Merren built Express output transformers

[Mark]

RJ guitars had Mercury make him a copy of the Stancor transformer. I haven't heard anything about how it performs.

There is quite a bit of iron about.

[hitchcaster]

G'Day Mark

No reference to Merren making A470s, just that there are clones available as it's the preferred Rocket OT. Works great for a pair of EL34s too. It was OEM on Dynaco ST-70 amps. Those were pp pairs of EL34s running A470s as a HiFi amp. Maybe Chris has made these as well. Pacific has Rocket specific OTs, so maybe he spec'd those for Ken too? I've a few sets of Pacific left over, which will be used in something soon. I can compare those Pacific Rocket OTs to the Heyboer and the TDS 1326 equipped Torpedos I still have. The TDS 1326 is what Matchelss uses in the DC30. Closer to a Woden style AC30 OT. A slightly different flavor, yet still quite tasty.

To further elaborate, I recall working with a few others to get some variations on AC30 style OTs with different lams: M6, M19, and M50. I think Moose even had hybrid lam stack versions made, but I can't recall completely as it was years ago. Mercury has also made TW transformers, just a tad more expensive than even the Pacific units when they were introduced. High quality for sure, just seemed odd to price them above the real deal. Looks like they still have them at around $300 each, so $600 for a set. No Rocket OT though.

how did the TDS DC30 OT compare in the rocket? i compared original a470s to the pacific rocket and the pacific sounded better to me.. just now i compared a stancor 3800 and it sounded almost exact to the pacific.. except the stancor just sounded better, more organic, snappier.. so thats as best ive found.. i tried a stancor 3801 just to see and it sounded really good also.. louder than the 3800. but the 3800 even though not as big was really nice so im going with that. i left the settings the same, i probably should have cranked the volume and compared at as well.. in case the 3800 doesn't sound as good cranked since it is smaller.
also i have a matchless clubman with tds and i popped in mercury mags copy of that and it sounded better than the tds.. so mercury's DC30 could be something to check out as well as their vox offerings. never tried them.