Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: FELINEGUITARS on November 30, 2009, 11:59:01 AM
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Better late than never - I have had time to evaluate and play with my amp that HTH (Heavier Than Hell) made for me
Many of you will have seen the amp pictured already but I have finally made a couple of video cips one describing the amp and another clip playing through it.
Here is a written description:
This is a custom built amp made for me here in the UK by HTH amplification.
Because I only play at home and have been frustrated that 50w and 100w heads are totally impractical for use at home or in a small studio I started being into small class A amps.
My big disappointment was that these amps really didn't get close to the sound of the big Marshalls, Soldanos or Mesa amps because they used a small bottle tube like an EL84 or maybe a 6v6 , and that the amount of gain was pretty small and range of controls was often just volume and tone.
Once I had tried a Cornell Romany 10w combo which takes either a 6L6 or an EL34 and found that it did sound like a big amp - albeit a clean Fender blackface type amp I knew that we could get a lot closer to what I wanted (and I was't dreaming)
In discussing the amp I wanted with Ian at HTH I pretty much laid it on the line - I wanted to have a hot-rodded Marshall type amp that could handle classic rock and the 80s hair metal rock as well.
I wanted an amp that could do the classic rock stuff like Zeppelin, Free, Ac/DC, UFO, Whitesnake etc but also one that could get the sounds of certain 80s players, whose Marshalls had been modified by techs such as Tim Caswell,, Lee Jackson or Jose Arredondo .
In particular I was keen on the sound of the MArshall amp that Tim Caswell modified for S.I.R. Studios - the famous 39 amp that Slash used n Appetite and George Lynch was obsessed with and toured on the Under Lock and Key tour.
With my taste in players being George Lynch, Slash, Michael Schenker, Matthias Jabs (Scorpions) as well as old schol players like Page, Kossoff etc - I had high hopes for the amp.
We ended up making it so it was like a hot plexi - with an extra valve stage that could be cascaded in front of that sound and both gain stages controlled from separtae gain controls
We added a couple of other features.
One is a Lee Jackson style mid range boost control that has 6 positions on a switch - adding a more and more pronounced hump in the mids.
The other feature which is much more subtle but great to have if you are an amp tweaker is a variable slope control - which replaces the slope resistor in the tone stack. In simple terms turned one way the amp sounds more like a Marshall in response and the tone controls have a slightly reduced effect when used and turned the other way the amp has more of a Fender like vbe and the tone controls have a more dramatic effect.
It's very versatile - a footswitch switches between the plexi mode and the hot-rodded mode which makes it really practical as well.
There is a great tube driven FX loop on the back and a switch that rests the bias so you can use different power tubes. I currently have a NOS Siemens EL34 in there although I have tried A USA made 6CA7 (just like EVH likes and Lynch used them too). It will take KT66s, 6L6, 6V6, EL34,6550s etc
For the chassis and cab we got lucky and found an old mid 80s 30w Marshall transistor combo which had a G12m70 speaker and was in good condition. We stripped all the amp guts out of the chassis and built from scratch. We finished it off with some custom fascia plates
Here are the videos:
Me talking about the amp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8Tww3gw_M (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8Tww3gw_M)
Me playing with the amp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swmb4P0EDXg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swmb4P0EDXg)
HTH has made a couple of short clips with it as well
This one is just the amp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut38iY4-h7o (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut38iY4-h7o)
This one is the amp with his valve Overdrive pedal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMPIJpjA3U (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMPIJpjA3U)
Another with the valve pedal - more gain this time (and ZZ Top)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPU44xpGMD0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPU44xpGMD0)
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good videos Jonathan
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Good presentation and demo.
I wonder if I can get one in snakeskin :twisted:
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Should carry a warning for 1980's German rock content...
:-)
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I guess it should :twisted:
I will try to add some Whitesnake, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Great White , Motley Crue & Dokken etc to even it up a bit :P
To be fair you had Kiss and RAtt in there representing the USA
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Sounds great, like the cleans quite a lot too.
Goes up to 11? Or are my eyes losing it
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sounds great :)
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Sounds fantastic Jonathan ( & HTH) and I have had the pleasure of playing my Strat though it and I know just how musical this amp is.
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Sounds great, like the cleans quite a lot too.
Goes up to 11? Or are my eyes losing it
Of course it goes up to 11
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Just done another clip using the amp as the coire tone
Wanted to do a quick shootout between 3 distortion pedals
HBE Big D
Wampler Pinnacle
Hoochee Mama
Here is the new clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7UIYTAhvo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB7UIYTAhvo)
Playing isn't fantastic but gives an idea of the pedals sounds
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nice, thanks.
Just out of interest, how noisy is your HBE big D? Mine is fairly noisy, i picked it up second hand on ebay, am a bit paranoid it's dodgy. :( Could just be my power supply, though, i guess. :lol:
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It's a little noisy but not too bad
The Wampler is far worse
EDIT: I'd love to rebuild the Big D using larger size components : bigger size pots ,carbon comp resisters and boutique style caps - wouldn't need the bigger control , but would probably end up in a bigger box to fit itr all in
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I have a wampler pinnacle, its the worst pedal ive ever owned. :?
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the knobs going to 11 was THE major requirement from Jonathan :lol:
the cleans on the amp are really nice too - with the gain set low you can really nail some BF Fender tones.
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the knobs going to 11 was THE major requirement from Jonathan :lol:
But of course - it's one louder innit!!
A reminder for the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY)
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the knobs going to 11 was THE major requirement from Jonathan :lol:
But of course - it's one louder innit!!
