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Episode 19: Dropping Prices, Talking Tubes, Scopes vs. Analyzers
177 Plays3 days ago
Charles is back on the podcast this week, and he gives an update on his Japanese office and talks about his decision to lower the price on his Expander pedal. The three talk about tubes and answer listener questions about analyzers and scopes and books.
If you'd like Bryan, Charles, and Chris to answer your question on an episode of Amplified Nonsense, call (513) 334-3803 and leave a voicemail.
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Transcript
Introduction to Amplified Nonsense
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Amplified Nonsense, a podcast that is technically about amps, but is mostly driven by your random voicemail questions. Your hosts are Charles Henry of Silktone, Chris Benson of Vinson Amps, and Brian Sowers of Sowers Sound
Meet the Hosts
00:00:20
Speaker
Transformers. My name is Emily, I'm producing this podcast, and I'm just here to keep these three on track.
Portland Weather and Personal Stories
00:00:25
Speaker
And before I get too far into the episode, you can call into 513- three three four three eight zero three and leave your own voicemail questions for our hosts that's five one three three three four three eight zero three how are you all doing today good you guys look awesome we do i'm okay
00:00:45
Speaker
i'm okay i've been working my butt off yeah i have two and it's very hot in my studio that's normal is it pretty hot it is kind of hot in portland today it's hot for portland which is not hot but hot so like 60. i
Undisclosed Manufacturing Issues
00:01:01
Speaker
got a sunburn being outside for 15 minutes today jeez yep that's how white i am it's getting a little warmer here it's like 70 now but raining so that kind of sucks but it's been chill
00:01:15
Speaker
Chris was a over here earlier today helping me out with a manufacturing conundrum. Manufacturing? Conundrum. the word I can't go into it.
00:01:29
Speaker
It's oh okay cool private. It's secret. Yeah. Great secrets. It's our little secret. Sounds pending, pending products and new manufacturing processes. Awesome.
00:01:39
Speaker
What, but was he helpful? Who you? nah not at all. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I just, I just like to check. Yeah, you were really helpful. Thank you. You're welcome. I was glad.
00:01:50
Speaker
What'd you do after you left? Oh, you were running errands. I went and diagnosed two amps at HQ, and then I got sushi,
Silk Tone's Tokyo Office Challenges
00:01:58
Speaker
and then I came to the studio. Wait, so Brian didn't provide lunch or? No, he didn't even offer me coffee or anything. It was really weird.
00:02:07
Speaker
Sounds like Brian. Jesus, dude. It was chaotic. My hosting my hosting capabilities were not in ah you know at 100%. I had like employees asking me like tons of random stuff. I was trying to pull Transformers through VPI finishing, and me and him are just talking. and um I keep going to like a different room and be like, just follow me.
00:02:26
Speaker
Just come with me. so So when Chris finished helping you, were you like, all right, dude, I got a lot of work to do. Can like can we just wrap it Yeah, pretty much. yeah Basically. I was like, all right. He's like, well, I got to take off. And I was like, okay, good. but And just like walked away.
00:02:40
Speaker
I did have to go. Man, it's been such a full week. I've been wall to wall busy. Nice. It's been, yeah, I was just, Brian probably doesn't remember because he was just like in a hole. Yeah. Essentially. But I was like, dude, I got to go. Let's talk about this later.
00:02:55
Speaker
Products and repairs and the new Portland thing or just all random everything like always. I've been traveling a lot and I'm going to be traveling a lot coming up. So what I do when I am home is just try to push projects to the next kind of goalpost or whatever. Waypost. Milestone.
00:03:15
Speaker
Milestone. Thanks. And fix all the tech issues that my guys can't figure out, which are getting fewer and fewer because they're getting really good. But sometimes that's good. Sometimes dad use has got to take over.
00:03:26
Speaker
just No, Taddy. Tone Daddy. My bad. Well, Taddy, Chris, you're probably getting ready for the ah the Tone Expo, the pedal expo this weekend. Yeah, I've given it a lot of thought.
00:03:38
Speaker
We're fully prepared. i wish I could come. Everyone's asking me. John hit me up yesterday. I was like are you going to be there just like hanging out? But I was planning to originally, but since I had to push my... ah return date a bit i'm gonna miss it so i had to secure an office here so silk tone officially has an office in tokyo now oh you got it i got it the u.s branch it's congrats it's tiny but it's there and i'm gonna start uh working from there when i get back so it'll be cool i'll do all my design stuff there and do the podcast from there and um yeah i had to apply for the visa but i needed an office to do that so i can also use it for storage while i'm gone so that's cool
00:04:20
Speaker
Is it Tokyo proper? Yeah, it's like dead center. It's in Kagura Zaka. so I know exactly where that's at. You've heard of Shinjuku? Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah.
00:04:32
Speaker
So it's like 10 minutes from there. like right It's like north of there. so I have no idea where any of these places are. Oh, Shinjuku is like huge. Like that's like where the big, crazy, all the big buildings and the Godzilla and the red light district and all that stuff. Like I don't know you've seen that, but that's like one of the three main like tourist spots. People go to Shibuya and Shinjuku and i don't know, somewhere else. um But the, ah yeah, it's right there. So it'll be cool because I'm not sure where i'm going to end up living when I come back. So I wanted something central. So the office was close to anything.
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, makes sense. How many square feet is it and how much are you paying? I'm so curious. Oh, square feet? It's about six by six. It's tiny. It's 36 square feet?
