Sweet Thunder started as a custom amp for my friend George.
He was the inspiration for the direction the circuit took and is credited in naming the amp.
We talked about what amps he has played in the past that he liked, what players he was fond of,
what he was currently playing amp wise and what it lacked.
The common amp circuits he liked were mostly Fender, but also mentioned was Vox and Marshall.
We needed good cleans (all amps must start there), the ability to get some nice break up and tone at
moderate levels, and some light reverb now and again. Good start.
In talking about some of the players we came up with Jimi, Luther Allison, Chris Duarte, some SRV,
and a little Roy Buchanan thrown in for good measure.
In researching these players and the gear they used a few things came together.
First was the Fender amp. All across the board Fender was there. Even Jimi used Fenders for recording.
Second was the late great Cesar Diaz. We all know he was Stevies amp tech but he was also Luthers
guitar tech and certainly no slouch of a player himself having played with the likes of Bob Dylan.
I researched what Cesar was doing to modify old Fender amps to get more tone and reliability out of
them for his clients and brought a lot of it into this amp.
This amp loves pedals. It "plays well with others"!
So what's the nuts and bolts?
The essential circuit is the venerable AB763 with a couple of toneful twists.
The amp re-designing began with the transformers.
We wanted true and pure tone with power.
We wanted tight bass response that didn't flub and get muddy at high volumes.
We wanted punch, definition, and tone!!
Instead of using puny transformers and tiny 6v6 tubes, we opted for just a little bit more...
Big fat Bassman iron powering a pair of 6L6's! Sweet tone and power!!
Ok so we have some great cleans and plenty of headroom to work with.
So how we gonna get it to sing without knocking you over?
For starters I used a Ken Ficher designed master volume.
Master volumes often get a bad rap and indeed some of them are about the worst thing for tone.
This is mostly due to large companies having defintive bottom lines, budgets, and accountants looking
over the shoulders of engineers.
Ken's design is great in that it works very well when used and when you crank the original tone is
intact in it's full glory!
There is no sacrifice with this MV. It works and works great!!
We also added a mid range control. We want the amp to sing and we want to be able to voice that
singing and a mid control will certainly help. BF fenders without them actually have a resistor inside
performing the same function that a pot would.
Alright we can now have great cleans and we can also set our preamp a little higher and hotter without
blowing the roof off the joint. We're getting warm. What about if we want to get a little grit and grease
to get things interesting!?
We added a simple pre-amp boost Ratio control!
This allows you to bypass the tone stack more as you turn it up.
The result is that gain that is normally lost to ground through the tone stack can instead be sent to the
phase inverter and power amp. It's great to get those edgy pushed Tweedy tones!
It goes from warm, to greasy hot, to granola crunch, to screaming with a British accent!
Ok so now we're cooking with gas. We've got the makings of a tasty gumbo. All we need is a nice garnish.
Like a sprig of parsley we've got some finely tuned reverb to finish it off.
I can finish off these amps with the stock reverb we all know, a slightly tamer version that gives a lot
more useful tone across the pot rather than just off, on, and Grand Canyon tone.
The second version does lack some of the fully dimed saturated surf sproing tone so if your going to
go surfing I suggest keeping it stock.
For those that want it all. I will be happy to add dwell and tone controls.
With them you have all the functionality of a real Fender outboard reverb unit built in to your amp!
Kick ass? You betcha!
Cost more? Not on your life! Yours for the asking!
Slave/DI output for recording, board feed, or feed to the input of another amp.
Bias taps to allow easy adjustment of the bias voltage. Meter and instructions included with each amp.
We have the essentials of what it does.
Now what went into it and why?
Well we discussed the big iron that went into this "little" amp. Why do I use Mercury Mags brand?
Well it isn't for savings that's for sure. I could do like some and use cheap foreign sourced iron and
save a bundle!
There is a lot of smoke blown by amp companies using cheap iron. Some go as far as to re brand
the iron and claim it is custom made just for them! Unfortunately those cheap irons tend to blow smoke too!!
Mercury Magnetics have earned their reputation with me by besting everything else I have tried.
I won't name names but I have tried stock replacement irons, OEMs, and several other offerings
out there, including some of the boutique outfits. Nothing else is giving me the tone I know like the
Mercs do. The "savings" to my ears just isn't worth it. Good tone begins with good transformers.
Good tone also ends with cheap transformers! If you want to build an amp designed around an ideal
of what good tone is and should be, then start by using the right iron. If you want to build an amp
designed around the shortcomings and failings of a critical component then you might be a kook!
