What small amp to buy for Â£180?

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:51 pm

stewart wrote:maybe a cheeky wee curve ball, but i've got a solid state fender deluxe 112+ sitting in a cupboard doing nowt since i got the JC120. clean 4 dayz. i can bring it down to london if you want it, yours for Â£80.

Me buying another amp depends on me selling mine, the guy was supposed to come round tonight but it was pissing it down so he didn't. Hopefully he'll come tomorrow and take it of my hands, if so I might be interested but i'll have to make some investigations first as I don't know these amps. Also I won't really be able to take it home after the gig on saturday but if you're able to meet somewhere during the day saturday or sunday that would be good.

Post by **Hurb** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 11:08 pm

johnnyseven wrote:Thanks for the suggestion Hurb. They have Line 6 amps at the Water Rats for their house amps, if they are the same ones as you have suggested then I shall be steeriing well clear - i've never been able to get a good sound out of them.

I love mine, for clean like you said you wanted it's brilliant and even for low grit and overdrive sounds. the overdrive's take some tweaking mind.

The amp in these video's are the line 6 spider.

[youtube][/youtube]

[youtube][/youtube]

I think it sounds good and it takes pedals better than other amps I've tried.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:38 am

Haze wrote:Is definitely look into a 10" speaker to handle the extra power though

obviously an eminence redcoat 10".

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:10 am

Hurb wrote:
johnnyseven wrote:Thanks for the suggestion Hurb. They have Line 6 amps at the Water Rats for their house amps, if they are the same ones as you have suggested then I shall be steeriing well clear - i've never been able to get a good sound out of them.
I love mine, for clean like you said you wanted it's brilliant and even for low grit and overdrive sounds. the overdrive's take some tweaking mind.

I think it sounds good and it takes pedals better than other amps I've tried.

Thanks Hurb, i'll have a look at the vids tonight - I can't view on stupid work computers.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:26 pm

johnnyseven wrote:
stewart wrote:maybe a cheeky wee curve ball, but i've got a solid state fender deluxe 112+ sitting in a cupboard doing nowt since i got the JC120. clean 4 dayz. i can bring it down to london if you want it, yours for Â£80.
Me buying another amp depends on me selling mine, the guy was supposed to come round tonight but it was pissing it down so he didn't. Hopefully he'll come tomorrow and take it of my hands, if so I might be interested but i'll have to make some investigations first as I don't know these amps. Also I won't really be able to take it home after the gig on saturday but if you're able to meet somewhere during the day saturday or sunday that would be good.

Cool, let me know by tonight if you want me to bring it, we'll be leaving during the day tomorrow sometime.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 5:43 pm

Hurb wrote:
[youtube][/youtube]

Your JM sounds really good through this amp, I may have to investigate them further. Is your JM vintage? If not what pickups are you using?

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 5:50 pm

antiquity IIs, if my memory serves me right.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:24 pm

Thanks Stewart. I happen to have those in one of my Jazzmasters so I think i'll definitely be investigating one of these amps further which means i'll have to say no to your Fender Deluxe 112+ i'm afraid.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:26 pm

hotrodperlmutter wrote:srsly though, my vote is for a vox of some sort, but i'm biased.

find a cambridge 30 twin with/reverb & trem for like $200 easy. then do the 56w chip swap and you got mucho amp for nottalottadolla.

The what chip swap? I have one of these, well the single speaker version, its great but not loud enough.

If you have a way to make that thing giggable so I don't have to haul my Twin around, I'd love you.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:26 pm

johnnyseven wrote:Thanks Stewart. I happen to have those in one of my Jazzmasters so I think i'll definitely be investigating one of these amps further which means i'll have to say no to your Fender Deluxe 112+ i'm afraid.

nae bother.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:58 pm

Actually, I think Pat here might even have the docs to do this...

http://vintageamps.com/plexiboard/viewt ... 15&start=0

Does anyone have the specific docs about this?

