Andrew Clapp

Bio I have been into electronics as long as I can remember.  I remember building transistor oscillators and led flip-flops in grade school.  Raised in a music family, several instruments were available to me and I eventually settled on the bass guitar.  One of my best friends was into HAM Radio and I was always going to field day and other events with his family.  By the time I was in high school, I was really into math and electronics and I eventually procured a degree in Mathematics from Portland State University. My amplifier building started with the LM386 circuit from the Forest M. Mimms books that I was exposed to in grade school.  From there it progressed in the solid state world to larger and larger powered IC amps.  Then one day, I got this wild idea to build this crazy anachronism known as a single-ended tube amp and I've been hooked ever since.   Influences My tube amplifier influences are largely the theory from the books of Merlin Blencowe, J. L. Hood, Kevin O'Connor and Dave Funk.  In my life outside of books, I've had the distinct honor of meeting Conrad Sundholm and I own one of his yummy C4 Bass Tube Preamps.  My circle of friends includes several tube amp building hobbyists and some electrical engineers and mathematicians. My musical career has been a good deal of fun and I'm pleased to have played with many great local musicians in many types of bands and styles of music.  I listen to all kinds of music, but particularly love the bass work of Stanley, Victor, Jaco, Les and the slap/funk/jazz styles. Gear I play a Fernandes six string bass and a custom telecaster style guitar.  I build my own amps and love the soft crush of the vacuum tube amps for guitar.  For bass I use my Conrad C4 into solid state power that drives a 2x10 cabinet of my own design for most gigs.