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#121

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:24 pm
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

#122

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:48 pm
by Nick
Well this little amp is meant to sound good driving a 4*12

#123

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 12:49 pm
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.

#124

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:03 pm
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. :)

#125

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 1:27 pm
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

#126

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:31 pm
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)

#127

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:41 pm
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.

#128

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:30 am
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

#129

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:44 pm
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.

#130

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:18 am
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 :-)

#131

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 1:24 am
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.....?

#132

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:16 am
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.

#133

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:47 am
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

#134

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:45 am
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.

#135

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:30 pm
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.