the express - just over a year later

[declan]

I usually pop in and out here just occasionally these days, reading much more than posting, thought id stick a 1 year later report and invite any of you guys who have an express for a while to do the same. Everyone loves them at the start, I would like to see post honeymoon comments in this thread

I still have to spend some time calming mine down a little before i could gig her, but I havent done that yet and part of the reason is so many other projects and things going on but also because I am afraid i will tame out the beautiful insanity of this amp.

sometimes I plug in and nothing sounds the way it should, and I have realised why, its not the amp, its me, it takes time to learn how to get the most out of these amps and if you are not in the groove it will spank yer ass until you are.

Some amps reward you by how much you put in, an Express demands it. I have played her at jams and practice sessions, as have others and there is nothing quite like the sound of one of these amps when everything is cooking.

Will I play her exclusively, not a chance, I'm not good enough yet, ... but this is one amp I would never part with.

Tried a few variations on a PPIMV and an airbrake to enlarge the opportunities for playing, but IMHO, they all take too much of her soul.

Unrestrained wreck + guitar player in the wreck zone
= pure unadulterated musical orgasm

Im off to plug in

[mumford]

I'm around a year out as well from building my ceriatone kit, and finally am getting some time to tweak it. I've gigged with it a couple of times, and like it, but it still feels like a huge downgrade from my BadCat. At this point, it's kind of a low quality marshall type of sound, although sometimes it sounds great.

I've been working lately to get rid of hum and upgrade parts. I put in some Sozos a couple of weeks ago, am putting in a heyboer OT this weekend, and will probably add a VVR and maybe one of those tube cooler/stabilizers in the future. I still have some hum, but I'm hoping to resolve it during the transformer switcheroo.

Unless I can't get the noise out otherwise, I won't be rewiring the whole thing after all. Once I looked really closely, my preamp wiring was pretty close to Francesca, just not clean. My power section looks completely different, so that will get revised when I switch things out.

I'm hoping when all is said and done, I'm hoping to have the tone monster I hear in Glenn's videos, despite having none of the talent. I'm grateful for this place--when I got the kit I had no idea what I was in for, and have asked a lot of questions that I suspect make people's eyes roll, but no one has ever complained. Great place.

[M Fowler]

I have three Express amps each with different tranny sets, each with different filter caps and different types tone caps. Naturally they each have their own voicing.

One thing I found out was using very good preamp tubes and your noise level and unstableness will improve. I tried vintage 12ay7s and that was incredible especially in the PI which I didn't think would ever make any difference. I am using tubes I find and still need to purchase more. A little at a time.

[rawnster]

I'm coming up on the first year anniversary of building my express. I loved it at first. then got a little frustrated with it's ambient noise. Ended up building rocket, and immediately fell in love with it and it's dead quiet operation. Very cool. However, during the last few months I've been tinkering around with my express again. I completely rewired it with all solid core 99% copper wire. I also just replaced all the Bourns pots with PEC. I must say, it's a blast to play. The tone has warmed up a bit, with increased clarity. What's interesting too, is that it's a little quieter. Maybe it's just my lack of hearing, but I'm not bothered at all by the hiss. This circuit is killer.

Sorry for being long winded. I'm just really starting to appreciate and love this circuit. Kudos to KF and his brilliant creativity!

[M Fowler]

Rawnster,

Don't say it was the Bourns pots I tried PEC and other pots too but I don't like them any better, so I stuck with the Bourns. I have been eyeballing those $9.95 2W military grade pots for my future builds though.

The wiring now that could be a different animal all together and pretinned stranded would be a fantastic choice.

I really like the Rocket too Ron.

[rawnster]

Rawnster,

Don't say it was the Bourns pots I tried PEC and other pots too but I don't like them any better, so I stuck with the Bourns. I have been eyeballing those $9.95 2W military grade pots for my future builds though.

The wiring now that could be a different animal all together and pretinned stranded would be a fantastic choice.

I really like the Rocket too Ron.

I'm not sure, but I will say that when I desoldered the wiring to remove the Bourns pots from the ground harness and such, the volume input tab fell off. I don't know if it was me jamming too much heat onto the tab when removing the solder or what; but it fell off and landed on my bench. This makes me a little skittish of those pots now. But hey, I've got them in my rocket build, and that amp sounds just fine.

I agree, in that, the wiring rework is the probably the prime contributor to the amp's better tone. A friend schooled me on some very cool wire. It's 99.9999% pure copper. 20 gauge/solid core throughout the build...except for the heaters.

[M Fowler]

Geez you had me laughing Ron. You should have seen two of my Bourns pots I destroyed making my Express combo good lord it wasn't pretty.

I just found a bad Alpha pot in my new Original style Express unhooked it and the amps sound better without it but I will order a high quality pot and replace. But Allyn Meyers Pacific tranny set sound so good.