Make’n Music has one of the best acoustic guitar collections I have ever seen. Again only the good stuff. High end Martin’s, Breedlove’s, Collings etc. Of all of the guitars that I played, one of the coolest guitars I played was a travel guitar made by Breedlove called the Passport C250 This little guitar sounded and played great and also had a built in chromatic tuner! Normally I would think something like that would be a gimmick, but this guitar was so much fun to play that I could only see that this guitar would be a blast to own!

After making some noise playing the guitars around the shop I talked to Teddy a bit about my amps and it turns out that he’s interested in trying the Britain 2.0 in his shop! I’ll be getting him a Britain 2.0 head and a 1×12 Cabinet as soon I finish building the current list of amps I need to finish.

Well with that this entry comes to an end. Thank you Teddy for opening your shop to me and for being such a gracious host. Hopefully we’ll be able to work together soon.

Of course no blog article about a high end gear shop would be complete without a picture gallery! Enjoy the pics!

So armed with my new found information I shot Robbie McIntosh an email and asked if I could stop by to see the show. Within a couple of minutes, Robbie had replied and welcomed me to go back stage with him and see the concert. So within the span of about 5 minutes I found that not only was John Mayer going to be playing Chicago, but I was also going as well! Needless to say I had the hardest time sleeping that night!

Fast forward to Friday April 9th after landing in Mineral Wells, TX to grab our passengers and fuel up, I took a couple of pictures of my jet just in case anyone wanted to see it.

After leaving Mineral Wells, we flew to Iowa City, Iowa so our passengers could do a quick meeting before heading to Chicago. Again I took some pictures of the plane cause it was so nice outside.

Well after getting to Chicago on Friday and checking into my hotel in downtown Chicago I gave Robbie a call to see what his night looked like and he told me that the band was in rehearsals that night with a new drummer. Apparently Steve Jordan (John Mayer’s drummer) was leaving the tour because of some prior engagements and since Chicago would be his last night, Steve recommended Keith Carlock for the job. If you know who Keith is, you’ll know that he’s played with Steely Dan, James Taylor and Sting among others and is an A-list musician. The plan was for the band to rehearse with Keith on Friday night, play the show on Saturday night and once more rehearse with Keith on Sunday. During this conversation Robbie suggested that Friday would not be a good night to meet since they would be so busy running the rehearsal so he suggested that we meet around 7:00PM on Saturday at the show. This worked out perfectly because I wanted to check out Make’n Music here in Chicago and that would give me the afternoon free to poke around town and visit this shop before heading to the United Center. See my blog here for my report on my trip to Make’n Music!

Well after visiting Make’n Music, I got one of the worst pizza’s ever from Gino’s East and took a cab to the United Center to meet up with Robbie. Once there I called Robbie and he brought me in through the underground parking garage which was great because I brought my camera’s and the security crew would have confiscated them and since I took a cab, I had no where to put them.

Given that this was the last night of the US Stadium Tour, things were a little crazy back stage with the crew and band packing things up in preparation for the trip to the Netherlands in 2 weeks. In spite of that, I was able to have a great time backstage with the band and as always Steve Jordan, Sean Hurley, David Ryan Harris and the rest of the band were very kind and inviting.

While talking with Robbie I mentioned that I really wanted to get some shots of him on stage with the Britain 2.0 amplifier and he was kind enough to ask the stage manager if I could have a press badge and take pictures in the press pit; they agreed and I secretly freaked out inside.

So there you have it. For the next three hours I was in the press pit taking pictures of the band and having an absolute blast! Here are some of the better pictures from the night.

After the show, Robbie was kind enough to let me catch a ride back to my hotel with him and Keith Carlock and a few of the crew members.

As always, thanks to Robbie McIntosh and all the band and crew behind the scenes for treating me so well and being so hospitable.

Enjoy the pics!

(Scroll down for video and pics)

Well late last year as I had informally released the Britain 2.0 I saw John’s tweet about the band list for this upcoming tour and I got my courage up and shot Robbie an email to see if he would be interested in playing my amps on this upcoming tour. Well two weeks went by without any response and then one day I got an email from Robbie saying that he had heard of my amps and put them in the “Matchless, Two-Rock, Van Weelden, Dumble category. Good company indeed.”

Well as it eventually worked out that I was able to send Robbie a Britain 2.0 to NY for their rehearsals and within one day Robbie wrote me to inform me that they were the best amps he ever played. We worked out an arrangement and I was able to get him two Britain 2.0 heads and two 2×12-OS cabinets that he’ll be using for this tour.

