NAKD...: V2 Amplification 'Caldera"

Kerry Brown said:
They are some of the most responsive amps I’ve ever played.
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^^^^ Definitely this! ^^^^

And for a more perspective look on paying for what it's worth...: At the current prices of John's V2 amps, and the Caldera to be more specific, if you were to buy his Caldera amp, built by the man himself, with an FX loop and premium head shell... then your looking at $1500 USD. I'm pretty sure that he's got about at least $1000 into his cost of all the materials he's offering on the Caldera amp kit. IMO, a $500 profit ain't much when you consider the time it takes to put one of these together... plus all of the R&D that was involved too. That's why we all see hand-wired amps in excess of $2000.
 
syscokid said:
Each heater pin of the preamp tubes is measuring about 6.25vac. Heater pin 9 is not being used.
EL34 power tubes: Heater pin 2 is 6.25vac. Heater pin 7 is less than 1vac... around .3vac!
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Preamp tubes
Red probe on pin 4, black probe on pin 5, what is the AC voltage?
Should be 12 volts AC.

Power tubes
Red probe on pin 7, black probe on pin 2, what is the AC voltage?
Should be 6 volts AC.
 
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V2a said:
I would avoid sticking both hands in a live chassis.
It's 12V for all 9-pin sockets and 6V for the octal sockets.
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I really do try to avoid these situations as much as possible. To minimize exposing myself to electrical shock, I do have an assortment of meter probe tips. One of them is the spring push hooked clip probe. This will free up one of my hands from making contact with a live amp.

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I was in need of some amp-building therapy, and so I modified an already lovely Traynor Bass Master into a Caldera preamp with high- and low-sensitivity inputs (as well as an 'Era' switch when plugged into the high-S input). Sorry to the purists out there. Anyway, here is a clip of what this Caldera mod sounds like:

 
V2a said:
I was in need of some amp-building therapy, and so I modified an already lovely Traynor Bass Master into a Caldera preamp with high- and low-sensitivity inputs (as well as an 'Era' switch when plugged into the high-S input). Sorry to the purists out there. Anyway, here is a clip of what this Caldera mod sounds like:

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Fat tone, no mudd! I think the purists will give you a pass!
 
V2a said:
I was in need of some amp-building therapy, and so I modified an already lovely Traynor Bass Master into a Caldera preamp with high- and low-sensitivity inputs (as well as an 'Era' switch when plugged into the high-S input). Sorry to the purists out there. Anyway, here is a clip of what this Caldera mod sounds like:

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That would be cool to show up to a gig or jamfest with this modified Traynor. No one will know what's about to hit them... :dood:.
 
RVA said:
The bling was there with the purple tolex. The V2 is extra bling! How do you like the tone?
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Oh it definitely has more extra blingy tone with the added logo, ha ha!

But seriously...
I haven't turned on this amp, or any other amp for that matter, in more than a month. But I can honestly say that a month ago, this amp was sounding very killer and very inspiring. As I said before, this amp has a lot of gain available. Even with the gain control set just past 9 o'clock, there's a nice helping of crunch and sweet lead tones with humbuckers and P90s. And as I found out also a month ago, even on this amp's low gain settings, slamming it with a treble booster is a nirvanic experience.
 
syscokid said:
Oh it definitely has more extra blingy tone with the added logo, ha ha!

But seriously...
I haven't turned on this amp, or any other amp for that matter, in more than a month. But I can honestly say that a month ago, this amp was sounding very killer and very inspiring. As I said before, this amp has a lot of gain available. Even with the gain control set just past 9 o'clock, there's a nice helping of crunch and sweet lead tones with humbuckers and P90s. And as I found out also a month ago, even on this amp's low gain settings, slamming it with a treble booster is a nirvanic experience.
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Only acoustic lately? I hope everything is Ok.
 
Session 5 said:
HeY Greg, finally caught up to this thread!! Congrats on the new kit!! . Now I will go through the rest of this build LOOKING MIGHTY FINE!
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I hope you're proud of me, Mr Session 5. This amp has a lot of Canuckian mojo. V2 amps and its designer/builder John McDonald, Sumr and Hammond trannies, chassis, and finished head cabinet are all Canadian! I can only wonder what a Godin guitar might sound like through this beast... :hmmm:
 
Greg, I am happy to see you happy! you did a great build job and that's a skill in itself! I wish you years of enjoyment from this amp Sir. Now you are just going to have to dive in and get a Godin guitar and give it a try.:)
 
Fast-forward over a year and a half later after completing this build, I finally got the chance to demo this amp at serious volumes a couple of days ago. My Tootsie, the Esquire... into the Caldera... into a 1x12 pine cabinet with a Scumback M75LD. And to test the amp's fx loop... A Fender reverb pedal (Marine Layer) and a Boss chorus pedal (CE-2w).
IMG_3409 - TTR.JPG

Now keep in mind, that I'm demoing at my good friend's occasional jamfest at his converted garage into jam room. Blistering volumes is par for the course at his jamfests. For the short time I played, I had the 30 watt amp turned up about half-way: Gain about 6, EQ's at 5, and master volume about 5. Now normally, I would consider these settings on this amp very loud. But I could barely hear myself unless I moved into the middle of the room.

After a pizza break, I offered a couple other friends to take the helm of my rig while I can kickback and listen to the rig in a more balanced position and make adjustments on the fly. And the results of that was: "Turn up the amp's volume more, you dumb-ass!". Bumped the gain to 7, but bumped the master volume of this 30-watt amp to 8! Yup, this baby is running hard, yet it was still tight with a saturated blooming tone that was catching a lot of attention from everybody else, including me. I also observed that even in this amp's more extreme state, the power tubes looked normal with no excessive heat and the power transformer was barely luke warm. Could not feel the Hammond output transformer's temperature for lack of maneuvering space.

And today, I decided to fire up the amp, which is back home safely, and measure the volume of the amp at the settings that was used at that jamfest. In all fairness: My friends jamroom is about 400 square feet. Syscokid's mancave is about 120 square feet. And the results... drumroll please... 115dBs! o_Oo_O

Conclusion: Killer amp y'all... :cheers:



 
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