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Thunderbird Club

#108,081
Miles_ONeal said:
It's all about how the tubes bias.

OK, not all, but it's a big part.
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I don't know exactly what happened or why, but I like it. It went from staying clean all the way to full volume to breaking up almost right away. I hope it's not about to blow up or tear a speaker cone. I have already had the field coil speaker reconed once. The guy who did it retired. He probably had to considering the kinds of solvents he was breathing all day every day.
 
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#108,082
Chucky Stiletti said:
many of those single ended (one output tube) class A low wattage amps were R&R tone machines (unintentionally) from the get go. In an effort to squeeze every ounce of volume out of those configurations which were meant to be cheaper student models no corrective feedback was used which gave way to more distortion.....I've seen players plug the speaker output of those into a power soak and straight into the mixer in live settings...
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I have two variations on the same guitar amp design running an Orange-style tone stack into a single EL84. One will do 6-7W[1] of clean; sounds a lot like a Fender Twin with a different tone stack. The other design roars ferociously at 5W. Really need to make some time to work on a bass amp.

[1] You need the right EL84 and circuit to push it this far; I forget which tubes I finally settled on, but a couple I had hoped would work had screens that glowed a lovely red much past 5W, which was totally normal behavior for these tubes.
 
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#108,085
What do you guys think? With or with out the Abalone Inlays?

Im having a hard time deciding, I really like it each way. So Im asking for All Ya’lls input on this.
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#108,086
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#108,087
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#108,089
Miles_ONeal said:
I have two variations on the same guitar amp design running an Orange-style tone stack into a single EL84. One will do 6-7W[1] of clean; sounds a lot like a Fender Twin with a different tone stack. The other design roars ferociously at 5W. Really need to make some time to work on a bass amp.

[1] You need the right EL84 and circuit to push it this far; I forget which tubes I finally settled on, but a couple I had hoped would work had screens that glowed a lovely red much past 5W, which was totally normal behavior for these tubes.
Click to expand...
A couple of my little amps are EL84 single sided. One more is a single sided 6v6. The Gibson BR-9 is a push-pull 6v6 amp. The loudest is the Valve Junior, which is a single EL84. I think I put a lower power preamp tube in it to make it get into power tube crunch faster, but I don't remember now. The single sided 6v6 amp started life as some kind of small Premier amp, but got rewired and rebuilt sometime before I got it. It's a creamy sounding little amp. The last one is a Kalamazoo Model Two, which has an oddball equivalent to an EL84. It's really quiet these days. I kinda wonder if the tubes are getting too tired. It sat for years and years, and was pristine when I got it. There's a chunk out of a corner now. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm not entirely happy about that. Things happen to tools that get used. It's got an entertaining tube driven tremolo along with next to no power. The Valve Junior gets used the most, but it is still the one I want to flip one of these days in order to get a five watt Vox combo.
 
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#108,091
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#108,095
Miles_ONeal said:
I have two variations on the same guitar amp design running an Orange-style tone stack into a single EL84. One will do 6-7W[1] of clean; sounds a lot like a Fender Twin with a different tone stack. The other design roars ferociously at 5W. Really need to make some time to work on a bass amp.

[1] You need the right EL84 and circuit to push it this far; I forget which tubes I finally settled on, but a couple I had hoped would work had screens that glowed a lovely red much past 5W, which was totally normal behavior for these tubes.
Click to expand...
normal behavior if you don't mind replacing them every 6 months. on the other hand, they are cheap so many players don't care..
 
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#108,098
dukeorock said:
In my old age, I kinda need inlays with certain lighting live. My main reason. But if it has top dots...
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JJR58 said:
Gotta admit, i need em to, even being a home player.
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On the fretboard? I never considered fretboard markers anything other than decorative. Side markers are all I use.
 
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