00:05:18
Speaker
It's about 36 square feet. So you're renting a closet. Yeah, yeah pretty much a closet, but it's a nice closet. I'm literally just using it like for standing. Right. Cause you can't lay down in it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I'm using it for visa purposes and just to have an address and to do my office work and business work there. Most of my work will be done in the field and stuff like that. So, you know, dude, when I come to Tokyo in October for the, uh, the, the pedal summit. Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:46
Speaker
I want to see how many people can fit in your office. You could, yeah, you you guys can just crash there. It's you and your pick. yeah It'll be a new standing hotel.
00:05:59
Speaker
ah But it's, yeah, it's about 250 bucks a month. It's not that bad. So I figured it's about the same as a storage unit in the U.S. Do you need an office in Portland? Because I'll rent you my bathroom or something. 250 bucks, yeah. Oh my God. I think my bathroom might be bigger than that. So my plan is, so this was, this is the part, like, it's so hard to get a visa here. Like I'd heard stories about how complicated it was, but until I was actually trying to do it and getting everything I tried thrown back in my face.
00:06:29
Speaker
Um, so you need an office to apply for a visa. You need and a business location with a registered business, but you can't rent an office unless you have a visa or a residence card.
00:06:43
Speaker
How'd you do it? That's the main issue. I had to find a company that was like foreigner friendly and tiny, like smaller leases that is expensive for broom closets. So so you're renting from a, like ah a corporate landlord that specializes in renting overpriced closets to foreigners. Yes. probably right and Got but I got a, know what my next business is going to be. That's a really great business model. dude I know. I was actually thinking after I get settled here, I was like, I'm going to rent one of these buildings, rent it out to foreigners and, you know, open 50 broom closets.
00:07:21
Speaker
I mean, honestly, this doesn't sound far off from like Portland, um like practice-based rentals. Yeah, kind of. It's like the same thing. In fact, way cheaper now that I think about it. Yeah, there's a cool lounge area. They have a coffee machine. It's pretty cool. I'm stoked to go there. There are some cool cafes in the area, so it'll be fun to check out a new neighborhood. But my plan is to get the visa and then find a much more larger office. I found one that was like 1200 square feet with like a little kitchen area and a private bathroom and all that on the first floor in like deep East Tokyo for like 600 bucks a month. Oh my God. Yeah. and So I'm like, why can't I just do that right now? but wow but i need the the visa and all that that's amazing that's so depressing yeah it'll pay off there's not a lot of spots like that and it's like pretty old and beat up which is i i think most japanese people are like how are you gonna make amps in an old beat up space i know exactly so i don't give i don't give it like that's what i need it for is it nicer or is it nicer than my shop uh
00:08:27
Speaker
Oh, that's embarrassing if you had to think about it. Your shop's pretty nice. No, your shop's pretty nice. I just had to think about the question. Your shop's pretty cool. I don't know. It's totally empty with orange floors. That's that's all ah that's all I can think about.
00:08:38
Speaker
Orange floors? Yeah, stained orange floors. I hope it's still there. Who knows how long it's going to take me to do this, but we'll see. But anyway, I'm not going to be at the Portland thing because of that, so I'm bummed.
00:08:48
Speaker
I figure you weren't coming because of tariffs. you Because tariffs. It's a lot to ship myself back
Price Drop of Expander Pedal
00:08:54
Speaker
these days. Hey, Charles, I noticed you dropped your price on the expander pedal to $199. Yeah, it went down. It was $269, and now it's $199. It's rad. I think it was the right move. That's where I always wanted it to be. like I always designed that as like a $199 pedal. It's a little easier to build for us, and I just wanted like a lot of people to be able to play it.
00:09:16
Speaker
I think it sounds so... good. Like when we were in the middle of designing it, like I had always intended for it to be there. And then all those crazy tariffs went into effect.
00:09:26
Speaker
So my hand was kind of forced, like it was either lose a bunch of the money we had planned on it and keep it at one 99, but we were already getting crushed by all the other products. Cause I know a lot of people were pretty cool about tariffs. I know a lot of, um, colleague brands didn't, didn't raise prices when they, you know, as long as they could, a lot of people went under for it.
00:09:48
Speaker
but ah we didn't raise the prices on anything because of tariffs. We just kind of ate it. And i don't know if everyone knows, I think we've talked about it on this podcast before, but for some parts, like some parts just have to come from China or from overseas. And a lot of parts were like up to like 135% on the tariffs.
00:10:06
Speaker
So when that first happened, we were placing our first big batch to do our batch order to get all the expander parts. And it like, I almost shook my pants just seeing the crazy tariff costs. So I was like, Whoa, we, we have to change this. So we just stuck it at two 69 to kind of offset like the losses we were getting on the other pedals. And it just seemed to make sense because it was the same price as the other ones. But now that the tariffs are gone, cause they went away because all the Supreme court stuff a few weeks ago or a month ago or whatever, not gone, but they're not 125% anymore or whatever.
00:10:38
Speaker
Um, I figured let's put this where I wanted it to be in the first place and get it out in front of more people. And it's weird. It's weird to, I mean, you guys know, like fluctuating a price is never easy. Like I don't like raising stuff. That's why I didn't raise it with the tariffs, but then lowering stuff has all these other, like, you know, perceived meanings behind it. And Yeah, you can't lower the price because then you can't raise it back up. because like ah i think that's the whole adage. Yeah, it just always seems it always looks weird raising prices. and you don't want to I never do sales. I don't like doing sales and stuff. so like I thought it was cool that you offered store credit for for the difference for people who had already bought it. I thought that was a really smart way to do it. Yeah, that's the only way I really saw it. Like i was playing with the idea for a while and I was like I don't want to piss people off because a bunch of people had just bought it. And as generous as I try to be, I don't want to like screw myself and I don't want to piss people off. So the store credit seemed like the way to go.
