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Vintage threads from the first ten years

supro supreme tone

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3/19/2000 7:58 PM

supro supreme tone

ive been collecting and repairing old supro amps for quite some time now and of all the amps ive owned ,repaired, fender marshall, silvertone, ect..., ivefound the supro supreme with the 6j7 preamp tube to be one of the best overdrive tones. these amps have 10" field coil rola speaker at 4 ohms, andare not loud enough for most gigging situations. also, the speaker being around 50 yrs old cant take alot of overdrive punishment. the speaker in these amps is a major part of the signature tone of these great little amps. i have yet to find a good recone or replacement speaker that does not adversly affect the tone. im wondering why these amps are not more popular among collectors, if there are any other techs who have opinions on these amps and if there are any practical solutions for solving the speaker recone / replacement problem. the opt is mounted on the speaker with rivets and has to be drilled to remove it, and there is little if any room in the amp to add a choke or mount the opt anywhere. ideas and opinions will be much appreciated. MUDDOBBER

3/20/2000 4:20 AM
muddobber	strange that there are no responses as yet. these amps, with only one preamp gain stage [a pentode] and two 6v6s are one of the best little tone amps out there if serviced and the right guitar is used. [i prefer a tele]. surely someone has some imput or opinions. does anyone know of a new field coil manufacturer or a good reconer with similar original speaker cones and coils?

3/20/2000 7:52 AM

Hey muddobber. Well, not many people probably remember much about (or care much for) Supros. This may be unfair, as a lot of great stuff was recorded with Supros, notably Led Zep's first album. Bill Nelson uses an old Supro sometimes. They just have kind of fallen between the cracks of the amp world in some respects, and I suspect because not many people have them, and not that many people like them. Like I say, that may be unfair, because Nelson uses one for the same reason he uses old, cheap guitars; they sound really different from everybody else.
Hi

3/20/2000 3:36 PM

I know of a guy in Collingswood, NJ who recones speakers. He does rebuilds for antique radio enthusiasts. Many of those old radios were from an era before permanent magnet speakers, so had field coils. The originality of the speaker is important, so it has to be rebuilt. Some have unusual cone sizes and profiles.

The field coil is a simple solenoid, that is it's a single cylindrical coil. Anyone who can wind a basic coil bobbin can rewind the field coil. The snag is that, at least with the speakers I've seen so far, the field coil is held in by the magnetic pole frame. Sometimes there's a dovetail shaped mating seam that can be broken, but sometimes the frame has to be sawed apart to free the coil, then rewelded (a very tricky procedure) after the new coil is mounted.

As you say, those old speakers were fragile and can't take abuse of modern guitar playing. If the amp were mine and I wanted to use it, I'd put in a modern (or reclaimed) alnico PM speaker and a choke. Actually, most of these small amps can get by with merely a series resistor. The voltage drop is even welcome, because line voltages have gone up more than 10% since the amp was built.

No two speakers sound alike. But I would suspect that an alnico PM speaker would have sonic characteristics that were more similar to older electrodynamic speakers than a ceramic PM speaker would. If you don't have $ to experiment with new speakers, like Weber VST, find an old TV-hifi console or large record player from the 1960s or 70s that isn't worth restoring. Many of them had 8" and 10" speakers in them, suitable for low power guitar amps.

3/20/2000 3:51 PM

Hey MD,

A brief answer to one of your queries is that Supro, along with a couple of dozen other brand names, is not recognized by the majority of Marshall and Fender dazed musicians. It is refreshing to know that someone out there can see through the daze as I'm bored shitless with mundane nuance discussion of Marshall (in particular) and Fender amps - it's almost reached the silliness of the HiFi crowd with it's "is there a sonic difference between 99.5% pure and 99.6% pure copper wire!" One is constantly reminded of the Frank Zappa adage and I suppose it just comes down to musicians with too much time and money on their hands.

GW

3/20/2000 9:12 PM
Trace	Where I'm at (Upstate NY) you really do not find any Supros at all up here. I wish I could find a few. I get all kinds of "off brands" in and out. Some are cool but most are knock offs of Fender's and Marshalls. There are a few Vox copies here and there of course. I also favor some of the Gibsons also. Trace

3/20/2000 10:43 PM
Graywater	Hey Trace, Was trying to stir up some michief but you're the only one who bit (and very politely). Are you interested in a mid-50s "Sound Projects" R200 with 2- 12BF6s, a 50L6 and a 35Z5? :> GW

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