I put a Jensen P12N in mine, very chimey tones like from a xylophone..... tubular sounding..... I got mine for a LOT less a *l*o*n*g* long time ago in mint condition. I've been playing since 67, a year before it came out! Martin D28's were about $185, strats were $150
Oh, mine is the new custom deluxe reissue, not a vintage one... but all the other amps in my collection are. a 1966 Super Reverb, a 1969 Bandmaster Reverb, a 75 Vibrochamp, a 75 Super Reverb, a 76 Twin Reverb and a 78 Bandmaster Reverb
I only have the two old amps, had a couple stolen back in the 70's. Most of my amps I've made... but I use vintage components when possible! My vintage capacitor collection weighs about 15 pounds
Yeah, I'm kinda new to the vintage amp party. I gigged and recorded with a Marshall JCM2000 TSL and blonde tolex Fender Blues Deville 4x10 for many years and never really needed anything else... plus money was always kinda tight to be spending on extra gear... Most of my extra walking money went to a better pedalboard in a road case, and just keeping my gear in top condition to play...I only have the two old amps, had a couple stolen back in the 70's. Most of my amps I've made... but I use vintage components when possible! My vintage capacitor collection weighs about 15 pounds
Why not a replica of the Space Man's reverb (DeadEndFX Hooke) or the Moody Sounds dealio...?
reverb.com
I have a schematic drawn up that's been sitting for a while that's a simple Fender preamp with tube tremolo. Could probably fit it into a 1590BB with my usual SMD setup, not sure about through-hole though....but what if @vigilante398 came out with something like this:
orTube Tremolo 12AU7 valve DIY Full Kit | Reverb Canada
Build a guitar Tube Tremolo utilizing a 12AU7 vacuum Tube and a VTL5C optocoupler.4 Potentiometers control Depth, Speed, Wave (sine, square) and Volume. The LED will pulsate according to the Speed.A sophisticated design approach makes it possible to build this complex pedal smoothly. All componen...
Mind sharing your schematic? I want to build something like that in a Princeton chassis.
It's kind of a lot. I would have no interest in doing something like this on turret/eyelet board, but the PCB build went well. It's basically a Soldano SLO preamp and a Matchless Lightning Power amp (with a half/full power switch) so you could reference either of those, both are easily found online.
That’s beautiful thanks for sharing!
I've played hundreds of gigs with tube amps and the only time I had a problem was after my Bassman RI fell of a trolley and a fuse socket broke off a PCB. That is one of the sorts of problems Fender RI amps can have! So I used my spare amp for that gig. But since I built my own I have had zero reliability issues at gigs. SS amps can be unreliable too! Build it properly and you should have very few problems. The main issues with tube amps are from tubes. Still, you can often hear a problem develop during rehearsal/practise and sort it before it gets bad.
Once we had a gig at a Baseball field at the entrance... They put us on one outlet at the end of the bathrooms and concession stands in the middle of August... Dozens of hand dryers going, A refrigerator or something kicked on... SOMETHING caused a huge power spike... the volume on all the gear started going WAY down... all of a sudden our p.a quit working. My Marshall bubbled the plastic heat vents on the top of the head... It actually melted the wires inside one of our powered monitors and it was so hot we needed a towel to move it. Fortunately rain blew in and we stopped the gig right after. That Marshall never sounded as good afterwards despite multiple trips to the shop a re-tube, bias set, components tested, etc.
I was super bummed. I gigged that Marshall for 15 years and recorded 5 albums with it... and one stupid gig did it in. Granted, it still sounds pretty good... but something DEFINITELY changed in it. It used to be very crisp, very articulate with tons of sharp midrange bite and focused gain... now it sounds rolled off... like it's anemic... I've never had it recapped, so I wonder if it may have pushed the power caps out of spec... Then again, the transformer audibly hums a bit and it was always quiet before... I wonder if the heat may have weakend the solder joint on a ground or something
$50 off coupon now works, if anyone is interested
That is a bummer. I was able to buy a repacement PT from Mercury Magnetics and got my HotBox pedal up and running again. The transformer sure did smell though! Apparently transformers are known to smell bad when they blow - now I know.
Hotbox would be another one that could be a cool DIY project. I had one of those on my board for a while before I became obsessed with the Soldano.
I always built my Hotbox clones with DC heaters and an SMPS (you know, like everything else I build) and it helps keep the noise (and the cost!) down as well.
