VOODOO AMPLIFICATION - TRACE DAVIS

A few years back I had the opportunity to interview the incredibly talented Trace Davis on behalf of Voodoo Amplification. Here's his story, hope you enjoy!

How long have you been involved in the amplifier business?

I was surrounded by it as my father worked at Westinghouse in Bath, New York USA over seeing the manufacturing of vacuum tubes. They made their own tubes as well as tubes for RCA, GE, etc. I grew up listening to music and really got into it when I was 12 years old. I started playing guitar until I was 15 and completely immersed myself in it. I began playing professionally at 17 years old and that led into touring. From there I began doing sessions both as a player and as a recording engineer. I traveled a great and eventually wanted to take some time off from being on the road. When I moved to Ithaca, New York in 1998 I founded Voodoo Amps. In the early years we were solely a Tube Amp Modification Company. Through numerous requests we began offering service and repair on tube amps and circa 2005 we began manufacturing our own products. 

What was your basic idea when you formed your own company?

Unlike most I did not wake up one day and decide "Hey, I'm going to start my own amp company!" (lol) When I was working as a session guitarist and recording engineer I would bring in amps that I Modified or built from scratch to use on sessions. I befriended the producers/engineers I worked with and they would ask if they could borrow one or more of the amps as they wanted to use it on an up coming record they were recording. As an amp company the hardest thing to do is to get your amps on recordings, at least back then as it was not like it is these days (IE: its very affordable to purchase a DAW and record a record in your house). Back then 2" analog tape was still the number medium for recording as the sampling rate on Pro Tools was still pretty low (did not sound as real) so looking back on it, it was easier for us to get our amps into recording studios as I was already working in that world so that gave us an advantage. Things got so busy that I was working 80 hours a week so I had to make a choice and I decided to go into the Amp Modification business full time.

I know a lot of our readers are asking themselves "why does a high quality tube amp like a Twin Reverb, a SLO-100, a 5150 a Dual Rectifier or a handwired 1959 Plexi need to be modified"? So what's the reason behind that seasoned professionals would rather use modded than stock gear?

That's an excellent question and one that has many answers all depending on one's point of view. Let me preface this by saying that tone is subjective thus making it a matter of taste and as with all matters of taste there can be no right or wrong, just tone. Lots of people talk about how an amp "sounds" sonically (IE: the tone) but not that many talk about how an amp "feels" to play on. For example; If an amp feels stiff/hard to play when you bend and vibrato, players will place a pedal in front to smooth it up/make it feel easier to play on. To us an amp has to sound and feel good to play on.

Modding - Since the inception of tube guitar amps players have always pushed the envelope. Point of face when engineers first designed tube guitar amps they never dreamed someone would turn an amp up to the point of distortion - that was unheard of. IE: If your guitar amp distorted in the recording studio you had to turn it down as it was considered "un-recordable". But players cranked the amps up and thus overdrive was born. Fuzz pedals came about as a way to add more gain to an amp's tone. For as long as there have been tube amps people have been Modding them.

Transformers/Components - These days amps are made with poor quality transformers (typically Chinese made) and high quality transformers. It's no secret that mass produced amps are all about the bottom line (IE: profit) so naturally they gravitate to using lower cost transformers and often times lower quality components, PCB's (printed circuit boards, etc). We offer Custom Designed Mercury Magnetics transformers that are designed to our specs to get the highest level of tone and quality possible.

High Gain Amps - Many high gain amps suffer from little to no note articulation.

Reissue Amps - Very rarely is there a reissue that truly lives up to the original design. As we have literally worked on, serviced and maintained thousands of vintage amplifiers we know what makes the original amps sound and feel the way they do. IE: certain transformers, voltages, component types/values, etc. We work on a great deal of Fender, Marshall and Vox reissues each month. The common theme is that every one wants the reissues to sound and feel like the originals. In some cases a reissue is an affordable platform for Custom Mods.  

What kind of modifying works are usually made at Voodoo amps?

It runs the gamet all depending on the player. On one end we have some simple Mods that are minimal in nature all the way to a complete rebuild of an amp (IE: strip everything off from the chassis and install Custom Transformers and a Custom Circuit). Naturally we also offer comnent Upgrades (coupling/bypass caps, filter caps, transfrormers, etc). 

What was the strangest mod request you have ever recieved?

On a humorous note; A woman called and asked us asked us to put a "hex" on her fiancée’s mistress. We initially thought it was a prank phone call though once we realized she was serious we politely explained that it was not a service that offered as we worked on guitar amps. Within 10 minutes she called back again - True story.

On a serious note; A gentleman who played a Gamba brought in a Fender Hotrod Deluxe and needed us to voice the amp to work with an Electric Gamba (similar in nature to a Viola Gamba). We designed Custom Transformers that were made to our specs by Mercury Magnetics and also redesigned the amps internal circuitry. It a fun project and the results were great!  

Beside modifying existing stuff, you've developed a long line of original Voodoo amplifiers as well. Could you please introduce them with a few words, especially the Hex DL, Witchdoctor DL, and V-Rock DL Series, as well as the V-Plex SL and V-Reck SL Series?

Dual Lead Series: All of our DL Series have a Clean Channel, a gain channel and a Solo Boost feature on the Gain channel. The Clean channels are identical on all models where as the Gain channels are different from model to model.

