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Messages - PhredE

#1
No worries. Good luck on the power amp.

And, doh! /smacks forehead ..you can always use the Joyo American in front of your amp to 'shape' the tone -- it really does Fender tones quite well <<forgot to mention the obvious in my earlier post. ..oh well.  You can even go straight out into headphones with it too.  It's a pretty versatile and interesting little beast.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes..
#2
Hi all. Sorry, I haven't been around in a while.
I was lurking/spying on this thread, it's interesting (and I'll profess a bias toward Fender 'clean' tones..)

exztinct01, was just wondering..
It sounds like you're intent on building your own amp as a solution, but was wondering if you boosted your signal going direct into the mixer using an emulator type pedal/box (that does 'Fender tones') if that might help get you closer (?).  Don't know if your PA/mixer is up to the task, but if it is, then maybe that is a reasonable workaround (assuming you want one of course..) ?

I stick a Joyo American Sound in the front of my signal chain and eventually run it into my smaller Fender SS amp, and really love it.  It gets a range of good Fender-type tones and can really boost up the signal quite a bit (can be noisy... depending on settings). It supposedly has basic speaker emulation included as well.  I will attest, it can do a pretty good Bassman, good range of standard 'cleans' -- eg Twin,  etc. and even some classic tweed sounds as well.  I really love that thing.  It's the best $35 I've ever spent on anything gear-wise.  Reference:
http://www.amazon.com/Joyo-JF-14-American-Amplifier-Simulation/dp/B007L0CH8K

Well, it's just a thought (maybe not even a good  nor practical one).. good luck to you just the same.

#3
Hi robdean,

Hey, thanks! I will give that a look. 
#4
phatt,

Thanks.  That's about what I suspected I was up against. I will work through  those suggestions as a starting point -- hopefully over the weekend. I'll post back here to give some feedback for anyone lurking that might be interested..

Thanks again!
#5
Hi guys,

Hey, I suspect the issue of The Piledriver DIY pedal has come up before, but I found no reference to it (and searched, to no avail).  Anyway, I thought I might throw this out to more experienced and technically adept (eg. everyone but me!).

I built the Piledriver boost pedal several months ago. It works pretty well and as claimed.  It appears to be simple design based on the BS170 MosFET.
http://www.modkitsdiy.com/pedal/piledriver

To be sure, I do like it and it works fine.  Heck, I built it and it works -- my first DIY pedal -- so, I guess I should be happy with it and leave it at that.
But.. As designed, it sounds fairly good -- considering the simplicity of it.  It has good gain overall with some clipping/breakup when the pot is dialed up around max.   However, the one thing it really leaves lacking is any ability to tweak the 'tone'. Is there a component(s) that can be swapped or a location where I can 'insert' a pot to give basic ability to tweak treble/mid/bass ?  If so, this thing would be about 4x more useful to me.

Here is the schematic (openly posted in public from distributor's site, so I don't believe there is any problem including a link here -- to the best of my knowledge):
http://www.modkitsdiy.com/sites/modkitsdiy.com/files/product_files/the_piledriver_schematic.pdf

Anyway, thanks in advance. I'll happily listen to all your comments and suggestions.
#6
dwq1031, I sent you a PM.  Please check for it.  If, for some reason, it didn't get through to you, please say so here and I'll happily re-send it.

Good luck.  If you get a good one, you will probably be happy with it.
#7
Quote from: Roly on May 19, 2015, 07:51:18 AM
Quote from: PhredEb). burned power resistors  (mine was a nice tone of brown! - supposed to be ivory white)

And when they get really hot they turn snowy white again.  I've seen these glowing red hot, carbonised the laminate and burned a hole right through a PCB.  Pretty hard to kill these ceramic wirewounds.  ;)

I measured the resistance and mine went way, way off spec.  So, I swapped them out and later found the transformer was the culprit. Doh! (smacks forehead).  Oh well. Al least I didn't do it the other way around...
#8
Greetings all.

Hi guys.

