smurph1 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 I gotta say I love the sound of "Juke" amps.. can't remember the model I heard but the tone was to die for!! Clean and Chimey, but dirty gritty and nasty when need be..SWEET!!
rjsanders Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 I gotta say I love the sound of "Juke" amps.. can't remember the model I heard but the tone was to die for!! Clean and Chimey, but dirty gritty and nasty when need be..SWEET!! "sounds" like my Juke Coda. a 30lb 1x12 combo that's a little bigger than a Blues Jr., but sounds huge. will be using that tomorrow night. better go practice...
wdelaney72 Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 It really all depends on the type of amp you are looking for. I'm not as familiar with the Fender replicas, but in terms of Marshall replicas, nobody beats George Metropolous. I've built enough of them to put one alongside George's amps and feel good about it, but I'm one to give credit where credit is due. I learned most of my Marshall-related knowledge from George and his Metro forum. Not only that, George is a wonderful guy to do business with Bottom line, is you are looking in the right direction. If you want an old Fender, you've already concluded correctly that Fender re-issues are NOT the way to go. If you want a Marshall....same thing. The big-boys constant issuing of "re-issues" are flat out frauds. Crap. Regardless of who they have endorsing the amps. Nik from Ceriatone is at a price point that is very hard to compete with. The quality of his work appears to be very good. I do not trust the quality of his components though. He goes cheap on quite a few components....especially the filter caps. He also uses his own trannies.....I don't know much about them, but I do know that the Output Transformer is one of the most critical pieces to the amp....I'd make sure to stay with a tranny source that you know has the spec and materials correct. Lots of options. Stay local if you can, makes for servicing a lot easier and let your ears be your guide.
rjsanders Posted January 30, 2011 Author Posted January 30, 2011 It really all depends on the type of amp you are looking for. I'm not as familiar with the Fender replicas, but in terms of Marshall replicas, nobody beats George Metropolous. ... seen your & George's work via TGP, WD. beautiful stuff. and, yeah, the OPT is also one of the most expensive components in an amp. no place to go cheap. the great amp builders design or spec out their own transformers. glad to have you here
wdelaney72 Posted January 30, 2011 Posted January 30, 2011 seen your & George's work via TGP, WD. beautiful stuff. and, yeah, the OPT is also one of the most expensive components in an amp. no place to go cheap. the great amp builders design or spec out their own transformers. glad to have you here Thanks...great to be here. I usually use Marstran Transformers. Marstran are made by Heyboer, and true to spec to every ounc of material. Heyboer also makes Metropoulos trannies. The best way somebody once put it to me is....The last component to touch your tone coming out of the amp into the speaker cabinet is the output tranny....if you skimp / compromise there, you've wasted your time and money. I think Heyboer also makes Fender trannies. Many like Mercury Magnetics. Mercury is great, too, but I've never understood paying more for their trannies when Marstran and Metropoloulos are available. Good trannies....SoZo tone capacitors....F&T filter caps....you gotta use the right ingredients. RJSanders, I'm sure you know all of this already, but I figured I'd share with the others.
rjsanders Posted January 30, 2011 Author Posted January 30, 2011 ... I think Heyboer also makes Fender trannies. Many like Mercury Magnetics. Mercury is great, too, but I've never understood paying more for their trannies when Marstran and Metropoloulos are available. Good trannies....SoZo tone capacitors....F&T filter caps....you gotta use the right ingredients. RJSanders, I'm sure you know all of this already, but I figured I'd share with the others. yeahman. i'm a big fan of Heritage amps, too, and Paul Cochrane used custom Merc & Heyboer trannies for them. (which just about exceeds my knowledge of ampage )
GuitArtMan Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 I have this coming in: Should be here Tuesday. Fryette Memphis 30. Two Channels (clean and overdrive). 30 / 18 watts selectable on each channel. Three voices on each channel. Reverb. Effects loop (switchable series/parallel). Boost on each channel. The pre-amp tubes are accessed via the panel on the front for easy swapping to get the tone/feel you want.
kbp810 Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 If you want an old Fender, you've already concluded correctly that Fender re-issues are NOT the way to go. If you want a Marshall....same thing. The big-boys constant issuing of "re-issues" are flat out frauds. Crap. Regardless of who they have endorsing the amps. Well said! That's one of the big factors that helped drive me into building as well
kbp810 Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 I have this coming in: Should be here Tuesday. Fryette Memphis 30. Two Channels (clean and overdrive). 30 / 18 watts selectable on each channel. Three voices on each channel. Reverb. Effects loop (switchable series/parallel). Boost on each channel. The pre-amp tubes are accessed via the panel on the front for easy swapping to get the tone/feel you want. Sounds like a sweet amp!
