Fearsome Sound

08/06/2026

This is a nice, mostly original Silverface Twin Reverb from the ‘77/’78 time frame recently picked up by Mark Nicholson (The Martin Boys). Fender incorporated a 135 watt Ultralinear output circuit into a selection of amps in this era - Twin Reverb, Vibrasonic Reverb, Dual Showman Reverb, Quad Reverb and Super Six Reverb. A Bassman 135 is very similar, but does not include a reverb feature. The ultralinear output transformer is famous for it’s loud, clean headroom – operating easily in 100+ watt territory. Some very sensible work has been done in the past to the power supply filtering and other minor electrolytic replacement so the amp is mostly original. My work was limited to a couple of minor mod removals, some cabinet hardware upgrade and reverb circuit repair. The power tubes were replaced and their bias was confirmed. What a gem – should be trouble free for another 50 years!

07/31/2026

Harmony H305A and H306A (w/Tremolo) amps dating to the early 60's. Both amps got health checks - only minor issues detected since some pretty good upkeep work has been performed to this point. The H306A had a non-working Tremolo circuit. When the H306A was made, Harmony was using the 6HS7 octal tube to drive the Tremolo circuit. These are non-production tubes today. You can get them in the NOS market but ime they are mostly used and pretty worn out. I rebuilt this circuit for the current production 6SL7 octal. It turned out nice.

02/06/2026

On the lookout for this ...

☕️

02/06/2026

This is a really nice, mostly original Bassman 135 from the mid 70's. Required new power supply caps, power tubes and sockets. A little circuit tweaking and it's good for another 50 years!

02/05/2026

These pics show the progression from prototype to release of my Paladin Chiron Distortion. Improved (imo) circuit (from the original Distortion circuit) new pcb and new box profile. I've been looking at the Klon Centaur circuit and so I guess I was inspired. The original Centaur circuit was potted so who know what's going on in there (lol) but one of the cool things about the circuit is the midrange boost/feed forward feature, which is linked to the gain control. I liked that idea so I added an active midrange control in front of the passive tone stack (treble and bass). Mark Nicholson (The Martin Boys) has been trying it out and gave me an audio clip for the web site - check it out fearsomesound.com/media .

01/20/2026

This is a SONAX 550B, 50 watt solid state bass amp. It's not really notable except on a historical level. Once upon a time, Baldwin Organ Co decided to get into the guitar amp business and contracted Yorkville Sound (Traynor) to design and build some small/medium size combo amps for sale in the US under Baldwin's new "SONAX" trade name. All good except these finished amps, designed and built in Canada, were therefore subject to a 10% import duty which Baldwin felt would drive their prices out of the attractive range. Yorkville proposed to ship the amps unfinished to a new US office where the amps would undergo final assembly and onward shipment to Baldwin. Unfinished goods attracted no duty. That was 1972.

01/06/2026

This is a mostly original Traynor Custom Special (YBA-3) from mid '68. The power tubes were worn out and the power supply needed a re-build. This is a cool transition model that had a mix of Peter Traynor's design features from the period. The 6CA7 power tubes from this period would tolerate the high voltage from this circuit and deliver roughly 160 watts RMS power. Modern tubes need a bit more circuit protection but this one manages a very respectable 130+ watts power output into an 8 ohm load. This one is good for another few decades.

12/13/2025

Real Eh is a relay board product I introduced a few years ago to facilitate amp signal/channel switching. It's designed to get power from the vacuum tube filament voltage supply so it's popular with the tube amp DIY/modification crowd. I've also had some interest from robotics groups - not sure what they're doing though - lol.