No. Why not? Many amps of the past suffered from poor grounding (noisy) and unsafe design that will not pass today's electical codes, e.g. the infamous "death caps" on many old Fenders. Many clones still have the poor grounding of the original designs, but thankfully, usually not the "death caps." If you want a clone, there are other places to get them. We build distinctively different guitar amps that you can hear and feel; guitar amps that respond to you.
Our amps are our own design, and some are inspired by great amps of the past. For example, the Marshall JTM45 was reverse engineered from the Fender Bassman 5F6a circuit. The JTM45 had numerous changes, especially tone stack components, transformers, and tubes, and a completely different sound. The Texas Tone 30 & 50 models take that a step further, and we make our own changes to these old circuits to make our own distinctive amps.
Some models are inspired by the famous Fender Super Reverb and Deluxe Reverb amps, and the changes we make result in fundamentally different amps, while retaining some of the flavor of the orignals. Our modern interpretations keep the charm of the originals and offer increased performance without the drawbacks of the originals..
We have built a couple of amps based on kits, but we always make changes and improvements to the kit. You cannot buy a kit and build a Texas Tone Amp. They're not the same.
We do. Unlike many "boutique" amps that are made in China or contracted out to 3rd party job shops, every Texas Tone Amp is designed and built by hand in our Austin, Texas workshop. We don't make the raw materials; we source components with respected vendors, many to our specifications. Every schematic diagram, layout diagram (we build to print from a 1:1 scale layout), parts list, nameplate and logo design, social media post, and all assembly is performed in-house.
We choose our vendors very carefully, and constantly update our parts inventory to make sure that we only use parts that not only will provide great tone, but last. A career in electronic distubution (RCA, GE, Mallory, TRW, etc.) and Quality Assurance processes prepared me for how to select the best parts available. This is where I also learned the Build To Print method.
We use as many commercial off the shelf (COTS) parts as possible, with careful selection to ensure great tone, high quality, and longevity. Ask your favorite amp tech - there are well-known issues with some easliy available and low priced parts.
Cabinets are made in the USA to Texas Tone Amps specifications by a high quality cabinet shop. Likewise, the USA-made chassis are replica-style chassis that we have to modify to make them worthy of a Texas Tone amp. Logos, control panels, and nameplates are made by professionals in those fields, many in Austin, Texas, to Texas Tone amp specifications.
Carbon composition resistors are well-known to increase resistance as they get hotter, and they absorb moisture and drift. Many good techs always replace these with metal oxide or other more stable components.
We build these amps to last! We prefer turret boards. Why? Turret board are the preferred method for component mounting and heat resistance. How do we know? This is the NASA build standard created by people who build for high vibration and temperature swings. We are not familiar with other amp builders who do this; most turret board amps that we've seen are built using what NASA calls "unacceptable" methods. We use aerospace MIL-Spec wire for the same reasons. It holds it's shape, resists high temperature, and solders like it was made for that purpose (it was). Aircraft must be reliable, and we use the same techniques on Texas Tone pŕoducts to ensure that your Texas Tone Amp will be, too!
Texas Tone Amps are designed to eliminate extraneous noise. Amp hum is typically caused by poor grounding (design) and/or poor layout (desgign & build). Hiss is typically caused by poor quality components, layout, and/or build. Not all resistors and capacitors are the same! Some are in the signal path, but many are not. Some areas of a tube amp are more sensitive to noisy components that others. Poor quality capacitors cause hum, or worse. Poor quality resistors cause noise or poor performance. This is why we're so choosy.
Carbon film resistors are a good compromise between classic carbon composition resistors that drift with heat and age, and ultra-quiet metal film resistors. We use metal film in noise-sensitive circuits such as the input stage due to their extremely low noise. We also use 1 Watt resistors where other builders use 1/2 Watts, again, due to lower noise and higher performance. For resistors that see heavier loads, we use 2 Watt resitors instead of those 1/2 Watt version in all those amps from the 1950s an 60s (and most clones and kits).
MIL-Spec components. We use MIL-Spec shielded cables for many sensitive signal circuits to cut down on noise and interference, along with MIL-Spec wire and resistors. Why? Low noise, vibration resistance, and high temperature resistance.
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