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Smokestack Thermionic Works

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France
Floirac
Smokestack Thermionic Works

Réparation d'amplis guitare et basse, à lampes et à transistors à coté de Bordeaux (33) sur la rive droite de la Garonne

16/07/2026

⚡️Manley Stingray⚡️
Stereo HIFI amplifier (2x32W according to the doc 🙄) by Manley with, for the right channel,one 12AT7 and one 6414 to drive four EL84 and you double that for the left channel.
I mostly know Manley for their studio hardware (preamps, compressors, etc.) but they make some serious hifi gear.
Came to the shop because some of the power tubes had lost their vacuum. I tested the rest of the tubes and my customer and I decided a full retube made the most sense. I went for J/J for the 12AT7s and the EL84s and found some matched NOS General Electric 6414.
Needless to say, it was a pleasure to soak the amp with my own playlist for an entire day, setting the bias before, on each individual power tube, then a second time after the burn-in when the tubes are settled in their new electronic home.
The name of the model, “Stingray”, comes from the shape of the layout which eventually dictated the form factor of the chassis. You might think it looks silly and whimsical but it is actually one of the soundest way to lay out an amplifier circuit (grouding scheme and all), so shut up. Your mother’s silly and whimsical.

21/06/2026

⚡️Marshall Superlead 100W 1959HW⚡️
A customer of mine had asked me about a year ago to install a FX loop on his Marshall SL5 Slash Signature and he was so happy with it that he bought himself a Marshall 1959 hand-wired and brought it straight to me to have the same mod done and then some: a master volume right after the tonestack, a switch to disable the bright cap on the gain pot and a switch to remove the FX loop out of the circuit.
After some tweaking with the effect loop levels to match the input and output levels for his effects, he seemed to be super satisfied with the mod. The master volume allows hims to get the overdrive he wants from both Bright and Normal channels without blowing your socks clean off because of the sheer volume of that thing.
I would not do it on a vintage 1959 because it requires drilling holes in the chassis and would make the amp lose so much value, but a modern production amplifier is less of an ethical problem for me, I don’t know man, you gotta draw the line somewhere I guess.

17/06/2026

⚡️Mesa Boogie Bass 400+⚡️
Monster of a bass amp: twelve 6L6GC for the power section, when you have to change those, when a pair goes bad (like on this one) you might find a little tear rolling down those cute cheeks of yours.
It hurts to say but these amps are a lot easier to work on than Ampeg SVTs.
The Mesa is on the clean and punchy side of things and while the SVT can do that, it’s got the growl that I never managed to dial in on the Mesa 400+ (ymmv of course).
Always happy to see peeps rocking big bad tube amps for bass. In the age of class-D, switched-mode power supply compact bass amp that end up as door stoppers, an AD200, an SVT or a Mesa 400 is a sight for my sore eyes…. Good bass tone is easy: you need big irons, lots of tubes and the back of a longshoreman.

15/02/2026

⚡️Silvertone 1432⚡️
Little 10W amp built by Danelectro between 1959 and 1961.
Silvertone was the homebrand of the mail-order and department store company Sears. They were lower-end amplifiers: poor cabinetry, flimsy aluminum chassis, low efficiency. Very different approach from Leo Fender’s where everything on the amps was designed to make them workhorse (albeit keep costs down).
However, those Silvertones sound great, which is what I love about amplifiers, about music making and about art in general. Sometimes, an amp for guitar students sold on a mail-order catalog, between the immersion blender and the hair curlers, is going to produce “that” tone that has been in your head. Regardless, or because, of how s**tty it was built, how poor is the design, you sometimes need the tone of a puny speaker pushed to its limit, the saturation of an undersized output transformer and the low headroom of an amp produced by opportunistic bean-counters in suits trying to make a buck for as little money as possible.
Back to our 1432, harmonica players love them, and these amps don’t come cheap no more! CaDiJo sure loves his! (Check him out, incredible bluesman from this neck of the woods)
Amp came in with the usual crackle, snap and pop. After testing, I found an open plate resistor and some leaky coupling caps on the power amp module.
It’s an old lady with its own quirks, I always try to go into those repairs with a lot of caution. No shotgun repairs here! I’m trying to keep in mind the collector value of such amp while not getting over-sentimental over older parts that get in the way of function.
I decided to leave the preamp alone for now until it causes problems (and it probably will one day).
This little guy is oozing whatever it is we call mojo and in the right hands, it transports you to a different time and place.

