Outstanding Acoustic Amps

coastie99

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A bit of sleuthing here, reveals 4 different speaker configurations.

Which one for acoustic amplification ?

Wanna make "That low depth, oval soundhole, 24-fr'd, all maple thing" soar !
 

capnjuan

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coastie99 said:
How would you characterize the ECL86 sound ?
"English" - EL84, EL34.
"American". Seems more logical. 6L6, 6V6. 6550.
Or have we OD'd by now on Stolly's ?
I'm just having my first 3-fingers of Absolut, and Dr. Feelgood are blazing !

Most like an EL84. As you may know, the ECL86 / 6GW8 is triode / phase splitter and pentode / 'beam' power tube in the same envelop. The power tube section is nearly identical to the EL84. The circuit intentionally damps distortion; said another way, the output is pretty clean until you get to 8 / 9. By contrast, my 6V6 amps break up at considerably less volume.

Yes; in fact OD'd w/ Stoly #3...two too many. Broke rule re/ posting and 'string lube'.

Speaker config? The T1 shipped with a 12"; usually CTS. The T1 RVT uses a 12" as primary and an 8" that is dedicated to the stand-alone reverb amp; signal only present when the reverb is switched on. My understanding is that Guild used CTS nearly exclusively for this series amps.

I have a 12" Celestion Greenback and Celestion 8"; both 25 watt output with ceramic magnets that, IMO, improve the amp's presence and imaging...if I might, I didn't want lesser speakers to get in the way of whatever the circuit had to say.

They are good for 6-string acoustic because they don't distort; add warmth and the woody / chimey thing. The T1 RVT has complete tone controls to add variety. They do lack some 'headroom' and don't do well articulating the notes making up a 12-string chord; chords sound good overall but somewhat muddy.
 

coastie99

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Allrighty ! So far, so good.

Now, haven't tripped over any of these in Newsy-land lately, which very probably means that they're as rare as rocking-horse poo here !

Which means that I'd have to buy one ex the Ewe Ess Eh.

Any idea please, what mods would have to be made to run it on 240 V ?
 

capnjuan

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Various AC/AC step-down transformers....230-240v in / 110v out
http://www.threedoubleyou.com/convertpower.htm
As it is a UK site, all the prices are in pounds but they don't say pounds of what; assuming Sterling where does anyone get a pound of a fairly rare metal?

Another source; pricing in $USD
http://www.220-electronics.com/Transfor ... /prod.html

One concern is herz....no not hertz....herz; the # of times/second that the electricity cycles. US standard is 60 herz, don't know whatcha good down under and you have to had a lot of Heinies to ever try to count....

You can call your local utility; in some parts of the world, they generate power at 50 herz. Not looking at my T1 RVT but the chances are that in consumes less than 100 watts and, because the line voltage has been stepped down to 100V, would continue to do so.

You might inquire of HatMan; I recall that he owns a copy or two of the T1 RVT as does Matsickma. The amps are probably as good an acoustical amp as the 1960s were able to produce but a 2nd opinion might be in order here.

IMO, the biggest problem these days w/ eBay T1 RVT sellers is/are:
(1) They already paid too much on the buy and, by high 'openers', demand 100% or more on the sell,
(2) Insist on telling the 'market' what these amps are worth.

See several amps posted in the Guild Amps section; all these people insist on +/- $500 for their amps instead of letting the bidding determine what they're worth. HatMan might tell you they are worth $260-$280; I might be a little more generous in the low $300s for a clean copy. Finally there is the reliability matter; the T1 / T1 RVT use multi-section can caps that do not last forever and their failure puts the amp's utility at risk. The question being, other than your personal magificence, is there someone in the area who can help w/ maintenance"
 

capnjuan

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Trip to NZ: regardless of new/used, and unless you buy new from a dealer in OZ-trailya who willing goes on the warranty hook for the over-and-back, this is a fact of life there that probably applies to anything other than dried beans.

Setting aside mfr defects and assuming 'normal' (back-porch, toe-tapping, beer-drinking / puha-processing) use, the functional life of power supply filter caps in coventional designs is on the order of 20-30 years in low power designs; 15 watts and under; useful life probably lower for 6L6/50 watts and up or EL34/6CA7 quads; extended periods of high volume also contribute to shortened cap span.