212Mavguy Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 Nik from Ceriatone is at a price point that is very hard to compete with. The quality of his work appears to be very good. I do not trust the quality of his components though. He goes cheap on quite a few components....especially the filter caps. He also uses his own trannies.....I don't know much about them, but I do know that the Output Transformer is one of the most critical pieces to the amp....I'd make sure to stay with a tranny source that you know has the spec and materials correct. Lots of options. Stay local if you can, makes for servicing a lot easier and let your ears be your guide. I have one on Nik's amps. Mine is one of the two quietest amps I've ever used for a given amount of gain and volume. It's an OTS HRM with a lift negative feedback switch mod. The iron in it is over spec'ed, the PT runs very cool, and the OT is also more than a little hefty in size. It's a very versatile amp and the Dumble-esque tones are to die for... As far as the parts used, I would not worry at all about them, period. Reviewers tend to be very positive about their experiences with his amps. You can see gut shots of his builds on the company site, nice work to say the least. His OTS builds are derived from research from members at the amp garage forum. One fellow runs kt88's in his OTS, it is originally designed to run el34's or 6l6gc's, says that the PT still runs cool pushing higher than normal amounts of current through those mondo tubes. One thing about PTP/terminal strip and turret/eyelet board wiring is that if something goes bad, it's much easier to fix than a PCB design. And if filter caps need changing out in less than 10 years, that will be fine, I'll be able to do them myself. And I'm right with you on the new production Fender and Marshall thangs not being very desirable to own. I'd rather spend my money on Fender or Marshall type builds from Ceriatone than any Fender or Marshall new production amp, period.
kbp810 Posted January 31, 2011 Posted January 31, 2011 I have one on Nik's amps. Mine is one of the two quietest amps I've ever used for a given amount of gain and volume. It's an OTS HRM with a lift negative feedback switch mod. The iron in it is over spec'ed, the PT runs very cool, and the OT is also more than a little hefty in size. It's a very versatile amp and the Dumble-esque tones are to die for... As far as the parts used, I would not worry at all about them, period. Reviewers tend to be very positive about their experiences with his amps. You can see gut shots of his builds on the company site, nice work to say the least. His OTS builds are derived from research from members at the amp garage forum. One fellow runs kt88's in his OTS, it is originally designed to run el34's or 6l6gc's, says that the PT still runs cool pushing higher than normal amounts of current through those mondo tubes. One thing about PTP/terminal strip and turret/eyelet board wiring is that if something goes bad, it's much easier to fix than a PCB design. And if filter caps need changing out in less than 10 years, that will be fine, I'll be able to do them myself. And I'm right with you on the new production Fender and Marshall thangs not being very desirable to own. I'd rather spend my money on Fender or Marshall type builds from Ceriatone than any Fender or Marshall new production amp, period. Great group over at the Amp Garage, pretty much the only other forum I visit on a daily basis I'm just now getting started on an ODS #183 build (finally!); it's going to be slow going though as I've got quite a few other little side projects at the moment too... I can't really speak on behalf of the filter caps Nik uses... but everything else from what I've heard seems to be high quality (or at least well within spec) - They have some great looking gut shots on their website:
eljay Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 Vintage 47. handmade up the road a piece. very inexpensive (IMO) given quality of parts & construction...friend has one similar (12w IIRC) to this: my vintage47 "supro comet 10" is supposed to arrive on feb 3. your post let me know vintage47 is out there and, well, ya know, nature took her course! eljay
VJonathan Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 Has anyone tried or currently using a Tone King Imperial amp? I have recently been test driving them and found them to be rich in tone with tweed and blackface characteristics. The reverb is the best I have ever heard for an amp of this class. For a 20watt - 1 x12 combo with channel switching, get a lot in a little package. Any thoughts?
rjsanders Posted February 1, 2011 Author Posted February 1, 2011 Has anyone tried or currently using a Tone King Imperial amp? I have recently been test driving them and found them to be rich in tone with tweed and blackface characteristics. The reverb is the best I have ever heard for an amp of this class. For a 20watt - 1 x12 combo with channel switching, get a lot in a little package. Any thoughts? tried one, loved it. Mark Bartel is now part of the Premier Builders Guild doing his & other amp builds. should be fine stuff. reverb: my personal favorite is "Sideband C" as in old Ampegs. that's what Gary Croteau put in his Juke line. EMMV back to PBG, looks like Bob Gjika is having some of his amps built there. that should be very interesting. put me down for one of his 2xKT66 30w babies
rjsanders Posted February 2, 2011 Author Posted February 2, 2011 my vintage47 "supro comet 10" is supposed to arrive on feb 3. your post let me know vintage47 is out there and, well, ya know, nature took her course! eljay hoping you dig it the most!
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