Sound Garage Tales

Shack Door

Dear GSG Fans

Time has come to close the doors of the Sound Garage after a decade. What a fun ride this has been! Looking back, I am so thankful for all the friendships I’ve been blessed with, which will outlast the actual amps (not that they won’t last if you keep replacing the tubes). I wanted to take this time to truly THANK YOU for your support, friendship, business and mainly trusting me with building your tone machine.
I do hope that my amps left a mark in your musical life and beyond. I know they did in mine. It was pure bliss building each one of them personally and sending them off as kids to college hoping they’ll perform.
As for me, I am on to new ventures and chapters in my life as many of you know I cannot sit still.

Best of wishes, and thank you!
Gabriel.

Did your speaker develop a nasty buzz lately? Chances are that the voice coil became off-centered and it touches the magnet. Here’s how to check your speaker for voice coil scratching against the magnet. It happens even on new speakers — the magnet becomes off centered and the coil starts rubbing against it inducing some pretty nasty buzz.
The cheapest Celestion AlNiCo Blue on Planet Earth is here.

I am asked many times about the programs I’m using to design my amp layouts. So I thought of putting together a three part video tutorial about using Inkscape, a free vector based drawing program (for Win or Mac). I also made available the actual Inkscape amp layout drawing presented in these tutorials so you can use it as a blueprint starter template for your drawings. Please share your drawings! They are art!

Happy Memorial Day!

So, it’s that time of the year – shed the sweaters, hoodies (at least in Chicago), and head to the parade then put that BBQ to work with our family. Since Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, it’s also a day of giving.

With that in mind, how about if shipping is on me and a 7% discount on the orders placed this Memorial Day Weekend for those of you in the contiguous US?!

These are heavy amps so you are saving quite a few bucks there. Call me (847 394 5091) or drop me a line if interested.

Happy Memorial Day!

Because the EF86 pentode is such a finicky tube but sounds so wicked (once you find the right one), I thought it might be worth showing the pain I’m going through (besides replacing Fallon with Leno), to keep things quiet:

This week’s video tip is about soldering the leads to the turret board to have a strong connection. The wire I am using is PVC insulated topcoat stranded wire (20 AWG).

Where I show how I am attaching the EM80 Magic Eye tube to the inside of the Gabriel 1×12″ Stinger Combo. The hole I drill has a 1-3/8″ diameter using a Forstner bit. Then I am using a transparent plexi and a metallic shield screwed on the front valance.
The electrical connections are made via an octal tube socket connection on the side of the chassis. The electrical layout of the Magic Eye can be found here.

The weekly tip on how to mount (solder) the copper buss wire to the front controls (potentiometers), and a jig. The buss wire can be found at any hardware shop and the one I’m using here is 14 AWG.

Some of you might know that the whole Gabriel Sound Garage venture was spun into space by a little college physics project by my brother in law Tim, called The Champ.

This small little beast intrigued me enough with its splendid sound despite the 8 inch speaker to pursue building my First Born 10 years ago and from there as they say it’s history:

Finally I got a Solder Fume Extractor after years of soldering. It’s about time. The fumes can be nasty for your health: