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Post subject: New DRRI Owner - Questions
Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:48 pm
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Ok I know I'm going to have to eat crow here but here goes. I just traded in my relatively new HRD III for a DRRI. The HRD suited my needs for the most part HOWEVER I really found the amp to be too loud for home practice and even almost too loud for band practice. AND after reading all of the great comments/reviews about the DRRI I decided to take one for a spin earlier today as I was still within the grace period to return my HRD III for a full refund at GC. Well I brought the DRRI home and am glad I did. It has a much more rich tone and the reverb is years away better. I've never really been a fan of reverb but it is so good on this amp that I know I will use it most of the time.

Anyway, does anyone here have any tips for a first time DRRI owner? Is there much reason to use the normal channel? I understand most musicians prefer the Vibrato channel. Anything else?

Also - I have an 8 ohm extension cabinet - can I hook that up to the extension jack on the back of the DRRI without causing an impedance problem? The DRRI manual does not seem to specify what impedance load the extension speaker should carry.


Last edited by Unadan on Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 6:03 pm
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I don't have mine yet...it's being shipped as I type but the Owners Manual does say that it is an 8 Ohm load. So you can run your Ext speaker to the output jack for the Internal Speaker on the back of the DRRI.
I wouldn't plug the Ext Speaker into the Ext jack on the amp at the same time as having the Internal Speaker plugged in. Since they are wired in parallel, you'd then have a 4 Ohm load on the amp which I don't think would be wise to do.

Other more knowledgeable than myself may correct me if I'm wrong. Now that I think about it...as long as the Internal Speaker isn't plugged in you can run the Ext Speaker into the same jack as the Internal Speaker would be plugged into. Just don't have BOTH plugged in at the same time.

Look forward to having mine soon myself!
Congrats!

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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 6:16 pm
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Thanks! I think your right in fact I'm looking at the 65 DRRI Manual - on the back of the amp underneath the two speaker jacks it says "22 Watts
8 ohm total."


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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 6:24 pm
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According to the schematic that I'm looking at, tyronne is correct, the output speaker jacks are wired in parallel. You must have something plugged into the main speaker jack at all times. You can use the internal 8 ohm speaker, or an external 8 ohm speaker for the main speaker jack, but NOT two 8 ohm speakers in both jacks at once. If you want to use both speaker jacks, you must use two 16 ohm speakers, one for the main speaker jack and one for the external speaker jack. The amp speaker combined load should be 8 ohms or more total. :)

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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 6:27 pm
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Two run an extension cab you would have to replace the stock speker with a 16 ohm and the extension cab would have to be 16 ohms also, the two run together would give you an eight ohm load.

the jack is a bit of a mystery, why did fender do it ????

I wonder how many tarnsformers got fried because of it ????

I know I've read somewhere why they even put it back there.

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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:02 pm
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blues bondsman wrote:
the jack is a bit of a mystery, why did fender do it ????

I wonder how many tarnsformers got fried because of it ????

I know I've read somewhere why they even put it back there.


Back in the day when Leo was in charge, he specified that all output trannies be capable of handling a 100% mismatch without any possibility of damage. Thus, many Fender amps built during this "golden age" were often used in conjunction with extension cabs, with few problems. The Triad and Schumacher transformers that equipped these amps were superior products of their time -- no finer iron has ever been used in a Fender amp.

The re-issue blackfaces are equipped with Schmacher trannies, which seem to be faithful reproductions of the original prototypes. Unknown though is how "over-built" they are in terms of handling overload and abuse. I have personally played my TRRI wired to an 8-ohm Showman cab for hours at "realistic" volume levels with no apparent problems. The amp's recommended impedance load is 4 ohms but the added cab drops it to approximately 3 ohms.

Thus the question becomes, how paranoid are you and how deep are your pockets (lest your tranny fry). I know players with DRRI's who routinely run an 8-ohm cab in conjunction with the internal speaker and had no problems whatsoever. IOW, it's a crap shoot. But I believe the odds are in our favor. If it's really an issue though, you can replace your DRRI's single-tap OT with a tranny that offers dual secondaries (4-ohm and 8-ohm) like I did on mine.

Best of luck, HTH

Arjay

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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:21 pm
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Thanks for all the information Arjay - I think I will play it safe and just run the internal speaker. My external cab is an open back avatar with a v30 in it so I don't think it would match all that well with the DRRI sound anyway.


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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:28 pm
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Try disconnecting the internal Eminence speaker (or Jensen if it's an earlier edition) and plugging your V30 cab into the main speaker jack. IMO the V30 is a much tastier-sounding speaker than the OEM type that comes in a DRRI.

Arjay

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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 9:19 pm
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The amp was made last September and has a Jensen ceramic speaker. I'll give her a try with the v30 and see how it sounds.


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Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 9:38 pm
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The V30 seldom disappoints.

Arjay

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Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 8:08 pm
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Interesting, I always thought you could run 2 8 ohms speakers thru the DRRI by using the ext spkr jack, never thought about the total ohms... but I just realized that Fender says total is 8 ohms! I have done it, but for a short time. I usually just unplug the int spkr jack if I want to use a cab.


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Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 1:23 am
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This is the output tranny I installed in my amp......

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Output-Transfor ... 2eaa68892a

It permits the safe operation of a Deluxe Reverb amp with a variety of impedance loads.

Arjay

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Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 6:37 am
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It's on my to-do list :)


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Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:19 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
This is the output tranny I installed in my amp......

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Output-Transfor ... 2eaa68892a

It permits the safe operation of a Deluxe Reverb amp with a variety of impedance loads.

Arjay


Did you change the output jacks for impedance switching, or do you have a selector switch, or do you just use one tap? :?:

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Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2010 10:39 am
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shimmilou wrote:
Did you change the output jacks for impedance switching, or do you have a selector switch, or do you just use one tap?


My DRRI is an older model from '94 and has the dummy "ground" switch on the rear panel. Now it actually performs a useful function, switching between the 4-ohm and 8-ohm taps.

Originally I intended to install self-switching jacks for the speaker outputs (a la the HRD amps) but the Carling switch was already there, waiting for its new mission.

Arjay

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