Common Beat Music

Here’s an overhaul post about couple of mid 1970’s gems!

First is a Fender Bassman 135. We installed all new electrolytic capacitors, plate resistors and output tubes on this one. This amp probably hasn’t sounded this good in many years as it still had the original components from over 50 years ago. The output tubes were shot and the plate resistors were out of spec or burned up.

Second amp is a Musicman 2100-RD. It received the same freshening up of all the electrolytic capacitors and a new set of output tubes. It’s full sounding and clear as a bell now.

We can’t stress enough that if you are playing a vintage tube amp how important it is to have the power supply components like filter capacitors updated to preserve the sound of your amp and keep your tubes happy. We see a lot of amps from this era in our shop that have never been touched except for tubes. Replacing tubes without also freshening up the power supply, especially if the components are still original, isn’t going to allow the amp to reliably produce the high voltages needed to keep the amps performing at their best. Hit us up for amp work if you ever have any questions.

Thanks for looking!

We will be having an administrative day on 4/22 and will be CLOSED so we can catch up on some projects we have been meaning to get to around the shop!!

We will be back our normal hours on Thursday 4/23

Thank you

Quick setup and some upgrades and other work on this cool Fender Duo Sonic. A new 3 way toggle switch was wired up and we shortened the switch tip per the customers request. We also installed some new brass compensated barrel saddles and set up the instrument with Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky strings in E standard which worked out great since the Duo Sonic’s have a very short 22.5” scale length. Topped it off with some new black k***s to match the pickups and switch tip.

We got some new lots of records hitting the bins for the weekend. The weather is going to be divine, we are loading up the bins and also have a load of used gear going out too!

Open 12-6pm Friday & Saturday
12-5pm on Sunday

Who doesn’t love a good before and after??!

This Fender triple neck lap steel came in a few months back in its original case all dirty and dusty with tarnished hardware. For the most part this one ended taking a whole lot of disassembly, cleaning, polishing, lubricating and of course restringing to bring it back to its former glory. We also serviced the electronics on all three instruments in the process.

These instruments were very popular in the 40’s and 50’s before the wide spread adoption of the pedal steel guitar in country and western and other types of music. These instruments originated in Hawaii and were adopted in the states in as the music made it to the shores of California. Fender sought to meet the burgeoning market for quality instruments for the emerging country and western music scene by combining 3 lap steels together so a player wouldn’t have to retune their instrument to play different songs. The result is a very heavy and solid instrument that is unmistakably clean and clear and took the music to another level. Each neck is tuned to a different chord and can be switched on independently from each other with a simple 3 way switch.

This belonged to the owners fathers and it was an honor to have the opportunity to work on it!

We made a little adhesive pickguard for this guitar today. The owner is an avid flamenco player so the guitar’s top was getting quite worn. This pickguard should help with that!

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After some careful consideration, we will be CLOSED today, January 30th as part of the national general strike.

We will see you again tomorrow.

Well the streets and sidewalks are a bit of a mess after yesterday’s storm but we will be in today working on your repairs, so come by if you need anything!

Just a heads up that our hours will be a little brief the next two weeks for the holidays!

Need a last minute gift but can’t make it here before our break? You can always buy an eGift card on our website! Link in bio.

We’re gonna have a bit of a wacky schedule next week so we can spend some time with friends and family!

Please notice we are open on Saturday but CLOSED Sunday. Back to normal hours on Monday 12/1.

Our next event is coming up on Saturday the 25th!!

Come join the Vinyl Tap crew for some spooky jams to keep you going all the way to Halloween.

Sets go from 1 - 5:30 p.m.