New Pignose Day

p90fool

I love mine, it's pretty well all I use at home now. 

The door thing works ok, but I vary mine by laying it face down on a cushion either partially or completely. 

Strangely, even using it sitting on its long side with the catch on the top sounds less brittle than using it upright with the handle on top. It can only be floor reflections and the speaker's proximity to it, but it's quite pronounced. 

It undeniably sounds sort of rubbish whatever you do, until you're playing along with whatever song you're working on, and it just seems to sit in a mix perfectly. 

It also responds more naturally to player dynamics than anything else I've owned that wasn't a good valve amp. 

It's one of those quirky bits of kit that constantly makes you think "so that's how they did it!" Rather like when you start using a Varitone. 

EricTheWeary

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

Seems an odd choice to pair with your Ric Bass tho.....

I hadn't thought of that but I'll have to try it . The speaker is actually quite chunky so I don't think it will blow it.

https://youtu.be/Fu5mgXWSgoE

Came up up on my YouTube feed and reminded me of this. Possibly in the category ‘don’t try this at home.’ 

ICBM

Just found out something interesting... while looking for a schematic for the original Pignose, to see if it was any different from the modern one (no luck), I came across something that looked very similar, but turned out to be the schematic for the 'Deacy' amp used by Brian May, built by John Deacon from a salvaged transistor radio. While almost all the component values are different, the overall circuit layout is almost identical - the only major difference is the location of the negative feedback loop.

It doesn't mean they will necessarily sound the same of course - changes in just one or two circuit values can make a huge difference to the tone - but it makes me wonder if they have a common ancestor... and what it might be.

It also means that if you wanted to build a Deacy copy, starting with a (preferably dead, no point in using a good one since almost every part other than the two transformers will need to be replaced) Pignose might be a simple way to do it.