Fast forward to March 9th and there my wife and I are inside the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Dallas waiting for Robbie to come down so we can grab lunch before the concert. After meeting with Robbie and chatting for a bit we drove to Capital Grille in Dallas and had an amazing lunch while my wife and I got to know Robbie better. One of the things that really struck me about Robbie was how down to earth and incredibly humble he is. He’s one of those guys who you could mention just about anyone in music and he’ll be able to say that he worked with them in some capacity over the years. Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Nora Jones, The Pretenders the list goes on…

So during lunch we talked about everything from gear, family, horses, Jimmy Bryant and Speedy west, Esquivel and tons of other obscure musicians and that most people would never had heard of but whom Robbie knew of in depth.

After lunch Robbie, Melissa and I drove back to the Ritz Carlton where Robbie had to grab one of his guitars and after he got it, we drove to the American Airlines Center. Once there Robbie introduced us to his guitar tech, Andrew Bade and then graciously allowed me to video tape him doing his sound check for the evening. There was no official band sound check for the night so we were the only ones in the stadium. To stand in the center of that stage and look out at the view the band sees every night was completely breathtaking and inspiring!

Click for video of Robbie McIntosh playing the Britain 2.0!

After Robbie showed us around his rig he introduced us to Rene Martinez. For those of you in the know, Rene is John’s guitar tech and many years before that was Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar tech. Meeting him was obviously a thrill! Rene was super cool and very friendly and seemed genuinely pleased to meet us.

Once Robbie finished his sound check he showed us John’s rig which included a Dumble Steel String Singer, a Two-Rock John Mayer Signature Model and a Blackface Fender Bandmaster along with a truckload of guitars that he brought with him. John’s touring collection is an absolute dream collection of guitars with everything ranging from telecasters to Les Paul’s, SG’s, Les Paul Junior’s, an L5 and many Strats along with his #1 Black Strat.

After checking out the stage setup, Robbie led us into the Band Room where we hung out for a few hours and met John’s bass player, Sean Hurley drummer Steve Jordan and rhythm guitarist/backup singer David Ryan Harris. To be honest I had NO idea what to expect when I met these guys but I was so pleased to find that all of these guys were completely cool and non-assuming; so much so that by the end of the afternoon we were all cracking jokes and talking about everything from life to which actress starred in which Hitchcock film. In fact, everyone that we met the entire day was extremely gracious and kind with not a hint of ego anywhere. It was refreshing to meet guys at this level in the game who were so down to earth. Total class.

After hangin with the guys for a while Robbie took us to see the tour bus which was nothing short of awesome, and afterward we went to eat dinner in the dining hall where catering had been provided. As Robbie and I were talking about something I glanced over to the left and saw some dude grabbing some food and thought, “Holy crap that’s John Mayer.” As John made his way over to his table, Robbie grabbed John and introduced Melissa and I to him. He was super gracious and actually took a few minutes to greet us until Robbie told John that I was the guy who made his amp for him to which John replied, “You definitely have the biggest tone in the smallest package thing goin’ on.” He then went on to say that “Robbie has the best tone on stage.” I assume he was being kind, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy hearing that.

So what do you talk to John Mayer about when on the subject of amps? Dumbles of course! After talking about my amps I mentioned that I’m sure his Steel String Singer wasn’t too bad of an amp itself and that got us going down the road of talking about what a unique individual Alexander (or is it Howard) Dumble is. For the sake of discretion I’ll leave out all the details of that conversation but from the sound of it, Mayer and Dumble have had some trippy encounters.

To my amazement, just like all the other people we had met that day, John was super cool, very laid back and uncommonly gracious.

After getting our fill of dinner, Robbie took Melissa and I back to the band room where we waiting until about 30 minutes before showtime and excused ourselves to our seats only after Robbie invited us to come backstage after the show.

Having seen a couple of Mayer concerts before it was no shock to hear solo after face-melting guitar solo with some of the best tone anywhere! It was 2 hours of guitarmageddon and I was in heaven! If you get the chance to see this tour when it comes to your town, I VERY strongly recommend it! You won’t be disappointed.

On a personal note, I have to say that seeing my creation on that stage in front of so many people was a dream/prayer fulfilled. From the day I first started working on my designs to that concert on Tuesday night, I have experienced every level of blood sweat and tears imaginable and had countless opportunities to quit and give up, but thankfully I never gave in. This hobby turned career has taught me many things but I have learned about nothing as much as I have learned about myself. My advice to anyone starting anything is to never give up. If you believe in what you do, stick with it because on some level you know you are right and once you know that, it’s just a matter of convincing the rest of the world you are right. Of the two battles, convincing yourself or convincing others, convincing yourself is the hardest. Once you reach the place where you know that you are good at what you do and you have a vision for where you want to go, hold tight to it and never let go. Then, if you truly are good at what you do, people will recognize you for it.