V-Rock - For many years we were asked to replicate the guitar tones from the 80's where players used hot-rodded/Modified Marshalls. Our V-Rock is a exactly that. With more low end on tap, effortless feel and incredible harmonics makes the V-Rock the perfect hot rodded 80's tones better than any thing else on the market. Dripping with effortless harmonics/sustain with an incredibly easy-to-play feel makes the V-Rock a must have amp. We also offer this in a single channel model (Single Lead Series).

Hex - A high gain British flavored amp picks up where a JCM800 leaves off. You have all the punch and roar of a 2203 but with more gain tap making it perfect for hard rock, modern punk/emo to metal tones. Its articulate and clear under higher gain tones and can be used for a variety of various musical genres. The Hex falls nicely between our V-Rock and Witchdoctor making it a great middle-of-the-road high gain amp.

Witchdoctor - This is our highest gain model and is designed this amp to meet demanding needs of today’s Modern Metal tones. The amp works extremely well in standard tunings as well as drop tunings (IE: baritone and 7 string guitars). The Witchdoctor has guttural low end that is always tight, intense harmonic complexity and responds instantly to pick attack. There is no other amp on the market that works as well with baritone or 7 string guitar.

Single Lead Series: These are our more vintage style amp designs.

V-Plex: We worked on a late 68 plexi that sounded stunning. We documented this amp and cloned the transformers so that we could offer the best out-of-the-box plexi to the rest of the world.

V-Rock: As the 80's are considered "Classic" or vintage by many we also offer the V-Rock in our Single Lead Series.

Who are the most important Voodoo players/endorsees?

The truthful and sincere answer is that all our endorsees are equally important to us, truly. Some of our lesser known or up-and-coming players have been key to helping us get to where we are now.

We have been blessed to be able to work with several well known and legendary players. To name a few; Jason Hook of Five Finger Death Punch, Vivian Campbell & Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Richard Fortus of Guns N Roses/Thin Lizzy, Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, Richard Kruspe of Rammstein, Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake, Chris Henry of Mondo Generator, 

Are Voodoo amps made by hand exclusively?

Yes, we proudly make every amp at our facility in Lansing New York USA. 

How many craftsmen do you employ right now?

At present we have five (5) full time employees. 

Where is the headquarters of Voodoo custom shop located, and how many Voodoo stores are running in North America?

Our headquarters are in Lansing, New York USA. Modifications are highly specialized and therefore we have one (1) location in the USA. 

Are Voodoo amps distributed in Europe as well?

We are presently looking for a European distributor.

Voodoo's kind of boutique amps are quite expensive as I see the retail price range. Do you have any plan to develop more affordable series in the future?

The section listed as "Dealer" price is what a customer here in the USA would pay if they walked into a music store to purchase the amp. The reason the amps are more costly in Europe is due to the shipping costs and import feed/duties/taxes. Having said that; We are working towards setting up manufacturing in the UK to effectively bring the cost of our products down in Europe so that we can be more competitive.

Which type of sound do you personally prefer, British or American?

First and fore most, I am a fan of tone and as such I love all kinds of tones. This is why we offer different types of production models as well as various different circuitry Modifications. For clean tones I and most others prefer the older Fender Black Face style clean tones. For gain tones I personally lean towards British flavored tones but American tones certainly have their place depending on the type(s) of music one is playing. Our Hex and V-Rock are British flavored where as our Witchdoctor is a more unique design, which I suppose some would call America flavored.  

Do you have favorite preamp and power tubes?

The quality of modern production tubes changes so often that it makes it difficult to narrow it down to one tube.

Power Tubes - As a generalization I prefer the tone of EL34's though there are very few modern production EL34's that I really love the tone of. My favorite were the NOS Mullards and Telefunkens (very rare). Presently with modern production tubes we are using the Reissue Tung Sol EL34B's. Keep in mind that we "burn-in" the tubes for 72 hours and then test/select and match the tubes. I say this as the tube manufacturers are no longer burning in the tubes, which has been part of the manufacturing process for decades. It is the last step in the manufacturing process but a couple years ago when the cost of metals went up they all decided to stop burning in tubes as it was a labor based step. Sadly they did not charge less for the tubes but instead charge the same amount for a lesser quality product. We built burn in racks like they had back in the 60's and we burn the tubes in for 72 hours, which is the minimum amount of time required. Burning in tubes not only increases reliability but also makes the tubes sound better (more three dimensional) and also makes them feel better to play on. If you purchase tubes that are not burned in but are "matched" you can rest assured that after a few weeks of routine playing tour power tubes will spread apart and the tone will suffer. The same will happen with your preamp tubes.

Preamp Tubes - As such we often use more than one preamp tube to get the sound and feel we are looking for. I like the sound of the Chinese 12AX7A's but they need to be properly burned in. Once burned in they are very balanced from lows, mids to highs and have great harmonic content. We always use and recommend a matched tube for the Phase Inverter position and for tube driven Effects Loops. 

These days modeling amplifiers are quite popular. What do you think about them?

There was a big boom period in the USA for digital modern amps but that has since passed. While a lot of players use them at home or as a quiet way to work on demos late at night but when playing live they do not feel or perform the same a tube amp.

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