Anyone else got one of these or come across one?
I'm working on one today - I've never even heard of it before, but it was apparently made in Scotland in the late 90s... where I was at the time too! It's a hybrid (valves in the preamp, solid-state power amp) combo about the same size and general appearance as a Sessionette.
But *much* better sounding. In fact, I would go so far as to say it's one of the best-sounding non-valve amps I've heard... really chunky and responsive. Obviously it was a commercial failure though, or I would have come across them before presumably! It's so rare there is not even a single online pic of one I can find, or any reference on Google beyond it recognising the search term. And yet, it doesn't look like a DIY special - it's clearly professionally-made and to quite a high quality.
Three channels (Clean and Blue Drive share EQ, Red Drive is completely separate), FX loop, no reverb, extension speaker jack, Eminence OEM (same as the ones they did for Maplin I think) 100W 12" speaker internally. The clean is powerful and full-sounding, the Blue Drive is open and nicely gritty, and only the Red Drive is a tiny bit too dark really, but not at all bad.
I'm really very intrigued by it, and the owner actually doesn't really want it, so watch this space...
"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
Comments
Ooo! Can we get some nice piccies?
Dave/
"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
I have the only 2x12 version of this wonderful amp.
Custom voiced for a big name artist, has fender, marshall and soldano style voicings, 2x12 Celestion G12 75.
"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
"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
Sorry
"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
"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
The amp I have had fried most of its fuses because the custom power transformer developed an internal short. Happily after I replaced the custom transformer with three off-the-shelf transformers and replaced the fuses, the thing came to life. It too has microphonic feedback on the blue drive channel and several of the pots are very crackly. So still some work to do to get it working perfectly.
Also replaced all the knobs with grub screw locking knobs. The originals were just friction fit push on knobs on round shaft pots, so they didn't lock to the shaft. You could grab a knob and just keep on rotating it past the end of travel on the pot.
That's interesting and may explain why these amps were not a commercial success, if they had transformer issues.
The one I have is still working fine and is still for sale...
Do you have pics of yours? I'm not convinced the grille cloth is original on this one, and the logo is missing - it would be nice to know what it's meant to look like.
"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
I remember looking for an emergency amp replacement in the late 90's and popping into a shop in Caerphilly market South Wales. They had a Bradley in there for sale that I had a quick go of (can't remember the model). It was a bit rough and ready sounding for the covers band I was in at the time, so I ended up taking a SS Fender Stage amp (which actually sounded ok clean).
I bought one of these amps. I have the 2x12" 100w. But after some seconds of playing on it the sound disappears in white noise. I had this problem once before and sent it for service. Got it back and it worked for some time. No the problem has returned....
I loved the sound from this amp. It played much better than any other amp at the store at the time I bought it.
Shame there is bad quality in some parts inside..
Anyone knows how to fix?
- Tor Christian
Norway
"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
I'm not so familiar with the electronics. As a matter of fact Ive never been fiddling with the inner parts at all before.
But I think I'll be able to replace the valves only if I start to work on it.
Where do I get the right valves?