Once the concert was over, Melissa and I made our way back stage, took some pictures with Robbie and Steve and said our goodbyes to the band and crew to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude for being so warm and inviting.

This blog would not be complete without a special thank you to Robbie McIntosh.

“Robbie thank you for your kindness and the time you took to make March 9th one of the most memorable nights of our lives. I look forward to working with you for many years to come.

Your friend,

Brad Jackson”

Enjoy the pics…

Right now all the Britain 2.0 amps from the first production run have been built and delivered so for the next week or so I’ll be updated plans for the next production. I have to make some minor changes to things to make them easier to manufacture, but that is the point of revisions; to always pursue the mark of perfection. Also I will be adding new features to the Britain 2.1 like a series FX Loop on each channel as well as back panel mounted bias adjustment and test points for the 50W Class A/B Mode. You may notice on the site that these features were not in place on the product shots of the Britain 2.0, but rest assured that starting now, if you have an amp that you have ordered, these features will exist when you receive it.

After the parts have been ordered for what I have dubbed, “Britain 2.1″ I will begin the task of redesigning the Atlantic and Union Jack amplifiers and make them just as small, powerful and flexible as the Britain 2.0 is now.

In an inspired moment of cleverocity, while designing the Britain 2.0 chassis I found a way to make all 3 amps function perfectly using the same chassis. Doing this has allowed me to order the chassis in much larger quantities and save on manufacturing costs which helps to keep our costs down and ultimately the buyers cost down. All good things… In fact if things go the way I suspect I’ll be able to use this same chassis for a host of revised amps as well as new amps that have yet to be prototyped from designs I have sketched down mentally.

That’s all for now. Thank all of you for your faith in me, my products and for the opportunity to do what I love. I am blessed beyond belief!

Looking forward to the journey,

Brad Jackson

PS – I love lamp.

While in Bakersfield I shot Tyler Guitars an email and once the passengers got back we heading to Van Nuys where we spent the night. I didn’t hear back from Tyler for the rest of the day and since we had to leave around 4:00PM the next day I figured that I hadn’t written in time to schedule a tour. Well as luck would have it, about 1:30PM after I got out of the shower, I checked my email and sure enough Eliot at Tyler Guitars has written me and informed me that although they have a very small shop and are very busy, they would be happy to welcome me. So I replied and let him know that I can be there around 2:45PM, which is cutting it close since our passengers are supposed to arrive at 4:00PM, but what the heck, how often do you get a tour of Tyler Guitars?

Well Dad and I make our way to the Tyler shop on Sepulveda Blvd. which was pretty hard to find considering how small it is and how well it is concealed by the surrounding businesses. Once we get there, we see a nondescript sign in the window that simply reads, “Tyler.” At first I thought this was a bit strange, but when I thought about it I realized that in that neighborhood, it wouldn’t be very smart to advertise with a huge sign that you have some of the most valuable guitars in the world right here.

Once at the door, an employee of Tyler met us who led us in and once Dad and I were in asked Jim (Mr. Tyler) if he knew anything about a tour today. James lifted his head from his work, replied “No.” and immediately went back to work setting up a guitar. The guy who let us in, whose name I’m sorry to say I have since forgotten, asked me if I had spoken with Eliot and once he said his name I remembered that it was Eliot that I had received the reply from. I was introduced to Eliot and from there on Dad and I were with Eliot as he showed us around the shop.

The first thing that Eliot showed us was the room where the guitars are packed for shipment. It was just that, a room with a bunch of boxes and cases. After that Eliot showed us the area where Kiyoko (I think that was her name) winds and assembles the pickups that are used in Tyler guitars.

From the winding area, Eliot showed us a really cool area where Tyler had made a ton of pickguards and installed his various pickups on them. The really cool thing about this was that there was one guitar there and they had devised an ingenious way of quick disconnecting the pickguard from the guitar and simply sliding a new pickguard in place which would allow a player to very quickly demo all of the available pickups using the same guitar. The beauty of this was that the player could use one guitar for the entire demo process and not have to worry about the effect of using different guitars to demo each pickup; very clever stuff. Eliot asked that I not take a picture of this since the design was/is very proprietary. In this same area, Eliot showed me a completely trashed out guitar with the name Joe-X on the headstock that looked like it was created from pieces at a junkyard. In talking to Eliot, he said that these guitars were only able to be sold overseas because there was another builder of very cheap guitars that used the same name in the states so to avoid legal troubles, these guitars are only sold overseas. Seriously this guitar looks like it should have been featured on Road Warrior! The only thing this guitar lacked a few bullet holes. I took a picture of this guitar along with the headstock, which you can see below.

