Sessionette 75

knuckleberryfinn

Ha ha!  Oh well, it's gone now <weep>

Niallmo

Just thought I'd point in this direction: I've had this a few years now, bought it very cheap @ Cash Converters. I would love a foot switch but I think I'd have to get one built now. It does need a service but in general is very good. I love the clean sound and the blend option. Sometimes I like the OD, sometimes not, I don't play it enough to really dial it in.

Sessionman

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

Sessionman

ICBM said:

knuckleberryfinn said:

Incidentally @jpfamps, I had a Deluxe Reverb II until about six months ago and I know what you mean.  The clean sounds were lovely of course, and it was a pretty versatile amp, but I found it hard work getting a good sound out of the drive channel.

Shame you didn't post this about seven months ago… there's a great and very simple mod for these amps - you move the EQ on the lead channel to post-distortion (where it should be ). That makes it *much* easier to get a good sound, as well as giving it more gain overall (because the large insertion loss of the tone stack is taken out) and making the gain control actually useful.

@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!

impmann

Great to have you aboard, Stewart. 

This forum is unusual in that there are those that love valves and those that dig SS designs - frankly I don't care how something works, just as long as it does and it sounds good. 

And yes, the old Sessionette 75 is a 'Marmite' amp - and thank god it is. There are just too many bland, committee-designed amps out there that sound the same. When I started playing guitar, sounding the same as someone else was *not* something I wanted - and nearly 30 years later, I'm even more passionate about it. Its amazing - I played my first ever gig through the Sessionette 75 that sits in my spare room when I was 17 and its been all over the country, and I've played pretty much every style of music through it at 1000s of gigs since - the only time it has been 'serviced' was about four years ago, when the crackly pots just got too much for me. It never actually went 'wrong'... although sadly I think the reverb tray has now bitten the dust (it got dropped once too often).

Good to have you here, Stewart.

Tim

ICBM

Sessionman said:

@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!

That is very interesting. I'm always willing to keep an open mind, so it sounds like I will have to try one of these. The concept of using pure preamp distortion (shhhh! don't tell the purists ) with a clean power stage has always struck me as the right way with solid state - the last thing you want is solid-state power stage clipping…

For what it's worth I think the Marshall solid-state amps of the mid 70s used post-distortion EQ as well (or at least the EQ is fairly late in the circuit), but that's not a recommendation since they sound terrible and then blow up .

I'm completely with impmann about not caring how something works as long as it sounds good, the difference is that I like to know *why* it sounds good too . To date, I have found it hard to get sounds I really love from non-valve amps, but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

Sessionman

ICBM said:

Snip: ...but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

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

Sessionman

impmann said:

Great to have you aboard, Stewart. 

This forum is unusual in that there are those that love valves and those that dig SS designs - frankly I don't care how something works, just as long as it does and it sounds good. 

And yes, the old Sessionette 75 is a 'Marmite' amp - and thank god it is. There are just too many bland, committee-designed amps out there that sound the same. When I started playing guitar, sounding the same as someone else was *not* something I wanted - and nearly 30 years later, I'm even more passionate about it. Its amazing - I played my first ever gig through the Sessionette 75 that sits in my spare room when I was 17 and its been all over the country, and I've played pretty much every style of music through it at 1000s of gigs since - the only time it has been 'serviced' was about four years ago, when the crackly pots just got too much for me. It never actually went 'wrong'... although sadly I think the reverb tray has now bitten the dust (it got dropped once too often).

Good to have you here, Stewart.

Tim

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!

downbytheriver

Tell em about the Blues Baby!

EricTheWeary

downbytheriver;195856" said:

Tell em about the Blues Baby!

...and the thinking behind not offering it as a complete combo?

matt1973

I remember these from early late 80s & early 90s in London. A few of the gigging blues guys I knew used them. Usually jumping on the tube with their Sessionette and Strat and getting a cab/lift home. Those things were soooo portable it was a revelation at the time. Particularly so in the post drink-driving crackdown. There were a lot of established musicians playing with the shakes back then. Haha.

It was a great answer to lumping a twin around in the back of Shirocco. 

My ears were young and unrefined at the time but, that said, it was always a good blues amp from what I heard. Really punchy as I recall and sat well in the mix. Defo made for a Strat IMHO.

jpfamps

Sessionman said:

ICBM said:

Snip: ...but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

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

I would disagree with this. a lot of money has been invested by many companies in solid state amps.

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.

Sessionman

jpfamps said:

Sessionman said:

ICBM said:

Snip: ...but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

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

I would disagree with this. a lot of money has been invested by many companies in solid state amps.

