Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Twinfan on October 07, 2007, 10:16:51 PM
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..an Alessandro Black 'n' Tan :o
Very nice amp, if very overpriced compared to a 18w Marshall clone (or even a Tiny Terror). A nice complexity to the sound, very 3D tone. It had been installed with Power Scaling and I compared the Power Scaling with a THD Hot Plate.
While the Hot Plate sounded good, the Power Scaling sounded better. It was a bit clearer and more dynamic. The Hot Plate mushed things up a little bit and took away some of the character of the amp (replacing it with the character of the Hot Plate). This was at very low to medium settings. Above that, the Power Scaling had the advantage of being on a variable pot rather than stepped 4dB increments.
I'd been considering getting a Hot Plate but now I'm seriously tempted to have it added to my 100w Super Klipp. It really is a great way to tame the power of an amp, and it's cheaper than an attenuator...
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Sounds good how much? for the power scaling
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It's about £130ish to have it retro-fitted to an amp. It can vary from amp to amp as it depends how much work has to go into fitting it.
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I mentioned it already on another thread, but this chap on eBay has just started offering Power Scaling on his modded Epi VJs and Harley Bentons:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RAT-HOTROD-EPIPHONE-VALVE-ELECTRIC-GUITAR-AMPLIFIER-AMP_W0QQitemZ140165964349QQihZ004QQcategoryZ10171QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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..an Alessandro Black 'n' Tan
I just looked at their website. That is a serious piece of kit. :o
How in the name of all that's holy did you get to try that, Dave? Whose is it?
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I just can't wait to get my new Jtm45 with power-scaling from Martin at Martamp. I've not yet played any amp with power-scaling, but I've yet to hear a bad word about it.
Alan
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Hmm, it's the new hype.
Maybe this is going to be standard in any serious tube amp soon.
Something like Master Volume was in the 70s...?
I guess there is noone fitting PS to amps in Belgium or anywhere close to here yet.
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..an Alessandro Black 'n' Tan
I just looked at their website. That is a serious piece of kit. :o
How in the name of all that's holy did you get to try that, Dave? Whose is it?
Yep, it's a serious piece of kit. WAAAAAY too expensive for my tastes though ;)
I went over to see Martin at Martamp yesterday afternoon as a customer had sent the amp over from Italy (!!!) to have the Power Scaling fitted. He was doing the final testing and invited me over for a second opinion. It was very impressive, even down at bedroom levels.
I just can't wait to get my new Jtm45 with power-scaling from Martin at Martamp. I've not yet played any amp with power-scaling, but I've yet to hear a bad word about it.
If the Alessandro is anything to go by, it'll work and sound great :)
I'm going to speak to Martin tonight about getting it fitted to my Super Klipp.....
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Maybe this is going to be standard in any serious tube amp soon.
Something like Master Volume was in the 70s...?
Very possibly. It's not just hype either, it really does seem to work very well.
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So how much would it cost to get someone fit one of these power scaling kits in my Engl?
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So how much would it cost to get someone fit one of these power scaling kits in my Engl?
It's about £130ish to have it retro-fitted to an amp. It can vary from amp to amp as it depends how much work has to go into fitting it.
It's starting to look as if Kevin O'Connor at London Power is going to be a very rich man.
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It's starting to look as if Kevin O'Connor at London Power is going to be a very rich man.
Let's face it, if his solution is really so simple and the result really that convincing, he is gonna make many many people around the world very happy.
If his pricing remains to be that fair, he fxxin deserves to be damn rich if that's what'll be the result for him!
Let's hope for him he's got some good patents applied for.
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Let's face it, if his solution is really so simple and the result really that convincing, he is gonna make many many people around the world very happy.
If his pricing remains to be that fair, he fxxin deserves to be damn rich if that's what'll be the result for him!
Let's hope for him he's got some good patents applied for.
Absolutely. I hope he keeps control of his invention so it stays available to everyone, and doesn't sell out to one of the big corporations.
I wonder how long it'll be before we see a Big Name offering power scaling?
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I wonder how long it'll be before we see a Big Name offering power scaling?
Probably Behringer, it will be called Power Scale Volume and they will do as if it were their latest invention.
They will offer it on their 6202 amps or their soon to be launched QuickMod :twisted:
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Anywhere in London where I can get this done?
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The London Power website has a list of recommended installers:
http://www.londonpower.com/links.htm
No-one in London, but it may not be up to date. Might be worth contacting them direct?
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^That's irony for you :wink:
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Well after another testing session last night my Super Bass Klipp is in for Power Scaling. It sounded awesome through my 4x12, but Stadium rock gig awesome. There's no way I could use it at any of the venues I play at.
Should be done in a week or two, so I'll let you all know what I think of it...
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Matamp have put power scaling in their amps before - I've seen amps they've made with a big 'ol variac on the front.
There are various ways to add power scaling to your amp - you can just scale the output section or scale the whole amp. I'd have to look into it further to see the various options. From what I've read it seems fairly involved. I'll have to get Kevin's TUT installments and read up on his power scaling.
:twisted:
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Martin at Martamp is favouring scaling the power and phase invertor sections (using a PPIMV or Pre Phase-Invertor Master Volume) as this is where he's had the best results. That's what is being done to my Super Bass Klipp.
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dunno about the Black 'n Tan but i sure as hell want a pair of those Music Series Pro Headphones. GODDAMN! So expensive, but they look very tasty :o
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Actually the power scaling circuitry isn't at all complicated. It uses a simple high voltage MOSFET regulator for the B+ with an optional tracking bias supply for fixed bias amps so that the bias goes down as you reduce the B+ so that the amp maintains correct operation. The methods for doing this are fairly obvious and circuits are given in TUT2 and TUT5 (as part fo a project). TUT4 has a rather long and self serving chapter on power scaling which really doesn't give much more usefull info than that in TUT2 and TUT5.
The one problem with power scaling is that it uses solid state components that are more suitable for mounting ona PCB than hand wiring on tag strip etc, however these aren't insermountable problems.
Some manufactures have incorporated a variac into their design, however this only works if the filament supply is run off a separate transformer (and indeed any other supplies for channel switching etc). As the Variac + additional tranformer/s are quite bulky this method would be more difficult to retro fit to an exisiting amp.
Power Scaling is a trademark of London Power so you can't build and market an amp as Power Scaled without licience from London Power. However, my guess is that any patent of this technology would not stand up in court, so I suspect it won't be long before this type of control starts to appear on mainstream production amps.
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there's a guy here in brazil that started building amps with power scaling too
but his amps take a year to get done (about 1 amp/2 months, but the queue list is long)
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto01.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto02.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto03.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto04.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto05.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto06.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto07.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto08.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto09.jpg
http://www.lifesound.com.br/lifesound/fotos/foto10.jpg
only the Lifesound Dynaplex (the white one, JTM/Plexi based) has power scaling
the Lifesound Horizon is based on Mesa Dual Rectifier
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nice amps..bet they cost a fortune..and then shipping
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The Suhr Badger (18 watt) uses this also. Here's a link to a demo of one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBUxUB-6qjw&mode=related&search=
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nice amps..bet they cost a fortune..and then shipping
about R$3200
£1.00 = R$3.80
so £850 + looooooong wait + expensive shipping :lol: