Has anyone set up a 2x12 with 8 ohm speakers to have a switch to change from 4 ohm parallel or 16 ohm series?

I imagine the tone would change a little, especially the bass damping

anyone tried this?


Cheers
Tone

Just watched Jeff Beck live in Manchester (UK) last night

Just one 2x12 with what looked very much like a JTM45 on the top, sounded lovely

Watching him made me feel like a beginner of course

I only touch the OD trim when I reach round the back and turn it in error looking for the speaker sockets or the impedance selector. Maybe I should take the knob off.

The tone should always be in the fingers. That's why I sold all my pedals in the late 90s. I finally bought 2 again this year that I use 10% of the time, last year I got a Boss GT10 to try out - you would not know who was playing through that thing, i sold it after a few weeks.

I'm obviously guilty of spending a lot of time and effort on the equipment side at the minute, but for me it's not a permanent state of tweaking.
I've been playing with the same guitar and amps for about 10 years since my last proper search for gear. The settings on those amps didn't change much over that time, I don't change settings much once I find my sweet spots, but some of those amps didn't please me much.

I've realised that I should have looked for better gear sooner, and Over the last 2-3 years I've been revisiting my gear, with the objective of getting the best gear I can afford that suits my style, since I've realised there's no point waiting for ever. Last year was acoustic guitars, this year it's amps.
So, I've sold all my old amps except the Twin, and I've been playing with what I can find. In time, I expect to sell some of them, and you're quite right, my tone is in my fingers, and I sound just like me on all the amps, but it's fun finding which ones work best for me. With the amps and guitars, the best ones inspire me more, and sound better, but I still sound like me of course.

You must know of bikers with several bikes, or wealthy people with many cars, I know it's possible to survive with only one bike or one car, yet if one has the money, why not have many? In the case of guitar amps, I can afford to own a few, so I do collect gear, I confess.  Even if the recording can be EQ'd, the amps feel different to play.

btw I have heard of people who want a vox and a fender sound in one gig, and know one who had an amp custom-built to do it, A/B switch pedals are popular enough, so I assume a lot of people are playing live with 2 amps. I just found a plug-in preamp module from Randall on ebay today, designed so you can change your preamp in the way I mentioned in a chassis containing a power amp and a space for the preamp.

I think I'm coming at this from the opposite direction from the one you suspect, rather than someone worrying too much about amps when I should work on technique, I've been working on my style and technique for 30 years, and only now am really buying amps that are "special", since it occurred to me that it was foolish to make all the effort and then use inferior gear.
However, trying an amp in guitar shops usually means sticking with the newer models, and even then, a demo and shop-trial can be very different from the way you feel 2 months later. So my theory is "buy a few, test them for a while, then ditch the ones that don't suit", ie. run my own lengthy beauty contest.

btw you are correct, the AC15H1TV and the DZ30 sound very very similar indeed, I think that amp is Vox's re-copy of the DC30, the switches are different but the channels and controls give roughly the same results

Anyway, I think you are right to suppose demand would be too low for amps with 4 preamps. I'm able to buy different amps anyway, so I will survive.

Cheers
Tone

can you get Fender Twin cleans from the Stray Cat 30? I thought it was a high-gain beastie
T

I have VVR on my DZ30, and don't like it much. The master vol sounds better to me. Perhaps it depends how much you overdrive it, I like it to just break up a little.
However, the DZ30 is way too loud for a bedroom in a house where stage levels are not welcome (even 15w mode): best to get a 5w amp for that sort of domestic situation
1w to 5w amps sound better in a quiet house than a 30w amp that's quietened down.
My THD hotplate loses tone, and sounds poor below -4dB, which is not low enough for your needs (it's good for for tweaking loud levels, or giving a DI load, but -12dB or lower sounds poor). AFAIK all power soaks lose tone

Try an AC4 maybe? they are very cheap. I dislike the fact that most of the lower power amps have cheap tonestacks, but there are some with more, like the BH5.
A guy in the UK here takes the cheap Chinese amps (Epi VJ, BH5, etc), and does all the good mods around, fixes the buzzes and tweaks PSU, adds tube recitifier, etc.
His amps sounds really good at house-friendly levels for £250-£400, none of my 30w-100w ones can run that quiet and sound good, I've had an isolation box built for when I need to keep the loud amps quieter. Even my Vox AC15H1TV is too loud when it's late. The Marshall Class 5 sounds ok, but rattles like hell, it has a cheap chassis.