06/11/2025

⚡️Marshall 1974x⚡️
Lovely Marshall 18W, handwired in the UK, one normal channel, one tube-driven tremolo channel, EZ81 tube rectifier. It’s fitted with a Celestion Greenback. Not big muscular EL34 here, just two EL84 in the amp section
I love this amp, it’s got a strong cult-following (and a DIY builder community) but somehow it’s pretty niche.
It’s got beautiful clean and crunch, rich tremolo for that vintage vibe, it’s just not what Marshall is known for these days but if you’re looking for an amp from clean to blues crunch and Fender and Vox is not cutting it for you, I would look at the 1974. It’s British through and through, you’re not getting Fender sparkling cleans, but it has its own thing going on and it’s goood.
Came in for a check up and some weird noises, turned it was a dead tube. The build inside is a thing of beauty for a « big name » modern production, components on a turret board, plenty of space. Not a cheap amp though!

03/11/2025

⚡️Fender Vibro Champ⚡️
Nice little Fender Vibro Champ silverface from 1975. It’s got the original Schumacher 220V primary power transformer, the nice Blue Astron coupling capacitors (and they don’t leak DC) and the original 8’’ AlNiCo speaker.
Unfortunalety, the speaker is dead. My customer will go on a quest to find an original replacement as a first move but this amp is a player, a more capable speaker albeit not an original one, might really open up the little beast without spending ridiculous money in an original tiny-sounding 8inch speaker.
Tube chart in the picture is wrong, they slapped a Fender Champ tube chart in there, it’s missing the tremolo tube!
No need to rant about how great those Fender Champs are, looking at the second-hand market and the price they go for, I think people know at this point.
I’m going to build a speaker cable RCA-TS for the customer as he wants to play it through two Altec Lansing speakers.

23/10/2025

⚡️Ampeg B15N⚡️
Insane piece of rock’n’roll history, the mighty Ampeg Portaflex. This one is from 1962, built in Linden, New Jersey and came to the shop for a full check up and tube test of the three 6SL7 and the two 6L6GC for around 25W cathode-biased.
It’s got two channels with independant tonestacks and a 15’’ speaker (not original though unfortunately).
You gotta give it to Ampeg to think outside the box and do it right: you unfasten the latches, flip the top part of the cabinet and boom! The amp is ready to be played. When you’re done, you flip it back down, secure the latches and the amplifier part is safe and secure inside the cabinet.
The legacy of this amp is huge, James Jamerson, one of the greatest bass players of all time used it on Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On?, « Can’t Hurry Love » by The Supremes, a whole lot of Motown bangers.
And on the Stax side of things? Donald Dunn was giving us Otis Redding’s « RESPECT » bassline on that thing and whole lot of other hits.
It’s quite intimidating to work on such an amp, not because the circuit is complicated, or because it’s hard to work in the chassis (yes I’m looking at you Ampeg SVT) but because that thing has been around, and will be around long after I’m gone. It’s tone signature, its place in music history, it’s cultural significance and therefore its social significance looms large. It’s the low end of the teenage love and heartaches, but also the soundtrack of social change in the United States.

28/08/2025

⚡ Fender Vibro-Champ ⚡
Eric Clapton signature model

The Sprague cathode resistor bypass capacitor was blown to s**t. The 6V6 failed and took the capacitor with it.
I changed the tube, the cathode resistor and its bypass capacitors. Works great, sounds good!
Lil' 5W with a vibrato and a Weber-built AlNiCo 8" speaker, the components are soldered to a fiberglass eyelet board, super clean and reliable build, I love it when does the most on those amps.
Not a fan of the low power mode which consists in a voltage divider at the output, it's 5W goddamnit, let'er rip for f**k's sake.

28/07/2025

Need for tweed...
Fender Deluxe 5E3 "the Edge"
Fender Blues Jr.
Peavey Classic 50
Fender Bassman '59 reissue
Peavey Blues Classic
The shop got real tweedy lately

23/06/2025

⚡JMI AC15⚡
Gorgeous JMI AC15 in beige tolex. Came in for a check up before listing it for sale.
Amazing built, attention to the details, it's a great amp.
It's got a NOS EF86 (Marconi-labeled) that tested at 102% on my lampmeter.
It's got a fixed depth tremolo and vibrato, just a brilliance and volume control on channel I and the traditionnal top cut and volume in channel II. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, it's got the tone, you plug your guitar and whether you rip or you suck, this amp will tell it like it is for everyone to hear.
No tone stack, on the amp's end, it's all taken care of upstream, are you worthy?
For now it's going back to the legendary studio , thank you folks for the trust!

Adresse

10 Bis Rue De L'Esperance
Floirac
33270

Heures d'ouverture

Lundi	09:00 - 12:00
	14:00 - 18:00
Mardi	09:00 - 12:00
	14:00 - 18:00
Mercredi	09:00 - 12:00
	14:00 - 18:00
Jeudi	09:00 - 12:00
	14:00 - 18:00
Vendredi	09:00 - 12:00
	14:00 - 18:00

Site Web

https://www.smokestackthermionics.com/

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