Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Frank on July 31, 2012, 06:17:53 PM
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Seriously? What's the catch here?
http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Belcat-Tube-H50R-50W-All-Valve-Guitar-Amp-Stack/KRJ
Other than the brand name, obviously.
Even if it's not the greatest sounding amp in the world, might be worth buying one just to mod it into something else!
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Id grab that and make it into something divine sounding!
People would expect utter cr@p as they've probably never heard of the company and then be surprised.
I got given an ashdown head that I was going to do this for however the 12ax7 holes in the chassis were about the size of a jam jar base as the sockets were all pcb mounted. Im trying to figure out a sturdy and visually pleasing way to remedy this.
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Just started digging up clips on YouTube, not bad sounding gear, actually!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQASnguxriE
[Edit] Found some more semi-to-decent quality vids, and becoming more and more impressed with the sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfhTB78J-4A
I wonder if they just blow up all the time or something, heh.
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No, you're meant to be giving me reasons NOT to buy one.
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Oh it could have the bugera fire & smoke mod as standard.
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k, I watched the second clip where the guy ran it clean and I didn't hear a sound from it that I didn't love.
£220 for an all-tube combo with Celestion speaker?
World's gone mad.
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I found this thread on UG: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1526954
Seems like nobody really knows much about them. Two people so far either own / have tried them and love them.
For someone like me where money is freaking tight it really might be worth having a go. Can always return it if it's not up to my needs. My only problem is that on the Belcat site there's a more "Rock" looking aesthetic which I'd prefer but g4m only do the brown one. Ugh... :?
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50 watt all tube Peavey Classic 2x12 tweed combo for sale in seconds out... 8)
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I need a head and cab, sorry. >_<
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They do a 5w twin channel head for £99.00 too, wow, thats insane...
http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Belcat-Tube-H5-Guitar-Amp-Head/HMG
It even LOOKS good too...
(http://www.gear4music.com/media/40591/600/preview.jpg)
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i suspect the cabinet isn't ply... i know i emailed them about the little 1x10 cab and it was mdf iirc.
regarding the amp... haven't tried it. Heard some reasonable things about it, but obviously that's just hearsay. And I've only heard a little, it's not like i know of 200 people who have it and like it, lol.
also iirc the amp only has an 8 ohm out, so that might be annoying, too.
EDIT:
:lol: :lol: :lol:
the obvious catch is that it's dearer to buy the head and cab together than separately :lol:
the head is £199 and the cab is £115... together they're £319 :lol:
as i said, though, i'd pass on the cab. You can get ply 2x12 cabs for that money (or less), either the harley benton on thomann if you want closed back, or the vht if you want open-backed.
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It's almost getting to the stage it's not worth revalving, let alone paying someone to repair it......
Having said that, it's good to see someone making an affordable no frills amp that (hopefully) sounds good, rather than trying to pack too many features into it.
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also iirc the amp only has an 8 ohm out, so that might be annoying, too.
I'd expect the output transformer has other taps on it but they've saved money by not fitting an impedance selector switch.
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They do a 5w twin channel head for £99.00 too, wow, thats insane...
http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Belcat-Tube-H5-Guitar-Amp-Head/HMG
It even LOOKS good too...
(http://www.gear4music.com/media/40591/600/preview.jpg)
I rather like the look of the 10w single ended combo ..........might be a bit like a Cornell Romany?
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I like how it's powered up in that pic with no speaker attached :)
At the price I'd be wondering if they were made by starving children in a Chinese sweatshop every time I plugged it in. £99 is ridiculous, you'd have a hard time just buying the transformers and tubes for that money.
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I like how it's powered up in that pic with no speaker attached :)
At the price I'd be wondering if they were made by starving children in a Chinese sweatshop every time I plugged it in. £99 is ridiculous, you'd have a hard time just buying the transformers and tubes for that money.
This is without a doubt what's happening here. There's no way on this earth it could be done any other way.
Even cheaping out on everything it would come to more than that.
