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Post subject: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics) UPDATE
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 1:58 pm
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Picked up the Heidkamp today! Gave it a nice inspection and test run. Beastly amp!! It's obviously a homemade job. But a very good one!!

Let's take a look at it just for fun.

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It's a stylish design. Simple 2-channel amp design. Both share the same eq, but it's not hard to get the two sounds to mesh well together. It has 3 boost switches to get some variety out of it.

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Tube layout: 4-12ax7's / 4-el34's
2-HUGE mercury transformers and a smaller one in between them.

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Celestion V30 and Jensen Jet Blackbird speakers.

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Last edited by Jah Soldier on Mon Apr 28, 2014 6:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 2:08 pm
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Rear control panel. The plug on the left is the fan.

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Foot switch. Notice the boost button. This amp has a built in boost separate from the switches on the front. A really nice feature.

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And boom goes the dynamite..

My hunches were right. The inside of this amp really is a sight to see. This is exactly why I had to buy this thing. SOLID amp build!! And the amp sounds as good as it looks.

So there you are. Most likely the first time you've ever seen the inside of a Heidkamp amplifier. I don't know who this guy is, but this really is a nice amplifier.

I paid $750 for it, and it's worth every penny.

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 3:02 pm
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That is probably the deal of the century. Congratulations. How about a sound clip? :D


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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 3:54 pm
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That looks like a better than Dumble built Dumble clone.
$750 seems a steal.


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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 3:59 pm
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Very solidly constructed amp. Kind looks like a cross between a Vox, a Dumble, and a Marshall...quite the deal too! Enjoy your new toy!

T2

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:51 pm
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Jah Soldier wrote:
I don't know who this guy is, but this really is a nice amplifier.

Hi Shredd. You wouldn't happen to go by the name of Schlagdog on rig-talk.com by any chance, would you? If so, then you already know the following...

After your previous thread about Heidkamp amps the other day I did a bit of deep digging. And like you said, info is in short supply on these units. All I could come up with is that they are Dumble inspired vehicles (as arth1 spotted) built by a certain Gary Heidkamp somewhere in California. Till last year they were played and endorsed by Gino Matteo, whose photos on MySpace indicate he owns several.

(I admit I'd never heard of Gino Matteo, but his website reveals him to be a most illustrious gentleman, who sadly no longer has an endorsement arrangement with Heidkamp. A bit more hunting turned up his 2013 tour contract rider, which shows he has big appetites for healthy food and highly unhealthy quantities of soft and hard liquor.)

And that's about it.

If Gary Heidkamp is still building these highly attractive looking amps he's sure keeping it a closely guarded secret. Which seems a shame. Cos if he built that in his garage - that's some well equipped garage he's working out of!

Seems like a very tasty amp. Enjoy! :)

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:52 pm
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Wow!

Don't know too much about those amps, but the pictures look intense with the set up and all! Thanks for sharing!


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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:47 pm
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Ceri wrote:
Jah Soldier wrote:
I don't know who this guy is, but this really is a nice amplifier.

Hi Shredd. You wouldn't happen to go by the name of Schlagdog on rig-talk.com by any chance, would you? If so, then you already know the following...

After your previous thread about Heidkamp amps the other day I did a bit of deep digging. And like you said, info is in short supply on these units. All I could come up with is that they are Dumble inspired vehicles (as arth1 spotted) built by a certain Gary Heidkamp somewhere in California. Till last year they were played and endorsed by Gino Matteo, whose photos on MySpace indicate he owns several.

(I admit I'd never heard of Gino Matteo, but his website reveals him to be a most illustrious gentleman, who sadly no longer has an endorsement arrangement with Heidkamp. A bit more hunting turned up his 2013 tour contract rider, which shows he has big appetites for healthy food and highly unhealthy quantities of soft and hard liquor.)

And that's about it.

If Gary Heidkamp is still building these highly attractive looking amps he's sure keeping it a closely guarded secret. Which seems a shame. Cos if he built that in his garage - that's some well equipped garage he's working out of!

Seems like a very tasty amp. Enjoy! :)

Cheers - C


Ceri, that wasn't me on that forum. Only other forum name I've ever used was shredd6 (still do on the boogie board).

Yea, I saw all the same info myself after putting the amp on layaway. Like you said, the info only turns up not even half a page of a google search.

