Weird Guitar Amps 

You sir. Went well beyond super nerdy.

Shhh! Yes, VOM phonographs and reel to reel decks are an excellent platform for parts-pulling and repurposing into guitar-amp builds ---- but I am always a little reluctant to tell everyone!

Ha ha. Nerrrrrrd

I know what you mean, they were my little secret back in the 90's VOM and Sony RtoR decks

Yes!! VoM!!

If you can find an old Systech Overdrive, that pretty much sounds like the first amp.

Immense sound. Needs to be a pedal!

Doesn't sound like fuzz, sounds like something electronically imploding. But great!

Great fuzz? Are you kiddin' me? That thing sounds like an angle grinder on a rusty gate! To me at least. But to each his own....

Challenge accept

And the used market just exploded...

Matched the boost pedal nicely too! :-p

mine too, nice warm tone...

Totally agree.

Great Amp!!!!!!!!!!!

lol

I love my Mig 100. I had one when I was a kid that I got for $200. Sold it to buy a Marshall cab you could get anywhere. Took me 15 years to find another one and I’m never letting it go!

Want to see this

Yo man there's a rebuilt one on eBay for $450 Voice of music 8810

@@davidjairala69 I got drunk and ordered it.... here's hoping for the best hangover of my life haha

@@thestammer4586 was it a quality hangover

@@davidjameschamberlain But not a cheap one...

The Stammer how did it go? Does it sound as gnarly as the video?

shaffera17 please yes

Still waiting.... !!! Maybe it’s on route to post for Christmas 🎄. It would be a Christmas MiG 50 Miracle!

I was going to make that comment....

@@jordandangelo180 now 2020 Christmas is over..

It's literally 2021.

J Rodriguez, yep, easily my fav of the bunch.

I like it quite a bit

LOVED the crown. Couldn't find squat on ebay. It'd be nice to add to the collection.

I did sound really quite good didn't it. I had an old Courier bass amp many many many years ago when i first started playing bass and it sounded amazing through a single un branded 1x15 reflex cabinet.

The tone reminds me of a cheap Japanese 60s valve amp for a record players called "Star". My old hippie mate dug it out his garage, I plugged my guitar in and it was classic clean tone, I recorded a few songs thru it and then it blew up, kind of sounded like a really clean 50s sparkly fender amp with just a tiny hint of grit

In Soviet Russia, all heavy metal music was played on lead amplifiers.

In Russia, amp plays you!

They had to do it after Chernobyl

Instructions not clear, tried hitting my pedal with an amp, forgot had my foot over it.

Andy 'Doog' Phipps I like that he keeps the channel family-friendly

totallyfrozen he’s a class act

Andy 'Doog' Phipps No doubt! He makes and sells pedals, but hardly ever even mentions his own stuff. He praises other makers’ stuff. Humility like that is hard to find.

@@totallyfrozen The dude just loves the stuff genuinely. Also, I think the guitar world is already sold on his stuff for the most part because of his rep with his business and circuit building philosophy and Customer service strength.

Jared Meit right? Really considering getting one

Damn. I already had another window opened and was looking at Quilter Interblock on Reverb before he finished the demo.

My Quilter Interblock 45 showed up today. What a coincidence! Yes, it's really good and versatile.

I have 3 Quilters. 1 Micro Block 45 for practicing and two 101 Mini Heads pushing a Hendrix re-issue and an Alnico Gold. One is set up more like a blackface Fender, the other like a Marshall. The sound is big even at low volumes.

That quilter making me rethink my whole rig

Yeah I found mine in a dumpster at a work site..great find years ago

He should just keep it on his board!

The Quilter sounds surprisingly good! Best fly rig amp?

That first amp was amazing.

It would be so sick if he made a pedal to replicate that fuzz tone. That’s far fetched, but I would buy that so fast.

Same!

You rying, Joe...

I know all about virtuosos... and trembalos... and arpeggios...

Japanese people pronounce the letter L as R.

@@florakovacs7043 - Thank you. Be well.

@@florakovacs7043 really, how fascinating.

Era Vulgaris era QOTSA would have had a field day with that first amp.

All of them. At once.

Literally exactly what I was thinking throughout this too, shame about the lack of a Tube Works head in here, or another JHS vid, but they’re undoubtedly very niche, even in comparison with the stuff featured here

I would LOVE to have a clone of that amp!

Same here. My fav. And would love a clone!