I imagine they buy mass amounts of generic parts at barely nothing per part and give children bags of rice in payment
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It is possible to build a valve amp cheaper, lookee here ...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/instruments-amps/190738-hundred-buck-amp-challenge.html
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I like how it's powered up in that pic with no speaker attached :)
At the price I'd be wondering if they were made by starving children in a Chinese sweatshop every time I plugged it in. £99 is ridiculous, you'd have a hard time just buying the transformers and tubes for that money.
This is without a doubt what's happening here. There's no way on this earth it could be done any other way.
Even cheaping out on everything it would come to more than that.
I imagine they buy mass amounts of generic parts at barely nothing per part and give children bags of rice in payment
Employee of the Month
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4619328744_a0f8ba0074.jpg)
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It is possible to build a valve amp cheaper, lookee here ...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/instruments-amps/190738-hundred-buck-amp-challenge.html
That's fairly interesting. I'll have a full read through later.
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I like how it's powered up in that pic with no speaker attached :)
At the price I'd be wondering if they were made by starving children in a Chinese sweatshop every time I plugged it in. £99 is ridiculous, you'd have a hard time just buying the transformers and tubes for that money.
This is without a doubt what's happening here. There's no way on this earth it could be done any other way.
Even cheaping out on everything it would come to more than that.
I imagine they buy mass amounts of generic parts at barely nothing per part and give children bags of rice in payment
Employee of the Month
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4619328744_a0f8ba0074.jpg)
I see he won the honorary BOX rather than a bag for being employee of the month.
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At the other end of the DIY spectrum there's this guy ...
http://www.tubelab.com/833SE.htm
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At the other end of the DIY spectrum there's this guy ...
http://www.tubelab.com/833SE.htm
That guy must hate shirts.
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At the other end of the DIY spectrum there's this guy ...
http://www.tubelab.com/833SE.htm
A 200w SE amp, gotta love that guy. I got told I was crazy (by transformer companies) wanting to do parallel SE 6550s.
Talking of parallel SE amps, I believe Laney recently put out an amp with four EL34s in parallel SE configuration. I'd like to see the schematic of this amp, curious.
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Tubelab George is a legend, here's his thread where he tortures a box of 6V6 to death for daring to lose their vacuum ...
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubelab/124527-photos-death-simple-se-6v6s.html
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At the other end of the DIY spectrum there's this guy ...
http://www.tubelab.com/833SE.htm
John Chambers in the UK does a good line in extreme valve amps. Notice the size of the transformers on this beast (which he winds himself!).
http://www.chambonino.com/construct/const17.html
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also iirc the amp only has an 8 ohm out, so that might be annoying, too.
I'd expect the output transformer has other taps on it but they've saved money by not fitting an impedance selector switch.
You will also save money by only having one secondary in the OT, so I expect that there aren't other taps as it looks like costs have been kept to a minimum.
Incidentally, you can also save money on the OT by not interleaving the windings, not using interwinding insulation (or even using a split chamber bobbin), using a smaller stack, using cheaper steel, using thicker laminations, stacking the laminates in pairs or greater, but without reverse engineering the transformer it will impossible to assess which (if any) corners have been cut.
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That's a good point, if you buy a cheapo valve amp then you can't really be surprised when the transformers start spewing out smoke and sparks. And good luck trying to get spares and technical support from the manufacturer.
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At the other end of the DIY spectrum there's this guy ...
http://www.tubelab.com/833SE.htm
John Chambers in the UK does a good line in extreme valve amps. Notice the size of the transformers on this beast (which he winds himself!).
http://www.chambonino.com/construct/const17.html
Hmm .. No problem with headroom using that in a pub gig 8)
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I'd expect the output transformer has other taps on it but they've saved money by not fitting an impedance selector switch.
yeah possibly. i vaguely remember someone somewhere saying it did have other taps, but could be wrong. obviously that's only useful if you're up to doing the work yourself... as jpf says, at the price it is, you don't want to be putting much money into it.
though as jpf also says, not having other secondaries would keep the cost down, so maybe it doesn't. :?
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15 watt 1x10 combo with FX loop £112.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga15.htm (http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga15.htm)
Really though, I've owned a few different cheap valve amps, and my experience is that unless maybe you are competent at modification (I'm not) then for the money you can get better sounds using modeling gear.
