Ok, I gotta say it...NAD!

[Tobacco Worm]

Well after trying the modeling thing, I HAD to go back to tubes. It was clearly the only choice I had. So....I had ordered a Laney CUB12R and it arrived today at the house. Of course I wasn't home and the Neanderthal that delivered it tossed it over the gate and the box was lying on it's side....The worst thoughts passed through my head and sure enough, V1 has been cracked! A nice little RUBY 12AX7AC5HG Busted! I will not repeat what I said as it cannot be printed on this forum. Good thing I have many parts in my shop when I was working as a tech! If not, the amp would have been DOA and such.....OK, that was the bad part...

The good part...

Replaced the damaged V1 with a Sovtek 12AX7WB and fired her up....As they tubes began to glow and I could smell that old familar....well you get the point. I plugged into the <1W input and hooked up to a new Xaivere Semihollow body with P90's in it. A few twists of a few pots and I was enjoying a really sweet tone. In this mode the amp is said to be making 3/4 of a watt, but it was still cooking! Then after wailing a bit, I cleaned it up by dropping the gain and upped the volume. Put a chorus pedal in the FX Loop and it was just fine. Great tones were there as well.

Taking it to the full 15 watts, (a second input jack for full power in the panel) this amp has some kinda of stones! Lots of compression when cranked and the OD with the gain was just to my taste. This is not a metal amp, but one that will give you some really hot smoking crunch to do just short of uber metal sounds.

A Strat was weak compared to the P90's LP copy, but after a few tweeks, it too sounded good. "Stratty", yes, but good. Then the real test. My LP Custom....That's when the amp just went wild. Strong tone. Lots of gain and then some. Sitting 10 ft away and with the gain on 6 and the volume on 5 it was really pumping.Took it to 8 and I was in pain....then I went back to an easy level. Want to break in the speaker without damage right?

Interesting is the "Tone" pot on the panel. It's set after the preamp and the FX Loop to control the overall tone of the poweramp. Nice touch. Doing a few tests with it I found that I could cut the harmonics or round out the tone from real warm to just under getting sharp. The standard 3 EQ's of course for the preamp, and they blend similar to the old Peavey's in that they interact with each other. Nice touch too as this makes for quick tone control.

The reverb is DIGITAL! But it sounds good. Simple single pot control, and if not taken to the extreme, sounds good to my ears...The driver (speaker) is a 12" H H, and has a well made basket and plated to boot. We'll see how well it shapes up after the break in time....Althought I can see a Vintage 30 in there perhaps in the future....

A nice sized amp and not too heavy either. Has a little chrome tilt system on the bottom to set the amp back a tad to get your sound off the floor if you like. White chicken head knobs on a dark cholocate brown panel. A real lamp under the standard jewel lens for the light. All tubes are held in place with retaining wire and the semi-open back is covered with a grill to keep things away from the speaker and tubes. There's a footswitch jack for a single footswitch to kick the reverb in and out. Two external speaker jacks (8 and 16 ohm) that are switched jacks to cut the amp's speaker when connected to another speaker system.

Three 12AX7's in the preamp and two EL84's for the poweramp. The amp itself is suspended with a dampening system and the cab is well made and covered with a decent tolex with black plastic corner caps on all 8 corners. The construction is sound and well done.

Honeymoon impression? Yeah, I like it. Been without a tube amp for almost 12 years and since the "Money Magnet" (ex-wife) is no longer sucking the life blood out of my finances, I'm glad to have that glowing tube thing going on for me again. This oldman is now back where he belongs. Got tubes. Got that Brittish tone. And if that jughead hadn't dropped my amp over the gate, I could have heard it with the original tube in the V1. Although the Sovtek tube does make it jump and shout!

I know this was long winded, and I normally don't do the NAD or NGD thing, but this time it was different. Something about the glowing bottles in the box made me do it!

Wade

[singlecut]

Originally Posted by Tobacco Worm

Well after trying the modeling thing, I HAD to go back to tubes. It was clearly the only choice I had. So....I had ordered a Laney CUB12R and it arrived today at the house. Of course I wasn't home and the Neanderthal that delivered it tossed it over the gate and the box was lying on it's side....The worst thoughts passed through my head and sure enough, V1 has been cracked! A nice little RUBY 12AX7AC5HG Busted! I will not repeat what I said as it cannot be printed on this forum. Good thing I have many parts in my shop when I was working as a tech! If not, the amp would have been DOA and such.....OK, that was the bad part...

