anyone been inside a bludo robben ford amp, or the real 102?

[talbany]

During TWEAKING w/wires HANGIN in the air, once in a while a jumper lead wil FALL into a ZONE, and sound INCREDIBLE for just a few moment, i`ve had this happen for real ONCE, n that was a 12 volt wire in just the right position against a V1b lead wire! I got VELVET NO FIZZ BARREL WARM sustain, it was incredible, magically delicious...course it WAS unstable so bk ta drawing board, Had says that if u took the amp apart u couldn`t fig out how he did it.... I blv the magic is in controlled oscillation/rfi interaction, n a stable way...much like the lore of a really good trainwreck, well, they are all great i suppose! Again like TB says LEAD dress!

my .02, go ahead n shoot me i could care less!

jim@Omegaamps

Jim,

I actually had an intermittent connection in the shielded cable run to the OD level pot. After moving the amp from gig to home, etc. sometimes the OD sounded amazing; nice and warm, no fizz, every pickup combination on the strat sounded great.

After fixing the section of cable, I spent the better part of 2 days trying varying resistor values to approximate what was happening and could not reproduce it. Probably should have glued the wires in place or something!

All that to say that there are so many interactions inside the d-amp that can make or break the tone. Probably why HAD spent such a long time building/tweaking each one!

-jack

HAD had a similar thing happen to the phase inverter on an old Bassman that caused it to become severely unbalanced.. The result was an amp that sounded "incredible" at low volume levels..He tried to replicate it and became the inspiration behind what was later labeled "starve" switch..Fart around with tube amps long enough and your bound to stumble across and unusual..

Tony

[jam-mill]

Hi Jack

Are you saying that the faulty connection was with the inner core or the shield?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

Despite being careful, I apparently managed to melt the inner core insulator when attaching 'ground tails' to the coax. Eventually, there must have become an intermittent short to ground.

-jack

[jam-mill]

During TWEAKING w/wires HANGIN in the air, once in a while a jumper lead wil FALL into a ZONE, and sound INCREDIBLE for just a few moment, i`ve had this happen for real ONCE, n that was a 12 volt wire in just the right position against a V1b lead wire! I got VELVET NO FIZZ BARREL WARM sustain, it was incredible, magically delicious...course it WAS unstable so bk ta drawing board, Had says that if u took the amp apart u couldn`t fig out how he did it.... I blv the magic is in controlled oscillation/rfi interaction, n a stable way...much like the lore of a really good trainwreck, well, they are all great i suppose! Again like TB says LEAD dress!

my .02, go ahead n shoot me i could care less!

jim@Omegaamps

Jim,

I actually had an intermittent connection in the shielded cable run to the OD level pot. After moving the amp from gig to home, etc. sometimes the OD sounded amazing; nice and warm, no fizz, every pickup combination on the strat sounded great.

After fixing the section of cable, I spent the better part of 2 days trying varying resistor values to approximate what was happening and could not reproduce it. Probably should have glued the wires in place or something!

All that to say that there are so many interactions inside the d-amp that can make or break the tone. Probably why HAD spent such a long time building/tweaking each one!

-jack

HAD had a similar thing happen to the phase inverter on an old Bassman that caused it to become severely unbalanced.. The result was an amp that sounded "incredible" at low volume levels..He tried to replicate it and became the inspiration behind what was later labeled "starve" switch..Fart around with tube amps long enough and your bound to stumble across and unusual..

Tony

Tony,

In retrospect, it seems that perhaps a 'naturally occurring' HF taper was created due to the intermittent connection...

BTW, how are things in Charles County? Cold there? Blue Crab season is just around the corner!!! I'm originally from B'more County and miss the bounty of the Chesapeake.

-jack

[lovetone]

Hi Jack

Are you saying that the faulty connection was with the inner core or the shield?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

Despite being careful, I apparently managed to melt the inner core insulator when attaching 'ground tails' to the coax. Eventually, there must have become an intermittent short to ground.

-jack

Well it all looks o.k. but I have also found that some coax does not like to be soldered even just soldering the inner core melts the insulation. It could be that it changed the impedance / capacitance so as mentioned worked like the hf taper.

