Gosh, Scott, where to start! As far as I could tell, a good time was had by all who attended. I'd brought a total of 11 speakers in addition to the ones already in my cabs. Jensen Neo and Tornado, Sugarcone, EVM-12L, Scumnico, and Jim Seavall's contributions: M75-, J75- and H75-LDHC) for people to try out in their cabinets.dogears wrote:So? Full report please......
The venue couldn't have been better-a stage in a large hall with good acoustics, so that you could really crank the amps and get a feel for what they're capable of without odd room effects and bleeding ears. The afternoon was filled with such a wide variety of amps and cabinets and speakers and tones and tales and beer, weatherwomen cooing and wishing they weren't in a church so they could...
...oh, I can't lie. It's pretty embarrassing. I was underwhelmed. Total attendance: 3.
Myself, Mark (pullshocks) and a fellow new to this community named Jeff, who is considering building a D-style amp. Jeff also brought his son...so I suppose attendance really was 4 (an increase of 33%!). Apparently, inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest face an appalling array of illnesses, injuries, and family emergencies during February and March. Heck, I was actually pretty well doped up myself on hydrocodone and Flexeril, since I was in a bad traffic accident a week ago and have neck/back problems from it. (I took half doses so I could drive safely and have a coherent sense of hearing.) But Mark drove in all the way from Seattle, and I'm not sure where Jeff came from. It was great to meet both of them. Anyway, Mark brought the only other amp besides mine, which was a labor-intensive project pushing 7581 tubes based on the Hybrid A circuit, IIRC. He had made his own chassis, along with a beautiful walnut-veneer combo cabinet. His guitar was also made by him, and very impressive. His amp had the HRM stack on the outside, and bypassable, but some things on his amp didn't seem to be working quite right. Hopefully he'll chime in here. It was also the first time he'd had the amp in such a large space, where he could hear it really open up.
His combo had a reconed 30W G12M in it, and sounded pretty good, but quite thin to my ears. We tried his amp through both of my cabs. One is a Bob Burt V-12 with a Scumnico and an M75-LDHC, and the other is a Forte vertical 3D that has a G12-65 and an EVM-12S in it. Very different sounding cabs, but both great. Both cabs added a great deal of body to the sound. True, a 2x12 will sound beefier than a 1x12, but even so it was clear to me that the single G12M wasn't helping his cause.
So we ended up trying out some different speakers in his combo, including a Scumnico and an Scumback H75-LDHC. The latter really seemed to compliment the amp well, bringing in a lot more body to it while not having too much in the upper mids. I wanted to put an EVM in it, but the mounting screws he had were too short for the cast frame.
My amp is a heavily modified D'Lite. Twin OPT, low plate classic, running KT-90s at 520V. It's kind of a tweaker's paradise, with external controls for adjusting the GNFB, V1 NFB, PI trimmer, and several other nonconventional controls. What I'd really hoped is to have a chance to directly compare it with a 4-tube 100W amp, but none showed up. Anyway, to my ear, my amp sounded pretty darn good. It better, considering the work I've put into it.
I was hoping to have a report of comparisons between Bluesmasters and ODS amps, between 2-holers and 4-holers, between high- and low-plate amps, and to finally have a chance to have the veil lifted from my ears on how to find the mystical sweet spot for the PI trimmer. But, alas, 'twas not to be.
One thing that the throng of attendees were reminded of was how much help we've gotten from this community. I sure would have liked to have met more of you. [/img]
