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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2012 5:09 pm
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I did the tone pod mod and very happy with it! I came across these in Thomann's web site today... I'm very happy I got the brown one before they ran out... They seem to come with Weber speaker and a delivery is due on 31/12/2012. Also the price went up by €62. No sign of the brown ones in Thomann any more.
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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 9:36 am
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Does not seem as if anyone is using any tone caps on that tone pot mod

Possible room for improvement ?

I knda liked the surf green model :mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:08 am
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Been gigging mine for 5 months now, no mods done to it. Certainly loud enough for small pub gigs, but I am running mine on 4-5 volume, and have peavey DI box fitted in back to trickle through PA. I use the dark setting on tele, lap steel and P90 guitar, when I used a 335 I put it on bright but it was too bright and dark was too dark. Tele sounded so good that the 335 went rather than do mods to amp. :wink:


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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 2:07 pm
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For all you Excelsior owners, I stumbled across this on YouTube. Search "queens of the Stone Age secrets of the sound" and go to the 7 minute mark.

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 6:32 pm
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socal323 wrote:
For all you Excelsior owners, I stumbled across this on YouTube. Search "queens of the Stone Age secrets of the sound" and go to the 7 minute mark.

But only a prop unless I'm missing something. :?

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:03 am
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I got one cheap on Craigs List and just flat can't find a tone that I really like :(

I have had it back on C/L for a month with no serious takers for way under the price of a new one and notta !

(please don't ask me to sell it to you from here Not gonna happen !!!!)

Any way has the tone pot mod made huge differences in the tone ?
I really hate to invest much here only to find that cheap sound stays.
I have a brand new Gibson 500K audio Taper pot in the package (short shaft)
Should I take the plunge ???????

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 10:55 am
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blues bondsman wrote:
I got one cheap on Craigs List and just flat can't find a tone that I really like :(.........Any way has the tone pot mod made huge differences in the tone ?
I really hate to invest much here only to find that cheap sound stays.
I have a brand new Gibson 500K audio Taper pot in the package (short shaft)
Should I take the plunge ???????

If you categorize the sound as "cheap", unload it 'cause you'll never be happy. For those who have heard the very old '50s amps, that's what they sound like to us, not cheap, but surely different...unlike any Fender sound you'll hear today.
As far as the tone pot mod., it doesn't change the basic sound, just allows you to get 'between' the dark and bright setting. It is a simple mod. Unsolder (DO NOT SNIP- YOU'LL NEED THE FULL WIRE LENGTH) 3 wires. Slightly enlarge the slot w/ a dremmel tool or small file. Install the pot and solder three wires. Piece of cake!
I love mine for what it is (also changed the speaker to an Emi Legend 1518), but reading between the lines, I doubt you'll ever like it. It's not for everyone nor for all genres of music.

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 11:07 am
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I get what your saying I've owned several Valco amps of all shapes and sizes and yep thats the "cheap sound" I was talking about.

I found that drenched in Overdrive and with my P-90 Gibson I can get a trashy blues sound, kinda black keys sounding that is kinda cool.

Needs some kind of mids control maybe ???

I got the thing for about what it costs to take the wife out on a date so its not like
its going to break the bank if I mod it and still don't like the sound :mrgreen:

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:32 pm
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blues bondsman wrote:
I get what your saying I've owned several Valco amps of all shapes and sizes and yep thats the "cheap sound" I was talking about.

I found that drenched in Overdrive and with my P-90 Gibson I can get a trashy blues sound, kinda black keys sounding that is kinda cool.

Needs some kind of mids control maybe ???

I got the thing for about what it costs to take the wife out on a date so its not like
its going to break the bank if I mod it and still don't like the sound :mrgreen:

Yep, the Valco amp sound is a fairly accurate description. The knob mod cost me <$10!
I think it does "blues" well also. Have you listened to any of the YouTube videos by an Aussie, 'intheblues' ? Sounds pretty good to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSfIklV_ ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMUMFb36A_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUYzeeavXcE (starting around :44)
Do you like surf? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx_lUJ74XSc
There are lots of quality demos on YouTube if you have the patience to sort thru the not-so-good ones.
But, it's never going to sound Fenderish IMO.

