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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:48 pm
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63supro wrote:
strings10927 wrote:
How many 30-40w SS amps can you name that are in the $750-1000 range (that aren't custom/boutique)? :|
Roland and Quilter have plenty. They're not what I would consider boutique amps, but they are professional amps built for the long haul. The Roland Jazz Chorus 120 has been around for ages. Quilter and Roland both have great amps in the $600 on up range.
So you're saying the JC 120 is a 30-40w SS amp in that price range? I think I'm beginning to understand where you're coming from in terms of amp knowledge. :lol:

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:44 pm
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In my experience, broken glass is not a major drawback to tube amps. The biggest issue is getting tubes that sound consistently good. An amp with crappy tubes will not sound as good as a good solid state amp.
Cheap tubes is where many manufacturers can cut costs, so a brand new amp doesn't necessarily have the best tone that it can acheive. You need to ignore the label and listen to what your ears are saying. Acheiving good tone requires patience, money, and an ear to know what you're hearing to get that last 10% of quality that turns sound into music..

Tube electronics helped win WWll. I think there's a movie about that in theaters right now. My dad installed wire recorders in P51s for the Flying Tigers in China. He said glass wasn't a problem. Firing 6 machine guns wasn't a problem. He told me the biggest problem was trying to repair a radio that had a bullet go through it. Thankfully, even UPS doesn't cause that kind of problem.
Raytheon Corp is making tubes again. Since they are largely a military provider, chances are there is military equipment being built with them. They are a small tube that is soldered into circuitry. My guess is that they are used in nuclear hardened facilities. There is at least one little guitar amp made with the Raytheon tube.

The best sounding solid state amps, in my opinion are the linear FET amps. The first one that comes to mind is a Roland JC120. Hughes & Kettner and Laney also use linear FETs in some of their SS amps. Marshall also made some with FET power amps. Early Acoustic amps with discrete transistors are also recognized as having good tone.
Most modern SS amps use op amps in the preamp and, unfortunately, they are limited by their slew rate. Upgrading these to a TLE2072 makes a noticeable improvement. Edens and SWR blondes have better tone with good ICs. Peavey's have sockets to make upgrades easy. The chips are cheap at $3 each, so there is no reason to accept the cost limits that the factory has.

Even a digital amp can stand a few upgrades in the preamp and the line outs. The Vox AGA 70 has a tube and digital processing, but is improved by fast chips. The processors are mostly 32 bit and can sound pretty good, but the Class D output stages.... sorry, I can't help you. They have no noise, so they can sit there and not hiss, but the tone doesn't seem to satisfy musicians with ears. I haven't found any remedy...yet.

These days,SS amps are usually driven by MOSFET power ICs, so they follow the chips. These take a jump from 15Watt to 50-60 watts, so 35-40 is definitely an underserved market. Power is cheap in SS so hi power is a feature. Low power is for practice. Trace Elliot makes a few in this range. Some of the Fender chorus amps are in this range/channel.


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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:45 pm
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Strings .... What are you doing? Seriously. I've seen some good posts from you. What's with this nonsense and badgering. I've been guilty of badgering as well but only when I encounter stupidity. I don't understand what you hope to accomplish here.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:50 pm
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same old story Beemer. You post something directly to OP like this.....

strings10927 wrote:
stevieraygovan wrote:
being able to count on consistent trouble-free performance

Is that job #1? If so, you're barking up the wrong tree IMO (tube amps).

Any time glass is part of the construction, you can count on a few issues in the worst case scenario.

Image


And everyone on the forum who has a hard-on for tube amps (and a hatred for anything other than tube amps) has to pick it apart. The usual characters with the usual schtick.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 5:02 pm
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Strings, you're pretty much the guy that starts all this garbage in the first place. I build my amps, so no, I guess I don't know anything about amplifiers. I've built solid state amps too. I think you are the one who lacks knowledge about amps, which is why you need an amp that does the thinking for you. Don't like what I post? Put me on your foe list. You know nothing about me.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 5:24 pm
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Tim, funny you mention that. A while back I built a little 5 watt hybrid amp for a cigar box guitar I made and it uses a Raytheon JAN6418 tube and a LM1875T IC and it actually sounds pretty good. The tube is a sub-miniature tube that I had to solder to the board. I put a couple of rubber Grommets on it because the tube can be a little micro phonic if it's bumped. It was a kit I found from company in Australia.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 7:25 am
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63supro wrote:
I build my amps

Image

63supro wrote:
I build my amps.....I've built solid state amps too.
63supro wrote:
What amazes me is I can build amps only knowing enough to be dangerous.
63supro wrote:
I just build amps and stuff and just make sure everything's within the recommended voltages
63supro wrote:
I stay away from Fender's high end stuff and just build it myself
63supro wrote:
I build my own tube amps and effects too.
63supro wrote:
Most of the stuff I build is old school.
63supro wrote:
I've learned enough to build my own amps and effects. I just built a Marshall 18 watt clone....
63supro wrote:
I don't build amps for a living, i build them because I want a well build, great sounding amp for decent money.
63supro wrote:
or do like I do and build them yourself.
63supro wrote:
If I can build a quiet amp from a kit, and I'm no genius but can follow instructions, then Fender can too.
63supro wrote:
Like I said before, I started to build my own gear....
63supro wrote:
I've built three tube amps so far.
63supro wrote:
I'll either build them myself or go vintage.


