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FAME BVH300
- Thread starter T-Bird
- Start date
Hi.
The DI on mine works as it should and is post eq, that will please some and probably displease countless others.
It seems that I have a slightly microphonic pre tubes, which wasn't really any surprise, and that ringing is quite loud too when cranked hard. I try to make some sound clips in the future, but the HD drag race season starting this week-end and all, my free time is rather limited.
The two Sovtek KT88s arrived and I installed them and those hold their point better than the Eletroharmonix tubes. Didn't take any measurements though, just the bias test point value.
They do look tiny compared to the EHs'
.
Regards.
Sam
The DI on mine works as it should and is post eq, that will please some and probably displease countless others.
It seems that I have a slightly microphonic pre tubes, which wasn't really any surprise, and that ringing is quite loud too when cranked hard. I try to make some sound clips in the future, but the HD drag race season starting this week-end and all, my free time is rather limited.
The two Sovtek KT88s arrived and I installed them and those hold their point better than the Eletroharmonix tubes. Didn't take any measurements though, just the bias test point value.
They do look tiny compared to the EHs'
.Regards.
Sam
Hi, Exclamation.
I ordered it from http://www.musicstore.de
And the link to the amp:[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Good luck in finding out the plant, I didn't even get the reply for the bias setting
.
Regards
Sam
Ps. There's one Retoure there at the moment for 575. Must..resist..must.....re..sist.... Yeah, I really think it's that good a head.
I ordered it from http://www.musicstore.de
And the link to the amp:[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Good luck in finding out the plant, I didn't even get the reply for the bias setting
.Regards
Sam
Ps. There's one Retoure there at the moment for 575. Must..resist..must.....re..sist...
. Yeah, I really think it's that good a head.
hey,
thanks for the review! it's the first and only review on this amp i've found so far. i was reading this thread with great interest. not because i'm thinking about buying a BVH300, but because i'm looking for an affirmation that i made a good choice when i purchased the Invalid Link Removed two years ago.
after reading this:
i am sure i did make a good choice with the Mywatt, because it sounds great even at bedroom volume.
anyway, the BVH300 seems to be a good amp for the money.
did you also try Svetlana KT88s? i made only the best experiences with the "C" logo Svetlanas. my amp sounds bigger and clearer with them, compared to the Sovteks i used before. the B+ of my amp is 650V and i run the Svetlanas @ 39 mA.
thanks for the review! it's the first and only review on this amp i've found so far. i was reading this thread with great interest. not because i'm thinking about buying a BVH300, but because i'm looking for an affirmation that i made a good choice when i purchased the Invalid Link Removed two years ago.
after reading this:
i am sure i did make a good choice with the Mywatt, because it sounds great even at bedroom volume.
anyway, the BVH300 seems to be a good amp for the money.
did you also try Svetlana KT88s? i made only the best experiences with the "C" logo Svetlanas. my amp sounds bigger and clearer with them, compared to the Sovteks i used before. the B+ of my amp is 650V and i run the Svetlanas @ 39 mA.
Just to re-state this IS the same as the "Australian" ASHTON BV300 valve 300w bass amp which U can get in Aus for about $1300. Aparently good amps!!
Hi.
The head is still going as strong as ever, but few poroblems have surfaced
.
#1 If I don't use the head for about two weeks, one (don't know which) cap or a circuit starts resonating or shorting and produces rather annoying ~once/second tapping noise. The noise goes away after about a minute, but still, it's annoying.
#2 RoHS,
, damn...
I started to trace the chematics and now took a closer look at the solderings
.
Now remember, this isn't a problem exclusive to Fame, Chinese amps, lower quality appliances or anything like that, it's the effing RoHS.
Be prepared to touch up every single solder joint with REAL solder to avoid problems. Luckily, at this rate I'll never run out of the "good stuff".
Regards
Sam
The head is still going as strong as ever, but few poroblems have surfaced
.#1 If I don't use the head for about two weeks, one (don't know which) cap or a circuit starts resonating or shorting and produces rather annoying ~once/second tapping noise. The noise goes away after about a minute, but still, it's annoying.
