2nd Generation build clips

[crbowman]

Greetings all,
Seems to be some interest in the 2nd generation amps these days so I thought I'd post a couple of quick and dirty clips of my 2nd generation build I did last year.
The first track was done with a friends Norlin era Les Paul Standard. The backing track is something I found online at the RecProAudio website and is used with permission. Starts clean, then to OD, then to OD with PAB (I have added PAB, and full loop to this amp, otherwise it is strictly 2nd generation with 12AT7 driver).
The second is just me fooling around on my Oahu Tonemaster lap steel. (Please forgive me, I'm not much of a lap steel player just yet.)
The idea here was to try to get something very basic and honest without much sonic embellishment, and the hope here is that this will provide a useful reference as opposed to trying to really dress something up. More info about this amp can be found here:
http://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10326

Both tracks are guitar straight into FET input, into 1X12 Avatar open back loaded with EVM12L. Bright on, deep off, rock setting, volume 12:30, treble 10:00, mid 12:00, bass 12:00, OD 2:00, master 8:30.
Mic is an SM57 touching grill cloth and pointing to seam of dome and cone. Preamp is Presonus Eureka feeding Audition 2.0. A bit of reverb was added to give the tracks a little air. No EQ or any other treatment was done, and both tracks were done in the same session without moving the mic or changing any settings.
Unfortunately, these had to be recorded at just slightly over bedroom level volume wise.
This amp (and speaker for that matter) really like to be cranked quite a bit more than I am currently able to pull off in my home studio. All the usual disclaimers apply, please excuse the sloppiness...blah, blah, yadda, yadda, quack, quack.
OK, on with the show.....

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single ... 10422&q=hi

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single ... 10426&q=hi

[Structo]

Sounds good to me.
I really want to build a lap steel.

[Drumslinger]

crbowman,

I'm digging it man. sounds pretty damn good.

[dcribbs1412]

Congrats on a nice amp
Very nice tracks....clean tone at beginning of track 1 is very cool
like the build up to OD....you relay your feeling well
both tracks are very cool
love the slide

[LPSGME]

Congrats on a nice amp
Very nice tracks....clean tone at beginning of track 1 is very cool
like the build up to OD....you relay your feeling well
both tracks are very cool
love the slide

Couldn't agree more. Beautifully pure style and tone.

[Bob-I]

Sounds really great, especially with the LP on the clean setting.

What I'm not understanding about these generation without the ratio is how do you get a balance between clean and dirty?

[crbowman]

Sounds really great, especially with the LP on the clean setting.

What I'm not understanding about these generation without the ratio is how do you get a balance between clean and dirty?

Thanks Bob! And thanks all!
I was concerned about that as well at first. At bedroom levels, the OD is way hot compared to the clean level, but as you get up to gig volumes the levels seem to even out. The ratio between clean and OD is also affected by how hot the signal is going into the front end. For instance with my Les Paul Jr. which has an obscenely hot P90, the levels are almost equal even at bedroom levels. My main guitar is an old Gretsch Tennessean, great tone but needs a little help gain wise so I've always run through a dynacomp set to just squish the hottest transient peaks and boost the overall gain a couple of DB. In this configuration I just give it an extra db or two and I'm gold. With the Les Paul I don't even need the boost. I've never really missed the ratio control and we do several songs where I have to go between clean and OD in the same song!
To say the least I was very pleasantly surprised and relieved at how well this works.
You can also play with the value of the 1M OD exit resistor if you want to bring the OD level down some, but I haven't felt the need.
Thanks everybody!

[erwin_ve]

That lapsteel tone is awesome!

[talbany]

Bowman

Yeah man the lap steel stuff is wonderful!!... Yours appears to have a great deal more crunch than mine is this because it was at bedroom volume?
BTW.. I tried mine at both 200v and 185v on V1 an liked 185 much better.. There is a rather noticeable difference in tone in those 15 volts with these amps..You can also play around with the 1.2 M bypass resistor drop it to like 720 or even a 570 if you can't play it that loud.. These are fun amps and am glad they are catching on..

Good Luck!!

Tony

[crbowman]

Bowman

Yeah man the lap steel stuff is wonderful!!... Yours appears to have a great deal more crunch than mine is this because it was at bedroom volume?
BTW.. I tried mine at both 200v and 185v on V1 an liked 185 much better.. There is a rather noticeable difference in tone in those 15 volts with these amps..You can also play around with the 1.2 M bypass resistor drop it to like 720 or even a 570 if you can't play it that loud.. These are fun amps and am glad they are catching on..

Good Luck!!

Tony

Hey Tony!
Might be because I have the FET set pretty hot. On the lap steel stuff, I was using the PAB. Either one of these scenarios gets pretty crunchy pretty quick on mine. At bedroom levels (like these clips) it sounds OK but really opens up and sings at higher volumes, significantly more thump too . Both V1 and V2 on mine are running right at 200V, I might have to try dropping it. Also saw your post about the 1.2M bypass resistor and have been thinking about tweaking that as well, but I'm kinda digging it right now!
And might I again say Thank You for all the layouts and research you've contributed.
It should certainly help to keep others from having to go through all the detective work you and I had to go through on these. (Then again, maybe that's part of the fun!) Thanks again to everybody who helped me on this beast. Couldn't have done it without you!
Speaking of that, where are Max and Marcos? You guys out there?

[marcos]

Hi crbowman,
I´m listening!I spend very little time online these days,
so I can only chime in every now and then.Really enjoyed your clips
and comments, glad that you are happy with your amp now.
I am planning on contributing clips from my own amp some time in
the future, guess it´ll be a while.

Keep rockin Marcos

[crbowman]

Hey Marcos.
I was hoping you were still around!
I'll be looking forward to those clips.
Thank You!
CB

[boldaslove6789]

Great clips ! that steel sounded awsome!!