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Subject: Re: Got Fender amp

From: "J. Larry Hendry" <jlarryh@...
Date: 1999-10-23

> synth1@... writes:
> But somebody put the "guts" in a custom Fender-ish
> case. Has Tung-Sol 6L6 output tubes, which means
> about 1967 (!?!). I'll post to rec.whatever and try to
> pin it down.

Well, if they are the original tubes, the date code on the tubes might get
you close. Back then, tubes didn't sit around on shelves for years.
People used them, Musicians ABused them. :)

> From: JWBarlow@...
>
> As far as the black face goes, in the section of the book about Fender it

> says: "many of the black faced amps, even the few produced by the early
CBS
> company are identical in specifications and performance. Only the very
early
> silver faced amps suffered from engineering changes that made them less
> desirable for players as compared to the previous generation of amps."

Hmmm. My Dual Showman is one of the Silver faced ones. I wonder how to
tell if I suffer from "early silver face syndrome." I know I am certainly
suffering from " early solver hair syndrome."

From: JWBarlow@...
> 85 watts is what I remember too. If you are looking for a good single
book
> for tube amps, then I strongly recommend this one. I got it several years
ago
> at (the legendary) Mc Cabes Guitar Shop where it was recommended as the
best
> amp book for a variety of different amps. It's about 750 pages, with
about
> 450 pages (!!!) of different schematics (though almost no text about any
> particular amp), I paid about $30 for mine, and I'm sure you can get them

> from Antique Electronics in AZ. It is made by the guys who make Groove
Tubes
> so you get a lot of that stuff too -- sort of free advertising.
>
> If you just want schematics for the Dual Showman, I could photocopy those
off
> for you (there are a few different schematics, though I don't see any
> noticeable difference in general), though in the book they are about half

> scale so they might not show up so well on an enlargement.

Thanks. I'll look for the book.

> From: JWBarlow@...
> Thinkin you should send the cabinet to Larry (to complete his Dual
Showman),
> and the head to me (as scrap of course), though I don't know what I'd do
with
> a 2 ohm head.
> JB

Reminds me of my favorite stupid impedance matching story. Back in the
early days (15-16 years old), before any of us long-haired musicians knew
anything about electronics, I was in a pretty decent band. We just bought
a big new PA system. The cabinets were 8 ohm 3 way passive crossover EVs
with the folded W bass bins (very nice for the time). The power amp was
the "you cannot tear up this amp" Sunn Coliseum "slave" head as they were
called in those days. The guy at the music store had one he used for
demos. He always started by dropping the head from cabinet height to the
floor. The cabinet looked like hell, but it always worked when he picked
it up and plugged it in. Anyway, the rated output for the amp was 2 ohms.
Little did we know that meant 4 or 8 was fine (just less power). So, since
we only had 2 cabinets, the music store fixed us up with 8 ohm power
resistors at the cabinet connected in parallel. Ta da, instant fix!!
Hell, we didn't know any better. We were about 1/2 way through the first
song at the first gig and these resistors are on putting out smoke and fire
(go figure). So, we disconnected them an finished the gig. The guy at the
music store assured us we needed to match the impedance or damage the amp
and made us custom "Y" cords each with two 1/4 plugs and one 1/4 jack. The
two plugs went into the amp and the cabinet plugged into the jack. Since
each cabinet impedance (8 ohms) now appeared twice at the amp output, we
were officially down to 2 ohms. Ain't that magic?? We were too stupid to
know any better and used those special "Y" cords for a year before I
learned that we were accomplishing nothing.

Sorry to ramble, but I thought it was funny.
Larry (who dated Mary Jane in High school) Hendry