Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
I purchased a Vox Escort amplifier a little while back, and it’s quite a cool little transistor amplifier. It’s a simple transistor amp from the early seventies with an IC-based amplifier. It screams when turned up. Here’s my original post with more information on the amplifier (including a schematic). Anyway, I thought I might try recreating one, albeit in a different … Read more
Picked this up today – it’s a Goldentone guitar amp from the early sixties. Goldentones were made in Melbourne, Australia when imported amps were a rare and expensive sight due to import tariffs. Like a few early Goldentones, this amp does not have a name or model number marked on the amp itself. It’s a … Read more
Onto the Frognose – weird name right? It’s based on the LM386 IC, which is an audio amplifier capable of driving a small 8-ohm speaker. In the configuration below, it’s capable of 20x gain, so it’s a pretty decent booster. If you aren’t familiar with the LM386, two of them are used in the Earthquaker Devices Acapulco Gold, and one … Read more
I just bought this rather beat-up Vox BM1 Escort practice amp from the seventies, or maybe early eighties today. I’m thinking seventies, as it doesn’t have an IEC power connector, and the grill cloth is the red/brown colour. The back panel looks different to the one on Vox showroom and other photos that I’ve seen, so … Read more
This is a fairly obscure solid-state guitar amplifier from New Zealand – I don’t know exactly when it was made, but it does scream the 1970s. I bought it a few years back and have been using it as my test amp in the workshop/garage. I haven’t been able to track down a schematic, … Read more
Like others, I had read the hype about the Vox Pathfinder 15R and thought, really? I’d never paid any attention to them until I saw an article in Premier Guitar recently. So when I saw a Vox Pathfinder 15R pop up on Facebook marketplace at a reasonable price, I thought it would be worth a shot. … Read more
Here’s a nice little solid state amp for headphone use or a small 4Ω speaker. Good candidate for a bench top amp for testing purposes. You can board mount the pot and it will fit in a 1590A just fine.
Don’t know if you enjoy occasional story or not, but here one goes anyway. A friend at work was visiting his parents during easter holidays. His father is quite handy building stuff and while he had joined a local combo of fiddlers. He built himself a mandolin which was truly beautiful workmanship. Being handy as … Read more
Got a request for a headphone amp, “for those of us who hit their peak inspiration when everyone’s asleep.” Being guilty myself of waking up my 1 year old son with a Peavey Classic 50 with the volume only at 2, I thought this was an excellent idea. So here’s ROG’s Ruby–a 386-based amplifier that can … Read more
