Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain!
Makes perfect sense to cut this frequency. Never thought about this before.

Cheers!

The Hicadoolas

I got to play one a week or so back and came away with a positive impression. I ordered one so I must've liked it.

It's not a powerhouse by any means but the clean headroom is pretty reasonable for its wattage and the sound is relatively clear. It's definitely a creature of the mid-range and even though it's fairly bright with the tone switch in the "Bright" position it is not at all a Blackface sound.

I'm not much of a tremolo user but have to say that the trem' sound from this amp was quite appealing to me. It fit well with the rest of the package and its late '50s vibe. In fact, that's really what I saw as perfect in this amp, think if the opening strains of the Everly Brothers' "Dream".

Will It Surf?

IMO, yes, albeit at a fairly modest volume. The mid-range strength of this amp reminds me of an early Surf era sound; something that would have been typical of the transition from '50s Instrumental Rock to '60s Surf. The 15" speaker seems to be an asset for this early surf sound.

There is plenty of room for improvement with this amp and the amp modding community is already hard at work in this regard. Bill Machrone, the Blues Jr guru already has some mods in mind starting with a kit to add a tone pot. There is no reverb but I would bet that a tank up front would sound pretty decent.

While I don't play in a band that does Surf music exclusively we do feature Surf and work hard to get that sound. I normally use Blackface Fenders, mostly because I can't afford the price of a good Showman but with the right amount of knob twiddling I can get a pretty decent sound, especially from my Twin with a single 15 in a closed back cab. But I have wanted an amp even smaller than my Deluxe Reverb, something that will be breaking a sweat at rehearsal volumes but not to the point of breakup. For a while I had considered a Pro Jr with a custom cabinet and a single 15" speaker but that's a lot of dinero to put into a very low end amp. I think that the Excelsior will do fine in this role with minimal modification, a tone knob and a footswitch for the trem.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Got one of these today, cool little amp.

Thinking of trying to get more headroom out of it, what would you guys do to try and achieve that? New tubes? Higher wattage speaker? Thought maybe some 12AT7's in the preamp might help, or would that just make the amp cleaner but not as loud?

The Del-Vipers

Last edited: Jun 22, 2012 00:03:25

tubeswell wrote:

Rossmosis wrote:

Thinking of trying to get more headroom out of it, what would you guys do to try and achieve that? New tubes? Higher wattage speaker? Thought maybe some 12AT7's in the preamp might help, or would that just make the amp cleaner but not as loud?

I'd start with a 12AY7 in v1. You could put a 12AT7 in v2 but that would reduce the overall trem strength as well. A 5751 might be better in v2 (but that would also knock the trem strength down a bit. A 12AY7 in v1 would help clean up the signal and make it sound fatter and bluesier. But all of these options reduce the gain a wee bit.

Other than that, its tweaking the circuit. Converting the 6V6s to fixed-bias would clean it up a bit (but you would lose that characteristic compression that a Cathode-biased output stage gives).

Awesome, I'll try that 12AY7 method out. Would upgrading my power tubes to say, JJ-6V6's do much for the tone?

The Del-Vipers

Last edited: Jun 22, 2012 14:18:22

So I went ahead and stuck a NOS 12AT7 I had in the V1 spot and man what a difference it made! Sounds a hundred times better. Putting what it does to the tremolo aside, if I stuck another 12AT7 in the V2 spot would it effect the tone as much as the V1 spot did?

The Del-Vipers

Thanks a ton for the input!

The Del-Vipers

Oh, the first "mod" I did was removing the crossed swords emblem. I can easily see that breaking off the first time something bumps into it.

www.reverbnation.com/thehighfidelics

I used it for a small gig this past saturday, and plan to use it next weekend for the "mini surf fest" in birmingham and the surf fest in georgia. I hope Noah (kill baby kill) will give me his evaluation of the sound. I don't play trad; I like an amp that is overall clean with just a little grit to kick over into feedback when I need it, and this works great. The JBL definitely handles what the amp puts out, so there's no speaker overdrive. The 5751 reduces some of the gainy-ness, and the 5991s take the sound to a whole different level. But it still gets pretty distorted/overdriven when you put the volume up around 2 o'clock.

Will definitely be using this amp from here on in.

www.reverbnation.com/thehighfidelics

Well' i'm not as technically proficeint as some of the other guys here but i know a good amp when i hear one. i'm running a t.rex reverb pedal into a boss tremolo then into a boss dd7 and then stereoed out to 2 excelsiors'. nice rig for the house for sure, maybe ok at a small small gig. mike 'em otherwise!
could be a good blues amp but we don't do that here. good mids and the 15 does push some air. i can see putting a JBL in it or even a jensen or eminence.
300 bucks, but you'll need a reverb of some sort for it. the trem is ok but needs an off/on setup.

it's cheap, sounds good for surf and as yet it hasn't blown up or blown out the windows. next test is to hear my son's reaction to it.

Enjoying the surf,sun and sand!!

Anyone able to find any clips of it in a band setting? Some of the surfing clips posted on you tube have me gassing nice and hard!

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