Mercury Magnetics™ designs, hand-builds and tunes the largest and best-sounding selection of vintage and upgrade electric guitar amp transformers in the world. No matter what kind of tube-based guitar amp you are looking to restore, build or upgrade we've got at least one, if not several, outstanding transformer sets for you to choose from. We're also the source for your vintage transformer restorations!
The audio circuitry of your amp is completely dependent on the quality of its power supply. The very first component in this food-chain-of-tone is the power transformer. It makes the necessary connection between your amp and the power company. How it behaves sets the standard for your amp's performance. The PT has a profound affect on your amp's sonic characteristics especially its ability to handle musical dynamics. What this means to you is crisper note attack, better note separation, and added sparkle in the upper mids and treble frequencies. And keep in mind that with a properly-designed power transformer you'll hear all-around higher definition with the amp's clean and dirty tones.
On the other hand, the presence of odd harmonics in music is generally annoying. Better-sounding amps work to minimize these odd harmonics. At Mercury we design and build transformers that enable your amp’s circuitry to emphasize even order harmonics between specific frequency ranges. Our methods intentionally showcase the virtues of electric guitar tone.
To get desirable tone from a tube it must be coaxed, bothered or even irritated in some way. This is where the tubes share interdependence with the transformers. Great transformer designs are the key to provoking tubes to behave in a manner that is conducive to getting desirable tone. Having the right transformers has long been one of the fundamental insider secrets behind great tube amp tone!
So where does great tone come from if nearly everybody is using the same parts from a small circle of high production manufacturers? What gave vintage amps their great tone and why do some amps sound better than others? How come so many new amps don't have that inspiring tone anymore? And where do babies come from?
The answer to (most of) these questions, and the absolute mission of Mercury, is in the TRANSFORMERS. We're not kidding when we call them the "heart and soul of your amp." Transformers establish the character and behavior of your amp's ability to generate tone, from clean, to dirty harmonic distortion. That's why Mercury goes through the trouble and expense to build and tune transformers the hard way: by hand, one-at-a-time, with old-world craftsmanship and the most tonally effective materials money can buy. The end result is all the guitar tone you want without a speck of cereal.