They sturdy adhesive backed copper foil sheets and tape.

monteallums.com or stewart macdonald (stewmac.com) have a nice variety of shielding materials

Hywel,
If I remember correctly, Nik puts a piece of thin sheet metal (aluminum, I think) under the top of the cabinet. My OTS is as quiet as any amp I have been around. Foil shielding is  common on almost any decent amplifier. You really can never go wrong with shielding. Did shield your Strat? My Fralin VHs were painfully noisy until I did a major shielding job. They are now dead quiet unless I am playing under neon (fluorescent) lighting. I did the same to my tele and it also is very quiet.

At least on my part, no offense was taken. I concur that MM OT's will produce a noticeable improvement in tone. I don't agree that a MM OT necessary to get note separation or remove brittleness from the OTS tone. I have been gigging with mine for 9 months now and it has always sounded better than anything I have played through or had on stage with it.

With all the variables that it allows, it can be a trick to dial in your tone from venue to venue (different pu's, etc.)  and that comes from experience in its use. It is true that it can be disappointing if it is not dialed in properly. It is a Ferrari, not a Honda Accord.

As we live & play in the same geographic area I would love to A/B your rig with mine. Don't know if we would ever have time for that, but maybe I will catch you at a gig sometime and you will let me check it out. I would like to hear the OTS with the MM OT!

I think I mentioned in another one of your threads that I have a 2 x12 with V30/G12H30.
When I bought the cab it seemed like all the buzz was bout the V30 and what great speaker it was. But, having played through each one of those speakers individually, I found the G12H30 to be a much better sounding speaker on its own than the V30. Actually, it sounded so good that when I was looking to put 1 x12 cab together, I decided to use the the Eminence Wizard which is a very similar speaker at 75w and 103dB efficiency. I and I'll tell you I don't miss the 2x12 cab at all when I have to use the 1x12 box. BTW the wizard is the the speaker in the Carr Viceroy (formerly Vincent) and that is the best sounding small combo amp I have ever heard.

Combining the G12H30 with brighter speaker makes sense since you will cover a wider frequency band, but the bottom line is what sounds good to you.

 but you might also be a victim of poor AC voltage and or dirty power.

Jim
[/quote]

I strongly second that thought, my last gig you could change the volume of the 60 Hz hum in the speakers by tapping on the wall socket!

Well Brian, when you do post the clips. I for one, will be very interested to see if I can hear the difference.
Will you be A/B ing?

Marin,
Excellent...as always.

Do you mind explaining how you record and combine your video? Gear & procedure?


Thanks

My experience with tranformers:

I have played though two amps with Mercury Magnetics tansformers
1) Speedster 25 (installed at time of manufacture)
2) A true 59 Bassman that had bee refurbished
Both sounded special, and I have had a chance to play through  three different '59 Bassmans and a reissue and the MM transformer made a noticeable  difference.

Having said that, my amp tech agrees with Nik and thinks that paying 600+ bucks to replace OT, PT, Choke is a waste of money, as there are many other factors that effect tone in a more significant way.

Fender transformers are cheap and I cannot imaging improving tone with them. When I refurbed my "66 Super Reverb, I used beefed up Hoffman OT & PTs and it just sounds like a Super Reverb on steroids. The casual listener probably would not notice, though.

Lastly, I am always fascinated by the lengths that people go to on this forum to refine their tone. I am always interested to see what they are doing, but every time I think about expending a bunch of time (and/or money) I think about the fact that at gig volume levels all those beautiful subtleties are lost. My amp sounds different (sometimes, a lot different) in every different venue I play in.  You get more consistency in tone when you mic it through a PA. When recording, the signal is processed so many ways that the sound characteristics that folks hear sitting in a quiet room at home are not going to be the ones heard on a recording played through computer speakers or other gear.

Transformers, while potentially enhancing tone, do not really effect "Big Picture" tone like other parts of the tone stack.

If you don't like the Celestion G12-65 I don't think you would find an knockoff to be any better. Some people really like the 65 and Robben Ford uses them, so there's that endorsement. I have 2 x12 cab with them and they sound muffled with the OTS to me. I use a 2x12 cab with a Vintage 30 and A G12H30 and it sounds excellent. The V30 brings out the highs and mids while the G12H30 sounds great by it self , but gives a full punchy low to the combo. I also have a 1 x12 cab with an Eminence Wizard which is basically a 75W version of the G12H30. It sounds every bit as good if not better than the G12H30 and at 103dB, it holds its own when combined with the 2x12 cab. Just two of many possibilities.

Thanks for that thorough answer.

So, if I understand correctly you put your effects looped through K'lator and the K'lator looped the the amp's effects loop?

I think that the BBE could go if the K'lator is in use. I don't hear a lot of difference with it at gig volumes with the band. The reasons that I use the rack mount G-Sharp are the same as yours, apparently. I don't use presets so that doesn't bother me. The G FX are not anything special IMO, but they do the job. I recently acquired an AKAI E2 Headrush Delay/Looper which has been a hoot to play around with and I am hoping to find a way to incorporate it into my live rig.

I can see what you mean about the needing nippers by the deformation (visible in your pics) of your metal where you cut the slot. I am wondering if you gave a sketch and the material to a sheet metal shop if the could punch it out cleanly relatively cheap.

Hmmm, very interesting. It seems as though we have come to similar conclusions on the sonic maximizer. Depending in on the room, and guitar (SC vs HB) I set low contour between 12 and 3. Process on anything above 10 adds too much hi freq under any circumstance with the OTS in OD mode. (I just checked my BBE settings from my Friday gig which was in a smallish, carpeted, wood paneled room, it was set as: LoC 12.5, process 10 [as you said], I was playing my strat or tele for all sets).

I usually keep the G Sharp at 12 and adjust it up if I start getting covered by the instruments, which seems to happen as the night goes on. I notice a loss of tone below 12.

Is the K'lator last in the chain?

I've been on the fence about this kleinulator. I don't want a box sitting top of my amp. Your rack version seems to be the ticket, if I was going to have one. Can you describe what it does, say in comparison to the BBE which I am familiar with.

Bottom line: do you think it is a worthwhile addition to one's rig? and why? Thanks 

Hywel,
Are you running both the Sonic Maximizer and Kleinulator together? What do you set the level on the G Sharp at? Thanks for sharing this with us.

John

Which he played (pride & joy) on the 4 and 5 (for some of the solo)  p.u. positions rather than on the neck p.u. which is what most people think of when discussing SRV tone

Hi There John
I was afraid no one would answer your question since there really isn't a good answer. You could probably get a good blues tone (depending on your definition) from any of these amps. What I can say is that the Overtone Special, which I have, is extremely versatile and would make a fine blues amp. Keep in mind, that versatile amp, has its own curse and that is it that it requires a little work to master all of its capabilities and find exactly what you want. If you want simple, straightforward, good tone try the 5E3 (Fender Tweed Deluxe). You can't wrong, really