I'm being pretty conservative here; lots of nice-sounding amps still running on originals but one of the reasons the older valve amps: Kalamazoo, Silvertone, Harmony, Ampeg, Magnatone are getting dumped is because they need cap jobs. When you add the value of the amp and cost of cap job, people back away....after all, for similar money, they can get a Fender Acoustisonic, Roland, Laney, whatever.

A simple design like the Silvertone 1482 with fresh caps would be good to go for 20 years. If we be talkin' 'bout Guild amps that are +/- 40 years old most of which - at least the ones that show up on eBay - haven't been reconditioned, that's another matter not to mention shaky Guild cabinet construction in the early T1 RVT series (can be identified by photos).

I can appreciate the situation....

cj
 

krysh

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Well, I am not an expert with accoustic amps,
but I had listened to quite a few.
I can recommend these ones for testing, sorry no guild-amps so far:
marshall ad50 I listend to his big brother the AD100 and it is really good, fx and microphone channel included!
or:
shertler david

If you can spend much more:
aer compact mobile
or even better:
shertler unico

not to forget:
swr california blonde

here is an overview!

but I would also suggest an cheaper alternative:
buy one of those:
phonic am 120 and one of those: alesis picoverb
and one or two not t0o cheap active boxes and you might get more for less + a upgradeable system + a complete pa, also usable for djing!

all the best

michael

edit: 2
 

capnjuan

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These look like pretty cool amps; I've read nice things about the SWR California. J
 

Bobby1note

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I've been kicking tires for the last couple of years, and have tried some very nice acoustic amps. I've finally decided to go with the AER Compact 60. This is the same amp Tommy Emmanuel uses.

The Compact 60 lives up to it's name. It measures 13"x10"x9", and weighs 18.75 lbs. It also comes with a padded shoulder-bag which also includes a top carry-handle. This amp can also be mounted on a mic-stand using the optional adapter.

The Compact 60 is a two channel amp, and provides 60 watts of power into 4 ohms, and is capable of surprising volume for it's size. This amp was specifically designed to amplify acoustic instruments. Channel 1 features a High/Lo button(input sensivity),a "colour" button, which I believe drops the bass by 3db, and boosts the highs by 20 db. Great for finger-picking apparently. Gain is ultra-clean, and the 3-band eq controls bass(+/- 8db), sweepable mids(+/- 3db), and treble (+/- 11 db). Used in conjunction with the "colour" button, you have incredible tone-shaping capability.

Channel 2 features phantom power(30v), and accepts XLR or 1/4" connectors. This feature allows the use of of dynamic or condenser mics.

The Compact 60 has 4 built-in 32-bit effects, a warm hall reverb, a bright hall reverb, chorus with reverb, and a flanger. Quality of these effects is top-notch, and my favourite with acoustic guitar is position 3 (chorus/reverb). A "panorama effect" knob distributes the effects between the two channels(instrument/vocals). The "Return" knob, controls the intensity of the effects. Tone shaping is simply wonderful. Each channel has a "clip" indicator. It's essntial that you familiarize yourself with the controls before auditioning this amp. otherwise you'll have no idea what the amp is capable of doing. (Use that "return" button for built-in effects intensity)

Rear panel connections include phones, tuner, line-out, combo 1/4"/XLR D.I. out, effects send/ return, and a foot-switch input. Power-cord and on/off switch is located on the rear panel.

I've tried and listened to quite a few amps before deciding on the Compact 60, including a Rivera Sedona (which I love by the way), a California Blonde and Strawberry Blonde, Fender Acoustasonic, Crate Telluride series, Fishman LoudBox, Trace Elliot, Genz-Benz Shenandoah 200 Acoustic Pro,to name a few. I could probably live with a few of those amps (especially the Rivera). I've also tried the AER Acousticube IIa. Wonderful amp.

To me, the AER Compact 60 provides great sound quality and tone-shaping capability, in an easy to transport enclosure. It's not cheap, but this is one heck of an amplifier, and in my opinion, offers terrific value for the money. Manufactured in Germany, and designed by Houbert Digital Audio (Swiss I believe). If you're unfamiliar with Houbert Digital Audio, do a search for "FM Acoustics". You'll understand why this amp is so highly regarded.

http://www.aer-amps.de/Sites/sites_ENG/ ... pact60.htm

http://www.aer-amps.de/pdf/ENGLISH/CPT2_MAN_UK_0211.pdf

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... ct+60/10/1
 
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