London City DEA as Bassamp

[nadeesh0]

Hi there,

Yes, I am new to the forum. I am an old dutch basplayer who wants something really different for an amp.I used a 3500 Harke for many a year and I am fed up with it, though it being great stuff for the money, I give 'm that.

But I want something tubey, but clean fast and bright, as I like to slap a lot. Love the blues and also play 70-90'ties rock & pop stuff. I finally fell in love with the tubething you see?

So the thing has to be darn verstatile for me, some people who I consider having good musical taste but are still gitarist
told me A London City DEA would do the job for me, what say you people, anyone have the experience or expertise?

like to hear from you, please!

[T-Bird]

Hi, nadeesh0.

Welcome to the TalkBass.

I came pretty close in winning an auction of a London City tube amp, but as the fate had it, I lost .

During the auction I did some digging and the general consesus were that London City amps are really just guitar amps. The output transformer is too small to reproduce anything below 80Hz well, so using it with organ or bass won't sound that good when cranked.

Up to half the power, it should work. After that the low end reproduction suffers considerably.

My understanding is also that they're quite cheap, so why not try it.

Chematicheaven has the chematic for the 100W version (also the 70W), here's the 100W

http://www.schematicheaven.com/newam...per_dea100.pdf

Regards
Sam

[nadeesh0]

Hi Sam,

I feel sorry for you for not winning the amp, these things are much fun to run experiments on, so you missed a good opportunity there.

Thanks for your reply, I really dig it. My guess is putting in a much heavier transformator could do the job here. I found one DEA that is in good order it is only a 70 watts version.

I will use the XL Hartke Alu-speker cabinets with it, a 2.5 and a 115. which ask not too much juice from the amp, but still I guess I need the bigger trafo for I like the low notes tight as a rope. After all I would chose this amp for its clean tight sound.

I will go and test one Sunday afternoon and take my cabinets with me.

Thanks again for your expertise, like to hear yuor reply on this one too!

[Cney]

I have a similar amp in my cellar.
it probably has a busted end tube.
got it for free because my friend didn't feel like repairing it.

Now that i am going to heat up the iron and take the thing appart i want to modify it into an all tube bass amp.
i might even put it in a different housing.

Now i would really want to know what i should change up.

it's 130 or 150 watts.

I probably have to change the pre-amp section.
don't know what to change yet.

got tips?

here is the schematic.'

maybe someone can point me to a similar bass amp schematic.

[MAMMOTHvolume]

try it out as is, should have a similar sound to a superbass