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Post subject: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:52 am
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1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
My old 1961 EL84 Tremolux amps,
I have 2 of them and I noticed the circuit had a
change from the first amps made. I have one of the
first EL84 built and one of the last built. They made about
180 of these amps and I have recorded the serials to 179.

The top chassis is one of the last EL84 made and you can see the addition of the .001 Treble Bleeder caps like in the 6G9 Fender Schematic. The bottom chassis is one of the first made and it does not have the Treble Bleeder caps (.001) Yellow Astrons. When they added the .001 caps all they did was move the 2 wires to the other side of the eyelet board and install the 2 .001 caps. They also added a ceramic cap to the bottom of the phase inverter on the first build amps (bottom chassis).

They only made one run of transformers for this amp, and they are all dated the same.

Image

Image

This amp has the original tubes, all Bugle Boy pre-amp and GZ34, Sylvania EL84 in one and the other has GE Mullard.

I know a few other collectors wit these amps, anyone else with one please add to the info.

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:03 am
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Wow - stunning. Had only seen an EL84 Tremolux before on eBay with an auction that's been up for 9 or so months. Congrats.

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:04 am
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Interesting to see how the mix of tone caps on the eyelet board varied between these two amps. The lead dress on the top chassis seems to be a bit more neatly done. Both are very nice though.

8)

How do they compare sonically?

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 9:00 am
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AJ,
Tone-Wise, I would say about the same. It's a fun amp, I use a Celestion Gold 10" and it makes a killer tone. I have both Marshall 18 & 20 watt amps and the Marshall's are more dirty.
But the Fender has high compression and makes a nice natural overdrive. It's not as loud as the 6L6GC Tremolux amps but it has that cool saturated overdrive sound when pushed to 7-9.
The Celestion Gold adds both volume and headroom because of the efficiency compared to the Oxford.

I was just thinking about he 2 amps, I will check the pots dates and see if I can get a range to guess when they made the last of the EL84 amps. I will also check the dates on the brown paper Astron bias, bypass caps & filter caps.

The bottom chassis is one of the first 10 EL84 amps built and this may be why the wiring is not as clean, they were trying to figure this thing out.

Notice there are no ink-stamp inspection stamps on the early amp and the later amp has the stamps.

For those of you who don't know, the early Fender Export amps have a small circuit board on the inside of the chassis that allows you to change the voltage with a sliding pin terminal. Some of the chassis's were pre-drilled for this board.
There is 2 extra holes drilled into the chassis right next to the power transformer. Many people think these were drilled-in by people doing mods, but they are stock. Almost all the production Brownface amps have the holes in the chassis.
Since this amp never went into production they never drilled the 2 holes in the chassis for Export. When Fender started making the production 6L6GC Tremolux amps they drilled the 2 holes in the chassis for the Export option.

Here is a pic of one of my Brown Deluxe 6G3 Amps with the
Export Option. From the outside of the amp you cannot tell it's an export. Where the select-pin is connected in the photo
is on the 117 volt slot. The pin is fat, like 3/16" diameter.

When you see Brownface amps for sale on ebay and you see the 2 screws sticking out the bottom of the chassis, you know it's an export amp, if you only see the 2 empty holes you know it's a regular USA build. You don't find many Export Brown/Blond amps in the USA as most were sold overseas.

Image

Image


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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 10:59 am
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paper wrote:
AJ,
Tone-Wise, I would say about the same. It's a fun amp, I use a Celestion Gold 10" and it makes a killer tone.


That was going to be my next question (which speaker cab did these heads ship with?).



paper wrote:
Notice there are no ink-stamp inspection stamps on the early amp and the later amp has the stamps.


