Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New profile posts
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Members
Current visitors
New profile posts
Search profile posts
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Photography
Project 365 & Daily Photos
Jake's Backdoor Hippie-palooza, 2014 Edition
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="BackdoorArts" data-source="post: 263552" data-attributes="member: 9240"><p>Tube amps have never gone away. Fender and Marshall still make them, but they've moved away from the hand-wired variety due to the cost of production and now use PCB board with components either mounted straight to the board or wired to it. While this greatly reduces cost, reliability and repair become an issue, and it compromises tone in a lot of ways. </p><p></p><p>There is a whole cadre of small builders out there who still do the hand-wired stuff. Some, along with making amps of their own design, also specialize in converting the modern "reissue" amps from PCB board to hand-wired to original specs (Allessandro, Billy Penn). Others specialize in making faithful reproduction of old Fender "Blackface" and "Tweed" amps (Headstrong, Clark, Victoria). Still others make their own designs that are inspired by classic old amps by Fender, Marshall, Gibson and Vox, but take it in their own direction, often building in Master Volume and attenuation circuits so that the sound that used to only be available at full, deafening volume can now be had by a guy like me in his music room. My favorite is an amp by my friend Steve Carr from NC called the Mercury. It's a very loud 8 watts, but has an attenuation circuit to bring the volume down to an equivalent 1/10 Watt level, allowing you to get incredible high distortion sustain without waking anyone in the house (the design was inspired by the arrival of his first child). Makers like Carr, Senn, Dr. Z, Germino, Top Hat, Matchless, Bad Cat, Rhinehart, Tone King, 65, Clark, Headstrong, Victoria, Divided By 13 ... (the list goes on and on) ... are making incredible amplifiers that make it possible to have to tone of the old vintage stuff without the worry of 40-60 year old components failing on the road. </p><p></p><p>The hard part these days is finding tubes that are of the quality that you could get back in the day. Modern production is plagued by cheap components and frequent failure, making the vintage New Old Stock tube market a real cash cow. Folks hunt down and stash away loads of old Mullard, GE and RCA tubes, particularly anything made to military grade specs.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BackdoorArts, post: 263552, member: 9240"] Tube amps have never gone away. Fender and Marshall still make them, but they've moved away from the hand-wired variety due to the cost of production and now use PCB board with components either mounted straight to the board or wired to it. While this greatly reduces cost, reliability and repair become an issue, and it compromises tone in a lot of ways. There is a whole cadre of small builders out there who still do the hand-wired stuff. Some, along with making amps of their own design, also specialize in converting the modern "reissue" amps from PCB board to hand-wired to original specs (Allessandro, Billy Penn). Others specialize in making faithful reproduction of old Fender "Blackface" and "Tweed" amps (Headstrong, Clark, Victoria). Still others make their own designs that are inspired by classic old amps by Fender, Marshall, Gibson and Vox, but take it in their own direction, often building in Master Volume and attenuation circuits so that the sound that used to only be available at full, deafening volume can now be had by a guy like me in his music room. My favorite is an amp by my friend Steve Carr from NC called the Mercury. It's a very loud 8 watts, but has an attenuation circuit to bring the volume down to an equivalent 1/10 Watt level, allowing you to get incredible high distortion sustain without waking anyone in the house (the design was inspired by the arrival of his first child). Makers like Carr, Senn, Dr. Z, Germino, Top Hat, Matchless, Bad Cat, Rhinehart, Tone King, 65, Clark, Headstrong, Victoria, Divided By 13 ... (the list goes on and on) ... are making incredible amplifiers that make it possible to have to tone of the old vintage stuff without the worry of 40-60 year old components failing on the road. The hard part these days is finding tubes that are of the quality that you could get back in the day. Modern production is plagued by cheap components and frequent failure, making the vintage New Old Stock tube market a real cash cow. Folks hunt down and stash away loads of old Mullard, GE and RCA tubes, particularly anything made to military grade specs. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Photography
Project 365 & Daily Photos
Jake's Backdoor Hippie-palooza, 2014 Edition
Top
