Very Rare Unique Guitars

Just about every guitar player around wants to pick up a fine vintage instrument. 

Below are some amazing acoustic instruments that are among the finest, and have craftsmanship that can’t be matched, others may be considered to be simply handmade junk, but you may be surprised.

If you find something that looks a bit peculiar or strange and very unique, or super vintage looking you may have just discovered the next big find. 

Vintage guitars are a great investment that only increases in value.

You might be asking yourself whether a guitar can really be a good investment. After all, to the untrained eye, most guitars are the same. However, the right guitar can be worth a lot to a collector. Guitars that have been owned by celebrities, or which are rare or unusual, can command very high prices indeed. If you’re worried about getting a return on your money, don’t be. Vintage guitars have consistently performed with more stability than the stock market. There are a number of reasons that collecting vintage guitars is an excellent strategy.

Here is a small list of some of the most rare guitars one can find. Most of these however have been sold, auctioned, re-sold, but...occasionally they do end up being sold again at auctions such as Christies, Sotherbys, and even end up being listed on e Bay, so keep your eyes out.

1967 Epiphone FT79 owned by Jimi Hendrix

Purchased in 2001 Private auction for 450,000.00

Market Value today 1,110,000.00

Jimi Hendrix Epiphone 

This one was found in a very old music store in NYC.
The owner kept it in the basement downstairs and never thought much about it. One day someone saw it, took down the serial numbers, did a little more research, bought the guitar for 200.00 and now this guitar is worth a fortune.

1957 Fiesta One of only 2 made owned by Buddy Holly.

Purchased in 1987 Private auction for 163,000.00

Market Value today 1,240,000.00

Buddy Holly Fiesta

Everyone thought this guitar simply disappeared, many thought it may have gone down with the plane crash, but 20 years later it was discovered at an estate auction. The guitar however was not known by its owners to be the one owned by Buddy Holly. They sold the guitar for 300.00. Today it is the price of one of those aircrafts.

Vintage Kay Guitar "Sally" owned by Elvis played in numerous Elvis Movies.

Purchased in 1983 Private auction for 83,000.00

Market Value today: 280,000.00

 Elvis had kept this guitar for most of his life, however it was stolen one night by one of his own stage managers.
It was discovered on eBay, it was listed as "Elvis's original guitar and sold for a mere 2600.00. If Elvis were in the house today, he would jumping and jiving to find his guitar worth this much.

3/4 Moon ( 1948) owned by Basom Lamar Lansford.

Purchased in 199 Private auction for 140,000.00

Market Value today 180,000.00

Basom Lamar Lunsford's 3/4 Moon

3/4 Moon has been sought after by some of the most famous banjo players in the world. For years people began to think it may never show up. But one day it did, on the Antique traveling television show. However, they gave it an appraisal of only 30,000.00, a year later it was sold at Christies for 300,000.00

Big Ole Red ( 1963) owned by Ray Yeager

Purchased in 199 Private auction for 30,000.00

Market Value today 110,000.00

Big Ole Red was a homemade guitar made from a dresser drawer by singer songwriter Ray Yeager ( brother of Bunny Yeager). The guitar enjoyed brief fame in a movie "Country A Go Go, and also was featured on the 1960's show "To Tell The Truth. Ray was friends of Johnny Cash, who at one time bought the guitar from Ray personally after he decided to "quite the music biz".



Debrie ( 1988) owned by Lorenzo Hierrezuelo

Purchased in 199 Private auction for 60,000.00

Market Value today 120,000.00

Lorenzo Hieeezuelo with "Debrie"

A metal guitar made from a can, one of Lorenzo's favorite.

This guitar became legendary in Cuba, South America, and was seldom seen in public. Lorenzo only played his prized "Debrie" in his free street concerts he would perform for friends and family.

The guitar was bought by Ry Cooder who later sold it to an unknown source, but was listed on record by Christies.

What Happened to the 80s'.?

NOTES: 

• Mimi's last name is now Hanson.
• Meghan Broadhead, who played Mimi's older sister in the movie, is her sister in real life; she did not respond to my interview request.
• Photos courtesy of Mimi.

How old were you when you were cast in Footloose?

