the preamp) The signals feeding them are attenuated by resistors so the wave will be within the tubes optimal operating range. IF the two sides are uneven, that's where your power tube biasing typically comes into play. You can easily attenuate whichever side is higher feeding the power tubes with a resistor or balance the power tubes to get an even output. I would say this however. The brand/quality of and inverter tube can be an issue depending on the type of amp you have. Example, My 50 year old Music Man 65 head is an early Hybrid that uses a SS preamp, Tube inverter and power tubes. Those heads are noted for literally catching on fire when the Inverter tube shorts. I've never had an issue because I keep new tubes in it. On the other hand my Blackface Bassman uses a 12AT7 tube. I've tried maybe a dozen different 12AX7 tubes plus all the other 12XXX style tubes over the years and none of them change the sound quality, Preamp tubes, definitely make a difference, but the inverter, nothing you can detect by simply listening. I write it off due to the fact the tube isn't being pushed that hard. Its operating within a clean range and all it does is invert half the wave. If the tube was running closer to saturation, then maybe it would reveal some kind of effect on tone. The quality of the tube may effect the sound quality however. Just not in the way the others do. I tried out a JAN tube on my Bassman and experienced issues. It creates a weird harmonic effect similar to ring modulation or uneven symmetry. I was surprised because the tube had high ratings compared to all the other 12AT7 tubes. It may have simply been a dud or the issues didn't show up when run as a preamp. I swapped it for an Electro Harmonics and the icepick harmonic disappeared. I had a Marshall Plexi, Sound City, Ampeg and others too. The inverter had no effect on those either. In fact, as an electronic tech, I used to do all kinds of amps. The most I ever got from an inverter was Noise. Because the tube was often different then the preamp and had little or no affect on tone, most musicians skipped replacing them. The tubes were left to run 2 to 3 times longer and only got replaced when they became noisy. Of course as a tech you knew it to check it when an amp came in for such noise, which was more often then you'd think. Best thing to do is simply replace all tubes as a full set and you'll never have those issues. Quality tubes from a trusted vendor doesn't hurt either. Most used tubes look like new same was a light bulb would when you polish it up so beware of people trying to get rid of their spent tubes. There are no vintage audio tubes any more. There are loads of counterfeiters selling junk though. They even counterfeit the boxed to make them look like NOS.

Power amps are dependent on the load for wattage ratings. Typically the lowest allowable impedance will give you the maximum wattage. Simply bridging an amp does not mean you'll get 1600 watts to work with and all you're doing is converting a stereo head into mono so it doesn't actually get much louder (unless the paralleled speaker load drops to the minimum the head can match. I suggest you check the manuals. You have to know all your component ratings and check the Math before you know what can work best. You can find on line calculators if you need to mix and match different loads. Most critical the rule of thumb working with PA heads that have variable impedance is to never go below their minimal impedance rating "Especially" if you're going to pump allot of bass. You can run the impedance higher and its unlikely you'll overheat it, but running too low you should only run a matched load and use quality cables at 25' max which should be good enough to span a 50' stage. I don't recommend using 50 ~100" cables on modern power heads, especially if you're hurting for volume to begin with. (It is why they use a snake with passive systems. The power amps remain on stage and its the low impedance mic cables that run long distance to the mixer with minimal loss). The technical reason is due to the way the amps are designed. SS amps have lower current higher voltage. Long speaker cables consume a huge amounts of power the longer they get and turn power into heat instead of sound. Powered speakers can be much louder at lower wattages because the head is mounted in the cab and may use only 1' of wire to connect to the speaker. As far as fixing your powered speakers. It may be fairly easy if its only a matter of having set for long periods. If its speaker cone rubbing due to heat an moisture you can often massage it back to full operation. you can carefully move the cone in and out and see if you can detect ant rubbing. I've had countess occasions where the speaker screws loosen up and the basket gets improperly torqued. I've even had to reverse warp the basket using washers to shim it up to prevent the cone rubbing. you can also try running the speaker alone from another head too. Just be sure to disconnect the internal amp first. If the speakers blown cone manipulation has no effect. you can also tell by the sound if you have a trained ear. Cone rubbing increases with volume. A shorted coil can have both a deformed voice coil that rubs and partial operation that loads the amp down into distortion. If the issue is the amp head and there is no apparent reason other then having set for long periods, the first thing you should check is Pots, jacks, and Switches. If