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[nickeax]

Yeah tempting! It would be a good lounge amp, the 800 is a bit much!

[VIKING888]

Ye it's a good amp and I have had it modded to take NOS EL84 tubes because stock they
dont have the pin sockets wired correct for the older tubes.  It's not 800  and open to
offers and trades. I'm not in a hurry to sell it but if it happens alls good

[nickeax]

Ye it's a good amp and I have had it modded to take NOS EL84 tubes because stock they
dont have the pin sockets wired correct for the older tubes.  It's not 800  and open to
offers and trades. I'm not in a hurry to sell it but if it happens alls good

Nah, I meant that I have a JCM800 sitting in the lounge. I'm a bit scared to give it some balls.

[VIKING888]

AHHH fairynuff hahahaha yes the JCM800 would be a bit hard to open up unless you
got your self a VVR or a THD hotplate then you could open it right up at loungeroom levels.

 

[GlennsPref]

Hi, I got a Fender Quadreverb 1973 silver face.

It's been modified a bit since I got it in 1993.

It had been recovered in some durable plastic/rubber stuff like tread grips for stairs. spikey

and a calico grill cloth.

When I got it, it had spent the last 4 years or so just inside an open/no door barn/shed.

It worked, all we (me and a mate) did was make sure all the valves were seated properly.

Sadly the box was damaged from it's heavy touring days, both sides were broken, at different places.

It still had the original coke-can speakers (magnets the size of a small softdrink can) 4 12's x 25W.

The baffle board was also broken in about 5 places, old, weathered chip board.

and you could push it back about 1/2" with your hand. Very broken!

Most of the damage was from "falling off the back of a truck", the rest occured by neglect.

I had a Laney Linebacker L50R back then that worked well, so I not under presure to fix it fast.

So I removed the covering, and cut the box down to just a little taller than a twin reverb, by estimation.

That was the highest break point on one side.

Then I made a new baffle board from MDF, and fitted 2 12" celestions 75W each.

I'd been studying acoustice, so made a horizontal port across the top to aid ventilation without sacrificing sound and power.

I decided to get rid of some of the white noise by relacing the B+ power resistors, and then went further and blackfaced it.

Using some tips from books I have. Trainwreck, the tube amp book, and some others that talk about design.

It's really loud, so I made a switch to turn off the dc to one pair of output tubes (6L6) which reduced the volume considerably.

It was still too loud, so I got a design for a reactive 3db pad.

It's still too loud. I have not played with it for about 8 months, But I still dream abot it/her!

I sanded it all back, and gave it about 10 coats of Cabot's Danish 0il.

The speaker grill, I made from split cane, and re-inforced it with a steel grill (behind the cane)

The first cane grill was hand woven (a real love job), but some years later I changed it for some chair material(cane).

You know the stuff, steel bent tube frames with cane inserts for the back and seat.

It doesn't look quite so home made now.

Heres a pic, on my google pages...
http://glennwaller.googlegroups.com/web/FenderQuadReverb1.jpg?gda=VXGig0cAAACwuRbnykpgRTYtWXAxTfRro6UBnh7jrJcuuUn7M67tJ0KNps-aUt6wiuF1GhTN2Y7iNflBnS90ecEO3zvz3dEqeV4duv6pDMGhhhZdjQlNAw

Cheers, and thanks for the oportunity.

Regards Glenn

[VIKING888]

Hi Glenn good story and the pic of the amp is great. There wouldnt be another one like it out there so you have a real
GEM of an amp thats for sure. How does it sound??

Cheers 

[GlennsPref]

I have two songs that use the amp, a before and after that I am uploading tonight.

I'll post the links here after I've verified the DL's

Thank you.

It sounds great, before I modified it it was a bit crackly, due to the broken wood, I presume.

Now it's Tight, but breathes easy.

And now it's operated at around 4, both input and master vol.

Below that it's stifled, choked, muddy. above that it's hard to sit next too.

It make a great heater in the winter, lol.
Regards Glenn

ps, how do I make the forum page appear full-windowed, like yesterday.
atm I have 2 large, but pleasant borders and a small typing section. cheers!

[VIKING888]

Glenn sounds like a great amp and lookin forward to hearing the clips when you get them up and running

[nickeax]

I have heard this amp before, but I look forward to hearing it again. I remember liking the tracks of yours that I've heard Glenn.

Full page forums: http://guitaraustralia.com/forum/ The other view I think you had was from within the content management system the site uses. It's not really big enough.

[VIKING888]

I'm down to one amp now       The Laney is on it's way to Newcastle
to settle in to it's new home. Isn't it funny how as soon as you sell something
you can start to miss it but when it's sitting there for ages it's kind of annoying
because it's not getting played. 

[nickeax]

I'm down to one amp now       The Laney is on it's way to Newcastle
to settle in to it's new home. Isn't it funny how as soon as you sell something
you can start to miss it but when it's sitting there for ages it's kind of annoying
because it's not getting played. 

Yes, I felt the same way about a vintage synth I sold not too long ago. It sometimes feels like a mistake, but in the end it's best if the gear will be used.

[kombi1976]

I got a few amps, some dubious, some not.
My first real amp was this Laney Protube AOR valve combo, bought for $599 in about '92.



