Try a Super Champ if you can find one
Try a Super Champ if you can find one
Van David,
Do you still have the stock speaker in the Astroverb or did you change it ? I put two Greenbacks in mine and it really brightened the amp up and gave it more of a sparkle especially when playing clean with the Reverb. I really like the Astroverb you can do a lot with it
get a reasonable clean reverb tone and the brown sound too !!
Just to add to the comment on dialing in the Astroverb. I didn't care for the stock speakers. I put the Greenbacks in and they were better all the way around.Cleaner and brigther for clean playing and evn better when cranked gave more of the brit brown sound.I did not like the Sovtek tubes they come with either. Put in good preamp tubes and experimented with different types of EL 84'S and settled in with some NOS Amperex.I put an RCA command series 5751 for inverter tube and it really increased the clean headroom with out cutting top end .The combination of the tubes and speakers really made a difference. Now I can get closer to the Fender tone. It works real well all around in a small medium sized room.Because you can get more
of the brit marshall vox sound and still get a reasonable clean reverb sound,but some times I still use the deluxe reverb in those situations.
I just bought a Vox AC30CC. We'll see how it works out.
With a review like this, I should imagine it'll work out fine. ;)
I think,therefore I am
I thought,therefore I was
I am therefore,I thought
Therefore,am I as I think I was
I sure hope so. I'm playing a show tomorrow night. I'll report back.Originally Posted by Johnny64
I can't believe no one has mentioned Mesa F-30 or F-50.
A good, screaming Strat just might be the greatest guitar sound of all..... -Slash
Hi Stratoblaster 63,
Mine's totally stock. I don't think I'd want to brighten mine up. I'm currently playing a Wolfgang Special and a G&L Legacy (both equipped with DiMarzio's) through it and they're both pretty bright. I'm almost always running the Bass at 11.
I regret not buying the 2x12 and always wondered if it would pump out more bass, you may have answered that question for me.
As for all the Blues Jr. bashing, I owned one for a couple years and always thought it sounded flabby, and it had the noisest reverb. I never liked it.
cheers
Hi again Stratoblaster 63,
Where'd you get the tube chart? I sent a couple emails to Soldano looking for a tube chart and a schematic. They were totally unresponsive.
cheers
Hey Van David,
No tube chart with my amp either. But all the pre-amp tubes and inverter tube are 12AX7'S .The output tubes are EL 84'S.The amp responds well to different tube changes.JJ EL 84'S sound real good in the amp, much better than the Sovteks.I put Marshall matched ECC83 "select gold" premium pre amp tubes in it.I can't get them any more, they are very good tubes.Expensive.
Yes I did notice too that there isn't as much bass response as say
a similar sized amp like a fender deluxe. The greenbacks didn't make it more trebley, but gave it more clarity, found the stock speakers sounded a bit muffled. Yes it is great at home too .You can get a great crunchy sound at low volume with out sounding artificial.
About the Blues Jr. I actually like them for club gigs. You can turn it up and make it sound BIG at reasonable volumes. Same for the Champ. One of my rules of gigging is to use as low power an amp as you can. A small amp dimed, even a cheap one, will often sound better than a boutique hand wired job on 2 or 3. One of my favorite things about the DRRI is that it comes alive at about 5 on the volume. Below that it has turdal tendancies.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Speaking of club gigs, I will say that the AC30 is a heavy sumbidge. I think a wheeled road case is in order very soon.
Thanks for the info Stratoblaster 63.
Hey Van David,
Enjoy the amp !! I like mine too. The Soldano is a great amp. Tho it is not a boutique amp in the true sense of the word.They are built like tanks.Have you ever plugged you amp into an extension cabinet ?
When I had my output tubes biased the amp was plugged into a Marshall 4X12 WOW !!! Did it crank and push that cab well !! Monster loud amp for the size !!
Hi Stratoblaster 63,
No, I've never tried it though a cab, maybe one of these days.
Is it really necessary to get the amp biased if I do a tube swap? Isn't it only necessary if I change the power tubes?
