Rocket (& 'Pool) Power section vs. AC30 power section

[fzfwyv]

Trying to understand some things relative to the importance of the power section &mainly the filtering. Specifically, I'm looking at the schematic for the Rocket (thanks guys!) and the schematic for an AC30/4 and wondering why the differences in filtering?

Seems KF has more filter caps and higher values (40+20+20+20) vs. the AC30/4 which has 16+16+8+8.

What is the purpose of the 40+40 before the standby switch in the KF design?

How much of the amp's dynamics are controlled by the filtering, etc?

The reason I ask is I've built quite a few different variations of the AC30/4 using Merc iron & Toneslut iron. I was thinking of mating the Rocket preamp with the AC30/4 power section but if some of th edynamics of the amp or other important features are lost then I want to know.

I guess I'm asking for a quick lesson on power filtering. I'm going to do my searching next & thanks for helping me with my questions!

-Rich

[RJ Guitars]

Trying to understand... looking at the schematic for the Rocket (thanks guys!) and the schematic for an AC30/4 and wondering why the differences in filtering?

What is the purpose of the 40+40 before the standby switch in the KF design?

How much of the amp's dynamics are controlled by the filtering, etc?

-Rich

Rich,

hope it's O.K. to take the parts I wanted from your post and paraphrase a bit...

We went through this exercise at least in part when we did the group build for the Rocket amps. It's over simplifying it to say it this way, but Ken Fisher liked to use a stiff power supply. So that leads to the reasonable question and great discussion starter of "How does a stiff power supply impact tone"? As we figure that out, it should help us understand those dynamic differences that make up some of the tone and behavior differences between an AC-30 and a Rocket.

My thought is that the placement of the standby switch keeps the GZ-34 rectifier from getting smacked too hard as all the other caps, in addition to the two 40uF's (80uF) charge up. If you use smaller values then it's not quite as hard of a shot to the GZ-34 and it's not as important where you put that switch. Maybe someone could say that another way with more technical clarity and eloquence, but that was the gist of things as I understood them.

You'll find an interesting reference to the TrainWreck Rocket at http://www.blueguitar.org/new/schem/tra ... atalog.pdf . This document will tell you that the Rocket was intended to be whole lot like the AC-30... but not exactly.

[fzfwyv]

I think you answered as I was browsing the group build post. Stiff power supply. Had some ghost note issues in an early build where I needed to increase the power supply filtering. Yes, it made it stiffer and changed the dynamic...I guess less squishy is best how I can describe it.

Thanks for the input. I'm continuing to read but this gets me closer!

Thanks,

Rich