A reminder for the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY)
Classic! I also love the part just earlier where he talks about the sustain of one of his LPs. That's funny too!
And come to think og it. Did Marshalls go to 11 before This is Spinal Tap or is it something they made up for the movie?
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the knobs going to 11 was THE major requirement from Jonathan :lol:
But of course - it's one louder innit!!
A reminder for the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY)
Classic! I also love the part just earlier where he talks about the sustain of one of his LPs. That's funny too!
you could go for a bite to eat and that one would still be playing :lol:
And come to think og it. Did Marshalls go to 11 before This is Spinal Tap or is it something they made up for the movie?
they made it up for the movie
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the knobs going to 11 was THE major requirement from Jonathan :lol:
But of course - it's one louder innit!!
A reminder for the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY)
Classic! I also love the part just earlier where he talks about the sustain of one of his LPs. That's funny too!
you could go for a bite to eat and that one would still be playing :lol:
And come to think og it. Did Marshalls go to 11 before This is Spinal Tap or is it something they made up for the movie?
they made it up for the movie
Now knowing that they made it up for the movie leads me to this question: How many Marshall models do now go to 11?
Oh and by the way. Nice sounding amp. I like the idea of combining a plexi and hot rotted Marshall in one amp and I would love to try out the amp myself.
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They had Nigel explain the JCM900, which went to 20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwuZePiQHLI Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKVgqcLwlfQ Part 2
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They had Nigel explain the JCM900, which went to 20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwuZePiQHLI Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKVgqcLwlfQ Part 2
I want an "amp capo " now
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It's a little noisy but not too bad
The Wampler is far worse
EDIT: I'd love to rebuild the Big D using larger size components : bigger size pots ,carbon comp resisters and boutique style caps - wouldn't need the bigger control , but would probably end up in a bigger box to fit itr all in
yeah, i heard a lot of squealing out of the wampler in your video, i don't think my big D is as noisy as your wampler. Thanks :)
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What OT did you use here HTH? and did u decide to use a Conjunctive Filter?
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What OT did you use here HTH? and did u decide to use a Conjunctive Filter?
It was a huge chuck of iron - a Hammond 125GSE.
The Hammond stuff is really nice, can't complain with the results I've had from them at all.
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Yea the GSE is a huge chunk, nice.
Im a Heyboer guy I've not tried the Hammond stuff yet but I've never been particularly keen on any of the tones coming from Hammond based builds, but then again yours sounds pretty damn good.
Guess it depends on what you're after tonally, But I really do rate the Heyboer kit.
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We toyed with getting a Mercury Magnetics for it but the cost was just too high
The Hammond tranny is pretty big - this amp weighs a lot for a 10W one
It started life as this (or at least the box, chassis and speaker did - we gutted the rest):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v662/felineguitars/amps/30wMarshall.jpg)
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the knobs going to 11 was THE major requirement from Jonathan :lol:
But of course - it's one louder innit!!
A reminder for the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY)
Classic! I also love the part just earlier where he talks about the sustain of one of his LPs. That's funny too!
you could go for a bite to eat and that one would still be playing :lol:
And come to think og it. Did Marshalls go to 11 before This is Spinal Tap or is it something they made up for the movie?
they made it up for the movie
How about this from XKCD:
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spinal_tap_amps.png)
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Yea the GSE is a huge chunk, nice.
Im a Heyboer guy I've not tried the Hammond stuff yet but I've never been particularly keen on any of the tones coming from Hammond based builds, but then again yours sounds pretty damn good.
Guess it depends on what you're after tonally, But I really do rate the Heyboer kit.
If they are correctly specified I bet they sound exactly the same!
And especially through the youtube compression/encoding, I bet only unicorns and elves can hear the difference :D
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We toyed with getting a Mercury Magnetics for it but the cost was just too high
The Hammond tranny is pretty big - this amp weighs a lot for a 10W one
An OT in a single-ended amp will be much (sorry should be) much bigger than the OT in a push pull amp of equal power.
I've had very good results with Hammond transformers; they are very well built and can withstand quite a lot of abuse. My only real gripes are that they have two many winding/taps and that wiring the secondary in there OTs so that you can match different loads can be tiresome.
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How about this from XKCD:
(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spinal_tap_amps.png)
:lol:
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We toyed with getting a Mercury Magnetics for it but the cost was just too high
The Hammond tranny is pretty big - this amp weighs a lot for a 10W one
An OT in a single-ended amp will be much (sorry should be) much bigger than the OT in a push pull amp of equal power.
I've had very good results with Hammond transformers; they are very well built and can withstand quite a lot of abuse. My only real gripes are that they have two many winding/taps and that wiring the secondary in there OTs so that you can match different loads can be tiresome.
thats actually one of things I like about the Hammond gear - you can mess around with the primary Z and see what sounds best. there is whats correct by the book and what sounds best.
as for the Heyboer stuff - do they make Marstran OTs ??? (or is that schumacker ???)
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Just got a chance to listen to the amp clips. Excellent.
Back to the 80s!!
I particularly like the Plexi clips.
Does the boost switch in another valve stage? Where relays used for the switching?
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Just got a chance to listen to the amp clips. Excellent.
Back to the 80s!!
I particularly like the Plexi clips.
Does the boost switch in another valve stage? Where relays used for the switching?
yep, the boost switch changes the structure of the amp from plexi to JCM800 (in a wider sense). there are of course quite a few deviations from either spec to get the amp sounding like a cranked plexi and hotrodded JCM800 respectively.
I used a 12v DPDT relay for the switching - first time I'd used relays, worked a treat. Instant switch-over and no pops.
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That's a lovely amp. Sounds excellent!
-Zaned