you work the pots rigorously and the distortion diminishes, its simply a case of moisture that's corroded the contacts. Powered speakers likely use line level attenuators which rate at maybe 1 to 10K ohms and can be cleaned with potentiometer cleaner. Be use to use "Only" pot cleaner. If you don't have some buy it. All audio gear needs it eventually and its typically the leading cause of noise having left gear in storage. Costs around $10 a can. Never use Standard electrical cleaner. It's designed for high voltage switches to remove carbon and contains nearly 100% denatured alcohol. It will leave the pot completely dry making much worse and also decrease the lifespan of a pot. The stuff used for pots has mild cleaners and water resistant lubricants made of silicone or mineral oil. This prevents arching in the pots and is safe on the kinds of plastics modern components use. For the jacks I suggest you spray the plug then work it in and out of the jacks a few times. "Do Not Flood an Open Jack by Spraying into the open hole" This is the worse thing you can do. Most jacks are PC mount now. When you douse the jack you create an oil stain on the board which winds up collecting dust like a magnet which eventually shorts the board out. Switches, simply work them till they work properly. Most new style switches are designed to work until failure where they get replaced only. If you attempt to clean them you strip the grease off the rocker inside. This can make a switch freeze up, snap off the plastic inside or simply fail prematurely. I've taken many apart and repaired them but most aren't designed to be repaired and the small parts/springs inside are easily lost. Best option, simply change them when they fail. Lastly, make sure you use good cables. Don't trust anything you may have used before, especially your signal cables. If you use high impedance cables for connections (Guitar style phone cables) these often get used as speaker cables in a pinch or by accident. These cables are designed to pass maybe 1V maximum. Speaker signals are hundreds of times stronger and will literally fry the cable from the inside out. Once they overheat the copper separates from the insulation. This allows oxygen and moisture into the cable and the copper strands in the cable tarnish/oxidize. This makes a signal cable super noisy. Not only microphonic and crackly but it can also quit intermittently. It can be tough to troubleshoot too. By the way contact cleaner can get sucked up into the cable wire cause the same issues. It turns the copper brown and causes the same kinds of failure as oxidation. If the connections and pots are clean and the noise is still there, feed the amp into a different speaker to see if its a problem with the head. If it is the head, you'll likely need to contact the manufacture for a replacement. Dot trust you're local tech to try and repair it. Most self powered speakers use Class D amplifiers which are not only highly complex to repair and troubleshoot. Manufactures do not provide schematics or parts any more. Most simply swap the entire unit which is cheaper then paying a tech to repair it. If its the speaker you may be able to find a close replacement. Best recommendations for DIY is to try Parts Express. They have both speakers and amps for cabs. Maybe you could get what you need there if the manufacturers cost is too high. Parts Express: Speakers, Amplifiers, Audio Parts and Solutions (parts-express.com)

I love that orange burst color. Does it have an actual wavy maple top? If so maple it should resonate pretty good through that F hole. The mini humbucker is a good touch too. I have three Tele's. One is semi hollow and has a pair of mini HB's which is my favorite for recording. The other two are standard Tele builds. I plan on putting a full sized HB in one of them to get a Keith Richards tone. I'm simply waiting till one needs a strings change. I Have and Epi DOT HB which Is a lower output 57 style alnico II pickup. Its likely to get clean tones like the staggered pole fender pickups do. I had the leftovers when I put 59 style Alnico 5's in my DOT. They were the ideal pickups for changing it from a Clean/Jazz tone to Rock. The 59 in a tele is likely too hot to match a bridge single. I suspect Richards has a hotter HB which created a balance issues. He tried to combat the problem using a hot wound pedal steel pickup in the bridge. There's a big question on wiring too. The best I was able to derive, he uses Esquire wiring with a blend pot which is pretty wild. He uses the second tone pot as a HB blend instead of a variable tone and the switch turns on different caps. New Tele's simply run the pickups in parallel with the switch centered. It relies on the output and pickup height to get a balance. I already put higher output pups in my Tele's so a cooler HP will likely give me a balance. Hopefully I can keep it that simple. I hate making poor mod choices. Its better when you choose the right stuff the first time. Sorry to drone on here. If I only had two guitars to choose from it would be a Tele and a Les Paul. The pair cover just about anything you need tone wise. Anyway, good luck with that one.

Thanks. Good to be back. That's pretty good singlewide. The only way you can improve on it is to do an entire sanding and refinish. Even then it has a nasty habit of highlighting flaws. It wont improve the tone of course. You already took care of that so simply enjoy playing it.

