New project Tremolux 6g9-b

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Cliff Schecht
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by Cliff Schecht »

Martin: Too cool! It's one of those ideas that seems to easy to be right :). I've also been very lazy when it comes to running sims lately, that's all I do at school or work and it's nice to just get on the bench and build an amp or five.

1961 Tremolux on eBay: That asking price is for suckers and that amp is not a 9.8 out of 10 in my book. It's got cigarette burns and other little stains and such. The grille cloth is really clean (looks original but could be replaced) and the cab itself is pretty dang clean too. Also I love that the insides are unmolested. You can see the super cool mix of blue molded and yellow Astrons showing that this is a transitional amp in more ways than the tolex color. It's probably worth about half of what they are asking, there are actually many clean examples of these still around (relatively speaking, they only made a few hundred IIRC). I think even back then people knew that these amps were different for Fender and treated them accordingly.

M Fowler wrote:Cliff the Fender PA100 I am working on right now has those jacks on the speaker out. Beefy suckers.
Aww shit don't tell me that.. One of my buddies just bought one and wants me to go through it.. It works decent but I haven't seen the guts yet.
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martin manning
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by martin manning »

Cliff Schecht wrote:1961 Tremolux on eBay: That asking price is for suckers and that amp is not a 9.8 out of 10 in my book. It's got cigarette burns and other little stains and such. The grille cloth is really clean (looks original but could be replaced) and the cab itself is pretty dang clean too. Also I love that the insides are unmolested. You can see the super cool mix of blue molded and yellow Astrons showing that this is a transitional amp in more ways than the tolex color. It's probably worth about half of what they are asking, there are actually many clean examples of these still around (relatively speaking, they only made a few hundred IIRC). I think even back then people knew that these amps were different for Fender and treated them accordingly.
I agree with you on the price. All original down to the tubes? I don't think so based on the RCA logo on the 6BQ5's- that didn't appear until the late '60's.

Most interesting to me is the blanked-off vent hole in the bottom. Original? The extended corner cuts in the Tolex suggest the hole was made after the cabinet was assembled and covered, but by whom? Why put the hole there and then cover it? No harm in leaving it open. Was this a pre-production prototype that was later sold? The typewritten tube chart might support that theory.
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M Fowler
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by M Fowler »

Here is a photo of the PA100 I am working on right now.

Notice the pigtail fuse holder with putty holding it in place with hole drilled through the chassis going to switch :lol:

Amp will be used for bass guitar and two channels for regular guitar since this amp has a very nice subtle reverb on all channels.

Cliff notice those speaker jacks.

The amp came with one 0-10 knob all others missing, I do not have enough Fender knobs so the pedal knobs went on. The customer can get what he wants.

Mark
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rdjones
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by rdjones »

martin manning wrote:I agree with you on the price. All original down to the tubes? I don't think so based on the RCA logo on the 6BQ5's- that didn't appear until the late '60's.

Most interesting to me is the blanked-off vent hole in the bottom. Original? The extended corner cuts in the Tolex suggest the hole was made after the cabinet was assembled and covered, but by whom? Why put the hole there and then cover it? No harm in leaving it open. Was this a pre-production prototype that was later sold? The typewritten tube chart might support that theory.
Correct, the block letter RCA logo appeared in 1968. Good catch.

I've seen the bottom handle recess blocked off before in a similar manner on other Blond piggyback heads, so it's at least a short-lived construction detail.

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rdjones
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by rdjones »

M Fowler wrote:Cliff,

Your project idea would be a very unique amp. It wasn't that long ago that I heard about this EL84 Fender amp. I think I would like the EL84's over the 6V6 tubes myself.

Mark
There may be a reason why the 6G9 was very short lived.
The circuit looks like it would be very hard on the output tubes.
The high plate voltage and proportionately high screen voltage without any screen limiters is way beyond the normal "play nice" neighborhood for 6BQ5s.
Add to that the bias mod tremolo and, well ...
CHOMP, CHOMP, Gators got yer granny's tubes.

Probably sounds great on the way out.

rd
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martin manning
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by martin manning »

Ah, handle recess... I hadn't seen that before. I noticed the 400V plate voltage and no screen R's too... Ouch!
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M Fowler
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by M Fowler »

Same with Traynor no screen resistors, SS recto and very high plate voltages. YBA-2B
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Cliff Schecht
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by Cliff Schecht »

Martin in your sims what do you find is the effective range of the bass pot? I was tweaking around on my amp today and noticed that the bass pot doesn't seem to be doing much if anything on either channel. The treble pot cuts and boosts like it should so I typically just tune the treble to match where the bass is set.
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statorvane
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by statorvane »

Gators got yer granny
From Poke Salad Annie? Great tune.
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martin manning
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by martin manning »

Cliff Schecht wrote:Martin in your sims what do you find is the effective range of the bass pot? I was tweaking around on my amp today and noticed that the bass pot doesn't seem to be doing much if anything on either channel. The treble pot cuts and boosts like it should so I typically just tune the treble to match where the bass is set.
It looks to be about half as effective as the treble (~18dB at 30Hz vs. ~36dB at 10kHz). If you lower the 6k8 at the bottom of the stack to 3k3 or so you can get more bass variation with a little deeper mid cut. Maybe put a 10k pot in it's place and play with it? The later TMB stack addreses that.
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handle recess blocked

Post by ampcabinets »

My hunch about that handle recess (my 6G6B has it) it that some power tubes got longer and possibly tried to melt that dog-bone handle, so they blocked it from getting too close to the tubes.
Just a hunch.

