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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Kitty Hawk

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12/15/1999 1:09 PM
Jsh	Kitty Hawk Anyone familiar with the Kitty hawk amps? I've got a rather old one. Some people claim that the latter build (the M1 and stuff) have very unreliable parts (transformer and stuff). I wonder whether I need to have certain parts to be replaced. Most likely, I will only use the Power Amp in the near future. Mine is a "Grand Lead", made by Roy in Germany.

12/15/1999 6:10 PM

I recently repaired a Grand Lead (the same as an M1,) and the major problems with this amp are:

1) Everything's on the PCB, and it's all soldered to the top side (not through-hole...)

2) Including the (undersized) OT. The OTs tend to overheat and melt down due to too much DC current flowign through them. The amp is supposedly Class A (if you hit the little switch) and is very hard on OTs.

I replaced the OT with a Fender Tone-Master 100W OT with VERY good results. Increased low end, better note definition and (hopefully) greater reliability. The Tone Master OT also has a winding so you can still use the line out! One more thing, install a shorting jack on the OT tap you normally use so it won't blow up if operated without a load.

If you can't find anyone in your area to fix it for you (or you don't want to do it yourself,) please email me.

Farrow
http://surf.to/pharaohamps
http://www.skybolt6.com

12/20/1999 12:11 AM

I tried posting a while ago, but the server apparently was too busy and I saved it as a txt file.
here goes: (oh, and if the GL is identical to the M1, I have the schem)
I own and love an M1 with hardwood cab. I know about the vulnerable Xformers, I know of one person who had his OT fried, and replaced with a Fender one. Mine is still just fine, replacing the transformers is not something I feel is necessary when they are not developing problems.
The standard pots are cheap and plastic, you may want to replace those with the good stuff. Same goes for tube sockets (ever had to wiggle a preamp tube after transit?), replace those with ceramics, even goldplated if you're a perfectionist.
The channelswitching relay (also uses a couple of opto's, btw) in this amp is connected with very thin wire, and held in place above the PCB on a big glob of hotmelt glue. Not very neat, mister Roy.
But these can all be taken care of, my Xformers are doing fine, and the amp sounds marvellous in class A (with Svet 6L6's), clean channel. I'm not impressed with the gain modes, but that can be modded.
Hope it helps. Oh, it might take some time, but the guys at KH Europe (on the net) were very courteos and sent me a schem of my amp and it's bigger brother, the M3.
Hope it helps.

12/21/1999 1:29 AM

Mike, if the guy whose OT fried was Dan Dunlap, I replaced it for him. The only things that seemed "extra-shoddy" on his were the power resistors between the filter caps on the power amp board, and they were off the board in the air secured with silicone (not HM glue...) But they were staked pretty well so I left them be.

The pots are shoddy, and one of Dan's was replaced (master vol I think.)

Tube sockets are also not too good, plus they're mounted to the board, so they're vulnerable to heat and they make the PCB warp.

And the gain modes are crap, too. With a bit of work, you can get some nice tones out of it. I tried a 12AU7 in there and dimed the gain modes to make up for the vol. drop and it was much smoother. I was quite impressed with the clean mode (EL34) class A. Very nice. 6L6 was good too but the harmonic content wasn't as pleasing to my ears.

Farrow
http://www.skybolt6.com

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