I reckon the TS-9 will make it sing. Sounds very nice clean.
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I reckon the TS-9 will make it sing. Sounds very nice clean.
Sounds good to my ignorant ears. :)
Update:
Just posted a link to a second demo just under the one for that first clean demo.
You can certainly tell your Strat has a RW/RP middle pickup. Sounds good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Yep, since positions 2 and 4 on the pickup switch are hum-free, I'm in the process of buying a full set of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups on eBay, once they're installed the hum in the other three positions will be gone, as much as I like the stock fat 50's pickups, they're a bit too noisy for me, they are a bit weak in output for my tastes too.
Update:
So, I bet you guys are interested in hearing about what I've been up to this week, well, I've been in the process of making a complete new footswitch for my Super Twin amp, yes, it does feature footswitching, the built-in 5-band EQ, Distortion, and Volume-boost are all foot-switchable, I went to my local Jaycar Electronics shop on Tuesday and bought all the bits and pieces needed to make the new footswitch, here's a couple of pics of it:
Attachment 27920
Attachment 27921
The new footswitch seems to be working perfectly, with the new footswitch unplugged from the amp, the 5-band EQ, Volume Boost, and Distortion is always on, although you can switch the Distortion on or off with the Distortion control knob, now, when you plug the new footswitch into the sockets on the back panel of the amp, the 5-band EQ-, Volume-boost, and Distortion can all be switched on or off remotely just by stomping on the footswitches, this means you can pre-set the 5-band EQ and Distortion controls to get the sounds you want, and still be able to get the basic clean sound of the amp, the Distortion itself is nothing to write home about though, you can always just use a distortion pedal since the amp does take pedals well.
Happy B'day Doc.
Looks like a neat setup.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
Hey cheers mate, yeah I think I've got it all working the best it can, it's good to go with regards to recording or gigging, I can't wait to do my first gig with the amp to break it in.
Update:
Some new bits and pieces for my Super Twin amp arrived in the post this afternoon, in the parcel were two new Fender style amp knobs, two new Blue lamp bezels, and a complete new lamp holder which I'm going to use as a spare in case the Super Twin amp's stock one breaks, the two new blue bezels fit the new lamp holder perfectly, I don't know if they'll fit the stock one though, I'll have to wait till tomorrow, I've got one of the new knobs installed and it looks great, it's a bit shinier than the stock ones, but I'm not too worried about that.
Right at the other end of the Fender power scale...
Attachment 27966
I've borrowed a friends '81 Fender Vibro Champ. 5W with a 4-Ohm 8" Eminence speaker. One 6V6 power tube, one 12AX7 for the preamp, one 12AX7 tube for the tremolo circuit and a 5Y3GT for the rectifier. The tremolo circuit uses power tube grid bias adjustment to change the volume. The circuitry (AA764) hadn't changed since the Blackface model Vibro Champ was introduced in 1964, though the fitted speaker has changed over the years.
As you might have guessed, with 5W and an 8" speaker, it's not very loud and it hasn't got much clean headroom. With a Strat, it starts to break up with the volume at 4. With a Les Paul (humbuckers and P90s), that point comes at 3. Above 5, it doesn't get louder, just dirtier.
The tone controls aren't that effective. Bass works from 1 to 5, above which nothing else happens. It may well do more, but the fitted speaker can't produce the bass frequencies necessary to hear the effect. Treble works from 5 to 7; below 5, nothing is added and above 7 almost no change can be heard.
The tremolo is quite a nice effect, but it's really wasted IMO as there isn't enough clean volume to make it worthwhile. It hasn't got quite the depth of effect that some tremolo circuits have. It also doesn't sound that good with a driven sound. What would have been more worthwhile would have been a reverb; there's enough space in the cabinet for a short-spring unit. My cheap Tone City Temble pedal does a very good imitation of this amp's tremolo, though the intensity control on the pedal can produce a full 'silence in the gaps' tremolo.
It's main use is really an easily driven small recording combo where it's ideal for crunchy sounds that still retain some clarity. Think raunchy Stones numbers. It sounds dirty, but it hasn't got bags of sustain - it's not going to give you anything like a long creamy lead sound without external help from pedals. It's better with humbuckers or P90s for this as Fender single coils can sound rather thin and scratchy with the drive sounds, as the lack of any real bass makes the single coil sounds rather scratchy. Even humbuckers don't sound overly bassy, but in a mix, that light low end will stop the guitar sound from fighting with the bass guitar.
