Anywho so we got talking about his 829B amps the other day at lunch and how well they performed compared to a standard 6L6 setup. I'd just picked up 6 NOS examples of the military version (3E29) for super cheap (I felt like I was stealing them at $1 a pop) and wanted to use them in some sort of push pull pair configuration for a compact 100W amp. So I casually ask Pete if he has any extra iron laying around that he'd be willing to sell. He sits back, thinks on this for a second and mentions some custom transformers he'd had wound in Holland by a company named Wijdeven. These transformers were supposed to be wound for a clean 100W (i.e. 20Hz to 20kHz @ 100W). I said I'm interested and asked how much, to which he countered with "I'll just give you the damn things, I'll never use em..". I tried to offer him money but he insisted that they be gifts.. Very nice of him.
Two days later after work my friend picks me up from work and sitting in his backseat is a box with two big silver-end-belled transformers. The build quality on these things is amazing, they are short and fat in the lamination stack compared to the typical Marshall tall and skinnier lamination stack. I didn't think they looked like 100W transformers but the weight sure was there! Quite the gift from a really cool guy!
I guess the only "catch" to my using these is that I setup my HP 8903B and use Pete's scripts to run some FFT's on the amps I've been building, something I've been meaning to do anyways. Once I build my Vibroverb, 2203 and 5F6A in the fall I will definitely be doing said analysis as well as some small write-ups that I plan on posting here for you guys to consume (much as Andy has done with his G2 findings, but with more pics
). It's time that the lack of more in-depth analysis on guitar amps becomes a thing of the past! We will get past the mojo and get down to the science, even if it kills me (hopefully not by shock)!
