By Hollie Gibbs
A switch is flipped and a slight buzz emanates as the tubes begin to glow. As the tubes grow warmer, the guitar begins to blaze and the warmth pours through the speakers, thick and rich, enveloping the listener.
As much responsible for the tone of the music as the guitars that receive all the accolades, tube amps are part of the fabric of rock and roll. As Cleveland is a city where rock and roll resonates through its bones with every driving beat of manufacturing and every howling blast of steam, it is only fitting that its artisans revel in creating their own custom instruments and amps.
A radio repairman in the Marine Corps, Jim Hissem discovered his love for electronics while deployed to Iraq in 2005. After attending college for electrical engineering, he began working as a technician at Dr. Z amps and learning about tube circuits.
“The type of circuit used for guitar amplification is unique because it is designed to distort, and this was never the intention of any of the engineers back in the ’40s and ’50s who designed these circuits,” he explained.
Jim has since earned his degree and moved on to developing a few prototype designs, which he has demoed at Guitar Riot, under the name 94 Amps.
“There is not a lot of variation in circuit topologies when it comes to tube guitar amps,” he said. “It is really about tailoring the circuit to meet certain needs. It is very easy to make a loud guitar amp that sounds good. When you push vacuum tube power amps to distort, they sound great; that is the sound of rock and roll. Trying to get that to happen at the right volume level and still sound right is harder. I have focused on making circuits in the 13 to 30 watt range for club level musicians.”
As a gigging musician, Jim said he makes amps for other local musicians in live band situations.
“I usually keep my circuits fairly simple as well because I think you get a richness that can be lost with a longer signal path,” he added. “The lower wattage and simplicity of design also allows the amps to be reasonably priced.”
Solid state amps grew in popularity because of their clean power and the scarcity of vacuum tube manufacturers making tube amps more expensive. This also gave birth to hybrids with tube-driven preamps and solid state power amps. However, for those concerned with achieving the perfect tone, there was never an alternative.
“Digital modeling is getting better all the time, but it will never fully recreate the interaction of the elements of a tube circuit,” Jim said of solid state amps. “Also modern electronics manufacturing methods allow for very inexpensive tube amps. Plus with everything being digital these days, it makes analog a cool thing, hence the resurgence of records.”
A young up-start, 94 Amps is not currently in full scale production, but Jim is in the process of licensing his designs to facilitate their production on a larger scale. For now, they are sold at Guitar Riot.
Interested musicians can also visit http://94amps.com or http://facebook.com/94amps.
Hollie Gibbs has a BS in journalism from Kent State University and studied photography at School of the Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her articles and photographs have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She can also be found playing guitar with various bands and building life-size monster props.
Cleveland, OH 44102