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< Music Gear ~ heavy tube heads... why so good?? |
| Narthex |
 Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:09 pm |
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Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 882
Location: Aberdeen
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I wish i could explain things as well as Stephen BroMalley
I've owned all sorts of amps over the years, cheap solid-state, moddeling and hybrid but my world changed when i built my first valve amp. total night/day difference. |
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| Stephen BroMalley |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:32 pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 1241
Location: digging a neghole
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| What did you build dude? I've been looking at building a tube head for a while, just haven't got the money together. |
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| Narthex |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:06 pm |
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Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 882
Location: Aberdeen
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My first was based on the Marshall "18watt". generally considered to be one of the best amps ever made. the Marshall re-issues aren't worth a shit and the circuit is pretty simple so its ideal for the DIY treatment.
I went with a cascade switch in the pre-amp but that'll be coming out soon as its not very useful. gorgeous clean tone and it gets pretty dirty when cranked.
the most recent one was a 14watt thing, kinda based on a hot-rodded Vox ac15. gorgeous little amp, on its own it goes from nice, sparkly cleans to gritty classic rock territory. put a metal-zone in front of it set up as a clean boost and it fucking ROARS!!!
i need to put in a decent output transformer some time soon though.
next on my "to-build" list is either a Soldano SLO100 or an Orange Rockerverb. its a highly addictive hobby. |
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| Stephen BroMalley |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:49 pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 1241
Location: digging a neghole
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| Cool, I've seen the stuff on www.18watt.com before. Where were getting the transformers? The shipping was always a nightmare when I tried pricing stuff out before |
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| Narthex |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:23 pm |
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Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 882
Location: Aberdeen
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for the 18watt i got most of the parts from an american place, brownnote.com. they also made a snazzy wooden shell for it too 
i ordered a kit from them then altered the circuit to suit my needs and bought the extra componants elsewhere.
i'd defiantly advise getting a kit for a first build, there are so many head-scratching "wtf?" moments anyway theres no need to complicate things by trying and failing to source the componants yourself.
the 14watt started out as a Harley Benton GA15
http://www.thomann.de/ie/harley_benton_ga15.htm
which i gutted and used the chassis and transformers for the new amp.
all the innards were replaced with my own. it turned out ok, sounds beautiful, though it was fairly cramped inside the chassis by the end. its a mirical there is no noise off of it.
there is a place in England, ampmaker.com that sells 18watt kits and also sells transformers, very good prices.
there is also a 5watt fender champ based amp kit.
www.tubeampdoctor.com are based in germany and seem to have a huge selection, |
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| Helvte |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:36 pm |
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Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 1583
Location: Into the Jesus of Hell
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Sorry to hijack the thead but seeing as Narthex has a bit of building knowledge, Im trying to fix a Marshall Jcm 2000 DSL at the moment.
A pint was spilled on it at a gig, luckily enough it was turned off so no massive damage.
I had to replace a capacitor on the preamp circuit that got fried. The distortion channel works fine but the clean channel(A) has a very weak signal.
I tried swapping around two of the small EL34 valves on the preamp circuit but its still the same so I suppose the valves are ok. Anyone have any exprience with anything like this before?
The capacitor was a 22pF connected to pin 4 of one of the EL34s
I can throw up a schematic later to show exactly what had to be replaced if it helps. |
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| Narthex |
| Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:42 pm |
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Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 882
Location: Aberdeen
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Helvte wrote: Sorry to hijack the thead but seeing as Narthex has a bit of building knowledge, Im trying to fix a Marshall Jcm 2000 DSL at the moment.
A pint was spilled on it at a gig, luckily enough it was turned off so no massive damage.
I had to replace a capacitor on the preamp circuit that got fried. The distortion channel works fine but the clean channel(A) has a very weak signal.
I tried swapping around two of the small EL34 valves on the preamp circuit but its still the same so I suppose the valves are ok. Anyone have any exprience with anything like this before?
The capacitor was a 22pF connected to pin 4 of one of the EL34s
I can throw up a schematic later to show exactly what had to be replaced if it helps.
was the clean channel working properly after the beer spillage and before the cap replacement? or was the cap replaced at the time opf spillage?
if its the latter then i'd say the tech did a very shit job of fixing it, letting it go out the door with a dodgy clean channel.
anyway, can ya clarify the relation between the events? |
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| Helvte |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 8:24 am |
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Joined: 22 Jun 2005
Posts: 1583
Location: Into the Jesus of Hell
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Carefull Narthex, Im the shitty technician in question!!! Ok, immediatly after said spillage I cleaned it as much as I could before putting power anywhere near it. After this, it would power up but it was only producing a hum on both channels when connected to the cab and turned up.
