In May of 2013 Kali came into my life. I remember it like it was ten years ago, which it was. I was standing in a line of people at my favorite Goodwill outlet store visually surveying the blue bins that were being pushed into the room. What caught my eye was what looked like a 1970s practice amp, which turned out to be a late 60's Kalamazoo Model 1, I've dubbed Kali. It was among the last bins being pushed into the room, and I was on the opposite side of the aisle, so I wouldn't be able to snatch her up and run off with her as I had hoped.
No, what appeared to be a pair of brothers put her in their cart and continued on their hunt throughout the outlet store. I was mildly disappointed, but I had to buck up and continue on my own hunt. Later on I passed a clothes bin that had the amp laying face up within it. I thought to myself this was a good bit of luck and decided to give her a closer visual inspection. The speaker cone looked fine, and there were tubes! Sadly the power cable looked like it was in horrible shape, so I knew it was going to need a little work. As I often did I would take larger items up to the registers and weighed them before I committed to the purchase. I can't remember what she weighed, or what the price per pound was back then, but I did go back and read an entry from May 2013 in which I said I paid $8 for the amp and some other things that day. So, for sake of brevity we'll say I paid $8 for Kali.
It was about six years later, in 2019, that I finally decided to take the risk and remove the "death capacitor", change out the power cable and replace the filter capacitor(s). I'm not a professional, but I have to say I must have done an ok job because that brought this little amp back to life. After hearing what this little amp sounds like I wish I had done this work many years earlier, but at least I had it completed before I started building guitar pedals. You see, I'm not sure whether it was having Kali in working order that inspired me to build pedals, or whether the joy of playing new pedals through Kali urged me to start/continue building guitar pedals. Either way, Kali is the reason I build pedals.
I often wonder who, and even what was played through Kali before she came into my possession. I'm not going to wake up tomorrow to an email from someone famous saying "Oh! That was my first amp, and I want it back! Just name a price!", but with the amp being made in the late 1960s we can surely say someone had a damn good time with this little amplifier. Maybe someone was a fan of The Rolling Stones? Maybe Albert King? Lynyrd Skynyrd? What type of guitar did they use? Was a Kalamazoo guitar plugged into her? Some, now, vintage and highly sought after Fender or Gibson guitars maybe? Was Kali ever on the stage at someone high school band recital? Maybe a band at prom? Who knows, but it's a part of her history therefore it's something I wish I knew.
I would also like to know what year she was built. She has a Model 2 chassis, because there is a hole covered by the woody faceplate for the tremolo control for the Model 2. Beyond that, I couldn't tell you anything else that might give us a date. In the scope of things it doesn't really matter, because she exists and she has a lovely voice. She can be super clean, sparkly and even glassy depending on the pickups, all the way to screaming, heavy overdrive. While I use my little DIY guitar amp for initial pedal circuit testing, Kali is the final word on whether a pedal circuit is up to my standards or not, because she is always extremely honest on how the pedal speaks through her. Even though she's a tiny little practice amp, what more could a bedroom rockstar ask for?
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