Mr. Foxen

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1366360440' post='2051365'] James, if you're looking for sexy valve sound, you should PM Mr. Foxen (Oli) and see what he's got lying around for sale! Oli's a great tech too and all of his amps are practically guaranteed to be in the best condition possible. Alex [/quote] I'm kind of a bodger still learning my way around. More of a case of 'much more work done than is strictly necessary', than best condition, everything I have tends to start out looking well scruffy, and never been fussed about cosmetics on the outside. [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1366360617' post='2051368'] Correct me if I'm wrong, but are there not some places where you definitely should not use carbon comp resistors, e.g. in the power supply where they could burst into flames? *immediately regrets venturing into technical area beyond own expertise* [/quote] Some places include 'in audio amplifiers'. Probably 'in electrical equipment running at any significant power or voltage you want to operate correctly for a long time'. The do burn up real nice, they are effectively cylindrical charcoal briquettes.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1366375992' post='2051741'] FWIW, last year I whipped the bridge pup out of an alder-bodied rw board Tele and stuck it in an alder-bodied maple board Tele of about the same age. A weeny bit toppier, I thought, and most noticeably so through a clean Princeton at 3. Wind the vol up, the top softened off (?) and Bob's your doo-dah. All very confusing. [/quote] Fender's idea of clean is fairly far from. Also turning up the volume can lose top in some circuits because sometimes there is a bright cap that shunts some top around the volume control, which is how most 'bright' switches work, more you wind up the volume, the less significant that bypass becomes.

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1366360329' post='2051364'] IME nuts have even less bearing on the sound (particularly amplified) than the wood, since as soon as you fret a note, it is completely out of the equation. [/quote] Actually they still contribute something, since there is a component of string motion travelling along the length of the string, the component frequencies are damped, reflected or allowed to pass through the nut, and the properties of the nut determine which. Think its a tensile wave or similar. If you are convinced that fretting eliminates this as an effect, you'll be able to fret a note and cut the string between your finger and nut and not perceive a change in tone. http://www.edgeguitarservices.co.uk/rout_serv/nut_geom.htm

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366333947' post='2051254'] You have an opinion on this, so does that mean that you also need to build a few dozen instruments to validate your opinion? [/quote] Have done. Hence 'informed opinion' which is the thing people have a right to. No-one has the right to be ignorant.

The first to options are kind of suggestions of ways to go if you have a problem with falling under the third.

Being used in this: http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/theultimateform/ Not sure if Facebook link will work: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151401794914296&set=a.10150166347019296.299699.372833059295&type=1&theater

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1366324776' post='2051215'] I totally agree, but this is what confuses me about your stance on this - a couple of months ago, you were saying that 'maple is bright' and 'wenge and mahogany are bassier woods' but now you are adamant that tonewoods 'don't make one iota of difference'. What has changed your mind so drastically in so short a time? You seem so sure, even though there have been no scientific tests. [/quote] Maybe it was studying under an experienced luthier, and making a few dozen instruments. Or using first engineering principles and an understanding of resonance both acoustic and electronic to draw conclusions based on observation. Or maybe it was not having the first clue either way, but posting anyway.

The pickup only picks up the movement of the string. The movement of the string is influenced by a bunch of factors, fairly key ones after the basic length mass stuff being resonant filtering properties of the materials the string and the pickup are attached to. Typically the more significant of those materials are wood (greater part of the mass, more variable resonant properties than metal parts, as long as those parts are basically fixed in place correctly), additionally, the playability of the instrument is the whole interface between tone and fingers/the player, and wood figures significantly there, since wood that warps will give a bad action and correspondingly poor playing characteristics, and also the less significant factor of how it feels under fingers, and retains dirt which affects sting tone.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366315824' post='2051073'] Yes, of course I heard a difference, but that was never the point. I've never once said that woods don't have different sounds. If we are allowed to just throw in random questions - Who makes the best marmalade? [/quote] This thread is about the different sounds that woods make. Hence the name. Avoiding answering a question as to being able to hear the difference between the tones of two pieces of wood pretty much indicates the value of your contribution to a thread such as this.

It was a simple question, and nothing to do with fingerboards. You simply didn't answer it. You continue to throw around irrelevances as an excuse. All those factors were eliminated in that very simple video. Straight comparison of two pieces of wood, sounding different to my ears at least, and a simple question as to whether they sounded different to you, but you stall until someone else has the answer then parrot it.

The part where a comparison of two sounds was posted, and you claimed to not be able to hear anything. Pretty much covers it.

