Fahey Amplifiers

[J M Fahey]

Fine.
It's needed to suggest an approppriate power amp.
Anyway remember I will be away until Oct. 10th.
:tu:

[yustech]

Great.

[joecool85]

Maybe we'll see some Fahey amps in the US during 2012?  Here's hoping!

[J M Fahey]

Maybe !!
I´m thinking the "save my dead amp" kits would be some way to start.
It would be some light to ship stuff, only way to build heavy International Mail shipping charges.
Stay tuned.

[joecool85]

Maybe !!
I´m thinking the "save my dead amp" kits would be some way to start.
It would be some light to ship stuff, only way to build heavy International Mail shipping charges.
Stay tuned.

While that would be great for some, I'm more interested in a full amp, speaker, chassis and all.  Ideally a 25w 10" combo or maybe 50w 12" combo.  The 10" would work for me, but the 12" would probably be more marketable.  I don't know though...a small workhorse of an amp could be popular if advertised properly.  Maybe even have a speaker out jack so someone could hook it up to a 4 x 12 etc, it'd be great to demonstrate the amp with.  I vote for a compact, 10" combo :-)

[J M Fahey]

Well, what I said was considering the incredibly expensive Mail or Courier cost per Pound.
Now I´m becoming an Exporter, incorporating my (small) company and all that jazz, tons of red tape, to be able to pay real cheap Container Freight prices (what the commercial Chinese and everybody else pays), *but* , and that´s a big but, the minimum practical shipment is 1 cubic meter (3.5' x 3.5' x3.5') , weighing around 250Kg (around 550 Lb.) which means *a lot* of 10" 60W combos, plus "somebody", duly registered as an Importer in the USA must be on the receiving end.
It also involves International Funds Transfers, etc. , plus I must also be able to provide Electrical Safety certificates, ROHS compliance, etc.
It´s possible, I´m starting to do so to export to Brazil, so it´s possible in the future to do the same in USA, but it´s not quick or easy.
Stay tuned.

[joecool85]

Well, what I said was considering the incredibly expensive Mail or Courier cost per Pound.
Now I´m becoming an Exporter, incorporating my (small) company and all that jazz, tons of red tape, to be able to pay real cheap Container Freight prices (what the commercial Chinese and everybody else pays), *but* , and that´s a big but, the minimum practical shipment is 1 cubic meter (3.5' x 3.5' x3.5') , weighing around 250Kg (around 550 Lb.) which means *a lot* of 10" 60W combos, plus "somebody", duly registered as an Importer in the USA must be on the receiving end.
It also involves International Funds Transfers, etc. , plus I must also be able to provide Electrical Safety certificates, ROHS compliance, etc.
It´s possible, I´m starting to do so to export to Brazil, so it´s possible in the future to do the same in USA, but it´s not quick or easy.
Stay tuned.

I think 60w on a 10" is overkill personally.  Keep it small, lightweight and functional.  It only needs 25-30w power, similar to a Frontman 25r.  In fact, ideally in my mind it would be Fahey version of the Frontman 25r.  You could cut the reverb or keep it for all I care, but the channel switching needs to stay.  Also making it as portable as possible but still really rugged would be ideal.  It could be billed as a light weight gigging amp.

[Loudthud]

Juan, I'm very impressed by your product and your company. Can you post a pic of the inside of the amp?

I'm curious about some of the changes that have occured over the years. Did any versions sound better or worse than others? I'm asking in reference to power amp changes, but preamp or speaker changes are also of interest. Any reliability problems that caused circuit or component changes?

[J M Fahey]

