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Builder Profile:
Jeff Jones
By Jack Mao
One of the great things for me about
writing for Collectable Guitar is that I
from time to time get to meet and hopefully help up and coming developers like
Jeff Jones who makes truly great products but have not yet been able to break
through to commercial success.
woodworking my whole
life, as my grandfather, father and two uncles were
cabinetmakers.
It seems like you have
taken some design cues
from Ken Fisher/TrainActually, I’ve been wanting to write this wreck in that no two of
article for over a year now since I first your amps are exactly
met Jeff at Sweetwater’s Gearfest back in alike?
2014. Back then, I was walking through Yes, I like the way he apthe “Flea Market” tent and I usually do proached amp building. I
and saw Jeff ’s booth and his even at first try to voice each amp for
glance high quality guitars and amps. As the best sound, not build
soon as I plugged in Jeff ’s Bassman style many and hope a few
combo that impression was confirmed sound great.
as the amp sounded spectacular.
What amp is the “ToFast forward to this year’s Gearfest ken” amp modeled after?
where again Jeff had a booth. I told Jeff
I’d been thinking about our conversation They are my takes on
and wanted to do a review and hopefully some of the designs Ken
built, Token; my tribute
get the word out about his products.
“To-ken”
Here are some highlights from our conWhen we talked at Gerafest you had
versation:
a Token amp made from new old stock
How long have you been building parts. Is that commercially available or
amps and guitars?
was that a one-off design exercise?
I started with amps in the late 70’s after I have parts to build amps old stock
I finished school, mostly modifications or with modern components until my
and a few builds, guitars came some suppliers run out. At some point I will
time later. Although I have been into have to use new parts for all builds, but
44 :: SEP/OCT 15 :: COLLECTIBLEGUITAR.COM
for now I can do both. If anyone out
there is interested in owning an accurate
Ken Fisher inspired replica combo amp
please get in touch with me.
Which classic amps are you taking
your design cues from? At Gearfest I
saw a 59 Bassman style and Princeton/
Deluxe styled amp. I also noticed a
62’ Marshall Bluesbreaker design - are
these amps based on the actual circuits
of the originals or are you developing
your own?
Some are old designs and some are my
version of old designs. Some are totally
my own.
All your amps I have seen are extremely well built - can you tell me a
little about the construction details of
each of the amps?
We hand build all amps from the
ground up. I get some chassis pre made
but some are hand made by me for the
custom designs. The rest of the amp is
hand made. And we build all the cabinets… hardwood, tweed or tolex.
working on a web site for
the Jones line of products. There is a link on
my Token Amp page to
Jones Amps Facebook
page.
Like I said in the intro to
this interview Jeff makes
great sounding high quality products and is defiantly a success story waiting to happen.
If you are looking for a high quality
amp based on the classic designs but
Are your amps designs point to point
or do you use circuit boards?
I build most of my amps on a turret
board design, not a true point to point
design like Little Walter Amps. Closer
in layout design to older Marshall and
Fender designs.
with some modern design cues contact
Jeff Jones at Jones Custom Amplifiers
and Guitars at (574)607-1471 - You can
also email Jeff at jones9095@sbcglobal.
com or visit www.tokenguitaramps.com
刀䔀䄀䐀夀 吀伀 唀倀䜀刀䄀䐀䔀㼀
What are your goals as a manufacturer – are you looking to mass produce
your amps or establish yourself essentially as a custom shop?
I would like to remain a custom shop
for now, increase exposure and production gradually. But never loose sight of
the goal of great tone over mass production.
I saw when we talked at Gearfest that
you also manufacturer guitars - what
styles of guitars are you offering?
Strat and Tele style guitars are my main
builds. Although I have built others as
well, including ukuleles.
I think it’s a great story that you have
been developing your products at night
while holding done your day job at the
Pawn Shop - that must take an amazing amount of dedication – let alone
time consuming and personal sacrifice. How many years has it taken to
develop your amp and guitar designs?
Seriously about five to six years, although I have been working with this
stuff since the 1970’s. At times it seems
overwhelming but when I can stand
back and see and hear the end result you
tend to forget the sacrifice.
Where can our readers go online to
hear the different amps you build?
Our web site www.tokenguitaramps.
com has some sound clips and I am
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