About us

We at Frank'nTone have been rock, blues and Top 40 players for a long time. So we had all the sweet and creamy tones of our favourite players in mind when we started modding amps in 1996. Additionally we wanted some high gain to allow for effortless feedback opportunities at reasonable acoustic levels. Most available amps didn't have those sought after features as sweet treble, pronounced mids and thunderous bass that wouldn't fart when hitting the low strings hard. Some amps which we tried had one really good sound, but that was it (1 trick pony). No, we are not some other self-appointed amp gurus. We were just driven by our wish to find very satisfying tones without becoming a victim of a guitar player disease called GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), which in the end can leave a big hole in your pocket. So we started in 1996 to modify Fender amps to see if we could mod them to our taste. It took several years studying old schematics, try and error and listening to records. All existing boards and wiring was removed to begin with, except for the Super Amp which kept it's stock PCB.

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Many people are wondering why new amps (and many old ones as well) sound harsh and cold. Besides the speaker issue which is in my opinion 30% to 50% of the sound, the Phase Inverter and the power amplifier itself are contributing to good tone. Low supply voltages, cathode bias and power sag options may rob you a few watts, but could show the benefits of a very creamy and warm tone and excellent compression behaviour, which makes playing the instrument a lot more fun. We also spent a lot of time in voicing the pre-amp and equalizer circuitry. By the way, the same circuit may sound very different when installed in a different amp. This is because the output transformer has a much wider influence on the tone than people would think. Clean headroom can also be an issue here, so a pair of 6L6/ or EL34/ or a quartet of 6V6 are required as a minimum for our taste.

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A volume reducer (i.e. THD Hot Plate) set at -4 to -8 dB plus a compressor pedal rounds the set up. Speakers are as important as the rest (or even more?) and I prefer 2*12 cabinets with a mix of Alnico and ceramic types (Naylor and Blue Bulldog). This gives me everything of the 2 worlds.

We are presenting 5 Amps that we modded and which we were using for practicing and gigging for a couple of years:

And two 2x12 Cabinets each loaded with a Naylor and a Bulldog.

1959T Super Tremolo 100 Watt with a 2x12 Cabinet loaded with 2 Celestions G12H100.
Fender SuperAmp No1

Strat, Stratocaster, Super Amp, Bassman, Bandmaster Reverb and Fender are TradeMarks of Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. Marshall, JTM 45 MKII and 1959T Super Tremolo are TradeMarks of Jim Marshall Products Ltd.