ABOUT US ~

Meet the Doc

Hi, I’m Marty Johnson, resident amp Doctor and sole owner/operator of Dr Johnson’s Handmade Vintage Tube Amplifiers. I am a husband, a father, a musician and a self professed tube amp junkie.

My wife and I live on the beautiful NSW North Coast near Grafton on 16 rolling acres and I’m fortunate enough to be able to operate my business from home. Music has always been a passion of mine with guitar at the helm. CJ -my wife and I do a little duo called Sandalwood and we love nothing more than to play a good Sunday arvo session on the back deck at a pub. We love getting around to music festivals and camping out, I also enjoy metal detecting and have a long term affair with vintage motorcycles.

I’ve always been intrigued with electronics, even as far back as a child, I would often pull apart radios and record players etc in an attempt to learn how things worked. This interest carried on into my adult life, always tinkering with circuits and building things. Gradually you learn by doing and while I’d never claim to be some electronics guru I have gained enough knowledge over the years to know my way around, particularly in audio and valve technology.

In 1985 I left school and joined the RAAF as an aircraft fitter which laid a solid foundation for me in fitting procedures and metallurgy.  I served in the RAAF for 6 years and later worked as a fitter in various manufacturing and engineering companies. Somewhere along the line I ended up in the small engine industry, repairing mowers, chainsaws, pumps etc, I did this for many years with the last 15yrs or so being self employed. While it payed the bills, I didn’t particularly enjoy it and I felt like I was trading my wellbeing for a wage. The time for change was coming, my love of all things musical is what drives me and I enjoy electronics so my foray into amp building seemed like the next logical step.

Chasing Tube Tone

My introduction into tube amps happened purely by accident around 1988. I picked up a worn & dusty old Princeton Reverb Amp from a farm clearing sale at a stupid crazy cheap price. It had no Fender badge and I knew nothing about tube amps so I thought it was just an old hacker. These were pre internet days and it would be a number of years before I realised the historic significance of that amp and what an amazing find it really was.

I took it home, plugged it in, lamp came on, no smoke. I then plugged my guitar in and almost instantly a wide grin came across my face. I was in awe of this dirty little black box and its sublime tone, the notes just seemed to jump out at me and there was a touch response that made me feel like the amp was a part of me, add to that, the best reverb I had ever heard and the whole experience was somewhat dreamlike.

A few years went by and someone offered me good money for that amp. I wasn’t playing much guitar at the time and I still had no real idea how special it was.  $600 seemed like a good offer and cash was tight. I figured I could easily buy something newer and it would probably sound even better, how wrong was I.  The rest is history, it would become my biggest regret in all my time of buying and selling musical gear.

Years would roll by and various amps came and went but I could never seem to recapture that majestic Princeton tone. Little did I know what the future had install for me. 🏁

Enter Doc Johnson Amps

Fast forward about 20 years and I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the amps on offer from the mainstream, they were often flimsy pcb jobs, poorly constructed, penny pinching at every corner and dressed up to be more then they were. Often garnished with a range of cheesy features and gimmicks that you don’t really need and/or rob tone. Use it until it breaks and send it to landfill in a world where built-in obsolescence is becoming increasingly normal - “all the more reason to keep handwired tube amps alive I say 🤘🏾” 😎

The Amps that did interest me were too expensive so eventually I got to thinking, there must be another way,  perhaps I could build one myself? Tube technology is pretty simple from an electronics standpoint and I had always enjoyed carpentry so I set about to creating my dream amp. It was to have exceptional tone, be reliable, roadworthy & serviceable. I focused my attention to the classic Fender amps of the 50s & 60s, I figured these amps have became legendary for good reason, loved by many and they have truly endured over the years. 

This first creation was to be a 5e3 Tweed Deluxe, the circuit looked simple enough and after all,  it was apparently one of Neil Young’s favourite amps so I was in 💯. I stuck as close to the original design as I could and used only the best components I could source, found some excellent cabinet plans online and made a pine cabinet covered in tweed. I actually surprised myself how good it came out, holy wow, it sounded amazing! I learnt what the 50s ‘Tweed’ sound was all about. I enjoyed that amp for a while and as much as I loved it, a good friend of mine, Chris Thiering loved it even more and I decided it was meant for him. It wasn’t long and I was back at the drawing board to create another, this time a masterpiece, my beloved Princeton Reverb.  So sometime in 2012, without realising it at the time, 
Dr Johnson’s Handmade Vintage Tube Amplifiers was born. 

That was 13ys ago and around 100 amplifiers later, I’m still at it and passionate about what I do. A bit of ocd keeps me in check and my amps have evolved more into my own style and design, still Fender dna but improved upon and modified in subtle ways  the enhance tone, versatility and ergonomics.

 “I feel I’m building a really great amp these days”