If I remember correctly, I was eight years old during the audition process and the filming; I was in the third grade. The most exciting part of the whole thing for me was I missed the last part of my second grade year for filming. I was unaware they had a teacher on the set, so that was quickly dashed.

How did you get the role?

Actually, I had been acting since the age of four. My parents were both performers. My father was a stage actor and my mother was an opera singer; they were both commercial actors. I had been in quite a few commercials and some print ads at that point. Utah was really starting to pick up as a filming location, so there was quite a bit of film work that came through.

When we went on the first audition, my mother told me not to get too excited because it was a "cattle call." Initially I learned the lines for the younger sister, the part I finally played in the movie. When we got to the audition, I was told I had to read for the older sister. My mom scrambled to teach me those lines. It meant my older sister [in real life] and I would be reading for the same part. When it was my turn to go back, I had no qualms about expressing to the casting director [that] I was really upset because I liked the other part better and I was told I couldn't try out for it. The casting director shrugged and said "Well, I don't see why not." I read for the younger sister. The next callback, my older sister and I read together as sisters, and I think there was one more callback where we read for Herbert Ross (director) and Lew Rachmil (producer), though that might have been the same audition.

In the end, my older sister and I were cast together to play sisters in the movie.

What other members of your family were in the movie?

Aside from my older sister, my father was cast in the role of Mayor Dooley, my mother and my little brothers were extras in some of the large town scenes, and my 14-year-old brother was not in the film but got a job working for the company that catered the set.

Any funny anecdotes about your Footloose experience?

My funniest memory was the day we filmed the scene where the brick went through our bedroom window. Herbert Ross was a great director, but he had a bit of trouble evoking a performance out of me that day. I was so distracted by the movie glass on the floor once somebody told me it was made of sugar. I was also distracted with the fact that we were filming a nighttime scene in the middle of the day. I kept bringing what I perceived to be a huge mistake to the attention of someone on set (I don't remember who) and they kept assuring me it would look like night when the movie was done.

I want to preface this by saying I didn't have a single bad experience working on this film and Herbert Ross was one of the kindest men that I ever met. That being said, to try and direct a performance of a child who is scared, I remember him stomping around, raising his voice, slamming things to make loud noises, slamming around stuffed animals…but the problem was I was not the least bit scared of this man. I quite liked him and I found his tirade as an attempt to be humorous. My sister was doing a great job, pulling out all of the stops. I just couldn't get into it. Finally, they broke out the glycerin tears and did the best they could. I think I still didn't realize what was going on. It was one of those situations that clicked much later in life.

For the two dinner scenes that were shot, they asked my sister and me what we liked and didn't like to eat and constructed the final set food accordingly. When the day came to shoot the first dinner scene, a plate of food was put in front of me and I was getting ready to devour it; after all, they made everything that I liked. Whatever set member put this plate in front of me grabbed my hand and said "Oh no, you can't eat it." I was really confused. I was instructed to take bites only while the camera was rolling [and] only during certain shots. I was, of course, not allowed to eat the food when I had lines to deliver. The idea was that I wasn't supposed to fill up too fast because the filming was slated to take a while. I didn't understand all of the rules; what I did understand is that there was food in front of me that smelled really good, so the game became to shovel as many bites as I could into my mouth while the crew member who told me I couldn't eat wasn't looking. The inhaling of massive amounts of air with my purloined bites of food gave me a massive case of very loud hiccups. Suddenly the focus of everyone became curing my hiccups. All the stops were pulled out. It wasn't until I was grown and I realized how much a movie costs to film why curing my hiccups in this scene that had the bulk of my lines in the movie was so important.

I found strange [some] little details that Herbert Ross put into the movie. The actress who played my mother was made to wear a pregnancy pillow, though no pregnancy was ever referred to in the film. My sister was fitted for a retainer, though her teeth were perfectly straight…he just thought it looked better. We were also given roller skates and told to learn how to skate well, yet nowhere in the film were we ever on roller skates—I'm not sure if that was something that was cut.

What do you remember about your impression of Kevin Bacon?

