Headless Guitar Kit Revisit (non PBG kit)

[Simon Barden]

I'd certainly not use the drive channel on my HRD for anything than a slightly dirty clean sound. Pedals for the rest. Though the Bassbreaker versions of the Hotrods with EL38 valves (lower powered amps) and EL34 valves (higher powered amps) in sound a lot better when driven.

[DrNomis_44]

I'd certainly not use the drive channel on my HRD for anything than a slightly dirty clean sound. Pedals for the rest. Though the Bassbreaker versions of the Hotrods with EL38 valves (lower powered amps) and EL34 valves (higher powered amps) in sound a lot better when driven.

I've been really getting into the sound of EL 34 power valves, my Marshall amp uses four of them (Groove Tubes branded EL 34) to produce something like 100 Watts of audio power, a good mate of mine seems to prefer 6L6, KT66, and EL84 power valves, the 6L6 power valve has a more "American" sound to it whereas the EL 34 power valve has a more "British" sound, the EL 84 power valve can be though of as a lower powered version of the EL 34 (they are both Pentodes), and the 6V6 is like a lower powered 6L6 (both are Beam-Power Tetrodes), the Pentode and Beam-Power Tetrode incorporate different ways of eliminating a shortcoming of the Tetrode valve.

[Simon Barden]

The EL84s sound pretty close to 6V6s at times. I had a Hughes & Ketner Statesman 2 x EL84 combo prior to my 2 x 6V6 Two Rock and both can give that 'chimey' sound that's hard to get with other valve types. The Vox AC30 is the epitome of the EL84 sound, though with different circuitry, it can make all sorts of different noises.

[DrNomis_44]

The EL84s sound pretty close to 6V6s at times. I had a Hughes & Ketner Statesman 2 x EL84 combo prior to my 2 x 6V6 Two Rock and both can give that 'chimey' sound that's hard to get with other valve types. The Vox AC30 is the epitome of the EL84 sound, though with different circuitry, it can make all sorts of different noises.

The contemporary music department at the Charles Darwin University here in Darwin, has a Vox AC30 in it's storeroom, I played through it and thought it was a pretty cool sounding amp, it was one of the reissues with all the circuitry on a PCB, I've got a lot of respect for the Vox AC30, the Beatles used them, I wouldn't mind building one for myself, but build all the circuitry on Turret Boards, next year I'm going to start ordering all the bits I need to re-build my Sloclone 50 Amp Head, I'll be documenting the build process as I go.

[Simon Barden]

The two people who started me off playing guitar both had 1960s AC30s - one was a combo, one a head and cab. But mid-late '70s, they were cheap amps - old and very few people wanted their sound at the time (apart from Brian May). They were very loud and it was rare that you could turn them up enough to get them really singing. Even though they were transistor amps, a lot of people were using HH combos because you could get a distorted sound at any volume.

Master volume valve amps were just coming into fashion, but being new, they were relatively expensive, and you still had to turn them up to get a good sound out of them that wasn't all fizzy. Most were 50W or 100W amps, so pretty loud. But this was before the days of decently powerful portable PAs, so in bigger venues, you needed the amp power. Great fun, but the cause of a lot of hearing damage.

[DrNomis_44]

The two people who started me off playing guitar both had 1960s AC30s - one was a combo, one a head and cab. But mid-late '70s, they were cheap amps - old and very few people wanted their sound at the time (apart from Brian May). They were very loud and it was rare that you could turn them up enough to get them really singing. Even though they were transistor amps, a lot of people were using HH combos because you could get a distorted sound at any volume.

Master volume valve amps were just coming into fashion, but being new, they were relatively expensive, and you still had to turn them up to get a good sound out of them that wasn't all fizzy. Most were 50W or 100W amps, so pretty loud. But this was before the days of decently powerful portable PAs, so in bigger venues, you needed the amp power. Great fun, but the cause of a lot of hearing damage.

I think I can remember playing through a couple of HH amps, they definitely have a distinctive sound which is very 70's, Marc Bolan from T Rex used an HH Solid State preamp as part of his stage rig, this one time I was asked to play bass guitar for a mate's band that was playing an after-wedding gig, anyway, I needed an amp to play through and ended up borrowing an HH amp head, I managed to get a pretty good tone out of it, which is interesting because I seem to recall that they used LM741 ICs in the preamp circuitry, and the LM741 wasn't known for being a good Op Amp IC for Audio, but somehow they seem to work pretty well, HH amps have a certain kind of warmth to them that's kind of like a valve amp, the distortion sound wasn't that gainy, it basically added a slight fuzzy-ness to the sound.

I've watched some youtube videos of Vox AC30s being overdriven with a Rangemaster Treble Booster, I though that the tone was pretty unique so I ended up building a Rangemaster pedal, I used an AC128 PNP Germanium transistor in it if my memory serves me right, it seemed to work pretty well, I've got quite a few old 60's Philco Surface Barrier transistors, which I bought on eBay, I weeded out all the bad ones and put all the good ones in a cardboard box so I could use them to build some vintage Fuzz pedals.

[Simon Barden]

The '70s was a time when things were changing quite quickly on the amp front. At the start, valve amps were coming back in fashion again after the manufacturers' general move to solid state for cleaner sounds during the late 60s, whilst some of the amp makers were trying to get their transistor amps sounding more valve-like (and never really succeeding). With the exception of modelling amps, the amp scene generally settled down by the mid '80s and hasn't really changed since (well, maybe since the once-fashionable rack systems died out by the early '90s). Now, modelling provides a way for a cheap light amp to sound good, and for expensive modelling units to sound very good indeed. But I'd still prefer to use a good amp and some pedals.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I went to the Top End Pro Music shop today to make the first of two payments on my new BC Rich Joey Jordison Warlock II Guitar which I have on layby, while there I decided to buy a set of Ernie Ball Strap Locks for my Headless Guitar, just about to install them on the body, since we're getting some wet weather at the moment, I'm going to wait till the weather dries up before doing any more work on the Headless Guitar, it'll give me a chance to go over it and make sure there's no other issues I need to fix prior doing any of the finishing work on it.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:

Just got my Marshall amp back from the guy I loaned it to, and thought I would try playing my Headless Guitar through it, well.....it sounds pretty meaty through it, I am really surprised just how good those Entwistle HV58 pickups sound through the Marshall.

If anyone are looking for a good sounding set of pickups to put in their LP or SG guitar builds, I would like to highly recommend giving the HV58's a try, they sounded good for me, they may sound good for you too.

[wokkaboy]

nice one Doc, there are a few HV58 models on the PBG website, which one have you put in ?