It runs a fane 12" and 2 6V6GTAs. When I bought it there was this and a 60w Linebacker tranny amp. The guy at the shop said it was a "loud" 30 watter and since it was valve I bought it........THANK GOODNESS!! But everyone since then that knows anything about valves says it's a lot less. My brother's tech says it produces 22 watts flat out. Not that it seems to matter because it's as loud as all get out and with the clean channel on 11 it sounds brilliant. Punch it some more with a Tube Screamer and you'll get a thick solo tone. Problem is it doesn't really compete with a full band if you're the lead player in a pub rock band. So my brother is using it for clean stuff and slide guitar and always mics it. It's certainly loud enough to hear in a pop rock setting.

I also had this slant back Etone-loaded 2x12 cab made the same width as an extension cab to try and get a little more throw.



But 22 watts is still only 22 watts. Not having enough power and reading some magazines I then went in search of a louder amp. I found this Fender Blackface Bassman head languishing in Smithys at Annandale for about $650.



Unfortunately some tool had switched the output transformer in it, removed other stuff and basically rendered it broken. I eventually had it rebuilt but it has had other issues so I'm going to get it sent to someone who knows Fenders backwards and have it returned to stock. So far it's been run through either the Etone cab or this old Aussie-made FiSonic 2x12 cab loaded with Plesseys.



When it's repaired though the chassis will be removed to put in a new combo cab, probably with a single Etone or Lorantz, so it's easier to cart around.

After having little luck with the Bassman I outlayed for this Marshall Valvestate VS100 head.



It has been used through the FiSonic cab, the Etone slant 2x12 and through a quad my brother has loaded with 4 of the same speakers. It has been useful and the extra volume, triple channels and FX loop were what I needed. But I bought it in 1998 and I now no longer need a 100w amp or wish to cart heads and cabs around. More and more I found myself wishing for a good 2 channel combo with reverb. So the Marshall is currently on sale to offset the cost of my latest purchase.....a Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50 2x12 combo.



And it is that clean. It's still living in the box it arrived in when I'm not using it. It's a vastly different sound to the Marshall....a LOT smoother. It doesn't do modern tones but I've gigged with it twice and it holds it's own well. In fact the sound guy told me to turn it down so he could simply boost it in the front of house! The clean sound, not surprisingly, is stellar. Anyhow, now I need to sell my Marshall and my FiSonic cab to make a dent in the price.

The other amp we have here really belongs to my wife who plays mainly bass these days although she's a very accomplished classical guitarist. It's a Coronet 2x12 60w combo that was built in Japan some time in the late 60s.



It has tremelo, which is ok, and reverb, which is awful, and it also hums a lot, probably because the circuitry is almost completely open. But it's been better since we had it stripped down and everything cleaned and the dry joints fixed. The bass channel is loud enough for a lot of the gigs we've done. In fact paired up with the Laney, a drummer who knows how to sit back and a small PA for mics (under 100w) we've played a few parties quite successfully. Mind you she really deserves a better, PROPER bass amp.

[VIKING888]

Nice mix of gear there Kombi bet you could tweak for hours getting some nice sounds

[kombi1976]

Yeah, I do like the ones I have.
I've posted few demos on boobtube lately of the Laney and Hiwatt.
The Laney AOR30:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXc5BK1l5TQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16v5yxqCx_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ERbMf-OiI
And the Hiwatt Hi-Gain 50:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE0fi26wByw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yau4Jzdg1cY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN429Jtq3uk
In fact, I like the sound of the Laney through a quad so much that I've done a bit of a deal with my brother and he's going to look around for an AOR50 or AOR100 head so I can straight swap him for the AOR30 combo which he likes.
The heads go for criminally low prices and new valves and a service yields an amp capable of some good 70s & 80s Metal and amazing Stoner Rock tones.
And my amps aren't the only things that have got an airing recently.
A lot of my pedals which previously sat idle in drawers have now been put back into service and I'm having stacks of fun trying them through the Hiwatt and through the Laney.
Running through the Fender will be even more interesting as I've never really explored that before.
And, as of Friday arvo, the Bassman went in for repairs at a local electronics place who regularly repair tube gear.
Even if I end up haveing to replace either of the transformers it'll still be worth it as OG "blackface" Bassman heads are commanding almost $2k and those in less good condition are still fetching $1200+.
For goodness sake, the asking price on "silverface" amps is as much as $2800 in some places, admittedly for excellent examples, but they're still "silverface" CBS 70s models built to a price point.
Since I last posted I've sold the FiSonic cab.
It turned out to be loaded with Rola 12PEGs that were 15ohms each and since wired in parallel it added up to 7.5ohm that was incompatable with anything I own so it went to a mate with an old Aussie amp.
And talking of speaker boxes, I have to decide whether not to have a combo box built for my Bassman head and if so which speaker to fit in it.
It would be for ease of use more than anything.
I can't make up my mind whether a good choice would be Lorantz 12" around 60w or 70w for purely guitar sound or a 15" of about 100w to 150w for better bass response so I could use it for either guitar or bass.
One thng is for sure.....if I score a AOR head I'll need to pickup a cheap quad to use with it.
But I've banged on enough.

[lutzow]

i have  a jcm 900 but find that it doesnt have the bottom end like the 800