Tube Amps!

I play in a cover band with some older guys that run a guitar shop and they are dealers for some of the new hand wired Hiwatt amps. They sound fantastic, but they cost as much as a used car.

I always loved the sound Duane Denison got in the Jesus Lizard using his Hiwatt half stack. It had a real edge, but was still pretty clean. The Hiwatt reall worked for Denison's guitar style, as he could voice all of these inverted jazzy chords and it would still cut through like he was playing a power chord.

Yeah, they've become radically overpriced. Strange, since the name "Hiwatt" doesn't mean anything anymore. Anyone can use it for awhile to put out their own repros or whatever their conception is of a Hiwatt knockoff. What has their been in the past few years? Audio Bros. did them for awhile. Then it was Fernandes. Then Harry Joyce made them under his own name until he died. Then there was Reeves. Then Maxwatt. I don't even bother to keep track anymore it's so sad and pathetic.

If you really do "believe in" (even if it means just preferring for esoteric reasons of your own) the mojo of older equipment, there are a lot of amps out there which do not have a Fender nameplate on them which are affordable and totally rockin. Many of them are complete Fender circuit ripoffs anyway...

I'm not knocking said mojo either. I'm just saying it will cost you if it's name brand mojo, and I personally don't think the difference in cost is worth any [perceived] difference in quality between reissues or newer amps and rock and roll icons of yore spilling forth from time capsules in varying condition.

Also note, if you're gonna pay an amp tech to give an old amp a cap job (and most of them need them sooner rather than later), why not just upgrade the caps in a newer amp and get the slight sound improvement of, say, orange drops out of an amp that will likely be more reliable because it hasn't been used for as long?

a problem only arises when the reissue circuit has been changed from the original.

Sometimes a circuit change doesn't really make much of a difference tonally. I mean not $$$$ worth of difference, if you ask me. Generally I'd agree w/ you though. I mean if the circuit is different, it's not the same amp now is it?

Does anyone know if it is possible to have it modified so there would be, say, a toggle that would 1/2 the wattage or something?

You should be able to yank two of the power tubes to get it to run at half power. Don't quote me on that until you do some searching online, but I'm pretty sure it's safe. (Anybody know if the reissue Twin is cathode or fixed bias? That'll answer the question.) You'll likely have to yank every other tube or something like just the outside ones, depending how they are wired. I specialize in small amps, so I'm not super familiar with the Twin, reissue or original.

Hope this helps.

also, best bet is to use a power attenuator of some sort, because even at 50W it's still going to be a loud mofo. attenuators are many and varied, but the Weber Mass actually simulated the frequency response of an actual speaker, so it is fairly transparent tone-wise. www.webervst.com

thanks for the advice!

and yes, you're right - it has to be matched in terms of power and impedence. Weber sells all sizes, and generally the impedence is selectable on the unit. as you can see on http://www.tedweber.com/atten.htm there are several to choose from, including links to other popular ones made by other folks.

also, weber makes great stuff - especially speakers.

A year or two ago, one of the power tubes in my SF Twin took a crap. I couldn't afford to retube so I just pulled one of the other tubes to get to 50 watts. It does take the wattage down but not so much that you'd really notice (3db from what I've read). It also creates an impedance mismatch with the speakers resulting in a more saturated sound. I believe you should pull either the outer two or the inner two.

If that doesn't get you to where you want to be, you might be better off with an attenuator (as Aaron suggested), or a lower-powered amp.

The relationship between wattage and volume is not linear. Often you hear people saying shit like "the Deluxe is surprisingly loud for a 22 Watt amp," which is ridiculous because, well, the Deluxe is exactly as loud as a 22W amp should be because that's what it is.

But yes, 50W is not that much less powerful than 100W when you are just talking about sheer volume of sound. As wattage goes up, max volume changes less and less. What can change a lot is clean volume. For example, not only is a 6W Champ a lot less loud than 22W Deluxe, but it overdrives waaaay faster if you compare relative volumes before the circuit runs out of headroom. And we all know how hard it is to overdrive a 80W or 100W Twin...

I'm oversimplifying to make a point, but still...

I've been investigating the Yellow Jackets primarily to knock down the power in my Marshall JCM800 50 watt combo. I was thinking about getting some to put in my 5150 combo, but I got a good offer and sold it last Sunday. The Yellow Jackets will definitely fit in my Marshall, so I am considering on picking a set in the next few weeks.

http://www.tugboatonline.com/ilxstuff/amp.jpg

you will not be sorry.

By the way, my other favorite Fender amp I alluded to above is the blackface Concert. '64, if we're going ultrageek today.

Following up on a couple of things from a few months back. I did some swapping around and got a Mesa Boogie F50 combo and a Weber Mass attenuator.

The Weber Mass works freakin' GREAT. I have gotten my best recorded guitar tone by using the Mass and recording via the DI output. I almost can't believe how well it works. You can play and have the room volume be comfortable and yet get sustain/feel like you are melting the paint off the wall. I'm not even using the 'tone circuit' feature on the Mass, as it sounds real flubby to me, just direct and tweak on the amp to set the sound.

Just picked up an Ampeg Super Rocket yesterday... There was no reason AT ALL to bring in a 2x12 100w amp into the house, but I still maintain that these guys are undervalued. Great amp although I'm going to be saying "can't hear. what did you say?" for the rest of my life.

the deluxe reverb i got upthread is probably one of the best bits of gear i've ever bought

The shop has been blessed with craptons of magnatone amps for some bizarre reason over the last year and man, I am obsessed with that fm vibrato.

I just wanna spam this thread with crazy tube amp shots from the shop now. You guys have to see the crazy titano rebranded magnatone we got in recently.

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/johnjusten/null-2.jpg
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m134/johnjusten/null-3.jpg

Why don't we have an imm crazy vintage weirdo picture thread? Maybe I should start one.

zero to galleries of weird Soviet synthesizers in 10 posts.

All guitars should be shaped like America.

Oh wow...it's kind of weird seeing posts from 7 years ago. I still got the F50, but my haul of stuff has changed quite a bit (and expanded). I got a few cool vintage instruments but mostly stuff from the 70s and 80s.

Tell me about (new) Magnatones! I kind of want one of these, but it's super expensive. Are the cheaper ones good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pJcjVzIPZQ

I've also been thinking about a Fender Deluxe or Princeton, but their sound is so ubiquitous and this seems to have a different sonic character that I like.

I would like one of these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZGK2fzAxVM

I got excited and thought this was a home stereo tube amp thread. Sweet amp, though!

so my vox ac15 is being weird. the master knob doesn't do anything. i can still get some volume out of it by using the normal or top boost level controls, but the master seems broken.

any ideas?

Anyone out there familiar with / have any opinions on Tyler Amps?

Welp, anyway, I wound up buying a gently used Fender 68 Custom Princeton Reverb and it's fantastic