I am mostly using Mallory M-150 metallized polyester caps. I also use two Sprauge 6PS series
"orange drop" where they are simply a better tonal choice for the circuit. These od's are NOT to
be confused with the harsh 715 od's!
All tone and coupling caps have properly oriented outer foils within the circuit just like all vintage Leo amps.
The caps outer foils are no longer labeled so each must be tested and outer foil determined for each cap.
Time consuming? Yes indeed. Worth the trouble? If it didn't matter I could spend that time playing music.
Do you think I'd rather spend a day testing caps or playing music!?
If you want to get the best tone an amp has to offer it is critical!
Sprague/Atom DC filtering caps.
I use mostly metal film resistors for their low thermal noise, tight (1%) value tolerances, and high temperature
co-efficient.
Plate load resistors are conformal coated Dale brand metal film resistors. Excellent tone and perfect performance.
I use a variety of potentiometers brands depending on what sound best and where in the circuit it's used.
Some pots just are not what they are labeled and sold as. When I can find NOS pots of good quality
and good tone and nice tapers I will use them. Old A-B's are great but they have pretty much gone the
way of the dodo. CTS, PEC and NOS Centralabs are common in my amps.
Any amp design no matter how good will suffer if the components aren't carefully chosen.
It isn't enough to just use high quality components! You also have to find out what works best empirically
by true experimentation!!
Without this simple but profound philosophy put to work it's just fancy brand names strung together with
fingers crossed for good tone. True I do not use junk in my amps but I have not ever used anything that
doesn't actually give me the tone I am seeking.
Thick, heavy gauge, non-corrosive, non-ferrous aluminum chassis for best heat dissipation and low noise floor.
1/8" thick Garolite board construction. Flame retardant and virtually indestructible. Very repair friendly design.
Mechanical joint construction used throughout. Soldering quality second to none. These amps are truly built to last!
Amp is loaded with current manufacture JJ brand tubes. They have decent tone and are the most reliable
of the currently manufactured tubes.
However, for the pinnacle of great tone I highly recommend an upgrade with high quality NOS tubes.
Upgrades run from $150 to $300+ depending on your tastes and budget. Them old RCA Blackplates ain't
cheap my friend but they sure are sweet.
All cabinetry is made on site and of the highest quality construction standards and materials.
I use #2 Pine wood top, bottoms, and sides.
Speaker baffles and rear baffles are made of 13 ply, 3/4" voidless Baltic Birch.
Halfblind dovetail joints. Unmatched strength. Balance tone. No flubby bottom end. Solid as a rock!
Rear ported open back. Please note I am now using a single port opening design not pictured here.
One Alnico and one Ceramic Tone Tubby Hempcone speakers give the best of everything a speaker
can offer. Tone, warmth, power.
These babies are the best things I have ever heard in these circuits, hands down. They never have
cone cry, they take a hell of a beating and they just project a tone image you can walk into and sculpt .
Dimension and definition. Gorgeous. These folks have been working with musicians and speakers for
decades and their product shows it. Very cool cats, and some fo the best sounding speakers you will ever hear.
The hempcones smoke... but don't try smoking a hempcone!
Great tone. These amps deliver it and easily. They practically guide you to great tone, they are so intuitive and
user friendly.
They are easy to tweak without getting lost in the endless (and often useless) options.
When re voicing the amp to a new room or venue the right tone is only a twist or two away. It is also very
easy to use "on the fly" and dial up a variety of tones without having to divert your mind away from the music.
Nothing worse than when you not only didn't get the tone you were shooting for but also lost your place in the
moment of the music.
Tools that work fluidly will help you to focus on music. When your in the moment and the music flows it's magic,
pure and simple magic but magic none the less and that's the element that people connect with.
Fewer props afford more room for the genuine arts.
Let your intuition and ear guide you, this amp will follow.
Tube compliment:
3 x 12AX7
1 x 12AT7
2 x 6L6GT
50 Watts of Thunder!
PRICES:
Sweet Thunder Amp Head Cabinet $1900
Sweet Thunder Amp 1x12" Unloaded Combo Cabinet $2050
Sweet Thunder Amp 1x12"Combo Cabinet w/ Tone Tubby Ceramic Speaker $2200
Sweet Thunder Amp 1x12"Combo Cabinet w/ Tone Tubby Alnico Speaker $2300
Sweet Thunder Amp in Head Cab & 2-12" Yin/Yang Cabinet
Loaded W/ Tone Tubby Alnico and Ceramic Speakers $2575
All prices include shipping in the continental US.
