Aww shucks. Thanks, dudes! This can be a repository for my various builds and pics etc.If anyone is looking for an amp or pedal build, please hit me up. Jamey hit the nail on the head when he referenced vintage amp stuff thats out of price range. Vintage, especially English, amps is the wheelhouse I tend to work in as its often the most cost-effective for the customer. Also...I can potentially do custom work in trade for certain, mostly Fender-y, guitars...

twelvepoint wrote:Next thing, he'll be covering his circuit boards in black resinHa. Im one of the guys that has put in hours removing that resin from certain hidden boards.

Stuff is so good.

Thought I'd start a catch-all thread for Dr. Balls' work. Why not, right?Recently I received a Vox AC30 type head he built for me. The sounds, looks, and the price is great. I've only played reissue models of this amp, so I can't speak to how near the sound is to a vintage unit, but it's got wonderful ringing clean sounds and is fearsome when driven, the sound being somewhere between a Marshall and a tweed Fender. I can get all the stereotypical AC30 sounds, and the controls all interact with each other in a pleasing way. The amp arrived packed safely, with a handy tube chart, which for an idiot like me is a life saver. He even made sure I knew that I'd need a Phillips to get the back panel off so I could get things started. Communication was good throughout the building process. I'd totally recommend his work to others, particularly for something like the AC30, where the price for well built vintage spec models is out of reach for most.

Salut, Dr. Balls! Here is my little dude. Single channel Bassman, 40 watts. It's the goddamn best amp I have ever played. Hell of clean, plenty loud for my situation. I don't know how many pedals he's made for me over the years. I'd typically just e-mail or text him (drunk, natch) and be all, "Hey, how much for XYZ" and a few weeks later, BOOM. He reluctantly built me a 4ms noise swash years ago. I wish I still had his hand written "instructions", i.e. "this knob is for this", etc. And another note along the lines of "I'm not sure if it works because I don't know what it's supposed to do, but here." Thing is weird as fuck. Also one of the few that can keep up with me beer-for-beer. Best dude, basically.

Careful with all the adulation here going to his head. Next thing, he'll be covering his circuit boards in black resin and prepending The Distinguished to his name. Seriously, though, consistently nice work by Mr Balls, and this thread is well-deserved!

Both of those heads are killer. If I start playing music again on a regular basis I'd order something like that Bassman, thinking it would be like a better version of my old Sovtek Mig-50.

Saw a bunch of Balls gear at Main Drag music this past week. Didn't play any of it because I was too busy chatting with the dudes there, but it looks excellent, and it's very cool to see it in a great retailer.

The "Balls" thing is just an old nickname. Been called Tony Balls for years and when I started building things it seemed dumb to call it anything else.

elisha wiesner wrote:Cool. I had actually deleted my post before FM BD quoted it. It's totally none of my business and I didn't mean to come across as rude. Your stuff looks awesome and I hope to get to check out one of your amps some day.No rudeness perceived!