Messages

cooder, thanks for the links! I love Uncle Doug.

I plugged into the DTSC for a comparison. Comparing the '68 Princeton TS with the bass set to zero and then changing the bass pot to 268k and setting it to about 7% up. It's a pretty striking difference...a little less than 10dB @ 100Hz. So, could be that all I need is to bypass that 18k stopper resistor to get it where I want.

I'll get a pic up later today of the amp.

I spent some time with the amp today and here is my report.

Quality:
Sweetwater double boxed with plenty of cushion, so the amp arrived in perfect shape. Pretty much what I expect from them.
Build quality on the exterior is good. It's not the greatest of all tolexing jobs but it is certainly good enough. No extra flaps, glue marks, etc.
Aesthetics are just as I expected. I like the silverface look and drip edge. It matches the vintage Champ I have.

Sounds:
Tremolo - Just great overall. Lush and deep enough with a good range of speed. With the depth turned toward max and moderate speed it starts to get into rounded square wave but more sine at slower speeds. I like it fine.
Reverb - My first tube amp with reverb. I will never set it above "3" probably but it's good enough for me. Not the lushest reverb I have ever heard but plenty great. I'm no expert on spring driven reverb so there's that.
Headroom - Plenty of it for testing purposes. At around 4-5 it starts to break up. I did not turn it past 8 so far but it really starts to overdrive at that point.
Noise: Not totally quiet but not terribly noisy either. I tested with single coils and humbuckers. The outlet I'm on is not the greatest either but most of the noise was 60 cycle which is what I would expect. Noise does increase a bit with the treble pot turned at max.

And here is where I'm a little disappointed: this amp has just too much bass. I mean, an ungodly amount for me. Even with the bass turned all the way down I still want to go about another 30%. It's bassier than my AC15 which has a 12"! The problem with that is it accentuates the relatively scooped mids even more which I don't like. It was enough to consider returning it which I did for a while.

However, I did some more reading and it seems as though others had the same initial impression but changed their minds as the speaker broke in. At least a few people said after break in the mega bass more or less went away and the harmonics and richness come out a lot more. I also took a look at the factory schem and saw that there is an 18k resistor between the bass pot and the mid setting resistor. So, this could be jumpered to reduce bass further. I think I'm okay with that since it would only require a wire jumper and not any swapping of components (which I don't want to do on a brand new amp).

So, I'm gonna sit on it for a couple of more days and decide whether or not to put in for the long haul or pull up the anchor. I think if the bass can be brought under control then it will be a fine amp for what I need it to do.

Line 6 Spyder baby!!! Toanz!!!!

That was the runner up of course. After the Pignose and Roland Cube.

Me too. After watching the demo vids on YouTube, the black is what I thought I wanted but the silver sounds so much better.  A bit wary of some of the early build issues I've heard but I think they have it sorted. Let us know how you like it!

I think they both sound pretty great but the silver with its early breakup is more what I need. As far as build issues, who knows. People always say that about PCB fabbed amps and while I definitely would prefer turret board that seems to be harder to come by outside the realm of boutique builders. I don't know why the silver is made in Mexico and the black is made in the US, though. But hey, Mexican Strats are pretty good, so...

I have chips from different sources, but I have a couple from smallbear that are low-noise which I keep for evaluation purposes. It's good to have one or two around so you can benchmark other chips against them. They are basically all over the place in terms of specs and Tayda ones may very well be out of spec (just a hunch).

Still, I do not understand why a few people are getting so much noise. It is a pretty quiet circuit by PT2399 delay standards. I'll think on it a bit.

Silverface Princeton Reverb or Tone King Imperial

That's it! I want a blackface too, but the 68 re-issue is what I fancy ATM.

Trem, thanks for the feedback. I was not aware of that. I'll think about that as I work on future releases.


The Pastyface and Cherrybomb docs are up. I will get the last one (Wolfshirt) up in just a bit.

New Amp Day (tomorrow).

A package is arriving. It comes tomorrow. I am so very stoked. I've been wanting it for a while now. Not saying until I get a good picture of it and I'll post it. My plan is for this to be the new MBP testing/prototying amp. Plus my own personal recording amp, too!

I guess I just don't feel like waiting until tomorrow to post N A D!

Any guesses? (because you have nothing else to do with your time, I'm sure  ) pickdopper and CJ not allowed, they already know.

Where are you guys getting your PT2399 chips from?

Update: PigButt, Dirtbaby, KarateShop and Mudbunny docs are updated. Pastyface, CherryBomb and Wolfshirt docs will be updated Wednesday.

Rip it up, bro. I dig!

A cool tele mod; get a 4-way switch. It lets you run the bridge and neck in series in addition to the three usual options.

KarateShop doc is up: http://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/KarateShop/docs/KarateShop_2015.pdf

please! we need tap tempo delay and tremolo!!

Dude....every one of these announcement threads I post you always come in and ask for something else, haha. I cannot please, but I will try to abide.

Time for a new storage container. Only one little wee spot left on these.

Which also means I've got more projects in stock now than any other time. So, there's that.

Pastyface, KarateShop, Mudbunny, Dirtbaby, Wolfshirt, PigButt and Cherrybomb now in stock!

I have some document updating to do which will involve some BOM changes. Luckily I started a few days ago so I should have everything finished and uploaded by tomorrow. But, I would hold off on any parts orders until then. For instance, the Pastyface now has the charge pump on-board but no longer has the option for axial caps, the Karate Shop now has a 50k Vol pot, the Wolfshirt and Cherrybomb replaced some electros with 1uF film caps, the Dirtbaby is now rev.1 (only change is I removed the Tails option which was a bust) etc.

Pics of the new boards are up, too. Just click on the thumbnails for full size.