Tube Amp Archive

When did Bad Cat start using PECs?

Not tough at all if you use both channels. You have just enough pots and inputs and one extra tube.

The reissues may be 25w, but the originals are more like 12-15w. Anyway, they are very sought after because the P10R is the classic tweed Bassman speaker.

I think most may find non-top boost AC30s rather dark and lacking gain. Even an Arbiter era '70s AC30 w/ ceramic Fanes still sounds like an AC30.

I like JJs for output, but there are no current production 12AX7s I'd recommend.

What is the skinny on the Saratov?

If you take that lead straight over the board to the tube you'll be able to lose about 1.5 inches or so.

I'd start with the PT, play it a bit and if it doesn't work for you turn it into the hotrod dejour'.

Is there one schematic that is supposed to be the "best" one... or the most popular one? I'm thinking fat, bluesy sound.. Buddy Guy prefers the 5F6. or 5F6A, but who doesn't? Well, maybe Brian Setzer. I've owned several 6G6*s over the years, all 3 varieties and the common characteristic is mega-bri...

The 3 varieties of presence control heads were 6G6, 6G6A and 6G6B. A '63 would almost certainly be a 6G6B, these were made until Aug '64 when the presence control disappeared and circuitry was heavily revised, these were the short lived AA864. Early 6G6Bs have rough white tolex and tan grill, then s...

ER wrote: The 6x4 rectifier really compresses nice for slide.
-ER

Does a rectifier sag in a SE amp?

If it's cathode biased then you can shut off the grid to one tube in a push-pull pair (i.e. ground it) or have a pot to dial it down to nothing, so you can dial in SE to PP (although that's Mesa's patent you'd be infringing 8)). You can do conceptually the same with fixed bias but it's more complic...

To me it sounds like a mediorcre fuzz/distortion pedal... it does not sound like a good anything, let alone a good Marshall or TW. A waste of a very nice looking Les Paul and Marshall.

You could always just snip the leads to the can and sub axials. It may require some creative mounting (additional terminal strips), but electrically will be the same and the amp will look stock from the outside.

If you've got arcing inside the bottle I'd try cooling off the screens per the suggestion above. You may also want to consider changing to cathode bias as this may also be a bit easier on the tubes as in my Marshall 20s that run just over 400V and seem to treat the tubes fine; in this case it is JJs...

He mentions some Peavey tubemaster or some such thing... too shrill; not enough low mids and bottom end tunk tunk for me.