#2 RoHS,
, damn... I started to trace the chematics and now took a closer look at the solderings
.Now remember, this isn't a problem exclusive to Fame, Chinese amps, lower quality appliances or anything like that, it's the effing RoHS.
Be prepared to touch up every single solder joint with REAL solder to avoid problems. Luckily, at this rate I'll never run out of the "good stuff".
Regards
Sam
Hi.
The schematics thread for this head can be found here:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487568
Updates will follow when I have spare time.
Regards
Sam
The schematics thread for this head can be found here:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=487568
Updates will follow when I have spare time
.Regards
Sam
Hi.
Congrats on the NAD Kesan.
The power tubes glow on mine is the "normal" bluish hue, no redness (except for the filaments of course). If the overall glow especially on the plates is red, there's something wrong with the bias circuit.
The Sovteks made no diference to the sound what so ever, and they're still there. The choice of Sovteks was just because I ordered other stuff from Thomann and wanted to change the tube that was acting badly.
Regards
Sam
Congrats on the NAD Kesan.
The power tubes glow on mine is the "normal" bluish hue, no redness (except for the filaments of course). If the overall glow especially on the plates is red, there's something wrong with the bias circuit.
The Sovteks made no diference to the sound what so ever, and they're still there. The choice of Sovteks was just because I ordered other stuff from Thomann and wanted to change the tube that was acting badly.
Regards
Sam
Thanks a lot!
So i may have something wrong with my powetubes.. They have never been bluish..
Could you take a picture ?
I'm bit worried because the bias adjustement seems to be working..and i never saw the tubes glowing "blue" at any value ( 22mv , 29mv, 35mv and now 45mv).
So could it be the powertubes? (two of them glow in a different way , and one wasn't correctly fixed wen i first opened the box)
So i may have something wrong with my powetubes.. They have never been bluish..
Could you take a picture ?
I'm bit worried because the bias adjustement seems to be working..and i never saw the tubes glowing "blue" at any value ( 22mv , 29mv, 35mv and now 45mv).
So could it be the powertubes? (two of them glow in a different way , and one wasn't correctly fixed wen i first opened the box)
Check the bias, and if they aren't glowing blue, then it isn't necessarily bad.
I like about a 66% disp on my tubes.. this is about mid range.
I like about a 66% disp on my tubes.. this is about mid range.
thanks!
I finally rechecked the bias and decided to go with 40MV.
hum..finally there is a slight, very very slight blue glow..but I had to shut down every lights in te room to see it...so i finally have an orange glow with slight blue..(in the dark I could see better that i made a mistake when i was talking about "red light")
So , I believe it's "normal"
thank you.
Now , going to swap the preamp tubes...not bad but i can't even get an overdriven sound..and i noticed one 12AX7 in the 12AT7 slot..very strange.. Stock tubes are Tube Amp doctor. (T.A.D)
I'm gonna put one JJ ECC83S gold and two mullard 12AT7 ..hope I'll get a bit of "grit" and a more articulate sound.
I finally rechecked the bias and decided to go with 40MV.
hum..finally there is a slight, very very slight blue glow..but I had to shut down every lights in te room to see it...so i finally have an orange glow with slight blue..(in the dark I could see better that i made a mistake when i was talking about "red light")
So , I believe it's "normal"
thank you.
Now , going to swap the preamp tubes...not bad but i can't even get an overdriven sound..and i noticed one 12AX7 in the 12AT7 slot..very strange.. Stock tubes are Tube Amp doctor. (T.A.D)
I'm gonna put one JJ ECC83S gold and two mullard 12AT7 ..hope I'll get a bit of "grit" and a more articulate sound.
edit:
I fixed the bias : 51 MV.
i've read a lot of posts on different forums : 45MV to 55MV is common range for KT88.
(55MV maximum)
When I engage the footswitch to boost the volume (for solos for example) , all powertubes are automatically rebiased to 53 MV. So I'm still in the "safe range". Desengaged , i go back to 51MV.
