NPAD

[Oli]

Yep, a New Power Amp Day for me! :)

Bought a Starfield 50+50 off eBay, for far cheaper than other valve power amps, so either this will be a great bargain, or it'll be a stop-gap solution for my rack... time will tell. I believe that Ibanez licensed Starfield to build these amps, although apparently they were made by a shop in Leeds.

A colossal weight, and clocking in at 4U, it's not a small thing either, although the height was only governed by the mains transformer (which is huge!). They could have got it down to 3U, had they rotated the transformer, but the cavernous spare space in there could be used to store bags of crisps I guess :) It's running 5881's at the moment (2 a side), which i'll keep for now- this rack will form the wet part of a wet/dry/wet rig, so it might be nice to have something other than the EL34s in the Klipp. The construction of the case itself is very good- it's built with 1.6mm steel, and feels like a tank. The inside isn't quite as robust- the valves are PCB mounted, and you have to support the PDB when pushing the new valves in, as the only retainers/support is at either end of the PCB. Pretty no frills, just the volumes and presence controls along with the power and standby.



Note: the items in the bottom rack aren't part of the rig- the POD is just for late-night practicing, and the amp in the bottom is just a case-donor for a project.

When I get the rig sorted, it'll all be housed in a nice flightcase (estimated to be around 12-14U).... looks like it'll need casters though!

[gwEm]

racks looking fine Oli! I also got a new toy for mine today :)

i hope the starfield sounds good, it certainly looks amazing.

edit: also tweaked the marshall 20/20 a bit with new valves, turning off the cooling fan, and removing the upper part of the case

[Oli]

racks looking fine Oli! I also got a new toy for mine today :)

i hope the starfield sounds good, it certainly looks amazing.

edit: also tweaked the marshall 20/20 a bit with new valves, turning off the cooling fan, and removing the upper part of the case

Cool, what toy (or can't you say)? :P

It sounds pretty good from an initial half hour noodle- unfortunately i've only got a 16 ohm stereo, or 8 ohm mono cab, so I could only run 1 side of it (only got 4 and 8 ohm outputs). I'll have to sort out getting a pair of 8ohm 1x12s for the stereo wet part of the rig. I like the look of it, it's got quite an 80s vibe about it, which isn't a bad thing :)

I think i'll replace the fan on the Starfield- it's a bit noisy, and with being 15+ years old, it'll probably kick the can soon anyway.

How's the 20/20 sound? I've always been quietly avoiding them, I just have it in my head that EL84s can't do a 'proper' low end... which is probably quite a daft thought!

[gwEm]

the resonance button on the 20/20 gives quite a deep low end actually. with the original tubes it had, i had miles of headroom too - which was great. with the new tubes, it does sound alot more hi-fi, but it breaks-up alot earlier. looks like i'll be into tube-rolling it now :? i'm assuming its the el84s which are breaking up, HTH recommended me a Russian military EL84 which I'll definitely give a go... more than welcome to come over and try it out anyway, see what you think!

the new toy was a 3u rack bag, now that the boxes aren't wobbling about, its all alot more easier to use. next i'll get an IEC multiway, and some cleartone patch leads. then it will be 'finished', but i'm eyeing up another preamp (peavey rockmaster?).
was also looking at the Digitech GSP1101, lots of famous people using it, but I do wonder if its digital cr@p.

good idea replacing the fan, i'm sure a modern one will be quieter and give more airflow.

regarding the 1x12s... i have an empty marshall 1912 1x12 and also two 8ohm G12H100 speakers, if interested.

[Oli]

Ah cool, i'm gonna be putting a fairly sizable order into cleartone when this is all done. I'm in the preamp market too, and heard about the GSP1101 as well, but I haven't really researched it, as (like you) my views on Digitech gear isn't too favourable. Think I might come round and try the 20/20- I could bring my 3U rack, so you can try out the MP1 too if you want, i'll have a look at my diary, and send you a PM :)

[Jonny]

Congrats Oli :D

What else do you have there?

[Oli]

In that 3U rack:

Power conditioner
ADA MP-1
Alesis Quadraverb

Both the MP-1 and the Quadraverb are great units, but i'll be upgrading the Quadraverb to a TC GMajor 2. Dunno if i'll get rid of it then, or just use it for studio-y bits, as I like the delay and chorus on it.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Oli - try this out and prepare to be shocked

If you are running ADA MP1 into Quadraverb into power amp
Disconnect the Alesis and plug the ADA straight into the power amp
You will be shocked at the increase in tone and volume
You may not want to plug the Quad back in

I discovered this years ago when my Quad blew up

I found a solution though - I now use a rackmounted mixer and send my ADA direct to power amp via the mixer and take a send from the mixer to the FX and then that goes back in via the mixer parallel to the direct signal
So I get the best possible preamp tone and FX as well

Hope that makes sense

I now use a TC G major on my workshop rig and a G Force in my home rig - once the Alesis died  and I tried other FX I decided to change

[Oli]

Oli - try this out and prepare to be shocked

If you are running ADA MP1 into Quadraverb into power amp
Disconnect the Alesis and plug the ADA straight into the power amp
You will be shocked at the increase in tone and volume
You may not want to plug the Quad back in

I discovered this years ago when my Quad blew up

I found a solution though - I now use a rackmounted mixer and send my ADA direct to power amp via the mixer and take a send from the mixer to the FX and then that goes back in via the mixer parallel to the direct signal
So I get the best possible preamp tone and FX as well

Hope that makes sense

I now use a TC G major on my workshop rig and a G Force in my home rig - once the Alesis died  and I tried other FX I decided to change

I haven't had a chance to try it without the Quad yet- i'm a little scared to now! :p

I was planning on having a mixer in the rack to avoid tonesucking- i may incorporate it into the switching unit that i'm going to be building for it.

First thing is to find a suitable preamp for the new rig though! :)

[gwEm]

Ah cool, i'm gonna be putting a fairly sizable order into cleartone when this is all done. I'm in the preamp market too, and heard about the GSP1101 as well, but I haven't really researched it, as (like you) my views on Digitech gear isn't too favourable. Think I might come round and try the 20/20- I could bring my 3U rack, so you can try out the MP1 too if you want, i'll have a look at my diary, and send you a PM :)

looking busy this week as i have a gig away, though could probably do tuesday or next week at some point