A new Bluetone Plexi Super Lead amp with VVR ready

[harryk]

After heavy working I got a new baby to my Bluetone family. If you want to go to see it, here is the link www.bluetone.fi/21. It has a fixed bias VVR in it plus some minor modifications. Heavy bench test will start next week end with my band. Regards Harry

[Structo]

Are you the proprietor of Bluetone?

Good looking amp, BTW.

[Geoff J]

Did you accomplish this w/ or w/o heatsink, fan, etc . .

You got me intrigued !

I would like to do this to my Voodoo V-plex (1968 50 W plexi circuit)

Dana says that anything 50 W or under doesn't require a fan, but he said a bigger heatsink may be required, so I am unsure

I have the VVR kit, but am hesitant still

[harryk]

Tom! when I innovated name Bluetone here in Finland years ago, I did know that there is an amp company in USA with name Blue Tone. I was in contact with ex Blue Tone people recently in good common understanding and they said that their company went out of business some years ago. I build my amps as a hobby and not to any international market for business purposes.

Geoff! I have a possibility to test my Plexi next Sunday with my band to hear how it sounds and feels with VVR on. I am not seeking any bedroom level for this amp, but mainly a noise level where you can hopefully get legendary Plexi sound out with reasonable nose pressure. Dana said that he has used fixed bias VVR in 50W amp without any extra cooling. I bolted my mosfet to chassis with an insulator. Time will show is it enough or not. Harry

[Richie]

I've used the fixed bias board, in quite a few 50 watt amps. Fender bassmans, and Plexi modded to concorde type amp. Some with aluminum chassis,and some steel. On the steel i used a heat sink,and soem without. Both seem to work ok. the Aluminum will give off the heeat faster. So far all have been fine, and do what they are supposed to do.

[harryk]

I just came from our band rehearsals where I had first possibilty to test my new Bluetone Plexi Lead in real life. It`s sound was marvellous and with VVR I could easily scale power to a level where there was not too much sound pressure but amp still sounded like plexi. EL34 is the king of tubes and this Bluetone with a 2x12" Greenpack closed back cab made me smile very very much . After 2 hours continuous playing there were no symptoms of any problems with amp or VVR. The switch in the input worked also well. I already have a Bluetone Express with 6V6 tubes, but I think that I change those to EL34 tubes and add a VVR also to that amp. I think that after modification it will be a killer machine despite it is already a very good sounding amp. My best regards to Dana who created VVR. It really helps to keep your hearing when playing hard rock in a band like ours. Harry

[grangeramp]

After heavy working I got a new baby to my Bluetone family. If you want to go to see it, here is the link www.bluetone.fi/21. It has a fixed bias VVR in it plus some minor modifications. Heavy bench test will start next week end with my band. Regards Harry

Hey Harry, very nice looking amp! I'm interested in the knobs you used. They look chrome plated. And that red chassis.. very nice. Care to share where you ordered them? Thanks.

[harryk]

Thanks of compliments. It is funny that an amp with name of Bluetone is actually red color but my next projects will be with black chassises. I bought those knobs from www.musikding.de. It is a german web shop. The time when I bought them, I could not find them here in Finland, but now there is a web shop selling them also. Shop is www.uraltone.com. Those knobs are like in Fender Telecaster knobs but they take a 6,3 mm shaft which is normal with Alpha and GTS pots.