And The Beat Goes On….
Well…. I apologize for the absence, but I’ve been a busy Boy lately. After I developed the new Pine Street model, and fretted over it’s release and delivery, I received a request for the same amp, in Tweed, and in a head, and with multiple speaker outs and……. Being amenable to special requests, I said “No Problemo”. Only thing was, there was a problem. The chassis is was using wasn’t really workable as a head, it was made to hang vertically, with the tubes hanging down. So I need a different sized chassis. Once I found a chassis size that would work with what I needed, the circuit board I used wouldn’t fit, and I would have to redesign the layout. That’s ok! I had some issues with parasitics in the trem circuit and wanted to redo the layout for that. Then, then, then….
What I thought was going to be a no brainer and quick, turned into a complete redesign of the amp, physically and electrically. What resulted, was a better sounding amp with less issues (actually none!) and a new form that I can use either in a combo or a head without changing anything. That’s a bonus!! It really helped me refine what I do and is helping me move toward being able to produce these much quicker and with more repeatable results.
This project has been a real learning process and although, it’s been alot of work, it’s helping me to get a “process” together so I can have a chance at being able to build more per month than a single amp. It’s also been the spark to get this thing called Miller Ampwerks into a business and not just a hobby. Great hobby, but the point was actually growing it to a point that I might be able to support myself doing something I’m passionate about. Not just slogging thru my day, enduring a J.O.B. until at some point I keel over.
Back to the amp…. So this is my new circuit, called the Pine Street, which is a low powered simple amp that harkens back to the low watt amps of my youth, that one might have found in a garage or den back in the 70’s. Yes people actually had dens back then, if you were real lucky your family might have even had a Rumpus Room with a tacky Naugahyde covered bar in the corner too. But unlike the small wattage amps back then which were great for rockingout in your bedroom, you would never dream of using it on the bandstand. Not loud enough, would cut at all and they usually sounded pretty crappy, but they did usually have that modern effect of Tremolo!!
Staying with that theme, the Pine Street puts out a respectable 22-24 watts, which is perfect for most situations in this modern hipster indie world. I mean no real need for a 100 watt “Can you please turn it DOWN!” stack. Also in keeping with the less is more Ethos, is volume, a single tone control, and TREMOLO!! After a lot of circuit tweaking and teeth gnashing and swapping of parts to get it just right, I finally felt it was ready for Prime Time. If you’ve had the pleasure to play an old Brown Tolex Fender Deluxe, you’ll have a general idea of the basis for this circuit. But the similarity ends there. This amp actually has some clean volume, more range in the tone control and a bigger and badder trem circuit, along with more flexibility in the inputs.
Here’s what they normally look like. Blue tolex with silver grill, modelled somewhat after the old Supro amps. I’ve always loved that look and wanted to do my take on it. I searched high and low for the Robin’s Egg blue tolex that Supro originally used, but no one makes it anymore, Shame… Anyway, here is a link to a video demo of the amp done by the fine folks at The Guitar Store up in Seattle, until next time Enjoy!
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