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1366312402' post='2051007'] With all due respect, I would suggest that you actually don't have a very good ear! [/quote] [quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1366312881' post='2051017'] I could not hear anything...there is no pickups or strings fitted to those pieces of wood ! [/quote] Point proven.

Think they were covered on TB. Basically a ton of marketing BS on a mediocre and poorly designed amp. Just the knobs sticking out like that is asking for a knocking off. You can see a pic on the site showing a totally amateur wiring job inside. Looks like a kit job someone did as their first project. Anywhere that can come up with statements like this gets a dissmissing right away [quote]Our patented[b] Mustard Mallory Caps[/b] and superb [b]Carbon Comp Resistors [/b] give our amps unique technical features that enhance your playing style.[/quote] Unique technical features that 90% of the amps in my house have, mustard caps and carbon comps. And the ones without carbon comps, are because I took out the carbon comps and replaced with resistors that aren't really bad, high thermal noise and degrade over time/exposure to moisture. Edit: the more I go through the site the more facepalming ignorance of electronics I see. Literally no technical specs in the technical specs section. 'All tube circuitry' except for the parts of it that are solid state (no rectifier tubes mentioned anywhere). Also pretending they are the only place making amps by hand not in China.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366312239' post='2051003'] What i'm saying is that the 2 guitars need to be exactly the same, other than the wood on the fretboard. I mean as close to identical as could be, including setup, output of pickups, strength of pickups, amount of wire used between pots, the pots themselves. All of these things need to be the same. then, the 2 guitars need to be played through the same amp with the same EQ and everything, and we need to have a blind test, just so that we know that our eyes aren't fooling our brains, and if there genuinely is a difference, i'll admit I'm wrong, but so far, in any sound samples i have heard or conducted myself, there's be a negligible difference, which in all probability is more likely to be down to the electronics. [/quote] Let us know when you've done it to support your assertion that different things aren't different. You'll find actually making some guitars to be quite educational when it comes to knowledge about how guitars sounds.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366311575' post='2050989'] Do you have 2 of the exact same instrument, one with maple and one with rosewood for the fretboard to verify that they do sound the same? [/quote] You need to do that to verify your assertion that there is a lack of difference. The fact that two guitars will sound different is proof that the acoustic properties of a guitar makes a difference. The mere fact that the 'exact same' part is necessary to eliminate variables is down to the entirely correct assumption that being different makes a difference.

'Loud' and 'good', are different things.

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1366299664' post='2050758'] I've never come across an electric instrument tthatt sounds good acoustically though. They quite often sound good plugged in though. [/quote] This lack of experience is probably why you make so many flawed assertions in this thread.

If you electric guitar is not plugged into anything electric, it is an acoustic instrument. And surprisingly enough, if you make one to sound really nice acoustically, it correspondingly sounds really nice electrically with minimal electrical trickery.

No idea on press in ones, I just get premade strips from Hong Kong.

Acoustics of an instrument matter. You can render an electric instrument acoustic via a very simple process: unplug it from an amp. Then you can find how they sound different to each other, even though the electronics are not making a contribution, aside from the magnetic pull of the pickups on the strings. Also, the acoustics still matter when plugged in, since feedback is an acoustic phenomenon, and fairly significant to some styles of playing. The mistake people make is in assuming the label applied to the wood determines its good or bad acoustic properties, and that is not the case. The acoustic properties of an instrument are fairly individual, not derived from 'being mahogany'. Manufactured electric instruments use woods that are reasonably consistent for that reason, it is pretty important, but occasionally you just get a bad sounding one, and it just isn't worth applying the electronics to try and get a good sound from bad acoustics.

Much better off buying a fixer old amp and rebuilding it. Old PA or something, the layouts on the Mhuss Hiwatt site are probably the most useful thing as a build resource.

Bad valve is first thing I'd expect, can check by dinging the valves with a chopstick, see if one is being noisy, and swap them about with a known good one. Bust solder joint because of all the board mount stuff is next expectation, pretty likely with the way the Oranges are made, so really, its a 'design feature' and part of the 'Orange tone', because it isn't like those heads aren't expensive enough to be made in a way where that is less of a risk.

Gas soldering iron exhaust is what I generally used. I've got a fitting for one of my gas irons for the purpose too.

Joodee and the CMIs I've had (different makes, as they had differences), both had binding gaps. The CMIs have a smaller binding gap though, the biding goes under the bridge at that point, whereas most ricks it stops about where the bridge is. However Cliff Burtons Rick is as per the CMIs, and everyone swears that isn't a faker, so maybe it varied over time.