Custom 100W Valve head

[Roland Rock]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum so thought I'd share my gear with you.
It's a custom 100w Valve head, with 2xKT88s and 2x6SN7s
Controls are Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Master

It's a bit of an odd one, but briefly, the story goes like this:

-Sick of SS, I trawled the net for a smallish all valve amp (a 2x10 cab was as big as I could manage in my flat)
-Saw review of a Red Iron 100w tube amp on Harmony Central, and it was like reading a tick list of my requirements
-Checked out the website, cool wooden looking amps
-Liased with the owner of the Harmony Central amp and Paul from Red Iron
-Ordered with the addition of a mid control
-Paul recommended Ear Candy Cabs, so I liased with them and got the 'sweet tooth' 2x10 cab with appropriate speakers, coverings & grille
(these guys are all in the States. At the time the dollar was in my favour at 2:1, so it was cheaper than any equivalents in the UK)
-Cab arrived - lovely
-Amp arrived, but despite being in a flight case of sorts, it was badly damaged and not working- obviously dropped.
-Took to a local repairer who liased with Paul to fix as per original specs
-Change of circumstances meant that it had nothing but bedroom practice for 2 years
-Got with new band, amp lacking in the volume department and blows a transformer!
-Took to John Chambers of Champ Electronics, who gave made a new transformer and said that it was only putting out 50w
-He did some rewiring and now it's doing 100w (clean)
-it's now lovely, but very clean, and my 78 P bass can't push it into overdrive
-Cue purchase of DHA VT1 EQ Bass and it drives it beautifully

So after a lot of hassle, I now have an amp worth playing, and it does everything I want it to do. The clean tone is deep and fruity, and the OD is very touch responsive and smooth. It's now loud enough to compete with our drummer, and special mention for the cab, which is bassy, smooth and clear and so far can take anything I throw at it.
The amp is not perfect - the 1/4 inch jack DI's signal is way too hot for any PA/Desk, and the treble control may as well not exist for all the effect it has. Thankfully, the DHA VT1 EQ solves both those issues.

The original wooden amp cover was damaged in transit, and I found it to be unnecessarily and disproportionately tall and of mediocre build quality and finish, so I made a replacement out of reclaimed oak, with a front panel containing burr walnut, teak, oak and tulipwood, with ebony stringing.

The bass is nothing too unusual - a US '78 Precision. A previous owner stripped its white paint off, but I like the look and feel of the natural ash. It's a heavy beast, but it was love at first play, so I traded in my '83 2EQ Stingray for it. Although I appreciate that the build quality and playability of the MM was superb, I never really connected with it's tone like I do with the precision.
I play with RS Steve Harris flats, and when I'm feeling feisty, I'll break out the EH Micro Bass Synthesiser.

Edited December 9, 2010 by Roland Rock

[Musicman20]

An interesting summary Interesting collection!

I hope you got some compensation for the amp problems !

[Mr. Foxen]

Cool, read about this on [url="http://www.chambonino.com/work/miscguitar/misc24a.html"]John's site.[/url]

So was the 50 valve watts enough when it was doing that, might be a valuable lesson there for people.

[Roland Rock]

The 50 watts couldn't compete with our hard-hitting drummer, so John's mod to fixed bias was essential.
In retrospect, I think that Paul from Red Iron is first and foremost a high-gain guitar type of guy. Ultimately he made a 50w amp when I asked for a 100w one.
No financial comp on anything. To be honest I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to complaining.

[bigjohn]

Just came across this thread!

Seems like a pain in the arse has had a happy ending. Your amp sounds sweet. I'd have never of guessed it started life so messed up And you do need a bit of umpf to play with Nick

Chambo is a great guy - his mate John Wood is also a fine chap who repairs solid state amps as well as making bespoke valve HiFi. We're so lucky to have top men like them around here.

[umph]

ahh i saw this one in johns workshop. Really not a huge fan of the red iron amps, it looked like it was made out of spare bits he had lying around!

[Roland Rock]

[quote name='bigjohn' post='1184719' date='Apr 1 2011, 01:55 PM']Just came across this thread!

Seems like a pain in the arse has had a happy ending. Your amp sounds sweet. I'd have never of guessed it started life so messed up And you do need a bit of umpf to play with Nick

Chambo is a great guy - his mate John Wood is also a fine chap who repairs solid state amps as well as making bespoke valve HiFi. We're so lucky to have top men like them around here.[/quote]


Cheers BJ - you're right, it had a happy ending. I'm loving the amp more and more every time I play. It's a shame I need to bail out of the band
+1 about having Chambo local - he's massively knowledgeable and bonkers in equal measure (in a good way)

[Roland Rock]

[quote name='umph' post='1184734' date='Apr 1 2011, 02:04 PM']ahh i saw this one in johns workshop. Really not a huge fan of the red iron amps, it looked like it was made out of spare bits he had lying around![/quote]


True, but John did concede that all of the parts were of high quality. Most importantly, I now have an amp which is reliable and sounds great.

[Roland Rock]

I talked in the OP about my bass being unable to push the amp into overdrive - turns out is was the cable! Doh!