An early Jim Kelley Amplifiers
ad featuring the FACS
amp and Lee Ritenour. Photo
courtesy of Jim Kelley |
When I think about my first
day working the phones for
Groove Tubes so many years ago,
I still get sentimental. The reason
is simple: My first call that day
came from legendary amp builder
Ken Fischer! In 1981, Ken was just
starting up Trainwreck Circuits,
and he bought a ton of tubes.
On my second day there, I
fielded a call from Jim Kelley of
Active Guitar Electronics. His
shop was in Tustin, California,
which was roughly an hour away,
and he needed tubes immediately.
Somebody had to deliver them,
and that turned out to be me.
When I arrived at Jim’s shop, I
noticed two units on the bench.
One was a combo that resembled
a 4x10 Bassman with a wicker-cane
grill and one was an Active
Guitar Electronics attenuator
unit—which, in my opinion, was
the finest attenuator made during
that era, because it didn’t shave
off critical high frequencies like so
many other units did back then.
That was the first time I
played through a Jim Kelley
amplifier, and it sounded amazing.
It had a very smooth, even
tone with great string-to-string
separation. It reminded me of
sipping a rich and creamy chocolate
milkshake.
The Kelley FACS (Foot
Activated Channel Switching)
amplifier runs four 6V6s in its
output tube section and is known
for its extremely high plate voltages—
485 volts! That’s about 20
volts hotter than a modern-day
Marshall head. An old blackface
Fender Deluxe runs about 430
volts on its 6V6s, so you can see
just how brutal that 485-volts
reading is to the FACS’ output
tubes.
You can switch the FACS’
output from 30 watts to 60 watts.
In the 30-watt mode, only two
output tubes are active, whereas
all four output tubes are active
in the 60-watt setting. The amp’s
massively over-designed power
transformer is rated at 135 watts
RMS, which guarantees it an
easy life, even when you drive the
amplifier at full power. The FACS
also sports active-shelving EQ
controls, which sound very open,
breathy, and natural. These amps
have tremendous reverb circuits as
well, with a deep, rich tone.
Operating a FACS combo
or head is very straightforward,
because the front panel has only
three controls: Gain (which has
a pull-out Presence function),
Treble (with a pull-out Bright setting),
and Bass (with a pull-out
Mid-boost function).
Bonnie Raitt onstage with her Jim Kelley FACS 1x12 combo (right) and Active Guitar Electronics
attenuator
unit during her 1982 Green Light tour. Photo courtesy of Jim Kelley
One key element of the FACS
circuit is that the tone controls
boost and cut from the noon position.
Adjusting counterclockwise
from 12 o’clock cuts the setting,
while adjusting clockwise past
12 o’ clock boosts it. It’s a brilliant
design. I ended up playing
through a couple of Jim Kelley
amps for nearly 20 years. Many
consider this gem of an amp “the
other Dumble.” Why? Because it
doesn’t have one iota of harshness
in it.
Dean Farley is chief
designer of Snake Oil
Brand Strings, and his
ideas have had a significant
influence on contemporary
string design. He
is also known as a great
source of guitar, amp, and gear lore. For
more information, visit
snakeoilstrings.com.