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Post subject: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 1:50 pm
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Question for the board. As recently posted, i got my SFSR up and running (thanks BMW!)

Snce then i have been aying it a ton and i rediscovered that it has a distinct smell when runnning. It is not the old cat pee smell from the cabinet that seems to have dissipated.

This is a smell, not unlike a nice old pipe smells, but a really nice "old" smell. Cant really describe it, but it smells nice and vintage.

Now it could be that i think the amp lived a long hard life in smoky bars, but i would have thought that would have smelt kinda bad the second time around.

So how does your amp smell when it is fired up and warm?


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:43 pm
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taskerc, Yeah... musty, "new tubes," dust, women's underwear :lol: burning off smells are to be expected for the first week or so. You should not have overt scents after 8-10 hours. Unless you've contributed some, in the meantime.

Burnt electronics, sickly sweet smell of too hot trannies, or hot output tubes (a distinct smell with a lot of thermal expansion & contraction noise) --- means checking bias and trannies.

I finally, got the SR I'm working on to not hum. Removed the funky diode stack off the anode plates of the 6L6GC. Redid the ground straps. Tried it out.

NORMAL = really nice tone. VIBRATO = weedy thin tone. WTF? :?:

Went back in to find all kinds of "voicing changes" done to the circuit. Like replacing the OEM 0.1mfd/600VDC coupling cap for the bass portion in the VIBRATO section of the tone stack with a 0.047mfd Mallory-150. Why? Know knows? Already pulled out a bunch of ceramic micas bypassing cap on several coupling caps. Can't ppl just replace the parts as outlined in the schematic? Or maybe, the last tech used the amp for his science project. "How to make a good amp sound bad."

Enjoy your amp! It's a keeper, for sure.

:mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:36 pm
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I kinda like the smell. Well not the cat pee smell from the cabinet ....

Sounds like you have a real project on your hands there BMW. I remember thinking that i was changing too much when i did the recap -felt a bit sacreligious at times, but it sounds like the amp you are working on has been heavily tone tweaked. Horses for courses i guess.

I am glad mine is now working :D

C


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:54 pm
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I kinda smell like that also :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 5:33 pm
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tbazzone wrote:
I kinda smell like that also :lol:



Ok...TBAZZ, where the hell you been hanging out that you smell like cat pee :?: :shock: :shock: :shock: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

You been to Ohio on business again :?: :?: :lol: :lol:

Sorry I just couldn't resist that one! :roll:

T2

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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:06 am
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I had a 68 bassman head that I think someone polished with armorall or some such thing and when it heated up the scent from the polish would get activated and it would emit a pleasant scent while I played.


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 3:55 am
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There really is nothing quite like that smell of a nicely warmed up tube amp, although I'm sure most of it is just burning dust. :lol:

Won a Trace Elliot cab on eBay a few years ago - when it arrived at the studio, it absolutely reeked. Took four of us to finally work out that it stank of mothballs, to the point that we had to remove it to someone's garage rather than store it with the rest of the gear. To this day, that cab still has a bit of a whiff about it.


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 8:53 pm
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If my amp smells, it hasn't said anything.


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 11:16 pm
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There are no amps that have olfactory glands, so they can't smell. They can stink, but they can't smell. :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:21 am
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shimmilou wrote:
There are no amps that have olfactory glands, so they can't smell. They can stink, but they can't smell. :lol:


This is true ....


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:11 am
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Although bantering about cat pee had me laughin' my arse off, there is
something to what the OP asked.
The very first gig I recently brought out the '65 Bandmaster head every musician (friends from the audience as well as the band) came up to take a sniff after the first set while on standby.
"Old Fender tolex & tubes", it was just as we remembered !
The bartender even asked what the duck were you guys doin' up there?
:lol:


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:27 am
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That is exactly what I mean, if I understand you correctly. It is a smell that brings authority and validity and just smells right. Tolex and tubes .......

vinscag wrote:
Although bantering about cat pee had me laughin' my arse off, there is
something to what the OP asked.
The very first gig I recently brought out the '65 Bandmaster head every musician (friends from the audience as well as the band) came up to take a sniff after the first set while on standby.
"Old Fender tolex & tubes", it was just as we remembered !
The bartender even asked what the duck were you guys doin' up there?
:lol:


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:57 pm
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vinscag wrote:
...I recently brought out the '65 Bandmaster head every musician (friends from the audience as well as the band) came up to take a sniff after the first set while on standby...


It's not unusual to see things being "sniffed" at a concert, but usually, people go into the bathroom for that sort of thing. I've never seen anyone do it onstage, nor heard the excuse; "we were just smelling the amp." :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 12:02 am
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:lol: :shock: :lol: shimmilou, we tried to explain it to her
but her only reply was "what's tolex?" :lol:


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Post subject: Re: Does your amp smell?
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 7:49 pm
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Mine smelled like mold and mildew until I gave it a vinegar wash. Now I can sit next to it and not gag.

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