The good part...

Replaced the damaged V1 with a Sovtek 12AX7WB and fired her up....As they tubes began to glow and I could smell that old familar....well you get the point. I plugged into the <1W input and hooked up to a new Xaivere Semihollow body with P90's in it. A few twists of a few pots and I was enjoying a really sweet tone. In this mode the amp is said to be making 3/4 of a watt, but it was still cooking! Then after wailing a bit, I cleaned it up by dropping the gain and upped the volume. Put a chorus pedal in the FX Loop and it was just fine. Great tones were there as well.

Taking it to the full 15 watts, (a second input jack for full power in the panel) this amp has some kinda of stones! Lots of compression when cranked and the OD with the gain was just to my taste. This is not a metal amp, but one that will give you some really hot smoking crunch to do just short of uber metal sounds.

A Strat was weak compared to the P90's LP copy, but after a few tweeks, it too sounded good. "Stratty", yes, but good. Then the real test. My LP Custom....That's when the amp just went wild. Strong tone. Lots of gain and then some. Sitting 10 ft away and with the gain on 6 and the volume on 5 it was really pumping.Took it to 8 and I was in pain....then I went back to an easy level. Want to break in the speaker without damage right?

Interesting is the "Tone" pot on the panel. It's set after the preamp and the FX Loop to control the overall tone of the poweramp. Nice touch. Doing a few tests with it I found that I could cut the harmonics or round out the tone from real warm to just under getting sharp. The standard 3 EQ's of course for the preamp, and they blend similar to the old Peavey's in that they interact with each other. Nice touch too as this makes for quick tone control.

The reverb is DIGITAL! But it sounds good. Simple single pot control, and if not taken to the extreme, sounds good to my ears...The driver (speaker) is a 12" H H, and has a well made basket and plated to boot. We'll see how well it shapes up after the break in time....Althought I can see a Vintage 30 in there perhaps in the future....

A nice sized amp and not too heavy either. Has a little chrome tilt system on the bottom to set the amp back a tad to get your sound off the floor if you like. White chicken head knobs on a dark cholocate brown panel. A real lamp under the standard jewel lens for the light. All tubes are held in place with retaining wire and the semi-open back is covered with a grill to keep things away from the speaker and tubes. There's a footswitch jack for a single footswitch to kick the reverb in and out. Two external speaker jacks (8 and 16 ohm) that are switched jacks to cut the amp's speaker when connected to another speaker system.

Three 12AX7's in the preamp and two EL84's for the poweramp. The amp itself is suspended with a dampening system and the cab is well made and covered with a decent tolex with black plastic corner caps on all 8 corners. The construction is sound and well done.

Honeymoon impression? Yeah, I like it. Been without a tube amp for almost 12 years and since the "Money Magnet" (ex-wife) is no longer sucking the life blood out of my finances, I'm glad to have that glowing tube thing going on for me again. This oldman is now back where he belongs. Got tubes. Got that Brittish tone. And if that jughead hadn't dropped my amp over the gate, I could have heard it with the original tube in the V1. Although the Sovtek tube does make it jump and shout!

I know this was long winded, and I normally don't do the NAD or NGD thing, but this time it was different. Something about the glowing bottles in the box made me do it!

Wade

wade
congrats and welcome back

" the money magnet"

i call mine plaintiff

[5-0 phonebooth]

Maybe your ex is working delivery now...

At lease it worked out in the end and you can rock yer blues away, congrats!

[Tobacco Worm]

Thanks guys. Somehow this thing got posted twice!!! ARRRRGGGG, my computer is kinda lame, and it (or I ) somehow posted this thing twice....

But, I gotta admit this is nice. Even the LP clone with the P90's, that sounds crappy with a SS amp, sounds fantastic with this Laney. It's good to be back home..

The Money Magnet might not have delivered this, but even she would not toss an amp! Maybe force me to sell it like all the other I had though! Thank goodness I got part left over huh? I could just see someone that didn't, or not know how to figure out the problem when it was fired up and no sound....That guy that dumped this over the gate should be horsewhipped! And I know just the horse to it too....

Wade