Those Chinese tanks are great!
The only problem is, an hour later you're still hungry for more reverb!

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Is this what the Tone Bakery Creme Verb is? I've seen them on Reverb.com and couldn't for the life of me figure out how they could be so cheap and have found absolutely nothing about them online (even on the manufacturer's website). Then when looking up the company, there's a lot of talk about how everything they sell is just a rebadged Chinese made OEM products. Similar to how you see Joyo pedals and there's 4 other brands that are the same circuits and housing with different colors and knobs.

Hi new to the Surf 101 forum, so hello to everyone. Anyway, I took a chance and ordered one of those "Tone Bakery Creme Verb Units" from JRR Music in Cali via Reverb. There was a 15% off Labor Day coupon so it ended up being 339.99 w/ free shipping. The built-in reverb on my DeLisle Nickle Box Amp is very good (tube driven, 17" MOD 2 spring pan) but gets more of an Ampeg type 'verb sound which is excellent in its own way but doesn't quite get to surf drip and just gets into longer decays as you turn it up. I picked up a used but mint Boss/Fender '63 Reverb pedal which I liked for about the first hour or so I had it but it just sits among the pedals I never use (no reason to go into the reasons I don't care for it as they have been covered on Surf101 in great detail).
I pretty much ordered the Tone Bakery Tank based on a YouTube video demo "Tone Bakery Creme verb 6g15" in which the tank sounded excellent and the comments from the owner were very positive but realistic. No doubt it's one of those Chinese made tweed covered units and badged for Tone Bakery/JRR but it is also point to point handwired and has a two spring 17" Accutronics tank. Tube complement is the same as the Fender RI w/ a 6V6 instead of a vintage spec 6K6GT. Beyond all that I know nothing more but will gladly share my impressions when I receive the Tank in about a week. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I wouldn't be surprised if they can be found a lot cheaper than 399$, though I must admit I haven't come across one yet.
I'm saying this because I see they also sell this 5F2A (https://www.jrrshop.com/tone-bakery-1959-tweed-princeton-clone) for 599$
I have found many different rebrands of this amp for as low as 199$ and as high as 999$!
They seem to cost 120-140$ if you order 20pcs.
http://grandtechnology.en.made-in-china.com/product/KvTnZaPjHpUI/China-5f2a-Handwired-Tube-Guitar-Amplifier-with-8-Celestion-Speaker-G-5-.html
Those amps have this 6Z4 rectifier tube which makes it easy to track down all the rebranded/rebadged versions and hunt for the cheapest one:
https://www.google.be/search?q=6Z4+tweed
Some come with a Jensen the others with a celestion.

They all come from this factory: (showing their reverb unit here:)
http://www.bestamp-guitar.com/e_productshow/?1240-Vintage-Reissue-Tube-Reverb63-Tank-Fender-Style-1240.html

200$
If we order 10 pcs:
http://grandtechnology.en.made-in-china.com/product/BvFQuXEdEhcm/China-Tube-Guitar-Amplifier-Vintage-Reissue-63-Reverb-Unit-GR-63-.html

Last edited: Sep 07, 2017 17:27:35

Got the Tone Bakery Reverb Tank late Tue and just got a chance to fire it up last night. These are just some of my initial impressions. When I have some more time I will snap some pictures and post them.
The unit is covered in tweed cloth. The tweed is not lacquered but it's applied very cleanly....no gaps, glue drips, etc. The grill cloth is also cleanly applied. The leather handle is a nice touch. I popped the back panel off and it does have a 17" Accutronics pan which is screwed to the bottom of the cab as opposed to being spring mounted. The cab itself appears to be actual plywood and not the dreaded MFD/particle board. Tubes are Ruby Branded and like the Fender RI, a 6V6, 12AX7, and 12AT7. It is actually pt to pt handwired and to my untrained eye actually looks pretty neat and clean....not Gomez or Nocturne pristine but pretty decent. One thing I immediately caught that I didn't like was the cheapy thin reverb tank cables....the RCA jacks on two of the cables are not a good tight fit so I ordered some better cables w/ right angle jacks from Antique Electrical (can't go wrong for $3.95) but I guess this is how they cut corners. Jacks are a bit tight but make good connections, pots feel smooth and the on/off switch feels sturdy and is dead quiet. In fact when turned on the whole unit is very quiet and will probably be even better when I switch out the pan cables. So how does these thing sound? Like a good outboard reverb unit should. Lots of control over the 'verb that you can't get w/ onboard 'verb and of course tons of drippy wet surf
surf tones which are very easy to dial up. This being my first outboard unit I'm just getting used to the controls and their nuances. I wasn't exactly using a typical surf guitar (a big Guild X175 hollowbody w/ P-90 type pu's) through a handwired DeLisle Nickel Box 5 watt tube amp w/ 12" speaker. Outside of the extreme drippy surf stuff I was able to dial up real nice fat blues tones at other settings. The tone pot is well voiced and I was really surprised how much it effects the "drip". Didn't notice too much tone suck in the low end. At extreme settings, the unit will start pushing my 5 watter into overdrive but it's a good nice smooth organic tube OD. Will be back with the pictures and further impressions as I try other guitars with the unit. So far, so good.

