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Solid-state guitar amplifier history -thread

Started by teemuk, April 16, 2007, 09:12:15 AM

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LJN

If it sounds good, USE IT!

Epiphone Les Paul, Kasino U100- P, Sears 125-XL

Frank

#46
Hi

I put together some more samples of the sixties classics the Vox Conqueror and the Vox Defiant:

Vox Conqueror:

Normal channel:
http://www.etcetera-music.eu/public/instruments/Vox/voxspec_files/Conqueror/Flying1.mp3

Brilliant channel with fuzz on minimum:
http://www.etcetera-music.eu/public/instruments/Vox/voxspec_files/Conqueror/LikeCreedence.mp3
Edit: I wondered why it sounds so similar to the original guitar sound. After some research, I found out that John Fogerty played a Rickenbacker 325 into a solid state Kustom K200-4, which had the same set of effects as the Vox in fac. No wonder it sounds so similar! Kustom amps must also be said to be solid state classics.

Clean brilliant channel:
http://www.etcetera-music.eu/public/instruments/Vox/voxspec_files/Conqueror/Prudence.mp3
http://www.etcetera-music.eu/public/instruments/Vox/voxspec_files/Conqueror/StrawberryFields.mp3

Brilliant channel, with fuzz and its six variations of the mid range boost (MRB) effect:
http://www.etcetera-music.eu/public/instruments/Vox/voxspec_files/Conqueror/Stones.mp3

Vox Defiant:
http://www.etcetera-music.eu/public/instruments/Vox/voxspec_files/Conqueror/Flying2.mp3

The last one is there, because Flying is suppose to have tremolo, and the tremolo on my Conqueror stopped working while I made this recording. So I switched to the Defiant (which sounds almost identical anyway). I put all the remaining instruments on today. The other guitar is also clean Defiant in brilliant channel, and the bass is played through a Vox 710 BTW.

And another important info. The guitar is in all cases a Rickenbacker 360.

Frank

Rusty Chops

Quote from: teemuk on April 16, 2007, 09:12:15 AM...
1971
...


Hey howdy. Cool page.

Just wanted to point out that I built a Heathkit 2 X 12" 50 watt SS combo amp in High School Shop class in 1968.

Previously I had been using a Heathkit mono Hi-Fi tube amp of perhaps 15-20 watts in a plywood box with a 12" Lafayette speaker.

The Late sixties Heathkit combo (I think the following year after I built mine there was also a 1 X 12" combo version too in the catalog) I built has 2 Jensen Special Design (blue AlNiCo) drivers and a long spring accutronics reverb tank included in the kit.

The amp also had "tremolo" (vibrato actually) with controls for speed and depth.

When I initially fired it up the reverb wasn't working (traced to a cold solder joint I had made on a ground tab on the chassis).

Once working correctly I was disappointed in the sound. It was kind of a cheap midrangey sound. I thought it must have been the speakers but no, it was just the beginnings of my education about transistor based guitar amplifiers.

Every few years I'd again try another SS amp (Baldwins with colored slide switches, Legends with cane speaker cloths in nice looking wood cabinets, Early Crates, etc).

I finally sold off my last Blackface Fender Showman head and got a Hughs&Kettner 1X12 combo, which sounded pretty good, but both it and the Randell RG80 still had that tell-tale SS junction "hiss" in the background that used to bug me.

Today (though I have a Boogie Mark I reissue), I mostly use a Roland Cube 40X in the Funk band I currently play in. Works very well and sounds great!

In the car trunk I usually keep a Starcaster 25R (same as a rebadged Fender Frontline 25R) for a spare. Sounds like an old Princeton-Reverb! ;)[/list]

galaxiex

#48
I have managed to acquire an old Jordan amp head.  :)

This thing is built like a tank! Heavy!

I'll do a report in a new thread when I get to fixing it. (it has some minor issues)

Here's some pics of it on my garage bench, fresh from the shipping box.

BTW, shouldn't this thread be a sticky?
If it ain't broke I'll fix it until it is.

DrGonz78

Got an old Fender Taurus solid state amp to work on here. Got it all fixed up and went to turn it on. From what I have read about all these old Fender solid state amps I expected it to just sound terrible. To my surprise it sounded absolutely fantastic!! It was absolutely silent with nearly no hum at all. It is a great clean sounding amp and I felt a need to post something to let other people out there know that it is not a terrible sounding amp. Of course someone had removed the JBL speakers so I had some old Fender 10" speakers waiting for just this problem. Somebody actually had installed car stereo speakers in the thing!  :trouble Also, the PCB board had leftover flux residue all over that had turned white. Looked like a bird had flown over it and took a dump right inside the amp. Anyway just thought to share this experience about this amp since it is a rare specimen.
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -Albert Einstein

J M Fahey

Of course those sound good !!!
Excellent cleans and for dirt thereĀ“s 1000 pedals to choose from.
But tubeheads were angry when these appeared and bashed them beyond belief.

Agreed, they were not Twin Reverbs ... but then which SS amp is?
Besides Lab L5 of course ;)