We're somewhat
hard to categorize. Usually you have a guitar shop or an amp shop, not
both. And most shops are really only set up to repair and maintain equipment
within the manufacturers' original design. We deviate heavy from this
philosophy. Much of what we do is to take off from where the
manufacturers' vision ended and create something that is far superior.
Keep the good ideas and replace the bad or outdated ones.
Here's the
best way I can describe our business. We are a hot rod shop for guitars
and tube amps. We squeeze every ounce of tone that we can from each one
which allows you as a musician to sit back and concentrate on making good
music. If you've been a musician for a while, you know how important the
right tone is. Real Killer Tone. The right tone can inspire not
only the player, but his audience. Kind of a win-win situation.
You sound good, so you play better. The audience picks up the energy and
feeds it back to you.
O.K. So
we repair and modify guitars and tube amps and believe that Killer Tone is
essential.. Let's take it to a level deeper. A lot of our
reference points are from equipment that was built decades ago - guitars and
amps from the 50's and 60's - Fenders, Gibsons, Marshalls. We've had a
lot of equipment cross our paths over the years. Equipment that many
refer to as "the best ever made" and have had the opportunity to take them
apart, break them down and measure them, component by component, and see why
some sound so good and why others seem to be lacking. Why do some
Strats have that magical tone that makes them so hard to put down? How
come some amps sound great no matter what you plug into them? Can you
only sound good if you have something that was built in the 50's? Here's
what we've found out.
Everything can be improved.
You may not
realize it, but some of the products you are familiar with are modded versions
of another product. Jim Marshall liked the Tweed Fender Bassman so much
that he used the basic circuit and tweaked it slightly for his early Marshalls.
Soldano took the Marshall circuit and hot rodded it for his amps.
Randall Smith took a Fender Princeton and added some gain stages to create his
first Boogie. Similar things can be said of many of the guitars out
there. Paul Reed Smith for instance combined elements of Fenders and
Gibsons in conjunction with what he wanted to see on a guitar. Not all
guitars and amps are good candidates for modifications..........but most are.
I wouldn't for instance take a Tweed Bassman and try and turn it into a JCM
900. The inherent collectors value and great, classic amp tone (not to
mention the physical limitations) make this a poor choice for modding.
Routing out your '57 Strat for a humbucker and a Floyd Rose would likewise be
a bad move.
So what are
the good moves?
First,
guitars. Guitars are easy to modify and easy to convert back if you
want. It can be as simple as changing a pickup or two. Or maybe
changing the volume and tone controls to give you more output or power or
versatility. Or maybe just adding some different wiring options for some
unique sounds. The best we can offer electronically is our custom wiring
harnesses which combine many of the above suggestions in an easy to install
product that just oozes great tone. Even within the parameter of the
custom harnesses we have many directions that we can go in. Best of all
almost everything we offer for guitars is available in "do it yourself" form.
For amps we
offer some equally amazing things. We specialize in Silverface and
Blackface Fenders as well as Marshalls. The Fender are especially good
as there is a lot of room to work in and they already have extra tube stages
to borrow from as well as an additional channel (in most cases) that can be
rebuilt as something completely unique. You can have an awesome clean
channel, one of many types of overdrive (real tube overdrive), channel
switching, effects loops and more. Once again, should you ever decide to
(can't imagine why) it is possible to restore them to the original condition.
For those do-it-yourselfers, we make some a few simple but very effective kits
to boost the tone and performance of your amp.
You may have
come across some of our handiwork and never knew it. Our guitar products
and modded amps have been used in studios and live performance by professional
(yes, even some famous ones) and part-time musicians alike. We have
guitar and amp techs consult with us on the technical and tonal aspects of
musical equipment and our products and designs can be found on instruments
built by custom builders as well as production instruments. Much of what
we have done for the pros is available to everyone else either in product, kit
form or in-shop modification. Take the time to look through the whole
website as you may discover something you could use that you never knew
existed.
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