Last edited: Sep 14, 2017 13:21:43

I actually had some good RCA cables in my spare parts box but they were for hooking up audio components and the plugs, while high quality, were straight and pretty large so I ordered a set w/ right angle plugs from Antique Electrical. I also ordered a footswitch as the unit has a footswitch jack but didn't come with one. I was toying with the idea of doing up the tweed in lacquer but since I only play at home it's probably not necessary. It's interesting to note the tonal difference between my on-board amp reverb vs the Tone Bakery Reverb Unit. The on board 'verb is actually very good in my DeLisle Nickel Box. It is tube driven with a 17" MOD two spring pan and is more Ampeg sounding than Fender. The MOD pan while being listed as "medium decay" actually has a longer decay than the equivalent Accutronics pan. It will get you some really nice fat to deep cavernous reverb but with minimal drip even when dimed. The Tone Bakery unit on the other hand is Fender 'verb all the way. It can do deep, fat, etc but there is tons of drip available when needed. I have heard some talk about switching out the 6V6 tube for a vintage correct NOS 6K6, generally pertaining to the Fender '63 RI's. Would there be any advantage to doing that in the Tone Bakery Unit? I still need to try it out with my other guitars, but right now I'm pretty happy with the sound I get with the stock 6V6.

Last edited: Sep 15, 2017 10:31:22

I did order a NOS 6K6 tube (a GE). The description of the Unit is as follows "This 1963 Fender Tube Reverb clone features a period-correct Accutronics 2-spring long reverb tank, a 12AX7 input tank, a 12AT7 reverb driver tube, and a 6V6 output tube". Taking into consideration that it's Chinese made from the same factory that produces Tweed clones, etc I would venture to say it is most likely the same circuit and is utilizing a 6V6 mainly because they don't make 6K6's anymore and Chinese made Ruby branded 6V6's are probably cheap as dirt, especially when buying in bulk in China from the manufacturer (pretty much like Fender does). I'll do some research and make a decision after I get the 6K6 tube. My only worry is could a 6K6 fry the unit? I just can't believe that the Chinese factory would go with anything original in circuit design.

Last edited: Sep 18, 2017 13:45:28

Thanks for all the feedback. With regards to the spring pan....spring pans seem to be all over the place with regard to sound/quality these days. You are correct about the MOD v Accutronics. The medium decay 17" MOD pan I have in my DeLisle amp has more tail than the long decay Accutronics in the standalone unit. My unofficial rule of thumb is: for internal tube reverb in combo amps (which only share pre-amp tubes), I prefer the deeper sounding, longer decay 2 spring MOD pan (IMO you get more usable reverb sounds out of it). For a standalone unit, w/ a power tube plus 2 pre-amp tubes and the dwell, mix and tone controls the Accutronics is the preference. I have also been experimenting by mixing some minimal to moderate reverb from my amp w/ the reverb from the unit. Once I get the 6K6 I will have the back of the reverb unit off and will take pictures of the unit, inside and out and hopefully be able to post them.

Last edited: Sep 18, 2017 17:40:53

I did email Tone Bakery/JRR Shop and they said the circuit in the Creme 'Verb is "very, very close" to an original '63 Fender. I went ahead and swapped out the stock Ruby 6V6 for a NOS GE 6K6GT. The difference was not the tonal epiphany that doing the swap on a Fender '63 Reissue Verb probably is but when cranked up the reverb unit no longer pushes my amp into overdrive / mild distortion and the highs are tamed a bit making the unit's tone control more usable. As you will see in the pictures in the next post, the wiring job is no Gomez, Nocturne, or beautiful piece of art like my hand wired DeLisle amp but hand wired it is and pretty well executed at that. Most definitely easier to service than the PCB Fender RI.

Last edited: Sep 20, 2017 20:33:38

Surfadelphia wrote:

The difference was not the tonal epiphany that doing the swap on a Fender '63 Reissue Verb probably is but when cranked up the reverb unit no longer pushes my amp into overdrive / mild distortion and the highs are tamed a bit making the unit's tone control more usable.

Glad it's working out for you.

6K6 typically operates at some slightly lessened output than the design parameters of a 6V6 so you may be hearing some of that result. Happy knob twirling.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.