Category: Amp builds

The Monkeymatic Trinity is a hand crafted, tweed style combo in a solid pine cabinet, with two 12AX7s and a pair of cathode-biased 6L6 power tubes pushing 15 watts into a 12″ Jensen Nighthawk speaker.

Variable voltage power scaling makes this an excellent recording, stage, and “bedroom” amp for playing higher gain styles at lower SPL. A wide variety of tones are available at any volume, from 15 watts of clean power, down to less than one watt at the lowest voltage setting. This allows the Volume control to be set wide open to get extreme and exciting sounds at bedroom levels.

Trinity is an evolved Tweed Deluxe (5E3) style amp, with the two channels internally bridged. A single, dual-ganged volume control replaces the two of the Deluxe. At full voltage, the amp breaks up quickly with the volume above 9 o’clock, and is extremely responsive to variations in volume from the guitar. The half-blind dovetailed, solid pine cabinet resonates nicely, adding character and thump to the voice of the amp. And the sweet sounding Jensen Nighthawk performs well at low and high volumes.

Trinity #2 features a new Fender Hot Rod Deluxe power transformer, a new Fender Vibrolux output transformer, Sovtek 12AX7s, Saratov 6L6s, hand-built turret board, chassis, and cabinet.

Dimensions: 20w x 17h x 11d inches, 31 pounds.

See For Sale page for available amplifiers.

The Monkeymatic NDS (no-overdrive special) is the clean channel of a D’Lite. A vintage 80s Schumacher output transformer and a pair of EL34s delivers 40 watts of clean power, making this a perfect pedal platform, with plenty of delicious harmonics added as the gain is increased.

Dimensions: 21w x 18h x 10d inches, ~35 pounds

Blackbox is as pure and direct as it gets. Designed as my gigging amp, this low-wattage, 12″ combo is perfect for adding warm, tube character while keeping stage volumes manageable. Featuring a simplified Princeton circuit, with Treble/Bass tone stack and fixed bias 6V6GT push-pull power section, this handsome combo puts out 14 clean watts into a 30-watt Black Betty speaker.

Dimensions: 19w x 21h x 10d inches, ~35 pounds

Here it is. This was my first amp build from scratch. Based on the one-watt Firefly design from ax84.com, this is a great practice and recording amp. A Boost switch enables a second, cascaded stage, for a surprising amount of gain.

Powered by a pair of Mesa Boogie 12AX7s and a vintage RCA 12AU7.

Features a hand-made walnut and maple hardwood base.

Dimensions: 12.75w x 5.5h x 8d inches, 6.6 pounds

Monkey-modified!

The Mitchell PRO-100 is a Mesa Boogie clone, made in the 80s in Southern California, with a Fendery tone stack, and a WIDE variety of tones available by switching four cascaded gain stages in and out of the signal path.

This amplifier came to me in rough shape. I recovered the cabinet and made many mods to the amp, including new electrolytic capacitors, D-style values in the preamp stages, a new and custom designed FX loop, and general cleaning and improvements. Now it’s a great all-around performer. Very quiet and well behaved at home, loud and lots of clean headroom available as a pedal platform, great edge-of-breakup tones for single coils, and absolutely screaming high-gain sounds for leads.

Powered by three 12AX7s and a quad of Sovtek 5881s.

Dimensions: 21w x 9.5h x 10d inches, 32 pounds

This computer served me well for six years. How could I possibly throw it out? Just look at that chassis—heavy, precision machined aluminum, highly designed, custom fasteners. Well, good news, it makes a GREAT amp chassis, and now it will live forever as a 100-watt Marshall-JCM-800-style guitar amplifier. My design features the “High” input of the JCM 800, with its three cascaded gain stages, followed by the standard TMB tone stack and Presence control, with the Master Volume that makes available high-gain shredding at bedroom levels. But! With 100 watts on tap from a quad of Russian 5881s, this amp has enough clean power to rattle windows the next neighborhood over. The ultimate math rock amp?

Dimensions: 8w x 20h x 18.75d inches, ~35 pounds

Thirty watts, all tube, hand-built beauty

You know those special amps you say you’ll never sell?

This custom-built Rocket Dog is based on the venerable Vox AC30, made famous by Brian May, The Beatles, Tom Petty, and many others. This single-channel model delivers big, booming cleans, and articulate, crunchy distortion—a perfect compliment for single coil pickups. And with the Cut and Treble controls dialed down, it sounds incredible with humbuckers.

• Dynaco power and output transformers
• Vintage Saratov 6N14N (military EL84) power tubes, TungSol and JJ preamp tubes, Sovtek rectifier
• Flamed, Canadian maple cabinet with gun oil finish
• Hall VVR adjustable voltage circuit
• Easy-to-remove, fully shielded chassis
• Custom vinyl slipcover

Dimensions: 18.75w x 9.25h x 10d inches, 30 pounds

This screamer is an 18-watt, Marshall inspired build, featuring 4U4GB tube rectifier, three 12AX7s and a pair of 1960s EL84s, using vintage Hammond organ transformers. A custom MOSFET B+ voltage limiter is set to put 350v on the plates, the sweet spot for this vintage set of EL84s. An NFB switch and PPIVMV (master volume) allow clean and low noise amplification for home or studio, and full gain from the preamp at any volume level from whisper to roar. With NFB disengaged and master volume up, she becomes a raging beast with articulate top end, perfect for rock power chords and driving rhythm guitar.

Dimensions: 20.5w x 10h x 8.75d inches, 19 pounds

Check out this repurposed 1950s sine-wave generator! It now proudly houses a souped-up tweed-style, singled-ended, three-watt guitar amplifier. Controls include a sweepable bright control, a cathode-bypass boost switch, and a volume control. This is the perfect practice or recording amp–dime the volume, and you get a lovely tube saturation, without rattling windows. Includes vintage, USA made 6SJ7 preamp tube and 6V6GT power tube. A new Classic Tone output transformer provides 4-ohm and 8-ohm output choices.

Dimensions: 11w x 7h x 8d inches, 11 pounds

This is a unique, lightweight and portable, small Express (“S’express”) named Tetragrammaton, based on Ken Fischer’s design. She puts out 25 watts of clean power before clipping, using Rivera-era Fender transformers and vintage Hammond (made in Holland) EL84 power tubes.

Clean sounds are only available on the first few degrees of the gain control. After that, it’s bluesy, crunchy, driving, and screaming distortion, with a wide variety of colors provided by the two-way bright switch, full tone stack, and Rez (presence) controls. It’s astonishing how much power is packed into this compact head!

Dimensions: 15.25w x 8h x 10d inches, 14.8 pounds