Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: hunter on August 26, 2010, 03:51:00 PM

Title: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 26, 2010, 03:51:00 PM

I've been wanting one of these forever and now I got one - at a good price even. Black chassis very very early series, even got still the small logo and bue filter caps.

The tubes were I think the first ones, totally dead, power tubes biased in on 16mA where they should be close to 30. Retubed it right aways with what I had here. This amp has some serious tone, even very nice cleans, too!

Love it!

Yeah I know I am a bad amp whore, but I will sell some stuff, have to!
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: fr33man1 on August 26, 2010, 03:56:48 PM
Friend got the roadhouse 30 combo, slays for light crunchs, sparkling cleans to heavy rock.Even if I'm more metal I enjoyed those babies. Nice buy hunter.  :)
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 26, 2010, 04:27:53 PM
If you turn it up a bit and with the right guitar, this one is actually a quite heavy amp.

Reminds me of an SLO with a bit different mids, it has an immense punch in the chest and while very open and articulate, sustains for days and feeds back in the best musical way.

Even sounds great with all EQ on 10! And it sounds good with cheap tubes, quite a surprise (but so does the Soldano).

Only downside is that when the gain is up and you leave the guitar volume open, its a bit noisy. But I dont care so much, most high gainers are.
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: d1dsj on August 26, 2010, 06:19:02 PM
Beautiful! Glad you got one bud... I love mine too. I've got Philips NOS short bottles in mine and Harma Retro Pre amp valves. It sounds more alive now, more responsive and more headroom. I agree ref the noise with the gain up and I've gotten used to it now. However I have found that Cornfords are very sensitive to where you plug them into the mains, they don't like sharing multiblocks or 2/3/4 gang extension leads so I try to keep ine away from everything else. If that's the one on Ebay last week you got lucky... great price... I very nearly bid that up to £1000 but I managed to control myself as I'm broke! Lol. The early ones have better components compared the newer ones and the insides look like a work of art. I've tried loads of amps with the exception of the XTC so what are your thoughts when A/B ing them? I know the cleans won't compare, but the crunch and drive?

Anyway, congrats on buying what is IMO one of the very best straight ahead rock and roll amps! Enjoy.
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Brow on August 26, 2010, 06:27:43 PM
Is that the 1 I was watching on Ebay last week?  :lol:
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: PPPMAT on August 26, 2010, 07:44:08 PM
Always fancied a go on one but never found anyone with one in stock. Looks great
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 26, 2010, 08:06:50 PM
Beautiful! Glad you got one bud... I love mine too. I've got Philips NOS short bottles in mine and Harma Retro Pre amp valves. It sounds more alive now, more responsive and more headroom. I agree ref the noise with the gain up and I've gotten used to it now. However I have found that Cornfords are very sensitive to where you plug them into the mains, they don't like sharing multiblocks or 2/3/4 gang extension leads so I try to keep ine away from everything else. If that's the one on Ebay last week you got lucky... great price... I very nearly bid that up to £1000 but I managed to control myself as I'm broke! Lol. The early ones have better components compared the newer ones and the insides look like a work of art. I've tried loads of amps with the exception of the XTC so what are your thoughts when A/B ing them? I know the cleans won't compare, but the crunch and drive?

Anyway, congrats on buying what is IMO one of the very best straight ahead rock and roll amps! Enjoy.

Lucky me as I bid up to 1,005GBP, if you had gone to 1,000 I'd have paid a lot more for it ;)
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Ribboz on August 26, 2010, 08:17:29 PM
It's funny you brought up the SLO, I still laugh(in a good way) How simple they seem on the inside, JUST LIKE this amp. :D Amazing isn't it!
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: d1dsj on August 26, 2010, 08:19:22 PM
Ha ha... nice one. I couldn't afford it at this moment in time but I do want another black chassis.

So have you owned an SLO too? I have heard clips where they are compared to the SLO and thought it was a very similar sounding amp. I also compared my old black chassis to the MKII I bought and the older ones have a much fuller, beefier sound with a bigger bottom end. The only amp that has me wondering is the XTC!
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 26, 2010, 08:22:52 PM
The only amp that has me wondering is the XTC!

I got them both now, both first series, the XTC is going nowhere, still sounds amazing, but different to the MK.

I also agree regarding the low number of components. The less you got in an amp, the less can get in the way of the tone. The XTC is a very different animal, but while it's still open and punchy, it's not as pure sounding as the MK50. The XTC has a huuge amount of filter caps inside, and I think you can hear that.
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: fr33man1 on August 26, 2010, 08:36:33 PM
I like my einstein and since it died quickly on arrival (cr@p tubes from former owner) I had not the chance to dial in some sounds I really enjoyed, will be done with my new cab on its way.

But last week I tried out a soldano hot rod + and damn, it spanked me if I can say it this way. So dynamic, crunchy and heavy. If that baby has the same feel to it, sure its a nice riffing machine. I'm getting more and more tempted by simple stuff, almost no knobs amps, easy to dial in and fired up with some nice bkps or p90.  :P

Waiting for some heavy miracle man' sg riffs :).
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 26, 2010, 09:42:11 PM
I'm getting more and more tempted by simple stuff, almost no knobs amps, easy to dial in and fired up with some nice bkps or p90.  :P

Waiting for some heavy miracle man' sg riffs :).

Truth!

And the SG Clips, I will do. Put also a RY in the neck now, I love the RY neck!
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Denim n Leather on August 27, 2010, 03:14:18 AM
Enjoy!
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Tellboy on August 27, 2010, 08:07:27 AM
Great - would love an MK50 to keep my Hellcat and Hurricane company -  the early MK50's certainly seemed to have their own vibe. Both my amps can be a little noisy when the gain is turned up.   
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 27, 2010, 08:36:42 AM
Waiting for some heavy miracle man' sg riffs :).

There you have it (well, heavy in a late 60s sense  :lol:)

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=22114.0
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: dave_mc on August 27, 2010, 11:39:15 AM
nice!

Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Keven on August 27, 2010, 01:20:55 PM
I'm sorry i have to say this, but damn you hunter. your home is amp heaven from what i've seen on this forum :D

great purchase!
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 27, 2010, 05:06:35 PM
I'm sorry i have to say this, but damn you hunter. your home is amp heaven from what i've seen on this forum :D

great purchase!

Dude, the grass is always greener on the other side :)

There are some guys who have really SERIOUS collections, 20 amps and more, 50 guitars from the 60s and 70s and more, I am just a small nerd  8)

Let's wait a few weeks to see how things turn out, but this could well become my most favourite amp!

Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Twinfan on August 30, 2010, 06:36:48 PM
I thought that was the AxeFx..............
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Matt77 on August 30, 2010, 08:44:30 PM
Dave
Gentleman don't bring up another man's dirty past
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: hunter on August 30, 2010, 08:46:23 PM
Dave
Gentleman don't bring up another man's dirty past

All experiences are good if you wanne become experienced  :)
Title: Re: New Amp Day - Handwired in UK
Post by: Twinfan on August 30, 2010, 08:55:36 PM
:lol:

We all knew you'd get back on the hard stuff after a while  ;)