Ampeg V9 Power Amp and the SSS.

[LeftyStrat]

Could this be the inspiration for the later SSS amps with the cathode follower driver?

[David Root]

It's possible. The SVT (same circuit) came out in '69, the first SSS about 10 years later, but could just as well have been this Heath W6-A or any of many such designs from the '50s. Notice it also uses 6550s, same as all SSS except the first four, not a coincidence I think.

Maybe Ampeg copied these older designs, very likely I think.

I haven't noticed it in Radiotron Designers Handbook, (4th Edition, 1953) but I haven't combed thru all several hundred pages of that tome, however I would bet it's in there somewhere.

The SSS used cathode follower drivers direct coupled to the power tube grids using negative bias probably of -150V or more. The W6-A is likely around minus 175-180V judging by the bias winding being 130-0.

[LeftyStrat]

Thanks for that schematic. I hadn't seen that. Definitely looks like "lineage."

[Max]

Could this be the inspiration for the later SSS amps with the cathode follower driver?

Guitar Player Magazine:
Were you making what was to become the overdrive before you made the Steel-String Singer?

Alexander Dumble:
"The Steel-String Singer came later, but I actually started making a series of amplifiers called the Dumbleland in about '66, and I still make them. That was the forerunner of the Steel-String Singer. I didn't change a whole lot about that; it was a design way ahead of its time. It was too much power and too silky clean for people. It's perfect for Stevie Ray, though. He has a hard time playing an Overdrive."

Guitar Player Magazine - September 1985

source: http://www.roblivesey.com/dumble/

Cheers,

Max

[LeftyStrat]

Yes, it seems the Heathkit W6 came out in 1958. That could have definitely served as inspiration, even down to the use of a 12BH7.

[Max]

even down to the use of a 12BH7.

I've a a copy of an original data sheet of a Dumble SSS 150W. And in the "tube compliment" part of this original data sheet a 12BH7 isn't mentioned.

Cheers,

Max

[LeftyStrat]

even down to the use of a 12BH7.

I've a a copy of an original data sheet of a Dumble SSS 150W. And in the "tube compliment" part of this original data sheet a 12BH7 isn't mentioned.

Cheers,

Max

I was speaking of inspiration for the V9.