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:23 am
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Anyone try any other speakers in this ??? besides the 1518 ?

Wondering what a Big Ben Eminence would do for this amp ?
Or a weber.

I'm gonna get out the soldering iron today and do the tone pot mod.
We will see where that leads me.

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:13 am
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goofy question
which preamp tube is V-1 right or left while looking at the back
I assume its the right side like most Fenders but.........?

The sound is so darn boxey on this one, sounds like an old am radio

I have EH6V6gt's and some ruby 12AX7's in there

Help me out here guys I'm trying to find a place for this thing !

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:32 am
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And yet another strange observation

The speaker is soldered in, is that normal ? and the wire with the white stripe is on the Negative side of the speaker.......
Could it be that it was installed with a reverse polarity ? or the original owner did something crazy ????

take a peak at yours and let me know how your speaker is wired
Thanks

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 1:08 pm
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Well I pulled the preamp tubes and v-1 was not a jj it was a ruby, v-2 was a jj

left the 6V6's alone

I installed a sweet little JAN 5751 green lable in v-1 and reinserted v-2 (JJ)
The difference was amazing, like two completely different amps !
I had seen a few posts where guys were using 12AY7's in V-1 on these also
The 5751 is a match made in heaven for these amps
Calmed down all that noise and smoothed out the O/D when I sent the volume knob to max.

Now its usable, before it was a real turkey !
Might even take it off of the for sale block for a while and "mess with it" some more.

I did see where they come from the factory with the white stripe on the neg side of the speaker, i checked at the plug in and its pushing out with the 9 volt batt + on the tip and the - on the shaft so........

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1968 Bandmaster with 2X12 cab C-rex speakers
VHT Special 6 Ultra combo

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:23 pm
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blues bondsman wrote:
Well I pulled the preamp tubes and v-1 was not a jj it was a ruby, v-2 was a jj

left the 6V6's alone

I installed a sweet little JAN 5751 green lable in v-1 and reinserted v-2 (JJ)
The difference was amazing, like two completely different amps !
I had seen a few posts where guys were using 12AY7's in V-1 on these also
The 5751 is a match made in heaven for these amps
Calmed down all that noise and smoothed out the O/D when I sent the volume knob to max.

Now its usable, before it was a real turkey !
Might even take it off of the for sale block for a while and "mess with it" some more.

I did see where they come from the factory with the white stripe on the neg side of the speaker, i checked at the plug in and its pushing out with the 9 volt batt + on the tip and the - on the shaft so........

Yep, agree w/ the 5751 in V1. Did you complete the tone pot?
Now, unplug the speaker and run a speaker cable to a quality 8 ohm cab/speaker. If you do, I know what's next. If you think a 5751 in V1 and a tone pot made a difference, wait 'til you try a quality speaker!

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Post subject: Re: Any Excelsior owners here yet?
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 5:34 pm
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No mods at all, i got such a change from just adding that 5751 that I didn't even heat up the soldering iron.

The tube I pulled was supposedly Ruby's super quiet 12AX7 had all kinds of extra designations on it, well it made that amp unusable in my opinion.
I have been playing the amp now for an hour or so and flat out can't believe the change.
Bill M mentioned that the preamp was hotter than it should be and had a great affect of the headroom of these amps, now I see why guys are using 12AY7 in v-1.
Lucky for me I have a pretty good stash of sweet 5751's 8)
I have plenty of nice clean up to and slightly past 60% on the volume knob
(vintage wound Strat) hit it with my Compressor and it has plenty of volume and an overdrive that is affected by my picking hand, cleans up with a softer attack.
Not gonna sell off my vintage fender stuff, however i sure don't hate the tone of this one.

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2004 50th Ann. Limited edition AMSE Stratocaster
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1968 Bandmaster with 2X12 cab C-rex speakers
VHT Special 6 Ultra combo

Visual Sound Route 66
Cmatmods Signa Drive


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