For a small Fender combo that's got some decent clean headroom and that works well with Fenders, you really need the next step up on the Fender amp hierarchy and move to the 12W Princeton Reverb. This has a 10" speaker, reverb and tremolo.
Am I tempted to make my mate an offer for it? Yes and no. He's now got some Adam A7X monitors from me that he's trying out. If he wants to keep them, then I'll offer to swap those for the amp (he's got a small Blackstar that he finds more useful). But I don't think I'd offer him cash for it.
They're not bad, those Fender Vibro Champs, you might be able to upgrade the speaker to a 10 inch one, although you might have to replace the stock front baffle to be able to do so, I've got a Guitar Classics magazine that has an article about upgrading the speaker in a Fender blackface Champ with a 10 inch speaker, so it is do-able, apparently the author of the article reckons the speaker upgrade made the amp sound a lot better.
The Super Twin is sounding pretty good with my pedal board setup, I'm really surprised at how well the amp takes pedals, it's got tonnes of headroom due to the six 6L6 power tubes being connected up in what's called the "Ultra Linear" configuration, this means that the six 6L6 tubes can put out quite a fair bit of power, 180 Watts R.M.S. (R.M.S. is short for Root Mean Squared), and a peak power output of 395 watts, all at low distortion, I don't really need to crank the preamp and master volumes up much, about three for both is loud enough for my loungeroom, having tonnes of headroom means that the sounds I get with the pedals are going to be pretty clear, the bright switch definitely has an audible effect, the amp sounds warm when the bright switch is turned off, but there is still plenty of highs in the tone so it doesn't sound muffled, I've been spending a bit of time familiarizing myself with the amp, getting to know it and how to get good tones out of it, the funny thing is, some Super Twin amp owners say that it's hard to get a good tone, but my experience has been the exact opposite, I've found it really easy to get good tones, I've done some experimenting with the 5-band EQ and you don't have to do much with it to get some good tones with that either.
The amp definitely sounds better with the footswitch plugged in though, I like what the volume-boost footswitch does, but I'm not a big fan of the amp's built-in distortion, fortunately I can easily use a distortion pedal instead, the red JD-F2 Fuzz Face sounds great through the amp, as does my TS-9 Tube Screamer and BD-2 Blues Driver, the other pedals broaden the tonal palette I've got to work with, and I can use them to doctor clean tones if I want.
Yes, even a better 8" speaker would be a worthwhile upgrade over the awful cheap Eminence that it's got at the moment. At least that wouldn't devalue it if I kept the original. These things are going up in value. It's in good condition (I've cleaned most of the dirt off it since I took the photo) and would probably go for around £600, currently over Aus$1000. It's one with a multi-tap mains transformer and a rear voltage setting switch, so could be used anywhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
You could consider replacing the stock speaker with something like a Jensen, if you wanted to upgrade to a 10 inch speaker, maybe something like a Jensen C10Q might sound good, I've got one in my Legacy 5 watt amp and it did wonders for the amp, considering that the stock speaker sounded muddy and midrangey.
I'm still very surprised at how well the four Celestion G12E-50 Rocket 50 speakers, in the Ashton quad box, work with the Super Twin amp, it's as if there's a synergistic thing going on, where the speaker's frequency response compliments the frequency response of the amp, Fender amps are known to have a midrange notch in the frequency spectrum, and Celestions do have a bit of midrange in them, so they complement each other nicely, well that's my theory anyway.
Update:
The Fender Super Twin is still working great, I had a chance to try my Fender Strat through it after swapping out the stock Fat 50's pickups for a set of Fender N4 Noiseless pickups, still sounds pretty good, but I might need to tweak the hum balance control on the back panel of the Super Twin a bit cause the amp does still have some background hum.
Might post another demo later on.
How do the N4's compare to the Fat 50's ??
I have vintage noiseless in my Deluxe Strat. They sure have the clean tone that a Strat should be but by my reckoning they are noticeably lower in output level. I'd be guessing at about 1/4 to 1/3 of what the set of 490R/498T HB put out in my LP, and 2/3 the level of my MIM loaded ply Strat.... Maybe when they (Fender) say 'vintage' they mean underwound compared to today's offerings...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcel
Tonewise, the N4s in my Fender Strat are about the same as the Fat 50's, the real difference is that I'm no longer getting that annoying background hum with the N4s, like I did with the Fat 50's, the N4s seem to have a bit more output than the Fat 50's too, but then that might be because I've set the pickup heights so that both the low E and high E pole pieces on each pickup are about 3/32 Inch close to the E strings when they are fretted just behind the last fret.