I agree on the build quality - this thing is built solid.
cheers
Van David,
Soldano says you don't have to bias the amp if you use sovteks
If you replace the output tubes good idea to bias the amp .If you try The JJ'S you can get them from groove tubes and use the same rating number they give the tubes and you won't have to bias the amp again when replacing the out put tubes
Stratoblaster 63,
The first thing I did when I got the astroverb was to swap the tubes, I used electro-harmonix 12ax7's and JJ Tesla EL84's. I ran 'em for a couple weeks then swaped back the originals - I wasn't happy with the tone. I guess it all comes down to the fact that I didn't get the amp re-biased. I ended up swapping all the 12ax7's because I couldn't get a tube chart from Soldano and didn't know which ones were the pre-amps.
cheers
CoCo Tone. How about a DRRI. $995.00 at the Guitar Shop in Misissauga.
brianf
Oh Man!!! I never knew Fender made amps too!!!
Report: Excellent tone -- especially with the SG Classic. Almost like a plexi-era Marshall. Nice chimey growl.
However... It's already in the shop. There's a weird harmonic resonance that shows up on certain notes at lower volume. Very metallic (almost like a vibrating tube retainer). The output transformer is dented on the corner, as if it had been dropped. I wonder if that knocked something loose. Anyway, it's in the shop.
That's a bummer. Hope it's 100% soon.
TT
On SmartPhones:
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But That only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." Frank Herbert.
I don't want you guys to to think this is a sales call since I build amps, but...
There is a lot you can do for under a G. As someone else mentioned, you can buy a kit and build one yourself on the cheap if you are so inclined.
There are a bunch of techs out there who will assemble a kit for you at a reasonable price. Weber's kits are very economical and you can figure double the price as your final price after assembly. That puts you at about $800 for a complete hand-wired amp. Ceriatone and Trinity kits will put you at about the same place for a completed chassis--you just need the cabinet and speaker.
Other guys will build you a custom amp for that. There are a lot of people trying to break into the business and some of them are really top-notch and will work for peanuts to establish themselves.
Another option is to use a donor amp as a platform for a boutique amp. That can be very inexpensive since the donor will already have the most expensive parts (cabinet, transformers, chassis, speakers). I do this with Blues Jrs and Pro Jrs (sorry fans) and can't make them fast enough to keep up with demand. For example, you can get a BJ for $250 on eBay pretty easily. That plus the approx $500 for the conversion (including shipping) puts you at about $750.
Anyway, I just think it wise to consider what you can really get for that amount of money outside of what is commercially available in cheapo parts and PC boards.
HTH.
Absolutely. If you're not attached to "drive channels" or other nonsense, you can get very nice quality tweed clones for less than a G from a number of folks using Ted's kits. Obviously, you'd want to see build photos first, etc. to qualify them. What's really nice about them is that if you feel you must swap parts, you can always do the "upgrades" later. New speaker - two solder connections. New output transformer - five solder connections. etc.
Depending on your power needs and speaker preferences, I'd suggest:
- 5F2. narrow panel princeton. A champ with a tone control, bigger speaker and cabinet. Also available with twice the power as the 5F2x2.
- 5E3. narrow panel tweed deluxe. 15W, 1x12. Variations are the 5E2x2, with twice the power in a 2x12, or the Proluxe with ~25W, 6L6's and a 1x15.
- 5F4. narrow panel super. ~25W, 2x10. Or get the 5E7 Bandmaster, essentially the same amp with 3x10 for about the same price.
- 5E8? Low power narrow panel twin.
- 5F6-A. 4-input narrow panel bassman. Like the reissue, only built to last a lifetime, and for about the same price.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Two BJs, run in stereo.
$1,000, not 1,000₤. ;)
The store's about a mile from my house.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Moan Mode ON....
Bloody Australia! I wish I could even get a hint of a look in at a good amp for a $1000. Hell, a Blues Junior generally runs more than that here and a DRRI will set you back over 2K....Sheesh! And try finding something small, tasty and boutique for even close to that money. A case in point: Bad Cat Mini Cat for $1550...& I'm not fantastically impressed with those, either.
Moan Mode OFF
The second hand market is definitely the way to go if you're on a budget and want a tasty amp for $1000 Aus.
As to the Vox Chinese reissues, I played a Tele through one the other day (AC30 Head and 2x12 Cab with the Wharfdale speakers) and I must say that it sounded pretty good for the money ($2000 Aus). A load of "tonal" options, looked pretty well finished, loud as all hell, quitened up nicely and had good dynamic range. Though I imagine the speakers to get would be the Celestion Blues, but you pay for those :).
Cheers All
Tenebrae
I can!
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
:lol
Tenebrae
What do Stephen Delft's creations go for? He's in NZ, so he's relatively local.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Gotta link, Kap'n? I'm not familiar with his stuff, aside from some basic information on his "moonlight" amp that Google just offered me.
