"Meat Plow" wrote in message
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On Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:53:57 +0100, Arfa Daily wrote:

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:13:49 +0100, Arfa Daily wrote:

Just had one of these lovely old amps across the bench, and was
extremely surprised to see a plate voltage of 730 on the two 6CA7 /
EL34 output pentodes.

That's what they run em at. What did you need to know about them, I
used to own a 112 combo 65/35 watter. Probably very similar.



Nothing particularly. Their website has all the schematics for free
download, and I fixed all the problems on this one. I was just
interested to see if anyone had any stories about them - or the
manufacturer in general - as it's not a brand commonly seen here.

Arfa

I didn't care for the sound of my 112 combo. It was tolerable with some
external FX. Played a sand colored 130 watt head didn't care for it.
Company was founded incognito by Leo Fender who at the time had a 10 year
non-compete clause with CBS. The early amps were better, newer being
hybrid with tube output. Pedal Steel guitar players did like them
however. And they made a decent keyboard amp.



Interesting. This one was a hybrid using some early can-type opamps in the
front end. The schematics showed three different output configurations, two
of which employed FETs in the driver/phase splitter. The version that I was
repairing had a conventional 12AX7 phase splitter. I don't play guitar
myself, but keep an instrument in the workshop for test purposes. I have to
say that the sound from this amp was 'harsh'. Not distorted or anything,
just not the 'smooth' sound that you normally associate with a tube output
stage. not 'melodic' sounding is about the best way I can put it. I guess
that's why they might be considered good keyboard amps. I've always thought
that the 'hard' sound of transistor power amps, suits keyboards well.

Arfa