From the pickup testing area Eliot led Dad and I to the racks where Tyler keeps their guitars that are ready for shipment. As you can see from the pics, these guitars are stunning! The two that stood out the most to me were the Candy Apple Red Studio Elite and the Tobacco Burst Mongoose Special. The finish on the Candy Apple Red Studio Elite was so deep that you could almost go swimming it and the Mongoose Special has me totally jonesing for Les Paul style Tyler. Toward the end of the rack I saw one of the 20 James Tyler Signature Elites that I have only read about and it did not disappoint. The Mary Kay finish on this guitar was very vintage looking, and I would imagine the Tele pickup in the bridge position would make this guitar extremely versatile.

After I wiped the drool from my mouth, Eliot took us to the drying racks where the freshly painted bodies are being dried in preparation for sanding and the other processes that Tyler puts them through before they look as stunning as the guitars on the finished racks. There was a great assortment of colors here, showing from left to right, Candy Orange, Black Shmear, Purple Shmear, Tobacco Burst on Spalted Maple, Cherry Sunburst and Red Shmear. From looking at the various Shmear finishes, I was amazed at how thick the paint was once it had been sprayed on. In order to get a smooth finish, it must take an incredible amount of sanding to get the finish evened out. Check out the close-up of the Red Shmear to see what I’m talking about.

Once Eliot had shown us the guitar on the drying rack, he took us into another room where a giant CNC machine was sitting. The CNC machine is used to cut out the bodies and necks as well as shape the necks into whichever size and shape the customer specifies. I wasn’t able to get pictures of the CNC machine since Tyler is using some proprietary processes here as well, but I was able to get some pictures of the necks as they were drying. Of all the necks here, the ones that stood out to me the most were the Mahogany ones and the Laminated necks. The Laminated necks were made out of Maple-Ebony-Mahogany-Ebony-Maple and reminded me of the same process I used when I made the Jackson Ampworks Hardwood Cabinets.

From the neck drying area I got a picture of James Tyler as he was working at his bench and from what I could tell, he must have been dressing the frets. He seemed really busy and I didn’t want to bother him so Dad and I just thanked Eliot for his kindness and politely excused ourselves.

I have to say that it was a very cool, and for me, a very inspiring shop. It was the kind of place that just made you want to grab some tools and get to work. Considering that the shop couldn’t have been more than 1,000 square feet in size, I can imagine how the very early years of Fender Musical Instruments must have been something like that, with a small team of about 6 people working hard to deliver a product that they are passionate about.

After talking to Eliot and making our way outside Dad and I loaded up and headed back to the Van Nuys airport where we met our passengers and eventually headed back home to Dallas. I attached some pics of the trip home, which were taken from my iPhone as we were climbing out of the LA area.

In all it was a great day. The weather was great going home and I got to visit my favorite electric guitar manufacturer and learn more about how those guitars were made.

Special thanks to Eliot at Tyler Guitars for taking the time out of his busy day to show us around. Eliot is an extremely nice guy and the way he treated only solidified my opinion of Tyler Guitars and my desire to play their guitars in the future.

Enjoy the pics!

Since I first posted about this amp, the spec list has changed with few more enhancements without any change in the price!

Here is the current spec sheet as of 09/14/08:

• 18W Pure Class A Operation using 2 Cathode Biased EL34’s
• Available Output Tubes for Class A Operation: EL34, EL37, KT66, KT77, 6L6
• EF86 Preamp
• 12AX7 Phase Inverter
• Volume – Treble – Bass – Contour Controls
• High/Low Input Jack
• 4-8-16 Ohm Speaker Connections
• Line Out with Line Out Level
• Laser Cut Chassis
• Filtered Power Entry Module
• 120/220 Voltage Selector
• Stainless Steel Hardware
• Clarostat 2W Sealed Conductive Plastic Potentiometers
• Silver Plated Teflon Wire
• Custom Wound Heyboer Transformers
• Precision Cut and Drilled Turret Boards
• Handwired G10 Fiberglass Turret Board
• Stainless Steel Front and Back Face Plates
• Engraved Stainless Steel Front and Back Face Plates
• Central Point Grounding with Star Ground
• Distributed Power Supply
• Gold Plated Ceramic Tube Sockets
• Mallory 150 Coupling Capacitors
• F&T Filter Caps
• Heavy Duty Carling Switches
• 1W 5% Carbon Film Resistors
• Genuine Switchcraft Jacks for Input and Speaker Connections

The Output Transformer will be a custom Jackson Ampworks 18W transformer that is based on the incredibly articulate sounding Radio Spares series of output transformers. The transformer features a custom wound primary that guarantees Pure Class A operation using EL34’s, EL37’s, KT66’s, KT77’s and 6L6-GC output tubes. The secondary winding features  4, 8, and 16 ohm taps; a rarity on amps of this size.