00:11:38
Speaker
And then I decided for it, let's just go all the way back to the beginning and just say, cool, store credit for anyone who bought it. Like whether it's it from a dealer or from me, I told them they could hit me up for a claim code. And a lot of people are using it to get a second expander. So they're getting one for like 130 bucks. that's fantastic. Yeah, do it right on. the That's cool. So the response overall has been really positive. Dude, it's crazy. mean, I assume like people want to spend less money.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah, we're almost sold out of them now. I didn't expect it to to kind of do that. I just thought people would be like, oh, right on. Thanks. And then, but like a lot of people are hitting me up saying like, I'm buying this now just because you did this because that's such a cool move for your customers. And I was like, oh, all right, cool.
00:12:19
Speaker
So like, yeah, they're posting about it on like Reddit and your page and all that. I was super, I was super shocked. Yeah. I mean, I've never heard of anyone doing that. So that makes sense that it would be jarring.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, in our society, it's not like any of the like bigger corporate examples ever do anything like that. I mean, right. Like when do they like, you know, lower the price on food? know, it only goes up.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. That's, that's what I said in my message. Like it's insane. Just everything goes up and I've complained about it. Like just relating to other stuff like inflation. I don't know how the economy works. I don't get it. It, it doesn't seem to, uh, in my eyes, but like you see all this, like,
00:13:00
Speaker
with inflation like like after covet and everything and all the crazy prices went up because of supply chain issues and then everything is resolved but nothing comes back down yeah so like it's just horsehoed and it now everything is totally broken and everyone's pissed off because wages don't go up but prices do And anytime the reason is reversed, the action isn't reversed. So what the, um, so yeah, it just felt right for me to drop the price to where I wanted it in the first place after my cost came down dramatically.
00:13:31
Speaker
So, um, we couldn't do it on the other products, like I said, cause we didn't raise those, but Yeah, I'm hoping more and more people now are like hitting me up for the credit. So people are able to get some cool stuff that they've had their eye on for a while and everyone wins. Even with dealers, I told dealers, any existing stock, because that was my thing too. like That's a big cut. So like if dealers have to lower it to MAP, which is $199 now, they didn't pay much more than that. So now they just don't get any profit. That doesn't make sense.
00:13:59
Speaker
So I told them too, if you have an existing stock, I'll credit you the difference on your next order. I mean, that works out pretty well too, because there's, it's incentivized for them to actually order again. Yeah, exactly. So that's cool. That's, that's a win for everyone. Like but I'm assuming like there wasn't a ton of dealer stock out there. You probably let that go down. No, everyone sold through it. Like the expander it's done. It's done pretty okay. So everyone sold through it. And then we've, we were waiting for a while on um a new batch of enclosures and stuff. So it was pretty good timing to where um there wasn't a ton of stock out there.
00:14:33
Speaker
Any dealers get get pissed off about it? No. Really? No, no not at all. A couple hit me up and were like, cool, so how does this work? like We have three left. Can we just, on our next order, get the credit? And I was yeah, whatever you order next time, we I'll knock off the whatever the difference was from what they paid, you know?
00:14:49
Speaker
that's dope and they were like oh that's awesome thanks so much so yeah it was cool we move it worked out pretty well but yeah it just it was interesting finding a way to where like everyone wins and nobody was upset because it's usually so weird to to lower prices have any edge lords commenting on this whole thing calling you calling you names or anything no not at all dude like i mean he's gonna be negative about like less money you know Right. Right. Yeah. so I see through this gimmick. Yeah. Swine.
00:15:23
Speaker
but You just imagine like some other, like big, big pedal company coming on and being like, are you pulling this Right. Right. Barron's is going to come out and be like, no, don't expect us to lower anything.
00:15:39
Speaker
No. Yeah. Everyone it's been, it's been super cool. Like it's always surprising to see the responses of any kind of like announcement or release. And everyone's always chill. Like,
00:15:51
Speaker
everyone's pretty nice to us on the gear page and Reddit and all that. stuff We haven't gotten a lot of, um, a lot of bad comments like around anything. So I've been pretty lucky in that way. Killer. Has any other companies followed suit?
00:16:03
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, again, it's like a special situation. Like you had envisioned a lower price point and we're forced to raise it the price up because of tariffs. It's, i'm just curious if anyone's been like reciprocal about it.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, someone commented and was like, I hope i hope other companies do this too. And I commented back, like, I mean, I'm sure if they were in the same position, they would. Everyone's pretty cool in this industry. But it's like, I know a lot of people, they didn't raise their actual price. They just tacked on like a tariff fee. So hopefully those are gone now. But um I don't know what anyone else is saying.
00:16:35
Speaker
position is or margins are. So a lot of people I know were losing a lot of money during the tariff thing. So if now they're having to recoup that money with the extra profit, then that makes sense too. So, yeah um, well, it's not like anyone's getting their tariff money back. Yeah, exactly. I'm not trying to call anyone out to like do, do the same thing. I that's everyone's individual business and their decision, but I did it because I could. So it's new ice bucket challenge.
00:17:06
Speaker
No ice bucket challenge. No, we just pretend that it's still 2018 and just make way less money. Yeah. the street Yeah. Yeah, that's what we're doing on everything else. Yeah, it sucks, but it's gone down a little.
00:17:24
Speaker
I mean, it's gone down a lot, but everything else has just gotten more expensive. so Man, copper and steel. it's It's like taxes. You can always count on them to be more expensive every year. Yeah, it always goes up. It's like, even aside from the tariffs, all my small parts just went up like 15%, you know, because jacks and switches and all that, like that all comes from China. They don't make it in the U S and 10, 15%.
