A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Express, Liverpool, Rocket, Dirty Little Monster, etc.

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strelok
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A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by strelok »

Recorded a short demo of my recent 6v6 express build. I didn't have a lot of time so its just a quick clip of some random noodling. Did some EQ and added some cheesy digital reverb as it sounded rather dry and boring. Had it variac'd down to about 70VAC as I didn't get around to recording it until after dark. Liked the way it sounded in person but I think it didn't do the recording any favors. Kinda made it a bit more soft and fuzzy sounding than I would have liked. In any case let me know what you guys think.
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Mark
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by Mark »

Nice playing, the amp sounds good and it cleaned up well. Did you have to compress the signal or does it clean up without losing too much volume?

The other check is feeding back, was it turned up enough to feed back?

Otherwise all good.

What guitar, and speakers did you use?

How did you have the knobs set on the amp?

Oh yeah the buzz at the beginning, was that the pickups or the amp?

I'm done. 😬
Yours Sincerely

Mark Abbott
strelok
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by strelok »

Thanks, I didn't add any compression in post, just some EQ and Reverb. It does clean up quite nicely without losing much volume, and will feedback pretty easily at the settings I used, pretty standard ones for the express. Volume, treble, mids, presence at noon, bass at around 10 o'clock. Guitar is a frankenstrat copy I built a long time ago with a SD '59 pickup. Speaker is a Weber 1225 with pre-rola doping in a closed back 112 pine cabinet. The buzz is just the pickups, when the volume on the guitar is turned down all it does is hiss like any other high gain amp when cranked. There's lots of flouresent lights in the shop at work were I was recording at so I suspect they were largely responsible for it.
Mark
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by Mark »

Thanks for your reply, I asked about the noise as in another post Mark Fowler talked about changing the earthing to remove noise from his Express clones.

I have heard about the hiss before from other builders, I wonder if this is what Mark Fowler was referring to?


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Mark Abbott
strelok
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by strelok »

Usually when talking noise in reference to grounding it refers to buzz or hum. I think I saw the post you're referring to. My amp is grounded in a similar way. All the Preamp grounds (including the two filter caps) go to one place and then to ground at one end of the chassis and all the power tube and PI grounds and filter caps get grounded at the other end. You can see how I did it in the conversion thread I made.

Hiss can be reduced in the circuit by swapping out some tubes or using Metal oxide/film resistors, especially as the plate loads. This amp isn't too bad in the hiss department. Its certainly loud and noticeable but its pretty quiet compared to the full volume of the amp, which is probably the best you can ask for with something this high gain.
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M Fowler
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by M Fowler »

Exactly as Strelok has noted is what I was referring to.

Hiss is a tube issue and I don't think we can escape from that totally, common noise with a high gain circuit like the Express or Liverpool. Or a Marshall too.

Mark
Mark
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by Mark »

M Fowler wrote:Exactly as Strelok has noted is what I was referring to.

Hiss is a tube issue and I don't think we can escape from that totally, common noise with a high gain circuit like the Express or Liverpool. Or a Marshall too.

Mark
I wonder why Ken never picked up upon a different earthing layout?

I've always felt earthing is a bit of a black art, and hard to quantify. I wouldn't have thought you could get rid of the the buzz when you're not touching the strings, but there you go I was wrong.

Any gut shots of your earthing?


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Mark Abbott
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pompeiisneaks
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by pompeiisneaks »

BTW I added a new 'mp3' player so you can add them in your post directly. You'd first need to upload the file here, and then you could edit the post afterwards, all you need is to wrap it with the tags for mp3, or use the 'mp3' button above like the youtube one.


This is the OP's mp3 playable in the browser (Your browser does need to support html5 though).
tUber Nerd!
strelok
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Re: A short clip of the 6v6 Express

Post by strelok »

Cool that's a nice feature, thanks for the heads up.

Buzz that goes away when touching the strings is generally due to poor grounding or shielding on the guitar wiring, at least with humbuckers, has really nothing to do with the amp. If you turn your guitar volume all the way down and the buzz goes away its the guitar and/or the surrounding environment inducing noise into the pickups. Like I said before the buzz I'm getting is mostly due to the florescent lights in the shop. It goes away when the volume on the guitar is down. There's plenty of gut shots in my build thread here: http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30096

Pretty much all the green wires are ground, save for the greens on the heater wires obviously.
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