Caevan O’Shite

(At the risk of bumping back Shoes' posted questions) +1 on Doug/Doug's Tubes. I can't say enough good about Doug at Doug's Tubes; great guy, on top of his game, great to do business with! I've gotten EXACTLY the results I wanted when buying tubes from him and following his recommendations. Fair, reasonable prices, too!

Thanks- their "black" just might be the ticket! I'll run that by my friend. EDIT: Thanks again, but it's not a match, either! This particular grille material seems to have gone by the wayside; I'm afraid he's eventually gonna hafta settle for either classic "blackface" silver, or the "black" like they've got there at Parts Express; nobody anywhere seems to have the same dark grey any more...

Thanks!

Hey, Myles- Got a source for the dark grey grille cloth that came on '80s/'90s "red knob" Fender amps? Or even a part number for the material? How about a UK source for it, to boot? Or, if not, what would be a close match alternate? Thanks!

Thanks, Myles! I mean, Daddy-O!

Hey, Daddy-O; A friend's Laney AOR Lead 50 head seems to have something wrong with its channel-switching: - Sometimes it sounds weak when switched to the "lead" channel, with less gain and fullness- sometimes its indicator-light also is dimmer than usual when this happens, sometimes not. - Occasionally the sound will intermittently cut out altogether - Other times the amp will seem fine, exhibiting none of the above symptoms It does this whether the footswitch is connected and used, or without the footswitch, with the front-panel pull-pot switch used instead; and with any cables used for the footswitch, the guitar to input, effects-loop in and out, or with nothing in the 'loop... I have yet to get over and open it up; Any recommendations as to what to look for? Thanks!

Hey, Myles, would you please weigh-in on this thread: Egnater Rebel 30 combo-thread Not so much about that Egnater amp itself, but about some of the posted ideas there about tube-amp circuit design, operational class, and components... and, please, correct me if I'm wrong! Thanks.

I figure, maybe it would be just the thing for this: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/fendershop.jpg But, too big to be a pawn in your game here: (Paul Fryer Chess Set for Tesla, 1 of 7 made) http://www.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/paul_fryer_vacuum-tube_chess_set_2-480x395.jpg

Here ya go, Myles... http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/ModernMechanix/11-1937/giant_tube.jpg

Thanks!

Heeeey Myyyyyles... Performance and tone wise, is there ANY reason NOT to replace the orange selenium-rectifier found in some vintage "tweed" Fender amps, with an appropriate diode?

Hey! Happy After-Birthday, Myles! Rock on.

Hehhehh, kinda like the "browning" finish sometimes seen on antique firearms, from before "blueing", huh?

Hey again, Myles! Someone gave me an old Silvertone 1482 that had been crudely converted to being a "head", minus the rest of the cab and the speaker. It's seen better days, for sure. How concerned should I be about some surface-rust on the Power-Transformer? Once I get around to replacing tubes and caps and all, should I fire it up and hope that the Power-Transformer isn't shorted? Or, should I test the transformer somehow and/or replace it? Am I correct in thinking that trying to clean the surface-rust off with a brush would be a bad idea? Is there a safe 'n' smart way to clean off surface rust from transformers? "I could make the TRANSFORMation as a rock 'n' roll sta-a-a-a-a-a-a-aaarrr... "

Hahh! Cool; I'd already bookmarked his 'site after what you'd had to say about his work in previous posts... I was already thinking, my "blackface" '67 Pro Reverb 2x12 (which has a pair of crappy NON original speakers in it, and a suspicious baffle-board assembly) is destined for a rendezvous with him in the future ...

Damn, Sam! So, waddya think it'd take to cop its basic groove- build a "blonde" 4x6L6 Twin Amp clone with a "Presence"-circuit and an extra beefy oversized output-transformer?

Cool, thanks, Myles. By the way, check the ooold thread of yours that I bumped up on the forum- "The best Fender 60's creme Twin that I have ever seen"- I gotta know more!

Hey, Myles- If two of the tubes in a matched-quartet of EL84's in a Vox AC30TBX go red-plate, yet the other two seem fine- What would be the suspected causes? What should be looked for and checked in the amp afterwards, when replacing the whole quartet?

