Re: Transformer winding in NZ
Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 4:43 pm
how do the prices compare to mercury magnetics?
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Their website gives USD$250 for a DR504 OT, which is not THAT far off TSL's prices for a new custom build, especially when you factor in overseas shipping costs for a tranny of this size.Bg wrote:how do the prices compare to mercury magnetics?
wrong road mate, you mean K Road... I know most of themjeremyb wrote:Plenty of trannies going cheap on queen st in auckland...
Reminds me of the housing market in Wellington - the nice image lures you into thinking you're getting somewhere sweet to lay your head, but in reality you just get screwed in the end.jeremyb wrote:Plenty of trannies going cheap on queen st in auckland...
I think that's the guy Clarry sent mine to. Similar price. Is he based in Foxton?RectifiedAmps wrote:Wow, what a difference - Brian Smith says he still builds and rewinds transformers. Ballparked $110 for a rewind! Still going to check around to see who else does it, just for the record, but I doubt that price will be easy to beat.
Hammond was my first thought, but general opinion seems to be that the OT lends a lot to the Hiwatt 'sound', so I thought a similar replacement would be better. If it was a JCM800 or a new-production Hiwatt I'd just use a Hammond but this beast deserves something special.Optical wrote:Sadly it costs less than half that to simply import one from Hammond etc
was going to say that might be Aquila but probably to old to be himOptical wrote: There used to be a Russian guy in Te Atatu that would do rewinds from his garage really cheap
Guy's name was Ivan, worked out of his garage on Yeovil roadwillow13 wrote:was going to say that might be Aquila but probably to old to be himOptical wrote: There used to be a Russian guy in Te Atatu that would do rewinds from his garage really cheap
It's not just impedance unfortunately. Audio transformers have a range of cores and the windings are arranged in different orders to create their response. See the image on the right for an exampleRectifiedAmps wrote:I think it all comes down to primary impedance plus things like primary and leakage inductances affect the bandwidth and frequency response of the OT:
http://www.aikenamps.com/index.php/outp ... -explained
Partridge transformers apparently had super wide bandwidths and flat-as freq response - some say even beyond usual hifi standards - whereas Hammonds have medium-fi width more typical of most guitar amps' sound. Again, this is me broadly interpreting other's opinions, so take it at whatever value you like. I don't by any means think Hammond OTs aren't good, just that they might run the risk of dulling down the immense cleans that Hiwatt's are capable of.
As for Partridge clones, TAD and Mercury both make them for around NZD$250 plus shipping but I haven't found any impedance specs at all to accompany the 2xEL34/50W versions so it's hard to assess how true they are to the originals. I still think rewinding is the best way to match the original, provided attention is paid to wire gauge & turns ratios.