212Mavguy Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 I don't get to open it until I use my roof avalancher to remove today's accumulation, clearing the sidewalk to the front door, snow blow the driveway and remove the street plow's berm in front of the driveway and mailbox. Don't get to hear any sounds until It gets unpacked, remove the chassis from the headshell, stick that chassis into an amp cradle, and install some old stock glass, roll tubes for tone, and adjust the Phase Inverter trimmer pot to balance the sides of the power tube driver circuit. I got it without any tubes, the ones I have will sound better that what they stick in at the factory, which pretty much has to be new production stuff. It's a very rare one...RedPlate Aurora 34 head. 50 watts, el34, a customized Astro Dust Duo with a British voiced back end...it sat unpurchased in a top end store called Boutique Guitar Exchange since completion in 2013. I got a price break on top of a significant discount for ordering it shipped without any tubes in it. Basically for dealer's cost... There are 7 tubes for the preamp, containing a clean channel, two dirty channels that can be used separately or cascaded , tube buffered effects loop, and tube reverb. Am thinking that less than a half dozen were made. The Astro Dust Duo is pretty much their top of the line amp. Think of it as an evolved Dumble taken to the nth degree for club gigging and recording. The last Redplate I got, a used Blues Machine, took a while to get it to where it is now, rolled four different speakers, and quite a few preamp and power tubes to get it to where it needed to be. This one will take some time as well. Because I am the first owner from the guitar shop that custom ordered it, I get a lifetime warranty from RedPlate. They are built by hand one at a time by one builder start to finish, turret board style. Now to fire up the snow blower, let the motor warm up while I do the roof thang...after I get a second cup of coffee down my gullet...tired from teaching skiing in a windy Utah snowstorm all day... Boutique amps for boutique guitars!!!
smokedtires Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Sounds spectacular! How about some pics to drool over?
212Mavguy Posted January 5, 2017 Author Posted January 5, 2017 That will be a challenge, I'll get help. Just got my first smartphone, a secondhand gifted Droid Maxx 2013 model. Will have to learn photo bucket too...There are some partial gut shots on the RedPlate site.
tulk1 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Online pictures look heavy. Think .... 70's Dual Reverb heavy. Is it? Sounds like it'll be a sweet amp once you've fix'er up. BTW, I just got a new amp. Brought it home, plugged it in and got to play it right away. So ... neener neener! And no avalanche involved.
Gitfiddler Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 Sounds like you scored another winner, 212. Looking forward to your post box opening report/review.
mark555 Posted January 5, 2017 Posted January 5, 2017 sounds like a nice amp, I will look forward to seeing the pictures if you post them.
212Mavguy Posted January 7, 2017 Author Posted January 7, 2017 @Tulk1 The new amp is a 50 watt head. So it's not super heavy, in the mid 40's poundage. The power transformer is pretty huge, bigger than in the Blues machine, a Mercury Magnetics designed custom for the Astro Dust Duo, which this build is an offshoot of. I think it will run pretty cool. The output tranny is a bit smaller than what is in the Blues Machine, but it's still massive. Both of these RP amps use a choke filtered power supply. The Blues Machine runs incredibly quiet for as loud as it can get on stage. I'm positive that the Aurora 34 will be as quiet. There was a new kid at the store that packed it up for shipping, he forgot to include the four button footswitch. When that switch gets here next week I'll start on the tube rolling. Right now it sits waiting to wail...The Blues Machine uses a 3 button footswitch. It only has one dirty channel, the Aurora 32 has two, used separately or cascaded together. The Blues machine 50 watt that I have was pretty heavy, but I took the Altec 417c out of it and stuck in a JBL MI-12. So that combo feels like the high 40's weight wise, the cab is more compact than the newer Blues Machine 66. The cool thing about this combo is that it sounds muuuuuch bigger than it ought to for the small size of the package, as well as the amount of tonal bases it covers, which is huge. The JBL is a hard to find speaker that does great cleans AND dirt. The Altec was too bright and raspy at higher gain/distorted settings. The JBL is absolutely perfect. Has a lot of the EVM 12L tones at about a third of the weight, it's lighter and has much fuller, nicer tone than the Celestion Vintage 30 that Blues Machine combos usually come with. Also handles more power than the V30, with a fuller, tighter bottom end. It's a MUCH better built speaker as well. There are some clips up on Youtube for the Astro Dust Duo, it covers so much tonal ground that I'll need to sell two or three Dumble clones...and likely my Siegmund Midnight Blues head. There are only a couple Youtube clips up for the Aurora 34 variant, which is what the newly arrived amp is.
