Valve power amps

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

Pop the lid off and have a look inside. My 2020 was brought brand new in 2006 ish and the fan in mine drew air in from the side and blew it out the back.

This is something that really annoys me. Rack units go in rack casings, so any ventilation scheme which involves having the cooling inlet or outlet on either top, bottom or sides is bad design by definition. Cooling vents should *only* be in the front and back, and if possible not both on the back since this tends to recycle the heated air inside the rack case even if the back is open.

chrispy108

Have you ever done consecutive gigs with the same right @digitalscream?

I thought you loved the Jet City amp? Why the change?

Danny1969

ICBM said:

Danny1969 said:

Pop the lid off and have a look inside. My 2020 was brought brand new in 2006 ish and the fan in mine drew air in from the side and blew it out the back.

This is something that really annoys me. Rack units go in rack casings, so any ventilation scheme which involves having the cooling inlet or outlet on either top, bottom or sides is bad design by definition. Cooling vents should *only* be in the front and back, and if possible not both on the back since this tends to recycle the heated air inside the rack case even if the back is open.

Yeah it's not a great design. There's a thermal cutout fitted on these amps so when it gets too hot it will cut out, actually I think I remember mine getting quieter when hot rather than cutting out but it's been too longer to remember now

In my current rack I have a 19" rack fan unit which draws air up from inside the rack and exhauses it out the back. You could dry you jeans from this at a summer gig 

digitalscream

chrispy108 said:

Have you ever done consecutive gigs with the same right @digitalscream?

I thought you loved the Jet City amp? Why the change?

Naughty, naughty

I've gigged with the Jet City amp for a good 3 or 4 years. I bought the Eleven Rack to speed up our recording process; the only reason I've put it into my live rig is that there are quite a few tone changes in our songs which require far too much simultaneous tap-dancing, pickup switching and volume adjustment - it's affecting my playing. I figured I'd just try it for the last gig direct into the effects return of my Jet City, and it sounded great. The irritation there is that the Jet City + 11R is quite unwieldy and I don't like lugging loads of stuff around, hence buying the 20/20 and putting it all in a rack.

I'll probably swap and change between the 11R and Jet City rigs quite a bit - whatever I fancy on the night, really. The Jet City unquestionably sounds better (although I'm not sure anyone in the audience would notice), but the 11R is easier to deal with.

Clarky

Danny1969 said:

Clarky said:

if you do take the Matrix route, go for the GT1000FX because it's a newer model than the GT800 and has the more valve-like feeling

in the past I've used:

Marshall 8008 [still have it and love it]

Matrix GT1000FX [which is now my main power amp]

Mesa Boogey Strategy 400 [huge, heavy, loud and awesome.. but you need a wheelbarrow to move it around]

Marshall EL34 100/100 [which was surprisingly not much different from the 8008.. sure it was a superb, amp but I expected it to be so much better than the 8008.. and it just wasn't.. kinda popped the EL34 GAS bubble that I'd had for a year of so leading up to that moment]

I had the 8008 @Clarky, then moved up to the little Marshall 2020 which I found to be a massive improvement. Then due to overheating the 2020 I moved up to the EL34 100 \ 100 which I still use now. This is all with a JMP-1 pre amp. What I hated about the 8008 was the harshness on low gain stuff, the valve powered amps seemed so much less harsh to me

@digitalscream ;

Pop the lid off and have a look inside. My 2020 was brought brand new in 2006 ish and the fan in mine drew air in from the side and blew it out the back. Drilling holes in the side of the rack case helped

I never experienced this harshness.. but then, I most likely dialled my tones into my rig as a whole..

what cabs were you using?

chrispy108

I meant pedals and stuff too

I see your points, I've never been one to try to recreate stuff live, always got by with a handful of sounds to flick between during gigs.

