Brad's Guitar Garage

13/10/2026

Look at all the "tin whiskers" on this AA968 Vibrolux's pot casings!
Some up to 1/4" long!
Such a weird, and not completely understood phenomenon, but essentially the tension set up in certain alloys (particularly pressed pieces such as those pictured) pushes out crystals of Sn metal about 4 micro-meters thick over time. They are often the cause of signal failure or attenuation on vintage amps. They are obviously also a major consideration in mission critical electronic infrastructure.
Stay posted for my upcoming YouTube video on this amp where we VAPORISE them FOR FUN with 1KV!

10/10/2026

Part two of yesterdays review and repair of the Swart Space Tone Reverb Tremolo (AKA STR-Tremolo). In this one we trace it out and analyse the schematic to see how they did so much with so little. Fantastic little amps, these ones!

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10/10/2026

Been looking forward to getting my hands on one of these buggers for a while.
New vid out, legends!

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10/10/2026

Wanna get loud and not be tied down?
Here's the fancy box for you, champions!
Pull that battery out like a portable drill, and mix from your bloody phone!
What a world we live in!
https://www.bradsguitargarage.com.au/qsc-compact-battery-powered-loudspeaker-system

09/10/2026

Music Man HD-130 in for a re-cap and service.
Head-roomy things, these things.
With a B+ approaching 700VDC, it's no wonder why!

08/10/2026

Finishing off this Fender Bassman 6G6-B.
I love these old things.

08/10/2026

Yin-Yang workbench when the A/C unit required repair last week.
Gave me existential dread after just moving that much.
Dog-forbid I need to move the whole lot for some reason!

07/10/2026

Ever seen a deconstructed selenium bridge rectifier?
I hadn't until the day I took this photo!
Look at the complexity of that moulded plastic part.
Very advanced for the late 60's!
But nowhere near as advanced or reliable as a simple silicon replacement, which is what it was replaced by.
The voltage drop difference was acceptable, and we won't have to worry about it emitting any toxic, pungent smoke spontaneously in the future, now!

07/10/2026

My god, the AI sloptuber's thumbnails are exhausting to look at.
What a time to be alive.
I wonder when the AI slop-factory will start changing up it's visual thumbnail style. Because they all look pretty bloody similar at the moment!
And I dare say they put just as much effort into the videos themselves.