Dear Loudthud, thanks a lot, you´ll make me blush.
I appreciate your words, specially coming from a heavyweight Pro like you.
I'm finishing, to be delivered today, one of my popular 3 channel, 6 input , 100W PA/multipurpose heads, will take some pictures when finished.
I´ve delivered over 10000 amps in 42 years , sound has *permanently* changed to suit customer´s needs and "what´s fashionable at the time".
Musicians often change because of this, I have to adapt.
When I began in 1969, Beatles were still Kings, and anything Fender ruled, so I started copying Blackfaces.
In 1972 tubes dissappeared from Argentina (long story), everybody switched to horrible 6DQ6, only power tube available, I switched to SS, the lesser of two evils.
I clearly heard that there was a big difference between both technologies, and worked *hard* to introduce in "perfect" SS amps all the grit, dirtyness, nonlinearity, etc. to turn them into "rock" amps.
I can honestly say that in 1972/73 I developed, on my own, what 15 years later would be called "Valvestate", go figure.
Since I worked with "Big Name" bands, playing Stadiums,I developed and sold unthinkable (by then) 200W and 400W RMS heads.
*Also* had to develop my own speakers, no cheap and good Eminence here.
As of reliability, always used the standard workhorse available, it does not pay to be fancy when parts disappear 3 or 5 years later.
And for me, "sound comes from the DESIGN, not from the part"
Way back then, it was LM741 and 2N3055 ; then switched to much better RC4558 and finally to incredibly good TL072.
Fake 2N3055 forced me to drop them in around 2007/2008 for TIP142/147 ; I also dropped robust 2N3773 (what I used in the "big" heads) for IRFP250, also because of fakes.
Don´t use chipamps for the planned obsolescence reasons.
I always back up my old clients, 30 years old amps can be repaired to functionally "like new" ones for a fixed price (40% to 50% the "new" price).
*All* my power amp boards from the last 30 years are mounted to the same backpanel/heatsink with the same 2 screws , so they can be exchanged freely, typically when some of them was in the hands of a "tech" who seems to have used a blowtorch to solder.
Well, that´s about it.
Anybody who wants to see some pictures, can browse
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmfahey/page7/
Flickers indexes backwards, so start from the last page and advance to page 1.
It´s in Portuguese because it was hastily put together for my Brazilian customers.
If you want to hear my B300 Bass amplifiers, watch:
http://youtu.be/LpGu0XscQ-o
they are the white front panel, big red led, to the right of the Bass Player´s head. 3 x 300W heads driving 3 x Ampeg 8x10".
To hear some of my tube stuff:
La Renga in River Soccer Stadium (Buenos Aires)
http://youtu.be/2q7bBOusSSY
Guitar: 1 Fahey built into a gutted JCM900 (the only "mod" to make it sound good) + 1 MB DR + 2 Matchless Chieftain 120
Bass: 2 Fahey Rackmount Tube Preamps driving an AB Systems 1500 and a QSC 900 into 4 x Ampeg 8 x 10" .
As I said before, my customers play LOUD !! :duh

As a side note: Argentine Rock is GOOD !!!  <3)
I was lucky to having been able to supply them with Custom Made equipment, wouldn´t have survived the cheap Oriental imports otherwise.

And, why am I still making "small" 100W amps then?
Scarce Big names supply the credibility; thousands of "regular" musicians keep me alive.

[BigPolishJimmy]

Wow!  Your amps look really nice  :tu:

[mexicanyella]

"I think 60w on a 10" is overkill personally.  Keep it small, lightweight and functional.  It only needs 25-30w power, similar to a Frontman 25r."

As someone who likes the sound of little amps cranked hard, I can see where you'd say that, but consider something like an Evans RE150 or RE200 (amps I'd love to try sometime). They're designed for rich, detailed tone and portability, primarily for jazz guys, with 150 or 200 solid-state watts through a 10" speaker.

If you were going for headroom and portability, and giggable volume, that combination of features/dimensions might make an appealing package. But if the onset of speaker distortion mattered to you in terms of getting the tone you were after, yeah, that much power through a 10 might not be the hot setup...I can't say, since I've never pushed a 10 capable of handling that many watts to the point of cone distortion. I do know it can be a fun tone addition with lower-wattage rigs, though.

The Fahey amps do look very nice. I need to check out those video clips and hear 'em.  I

[joecool85]

More important than the video clips, we need to start getting these amps into the states  :dbtu:

[joecool85]

More important than the video clips, we need to start getting these amps into the states  :dbtu:

Any progress on this, Juan?

[J M Fahey]

I'm thinking about sending at least *one*, so as to break the ice.
Being an experiment, it does not matter freight costs more than the amp itself.
Only hope it does not get stopped at Customs because they want a $10000 UL/CE/CSA/etc. certification or something.

[joecool85]

I'm thinking about sending at least *one*, so as to break the ice.
Being an experiment, it does not matter freight costs more than the amp itself.
Only hope it does not get stopped at Customs because they want a $10000 UL/CE/CSA/etc. certification or something.

Where are you sending it?  Do you need my address?  8|