NZGuitars.com

Bg wrote:

codedog wrote:I think kdawg is bringing along a Tweed Bassman... not a Deluxe. Still, I'm pretty safe since that's all sooooooo far above my spending cap.

I'm sure somebody can bring one
And they're way better than the bassman! *cough* dirty at manageable volumes.

Mate, you're better off tempting me by offering to wrap my Headrush in tweed. I'm not about to buy a Tweed Deluxe

Meh, it was worth a try

On of the most outstanding gigs I went to was an album release by Darren Watson at the Bristol Hotel in Cuba Street.

Strat through a Bassman with an outboard tank IIRC.

Some righteous sounds!!

Darren warned me they are loud, was several years ago.

Okay so I wiggled the speaker RCA plugs out, light coating of crc 226, checked spade connects to speakers. Pulled rec valve & power valves out, hmm nice low milage JJ's in there Light clean up on input jacks & guitar lead.

Plugged in the Strat, about 3 volume on amp, input bright #1, yep same beast but no other funny noises this time. It's got quite a glassy kind of sound in the upper end, there's ya icepick. Fully voiced in all other places & broad with those 4x 10" speakers feeding it out.
Pushed it up about 5, more of the same and clean.
Okay...wound it up to max, omg, there it is! it sagged, compressed, howled & roared, when held it'd go into feedback... I found it!
Totally unmanageable house hold volume mind haha! Still my ears felt no pain.

Good work on the clean up and I am stoked for you that it does sound great when pushed.

Does it have an extension speaker output? If so you could build a cheap and easy resistive dummy load that would drop the power by half.

calling card wrote:Darren warned me they are loud, was several years ago.

Okay so I wiggled the speaker RCA plugs out, light coating of crc 226, checked spade connects to speakers. Pulled rec valve & power valves out, hmm nice low milage JJ's in there Light clean up on input jacks & guitar lead.

Plugged in the Strat, about 3 volume on amp, input bright #1, yep same beast but no other funny noises this time. It's got quite a glassy kind of sound in the upper end, there's ya icepick. Fully voiced in all other places & broad with those 4x 10" speakers feeding it out.
Pushed it up about 5, more of the same and clean.
Okay...wound it up to max, omg, there it is! it sagged, compressed, howled & roared, when held it'd go into feedback... I found it!
Totally unmanageable house hold volume mind haha! Still my ears felt no pain.

Yup, that's how I remembered it! By the time my mate's Bassman was overdriven I could hear it at the top of his street as I walked over! And he was at the bottom of the cul-de-sac! It was truly ridiculous amount of volume.

RobRoyMcCoy wrote:Good work on the clean up and I am stoked for you that it does sound great when pushed.

Does it have an extension speaker output? If so you could build a cheap and easy resistive dummy load that would drop the power by half.

I've got a THD 'green' (2.7 ohm) hotplate attenuator waiting in the wings. This thing has 4 RCA speaker sockets, all in parallel.
I ordered this wiring harness to configure the hotplate ex Weber speakers, it's somewhere up in the sky on it's way here right now.



I know, could make one...lazy, head hurts, solder smoke

Current status of rig, THD handbrake applied -12db. Realised when reading the THD manual that there is also a 2 ohm version which would be more correct for this application 4x 8 ohm speaker in parallel. This attenuator is 2.7 ohm, THD advises this is acceptable.
What I did notice with this attenutor that even when set to 0 db reduction amp does not dig in and load up quite the same. Slight lift in output resistance. No extra heat noticed when running, seems good.
-12db seemed about the go to place to reign in house volume, maybe at about same loud as 5E3 breaking into a sweat 7-8.
I'm pushing the thing about 9-10 on volume. Not quite the same experience as wide open and no attenuator though . Feedback such a fickle thing, went AWOL.

I just don't want to run it clean as I've got other clean amp choices that do it better.

Testing to continue, next step clean boost eq thing into the front end. Have not checked out the normal channel yet either. Often drifting off to sleep in chair at night during the wake up at 5am weekly cycle. Small steps with loud amp, rusty with practise rate etc...

That THD is designed for my Vibro King - 3 speakers.

Edit: It was mine - I sold it to Molly, so it's done the rounds.

Tweed with oxblood grill cloth, looks so nice!

Yes I thought ten years ago it a bit cliche and got my deluxe done in burgundy snakeskin. Loving that traditional warm look now, classy.

Looks like about once a week I fire this thing up and test. Last week hit it with a P90 LP junior a like guitar, more aggressive input than strat, sounded great and lingering on to draw out that shy feedback the attenuator stole.

last night I plugged in the Boss M80, selected some compression and a sprinkle of delay. Back to the strat, Oh yes the compression stimulates bassman well. Doesn't take a lot to drive the preamp into early stages of fuzz. Thought I'd try compression before slamming with boost.
Seems a lot of writings out there recommending a shift to 12AY7 in V1, came standard with 12AX7. Going to swap over to a 12AY7, see how that goes.
The real tonal magic is when the power stage gets stressed on this, don't like to cloud it with fizzy front end.

On a roll now! two nights amp workshop & practice. I bought a box of various valves from sizzlingbadger some time ago. Went looking for a 12AY7, found two, an ElectroHarmonix and an RCA 6072... a jewel. look at the link;
https://www.tubemuseum.org/ProductDetai ... RCA%2D6072

Plugged it in, left the cover off, watched it glow into life, standby for a good 10 mins. Starts up as always, just beautiful, minimal ice pick, smooth & detailed sounding.

Worked my way back up the volume dial until about 9 (3/4 up) there's the sweet spot. Juicy, thick & chewy, just like a wood grilled steak and dripping fat. I remember Ryan describing the non master experience so too.

Signing off the fettling for now and set the course a for a good burn in. Loud though.