212Mavguy Posted January 7, 2017 Author Posted January 7, 2017 The factory pics and clips are better than what I'm capable of. For the Astro Dust Duo, the clip is long, but that is reflective of how much tonal ground that the amp covers. The pics display the control layout, no gut shots though. http://www.redplateamps.com/astrodustduo.html For the Blues Machine, mine is earlier and does not have the HI-cut feature... http://www.redplateamps.com/bluesmachine.html For the Aurora 34 variant of the Astro Dust Duo
Gitfiddler Posted January 7, 2017 Posted January 7, 2017 That Astro Dust looks like an amazing amp. Congrats. Based on the specs and their clip, I'm REALLY digging that Blues Machine amp!!
212Mavguy Posted January 8, 2017 Author Posted January 8, 2017 For the modeling fans...This guy has an Axe-fx... Besides owning amore skilled set of guitar mind and fingers than what I have. Playing through his new at posting RP Magic Dust Duo, very similar to the Astro Dust Duo, main diff is that the Astro unit has a reverb section. Big deal...not. The tube buffered loop in either amp allows the player's choice of fave reverb or other time based effects. Simply huge, and yet not really heard by most. Just look at the emotional state of his eyes and body language, easy to see how the tube based harmonics effect the audience, in this case, the player himself. Like ripples in a pond or tsunamis from an earthquake, harmonics affect the listener's emotional state, innocuously or like a fist to the side of the head, depends on the ears and mind of the listener, great tone is incredibly, subliminally... POWERFUL. How much power rich harmonic content is in emotional impact on the audience...in this case clearly starting with the player, exhibited here. Whether in a church house or a whore house, tone is a powerful subliminal stimulant. Put on yer nice headphones...and imagine being behind those fingers...joy for some at least... What can a modeling amp imitate? Imaginary, tones at best. Damn nice sounding ones...but can any of them simulate the difference between an RCA 12ax7 longplate in V1 versus a Mullard shortplate 12ax7 in the same amp? Or the difference between a 1/15 and a 2/12 cab driven by the same amp with different tubes in it? hehehe........................................... NOT. How 'bout a blind audience? I think... yes. But not able to tell why. Boutique amps for boutique guitars!
212Mavguy Posted January 11, 2017 Author Posted January 11, 2017 In an earlier post I described RedPlate amps as having turret board, actually they are eyelet board builds, what is interesting is the attention to lead dress, fanatical attention to build details in the desire for longevity, and choice of what parts go where. Both turret and eyelet board amps tend to be easier to repair than PCB builds, and a lot more labor intensive to produce. I found a clip of a Blues Machine that also displayed gut shots. You can get a good idea about why and how these amps gush harmonics and respond to player's touch. Yep... besides gorgeous cleans, these amps can raaaaawwk!
Hfan Posted January 12, 2017 Posted January 12, 2017 I almost got one at some point, a Red Plate combo. In reading up on them I did not read a bad word. To the contrary, they have a crazy good reputation amongst the cork sniffers and the builder does as well with regards to customer service. Congrats.