I remember Kevin Bacon as being very nice. We did do quite a few scenes with him. I formed a pretty big crush on him. In fact, shortly after filming, I got a puppy; I named him Bacon. I remember him doing yoga between takes. One day he showed my sister and me a few yoga moves. He had a stunt double, but he actually did some of the gymnastics in the film (so I heard). When we had to film the little dance sequence where he is teaching Chris Penn how to dance, I didn't want to touch his hands as they were covered in blisters from the gymnastics.

John Lithgow?

He was very nice, but in my memories I have a fear association. John Lithgow is pretty tall. I remember him as towering over everyone. I really didn't interact with him much.  I'm trying to remember if I knew he was in The Twilight Zone [1982 movie]. I was very scared of The Twilight Zone as a child, mostly because of the theme song. I remember certain images from the television commercial, one of which was John Lithgow in the plane. I would scramble and hide when that commercial came on. I was surprised and kind of delighted when he came out with a children's album. It softened my memory of him.

Lori Singer?

Really very few memories. There were some scenes we were in together that were lost in rewrites before they were filmed. I met her during the rehearsal period, but that's about all I remember.

Dianne Wiest?

I had minimal interaction with her. I don't really remember her at all.

Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Penn?

I had to put these two together when I answered; in addition, I have to add Francis Lee McCain and John Laughlin. These are the cast members I remember most. All four treated my sister and me wonderfully and I can't see talking about Footloose without mentioning that.

The motel that the production put us at had a swimming pool. The only stipulation was that my sister and I could not go swimming until after dark as they did not want us to get any sun. Chris Penn, John Laughlin, and Sarah Jessica Parker were always in the pool when we went down. They took time and they played with us. Over the course of filming, SJP taught me how to swim. I remember Chris Penn as being quite a clown. He was always making us laugh. It speaks a lot about him that he would take the time to interact with us. I cried off and on for a week when I heard he died. Seriously. I know that sounds dramatic, but he made that big of an impression on my life.

Sarah Jessica Parker was, and I bet she still is, amazing! I'm sure that you know that Tracy Nelson was originally slated to play Rusty. My favorite show at that time was Square Pegs. I was so excited to meet Tracy Nelson. I don't remember how the timeline worked, but I clearly remember being at a rehearsal and Tracy Nelson was there. I was so excited to meet her, but it was quick and it was disappointing.

After I was told that she was replaced by SJP, I was even more excited! I liked her better on the show. Again, I had to psych myself up to introduce myself. The difference was she was so sweet and so warm. She hung out with us, ate lunch with us many times, and genuinely listened to us. My sister and I found out she was in Annie. We loved that movie! She answered every single one of our questions about it. In retrospect, I think a lot of that care came from the fact that she was a child actress and she truly understood what it was like. I remember her so well; I am so sorry we didn't stay in touch with her.

Francis Lee McCain was also often with my sister, my mother, and myself in between takes. Most of the pictures I am providing you with were taken by her. She was very nice and took a lot of care in how she treated us. When, as a child, you feel like an adult has your full attention—I think [those] kinds of interactions go a long way. 

Did you attend the premiere, and if so, what was that like?

My sister and didn't attend the Hollywood premiere, but I remember there was a premiere party in Salt Lake City with a lot of the local actors in the film. We got ride in a limo, so it was really fun for us.

How often were you recognized on the street? Any funny stories about that?

Elementary school actually turned into quite a nightmare. When the move was a hit, kids were coming out of the woodworks to meet us; when the movie started to slip, the same kids would come up to me and say "Footloose sucks, you suck…" And so on. At the end of that school year, we moved to a new home. My sister and I decided we were not going to tell anyone about Footloose, but we were very quickly recognized.

When the movie was at the height of its popularity, a rumor started that Kevin Bacon was staying at our house. A car full of teenage girls pulled over by me on the way home from school one day and asked if I was the girl from the movie. After I confirmed, the same group followed me home for about a week. They stayed parked in front of our house, hoping to see Kevin Bacon. It was kind of scary for me. My father finally had to take care of it. He stormed out to their car and I was ordered into the house. I don't know what he said to them, but I never saw them again.

Do you remember what you earned for the movie, and do you still earn residuals?

