Rootbeer Audio

This was an interesting job > The owner wanted to upgrade his old Airline 9022a amp and add reverb and a 12 speaker. He started to rehouse the original circuit (original terminal strips, resistors, and all) in a tweed deluxe chassis, that would eventually go into a repro tweed deluxe cabinet. The @surfyindustries reverb unit would be housed in the amp chassis, and would have it’s own input/output jacks mounted to the chassis>kinda like a modular guitar amp of sorts?¿? Some...where along the way he needed a little help, so I reworked and rebuilt the original circuit into the new chassis. New filter caps, some new pieces of wire, some new terminal strips, some new resistors (mostly only plate and dropping), one new coupling cap, new filament wires, etc. The amp sounds great through the 12 EV Force speaker in the larger cab. The three holes that are open in the chassis will house the controls for the reverb circuit, and the two farthest jacks in the photo will be the inputs and outputs for the reverb. This amp is seriously so much fun to play - I can’t wait to see how it ends up with the reverb. Enjoy Tom! #phillyamps #whatsonyourbench #phillymusic #airlinewards #vintageamp #guitaramps #knowyourtone #tubeamp #tweeddeluxe #surfyindustries See more

HAPPY ALMOST-HALLOWEEN!¡!¡ This Ampeg VT-40 was a slow rolling boil of a repair. It came in with mouse poop all over the PCB and with a broken (like shattered glass) tube. It got the normal, heavy service, toothbrush//ultra-sonic cleaning, new power tubes and bias (and @eurotubes dampener rings), a few preamp tubes, a total (electrolytic) cap job (and isolated the cans from chassis ground), and a rebuilt Phase Inverter section. It gets juicier - like many of these old Ampeg...s, there are some insane grounding schemes (on a good day, half glass full) and ground loops (sometimes they’re okay, sometimes they add to noise - half glass empty), so more attention was given to the ground connections - even for a gROUnd LOrD like myself. Rebuilding the PI and the intense ground work remedied most of the noise, but I also rebuilt the normalled preamp-out // poweramp-in assembly since everything flows through that. I have never played one of these before (that I recall, but my memory is slip sliding away). The overdrive sounds great, and the distortion control, while totally bonkers (a wHacKy soft-clipping-kinda diode circuit), sounds cool. It’s kinda like having a weird low-level fuzz pedal built into it. This took a ton of time to turnaround due to the issues, and admittedly my workload, and even more admittedly probably some pandemic///political mental state issues. But while I’m slowing down in output, quality is still the priority, and restoring//building amps for y’all is proving more and more to be my happy place in these uncertain times. If you’ve read this far down, I hope you enjoy your weekend and give someone or something a hug, because you both need it. #ampeg #phillyamps See more

This model of Ampeg (B25B) was my first tube amp and first tube amp repair (probably first shocks). As a bass player, while it wasn’t ever enough power for non-mic’ed basement shows and gigs, I still used it. I’d crank up both channels (jumped), and if I dug in, I’d get this great warm overdrive that didn’t get too thin and Marshally (a buzzkill for bass) and if you pulled back just a bit, you’d just get some 60’s-live-recording bass tone. It was the first non-sterile bass ...amp I had played. I could go on and on about this amp, and it’s less-than-well-known resemblance to the fliptop circuits, it’s deceptively simple circuit, and more. But I’ve mentioned this amp in probably tens of posts and blog posts over the years, so I’ll stop. This very clean B25B came in without almost no prior service. It received a full cap job, new power cord, new power tubes and bias, a few resistors, and an insane servicing: cleaning and tightening of damn near everything. For the techs and tech-minded out there, the craziest thing about this era of Ampegs is the grounding scheme. In some ways it’s ahead of it’s time, and in some ways it’s bonkers (kinda like all Ampegs). There is only one chassis ground and it’s through the input jacks. The whole power supply, the power tubes, and each and every little component touches down onto spaceship ground via the input jacks. While I usually sand and clean grounds (and tighten everything) I make a special effort with these old Ampegs. If you keep it stock, and don’t act like a grounding wizard it’s a great quiet amp! If you start acting above your pay grade and changing the ground scheme, well, good luck. Another sense of frustration in these ol ‘pegs (cool slang) is the humdinger pot (hum control usually found on the back). First, DONT turn it all the way to one side. You’ll destroy something. But more importantly, if it’s never been adjusted, or it’s been like a decade, spray some contact cleaner in it (it is a pot after all), and move it around to clean it. Then dial it back to center and go from there. I’ve had a surprising amount of static noises emanate from these things (even though it seems .... See more

Nothing fluffs my dork feathers like an Ampeg blue-line era amp from Ampeg’s 2nd stint in Linden, NJ. Maybe it’s the blue-lines. Maybe it’s that this is the first iteration of the ear-crushing loud Ampegs, or maybe it’s because in addition to the Sopranos, Pine Barrens, and all other wEiRD_NJ stuff, I just like NJ-memorabilia. Either way, these amps are wild beasts to tame electronically, but really cool. This example is really clean - and aside from some old power tubes a...nd a speaker swap (and some Phillips head screws in place of the original clutch head screws), it’s original. It needed a fresh set of power tubes, bias, a 12dw7, a 12au7, all new electrolytic caps, new power cord (and ground), the speakers rewired, and some small cosmetic stuff like - gluing some tolex. These amps can be dangerous for the novice tech, because if you recap it with modern cap cans, you will find hundreds of volts on the metal can (meaning, you get shocked. You will find many of these old Ampeg’s capacitor cans wrapped in electrical tape). I emptied out the old toilet paper roll covers and slid them over the modern metal cap cans. Some additional Sprague and F&T caps, and this rolling stone was ready to go! Enjoy the amp Ian! #ampeg #blueline #nj #linden #rollingstones #keithrichards #tubeamp #whatsonyourbench #geareybusey #amprepair #restore #vt22 #7027 #guitaramp #phillyamps See more