Indeed, that is noteworthy.

paper wrote:
For those of you who don't know, the early Fender Export amps have a small circuit board on the inside of the chassis that allows you to change the voltage with a sliding pin terminal. Some of the chassis's were pre-drilled for this board.
There is 2 extra holes drilled into the chassis right next to the power transformer. Many people think these were drilled-in by people doing mods, but they are stock. Almost all the production Brownface amps have the holes in the chassis.
Since this amp never went into production they never drilled the 2 holes in the chassis for Export. When Fender started making the production 6L6GC Tremolux amps they drilled the 2 holes in the chassis for the Export option.


I always wondered about those seemingly spurious extra holes -- thanks for the info!

paper wrote:
Here is a pic of one of my Brown Deluxe 6G3 Amps with the
Export Option. From the outside of the amp you cannot tell it's an export. Where the select-pin is connected in the photo
is on the 117 volt slot. The pin is fat, like 3/16" diameter.

When you see Brownface amps for sale on ebay and you see the 2 screws sticking out the bottom of the chassis, you know it's an export amp, if you only see the 2 empty holes you know it's a regular USA build. You don't find many Export Brown/Blond amps in the USA as most were sold overseas.


I think that added TB with bayonet-lug connectors and clearly-marked terminals is a much better idea than how such input-voltage changes are executed on contemporary amps. Further proof that Leo did in fact know best.

Thanks for the tutorial, paper.

Rawk on!

8)

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:11 pm
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Very nice and informative,thanks for sharing!!
Beautiful amps!


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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:37 am
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I have what I think is a 1961 tremolux. Can you point me in the right direction to verify it? It's a single speaker cabinet.

I am almost certain that it has been worked on at some point as the guts don't look exactly like your two heads, but I think it was just parts being replaced to keep it working. It has a sn# 00341 stamped on the back and the OT is a 45217.


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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:29 am
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This is sweet! The grandfather of the BJr. A classic after all. :wink:

Thanks for sharing paper. :D

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:56 pm
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Didnt know they even made them with EL84, I thought that circuit had either 6BQ5s or 6L6s.


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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:04 pm
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Yes, the first versions had 6BQ5/EL84 (same tube), and the later versions had the 6L6.

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 1:53 pm
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Correct.

The few 6BQ5 versions built are considered to be "stupid/rare".

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:06 pm
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:lol:

Don't remind us!

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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:35 pm
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My amp guy here swears by EL84, I'm a 6L6 guy (Bandmaster)


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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:52 pm
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I wouldn't mod it to take, say 6V6GT's. Look for good EL84 (I like the Sovtek labeled EL84M--- esp 1970-80 era Reflektor made 6P14P-EB or -EV--- must have -EB or -EV suffix).

These are great tubes. Rank up there with best Bugle Boy Amperex EL84 or original Mullard EL84, in my opinion. Good two weeks to break-in. But you'll get an very agressive tone. Goes well with 1980's Tungsram 12AX7/ECC83. With Celestion Greenbacks or V30's--- you'll have a nice rich, vintage powerful Voxy tone. Not Fender, but not bad at all.

They are what I run in my Matchless Hurricane.

Good luck with that one-off Fender amp!


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Post subject: Re: 1961 Tremolux EL84 6G9.1 & 6G9.2
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:32 pm
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stevedug wrote:
I have what I think is a 1961 tremolux. Can you point me in the right direction to verify it? It's a single speaker cabinet.

I am almost certain that it has been worked on at some point as the guts don't look exactly like your two heads, but I think it was just parts being replaced to keep it working. It has a sn# 00341 stamped on the back and the OT is a 45217.


Steve,

An easy way to start is:
Are your Power Tube Sockets the small hole EL/84 or the larger 8 pin octal sockets?

The 1961 Blond Tremolux Amps started at S/N 100, so the s/n 101 is the 1st. amp made. I wrote to Greg Gagliano to finally update this info. He still needs to update the 80 watt Tweed Twin from ending serial number 725 to 780 made in April of 1960. Maybe one day.
From Gregs site:
Twin 5F8, 5F8-A (tweed)
A00010 to A00725 – 1957-59


They made about 180 EL84 Tremolux amps, so any amp with a serial after 00280 would be new news.


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