00:17:48
Speaker
ten fifteen percent That's not too bad. And with all of the other costs of the world growing up, I expect people to raise their stuff sometimes, but it's just only goes up stuff only goes up. I get an email at the end of every year ah that's like, you know, here's the increase in your paper costs because I have paper made for me. And ah one one steel
Tube and Rectifier Sound Quality Debate
00:18:09
Speaker
supplier on the first of every month, I get an updated price list. And I can tell you it never goes down.
00:18:17
Speaker
Damn, they just keep it like market value. It's automatic. Yeah, their system automatically cuts me an email and CC's like my sales rep and like three other people of the company. Every single month I get it.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah. It's wild. We've seen cardboard go up like at least 100% over the past couple years. Yep. I'm going to do that with the fuzz pedal, just daily, ah daily, daily market price based on how difficult it was to get the germanium transistor that worked and how many meters I went went through and had to change. So that's ah that's a new petal idea, a new product idea, something that's like like sold as a functional product, like an NFA version of cryptocurrency. And so like ah for the price and the value of it change every hour.
00:19:01
Speaker
And then you get people trying to like play the odds. Well, if Charles is asleep, the price will be down. Oh, shit he's on he's on vacation today. going to be in a good mood. Let's yeah line up your browsers.
00:19:14
Speaker
I had this... there I don't know why it reminded me, but I had this idea to do a pedal. I don't know why I didn't do it. I should have back during like the crazy all the craziness of COVID, like when nobody could get parts or anything. I wanted to release a pedal called the supply chain issues and just, it would have like missing knobs or random knobs or like random parts and stuff, just whatever we could get and just kind of play on that whole thing. But it was a fun idea, but and we never did it.
00:19:42
Speaker
I had zero fun during the supply and chain issues. yeah I feel like I should have probably just shut down my business during COVID because I think I would have lived in another five years.
00:19:55
Speaker
i think. No way, bro. That's why I started a transformer company was because you couldn't get it. Some people benefited. Remember when tubes stopped existing in the world for like two days? Hard hard to forget. Yeah. yeah Everyone freaked the fuck out. Their tubes are gone. They never existed.
00:20:12
Speaker
yeah that was That was hilarious, man. That was like Game of Thrones. yeah because like All these giant manufacturers were trying to like buy up Eurotube's entire stock, yeah like Morantz and like Fender and Mesa. and they're just like i mean Luckily, they're smart guys, and they were like, we know this is kind of fake, and we know that as soon as this issue goes away, you guys are not going to continue to buy for us, so we're not going to like let everyone else that we work with drown.
00:20:42
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah. Eddie rocks. Yeah. It was, uh, it was really cool of them. Yeah. That's funny though. Everyone freaked out. I think the China factory is producing again now too, as far as tubes, right? Shuang is, uh, Oh, she has Shuang, the one that burned down.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah. Has anyone tried this? I mean, back in the day, but I i thought... The new ones? TAD has their own factory over there that was getting set up at the same time as that one burned down, which obviously was quite quite a long time ago.
00:21:10
Speaker
Like all the Red Bay stuff, I think that's their own factory in China. Yep, that's true. That's their own factory? I thought that came from the Pavan factory. the um It's like the old the old people who ran who ran ah production at Xiuang. After it burned down, they opened... Or before it burned down, I think, they opened the...
00:21:27
Speaker
Oh, maybe. PS Vane or whatever, Pavon. I thought that was where they were coming from. That's cool, though. Those tubes are pretty okay. Those are cool. I'm just over here using JJ's. Yeah. I don't keep tabs on the ah Chinese tubes. I like the Chinese twelve h seven when they're not noisy. They sound really good.
00:21:45
Speaker
I don't much like the JJ 12H7, but you can voice any... I always said like, I like to tube roll if I'm playing within an existing circuit. If I have ah an amp that exists, tube rolling is cool to see what kind of tweaks you can get. But if I'm designing, you can design around anything. You can make a JJ sound good. You can make anything sound good. You just voice it that way.
00:22:05
Speaker
That's exactly right. Yeah. Yeah. And JGs are easy to get and reliable and not in Russia. So that's cool. But their KT66 and their, their hi-fi tube, the 2A3, those are like some of the best sounding modern production tubes I've ever heard.
00:22:20
Speaker
Their 2A3 blows away like new old stock 2A3s as far as like hi-fi triodes go. That thing is something about it. it You can tell too, some of them like, like the KT, um you use the 88s in the Babylon, right? Yep.
00:22:34
Speaker
Dude, they're built like tanks. The glass is so thick. They're they're built different than like their 6L6s and EL34s and stuff, I think. They're just, there's so much more attention to detail on those tubes. Yeah, I don't know. I like JJ's because you can always get them and your tubes test them really well. And as a repair tech, like, man, they they last a really long time. I knew almost every time an amp came in with JJ's, I probably wasn't going to have to replace them. But anytime something came in with something Russian or Chinese, I was going to test all of them and at least two or three of them were going to be low.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, they're solid. They have a long history. The rectifier sucks. But I'd never had a bad one. You've used protection or inline diodes, right? Pre-rectification diodes. Yep. And that's why. Yeah, they they're fine with that. When I switched to JJ rectifiers, I had to do the inline diodes because they would just, they'd all pop with the in-rush current.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, they don't handle in-rush really well. and I just had this testing I was doing with um Vox AC15 power transformers where I was qualifying 60A4s with the reproduction transformers that I'm designing off of this 63 and 64 that I've had in and out of my shop.
00:23:44
Speaker
And yeah, I actually had a voltage discrepancy ah with the JJ versus an older, i think it was a GE, and then I had an Amperex as well. But the short of it is is that something about the rectification efficiency is lower in the JJ when you've got a smaller filter capacitor.