Not at the time. I remember seeing the approximate amount on my social security report a few years ago. It was in the thousands.  I still get four checks a year. It pans out to be about $200-400 annually, small enough that I forget about them. Recently I found about eight uncashed Footloose checks while moving. I took them into the bank and they could cash only a few of them because [more than] 180 days had passed. The teller, who was maybe in his early twenties, called over his supervisor, who was maybe in her late twenties, to see if there was anything she could do about depositing the older checks. The supervisor started grilling me about why I had so many checks from Paramount Pictures. After trying to steer away from the subject, I finally told her it was because I was in a movie when I was a child. The supervisor, the original teller, and another young teller started pressing me for what movie it was. Finally, I said Footloose. *silence* The supervisor says "But wasn't that movie [only] a few years ago?" I told her I was in the original movie from the eighties. *silence* The teller asks "There was an original?!" That was the first day I felt really old.

What are you doing these days?

I'm finishing up my degree in economics with an emphasis on professional and strategic communications. I am also researching and slowly working on a book on wage inequality and the poverty trap in America. I don't work at the moment. I spend most of my free time with my six-year-old; some days that can definitely be counted as work.

It took me a long time to get where I am at. I continued to act until I was about fifteen, when I formed horrible social anxiety. I was so focused on eventually having a career in the entertainment industry that I tried many different things, looking for something that clicked. I worked on writing screenplays for a while. I submitted a different screenplay to Sundance Feature Film Lab every year for about six years. Twice, I made it to the final round, but I never got a lab spot. I bought camera gear and worked on filming a documentary, but that was too slow of a process. I tried my hand at short films. I actually shot a short film with some friends of mine in Austin, but I never finished it. I came to the hard realization that being in entertainment was not for me.

I took a job at a coffee shop to be free enough to work on some of these other things I was doing. Before I knew it, I had been working there for twelve years. At the same time, I had been slowly chipping away at my B.S. I took so long, mainly, because I had no idea what to do. When I finally really got back into school, I made a discovery: I love math. Not only do I love math, but I am really good at it. This was major for me because all of my life I considered myself more on the English side of the fence, so I never tried to like math. I always assumed I was not good at it.

I made the decision that I was going to major in math and take the actuarial exams. I decided to minor in business because I wanted to take some finance classes and the only way I could do it was to be accepted to the business school. Through taking microeconomics as a business prerequisite, I discovered that even more than I love math, I love economics. That is the first time, as strange as it sounds, that I have truly felt fulfilled.

Any interest in acting again?

I really have no interest in acting again. As I mentioned earlier, I have battled horrible social anxiety for many years. Around 2008, my little brother was on a reality television show. Though the show was [only] marginally successful, the network really latched on to my brother to do a lot of the promotional work. A segment was booked on The Today Show where he would show how he has integrated his new healthy lifestyle into his family. It was around my birthday and my brother worked it out so the network would fly me out to New York with him; the rub was I had to appear with him on Today and in an Associated Press interview. "You have to be on national television" is about the worst sentence you can speak to someone with social anxiety issues. I was mortified, but I knew it was so important to my brother and he worked so hard to make this happen so we could go to New York for my birthday. I had to keep reminding myself that I was in a blockbuster film. I have been seen by most of America, whether I like it or not. Footloose is what pulled me through.

Mimi is on the right.

In school, more recently, I have had the chance to work with two spectacular and inspiring professors who have really cultivated my love of public speaking, and I am forever grateful. It has exposed another side of myself that I really love. I love crafting talks and connecting with an audience, but 100% as myself. Acting…? No…! I am less about Hollywood and more about Ted Talks.

Where do you live?

Salt Lake City.

If you have children, how many and ages?

I have two children, both boys. My older, Christian, is 21. My younger, Leo, is six.  Yes…quite a spread. It's like having two only children.

If they have seen you in Footloose, what do they think about it?

They have both seen it. My oldest really didn't think much of it. My six-year-old was not interested in the movie, but was interested that I was in it. He has the acting bug and had been telling me long before he knew I was a child actor that he wanted to be in movies. I really don't want him involved in professional acting so young. My experiences were not bad, per se, but the aftermath was really pretty bad (in school and such). I would rather he be a kid. I let him do a YouTube channel with his father. They do toy reviews and they have a lot of fun with it, but that is about as far as I want it to go.