Hey, Myles, here's a question that's a little different from what you usually see here; please bear with me! One of my pedals (Octave-X) has an odd effect (no pun intended) on another (Sustainiac Model C) that's upstream of it, and supposed to be working in parallel; I'm not talking about it affecting the signal from there on, but in this supposedly parallel, isolated "loop" of sorts... I have a Sustainiac Model C feedback-sustainer- sort of a "pedal"- which works by taking the signal from the guitar and amplifies it to drive a small, vibrating transducer that clamps onto the headstock to induce controlled feedback. (Works great! Love it!) An out jack from the pedal provides an un-affected signal from the guitar, to send on to other pedals, amp, etc. So it's like a little parallel side-chain loop, parallel to everything else (with the exception of the way the feedback goes from the guitar to everything downstream). My entire headphone/direct rig's signal-chain goes: Peterson 'StroboStomp' tuner > Sustainiac (sends tapped-off signal to transducer, and straight-signal on to output) > Fulltone 'Clyde Deluxe' wah > MXR 'Blue Box' weird two-octave-down distortion/fuzz > J. Everman 'Octave-X' octave-up fuzz > Radial Tonebone 'Plexitube' tube/ss distortion > DigiTech 'GNX4' modeler/worstation > mixer/headphone-amp/PC/etc. Whenever I kick in the Octave-X (a hot-rodded Octavia-style octave-fuzz with a beefed-up internal 18v ps working from any 9v battery or 9v "wart"), it affects the signal sent from the Sustainiac pedal to its transducer on the guitar's headstock- no matter if there's ANYTHING on or even connected downstream of the Octave-X, it has nothing to do with souind from speakers or headphones or anything from the Octave-X onward; -you can hear the transducer (and the wood and strings of the guitar itself) vibrating away, and as soon as you step down on the footswitch of the Octave-X, it diminishes the overall strength of the feedback being sent to the guitar from the Sustainiac pedal, varying with what note and harmonic-overtones are feeding-back and sustaining. Some notes immediately fade out when the Oct-X is switched on, others merely drop a little, but none are UN-affected by it. Switch the Octave-X off, and the feedback-signal from the Sustainiac pedal to the transducer on the guitar's headstock INSTANTLY goes back to full-strength. Why would this be happening? Some sort of impedance weirdness? Is it something that can be fixed?

Thanks! I'll tell 'em you sent me.

Cool, thanks! Can I ask another question? In shopping for 150v M.O.V.'s to install across the primary by the power-switch for surge-protection, what other specific specs should I go with? (Looking 'em up on the Mouser Electronics 'site, they have this vast number of specs you have to choose from for searching for M.O.V.'s on their 'site.) For that matter, is 150v an alright value to go with for this, or is that defeating the purpose? I understand that the 130v M.O.V.'s tend to short too easily, too quickly... What would you use? (Do you ever use these?)

Myles- what do you think about the following method for bedding-in filter-caps when replacing them, that I found posted elsewhere on-line? Would this be advisable? (I also have to wonder about the following statement about using a variac for bedding-in filter-caps being bad for your tubes; I'd think that, with no signal going through the amp, just bringing up the AC slowly with noting plugged into the input, it wouldn't have any adverse impact on the tubes... ?) ______________________________________________________________________________ (Quoted from another 'site) "Re-form" electrolytic caps You'll hear folks talk about "bringing an amp up slowly on a variac"; this can work but is not particularly good for your tubes. A better way is this: 1. Pull out all the tubes. 2. If your amp has a tube rectifier, solder in temporarily some high voltage silicon diodes across the tube lugs to be a rectifier that does not depend on the filament voltages. If your amp has silicon diodes, you can skip this. (EDIT: I'd just temporarily pop a pin-based SS-rectifier replacement into the rectifier-tube's socket- CO'S) 3. Open up the wire that goes from the rectifier tube (or solid state diodes) to the first power supply filter stage and solder in series with the wire a temporary 100K 2- 5W resistor. This resistor will limit the current that can flow into the caps and the amount of voltage that is applied to them to safe values that will cause the insulating layer to re-form. 4. Clip your voltmeter across the resistor 5. Button it up. Turn it on (no tubes in it, remember). Watch the voltmeter. 6. When the voltmeter reading drops to less than 20-30VDC, your caps are formed. 7. Open it back up and pull out those diodes and resistor, putting it back in original shape. The forming could take hours to days. ______________________________________________________________________________ Waddya think?

Thank-you for that very interesting information, Myles! Good to know. I will edit my previous post to reflect that... I got some very nice tubes (and great, speedy service) from Doug's Tubes, including a particularly excellent JJ ECC83S that was tested for balance and high-gain, which I popped into a Laney head mated to a Marshall 4x12. It made an obvious improvement, with better presence, clarity, definition, strength, and all-around good tone. Other people who were non-musicians commented on the sudden improvement!

If I may chime in, no matter what type of tube you're using for a phase-inverter, I think it's WELL worth it to pay the little extra for a "Matched Phase Inverter" (it was Myles who turned me on to these), or paying the mark-up/service-charge for tubes tested for balance and gain (basically the same thing) for an M.P.I. tube. Groove Tubes USED to have these, and Doug's Tubes offers testing for balance and gain on many models, as I'm sure some others also do. I can speak from experience with GT (in the past) and Doug's Tubes (recently/currently) that it makes a wonderful difference! It really helps you get the most out of matched output-tubes, too. That is, as long as the amp you're re-tubing uses a design where this is relevant. (I think it's safe to say that most are, but check if you're not certain.) Even so, it wouldn't hurt if it wasn't, it'd just be somewhat wasted on an amp that didn't need it. And replacing it along with the output-tubes should be a matter of course every time.

Thanks Myles! (And thanks again for the trace-matching you did on the "Marshall Hi-Gain Kit w/ MPI" for me then!)