Have Jet City got any plans to do their midi amp in a rack unit? That and a G-Major or similar would seem a perfect rig for you?

digitalscream

chrispy108 said: I meant pedals and stuff too
I see your points, I've never been one to try to recreate stuff live, always got by with a handful of sounds to flick between during gigs.
Have Jet City got any plans to do their midi amp in a rack unit? That and a G-Major or similar would seem a perfect rig for you? Yeah, the pedals were fairly stable too - just a Polytune, Mooer Ninety Orange, Boo Boost and Flashback. I have, however, considered an awful lot of other permutations

Jet City don't believe that rack gear is commercially viable, so no...they won't be doing it in a rack format. However, the 20W version will be exactly the same width as the JCA22H, which means that it should be possible to take the chassis out, fit some custom rack ears to it and shove it in a rack case. I think it'd just fit in 4U, with the valves and transformers exposed.

Danny1969

Clarky said:

Danny1969 said:

Clarky said:

if you do take the Matrix route, go for the GT1000FX because it's a newer model than the GT800 and has the more valve-like feeling

in the past I've used:

Marshall 8008 [still have it and love it]

Matrix GT1000FX [which is now my main power amp]

Mesa Boogey Strategy 400 [huge, heavy, loud and awesome.. but you need a wheelbarrow to move it around]

Marshall EL34 100/100 [which was surprisingly not much different from the 8008.. sure it was a superb, amp but I expected it to be so much better than the 8008.. and it just wasn't.. kinda popped the EL34 GAS bubble that I'd had for a year of so leading up to that moment]

I had the 8008 @Clarky, then moved up to the little Marshall 2020 which I found to be a massive improvement. Then due to overheating the 2020 I moved up to the EL34 100 \ 100 which I still use now. This is all with a JMP-1 pre amp. What I hated about the 8008 was the harshness on low gain stuff, the valve powered amps seemed so much less harsh to me

@digitalscream ;

Pop the lid off and have a look inside. My 2020 was brought brand new in 2006 ish and the fan in mine drew air in from the side and blew it out the back. Drilling holes in the side of the rack case helped

I never experienced this harshness.. but then, I most likely dialled my tones into my rig as a whole..

what cabs were you using?

Marshall 4 x 12 in stereo. I'm not saying it was a bad sound, just sounded a bit harsh to me. The sound I tend to use is very unprocessed, like early Free kinda crunch. This kinda tone really benefits from a valve power amp.  

Clarky

I use a pair of 1960b cabs..

there is a bit of a difference between a pair of them and one in stereo..

part of this is due to the proximity and separation of the two cabs when you're in stereo

digitalscream

OK, first run out with the 20/20 last night at rehearsal. It most definitely is *not* too quiet. With the 11R's volume on 8 and the 20/20 on just past 9 o'clock, it was easily keeping up with the the band. I got the sense that there was plenty left in the tank, although I can't imagine that the headroom will last much past north on the volume dial. With that in mind, I'm probably running the 11R too hot; I'll experiment with it next week and see if it sounds any different with the 11R down and the 20/20 up. This is running into a 2x12" cab, BTW.

As for sound...well, wow. I was expecting it to be a little less "energetic" than running the 11R into the effects return of my Jet City (which is before the tone stack). I was very, very wrong - it's got bags of tone, this rig. Of course, that's with the Deep switch on. It strikes me that this is the only issue I have with the amp - it's very much like the TVP switch on Blackstar's ID series - kind of like a "Crap" switch in reverse. I can't imagine why anybody would run it with it switched off.

As well as all that...it wasn't running particularly hot. Warm to the touch by the end of the 3 hour session, obviously, but actually not even so much as my Jet City.

I'm a happy bunny

Si_

I used one with my AxeFX and was very happy with it, preferred it over the Matrix. I would get another for my new setup but having to run it in stereo all the time is a PITA, especially vince my cab is mono only. 

Volume wise I never had any problems gigging it, loads of headroom, and never had to get it past 12 to be loud enough. 

digitalscream

Si_ said:

I used one with my AxeFX and was very happy with it, preferred it over the Matrix. I would get another for my new setup but having to run it in stereo all the time is a PITA, especially vince my cab is mono only. 

Volume wise I never had any problems gigging it, loads of headroom, and never had to get it past 12 to be loud enough. 

Yup, it's pretty much the perfect power amp for me. The only reservation I have about it is that it's got glass bottles in it; I'd much rather have the reliability and consistency (and lower maintenance cost) of solid state. However, it meets all my other criteria so I'm more than happy to compromise on that one issue.