Finally, it seems to be much more powerful like that and I prefer the overall sound.
Plus : the small blue light on the tubes!!
I'll post whenever I get the new preamp tubes.
I fixed the bias : 51 MV.
i've read a lot of posts on different forums : 45MV to 55MV is common range for KT88.
(55MV maximum)
When I engage the footswitch to boost the volume (for solos for example) , all powertubes are automatically rebiased to 53 MV. So I'm still in the "safe range". Desengaged , i go back to 51MV.
Finally, it seems to be much more powerful like that and I prefer the overall sound.
Plus : the small blue light on the tubes!!
I'll post whenever I get the new preamp tubes.
Hi.
Good to hear Your amp is working well.
I assume that by red tint, You actually meaned the orangyish colour of the filaments in the vertical center line of the tube. That's just the filament, so everything should be good as You suspected.
Like KramerBassFan said, the lack of blue colour isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Well, :cough: Eden :cough:.
Regards
Sam
Good to hear Your amp is working well.
I assume that by red tint, You actually meaned the orangyish colour of the filaments in the vertical center line of the tube. That's just the filament, so everything should be good as You suspected.
Like KramerBassFan said, the lack of blue colour isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Well, :cough: Eden :cough:
.Regards
Sam
Thanks for the review. I also bought this amp a while ago. I also started a topic about it, but it didn't really get any interest
Here are some pictures of my amp, I also
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Anyway, I tried different kind of a preamp tubes. I was looking for a bit overdriven sound, like amps like Ampeg and Orange have. I find it a bit odd that the "gain"-knob doesn't really increase the gain for that kind of a level that there actually is an "grunt". The sound stays pretty much clean although the gain is at ten. I switched the tubes and replaced all the tubes with ECC83...that didn't really did the trick. I believe the volume increased but there was no actual overdrive, so I switched the original setting back.
I was wondering, is it somehow possible to mod the amp to get the gain-know more variable? I mean from clean sound to a really overdriven sound.
EQ is a bit strange, it really silences the amp when turning knobs to zero. Eden fixed this problem in their model. I usually keep all the knobs almost at full. Treble-tone increases some noise.
I also changed two powertubes because the originals were suspicious. One tube was moving on it's own, hard to describe it in english, but the glass was moving in it's socket. I'm not sure about the bias Mv either or the biasing itself.
I believe the current way is to measure voltage from pin 3 and multiply it with the reading from bias-point? Is that correct information?
One more thing, I've noticed that when I take the bypass off and start to play immediately the amp gives "power peaks" to speakers. I can see the element moving very much because of that. I always have to wait a while, couple seconds before starting to play. Is this a common thing or should I change more powertubes?
Thanks!
Here are some pictures of my amp, I also
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Anyway, I tried different kind of a preamp tubes. I was looking for a bit overdriven sound, like amps like Ampeg and Orange have. I find it a bit odd that the "gain"-knob doesn't really increase the gain for that kind of a level that there actually is an "grunt". The sound stays pretty much clean although the gain is at ten. I switched the tubes and replaced all the tubes with ECC83...that didn't really did the trick. I believe the volume increased but there was no actual overdrive, so I switched the original setting back.
I was wondering, is it somehow possible to mod the amp to get the gain-know more variable? I mean from clean sound to a really overdriven sound.
EQ is a bit strange, it really silences the amp when turning knobs to zero. Eden fixed this problem in their model. I usually keep all the knobs almost at full. Treble-tone increases some noise.
I also changed two powertubes because the originals were suspicious. One tube was moving on it's own, hard to describe it in english, but the glass was moving in it's socket. I'm not sure about the bias Mv either or the biasing itself.
I believe the current way is to measure voltage from pin 3 and multiply it with the reading from bias-point? Is that correct information?
One more thing, I've noticed that when I take the bypass off and start to play immediately the amp gives "power peaks" to speakers. I can see the element moving very much because of that. I always have to wait a while, couple seconds before starting to play. Is this a common thing or should I change more powertubes?
Thanks!