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 8:51 pm

here's what i followed:

Carl,

These modifications work on both the twin and the single versions of the amp.
Attached is the documentation I gathered from the internet and used to do both the optocoupler and the amp chip mods. You need only do the optocoupler to make the amp work properly. The change to the 56w amp chip greatly increases the amp's headroom and usefulness, though!!! I did the mods myself, and I had never done any work inside an amp before, so anyone should be able to do it! Since then I've done three more of them for other people and they've all turned out great.
The stock optocoupler is the basic problem with the amp, and the cause of the infamous "Cambridgitis" symptoms of loss of power and distorted output. Basically, they chose a cheap part which cannot withstand anywhere near the full power of the amp... so it just starts to quit when you push the amp hard... the volume gradually fades and becomes horribly distorted. The new optocoupler solves that. Even if you don't do the amp mod, changing the optocoupler will give you a nice amp which will then work the way it was supposed to. Be sure to note the location of the "+" lead when removing the old optocoupler, so the new one can be oriented the same way. You can just cut off the fifth "middle" lead on the new chip. It is not used. After soldering the new optocoupler in place, be sure to trim the excess leads very close to the PC board before re-assembling, or they will make contact with the metal chassis underneath.
By replacing the amp chip, you also give the amp some extra 'kick' and clean headroom... and turns it into quite an extraordinary "practice" amp! Note that there are two different methods indicated in the documentation. 'Bob' retains the little circuit board that it 'rides' on... while 'Wil' discards it and solders the leads directly to the chip pins. Either way will work, but check and double-check to make sure you have the proper wire-to-pin sequence in either case. If you retain the little circuit board, the remaining pins (after you break off the ones not used) must be GENTLY bent to fit into the board. Just go slowly and it's fine. (Use the 56w chip. The 68w version of the chip requires additional circuitry not covered by this documentation, and there is no benefit gained. You would not be able to hear the difference.)
One thing to make sure to do... there are two variable resistors near the opto on the circuit board. While you have the amp apart, plug in and adjust these VR's to obtain maximum gain... they were very conservatively set at the factory. One of them is the gain, one is the tremolo depth (can't recall which is which). I find that setting them at a bit less than maximum gives the best results. You will lose a little tremolo depth, but the amp will sound much fuller.

I bought the optocoupler from: http://vibroworld.com/
The amp chip came from: http://www.digikey.com/
You should be able to Google the part numbers and find a supplier close to you.

Look it all over and see if it makes sense to you. I will be glad to answer any questions you have... just email... I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Mark
West Bath, Maine, US

i put the zip for you here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DCJUSJ3H

that may be the same documentation in Pat's thread, i can't remember if the stuff i have is in swedish, and can't be arsed to look atm.

yours may or may not have cambridgitis, but these mods will prevent it, and make it even more badasser in the process.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:23 pm

Yeah, I found and emailed one dude for the parts.

I know enough to be able to pull it apart and put in the new parts, I just need the part numbers of what to replace them with.

Mine has always had A)Not enough headroom B)had the opto shit out after pushing it really hard for 30 minutes. I love the amp and I use it to record, but these two fixes are exactly what I needed. I might possibly be able to start gigging with it.

Thanks!

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:25 pm

not a prob dude. i've done it to a twin that i ended up selling, but have a new one coming this way after the wedding from a friend on the vox forums, so i'll be doing another!

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:59 pm

FUUUUUUUUUUUU I waited to grab the zip from my home laptop and the file is now unavailable?!

Ro S · Post by **Ro S** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:31 pm

Something from the Vox valvetronix series. Has a tube in it and models different amps.

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:33 pm

Pens wrote:FUUUUUUUUUUUU I waited to grab the zip from my home laptop and the file is now unavailable?!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DCJUSJ3H

works for me

pm me your e-mail and i can do it that way.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 12:45 pm

Thanks, pulled it down on my work laptop just in case. Appears the guy from a HC review that I emailed also replied with a fuck ton of docs, I think I have all I need. Thanks man!

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:52 pm

does this cambridgeitis affect just the clean channel or both channels. what happens with mine is the clean channel drops in volume and the eq section drops out. if i touch the panel, it comes back for a second then drops again. it does this after 20-30 mins of being on. shame, as the amp is great. the drive channel sounds amazing on my cambridge 30r

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 2:54 pm

It should affect both channels if I'm remembering right. Apparently the "drive" channel has the tube but I don't use it much, it compresses too quick as it doesn't have the headroom to sound good to me, the "clean" channel is supposedly solidstate which actually sounds fucking amazing. I use the Clean channel on that amp.