Wolfe Amplification Stinger- Gimmie Ideas

[Sloan]

THOUGHT:
Choose between the standby switch or a master volume. you could use fx send with master all the way down, or you could use it with standby engaged. i don't think you need both a master and standby. drop the one that will cost more money.

 

[ahjteam]

So far I've sourced ~ $850 in parts.

In how small/big quantities are you buying, because that sounds quite a lot especially for things like pots, knobs and jacks that you can buy the parts from Asia in bulk for dirt cheap. You may have to buy them for like several grand in total to get the price down to just a few cents per piece, but that's the thing with buying in bulk and getting the total price down. That's what the others are doing (in addition to cheap labor) to drive the prices down.

Most metal players just figure they can buy a 5150 or Krank or recto and be done with it. Which is perfectly fine. They really have no interest in hand built boutique and the benefits that come with it.

I think mainline of Bogner's line is still "boutique", except the cheap amps made with Line6

 

[Wolfeman]

In how small/big quantities are you buying, because that sounds quite a lot especially for things like pots, knobs and jacks that you can buy the parts from Asia in bulk for dirt cheap. You may have to buy them for like several grand in total to get the price down to just a few cents per piece, but that's the thing with buying in bulk and getting the total price down. That's what the others are doing (in addition to cheap labor) to drive the prices down.

I use high quality parts, which is what keeps prices high. Mallory 150's have gone up in price once they figured out they were wanted by amp builders. Same with most bigger electrolytics used for tube amp power supplies. And when it comes to the transformers and chassis, there's no going cheaper there. That's just how much they cost.

 

[Wolfeman]

I think mainline of Bogner's line is still "boutique", except the cheap amps made with Line6

I don't consider PCB amps to be boutique. They are higher quality and higher priced and assembled by hand just like Soldano, but the boutique word is just thrown in there as a marketing ploy.

 

[Wolfeman]

Marcus- How's this for a mid cut?

 

[philby82]

I'd have to vote for using the same custom channel you have in the hellfire, so in theory you can get the same sound in a smaller amp. Kind of like the Rev Jr sounds the same as the Rev.

Can you do without the standby switch? The Rev Jr seems to get away without one, and that would leave room on there for the mid sweep control?

Personally not too stressed about the silent recording, as i have a stack of dummy loads rigged up for this use.

My ideal solution would be a 2 channel preamp only setup, kind of like the e530, designed to be used for home recordings. Could have both your modded XTC channel and the modded 5150 channel. Just a line out to feed into the audio interface, then load an impulse. This is how i play most of the time at home anyway as sound levels are an issue. If i want to play it really loud i can just plug it into the fx return on one of the heads anyway?

The preamp only should be pretty cheap as it only would need a dual tap tranny, (plate and heaters), and no output transformer or standby switch. Could even be rackmount?

Cant wait to hear it regardless of what path you take.

Phil

 

[Wolfeman]

The only problem with making a decent highgain rack preamp is finding a torrid transformer that will work. In order to get the high gain tones similar to a 5150, you need to drive the tubes kinda hard voltage wise. It's tough to find transformers that are affordable that will provide 300 volts to the tubes. That's the reason why you don't see many high gain preamps. IMO even the Engl's lack what high gain heads have, and I bet it has to do with under powering the 12AX7s.

EDIT- Actually I see things have changed, and there are plenty of high voltage torrids. The next problem would be finding a decent way to mount everything in a rack.

 

[philby82]

yeah, i imagine laying it all out in a rack case would be a pain. Would have to lay the 12ax7's down more than likely, and limits the amount of room to isolate heater feeds, etc.

Even if it wasn't rack mount, a multi channel preamp only setup would be ideal, for me anyways lol. At least then you could make it whatever width, etc you need to be able to put all the controls you have designed on there, like mid sweep, etc.

Phil

 

[JHA]

The only problem with making a decent highgain rack preamp is finding a torrid transformer that will work. In order to get the high gain tones similar to a 5150, you need to drive the tubes kinda hard voltage wise. It's tough to find transformers that are affordable that will provide 300 volts to the tubes. That's the reason why you don't see many high gain preamps. IMO even the Engl's lack what high gain heads have, and I bet it has to do with under powering the 12AX7s.

EDIT- Actually I see things have changed, and there are plenty of high voltage torrids. The next problem would be finding a decent way to mount everything in a rack.

What about a Hammond 269AX/BX or such? Not toroidal but would fit in 2-U chassis. For tubes you could use L-iron and mount them sideways.

 

[AHChris]

I´d love to see a option for phantom powering EMGs (with 9 or 18V) on a recording amp someday.

 

[ahjteam]

Wolfe, how much would it drop the price to drop out the power section and just do the preamp?

edit: also what are torrids? When I searched from google images I get these NSFW pics under the moniker "torrid art".

 

[philby82]

torrids are toroidal transformers.

Phil

 

[if6was9]

What about making the amp but having a removable "pre" type section, like the randall RM's. You could sell the amp stock with either the modern or marshall one and have the other "pre" type sections as after market buys. You could develop a few others later on down the line like a fenderish clean channel. That way you get the versatility but it would cost pretty much the same to just buy the amp with 1 channel in the first place.