Well, if you like the converted PA amps, most of them that are converted for guitar use sound pretty similar. I mean the circuits are all pretty much the same and so it's pretty much just picking the input impedance and biasing that sounds good to you. Get rid of the negative feedback loop and (if it has it) the ultra-linear transformer and you are good to go!

Yes, it's the thick & beefy one of the bunch.

mootbooxle I watch your videos and seem to find you in the comments wherever I go. I believe you’re a wizard.

Build a fender champ clone with an extra gain stage (12AT7) but with an adjustable feedback loop. D-Lab has the mods schematic.

Hah! I had a gorilla! Cheap, played the hell out of it for 20 years. I think that works out to $5.00 a year! Money well spent!

@@jonhenderson8837 ha the infamous Gorilla amps the Line6 Spiders of the 80's had a couple, (of both Gorillas and Line6Spiders)could never say I fell in love with them BUT I did have a cheap arse 5w Crate combo for about 5 years before going back to bass - tiny speaker was complete crap but if you jacked it in to a good cab (I mostly used a closed back Laney 2x10 Jensons and a open back greenback Vox cab) it sounded great, which is the opposite of my usual experience with crate valve amps

I agree! I'm watching the entire vlog like it's a Netflix series 😂🤘

Same

Michael Cluff 👍

WOAH! Could you send a link to the schematic?? It sounds sick

@@stanzaman2790 Which amp? The little voice of music?

@@stanzaman2790 Anyhow, here is the Voice Of Music shown in the JHS video, in stock form. elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/63463243/23432455/egyeb/voice_of_music_8810_sch.pdf_1.png Neat circuit, but I decided to rebuild mine (different chassis too - original was too tight and very noisy) closer to a Fender champ which has higher gain. The VOM's tone circuit uses a decent amount of negative feedback, sent back to the first gain stage which really limits preamp distortion. The stock tone circuit also isn't voiced for guitar, so it doesn't change the sound all that much, although it is interesting. The stock stromberg circuit can also be found online - it is the Signet 22 aka the SAU-22. I own 2 now and redesigned the circuits entirely. Instead of having two 12ax7 inputs for multiple mics, I wired them cascade. One is kinda a voxy/marshally circuit with a TMB tone stack while the other amp has a preamp similar to a Brown 6g3 deluxe, but with a framus mid knob.

Hi could you please send the schematics?

@@giannipalmisano8071 similar to the last comments I posted, I don't know of you're asking for the original amplifiers schematic or a schematic of what I did to the amp. Click the link in my last comment for the VOM 8810 original schematic. After I modified it, I basically removed the negative feedback winding on the output transformer, converted the input 12AX7 stage to a more traditional cathode bias style (like a fender amp), and tweaked some resistor values to drop the B+ and run the tube at a safe level. I think I used two 750ohm resistors off of the power transformer before the rectifier. It originally used two 300ohms, but those aren't in that version of the schematic. As of now, the amplifier was completely rebuilt into a different chassis and the schematic is similar to the Fender 5f2A tweed Princeton.

It certainly isn't made for musical instruments.

It was an analog bowel movement, thank you very much.

That was no movement, that was a prolapse...it's unreal what some like regarding sound, taste is relative, but there seems to be an unusually large cross section of "are you fucking serious?" going on here...this is why engineers have an a-b-y routed to a boogie hidden under their boards at all times....",yeah man, that amp of yours does sound a lot like a markII! Awesome!"....

Yeah, but mine was all analog transistors.

Which is awesome of course

I made a HotPoint.

I made an Electrolux. (Actually an old Gates amp with the VU meter) I also turned the Electrolux logo sideways so it looks like a a thong bikini thru a spyglass. I used the knobs from an old electric stove. (simmer 2 3 4 hi) and jeweled power lights. Very steampunk looking!

My first amp was a weird old Yamaha combo amp that had a "blend" control for gain. Sounded great and i wish I still had it! I took an emblem off my first car when I sold it and the amp became the Skylark. I also made a guitar strap out of one the seatbelts- this was about ten years before Van Halen did it.

I have an old 50's chrome toaster and a series filament amp that I to integrate together, I want the tube glow to shine out of the toast slots, The gain control will be the "toast" darkness, light to toasty! lol. I know I'm weird, lol.

I had a V amp, I guess it was sprayed with liquid concrete, had a spring reverb and a metal grill over the speaker so you could kick it.

@Sparky Jo Glad you like it !

I'd swear he used a Digital Turbo Distortion on that. Weird but cool tonality.

