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ACME Instruments

Handmade, custom tube amps by Jesse Quitslund, made in Seattle, WA. Instagram: Boys, Shudder to Think and Holy Rollers. All handcrafted in Seattle, WA.

Founder Jesse Quitslund has worked as a touring technician over the past 25 years for: Neil Young + Promise of the Real, Death Cab for Cutie, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neko Case, Queens of the Stone Age, Modest Mouse, Bob Mould, Lucinda Williams, The New Pornographers, Young the Giant, Grouplove, Gang of Four, The Fire Theft, Sunny Day Real Estate, Girls vs. He also played bass in Capito

l City Dusters. ACME Instruments was born as a brand around 1990 when Jesse built a series of guitars and basses as an Industrial Design student at Rhode Island School of Design. From the beginning, his creations were inspired by his favorite vintage equipment, influenced by his experiences as a repair person, and driven by a love of fine hand crafting. When he began building tube amplifiers he was working at Angela Instruments and Budda Amplification, where both Steve Melkisethian and Jeff Bober were big influences on his tastes and techniques. Around the same time he built his first tube amp his work as a touring technician turned into a steady gig. By the late 90’s he was also busy working on recording studio installations and began collecting and restoring old tube broadcast consoles. In 2004 he moved his shop and vintage equipment collection (all 10,000 pounds of it) to Tacoma, WA, where he started working for Rik King at Guitar Maniacs. His parts-collecting escalated to buying out electronics supply stores, TV repair shops, and notably local institution Puget Sound Organ Repair, a gold mine of vintage parts and service literature. This was the beginning of the amps and reverb units ACME Instruments now fabricates.

06/02/2026

Never seen one of these Crest branded Magnatones before. It was close to a Starlet model, and I converted it from a power transformerless ‘widow-maker’ circuit to a more conventional Varsity #108, the step up model from the same time period. Inspiration 💯 belongs to Skip from thanks fellas! All that was needed was the addition of a power transformer, and a minimal number of other changes. I’ll get some guts shots together now that I’m done tweaking👨🏻‍🔬super happy with the results!

05/18/2026

Portrait of a Junk Yard Dog. Cleaning out the garage and threw this together, a 50’s(?) Don McGohan M 8 PA paired with a 16 ohm(!) Philco 12”. Not sure about the cabinet, Silvertone maybe? The M 8 circuit is wacky, both triodes in the 12AX7 are grid leak biased, so it’s a dirt box! The only other grid leak second gain stage I’ve seen was in a Newcomb and it also sounded too kool to mess with. The single ended 6L6 may well be good for 8 watts too, it moves some air plugged into a 4x12! Here’s to all the Hillbilly Rigs out there

11/21/2025

Hope y’all are enjoying all the Fall colors(of Fuzz), happy autumn friends! It’s been a few years since the Fuzzbug has bitten, here’s a new twist on a fave, the enigmatic ‘Amplified Superfuzz’ entry in the forgotten tome ‘99 Electronics Projects.’

03/24/2025

Nerd Alert!🚨 I have been obsessing with and collecting vintage k***s since I was a kid. And in all my decades of digging thru mountainous untold buckets of old radio/stove/military/industrial k***s, buttons, and thingies in surplus spots, hamfests, and urban reclamation stores, I have never seen these colors of Dakaware. The ‘tele’ barrel switch tips are OG, but what the heck did they come off??? Thickening the plot, one in this pile was painted over white(can you spot it?) apparently to match two other lavender ones. Maybe someone crafted it to replace a missing one on whatever fabulous device these were made for.

09/18/2024

It’s been a little more than a week since the one and only Steve Melkisethian shuffled off this mortal coil. The photo here is a framed collage of sorts that has adorned my shop wall in various locations. There is an ‘Off the Wall’ article from an 80’s issue of Guitar Player show Steve deep in a hustle at an early NYC Vintage Guitar Show. Below that is some legal tender that was a holiday gift to Angela Instruments employees.

I’ve struggled to come up with the words for an adequate tribute. He was a titan in a game he helped pioneer, a devoted family man, a gifted storyteller(and photographer!), and loyal friend. He also kept the gear of the DC punk scene in better than working condition.

Last but not least he cajoled me into building my first tube amp, and inspired me to just start doing the stuff I dreamed of. Steve was a DIY Johnny Appleseed, and showed me you didn’t need extensive technical schooling or experience to be creative and even innovative.

Thanks for everything Steve!

07/05/2024

Spotted on the MV Chimacum ferry, my questions have a few questions of their own…

Any broom nerds out there who can answer them?

07/03/2024

Tasting these fine Japanese Fazer Sonix brings to mind sake.

Milky white bottle
Swirl evaporated Spring
Mysteries deepen

05/27/2024

For someone out there picking up the soldering iron was a bold act of defiance. I appreciate their works’ sculptural qualities

03/06/2023

In appreciation of Oliver amps, here’s a short love story. Sometime in the early nineties I happened upon my first Powerflex(thanks !) and I was hooked, instantly obsessed with these rare creations of Jess Oliver, tube amp visionary and the genius behind the Ampeg B-15. Fast forward 30 years and I’ve collected, repaired, and flipped many of the various models he built both under his own brand and for Sam Ash NYC. ‘Never have I ever’ chanced across the top lil’ cutie, easily the cheapest model yet, presumably made to order for Sam Ash. This showed up on my bench in truly rust bucket condition, it had clearly been very damp in the distant past and needed A LOT of L-U-V. Both tone pots were frozen and worse yet the set screws on all three k***s were rusted in place as well. When I tried loosening the two chassis bolts they sheared off in a shower of rusty dust, the bottom shielding plate was more rust that steel as well. Remarkably after a grip of new parts and some serious elbow grease it roared back to life. The OT is the smallest I’ve seen in an Oliver and looks to be the same part used in the Ampeg Gemini series. The inputs are pure Ampeg -Bass, Guitar, and Accordion/Mike. The Guitar Jack has a bright cap, the Accordion is the hottest of the three, and the Bass is Classic B-15 vibes all day long. For maybe 25W out of two 6L6s this is a very versatile Swiss army amp that plays well with every cab I’ve paired it with, from an SVT 8x10 to a Marshall 4x12. And naturally it’s a Killa bass rig…

02/26/2023

Calling all Seattle area Jazz Punx! If yer a fan of groovy instrumental jams with plenty of heart and soul check out this show. Monday the 27th in Belltown at Madame Lou’s in the new Croc. 6:30 doors, 7:30 🎼 music 🎶 it’ll be my first show since Covid and I’m stoked!

Address

Seattle, WA
98119

Website

http://www.acmeverb.com/

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