First time in months I had the house to myself and decided to roll out the 100watt vintage tube amp. Man was that a mistake. Pretty much my entire amp/pedal journey has been chasing the tone I get just straight plugged into that beast, but at bedroom levels. I have come very close, but nothing compares to 100watts through 6550 glass and 2 12 Jensens from the 70’s. Man that sound is just heaven.
Carry on, just thinking how nice it would be to have a little practice cabin out in the middle of the woods…
First time in months I had the house to myself and decided to roll out the 100watt vintage tube amp. Man was that a mistake. Pretty much my entire amp/pedal journey has been chasing the tone I get just straight plugged into that beast, but at bedroom levels. I have come very close, but nothing compares to 100watts through 6550 glass and 2 12 Jensens from the 70’s. Man that sound is just heaven.
Carry on, just thinking how nice it would be to have a little practice cabin out in the middle of the woods…
I tried. It’s just not worth the effort. This thing gets hot and I don’t really have a good place for it to sit so I have to roll it out of the storage room. I think the sound and air moving from those speakers is a thing onto itself. It just feels right. When I load it and go direct the sounds is there but it is missing that air.
Yeah, I understand. Moving air is something special.
I have what equates to a converter box with the worst acoustic signature possible for my music room so moving air isn’t an option. The cab sim option is great, but you’re right about the heat. I’m often sweating like a beast after jamming for a few hours.
Sounds like you need a music room or something. I once jammed with a guy who put mattresses on all the walls of a room under his house and sound insulation in the ceiling. It was surprisingly effective at cutting down the noise from his practise room.
We had a roof over our bedroom replaced with thicker sheetmetal and we installed acoustic grade insulation at the same time because rain made a deafening racket. The changes made a huge difference. There was plenty of acoustic insulation left over so I put it all in the ceiling above my office, which is where I make most noise testing pedals and amps, etc. My wife says it has made a big difference. Once I put a mattress against the door of my office as well and my wife said it made my (loud!) playing hardly noticeable from the lounge room. So there are options...
My kid will be starting primary school in September, at the moment he's only in nursery for a few hrs everyday. Once he starts school I'll be able to crank my amp at home again because my wife likes it and our only neighbours are sheep
First time in months I had the house to myself and decided to roll out the 100watt vintage tube amp. Man was that a mistake. Pretty much my entire amp/pedal journey has been chasing the tone I get just straight plugged into that beast, but at bedroom levels. I have come very close, but nothing compares to 100watts through 6550 glass and 2 12 Jensens from the 70’s. Man that sound is just heaven.
Carry on, just thinking how nice it would be to have a little practice cabin out in the middle of the woods…
Bought the iron for a JCM800 2203 Superlead 100 in January, still in the design phase. I have a few other projects on the ready to build list, hoping to get this done before fall..... I have a 1967 JTM50 I built about a decade ago, but I have to CRANK it to ungodly levels for *that sound* It still has creamy beautiful tone at lower volume tho. The 2203 has a master volume and can really go from smooth to wailing without much change in the output.
When I started playing in 67, tubes were all you could get. I switched to SS for a few years, and when the 'instant on' factor wore off, tried the old tube amp and was floored by the tone of that single ended class A 6v6..... It was stolen in the late 70's, which is why I'm building a champ before the 2203.
I also have a 57 Bassman and 18w marshall I'm working on, and am restoring a real Fender Bassman TEN that was thoroughly abused by weather in someone's barn. Already put four new P10RF's in it and replaced the grill cloth - unbelievable sounds outside. Like it's just *everywhere*. Tolex needs replacing, as do the pots, switches, faceplate, electrolytics, etc.... It has the ultralinear taps option which brings it up to 65 watts-ish.
I'm designing the 2203 around my 'made for pcb' nos .022uf 400v mustard caps, of which I have over 300, I have an additional over 300 .022uf 600v radial ones as well. The board size is the orignal, and I'm going to size it down when I'm done. The chassis is 24" instead of 26, because my sheet metal brake is 24" and if you look at gut shots of the originals it's clear there was a lot of unused space in them, probably for the WOW LOOK AT THAT HUGE SUCKER effect......
edited: I'm planning on using EL34's in this, although it would still bias for 6550's. EL34's break up at lower watts.
I've built a few 2204s after being impressed with a beat up '81 JCM800 I bought cheap years ago. It's a great circuit, and easy to mod back to 1987 spec if you want. But it really is one of the better MV designs around. Yes, there is a lot of space in the chassis! Being the 50W version I have built 2204s into JTM45 chassis. Valvestorm have lot of fantastic stuff if you're interested in building these kinds of amp.
And Sillyoctopus - I would LOVE a view like that from my music room! We only have Merino here though. And they're not right outside my window unfortunately.
