tube amps

[space6oy]

[synthecks]

Thanks. I agree with everything your saying as far as pop music is concerned. I didnt think Id get much for the JBL, not enough to waste my time so I trashed it.


As far as mud is concerned, my mom always told me not to play in the mud but shes not here right now.

0))))))))))))))))


can I get an over drive sound out of a PA head?

[Blue Monster 65]

You may have to jumper the channels (which is what they did when this particular model was used as a guitar amp), but I think you should be able to get a decent sound by cranking the channel volume all the way up and then turning up the overall volume via the master.

Try it like that first.

Scott

[hyphen nation]

now that I think we have covered a fair amount of territory regarding the OP, think I can hijack this thread into a different topic regarding Tube amps? I am all stoked on having build at x0xb0x [as evidenced by my inserting mention of it into 90% of recent posts] and I am giving serious thought to building a tweed type amp, like a deluxe or a princeton. I am curious if any of the amp heads on here have any experience building these things? Did you self source, or did you buy one of the many kits, like Misson, Weber, AX84/Doberman? Any thoughts on tone, pluses or minuses of building an amp?

[sonny1]

I wanna run my keys through a tube amp for the added frequencies/warmth but cant find much information about this. whats best bass amp? 15's, 12's ? 4ohms?


help?

[youtube]S1mgkpXyNFA[/youtube]
1970 or so Vibrolux and a Triton, and Me.
I have the amp EQ'd with not so much bass as it is a guitar amp not a bass amp, but. I think it sounds cool, thin. You may or you may not.

[sonny1]

now that I think we have covered a fair amount of territory regarding the OP, think I can hijack this thread into a different topic regarding Tube amps? I am all stoked on having build at x0xb0x [as evidenced by my inserting mention of it into 90% of recent posts] and I am giving serious thought to building a tweed type amp, like a deluxe or a princeton. I am curious if any of the amp heads on here have any experience building these things? Did you self source, or did you buy one of the many kits, like Misson, Weber, AX84/Doberman? Any thoughts on tone, pluses or minuses of building an amp?

I heard it suck.

I buy old hand built fenders and Music man amps and have them combed thru by da peoples I trust.

I AM however going to build, or rather RE-build my Tube amp in my Wurlitzer 112 as soon as I get a chance Then paint it purple. AND i'm not gonna give a s**t what anyone thinks about it. so THERE!

[brian.only]

Gonna have to plus one on the Music Man amp!

I have a 212 hd ( read 70 lb tank) and have no idea how loud it can get as I have'nt gotten past 6 I think- too loud w/ earplugs...
Still sounded great though- I think I'd rather have a clean amp for synths, then you can have a dirt/fuzz pedal for nasty as someone mentioned earlier.
You can always mic a smaller(10-20w) tube amp going into meltdown and still be able to hear later on.

I had this great little Kay amp that i got at a flea market for like 5 bucks- it had the best breakup.
While it was still alive, I would just have the soundguy mic it and run it through the mains while my bandmate lugged a half stack around to each show.

[Blue Monster 65]

Hmm ... there are a lot of questions there, Brian! So let me answer them in this order:

1. Give it LOTS of thought before attempting to build an amp. Lots 'n' lots of thought ... then do it!

2. I've built a couple of kits for guys, but mostly I build my own. The ones I've built and seen have all been pretty nice, so I would have no problem recommending any one of them. Just pick out the one you like best and go for it.

3. I self-source my parts, but any kit will have all you need in it. I would recommend buying a kit for any starter. You'll save yourself hours of headaches, etc as you'll have it all in one go.

4. Do it right and it will sound great, though a tweed amp maybe not optimal for keys, but if you like the sound, so what?

NOW THE CAVEAT!!!

This isn't a project you're going to do in 30 minutes, but you should know that if you've built a XOXOX box.

Be aware of the dangers of the high voltages you're working with.

If you decide to forego a kit and build your design, before you do anything else, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! And when you've got your design all set and you're ready to buy your parts and start soldering, PLAN SOME MORE! If you have a good roadmap, you'll get to where you're going a whole lot easier. You're going to make mistakes, so if you can make fewer on your way to the end, you'll save both time and money.

Feel free to ask any other questions you might have.

Scott

[Stab Frenzy]

I remember reading about a small Fender they brought out in the last year or so that can have a few quick mods done to it and it sounds fantastic. The stock amp is about US$200 or something, buying one and modding it works out cheaper than building anything comparable. Anyone remember which it is? Scott?

edit: Found it. http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/c ... 600-01.htm

[Blue Monster 65]

Yep - those are great little amps!

Get this, Rep - it's one of those they don't want us to repair (it's more cost-effective to just replace it), so we cut the cord off and send that in to Fender with the label from the back of it. Mind you, we've only had a couple come through, but still.

They're quite nice, well-built, and sound good. Get one of those and do a few mods to it and you're on your way. h**l, you really don't need to do anything to it and it still sounds good!

Scott

Edit: the Epiphone amp is also a great little head to muck about with. Either one is a whole lot cheaper than a vintage amp and more readily available. And you won't feel bad about messing with any vintage gear!

[synthecks]

You may have to jumper the channels (which is what they did when this particular model was used as a guitar amp), but I think you should be able to get a decent sound by cranking the channel volume all the way up and then turning up the overall volume via the master.

Try it like that first.

Scott

Its a 4ohm cab, the internal wiring has 2 positives and 2 grounds and a wire connecting the positives and another wire connecting the negatives. Am I right in assuming this is wired for an 8ohm load?

[Blue Monster 65]

Well, the cab itself doesn't have a rating. The rating comes from the speakers and how they are wired.

