It’s naturally quite an aggressive-sounding amp Fabio Cutolo For example, the schematic has provisions for diodes on the preamp cathodes to work as current regulators, but they were later changed to resistors for greater tone control. It’s an amazing piece of kit, and some parts of the amp were experimental. “It’s built like a tank,” confirms Fabio, “but the construction – the wiring, PCB and components – is very intricate. It’s the same idea with old guitars when people need to replace a part, they usually want it to look like it fits with the rest of the instrument.”Īlthough these cottage-industry amps were made at company founder Randall Smith’s California home, they are well regarded for their industrial strength build. If something looks too old or too new, it doesn’t look right. They all had to be cleaned up to a certain degree in order to match. “And it was the same kind of thing for the rest of the parts, including screws, nuts and the handle. I had to re-engrave the numbers by hand and then create a mix of dry paint and edding pen to fill the engravings. “The old type isn’t currently being made, so I needed to make some replicas. “The original Rogan knobs aren’t in production any more,” he explains. With some of the original knobs missing, Fabio needed to get creative. With those amps, the reverb doesn’t go in series, it’s in parallel, so it adds the reverb to the rest of the signal in the same was as, say, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Deville does.” “Although this amp doesn’t have reverb, you could also order a model with a reverb circuit. I would have expected it to come with an Electro-Voice or an Altec speaker, but on request you would have been able to get a JBL for a different type of sound. It was a case of either replacing it, which would have devalued the amp, or making some small patches. It also needed some repairs the suspension had some small cracks. “The speaker was full of dust and needed to be cleaned entirely. And if it’s bad enough for long enough that can lead to breakages.Ĭleaning this amp was a crucial part of the restoration Fabio Cutolo It can take years, but a layer of grime can build up around the edge of the speaker, which prevents it from moving correctly. It needed to look great, but also if the grille is dirty, the speaker can be affected. It was in a state when I got it, and I cleaned it up carefully with cotton buds and a brush. It’s often seen on chairs, so it has to be strong and reliable. “The kind of weave that’s used for the grille was invented in Austria and is called Vienna straw. Even with the electronics and speaker out, the cabinet on its own still weighs a fair amount. I reckon the whole amp weighs at least 35kg. Normally, I’d let a touch of oil soak in for a few days, but this residue had really worked its way in. “The cabinet is made from koa wood, and I had to go easy on it. That alone took a couple of days to remove: no tools – just me, a cloth and some Brasso! Brasso removes a very small amount of the outer layer, a bit like how T-Cut works on cars – except T-Cut would have been too aggressive for this. “On the top of the cabinet are two lighter shades of grain where some gaffer tape had been stuck on for decades. “Cleaning this amp was a crucial part of the restoration,” he says. Needless to say, restoring this Mark I Boogie required a great deal of work, with Fabio having to completely dismantle it piece by piece.
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