Tenebrae
I recently bought a thrashed out early 70'S Pro Reverb. I then had a custom cab made. The cab is the same width and fits the Pro Chassis
it is an inch higher. I had it set up with a removeable speaker baffle
and two baffles made for it, one for a 12 " speaker and one for a 15".Did a few custom wiring mods to the chassis and replaced the OT. I have the 15" speaker in it now.I had a BF Vibroverb faceplate made just because of the 15" speaker set up.I wasn't trying to made a V.V. replica ,just needed some knid of face plate. I also throw in the 12" and adjust the chassis for 6v6'S.It does not take long to put the 12" in and reconfigure for the 6V6'S. The amp is great, looks brand new and sounds and plays well.It cost me well under a grand for all with the work tubes cab and extra speakers. It works well and is not that difficult to carry, I can adapt it for different power applications and speaker change outs. So far I am happy with it.It sounds great for me.
No, but Joe at Obsolete Electronics has done some work with him, and can probably contact him.
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
Thanks, Kap'n.
Tenebrae
For all you chubster fans who may live in Toronto......
http://www.capsulemusic.com/retail/detail.asp?ID=2268
This is an awesome store BTW.......
I currently use an all tube combo Traynor YCV 40 with a 12" "RED" Celestion.....this amp really rocks and it was a "best buy" a couple of years back for Guitar Player mag, 2 channel plus OD with footwswitch and a really fine spring reverb.......there is a 2X10 extension cabinet available for it and all can be had for under $900Can.............if you want more power with the same features there is also a YCV 80 with 2X12 Red's which is around $800Can before you tack on an extension cabinet
The "40" has a nice little manual "brightness" switch on the clean channel, it works well with humbuckers but a tad too bright for my Tele, so I don't use it much. The real fun starts to happen when you switch into the 2nd channel it seems that my bridge pup really springs to life in this selection and when you "crunch down" into the OD the compression turns the Tele into a Les Paul "burstbucker" sound. With the Strat I usually play just in the Channel 1 mode and let the guitars electronics do the work. If you really like the spank and sparkle of the Strat or the compressed twang of a Tele I really haven't found a better amp on the market, at least the ones I tried which include the more expensive Fender tube combos, Marshall 900, Peavey Delta King, Peavy Stereo Chorus and a Line 6 2X10
Fast doesn't always mean good
for an awesome gigging amp, I stand by the YCV80.
4:20, my favorite time of day.
I always thought of the traynors as acceptable but not stellar, sterile is the best way to describe it, even with the vintage 30. Well my vintage 30 speaker has got cone cry so I hooked up my traynor ycv40wr to the kingpin speaker of my Carr slant 6. Well this thing just came to life, jangly highs, smooth mids and tight bass, the OD even sounded decent, got rid of that trebly shrillness and those boxy sounding harsh upper mids, it's 90%+ of my slant 6 and I've never come across a better sounding amp in the deluxe reverb style as my slant 6. I don't know if I've discovered something traynor doesn't know about but that speaker improved the traynor beyond anything you can imagine, so for under a grand including a decent speaker, I'll wager anybody to beat the traynor for under a $1000 CDN.
Ah... it's interesting to see an old thread like this come up.
Since then, I've taken the Vox back. It sounded bloody great. It just had too many build issues for a thousand-dollar amp. I then put down a deposit on a Valvetech Hayseed 30, an American made, hand-built, hand-wired exact copy of the '63 JMI AC30 circuit in a cabinet built to order. Even with the EF86 upgrade, Celestion Blues and the Mercury iron, I'm still only out $1,700. The stock price (with Webers) is only $1,150 -- probably the best deal on a boutique amp out there.
The catch is (isn't there always a catch?)... there's a three-month wait. Mine should be ready sometime next month. I'll let you guys know how it works out...
My Zinky Blue Velvet is one of the most awesome sounding amps I've ever heard at under $1000. Bruce Zinky was Mr. Fender Custom Amp Shop for a while. Want Customer service? Call or Email and the company is still small enough you get to talk to Bruce! For a little over a grand my next amp GAS is the Bogner 212.
I was looking at an Australian forum this morning and noticed a few people reporting "issues" with the new Vox offerings. Two options came up: 1) buy an old Vox and service it; and 2) buy a Hayseed 30. Seems like you made the right choice. They've got a great rep, from what I've read about them.
On the Vox, though, can you report some of the issues that you had? I, for one, would be interested to see what hassles you encountered.
Cheers
Tenebrae
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