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Hi,
Thanks for all your varied views. Just what I expected.
I think perhaps I have to repeat what I said in another post "I don't expect to please all of the people all of the time." That would be an impossibly stupid aim! What I do speak for, is the fact that analogue transistor amps are not anywhere nearly as bad as most claim when designed as a result of better research.
FWIW, I grew up with valves and have designed/made many thermionic beasts. My first back in 1963 using Selmer transformers! Lol
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
@ICBM - I first designed an amp with post-distortion EQ in 1983... the Rockette:20 - possibly the first amp with post-distortion EQ and not valve either! It was thought to be too aggressive back then, not because it was transistor, but because it was a few miles away in concept to what everyone was used to. Now, nearly all hi-gain amps are designed this way. Except the Blues & Hotrod DLXs and Nomad, as already mentioned, which is a big mistake in my books when hi-gain is involved.
But, I now understand what you like in an amp... post-distortion EQ! That means NOT a Sessionette:75... definitely! I think you'd quite like my BB22... it's post-distortion EQ and has a non linear characteristic (shhhh!) in the power amp design. The latter applies progressive non-linear distortion to the signal as the amp's volume is increased. The power amp is prevented from distorting by this circuit, but does produce power amp like distortion at around 22 watts. So you never hear the SS power amp distort itself, the sound just gets fatter!
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Probably more luck than by good design in many cases. I don't think there are many companies that put serious R&D into solid state amps, frankly.
Because of 'conformity' behaviour amongst players... there are not many who would invest money in an activity they, apparently, view as not providing much return on investment (ROI). Upside is, they leave the market open to me and I've done pretty well by exploiting it in my own way! Lol
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
Thank you Tim.
I'm 100% with you there!
I am a 'copyist' hater (in a polite way). Where are all the 'famous copyists' that made it to Stars In Their Eyes now? In the words of Victor Kiam... you MUST have a USP (Unique Selling Point)!
The Sessionette was definitely NOT the best amp in the world. It was just my first attempt at doing the 'impossible' and I found I was hooked on doing things differently... and found a technology that is simply awesome to work with. Anyone who really knows me will vouch for the fact that I definitely go for the easiest most logical route to resolve any situation or need. For me, SS is so blindingly obvious as the way forward. If I understood programming (I will never at my age), then I'd be off down that route too!
Us Aquarians don't worship the past, but we do respect and borrow from it. But what is best? Well, the customer always decides that!
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
Peavey for example. They have massive resources to invest in R&D; far more than any small builder.
All the major builders have popular SS amps.
I spent the whole day yesterday in a music shops (on business). Not one of the analogue SS amps offered for sale was in any way able to compete with a decent valve amp. That is rather sad to me as an analogue SS enthusiast... because I know that much more can be done to build SS amps that sound far closer to a good 'classic' valve amp.
But I'm not here to argue. I prefer to spend my time responding to the messages that musicians give me. And that's that most analogue SS amps are not wonderful... still! With supposed big R & D budgets... why is this so?
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
I don't want to be seen as advertising/selling my products on this forum... it's all on our website.
But if anyone has a specific question they want answered, then that's fine.
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
Times have changed! In USA there are approaching 200 custom cabinet makers! There are also many companies selling guitar parts, cabinet bit and bobs, covering and grille cloths, reverb pans... well you name it.
You have Tube Amp Doctor in Germany selling all kinds of amp parts. In the UK there's Watford valves selling 'aftermarket' pine Blues Junior cabinets with a tweed finish... Zilla Cabinets... Roadkill Cabinets... AF Cabinets and even ZD Custom Cabinets in Ireland selling beautiful hard wood BJr cabinets for about £150!
There's a lot of people who want their amps to look different. They want to choose their own speakers too! It's all good fun.
The market is growing here now in Europe. So, being 'semi retired' now and armed with my electronic knowledge and experience, I thought it would be a good idea to produce a ready built amp chassis based on the popular Blues Junior that players could use as the basis of their own custom looking amp.
I am not at all interested in getting back into the 'regular' amp business and see this as a nice way to have some fun and providing a small number of players with an amp which exceeds the performance of the Fender Blues Junior... In fact, it sounds very Blackface and a lot bigger than the BJr and is 22 watts! It also has some features which the BJr is lacking.
OK, so the BJr is not the best Fender amp... but it's one of the most popular for the same reasons the Sessionette was. It's little, loud and easily transported. Little loud amps are my market!
I don't really care if BB is a huge success... it only cost me £450 to make the first prototype. The first-off PCB alone was £150 and I had to have 6 chassis made to get just one first-off! So the investment, excluding my time, was on a shoe string. I'm having a lot of fun with it and mixing with musos at jams. But it was finally launched just before Christmas and we've sold about forty so far!
BB weights about 1.7kg... ideal for International post or cheap UPS/DHL shipping!
The interest has been very encouraging, but many are sitting on the fence waiting for others to buy it first and post some reviews... that's only to be expected! However, I have sold about two thirds outside of the UK to Europe and three to Australia. I am also selling it to a cabinet maker soon in Canada who will be producing their own badged amps. Another well known US company have expressed an interest in making it under license.
So, the 'chassis only' concept has a lot more mileage in it than you'd first realise.
Hope that explains your question.
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
Being built down to a price is in a mechanical sense is true! The speakers are also pretty bad usually, But, there is a lot of waffle spoken about capacitor quality. In fact, there are situations where you would not want to use expensive film capacitors. Unfortunately, sometimes ceramic caps are seen inside amps and are misquoted as being crap. Actually, they are best for power supply decoupling applications. Because film caps are inductive, they can be responsible for inducing RF interference.
I would NOT use an orange drop cap in the tone controls of my guitars! Ceramic every time!
The MG15 Marshall into a big cab with a decent speaker is nothing new. They sound like a Marshall, because they're supposed to. They are not for players like me... even into a big cab, but they can sound awesome used that way providing you want a rock tone! So, no criticism for them from me! The components are just fine... but the way they're constructed physically attracts a lot of flack from the tube purists. But to honest... there's no other way you can build them. SS technology does not, generally, lend itself to hand wired techniques. So what choices are there?
Anyway... at their price, for rock music, into a big cab... I can only praise them! As a stand alone amp... naff, mainly due to the speakers and small cab.
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!
Just listened to the AMT amp clips!! Ho, ho, what a noise! METAL! Not my cup of tea AT ALL!!!
But great for the genre they aiming at... into a closed back 4 x12" which naturally resonate at open A - 5th string!!
"Just because it's never been done before, is the very reason to make it happen" - Me!