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https://www.triplett.com oops. wrong triplet.

I play more acoustic than anything lately. I still want to get into a loud rock band again before I die. I figure my ears are damaged enough so what the hell. There is a power in a lud amp that is cool. I can get a nice tone from a smaler amp or a modeler but still want them to be loud. Oops....totally hijacked a thread here.....

I started building amps a couple of years ago and really enjoyed doing it. I started taking them to all my gigs and then sold all my other amps (aside from a ‘62 Concert). Then one day after a gig I was approached by a guitarist that wanted me to build him an amp. Hmmmm, so I do it or not? Well I did it. First I got business insurance and an LLC then I got to it. A few weeks later I sold him an amp and Southbound Amplification was born! The Cypress model is what he bought. It is based on a 6g3 only channel one is cleaner and two is dirtier. There is also a master volume, a cut control, a negative feed back switch and a boost for channel two. The picture is the amp he bought. I have a Cypress amp that looks like this too, which I gig with but I don’t have a cut control on my amp. I really don’t think it needs the cut control imo. I’m still experimenting with features and design for what I think is the perfect 6g3 type of amp. This amp has the ability to run either KT66 or 6v6 tubes for 30 or 20 watts. With KT66 tubes and a Alessandro neo GA-SC-X speaker the amp weighs in at 25 pounds which is still portable. I added test ports to rebias the tubes without having to pull the chassis. The switch in power tubes does require a rebias since it is a fixed bias amp and the transformer I’m using supplies a switchable voltage variation. The KT66 tubes sound really good in this design. I’m super excited about building amps and have other models I’m working on with more and less wattages. Who knows if I can make it a successful business, which for me would be just a small supplement to a retirement I hope to take in a couple of years.

Well rock and roll can be unkind, but we keep our stage volume and rehearsal volumes at a totally reasonable volume. Now that nonstop cacophony at Heritage, which doesn't let up, is sure to kill some ear drums! And BTW, my main gig is playing acoustic, and it's funny, I went acoustic so I wouldn't damage my hearing

They have had ear protection available for years. I remember Jim Deurloo cutting a backplate during a tour and he had in a pair of earplugs. They also have safety glass available. Everyone who goes on the tours is required to have a pair. I took my own since I had to use them at work.

Nice tripletts! Good comparison of the cutaway horn on Heritage & Gibson, too

I noticed one guy had ear plugs hanging around his neck I worked for a huge international company and hearing protection (and many other things) was mandatory. If you got caught break certain safety rules you were fired. There's no way to make these fine instruments w/o violating the rules that company imposed. I also wonder how often a guitar gets dropped when using those buffing wheels.

Says the guy who plays in a rock band......

The one on the right is from a special run of '58 plain tops done for Eddie's Guitars in St. Louis. Several of the ones on Eddie's website have lighter FBs and some are darker. I liked the top on mine and it weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. which is why I chose it. All things being equal, I probably would have had a slight preference for a darker FB. A non-issue for me.

That Gibby on the right has a rather light-colored fretboard. Gibson used to stain them darker, wonder if they stopped?

Oh yes. That looks like a whole week of fun and gains. Happy NGDs!

I believe they were the 101s, whatever they claim to be PAFs. I primarily play through Metropoulos remakes of Marshall 1959 and/or JTM45-100. The Imperials are a far better pickup IMHO. I was getting noise through the throwup 101s and was told by the owner that I had to pay to assess the defective product that is “guaranteed for life.” I’ll never use their crap again. It seems to me that I pulled 101s from a H-150LW and improved it with HRWs

for the 150/LP devotees

How the guys that work there avoid hearing damage is beyond me. That is one noisy environment.

Well, it just arrived . . . I'll unbox it soon and give a report . . . the Gibbie showed up a couple of hours ago and it's a keeper! btw, I have a Wildwood Spec Lester and it's da shizzle!

Thanks for this.

I got the impression that the "factory special" was a Sweetwater spec'd guitar. The Lollar PAF and jumbo frets vs the CC spec 225 and Medium Jumbos frets. Plain top vs figured top. I would guess they move enough that they could specify a factory run, a bit like Wildwood does with their "Wildwood Spec" guitars.

Just curious, but what set of Throbaks did you have installed, and what was it that you didn't care about them? The reason I ask is because I'm thinking of installing a set of Throbak SLE-101s into my H-150 CC goldtop, and it happens to be a set that I've always liked in the past. Of course, a 575 is an entirely different beast than a 150, so I can understand why the Imperials might be preferred for that guitar.

Congrats on the new guitar purchases! There's certainly nothing wrong with a nice plain top regardless of brand! Also, I've mentioned this before, but the bridges on these new H-150s and other Custom Cores have been upgraded to the more traditional zamac/brass tune-o-matic style bridge and, in my honest opinion, they're vastly superior tone-wise to the Pinnacle bridges that were installed up until 2025. They may not be locking, but the materials do matter! Can't wait to hear how you like the new guitars!

For those interested, this is how the H-535s are put together. You can see the center block, how they add the kerfing, and how the top is made and curved. This is from almost 10 years back, but the process is the same now. It's not a process that would be done by CNC.

@rockabilly69 nice prs !! But i guess mine is legit schaller M6 cant be wrong it came with the white package box... and the regular schaller S stamp at back of the tuning housing... perhaps on the pegs i wont not say sharp but rather pointy? Its just not ad comfortable to handle compares to grover type tuning buttons ?

Pictures, cause people like pictures... Gotoh 510 standard 18:1 Gotoh Luxury Engraved 510 21:1 Schaller M6 Schaller M6 top locking back view Schaller M6 top locking top view...

I've switched between Gotohs 510s and Schaller M6s, for both aesthetic reasons and for different tuning ratio, 21:1 on the Gotoh 510, and cannot hear a difference. I personally love M6 tuners. I have them on a PRS and 3 Zemaitis guitars. You sure you got genuine M6 tuners, I've never heard of sharp buttons.

I've only changed out one set of tuners on all of my guitars. A few of the original Grovers on the 535 were getting tight, so I swapped to a set of Grover locking tuners. I didn't notice any change in tone or sustain. The improvement was merely in tuning and easier string changes. I can change picks and hear all kinds of differences. I've changed strings and heard differences. For sure there is vibration going on there... clip on tuners work even with fretted notes. I wonder though, how much of that vibration gets all the way back down the string and into the pickups from the headstock. Or maybe I just don't worry about minor changes. I'm more likely to twist a knob and do gross changes.