Oddly, I didn't see that forum post until I came home to dig up info myself. But I may have passed by Schlagdog on my way out of the store today. When it was being carried out, some guy was walking in and said " Aw MAN, you beat me to it!" This is the same exact amp being talked about on that forum. Looks like he let it sit long enough for the price to go down. The original tag said $900.

In all honesty, I just used deductive reasoning to make the decision. If I'm seeing what I'm seeing on the outside, then inside the chassis should be as immaculate. Who goes through all of that trouble of putting those parts together on a mediocre amp?

After doing the same research you did, I thought, ok, one of the guys on that forum mentioned it could be a Dumble clone, but nobody was sure. I wouldn't even know even after opening it up. My worst case scenario was that it could've been a modified vintage amp, which I still would have been ok with. But my best case scenario was exactly what I saw when I opened it up.

I don't know what a Dumble sounds like, but I can tell you a few things about this one.

The clean channel likes to break up early. Could be the amp, could be the tubes, I'm still not sure. But when it breaks up, it still retains clarity in individual notes within chords that's unreal. If you want it to stay clean you have to set the clean master to "1". So I put a 5751 in V1 to let it get to about 3 before breakup.

The amp runs the spectrum from dark to bright and everything in between.

The lead channel does sound Marshally. It's not high gain by any means. You have to dime both knobs to get a decent amount of gain. But there is a lot you can do without diming it. It's great for solos, and hard rock rhythms. It can have a lot of treble and presence, or get real dark, bold, and brutal. Either way, it's not like a high gain Mesa or Hughes and Kettner. Notes don't smear together. You hear every individual note in chords.

The speaker combination is 100% hypnotic. When you play in front of it, it can put you in a trance. It's a very good thing for creative juices to get flowing.

It's amazing how this amp captures so many different sounds without a zillion knobs and switches. Because there's no reverb, I've found myself playing it more like a Vox. I can't get into a Blues or Reggae vibe without reverb. So I can't really comment on how it is for that. But for Rock and Hard Rock, it's SOLID!!

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:25 pm
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Does look well built. I did notice it's been fitted with upgrade E34L tubes but the builder seems to have used cheaper caps in the power supply filter. Can't tell from the photos but those may be only rated 85°C, the only thing that leaps out at me is I would consider replacing those with better quality 105°C rated ones.

That's nitpicking though, you've got a great deal on a nicely constructed amp!

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:50 pm
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Actually, I'd be up for any suggestions for improvements. Thanks for the info.

Hey, can you tell by looking at the pic what the preamp tube functions are? Obviously v1 is the input stage. And I would guess V4 is the PI. But I'm wondering about V3. It seems to have a lot of wires coming off it. Is that an effects loop tube?

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 7:16 pm
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No idea until you bring it round my house and let me pull it apart!

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:50 pm
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Haha. Unless you live in Manchester Nevada, I'm not sure I can make it. Spent all my gas money on.. Gas. I don't know. I'm rambling.

Just out of curiosity Frank, what do the power supply filter caps do? I know nothing about the internals of amps.

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 1:07 am
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Right then, here the basics of the power supply in almost all tube amps:

Your mains electricity supply is AC, alternating current that swings up 120 Volts (or 240 Volts in Europe) then back to zero Volts then reverses and swings down to -120 or -240 Volts. This is no good for tubes which require a fairly high and steady positive voltage on the anode to function. The power supply therefore converts the AC first to pulsed DC then applies smopothing.

The transformer steps the supply voltage up and provides low-voltage high-current feeds for the tube heaters.

The rectifier (whether tube or solid state) converts the transformer's AC to pulsing DC.

The filter caps (with or without a choke) smooth out the bumpy DC from the rectifier into a nice smooth flat DC supply with less ripple voltage.

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:46 am
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Jah Soldier wrote:
Spent all my gas money on.. Gas.

Ha! Fender Forum quote of the day. :D

Again, congrats on the amp. Be fascinating to contact Gino Matteo at his website and see if he can tell you more about the maker. Sounds like he knows the guy personally. If nothing else, it would be nice for Gary Heidkamp to hear there's folks out there excited by his work.

Also, it will be interesting to see how you get on putting a reverb pedal in front of it. Enjoy!

Cheers - C

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Post subject: Re: NAD! Say hello to Heidkamp (pics)
Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 3:16 am
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Ceri wrote:
... a reverb pedal in front of it. Enjoy!


Do people actually do that? I've always used the FX loop for reverbs and delays, never in front of the amp. That just makes it sound like mush at high volume/overdrive settings.

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