That alblum is amazing

@@kampfkustomer2343 Piggy built his own pedals in Boss housings.

I also play a Quilter bass block 800 and it is truly amazing! Me and the 2 guitarists in my band all play through Quilter amps. They are game changers, especially for us since we fly a lot.

NashBeach , I've heard that Leslie West used a Sunn PA head to record "Mississippi Queen" . Have you tried that riff ? Could it have been a amp like yours ?

You can always change resistor/capacitor values in the preamp/tone stack to get more breakup and more tone. If that doesnt get you there add another gain stage. Sunn amps converted to guitar are one of the best guitar tones of the 70's.

@@sheolboy it's probably a Marshall clone like the Model T, if so.

Are you serious

Just buy any ultracheap fuzz pedal, you'll get the exact same noise.

It's a late 50's/early 60s Voice of Music 8810 amp. Mine lives inside a VOM 168 Stereo Twin amp that was designed to be a portable amp or PA to use with VOM's phonograph, turntable, or by plugging a microphone right into it. Mine is a 1961.

Its one of my fave Rush albums as well

Any album that has a song called "I Think I'm Going Bald" gets a +5 on the weird rating. It is the perfect transition album from their heavily Cream influenced first albums and the space prog of 2112 that followed. This was a good choice for this question. Bravo.

Agreed. They talk about this record as a troubled time and not being happy with it. It however propelled them to become what they became. Love this record myself. The Necromancer......wierd....but rocks like nobody's business.

@@turkeeg7644 the Necromancer is awesome

Jasmin Bellavance all their albums were weird and magical, never skip any of their songs!!

Could you make a video demo of that amp? Thats a historical amp if you have one!

@@versnellingspookie hi, thanks for your interest. I'll see if I can make a video of my amp. It is a piece of UK history.

Yeah, that was definitely my favorite. It sounds like it would cut through in a mix, too.

agreed. schematic would be sweet.

If it is anything like a MIG-50, which I suspect it is (especially with the mod to 6L6's, the 80 likely referred to using some Russian version of a 6550), then it is in the same family as a JTM-45 or Bassman. Sounds a lot like a modded SF Bassman to me, with a master volume and perhaps an additional post-CF gain stage... In other words, a "MIG-80 inspired amp" would likely end up just as another basic Marshall clone. Which is fine, but does the world REALLY need more of those?

electro harmonix actually may have done something like this relatively recently I think. Check it out!

I agree. That Sovtek MiG80 was pretty sick!

+1 for Melt Banana 👍

+1 more for Melt Banana.

Was it Melt Banana that does a live show with giant cardboard monsters duking it out behind the band?

Aaron Tackett I have the Bantam too! It sounds like what I wish a Super Reverb sounds like and you can jump the channels because they’re in phase. I use it with a reissue Fender reverb unit and it’s unbeatable. I love the speaker too.

William Nelson I need to get a reverb unit! I’m going to Carter Vintage tomorrow actually, maybe I’ll look for one.

I keep it pretty low most of the time but I love using it more than any pedal. It really gives me a feeling of goodness. I also have a Fender Musicmaster Bass amp that used to belong to Mary Kaye, as well as a Vibro Champ so depending on the room or my mood I can use the reverb tank with any of those. I’ve got other stuff but those are my favorites. I actually want another reverb unit to switch between lol

So let me ask you. Does this Mig 80 sound different from other Sovteks because holy crap i am in love with that Mig80.

Yeah man- Budgie was fantastic!

Awesome...i just recommended the same thing in the video I watched before this one.

You made me play Budgie ... it might be on all day now. Thanks !

I concur

Yeah, but his ambient is a bit bland and comes across as obvious nowadays, so his work as a producer is what is important.

Check out Eno's pre-ambient solo albums (HERE COME THE WARM JETS, TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN, and especially BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE). Those are anything but bland.

@@Bencarelle Uh, no. Eno created ambient to be "music as furniture" and was never intended to be something seriously listened too. It is for background only. His four legendary "rock" albums and the one live album he did with the band 801 is where you go to discover Brian Eno. No bland moments there. To truly appreciate his genius I recommend reading the wiki article on the recording of the "Here Come The Warm Jets" album. Especially the Production part where it explains his utterly unique approach to making that record. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Come_the_Warm_Jets

@@craigdamage In the liner notes for "Music for Airports", Eno writes that ambient music "must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention"; it must be "as ignorable as it is interesting", so being seriously listened to is definitely one of the purposes of this music.