Chances are significant that the Brimar would be more pleasing to many ears than any JJ.
After building and tweaking 4 different versions of Dumble clone amps over the last 3 years, I have reached the conclusion that jj's (ECC83S) is THE tube for position V1 and V2 and Sovtek LPS is the winner in pos V3.
My experience is the you can indeed tweak your amp to sound good with almost any tube, by tweaking the PSU string. However, I don't like my amps to stray too much from the original designs, which makes it harder to find replacements.
I have a bunch of old ECC83 tubes - mullard, brimar, Siemens, Mazda, GE - which are great in Marshall or Fender amps, but kind of pale in a D-style amp.
The amps I have now are
#124 50w version, 6L6 Bluesmaster 100W, EL34 ODS 100w, Robben Ford version 6L6 HRM Skyliner, 50w
I just ordered a JJ High gain 12ax7 (for V2) and a pair of TAD 6L6WGC-STR tubes. In my amp are currently Tung-Sol 12ax7 and SED Winged C EL34's. I also have a couple of other 12ax7's ready to test, an old Philips 12ax7, a Ruby 12ax7 and a normal JJ 12ax7. As soon as I'll receive the JJ/TAD package I'll try them all and write my thoughts here.
Cheers Emiel
Hmmm Winged C's (both EL34 and 6L6) are the best tubes for these amps. The Winged C 6L6 is very similar to the 70s Sylvania that Dumble used in his amps.
Hello All, I am currently debating on what amp I want to purchase. I've been speaking to Nik but I want to get some opinions from owners of these amps. I play most blues/rock with Influences such as SRV, John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa. I want an amp with a smooth overdrive, but I still want to be able to play chunkier rock through it. I want those John Mayer style cleans.
Which amp do you think would best suit my style? Which is better the 50w or the 100w?
The Bluesmaster is your amp - no question about that. It has fenderly cleans and a real smooth OD (when used with a Dumbleator)
Concerning wattage, 100w is preferable with these amps since the tone i primarily made in the preamp. If you put a 50w and 100 w side by side, the 100w will give you a 'bigger' tone at the same - even with both amps delivering the same sound pressure. And the weight difference is not more than 4-5 kgs. And the price difference (2 extra tubes and larger transformers) in really worth it.
I like the mids in OTS clean... it makes a SC guitar sound bigger, but it gets to muddy in OD...
have you tried the Gil Ayan mod on the OD channel, which will filter out the lowest frequencies and make the OD cleaner. Its simply a 4,7n-47n capacitor with a 10m resistor at the input of the OD.
Man if I would have a tube collection like you I would definitely invest in something like this...
Just my thoughts about your comment ...
Quote
Frankly I'm surprised at all the posts about circuit tweaking and conversely so very little from the tube selecting/bias setting side of amp voicing.
...I don't want to build my tone around some expensive NOS tubes... these are hard to get and even harder in the future I guess and not to mention expensive.... I rather use something which is easy to get and tweak the amp from there. That's probably why people here don't focus on tubes that much... after all, we decided on C-tone because we're smart with our $$$.
Like the Univalve it uses ONE preamp tube and ONE poweramp tube. It's self biasing (because its a cathode biased class design), so in effect it'll let you try you whole collection of preamp tubes , one by one ,as well as your poweramp collection. An let your ears decide what sounds best. I have a homebrew champ that I use just for that.
You gotta make sure, though, that the power transformer will be able to deliver 1.5A of heating current, if you want to try EL34/KT66/KT77/KT88 tubes.
love that video! with regard to the PAB, i've been kinda brainstorming , and i came up with the idea of having pots on the two different resistors Nik is intalling for me to adjust the level of PAB a bit, if i i can find room for 'em. what do ya'll think?
Hi there, congratulations on your upcoming amp. I know the feeling once you have decided to order an amp or an amp kit you can't wait for delivery....for me it's like having your 5 years birthsday all over. (although; i didn't get a 500 volt tube amp kit at my 5 years birthsday :-))
However, I'm a firm believer in playing the amp for at least 20 hour, preferably 50 hours, before you get into modding considerations. Perhaps you are jumping too fast to conclusions about how the amp should be set up.
Like I said, I know the feeling of exitement in relation to awaiting an amp, but don't consider modding the amp, before playing it intensively. And during the 20-50 hours break-in period. I tend to get dissapointed with a new amp. My first Dumble style amp was a standard 50w OTS. The first time I played the amp after building it, I thought it was a waste of money, because it didnt have the Robben Ford sound at all.
I read a series of posts by user 'jzucker' and started modding the amp over a period of 3-4 month, after which I arrived at a '#124' design with 100k preamp plates, that I found sounded great. However, the real reason the amp sounded great was because I had played it a lot during the modding period. So in reality I had broken the amp in. I could have saved at lot of worries and effort, if I had simply spend my time playing the amp instead of modding it.
Therefore, enjoy your new amp and don't expect it to sound great before you have broken it in. One idea is to connect a CD player to the amp and a large dummy resistor to the speaker out and let the amp play a lot. You have to keep a watchfull eye on the amp, though. It's still a tube amp with high voltage, so don't leave it on when you go to work. Only do the CD/dummyLoad when you are at home perhaps playing another of your amps.
I don't think that Locktite was the way to go on the voltage regulator. Heat sink compound (sticky white paste) would be more appropriate for something that gets hot - it helps to transfer heat from the component to the chassis. Other than that, nice looking build.
You're right about using white cooling paste instead, but on the other hand, the 7812 hardly get warm because the total wattage of two relays (both OD and PAB) will draw 0.04W.
i have an LP with a SH1n in the neck and SH4 in the bridge (nickel covers which help to make thm brighter)...... and i agree the sh4 can sound a tad thick and dark in the guitar, but i love the tone i get with both pickups on together. all pots are 500k but the dark mahogany tone complements the pups well.
i recall RF removed all the pots out of his axe and only used a volume pedal to control his volume......maybe this is how he gets some clarity out of the SH4....? (this was when he was still using the fender signature model)
maybe a 1Mohm pot will clear it up some.......any thoughts?...
The bypassed pots makes sence, I guess, but still the JB is noe muddy HB, that I don't associate with Robben's sounds at all.
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