Have you ever participated in a Footloose-related event (reunion, convention, documentary, etc.)? If not, would you be open to meeting fans and signing autographs?

I haven't, no. I suppose I would be open to it.

When was the last time you saw a member of the cast, and was it on purpose or by chance?

None of the heavy hitters. The man who played the cop that pulled Kevin Bacon over was once a substitute teacher at my junior high school.

When was the last time you watched Footloose? How did you think it held up?

I have watched my parts with my son, but I don't think I have watched the full movie for about ten years. I mean, no getting around it, it is quintessential cheeseball eighties. I think it has held up in the sense that it is still talked about, still quoted, still spoofed in pop culture. For being an iconic movie of the eighties, it stands with a select few. Many people think Footloose when they think of eighties entertainment.

Do you have any mementos from the experience such as set photos, a script, or anything from the set?

I do have a few things. I have a script, pictures. It was really fun to pull them out. I actually used my Footloose script to teach myself to write in screenplay format. At the time I was not aware of the differences between a script and a shooting script.

Do you have clippings from 1980s magazine/newspaper interviews/profiles?

I don't.

What did you think when you first heard from me?

It was really out of the blue. My brother called me. I think you had sent him an email in February. He had forwarded it to an email I hadn't used since 2003. I'm happy to answer questions about the experience [but] was surprised that anyone had any interest in it.

How do you look back on your Footloose experience?

Very fondly. It was a great experience. It is magical to know that you were a part of something that blew up the way that that movie did.

If the experience changed your life in any way, how?

It could have changed my life. When the movie was a hit, my parents were contacted by one of the bigger talent agencies in Hollywood. My mother had planned to drive my sister and me down to L.A. to meet with them. At the last minute, my parents decided that they didn't want Hollywood kids, they just wanted kids. We continued to act locally, but never anything big. I am actually so thankful for that decision. I hear a lot of scary stories about child actors from that particular generation and it makes me so glad I was never subjected to that. My father passed away suddenly in 1989. I feel I got a lot of time with him that I couldn't have gotten if we had traveled down that road. So I guess my answer is no, but it was for the best.

Wiring up your own foot pedal.

While working on my practice amp, I was looking around on the amzfx Lab Notebook pages and came across a section on low-voltage preamp circuit.  Towards the end, Jack Orman shares a fully-developed two-stage overdrive circuit.  With my bass project in mind, I put one together on my breadboard.

With the exception of two parts values, I built it as described and shown in the article.  It works the same way as the one I ended up with in my practice amplifier, with an NPN transistor stage pushing a JFET transistor stage.  It also has less parts and is powered by only 3 volts instead of nine.  As suggested in the write-up, my intent was to use a pair of NiMH AAA cells that should provide 900+ hours before needing a recharge.  So, what kind of sounds can you get out of so little?  As Jack wrote, "These low voltage boosters are not for making clean sounds but they excel in adding a bit of flavor. They will provide some additional tone colors for your musical palette..."  I was so impressed with this little circuit that I built a perf-board pedal version of it.

Biasing of the JFET is by means of a trim pot on the circuit board.

A small plastic junction box seemed like an appropriate way to house things.  The bypass switch is nestled between the drive and level-out pots, making for a compact set of controls.

It was a tight squeeze with all of the wires, but I left some extra length on the leads to make it easier to handle during the build and replacing batteries.

Some temporary labels came in handy during testing.

After passing initial testing, I added some lettering and sprayed on some clear coat.

3VOD is currently out on loan to a local musician who will provide some feedback on the sound and overall design...

Sunday, July 12, 2015

LeSpork Practice Amp - Testing 1,2,3

Maybe it would be fun
To get a new opinion
Get a little work done
And forget

I was spending a lot of time going up and down stairs working on that bass preamp circuit.  I'd build something on my breadboard at my kitchen table or at my desk where there is plenty of light, and then carry it to my son's room to test the circuit with the bass and amp.  The problem is, there isn't anywhere as much light in my son's room.  So, a lot of times, I'd make a few trips up and down the stairs with my test board until I had something that actually worked.  Good for exercise, but for productivity, not so much.