FWIW, I had a Princeton 112 "Plus" model and happen to have the schematic sitting here on my computer (.pdf of course).  I *think* the only difference between the "Plus" and standard version of the SS Princeton 112 at that time was the power rating.  I believe, most or all the rest is very, very similar.

I had the Princeton 112 Plus (bought new in 1993) and loved it.  I never used the "Gain" / distortion channel, but the clean channel and the 2-way tone stack sounded quite good on it. Fender also did the old trick of using a linear taper pot for the volume control so it got loud really quick when turning it up, but after 4/5 it didn't seem to change much  :lmao:

Anyway, mine died about 1.5 yrs ago and I dismembered and re-used quite a lot of it.  As I recall, I researched the failures that amp series experienced and found some pretty common problem areas/components (these will probably sounds really darn familiar to subject matter experts here -- [ I am a mere newbie at all this...]):

a). bad / tired / burned filter caps 
b). burned power resistors  (mine was a nice tone of brown! - supposed to be ivory white)
c). failing Opamp or transistor in the preamp stage
d). toasted transformer
e). and, of course, the all too common broken solder joint (I found more than one on mine).
(etc)

Well, ok. That's all I've got. Good luck just the same.

PS. Oh, I see I have the old main board sitting here behind me.  I removed a good number of components, but most of the rest is still here.
#9
Amplifier Discussion / Re: Frontman 25R mods
March 16, 2015, 12:03:37 AM
It's late Sunday evening, but I am glad I bothered to lurk back here..

Alex, Roly's advice is very good (as always I have noticed). So let that be a good reference or guide with regard to the speaker situation.  I built a cabinet very similar to what Roly described (12" speaker in 50 ltr+ cabinet) and am very happy with it.  The bass/bottom end is almost overkill, but I can tame it via EQ and 'tone' adjustments.  Fender SS amp with big sealed speakers can produce a big 'boxy' and 'boomy' sound -- so be ready to twiddle with the tone settings a bit until you get a sound you like.

Also, just wanted to mention or offer, that in general Fender SS amps take pedals and [external] preamps pretty well.  My experience has been, that when I reach a point where I feel something is lacking soundwise, I put another gadget into the signal chain (compressor, EQ, noise gate, etc) and can usually get what I want by refining the 'baseline tone' without having to change amps. 
I should note that my 'metal days' are long since behind me (ah yes, power chords on the bridge pickup with a tube amp dimed out...  :duh) but, now prefer a cleaner jazz/blues type tone with only a hint of breakup when I push things.   8)

One of the best sounding combos I ever had (pun intended) was my 1990s era Princeton 112+ Reverb (the 65W combo with 12" speaker) boosted by my B. K. Butler REAL TUBE (single 12AX7 tube preamp).  Oh man, that was tone to die for....
#10
Amplifier Discussion / Re: Frontman 25R mods
March 15, 2015, 12:57:35 PM
Since Alex318798 is located in Brazil.. this tidbit may be worth considering (re: speaker replacement, etc)

I just replaced an 8" (8ohm) speaker in a small Fender "Champ"  SS amp.
After doing a bit of searching, I ended buying one of these and absolutely love it:
http://www.jblselenium.com.br/marcas/upload/92bfa5f243b04dbb0f536749ec68ef94.pdf

It's made in Brazil under/by the Selenium JBL brand. Apparently, JBL bought Selenium and now many of the Selenium branded speakers are being made available as buyout/clearance type items.  I got mine from Parts Express for $25USD.   Although, it's nominally listed as a "PA" type driver, it works well for a small guitar combo amp -- surprisingly well in fact.  If you read the reviews posted by users here:   http://www.parts-express.com/selenium-8pw3-slf-8-driver-8-ohm--264-330 you'll see that nearly everyone that uses it as a guitar (or even bass, in some cases) reports very favorable results with it.  Build or buy a cabinet for it (the Q factors are pretty high, so it pairs best with a rather large box..) and viola! great tone, power-handling in a compact size.

