It all started when my friend Tony over at Teixeira Amps discovered one of his chassis had been fabricated inside out, so his layout and faceplate would never work. It was beautifully made scrap to him but I saw a challenge. I had this gorgeous Hammond output transformer from the 1950's (see 1959 Hammond catalogue page here for the specs) and I realized its mounting centers fit the existing holes perfectly. Tony was kind enough to sell me one of his power transformers (custom made by Heyboer), and I was off and running.
I modified the circuit I cooked up for the X to accomodate EL84 output tubes, simplified it a bit, and added a couple twists. Before mounting anything I letter-stamped it and shot it with a couple coats of Hammertone.
Here's a list of specs for the amp:
(I made an ARTIFACT logo for this amp, using the original logo as a stencil... but it just didn't look as good. Then one Sunday morning at the St. Lawrence Antiques Market I saw the car badge sitting on a dealer's table for 5 bucks, and I couldn't resist. Looks way cooler, and no vintage cars were harmed!)
Pictures:
Sound sample recorded with gain at about 3.5, tone on 5... running into two 1972 greenbacks in a pine cabinet. Can't go too loud in my present living arrangements, and the window got left open so you can hear Queen street in the background (streetcar, squealing brakes, etc.), but you get the idea. This amp has a sweeter clean tone than the X, with deeper lows and glassier highs thanks to what's essentially a Hi Fi output transformer... way higher quality and more expensive in the day than what was commonly found in guitar amps. Make no mistake though, this hot rod can roar! The overdriven tones are similar to what you hear on the X page, but with a punchier, less compressed nature.
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