That's a single ended amp running a single power tube. Changing its bias level by changing the fixed resistance is the only thing that's going to change the amount of drive. You can try different brands of tubes but I doubt it will have much effect on an amp that simple. Given its age Its also a very dangerous method of changing the sound you want. The caps in that amp are likely original and have values that have drifted far out of specs and also seeing its still got metal can type army surplus tubes from the 40's (The Military used metal tubes instead of glass so they didn't damaged in combat so easily) If you go and monkey with its specs you may wind up smoking the thing. Besides its far cheaper to simply buy another amp then to pay someone with enough engineering knowledge to do the work correctly and safely. Beyond that, if you want more drive and punch try an Electro Harmonix tube instead of a JJ. They are much higher quality and have fuller frequency response with less noise. It will likely get louder too which gives you more headroom. Anything beyond that I'd focus on either a different amp speaker which has a huge impact on tone and drive, or you can change the guitar pickups (or both) to achieve the changes you want. Pickups mostly affect the amps front end and change how much dig and drive you get from the strings. Frequency response and preamp drive are affected too. Just remember the Hotter the pickups, the narrower the frequency respose. You may get more drive but you also loose top and bottom end. Speaker changes since that amp was original built are like night and day. Not only are they far more efficiency, (more sound for less watts) the types of materials used are going to give you the best tone vs drive, vs loudness. I wouldn't be surprised if the original speaker has an efficiency of a Hi Fi speaker in the 70/80dB range. A new speaker can have an SPL of 90 ~ 110dB and not only give you better tone but make the amp 2~4X louder. Of course knowing which speaker (or pickups) that might give you what you need is not going to be an easy decision. I've been an electronic tech and musician for over 50 years and I cant tell you what might be best for you. If I had the amp in hand using your guitar I could "instinctually" find better accessory choices based on my experience but there is nothing to say my choices would be anything you'd prefer. This is why we are all mostly left to using the trial and error method of getting what you want. In short you roll the dice, spend the money and hope you don't get burned too badly if you make a poor choice. The best you can do is educate yourself as much as possible like you're doing here before buying something. This should at least help you avoid making complete failures by not diligently investigating what you buy/ Believe me, I could have retired on all the money I've spent on stuff I failed to study thoroughly. Then again you don't learn those lessons without someone looking out for your best interest that has the wisdom to help you choose. When it comes to tubes, they quit designing new tubes 60 years ago. The guys like myself who were trained in tube technology are a dying breed now. Few even mess with them any more because there is so little profit in it. You cant earn a living at it. Companies that make amps simply recycle classic designs. Since the tube choices for audio are limited so are the amp designs. Fact is, there isn't much difference between tubes. On top of that you can only wire a tube so many ways to get decent tone while remaining within a safe range of tolerance. The more you push them to be unique the more likely you wind up having catastrophic failure. If you can afford huge repairs or do those repairs yourself then maybe you can risk running them out of specs to obtain some small measure of difference. In your case I'd recommend the K.I.S.S. method. You have a simple amp, Keep all mods simple and reversible. Try some a different speakers so you at least have some idea of what might sound best, then save the original speaker in case you sell the amp. take it to a music store and try different guitars through it then note the pickup type. Most amps have an ideal match. The pickups, the amp circuitry and the speaker all complement each other. It only takes one of those things to be out of specs and the tone goes to crap.

Based on the holes and their spacing, I'd suspect that guitar had a had a Bigsby vibrato system and floating bridge installed. The 4 holes closest to the tail, likely held a Tele style Bigsby. The other holes likely mounted some kind of bridge. At first I thought the hole routed would accommodate a Mustang type bridge that "moves" with the strings when the Bigsby is used but there must have been more to it. The original bridge is low profile so some kind of roller bridge that required routing to get it low enough to mount was needed. I've seen Kahler vibrato's that used shallow routes but this one seems unique. It may have been a bridge rigged up to work and they butchered things to make it fit. As far as getting the holes filled in. What I'd do is fill the route in with epoxy putty. It does a wonderful job in cases like this and its better then wood putty because it doesnt shrink. You can sand it smooth too. Simply tape off the area around the bridge so you don't mess the remaining finish up. You can find it in most hardware stores. You mix it up like clay and then fill in that hole under the bridge. You should get back some bass tones with a flush solid surface. You can use the putty on the screw holes too. Normally I'd simply use tooth picks dipped in CA then trim them off flush with the surface after they dry. You can use felt tipped markers to color of the trimmed end to match the surface better, then use a drop of CA and a tooth pick to seal the end of it. If the looks still bothers you find some ornate stickers like stars and stick them over the filled holes. It should be enough to satisfy any curious minds. The only other option is to refinish the top after matching the plug color. That a tough job to simply fix some screw holes and unless the instrument has great value I'd advise against it. Personally I've done excellent work with the putty alone. Its easy to fill un holes using a putty knife and since you can buy the stuff in a Yellowish color you can easily darken it with a brown marker quickly applied and wiped off till you get the plug colors right. Wiping it with alcohol will remove the marker if you need to start over. Once its right, a drop of CA or lacquer will seal it up.

