Grateful Dead Music Forum

It's been a while since I posted in the forum, but the joy and elation that comes from hearing tones of 'Jerry' coming from my rig make for wanting to share this incredible experience. I play with the Grateful Dead tribute band in the Tampa Bay area, 'Uncle John's Band' and have been playing with them with various equipment used over the years including vintage Fender amps, SMS preamp/McIntosh 2300 combos, GT Trio/RealTube Reverb for the 90s sound. About 10 years ago, I purchased a 1971 Fender amp on E-Bay from Joe Martin who then told me that it sounded like no other Fender Twin. In as many words, that amp became what was the beginning of 'Jerry' sound soul searching truly inspired by the great tone that the amp delivered. Fast Forward to modern day - I learned from other musicians in the loop who purchased amps from Joe (now 'Shakedown Amps') that his recent work had broken through sonic boundaries, which I could hear on the samples uploaded on the 'Shakedown Amps' webpage. Yes, I had the 'kid in the candy store' I need to get my hands on one of these. Well, the waiting came to an end this past weekend. I played through a 'Shakedown Amps' custom head preamp out into a Mac 2300 into a JBL E-120 loaded Trucker cab. Holy ##@*#*! This is the REAL DEAL! 70's, 80's switchable on left channel and 90s on the right channel - I was in heaven being able to play through this amp with so much great tone easily dialed in with great expressive response when altering dynamics. Just the perfect amount of breakup on the accents and those driving trills. You can tell Joe knows his stuff and spends a lot of time perfecting what he does - it is customizable to his customers' preferences as well. The preamp out is a sweet feature on this one for the gigs that I feel strong enough to lug that McIntosh around, and getting E-120s to sound like they do when being driven at louder volumes at more comfortable listening levels is no easy task. We recorded the gig live and it will be posted on Livestream for 30 days if you search 'Uncle John's Band'. My guitar is a bit weak in the mix unfortunately but you can find great samples of Joe's work on 'Shakedown Amps' on Facebook and future recordings at unclejohnsband.com. Yes, looking forward to playing many more gigs with this amp!

The last couple clips of his amps have sounded stellar. I'm not surprised you're gushing.

john in san diego

Nice sound tigerose, didn't get to meet you the night I heard the band at Skipper's couple years back. Tell Steve Connelly Mccook said, "Get a haircut, hippie!"

I just ordered one of his amps a few weeks ago.

tigerose01 wrote:It's been a while since I posted in the forum, but the joy and elation that comes from hearing tones of 'Jerry' coming from my rig make for wanting to share this incredible experience. I play with the Grateful Dead tribute band in the Tampa Bay area, 'Uncle John's Band' and have been playing with them with various equipment used over the years including vintage Fender amps, SMS preamp/McIntosh 2300 combos, GT Trio/RealTube Reverb for the 90s sound. About 10 years ago, I purchased a 1971 Fender amp on E-Bay from Joe Martin who then told me that it sounded like no other Fender Twin. In as many words, that amp became what was the beginning of 'Jerry' sound soul searching truly inspired by the great tone that the amp delivered. Fast Forward to modern day - I learned from other musicians in the loop who purchased amps from Joe (now 'Shakedown Amps') that his recent work had broken through sonic boundaries, which I could hear on the samples uploaded on the 'Shakedown Amps' webpage. Yes, I had the 'kid in the candy store' I need to get my hands on one of these. Well, the waiting came to an end this past weekend. I played through a 'Shakedown Amps' custom head preamp out into a Mac 2300 into a JBL E-120 loaded Trucker cab. Holy ##@*#*! This is the REAL DEAL! 70's, 80's switchable on left channel and 90s on the right channel - I was in heaven being able to play through this amp with so much great tone easily dialed in with great expressive response when altering dynamics. Just the perfect amount of breakup on the accents and those driving trills. You can tell Joe knows his stuff and spends a lot of time perfecting what he does - it is customizable to his customers' preferences as well. The preamp out is a sweet feature on this one for the gigs that I feel strong enough to lug that McIntosh around, and getting E-120s to sound like they do when being driven at louder volumes at more comfortable listening levels is no easy task. We recorded the gig live and it will be posted on Livestream for 30 days if you search 'Uncle John's Band'. My guitar is a bit weak in the mix unfortunately but you can find great samples of Joe's work on 'Shakedown Amps' on Facebook and future recordings at unclejohnsband.com. Yes, looking forward to playing many more gigs with this amp!