MJW Amps -- New Build for Thorpy FX. BUILD PICS!

martinw

I'm very pleased to announce that Adrian at Thorpy FX has chosen MJW Amplification to supply him with an amp for demonstrating his superb pedals at guitar shows and the like. 

Adrian wanted a transparent (but not bland) clean channel to show the pedals off to their best advantage, but also a crunchy-to-high-gain overdrive channel for both his own enjoyment, and to show how the pedals can be used with amp overdrive. The ability to customise both the appearance of the amp and it's sound to suit his exact needs, as well as the desire to support British businesses influenced his decision, and a few listens to the demos on YouTube confirmed it. I was also pleased that Adrian described the price of the amp as 'more than fair'.

The amp in question is an MJW Orion 2x12 Combo, with a 'Twin' style clean channel, and an 'SLO' style overdrive channel. The SDM Zero Loss effects loop is standard on this amp, but the optional Power Scaling will also be useful in controlling volume at shows. The overdrive channel will have a special, foot-switchable, 'unboost' feature, to modify the channel into a lower gain more 'Plexi' sound, in effect giving 3 channels. The output valves will be the Orion's standard 4 x KT66.

Besides the usual 2-button footswitch, I'll also be adding a stereo jack socket so that the amp can easily interface with a Gigrig system.

Adrian has chosen the very cool purple tolex, with white piping and black/white grill cloth, so it will end up looking something like the pic below. Of course, the combo is equipped with steel side handles!

I'm really excited to be chosen for this build, and would like to thank Thorpy FX @thorpy6 for their support. I might do a few progress reports with pics if there's enough interest?

vasselmeyer

@martinw Great news. Would love to see a build diary.

Adam_MD

vasselmeyer;780418" said:

@martinw Great news. Would love to see a build diary.

Yes to the build diary

Roland

Build diaries are always interesting. I presume that we can rely on Thorpy for sound samples, with and without the pedals?

CHrisP86

The gain channel will sound awesome if it's anything like the goldstar ss 'slo' style circuit!

guitarfishbay

Great choice of colour.  Looking forward to pics and clips

ThorpyFX

guitarfishbay;780597" said:

Great choice of colour.  Looking forward to pics and clips

Well pics are going to be up to Martin to supply during the build- clips- well you will be able to hear it in person at the guitar show in February where we have a stand near the FRETBOARD stand! With and without pedals (mostly with) Btw I don't think I've ever been more excited for an AMP even if it is for business purpose

ThePrettyDamned

Absolutely beast spec!

Still saving for my amp. Mjw or the new jet city model... If the jet city isn't just right, there is only one option!

MrSwanson

Wowsers sounds like something I'd like!

kin

Good on you both, great to see British business supporting each other.

Be nice to see one or more of the UK's Guitar builders get involved too.

ThorpyFX

Already happening, check out the Made in the UK threads, some great work by Feline, Wez, and others as well as pickup makers such as Oil city etc.. as it happens I will be taking a Feline Guitar to the Guitar show!

kin said:

Good on you both, great to see British business supporting each other.

Be nice to see one or more of the UK's Guitar builders get involved too.

markj

ThorpyFX said:

Already happening, check out the Made in the UK threads, some great work by Feline, Wez, and others as well as pickup makers such as Oil city etc.. as it happens I will be taking a Feline Guitar to the Guitar show!

kin said:

Good on you both, great to see British business supporting each other.

Be nice to see one or more of the UK's Guitar builders get involved too.

Any chance that you will have a stand at the Merseyside guitar show next month.

ThorpyFX

markj said:

ThorpyFX said:

Already happening, check out the Made in the UK threads, some great work by Feline, Wez, and others as well as pickup makers such as Oil city etc.. as it happens I will be taking a Feline Guitar to the Guitar show!

kin said:

Good on you both, great to see British business supporting each other.

Be nice to see one or more of the UK's Guitar builders get involved too.

Any chance that you will have a stand at the Merseyside guitar show next month.

me or martin? Im afraid i won't be there. i am however going to the guitar show in Birmingham in February. 

FelineGuitars

kin said:

Good on you both, great to see British business supporting each other.

Be nice to see one or more of the UK's Guitar builders get involved too.

There is a fair bit of this goes on already but I'm all in favour of it becoming a trend.

Martin (MJW) built me some power amps that I use with my modular amps at the workshop.

It's been a pleasure making a few guitars for Adrian at Thorpy too.

We have plans brewing for a guitar for Ash at Oil City too....

Also when we unveil our plans for our 25th Anniversary model guitars they will actually come with a special ThorpyFX pedal included in the bundle.

juansolo

FelineGuitars said:

Martin (MJW) built me some power amps that I use with my modular amps at the workshop.

Don't suppose you'd need a 5W power amp in a tiny combo cab with a 1x10 in there?

Need to list that, I don't suppose you've tried either of yours with a Pod or Tonelab or the like? Thinking that might be my best angle to shift it... Just wondering if that'd work well as I've no way of testing.

ThorpyFX

juansolo said:

FelineGuitars said:

Martin (MJW) built me some power amps that I use with my modular amps at the workshop.

Don't suppose you'd need a 5W power amp in a tiny combo cab with a 1x10 in there?

Need to list that, I don't suppose you've tried either of yours with a Pod or Tonelab or the like? Thinking that might be my best angle to shift it... Just wondering if that'd work well as I've no way of testing.

what's it look like?

juansolo

The one on the left (one on the right has gone already). Has a cover and was recently modified by Martin with a boost on a switch (adjustable inside if you pop the amp out). It's very wee. Indeed with the boost on you can plug a guitar straight into the front of it quite happily.

ThorpyFX

juansolo said:

The one on the left (one on the right has gone already). Has a cover and was recently modified by Martin with a boost on a switch (adjustable inside if you pop the amp out). It's very wee. Indeed with the boost on you can plug a guitar straight into the front of it quite happily.

pmd

martinw

Well, the build is now under way. Here's a pic of the main parts of the amp itself. Obviously there's a million and one small parts not shown! I'll do a similar one when I start the cabinet.

ThorpyFX

Very excited for this

ThorpyFX

This isn't really the subject of this thread but..... anyway i bought the power cab from @juansolo to use as a clean amp for some digital modelling.... anyway it had too much character so i sent the amp to @martinw to have him work his magic and turn it into a full blown amp...... this is what we came up with. 5W GOLDSTAR, with power scaling and voiced for Marshall crunch+ at one end and clean at the other... sounds wicked.

I thought it was broken initially as i couldn't tell it was on, its that bloody silent....

enjoy!

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m447/thorpy6/39A55153-B83D-4871-A27A-68DDBD52A311.jpg

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m447/thorpy6/11DACF63-7FCA-4574-8A83-B81F099D7E37.jpg

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m447/thorpy6/1C4286DD-7E04-40C8-BCD4-4C8A10E8F157.jpg

http://i335.photobucket.com/albums/m447/thorpy6/91F029B3-1FB4-40C6-A0D1-FB0F6E2447C5.jpg

This bodes so well for the orion build, I'm chomping at the bit!