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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:13 pm
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63supro wrote:
I have gear older than the kid Dad. :lol:


Yunno, that's literally quite true.

My '64 Pro Amp (the oldest piece I currently own) is forty-nine years old -- likely older than the majority of this forum's members. What it is, what it does, and how it sounds is so far removed from these kids so as to be incomprehensible to them. Most have never actually heard the true "Fender" tone -- merely "modern interpretations" as produced by modeling platforms and the contemporary crop of miserable little fizz-boxes.

IOW, they're clueless.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 6:03 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
Studio gear seldom suffers the rigors imposed by live performing (and the attendant loading, unloading, transporting, and periodic abuse/misuse).

Yes and no, since studio gear is designed for durability and live applications. All of the higher end mics and boxes are designed with this factor in mind. Some live sound engineers also use tube gear and lunch boxes, especially if the live performance is being recorded. Gradually though, there has been a move to plug-ins.

It seems to me if they could produce a moderately priced tube amp in the 1960s that was built to last decades, they could do the same today without the $2000 to $3000 price tag. Even an entry level Sear's amp from that era would outlast most of the factory production amps being made today.

Incidentally, what do you think of the guitars being built today using CNC and how it compares to vintage guitars?


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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 6:28 pm
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CliffS wrote:
Even an entry level Sear's amp from that era would outlast most of the factory production amps being made today.


+1

I know an old codger (I mean, even older than me) who still plays a old Alamo student amp he got for his fifteenth birthday. It's had a cap job or two plus a few resistors replaced and three years ago I set him up with some NOS tubes but it still sounds surprisingly good. Cab is a little ratty-looking though.

I think the contemporary CNC guitars are built to a more consistent standard than vintage and generally they're pretty solid instruments. Nevertheless we all still lust for that '59 slab-board Strat stashed away in some attic for the last fifty years......

:mrgreen:

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:48 pm
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Hi Arjay, reading the recent posts on this thread has inspired me to provide an amp update. That DR that I purchased recently turned out to be heavily water damaged inside the chassis (it must have sat idle for years!). There was a reason the fellow who sold it to me let it go for so cheap. I took the amp to a tech who said it would be a costly fix. I traded him the amp as a project for him, in addition to some gear both ways in what was a large trade. Part of what I recieved was this nice '64 Super Reverb that he restored. We looked inside the chassis and everything was much cleaner (big lesson). The reverb/trem combination is absolutely out of this world with my tele on the bridge pup:

Image

I am 25 years of age, so there is at least one young gun around who knows what everyone's talking about. :wink:


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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:24 pm
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That's a nice resto, Toronado......ya done good!

What speakers are in it?

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:37 pm
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Retroverbial wrote:
That's a nice resto, Toronado......ya done good!

What speakers are in it?


Thanks Arjay, the amp houses period-correct Oxfords. 8)


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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:45 pm
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10K5's or 10L5's?

How do they sound?

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:42 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
10K5's or 10L5's?

How do they sound?


My fault, they are 10L6-1's pulled from a 68 Super Reverb. I don't know that they are the "holy grail" exactly, but the amp certainly does sound fine. With the reverb turned up high, around 5, you could become lost in how nice it sounds.


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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 9:04 am
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Well you'll be the best judge of your own tone.

You've got a fine amp there, and a nice piece of "Americana" as well.

I'm certain you'll be using it to teach your grandson how to play.

Rawk on!

8)

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:23 pm
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Thank you sir, I feel fortunate to have fell upon it. It still stings to think about how oxidated everything looked in the 65 DR. It has to have sat in a moist basement for years, maybe decades to get the way it looked. Worst part is, I don't even know if the tech that I went to was realistic in the number that he gave me for how much a restoration would have run me. (He did lie in saying the speakers in the SR were correct for a 64). Makes me wonder if I got rid of a great amp too quickly. Everything happens for a reason, though. That SR is going to be put through its paces. It sounds a lot warmer to my ear and breaks at a far more tolerable volume than the Vic 59 Bassman I had. But that amp was a whole different animal.


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Post subject: Re: "They Don't Make Things Like they Used To" ???
Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 1:13 pm
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In that regard, we're here to help.

Fore-warned is fore-armed and that knowledge is power.

Use that power prior to your next acquisition.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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