I'll record a quick demo later on so you can hear what they sound like.
I just remembered trying some Fender Noiseless pickups on my old Mexican Strat that I used to have, I remember them sounding a bit thin and weedy, they might have been the vintage noiseless ones cause their output was a bit low.
I'll record a quick demo now so you can hear what the N4s sound like, I'll be recording directly into my laptop via a Scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface, and I'll be using an amp plugin called Emissary, and a speaker cab simulator plugin called Nadir, in FL Studio.
Here you go, hope this gives you some idea of what they sound like, notice that there's very little background hum noise:
https://soundcloud.com/drnomis_44/am...pickups-demo-1
Personally I think they're fine, you get that single-coil pickup tone without that annoying background hum noise that you get with conventional single-coil pickups, even though the N4s are technically humbuckers from what I've read.
Thin and weedy....lol
I wouldn't say that, but 'a bit low' I would. My MIM Deluxe is still as per factory settings so maybe it's just me needing to adjust my expectations when swapping between it and my LP.
The demo sounds good...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcel
Cheers, I reckon it was definitely worth doing the upgrade to the N4s, it means I can record cleaner sounding demos without the hum noise, which used to put me off a bit.
I still have the set of three Fat 50's packed away in a plastic bag.
I also ended up swapping-out the original stock bridge of my Fender USA Strat for a new chrome SuperVee Bladerunner bridge, because the knife edges on the stock bridge had some wear on them, and the stock bridge wasn't returning to neutral like it was supposed to, and then the stock tuners wore out which forced me to install a set of vintage-style Klusons on the headstock.
Sounds very clean Doc.
Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
Yep, no more annoying background humming in all the pickup-switch positions, I can use higher gain settings on my Marshall amp, and my TS-9 and Blues Driver pedals.Quote:
Originally Posted by wazkelly
Been playing my recently acquired Mexican Tele through my Super Twin amp and found that if I added either my TS-808 Tube Screamer, or my TS-9 Tube Screamer to the mix, I've got a serious tone machine on my hands, especially with the Mexican Tele's neck pickup, I think I've discovered the perfect rig for playing Blues, Fender Super Twin, TS-808, or TS-9, and a good Fender Tele, I'll have to record a demo for you guys this weekend if it's not too noisy outside, I'd do it today but there's some guy doing some lawn mowing outside.
It's funny how Fender guitars and amps seem to just work together well, well of course, both are made by the same company, did you know that Leo Fender (his full name is Clarence Leonidas Fender) wasn't actually a musician himself, he was a radio repairman, but he got all the original designs right first time.
Here ya go Doc, a Super Twin in action
https://youtu.be/PQ5UlyBgHN8
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
Cheers mate, never heard of them before but cool song, I wonder if that Super Twin the guitarist is playing through is the same model as the one I have, cause there's two different models of the Super Twin that Fender made, although the front panel looks the same, there's the one that has a tube driven spring reverb circuit, and the one that doesn't have it, mine is the one without the reverb circuit.
That's quite a nuanced precision performance from the keyboard player ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by dave.king1
Update:
Going to be modding the footswitch for my Fender Super Twin amp today, so that it has three indicator Leds on it, this way I can tell at a glance when the EQ, Volume Boost, and Distortion circuits are activated or not.
Sounds cool. I love indicator lights on everything. Pedal boards should look like a starship console IMO.
Also, for some reason I thought this forum was just for the Pitbull amp kits (whatever happened to that idea?), but looking back I see this is where people put their own amp builds and projects too. Makes sense. I should have put my Noisy Cricket project here instead of the DIY pedals forum (although I feel a bit embarrassed putting my dinky little amp alongside things like Andy's 5e3 build).
The PBG 5W champ-style amp came and went some time ago now, so this seems to be the place for amp builds or mods.
I'm happy to report that the indicator leds mod I did to my Super Twin amp's footswitch pedal, appears to be working as it's supposed to, now, instead of having to guess whether the EQ, Volume Boost, and Distortion are on or not, all I have to do is look at the leds on the footswitch and they tell me all I need to know.
I may need to change a resistor out to tame the brightness of the blue indicator led I used for the Volume Boost function though, that'll be a job for tomorrow, but for the time being, I'm happy with it.