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?

Sessionman

downbytheriver said:

Tell em about the Blues Baby!

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.

ThePrettyDamned

Sessionman said:

jpfamps said:

Sessionman said:

ICBM said:

Snip: ...but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

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

I would disagree with this. a lot of money has been invested by many companies in solid state amps.

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?

I think it's not necessarily r+d so much as they're made to be cheap.  

They'll use cheap components, cabinet materials and speakers.  I've heard one of the new Marshall MG amps through a decent 4x12 and it was... Pretty good, actually.  Cleans were not amazing, crunch was alright though.  Plenty Marshall sounding. 

If it was designed to be priced higher, perhaps the component types would be better (I know nothing about amp design, but I've heard that, unlike guitars, capacitor type can be important) which might also help the sound.  As they are, they're priced to be cheap, not brilliant.

I was fairly impressed by the Orange Crush Pro amp, but the 60 watt one needed a bigger cab in my opinion, and my Bandit is just a great sounding amp.  The drive isn't amazing, it's fussy to dial in, but can have usable low, medium and high gain sounds, and the clean channel is fantastic - this is where it excels, and takes pedals great.  The AMT amp is highly reagrded, too, and I think Randall have a good one, but I've never heard the newer ones. So I don't think it's r+d, so much as solid state amps being built to a price. 

jpfamps

ThePrettyDamned said:

Sessionman said:

jpfamps said:

Sessionman said:

ICBM said:

Snip: ...but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

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

I would disagree with this. a lot of money has been invested by many companies in solid state amps.

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?

I think it's not necessarily r+d so much as they're made to be cheap.  

They'll use cheap components, cabinet materials and speakers.  I've heard one of the new Marshall MG amps through a decent 4x12 and it was... Pretty good, actually.  Cleans were not amazing, crunch was alright though.  Plenty Marshall sounding. 

If it was designed to be priced higher, perhaps the component types would be better (I know nothing about amp design, but I've heard that, unlike guitars, capacitor type can be important) which might also help the sound.  As they are, they're priced to be cheap, not brilliant.

I was fairly impressed by the Orange Crush Pro amp, but the 60 watt one needed a bigger cab in my opinion, and my Bandit is just a great sounding amp.  The drive isn't amazing, it's fussy to dial in, but can have usable low, medium and high gain sounds, and the clean channel is fantastic - this is where it excels, and takes pedals great.  The AMT amp is highly reagrded, too, and I think Randall have a good one, but I've never heard the newer ones. So I don't think it's r+d, so much as solid state amps being built to a price. 

I agree with this; comparing a £99 SS amp with a £800 valve amp is not really a fair comparison.

Sessionman

EricTheWeary said:

downbytheriver;195856" said:

Tell em about the Blues Baby!

...and the thinking behind not offering it as a complete combo?

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.

Sessionman

ThePrettyDamned said:

Sessionman said:

jpfamps said:

Sessionman said:

ICBM said:

Snip: ...but some hybrid and even some pure solid-state amps have come very close. Just a little more progress and they'll get there.

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

I would disagree with this. a lot of money has been invested by many companies in solid state amps.

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?

I think it's not necessarily r+d so much as they're made to be cheap.  

They'll use cheap components, cabinet materials and speakers.  I've heard one of the new Marshall MG amps through a decent 4x12 and it was... Pretty good, actually.  Cleans were not amazing, crunch was alright though.  Plenty Marshall sounding. 

If it was designed to be priced higher, perhaps the component types would be better (I know nothing about amp design, but I've heard that, unlike guitars, capacitor type can be important) which might also help the sound.  As they are, they're priced to be cheap, not brilliant.

I was fairly impressed by the Orange Crush Pro amp, but the 60 watt one needed a bigger cab in my opinion, and my Bandit is just a great sounding amp.  The drive isn't amazing, it's fussy to dial in, but can have usable low, medium and high gain sounds, and the clean channel is fantastic - this is where it excels, and takes pedals great.  The AMT amp is highly reagrded, too, and I think Randall have a good one, but I've never heard the newer ones. So I don't think it's r+d, so much as solid state amps being built to a price. 

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.

Sessionman

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!!

EricTheWeary

Sessionman said:

EricTheWeary said:

downbytheriver;195856" said:

Tell em about the Blues Baby!

...and the thinking behind not offering it as a complete combo?

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.

It does, thank you. I guess if you were to start tooling up and go into production to make a fully finished combo it would be hard to compete on price against, say, a Peavey made by the thousands in China. This way your investment isn't huge and your customers get a customised product at a reasonable price.