If you have two 8 ohm speakers and want to wire them to be 4 ohms, you'll connect the tip of the input to the plus (+) on both speakers and ring of the input to the minus (-) on both speakers.

I made a mistake earlier and typed 8 ohms when I meant to type 16 - sorry about that! Need to make a note to myself to pay more attention to typing numbers, you know? Sigh ...

Anyway, you can run a tube at rated at 8 ohms into a 4 ohm load, though, with no real problems. This is all kind of moot, though, 'til you get a tube head, right?

Scott

[brian.only]

Hmm ... there are a lot of questions there, Brian! So let me answer them in this order:

1. Give it LOTS of thought before attempting to build an amp. Lots 'n' lots of thought ... then do it!

2. I've built a couple of kits for guys, but mostly I build my own. The ones I've built and seen have all been pretty nice, so I would have no problem recommending any one of them. Just pick out the one you like best and go for it.

3. I self-source my parts, but any kit will have all you need in it. I would recommend buying a kit for any starter. You'll save yourself hours of headaches, etc as you'll have it all in one go.

4. Do it right and it will sound great, though a tweed amp maybe not optimal for keys, but if you like the sound, so what?

NOW THE CAVEAT!!!

This isn't a project you're going to do in 30 minutes, but you should know that if you've built a XOXOX box.

Be aware of the dangers of the high voltages you're working with.

If you decide to forego a kit and build your design, before you do anything else, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! And when you've got your design all set and you're ready to buy your parts and start soldering, PLAN SOME MORE! If you have a good roadmap, you'll get to where you're going a whole lot easier. You're going to make mistakes, so if you can make fewer on your way to the end, you'll save both time and money.

Feel free to ask any other questions you might have.

Scott

Sorry, I think I just got excited about Music Man...
I'm definitely enjoying the thread, I just thought it'd be helpful for folks to know whats been working for people on the forum, esp. for someone w/ so many questions and what I'm assuming is not much experience. I went through several amps to finally find 'home' for the synths and rhodes. I always intend to build stuff and admire folks who do-i just usually end up finding an excuse to use what I have instead of finishing up that 'quick little project'...

[hyphen nation]

Hmm ... there are a lot of questions there, Brian!

you mean Hyphen/David?

So let me answer them in this order:
1. Give it LOTS of thought before attempting to build an amp. Lots 'n' lots of thought ... then do it!

Hey Thanks, yeah...I spent a lot of time mulling on the x0x, and just decided I wanted to learn to make my own gear, and it seems like such a supportive community online to get it done...one of the best things I've done for sure...

2. I've built a couple of kits for guys, but mostly I build my own. The ones I've built and seen have all been pretty nice, so I would have no problem recommending any one of them. Just pick out the one you like best and go for it.

Ultimately I'd like to build a tweed and a low powered marshall/british type amp...I am thinking of tweed to start, because they seem like a fairly simple set of components...Any kit rise to the top in your opinion? I've heard great stuff about Mission amps, but they are also the most expensive...

3. I self-source my parts, but any kit will have all you need in it. I would recommend buying a kit for any starter. You'll save yourself hours of headaches, etc as you'll have it all in one go.

Yeah, I can easily see myself starting to investigate more amp building, but right now a Kit should satisfy the initial urges...

4. Do it right and it will sound great, though a tweed amp maybe not optimal for keys, but if you like the sound, so what?

Realistically I am a guitarist before I am a synth geek[though my dad was a piano teacher, so I have more keys knowledge than I seem capable of accessing when playing.....tweed is the sweetest tone known to guitar...

NOW THE CAVEAT!!!

This isn't a project you're going to do in 30 minutes, but you should know that if you've built a XOXOX box.

Be aware of the dangers of the high voltages you're working with.

If you decide to forego a kit and build your design, before you do anything else, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! And when you've got your design all set and you're ready to buy your parts and start soldering, PLAN SOME MORE! If you have a good roadmap, you'll get to where you're going a whole lot easier. You're going to make mistakes, so if you can make fewer on your way to the end, you'll save both time and money.

Feel free to ask any other questions you might have.

Scott

So here's the deal, I am aware of the voltages to a degree. I am thinking unplug, and maybe ground out the larger capacitors before working on it? Any books you'd direct me to? I have also heard of the one hand only deal, where you keep one hand in your back pocket to not cause the voltage to jump across your chest?

And yeah, imagine it might take me a little while to build it but that is some of the fun with gear, right? it's the hunt and the challenge...

[OriginalJambo]

I remember reading about a small Fender they brought out in the last year or so that can have a few quick mods done to it and it sounds fantastic. The stock amp is about US$200 or something, buying one and modding it works out cheaper than building anything comparable. Anyone remember which it is? Scott?

edit: Found it. http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/c ... 600-01.htm

[youtube]zVGWICF5-i8&e[/youtube]

Man, I think that video on the webpage is doing the Mercury mod a disservice. Maybe I have a funny ear for guitar tone but I felt the '51 model sounded the best, followed by the new stock Fender with the modded one bringing up the rear so to speak. It's true the character of the amp and overdrive completely changes (more than you'd expect from a change of something as simple as a transformer!), but I just think it's a little too muddy and rounded - sounds more like a fuzz overdrive to me actually and it totally loses the lovely twang. Suppose you can't please everyone - although going by the comments on YouTube I'm not the only one.

Also why did the Mercury modded amp hum so loudly? You'd think by replacing the stock transformer with a quality one it'd actually reduce this. Maybe it was the way he was holding the guitar? Or some earthing/ground loop issues? Doesn't exactly help sell the product though.

At the end of the day I suppose it really depends on what sort of vibe you want from your amp.