Non-NOS component choices

[talbany]

Thanks Rootz!

Btw the resistors arrived. I am itching to try them lol

I agree with Tony that the components are the ingredients and it’s personal taste too to which direction one wants to take. My personal experience was that Classic stack is better with ceramic (X5F) and Skyliner with Mica (my favourite is a Charcroft). I also like the polypropylene.01 1600V on the skyliner stack

OHHH ISKRAS! My favorite resistor. They have similar sonic qualities to the Pihers accept a more open and articulate midrange plenty of 2nd order and a very smooth break up quality! Bass is big and round sounding. Too bad they are getting so hard to come by. Let me know if you have any spare 220K's I need 1 for my OD entrance

Just curious, did HAD ever use Iskras?

No! HAD never used Iskras. Here is a list of resistors I've tried throughout the years building (that comes to mind). The reason why I tried them is they were in one of the best sounding guitar amps I've ever played (at least for me ). An old Plexi. I think they used them in early Hiwatts as well.

Allen Bradley's
Pihers
Xicon's MF/CF
Koa Speers MF/CF
Iskra's
Dales and assortment of metal films C Films, and molded CF's
IRC's
Phillips
Beyschlag, Siemens
Draloric's/ Drawloid
ROE's/Roederstien's MK'2s and 3's
RCA's
NTE MF's
Ohmite
Archer/ Radioshack
Corning
Clarostat
Sprague Kool ohms
TRW
Texas Instruments
Holoco's
Kiwame's
Takman
Chaddock's

Iskras are from Yugoslavia,however, you cannot go wrong with any of the old West German made resistors. These definitely have their own sound.
Tony

[Bombacaototal]

Thanks for sharing Tony. It is always great learninng from more seasoned builders. I shall try a full build with Iskras at some point

[talbany]

Thanks for sharing Tony. It is always great learninng from more seasoned builders. I shall try a full build with Iskras at some point

Let s now how the TKD's do always curious

Tony

[Bombacaototal]

I just managed to test the TKDs. Before reporting my findings I feel the need to contextualise. I am a clean household, none of my amps have OD and I am usually after a Reverb/Tremolo design and therefore my choice will inevitably be different than a lot of folks here. The only amp I did that did have an OD (with a princeton reverb with a AB763 tremolo) was sold to a close friend who spent a year (even before I had finished voicing the amp) begging me to have it, plus he was fairly generous on the bid. I didn’t feel the need of an amp with OD since.
Also by taste/preference I am always removing bass from my amps (via low bypass caps, low decoupling caps and speaker and cab design) and I also like treble, bright but not brittle. Getting the right amount of high end to make the amp lively but not ice pickey is where I spend a lot of my time.

All that said to report my findings. I tried the TKDs on a cathode follower clean amp. I will spoil the outcome and then go into further details. I found the TKDs do lower the noise floor. They are also very clear, more defined and brighter than the RN65D. After adding them to the amp I felt it pushed my amp more towards a hifi stereo. It adds clarity and brightness and almost made me feel like the amp had even less “sag”, stiffer. I still prefer the RN65D, because they have a nice compression and “distortion” which I missed on the TKDs. Also the Dales have a nice smooth high end whereas the TKDs went into the brittle territory. I can see the TKDs working well on ODS amps (which by design are dark - probably why I never bond with them) to probably enhance the clarity and high end.

I first tried it on the tonestack and then on the filter recovery. I didn’t like it in neither. In both cases pushed the amp to the brittle territory and made it way too hifi for my taste. Made me feel I was no longer playing a guitar amp. That RN65D compression and distortion was being really missed.
I then went on and tried it on the reverb. Keeping the RN65D on the send and the TKD on the return was interesting and took me maybe 15min to 20min of back and forth (with alligator clips) to settle. In this configuration the reverb becomes more like a studio grade, which was very interesting. But as an overall contribution to the amps tone, it made my amp towards brittle too, so I settled back on the RN65D on both.

I think I have my amp at the edge as far as top end and any additional highs are pushing it over the ledge

[10thTx]

THANKS for the TKD review! It is appreciated. Interesting findings. I think that will be helpful for others to rule them out.

I would be very unhappy with a brittle sounding amp as I prefer a warm smooth clear tone.

With respect, 10thtx

[Bombacaototal]

THANKS for the TKD review! It is appreciated. Interesting findings. I think that will be helpful for others to rule them out.

With respect, 10thtx

Thank you for the suggestion, this is my favourite part of building and I can spend months just A/B components. It is always exciting to try something new

[Colossal]

Hi Rapahel,

Thanks for testing these out and reporting! Very helpful! Based on my experiences with the new production RN65, I would likely not care for the TKD.