Hey guys, I have the 50W version of this amp. Bought it as a portable right which fits easily in the back of my Mustang GT. The amp does have a line out but beware. It cuts the sound to the power amp and speaker when you plug into it. Also it only captures the preamp, not the valve tone of the power amp. Its not that the preamp tone is bad, it simply doesn't have the same drive as a driven tube it uses for its tone. What did with mine is to rewire the jack so it only taps the tone from the preamp leaving the power amp running. The 1/4" jack is switched so I bridged the two pins on the jack with a switch so I can run the amp with the power amp on or off. The other issue with allot of line outs on amps, most are wired between the preamp and power amp. because of this they are often full frequency and lack the drive and coloration the power amp and frequency curve a speaker provides. Some manufacturers realize a direct "Speaker Emulated" line out is an option many owners want. If done right it can not only isolate the amp from stage/'studio noise but can add the coloration and time delay a speaker cab produces. The best example of this I've used is the one in my Marshall Valvetronix head. The cap emulation is top quality. Other then the unwanted bleed a mic cab produce the difference between micking the 1960 cab and direct tone is so good I quit using a mic on its cab for recording. For most other amps that have a line out with no cab emulation, there are two easy solutions. For older tube amps you can build an amp emulated DI box for the cost of a few caps and resistors. I added one to my old Bassman and music man heads decades ago and they still work fine. You can even build them into a box you can place between the speaker out and cabinet. I used one live for 10 years when I played bass using my old V4 Ampeg setup. This is the circuit. I added a 500K pot to attenuate the signal down if needed. These components can be placed in a small metal box and you simply connect it to an external speaker jack for recording. These specs are good for an amp up to 50W. If you use a 100W amp I'd use a higher value resistor then the 470K. The caps in this circuit add the cabinet coloration and get rid of the ice pick tones you normally get straight from an amp without a speaker For guitar amps, the speaker itself has the effect of compressing, delaying and rolling off frequencies. This is why most sound men prefer to mic the cabs. A typical speaker and say a SM57 mic have a distinct roll off below 200Hz and above 5K Trying to create a frequency curve that matches that ideal result using the line out and an EQ is extremely difficult and even then the spatial aspect if a cab and the delay of the speaker piston pushing compressed air is non existent. Luckily you can buy a small digital speaker emulator box to do that job for next to peanuts now. I bought one of these new for $29 and it worked so good I bought a second for stereo applications. The box is far better then the antique EQ solutions I used to use recording. It works similar to a virtual amp plugin in a recording program that uses speaker IT cab impulses except the impulses are hard wired into the box and you use a selector switch to choose the speaker type from a small 10" open back cab tone all the way to a full stack of 12" The Vox, Rolland and Blackface and even the Marshall cabs produce excellent tone for live or recording purposes. You can simply Velcro it into the back of a combo amp and leave it plugged into the line out to bake it easy for setups. You can find dozens of others if needed. Some are way over priced so beware. Anything over $75 for these kinds of boxes is likely a ripoff. Tomsline - Shaper (Cabinet Simulator) | SV Devices | Reverb

I did business with them for several decades and never had a problem. This was Pre pandemic however. The covid situation has devastated the tech business just like all others, maybe eve more so. I'm in that business and lost my job all due to the fact so many business are shut down. Even before I was laid off all my vendors contacted me to let me know normal service would be slowed dur to reduced manpower. Tube Depot - Tubes and More - Antique Radio Supply and Parts Express are all reliable companies and have had excellent customer support in the past. Best Tube choices have nothing to do with these warehouse vendors so long as the tubes are new and they are shipped without incident. Different manufacturers have different tube quality of course and finding sets that match your gear can take allot of trial and error. Some of the comments made in this nearly 10 year old thread are quite amateurish. The one post that asks about how tubes are tested and questions why tubes are sold with different breakup levels was the funniest. Most tubes test good or bad. The quality is based on mechanical construction. The construction is engineered into the design its not tweaked to give you hot vs soft tubes. There are companies like Groove tubes which sort tubes and separate them into categories of Hot Medium and Clean but that's simply a matter of taking advantage of having a wide quality tolerance. Its not like they purposely make different tubes which are clean or hot. Most pros will simply chose tube types based on experience. You get to know how tubes sound in different amps and Gravitate towards one depending on what a customer wants. Last time I bought tubes I tested around 5 different sets of power tubes and a dozen sets of preamp tubes to find tubes that sounded best in my vintage Bassman amp. Amp circuits can vary quite a bit so the the quality of sound you get from any particular set of tubes can vary allot as well. Trusting other peoples opinions beyond a certain