If he has a recording setup, an ISO box is another solution, Randall do one that sounds good, but does let some noise out. Then the DZ30 could run into that and use the monitors at whatever preferred level. This is the best solution I believe

And another point:
I find that no matter how long I spend in a store with a guitar or amp,
I only really learn if I truly like it over the next month or two, when I've learned its intricacies
For amps with a more limited pallette, there is less chance I'll get the best out of the amp.
Since I recently learned that guitar stores are not the best place to get amps from (usually just the latest PCB stuff), and it's often better to mail order them from the other world, I am relying on reviews and sound clips, and again having a bit more to play with on the amp is helpful.
Having said that, I do find I'm loving the simple amps a lot, the JTM45 especially

there's a lot of sense in what you say.

I checked later, and with Nik's prices 75% power amp costs is a bit too high, since he gets the tubes and transformers cheaper than in the UK, but the other costs are split over pre/power amps in proportion mostly.
This idea came to me looking at my H&K preamps, but seriously, I've bought a lot of full amps pre/power, and wonder how much of that tech is duplicated to some extent

You're right about getting many choices but settling on favourite options, but to me that's great, and it's not because I'm indecisive, surely most of us have a favourite guitar and pickup, but you want others too. I bought a Vox handwired with an EF86 and a top boost channel, each is like a diff amp to me, I know the settings I always use on the EF86, and that's my personal setting for that amp, same with the other channel - a few options on each channel means the manufacturer can leave a bit of fine tuning to me.
Same with my DZ30, 2 amps in one box, I'm just saying "why not 3 or 4?" I can afford many amps and don't need to move them often, but some have less cash and need to move around but maintain diff sounds.

I don't know for sure how much the power sections vary between very different sounding amps of each family (6L6, etc), I'm guessing once you say "4 EL84s", it's going to be voxy; the dumbley amps are all the same power section I think, which AFAIK is little different from the fendery stuff after the Tweed era.

To me the idea of adding a little more choice on an amp is attractive.
e.g. I bought the Bluesmaster HRM, I understand its blackface tonestack should work well for me, but I would like to have another channel with the normal HRM.
I've seen some of the guys buy 2-3 Overtones for this reason.

Anyway, I can see that from a business point of view it's not good, but Nik is not driven by normal rules or normal customers.
How about a preamp with 3-4 channels that plugs into the return socket on the Overtone.
Let's face facts, there a lot of people on this forum who spend all day tweaking the insides of Nik's amps: trimmers, component values, etc, this is a similar idea, and yes I expect it will only be an idea!

Cheers
Tone

I can see that some amps share similar output sections
I am pretty sure that the output section and power transformer costs 75%+ of the parts cost

My question is:

Can I get an amp made that contains 3 or 4 preamps. I'm not talking about switching, just separate preamps like in a DZ30
e.g. an Overtone, with all the available preamps. It might need a case with a chassis at the top and bottom of a head cab, or a double-height chassis

So there'd be an Overtone with one PPMIV, an OTS preamp, a BM HRM preamp, normal HRM preamp
At present if I bought them all I'd be duplicating the power amps AFAIK

The same with the 18w amps: surely it would be cheaper to make one with multiple preamps than to buy one of each type

In the 80s, H&K sold 4 half-rack real valve amps, with built-in dummy load and speaker sim.
They are guitar amplifiers, built in miniature. They contain 2 valves each, mostly with pre-amp and output-amp valve stages, and output transformers,
They have many outputs: Speaker, line-level Clean, line-level "Valved", line-level valved+speaker simulation. If you output them into a 4x12, you get a low-power guitar amp,

Crunch Master aka "Blues Master" (EL84, load, spk sim) - Contains an ECC83 and an EL84, run to give crunch, with speaker simulation built-in. 3 eq bands.
Bass Master (EL84, load, no spk sim, gain,tone, master and TMB boosts - Contains an ECC83, and an EL84, clean sounds with no speaker simulator.
Cream Machine (ECC82 "power" tube  + spk sim - The Cream Machine contains an ECC83, and an ECC82 run as a 1W power amp valve. The lowest distortion on this unit is still firmly in Jimi-Hendrix territory.
Metal Shredder aka "Metal Master" (no power tube or load; has spk sim) - The Metal Master has no output valve, but it uses two ECC83s to get an 80s rock sound  (speaker simulation built-in). 3 eq bands

My question is:
Can similar units be built economically? e.g. a DZ30 preamp, with a single-ended one-EL84 output valve, run at a much lower level than normal.
there would be a massive saving on transformer and power valve costs. I assume a basic sag simulator could be included

At present all the low-power amps I own have very basic preamps. They are either 50s retro or 2 tube models. (one ECC83, one el84 usually).
I've had 2 upgraded with tube rectifiers, and bias tweaks, new OT, etc. I even had one BH5 set up with a mix between el84 and 6L6, that sounds good!

