Komet

[roknroll]

Komet 60 and 80 are very loud. Let me repeat. Very loud. If you do not have a venue that you can crank them in, you are wasting your money. These amps have to be loud to achieve "that" tone otherwise it's pedal city.

[jblues]

There was a picture in guitar player of a komet's insides, comparing the extra resistrs in the komet to the express, which didn't have these you get less treble gain and less sensitivity (these resistors were in line with the signal path like summing resistors used to knock down some of the signal before the last couple of gain stages) one was 220k in signal path with a 330k to ground into the grid of the third gain stage ( in an express this was .002 uF dc blocking cap with a 150k resistor to ground. the dc blocking cap is .1uF in the komet ) the other resistor "added is a 200k after the .02 blocking cap into the phase inverter)
i did a compare of the 2 differences and found i like the sensitivity of the express hands down to the komets "bigger" bass which if you tweak the express you can get as well as the infinite sustaining harmonics, by the way.
another note on the komet is the power rail is slightly different more marshall like.... and the hi lo sensativity switch is in there but everyone use hi sensativity anyhow.

[roknroll]

There was a picture in guitar player of a komet's insides, comparing the extra resistrs in the komet to the express, which didn't have these you get less treble gain and less sensitivity (these resistors were in line with the signal path like summing resistors used to knock down some of the signal before the last couple of gain stages) one was 220k in signal path with a 330k to ground into the grid of the third gain stage ( in an express this was .002 uF dc blocking cap with a 150k resistor to ground. the dc blocking cap is .1uF in the komet ) the other resistor "added is a 200k after the .02 blocking cap into the phase inverter)
i did a compare of the 2 differences and found i like the sensitivity of the express hands down to the komets "bigger" bass which if you tweak the express you can get as well as the infinite sustaining harmonics, by the way.
another note on the komet is the power rail is slightly different more marshall like.... and the hi lo sensativity switch is in there but everyone use hi sensativity anyhow.

JD
I think that if you have the opportunity to play a Komet in a large auditorium and could crank the Komet into power amp distortion you would see how very responsive it is. I am not saying one is better than the other only that a Twreck Ex gets well into it's natural overdrive mode at more moderate volume levels because of it's lower wattage design. In a large open room where you don't have to worry about your wife, kids, the neighbors or the first 10 rows of listeners, the Komet will achieve "the sound" as well. Depending on the size of the room you are in, amplifiers can have a tendency to overpower a fixed cubic footage of room. Actually the more I think about it there is probably a mathematical relationship between amplifier wattage and cubic footage of a room resulting in some "factor" that expresses how well an amp achieves it's tone in a room. Now there's some food for thought. The hi/lo sensitivity switch is just switching a split plate load resistor setup between a normal gain (hi) and a lesser gain (lo) a simple but very cool idea.
Regards

[sobersuds]

I added the split plate load resistor switch on my Express clone so I could skew the tone a little more to back-end distortion for playing blues.

Even with around 28ohms resistance in the low sensitivity position before the PI, the amp is still pretty aggressive. I find it a bit more Plexi like. Wide open, it sounds fantastic, with more power tube colouring of the tone.

In either position (high sensitivity or low sensitivity), it is a great sounding amp. I think it is just a little more versatile with the split plate load switch.

Sobersuds

[jblues]

rock and roll you are referring to the spl, sound pressure level. whic in a small room you get more of due to the reflection of the sound waves ....but a note i live out in the middle of no where and i dime my amps all the time ...so it's only my preference for the less is more approach of the express. it's designed with the gain statges stock or like the rca tube specs more or less and the tone shaping is done in between these stages the stage before the phase inverter is amplifying mote treble than a "stock " rca type gain stage, this helps bring out the harmonics more and pushes them up in the gain structure. adding resistors in series like fenders and marshals and ,well everyone else, is robbing treble as well as gain (that's why a lot of amps have a capacitor to bypass those nasty resistors...) in a one channel amp they are unecessarry ( marshalls and fenders used mixing resistors for the channels to eliminate bleed back into the other channel).so the addition of parts in audio equiptment isn't a good idea it makes the signal degrade....that's why the "best" sounding amps are the old ones, they are simple designs that originally were licensed from RCA.(RCA had the patents on the technology of valves then).
notice hendrix played 100 watt marshalls this was to achieve the feed back at ...stock gain. same with eddie van halen; loud but very little distortion.... so the komet is loud, and in that if you play on lower volume "gain " settings, you will achieve more feed back to the strings through volume just like my marshall when i dime it...
but i know everyone can't play a 100 watt or a 50 watt amp dimed , even at a gig.... so try the express with the 6v6's and tweak it forget about the komet. the komet is for guys like george lynch (who plays one) who can play the thing dimed if he wants and no bartender is going to gripe.

[playloudd308]

I too live in the middle of nowhere so thank god crankin them up isnt really an issue, how does it like attenuators though? I really dont gig much but i do everytime i get the chance and i would hate to have that nice of a bedroom amp

[jblues]

attenuators don't seem to be aproblem if they are good ones like the air brake (big ohmite power resisters, no inductor fancy stuff) but they aren't cheap to build or buy since the ohmite resistors are like 15 to 20 $ each and you need a big box too like 8" X 11" heh since the resistors are huge.
but i'm a perfectionist so if it souns diff with it engaged....lets just say i don't have very many effects...and none of them are digital, and all are modded so you know my attenuator has to sound dead on or forget it.i used a bridged - t desisign(like they use in telecommunications) but i used huge ohmite power resistors i play a 50 w plexi marshall(the real rms when dimed is closer to 120 watts) so i use the 100 watter resistors.link to attenuator page http://www.amps.zugster.net/articles/attenuation/