ampage Tube Amps / Music Electronics	For current discussions, please visit Music Electronics Forum.

ampage archive

Vintage threads from the first ten years

previous: Graywater Hey Bob,While I ten... -- 1/7/2000 5:04 PM

Re: Princeton Reverb

1/7/2000 10:46 PM
John Stokes	Re: Princeton Reverb Clearly, I also fall into the preservationist category. The thinking that there is an unlimited supply of SF era amps ripe for hack-butchery is just plain wrong. While that may have been OK some 25 years back, that thinking is WAY outdated today. Those amps are no longer being made. There is a finite supply, and it's getting smaller every day thanks to natural disasters (we have no control over) and modmeisters doing BS irreversable mods. Yeah, the modders seem to have a long list of excuses as to why their modding is OK. We've heard them all before. (I also have restored a few basket cases or amps that were butt-ugly abused, back to basically original form. My 61 Super is an example.) If some hack-butcher has already chopped an amp beyond the point of return, then there is nothing to lose. However, taking a stock example and then giving it the full Torres or Dr. Tone treatment is just plain stupid, IMO. Yes, it's YOUR amp, and you have every right to do whatever with it, including dousing it with gasoline and setting it on fire. However, that doesn't mean that such actions are smart. Today, there is a very good supply of amp parts on the market, including chassis, cabinets, and everything else you'd need to roll your own. If you think you have a "better idea" that would involve major irreversable butchery on an existing amp, IMO it is much better and smarter to just start from scratch and build your own custom dream amp. Several Ampagers have done just that. Bob does bring up an interesting apoint about modding the later red-knob amps that today are considered as garbage for the most part. Will those ever be held in high regard? Who knows. Certainly they are not in the same league as the earlier point-point hand wired amps. Even the Rivera era stuff is hand wired, but sounds kinda crappy. BTW, Graywater, I was born in western Kentucky, so I know what the strip-mines can do to the land. Very uncool. J.

1/7/2000 10:46 PM

John Stokes

Re: Princeton Reverb

Clearly, I also fall into the preservationist category. The thinking that there is an unlimited supply of SF era amps ripe for hack-butchery is just plain wrong. While that may have been OK some 25 years back, that thinking is WAY outdated today. Those amps are no longer being made. There is a finite supply, and it's getting smaller every day thanks to natural disasters (we have no control over) and modmeisters doing BS irreversable mods. Yeah, the modders seem to have a long list of excuses as to why their modding is OK. We've heard them all before.

(I also have restored a few basket cases or amps that were butt-ugly abused, back to basically original form. My 61 Super is an example.)

If some hack-butcher has already chopped an amp beyond the point of return, then there is nothing to lose. However, taking a stock example and then giving it the full Torres or Dr. Tone treatment is just plain stupid, IMO. Yes, it's YOUR amp, and you have every right to do whatever with it, including dousing it with gasoline and setting it on fire. However, that doesn't mean that such actions are smart. Today, there is a very good supply of amp parts on the market, including chassis, cabinets, and everything else you'd need to roll your own. If you think you have a "better idea" that would involve major irreversable butchery on an existing amp, IMO it is much better and *smarter* to just start from scratch and build your own custom dream amp. Several Ampagers have done just that.

Bob does bring up an interesting apoint about modding the later red-knob amps that today are considered as garbage for the most part. Will those ever be held in high regard? Who knows. Certainly they are not in the same league as the earlier point-point hand wired amps. Even the Rivera era stuff is hand wired, but sounds kinda crappy.

BTW, Graywater, I was born in western Kentucky, so I know what the strip-mines can do to the land. Very uncool.

J.

Replies:

DavidB Darwin in the amp world, dealers mu... -- 1/8/2000 12:41 AM
Bob So it's not about point-to-point; i... -- 1/8/2000 1:13 PM