Corktown, Detroit · Founded 2012
Detroit Jump Blues & Boogie-Woogie Rhythm Collective
Two saxophones that sound like six. An upright bass that slaps the backbeat. And a bench in the back room at 1515 Michigan Avenue where 1950s tweed and brownface amplifiers come back to life.
What goes on at 1515 Michigan
The 24th Street Wailers started in 2012 as five friends who wanted to play the music that filled Detroit dance halls before rock and roll had a name. It turned out that a band like that needs three things done properly: the arrangements, the sound on tape, and the amps. We do all three under one roof.
Arranging
The slap-triplet bass pocket, shuffle swing in milliseconds, and tenor-plus-baritone voicings that fake a full brass section.
The bench
Filter caps, three-prong grounding, bias-vary tremolo oscillators and what an AlNiCo cone does when you lean on it.
Tape
Five reels recorded live to 2-track, no click and no punch-ins. Keys, tempos and who played what.
Bench calculator
Guitarists: pick your output tube, type the plate voltage you measured, and choose how the amp is biased. You get a safe idle cathode current to aim for. Horn players: pick a blues key and read what the Bb tenor and Eb baritone see on the stand. Everything runs in your browser.
The math: idle cathode current = (topology % × tube max plate watts) ÷ plate volts. Fixed-bias amps get 70% because plate current climbs as you play harder. Cathode-biased amps get 90% because the bias tends to follow the signal and ease off. Cathode current includes screen current, so the figure runs a hair conservative. This is a starting point, not a service manual.
| Concert key | Bb tenor sax (written) | Eb baritone sax (written) |
|---|---|---|
| G · G · C · D | A · A · D · E | E · E · A · B |
| C · C · F · G | D · D · G · A | A · A · D · E |
| B♭ · B♭ · E♭ · F | C · C · F · G | G · G · C · D |
| F · F · B♭ · C | G · G · C · D | D · D · G · A |
| E · E · A · B | F♯ · F♯ · B · C♯ | D♭ · D♭ · G♭ · A♭ |
On the chassis
Almost everything we know about breakup started with this amp. It is small, it has no negative feedback and it runs its two 6V6 tubes hotter than the book likes. Here is the path your guitar takes.
Mains voltage goes into the power transformer, through the 5Y3 rectifier, and out as roughly 360 volts of direct current on the B+ rail. A pair of filter capacitors smooth the ripple. The rail feeds the center tap of the output transformer, which is how the two 6V6 plates get their voltage.
Your guitar enters the 12AY7, takes a trip through the volume control, then gets boosted again by the 12AX7, which also splits the signal in two opposite halves for the output pair. Each 6V6 handles one half of the wave. The output transformer turns their high-voltage, low-current output into the low-voltage, high-current signal a speaker wants.
Because both tubes share that one cathode resistor, push the amp and the average current changes. That is the trick behind the “Cathode Biased 90%” setting in the calculator above. Our tweed bench notes go through what fails on these amps first.
Discography & session reel notes
Every reel below was recorded with the whole band in the room at once, straight to two-track analog tape. No click track, no overdubs, no punch-ins. If someone cracks a note, the take stays or goes whole. Tempos are measured, not guessed.
Tenor and baritone trade four-bar riffs over a ride-cymbal shuffle. The bass slap lands on 2 and 4 and does not move for the whole take.
Piano left hand on a rolling boogie figure, horns in unison on the shout chorus. The fastest reel we have kept, and the one the drummer still complains about.
Recorded with the guitar going through the bench’s own restored 5E3, mic’d close, turned up until the 6V6 pair started to lean. One take and a long breath at the end.
A horn-first chart. The baritone doubles the bass an octave up for the first two choruses, then drops out so you feel its absence.
A closer. Tenor plays the melody, baritone plays the shadow underneath it, and the upright bass bows the last chord and lets the tape run out the room.
Dispatches from the bandleader
October 21, 2026
People ask why a six-piece band carries a baritone sax instead of a second guitar. It is simple. The baritone is the only instrument that can sit under the piano’s left hand, push the bass player, and still scream on top of the beat when the chart calls for it. It is a bass line with a mouth.
October 9, 2026
Pulled a Deluxe off the shelf that had been in a basement since the Carter administration. The cap can looked fine. It measured at a third of its rating and leaked like a screen door. New caps, slow warm-up on the variac, and the hum went from a growl to nothing. Full notes are on the bench page.
September 27, 2026
A promoter offered us a slot if we sold forty tickets up front. Spin the wheel, hope the crowd shows. We said no and played the room for the door. I wrote down why, and how it rhymes with every game that sells you a random prize. Read the piece.
September 12, 2026
My niece sent me a video of kids singing a pop hit with all the grown-up words swapped out. I could not stop counting syllables. Every swap moved a stress somewhere it did not belong. The same thing happened to the blues in 1954. Here is the rhythm of it.
Weddings, club dates, dance nights and private parties: booking@the24thstreetwailers.com. Amps, reel transfers and restoration quotes: bench@the24thstreetwailers.com. We answer both ourselves, usually between sets.