I used a spare +4.8V DC/700mA plugpack adaptor as a power supply for the leds, and used the spare poles of the three 3PDT footswitches to switch the leds on when the EQ, Volume Boost, and Distortion are switched-on, the distortion isn't all that usable though.
All the blue LEDs I have are powerfully bright. I swapped the CLR twice in the buffer before it stopped blinding me.
I did a quick calculation to determine what value resistor I needed to use to limit the current flowing in each led, standard 3 or 5 mm leds can safely run with a maximum of about 20mA flowing through them, any higher than that and you risk destroying the led, and they can actually explode if there's too much current flowing through them, so I deliberately chose to limit the current to about 10mA for each led, the value of the current limiting resistors worked-out to be 330 Ohms, I used three 330 Ohm 1W Metal Film resistors, and they seem to do the job fine, but I'm definitely going to swap the blue led's 330 Ohm current limiting resistor for a higher-value one to tame the brightness, but that's a job for tomorrow.
When a led explodes, it gives-off a very pungent smell, how do I know?, I've had first-hand experience with it.
As a side-note, my pedal board is all up and running again, ready for gigging or recording.
Totally off topic, but...
First, I didn't know anyone (else) in Australia knew who NRBQ are, and second, I met those guys on the ferry to Martha's Vineyard (Massachusetts, USA) around 1996 or so. The band I was playing in was headed to the island for a gig and so was NRBQ.
Joey Spampinato and Terry Adams had filthy hangovers and the ferry ride was pretty rough. Despite feeling like crap, they hung out and chatted just the same.
I nearly forgot about that. Thanks for the memory, and sorry for the hijack!
I think I ended up using 2.4k for the blue LED in the buffer. I normally just put the LED in a breadboard and try resistor values until the brightness looks about right. This is only around 2 or 3mA running off 9v but the brightness looked good.Quote:
Originally Posted by DrNomis_44
I've used a resistor value as high as 47k for a blue led running on a +15V DC supply, and it was still pretty bright,I did a quick calculation and found that a 3k3 resistor will limit the current to 1mA on a +4.8V DC supply for a Blue led, I used 1.5V for the forward-voltage of a Led in my calculation.Quote:
Originally Posted by jugglindan
I used the following formula to calculate the resistor value:
R=Vs-Vf/I
R= Resistance.
Vs= Supply Voltage.
Vf= Forward-biased Voltage of the Led (typically about 1.5V for standard 3mm and 5mm Leds).
I= Led Forward-Biased Current.
Although, some 3mm and 5mm Blue leds have a Forward-Biased Voltage as high as 3V.
Same Ohm's law calculation that I use. I measure each LED with a DMM to get the forward voltage, since mine are quite variable. I measured my last blue LED at Vf=2.5, and my red at 1.8. So that gives me 2.7mA with the 2k4 CLR. Not much current but it still feels bright.
I like having a low current draw because I use a common power supply that is only rated to 2A. Although that's an awful lot of analog pedals needed to max it out, the digital pedals I have draw a couple of hundred mA rather than the 40 to 50 mA of the analog pedals. I find it hard to believe some of the numbers in The Power List. For example, they claim a TS-808 draws just 7.5mA. Even with a high CLR, just the indicator LED is half of that total.
Edit: I should make a modified power cable so I can measure current draw directly, just to satisfy my curiosity. I am particularly interested in the differences between bypassed and active.
Update:
I have just swapped-out the blue led's 330 Ohm current-limiting resistor for a 3k3, doing that seems to have done the trick with regards to taming the brightness so I'm happy with it now.
Here's a pic of the modded Super Twin footswitch pedal, with all three indicator leds working:
Attachment 35551
If the EQ is switched-on, the green led lights.
If the Volume Boost is switched-on, the blue led lights.
If the Distortion is switched-on, the red led lights.
You can switch on or off any combination of the three functions.
Very cool doc
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
Cheers mate, not only is it cool, it's also very practical as well and saves a lot of headaches, I always like coming-up with practical solutions to problems, and sometimes the simplest solutions can often be the most effective ones.
Good work doc
I'm going to be heading out to a mate's place to do some demo recording in his home studio this afternoon, I'm going to be taking my Fender Super Twin amp, plus my pedal board, three guitars and a bass, and some other bits of gear with me, my mate has a Quad Box I can use with the Super Twin, should be lots of fun.
Jealous. Have fun