NZGuitars.com

Princeton Reverb II, with Fender 12F speaker.

olegmcnoleg wrote:

null_pointer wrote:

olegmcnoleg wrote:
Ah, did you see that Princetonish listing Codedog had up--my old amp...a Princeton with 6L6s. I think he has sold it now, but it solves that problem exactly.

Aah - so I need a vintage rather than a reissue it seems...

I should have been clearer, you need the 6L6s

Blasphemy! That would make it an under-powered Deluxe!

Hmm....

Bg wrote:

JHorner wrote:

slash-ed wrote:
Surely someone can think up a more original joke to make

What happens when AX9?

Why would they add another button?

A Helix emulation mode?

null_pointer wrote:

olegmcnoleg wrote:

null_pointer wrote:
Aah - so I need a vintage rather than a reissue it seems...

I should have been clearer, you need the 6L6s

Blasphemy! That would make it an under-powered Deluxe!

Hmm....

The result is really pleasing...Princeton tone but with more headroom. Needs a bigger O/P transformer as well.

I dunno where I would need more volume in terms of stage sound regarding the Princeton - just mic it up and bam. A Princeton with a Swart Nightlight Jr is great gigging option for small-medium gigs I reckon. I like the 10" speaker too...for all the reasons of the other thread.

For me... Marshall Super Bass head coupled with G12H 4x12 and Jansen IA715 Head (6L6 version) with vintage Goodmans Alnico 2x12.

Never a dull moment with either of these rigs.

I can’t see myself ever selling my early years Mesa Boogie Mk IVa combo (imbuya wood, wicker grill). I’d say it’s loud as fuck but that would be a serious understatement.

Sorry what?

For me I would actually have to turn my amps on to say if something is a "forever" thing

The Katana absolutely rules, as does the EVH but honestly if something happened that meant I had to get rid of them then meh so be it. But then I have always been more attached to guitars than the thing that makes them louder

slash-ed wrote:

sizzlingbadger wrote:After seeing the shitty build inside the London Pro (double sided tape holding in relays), and its poor power scaling design (Which I managed a partial fix) I was put off owning any more of their amps. Maybe it was just that one though

My Friedman DS Mini is definitely up there as one of the best amps I have ever owned.

Really interested in this comment Nik, as a previous London Pro owner (but complete electrical/tronics novice).

What was wrong with the power scaling design? Anecdotally, when I had mine I never felt like it completely worked as hyped or advertised. Always felt "choked" when bringing it back to usable volumes.

Also assume you've opened up the DS Mini, and you find it to be acceptable (although non-handwired and bla bla)?

The power scaling reduced the entire HT line, this screwed the bias on the input tube so that you ended up with DC on the (grid) input of the amp. DC in your guitar makes the pots sound scratchy and could maybe even damage some pedals. I put a cap (4) on the input to the 12AX7 to block the DC.

The amp was built using good quality components, but then they stuck a PCB mount relay to the chassis with double-sided tape (3). They had another couple of relay's actually mounted on a PCB which was screwed to the turret board. This PCB had resistors mounted on it but only by one end (2) instead of both ends of the resistor going through the board for security. There was a small disc capacitor (1) that wasn't doing anything as it was soldered between ground & ground. It was just messy too, I did wonder if it was prototype that escaped into the wild.



The DS Mini is built very well, the PCB and its layout is more like a turret board but with copper tracks instead of wires. Tube sockets and pots are mounted to the chassis etc.

That London Pro looks like some dodgy home build!

sizzlingbadger wrote:After seeing the shitty build inside the London Pro (double sided tape holding in relays), and its poor power scaling design (Which I managed a partial fix) I was put off owning any more of their amps. Maybe it was just that one though

My Friedman DS Mini is definitely up there as one of the best amps I have ever owned.

Weren't these 2 built at the same factory? Or was your 65 a pre-OEM one?

Here is another London Pro

I actually reckon I'll hang onto the THR forever, it's just bloody brilliant, even sounds great with my bass!

Hmm. I don’t think a ‘forever’ amp actually exists for me, as in my quarter-century of playing, I’ve changed tones and tastes with time and age. I prefer to think of amps like houses or cars – you purchase what is going to suit you for the time depending on life stage.

My focus for sound tends to be on something that does most things well, rather than a specific high-gain or super-clean platform, as I tend to always end up sitting the medium-high gain range of tones. For me, that’s always been EL34-based ‘British’ sounding amps.

In my early days during my late teens/early 20’s I had a DSL100 which is hit and miss depending on what you know/read about them and the ol’ shifting-bias issues. But this was the sound of my earliest successful bands. It did most things well enough and suited my budget as well as pairing well with my setup. Had this for about 7-8 years… some of you will know the story of what happened next after I sold it to another forumite… if you don’t, a good kicking for you!

Next was a Rivera Knucklehead which I had for a decade from 2006. It again did similar sounds, but just better. Just more alive and vivid. It was also built with extremely high quality and precision and suffered no issues in that time despite having been a touring amp for the now-defunct Kiwi-band “Zed” in the early 00’s. I ran it on 2/4 power tubes for ages and it still slayed most other amps alongside it. It seemed a natural progression and upgrade from the DSL and I would have happily kept this one for the foreseeable future…

… however, a chance test and a good deal on a Splawn Quick Rod in about 2013 swayed me into an unexpected but unregretful purchase. Essentially I have the best of both my previous amps, now coupled with an amazing matched cab care of kloppsta. Of all my amps, this is the one I’ve "past participle of get" the most tonal compliments and discussions about and is the most enjoyable to play. It is not perfect (of all 3 of my long-term amps, it has the weakest clean sounds, and it’s best run at high volume) but the gain sound is just hard to beat and constantly sounds good in all bands I’ve used it in. I ran this a/b with the Rivera for clean/low gain sounds for a while but found I played 70% on the dirt channels on the Splawn, so eventually let the Riv go to another appreciative forumite (sirvill).

However, the most interesting turn of things for me has been acquiring my Katana head about 8 months ago care of Opsguy. I was curious about the hype, and wanted a backup amp that I could use in either of my bands without changing all the settings, as well as at home. Katana head fits the bill, and for about ¼ the price of my QR. The most surprising thing is that it has now become my predominantly used amp due to the small form factor and weight for portability, the fact that without tubes to worry about, it’s relatively robust and , most importantly to me… it sounds about 85-90% like my QR with some relatively minor tweaking, no joke. No infinite layers of Inception-level soundscaping. About 20 mins of finding four channel presets for each band and then 2 second to hold a button and switch between them. Irony is that at this point, I would probably keep the Katana over the QR… but again, it comes down to that old thing of horses-for-courses.

All this being said, I’m about two months shy of 40, so my midlife crisis is due and is likely to point me in the direction of a new amp for the decade!