00:24:03
Speaker
So, you know, you have more gaps. I will say that the rectifiers and JJs I have found act a lot different. Yeah, they really do. it's It's weird. Their for whatever reason, doesn't it it has lower resistance than standard 5Y3. So if you put it in like a Tweed Deluxe... It doesn't sad do the sag. It doesn't really sag like a vintage one.
00:24:25
Speaker
There was ah back in the day, which I mean, not not that long ago, but back in like the early 2000s, I kept having amps come across my bench with SovTech 5Y3s, which were actually just 5R4s relabeled as 5Y3s. The voltages were like 30 volts higher in every single amp. yeah ba It's awful.
00:24:46
Speaker
I don't even know who to use with a new 5Y3 these days. I just point people towards new old stock when it comes to 5Y3. I don't think anyone's really doing it these days. I would do the same with 5U4s too because... I never use a 5U4. Yeah, I would do that too. There's no point. Not a fan, but still, you know, there are amps that were designed around them and the JJ is better than the SovTech, but the SovTech just sounds terrible.
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah. Which, I mean, I guess that's like an interesting question. Why do new rectifier tubes kind of across the board suck compared to old ones? Like specifically rectifier tubes. We should ask Eddie when we have Eddie on.
00:25:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Let's just, yeah, just, uh, uh, what's, what's, what's the word? Just like gotcha moment him, know, just, just all gang up on him. Like, I think he'll explain why we're using, why the JJ, uh, five air for doesn't suck and how we all suck and where you don't know how to use it's actually the best rectifier ever because you're supposed to do it this way. And we're going to go, Oh,
00:25:50
Speaker
mean, I'm getting my my home stereo back in running order, which is just like a dual mono push-pull EL84 cathode bias. It's really simple, but it's too rectified. And I have all a couple of these old 5R4s, the potato masher bass.
00:26:05
Speaker
You what I'm talking about? Totally. Hell yeah. Yeah, the big things. Those things are freaking cool. Yeah, I love old tubes. Yeah, vintage rectifiers are still pretty cheap. Yeah. Yeah, like for the Vox stuff, like, I mean, it's 30 bucks on eBay for an old EZ81. Like, just get the real thing. Not anymore.
00:26:22
Speaker
We should edit this out. go to There's so many of them out there. it's fine. yeah i really like for rectifiers um if i'm doing hi-fi stuff i get old tv damper diodes and um do like a bridge array so they're super low noise and really high efficiency so i do like just a bridge rectifier with old single diode tubes that's cool yeah it's rad they work really well It's crazy how how just like rectifiers affect everything.
00:26:52
Speaker
It does, yeah. like I have this other project that I'm kind of looking at with a few people where we're exploring the sonic implications of using selenium rectifiers. Whoa. Yeah. it's they're like On paper, not a good idea. Very lossy. you know If they fail, they emit toxic gas. you know I mean, they are like weird diodes that no one really knew how they worked back in the day. Sorry, go back to the toxic gas thing in your considering movies? Oh, yeah, yeah. No, but they sound fantastic.
00:27:25
Speaker
All right. They're a very cool power supply diode, but also potentially deadly. Potentially deadly. Potentially. Potentially. But when they work, they work fine. They work great. That's not true. They don't. They work terribly. They just have a really weird conduction angle and they're like super lossy, but something about them sounds really good.
00:27:45
Speaker
Is that like the old Mercury? That's the Mercury vapor rectifiers, right? With like the top loaded ones? No, those are, that's a Mercury vac vapor rectifier. That's totally different. yeah Those are so cool just because they glow blue. I love them. I thought about putting one in an amp, but it'd have to be like a very limited thing. Well, i like how they have the mercury, like it's solidified in the tube when it's cold. Yeah. you know what i mean? So it's like, like floats ground yeah, it's like, there's, there's the thing, there's the thing that can kill you just floating around in there, you know, no big deal. And then like the tube heats up and you know, then it turns to vapor and you're like, one side's the gas, you know, the gas, it'll kill you. Yeah. That's wild. Like, don't let the magic smoke out of that one.
00:28:24
Speaker
Right. Yeah, i thought about doing that, but I'd have to do it as an individual and ah in a very limited sense and have some... Yeah, don't don't make any guitar amps with those. No oh way. No. It's a good disclaimer for people at home. like Use Selenium at your own risk. Don't even bother using Mercury Vapor.
00:28:41
Speaker
If you do that, Charles, you also have to use a bunch of Mercury switches. Oh, those are... I have some Mercury-wetted relays, and yes, that they are legit. They're so cool. I've never had one. I've got a box out of reach of my children.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. Mine's just buried in a box somewhere in the back. I'm stoked to start building some limited stuff over here. I was checking out the radio department the other day. i was with a friend that was just like, what are you even looking at? And I'm just like nerding out over...
00:29:10
Speaker
ah like a booth. There's this building. i' forget if I've talked about it before, but the whole building is just like old electronics parts. So I found this one booth that would just all switches. And probably I'd stay there for 20 minutes, just like checking out switches, but it's like new stock stuff, but really legit high quality switches. And I was like, Whoa, could use this. I could use this. Well, NKK is over there. Those are fantastic. Yeah. They're so good. There was a lot of and NKK stuff. I should go back. I should go back in and check everything out.
00:29:40
Speaker
Man, I went to Yodabashi recently. Have you guys heard of that store? No. It's like Best Buy times a thousand. I haven't gone the whole time I've been here, but it's like nine stories tall and it's all just anything electronic you could want. Like one floor has like all the refrigerators and washing machines in the world. One store has like drones and robots and crazy just like modern electronics and cameras as Anyway, there was a hi-fi floor and I'd never seen that in like a retail setting before. I've seen like really dedicated kind of annoying hi-fi stores in the U.S. But like to see it in like the middle of a Walmart style store where there's like $80,000 stereo systems, they had a whole wall, a whole wall of high-end like IEC power plugs.
