Amp with 4-6V6's?

[capnjuan]

ok.... went out to the guys house and tried out two of his amps. The 5R3 brute is WOW a freakin awesome amp!!! ... I am going to buy one. He said he uses some weber components and some others. The wiring is nice and arranged there was no hum or squeal. The 2-12 alnicos barked nicely with a sweet break up. They are not kit amps.

Besides first-class speakers, Weber sells its own line of kits, power and output transformers, a line of Mallory 150-dupe signal capacitors, and other amp parts; nothing wrong with their stuff and the transformers are half of what Mercury Magnetics wants for their transformers.

If Risen is working off the Deluxe circuit and doubling the power, I don't see how you could go wrong ... although reverb would be nice ... Good luck!

 

[Walter Broes]

He said he uses some weber components and some others.

Cabinet, chassis, and speakers from Weber are great - a lot of other parts are plain junk.

I learned the hard (=expensive) way, and now have a Weber kit amp that's had almost everything replaced.

 

[capnjuan]

He said he uses some weber components and some others.

Cabinet, chassis, and speakers from Weber are great - a lot of other parts are plain junk. I learned the hard (=expensive) way, and now have a Weber kit amp that's had almost everything replaced.

Hi Walter, yeah ... I shouldn't have been so quick to sing their praises; sticking with the transformers, speakers, caps, and some of the hardware but pots, fuse posts ... auxiliary bits and pieces ... not so much.

Steve had a lot of trouble with the wire they supplied with their reverb kit; small diameter and brittle ... PITA to work with ... they sell better hookup wire on spools than they do in their kits.

 

[Walter Broes]

John, somewhat to their defense - their kits are almost insanely cheap, and you can order them without or without certain parts.

If you get one stock, it's probably a great inexpensive way for a novice to build their own amp, but if you're going to be playing that amp a lot, it's better to substitute some (most!) parts.

 

[capnjuan]

For contrast a drilled, stuffed circuit board from Hoffman amps for, say, a Bassman costs about what a complete Bassman Weber kit would cost. I get the feeling they source the kit parts from The People's Courageous Electronics Works and Revolutionary Dry Cleaners. My Steve-built Weber 6G15 kit works beautifully ... don't know whether it reaches Mergili standards or not ... here's one owned by a well-regarded Guild-playing European musician/songwriter (is that a re-worked Weber underneath? :wink: ):

Best wishes, J

 

[tele4tone]

ok.... went out to the guys house and tried out two of his amps. The 5R3 brute is WOW a freakin awesome amp!!! ... I am going to buy one. He said he uses some weber components and some others. The wiring is nice and arranged there was no hum or squeal. The 2-12 alnicos barked nicely with a sweet break up. They are not kit amps.

Besides first-class speakers, Weber sells its own line of kits, power and output transformers, a line of Mallory 150-dupe signal capacitors, and other amp parts; nothing wrong with their stuff and the transformers are half of what Mercury Magnetics wants for their transformers.

If Risen is working off the Deluxe circuit and doubling the power, I don't see how you could go wrong ... although reverb would be nice ... Good luck!

It was a Weber Chassis and cab and alnico speakers. The rest was sourced elsewhere. Risen amps like to use USA made parts and the Transformers were made in USA. It did have a copper cap rectifier and I will replace that with glass.

Plate voltage was at 400v. I don't know if that is hot or cold, but it sang so nice.

Capn....as far as reverb goes... the less knobs on an amp the better for me. I like that stuff on the pedal board.


Jeff

 

[Walter Broes]

For contrast a drilled, stuffed circuit board from Hoffman amps for, say, a Bassman costs about what a complete Bassman Weber kit would cost. I get the feeling they source the kit parts from The People's Courageous Electronics Works and Revolutionary Dry Cleaners. My Steve-built Weber 6G15 kit works beautifully ... don't know whether it reaches Mergili standards or not ... here's one owned by a well-regarded Guild-playing European musician/songwriter (is that a re-worked Weber underneath? :wink: ):

Hey John, I'm sure the Weber stuff works, I just don't know for how long... :wink:

Actually, the amp in the pic you linked above is a Headstrong 5E7 clone (that I had my tech beef up with an old Super Reverb O.T.), the amp in the left in this pic (another 5E7 clone) is the reworked Weber - although I don't think there's any Weber left except the chassis and a couple of tiny other things. (Weber was originally a 5F4 Super in a 2X10 cab btw, and that 2X10 Weber combo cab is getting 5E3 guts really soon)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/WalterBroes/[••••]thefactory.jpg?t=1303305213

 

[capnjuan]

... It was a Weber Chassis and cab and alnico speakers. The rest was sourced elsewhere ... Plate voltage was at 400v. I don't know if that is hot or cold, but it sang so nice.

Okay; Risen is cherry-picking Weber's catalog. My old Gibsons poke along at a sedate 315V or so ... they also put out a mushy, smoky tone. In contrast, the newer JJ 6V6s are built to handle voltages in the low 500 range.