Geoff

[bluesfendermanblues]

HAD had a similar thing happen to the phase inverter on an old Bassman that caused it to become severely unbalanced.. The result was an amp that sounded "incredible" at low volume levels..He tried to replicate it and became the inspiration behind what was later labeled "starve" switch..Fart around with tube amps long enough and your bound to stumble across and unusual..

Tony

Where can I find a schemo regarding the "starve switch"?
Its supposed to in #004, but can't find the info. Hints please

[mhartman]

HAD had a similar thing happen to the phase inverter on an old Bassman that caused it to become severely unbalanced.. The result was an amp that sounded "incredible" at low volume levels..He tried to replicate it and became the inspiration behind what was later labeled "starve" switch..Fart around with tube amps long enough and your bound to stumble across and unusual..

Tony

Where can I find a schemo regarding the "starve switch"?
Its supposed to in #004, but can't find the info. Hints please

There is a hand-drawn schem in the files section somewhere. I forget exactly where. It unbalances the PI if I remember correctly. I installed it on my Ultraphonix mod a while back and like it for a bit quieter playing.

[bcook]

On the first page of this thread:
https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.ph ... ght=starve
There are some good ideas for a blues player :)

[bluesfendermanblues]

Thanks guys!

[glasman]

Something to consider

Acording to Robben he had Alexander build him an exact replica of his 102 as an extra back up amp..At one point was a combo (gold script I believe) later put into a black head..14 min into it Robben says HAD did everything he could to duplicate 102 and yet it's still fairly obvious Robben prefers 102

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO-QZNeIBYU

Why because it's an instrument and very rarely (if ever) do 2 of them sound exactly alike..AFAIK 102 at one time did have the HF taper when it was a low plate classic later removed..Many that have had the opportunity to play 102 say the amp was (without the D-Lator) a very bright amp..
Apart from all that! play 1 amp for over 30 years and get the gift of exploiting all of it's wonderful nuances....

Tony

I had a chat a couple of years ago with Jackson Browne and David Lindley after a show in Las Vegas.

Jackson made two comments regarding Alexander.

1. NEVER EVER leave your amp with Alexander, they NEVER come back sounding the same. David made the same comment, in fact when he wants Alexander to work on his amps he stays with Alexander and the amp until it is repaired.

2. Jackson has on several occasions attempted to get Alexander to build a sonic clone of one of his favorite amps, it has never panned out.

On a side note, when Alexander tried to replicate SRV's SSS for Carlos Santana, according to a friend of Carlos, it was not even close.

So HAD has a lot of magic, but even the MASTER can't replicate his own work. So the rest of us as mere mortals will probably NEVER clone a perfect 102, but you can get very very close.


I would love to get one of these grail amps on my work bench for a few days. I would love to map the overall gain structure and transfer response for future reference. Carlos, Robben Larry are you listening? lol

[martin manning]

HAD is only the sorcerer's apprentice!

[talbany]

Tony

[Structo]

Hi Jack

Are you saying that the faulty connection was with the inner core or the shield?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

Despite being careful, I apparently managed to melt the inner core insulator when attaching 'ground tails' to the coax. Eventually, there must have become an intermittent short to ground.

-jack

Yeah that type of shielded cable is difficult to solder without melting.

I have always used the Teflon shielded cable.
Lower pf and the Teflon helps prevent melting.

Apex Jr. is a good source for it.

[jam-mill]

Hi Jack

Are you saying that the faulty connection was with the inner core or the shield?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

Despite being careful, I apparently managed to melt the inner core insulator when attaching 'ground tails' to the coax. Eventually, there must have become an intermittent short to ground.

-jack

Yeah that type of shielded cable is difficult to solder without melting.

I have always used the Teflon shielded cable.
Lower pf and the Teflon helps prevent melting.

Apex Jr. is a good source for it.

Geoff and Tom,

Thanks for the good info and source for coax!

-jack

[FuzzFaceBuilder]

While still a YT video (with all of its warts), this video sounds like the stage volume of 102 when compared to the volume of the kit and trumpet. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEKSYuRgExo

102 is a BRIGHT amp!

[Structo]

Thanks, that's a great video!

This one sounds pretty accurate tone wise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUOA_7tInfw