I got to emailing with a friend of mine, as he was starting a low-watt guitar amplifier and speaker cabinet build project.  One thing led to another, and I decided it was the right time to build a low-watt practice amplifier.  The thought was to have something that I could use in any part of the house for a quick test of a guitar electronics projects before bringing things all the way upstairs for a full test.  I had a pre-assembled 1/2 watt LM386 audio amplifier on hand, so most of what I needed to do was to add some speakers and a wooden box.  With that, the LeSpork Practice Amp, aka LPA, was born.

It took a couple of iterations to design the speaker cabinet.  It was a balance between common lumber sizes and dimensions that would work with the pair of 4" speakers I had picked out as well as the cabinet aesthetics.  Sometime back in high school, I first learned about Fibonacci numbers.  As applied to two dimensions, the Golden Rule ratio is 1 : 1.62.  For a box, the ratio of  0.62 : 1 : 1.62 for the sides is considered by some to be ideal.  This relationship is what I used for sizing my interior speaker cabinet dimensions.  I started with something wide enough for the two speakers side-by-side, then rounded the height and depth dimensions to the closest standard pre-cut lumber size.  Lastly, I worked out dimensions for the cabinet to sit at a slight angle to the floor, so that the speakers would end up pointing slightly upwards, making it easier to hear the sound from this little amp.

The next day, I headed off to the home improvements stores, hoping to find some 3/8 thick dimensional lumber to build a box with roughly 800 enclosed cubic inches and dimensions of 5.75x9.25x15.  The closest I found was some plywood and tongue-and-groove wainscot material.  I'll take gluing up tongue-and-groove pine boards over cutting plywood any day, so the decision for me was simple.

Adding a few pieces of square stock for cleats plus some nails and glue, the sides, top and bottom of the box came together within a few hours over a weekend.

I had a piece of oak veneer panel board on hand and cut a piece out to make the speaker baffle.  At only 3/16 thick, it would not support the screws for holding the speakers to it, so I added a pair of mounting "rings" of the same material.  They're actually mounting squares, chosen to accommodate the shape of the speaker frames.

I attached the speakers, input jack, amp circuit and a battery clip.  After adding some screws to hold the front and back panels on, I plugged in my Tele-esque LeSpork6 prototype guitar for a quick test.

Satisfied that things worked as expected, I built a grille panel from another piece of oak veneer panel board and some jute cloth.  It's a nice snug fit and the grille panel can be easily removed with a flat blade screwdriver or similar tool if I ever need to service the speakers.

While waiting for the clear coat to dry on the cabinet, I began focusing on the sound and circuitry.  I had built something like this for my son a few years ago, from an old 2-way bookshelf speaker and the same pre-assembled LM386 audio amplifier, and it sounded about the same as this one did.  The main problem was the amplifier circuit would distort when the volume control was at or above 3/4 of maximum volume.  Second, there was no tone control.  For this to be a useful guitar amplifier, I had to address both of these issues while getting as much volume out of it as possible.

The tone control was the simplest of these problems to solve.  I already had a Big Muff Pi tone circuit on my breadboard, so I put it in the signal path.  between the guitar and amplifier.  The addition of this passive circuit between the guitar and amp input jack almost took care of it all, as it cut the incoming signal strength.

There was just a little bit of distortion with the amp and guitar volume all the way up, but using my son's Epi LP Junior with a humbucker pickup resulted in too much distortion at higher guitar and amp volume settings.  What I needed was a preamp stage that would allow me to manage the gain as well as a way to reduce the signal level into the amp enough to keep from clipping the LM386.  That also meant the addition of control knobs to the cabinet.  That being the easier part of this build for me, I decided on the knob locations and spacing and came up with a way to mount the tone and gain control potentiometers.

Back to the gain and output issues, after some experimentation, I came upon a combination of two simple jfet circuits, an Alembic Stratoblaster Booster and a Fetzer Valve 1.1 Booster.

In order to optimize this circuit for a variety of guitar pickups, I found I could vary the value of  Rs=10k, between the J201 transistor Source and ground.  I found three particular fixed resistor values that worked well with single-wound pickups, humbucker pickups and active pickup on-board circuits typical in acoustic-electric guitars, that were also compatible with one setting on the 100k trim pot at the preamp output, setting the signal level into the LM386 amp.