However, these all have quite basic preamps.

Could I not have an amp with a DZ30 preamp, or a BM HRM preamp and a basic class A 5w power amp?

Can Nik make a modern, better speaker sim

I used to be amazed in hifi shops, they'd recommend a minimum of 10% overall budget for cables.
Then you'd get guys with a £80 CD player using a £20 or £30 cable. Pop off the  cover, and see what the manufacturer used.... oh just a little normal cable, but hey what does the manufacturer know?

I reckon I could play like SRV if I could get a guitar strap the same as his.........

I'd say the 50w Dumble clones are the most versatile, and have footswitching. They have 4 sounds: clean, OD, boost, and OD+boost
I think You can get true half power switching on the 100w ones too if you would ever need 100w, on the 50w ones it's triode mode half power switching.
You could certainly get the clean tones you want with one, they can also sound like a fender twin, but with a switchable bass boost.
With an HRM model, you have a lot of scope to tailor your distorted tone too (extra TMB after OD)
For the heavier stuff I'd say get a second amp to run in parallel, but most people are happy just adding a pedal

I'd try fastening wood across the back of your VHT before being certain that your open back cab is a problem.
In any case the amp itself will determine the amount of damping on the bass, nad how much you can get without distortion

Weight - get a separate head and cab. You'll be glad you did. I was. I only have heads+cabs and 1x12 combos now.

Bass: is it maxed-out bass on clean or dirty you want anyway? are you scooping you lead sound?
I find that some amps can deliver more bass than I want with an open back in a small studio (fender twin, 5x3, Overtone), and it needs to dial down a little, but on a stage you lose that reflection from the back, hence the popularity of closed back cabs on stage

If you do want a D-Amp, trouble is Nik's are so popular you now have several varations to choose from.
I like the extra OD controls on the HRM ones
the bluesmaster HRM has the OD trim setup so that you can set the master vol on clean, and the trim on OD, so you can balance the levels more easily

Cheers
Tone

I wanted PPIMV anyway
Also I wanted to try VVR on a full-power amp (I have it on 2 low power ones), to see what tones I could get running quieter. The answer is "not the full tone"

The reason for not getting VVR alone, as I understand, is that if you have no PPIMV, and get VVR, then as you turn it down it gets fizzy, rather than saturated. This is exactly what my Express and DZ30 do if I leave the PPIMV off/on full
instead, you turn down both.

Personally I think PPIMV is good to have, but a THD hotplate sounds as good as VVR, and obviously can be shared across your amps.

my mains power here in England went crazy twice last year (I live in a village with overhead lines)
It went down so much only some things worked at all. I got my DVM out: About 127 volts I think at one stage, about 140v most of the time for an hour or so

I used to work at the UK Electricity research site, I learnt odd bits of info.
When power demand is high or low, they have giant versions of variacs in the local substations, to maintain current (AFAIK), so presumably when a part of the grid fails, the voltage can drop further. I think they would be better to cut it off then, so I got the UPS as a safeguard for my most serious PC.

I can believe it, I bought a new DSL100 when they first came out, and sold it soon after - great for 80s/90s metal tones, but no feel (and a little too bright for me), and I was no stranger to metal then (at least listening to older metal). However, I must confess, I think I too was guilty of using too much distortion back then

I use a 3mm stubby plectrum (I think I tried it in the late 80s after hearing about Brian May and Rev Gibbons using coins (which I can play with), and although I love listening to fast players, it slowed down my playing nicely), and I can pluck the strings lightly or very hard (typically I have to raise the action a little after it comes back from the guitar tech, since the strings vibrate more and buzz when I play hard).
Please note , it must be 15-20 years since I broke a string, so there's more to it than brute force!

There is a point on the Trainwreck Express that sounds similar, but I had to use a lower-mu tube on the Phase inverter to lose the early fizzy-distortion. Even then, the TWE cam move up to 90s metal further up the dial (especially with a humbucker)