This should aggravate some of the TUBE LOVERS

I've played through Dumble Overdrive Specials and something called a steel string slinger (???) and it was the most anti-climatic experience of my life. Nothing to write home about.
 
Robert Herndon said:
Amber or Red???
Click to expand...

Amber
If nothing I like the way they look in the packaged pinned up on one of my cork boards - lol...
Hey, if eSGEe has fun with it they were worth it ;)
I'll mess with them here sooner of later. At the moment I have one amp that is whole and working (the royal fresh man amp). Got 3 or 4 I'm building - rather slowly, but building. All the amps I had finally found their way out the door, so... not much to really compare, etc the retroverb tube on.
 
bea said:
... which you could already notice in the 1st video. As we did already learn: those thingies are JFETs followed by step up transfermers (and probably voltage dividers in the inputs 'cause JFETs cannot handle the input voltages of vacuum tubes).
JFETs actually have a similar characteristics to triodes - so the result is by no means a surprise.

So these products might be interesting for people playing around with the voicings of guitar amps, notably distorted ones. But others from that they cannot be viewed as serious replacements for vacuum tubes (they should actually draw more current from the rail which might become an issue in some situations). JFET-amplifiers can easily be built without those little transformers between the stages.

If You insert one or more of these devices into a tube amp, please check if the rail voltages remain correct.
Click to expand...

Interesting, Bea...

The lack of heat production is certainly interesting...
 
Looking through the stuff, I can see where it has it's place. Jet City amps are not particularly very good, but with one of the thingies, you can easily get a Randy Rhodes sound out of a very limited amp. You could probably spend more on a a Hovercraft amp, and get a better version of the Jet City, as that is what a Hovercraft is. Jet City amps are supposed to be fun to mod. So, buy a Hovercraft, or spend less on the V1 adapter, or buy a better amp.

It's designed for the V1 slot on a tube amp affecting the input stage. Again, this seems product specific to me. I don't think I would do that with one of my old amps.

One of the big things people gloss over when discussing tube amps, is the availability of tubes when they were designed/manufactured. We all know how frugal Leo Fender was, and how certain tube configurations were designated by his frugality, when other better audio tubes were available. Then, Jim Marshall redesigned the Bassman and accidentally improved upon it by using what was available at the time. Then over the years, they ruined the the design ever so slightly by adding master volume, additional gain, and then completely ruining the brand by creating the JCM series (IMHO). Then there is Hiwatt, which is very specific of what types and values of valves that you use, or they will never, ever work as they were designed.

My overall take on these is:

Gamechanger: No, not even close. It will have it's place in a niche market.
Usefulness: Yes, of course it might be able to get a crappy sounding amp to sound like Randy Rhodes.
Longevity: Until something else comes along. Unless they are able to come up with a way to support it, and not leave it's customers stranded after the initial sale. Unfortunately, new technology changes daily. Tube amps have still been reliable for 80 years, and counting.
Sound: I found that both with and without the the thing plugged in, it was an amp I would never want to own or play with. It tries to copy the JCM sound, which I have never been a fan of. The amp didn't sound good to me with a tube (current production for which it was designed), or the substitute. It just sounded like a tube screamer into a JCM to me.
 
Good observations. I'm always open to new things, but sometimes, we find them to be "faddish" to some degree, without a real solid usage. The String Butler comes to mind.

Aside from everything else said about them, the lack of heat generation really appealed to me. I run my main DSL40C often and with the volume up around 3/4 (with a FV30L in the loop for volume control) so i thought maybe these would be easier on the amp...
 
Robert Herndon said:
Aside from everything else said about them, the lack of heat generation really appealed to me. I run my main DSL40C often and with the volume up around 3/4 (with a FV30L in the loop for volume control) so i thought maybe these would be easier on the amp...
Click to expand...

If you're worried about heat, couldn't you install a fan inside the amp (provided that the slight noise it makes doesn't matter)?

As for the tube replacement things, I don't really have an opinion otherwise but they look like fluorescent tube starters to me :D

loisteputken_sytytin.jpg
 
Sp8ctre said:
Sounds like :poo: to me...make that :poo::poo::poo:
Click to expand...
buwahahahaha from the man using a solid state Kemper -- ;) lol
tell us how ya really feel ........BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

To be clear, its :poo: that worked as described on the packaging and did what it claimed.......
in todays world THAT IS A WIN in my book because at least 65% of EVERYTHING you buy DOESN'T do what it claims on the package--- in the ad--on the website --or on the menu

AM I switching all my amps to RETROVALVES --- nope --
Would I put it in say a Mesa or Silkyn or some other "finicky" tube amp? --- nope--
if it fries a 100.00 vht hybrid head or some other el cheap low dollar low watt thing (Kustom Defender lets say) Bugera V5 ---then it was a test and shall be reported back as a DO NOT USE--

but so far it was a fun test-- it will end up IN something around here and stay there for long term testing-- (a.k.a Ill likely forget where I put it) and life will go on.
 
aon said:
If you're worried about heat, couldn't you install a fan inside the amp (provided that the slight noise it makes doesn't matter)?

As for the tube replacement things, I don't really have an opinion otherwise but they look like fluorescent tube starters to me :D

View attachment 47882
Click to expand...

Good suggestions. My concerns over heat may be unwarranted and even a fan may not improve tube life...
 
While on the subject of old Marshall's and heat production...why didn't the old JTM-45's have a cooling fan??? It seems to me they could greatly benefit from one...and i have thought that i would certainly add one if i ever bought the amp kit from Stewie-Mac.

Thoughts???
 
The tube devices of that time all have been designed to use convective cooling and to run at a high temperature. If that is done right, it is completly sufficient. But of course not all old amps were designed correctly. This one for example requires taht You need to open the top during operation (4 EL84 and 5 ECC83 and two FAT transformers in that tiny box...)

DoppelGold.jpg
 
bea said:
The tube devices of that time all have been designed to use convective cooling and to run at a high temperature. If that is done right, it is completly sufficient. But of course not all old amps were designed correctly. This one for example requires taht You need to open the top during operation (4 EL84 and 5 ECC83 and two FAT transformers in that tiny box...)
Click to expand...

Those Klemts sound awesome... as well as the Echolette S tape echo.
 
Robert Herndon said:
While on the subject of old Marshall's and heat production...why didn't the old JTM-45's have a cooling fan??? It seems to me they could greatly benefit from one...and i have thought that i would certainly add one if i ever bought the amp kit from Stewie-Mac.

Thoughts???
Click to expand...
We've sort of had this discussion before about cooling fans. But IMO, it's best to have an external cooling fan pointed at the back of the amp, and also powered and isolated from the amps source of power.
 
Oh Bea, Those are the German versions of the Marshall JTM45. The M40's are the exact ones I look for after I realized what they were capable of ! You can't do with digital what you can do with analog and vice versa .... they've been trying for about 70 years now. I got a JMI AC30 TB head and it had the best design I've ever seen of a fan in a tube amp .... while each of the 4 EL84's were cathode biased singularly which gave off a lot of heat. Never made an noise but I wanted it original and scraped anything non original. Though I thought the idea was the best I've ever seen especially when each power tube could be biased to perfection of the quad. If I can find the fan in the garage I'd like to post a pic of how the fan was done ... last time I located it was 4 moves ago! I think I'll turn that vox head on now but first I'm a gonna put it out in the FL sun for a 1/2 hour first just for poop and giggles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top