It was a butt ugly fix, tho'

Later editions, with the brown, newer style handles, just had a curved recess on the bottom, and then later, I think, they added slightly taller chrome feet (maybe larger rubber inserts) so the amp would sit over the black handle.
I know some of the earlier feet were slightly smaller than what you find these days.

My 6G6B, actually has the hole, but came with the flatter handle, brown, of course.

I figure they were shoving these out the door as fast as they could, going to the black faced amps.

I had talked to a retired fander tech/builder, some years ago about the differences in grill cloth color of this era and he told me they were trying to use up, what ever they had, in changing over to the black face amps.
Mine, (bassman) actually came with an orangish/gold colored grill cloth, instead of wheat , wheat/gold, or maroon.
It is a late 1962 or early 1963, as far as we dated it.

These are both from 1963 and are 6G6B amps, note the difference.
Mine is like the orange one, but all I originally had is the head. still do

The 3rdpic is how it looks recovered (the old stuff was bubbling up), and with the 1x15 and 2x12 cabinet to match.
The other head is a JTM 45, built to go with it.
Darren Welch couldn't live without it, so he has it now.
darrenwelchgroup.com has plenty of pics with him using it.
The 4th pic is the 1963 showman I recently rebuilt, totally. I couldn't find any othe gold grill cloth, so I went with wheat, which was originally used on these.
The 2x12 cabinet has vintage altecs (rare and VERY hard to find) in it and weighs in at a whopping 125 lbs. The magnets are huge. I had to add wheels, as my 60 year old body can't lift, and carry that cabinet any more, with one arm. (yeah I know boo hoo):oops:

<img src="http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg">
<img src="http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... _6G6-B.jpg">
<img src="http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg">
<img src="http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... an_new.jpg">


[img]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg[/img]
[img]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... _6G6-B.jpg[/img]
[img]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg[/img]
[img]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... an_new.jpg[/img]


well, I tried to get them to show up, but something is wrong with this loading pictures.
If you cut and paste the actual url they will show up, and I know the html is correct.
what's up, I have no idea.
also, when I click the "img" button, it doesn't give me the ending "[/img]" until I click "submit", which I find very odd.....


I am not an expert, but this is what I have seen over the years


edit:
P.s. I saw the "nitch" in the grill cloth on the showman, after I posted this, and went back and corrected it, thanks.
pure bred calamity putz
Cliff Schecht
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by Cliff Schecht »

I just finished fixing a 68' SF Deluxe Reverb for Darren Welch. One of my friends is taking lessons from him and mentioned I built amps, the DR showed up a few days later. The amp sounds great now and I hope he digs it as much as I do (it was surprisingly unmolested too!), maybe he will throw more amps my way to work on :).
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Re: New project Tremolux 6g9-b

Post by tubeswell »

How's the tremolux coming along Mark?
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super100
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Re: handle recess blocked

Post by super100 »

ampcabinets wrote: well, I tried to get them to show up, but something is wrong with this loading pictures.
If you cut and paste the actual url they will show up, and I know the html is correct.
what's up, I have no idea.
also, when I click the "img" button, it doesn't give me the ending "[/img]" until I click "submit", which I find very odd.....
Hi ampcabinets,

I went ahead and uploaded the photos for you. Hope that helps.

Henry

[img:600:506]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg[/img]
[img:339:319]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... _6G6-B.jpg[/img]
[img:800:260]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg[/img]
[img:800:600]http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... an_new.jpg[/img]
ampcabinets
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dr's for darren

Post by ampcabinets »

Both Darren and Jessie bought those Deluxe Reverbs from me for less than 800 bucks each. (I think around 650 or 700, I forget, but you can ask him.
I got them from my cousin in Spring Texas who was selling them for the original owners. I think Jessie's is a year older than Darren's, or vise-versa.
I sold mine to a fella in New York, along with the matching and rare 2x10 cabinet, that fit under it.
Those things sound more like a marshall than a marshall, when cranked.
I loved mine but the guy just kept throwing down 100 dollar bills until I said whoa!. I had modified mine with a matching set of JBL/EV 12 inch in the main cabinet and the matching 10's in the lower. Mine was also a 1968 SF, and in pristine condition, both cabinets, with original covers.
They were heavy. I had to move the reverb tranny over 1/2 inch in one direction or the other to fit the JBL in it, because of the magnet. Talk about clear and ringing tones. I was most likely the last one to be in those amps, before you.
We actually did a gig, here, and we all used our DR's. I have pics of the gig. Darren used to 'break in' most of my hand made amps, and my guitars.
My wife prints and packages all of Darrens cd's. Holler if you want one, or ask Darren, he gives them away.
Our 30th anniversay is on the 1st, and we were thinking of coming up and seeing the boys play. They are my wife's favorite band, and she is a "woo girl".
I used to play with them on occassion in Midland, at "The Bar", until about 2 years ago and "the incident".
I've been wanting to get back with them.
I think we rock the house as a 5 piece.

sorry to be 'off topic'.
And a great big thanks for uploading those pics.
I can't figure out why the html didn't work.
Last edited by ampcabinets on Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
pure bred calamity putz
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