Vintage SS Guitar Amps

[va3ux]

I never see mention of the Gibson Les Paul SS amplifier from the very late '60s/early 70's .  Probably for good reason too.  I played through one in a music store in Hamilton, Ontario and this was probably around 1970 or so.  It was a head/cabinet affair and fairly big . I think the power amp was in the speaker cabinet.  I  recall it being very sterile or metallic sounding.  Never saw another one again and I've never heard it mentioned.

In Canada we also had GBX SS amps during the 1970's. I don't think there were any combo amps, just head/cabinet sets. I remember thinking they were awesome looking at the time. They appear on eBay every once in a while.

Another SS amp I'll never forget from the 70's is a Yamaha amp that was like a 4  foot tall pyramid. Sort of like a piece of pie standing upright.

So there's some additional vintage SS amp history for you.

[elberto]

interesting discussion about  Bluetone amps from diystompboxes a couple years back:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=25368.0

I love the Peavey Bandit!  I've had the idea of remounting an 80s one in a head cabinet for a bandit half stack on the back burner for a while now.

[slideman82]

Eeeeer... I'm looking for Tube Works 7200 Mos Valve schematic... 100W bass amp... sounded great! But FET-Tube switch wasn't working, I think

[Jack1962]

interesting discussion about  Bluetone amps from diystompboxes a couple years back:

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=25368.0

I love the Peavey Bandit!  I've had the idea of remounting an 80s one in a head cabinet for a bandit half stack on the back burner for a while now.

I have one of those bandit 112's those a killer little amps plenty of volume , yes that would be a great project and hey if you build a matching 4X12 cab loaded with scopions you"ll have a rockin little half stack brother.


                                             Rock On

[Moander]

Personally, I like the Tube Works / Mosvalve line....

I use two of their amps as primary gear, depending on where I'm playing....

The MV-962 Stereo amp, can be used Mono, pure power amp, no pre.....turn it up, gets loud, but stays 'clean'.....

The other item I use is the RT-2100 2x12, which also came in a 1x12... this is a 2 channel, one dirty, one clean, ybrid, having one 12ax7 tube in the preamp.... this also has an effects loop.....

At my age, and in the never-ending (ended for me tho search for tone, I stumbled on these amps about 15 years ago. I swear by em...

Check the reviews on the MV-962 at Harmony Central...

[Jack1962]

Oh Brother the quest for tone never ends  :lmao:

                                                Rock On

[R.G.]

I'll get a lot of flack for this in some circles, but some of the best SS amps ever made were the Thomas Organ Vox amps. The "big head" set, Viscount, Buckingham, Royal Guardsman and Beatle amps shared the same internal circuits, and had a lot of advanced features for the time, as well as a really decent sound. I view them as midway between what the world thinks of SS amps in general and highly regarded tube amps; better, certainly, than some tube amps.

But I'm a Vox nut.

I recently finished PCB layouts for the Vox line. These replacements are the same circuit, but cut up into bite sized pieces to minimize the internal wiring. For instance: for the brilliant channel, the PCB is about 1.5" by 3.5", and is designed to mount on the back of the volume, bass, and treble controls with adhesive standoffs. All the wires to the three pots, the two jacks, and the switch are local, about 2-3" long and right off the PCB. The only wires outside the "local group" are the power, ground, output signal and remote switch line for the MRB. Ditto the normal and bass channels. The other PCBs to finish this out are the tremolo PCB, Reverb PCB, and mixer/limiter. All are designed to be physically placed right on top of where all their controls are to minimize wire lengths, the bane of the TV amps. I also redid the power amp board, fits the same position as the original, but is a fresh layout and puts the driver transistor on a heat sink on the PCB.

I mention this because someone needs to make a test set of boards to verify them...

[J M Fahey]

I understand that you have drawn them, but not physically made them yet?
Will you upgrade an already existing one or build a new one from scratch?
Either way, congratulations and good luck.

[teemuk]

I recently finished PCB layouts for the Vox line...

Interesting. As I'm also in the process of designing a "modular" amplifier that spreads many of its functions to different PC boards I really started to worry how well such a scattered setup will actually work because there will be ample amount of common wiring passing from one PC board to another. Since Mr. Murphy will surely have his fingers in the outcome I'm quite worried that the whole thing could end up being pestered by some very nasty ground loops.

I'm quite an enthusiastic to know how well your setup works...

[R.G.]

I understand that you have drawn them, but not physically made them yet?

That's correct. I did them from a schematic capture in a PCB design suite, so if I drew the schematic correctly, the PCBs are electrically correct. Frankly, physically making them is the most time consuming but least technically challenging part of the process. I probably average a PCB a week, and most of those go into volume production one way or another. Not having physically made them is the smallest portion of the worries about whether they'll work or not; although I would snicker at that statement coming from a beginner, too. 

Will you upgrade an already existing one or build a new one from scratch?

Well, the whole point of the exercise is to replace the old existing ones. They were good enough for their time, but are a disaster by today's standards. Upgrading existing ones is an exercise in frustration because of the huge amount of point to point wiring inside the old Thomas Vox amps.

Interesting. As I'm also in the process of designing a "modular" amplifier that spreads many of its functions to different PC boards I really started to worry how well such a scattered setup will actually work because there will be ample amount of common wiring passing from one PC board to another. Since Mr. Murphy will surely have his fingers in the outcome I'm quite worried that the whole thing could end up being pestered by some very nasty ground loops.

It does take some clear thinking about what signal is on what wire.  As a practical matter, I have a fair amount of experience with this kind of thing. The partitioning of the amp onto local functionally oriented boards is almost custom made for star grounding - and star power distribution as well. Both of these are some prescriptive measures for eliminating ground and power loops. And with the vast majority of wires being short ones, the chances of success are much improved. The nice thing about isolating the signal routing to a few places, perhaps one or two from each board, is that you can use shielded wire and have it mean something.

But no, you can't wire it in a random way and have it come out well.

[R.G.]

What may not have been obvious in what I said here is that I'd like for someone with some prototyping skills to try these layouts out. As a practical matter, it could be some months before I get to it. What's involved is making the PCBs from either toner transfer or photo positive processes, then populating and testing them. Any interested parties?

[gbono]

Do you have GERBER files for these boards? I might be interested in building and testing your boards or you - do you have all the components or a usable BOM?

[J M Fahey]

Hi CB95.
Since you have no experience , you could consider the Randall RG preamp which uses Fets, is reasonably simple and very good, coupled to any power amp you can get easily in Turkey.
Mensur made a killer one, search for the posts and listen to his MP3s.
I visited Istambul 20 years ago, and in music shops everywhere they had those small amplifiers, with two oval 6x9" car radio speakers.
What's the situation now?
I'd love to be today sipping some Tea, Coffee or refreshing Ayran on a Ferry Boat along the Bosphorus or visiting the Grand Bazaar or Topkapi Palace.

[R.G.]

Do you have GERBER files for these boards? I might be interested in building and testing your boards or you - do you have all the components or a usable BOM?

Yes, I have - well, OK, can generate instantly - gerber and BOMs. Release of Gerber would require nondisclosure and non-compete agreements enforceable in the jurisdiction where you live, though. I've enabled entirely too many commercial enterprises already to do more of them.

[gbono]

Okay, you have the GERBER files, what about the components? Are you asking someone to purchase materials? No problem with an NDA or whatever. IMHO patents are a waste of resources unless you have the $$ to defend them. http://www.tinaja.com/glib/when2pat.pdf

I worked for a company that had the laywers and $$ to get what ever they wanted and unless you were able to spend serious money to defend yourself in court you lost and they won - they won a lot.