How would KF voice his amps?

[Matt72]

I've heard the stories about how he'd take a bunch of the same cap and see with one sounds best, turn them around, etc. to milk the most out of his amps.
Does anyone have any more info on what he'd do to voice his amps? I know he was into hearing things that most people would think isn't there.

Can anyone elaborite on some of the more no-mainstream things he was into?

[Sonny ReVerb]

Have you seen his ultimate guitar gear articles?

http://www.ultimateguitargear.com/kens_column.htm

Also, check out the "Trainwreck Pages" from Vintage Guitar. Here's a sample:

http://books.google.com/books?id=fvUVBP ... #PPA171,M1

He did have some odd-sounding ideas. Such as, he could hear the difference in the sound of wires with different color insulation. Have to ask dogears about that one

[Matt72]

Thanks, yes I've read all of that.

Any other info out there? I didn't know what to think of his saying that caps can sound different depending on which direction they're installed, but I tried it myself the other day, and he was right! Also I heard for myself that he was right that the same value cap by the same manufacturer will sound different so you need to try a bunch of the same cap! Wow. This is all info that can be used to make our amps better than anything out there if we take the time to really use our ears and do it right.

But you know Ken was an old school guy trained by older school guys. And back in the day when tube stuff was the norm, those old guys knew a lot of things like that that are (almost) lost today.

So anyway, I'm just trying to dig in as deep as I can with all this and "go to the next level". Those articles of his are very interesting. I wish there was more in there about amps (in the ultimate guitar gear articles itseems to be mostly about guitar circuits) but still good to know.

I guess the best thing is to learn like he did, just try differnt things out, even if they seem outlandish.

So anyway, if anyone wants to share some more 'outlandish' ideas, I'd be gald to hear them.

[Mark]

I have tried turning caps around to see if they somehow sounded better one way than another. The only conclusion I can come to is that some parts of the amp are more sensitive to this sort of thing that other parts of the amp.

The locations where I tried this sort of thing yielded no change in tone.

As far as Ken Fischer voicing amps, I'm not sure we've seen any evidence of Ken making big changes to his amps, perhaps the tweaks were done to satisfy customers individual wants and needs. By this I means making the amp sound great through different speaker cabs.

I have been following these discussions for some time now and unless someone with real evidences (pictures) and not the usual heresay nonsense which the net is famous for turns up. It think my theory is as good as any of the theories out there.

Matt I would like to point out that I'm not flaming you, I have tried this sort of thing using switches to hear the immediate difference in tone. There is no way you will remember what one tone sounded like between soldering components in and out of the circuit (ten or twenty minutes.) You have to use switches to evaluate.

[Matt72]

I haven't tried turning caps around in an amp, but I have tried it on my guitars (on the tone controls) and there s a difference. Your ears have to be pretty tuned in to hear it, but it's there.

Also I have an interview with Fischer where he states that parts will sound different, in different places in an amp, verifying what you've found.

I just find this to be all very interesting. And am very interested in going deeper in voicing amps, not just with using different values and brands of components. In this interview Ken said that the type of wire also has an effect, even the type of insulation, since it can effect the rate of electron flow. Pretty interesting stuff to investigate!!

[Shermock]

I have pretty much settled on an old blue Paktron .001uf between 2nd and 3rd stage. When I turned it around, there was a big difference in tone. The distortion got "stickier," and stopped being splatty. Just did this today!

I moved my treble wire about 1/2" and it completely changed the character of the high end. Much nicer, once it was away from the touchy volume wire. I have noticed this wire routed behind the volume pot wire in KF's amps but I found that to be problematic for this build.

I redid a couple pot interconnects to run along the chassis front instead of being in a straight line over the pot connections. That cured some noise, microphonics, and harshness in the mid-highs.

I also settled on a choke instead of my wierd 1K 25W that I had. I'm really not sure of its value, but I had it for a tweed Super build that I decided not to do. The feel of the amp got a big boost from this move.

Tube rectifier? Haven't gone there yet, but I soooo love the feel of my JTM45 clone and my sort-of-Spitfire amp that I'm inclined to at least try it.

Now I'm waiting for Mullard 12AX7s that should arrive Monday! If what I have been reading is true that should be a big move for the better. I fried one of my reissue Mullard EL34s so right now I'm on Sovtek EL34Gs. Not great, not bad either.

I think that there is some evidence, first-hand, that I've gathered that leads me to try the esoteric stuff just in case it leads to a cooler amp. Right now I'm also thinking about re-wiring my JTM45 just to make it cooler than it already is. I find this kind of thing fascinating, and worthy of some attempts to document what exactly happened with change A or change B, etc...

Cheers!

Shermock

[Matt72]

Wow, very interesting. Thanks for posting those details.

[Shermock]

No sweat. When I have time I will post all that I've found with pix & such, just to give back a little to this board that has helped so much.

Until then...

Shermock