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15 watt 1x10 combo with FX loop £112.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga15.htm (http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga15.htm)
Really though, I've owned a few different cheap valve amps, and my experience is that unless maybe you are competent at modification (I'm not) then for the money you can get better sounds using modeling gear.
The cheap 10" speaker and tiny cab do nothing to help matters with that amp though. Put it through a decent 2x12 and it's a whole different ball game.
Depends what you want out of these amps too - they're not gonna be great rock amps to gig with, but for rehearsal at home with some pedals, you can get some great tones. I remember my first Epi Valve Junior was nice clean, but turd overdriven (and it was way too loud for home use when overdriven anyway). I used an MI Audio Crunchbox into the front end, kept the amp's volume around 3 and the pedal's volume down low to keep it at bedroom-friendly levels. Was a crackin tone for noodling at home.
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John Chambers in the UK does a good line in extreme valve amps. Notice the size of the transformers on this beast (which he winds himself!).
http://www.chambonino.com/construct/const17.html
He's the guy I take my amps to, he's a bit of a nutter :lol:
Lives at home with his Mum and works out of an extension on the side of the house. He has really weird working hours too! Really knows his stuff though.
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15 watt 1x10 combo with FX loop £112.
http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga15.htm (http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ga15.htm)
Really though, I've owned a few different cheap valve amps, and my experience is that unless maybe you are competent at modification (I'm not) then for the money you can get better sounds using modeling gear.
The cheap 10" speaker and tiny cab do nothing to help matters with that amp though. Put it through a decent 2x12 and it's a whole different ball game.
Depends what you want out of these amps too - they're not gonna be great rock amps to gig with, but for rehearsal at home with some pedals, you can get some great tones. I remember my first Epi Valve Junior was nice clean, but turd overdriven (and it was way too loud for home use when overdriven anyway). I used an MI Audio Crunchbox into the front end, kept the amp's volume around 3 and the pedal's volume down low to keep it at bedroom-friendly levels. Was a crackin tone for noodling at home.
+1 (I haven't tried the ga15 but i have a valve junior and a vht special 6).
I mean i'd rather have a kickass high gainer, but for not too much money those cheap low wattage tube amps sound pretty good, especially through nice speakers and if you have a few nice pedals.
What i also like is how a lot of them are based on vintage/classic circuits- so someone like me who predominantly plays more modern music can get some nice classic tones without breaking the bank.
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^
I've got a "Rat" modified Harley Benton GA5, with upgraded transformer, speaker, power scaling etc. I don't suppose there's much, if anything, of the original electronics left, but the basic chassis seems quite well made anyway! :lol:
It doesn't sound great through the internal speaker (and with me playing), despite the Celestion upgrade. I should try it through a bigger cab, really, I think that might make the difference.
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^ what speaker is it?
EDIT: the ga5 is basically a V2 valve junior with a tone control, isn't it? I have a v2 valve junior... pretty dark stock, but this means it sounds awesome with pedals :lol:
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the ga5 is basically a V2 valve junior with a tone control, isn't it? I have a v2 valve junior... pretty dark stock, but this means it sounds awesome with pedals :lol:
Yeah, as far as I know it's exactly that, although I never saw it in its original state!
The speaker is, I believe, a Celestion Super 8.
Here's the "Rat" chap's website:
http://www.ratvalveamps.com/epiphone-valve-junior (http://www.ratvalveamps.com/epiphone-valve-junior)
My amp is like the GA5 in the gallery here (the one with the Triode/Pentode switch):
http://www.ratvalveamps.com/rat-amp-gallery (http://www.ratvalveamps.com/rat-amp-gallery)
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^ ah ok, thanks :)
never tried the super 8, but was it really an upgrade on the stock speaker? I'm sorta thinking a while back here, so i might be misremembering, but i think some of the epis had weber speakers? and then maybe eminence? so not too bad, probably. and the cheaper celestions (at least some of them) aren't always all that great...
i sorta toyed with maybe getting my VJ or vht special 6 modded, but never got round to it... was always worried it might not be worth the cost.
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I don't know how much of an upgrade the speaker is, but is any 8" speaker going to sound that great? I'm sure the amp would sound better through a bigger speaker, I must try it with my Orange 1 x 12" at some point....
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that's a good point :lol: