Another Australian

[fulltiltboogie]

Hi
I'm from out in the Australian bush. So far out and so far back in time that I spend most of my time with tube amps and anaolgue stompboxes for guitar.

At age ten (almost 40 years ago) I fixed a tube radio by re-connecting the speaker wire to the output transformer. This worked so well that I thought I'd check the wires on the other side of the transformer, too. 300V later I gained a healthy respect for high-voltage electronics.

As a teenager I built a few things, including the playmaster 40 hi-fi (LM741 pre-amps and 2N3055s in pseudo-complementary output).

More recently, I've buit a Marshall 18W head and rescued and rebuilt a dying JTM60 (a terrific amp that someone had fooled with).

I build a lot of stompboxes (about 40 so far, maybe 50), and spend a bit of time over at the DIYstompox forum. My current lineup includes a germanium Fuzzface (clone), a JH-1 wah, a Stratoblaster booster, modified Maestro MFZ-1 (clone), a Rat (clone), a Dapon flanger, and a couple of other things.

Recent build include some old-fashioned low-power transistor amps with transformer-coupled output.
cheers

[Cal Weldon]

Hello ftb. Did you know they invented transistors and chips and stuff and then did a full circle back to tubes? Yes my friend it's true. So being that far out in the bush has done you no harm. You are still current. (sic)

Welcome to the forums.

[jacco vermeulen]

Mate,
i don't understand any of what you said, you must be a relic.
Then, you're just one or two years older than me, so i'm a relic too.
A bush Aussie, on the other hand, i'll welcome any day of the week.

[fulltiltboogie]

Thanks.
Although I live in the bush on a big house block/small farmlet, there is a city of 100,000 people and two small electronics stores not too far away. But it's the web and cheap travel that is allowing fanatics to interact as if it's a very small world.

Yeah, it IS kinda funny that quality guitar amps have stayed almost the same for 30 to 40 years. There's not many areas of technology that have seen so little change (I'd hate to be driving a typical car from 1965).

My main three amps are a clone of a mid-sixties amp (Marshall 1974X aka 18 watt), a re-issue of a late sixties amp (Marshall JTM60) and an original early seventies amp (MusicMan 65).
cheers