I took it apart to have a closer look and discovered said fried capacitor. I replaced it with one of the same spec so now I have a distorted channel but no clean. |
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| colmtesticles |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:01 am |
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Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 4835
Location: www.myspace.com/nephridiumband
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clean is for fags and posers
only a hum channel is real |
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| Floss |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 10:40 am |
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Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 4429
Location: Corcaigh
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I never understood the "tubes are better than solid-state" argument, different strokes and all that. Ive heard some great tubes and great transistors so each to their own as far as im concerned. I own both (Engl Powerball and Line6 SpiderIII) and love the sounds from both styles. If anything the Line6 is handier for gigging cos its lighter, but lately i decided to sell it (purely cos i need the cash, not cos i dont like it).
The Engl soudns incredible, pity its so pricey though. Dont ever see myself selling it, its a fantastic head (and the Engl cab sounds great with it and other heads too). Never heard a Marshall head that I liked. The old 5150's sounded great too, havent heard the newer ones.
I played through a Boogie Triple in camden last year and wasn't convinced at all by it and the price of those is ridiculous. That said we used a Mesa rack pre-amp for recording recently in conjunction with an old Marshall head on its clean channel and the Mesa sounded amazing so maybe the Triple just wasnt set up right. |
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| Narthex |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:18 pm |
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Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 882
Location: Aberdeen
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Helvte wrote: Carefull Narthex, Im the shitty technician in question!!! Ok, immediatly after said spillage I cleaned it as much as I could before putting power anywhere near it. After this, it would power up but it was only producing a hum on both channels when connected to the cab and turned up.
I took it apart to have a closer look and discovered said fried capacitor. I replaced it with one of the same spec so now I have a distorted channel but no clean.
Ah right,
I'd say just bite the bullet and take it to a tech, a resistor could have gone open on ya or anything.
Quote: I never understood the "tubes are better than solid-state" argument, different strokes and all that. Ive heard some great tubes and great transistors so each to their own as far as im concerned. I own both (Engl Powerball and Line6 SpiderIII) and love the sounds from both styles. If anything the Line6 is handier for gigging cos its lighter, but lately i decided to sell it (purely cos i need the cash, not cos i dont like it).
The Engl soudns incredible, pity its so pricey though. Dont ever see myself selling it, its a fantastic head (and the Engl cab sounds great with it and other heads too). Never heard a Marshall head that I liked. The old 5150's sounded great too, havent heard the newer ones.
I played through a Boogie Triple in camden last year and wasn't convinced at all by it and the price of those is ridiculous. That said we used a Mesa rack pre-amp for recording recently in conjunction with an old Marshall head on its clean channel and the Mesa sounded amazing so maybe the Triple just wasnt set up right.
Its worth pointing out that "solid state" and "modelling" amps are not the same thing. modelling technology has come along brilliantly in the last few years but i've never been fond of the Line6 gear, they seem to be hawking the same algorithms in all their products for the last 6 years and are falling behind badly.
The mesa amps seem to polarize people quite a bit, some worship them and others dont see the attraction at all. |
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| Stephen BroMalley |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:35 pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2009
Posts: 1241
Location: digging a neghole
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| Mesas can be harder to dial in, I've heard they don't always sound amazing when you plug in but really improve when you spend a few hours turning knobs. |
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| Total torment promotions |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 6:41 pm |
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Joined: 06 Jun 2005
Posts: 4825
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| Well I play through a Marshall TSL & I love it to bits fantastic amp great tone.I have also played through a mesa rectifier a nice amp but the tone isn't my cup of tea.One of the best amps ive played through would be a bogner Uberschall the tone out of them is unreal if I could afford it I would buy one. |
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| Paddy SwordChant |
| Posted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 7:09 pm |
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Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 507
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The main thing I prefer about valves is the way the distortion sounds more clean (if that makes any sense) to my ears, plus having a mid control that actually does something is cool too, can never seem to make mids sound nice on the transistor amps ive played.
So, what amps does everyone use? Im using an Engl fireball at the minute, always play about with the idea of changing it when I play an interesting amp but always seem to come back to a sound that I dont want to get rid of! |
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| Narthex |
| Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 1:23 am |
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Joined: 30 Sep 2005
Posts: 882
Location: Aberdeen
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Paddy SwordChant wrote: The main thing I prefer about valves is the way the distortion sounds more clean (if that makes any sense) to my ears,
I know what you mean, its the difference between having a tight, punchy, clear distortion and a pile of fuzzy shite.
My current amps=
-DIY Marshall "18watt"
-DIY 14watt amp, no name for it yet
-Vox AD50VT
The vox is a modelling amp, its not too bad and has served me well for years but the two DIY valve amps destroy it in every concievable way. |
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