Here's one you don't often see ... Garnet lil rock

mad dog

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In fact, I'd never seen one, had never even heard of one, til a few weeks ago. Did a little research; it sounded quite promising. 2 6v6, 30 watts claimed. that's interesting right there, I was guessing SS rectifcation and high voltage. So I checked it out yesterday. Mid 70s vintage, in excellent shape, clean and little used:

LR_front.jpg


Plugged into my 2x12. Real sweet sound. Not scooped in the mids. Not tweed raw or loose. Has its own thing. Plenty of volume, doesn't sound of feel tube rectified. As it gets louder, paired notes start to "push" together. Hard to describe, but it's something I look for in an amp. You can feel as well as hear the notes. Anyway, I traded for it, got it home and posted pics to the Garnet Yahoo site. They provided a schematic and several questions. Turns out this amp has a third, small transformer (only supposed to have two), and a mystery tube. Probably a tube rectifier. Replacement filter cap can. A bias adjustment pot (thank you lord!!) and hardwired 4/8 ohm outputs, replacing the stock, mickey mouse ohm switching scheme.

Inside:
LR_back_left.jpg


Why have I not seen more of these? Beautiful tones.
MD
 

capnjuan

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Hi Michael; the third 'transformer' is probably a choke ... goes in between the rectifier (ss or tube) and the center tap/high voltage to the output transformer and output tubes. If it's a choke, it provides additional smoothing of the DC and helps iron out that owaowaowa voltage sag in the sustain. Characterized by two wires; one 'in' and the other out'.

There's a small chance it's an inter-stage coupling transformer that's used in place of a phase inverter/driver tube (without looking, three or more wires). The techno-jabber is that a transformer does a closer to perfect job of dividing the top and bottom halves of the wave form than a tube but at some increase in cost. Commerically seen in Gibson's mid-'60s 'Crest' GA-17 Scout and Fender's '70-'82 Musicmaster twin 6AQ5 (later 6V6) bass/guitar practice amp.

Link to Garnet's webpage ... made in Canuquistan :wink: Congratulations!
 

mad dog

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Thanks for the link and info John. More illumination from the Garnet group ... they tell me the leftmost large tube is most like a rectifier, and that neither transformer is stock. Both much larger. Clearly, a modded example. And judging by the sound, whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing.

MD
 

capnjuan

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Hard to tell from the pics but assuming the tube on the left is a rectifier and the filter cap is right behind it ... unless there's another bulky output tube lurking, that's a single-ended amp ... either 6V6 or, if fitted with larger transformers, more likely a 6L6.

It looks like somebody took this from a twin 6V6/6L6, ss head and, using the socket of the now-gone 2nd output tube for the rectifier socket, converted it to a tube-rectified, single output mean machine ... If so, ... well ... there is no tone finer than the sound of one tube clapping ... :D
 

mad dog

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Cap:

That pic I posted is a little misleading. Here's another that better shows the back tubes:

LR_back_right.jpg


There are in fact two 6v6s, one slightly larger one which appears to be a tube rectifier. No markings on it, has four pins plus pin guide on the bottom, whatever that means.

MD
 

capnjuan

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mad dog said:
Here's another that better shows the back tubes ... one slightly larger one which appears to be a tube rectifier. No markings on it, has four pins plus pin guide on the bottom, whatever that means.
Okay ... Most rectifiers have 5 pins but only 4 are connected anyway: two for incoming AC and two for the 5VAC heaters; the 'rectified' DC is taken from one of the 5VAC heater connections.

Interesting layout ... with the output tubes spread apart like that ... that's a whopper output transformer back there ... shuuuuwee :shock: Because they're so similar to Fenders, Traynors from the late 60s/early 70s get most of the buzz overshadowing the Garnets ... but this 'ain't no ordinary Garnet anymore ... cool find!
 

mad dog

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An update on the Garnet:

Having an amp head and a cab is such a blast. Has led to a series of experiments:

- After spending time with my 2x12 cab equipped with weber blue dog ceramics, realized I was not liking those speakers at all. First swap ... blue dogs out, a 16 ohm Emi Legend GB in plus a 16 ohm vintage Jensen C12PS instead. Oh yeah, what a cool combination!

- Got another cab, a Jenkins 1x15. Put in the 8 ohm JBL D130, just reconed by Orange County speaker with paper dustcap. Another cool sound for sure.

- Got thinking on the Garnet and tubes. It's a rather bassy amp by nature. 6v6s aren't typically the tightest in the bass area, so started wondering if this amp would tolerate 6L6s. Figured the 5U4 rectifier in there would work for 6L6s ... maybe I could try a 5U4GB too. The real question is whether the bias pot would have the range needed for 6L6s. So I put a set of NOS Jan Phillips 6L6WGB (IMO, one of the best sounding 6L6s ever) and damned if it didn't work perfectly. The bias pot has a large usable range. It lowered the voltage to the tube from 430 or so to 410 - 415, compared with 6v6s. A rather different sound. Exactly what I was looking for. Much better definition in the bass, an edgier, tighter sound all over. Louder too, though this amp did not lack for volume.

Great fun! Next up is to try out a Weber Cali ceramic in that 1x15.

MD
 
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