I think the word you're looking for is ... assembled. :wink:

63supro wrote:
Even at the point I at now, a scratch build still seems a little out of my league.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 8:42 am
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strings10927 wrote:
63supro wrote:
I build my amps

Image

63supro wrote:
I build my amps.....I've built solid state amps too.
63supro wrote:
What amazes me is I can build amps only knowing enough to be dangerous.
63supro wrote:
I just build amps and stuff and just make sure everything's within the recommended voltages
63supro wrote:
I stay away from Fender's high end stuff and just build it myself
63supro wrote:
I build my own tube amps and effects too.
63supro wrote:
Most of the stuff I build is old school.
63supro wrote:
I've learned enough to build my own amps and effects. I just built a Marshall 18 watt clone....
63supro wrote:
I don't build amps for a living, i build them because I want a well build, great sounding amp for decent money.
63supro wrote:
or do like I do and build them yourself.
63supro wrote:
If I can build a quiet amp from a kit, and I'm no genius but can follow instructions, then Fender can too.
63supro wrote:
Like I said before, I started to build my own gear....
63supro wrote:
I've built three tube amps so far.
63supro wrote:
I'll either build them myself or go vintage.


I think the word you're looking for is ... assembled. :wink:

63supro wrote:
Even at the point I at now, a scratch build still seems a little out of my league.


I'm impressed, that was a lot of work. Assemble, build, doesn't matter, I still do it myself. Aren't all products assembled? It's something I'm proud of and excited about, and I do it with my own two hands. It still requires a certain skill set. I learned a lot from "assembling" too as well learning from the vast knowledge from some of the forum members here too. I'd rather use tools than be one if you get my drift. :wink: Keep up the good work. I have over 8,000 posts. Read them all and repost them all I don't give a $hit. If I can inspire one person to "assemble" their own gear instead of buying some POS tinker toy designed by suits and built in China, I'm happy. So far you're the only one it seems to bother. While your at it, why don't you post the whole thread so you can see how out of context the statements are. Members ask me about amp kits so I respond.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:05 am
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you're far too impressed with yourself supro. Next time don't troll my posts and I won't point it out. In fact, please DO put me on your ignore list so you won't even see my posts to troll them. Problem solved.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:13 am
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:roll: :roll:
The last thing I am is impressed with myself. I'm usually impressed and inspired by others. Anyone who really knows me knows that. Why don't you find some posts of me thanking others for their inspiration and help. Snowy, Arjay, stratele, even Shimmy. Me and Shimmy don't always see eye to eye, but I still learn from him, and many others are high on the list. Why don't you do everybody a favor and stay in the Mustang forum? There's no glass there.
Nobody trolls your posts, it's pretty much the other way round.

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 9:26 am
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please, supro. Take the high road.
63supro wrote:
I don't personally attack anyone, but have been personally attacked over opinions........I don't whine about it. I just Ignore it

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 10:57 am
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After a solid two weeks of trouble-free performance, my new '68 CPR started in again two nights ago with that same chassis buzzing that afflicted the last one. At the same time, my guitars also started fret-buzzing again. Two nights ago the weather changed, from unseasonably warm to cool and rainy. That would explain the change in the relief on the guitar necks, but I've never had an amp that was this climate-sensitive.

That is, assuming the weather change is the culprit. I don't know this to be the case. I just know it's seriously irritating to hit a low E note and...buzzzzzz!

:evil:


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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:28 am
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That's insane. I'm really sorry to hear that. You going to send it back?

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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:36 am
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stevieraygovan wrote:
After a solid two weeks of trouble-free performance, my new '68 CPR started in again two nights ago with that same chassis buzzing that afflicted the last one.

:evil:



Just outta curiosity, measure your wall outlet voltage when the amp is buzzing. Low VAC sometimes causes certain amp's power transformer to start buzzing.


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Post subject: Re: Help with troubleshooting a '68 Custom Princeton Reverb
Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:56 am
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63supro, nope, I'm not sending this one back. Been through too many: two '68 CDRs (horrible cosmetics, inoperative reverb, loud popping sounds); four '68 CVRs (blown tubes, pilot lights and fuses, iffy cosmetics, ghost notes, and such a variance in build-tolerances that the same Warehouse speaker that fit in one amp simply wouldn't fit in another); and, now, two '68 CPRs. The first one was very flawed, from the ground up. This one had been perfect, until two days ago. So, I'm going to stick with it and get to the bottom of the chassis-buzzing issue, and hopefully get it sorted.

I have a custom-spec'd Victoria Golden Melody on the way (should arrive any day now), and once it shows up I'll be willing to turn the Princeton over to my local Fender repair shop to get the thing fixed under warranty. I like the amp. It's the right size and volume. It sounds really good. I even like its looks.

It's just, well, you know....

:?


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