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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

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!

06/06/2025

⚡Fender Princeton Reverb-Amp '64 reissue⚡
Came in because the rectifier tube was arcing. Beautiful sight but not good for the amp.
Turned out the power tubes were dead and were drawing too much current.
In addition to that, the first 1k dropping resistor failed open so no voltage to the preamp tubes.

This is an handwired series with premium components, and a hybrid PCB with old-school eyelets. Wish modern tube amps were built like this as standard.
They really tried their best to offer something that felt long gone at Fender's. Handwired, pinewood cabinet,
It even has custom-made blue capacitors!

The customer fitted the amp with a cool Alnico , sounds pretty good!

22/05/2025

⚡Mesa Boogie .50 Caliber +⚡
These are not from the Mark series, but if you can't afford those, the .50 is an alright alternative.
It's powered by two 6L6GC, it's got a reverb, the iconic Mesa EQ and a lead channel. This combo version was fitted with a Mesa Black Shadow speaker. It's a cool amp, loud, versatile (if you're into US tones) and fairly portable.

Came in because it made no sound.
It had an open dropping resistor on B+. It probably burnt because one of the filter caps on the bias circuit was shorted which brought the bias voltage way too close to zero.
There was also an open plate resistor on V5.
First time I see so many shorted/open components on an amp that otherwise was fine or did not suffer sone big catastrophic event.

19/02/2025

🎛️ Boss HM-2 🎛️
Does what it says on the tin. Absolute classic for an absolute shredder with
Modified it to allow to be powered by a regular 9V power supply on its own. (Reversible mod, obviously).
If you don't stack two of those on your pedalboard, are you really playing guitar?

04/02/2025

⚡Fender Twin Amp '57 reissue⚡

Pretty amazing amp, classic design, great tweed tones, l.o.u.d.
The plate voltages are a bit higher than on an original so it's going to feel different but I'm very pleasantly surprised by the built quality on those Fenders.
It features traditionnal layout and soldering (on eyelet board, hardwired tube sockets), two Alnico 12" speaker manufactured by for . The laquered tweed looks gorgeous.
The customers has some NOS Philips 6L6GC in the power section, the rest is current production 12AX7 tubes.
I love working on that type of amp, always hypes me up when I see a current production amp from a major company building amps like they used to.

08/12/2024

⚡Fender '68 Custom Pro Reverb⚡

Came in with some scary pop, crackle and snap. One of the power tubes was red-plating, it made loud pops when we'd wiggle the tube.
With a new set of J/J 6L6GC, a bias and burn-in, all the issues are gone!
It's a great amp, 40W with tremolo and reverb, well-made inside (by today's mass production's standards), you do get some premium parts inside like Belton tube sockets and a Celestion G12 Neo that keeps the weight of the combo down. They got rid of the "Normal" channel that noone uses on vintage Fender amps which reduced the size of the cabinet. Good job , keep at it!

03/11/2024

⚡Marshall SL5⚡
5W with three 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section and a single EL34 in the power amp section. Two channels and a digital reverb.
Customer wanted an FX-loop to insert a boost and hit the power section hard to get a volume boost without too much compression.
The FX loop on this particular amp is a little awkward to implement as the only place to insert it to enjoy it on both channels is to put it right after the master volume. (Traditionnally you'd want it before the master volume).
This one is an active solid-state FX loop that's powered by B+, pretty transparent. You can adjust the send and return level with potentiometers or trimpots. Super happy with the results. Another satisfied customer!

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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