Why haven't I seen these before

capnjuan

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Hi Jeff: no, not demoed it. Interesting ... Schematic here. It's an update of the venerable Fender Champ / Gibson GA5 / Silvertone 1471-1481 circuit but with a solid state rectifier, switchable hi/low (pentode/triode) power switch, and there's a boost circuit that can be invoked with the footswitch ... a variation on foot-switchable channels. It also uses DC on the heater circuits ... smoother power and eliminating a source of unwanted AC noise down the road. I don't have any idea what these retail for but it's a lot of features in a small package.

The only other comment I have is the made it China thing; in the several amp Bulletins Boards; TGP/Amp Technical, Weber BB, Hoffman Amps, and others, Chinese tubes get dissed pretty hard for being unreliable. (Juan makes short speech: it's one reason why I prefer older, US-made tubes ... it being the case that if they're still around, the issue of reliability sort of goes out the window). Anyway, sometimes it's hard to distinguish prejudice from substance but there's a lot of amp there for the money.
 

tele4tone

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capnjuan said:
Hi Jeff: no, not demoed it. Interesting ... Schematic here. It's an update of the venerable Fender Champ / Gibson GA5 / Silvertone 1471-1481 circuit but with a solid state rectifier, switchable hi/low (pentode/triode) power switch, and there's a boost circuit that can be invoked with the footswitch ... a variation on foot-switchable channels. It also uses DC on the heater circuits ... smoother power and eliminating a source of unwanted AC noise down the road. I don't have any idea what these retail for but it's a lot of features in a small package.

The only other comment I have is the made it China thing; in the several amp Bulletins Boards; TGP/Amp Technical, Weber BB, Hoffman Amps, and others, Chinese tubes get dissed pretty hard for being unreliable. (Juan makes short speech: it's one reason why I prefer older, US-made tubes ... it being the case that if they're still around, the issue of reliability sort of goes out the window). Anyway, sometimes it's hard to distinguish prejudice from substance but there's a lot of amp there for the money.

If it is just the tubes they care few and easy to replace... I have quite a few vintage 6v6's laying around....But I agree Chinese stuff is suspect. I have owned Blackheart, Epi Valve Junior( all revisions), Egnator, and A plethora of vintage amps. The chinese stuff is good, but... idk
 

Jeff Haddad

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Why not try the Traynor Dark Horse? It's got a 2-6V6 setting for about 12 - 15 watts, or it can operate off of one 12AU7 as a power tube for 1.5 - 2 watts. I got one and it sounds pretty good - plus it got a cool industrial look to it. And, it's made in Canada. I'm itching to try some NOS tubes in it.
 

tele4tone

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I looked at those and decided on a Egnator Tweaker. I really like the amp but it is over kill for what I need on Sunday morning.

Jeff
 
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