The Boutique Amp That Played With the Stones and McCartney: Don Morris of Electroplex

Electroplex founder Don Morris on building the Rocket, the boutique amp Guitar Player called "the Tyrannosaurus Rex of Bassmans," and putting the business on hold for his family. In 1993, while working a day job at Yamaha, Don and his neighbor Trevor Wilkinson set out to build a "Twin Reverb killer": all the clean headroom of a Twin, with overdrive that wouldn't clear the room. The Rocket sold well in Japan first. Then Guitar Player's February 1997 boutique-amp shootout named the Rocket 50 one of its three favorites, and the phones started ringing the day the issue reached mailboxes. Rockets went on to record with the Rolling Stones and tour with Paul McCartney's band. We talk about getting the overdrive from the preamp instead of the output stage, the PCB vs. point-to-point debate, speakers, why a 12-watt amp can be almost as loud as a 22-watt amp, vintage vs. modern parts, the Blonde Bassman that inspired the Rocket, and what Electroplex builds today. 📖 Read the full story: https://www.pactran.com/blog/electrop... 📄 The 1997 Guitar Player review: https://electroplex.com/wp-content/up... 🎸 Electroplex Amplifiers: https://electroplex.com 🔌 Pacific Audio Magnetics transformers: https://pacificaudiomagnetics.com 🏭 Pacific Transformer: https://www.pactran.com 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6xANnht... 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast... CHAPTERS 00:00 Welcome, Don Morris of Electroplex 00:44 1993: starting Electroplex while at Yamaha 04:24 First guitar and amp: a Guild Starfire and a Power Sonic 09:13 Hendrix, Clapton, and the Stones fuzz story 15:28 The Rocket 90: overdrive from the preamp 17:58 Why Japan bought them first 22:08 The Rocket 50 and the Guitar Player shootout 26:05 PCB vs. point-to-point 29:16 Why solid state struggled 32:39 Contract manufacturing and final assembly 36:36 Speakers and mixed-speaker cabinets 41:23 Putting family first 43:47 The Rocket 35 and output transformers 45:49 The move to low-wattage amps 50:39 Wattage vs. volume 52:42 Vintage vs. modern components 56:40 Favorite amps: the JTM45 and Bassman 1:01:40 The NAMM build poll 1:03:41 Electroplex today: Retro Rockets and the Triplex 1:09:07 Swapping transformers in a Deluxe Reverb #tubeamps #guitaramp #boutiqueamps