00:30:26
Speaker
I was like, how... How is this this just in a retail setting here? That's wild. People go for it here. I was i was blown away. I was hella nerding out over it. That's crazy. It was interesting. I just thought that was funny to see. I'm sure this is queuing someone saying power cables don't matter.
00:30:44
Speaker
Have you guys ever done that? Have you ever with just like trying a 14 gauge power cable, like nothing fancy, but just like a 14 gauge versus an 18 gauge on a, my old shop used to make shin Yadas and buy and sell shin Yadas for people.
00:30:58
Speaker
Do know, you know that and they didn't they didn't make them. We made other stuff, but um they were a dealer for shin Yada and that stuff was crazy sounding, just crazy sounding power cables.
00:31:11
Speaker
They make a big difference. Like you we talk about rectifiers making a difference. It's the, all of the sound comes from the power. Like all of the amplified sound is converted from the wall power. So everything that leads up to it is going to affect that.
00:31:28
Speaker
yeah they I mean, i'd argue that the i'd argue that the diode and the conduction angle of the diode matter more than the power cable, but I mean, everything makes a difference. It's just how far you do you want to take it, how much money do you want to spend, and you know what listening references do you have, but...
00:31:44
Speaker
um I used to see guitar amps where people would mod all these crazy, ah you know, massive power cables on the amps. And it was just ridiculous. Like, you know, your four gauge power cable, what like welded basically onto the back of your Fender bandmaster that you took to a show at, you know, East End Basement or some terrible club, you know, totally like this is pointless.
00:32:09
Speaker
But, um you know, in a recording studio environment where you have like balanced power at every outlet. Yeah, that stuff. i mean, we're in in a space and a context that you under a microphone where you can hear it. Hell yeah, that stuff totally
Impact of Power Cables on Guitar Amps
00:32:24
Speaker
matters.
00:32:24
Speaker
I was shocked to hear with a guitar amp because I've heard it, I've heard it night and day on, on hi-fi systems that are full range, but on a guitar amp, when all of the spatial cues and stuff are rolled off anyway, because you don't hear anything over, you know, 6k half the time, it was crazy. Just like any, anyone listening, go, go try it. Like you don't need a crazy fancy cable, but like,
00:32:44
Speaker
Most cables that come with guitar amps are around like 18 gauge, I think. um Try a 14. And I think you'll be shocked how much more like quick and dynamic it is. I don't know if that's a good change. I kind of prefer the slower, smoother sound of the other one, but it's a change. I know it's it mostly in low end and low frequency headroom.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think this could flow well into one of our questions if y'all ready. Yeah, cool. Yeah, let's do it. This is from Heather Brown. All right.
00:33:15
Speaker
Last thing, analyzer or scope? Because analyzer shows you everything you want to know that scope does not.
00:33:27
Speaker
But, holy crap.
00:33:35
Speaker
Right on. I love her so much. That flowed really well. Yes.
Analyzer vs. Scope in Amp Testing
00:33:41
Speaker
Scope. Scope. Yeah, scope. I mean both. If I have to choose one, scope.
00:33:48
Speaker
Could you all hit on the difference between those two things? You can use your ears for what an analyzer does. If you have to, you can get by, but not for what a scope does is kind of my take on it.
00:34:00
Speaker
What are these things? A scope is so you can see electricity in the time domain on a screen. And so you can do things like look at, you could put a sine wave into an amp and then look at that sine wave anywhere in the circuit using a probe that you physically attach to the wire.
00:34:19
Speaker
And it shows kind of what the waveform of that sine wave is doing on the screen. And you can also do cool things like I used a scope earlier this week to like read a bunch of MIDI messages from electricity.
00:34:35
Speaker
Because you could like capture like a digital message and then decode it. And scopes, there's a few other things scopes do, you but most of what we use it for are checking out different frequencies and what waveforms look like. And from what the waveform looks like, you can kind of see probably a bunch of different distortion characteristics that maybe a frequency, or I'm sorry, an analyzer would also tell you. But yeah, we use scopes every single day. I use scopes every single time I sit down at a bench.
00:35:05
Speaker
Analyzers are a different kind of module where they'll output a signal and then you can kind of look at the signal at different places in the circuit and it'll tell you if the circuit is adding harmonic distortion.
00:35:19
Speaker
and what kinds, usually. um It'll tell you if it if it's noisy and what that noise can look like. Like vs. 120Hz, or that trace noise problems whatever you got it so you can kind of use that to trace noise problems A lot of people use in production to see if ah it has the noise floor that they were expecting and the frequency response that they were expecting and the distortion, et cetera. And they use it as kind of a final check before they send something out the door. Yeah, I mean, she said spectrum analyzer, so. She did not. She said analyzer is scope.
00:35:58
Speaker
Oh, she said, OK, I was thinking spectrum analyzer in my head. because it's Maybe just because it's a clear definition, but you know as and a spectrum analyzer being in the free voltage in the frequency domain, generally speaking, and a scope being voltage in the time domain. but You know, time domain, don't know, i'm I'm a scope guy through and through. a lot of it is because that's what I've like started on and everything. But you guys would totally know what I'm talking about when you can look at a waveform and anticipate how it's going to sound. Totally. Yeah. hundred But generally speaking, you're looking at a waveform with a singular frequency input.
