simple dual 6V6 heads

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marqueemoon
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simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:40 am

Starting to think about selling my current EL84 head in favor of some 6V6 goodness. I like simple. No master volume, and ideally just volume/tone or volume/bass/treble. Onboard reverb not necessary. Looking for a blackface Fenderish or similar voice or something comparable. I'm not a fan of the overdriven tweed sound. Looking for 12-15 watts - enough to have some natural breakup at rock band volume. 4 and 8 ohm outs would be good, as would high and low gain inputs. The snob in me would prefer a handwired thing, but whatever.

Suggestions? I have a short list going, but I figure y'all might know of some I haven't thought of. I haven't ruled out a custom job, but $1K is probably going to be my very upper limit, and that's with a lot of scrimping and selling stuff. I will say cosmetics are not a big priority. I'd be fine with an ammo can amp or an uncovered birch ply box as long as it's rugged enough to transport to practices and shows.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by MechaBulletBill » Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:24 pm

Ampeg GVT15H? It has gain/volume but runs on 6v6s and not a lot does.

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Embenny
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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by Embenny » Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:59 pm

Yeah, I'm not aware of any dual 6V6 heads with no master volume.

The Traynor Darkhorse 15 is a Canadian-built dual 6V6 head, but it has a master volume. It does have a "USA/Brit/pure" switch that moves the tone stack pre/post-inverter or bypasses it altogether. In "pure" mode, all you have is volume and master volume, which is about as simple a dual 6V6 circuit as I've ever encountered in head form.

It's very compact, very well built, and sounds great. I owned one for a number of years. It would be worth checking out - one of the purest 6V6 tones I've ever heard.
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ifallalot
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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by ifallalot » Sat Apr 01, 2017 1:22 pm

Ibanez TSA15 will be perfect for you

https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=tsa15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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marqueemoon
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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Apr 01, 2017 5:18 pm

mbene085 wrote:Yeah, I'm not aware of any dual 6V6 heads with no master volume.

The Traynor Darkhorse 15 is a Canadian-built dual 6V6 head, but it has a master volume. It does have a "USA/Brit/pure" switch that moves the tone stack pre/post-inverter or bypasses it altogether. In "pure" mode, all you have is volume and master volume, which is about as simple a dual 6V6 circuit as I've ever encountered in head form.

It's very compact, very well built, and sounds great. I owned one for a number of years. It would be worth checking out - one of the purest 6V6 tones I've ever heard.
The Dark Horse is actually on my list. Don't know if there's a dealer in town. Cool that it comes with a soft case too.

I'm hoping to try out a Benson Monarch when I'm in Portland in a few weeks, but at $1700 it's wayyyyy over the budget. I tried a Supro 1600 combo today and it sounded amazing until it rattled, like all combos do.

KO Amps does a few 6v6 ammo can amps too. I'm curious about the Silvertoneish one.

Does anyone have experience with Filmosound conversions? I've never played one.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by druunkonego » Sat Apr 01, 2017 6:50 pm

Maybe check out a Mesa Blue Angel. They have a bit more headroom but might be worth checking out. I've seen a couple show up on the used market recently for less than your limit.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by CorporateDisguise » Sun Apr 02, 2017 6:44 am

I bought the Ceriatone OTS mini when looking with the same basic guidelines as yours. Brilliant fender like clean channel, and the overdrive is just astounding. I didn't know I could like preamp gain until I got this amp. It runs at around 15 or 20 watts. Worth looking into. You get a hand wired amp for PCB prices. I think Ceriatone also makes a Princeton head as well called the Princeztone. I have nothing but good things to say about them.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by OffYourFace » Sun Apr 02, 2017 4:48 pm

I'm sure you can find some sort of pre-built Weber kit or something. My main amp is a '76 Deluxe Reverb but I've thought about having a head version with only Reverb.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by Jaguar018 » Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:29 am

OffYourFace wrote:I'm sure you can find some sort of pre-built Weber kit or something. My main amp is a '76 Deluxe Reverb but I've thought about having a head version with only Reverb.
I have this exact thing, built by Pete Cage. Great minds think alike right? 8) :ph34r: :D

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by marqueemoon » Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:35 am

Thanks, everyone. I might have an opportunity for a deal on a Dark Horse, so that's moving it up the list a bit.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by muchxs » Tue Apr 04, 2017 10:03 am

CorporateDisguise wrote:I bought the Ceriatone OTS mini when looking with the same basic guidelines as yours. Brilliant fender like clean channel, and the overdrive is just astounding. I didn't know I could like preamp gain until I got this amp. It runs at around 15 or 20 watts. Worth looking into. You get a hand wired amp for PCB prices.
ODS style amps don't have discrete clean and overdrive channels. The overdrive circuit stacks on top of the clean circuit. They're in series.

The clean tone disengages the overdrive circuit.

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by onebigholiday » Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:14 pm

Satellite Amps, 3 Monkeys maybe?

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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by Embenny » Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:19 pm

marqueemoon wrote:Thanks, everyone. I might have an opportunity for a deal on a Dark Horse, so that's moving it up the list a bit.
Sweet, I say do it! I loved that little guy. It did this really cool thing where, within a certain range of the preamp gain knob, it just started getting super fat and juicy without breaking up. I would set it just below the point of preamp clipping, and then use the master volume (note: 6V6 power mode is the only one worth using). Gave a HUGE clean tone up until the power tubes start breaking up. If I wanted to thin out the tone a bit, I'd back off the preamp gain a little and it would sound like you engaged a Bright switch by comparison.

I liked the USA voicing of the tone stack (very Deluxe-ish), but taking out the tone stack entire in "pure" mode gave quite the bold tone and volume boost. I mainly used a closed-back V30 1x12" enclosure with it and the Pure mode had a bit too much midrange for my taste with a V30 (it really let the uncoloured tone show off the speaker's midrange bump), but I bet with most other speakers it would have been perfect.
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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by W.L.Weller » Thu Apr 06, 2017 10:18 am

http://ballseffects.com/amplifiers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm pretty sure the Balls 20 is a 2x6V6 amp.

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marqueemoon
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Re: simple dual 6V6 heads

Post by marqueemoon » Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:18 pm

W.L.Weller wrote:http://ballseffects.com/amplifiers/

I'm pretty sure the Balls 20 is a 2x6V6 amp.
Interesting. Unfortunate name though.

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