There has been so much interest in my amp builds that I have decided to build 2 at the same time to sell. These will have the same sick attention to detail as all of my amps, and will feature very good quality components. My goal is to build a great amp for a good price to performance ratio. When completed the amps will go to eBay for auction.

Where to start? Okay, I guess I need names for these to amps. I thought about maybe Castor and Pollux as I am a Gemini, but I am not really into astrology. Also, amps are traditionally named after women. Who are some famous women twins? Mary Kate and Ashley? Hell no! These are classy amps and they need classy names. I guess I will go with Jeanie and Vickie after Jeanne and Victoire de Valois, twin daughters of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. Man, am I nerdy or what! Every amp should have a history behind it, so there's the story of the names...

07.17.07
So lets get some parts! I will be doing black hand drilled turret boards and staking them with large turrets. I ordered board material, The turrets, and a new staking tool from Ken over at Turretboards.com. Ken doesn't say much when I show him my builds, but he ships fast and the quality of his stuff is top notch. Here's pics of the turrets and the staking tool I ordered.

07.18.07 I have the layout modified from my last build. The orange resistors are going to be Vishay Dale metal film and are supposed to be very accurate, yet very musical. The tight tolerances will make the amplifiers sound very consistent. The gray 2 watt resistors are metal oxide, and the lone blue resistor is a 3 Watt metal film. I got the idea to increase the wattage of this resistor from the Dreamtone site. It will make the power supply section of the amp more robust. Click the picture of the layout for a bigger version!

07.19.07
I ordered a bunch of stuff today. The Vishay Dale resistors I got from a place called Welbourne Laboratories. They have great prices and great communication with their customers. I ordered the metal oxides and the 3 Watt metal films from Digi-Key. I ordered extras for future amp builds. I ordered the chassis and a bunch of other small parts (fuse holders, impedance switches, voltage switches, etc.) from my main man Nik Azam of Ceriatone. I owe Nik a lot for helping me when I was first starting building amps - he's the best!

07.23.07
I printed out the layout and taped it to the sweet black turret board material I got from Ken over at Turretboards.com. I was going to drill it but I could not find my #33 bits. These are a very specific size for the turret to fit tightly so I ordered some more from Ken.

07.30.07
I have been in Evanston, Illinois at Northwestern University for the past few days. I wrote some of the music and lyrics for the a rock musical called In The Bubble. It was a cool experience. I got to talk to Michael Greif the director for a bit. He also directed Rent and Grey Gardens. I wish the guitar player had one of my amps! It was a good show and I hope it has what it takes to get more productions. Everybody involved with the show was so nice and treated me like a rock star. The cast, crew, and creative team were all stellar. Good times...

07.31.07
I got my bits and drilled the board. I got a new turret tool from Turretboards.com and it presses the turrets in cleaner than the one I got from Hoffman. Here are the twins in their zygote stage!

08.15.07
Again I had to go up to Northwestern University to see the gala opening of In The Bubble. It was a great time but it's good to be home too.

I got back to work on the twins. Parts are starting to trickle in and get lost as usual but I keep my chin up. I decided to go insane on the power supply section and make it super heavy duty. Instead of a 1/2 watt resistor, I am using a 3 watt metal film (the red component) I saw this on the Dreamtone website and I figured I like heavy duty stuff. so I am putting it in. I am also using 3 amp diodes instead of the usual 1 amp. These were tough to get into the turrets so I just widened them carefully with a drill bit. I am building left to right and I just realized I don't have any 10uF caps! Oh well back to the online parts suppliers...

08.20.07
I started to mount some of the other components today. As I stated before I am using Dale Vishay resistors throughout for very tight tolerances. Some builders think these are too sterile sounding but I want very exact specifications and I will tune the amp to suit when it is completed. Mojave uses these and their amps sound unreal, so I am confident the amp will sound awesome. I am also using all handmade SoZo capacitors. These are only available from Sozo and sound unreal. I have them in my Rachelle and the tone is like nothing else I have ever heard. Here's the boards so far.

08.22.07
I am going pretty slowly on these builds. I do not want to rush when I get 30 minutes free, I want the amps to be perfect so I am really taking my time. I have been busy in my personal life but I would rather go slow then have to retrace any shoddy work that comes with speed. Still more components installed.

08.31.07
I got the rest of the components put in today on the turret boards. It's getting tough to keep the twins separate so I wrote their names on the bottom with a gold paint pen. I thought carefully about this because I bet the ink is conductive so I made sure I didn't connect any turrets! I also drilled out the indicator light hole to accept a Fender style pilot light. Sorry purists, but Fender got the light right. Plus you can change change the jewel to reflect whatever mood you are in!

10.04.07
Sorry I have not been here in a while folks. My old drummer from the Joe Popp band passed away on September 14th and I have had a hard time recovering. I am also recording an album with my band The Hornrims. I will finish these amps up soon! I know several of you are waiting for them to be put up on ebay so I will step it up. Thanks amp brothers!!!!

R.I.P. Jeff, you were the best...

More to come soon!

Other Builds:
Rachelle
Rachelle Prototype

Check out my current band:
The Hornrims

Buy some of my old music! Support my kids dance lessons!
- Joe Popp
- dogs on ice

Contact: Click here to email Joe Popp

Visit: Joe Popp.net for other crazy stuff!


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