what amp are you referring to? The one on the small pic with the 12AX7?
If you are referring to the silver alligator amp (the one that uses EF86), this amp was referred to me as being a SSS. It did not have the Filter section btw.
If you serviced that amp, could you please confirm he preamp schemo I posted? I only have photocopied pictures of it and the parts list.
How would you define a SSS? Is the Dumbleland a SSS without the Filter section?
I heard the story, that the Silver Alligator "SSS" was built for Ry Cooder. Somehow there was a dispute between HAD and Ry. Thus the amp was sold to somebody else. I met the guy who bought it once. He has the infamoous 150W ODS now. Last I heard the Silver Alligator SSS went to Japan??? And then to a reknowned shop in the US. Somehow somebody from TR worked on it. That´s what I heard......
But I really do not know much. Only that I like Dumble amps
what amp are you referring to? The one on the small pic with the 12AX7?
If you are referring to the silver alligator amp (the one that uses EF86), this amp was referred to me as being a SSS. It did not have the Filter section btw.
If you serviced that amp, could you please confirm he preamp schemo I posted? I only have photocopied pictures of it and the parts list.
How would you define a SSS? Is the Dumbleland a SSS without the Filter section?
I heard the story, that the Silver Alligator "SSS" was built for Ry Cooder. Somehow there was a dispute between HAD and Ry. Thus the amp was sold to somebody else. I met the guy who bought it once. He has the infamoous 150W ODS now. Last I heard the Silver Alligator SSS went to Japan??? And then to a reknowned shop in the US. Somehow somebody from TR worked on it. That´s what I heard......
But I really do not know much. Only that I like Dumble amps
You wouldn't happen to remember the pot values for the two bias trim pots comming off the 100k cathode resistors on the CF for that SSS you saw, would you?
DT
PS - Did it run ultra-linear, or with halved B+ on the screens like the SVT?
jay wrote:Just talk to the person dumble gave the amp to.It was a one off built as a blues amp. It has nothing to do with the s.s.s.
Jay is right:
This "silver alligator" is indeed a "one off" amp. Henry Kaiser once told me, that HAD called it the "pentode amp". It has nothing more to do with a SSS as any other Dumble amp. If you are after the sound of a SSS, you probably better take a different road.
jay wrote:Just talk to the person dumble gave the amp to.It was a one off built as a blues amp. It has nothing to do with the s.s.s.
Jay is right:
This "silver alligator" is indeed a "one off" amp. Henry Kaiser once told me, that HAD called it the "pentode amp". It has nothing more to do with a SSS as any other Dumble amp. If you are after the sound of a SSS, you probably better take a different road.
So back to trying to understand the SSS...what are the values of the filter switches that are known? What do they control, where and how? It this what causes the harmonic singing effect?
Funkalicousgroove wrote:
Max wrote:
glasman wrote:
Sounds like the SSS, I hear some verb on the guitar. Of course that could have been added later.
Even cooler is the Dumble 4x12 cab. Think SRV is the only one I have every seen use one.
Steel String Singer 150 Watt and Dumble 4x12 together with a Vibroverb to drive the Leslie was SRVs usual live set-up in the middle eigthies.
A good example of the sound and (still more important) a lot of exciting music you find on the "Live at Montreux" double DVD (DVD #2) recorded in 1985.
But concerning the SSS used by SRV always remeber, that the preamps of SRVs SSS are rather different from a "normal" SSS. Stevie's SSS are more similar to a Dumbleland with reverb, set up for maximum headroom.
A godd example of the sound of a "normal" SSS you find on Larry Carltons "Renegade Gentleman" All the Nashville tracks have been recorded with his SSS.
Cheers
Max
Lary sold his SSS long ago back to Dumble, he used it for that one album/tour and didn't like it.
SSS amps are already set up for max headroom, they DO NOT DISTORT at any volume level. WHat is different about SRV's amp is the setup of the Hi-Lo filters, and the removal of some of the positive feedback loops within the amp.
Hi Brandon,
How then do you interpret this part of the Guitar Player Interview?
GP: "Stevie Ray Vaughn calls his Steel String Singer the King Tone Consoul.
HAD: "There are some different things about Stevie's (Max: SSS). His (Max: SSS) is set up more like a bass amp (Max: Dumbleland Special for bass guitar), modified to accomodate the guitar range (Max: EQ and filter network not as in a usual Dumbleland Special for bass, but more similar to the EQ- and filter-network of a Dumbleland Special for guitar or a usual SSS). It's not the usual Lead Guitar "Singer" aproach (Max: "singing" sustain and "singing" overtones without an audiable "overdrive" effect, achieved by a preamp tube with a special network, that intentionally does n o t work with maximum headroom). One thing he liked (Max: liked to be d i f f e r e n t as the usual set up of a usual SSS) was that he could turn the volume control (Max: of his unusual, custom made SSS, set up more like a Dumbleland) all the way up and it did not distort (Max: like with a usual SSS) -it just got louder".
What I read here is:
SRV used a SSS custom made by HAD with the general characteristics of a Dumbleland Special for bass with a lot of headroom (like the Dumbleland of Jackson Browne, that SRV had used for the recording of "Texas Flood") but with an EQ- and filter-network more like a Dumbleland Special for guitar or a usual SSS with the "singer" aproach, achieved by making use of an intentionally limited headroom of a preamp tube to create a special kind of harmonics, that you don't perceive as audialble "distortion" (as in an ODS in the "Overdrive" mode) but as a sustaining "singing" lead guitar sound, that is a bit similar to a "slide guitar sound" even if you don't play "slide".
