Slighty OT - HELP ME on an AMP decision

[nightingale]

jimmy~
the blues jr. amps can't make a bad sound if you tried to make it IMO. i have several fender amps. twin, evil twin, blues deville, 64bassman. and i have been playing the blues deville(very similiar to the blues jr) WAY more than the others. in fact i just sold the evil twin on ebay...

anyway, here is a good example of what dr. pete was explaining to you.

we played a show with a great band a few weeks ago "low flying owls" after we played we loaded out our 100+ watt combo amps(twin reverb) that were miked at a decent stage volume. low flying owls rolled in their smaller(easier to load in/out) blues jr's... and miked them... and since they were headlining the show, they sound guy boosted them alot more through the PA. and they came through with amazing tones, much much louder than we could have been even if we cranked our twins...

you mention your are in a garage type of practicing situation... the blues jr. should be plenty. but if you needed a little more volume, you could just mike your amp and run it through your PA system... asuming that there are vocals in your project... and you would not be sacrificing any tone!
i hope this is helpful/understandable imformation to you,
best,
~ryanS

[jimmy]

believe me, if the blues jr were in my prie range i would have had one by now. check the figures.

Fender Blues Junior Combo - $385 USD
Fender Blues Junior Combo - $1399 AUD

now if im not mistaken the currency conversion is nowhere near those amounts. another victim of the marketing machine...

cheers
Jim

[David]

Jimmy:

I'll add another vote for the Peavey Classic 30.  That's my amp.  It's the LOUDEST 30 watts I ever heard.  I play in the praise band at my church.  If I get above 4 (unmiked), I can bury everything -- even stuff running through the PA!  I bought mine used and it was the best purchase I ever made.  If you can get one of those, do it and don't look back!!

Another choice, if you can find one, is the Trademark 10.  Yeah, it's solid state, but you won't know it if you use the "SRV" preset in the user manual.  A little pricey for retail, but I've seen it in catalogs for $250 US or less.  Small and light.

Third choice:  Check the posts here.  Amps are readily available.  See the "Little Gem II" or the discussions on mods to the "Pocket Rockit".  I'm thinking of building a personal-monitor style amp from this kind of setup.

[casey]

ok dude,

here's the lowdown...

i would buy a sovtek mig50.  it's built like a tank...point to point,
All tube, very loud and clean, and will kill anything and everything
in it's price range.  i have toured extensively with one, put it through
the paces....alot of road wear and many hours of recording
and what not, and it's flawless and sounds really mean and clean.
it's a simple layout and will get the job done....

i bought one new for 250 bucks.

you can get them off of ebay for that price or even cheaper.

[Ansil]

why not buy the stuff to make dougs firefly, and just build a tube poweramp out of a couple of el34's jor such.

i had a nice little rig that i took the output of the 12au7 from the firefly and made a nice little amp at about 7watts with an old tube radio output transformer and the tubes from it also i want to say they were 6l somethings i just used slightly less voltage for the poweramp section
sounded great i had about 65$ invested at time of build, including a brand new speaker. build time 36 hours. off and on

[jimmy]

hey id absolutely LOVE to build my own tube amp, but im still working upto that level of ability. plus id want to get like a celestion for it and theyre very very expensive. ill hunt around. btw that hammond transformer is only rated up to 3 watts. how could you get more wattage out of the firefly, and what transformer would you use for the output?

cheers
Jim

[jimmy]

update!! just got an email back from music123.com asking if they would post a blues junior to australia and they said they would except fender wont let them, and the only thing i can do is get it delivered to a us address. boooooo. it was free postage too. nuts.

cheers
Jim

p.s. that firefly is looking real good right now

[ErikMiller]

I posted a link to an inexpensive Pignose tube amp. What did you think of that?

Musician's Friend has them for $219 US.

[Johan]

it really isnt that hard to build an amp. if you build something like a copy of the old Marshall 2203 preamp and hook that up to any power IC's like TDA2050 or LM1876 you'll have a great sounding little amp plenty loud for rehersals and the total partcount is around the same as for a tubescreamer. if you put it in a open back cab with a single 12 it probably sounds better if its NOT a Cellestion=cheaper( that high mid peak works well in a 4x12 but gets too much in a combo for my taste...).....this is what I've been using giging at least twice a month the last year ( anyone in Stockholm/Sweden?...come see me at "Mosebacke" thursday Oct-30 or "Mango" nov-5, playing Rock/reggae with "Kate" ).....if you look around and talk to local amp-techs, its not unlikely that someone has an old amp-wreck not worth repairing just laying around. combine that with whats allready in your parts bin (?) and it doesnt even have to cost too much...DIY RULES..

good luck

Johan

[Ansil]

the firefly is a very loud amplifier. for its size.  heck you could build two of them for less than what you were wanting to spend.  if you want i have an old chasis and a coulple of power transformers. i could check into shipping and see how much it would be to send you a firefly.  ie you pay return shipping. i am not working right now, and i just salvaged a whole bunch of parts and i was about to etch a board for my amp.  want me to build you one.  i also have two 12" speakers i could part with from my old amplifier.

make you a sweet deal. you pay for parts and shipping.


i could do it in my vast spare time. lol email me if you want.

[jimmy]

mmmmmmmmmmmaaybeeeee...

if im gonna do it id really like to do it myself, except i would have considerable issues with a chassis and the output transformer. i could track down the transformer, and make the chassis out of a computer i spose, but im only an inexperienced young'un   well i reckon pack in buying amps. waste of cash. so the firefly? or that AX84 P1 business? i know enough to be able to put a tonestack and a master vol. on the firefly. thatd suit me just fine. buuut i have 240V out of the wall here in aus so im not sure what to do about the power trannies. o well ill do the best i can and post back here if i struggle.

but the question is...

FireFly or Ax84?

cheers
Jim

[Peter Snowberg]

These little amps will work quite well over a range of supply voltages so you have some flexability when it somes to the PT.

One easy way to get the volatges you need is to use two filament transforms. The first supplies the 6.3v for the filament, and the second one in wired in reverse to step some 6.3v back up to 240v. From there a full wave bridge recitfier and capacitor will supply you with ready to use power.

If you can find 1:1 isolation transformers, that should do you just fine as well. The voltage will be a little higher than Doug has specified in his design, but that just gives you more headroom and a crisper quality to the clean tone.

If you ajdust the voltage too far then the 560 ohm cathode resistor in the power stage may need adjustment.

Good luck!

-Peter