Friday, March 21, 2014

New Serial Number page for STG amps,PC numbers

Sore Throat Guitar Amplifiers- Help us find the little lost amplifiers.
Serial Number List, Extraction from old records.
Amps Labeled  “PC”, stands for Polk County.
Built in Dallas, Oregon 97338.
Some units sold at Polk County Fairgrounds, some sold at outdoor vending, some units sold on Ebay.com.
Unknown total number of PC models built, found records to #23.
PC’s were typically white boxes/red lids, with plastic industrial potentiometers, plastic bead knobs, late 80’s/ early 90’s logos, 4558 I.C.’s, sealed Chinese aluminum tube Jacks. Some pre-packaged units may have come with blue/white headphones with metallic mid-range drivers. Some units had plastic cable loops bolted- on, some had nylon shoe lace ties for hanging off belts.
Ebay units may have been modified or customized or more-than-one owners.
# List.
PC1.                                               PC 10.                                PC 19. Inbum  ?
2. Rick ST.                                           11. Charles P.                   20. Dennis H.
3.                                                          12.                                   21.
4.                                                          13. David M.                    22.
5. Seg                                                    14. Tye   P.                     23. Ken N.
6. Nick G., VA. 20110                            15.
7.                                                           16.
8. Brian B.                                              17.
9.                                                                         18. Don H

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

headphones are very important + electrical compensation devices

Headphones are very important!
The quality of the sound you will hear is dependent on the type of headphones you plug-in to the sore-throat amplifier.  
TYPE
Over-the-ear headphones are the best, and, if they are eight OHMS type, even better.  These headphones will get the loudest and have the best bass response. Special hi-fidelity headphones that have high impedance of over 100 ohms will produce excellent sound and provide better high frequency response.
Down
Size
If you need to go portable, you can put a 3.5 mm-to-1/4 inch adaptor in the headphone jack, and use the common small 32 ohm headphones. Volume will usually be reduced, but its good enough to use in guitar stores and check out the sound of various pick-ups. Just use a short guitar cable on the input, and the whole thing will fit in your coat pocket.

Hear a Buzz
When you switch to a single-coil pick-up, you might hear a buzz in the headphones. That’s normal, SCPU’s can get electrical noise and over-head light buzz, if they aren’t shielded or too close.  Locating to a different spot in the room might help.

Bass Response Headphones
If you need to play a lot of low “E” string notes, turn the GAIN control down to 20-30 percent, and turn the VOLUME up.  The lows will be cleaner and more up front. Larger strings produce more output in the pick-ups, which makes more distortion. It’s the nature-of-the-beast, ‘cause we don’t use any filters or tone circuits in the amps.
You hear what your pick-ups really sound like, which is why Guitar Tech’s keep STGA’s in their toolbox.


sorethroatguitaramplifiers.blogspot.com
WE LEARNED the HARDWAY over the years to compensate the little amps for dealing with real-life situations of Guitar Players and their Crews.
Here is a list of some of the features, and why they exist.

The “Penniless Rocker” Mono Plug Shorting Resistor: you can plug-in a mono (tip/sleeve ground) guitar cable into the headphone jack (TRS) and the output will not be shorted to ground. OR, spend money on a new 3 conductor guitar cable!

The “Careless Roadie” impedance matcher: a nice L-pad with a 5K resistor to ground, and the 620 Quad carbon composition input set that works well with almost any guitar/pick-up type.
Lets the sound quality through, and keeps the “Signal Path Purists” happy.

The “Mad Scientist” RCA Jack- works as both an input-from another pedal or a spring reverb- and also an output-to a pedal board chain or a computer adaptor.  The gain control will act as a volume/ stage-1 mixer.

“The Vintage Buyer Cloth Wire” is really from the 1950’s- is that “vintage” enough for you?

The “Brainless Battery-Jumper” Protection
Diode- keeps the IC safe from reverse-polarity external power, and bi-polar people! Located on the circuit board.

The “Stupid Consumer” Compensation Resistor: the volume control can be on “0”, but it won’t make the output zero. Saves us from answering angry phone calls. No offense!  

The “Non-Matching Cell Twins” Ballast resistors: if the batteries don’t match, the amp stays stable. For a while…

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Introduction to Sore throat guitar amplifiers, as seen on advertising.

If You have never heard of Sore-Throat Guitar Amps before, here is an overview of the features
1. 1/4 inch jacks, TRS stereo jack on the output- because these amps are HEADPHONE dependent. Change 'phones= change sound.
2. Two 9- volt batteries, because it takes less parts, gets louder, and better BASS sound. Also can be run on 12 volt car battery for emergencies !     These Help keep teens off the streets .  and 

MADE IN U.S.A. Thank you for your help. 

3. There are NO tone controls, no filters, no clippers, no scrubbers = you hear what your pick-ups really sound like, and your fret board- makes you wanna learn how to play!

4. We use real 1950's carbon comp resistors, vintage cloth wire, and full size pots- just like expensive TUBE AMPS!

5.     100 % hand built and wired, surplus parts and "Altoid" boxes-

 built like a tank, and Repairable!  
I.C. in socket, you can upgrade/ replace.    
ALSO -free repairs for the first two months ! 
These are 8 ounces, so return post is less than $2.50

6. MORE DiSTORTiON than you will ever want, these are not for "clean" players, so don't even ask !


Two screws for pedal board rail mounting on new models.
 
Works like new, money back guarantee. 
Additional RCA output jack for connection to a spring-reverb type unit. 
Play your Electric guitar with distortion ! Play in your dorm room!
This a standard Sore-Throat Guitar amp, with standard Jacks, and non-matching boxes.1 of a kind.
These are built like a tank with full-sized Volume and gain controls.
Have the big RED gain knob and a wood bead volume knob.