212Mavguy Posted January 17, 2017 Author Posted January 17, 2017 The Aurora 34's version of the AstroDust Duo's 4 button footswitch arrived today. Finally I got to get ready to hear the amp sitting dormant in my living room the last couple weeks, I ordered it without any tubes installed, did not want the ones it came with. I took the chassis out of the headshell and placed it on an amp cradle. Then I went digging through the tube stash in the closet. V1 is for the clean channel, I stuck in a very girthy sounding Raytheon 5751 blackplate with the unique windmill getter, those do tweed-y tones. V2 is the first dirty channel's tube, I went for a very hard to find Tung Sol long black plate 12ax7, a bit more detailed on top than their gushingly rich long grayplate. These combine for the big American amp tones. V3 is the tube for the second dirty channel, the Marshall-y sounding one. I stuck in an Electrohome 12ax7, a Canadian made Amperex Bugle Boy shortplate.. V4 is for the tube buffered serial effects loop, I used a Siemens longplate, they are more detailed in harmonic content, from the late 50's, some of the most harmonically complex 12ax7's ever made. V5, the tube reverb send, is a shortplate Mullard from the 60's, warm and smooth. V6, the reverb recovery tube is a Telefunken 12at7, V7, the phase inverter, is a late 50's Brimar longplate 12ax7 with tightly matched sections. I chose that British tube for it's sonic detail and for the fact that the phase inverter of the RedPlate Aurora 34 amp is more British in design with regard to voltage and capacitance values. V8 and V9, the power tubes, were old stock tightly matched EL34 Mullard xf3's. The clean and first dirty channel sound Fender/Dumble American, the second dirty channel is Euro/Marshall like, the PI and power tubes are Euro. That's how the amp is designed, so the tube choices were selected to respect the builder's intentions. Then I fired it up and biased the power tubes right at the specs suggested by RedPlate, and while the chassis was out and the tubes were hot I flipped it over guts side up to adjust the phase inverter trimmer pot, by ear. Dumble was the guy that come up with a way to perfectly balance the sides of a long tailed phase inverter circuit, for better sustain. Amp techs use a voltmeter most of the time for the PI balance thang, when it is done right the difference is very slight, but can be heard. I noticed that the main board was a combination of eyelets and turrets, like in my Blues Machine. There were a lot more parts inside than the BM however...and that amp had lots of 'em. All this futzing took the better part of an hour. I had a Seismic "Luke" 2/12 filled with a pair of my fave (for RedPlate) speakers, JBL MI-12's, in series for 16 ohms, the cab is roomy, has an oval opening in the back like a Dumble style cab, light in weight and for what it is, relatively inexpensive. The output transformer was a Classic Tone custom made for RedPlate with 2,4,8, and 16 ohm taps available from the selector knob. How did it sound? Huuuuuuuge! The clean channel was typical of the Tweed based RedPlate models, which is to say gorgeous in the Fender roots, with the the six position voicing blackface/brownface/tweed switch, sounds similar to the Blues Machine. The first overdrive was similar to the Blues Machine's Dumble-derived dirty channel. The second dirty channel had a big bottom end and also the bright Marshall top When I put the two dirty channels going at once, the tone became a warm, incredibly sweet and complex harmonic blooming sustain monster There are no easy words to describe it, just rich, rich, rich, like a Haagen Dasz milkshake warm and sweet, with sweet nastiness a couple knobs' tweak away. With all four buttons on the factory footswitch turned on the thing wanted to just roar and roar and go and go...even with the master volume set at lower volumes for the living room at home. There is enough knob and switch tweaking to keep a tone junkie busy for weeks...but once you learn a RedPlate, it's quick to change up for each different guitar put through it. Distortion pedals? You don't need no stinkin' dirt pedals...at all. I'm going to definitely want to sell several amps now, the ground that this amp covers tonewise is broad as an 8 laned superfreeway say the least. And these amps include some very nice hand wired Dumble type circuits...Steel String Singer, Robben Ford's # 102, 80's Overdrive Supreme, and 90's Hot Rubber Monkey. The Siegmund Midnight Blues JTM 45...the Harry Joyce Custom 30...yep. They can all go away. You hear the Redplate's price tag in the tones, for sure. Compared to an original Dumble, this amp does much more. Kinda like a Super Hornet compared to the original FA-18... Staggering, just staggering...what this thing can do... There are so many things that can be tweaked on the controls that the amp can be intimidating for the first time user. Having a Blues Machine beforehand helped me to know what to expect. So it went pretty straight forward after all the time I had spent repeatedly, repeatedly, reading the freakin' manual. RTFM...the secret to getting what you want out of a RedPlate amp. Boutique amps for boutique guitars! Boutique guitars for boutique amps! YEEEEESSS!!!
Gitfiddler Posted January 17, 2017 Posted January 17, 2017 Damn! What a great amp-tweaker post! Will you please stop by and take a listen to my humble amp collection? I think they sound pretty darned good, but could use the benefit of your ears and techno-wizardry! And bring some of them fancy-shmancy valves with you...please.
ridethatbike Posted January 17, 2017 Posted January 17, 2017 Sounds incredible! Enjoy it in good health. Any demos with Sam Vilo too are just cheating. That guy is unreal.
ElNumero Posted January 19, 2017 Posted January 19, 2017 Man, that is nice, but I would be scared to death of a shipper leaving a box containing THAT on my porch. Porch pirates are everywhere always, not just during the Holidays!
212Mavguy Posted January 20, 2017 Author Posted January 20, 2017 I live in a Mormon neighborhood. The kids leave their bikes on the lawns sometimes with no problems. It's a 100 plus mile trip to pick up a package at UPS or Fedex at their nearest shipping hub facility. Plus I work all day during shipping hours.
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