rockabilly69 Posted November 19, 2014 Posted November 19, 2014 Yes that was the H150 in the photo. That guitar was a good match for that amp.
212Mavguy Posted November 20, 2014 Author Posted November 20, 2014 @mark555... I'm in Heber, near Park City, close to an hour from Salt Lake City. I look for good value, definitely not super high dollar as a rule. I have a fairly low income myself. Have learned how to pay less than others to get the same things, particularly vintage old stock tubes and speakers. Quality and versatility of tones is #1 personally... Most desired music genres that the amp needs to cover? What are your stage or other volume needs? moderate or waaay loud? Guitars you'd most use through the new amp? What guitar players exhibit your favorite tone types or can you describe your desired tone palette/range? What effects do you like to use, if any? Do you have a favorite preamp or power tube type? Is there an amp family that you like, say, Fender vs Marshall, grossly simplifying. Or is there a particular circuit type/amp vintage you are looking for within an amp family? You won't get a single Chinese PCB so called reissue amp recommendation from me, that's for sure. I'm delighted to help.
212Mavguy Posted November 21, 2014 Author Posted November 21, 2014 All right! first impressions of the Harry Joyce 30, serial #3... It sounds HUGE… the tone is massive, yet articulate. There is no WAY it should be as loud as it can get…rated at 30 watts, but it does have Hiwatt in its DNA. It is as loud as my Ceriatone 50w HRM, also running el34's. I ran it Dumble style with a tube effects buffer in the loop, that C-lator by Ceriatone allowed me to dime the master and use the out knob on the 'lator for the master. Sustain is unbelievable, as well as harmonic content by running it this way…at normal gig volumes. Harry would be pleased. The amp responds nicely to touch, it's powerful but not excessively punchy, easy to play through. Right now it's got all new production tubes in it, they are the not so Tungsol reissues in the preamp, the power tubes supplied are EH el34's which sound surprisingly good. I'm leaving those EH's in. The amp sounds better than I thought it would with the new production tubes. There is more than enough gain on tap for good, snarly 80's tones, and it cleans up sweetly when turning down input volume. Reducing the gain on the front end evokes the classic Hiwatt massive, harmonically rich, sustainful cleans. 'Verb and delay sound great in the loop. There is lots of girth in the high notes way up on the frets as well for single note work, a Harry Joyce tonal trademark. Speaking of single note lead work, the tones are very, very smooth, not excessively raspy at higher gain settings even. Subtle bends set off some nice vowels in the sustain. When I turn the power off on the amp, the light stays on for well over a minute before the bulb finally stops glowing. I've never seen that kind of behavior before. There was a bit of shipping damage, the seller neglected to mark the box for any particular side up, as a result the amp was bounced on its end during shipping enough to bend the mounting tabs on the power tranny, it sits crooked now. GAAAAH!!! No power cord was included, I thought that was incredibly cheesy considering how much money I paid for it. Also the 4-hole jumper that was in the pics was not included. I'll eventually remove the chassis from the headshell and carefully repair the bent tranny tabs, and roll some preamp tubes after the honeymoon ends. It should have Mullards in it to be close to original. Not sure I will go all Mullard in the pre when I do go for VOS, though. For right now it has a great tonal balance, there are no wants.
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