What kind of amp are you using with your Rick?

trancedental · Post by **trancedental** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:41 pm

Fender Twin Reverb '73 Blackfaced circuit, Vox AC30 TBX (Blues) Roland Jazz Chorus JC77, Matchless Lightning clone with 6V6's, Marshall 18W clone, Roland Micro Cube......I think that's it?
Need to get a few more guitars to even up the numbers!

telebob · Post by **telebob** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 1:32 am

Dr Bob, the only time I've had the pleasure of hearing a Divided by 13 amp was when Keith Emerson played at Toad's Place in New Haven CT with the immortal Marc Bonilla on guitar. Marc has long been one of my favorite players and his sound was terrific!

Me? I played my 360 through my Rivera Chubster 40. Kickin' little amp with a HUGE sound!

dc67 · Post by **dc67** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:55 am

Here's my AC30HW and JMI AC30 piggyback set:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4876y/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/twovox.jpg

A DR504 Hiwatt and Marshall 18 Watt clone:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4876y/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hiwatt.marshall.jpg

A nice '64 Gibson Hawk with a 15" speaker.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4876y/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hawk2.jpg

One day I will have one of these:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4876y/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/selmer.jpg

Don

daddyo · Post by **daddyo** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:14 am

Vox AD50VT. Sounds nice on the AC30 setting with the gain turned down a bit to compensate for the high gain P/U's (360/12). Fender Twin setting sounds good too. Come to think of it, so does the Boutique Clean. You can also add onboard compression which also sounds good. Loud enough to gig with too.

ol_reb · Post by **ol_reb** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:42 am

Marshall DSL 50 & a Marshall 1936 2x12 cabinet. Sounds great with my 350 FG, 610 FG, 650 Monty & 360 FG.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:32 am

For guitar, I have 2 RICS (230 and 330/12) and have one more on the way (360/6 VP). I use lots of different amps ranging from my '93 Korg reissue AC30 with Celestion Blue speakers, a Sovtek MIG50H Midget, Mesa Dual Rectifier, a modified Silvertone 1484, Supro Thunderbolt, '64 and (blackfaced) '73 Deluxe Reverbs....it all depends on what sound I'm going for and where I'm playing.

For bass, I use my 4003 copy I made myself through an early 80's MTI-era Ampeg SVT, my modded Sunn 200S, my Sunn 2000S, or some solid state Ampegs too if I'm playing out at jams.

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:38 am

The "C" word!

ric330 · Post by **ric330** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:50 pm

Hey Kevin is the "C" word Carr, Carvin, Crate, etc.
OK,I missed something, what is the "C" word?

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 12:51 pm

Shhh...(copy)...

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 1:28 pm

yes, Kevin Cole has it right...its a copy. I won't make any more and won't ever sell this one, and made some people mad when I posted pics, so I won't do that anymore either. But it plays and sounds great, just like a real one in fact, and was made to replace my former '73 4001 that needed about $600 of repairs to play right.

All my RIC guitars are real though, and I'm refinishing my 230 in blueboy thanks to Paul's help with getting the paint color right. I should be ready for paint in a month or so, and I'll be posting pics. It will be looking a LOT better than before!

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:14 pm

Blueboy roolz! As does Paul.

Back on the amp query, I have been quite enamored of the sound and versatility of my THD Flexi, since I can change tubes and get it to sound like a lot of different amps.

Nevertheless, I am currently venturing out and working on a stereo amp for my Ricks that is loosely based upon Vox topology. I am trying to keep some focus, but have gotten sidetracked a bit by different features. I'm hopeful that I can have the full prototype finished by the end of the year. When I get that right, I will work on a better stereo speaker cab.

This stuff is pretty exciting, since I have been wanting to do it for so long and have in a lot of unproductive directions for a while, but I'm finally getting the design done. The good news is that I have learned quite a bit from my diversions.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 10:29 am

Sounds like a fun project Mark! If you haven't yet, I encourage you to visit the amp bbs sites on the web. Places like http://www.webervst.com/vstbbs/bbs.html , http://www.firebottle.com/ampage/ , http://www.hoffmanamps.com/Forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl . There are lots of really knowledgeable people around on these sites that can help you with any questions you have on your project. Also, THD makes some great products. I've met Andy Marshall from THD a couple times and he's a cool guy too.

I've been working on an amp project on and off for a long time that I'm getting close to finishing too. When I get done with it, it will be 3 complete amps in one head! It started life as a power amp chassis for a Conn organ circa 1964, and had 3 power amps in the one chassis. I added a seperate chassis with 3 preamps in it and built a head, faceplates, etc. It has 14 tubes total in it, and is almost as heavy as an SVT head, and about the same size too. One channel will be a take on a modded blackface bassman another will be a modded Marshall 2204 circuit, and the third is my own creation with a little less power than the other two.

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:08 pm

Very cool, Greg. Yes, I do look at those fora, 18watt.com and the AX84.com site (a lot.) I've talked with Ed Degenero before, but I bet Andy is a great guy to have a chat with.

Wow! You definitely up me on the throw weight of that amp. Especially while I'm scaling mine back- right now it is like a couple of switching preamps (12AX7+EF86) into dual AC15 output sections. I did that so I can run both amps off of one very standard power transformer, slightly cheaper output trannies and not use as much power. I'm probably going to use Kevin O'Connor's power scaling, as well.

I think this will sound very good clean, but I'm not sure about how good it will sound distorted. I may have to mess around with the bias to get the exact feel I want. I may also change at least one channel of one side (bridge pickup in rick-o-sound mode) of it to be a bit more like an 18 Watt.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:19 pm

I've thought about using O'Connor's power scaling in something too, but its gotta wait until I get this 3 in 1 amp done for sure, plus theres others in line. I've got a Supro Thunderbolt head up next, then an 18watt, and a clone of the mods I did to my brother's Silvertone 1484 in a new chassis for a better layout, a JTM45, and a Dynaco Stereo 70. Too many projects hehe!

Your preamps into AC15 sounds pretty cool. I think you'll get great cleans, and the overdrive will be ok depending on how you have it arranged? I modded channel 1 on my brother's Silvertone, and added an EF86 and I fell in love with the sound of those! Its really important though not to load the output of it too much. I went from the EF86 into a cathode follower so the gain of the EF86 is maximied and it isn't loaded down at all, then into the tone stack and volume control, then a gain stage using 1/2 a 12AY7 (the other half was used for the CF) and it goes from a clean better than Fender's, to an overdrive that approaches Marshall JCM 800 territory. You won't get that overdrive level with just an EF86 into the phase inverter like in the Vox setup, but you'll definitly get good cleans.

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 9:22 pm

I have been going fairly cookbook with my arrangement, pulling circuits from different impressions of the standards. I think you're right- the EF86 won't be a grind channel without the CF. I like the idea of the low mu gain stage too, but that makes me want to re-think the whole notion of a 12AX7 stage- maybe keep two different topology EF86 channels on the bridge position amp, and go vanilla (EF86/12AX7) with the neck position side.

I would be curious to find out what your experience is with the new EF86/EF806 tubes, since that is evidently a tricky valve to manufacture consistently.