00:36:33
Speaker
Whereas an analyzer, generally speaking, you're looking at multi-frequency input and looking what the deviations between those frequencies are. So for me to look at the things that are more important to me, it's going to be like headroom, slew rate, you know, responses like that. And you can even see harmonic distortion by inputting a pure sine wave and looking at the changes in that waveform scope through and through is what's going to show us that. An analyzer is generally going to show deviations from ah a midpoint or a reference point. And for me, as Charles said, I just want to use my ears. I still need that equipment. You know, I still do like harmonic distortion measurements with an audio analyzer. And I'll i'll measure distortions and transformers because of that or using that that tool. But time domain also means phase domain. So I can look at phase relationships between primaries and secondaries or multiple primaries and multiple secondaries with a scope. I can't do that with an analyzer.
00:37:32
Speaker
And that phase coherency is much more important to me. You know, as you said, i can use my ears for a lot of the things that the analyzer can do. I have more fun using an analyzer. It reveals a lot more interesting things to me. Like I would be really bummed if I couldn't use an analyzer anymore. But if I couldn't use a scope anymore, i would just stop what I'm doing, I guess. like and you have to use scopes There are plenty of tube amp guys that don't use scopes. There absolutely are. And I won't name names, but yeah. yeah I won't either. There are professional tube amp people who do not use scopes. And I think they're nuts.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's weird. I mean, yeah, I i use a scope from everything, like from from the start of design, even for gain staging and like, and checking AC voltages from one stage to the next and seeing where everything is going. Like, but then one use I like for analyzers is like, I voice everything with my ears. Like I i check stuff the scope, I do the design stuff and I tweak things and voice filters with my ears. And then i really like to use the analyzer to like find what I like, you know, like,
00:38:39
Speaker
I like one part of a particular design, but I'm like, what, you know, I want to know, well, what's it doing? Why do I like that sound? So then I throw the analyzer on it to see like where that is. And then I use that to lean into it and try to get more of it. You can make a scope do that though. Yeah. I mean, most of these modern DSOs have an FFT function or better yet, you know, hook it up to your computer, run a Python script, you know, feed it whatever frequencies start to finish and measure the deviation from null, you know, pick one K or something like that for null.
00:39:09
Speaker
And that's why strobes are cooler, but I've never used a strobe that way. I actually, I have a legit audio analyzer, but for frequency response stuff, I actually, just use a laptop and audio interface and pump flat white noise into the device and then use a probe to map different parts of the circuit using a match EQ, which will kind of like pull the white noise out of it. And you can see the frequency response curves which is a nice free way to do that yeah that's rad if you don't want to drop like 5k on a audio analyzer i was just gonna ask you wait wait did you buy an ap no not not yet can i borrow it if so the quantus island goes a long way with yeah checking frequency responses and everything that's what i use for everything it's yes great yeah it it works really well i even have like the transducer driver power amp thing they made so i can get more current drive oh rad
00:40:05
Speaker
i still I still need to get the or make an amp load for it. I so i' still only use it for pedals and preamp stages and stuff. so Yeah, I mean, in a tube amp, I get a little, i get the X hook in my computer-driven, yeah you know, 5-volt USB audio analyzer up to a, you know, 500-volt power amp. Yeah, exactly. like You know, that's how we tested the Batmolone.
00:40:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:34
Speaker
Can you imagine? Yeah, it's it's, yeah, it gets a little, it crosses a line. Yeah, I watched it blowing a 20 amp breaker enough to not yeah put anything but a scope on it. And like your crappiest scope. It's probably why that one scope is broke, actually. No, it was broken before. It's not broken. What it does is it just whines for five minutes when you power it up.
00:40:57
Speaker
It's so atrocious. My guys in the basement at the ah house shop use every single day. And you always know when they start work, because from upstairs you just hear, meeeeee.
00:41:10
Speaker
I had my first scope was ah like a cheap Chinese scope from like, what's the brand? Oh, on or something like that. I loved it for years. It worked great. And then it stopped working. So now I have to smack the out of it anytime I use it. And then it starts working again. But sometimes that's all it takes. You just, you just smack it and the screen comes back on. Oh my gosh.
00:41:27
Speaker
My first was a Tektronix 265M, the military-grade edition of the 265. Oh, rad. That was, yeah, I got it for like 80 bucks. Yeah.
00:41:37
Speaker
that That was a real scope. That thing was awesome, fully analog. And it never failed. i ended up just passing it on to someone else. Oh, that's cool. I used the sigiline. Yeah. Well, now I have DSOs, obviously. Yeah.
00:41:51
Speaker
When I was at Old Town Music as a tech, they they had a scope. Was he yellow? It was yellow. Okay, so I bought that. No, you did? did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still cool. Back in like, yeah, so that was like an Army, Navy. Yeah. And you know it watertight. If you put the covers on. Oh, yeah. No, saw. Yeah, you could toss that thing in water. Whoa. I repaired a lot of amps using that thing. I did too. That's so cool that you use that.
00:42:18
Speaker
Yeah. There was this one year where me and Jeff Brown, he was like, Hey, do you want to wake up really early on a Saturday and drive out to Salem and go to the, the, the Rick real or go to rec real or whatever it's called for the ham fest, you know, buy a bunch of tubes, that sort of.
00:42:34
Speaker
I was like, Oh yeah, totally. And old town gave me money. They were like, yeah, buy tubes. And, And I came back and I was like, I got some random bottles, but I got this scope.
00:42:45
Speaker
yeah And I was so stoked on it. think it was awesome. Yeah, it's still there. I think I might like go in and make an offer. You should. You totally should. do you want to hit one more question?
00:42:56
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. Hey guys, I got
Book Recommendations and Reading Humor
00:43:00
Speaker
two questions for you. If ah someone you like asked for a book recommendation, what book would you recommend?
00:43:07
Speaker
And also... If someone you don't like asked for a book recommendation, what book would you recommend? Thank you. Print is dead. Audiobooks exist, okay?
00:43:19
Speaker
Okay, I have the answer for this.
00:43:24
Speaker
I don't remember his first name and I want to know it.