The selector switch in the preamp circuit allowed choosing an overall gain range to match the guitar pickup output level, the B100k gain control potentiometer allowed for a gain adjustment that includes a tube-like overdriven effect at the upper range of the control, and the 100k trim pot kept the preamp output low enough to avoid clipping distortion in the LM386 amp.

I found a few things to maximize the volume of this little 1/2 watt power amplifier in the schematic notes and technical data for my power amp.  The notes indicated removing the on-board jumper would provide additional gain.  The datasheet also indicated this, and included instructions on adding a resistor at the jumper contacts would produce different levels of gain.  Unfortunately, taking off the jumper resulted in a large loss of volume as well as large reductions in the overdriven ranges.  Trying a 1k pot in place of the amp jumper also resulted in lower volume levels as well as reductions in overdriven ranges.  Switching the gain control from a B100k pot to a B50k, as drawn in the Alembic Stratoblaster circuit, provided a smoother set of gain ranges, but did nothing to allow for any more volume.  Seeing no other ways to optimize this circuit, I decided to set it aside for now and try some other preamp circuits with this 1/2 watt amp and speaker setup.

First up was the well-known LPB-1.  As I knew from another project, the LPB-1 has a lot more gain and a much brighter tone than the Fetzer Valve circuit.  I used a 2N5089 transistor, and instead of using the 830k/100k resistors shown here, I biased the transistor base with a 470k/47k voltage divider.  It rocked the socks off of the LPA but with too much gain for my taste, overdriving the LM386 amp except at a very low output level that was not loud enough to be useful in a clean mode.

Following a mod I found in a chat room, I added a a gain control made up of a 22uF cap and a B5k pot in series, parallel to the 330R emitter resistor, similar in configuration to the StratoBlaster circuit.  The gain control allowed for good clean and overdriven ranges, but had a noticeable surge in the higher end of the overdriven range.  This was easily fixed by swapping out the B5k to a B1k pot, resulting in a smaller but very usable clean gain range.  Although this circuit worked well, it was a bit too bright with this setup for my tastes.  Besides that, the inherent noise of the NPN transistor in this circuit was enough to make me continue searching for another circuit.

Since jfet preamp circuits typically have a warm tone than their NPN and PNP counterparts, I thought there might be a way to use a jfet stage to take the edge off of the LPB-1.  Feeding the output of a Fetzer Valve stage through a trim pot into the LPB-1 yielded some nice tone, so I replaced the first stage trim pot with a B100k potentiometer.  After turning through a rather large clean range, the upper range of this control allowed the first stage to overdrive the second stage.  Turning up the drive control all the way allowed for using the guitar volume as a gain control with a very small clean range, as well as a HUGE amount of sustain with the upper end of the guitar volume control. But, this came at the cost of some muddiness in the harmonics that detracted from the overdriven sound.

Finally, I swapped the two preamp stages, putting the LPB-1 in front of the Fetzer Valve with the B100k drive control in the middle.  Knowing the gain of the NPN stage could easily overdrive the jfet stage, I was pleased at how well this combination worked.  With two stages of amplification in this preamp, I expected to have to keep the Fetzer Valve trim output very low to keep from overdriving the amp, and was pleased to find the power amp could handle the preamp output up to about half of its 100k range with a single pickup guitar.  I also found a good amount of usable Drive control settings that produced clean sounds when turning the guitar volume control down.  This left plenty of knob rotation on both the Drive control and guitar volume control for inducing a wide range of tasty jfet overdrive, all the way from mild after-buzz to all-out, long-sustaining, mega buzzing sounds, full of rich harmonics.  To my surprise, the humbucker on my son's LP Junior did not significantly alter the Drive control ranges or require me to reduce the output level into the amp.  This circuit even worked with the preamps on my acoustic-electrics.  Considering how versatile this setup was with just the three controls and without the need for a gain range selector switch, I settled on this preamp circuit for the LeSpork Practice Amp.  All that was left then was to solder the rest of the circuit to the board, bias the J201 transistor, reassemble the amp, add some insulation to the inside of the cabinet, and reattach the rear cabinet panel.