point is therefore quite useless unless they have the same amp as you do and all the other variables like the speakers paired with the amp and even the instruments used and musical preferences all come into play with what someone might consider best. Example, someone who uses pedals may need a solid clean amp tone compared to someone who gets their drive by saturating a preamp tube in a drive channel. "Best" tubes are therefore completely subjective but you can still learn much from others. I use preamp tubes in allot of different pieces of gear so I have collected and tried many different types of preamp tubes over my lifetime. Out of the new tube types commonly sold, JJ's are solid but unimpressive. They produce allot of midrange amp may be good in an amp that needs a midrange boost on a drive channel but they lack sparkle and jangle for clean tones. Sovtek has 4 or 5 different types. All produce lack luster results. I used Groove tubes for years in my Bassman and they are actually quite good. Quite similar to the Vintage RCA tubes U used to use. same with the power tubes. I got 20 years out of a set and they were still fine when I decided it was time to upgrade. There are a couple of different Chinese factories that make tubes but since they will brand tubes with any company logo for a price, knowing which company actually manufacturers them is difficult. Marshall, Mesa Peavey and many other amp manufacturers have their stock tubes made in China or Russia and branded with their names. On top of that you have companies like Ruby tubes which buy budget tubes from China. They test the tubes to get bias matches then brand and box them with their own labels. I tried a set based on a friends recommendations and was bitterly disappointed. Not only was the sound quality noisy but the tube elements started arching out shortly after power up. Given the fact the tubes originated in China, were shipped to another factory which handled them for testing and packaging, then they were sent to another on line vendor for sale to customers, then that product was shipped to a customer in a small box thrown around in plane and delivery truck, I wasn't surprised the elements were mechanically weak by the tine I was able to try them. Dealing with a vendor who handles tubes are the time is far better as is dealing with non branded tubes. Anyway, I could have gone with the same Groove tubes on my Fender. Its what Fender uses on all their amps since before they bought that company. I did try the JJ power tubes and again was unimpressed. I got good results using their EL34's in my Music Man amp. They were one of the only brands that could handle the higher plate voltages those amps use, but now that companies are making the 6CA7 tubes again I use the correct tube type in that amp now. I went with the ElectroHarmonix tube in that amp and was so impressed by its sound I tried the same brand in the Fender as well and got superb results. The tone is clean and unmuted, and they give you at least a 20% perceived boost in volume and tone compared to others like the Sovtek and JJ's. Even in starved voltage circuits they do extremely well. Like I said, results will depends on the type of amp you use. If I had a bright amp with fingernail on blackboard tones like My buddies Peavey amp, I'd want to try different tubes to reduce that edge before messing with the circuitry. Trying different speakers is another good option because its impact on tone and gain can be much more acute. Plus its allot easier and less risky compared to messing with things like tone stacks and tube biases.

Most caps will discharge when the amp is powered off depending on the circuit design. I worked on amps for a living for half my life and the only time I'd accidentally get zapped was when working on the amp with it powered up. Most of the troubleshooting you do to find problems is done with the amp powered up so being careful around hot spots is important if you don't want to glow in the dark. If I were doing a cap job, then I'd drain off any residual voltage jumping the Hot and cold leads just to be sure but rarely if every seen actual sparks like you might with the cap removed from the circuit then charged up. Power caps are typically across transformers and resistors so they discharge very quickly in most amps. How dangerous is the voltage stored in a cap? They can give you a nasty blast but how dangerous depends on the path the charge takes and how large and long it is. AC "current" is the stuff that will kill you. Caps can only store DC voltage, not AC. The voltage can be high, but their current is typically very low. It also dissipates instantly so its lot like AC that will freeze all the muscles and prevent you from letting go. Caps typically give you nasty reminder like a sharp blow that stings like a mother. Can it kill? Possibly. The paths needs to be across the chest like having on hand on the chassis and the other touches the hot lead. This might stop a weak heart when it discharges. to be honest I been zapped hundreds of times and always recovered. There is an important rule you're taught when working on gear. Its called the one hand rule. When you're probing around in a circuit you "only" use one hand. You keep the other hand in back of you or in a pocket. Never Hold the chassis or any ground when probing. This prevents a path from hot to ground across your chest. You can still get bitten badly but its typically localized to the hand only from the palm to finger etc. Still a nasty bite I wouldn't want anyone to deal with but you take yo a profession like electronics, shocks and fire come with the trade. Trick is to simply take common sense precautions and avoid doing stupid stuff by being careless.