00:43:32
Speaker
For the listeners, Brian is physically grabbing and looking at a book. Oh, it was Richard. I should have known his name was Dick. Okay. Ferromagnetism by Richard M. Borzoth. Bozorth. Man, I can't say that guy's name. And that answers both sides of the question. I was just going to say, does that answer both? Yes. I've totally talked about this book on a podcast before because it is so painful, but like amazing.
00:43:59
Speaker
Absolutely amazing. ah The sections on permaloy annealing, incredible. It is so hard to read. it is It is a lot. I am physically weary when I read that a chapter in that book, but it's also amazing.
00:44:14
Speaker
Yeah, that checks out. That's cool. It's like getting a Radiotron back in the day and you're like, oh my God, there's so much stuff in here. And then you'd read a chapter and you'd be like i don't understand any of this.
00:44:25
Speaker
And then you know two months later you read it again and you're like, oh, I think I got a little bit. you know And then four or six months later, you're like, oh, that's how that works. Okay. And you start kind of getting it. It's all there. And then you go back and read it and you're like, they just said it in plain English. Why didn't I understand it? Exactly. Right. Yeah. That's yeah that's that's how Radiotron was for me, the Transformer chapter. And now I'm like, yeah, it's just some basic ass.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah. you know I don't think you're a tech until you can actually read Radiotron. Yeah. And be like, oh, yeah. Oh, that's clever. Exactly. I guess I'll go next because I don't think Charles reads.
00:45:04
Speaker
i'm I'm working on a book. I'm kidding. You've probably read a lot more than I have in the past 10 years. i'm working I've been working on one for like 15 years. I thought maybe you know coming to Japan and getting some mal alone time in the mountains would let me finally like focus and and and ah finish it. But the The Outsiders, you guys read The Outsiders? No. can I only read technical books. It's like the shortest book in the world. I'm kidding.
00:45:29
Speaker
Are you all joking? Have you not read the outsiders? No, I haven't. I thought everyone read that when they were 12 years old. That book rocks. It's like that and the Island of the Blue Dolphins.
00:45:41
Speaker
I definitely didn't read that either. It's been like 20 years, but that that book rocks. For me, it was like those two, the, the, like everyone has to have read this book. It would be animal farm and Z for Zachariah. Okay, but what do you read when you're in middle school? Because those are not middle school books. Where the Red Fern Grows. Oh my gosh. Are you serious? I totally read those in middle school.
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah, i read I read Animal Farm in middle school. Yeah, and Animal Farm was a school assignment. read it in high school. Fahrenheit 451. I haven't read that. That was middle school? Brave New World, not middle school.
00:46:13
Speaker
Okay, but still, school assigned, that's pretty cool. Yeah. Well, I, I went to school in the Northeast on university campus, so they were pushing the good stuff, pushing the good stuff. That's good. Yeah. I don't think I've read a book since I was in school.
00:46:28
Speaker
I don't, I don't read much. I read technical documents, but even books, I don't, I don't power through technical books. I do a lot of research and read online and read about what I want to know, but I don't do books. I was an English major with a emphasis on poetry.
00:46:44
Speaker
Damn. And now I can't read fiction. Yeah. I can't, I just can't. I used to love it. I, that's all I used to love reading and writing and literacy in general. And now I'm just like, wait, you want me to read a story that someone made up and you want me to be enraptured by the story? Yeah.
00:47:05
Speaker
i i I read mostly technical stuff these days, but I will say from my reading career, I think my favorite book that I would recommend is ah super funny. It's ah called A ah Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
00:47:19
Speaker
And ah he he was basically this guy in, I'm probably getting this wrong, 50s or 60s, he ended up offing himself and his mom took took this manuscript because he was a you know failed writer. His mom took this manuscript that she thought was really good and brought it to a publisher and they actually published it and became like a bestseller. And it's just this comic kind of novel that's semi-autobiographical about this like gigantic slob kind of navigating New Orleans.
00:47:48
Speaker
Published in 81. 69. Died in 69. sixty nine died in sixty nine That's right. and But he's like obsessed with Medieval history. and i don't know. It's just a really funny book like i i I would recommend that and then the book I would recommend to an enemy is the tube amp book by Aspen Pittman I Think I tried to read that once like long ago.
00:48:13
Speaker
yeah that's not like a regular book No I actually have read the confederac ah Confederacy of Dunces. That's, I think the last book I read in school. co Yeah. You read it you're at in school? No, so it was independent study. I dropped out of high school in in the ninth grade. And then for part of the 10th grade, I did independent study until I passed the test and didn't have to go to school anymore. But during that independent study, I had a really cool teacher that gave me assignments. Like I remember I went to see the strokes first concert in, in California and he counted it as like homework. And like, I just had to like write a paper about it and stuff. And, um, it was the strokes and, um, moldy peaches is interesting show anyway. Oh, sweet. Yeah. It was a good show. He assigned the Confederacy of dances. He said it was his favorite book ever. And I begrudgingly read it and I don't remember a single thing about it.
00:49:11
Speaker
it's really funny i really like it that's funny but i remember the cover i remember i can imagine this like the slob guy you're talking about i just i just googled it just to see what it was and it looks like uh john candy with a giant like not handlebar but just a really giant mustache oh yeah oh he's holding a hot dog i'm watching some john candy movies now Oh, hell yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode of Amplified Nonsense. Our goal is to release a new episode every other week, so please subscribe wherever you listen. If you have a question for Brian, at Charles, and Chris about amps, pop culture, or relationships, please call five one three three three four 3 8 0 3 and leave a voicemail.
00:49:59
Speaker
If you enjoyed this episode of amplified nonsense, please leave a rating and review. Thanks again. And we'll see you soon.