He was the inspiration for the direction the circuit took and is credited in naming the amp.
We talked about what amps he has played in the past that he liked, what players he was fond of,
what he was currently playing amp wise and what it lacked.
The common amp circuits he liked were mostly Fender, but also mentioned was Vox and Marshall.
We needed good cleans (all amps must start there), the ability to get some nice break up and tone at
moderate levels, and some light reverb now and again. Good start.
In talking about some of the players we came up with Jimi, Luther Allison, Chris Duarte, some SRV,
and a little Roy Buchanan thrown in for good measure.
In researching these players and the gear they used a few things came together.
First was the Fender amp. All across the board Fender was there. Even Jimi used Fenders for recording.
Second was the late great Cesar Diaz. We all know he was Stevies amp tech but he was also Luthers
guitar tech and certainly no slouch of a player himself having played with the likes of Bob Dylan.
I researched what Cesar was doing to modify old Fender amps to get more tone and reliability out of
them for his clients and brought a lot of it into this amp.
This amp loves pedals. It "plays well with others"!
So what's the nuts and bolts?
The essential circuit is the venerable AB763 with a couple of toneful twists.
The amp re-designing began with the transformers.
We wanted true and pure tone with power.
We wanted tight bass response that didn't flub and get muddy at high volumes.
We wanted punch, definition, and tone!!
Instead of using puny transformers and tiny 6v6 tubes, we opted for just a little bit more...
Big fat Bassman iron powering a pair of 6L6's! Sweet tone and power!!
Ok so we have some great cleans and plenty of headroom to work with.
So how we gonna get it to sing without knocking you over?
For starters I used a Ken Ficher designed master volume.
Master volumes often get a bad rap and indeed some of them are about the worst thing for tone.
This is mostly due to large companies having defintive bottom lines, budgets, and accountants looking
over the shoulders of engineers.
Ken's design is great in that it works very well when used and when you crank the original tone is
intact in it's full glory!
There is no sacrifice with this MV. It works and works great!!
We also added a mid range control. We want the amp to sing and we want to be able to voice that
singing and a mid control will certainly help. BF fenders without them actually have a resistor inside
performing the same function that a pot would.
Alright we can now have great cleans and we can also set our preamp a little higher and hotter without
blowing the roof off the joint. We're getting warm. What about if we want to get a little grit and grease
to get things interesting!?
We added a simple pre-amp boost Ratio control!
This allows you to bypass the tone stack more as you turn it up.
The result is that gain that is normally lost to ground through the tone stack can instead be sent to the
phase inverter and power amp. It's great to get those edgy pushed Tweedy tones!
It goes from warm, to greasy hot, to granola crunch, to screaming with a British accent!
Ok so now we're cooking with gas. We've got the makings of a tasty gumbo. All we need is a nice garnish.
Like a sprig of parsley we've got some finely tuned reverb to finish it off.
I can finish off these amps with the stock reverb we all know, a slightly tamer version that gives a lot
more useful tone across the pot rather than just off, on, and Grand Canyon tone.
The second version does lack some of the fully dimed saturated surf sproing tone so if your going to
go surfing I suggest keeping it stock.
For those that want it all. I will be happy to add dwell and tone controls.
With them you have all the functionality of a real Fender outboard reverb unit built in to your amp!
Kick ass? You betcha!
Cost more? Not on your life! Yours for the asking!
Slave/DI output for recording, board feed, or feed to the input of another amp.
Bias taps to allow easy adjustment of the bias voltage. Meter and instructions included with each amp.
We have the essentials of what it does.
Now what went into it and why?
Well we discussed the big iron that went into this "little" amp. Why do I use Mercury Mags brand?
Well it isn't for savings that's for sure. I could do like some and use cheap foreign sourced iron and
save a bundle!
There is a lot of smoke blown by amp companies using cheap iron. Some go as far as to re brand
the iron and claim it is custom made just for them! Unfortunately those cheap irons tend to blow smoke too!!
Mercury Magnetics have earned their reputation with me by besting everything else I have tried.
I won't name names but I have tried stock replacement irons, OEMs, and several other offerings
out there, including some of the boutique outfits. Nothing else is giving me the tone I know like the
Mercs do. The "savings" to my ears just isn't worth it. Good tone begins with good transformers.
Good tone also ends with cheap transformers! If you want to build an amp designed around an ideal
of what good tone is and should be, then start by using the right iron. If you want to build an amp
designed around the shortcomings and failings of a critical component then you might be a kook!
