My head amp

Anything to do with the things that make the music we listen to.
chris661
Shed dweller
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:29 am
Location: Sheffield

#121

Post by chris661 »

Nick wrote: If I remember I will bring it to Owston and you can have a play. Yes please with the drivers, still mean to make a amp. You never know, one day I may need more than one watt :-)
Sounds good, tah.

While we're on the subject, anyone interested in how my franketstein cabinet sounds? (the one with 4 entirely mis-matched drivers)
- could drive it out the 1w valve thingy - that'll be loud.

Chris
User avatar
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 15707
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:20 am
Location: West Yorkshire

#122

Post by Nick »

Well this little amp is meant to sound good driving a 4*12
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
User avatar
Paul Barker
Social Sevices have been notified
Posts: 8870
Joined: Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm

#123

Post by Paul Barker »

Been thinking about the whole portability issue and thinking about ways to make a valve amp light and portable but with some power.

The mind starts to think about class B push pull.
Cressy Snr
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10552
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:25 am
Location: South Yorks.

#124

Post by Cressy Snr »

Paul Barker wrote:Been thinking about the whole portability issue and thinking about ways to make a valve amp light and portable but with some power.

The mind starts to think about class B push pull.
well there you go!

6A6 driving 6A6 or 6N7s instead. :)
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
chris661
Shed dweller
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:29 am
Location: Sheffield

#125

Post by chris661 »

Nick wrote:Well this little amp is meant to sound good driving a 4*12
Mine's a 4x10 cab. I'll make an adaptor to get an 8ohm load (it's currently wired for 2x 4ohm loads, as the head I'm using is stereo).


Paul, if you wanted a light valve amplifier, I'd strongly consider using a switch mode power supply: there's a lot of iron in a conventional power supply, and I expect replacing that would help with the weight issue.

Chris
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#126

Post by The Stratmangler »

I've spent some very enjoyable time today playing geetar through the Baby Blackstar, both Strat and SG, and it's been great fun :D

The natural compression of a hard driven valve amp is a joy to play with and to hear.
The EQ is excellent too, with a wide and usable sweep from bright American style amp tones through to the darker sounds of Marshall.

There's a bit of low end grunt missing, but that do you expect from an 8" tiddler (in guitaring terms) of a speaker?

Well recommended 8)
Chris :happy3:
User avatar
Paul Barker
Social Sevices have been notified
Posts: 8870
Joined: Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm

#127

Post by Paul Barker »

chris661 wrote:
Nick wrote:Well this little amp is meant to sound good driving a 4*12
Mine's a 4x10 cab. I'll make an adaptor to get an 8ohm load (it's currently wired for 2x 4ohm loads, as the head I'm using is stereo).


Paul, if you wanted a light valve amplifier, I'd strongly consider using a switch mode power supply: there's a lot of iron in a conventional power supply, and I expect replacing that would help with the weight issue.

Chris
Yea indeed.
chris661
Shed dweller
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:29 am
Location: Sheffield

#128

Post by chris661 »

Thought this might be of interest to those with the little amps...

http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB2/view ... hp?p=87726

Chris
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#129

Post by The Stratmangler »

Dunno about you Nick, but I've put in a good few more hours playing since I bought the baby Blackstar.
The clean tones with a Strat are to die for.
Chris :happy3:
User avatar
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 15707
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:20 am
Location: West Yorkshire

#130

Post by Nick »

The Stratmangler wrote:Dunno about you Nick, but I've put in a good few more hours playing since I bought the baby Blackstar.
The clean tones with a Strat are to die for.
Nice isnt it :-)
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#131

Post by The Stratmangler »

Nick wrote:
The Stratmangler wrote:Dunno about you Nick, but I've put in a good few more hours playing since I bought the baby Blackstar.
The clean tones with a Strat are to die for.
Nice isnt it :-)
It's luvverly :)
My Strat's bridge pickup is another matter though...
It sounds fine when in conjunction with the middle, but on its own.....?
Chris :happy3:
User avatar
Paul Barker
Social Sevices have been notified
Posts: 8870
Joined: Mon May 21, 2007 9:42 pm

#132

Post by Paul Barker »

My cheap Chinease Telecaster look a likie (well approximation) copy has a great sound from the bridge pickup a sweet soft sound from the neck pickup and the combination does nothing for me.

Even though I have some expensive Seamore Duncan Alnico pickups this as a ready made axe is sounding so good that I dare not strip it to fit them. I shall reserve them for when I have time to make the axe which I have now left in the cellar to gather dust.

I find the Telecaster neck so much easier to play than the classical guitar neck I haven't got the classical out of it's case. My plumbes fingers though slightly oversized are having no problems adapting to the new experience of metal strings, I could even say I prefer them. The sound of the high E string alone without pickup or amplification is great.
chris661
Shed dweller
Posts: 2556
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:29 am
Location: Sheffield

#133

Post by chris661 »

The Stratmangler wrote:
Nick wrote:
The Stratmangler wrote:Dunno about you Nick, but I've put in a good few more hours playing since I bought the baby Blackstar.
The clean tones with a Strat are to die for.
Nice isnt it :-)
It's luvverly :)
My Strat's bridge pickup is another matter though...
It sounds fine when in conjunction with the middle, but on its own.....?
Fairly sure the bridge pickup is wired directly to the switch (with no tone control) on Strats. With my Squier, I played with the wiring so that the neck and middle pickups share the first tone control, and the bridge one gets its own - I find them far too bright without that. Not so bad with distortion: the extra harmonics seem to bring about more crunch.

Worth a mess around IMO.

Chris
User avatar
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 15707
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:20 am
Location: West Yorkshire

#134

Post by Nick »

Yep, standard strat neck pickup is direct.

Image

The Telecaster has the tone control across the output, so both pickups.

Can't say much about the neck strat sound with this amp as mine has a humbucker in that position.

Paul: often what doesn't sound like that good a tone from a guitar is just waiting for the right playing style to make it make sense, like I said before, much of the tone is in the fingers.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#135

Post by The Stratmangler »

chris661 wrote:Fairly sure the bridge pickup is wired directly to the switch (with no tone control) on Strats. With my Squier, I played with the wiring so that the neck and middle pickups share the first tone control, and the bridge one gets its own - I find them far too bright without that. Not so bad with distortion: the extra harmonics seem to bring about more crunch.

Worth a mess around IMO.

Chris
I'm going to try the wiring á la Eric Johnson Strat - the middle pickup has no connect to a tone control, but the bridge does.

If that don't work for me then I'll try sticking neck & middle on one tone control and the bridge on t'other.

it might be that a different pickup (or pickups) is what's required.
Chris :happy3:
Post Reply