Suede 102 Combo

[Guy77]

I recently did a 102 combo with suede and vox grill cloth. I discovered that I really like working with suede and the best part is it smells great!!

I attached a few pics here. Some things I noticed, it eats up a lot of glue so buy more than you need, I also discovered its easier to cut it with a sharp blade when you place it on a wooden surface. I usually cut my tolex on a marble slab in the back yard but when cutting suede a wood surface was much easier.

I also placed a dial in the back to have a variable negative feedback control.

Here are some pics.

Cheers

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[Colossal]

Looks really nice, Guy. Very clean! How do you like it with the Celestion Gold? Are you running 8R or 16R?

[stelligan]

Congrats - Nice looking combo!

[Guy77]

Looks really nice, Guy. Very clean! How do you like it with the Celestion Gold? Are you running 8R or 16R?

Thanks Colossal and Stelligan! Regarding the speaker, it is actually an 8 ohm speaker. I used a Bandmaster output transformer on this 2 x 6v6 build ( It actually has 6L6s in the photo but its built for 6v6s).

This output trans is 6k and has 2,4,8 ohm jacks so I wired it for an 8 ohm and two 4 ohm jacks.

The Celestion Gold sounds like pure heaven with this 102 build.

Cheers

[Colossal]

Awesome, good to know about the Gold!

[norburybrook]

Lovely looking combo. Classic Dumble look brown suede, silver front, vox cloth.

I'd be very careful with a gold in there though. They're only 50w and a 50w #102 will destroy that quite easily at gig level on overdrive my 100w bluesmaster blew a 300w EVM12L .

I'm a fan of the Alnico with Dumble amps too but I use the Alnico cream as it's 90w and takes a 50w amp nicely with the same sound as the blue/gold family


M

[Guy77]

Hi Marcus. Yes the 50 watt 102 was way too loud for this 50 watt Gold. I noticed it when I was running my JM beside it at the same time.

I ended up keeping the amp in its original 6v6 design and dropped the bias and changed the speaker to a G1265. The owner has been gigging it regularly and its been holding up fine with 6V6s and the G1265.

I was testing the AC voltages of the speaker jack with a dummy loud and when the amp was running in 20 watt mode with 6v6s and the overdrive channel pushing hard but not maxed I was getting over 15v AC which I believe is close to 40 watts!

I will have to try the 90 watt Alnico you mentioned. Sounds like a winner!

Happy Easter
Guy

[didit]

Hello Guy --

Looks great. Nudging me to get busy in the shop. Question about your output transformer as I have a few here spec'ed as "replacement" Blackface Bandmaster all definitely 4K ohms. Is yours from Tweed era or a special wind?

Best .. Ian

[M Fowler]

Great looking amp, congratulations.

Mark

[Guy77]

Hello Guy --

Looks great. Nudging me to get busy in the shop. Question about your output transformer as I have a few here spec'ed as "replacement" Blackface Bandmaster all definitely 4K ohms. Is yours from Tweed era or a special wind?

Best .. Ian

Thanks Mark. Hi Ian the transformer I used was this one here Hammond 1760JB. It sounded great with the JJ 6v6 tubes which is how the amp remained. I did try it for a day with 6L6 tubes and this transformer and it sounded great too. This is a 6k transformer. I preferred this transformer over the standard deluxe reverb transformer for the 6v6 tubes. This transformer is almost twice the weight of a deluxe reverb transformer.

Cheers
Guy

[romberg]

Very nice! As luck would have it, I am just about to start cutting the suede for my 102 head cabinet tomorrow. I really appreciate the tips. I've covered a couple of heads with leather before. But this will be my first time with suede.

My test patch did soak up a whole lot of contact cement. I was afraid it might show through on the finished side. But that did not seem to happen. I did note that I will have to be extra extra careful not to get any glue onto the finished side of the suede. The one spot where this happened on my test patch did not seem to totally buff out and recover from this mishap. With luck, mine will come out half as good as yours looks!

Mike

[didit]

Hi Ian the transformer I used was this one here Hammond 1760JB.

Got it -- Tweed era replacement with multi-tap secondary.

Thanks .. Ian