I am mostly using Mallory M-150 metallized polyester caps. I also use two Sprauge 6PS series
"orange drop" where they are simply a better tonal choice for the circuit. These od's are NOT to
be confused with the harsh 715 od's!
All tone and coupling caps have properly oriented outer foils within the circuit just like all vintage Leo amps.
The caps outer foils are no longer labeled so each must be tested and outer foil determined for each cap.
Time consuming? Yes indeed. Worth the trouble? If it didn't matter I could spend that time playing music.
Do you think I'd rather spend a day testing caps or playing music!?
If you want to get the best tone an amp has to offer it is critical!
Sprague/Atom DC filtering caps.
I use mostly metal film resistors for their low thermal noise, tight (1%) value tolerances, and high temperature
co-efficient.
Plate load resistors are conformal coated Dale brand metal film resistors. Excellent tone and perfect performance.
I use a variety of potentiometers brands depending on what sound best and where in the circuit it's used.
Some pots just are not what they are labeled and sold as. When I can find NOS pots of good quality
and good tone and nice tapers I will use them. Old A-B's are great but they have pretty much gone the
way of the dodo. CTS, PEC and NOS Centralabs are common in my amps.
Any amp design no matter how good will suffer if the components aren't carefully chosen.
It isn't enough to just use high quality components! You also have to find out what works best empirically
by true experimentation!!
Without this simple but profound philosophy put to work it's just fancy brand names strung together with
fingers crossed for good tone. True I do not use junk in my amps but I have not ever used anything that
doesn't actually give me the tone I am seeking.
Thick, heavy gauge, non-corrosive, non-ferrous aluminum chassis for best heat dissipation and low noise floor.
1/8" thick Garolite board construction. Flame retardant and virtually indestructible. Very repair friendly design.
Mechanical joint construction used throughout. Soldering quality second to none. These amps are truly built to last!
Amp is loaded with current manufacture JJ brand tubes. They have decent tone and are the most reliable
of the currently manufactured tubes.
However, for the pinnacle of great tone I highly recommend an upgrade with high quality NOS tubes.
Upgrades run from $150 to $300+ depending on your tastes and budget. Them old RCA Blackplates ain't
cheap my friend but they sure are sweet.
All cabinetry is made on site and of the highest quality construction standards and materials.
I use #2 Pine wood top, bottoms, and sides.
Speaker baffles and rear baffles are made of 13 ply, 3/4" voidless Baltic Birch.
Halfblind dovetail joints. Unmatched strength. Balance tone. No flubby bottom end. Solid as a rock!
Rear ported open back. Please note I am now using a single port opening design not pictured here.
One Alnico and one Ceramic Tone Tubby Hempcone speakers give the best of everything a speaker
can offer. Tone, warmth, power.
These babies are the best things I have ever heard in these circuits, hands down. They never have
cone cry, they take a hell of a beating and they just project a tone image you can walk into and sculpt .
Dimension and definition. Gorgeous. These folks have been working with musicians and speakers for
decades and their product shows it. Very cool cats, and some fo the best sounding speakers you will ever hear.
The hempcones smoke... but don't try smoking a hempcone!
Great tone. These amps deliver it and easily. They practically guide you to great tone, they are so intuitive and
user friendly.
They are easy to tweak without getting lost in the endless (and often useless) options.
When re voicing the amp to a new room or venue the right tone is only a twist or two away. It is also very
easy to use "on the fly" and dial up a variety of tones without having to divert your mind away from the music.
Nothing worse than when you not only didn't get the tone you were shooting for but also lost your place in the
moment of the music.
Tools that work fluidly will help you to focus on music. When your in the moment and the music flows it's magic,
pure and simple magic but magic none the less and that's the element that people connect with.
Fewer props afford more room for the genuine arts.
Let your intuition and ear guide you, this amp will follow.
Tube compliment:
3 x 12AX7
1 x 12AT7
2 x 6L6GT
50 Watts of Thunder!
PRICES:
Sweet Thunder Amp Head Cabinet $1900
Sweet Thunder Amp 1x12" Unloaded Combo Cabinet $2050
Sweet Thunder Amp 1x12"Combo Cabinet w/ Tone Tubby Ceramic Speaker $2200
Sweet Thunder Amp 1x12"Combo Cabinet w/ Tone Tubby Alnico Speaker $2300
Sweet Thunder Amp in Head Cab & 2-12" Yin/Yang Cabinet
Loaded W/ Tone Tubby Alnico and Ceramic Speakers $2575
All prices include shipping in the continental US.
