Dropped my 62 showman head off at my amp tech who suggested we change out a couple caps. Of course I’ll keep these components in a bag but I hate having to change these original components.

one thing he suggested is using a variac with the head. Is this necessary? Does anyone else use a variac with their vintage heads?

I now know why they call you the mysterious Tqi. That was a great reply and does make me feel a lot better. What a great analogy. I replaced them with the best that I can. Just worried about tone and future value of it.

what about the variac? This dude is an old schooler and I didn’t know if a variac was a necessity or overkill.

Last edited: Mar 12, 2023 16:14:16

N0_Camping4U wrote:

Dropped my 62 showman head off at my amp tech who suggested we change out a couple caps. Of course I’ll keep these components in a bag but I hate having to change these original components.

one thing he suggested is using a variac with the head. Is this necessary? Does anyone else use a variac with their vintage heads?

Here’s another take.

AC current in the US is not what it used to be. 112-117V wasn’t uncommon ‘at the tap’ (outlets in your home or venue) many moons ago. I regularly measure 125-127+ at home and regular spots around town these days.

Sure, you can just plug in and play at those levels. Some may even appreciate the ‘hot’ vibe it creates.

To follow the car analogy, doing so will just cook/burn the oil quicker so that 3-5k oil change (or 5-7-10k on synthetic) will need to be changed at or before 3k miles, not necessarily based on miles driven (play hours), but given the wear on tubes and possibly other components where the circuit just isn’t designed to run that hot. You will eventually hear and feel the amp just isn’t sounding or playing the same anymore. Volume, tone, quietness. Any or all will change.

Can you do that? Sure. Should you?…. Different folks, different strokes.

I prefer nice power tubes biased ‘just so’ per their own capacity. In turn that means one amp runs sweet at 116 volts, another at 119 volts, an other at 120 volts on the nose.

To do so reliably at home, at the rehearsal spot or the various places we play means extra kit. For me, it’s a Variac. Some rave about old units, which may well be warranted. I’ve gone the cheap route with the basic Chinese made red ones - with and without a built in meter. I’ve learned not to trust the built in meter as measuring with a multi-meter proves readings otherwise. That also means ignore the numbers around the dial. They appear to be readings relative to the line Voltage coming in. Think of it as a % of what is coming in rather than an absolute reading. A hot line will run hotter than the numbers shown. A ‘cold’ line (i.e. less than 120 volts in the US) will be less. And yes, going for the voltage starved EVH Brown Sound (~90 volts as I understand it) also has different than ‘normal’ wear implications.

My advice if you don’t wanna leave wear or premature need for ‘an Oil Change’ or ‘tire rotations’ to chance… get a Variac (with sufficient wattage capacity) and a basic multi-meter to check and set your line Voltage.

I’ve had great luck (touch wood!) running some NOS Tung-Sol power tubes in my Gomez El Sonido and Gomez Surfer for several years at many venues and locations with line voltages ranging from about 116 to 127 and never missed a beat. The Variac is the equalizer and balance point to make each you amp play exactly where they want to be. A fine tuned power feed to each amp is a glorious thing.

Like I said, just another take on the topic at hand. YMMV.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

This post may be neither here nor there, but i thought I would add some input based on a discovery I've had since picking up a piece of kit from d'addario called the Power Cable Plus. It's basically a replacement IEC cable but with an accessory plug. So essentially, a Y cable.

My initial reasons for this were twofold. One, to cut cable clutter and two, to just have a more robust line for the amp and reverb unit. I should also note that I modified my 6g15 (reissue) to use a better and also very short power cable. Using that d'addario cable has been fantastic as far as cleanliness goes.

But one odd side effect I've noticed that I did not expect at all,was that my tone has been identical no matter where I'm plugged in. It's totally bizarre. And to be honest,i actually didn't particularly like the tone at first because it sounded,I dunno...hifi? But it could definitely have just been placebo. Nonetheless,I've gotten so used to it and it's pretty crazy that I get zero tonal differences whether at home or at the old bar built back in the 50s that usually felt like my amp was starving for power at.

Anyway, just 0.02. These cables have been getting clearanced out at a lot of places so if your (modern) amp has an IEC, I can definitely recommend this particular cable or maybe even something similar if only for the clutter reduction. I only use a Twin and the Reissue, so for guys like me it's perfect. I would definitely be using a Variac if I had some vintage amp that I wanted to preserve tho.

Last edited: Mar 13, 2023 01:38:50