Your man has picked a good value; enough to get them going ... not enough to shorten the useful life. I hope it works out for you.

 

[capnjuan]

... Hey John, I'm sure the Weber stuff works, I just don't know for how long... :wink:

Well since I'm just a 15 watt star in my own back room, the Weber 6G15 will do fine.

There's just something about gear with tweed covering ... Good thing the BB software doesn't reproduce the filenames of pics that get posted ... ....WB/_____the factory.jpg ...

 

[tele4tone]

... It was a Weber Chassis and cab and alnico speakers. The rest was sourced elsewhere ... Plate voltage was at 400v. I don't know if that is hot or cold, but it sang so nice.

Okay; Risen is cherry-picking Weber's catalog. My old Gibsons poke along at a sedate 315V or so ... they also put out a mushy, smoky tone. In contrast, the newer JJ 6V6s are built to handle voltages in the low 500 range.

Your man has picked a good value; enough to get them going ... not enough to shorten the useful life. I hope it works out for you.

I plan on having it for my next show. There will be a camera man there and videos will be on the used tube...heheh

Jeff

 

[tele4tone]

So.... I bought the amp and it rocks. I think it sounds a lot like my Gibson GA-20t, but more headroom and more air being moved with the 2-12 config. Very musical amp. Touch sensitive and the jumpered inputs really make the amp fun to tinker with. This was the last of the run and he is working on more original circuits now. I hear one of his prototypes and it sounded really great. I'm looking forward to doing repeat business with them.

Jeff

http://www.risenamps.com/

 

[capnjuan]

Congratulations Jeff; nobody ever said they didn't like the sound of 6V6s - I guess where the 20t thing comes from - the objections are usually volume and, as you point out, headroom. Do you know how the 6V6 pairs are wired; series ... parallel ... ? Good luck, glad it worked out.

 

[mad dog]

I always wanted to try that double deluxe. something about 4x6v6 seems very promising. So far no dice on the Vicky. I did find a most interesting alternative. A guy on Webervst.com has an RCA PA head from the 40s, 4x6v6s. Set up for guitar, checked by a tech and all ... according to the seller. Got it on trade, should be here later this week.

Very curious as to how it sounds. I'll post pics when I get it.
MD

 

[tele4tone]

The Vicky has two output Transformers I think. This one has one output xfrmr. I love, love, love this amp. I've played 3 gigs on different venues and it cranks up just great. It sounds like a deluxe just more headroom and it pushes more air with the 2-12. The tweed pine cab resonates really well. Believe it or not, I play hard rock trio with this amp. One of my shows the bass player got sick so we played it just drums and guitar. We got a lot of compliments from the show. I think tone plays a big part in pulling something like that off.

Jeff

 

[mad dog]

So this RCA PA amp pulls in the other day. Here's the pic from the sales listing, hope the seller doesn't mind. It's the bottom of the two:

More pics, better descriptions coming. Let's just say when this guy described the amp as "a monster ... great slide tones" he was not lying. And I haven't even tried it with slide yet. It is a prodidiously cool thing.
MD

 

[Jeff Haddad]

I saw that listed - really cool!

 

[capnjuan]

... It is a prodidiously cool thing.

Also has the aerodynamic thing going; could mount it on top of your car and it wouldn't impede airflow ... For every 100 of those that hit the junk pile every year, 3 or 4 have to be absolute tone champions; congratulations!

 

[mad dog]

Been spending some quality time with this oldie. I've tried some nice converted PA heads before. Truly never heard anything like this RCA. Guessing one reason is the antique preamp tubes, all metal 6J7. Octal. 4 of them. Had heard of these used in some early Valco/Supro smaller amps. Until now, had not even seen one. Here's a pic of the inside:

The PT is HEAVY. Choke almost as big as the OT. Small transformers, one per input. Output bias is switchable on the back by moving a wire. Have to use an adaptor to plug the guitar cable in, has those clip in round input plugs.

I tried several tubes. Ended up with a no name 6v6GT, most likely Sylvania, an old RCA blackplate, and a pair of big bottle old Westinghouse 6v6. Old Hammond rectifier. It's cathode bias. Plenty of volume here, and a lot more than the tweedy screamer I'd expected. Has a real pretty clean tone. When edge and drive come in, it's this soft, hot kind of sound. A little bit like my Gibson GA40, but better defined. Not a typical grind. The notes get dense, and just hang there. You can feel them as well as hear them. Especially with single coils, it's addicting.

My wife saw it, said "That's very old, isn't it?" YES, DEAR!

 

[capnjuan]

I was thinking you might have an exposure on the 6J7s ... until I checked on Tube Depot who has them at a comfy $7.00/ea. Your ears are as good as ever ... maybe it sounds GA40ish with its pentode 5879s/6V6s because the 6J7 is also a pentode driving 6V6s. Fine piece of vintage US-made tone iron. 8)