[Mr. dB]

That's TKD, not TDK, innit?

[Colossal]

That's TKD, not TDK, innit?

Yes, Tokyo Denpa, TKD. My dyslexia kicking in....TDK was cassette tapes! I corrected mine and the posts above. Good catch, Mr. dB.

[talbany]

That's TKD, not TDK, innit?

Yes, Tokyo Denpa, TKD. My dyslexia kicking in....TDK was cassette tapes! I corrected mine and the posts above. Good catch, Mr. dB.

Sorry, I am a little confused? Did you use them as plate resistors or somewhere else in the audio path? if so where exactly did you use them?. Amps with followers are usually brighter than the plate driven ones. So this is a different animal!

Tony

[Colossal]

That's TKD, not TDK, innit?

Yes, Tokyo Denpa, TKD. My dyslexia kicking in....TDK was cassette tapes! I corrected mine and the posts above. Good catch, Mr. dB.

Sorry, I am a little confused? Did you use them as plate resistors or somewhere else in the audio path? if so where exactly did you use them?. Amps with followers are usually brighter than the plate driven ones. So this is a different animal!

Tony

Are you asking me or Raphael, Tony? Mr. dB noticed we were all saying TDK, not TKD, so I corrected everyone's post including my own where it was mistyped. I have not tried these yet.

[talbany]

I just managed to test the TKDs. Before reporting my findings I feel the need to contextualise. I am a clean household, none of my amps have OD and I am usually after a Reverb/Tremolo design and therefore my choice will inevitably be different than a lot of folks here. The only amp I did that did have an OD (with a princeton reverb with a AB763 tremolo) was sold to a close friend who spent a year (even before I had finished voicing the amp) begging me to have it, plus he was fairly generous on the bid. I didn’t feel the need of an amp with OD since.
Also by taste/preference I am always removing bass from my amps (via low bypass caps, low decoupling caps and speaker and cab design) and I also like treble, bright but not brittle. Getting the right amount of high end to make the amp lively but not ice pickey is where I spend a lot of my time.

All that said to report my findings. I tried the TKDs on a cathode follower clean amp. I will spoil the outcome and then go into further details. I found the TKDs do lower the noise floor. They are also very clear, more defined and brighter than the RN65D. After adding them to the amp I felt it pushed my amp more towards a hifi stereo. It adds clarity and brightness and almost made me feel like the amp had even less “sag”, stiffer. I still prefer the RN65D, because they have a nice compression and “distortion” which I missed on the TKDs. Also the Dales have a nice smooth high end whereas the TKDs went into the brittle territory. I can see the TKDs working well on ODS amps (which by design are dark - probably why I never bond with them) to probably enhance the clarity and high end.

I first tried it on the tonestack and then on the filter recovery. I didn’t like it in neither. In both cases pushed the amp to the brittle territory and made it way too hifi for my taste. Made me feel I was no longer playing a guitar amp. That RN65D compression and distortion was being really missed.
I then went on and tried it on the reverb. Keeping the RN65D on the send and the TKD on the return was interesting and took me maybe 15min to 20min of back and forth (with alligator clips) to settle. In this configuration the reverb becomes more like a studio grade, which was very interesting. But as an overall contribution to the amps tone, it made my amp towards brittle too, so I settled back on the RN65D on both.

I think I have my amp at the edge as far as top end and any additional highs are pushing it over the ledge

Yes sorry I was referring to this post

[Bombacaototal]

I tried the 100K TKD only at plates. So all of my report relates only to a swap of plate resistor between RN65D and the TKD.

Yes my amp is a different animal all together given it has the extra tube on the PI compared to an ODS and hence why I thought it was a good approach to add the context. Not only that but also how the amp has been voiced already as far as bass and treble. I hope my review was good enough.

[talbany]

I tried the 100K TKD only at plates. So all of my report relates only to a swap of plate resistor between RN65D and the TKD.

Yes my amp is a different animal all together given it has the extra tube on the PI compared to an ODS and hence why I thought it was a good approach to add the context. Not only that but also how the amp has been voiced already as far as bass and treble. I hope my review was good enough.

The review was fine I just was not sure where you used them at?
Thanks for the clarification.

T

[sds1]

I tried the 100K TKD only at plates. So all of my report relates only to a swap of plate resistor between RN65D and the TKD.

With respect to just the noise floor, wouldn't we expect thermal noise to be lower when upgrading from a 1/2W resistor to ANY brand 2W resistor?