The Amp Garage

I now have two 250pf, and two 500pf Sozos to try out. I’ll report back once I get the chance to solder some in. GK

In an Express if you push the amp into a fair amount of overdrive (very easy to do) that 25 watt resistor can get hot enough to burn you. I would keep with the 25 watt rating AND make sure no wiring touches the resistor as you don’t want to melt anything!

I'll have to try these in my two Express clones! If they smooth the high end just a bit, these amps will be dead on. That said, I like their caps in general and have some in my '68 Marshall Superbass 100 that had been modded to lead spec before I got it.

Keep in mind having continuity in ground schemes is only part of the equation, and even slight resistances in the chassis can cause noise issues. For example on blackface Fenders there are more than one ground wire going to caps in the can, the wires run to different physical points on the chassis n...

Just a thought. My original Express amps have on a couple occasions had high frequency oscillation and/or hum issues that were related to grounds on the pots and/or input jack. It seems that if the pots or input jack are not making good contact with the aluminum chassis odd noises can result. There ...

I did play one about 3 years ago which I'm assuming was a prototype of what has become the current release. After I checked it out and recorded it, I let them know what I thought and shipped it back to them. I haven't heard back since, though I'm obviously curious how it eventually worked out!

Yep, showing the "clean to mean" range is top priority in my book. Still that requires a player that is very familiar with working the amp from the guitar knobs. That however is a lost art for many if not most players these days.

In regards to using longer cables to reduce the fizz. I tried simulating this effect with a little box with a small cap, but it just never worked as well as a longer cord. I think there is more going on than just a little added capacitance, so back to longer cables for me.

The 10% pots here are refering to the taper. So take a 1meg pot and turn the shaft to the half way point. Then measure the ohm value with a meter between the center lug and an outside lug, then from the center lug to the other outside lug. One reading should be about 900k, and the other 100k being t...

Duplicate

Here is my take in my preference for the same 10% taper pot on the treble control as well. If you run the bright switch (which is critical to me if you want the best clean to mean without he guitar going muddy when backed off ) you will be running the treble most likely never passed 1pm and more lik...

Awesome!

IMHO 10% taper pots are best in both the volume and treble positions in a TW. There is so much gain going on that even a 10% pot will come on fairly quickly. My '89 uses pots that are about 10%, and my '85 has a volume pot that has even less action in the first half than 10%, but that works out just...

On my original '89 Express it would ocassioanally do this when it was new. The fix was a small piece of foam rubber to keep the OT primary wires coming off the tubes tucked down tight against the chassis right as they went under the power supply board. On your amp these same wires are longer and loo...

Looks like it now has RFT EL34s in it, going by the Emerald City ad pics.