Speaking of size, after working for about a month to get the layout just right, it’s looking like the size of the amplifier is going to be 10″ Wide x 6.5″ deep x 6.25″ tall!!! This amp is going to turn the boutique amp market on its’ ear with the first amp of its kind to be ultra-compact, ultra-affordable and have the same Jackson Ampworks construction quality that has set us apart from our competition for years!

Here is a rough layout of the components on the chassis. As you can see, the amp packs a lot of punch into a very small package!

The final version of the amplifier will feature a custom designed steel cage that wraps around the components on top of the chassis, much like the old Hi-Fi amps from the 50’s and be topped off with our very own die cast chrome plated Jackson Ampworks logo!

Standard Jackson Ampworks features include:

• 18W Pure Class A Operation using 2 Cathode Biased EL34’s
• EF86 Preamp
• 12AX7 Phase Inverter
• Volume – Treble – Bass – Contour Controls
• High/Low Input Jack
• 4-8-16 Ohm Speaker Connections
• Laser Cut Chassis
• Stainless Steel Hardware
• Clarostat 2W Sealed Conductive Plastic Potentiometers
• Silver Plated Teflon Wire
• Custom Wound Heyboer Transformers
• Precision Cut and Drilled Turret Boards
• Handwired G10 Fiberglass Turret Board
• Stainless Steel Front and Back Face Plates
• Engraved Stainless Steel Front and Back Face Plates
• Central Point Grounding with Star Ground
• Distributed Power Supply
• Gold Plated Ceramic Tube Sockets
• Mallory 150 Coupling Capacitors
• F&T Filter Caps
• Heavy Duty Carling Switches
• 1W 5% Carbon Film Resistors
• Genuine Switchcraft Jacks for Input and Speaker Connections

And now the truly remarkable part, this amp will be sold direct from Jackson Ampworks for our incredibly low introductory price of $1,299.00!!

Look for this amp to be available by Christmas of 2008. Email brad@jacksonampworks.com and pre-order now to secure your place in line and low serial number!

Please Call 1-877-4-AMPWORKS for any questions or product inquiries!

In more important news, Church Media Group and I are still working on the Jackson Ampworks site and it’s going to blow your minds. They do fantastic work and I couldn’t be more pleased with our association. In addition to working on my web site for me, I will be commissioning them to create some print ads for me that will ultimately be found in Premier Guitar Magazine. If you haven’t had a chance to check this magazine out, I strongly recommend it!

In amp news, I’m spending a lot of time working on a new design that will signal a new direction for Jackson Ampworks, and I’m confident will create a major wave in the boutique amplifier industry. It’s hush hush for now, but I’m confident that this new design will mark a major milestone for Jackson Ampworks. Stay tuned for more updates! Hint Hint… Think Affordable and Portable.

While working on the design for our new amp, I am also working on updating our existing designs as it is time to reorder chassis, emblems, transformers etc. When reordering chassis’, it’s always a good idea to reexamine the product line and search for new ways to improve the products and find more ways to deliver increasingly more toneful and reliable amplifiers. While tweaking the chassis, I have found a way to remove literally FEET of hookup wire and make the construction a much more enjoyable and pleasant experience. This update will effect all of the existing amps in the Jackson Ampworks product line, and make for a more stable and reliable series of amplifiers.

Well that’s it for today. Judging by my new Nixie clock, it’s 4:35AM, I think I should go to bed.

Blessings!

Brad Jackson

President: Jackson Ampworks
web: http://www.jacksonampworks.com
vox: 1-877-4-AMPWORKS

Search eBay: Nixie Stainless

The new site will be a Web 2.0 site with blog implementation as well as social networking functions. I’m hoping to have this site up within two months max. When this comes up, be looking for new video of Allen Hinds demoing the Jackson Ampworks Atlantic and the Britain/84, a custom shop version of the extremely popular Britain amplifier!

In other news, I have begun working on several product updates namely creating a couple of new amp designs for Jackson Ampworks and updating a couple of my current amps to make them even more reliable and cleaner on the inside.

I’ll post more about the new amps and the new updates to the previous products in an upcoming blog!

Hope all is well!

Brad Jackson

President: Jackson Ampworks
web: http://www.jacksonampworks.com
vox: 1-877-4-AMPWORKS