The 8PW3 has:
good freq. response for guitar (70-8000Hz)
good power handling (125W RMS)
"8ohm impedance" (measured mine at 6.9 ohm)
reasonable sensitivity/SPL (92db)
..oh, and a nice balanced tone too.

If you don't like the 8" driver, maybe check out a 10" or 12" as well.

Hope this helps,

-PhE
#11
While I didn't own the 4x10 version, I did have a G100-112 a long, long time ago (early 1980s)... I loved it. Sorry I sold that one.  As I recall, it had a really nice 'cleans'.  For $50, yes, that is quite a find.

#12
Amplifier Discussion / Re: Mod a Squire SP-10 amp.
March 09, 2015, 08:32:28 PM
Hi. Thanks for the replies.

QuoteYeah, through the goat track of the connector, and onto the six lane autobahn to the speaker.
Yeah, I'd say that's about right  :lmao:

Quote
Interesting use of acoustic tiles lining the cab; will be interested to hear how that turns out in practice.  Most guitarists seem to favor cabs that are a bit more "lively" than for Hi-Fi.

I'm glad you mentioned that.  My brother (a musician [bass, keyboards, etc]) suggested those.  I was pretty skeptical about the idea, but tried them and was pretty happy with the result. I tried polyfill too, but liked the tiles better. They tighten up the low-end nicely (sort of compensates for that 'boominess' of SS Fender amps). I still play with EQ and tone controls a bunch to be sure though.  If I decide I don't like the tiles, I can always take them out and stuff some polyfill back in there.  Honestly, it resonates/vibrates more than I ever imagined.

From my earlier years of classical guitar playing.. the body of a quality classical guitar is made of: 1. a solid piece of spruce or cedar for a top, combined with, 2. hard/solid pieces of rosewood/mahogany/etc.. for back and sides etc.  (varies, of course).. eg, a  'bare' wooden box of good quality to carry the sound.

Consider.. If MDF is so great, why isn't it used to make quality acoustic instruments? And.. Back in the 'old days' (eg. before advent of electronic amplification), classical guitarists used to play concerts for hundreds or thousands of people -- with only a mere box of vibrating wood to project the sound! 
#13
Amplifier Discussion / Re: Mod a Squire SP-10 amp.
March 08, 2015, 02:55:36 PM
Quote from: Roly on March 08, 2015, 03:12:15 AM
Really nice build, cab and amp.   :dbtu:
Ah, thanks very much. :) Well, I am a total novice/amateur, so even I had low expectations! 

Quote
- speakers don't actually need welding cable (but it does look cool).
LOL, kinda happened by accident that way.  I didn't have any other wire around at the time and was heading to the hardware store later in the day ( a local ACE in this case).
Anyway, I saw these big spools of 'speaker wire' and thought..."hey, I need some" -- so picked up some... and just went home stripped the ends, applied a little solder, and forgot about it.  It's heavy gauge for the task to be sure, but at least I know there won't be a bottleneck from jack to speaker!

Quote
- sticky tape for joint insulation.  Experience shows that even backed up with cable ties, this plastic tape eventually falls off (leaving a sticky mess).  Heatshrink is the go. :tu:
Yeah, I am still tweaking this as I write. I can probably go back and do the heatshrink to several of those connections.  There are too many I had to actually strip/connect, I used twist ties to get it up and test, and haven't done much since then... so, I will take your suggestion to heart and finish it up completely.  I think the black electrical tape was to just group the wires bundles -- not finished, still playing with it. Plus, I totally agree, I am not a fan of plastic/vinyl/etc for purposes like these.

Sorry, for beating the dead horse on this thread.  I'll pipe down for a bit. :-[  :)
#14
Amplifier Discussion / Re: Mod a Squire SP-10 amp.
March 07, 2015, 08:42:04 PM
OK, let's have a look at these things I referred to earlier:

Speaker cab.:






SP-10 Amp "Head":






#15
Amplifier Discussion / Re: Mod a Squire SP-10 amp.
March 07, 2015, 07:43:38 PM
I will comply. I will comply!